Coraggio Consulting
Albemarle County Board of Supervisors Regular Second Meeting, Wednesday, April 15, 2026

Date: Wednesday, April 15, 2026
Place: Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 5h 45m (video)
Official meeting video (Granicus): https://albemarle.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=1486
Official agenda: https://albemarle.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=1486

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-14. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:00] Thank you for your patience. I would like to call the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors to order for our April 15th, 2026, 2 p.m. meeting, although we're running a little behind. Supervisors present, we have Supervisor Sally Duncan of the Jack Jewett District, Supervisor B. Lepisto Kirtley of the Ravana District, Supervisor Fred Missel of the Samuel Miller District, Supervisor Ann Malick of the Whitehall District, Supervisor Mike Pruitt of the Scottsville District, myself Ned Galloway of the Rio district we also have with us today our county executive mr. Jeff Richardson our county attorney mr. Andy Herrick our board

[00:00:39] clerk Miss Claudette Borgeson and our senior deputy clerk mr. Travis Morris I would like to thank our Elmore County Police Department officers who are present with us today officer Trent Cole and officer Dylan Shiflett thank you gentlemen and now if everyone would please rise as you are able and join us

[00:00:56] in the pledge of allegiance and if now if everyone would please join in a brief moment of silence

[00:01:22] thank you very much all right board we will move to item number four adoption of the final agenda we do have a request from supervisor malik to add a discussion regarding support of a virginia bottle bill under item number 18 which is matters from the board not listed on the agenda and that's That's for legislative.

[00:02:00] Yeah, yeah. So that's, that'll happen later in the meeting. Are there any other requests or changes to the final agenda? Is there a motion to adopt the final agenda as amended? So moved. Second.

[00:02:15] All right, the motion has been made and seconded. Without objection, the clerk will please call the roll. Ms. Malik? Yes. Mr. Missel? Aye. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Ms. Duncan? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lickie-Stick-Hurtley? Aye. All right. Very good. We'll move to number five, brief announcements by board members.

[00:02:34] Supervisor Lepisto-Kirtley. No announcements because I know there's two other supervisors that are biting at the bit saying what I was going to say. So I will let them do that. So generous of you, Supervisor Lepisto-Kirtley.

[00:02:50] Supervisor Missal. And I'm not one of those, so no comments. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt. I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone the thing that I'm sure you have received quite a lot of postcards reminding you of already this week, and that is this is the final week of early voting on the constitutional amendment that Virginia is considering.

[00:03:11] Because it's the final week, early voting will continue through Saturday, the 18th, and on Election Day, you can vote at your respective precinct from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. And that's going to be on Tuesday, the 21st. And as a reminder, if you're early voting in person, that is at the county offices on 5th Street.

[00:03:31] That's all. All right. Supervisor Duncan? I have nothing. All right. Supervisor Malik? Thank you very much. Please check the dates on the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority website for all the gory details about the amnesty days for household hazardous waste and other bulk items, appliances, all the things that cost a fortune to get rid of.

[00:03:54] can be happily taken to a very swiftly moving drop-off process at the Ivy Recycling Center. But on the weekends all the way through the end of April, things are happening there. April 25th is Drug Take-Back Day, and that's also, details of that are available on our website, and get something to the clerk as well if people need to call in.

[00:04:18] Secondly, thirdly, Solemn Water Conservation District represents the jurisdictions surrounding us, as well as Amal County. They have state and federal money for conservation household conservation stewardship projects to help with stormwater all sorts of different conservation programs called ACAP for the Amal County Program.

[00:04:40] So I will call that out to people's attention. This week, Emily Palica, Deputy Chief of the Fire Department, came to the Early Sill Area Residence League and did a fabulous presentation on as well as protection preventions that are,

[00:05:03] and she can bring the HOA needs to highly recommend, schedule what they call hardened torch if there happens.

[00:05:26] The most dangerous humidity is about 26 is one cigarette, and you need to be paying attention.

[00:05:41] Going along with the department has in the county where one can, or getting emergency categories, which you can choose, is important because you have, in order to get related public safety, if there's something going on, get notified, don't go there.

[00:06:19] You find another way to get where you need to go rather than putting yourself into a dangerous situation that's already underway. So please get that. Last, excuse me, next is the community connect, which is also something the fire department is doing.

[00:06:35] you can supply extra information about your location at the communitycollect.io website. And that allows the public, the responders, whether it's ambulance or fire, to have extra details about your property and its residents and any other outbuildings that may be very special for their contents or something, historic buildings or not.

[00:06:59] And this allows the responders when they are en route to your property to have much more information. Yes, my grandmother lives upstairs and she needs help getting around, or we have three dogs and two cats and 14 children. I mean, it's very, very important that our people who are coming, sometimes when we're not even home, have the information that they need to do their very best job and to keep themselves safe as well.

[00:07:25] And the last thing I will say today is how grateful I am for conservation partners. The Whitehall District is now home to more than 1,200 new acres of conservation easements, both up against the ridge of the Shenandoah National Park, both containing headwaters of our water supply system for the South Fork-Reventa Reservoir, which provides 10 million gallons a day for drinking water for the urban area.

[00:07:52] And I'm very grateful to the families. One family has over 200 members who decided to put their great-grandmother's property into an easement, which is fabulous, but it shows their dedication to the well-being of all of us, and I appreciate that very much, too.

[00:08:08] Thank you. Did you want to speak to that? I'm being asked. Yes. Thank you very much for reminding me. The Dogwood Memorial Rededication is Friday the 17th at 11 a.m., just down at the park.

[00:08:28] The gate by the skate park will be open so one can drive in around the high ground and park just uphill from the memorial. And this is a rededication for a storytelling about at least one of the fallen who are remembered there.

[00:08:43] And it's a very important time for families and grandchildren to be there. I just met Champ Lawson's grandson the other day, and so I'm very glad to make his acquaintance as well. So I thank you all very much.

[00:08:59] Thank you for the reminder. I would like two items. Today we did start a little later than our normal time. We did adjust our schedule because we had the pleasure of joining Payam Portoheri and Amir Shaquille, who are the founders and one is the CEO of Payam, and Amir is the CTO of Agrospheres, and at a dedication in ribbon cutting for their new manufacturing facility over at the Comdow building.

[00:09:27] We were joined there today by Governor Spanberger for the ribbon cutting, And with her, also the Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry, Katie Frazier, and the Secretary of Commerce and Trade, Carrie Shenery. It was a pleasure having them to Albemarle, and it was a pleasure to see this company, which started at UVA and has now chose to stay here, build here, grow here, to join in that celebration.

[00:09:53] That is the type of economic development activity that we are seeking in Albemarle. The second item is this past Sunday I had the pleasure of attending the wreath-laying ceremony to celebrate the 283rd birthday of Thomas Jefferson at the gravesite at Monticello.

[00:10:12] I had not attended this event before, and it was lovely. It was a beautiful afternoon. The mayor of Charlottesville were there. There were many other organizations there, including some debate teams, which was interesting, like debate organizations.

[00:10:28] like to honor Mr. Jefferson. I did not know that they said during the remarks, and I was like, was this one of those common knowledge things that I wasn't aware of? But apparently Thomas Jefferson didn't want people to know when his birthday was. And the speaker, the executive director of the Monticello, had that in her remarks. I was like, huh, I didn't know. So I'm glad to know that I took part in doing something, as she said, that he didn't want as his wishes.

[00:10:59] but the wreaths were going to remain there on display it was a presidential wreath and it was it was it was a wonderful ceremony so i was thrilled to be a part of that all right board we will now move to item number six proclamations and recognitions we do have a proclamation today recognizing may as older americans month we have with us christina evans the chief executive officer of the jefferson area board for the aging how this will go is we will first have the proclamation read by Supervisor Missal in the form of a motion. The board will take a vote and Ms. Evans will invite you up to make some remarks following the vote and go from

[00:11:36] there. Great. Mr. Missal. Great. Thank you. It's an honor to read this and read it as a motion proclaiming recognizing May as Older Americans Month. Whereas May is Older Americans Month, a time for us to recognize and honor older adults in Albemarle County, Virginia and their immediate immense influence on every facet of American society, and whereas Albemarle County recognizes how, through their wealth of life experience and wisdom, older adults guide our younger generations and carry forward abundant cultural and historical knowledge, and whereas Albemarle

[00:12:15] County recognizes that older Americans improve our community through intergenerational relationships, community service, civic engagement, and many other activities, and whereas Albemarle County benefits when people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds have the opportunity to participate and live independently, and whereas Albemarle County must ensure that older Americans have the resources and support needed to stay involved in their communities, reflecting our commitment to inclusivity and connectedness.

[00:12:47] Now, therefore, be it resolved that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, urge every resident to champion your health, this year's theme, and transform how we talk about and perceive aging by taking proactive action to enhance one's ability to age in place.

[00:13:04] We encourage everyone to make an active role in managing their own health, advocating for themselves, assessing preventative care, and making informed decisions that support independence. And be it further proclaimed that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, hereby I proclaim May 2026 as to be Older Americans Month.

[00:13:26] Signed this 15th day of April 2026 by our esteemed chair, Ned Galloway. Second. All right. The motion has been made and seconded without objection. If the clerk will please call the roll. Ms. Malik? Yes. Mr. Missel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Ms. Duncan?

[00:13:41] Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lopista-Kirtley? Aye. Very good. The motion carries. Ms. Evans, if you'd like to join us at the podium, adjust the microphone. Christina Evans, CEO, Jefferson Area Board for Aging.

[00:13:57] So I want to come here today to thank you guys, all of you, for your generous support of JABA, not just of the organization, but the most vulnerable our mall community residents. Some of our programs and services that we offer are life-sustaining. They truly are. Nutrition is at the forefront, may be championing your health.

[00:14:16] It's one of our focuses moving forward. As we all know, costs are increasing, food costs are increasing, and it's one of the programs that we are really putting a lot of emphasis behind. And a shameless plug, we have Embrace every season on April 24th.

[00:14:32] It talks about caregivers, storytelling behind it, the importance of it. So we invite all of you to please attend. Thank you. I'm going to invite the supervisors to make some remarks, and then Mr. Missal will then come down and hand you the proclamation. We'll go from there. Supervisor Lapisto-Kirtley.

[00:14:50] It's our pleasure for you to be here. We all support JABA. We have many, many senior living facilities in Abelmoral County, and a lot of them are in Rivanna.

[00:15:07] But we have them all over, and frankly, I think they really do a good job. I think you all do a really good job. So I think the quality of life here is good because I think also people have a good mindset toward a good quality of life.

[00:15:24] and the seasons, the educational level, the good restaurants. So that all ties into quality of life. Thank you. Supervisor Missal. Thanks. Christina, it's great to see you. Thanks for the opportunity to work with you on the board as well.

[00:15:41] It's a great honor to do that. And I think, as you know and others know, Java was instrumental in helping my mother-in-law through times that were pretty difficult and also coming alongside us as a family. So this is very meaningful for me, and also I know for you, and thank you for the opportunity.

[00:15:59] Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt. Thank you for being here and for all your work serving this community. I don't think it's lost on anyone here that we are one of the best places in this country to grow old, and that's in no small part due to the work you all continue to do.

[00:16:17] And I think several folks on this board know, but I've been actively trying to figure out how to get my father up here, And as soon as he manages to find a place he can afford to live in Albemarle County, know that we'll be knocking on your door to get him a little more engaged.

[00:16:32] Absolutely. Thank you. Supervisor Duncan? Yeah, I just want to echo the comments. Thank you guys for everything you do. It is really important. And, yeah, my parents are getting older, too. And so I've often thought, like, oh, you know, what am I going to do?

[00:16:47] And knowing that places like this exist is really helpful. Please reach out. I'll help you however I can. Supervisor Malik. Thank you again. And all the years that Java also sponsored Mountainside and Crozet, we were very familiar with all the workings.

[00:17:04] We've been involved with the nutrition program and providing beef back when the federal government used to support your efforts to buy beef in bulk, which was great for your residents as well. But all of the intergenerational things, the preschool elders' comments, I mean, contact, Such a great legacy, and the fact that between the Senior Center and Java, that is a senior program that other counties spend millions to have their own department to do.

[00:17:33] So you are saving taxpayers lots and lots of money while you're leveraging all that outside funding to come in and also providing all those volunteers to help everybody do their taxes and getting their drug stuff done. I mean, it's just an endless list of services, so thank you very much.

[00:17:50] Thank you. Yeah, so I join in my colleagues' remarks, but also I drive past Java like two, three times a day. It's on Hillsdale. I get to claim that one in my district, and it always makes me happy. I haven't been in there in a few years, but I remember when I go through the tour, it's just the culture in there and the environment is a good one.

[00:18:11] So thank you for that. I also, you know, I love the fact that you're doing Champion Your Health. It's an interesting piece. There was a time when I was asked to read this proclamation when I was on the board because I was the youngest member on the board, and now I'm not the youngest member on the board, which means that you're going to get older, right?

[00:18:31] We all get older. In fact, we all aspire to get older and even older yet. And it's at that point where when you start thinking about, oh, well, 20 years down the road, decisions I'm making now health-wise are going to dictate what kind of living I will be able to do when I'm older.

[00:18:50] So I appreciate that as your theme. I may have to come knock on your door for some advice so I can get ready. But thank you again for being here today with us, and Mr. Missile will bring the proclamation down to you. All right, thank you. Thank you all. And if you ever would like a tour, if anyone wants to come by, please do so.

[00:19:07] We're absolutely happy to do that at any time. Thank you. That big check that you presented now and then, I guess annually, for the value of the volunteer work, it was like $50,000 a number of years ago. That was pretty amazing. We have that coming up again in June, I believe. So we'll have our volunteer again to show that.

[00:19:24] Over 600 volunteers at JABA right now. Yeah. That's terrific. I won't keep you waiting for it. No worries. Thank you. Thank you very much. you know miss evans do you all still do the it and maybe do have you done in the past uh the programs that help with doing tax returns i know you help with like medicaid applications and things like that we do not do that currently so we are looking at expanding some of the services because it can get a little a little tricky especially with fat the federal tax returns being changed which has been a few years now but it is it is a tricky process so we're looking at expanding some of that but we don't do it at the moment yeah and i just bring it up because i got

[00:20:02] to ask that question because i i think in the i don't and i honestly couldn't remember if i was confusing if it was offered there in the past or not with uh with some of the other types of things insurance and whatnot but there was there did seem to be this time over the last five or six weeks some places that offered that kind of help were like packed like it was like oh you needed to get in line in december you're not there so i don't know i just i just wanted to clarify i don't want to give out the wrong information no we don't currently but that is a wonderful idea especially when we're looking at seniors and filing taxes and again it can be such a confusing time so i

[00:20:38] appreciate that well i just thank you for answering the question yeah absolutely thank you have a great day uh okay board we'll move to item number seven public comment on matters previously considered or currently pending before the board other than items scheduled for public hearing and looks like we do have some folks signed up so supervisor missal will go through the rules and then go through the speakers great thank you and i apologize for my voice during the time set aside for public comment on matters previously considered or currently pending before the board other than scheduled public hearings individuals may address the board of supervisors concerning matters

[00:21:16] previously considered by the board or matters that are pending before the board other than items listed on the agenda for public hearing individuals are allowed one opportunity of up to three minutes to speak at each board meeting the sign-up sheet is managed by the clerk's office timekeeping is conducted through a timer and light system at the podium. The green light will go on when you begin speaking, which begins your allotted time. The yellow light indicates you have one minute to finish speaking. The red light indicates your time has expired and you will be asked to end your comments. In order to give all speakers equal treatment and courtesy, the board requests that speakers adhere to the following guidelines. When addressing the board, state your name and if you

[00:21:52] live in Albemarle County, your magisterial district, address comments directly to the board as a whole. Any written statements or other supporting material may be given to the clerk. If representing a group or organization, you may ask others present to raise their hands in recognition. Speakers may not share any unused time with another speaker.

[00:22:10] Back and forth debate is not permitted. Do not speak from your seat or out of turn. All comments are live streamed, recorded, and published on the Albemarle County website. Just as a reminder, please be sure to introduce yourself and speak into the microphone. And the podium is also adjustable to go up and down.

[00:22:26] We have four signed up, and we're going to begin with two that will, I believe, come up together. Griffon Byrne and Quinn Abdella.

[00:22:45] Afternoon. Hi. Hello, Supervisors. My name is Griffin Byrne, and I'm a Monticello High School senior who resides in the Samuel Miller District. I'm speaking to you today to ask for your support of a statewide bottle deposit bill in 2027.

[00:23:06] The bottle deposit bill has been the topic of our Citizen Action Project, which is for our college-level government class we've been taking this past school year. The goal of this project is to focus on a community-based issue with personal importance and create a solution for it. I am interested in the bottle bill because I grew up kayaking weekly on the James River with my father and siblings.

[00:23:30] Every single river trip, we would collect litter like bottles and cans from the water, islands, and even from public put-ins with easy recycling access. Plastic pollution presents harm to a river's ecosystem by leaving behind microplastics. Microplastics from bottles are left in the air and water, which poses a huge threat to both humans and wildlife.

[00:23:52] A bottle deposit bill would help protect natural ecosystems and preserve biodiversity within them, like the James and Rivanna rivers. These rivers are sources of drinking water for those who live downstream, so reducing pollution would protect human health and it would also preserve the beauty of the outdoors.

[00:24:08] The Cultural Resources chapter of the recently updated Comprehensive Plan states the commitment the county made to preserving Almaral's scenic views, landscapes, and waterways. Supporting a statewide bottle deposit bill would fulfill this objective by keeping litter out of our rivers and streams.

[00:24:27] A bottle deposit bill would reduce litter by creating incentives for citizens to pick up and return single-use bottles, and it would also allow for easy access to recycling that some public spaces just don't offer. Thank you for your time and your support of a Virginia bottle deposit bill in 2027.

[00:24:44] Quinn will be speaking now. Thank you. Good afternoon, board. My name is Quinn Abdella, and I'm a Monotel High School senior who resides in the Scottsville District. The bottle bill is important to me because when I was a child, I started to notice that the winters were a little bit warmer, the springs were wetter, the summers were a lot more brutal.

[00:25:06] I didn't know why at the time, though. I didn't have that information in my head. Now that I'm older, I've come to understand with the different knowledge that I've acquired how drastic these small changes can be. I've come to worry about what my future will look like, but most importantly, what the future generations will be dealing with.

[00:25:23] my kids, their kids, the families of my peers, I worry for the people who do not yet exist. The Bottle Bill will be a step towards battling climate change by reducing the amount of virgin plastic we have to produce. According to the Bottle Bill Resource Guide, beverage containers account for about 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. This is due to how much virgin plastic we have to produce. In addition, aluminum made from recycled materials is less energy intensive to produce than making virgin aluminum. The international aluminum website outlines that the energy consumption for virgin aluminum is about 8.3 gigajoules per ton. Oh, sorry, 186

[00:26:03] gigajoules per ton. But recycled aluminum, on the other hand, is only 8.3 gigajoules per ton, which is about a 95.5% energy save. And that's a pretty big gap. So it'd bring down our levels a lot. A bottle bill will incentivize the recycling of those materials rather than throwing them away.

[00:26:21] One of the main goals in the Climate Action Plan under Sustainable Materials Management is to divert recyclable materials and put them to good use. The Environmental Stewardship Chapter of the recently updated Comprehensive Plan also calls for increasing recycling rates. Through a bottle bill, the goals outlined in these documents can be achieved.

[00:26:40] Thank you so much for your time and consideration. We sincerely hope you will voice your support as a board for a state-level bottle deposit bill in 2027. Thank you. Thank you both. Next up is Phil Reese.

[00:26:57] Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. My name is Phil Reese. I live in Rivanna. I presume you are about to go in a closed session here shortly to discuss negotiations with AstraZeneca for them to build here in Albemarle.

[00:27:22] I want to start by saying the board and the county government have both done a great job moving quickly on this AstraZeneca opportunity. The bipartisan cooperation from Democrats and Republicans at the local, state, and federal level has been impressive, and it's a big reason that this project is even possible.

[00:27:40] I think it is an excellent example of Democrats and Republicans working together for the benefit of our community. This is a phenomenal deal for Elmorrow County. I recall Mr. Richardson saying a few months ago that this was a godsend and we need another one to follow. I agree with that. But as great as this deal is, you six are also charged to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars.

[00:28:01] And from a taxpayer perspective, this is a little difficult pill to swallow. So far, this board has authorized giving AstraZeneca free land that county taxpayers paid tens of millions of dollars for. You have also authorized up to $95 million in financial incentives to AstraZeneca and another $10 million to extend Boulder's Road.

[00:28:22] I'm not opposed to providing incentives, but this is a lot to ask from taxpayers. AstraZeneca is the largest company in all of the U.K. and is worth over $300 billion. And just last week, the governor signed a law giving AstraZeneca $191 million in grants.

[00:28:40] But that law clearly states that they must build their facilities in Albemarle. I say all that because the Albemarle County government is negotiating from a position of strength. Use that advantage. AstraZeneca did not choose Albemarle because of the possibility of $100 million in tax incentives.

[00:29:01] They chose Albemarle because of the proximity to UVA, the Manning Institute of Biotechnology, and the Talent Pipeline. It's not a coincidence that the leader of the Manning Institute is a former vice president of AstraZeneca. AstraZeneca, they want to be here, and we want them here.

[00:29:19] But just like they are negotiating hard for their shareholders, I urge you to negotiate just as hard for the taxpayers of this county. This is a great deal for Albemarle, but make sure we get the best deal possible. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And next on our list is Mr. Gary Grant.

[00:29:43] Mr. Grant, I honored your wishes to not call you first, in case you didn't notice that. Glad to come forth. You changed. Come forth. Gary Grant, old, white, male, Rio District.

[00:30:02] I got a few items today, no particular priority order. For those repeat public speakers who like to stereotype men for their sex, race, and age, and demand the county's security plans, I commend this board for your refusal to give away how all of us will be protected.

[00:30:27] Thank you to the county staff who made the four of six budget town halls I attended worth my time this budget season. It's good to know that Chairman Galloway thinks of affordable housing as a public safety issue, wondering now if he will seek board consensus to put the police chief in charge of housing.

[00:30:50] Despite a future vote by Supervisors Pruitt, Duncan, Galloway, and Missal to raise taxes on cars to pay for housing, there are real estate owners in the county who don't believe they should be forced to help pay the impact of other people's housing. Thank you to Supervisor Lapisto Kirtley and maybe also to Supervisor Malik for their positions on how and how quickly to raise money for other people's

[00:31:25] housing. By the way, government does not make investments or contributions. Government raises money through reassessment, taxes, and fees. It deals in revenues and expenditures. As much as I respect the expertise of this board's $6,120 per week county executive, without adding the value of his benefits and car allowance, he still does not seem to understand that activity is not

[00:32:00] achievement. Stick to measurable data as in the excellent SPEAR report. To the board and to your county attorney, I have a question. Can I sit on the Route 29 Stonefield Overpass sidewalk in the way of other pedestrians and distract drivers below with a sign I attach to the fence that says vote no on April 21st.

[00:32:33] Finally, here's an economic development bet for the additional $3 or $4 million this board may possibly spend on leveraged Albemarle County government land next to AstraZeneca.

[00:32:49] Gamble it on a casino that Fairfax doesn't want. It's a long way to Charlestown and Bristol. Thank you. And that concludes our list. All right. Thank you for those who gave public comment today.

[00:33:13] We will move to item number eight, the consent agenda. Are there any items that need to be removed from the consent agenda today? All right. Seeing none, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda?

[00:33:29] So moved. Second. All right. The motion has been made and seconded. Without objection, if the clerk will please call the roll. Ms. Mallett? Yes. Mr. Missal? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Ms. Duncan? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. LaPista? Kirtley? Aye. All right.

[00:33:45] Thank you, board. That will move us to this afternoon's work session, item number nine, AC44 implementation, the five proposed work projects. And I have Mr. Wilkerson listed as the name, but I see a bunch of people moving around.

[00:34:03] So, Tanya, are you starting us off? I'll let you tell us who's going to do what and when. We'll do. Good afternoon. Thank you. Good afternoon. I'll let my colleagues get settled before I start. Good afternoon.

[00:34:25] I'm Tanya Swartzen-Druber, the Long Range and Transportation Planning Manager for the Community Development Department. In a moment, you'll hear from my colleagues, Mr. Wilkinson and Ms. Dimmick, about the specific work projects proposed to implement the vision outlined in AC44, our updated comprehensive plan.

[00:34:45] This plan guides our future growth, development, and land use over the next 20 years. According to UVA's Welding Cooper Center, we are expected to gain 31,000 new residents in that time frame, and now is the time for managing that growth through activity center plans and multimodal transportation plans.

[00:35:06] These activities will ensure we see the type of development we need and desire as a community, such as a mixture of uses, added density in the activity centers, and multimodal connections to key destinations. While the work projects that you will hear about soon are reflective of CDD-led responsibilities, there are other ongoing efforts that other departments will lead.

[00:35:33] Examples include the update to the county's housing policy and the implementation of the economic development strategic plan. The CDD team will coordinate with other county departments to track progress and serve as a resource.

[00:35:51] And just as a reminder, AC44 is a 20-year plan, and we are about to present the shorter-term work projects that will accomplish a subset of all of the actions outlined in the plan. So with that, I'll turn it over to my colleague, Mr. Wilkinson.

[00:36:07] Thanks so much, Tanya. Good afternoon to the board. My name is James Wilkinson, principal planner with long-range planning with CDD. I want to say a big thank you to the board this afternoon for the opportunity to present on the proposed work projects for the implementation of AC44, the county's updated comprehensive plan.

[00:36:26] Looking at the agenda for today, we're actually going to start by taking a quick look back at AC44, doing a quick recap, and then we'll turn to look forward to AC44 implementation. So based on a review and prioritization effort guided by AC44's big moves, CDD staff has developed a strategy that addresses AC44 implementation across five proposed work projects.

[00:36:50] so today the bulk of my presentation is going to be focused on deliverables for each of those work projects as well as timelines so looking from the end of this fiscal year fiscal year 26 through fiscal year 29 and then looking forward to a discussion for your thoughts comments and questions so a quick recap ac44 it's a remarkable high-level plan of action for how admiral county will grow and develop over the next 20 years it outlines the county's long-range policy framework for managing growth and development through 2044, expecting about 31,000 new residents by that time.

[00:37:27] It continues the county's long-standing growth policy by focusing public investment and development in the county's development areas while maintaining the rural area for agriculture, forestry, and conservation. It updates land use categories and the future land use map to help guide where housing, businesses, and industry should locate. It introduces activity centers and employment centers to help encourage higher density, mixed use, walkable areas that are well supported by transportation options and jobs. It includes community design guidelines to encourage excellence in design, connectivity, and access to parks and recreation. It builds on

[00:38:07] existing county plans such as a strategic plan, climate action plan, housing Albemarle, the economic Development Strategic Plan, and it identifies seven big moves to guide AC-44 implementation. One other area to highlight from the development of AC-44 was the extensive community engagement across all four phases of AC-44. Today, as a result, it enjoys broad community support thanks to the county's extensive engagement efforts. So this slide here just gives a recap of the variety of ways in which we reached out to the community across a variety of engagement

[00:38:43] methods online access and surveys reached the most people and in total in the bottom right you can see there ac44 engagement opportunities reached more than 2700 people so that brings us to today the five work projects that we'll be talking through in turn zoning modernization activity center plans multimodal transportation planning rural area priorities in the rural area plan and ac44 administration tracking and reporting as tanya mentioned earlier the five proposed work projects

[00:39:18] reflects CDD-led responsibilities, and there are also other ongoing AC44-related efforts that other departments will lead, and so that's what this slide here illustrates. The county's Office of Housing, for example, is planning to update the county's housing policy in the next few months, and so they're waiting on new information as part of the ongoing update to the 2019 Comprehensive Regional Housing Study and Needs Assessment. So Dr. Petty will be bringing several proposals to the board in coming months. So, for example, if you see the bottom three bullets there, the objectives of housing arboral will not change, but short, mid and long range goals and targets

[00:39:55] will be revised. And in turn, the information received will then help inform activity center planning, which is one of the work projects we'll be talking about shortly. I also want to recap AC44's seven big moves and the five proposed work projects are closely tied to these big moves and actions. You can see them up here on the slide. And just a bit of background or a refresher, that the big moves are strategic groupings of key initiatives organized by common themes spanning multiple policy areas that involve collaboration across county departments and external partners.

[00:40:30] And the big moves build on existing policies, ongoing initiatives, and insights gathered through community engagement during the development of AC44. So using the big moves for high-level prioritization, the county can strategically focus on AC44 actions that offer the greatest potential to advance county priorities. This slide, thrilling to begin with, in a second, it's going to illustrate how the five proposed work projects are closely tied to AC44's seven big moves and actions. There are 378 actions across AC44's nine topic chapters, and AC44's

[00:41:09] seven big moves then guide and prioritize those actions. The proposed work projects then address all seven of the big moves and the prioritized actions and just a couple connections here you can see some illustrations of the primary connections as well as secondary connections so when you put them together you can really see just how closely the work projects relate to all seven of the big moves particularly when you realize that the fifth work project AC44 administration also relates to all seven of the big moves. In your packet of materials we've also provided additional fact sheets to provide a lot more depth in this area so

[00:41:45] just flagging that for you as well. This slide begins to actually get us in the direction of talking about deliverables and timelines for the five work project areas. We'll be going through each in turn, but this is just sort of an overview to start with, running from fiscal year 26 through fiscal year 29. And again, just to emphasize how these activities are going to require coordination and collaboration among county departments, as well as with county leadership, external partners such as VDOT for transportation planning, and the broader community.

[00:42:17] And this is also a graphic that's in your information packet, along with a more detailed table that provides more details on the deliverables and the timeline. All right, well, with that, let's dig into the first work project, which is zoning modernization.

[00:42:34] This is the comprehensive ongoing update to our 40-year-old zoning ordinance to make our regulations clearer, more consistent, and better aligned with the community's vision for the future. information was shared and discussed at the board's March 4th work session. So hopefully this information should remain current. And as you can see here, basically in fiscal year 26, the focus has been on streamlining the current ordinance and the formatting update, targeting community feedback into fiscal year 27, and then in fiscal years 27 and 28,

[00:43:07] development of the final drafts of the phase 2 and phase 3 zoning ordinances. That brings us through to the second work project which is activity center planning activity centers basically encourage high density mixed use destinations across the development areas there's nothing new here in a sense the county has been doing has been working on the concept of different centers since the adoption of the neighborhood model principles in 2001 but what is new in ac44 is a much tighter focus so there's 22 activity centers and eight employment centers whereas the 2015 plan had more

[00:43:44] than 50. I also want to highlight that the county's master plans will continue to provide valuable context, but activity center plans will actually drill down and focus on smaller areas in more detail. So looking forward, activity centers are expected to accommodate a significant proportion of the county's future growth and economic development. Activity center plans will identify opportunities for increased density, well-connected mixed-use development, establish multimodal transportation networks, support an expanded housing supply and affordable housing opportunities, prioritize catalyst projects and address

[00:44:19] infrastructure needs and market conditions. This next slide from AC44 is the, actually shows the centers, it's the activity and employment center map from AC44. As you can see there are clusters of these centers to the south in the southern neighborhoods, to the east in Pantops, to the west in Crozet, and then north-south along the U.S. 29 corridor. So regional centers have the most intense commercial and residential uses with a large mixed-use core. Community centers and local centers are smaller mixed-use centers that provide services to surrounding neighborhoods and then employment centers are clusters of

[00:44:59] office research and development flex and light industrial uses. They expand employment opportunities for area residents with well-paying jobs. I also want to flag in the last item at the bottom of the slide there that the importance of thinking about land use and transportation together. My colleague Jessica Dimmick in a moment is going to speak to the next work project area which is multimodal transportation planning but basically to help enable dense mixed-use walkable activity centers you need an effective multimodal transportation system that provides increased mobility. And so with that I'm

[00:45:34] open I do have one more slide apologies I've got just to talk briefly about implementation activities and timelines for activity center planning. Basically the first activity center plan would start in the next fiscal year basically would focus on a prioritized area identified using a set of selection criteria that are currently under development planning for the first activity center to be finished late in 27 and then after a lessons learned and process refinement the second activity center plan would happen in fiscal year 28, and the third would happen in fiscal year 29. I do want to note that the timelines for this are

[00:46:12] based on staff doing all of the work, and it's also possible that the second and follow-on activity center plans could move faster than the first one, depending on the lessons learned. With that, I will hand it over to my colleague, Jessica Dimmick, to talk about the next work project, multimodal transportation planning. Thank you, James. Good afternoon, Chair Galloway members of the board. I'm Jessica Dimmick, Principal Transportation Planner in Community Development. The first action in the transportation chapter of AC44 is to develop a multimodal

[00:46:48] transportation plan. And that is the third work project we're talking about today. And the development of a multimodal transportation plan will not only fulfill that first action, it will touch on a variety of other objectives and goals in the transportation and other chapters, as well as advance multiple of the seven big moves that James mentioned earlier. At its core, a multimodal transportation plan identifies and prioritizes projects, programs, and strategies to create a

[00:47:22] safe, connected transportation system. It is forward-thinking, it encompasses all travel modes, and it reflects the diversity of land use contexts and travel needs throughout the county. The multimodal plan will provide a clear, geographically specific vision for a transportation system that works for all modes and that aligns with land use, economic vitality, environmental, and other goals.

[00:47:54] It will take the transportation goals and objectives established in AC44 to the next level of clarity through multimodal system mapping, analysis, and priorities for implementation. Now, this process is not starting from scratch.

[00:48:12] There are many existing plans and studies that have been done before, including the MPO's regional transportation plans, the county's area master plans, VDOT and county-led corridor studies, and other transportation-adjacent plans like the county's climate action plan.

[00:48:30] The purpose of this multimodal transportation plan is to take the recommendations and findings from these prior efforts and weave them together with data-based analysis and focused public input into one cohesive county-wide transportation plan that reflects the county's goals and priorities.

[00:48:52] This also includes aligning with the transportation planning efforts of our neighboring jurisdictions and addressing the diversity of transportation needs of county residents, businesses, visitors, and other stakeholders.

[00:49:07] At the end of this multimodal planning process, the outcomes will include a clearly defined transportation vision, maps of future transportation networks by mode, a prioritized list of transportation projects, policy, program, and strategy recommendations, and an implementation plan with a funding strategy.

[00:49:34] So how do we get there? First, we have a list of transportation projects to begin with, and you, the board, have asked about that list. The transportation planning team is currently working on updating this list to add new project recommendations from recently completed plans and studies and to rank the projects according to a similar, though slightly revised, scoring method as was done a few years ago. We will be coming back in June to present the results of that initial prioritization.

[00:50:10] Then we will launch into plan development, including initiation and data assembly, and begin work on the multimodal system plan. This will produce a visual representation of the aspirational connected networks for both transportation and land use in map form.

[00:50:31] Plan development will also include an analysis of needs and development of recommendations, which will include projects as well as programs and strategies. Finally, we will come back to the prioritization and use what we learned in the plan development to revise our prioritization methodology and develop an implementation plan with funding sources and timelines for specific projects.

[00:50:55] I'm happy to take questions at the end of this presentation, and with that, I'll turn it back over to James to talk about the last two work projects. Thanks, Jessica. So up next, we have rural area priorities and the rural area plan. And as you can see here, the first set of bullets is just highlighting that in fiscal year 26 and 27, the emphasis would be on shorter-term priorities that are all part of zoning modernization activities.

[00:51:22] So just to read through them briefly, revising regulations for special events on historic and heritage properties, investigating the feasibility of additional permitted uses for registered historic properties, exploring ways to enable small and appropriately scaled agriculture-related businesses and support services, and considering modifications to expand opportunities for diverse revenue streams for agribusinesses.

[00:51:47] Then in fiscal year 27, the completion of a detailed existing conditions analysis will identify key rural area resources. So we're talking about terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity, historical resources, drinking water watersheds, active agricultural lands, as well as other key resources that may be identified during future public outreach.

[00:52:08] So this analysis will identify rural resource conservation areas as priority conservation targets and lay the foundation for the rural area plan. That's tentatively scheduled for fiscal years 28 and 29, and as part of the rural area plan work, it would identify additional non-residential land uses that support the rural area economy, including local agricultural and forestry, recreation, agritourism, and other revenue-generating uses in line with the big moves.

[00:52:36] The Rural Area Plan will outline methods for integrating those uses while maintaining rural character and conserving priority resources. And that brings us through to the fifth work project, which is AC44 administration.

[00:52:52] So across the work projects, CDD will coordinate with the county's performance management staff to develop and use a set of project metrics, including the land-use build-out analysis that's aligned with the strategic plan to track the progress of the integration of AC44 actions into the strategic plan's goals in line with the big moves.

[00:53:13] CDD will also develop regular project summaries, reports, and presentations of key milestones and engage regularly with county leadership and coordinate and collaborate with other county departments as part of AC44 administration activities. So that actually brings us through the overview of all five of the proposed work projects for AC44 implementation. We're looking forward to your thoughts, comments, and questions. And if you look at the slide here, we were thinking it might work well if we focused on the middle three work projects, given that zoning modernization is an ongoing effort that was covered during the board's March

[00:53:51] 4th work session, and that AC44 administration covers and addresses all of the work projects. So thank you again to the board for Jessica and I's opportunity to speak with you this afternoon. Great. Thank you. Expecting to have to answer some questions Ms. Waller. Supervisor Lepisto currently questions and remarks comments yes could you go back to slide 17 please okay the last one regarding the implementation plan you said that before there was a transportation plan but it's outdated or

[00:54:29] it was a few years ago did I hear that correctly I don't believe the county has a county-wide transportation plan that covers all modes this would be covers all modes right but they have something okay because i mean this is all dependent upon funding correct the idea of the multimodal plan is to set an aspirational vision for what transportation is needed to serve the residents and businesses and visitors and that's an aspirational vision not necessarily fiscally

[00:55:08] constrained. So we figure out what that vision looks like and what's needed to get there. And then from there, prioritize projects according to the greatest need so that as funding opportunities become available, we work towards that long-term vision. But we recognize that there is an aspirational element to it okay so not all so you do something with all the different

[00:55:41] modes of transportation but then it comes down to when you're implementing it that you may be able to do one thing but not the other two things or something like that okay okay now and now i got okay that's it for right now supervisor missile great thank you thanks staff um it was really helpful few questions one is there was an earlier slide I don't remember which one it was I wrote down a bunch of slides but I missed this one and it said metrics what oh no sorry um oh it was lessons learned and process refinement so I know that sounds pretty basic but can you explain a

[00:56:20] little bit about what that looks like how do you go through that process what does it mean to to sort of be checking yourself along the way sure let me just find the right side I think that's activity centers there you go exactly learned in process refinement I think all of that is to still be worked out in the activity center planning process so currently what we're working on is developing a selective set of selection criteria for different locations and then we would be essentially trying to bring to the board a prioritized list of places where we think hey we think activity center planning could make the most difference here or there what do

[00:56:55] you think and then we would be working on scoping and actually detailing the activity center planning process then we would actually be doing the first activity center plan and then lessons learned and process refinement would be based on how did it go okay so that's post implementation of the first plan yes through that process got it thank you can you speak i know there was a robust community engagement process 2,700 people out of i don't know 125,000 seems small but anyway it was meaningful um can you talk a little bit about this process that you're going through here what

[00:57:31] this implementation process how this includes community engagement um sure a couple thoughts there i think activity center plans uh build on ac44's broad base community engagement um activity center planning i think will be um have a more targeted focus for community engagement so it will be sharing information with diverse stakeholders reaching out to diverse stakeholders But it would be more focused on sharing information and findings as opposed to starting from a beginning point.

[00:58:03] For example, it would be us doing research and analysis and then sharing it with the community in different ways to get feedback and so forth. So I think that would be the overall approach. Obviously, it would take some more time to think through the specifics. But overall, it's a case of targeted community feedback as opposed to open questions, I guess.

[00:58:26] One of the reasons I mention that is I've heard people ask, okay, AC44, what's next and how are we part of that? Meaning constituents, how do they engage in that process? Rural area constituents, in my case, mostly, but they're very interested in continuing the dialogue, so I think that would be ongoing helpful.

[00:58:44] Great. During the AC44 implementation on page 19, at the end you mentioned incorporating ongoing, sorry, my statement just is where it says county leadership engagement, going back to that ongoing community engagement as part of that and not just internal county leadership and engagement.

[00:59:13] Just a thought. Thank you. Yes, it would definitely be a case of reaching out. And can I ask, Supervisor Russell, if you have other suggestions or recommendations for approaching community involvement as part of activity center planning, it would be great to hear that.

[00:59:29] Yeah, okay. Happy to share some of those. Thanks. I think I'll leave it there. I may have other comments. Supervisor Pruitt. Thank you. I'm also going to want to have slide 17 in front of me. I apologize.

[00:59:47] I don't mean this to sound unkind or two-pointed, but I've previously voiced some concern about the hubris of even saying that a comprehensive plan is a five-year document that we refresh routinely, and it is not lost on me that while this is your first big move, big actionable thing under transportation planning is to develop a multimodal transportation plan that we're going to be able to use, I'm sure there's other contingent things that are next in line that are going to follow after that and this takes us all the way to year 29 that's not structured as a

[01:00:25] question but i mean help me understand how we're going to actually accomplish anything under the transportation planning that is actually then called for under the comprehensive plan if just the planning process is supposed to be taking us to 29 i have a few different facets of an answer for that the first is that one of the reasons we are prioritizing our existing transportation project list is to carry us through the next three years as we are undergoing plan development so we have a list of projects that we are seeking funding for that we have agreement that are our

[01:01:03] priorities and we will be moving forward with the transportation and project development process for those transportation projects it's not like nothing is going to happen except multimodal plan development in terms of transportation planning over the next three years. So that's the purpose of kind of front-loading that project prioritization. The second point is this timeline assumes that it is only staff resources to develop the plan, and should the

[01:01:36] board decide that consultant funds be made available, that timeline could move more quickly but these are multimodal plan development is is a significant undertaking that requires a lot of resources and time and so the schedule you see before you is realistic based on those assumptions sure i also i think anyone on this board who has touched transportation transit is also just concerned about the proliferation of planning i agree right like we have not had a multimodal

[01:02:16] transportation plan that i'm aware of um and you're much more expert than me on it than you're aware of um but we also uh at our last carta meeting got briefed on the more than a dozen transit plans that have been produced in just just this decade um so i i hope you'll forgive a layer of maybe mild agitation or skepticism on just the the length of the plan process and wanting to make sure that there's a deliverable that we will experience not just as a board but

[01:02:52] as a community right i i think we we get a lot of comprehensive plans deliverables as the board right i i know what i'm getting out of it but i it i i want to make sure that we're thinking what is to mr grant's point actually which i thought was well made um what is the actual observed outcome uh of of this so i appreciate the point you made about you know we're not where um we're going to be uh walking and chewing gum at the same time there are implementation elements that are going to go in into the planning process um but i just wanted to voice that that concern that i'm sure

[01:03:30] isn't surprising for you to hear um that's actually all i have thank you supervisor duncan uh that is literally almost exactly word for word the exact same questions and frustrations i was going to say so I appreciate the answers I do just want to say like I do appreciate what a big undertaking this is like I'm familiar with the long time it took the city to do their streets that work plan and just how much staff time really does go into all this and how helpful it is when it's finally done that you can have it and you can point to and you use it for other projects to say

[01:04:08] you know no this was on our list this is what we want to do and so I I do appreciate that yeah the And seeing implementation in 29, like, feels like, oh, my gosh, this is so slow. But this is, like, a sort of separate thing.

[01:04:26] And so this is actually, seeing that way is actually very exciting to have this. And I think it will be useful in the future. And, again, thinking, like, AC44, like, this is a long-term vision. And so, yeah, I'm very excited to see how this develops and what you guys do.

[01:04:45] Supervisor Malik? Thank you very much. So I, too, have concerns, and I was especially taken by the comment about all the plans that are sitting on the shelf, because I've been around in this since 1985, and believe me, nothing that's been announced in the last five years is new, unfortunately.

[01:05:06] You know, they were done 10 years ago and 20 years ago. So I'd really like to get beyond that and not be repeating what other groups, other consultants at great expense have already suggested. So let's try to bring things together.

[01:05:23] Let me find my next set here. The partnering with groups of residents, CACs, to speed this along I think will save you a lot of time because these are people on the ground can do these assessments or whatever.

[01:05:40] I guess I'm looking for something, some hint of how something as particular as a sidewalk assessment would fit in because we know we have gaps in sidewalks. We have old streets in Crozet over which endless chains of dump trucks now go, where there are no sidewalks, the streets are 12 feet wide, and the houses were all built in the 30s, 40s, and 50s.

[01:06:02] And it's just not fair. And the new neighborhoods which are being served by all those dump trucks have sidewalks, but all the impact is running over, basically, these older neighborhoods. And when they're forced to be connectors, because these interior places don't have their own frontage until it's created through somebody else.

[01:06:26] That really puts great burdens on long-time residents, and that is a concern. So I do hope that there would be some report back fairly soon about where a sidewalk assessment would fit in and how that could be done and if that can be implemented. Updating, for example, the PDC one that had all the on-the-ground people all summer long, hundreds and hundreds of people out doing this, that would be good to get a hold of.

[01:06:51] You mentioned the vision of what is needed. The great challenge there is when those kinds of meetings happen, people come and say, well, I want to be able to ride my bike all over to Boonesville on one of the most dangerous roads there is in the county.

[01:07:09] And that's one of the results that happened when a consultant was hired from outside and did not ground truth anything and put Earliesville Road on the bicycle map. I mean, it took me five years to get it off. But in the meantime, people put their lives in their hands because they rely upon the fact that some serious work is being done.

[01:07:26] So please be very careful about how if we're saying to people, these are streets that you can use for these purposes, we need to be very sure that the county has done its work to make those activities safe and not just saying, have at it.

[01:07:43] How are we going to keep these plans updated? I guess that sort of goes back to the 15 plans that are already on the shelf and figure out how we can keep this new and current. And I talked about that.

[01:08:03] I'm certainly jumping to the rural area for a minute. Glad to hear your critical resource discussions talking about the Climate Action Plan and the Biodiversity Action Plan and the primary conservation projects or areas listed generically, not with detail, because we don't want people going to where the ginseng is because there should be off limits.

[01:08:29] So I'm very glad to see those things. One thing that always is left out, and it only is a couple of words, but it's really important, is watershed protection. We talk a lot about revenue, and I don't know where all that information came from.

[01:08:44] I know that was part of the comp plan, that phrase ideology throughout the rural area was making more money for more people. But nobody has ever said anything to me about I want to be able to make more money on my property. So I don't know where all that came from, if it came from some other community or whatever.

[01:09:02] But please understand that there are people who understand the constraints of the rural area and understand that watershed protection is the most important thing that's happening out there and that the downzoning in 1980 caused 30,000 development rights to be extinguished.

[01:09:19] And those landowners, the ones who have been around for a long time, have already made that significant sacrifice. They don't need to have their quietude blown over by some new resident who decides they want to come in and have a brewery with one hot plant and have weddings 17 times a month.

[01:09:37] So this is the kind of dichotomy that we're going to have to figure out when you try to implement some of these generic things that are in the comp plan. right now. You have the targeted feedback. I don't know quite what that means, except responding to something you're putting out as opposed to a blank page. It's sort of what I was taking away. I hope that's correct. That's correct. Okay. And I would agree with others who said the ongoing engagement is much more helpful than an echo chamber where you all are working and then come back and get a nasty surprise when people say, I don't like that. So much better to dribble it out. Some homework,

[01:10:17] you know, please read these things and let us know what you think in a month, then I'm sure that the board would be happy to do that homework and help you out. And I'll stop there. Thank you. Thank you. Well, by my track, we've got just under an hour to go for this item.

[01:10:37] So I'm going to see if I can use up a lot of that time. But good. Let me ask a few clarifying questions first. You mentioned about the transportation priorities list, and it was 23 when we did it the last time, And you said revised scoring method.

[01:10:55] Were you saying that you're working on the current one based on the revised scoring method that was used in 23, or are you revising it since then? We are essentially using the same prioritization method as in 2023. We are updating it with new data has come out, and there are a few things that we understood the last time we presented it.

[01:11:21] So we're trying to address some of those issues. But the intention is to use essentially the same method, not to start over from scratch, just to turn the crank on it and to see what the results are so that we have a prioritized list that we can use while the multimodal plan is being developed.

[01:11:44] Got it. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. I would recommend whenever that prioritization list comes to us that ahead of time you provide the revised, what the scoring method is, perhaps, I'm sure you'll put the list out with the information on the, you know, in the agenda packet.

[01:12:05] But I think it would be helpful for the board to understand what it took to get to those lists or to that prioritization list then prior and having a chance before just that day learning that information, if that makes sense.

[01:12:21] Especially with, like, I'm going to need a refresher, and we've got three that we're not here for that. So I just think that's helpful to have coming into that day to have a little bit more productive conversation. May I ask a clarifying question on that?

[01:12:37] we are intending to provide documentation as meeting support materials. Would that be sufficient in terms of timeline, or are you asking for it even in advance of the normal meeting deadlines? I'd say even in advance of that.

[01:12:54] If it can be sent to us to ask, you know, I'll just make the request. I mean, how did we do that so that we can be more prepared? I'm not, and again, the prioritization list is easy enough to get and all that.

[01:13:10] I think. I'm not really even that worried about the projects, but I'm just not remembering how we arrived at one, two, three, four. Oh, what is it? 62, 63. Oh, 152 and 153 of what was behind the scenes on that. And it may be helpful to have more than three or four days to get our heads wrapped around that, is what I'm saying. Well, as the list, we can just look at that and go through it um okay this is this will take me a while so i'm going to go through this and just

[01:13:49] um i've i've tried to do this in order in an orderly way so that i can and and some of it's still me brainstorming and going but i'm going to lay out my thinking on this for y'all's consideration i'm assuming today's point was you were going to bring this in receive the feedback go away and come back and say this is what we're doing now yeah you may already start doing some stuff based on the feedback you're going to receive so it's not like you're going to wait another month or so or whatever and get moving but whatever we say today if it's not in alignment with what you had or you need to make adjustments that you were going to you're going to have to go

[01:14:25] do that and come back and confirm that you're doing that am i correct and while deputy county executive and interim community development director i would say this chair galloway i think our intention is to hear feedback from the board and move forward on these items on the path that the staff have identified unless we hear something from the board that indicates a drastically different proposal. And if we hear from the board something drastically different, we would bring

[01:14:59] that back. Otherwise, we're moving forward with the plan that's articulated today. Got it. So I think the five work projects, I don't necessarily have any major issues to. But I want to lay out how I'm thinking about this for both my colleagues to consider, for staff to consider, that I think more has to do with how the approach is followed than like saying, oh, this is the first thing we're going to do. This is the zoning piece. This is the locations, which is fine. And I'm going to

[01:15:33] just say up front housing and economic development and it's those two things we got to stop treating as two separate things. I think we were getting to that point in the comp plan and what we did in AC44. There's a lot of housing things there's a lot of zoning things there's a lot of things and I'm going to go through and try to explain this better but there's communities that are doing both economic development and housing in a way that they're really treated as the same topic

[01:16:06] intertwined and inseparable, really. And that's a mentality that I think that I'd love to start getting to. And I think it can be done because I actually see the starts of it. Like aside from your comments about Housing Alborboro at the introduction, I approached this assuming my working assumption was, well, the update to Housing Alborboro is happening through these five projects. Now, my concern is it's not. So I'll lay out my thoughts on it and then just get reactions

[01:16:43] and see where it goes but i don't think it's actually going to take a lot to get there with what i'm hoping for um and i i think the parallel to think about you know mr richardson has always been a high proponent of a high performing organization and i think every employee in this county understands what that means and what and what that uh and what you're going after day in and day out in a high performing organization if you have siloed departments bet that's not a

[01:17:19] tenant of a high-performing organization. You don't have siloed departments off doing their own thing and not understanding what the other departments are going to do. So that's the parallel thinking I'm having with these plans and with these projects and with AC44. If we think of housing Albemarle as a siloed separate process that somehow is not entwined or intertwined into this, I think we really lose an opportunity. And it gets it similar to what has been talked about in terms of the, well, we have plans, but where's the implementation? What's going on?

[01:17:58] So that's kind of the premise here. So to me, I'm going to make some comments. AC44 is clear, right? Housing Albemarle is part of the plan framework. It works for the, you know, it goes into the housing chapter, and it's about implementing the housing objectives that we have there. But AC44 and the adoption of it was also clear that the housing Albemarle update was going to happen immediately upon adoption. That was board direction, and that's how I view it. Now, if we need to have that conversation about, well, what does that mean? You've directed a lot of

[01:18:35] things in the approval of AC44, then, I mean, we can have that conversation. But board direction was given that in AC44, housing overmorrow would be updated immediately upon adoption and then updated every five years thereafter. So we have AC44. We've got the big moves that are in AC44 that you reminded us about in the meeting materials.

[01:18:59] And now we've got these five work projects. And we also, though, have a board direction to update that housing policy. So the overarching question that I worked on prior to the introduction today was where is it reflected in these five work projects?

[01:19:16] So my, you know, we all agree that housing is integrated into all other elements, right? This is part of my saying that we have to stop thinking of economic development and housing as two separate things. Economic development is about jobs. We talk about the multimodal plan about transportation. We talk about the zoning as what's allowed or what could happen. We talk about services that we could provide. We talk about all these different things, but at the end of the day, what's the piece that must glue it all together is where the people live

[01:19:53] and then what's the possibility of the types of things they could live in? How are they going to move around to where they work and do all the things or just enjoy a park or whatever? So the goals I saw in the presentation is that the goals of Housing Alboron aren't going to change necessarily.

[01:20:14] It sounded like the objectives and outcomes, did I catch that right, aren't changing. We've got the slide in a second here. There we are. Objectives will not change. Short, mid, long-term goals and targets will be revised. Okay. But it's through these five work projects when I was doing my prep that I started to go, oh, this is how these things can pull in from that policy and come to fruition.

[01:20:38] So that's where I'm saying the entry is already there that it can be updated as we go along. But I would challenge you all to think about, you know, I appreciate the khaki and Stacey are here. And this is obviously a big community development-led project.

[01:20:56] But I would challenge, like, the economic development team should be here in the same way that the housing team is here. Right? We already did an update to the economic development strategic plan, so we've got that done. So I've been looking at this going, all right, where is that getting weaved through and executed?

[01:21:13] the implementation of it but i don't want if we spend and i don't want to get into timelines but if the housing plan if housing albemarle takes whatever to get done that whatever time means it's not getting integrated into this work and it's integral to this work i don't see how you can separate it from this work um okay so zoning redevelopment incentives subsidies regulations or lack of regulations how we adopt it and try to grow and bring companies in like we just

[01:21:48] celebrated today like i i see that built through these five pieces um and i see things that are going to impact housing but i'm wondering is it what are what's informing like it could start defining the objectives so whatever the look did you had that did you state the location you were going to use for the first activity center no so let's name one what's give me an activity center rio 29 is that an activity center rio hill i know that one no no you don't have to get up i'm just

[01:22:20] saying. You could determine a section off of 29. We'll take RIO 29 and say, all right, we're going to do the work on the location. I'm not trying to, you know, in any sort of subliminal way, say that's the first one you should work on. But, you know, we've got a small area plan there now. We've got some density things that we've already put into the small area plan. What I'm not seeing in the work project is, we're going to build 2,000 housing units in Rio 29 at that location center,

[01:22:53] and that gets into a plan that can sneak its way into a SPEAR report. That's the metrics and the outcomes that could start to be measured, and I don't see why that has to, one, I don't see how that can be separate from this work, nor should it be. I think it should inform this work.

[01:23:13] So I wrote some notes that I said, just think about it before you say it. All right. So when thinking about how to get the housing units to come online, that then helps because a vibrant activity center, when we had the conversation about if an activity center is successful, but there's no housing around it or no easy way for the people to get to it, it won't be successful because nobody can walk there and they can't take their multimodal form of transportation to get there.

[01:23:52] And if they have to drive there, they already live somewhere else, frankly, because they're probably commuting in and can't afford to live here. So the critical anchor there seems to me that those affordable units need to get put in place because those are the ones most critical to use the multimodal and to have to live closer to the employment centers, et cetera.

[01:24:14] So the, you know, and this is how I can see it integrate in. The zoning modernization piece is what, you know, that tells us what the opportunities could be. You know, I tell you what the land is, what the land you should be, what the zoning is. You can look at it as an applicant and go, here's my possibility, here's my opportunity.

[01:24:30] The activity centers shape the locations where these things should occur, right? And then transportation creates how those people can move around. And then the administrative work or the administrative job coming out of AC44 is then to track the outcomes. So where is the housing unit objective that should be in there tied into that work?

[01:24:51] Because I think it's just begging to be asked to be put in. So I want to be clear as a supervisor that I don't see the housing Albemarle update as a separate or a parallel process.

[01:25:09] I see it as integral to making these five projects work and should be informing the type of work that's happening that you laid out here. And I'm not, you know, this isn't, oh, you know, I'm mad that it wasn't in there or anything.

[01:25:28] I'm saying that I think we have to think of it differently than we have been, including myself. And that's why I started with the premise that housing and economic development are the same thing. They have to be. And those are the two things that drive our economy, help with the tax diversification, keep community members from not being able to live here.

[01:25:50] And then all the rest of it is what makes it viable for them to live here, right? So if this were to return, I would like to see whether it was in the actual work projects themselves Or in the way I hear staff working on this, talking about it, I think there's implicit entry or subtle or implicit things in there that are happening already.

[01:26:26] But I want to start hearing that more explicitly stated, this is how Housing Albemarle is getting updated through these five work projects. Versus, oh, we're going to take this plan, we're going to go do an update to it, and then start doing these cross analysis between the two.

[01:26:46] I think we have an opportunity through the five work projects to do it as part of it and then inform the work that's being done in those five areas, which I thought were well done. Skip that.

[01:27:09] I have to actually read my notes and not want to be redundant.

[01:27:30] Yeah, okay. So this just drives the point home. The point about, which I said earlier, that AC44 does not treat the two items as separate. Our development areas, the other tie-in is our growth management plan, right? So that impacts jobs, housing, transportation, jobs and housing, transportation and jobs, housing and parks and bike ped, all these options to access or enjoy in there.

[01:27:54] So now I'm even seeing in the same way how our growth management plan is almost in, I don't know, gets activated through the five work projects if the housing plan is being updated through the bodies of these things.

[01:28:13] so does the work plan uh does the work plan realize the development area capacity not just name it what are the steps okay so the capacity items that we have and we want in the development area and that's the difference between plans and i think implementation obviously plans say what they what they what the capacity is what it should be but i don't want to i'm not satisfied with just naming it and on the uh for the so that's for the the units that would be allowed the opportunity that exists but then on the housing side that then turns right around and says well how many

[01:28:50] units should be there based on what we're trying to achieve in the housing plan so then the work in this in the the location center should say how many housing units should exist in this particular area because housing albemarle says that we have to get to this many units and this is the place where 30 of those units could exist and if those 30 units did exist this is the transportation that be necessary and needed etc etc etc so that's how i think it can be interweaved in there so it's not

[01:29:20] such a siloed process um and then uh you know go to slide 15 and then i'll say this activity the activity centers um and then the the the the the when the locations are identified what is the what is defining how units get uh built how employees establish and uh how many employees get established or how many employees we want, employers get established,

[01:29:59] and then in the way that reflects our values as Albemarle, right? So it becomes about, all right, we know how the units can get built because the opportunity is well-defined for those that do the building. The transportation plan should show us how to move them around.

[01:30:20] And then we can look to the economic development strategic plan. And even, like right here, see how the climate action plan is a separate plan? And see how it's weaved together? This is a well done, whoever came up with this. And I'm like, so where's economic development and the housing album are on?

[01:30:38] Because the climate action plan lives in AC44. So if I were to answer my own question or assume what somebody would tell me, it's like, well, it's embedded in AC44. Well, yeah, but then why are we calling out this one? Well, climate action is integral to all the work we do.

[01:30:55] Isn't housing? Isn't economic development? And this little wraparound of how all these coils go is exactly my point about not being siloed in our thinking about how these things should work together in both production preparation, because I think we'll get a lot faster to implementation if we do this, but we have to broaden out our thinking in terms of that update for that particular plan, because I don't really know, and we all have our priorities, we all have our issues.

[01:31:29] I just don't see, honestly, how we achieve some of our big things with economic development if we don't solve the housing issue. So that plan, to me, is integral in here. And now I'm starting to think in the way of economic development and housing are the same word.

[01:31:50] So that's my overall reaction to this. And I wasn't, you know, I didn't come in today. I did this in a way where it didn't just sound like me, blah, blah, blah. But I was hoping that, you know, thinking, well, maybe this will give maybe a chance for my colleagues to be like, you know, they might just be, yeah, Galloway just took 25 minutes of her time.

[01:32:11] that they'll never get back and and or same for staff right but what i hope it would challenge us to start thinking about this a little differently to go oh we've got five good work projects here i see how it tracks from ac44 into those work projects and then what the work's going to be but let's pull in the other departments let's not let's get them in there there's definitely entry entry doors in there to get housing albumarro updated as part of these five things that should inform the zoning, the locations, the transportation, etc. And like I said, I wasn't expecting an

[01:32:46] answer today of any of that, but I would appreciate an acknowledgement from either others or not that say, well, is this just out of whack or not? Because a lot of brainstorming over the last few nights as I prepared for this meeting. I'll stop there. Chair Galloway, I would say this. I do not believe the staff, have approached AC44, Housing Albemarle, and the Economic Development Plan and any other

[01:33:20] plans that you have listed up there as discrete, independent activities. I think we all acknowledge that they are all interwoven together just like the slide. A very important point that we'll make sure when we revise this slide that we'll put a coil, a coil for Housing Albemarle and the economic development plan, we know that they all have to relate together. Case in point, the work that we're doing right now with zoning modernization is very heavily rooted in the items that are called out in Housing Albemarle. Case in point, as we've talked about, begun the

[01:33:59] conversation about activity center planning and what that looks like, the staff have already had conversations with economic development so that we can understand the economic development plan and that we can use the action steps called out in the economic development plan to inform how it is that we're selecting that first activity center planning.

[01:34:22] We know that they have to work together. What we need and what I appreciate that you've acknowledged here is we have to identify a starting point because, what is it, James, 378 actions in the comp plan. We've got to create a starting point, and this was intended to say this is where we're going to start. It's a 20-year plan. We can do anything, but we can't do everything, right? And we have to start someplace, and this is where we're starting. I think they're very important points. I think we've all spent time over the last several months as we've crafted

[01:34:57] this implementation strategy to acknowledge that all of that work is all embedded. It's all interwoven, right? You can't pull housing Albemarle out. You can't pull economic development out. Everything has to work together. And so I don't want to, I'm not going to belabor the point except to just say, I acknowledge what you're saying. And I believe that we are very much as a staff and these efforts are very much in tune with that. Well, I wouldn't have arrived at this brainstorm of what I went through, but for the work that you all did. So, I mean, it's clearly

[01:35:33] in there but i don't see it being like said and stated and i don't and i don't care frankly i don't need the coil i want the mentality behind what the coil represents right i don't i don't i'm not fighting for an update for housing album or championing that because i want a new plan i want i want to work i want the the metrics and the goals and the outcomes that were defined in it happening and i see this work as integral to making that occur and then vice versa informing it back and i think you all recognize that but sometimes you gotta if you don't hook it or you

[01:36:09] don't think about it that way it can it can lose its connection that might be there already and i think we have to fight to keep them all connected and intertwined um and in the same to be said for economic development housing of course in those efforts um all right i've taken up a lot of time i'll go back through just if there's other remarks supervisor lapista currently any other items or questions? Well, I just wanted to acknowledge what Ms. Wall said, because I get what she's saying. I think it's almost like housing, Albemarle, and the EDA Economic Development

[01:36:48] Authority. It's almost like an overlay of all these five projects. Would that be correct to say? I mean, as per your thinking? I think that, Supervisor Pisto, currently, I think we can um i don't know if we've identified a word that sort of describes those relationship i just think that i i would say this graphic is probably the closest to acknowledge that all of those plans have to work together you can't you cannot complete the work of one without knowing its

[01:37:22] impact on the others i i agree i i totally agree because i can see um housing and i can see eda in all of this affecting all of this so um i'm i know that it was a long explanation chair galloway but you know i got most of it so thank you i could explain more later thank you no i appreciate the comments chair and and uh also appreciate the fact that you guys are in this work right you're focused in it you're living it it's easy for us to sit here and sort

[01:37:58] of look at 50,000 30,000 feet and say this this and this but I'm gonna anyway so one is just a few things one is you know I would encourage us I know you're doing this things are changing right if we move forward with AstraZeneca and if if I mean this this area is changing I was just talking to Mr. Richardson about an initiative in Orange County that came up right Orange County that came up today, that's going to continue to drive people to this area. So it's easy to sort of take these aspects and think, how can we make what we're currently doing better? And as I know,

[01:38:36] I just encourage you to think, what's it going to be like in two or three or four or five years? Because we've got to plan for that, not just what we're doing now and making that better or more clear. The housing album slide, which said objectives remain the same, I think. A lot of this is going to probably echo what you said. I'll try not to. But, you know, as we say, objectives will not change. And this is, I won't phrase it as a question. I know you're looking at that. I mean, should objectives change, right? Should our objectives actually be changing to

[01:39:11] meet where we're headed as opposed to where we are? And also, you know, I've seen recent market studies of housing and I'm not sure how much more housing we really need. I mean, I think we need more housing, but I'm not sure what that number is and if it's changing or if we need to really focus on product type as opposed to specific numbers of housing. I'd say that AC44 has been critiqued as not really being a material change, which I do disagree with. I think part of that is the realization that we need to focus on the future and be thinking about how that gets

[01:39:48] integrated into our planning um agree with the integrated plan thing uh you know it's it seems like when i think that was the intent of ac 44 is to create this integrated plan all in one place and it's hard now right because now we're saying how do we do it and we pull out these individual pieces and those individual pieces feel like they're independent but they're really not and it's almost impossible as you're saying to talk about one without talking about the other so echoing what chair galloway is saying about that um i would also uh think that you know this the

[01:40:22] the graphic the coil right i think that's the word for me is you know as we're talking about each of these whenever we talk about the individual pieces it would be good to have a few sentences about how it fits in with the rest right how those all are integrated as opposed to and it's great that, you know, here's what we're doing in these areas, but I think that integration, the not just what we're doing in these individual categories, but how are they relating is important. I just would highlight the need to continue to focus on throughout these process efficiencies, you know,

[01:40:58] as we talk about whether it's zoning or modernization, those types of things, housing, et cetera, et cetera. How are we being more efficient with our process? A little bit, Just a couple more things. I see that in the multimodal transportation plan in 2029, there's a recommended funding sources and strategies objective, which is out on the outer edge, sort of at the end.

[01:41:23] I'm sure you'll do this, but just thinking about how you integrate funding strategies throughout the whole plan so that we don't end up with a plan that's like a great idea, but we can't implement it. Right. So thinking about the realities of that and how that might work. Slide 17, you know, I would just underscore the benefit of benchmarking.

[01:41:46] I don't see it on there, but you may already have that, or maybe it's on here and I missed it. You know, I was thinking about the trip coming up to Chapel Hill, right, and thinking about how others are doing multimodal transportation. What do the partnerships look like? How are they funded? You know, what are some grant opportunities that are out there?

[01:42:04] Where can we get traction, no pun intended, to be able to get that and move that forward? so benchmarking i think is key um and then just one question was asked of me how would i see communication and the broader aspect just some things that come to mind and these are things would be obvious to everyone use of town halls right um there are some very active communities in my area it's batesville it's north garden it's yancey it's those where these kinds of things can be distributed and discussed even if it isn't a heavy burden on staff like the supervisors could

[01:42:38] go and talk a little bit about this and bring it up um cac's you know fifth and avon there's one tomorrow night really active really interested in this stuff and i think that would be a great way to to talk about that and then the last thing i'll mention just echoing having gone through this and on the planning commission just continuing to integrate the planning commission in this process i'm sure that's baked in there's so much expertise there and so much helpful insight that would i think give us some some helpful information that's all Supervisor Pruitt

[01:43:11] any additional I'm not sure I have much significant to add I don't disagree with the I would say the main thesis statement that these this needs to be an integrated approach and that housing is is deeply inextricable from from the other types of planning we're doing around activity centers and also around transportation i i am having a little bit of pause i think with the um with the suggestion that the update schedule of housing out moral is is inextricable from this process i i agree it

[01:43:49] is in need of update because we are almost out of action plans or action steps in the implementation process um but i mean i'm not trying to pick a fight i'm thinking of like the kinds of discrete things that are discussed in housing album all as housing policy vice land use policy that might be under zoning modernization. And I'm not seeing it directly implicating in the same way that the ZOMOD would, which I think needs to very much be hand in glove with the kind of transportation planning, multimodal planning. I'm not seeing that as

[01:44:28] deeply married in just a practical way. I'm not seeing the new action item update that I would need in order to be able to do page 30 of a multimodal plan or or of uh of a um excuse me an activity center planning process and so that's that's the point where i'm not sure i'm in full lockstep with you chair just on the point you were making um i do see this as married but i don't see the that sequencing as necessitated and maybe i'm misunderstanding your point but um i guess that's

[01:45:07] because i'm kind of drawing this line between housing policy and land use policy knowing that land use policy is in practice mostly about residential land use right now but right like the that housing album are all thing that actually implicates inventory is one of the very first uh actions that just says we need more of it um and then kicks most of the practice of that to the ZOMOT process.

[01:45:37] So that kind of unstructured rant, I will end my time. Thank you. Supervisor Duncan? I think the term, as the kids say, is you cooked. So I agree with what you said.

[01:45:53] One thing that sort of came to mind looking at the chart with the coils is in my school, once a year, we sit in on another teacher's class to learn what they do, learn you know tips and tricks and stuff and a couple years ago I sat in on somebody's class and she kind of did the lesson and she was like you should be learning this and then like taught it and was like you know how did you learn this and I was like oh wow like you can be this specific to be like you know you have to learn this whereas you know I teach and I'm like oh I hope they like get the message through the different things I do and so that was really helpful to learn to like

[01:46:33] it's really helpful to be very specific and so thinking about even just this chart and thinking about you know how I spend a lot of time thinking about how to make all of this accessible to the public in a way that they don't have to you know sit and watch all of these meetings and so like this is a you know mostly it's going to be us looking at this chart but this is a really good chart to share with the public of like this is what we're trying to do and so I think just having the housing and economic development in there, even if, you know, we all know it's implied to be able to say this is what we're doing and just being very specific. And then people can

[01:47:10] look at it and be like, oh, this is what they're focused on. So I agree with adding it in. And I know, like, I mean, eventually it gets too big, but I think that's really important to have in there just sort of visually for people. Supervisor Malek. Thank you very much. First, a question.

[01:47:29] Are we going to go through the attachments C and B and C today, or is that what's just shared with information? And if you... I think it was just intent for background, but if you have specific questions... I will send you an annotated version and would love to get a response.

[01:47:44] Thank you. Secondly, I would pile on with the comments about all of these issues being interconnected, and I know you know this, But, for example, for housing to be successful, we can't just give up on all the other things that make housing a decent place to live, like all the amenities and the green spaces, etc., in order to have focus totally on numbers of units.

[01:48:10] And so I just wanted to put that out there again because there are some elements of our plans which are contradictory with each other of necessity. And there has to be a balance based upon where the critical resources are and what's going on with that location.

[01:48:26] So I just wanted to mention that because I think it's really important. And I would agree that the funding stages, which was way over to the right, that could be done at each section of each way.

[01:48:42] in order to accomplish one part of this X amount of money because I don't think one can wait all the way to the end to estimate what things are going to cost. And you probably would do it as you go along anyway, so having that as a chance to talk about it would be great. Thank you.

[01:49:00] All right. Well, I appreciate you all entertaining the time that I took to do that. I think, too, and I don't think it's a disagreeable point, the point that Supervisor Pruitt brings up. I think it's a thought. It's a discussion point to go, yeah, how does that think?

[01:49:17] Because the way that I think about it, like housing album are all states, and this is objective one, and the numbers are probably, you know, numbers get squishy. But it said we'll need to add approximately 11,750 new units to our housing stock over the next 20 years.

[01:49:34] The majority of this need, 9,000 or 77%, is projected to be met with units already in. Well, how many units? We've approved a ton of units since then, but that's aside the point. The zoning piece of saying where those units could be when you're thinking about the activity centers is where I start seeing that lining in to drive the goal or the metric that we're shooting for.

[01:50:00] Because if the small area plan at Rio 29 realized its potential from a residential standpoint, to me it only backs up the success of it as an activity center, it calls for the need of all that stuff.

[01:50:16] But I see this as the place that, say, the zoning says it can be, here's where you could drop 3,000 units or whatever the number is. And I think we should just start saying that. And then 3,000 units, based on this paragraph, gets us past the 2719 units to fully accommodate projected household growth through 2040.

[01:50:36] So it's that kind of intertwining that I'm saying that when we think of the zoning and the locations, If we're trying to just equalize a certain number of units around all these different locations in the work player, that would be foolish. That wouldn't be good planning.

[01:50:53] So I would love to see it informed that way. Just like we say, here's where light industrial should be. Here's where an AstraZeneca should go. I hate to say it because it gave people heartburn, but we were starting to think this way with the data centers.

[01:51:14] Like, this is why they should go where they should go and what the sizes could be. Well, yeah, that's why I'm seeing, that's why I think the places that deal with the housing in an economic development way get there, because they start stating that's where you could put 4,000, that's where you could beat 200, this one's only going to do five.

[01:51:32] And I think the zoning not only tells us the types that could happen, but presents the capacity. And that's how, that's what brought all this on, was seeing how you guys were already starting to integrate all that in there. I'm like, well, let's just add it in, take it to the next level, and it could be an interesting way to do a plan update.

[01:51:50] Thank you. Chair, may I try and rephrase what you said to make sure I'm understanding it? Yeah. I'm hearing housing Albemarle in a refresh could be, currently it states we need X many units by X time, and it could instead be something that creates a more prescriptive demand on the zoning modernization that looks much more like, frankly, a kind of command structure in our zoning modernization.

[01:52:27] modernization, and that does start to become something that starts to implicate what other knock-on planning looks like. So you're seeing maybe just a more prescriptive understanding of how we approach residential. I think the growth management plan helps us with that. I think the scorecard when we're making decisions helps us with that. I could imagine an application coming after all this was said and done, and you're like, well, yeah, we'd have to approve it here.

[01:52:57] Right now, we just say development area, rural area. But then where you pick to put certain units and density within the development area with limited capacity is going to matter a whole lot. We all know that, and we've got the scorecard. So why wouldn't we start doing that in there?

[01:53:13] Like I said, I didn't ask these questions until I read your five work projects. All right. Thank you. I'm converted. Is there anything outside of what we've already done that you all needed from us today? Awesome.

[01:53:29] All right. Yes, ma'am. Yes, I just wanted to say I agree with what you've said regarding, and I think it's okay to use the word flexible, when we do look at our zoning, when we do look at our rural and development areas and see what actually we can do.

[01:53:51] But the other thing I wanted to ask is this is a five-year plan, three-year, four-year, five-year plan. We've got a 20-year plan. I'd also like to see us work, be able to get something done and work on maybe what we call the low-hanging fruit.

[01:54:08] So be able to get some of these things done that the staff can actually work on it, get it done, you know, fairly quickly, move on. Because some of these are really larger things, bigger things that are going to take time.

[01:54:25] The multimodal transportation planning, that's not going to happen overnight. But there are things that probably could easily happen that could be of economic benefit to our county. So that's something I'd like staff to look at. Anything else? All right.

[01:54:41] Thank you very much. All right, board, we will move to item number 10, which is our closed meeting. And do we have a closed meeting motion for today? I move that the Board of Supervisors convene a closed meeting pursuant to Section 2.2-3711A of the Code of Virginia under Subsection 3 to discuss and consider the disposition of publicly held real property in the Rivanna Magisterial District, where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the county and the board.

[01:55:14] Second. All right. The motion has been made and seconded. Without objection, if the clerk would please call the roll. Ms. Mallett? Yes. Mr. Missel? Aye. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Ms. Duncan? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. LaPista-Kirtley? Aye.

[01:55:38] You guys are right. All right, good evening, everyone. We are coming back to order for our evening portion. The board is coming out of closed meeting, and we need a motion to certify the closed meeting. I move that the Board of Supervisors certify by a recorded vote that to the best of each supervisor's knowledge, Only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and identified in the motion authorizing the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered in the closed meeting.

[01:56:11] Second. All right, the motion has been made and seconded. Without objection, if the clerk will please call the roll. Ms. Malik? Yes. Mr. Missel? Aye. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Ms. Duncan? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lapista-Kirtley? Aye. Great, thank you.

[01:56:27] There are no motions coming out of closed meeting this evening. that will take us to item number 12 from the county executive do you have any reports this evening mr county executive yes sir i do for mr chair and members of the board in our community it is our time of the month that we take a look at the county executive update i'd like to recognize abby stump from community engagement she is with me this evening and she's pulled together some wonderful statistics in celebration of national volunteer week which is april 19 through 25

[01:57:02] in that spirit today i'll be highlighting some of the volunteers that support county projects county operations and our service delivery so thank you to cape thank you for the departments and most importantly thank you to our community volunteers that without you we could not make this work the way we do okay our county's continuing to add amenities at our biscuit run park including the construction of the downhill bike and skills area project which is now 95 percent complete i'll back up and say that biscuit run park is approximately 1200 acres uh it's it will

[01:57:39] be our largest county park uh when activated uh related to all of the features uh the downhill and skills bike area will be the first biking only area in the park and will include downhill trails, jump lines, and other features designed to allow mountain bikers the opportunity to gain experience, build skills, and connect with other riders. This project is being developed in partnership with the Charlottesville Area Mountain Bike Club, CAMBIC, which is committed to funding its construction. CAMBIC has raised $80,000 to build the trail network. This is a model public-private partnership. The county provides the land and the planning framework

[01:58:18] through the Biscuit Run Park Master Plan why a community organization funds and champions the construction. Cambic has led several work sessions totaling 397 hours of volunteer service. This picture was shared with us from Cambic from one of their recent work days. The Park Ambassador Program exists to provide fun, safe outdoor experience at our local parks, trails, and greenways by providing information, education, and orientation to park and trail visitors. Our park ambassadors can be the

[01:58:55] first point of contact for some of our residents that are exploring Albemarle County's growing park system, and they serve as a bridge between the community and the county by gathering feedback, sharing safety information, and ensuring visitors feel welcome on public land. Seven park ambassadors are supporting the following locations. Biscuit Run, Pretty Creek, Walnut Creek, Chris Green, Mint Springs, Patricia Ann Byram, Totally Creek, Charlotte Humphreys, Old Mills Trail, and Crozet Trails. Since October of 2025, the volunteers have provided 234 hours of service.

[01:59:33] Pictured here are two of our ambassadors, John Titus and Steve Combs. Board for the past five years, Ed Brooks has organized volunteers in southern Albemarle to contribute to ongoing roadside cleanups with over 80 individuals participating over the years with a focus on different areas with each cleanup. The last cleanup was held in March. 35 volunteers from Scottsville, Keene, Chestnut Grove, Porter's Esmond, and Scottsville Elementary School came out to

[02:00:06] help. Our volunteers ranged from ages 5 to 80 and the volunteers collected 80 bags of trash on their last cleanup day. And just as an anecdotal note, at our budget town hall down in Yancey, Yancey Community Center, Ed Brooks served as our ambassador that evening. And we had a lot of the volunteers in the room that participated in this litter cleanup program. They raised their hands. It was a nice turnout that night, maybe 35 people total. And just wonderful energy in the room. So this is a great program. Thank you to Ed and thank you to the volunteers. Board across

[02:00:45] County volunteer groups are a critical piece of the local roadside cleaning ecosystem that keeps our roadways clean. While the county implements programs like the roadside litter cleanup funded by the plastic bag tax, the street sweeper, and the landscape maintenance along our entrance corridors, programs like VDOTS adopt a highway and other local groups like Seville Litter Pickers and Ravana Conservation Alliance engage community members in a regular cleanup and make a real impact on our local and neighborhood roads. In 2025, Seaville Litter Pickers collected 667 bags

[02:01:22] of trash, 166 tires, six mattresses, and they conducted 27 events in our community. They had 70 new volunteers participate. Ravana Conservation Alliance organized the first Ravana River Roundup in September of 2020 as a safe way for the community to give back during COVID-19.

[02:01:46] Since 2020, they've recruited 1,162 volunteers who together have cleaned up 100 miles of streams, trails, and the Ravanna River. The most recent Ravanna River cleanup in September 2025 removed 115 tires and 334 large bags of trash out of our local waterways.

[02:02:10] VDOT estimates that our Adopt-a-Highway volunteers save the Commonwealth $1.35 million a year in cleanup costs. The map on the screen shows all of the roads that are currently adopted. These volunteer groups create a collaborative system to ensure that our roadway cleanliness is in effect and that we're also trying to protect our environment.

[02:02:37] Albemarle's Auxiliary Police Officer Program extends the reach of public safety by directing traffic, checking homes while residents are away, and supporting our Albemarle County police staff at public events. The Auxiliary Police Officers relieve the burden on some routine and administrative tasks to allow our full-time officers the ability to address other calls for service.

[02:02:59] In 2025, our auxiliary police officers worked 920 hours. They did 44 house checks by request of our residents. Auxiliary officers have to complete a 40-hour auxiliary police officer academy. They receive continuous training, including patrol techniques, defensive tactics, CPR, defensive driving.

[02:03:21] They are not armed, and they do not have power of arrest. The Board of Supervisors approved the Volunteer Auxiliary Police Program in 2013, and the county's first auxiliary officer started in January of 2014. The three pictured here are David Carr, John Mallett, and Richard Smith, and we thank them for their service.

[02:03:41] Board speaking of service, our law enforcement work carries enormous psychological and emotional weight, and our officers respond on a daily basis to trauma, loss, and crisis. The Elmar County Police Department's chaplain provides a confidential, compassionate resource for our officers.

[02:03:58] Pictured here is ACPD's chaplain Jason Hartzog. He brings pastoral care. He brings crisis support into the daily life of our law enforcement agency. Chaplain Hartzog offers spiritual guidance and emotional support in several ways.

[02:04:14] He maintains a physical office in the department where anyone can stop by. They can respond, he may respond to crisis field incidents, and he's on call for anyone in our department that needs him. We would never recognize our volunteers and not talk about the wonderful Almar County Fire Rescue volunteer system that we have in Almar County.

[02:04:41] This system has approximately 480 operation and support admin volunteers who provide services to our residents. Together, both career and volunteer personnel responded to 19,513 incidents in 2025.

[02:04:58] Volunteerism within our department spans multiple levels of commitment from crew members, supporting operations at a station to train firefighters and emergency medical services, EMS providers, responding to life-threatening incidents to officers leading volunteer companies with decades of institutional knowledge.

[02:05:18] It's understood, and it's a reality across our United States, that fire volunteerism has declined across the country. There's a number of reasons for that. But our local volunteers in Albemarle County continue to demonstrate their commitment to the community's health and well-being, and we really can't thank them enough for their dedication.

[02:05:40] While American Red Cross volunteers do meaningful work across many facets of our community, let's focus on a special partnership between the Red Cross and our fire rescue department. The Red Cross works with ACFR anytime there are community members in need of sheltering, most oftentimes during home fires.

[02:05:58] The Fire Marshal's Office works directly with the Red Cross volunteers to find families to stay if they are displaced by fire or in a similar emergency incident. Expanding on the need for sheltering, the Red Cross has provided training and support to the Yancey Community Center staff so they can be a sheltering location in the event of a larger scale incident that would require a community shelter.

[02:06:21] ACFR and Red Cross have historically partnered on proactive safety initiatives like the sound the alarm program where ACFR staff and Red Cross volunteers canvas neighborhoods to offer free smoke alarm installation board as I wrap up I also want to recognize the dedicated community members and leaders that give their time through all of our boards our commissions that ensure that Albemarle County remains vibrant thriving good place to live work and grow these are not passive participants. They are residents, people that are in our community who study

[02:06:56] complex issues. They attend public meetings. They deliberate carefully. They offer recommendations to you, and they influence county policy and our planning. There are 56 active county boards, commissions, and committees with a total of 242 members. That includes our board members.

[02:07:15] So board, again, National Volunteer Recognition Week, April 19th through 25th. I believe Albemarle County is a wonderful place for people to volunteer. You can certainly go to our website. We've got information on our website about volunteering in Albemarle County in any of a number of ways.

[02:07:34] Most of your board meetings, you will be looking at applications for various boards on a regular basis. And I know this board talks to a lot of people in our community about volunteer opportunities. But this is just a snapshot of what's going on with us and how we lean hard on our volunteers in the community.

[02:07:51] We have wonderful people who are committed to our community, and I think some of this data tonight certainly shows that. I'll turn it back over to you, Mr. Chair, in case there's any questions. And as always, Board, Abby will package this, send it to each Board member, and if you are at community meetings and you want this information, you'll have it at your fingertips.

[02:08:09] Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Richardson. Supervisor Lepisto-Kirtley, any questions, comments? Thank you very much for a really nice presentation, and it's wonderful to know what good people we have working in the county and volunteering in the county especially.

[02:08:24] Thank you. Supervisor Missal. Agreed, yes. Thank you, and no other questions or comments. Supervisor Pruitt. No, thank you for the update on all the work that we're doing. Supervisor Duncan. Yeah, thank you for this. This was really great. Supervisor Malik. Wonderful report, as always.

[02:08:41] And the question I will leave is do the park ambassadors carry leashes with them so that if an owner is out and does not have a leash on their dog, they can say, here you go, put it on. It's better than a ticket. So I hope that they do that. And I'm also thrilled that the volunteers' numbers in the fire department are up about 80, which is spectacular, sort of counter the trend that other people have been whining about for a long time.

[02:09:04] So well done. Thank you. Yeah, I echo the appreciation of the roads and what VDOT estimated the savings to be for what they were doing was pretty phenomenal. So I know the board's very grateful for that. That combined with the other efforts that we're doing to try to get litter collected and picked up and stayed out, all those combined should be having a good impact.

[02:09:27] Thank you very much. All right, we will move to item number 13, public comment on matters previously considered or currently pending before the board other than scheduled for public hearings later this evening. We do have one sign-up, so Supervisor Missal will take us through those comments.

[02:09:48] I'm happy to. Thank you, Chair. During the time set aside for public comment on matters previously considered or currently pending before the board, individuals may address the board of supervisors concerning these matters. Individuals are allowed up to one opportunity of three minutes to speak at each board meeting.

[02:10:05] The sign-up sheet is managed by the clerk's office. Timekeeping is conducted through a timer light system at the podium. The green light will go on when you begin speaking, which begins your allotted time. The yellow light indicates you have one minute to finish speaking, and the red light indicates your time has expired, and you'll be asked to end your comments. In order to give all speakers equal treatment and courtesy, the board requests that speakers adhere to the following guidelines.

[02:10:27] When addressing the board, state your name, and if you live in Albemarle County or Magisterial District, address comments directly to the board as a whole. Any written comments, statements, or other supporting material may be given to the clerk. If we're representing a group or organization, you may ask others present to raise their hands in recognition.

[02:10:43] Speakers may not share any unused time with another speaker. Back and forth debate is not permitted. Do not speak from your seat or out of turn. All comments are live streamed, recorded and published on the Albemarle County website. And with that, we have one speaker, Alicia Lanahan. And before you begin, I'm just going to ask to make sure you're right in that mic.

[02:11:07] Last time you were a little light. Close enough? Okay. Good evening. My name is Alicia Lanahan. I live in the Scottsville District. Early this year, the Brennan Center conducted a survey with a random sample of 834 election officials, 50% of whom are either somewhat or very worried about political leaders interfering with their work.

[02:11:28] Lawrence Norton, the Brennan Center's vice president of elections in government, said the results weren't surprising, quote, since at least 2020, when you had threats against election officials reach unprecedented levels, end quote. What is new, said Scott McDonald, clerk in Dane County, Wisconsin, is that the threats are coming from the occupant of the White House. Safety concerns also rank high in the minds of election officials. 32% reported experiencing threats, harassment, or abuse due to their job, and 52% said they are concerned about the safety of colleagues. Norton called for preparation and

[02:12:05] pushback in the election community. Quote, I don't think there's any question that they're under threat, Norton said, and if there isn't a concerted effort to push back and to be ready, then I'm worried. Trump mused in February that the GOP should nationalize elections.

[02:12:22] The White House drew fierce backlash after FBI officials raided an election office in Fulton, Georgia. 29 states have been sued by DOJ, demanding unfettered access to voter rolls, raising yet more fears that the White House will exert greater influence over state-run elections.

[02:12:41] Last week, Senator Mark Warner went so far as to say that he is terrified that this administration is going to try to create some incident that can allow federal intervention. Quote, Trump has said he wants Republicans to take over elections.

[02:12:57] We've heard his former Secretary of Homeland Security say, we want the right people voting for the right people. We've seen the executive order that demands that all states turn over their voter files so DHS can apply a secret screening formula that will determine who could be an appropriate voter.

[02:13:16] Senator Warner went on to say that he's terrified because these policies are so unpopular that this crowd may try to do anything, including intervening in our election with federal forces, troops at the polls, or spreading disinformation that could actually be catastrophic.

[02:13:33] If we abandon the notion of free and fair elections, I don't know how we ever return. end quote. This is about the heart of our democracy, upholding free and fair elections and deciding to stand up for that. The danger right now is complacency. While managing elections isn't your job, upholding the rule of law and community safety are your responsibility.

[02:13:57] Our question remains, what commitments will you make to us now to ensure that voting in the county on April 21st and in November will proceed without the presence of federal law enforcement? In this time of distrust, fear, and uncertainty, what will you do to keep voting free and fair?

[02:14:17] Thank you, Ms. Linehan. Thank you. That is concluding our list. Thank you. All right. We will move to our public hearings tonight. Well, the first one are the public hearing to mend County Code Chapter 1, Article 5, fee schedule.

[02:14:36] Andy, are you kicking that off? This will be a team effort. And I will introduce Chief of Budget, Kate Malcolm, who will kick things off tonight. Got you. Thank you. I'm going to pull those slides. One moment. But that includes the fees.

[02:15:03] Okay. So let me then clarify that because I did misunderstand that. You're wanting to do the fees as part of then the second, third, and fourth budget items, or do you want to do the fees separate and then... Ms. Malcolm will speak to that in one moment, and we can get some direction from the board on the agenda for all of this evening.

[02:15:24] All right. Okay. Thank you, Caitlin Malcolm, Chief of Budget. We're here tonight for the public hearings related to the FY27 budget, which includes the fee amendment you were speaking to. So we can go to the next slide. As a reminder for the board and the public, this is the board's adopted calendar for the FY27 budget development process.

[02:15:45] Really, on this slide, you can see a nice reflection of all the work the board has done to date, all the engagement, the town halls, community feedback, et cetera. Tonight, with the public hearings, is another very important milestone in that process, leading to the culmination of the process next week when the board votes on the budget for FY27 and sets the tax rates. So on the next slide, as Mr. Bowman said, I'll walk you through the agenda for this evening. So we're going to start off this evening with a presentation from staff that will be primarily led by Mr. Bowman and Mr. Sumner. After that, staff would recommend that you have the four public hearings that are scheduled for this evening. First on the public

[02:16:23] hearing to amend county code chapter 1 article 5 which is the fee schedule staff are recommending that you have that public hearing tonight and then defer action and voting on that um that action until next week so we have a motion in tonight's presentation for that for the board's consideration then we recommend the public hearings on the calendar year 2026 real property tax rate the calendar year 2026 personal property tax rate and then the public hearing on the board of Supervisors FY27 proposed budget. From there, staff have a few slides to walk you back through

[02:16:58] the items that remain open for the FY27 budget to see if there's any additional discussion by the board and or direction from the board that staff should prepare ahead of the adoption next week. So I'll be back and forth throughout the presentation this evening to kind of run things and now I'll turn it over to Mr. Bowman for the staff presentation piece. Thank you. Thank you.

[02:17:21] And so I'm going to speak briefly on the first three public hearings as one presentation. And the reason we have these grouped together is it's all part of one package. If the board does not want to approve as advertised the first three public hearings, that would necessitate changes in the proposed budget.

[02:17:39] So it's both where the revenues come from and what the dollars do. And so I will speak to these first three, and then Mr. Sumner will hit the highlights as we've done in the town halls about the the budget presentation that we've been given for the last month or so so first just one slide really hit the rationale and the why on this public hearing to amend County Code chapter 1 article 5 this is a fee schedule and it's really related to the operations of the Community Development Department so the bottom line here is there is a proposed change of a 15% increase to fees that would be implemented on January 1st 2027 so this would not go into effect at the start of the fiscal year customarily there's been some

[02:18:19] delay when community development fee changes go into place, and so this is proposed for January. Half-year impact that totals $266,000 of ongoing revenues included in the proposed budget for fiscal year 27. For some background of how this recommendation emerged, it really goes back to the Berkeley study group that the board funded in 2023, which included a host of recommendations around community development fees. Among those were to have ongoing periodic fee adjustments, and that is as the cost changes over time of providing that service with staff costs, to have some index that's provided every few years to do that. Benchmarking with other

[02:18:57] localities, and at the time there was really a lot more fees. At one point there were 312 categories of fees that has now shrunk down to 148. And so that was one of the recommendations, and also just some rounding in the fees to make it a little bit easier to calculate and update.

[02:19:18] in revenues was in fiscal year 22 and so from the cost of cost of living increases from fiscal year 22 to what's proposed in fiscal year 27 that is how that 15% is derived from in fiscal year 24 there was really a total budget neutral change in fees really to look at the simplification of reducing fees rounding them benchmarking with other localities do it so that's taken place and so tonight's hearing on the community development fees is not about a change in the philosophy of terms of who pays for what, more about just updating for the cost of business

[02:19:53] that has not taken place in several years. And so that is the budget impact of that one. Next, I will move to some slides that I shared before, back at work session number one on real estate revenue and personal property revenue. So real estate tax revenue is determined through the reassessment process annually, which is established by the Virginia Code, where the county assessor needs to assess property at 100% of fair market value. I will note that as part of the real estate tax revenue, the Board of Supervisors has approved and expanded in recent years the

[02:20:30] real estate tax relief for the elderly and disabled program. That program is $2.8 million in the fiscal year 27 proposed budget, and that is among the strategies the Board of Supervisors has used in terms of supporting its affordable housing strategies. So I'll say for the public, if you are here, if you are listening in, if you are or know someone who may meet these qualifications.

[02:20:52] I don't have all the data in terms of income and net worth levels, but please, if you reach out to myself or the Department of Finance and Budget, we will connect you with our staff who can assist you in that application process in the review that would take place. So on the revenue side, these real estate tax revenues, and this rate also applies to public service and manufactured homes, that is an increase from fiscal year 26 to 27 proposed of $20.5 million or 7.6 percent. The primary driver of that is in calendar year, sorry I should say calendar, nope that's right, calendar year 26 overall reassessments were an increase of 6.2 percent

[02:21:28] in total for the tax base. The reason that number is higher is because there is an increase to the tax base for new construction that has taken place, land additions, and other smaller adjustments such as people who may go in and out of land use, all of the program, all the net results of those.

[02:21:44] So the real estate tax rate is proposed to be unchanged at 0.894 cents per $100 of assessed value. I want to highlight there is something called the lowered tax rate, which is also a term that comes right out of the Virginia Code. And the idea here is what tax rate would the board need to adopt if it wanted to offset the increase of 6.2% reassessment?

[02:22:04] And so the answer to that question is the 84.2 cents. Revenues would still grow based on new construction and land divisions, but that would be a rate that would offset the increase in reassessments if that was a direction the board wanted to go, and that was part of the advertisement for this meeting.

[02:22:22] Personal property tax, that is a proposed rate of $4.43, as the board advertised back in March. That is a $0.15 increase from $4.28 that is proposed, and that funding would be dedicated to the Affordable Housing Investment Fund. The revenue for personal property tax primarily comes from personal vehicles, 84% of the total.

[02:22:44] There are some smaller categories. There's business tangible, personal property, that's the second largest category, about 10%. And that rate must be the same as a personal property. Smaller categories, machinery and tools, other personal properties like boats, airplanes, those are the remaining 6% after 84% for personal, 10% for business.

[02:23:06] The county does not have a personal property tax relief, I'm sorry, program the same way they do for the real estate. But the state does provide personal property tax relief that works based on the value of your vehicle. So if you have an assessed value of a personal vehicle that's $1,000 or less, you receive full relief.

[02:23:27] For anyone above $1,000 up to the first $20,000, there's a relief from the state provided at 39%. And then everyone with a value of $20,000 and above, or if you have a vehicle above $20,000, you get relief of 39% up to $20,000.

[02:23:45] And then above $20,000 is paying the full tax for that. And so with that, that's really just the highlights on where the revenues are coming for these first three public hearings. And I will turn it over to Chief Financial Officer Jacob Sumner to walk through the investments in the budget at a high level to summarize what we've been speaking about for the past couple months.

[02:24:06] Thank you, Mr. Bowman. Again, Jacob Sumner, Chief Financial Officer for the county. The focus for this last part of the presentation will be just on the FY27 proposed budget, which is the final public hearing that's scheduled for tonight. In developing the 27 proposed budget, the county utilizes strategies and policies already in place to help guide where and how decisions are made.

[02:24:26] This is so that our work aligns with infrastructure capacity, service delivery, and long-term planning. These guiding documents include the Board's strategic plan, AC44, which is the county's comprehensive plan, and the Economic Development Strategic Plan. As part of our long-term planning efforts, the county considers multi-year budgeting and the multi-year impact decisions made during the budget process.

[02:24:48] In this year's proposed budget, there are several multi-year tactics that I want to bring to your attention. First, the funding bridge. The proposed budget for FY27 includes revenue from the county's budget stabilization reserve. The budget recommends using one quarter of the 2% reserve in each fiscal year 27 and fiscal year 28.

[02:25:09] The additional 1% will remain in the reserve to provide flexibility should we encounter unexpected financial needs. The second multi-year tactic included in this proposed budget is a transfer of $6.4 million to the CIP for projects that will be identified in future years and setting aside that as a capital reserve.

[02:25:27] And finally, the final multi-year tactic, including this year's proposed budget, is continued consistent support for schools and helping protect the public school operating fund if revenue drops in the future, particularly with a shift in local and state dollars. Another principle in our county is a culture of continuous improvement and modernization to advance programs and service delivery within the county to ensure return on investments of our people, processes, and systems.

[02:25:54] We do this through systems modernization, utilizing staffing studies to make changes for efficiency, performance management, and re-engineering, and re-engineering of vacant positions to make sure that we're hiring positions that really meet the needs that we have. In the past two years, we've cut 17 vacant positions, and we're at a net negative three positions since we've hired 14 public safety positions during that same time period.

[02:26:19] I mentioned previously that the county takes into consideration how decisions made in the budget process impact future budgets and how they can potentially create future obligations. The same is true for the FY27 proposed budget. There are obligations in FY27 that we are picking up from prior decisions.

[02:26:37] Here on the slide are some specific obligations that we plan on picking up in FY27. Many of these will be addressed in the later slides, but I will highlight one. Changes in the federal level and federal revenue continue to shift revenues, particularly for some of our partner agencies.

[02:26:53] The FY27 proposed budget includes increased funding for some of our partner agencies to make up for that lost federal revenue and maintain services to our community. And I'm particularly talking about additional funding for Region 10 and the Health Department. The budget is balanced on the proposed tax rates displayed on the screen.

[02:27:12] Mr. Bowman previously went through the details for real property and personal property, which will be the topics of our public hearings later tonight. We tend to focus on the general fund during budget season because of a couple reasons. The general fund is where all tax revenues are received, is a primary funding source for schools and capital and debt, and is where the board has maximum amount of policy discretion.

[02:27:38] The general fund revenues for fiscal year 27 are an estimated $513.7 million. Likewise, since this is a balanced budget, the recommended expenditures also total $513.7 million. Over the next several slides, I will go over key investments within the FY27 proposed budget.

[02:27:57] The largest expenditure in the general fund is the local transfer to public schools, which totals $218.3 million, or 43% of the general fund budget. It's important to note, once the transfer of funds has occurred to the schools, the county doesn't have oversight on the operational use of those funds.

[02:28:13] Let's go a little bit more detail on the schools and our investment in schools. This proposed budget supports a $304.9 million budget for the school's fund operating expenses for FY27. This represents a $20.7 million increase since last year.

[02:28:29] That $20.7 million is broke down in really two funding increases, $11.7 million increase from state funding and $9 million increase from the local contribution. Another element that adds to the budget capacity for schools in this proposed budget is $3 million of retirement savings from Virginia Retirement System that impacts their expenditure savings. In addition to the operating fund, $6.4 million is being placed in the CIP as a placeholder for future capital needs, or as a reserve should state funding decrease in the next cycle, as we've seen in the past couple years. At this funding level for operations, ACPS will be able to fund

[02:29:09] operations for two new schools, opening in the 26-27 school year. That's Mountain View Upper Elementary and Ace Academy Lambs Lane. They'll also be able to fully meet the obligations of the public school's collective bargaining agreement, including salary increases for support staff, teachers, and additional positions for increased planning time and guaranteed lunch breaks for elementary teachers. The current proposed budget and the budget requests from the school board are slightly different. Both have over $20 million in funding for operations, as well as funding set aside for future capital needs. The bottom line difference, however, is $2.3 million, which is

[02:29:46] approximately 1% of the school's operating budget, and the $2.3 million with the proposed budget setting that amount aside in the capital reserve, while the schools would have that amount going to operations in their requests. This slide shows total revenue for the public school's operating budget over the past 12 years and the FY27 proposed budget. On average, the total public schools funding ongoing operating revenues have grown 5.8% each year. Specifically, the last five years have seen an average growth of 7.7 percent. This period incorporates a wide range of changing circumstances, such as tax rate increases for public education, the opening of school

[02:30:24] additions, changes in state funding, and the pandemic's initial revenue decline, followed by the historically strong revenue growth that followed. Transitioning to focus on public safety, we recently undertook a comprehensive public safety staffing study that assessed our police and fire rescue departments to ensure that we are most effectively providing public safety response.

[02:30:45] The study reviewed industry standards and best practices and made recommendations that will address the changing risk profile of the county. This budget continues the multi-year implementation of those recommendations. This budget provides funding for three new police officer positions starting mid-year to support public safety.

[02:31:02] These new officer positions, along with the previous additions and investments in the past two years, will help to ensure coverage meets demand across our growing community. This budget contains $2.3 million to keep our police salaries competitive for recruitment and retention. Based on this assessment, the pay scale for the police department will be revised to maintain competitive positioning within the labor market.

[02:31:26] In recent years, the county has successfully leveraged federal grant funding from FEMA's SAFER program to hire firefighters. These hires address critical challenges, including volunteer shortages and increasing demand for fire and emergency medical services. While this funding allowed us to defer the cost of hiring, last year we started transitioning these positions to local funding.

[02:31:45] That continues in this budget. We are picking up the local funding for 30 positions in FY27, which amounts to $1.7 million. This budget also contains $1.3 million to keep our fire rescue salaries competitive for recruitment and retention. This budget recommends the addition of three new sheriff's deputy positions.

[02:32:07] With the opening of the new courts facilities this past year and more facilities coming online in the future, these positions are being added to assist with the day-to-day operations of the office, including courthouse and courtroom security, as well as inmate transportation and civil processing. For FY27, the board's proposed budget invests $7.5 million in the Affordable Housing Investment Fund.

[02:32:28] The county continues to invest in initiatives to expand affordable housing options. Efforts focus on increasing the supply of affordable homes and rental units, supporting workforce housing, and assisting residents in securing stable housing. Since the Affordable Housing Investment Fund was created in FY19, Albemarle has invested over $24.5 million into affordable housing projects and programs from a variety of funding sources.

[02:32:51] These investments supported the construction or preservation of over 1,700 of affordable units, shelter and supportive services for over 280 victims of domestic violence, and 539 individuals experiencing homelessness, and housing counseling and navigation support for over 788 individuals and families.

[02:33:09] There are other expenditures that support affordable housing by keeping people in their homes they're already in. The FY27 budget includes a 20% increase to the tax relief for the Elderly and Disabled Program. This provides real estate and a mobile home tax exemption for the taxpayers who qualify. And lastly, the Almar County Emergency Relief Program, or ACERP, is intended to assist eligible clients with utility disconnections and avoid eviction.

[02:33:33] There is $360,000 for that line item in this proposed budget. We also continue our commitment to key environmental services. Dedicated water resources funding continues and covers water resources operating and debt payment costs and a reserve for CIP projects.

[02:33:50] The FY27 budget includes $300,000 for climate action funding. The Department of Facilities and Environmental Services has also reprioritized staff to focus on the implementation of climate action projects. These include residential energy improvements, county building energy efficiency programs, climate action, collaborative initiatives, and others.

[02:34:11] Plastic bag tax revenue totaling $140,000 in FY27 is also included in this budget. This fund supports things like roadside litter cleanups and distribution of reusable bags to vulnerable populations. Since December 2024, plastic bag-funded roadside litter cleanups have collected 3,932 bags of litter to supplement the ongoing work of volunteer roadside cleanup teams.

[02:34:38] The FY27 recommended budget includes $4.15 million in additional one-time funding for the Economic Development Fund. The Economic Development Fund was designed to provide ready, flexible funding to support economic development opportunities. We learned during the AstraZeneca attraction effort that our ability to quickly respond to their needs was critical in landing the company here in Albemarle.

[02:34:58] We need to always balance cash on hand against unknown future opportunities. Having a sufficient fund available allows us to have stronger, comfort-approving funding today, knowing we also have funding for tomorrow's opportunities. The new economic development strategic plan provides a focused roadmap for how to advance our economic development efforts and support a thriving business environment.

[02:35:22] As the community continues to grow, the scale and complexity of service delivery increases. Our staff must develop the skills to address that complexity. Recruitment and retention of talented and skilled employees is just as important in the public sector as in the private sector. Consistent with past budgets and the county's compensation philosophy, the FY27 budget includes review of our classified pay scale positions on a two-year cycle and recommends adjustments to market to ensure the positions are meeting average market compensation.

[02:35:50] It also includes a 2% cost of living adjustment and a one-time bonus for classified staff. We will continue to train and develop all of our staff. The total staff training and development budget across all departments totals $1.4 million in FY27. Rising health care claims are increasing costs for the county and partner agencies within our self-funded health care system.

[02:36:11] Plan Year 27 has an 8% increase over last year and is included in this proposed budget. Almar County recognizes that government cannot meet every need alone. By funding local nonprofit and community organizations, we strengthen the regional safety net and improve residents' access to vital services.

[02:36:30] This is our force multiplier in getting vital services to our residents through community partners. There is $40.7 million in funding across 69 partner agencies. On the slide, you'll see some critical services, including public safety, like our 911 call center and the regional jail, transit, which includes CAT and JAUNT, libraries and tourism, health and welfare, and public works. The Human Services Funding Program prioritizes programs that serve the most vulnerable members of our community, including elderly residents, households with children under six, and medically vulnerable individuals. Enhanced program compliance

[02:37:08] requirements ensure that funded programs are both effective and accountable. The Human Services Funding Program will invest $1.6 million to support essential services like shelters, food security, and emergency assistance for vulnerable residents, supporting over 30 programs including organizations like Loaves and Fishes, Child Health Partnership, and Ready Kids. That's just a few examples. I'm going to take just a moment and also address our Capital Improvement program. So before we wrap up, let's take a moment to focus on not only the capital improvement

[02:37:44] program, but also our debt service. The county is currently in the process of executing the five largest CIP projects in its history, the Courts Complex, the Rivanna Futures Property Purchase, and the construction of three new schools. These five projects have budgets that total $296 million, and as they are complete, they create a funding obligation for the next 20 years.

[02:38:06] The county's debt service is its mortgage payment. The county's projected debt service is compliant with the board's financial management policies and is projected to increase from $34 million to $55 million by FY31, which is the last year of the CIP. These capital projects are generational investments with generational impacts that we will need to pay into the future. For the FY27 to FY31 capital improvement program, there is $196.8 million invested for schools' capital projects and $160.3 million for local government projects. And as we transition to our public hearing section for tonight's activity, as part of tonight's activity, I want to highlight a few

[02:38:45] key takeaways from the FY27 proposed budget. One, that obligations continue to rise, that our service demands are evolving, and we're evolving to meet our community's needs. We do have an evolving tax base, and we need to continue to plan ahead for significant investments and continue prudent multi-year financial planning to help shape the future. Chair Galloway, I will now turn the floor to you for questions of staff that you may have or from the rest of the board before Ms. Malcolm will come up and assist the board through the public hearings. All right we I would say questions would be on this round mainly but you've got all four topics in front of you the fee schedule the

[02:39:24] real estate tax the personal property tax and the budget at large. Supervisor Lepisto Kirtley any questions? I have no questions at this time. Supervisor Missal. Thanks it might be helpful unless I missed this in your presentation, to just briefly talk about the county's triple-triple-A bond rating and also some of the bumpers or guidelines that we have around our debt that we have to adhere to and how well we're doing with that. Sure. So part of the board's financial management policies includes some debt-related parameters, which are really a focus of the rating agencies. And so the county is very fortunate to have a triple-triple-A bond

[02:40:02] rating, which is essentially a perfect credit score. And in other terms, a lot of that is based on adherence to those financial management policies. Two of those are related to, the two are related to, sorry, I was distracted by Mr.

[02:40:18] Bowman's giving me additional tips. On our triple AAA, thank you, sir. One is on our fund balance policies and our reserves, and also on our assessed value as a portion of our outstanding debt. The additional one that's related to our debt service as a percentage of our revenues is at 10%. Again, 10%. And where are we in terms of that?

[02:40:44] We are probably about 6% in our current debt issuance, which I believe is, I don't have the exact dollar amount for you, but we can provide that for the board. But we have current capacity with our current debt. It'd be helpful for the public to hear. That's really why I brought it up.

[02:41:01] Thank you. All right, Supervisor Pruitt. Oh, do you have the info? Sorry. Yes, it's currently just under 8%, which would be the peak in fiscal year 31. So there is remaining capacity. That's great. Thanks very much.

[02:41:16] Thank you. Sorry, I got squirreled up on the order. Yeah, we did. I may have missed this, but I know we're not required to take action on it today. But we do have kind of the, you, Andy, put together, I thought, a very helpful slide that we've consulted in past work sessions and was sent to the board in advance today, or yesterday, actually, reminding us kind of what the big pools that are still in play, both on the source of funds and the proposed direction of funds.

[02:41:50] Do we have a slide to that? Because I'm sure several people in the public are also here thinking about this. Yes, we do. and so staff's intent would be after the public hearing to have those discussions and so here are the remaining areas for board direction that have been identified and so on the left we have six items grouped really from largest to smallest about what are the potential sources whether they be budgeted expenditures or anticipated revenues that could be reprogrammed on the right side we have topics previously identified by the board those could be applied to and i would say

[02:42:27] Just to try and get this cleanly on one slide, there's not a perfect correlation from one column to the next, but for example, number one, the general fund transfer to the CIP could be applied if the board desires to do something on public school operations and capital. We have the $2.5 million, a combination of ongoing and one-time money for the personal property taxes that goes into AHIF.

[02:42:49] AHIF could also be funded by some of the other sources, but this is really to put a menu one option for the board and staff's intent would be to come back after the public hearing and as much direction as we can get tonight before adoption on the 22nd would be the intent of that discussion thank you i mainly i figured you had it here already in the slide deck and i mainly just wanted to give the public the opportunity to to see this because this is what's going in all our heads as we're processing what to do with the comments that y'all give us because this is kind of the this is the um oh what do you call those things like uh a matching game with the little

[02:43:27] arrows that you draw like on a children's placemat menu right this is what we're going to be doing in our heads with our little children's placemat and our crayons and so it'd be helpful for y'all to have that uh also that's all i have all right supervisor duncan um i have sort of a kind of random question about the fee schedule for the developer fees um were these also the recommendation was to like condense the fees and like simplify them was that also it looks like it's done i just

[02:44:00] wanted yes that was done in 2024 this is really taking the uh the improved work of 2024 and now providing a kind of cost of service increase since the last time that was done okay i have no other questions at all uh supervisor mallick thank you uh a little history if you have it in your head still on the fee schedule i know it was done you said in 2024 but previous to that it was about 10 years i think it was between 2010 and 2014 that it was done after a big study and before that it had been 20 years since it had been changed so i don't know if you have anything to add to that

[02:44:39] or correct yeah i i don't have the history but i know the 2022 update it had been several years and part of this was the regular cadence but i don't have that history and uh looking over my shoulder we would need to research that further if that would assist the board but I think part of this intent and this goes to some of the other updates the board has made whether it be real estate tax relief or other things how can we begin to get those in regular schedules there's not a big a lag and what feels like a shock to someone who hasn't seen that increase on a regular basis very good and that's I think all I had thank you very much all right any additional questions before

[02:45:17] Excuse me, I just had one. Thank you for reminding me about the fee schedule. So the fees are, I know they're increasing. Costs are actually, and that's covering, sort of catching up, right, in a sense.

[02:45:35] Development community, other applicants are seeing increasing costs as well. Did you take into that in any way into consideration? I would say this did not really evaluate, because I think within fees, There's always a balance, this is right out of the board's financial policies, balancing kind of who pays, the access to service, and cost recovery.

[02:45:58] And they kind of have those two ends of the spectrum. And so this was not really about a philosophical discussion of should that be moved one way or the other. We're really just trying to do a cost refresh based on where we have been. But there's, again, at any time the board could choose to do that, but that's not really the intent of this particular one.

[02:46:16] Got it. Okay, thank you. All right, any other questions? All right, I don't have any questions, so I'm sorry to do. I was just going to throw out, I think somewhere in the homework it said that the fees were based upon a 50% only cost recovery.

[02:46:32] And that was a big, reduced from what it was 10 or 15 years ago when we were looking at 70% because the citizenry is perhaps not getting the benefit. And so they were worried about why they were paying so much of that cost for staff and processing and that kind of thing.

[02:46:48] So thank you for that informed feedback. All right, very good. So we're going to go through the four public hearings now before we read the rules, just so folks understand that we do have signups for these, and you must sign up to be included in the appropriate topic that you'd like to talk to.

[02:47:10] They're down here on the right, but we're going to read the rules the one time for all four, and then I guess we'll catch anybody up if they come in late, but Mr. Missal will walk us through both the rules and our speakers. Great. Thank you, Chair. And I guess I have one question. I see that in a couple of situations, or maybe just one situation, the same person has signed up for all four?

[02:47:31] It's appropriate. Should they do them individually? Yeah. Okay, thank you. All right, I will read the rules of engagement here. During public hearings, the board will acknowledge speakers addressing the item listed for public hearing. Speakers are limited to one appearance of three minutes per public hearing item.

[02:47:50] The timekeeping is conducted through a timer and light system at the podium. The green light will go on when you begin speaking, which begins your allotted time. The yellow light indicates you have one minute to finish speaking. The red light indicates your time has expired. I'll be asked to end your comments. If more than 10 speakers are signed up to speak, the time allotted to speak may be reduced to two minutes, and the yellow light will indicate you have 30 seconds to finish.

[02:48:09] It does not appear to be the case tonight. In order to give all speakers equal treatment and courtesy, the board requests that speakers adhere to the following guidelines. When addressing the board, state your name, and if you live in Albemarle County or Magisterial District, address comments directly to the board as a whole. Any written statements or other supporting material may be given to the clerk.

[02:48:27] If representing a group or organization, you may ask others present to raise their hands in recognition. Speakers may not share any unused time with another speaker. Back and forth debate is not permitted. Do not speak from your seat or out of turn, please. All comments are live streamed, recorded, and published at the Albemarle County website.

[02:48:43] All right. We will now open the public hearing for item number 14. This is amend County Code Chapter 1, Article 5, the fee schedule. And we have one speaker. neil williamson good evening neil williamson i'm the free and uh i'm president of the free enterprise forum a privately funded public policy organization focused on central virginia's local governments earlier this week i got an email from an applicant who just paid nine thousand dollars

[02:49:21] for a commercial alteration permit in albemarle county to recoat a portion of a roof roof of a shopping center. They state, there's no architectural plans to review, no structural changes, just a spec sheet from the manufacturer describing the material. Albemarle doesn't have a fee for roof repair replacement, so they paid a per square foot fee to have the privilege of adhering a plastic sheet to a roof. Additional research found one of Albemarle's so-called peer communities, Prince William County, would have charged less than $2,000 in fees for the

[02:49:58] same work. Tonight you're considering a significant rate increase, not based on a comprehensive rate study, but based on a recommendation in a previously submitted rate report that rate fees should be reviewed regularly. We have no problem with that. However, I must disagree with Mr. Bowman's suggestion that the Berkeley Group report included benchmarking. It did not. The report was limited in its scope. As it expressed on page three, the BOS has not asked for an examination of or changes to fee amounts. So this analysis attempts to keep any fee changes as revenue neutral as possible. Contrast that with the Albemarle County Service Authority, who is

[02:50:37] also considering significant fee increases in their meeting tomorrow morning. ACSA did an exhaustive formal rate study. In recent years, I've spent over 20 hours working with ACSA staff, understanding how they come up with their connection fees and assess how they move forward. Such transparency should be celebrated. We believe the last comprehensive CDD rate study was conducted in 2007, right before the time of great unpleasantness. Applicants tell me they understand cost increases but would like to see process improvement. Recently, I've received reports of five days

[02:51:17] being the normal lag time between an approved final inspection and issuance of a certificate of occupancy. That's ridiculous. That's moving one piece of paper to another desk. Other localities do it in less than a day i ask you to delay implementation delay action do a rate study and for god's sakes repeal the technology fee which i didn't have a chance to get into thank you thank you all right we will close the public hearing for the first as long as that

[02:51:51] person is not speaking real problem all right okay i'm just going to look to my left and right in between each of these i'm just going to see if anybody has any comments or questions go ahead Yeah, I was happy to see the suggested delaying this for a week because I do want to look at it more.

[02:52:10] But just kind of for the record, these fees in particular get passed down to people who are buying housing, increases the cost of housing. And so, yeah, I don't think we should be increasing the fees. Any other questions or comments? And you're right, it is being deferred at least till next week.

[02:52:29] And so, Mr. Chair, I think this would be the appropriate time if the board were so inclined to defer this, to have a motion to defer this to April 22nd now, assuming that the chair has closed the public hearing on this particular item. I have, and is there someone that would like to offer that motion? Before, go ahead.

[02:52:46] Chair, I just had one extra question. I actually don't know anything about the technology fee, and looking over the Berkeley report, I'm not sure I was further illuminated. Is there any clarification I could get for what that? I know the amount of it is.

[02:53:04] I'm asking what it is. I will say, unless there's any community development staff who'd like to speak to that in detail, we could provide a response by e-mail, and we'll have that online. So the board will have that for their deliberations next week. Thank you. Any other questions?

[02:53:20] Just one maybe to help staff is next week, we're assuming we're going to defer this next week, I would be interested to know thoughts on benchmarking and other communities and what they're doing and how we how we stand on that. I realize there's only a week to do any kind of research on it.

[02:53:36] But if there's a way to get a general sense, that would be helpful or at least a strategy to do so. Thank you. Sure. We could. I should clarify my comments in case I misspoke. The structure of the fees was part of the benchmarking and looking at comparative fees and all that, too. So if I've misspoken that, just to clarify. So thank you for the reassuring nod, Mr. Williamson.

[02:53:55] Thank you. All right. So the motion would be to defer. I believe there was a slide with suggested language. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Herrick. One moment. Okay.

[02:54:14] There's the motion. I move to defer this action item to April 22nd. Second. All right. The motion has been made and seconded. Is there any further discussion? All right. If the clerk could please call the roll. Ms. Malik. Yes. Mr. Missel.

[02:54:30] Aye. Mr. Pruitt. Aye. Ms. Duncan. Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. LaPesa, currently? Aye. All right. Thank you, board. Very good. We will move to open, or I will open the public hearing for item number 15. This is the calendar year, 2026 real property tax rates.

[02:54:48] Assume we don't need to read the rules again. Okay, we'll begin with Rob Myers. I didn't know I would be first on the agenda, but anyway, I listened to all his big expenditures.

[02:55:09] I feel sort of anathema in saying this. but I feel we should start with a lowered tax rate every year and justify each fraction of a cent increase. You know, the last two years I've had a total, excuse me, a projected tax increase of 11.3% this year.

[02:55:32] For the last two years, 28.1%. Dominion Energy just hit me with over 20% this year. Okay. ACSA, a double-digit increase. Okay, so I've been retired for almost 14 years.

[02:55:51] This is not sustainable. I mean, you can't squeeze so much blood out of this turnip or turnips like me. Levy limit. At least four states are considering a levy limit. It says you can't raise taxes faster than inflation each year, real estate taxes at least.

[02:56:12] In Lexington, Kentucky, where I have relatives, senior citizens, people over 65, and I'm well over 65, taxes are frozen for those people, real estate taxes. We're doing quite the opposite. We're a long, long, long way away from that. And I just feel like a disproportionate amount of this burden.

[02:56:30] Yes, I could apply for real estate tax relief. I might get it on one side, on the income side. I wouldn't get it on the asset side. But then if I take out of my assets to pay towards the tax, then I have less income then as a result of lowered assets. So this is just not sustainable.

[02:56:49] I mean, and I don't feel that we ever start with anything but what we had last year as a starting point. The tax rate, which was increased last year, and the new assessments. And mine certainly was a lot more than 5 point or 6.2 percent. So this is, I'm not the only one experiencing this kind of thing, but so I had to share this.

[02:57:10] Thank you, sir. I think it's too much. Understood. Thank you. Thank you. Phil Reese. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.

[02:57:26] My name is Phil Reese. I live in Rivanna. I agree with the gentleman before me. Since 2020, Albemarle County real estate assessments have increased by roughly 50%. And last year's tax rate increase made it even worse. Out of the 95 counties in Virginia, Albemarle is in the top 10 for the most expensive real estate tax rate.

[02:57:48] If you look at our neighboring counties, they all have much lower tax rates. Augusta County's is just $0.52 compared to $0.89 for us. And furthermore, their properties aren't worth as much as they are in Albemarle. For many residents, especially those on fixed incomes, these increases are difficult to absorb year after year.

[02:58:09] Taxes are rising based on unrealized increases in property values. In some cases, these property tax increases are forcing people to sell their homes and leave the county because they can no longer afford the tax increases. Do we really want to force someone out of their home who has lived here 70 or 80 years?

[02:58:28] There's a lot of talk about housing affordability, and whether a person is a homeowner or a renter, they are experiencing these increased taxes. If the goal is to make housing more affordable, the best tool at your disposal is to lower the real estate tax rate.

[02:58:46] If you are truly dedicated to affordable housing, this is what you should be focusing on first before anything else. And you can provide direct relief this year to everyone who lives in Albemarle, not just a few who might get subsidized housing. so my question for you is this are we ever going to get some tax relief in this county is there any willingness from this board to one day lower tax rates in this county

[02:59:12] to offset assessment driven increases thank you thank you and philip marks my name is phil marks i live in the samuel miller district on morgantown road i don't have anything as prepared as these two previous gentlemen but i agree with them completely i had a problem with my assessments this year. I've spoken with the assessors twice. I've now applied for a hearing with the Board of

[02:59:48] Equalization, and it's based on not the fact that I disagree with my house's worth, but the fact that they tell me it's based, the increase is based on the quality of construction in my house compared to my neighbors with much nicer houses that got less of an increase. Now, I have a 28% increase on one home that I lived in for 40 years. Another one I built six years ago, 27, 28% as well. I did a survey on Morgantown Road of 17 other homes on the road and looked at how everybody else's had increased. And the assessor's reason for that was that mine was an A minus quality of

[03:00:26] home. The one down the street for me that I compared it to was a B plus. Now they changed these classifications over the years. But what happened was when I built my house six years ago, my house was valued at $488,000. This house down the road, which is five bedrooms, mine is a three bedroom, 2,400 square feet. This other one is 5,000 square feet. I was $488,000.

[03:00:52] Theirs was valued at $543,000. The next year, I surpassed them. This year, I'm over $100,000 over the same house down the street simply based on the classification of construction. Now, this five-bedroom, 5,000-square-foot house is brick.

[03:01:09] I'm made of hardy plank. I don't understand what this difference is or why they rely so much on these tables to decide this, but there are no other houses on my street that have increased at the same rate out of 17 houses as my house, and 28%, as this gentleman said, it's unsustainable.

[03:01:26] I'm 73 years old. I've lived in this county and worked here for 50 years, and I intended to stay here. And I thought that's what I was going to be doing, but if I have to use my assets to pay these property taxes, even if it goes up 20% over the next two years, I'll be paying you what it would cost me to probably have a mortgage on the house.

[03:01:43] And that's completely not sustainable. I don't understand. I think there should be impact fees on the developers, which are causing us to spend all this money on the schools. It shouldn't be on the burden of the people that have lived here for 50 years. I said, I'm not prepared. I can show you this, but the Board of Equalization has all my data.

[03:01:59] And it's just so, the inequity is just amazing. I pay 20% and someone right next to me with a house twice as high pays a 15% increase. It just doesn't make any sense. But I hope there's something that can be done about it because I intended to stay here the rest of my life. And I don't see how I can afford to do that anymore.

[03:02:16] Thank you. Thank you. That concludes our list. All right. We will close item number 15, the public hearing on the real property tax rates. And this time I'm just going to go through the order real quick. If anybody wants to make any remarks or comments.

[03:02:31] Supervisor Lepisto Kirtling. No comment. Supervisor Missal. No, sir. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt. No, I don't think I have anything. Supervisor Duncan. No. Supervisor Malek. I do have one thing to share just for information's sake, and that is that among making comparisons county to county is always very very tricky and one of the most obvious things about Albemarle that jumps right off the page is that our effective tax rate is really 10 cents lower than what you pay because 10 cents of our tax rate goes directly to the city because of revenue sharing and people

[03:03:10] need to be aware of that there's people make complaints about the efficiency of our government but you have to understand what our local government in Albemarle is actually using to carry on its operations. And regarding impact fees, I wish we had the authority. Thank you very much. All right. I was next. I have no comments at this point. I will open the public hearing for item number 16. This is the calendar year 26 personal property tax rates. Thank you. We have

[03:03:41] two names on this list, Phil Reese and Michael Monaco. You're on deck. This won't be the last time. I'm in the next hearing as well. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. I know you've already heard from me a lot today so i'll try not to wear out my welcome and keep this short i'm here to oppose the 15 cent increase to the car tax alba mall already has one of the highest car tax rates in virginia it is ranked it is ranked 19th out of 133 localities last year the

[03:04:15] board raised the car tax by 32 cents if this increase is approved that's a 47 cent increase in just two years this is not a small adjustment this is a steady tax increase on something people cannot avoid. Having a car is not optional in Albemarle. We need our cars to get to work, to take our kids to school, to go to doctor's appointments, and to get groceries. We need a car for almost everything. The car tax is not a luxury tax. It is a necessity tax, and it hits everyone the same way regardless of income. A working parent and a high-income household pay

[03:04:50] the same tax on the same vehicle value. That makes it one of the most regressive taxes the county can impose. The county executive recommended no car tax increase in his budget, yet the board is considering increasing this tax for a second year in a row. At some point, the question becomes simple. When does it stop? If affordability means anything in practice, it has to include transportation costs, not just housing. The car tax is one of the worst ways to grow tax revenue.

[03:05:22] It hurts the people who can least afford it. I urge you to reject this tax increase and hold line on a tax that every resident has to pay just to get through their daily life. You cannot make Albemarle more affordable by increasing the cost of getting to work. Thank you. Thank you. And Michael Monaco. Good evening, Supervisors. Michael Monaco, Whitehall District. I live in Crozet. I'm here tonight with my friends and neighbors at Impact as well, and I'm going to be singing a

[03:06:02] slightly different tune from some of the previous speakers because I'm speaking tonight to ask you to vote yes on a proposed increase in the personal property tax rate. I believe, personally, the need for dedicated revenue, dedicated from tax revenue, in the Affordable Housing Investment Fund is a community priority. Housing underpins so many of the county's goals. Healthy, safe communities where everyone can not just live but thrive. When our neighbors are not in stable housing, when people are paying 50 or 60 percent of their income on rent, we are all not thriving. Our community is not thriving. I know you on the board value affordable housing, so I want to be very specific

[03:06:42] about why I believe this $0.15 increase is worth it. First of all, yes, a personal property tax is a regressive tax by its nature. This would not have been my preferred mechanism to find this revenue. However, as we heard earlier, the 1998 Personal Property Tax Relief Act allows Albemarle County to offer a discounted tax rate on, I believe it's the first $20,000 of personal motor vehicles.

[03:07:07] In other words, we do have a mechanism in place to at least alleviate some of what is by its nature a regressive tax. Households like mine, just under 80% AMI with two beater cars, would see a very marginal impact from this tax.

[03:07:23] I did some napkin math because I was curious about how much I'm going to have to pay to put my money where my mouth is. I would see about $1.50 a month with this tax rate increase. I believe, again, with this napkin math, that if someone has about $100,000 in personal vehicles, they would see maybe $1,150 a month.

[03:07:44] Take that with a grain of salt. Now, I hope that in the future, the board will communicate to our state legislators the desire to possess the power for levying more progressive taxes. But I also think we are caught playing catch-up on affordable housing. It takes serious money to make this serious impact, whether that's in the form of housing preservation, of home ownership subsidies, of housing for individuals experiencing chronic homelessness, for family shelters. I have been glad and grateful that the board has put money to exactly those projects just this year, and I believe we need to keep it up. Finally, I'll say

[03:08:22] this. As a community member, I see that the county received about $7.3 million in requests from the Affordable Housing Fund this year. With this tax rate increase, we would have enough to meet that need next year again. I think that should be the bare minimum acceptable for the foreseeable future.

[03:08:39] We're chipping away at a huge and growing problem. If you choose not to increase this tax rate, I very much hope that you revisit Supervisor Pruitt's matching game and find the funds to at least match this year's AHIF funding. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes our list. All right, go through just to see if there's any comments here. Supervisor Lepisto-Kirtley? No comments. Supervisor missile how broad do you i'm trying to determine how many comments i should share um are we talking about guidelines here that will help staff plan for next week are we i i suspect that after we

[03:09:16] get through the next public hearing we're going to get into more robust discussion about the slide that was here showing all our different pockets okay but this is giving a this is giving us at least a chance to in a typical public hearing if you need to ask a question based on what you've heard for clarifying or if you'd want to make a comment based on what you've heard Got it. Thank you. I will hold my comments until later. Thank you.

[03:09:37] All right. Supervisor Pruitt. Sure. So I realize this isn't a productive exchange between us and the public if I don't say at least a little something. So I'm going to respond to, you know, Mr. Reese makes very good points consistently that are representative of a lot of things that I hear from the public.

[03:09:57] So I want to respond very briefly to one comment he made that I've heard from others. And also, I was torn on the last one, so I'm going to revisit the previous one, if I can also. So just two very quick points, and these aren't particularly combative.

[03:10:12] But the first, I've heard with some frequency that the county executive proposed a level budget, a balanced budget that did not include a personal property tax increase. Therefore, that implies there should not be a personal property tax increase.

[03:10:30] And this one, I suspect Mr. Reese knows this, but for the public, I will just state the county executive's recommended budget is a statement that is driven by a bit of dead hand guidance from the previous board the previous calendar year.

[03:10:46] It is him executing the stated preferences of the board at the last time he asked those stated preferences, meaning, yes, it was a balanced budget. It was a balanced budget because it is balanced on the previous tax rate to the priorities of the board in the calendar year 2025 and their stated objectives.

[03:11:05] We are a differently constituted board, and we have also, even were we not, we have maybe reached different conclusions on policy matters, and therefore it is subject to change. That is what the budget is. It is a statement of policy from the members of the board.

[03:11:21] So that is a quick response to that. And the previous thing is I don't challenge that in a philosophical abstract sense that lowering real property taxes decreases the cost of living in a direct and observable way and that in practice is direct and observable if you are a homeowner.

[03:11:41] What I would challenge is the kind of simplified econ 101 assumption that it also reduces rents that are realized by people who are renters. I'm sure Mr. Williamson would suggest it does, but I would challenge and say in a tight housing market like we have, I do not believe that is accurate.

[03:12:05] I think your landowners, your property owners, are likely going to be able to command market rates that are not strictly responsive to tax rate increases. I would expect that, therefore, any tax rate cut on real property would likely be absorbed as a small profit margin by landlords because we have a tight housing market due to a lack of inventory, and therefore they are able to command the same prices regardless of what their taxes are.

[03:12:34] Very good. Supervisor Duncan? Yeah, similarly, I'll just say a couple things since I was in favor of both tax increases. The first thing is, you know, as most people know, I rent. My assessments went up.

[03:12:50] My rent, if my landlord is fair, will go up at least $100 to cover the tax increase on my house a month. So I, as I'm doing this, I'm also in the same boat. I know how expensive it is. But there's just, there's a lot of needs.

[03:13:12] Our needs have increased. one of the public speakers mentioned something about we are you know meeting needs that were unfunded for so long and we're catching up in a wide variety of ways but the other thing that i am really am in favor of and want to look into more kind of after the budget season is done and learning more about this is i really believe we need to expand the tax relief program the asset That limit needs to be raised because people's houses are assessing higher than that.

[03:13:44] It's pricing people out. And so that's one of the things that I am going to look into is how can we increase the tax relief to make it more affordable for the people that this – it is not sustainable. I mean, I see this in my own house's assessment.

[03:14:01] I understand it's – the rate of increase is not sustainable. We also are very limited in what we can do, how we can tax, how we can limit taxing through the state. And so there's just, we're working within very tight parameters to fund a lot of things.

[03:14:19] And so that's why I'm in favor of it. But I understand that we do need to kind of address some of the issues. Thank you. Supervisor Malek? I'll wait until the discussion afterwards. Thank you. All right. So that will take us to, I'll go ahead and open the public hearing for item number 17.

[03:14:37] This is the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget. We have several speakers for this one. We do. We'll begin with Claude Convissier. Forgive the mispronunciation. And Aaron Houlihan is on deck. Good evening.

[03:14:53] My name is Claude David Convissier. Sorry. That's okay. And I've been living as a homeless man, mainly in the Whitehall District, since June of 2024. Through that, I've gained insight on the homeless population and programs and services available to the homeless.

[03:15:12] And I'm also a lawyer, and I speak to you to ask you, please, of whatever amount of money you approve for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, that zero money of that go to support the homeless, because it will be used to support and finance the opening of a low-barrier shelter by the city of Charlottesville.

[03:15:34] I've heard various numbers of bedding for that between 80 and 200 beds. But that's unnecessary, and it's very dangerous for this community. It's unnecessary because I spent, for instance, three months in the Patchham program in the winter of 2024 and 2025, and I'd like to thank all those churches in Albemarle County and Charlottesville who participate in offering that shelter.

[03:15:58] But out of the 50 beds that Patchham offers for men and women, plus 10 additional spaces at the Salvation Army's warm room, there was not a single night during that winter when a homeless person was not given shelter between the 50 beds and the 10 overflow.

[03:16:16] So anything more than that is excess capacity for homeless people in this area. And the organized crime mafia will take advantage of that and send their agents to populate those extra bed spaces. I run a biofuel company, which I've been running since 2008.

[03:16:38] And at the Haven Day Shelter for the Homeless, opponents of my business, ExxonMobil and the organized crime mafia that runs the biodiesel industry in this country sent numerous men to beat me up, and when I pressed criminal charges against them and two of them were convicted of assaulting and battering me, the Haven kicked me out and protected those people because the organized crime people who sent them backed the Haven and also the Patchen staff as well.

[03:17:12] The third interest, and I'll tell you the Salvation Army will have nothing to do with the low-bed barrier shelter because of this problem of infiltration. The third interest that supports having this big shelter is the high-tech industry, because they feed on cheap fossil fuel, and they also want to send their agents here in support of these malicious interests that I've told you about.

[03:17:37] Unfortunately, the impact organization, John Frazee, works for S&P Global Intelligence. He's the man who questioned you on the housing issue, and he's been pursuing his private intelligence agenda on behalf of the high-tech industry. companies that have been causing all the profit in the S&P for the last number of years.

[03:17:57] Thank you very much for listening to me, and I hope you'll pay attention to what I've said. I've also given you documentary support. We've received it. Thank you. Aaron Houlihan and Saivo Flynn is on deck. Good evening. My name is Aaron Houlihan, and I live in the Whitehall District.

[03:18:21] I'm a member of the Crozet Community Advisory Committee and recently joined the Crozet Community Association. I'm speaking on my own behalf, but with the support of several members of these groups. For the FY27 budget, I respectfully request the board to allocate a one-time expense to conduct a comprehensive assessment of sidewalk and bike infrastructure needs and costing for the entire Crozet growth area.

[03:18:46] This study would examine things like right-of-way availability, utility conflicts, key engineering issues, and other data that would allow us to systematically plan, fundraise, and budget for pedestrian and bike infrastructure over a period of years.

[03:19:03] It would also meaningfully implement Transportation Goal No. 2 of the Crozet Master Plan for the Future Bicycle and Pedestrian Network. Based on some initial outreach I've conducted, I understand that such a study would likely run somewhere around $50,000 to $80,000, but I defer to others for that.

[03:19:22] As the board debates where to place some of the remaining reserved funds, I ask you to consider this suggestion amid many important programs and services that must also be under consideration. Until now, infrastructure development in Crozet has been ad hoc and uneven.

[03:19:38] Over a decade ago, funding was allocated for sidewalks on Park and Tabor Streets. These are high-traffic areas that link downtown Crozet to large neighborhoods and the busy Claudius Crozet Park. In 2015, however, these funds were swept up for the Berkmaar Extension.

[03:19:54] Eleven years later, there is no Berkmaar Extension and still no sidewalks. My own neighborhood of Parkview, across from the cemetery on Crozet Avenue, is less than a mile from Crozet Park and downtown Crozet. On the other side, we're just over a mile from Brownsville Elementary where my four-year-old will eventually go to school. Yet we cannot walk to any of these places. We cannot ride our bikes.

[03:20:18] We cannot go for an afternoon stroll to visit a friend in a different neighborhood. We live on islands that require cars to traverse. This not only impacts our community connectedness, it has many negative effects. Traffic congestion, particularly during school drop-off and pick-up.

[03:20:34] It limits the number of customers visiting local retailers and restaurants. It creates consistent public safety problems as recreational bikers, walkers, and children try to share the road with cars. It also limits our enjoyment of what our community offers.

[03:20:51] With the expansion of Old Trail Development and the Downtown Crozet Initiative, these challenges will only get worse. We need more foot traffic, not more cars. As Mr. Sumner said, we need to evolve and put our money where our values are. While I understand that a county-wide multimodal transportation study is being contemplated as part of AC44 implementation, I am asking for something more specific for our own master plan.

[03:21:18] Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Saivo Flynn and Sherry McKinney is on deck.

[03:21:33] Saivo Flynn, Climate Justice Policy Manager for the Community Climate Collaborative. Staff and the board will have noticed a big difference between this and last year's budget proceedings in the fact that C3 was not present at every budget town hall meeting and public meeting about funding for climate action.

[03:21:49] This year, right out of the gate, the county executive apportioned funding for climate action, recommending a repeat of last year's $300,000 to be put into the climate action reserve. Last year, the board showed that it was listening to constituents and recommitting to its mandate when it directed staff to fund the climate action reserve.

[03:22:05] This year's funding in the budget serves to demonstrate that the county executive is listening to the board. Likewise, the increase in funding for the Affordable Housing Fund is a promising step. It's heartening to see that the contribution to that fund is, like the Climate Action Reserve, becoming reliable. And more importantly, that most supervisors are keen to have that increase beyond the 7.5 million proposed for this year.

[03:22:27] Reliability in funding allows staff to more effectively plan their work and advances objectives considered by the county to be essential components of our AC44 comprehensive plan like housing and climate. In the financial landscape of the moment though I have to note that funding the climate action reserve the same dollar amount as financial 26 effectively means that the spending power of the reserve is reduced this year. But with that said C3 and our partners are grateful to the board and staff for working very hard to be both responsive and consistent with funding climate action and creating climate policy.

[03:23:01] The county has already begun to see the fruits of its climate commitments with some major economic benefits incoming. As a significant example, AstraZeneca was explicitly drawn to Albemarle because of the climate and sustainability objectives in the Climate Action Plan and the Comp Plan. This is a perfect example of the type of co-benefits that are arising from climate policy coupled with investments that C3 always calls for in Albemarle County.

[03:23:24] As Chair Galloway pointed out during today's earlier discussion of the AC44 implementation, we have to ensure that we're not siloing priorities like economic development and economic action, or in climate action. Investing in climate and embedding climate across all policy and zoning and other decisions that are made by the decision makers here, they are economic development strategies.

[03:23:45] We're extremely heartened to see that the board and staff are recognizing these connections. We encourage our leadership to dig into county resources and expertise and embed climate even more deeply in every budget, plan, code, and decision that we make. The Community Climate Collaborative is grateful to continue to work with the county and its climate program in the pursuit of a more resilient and creative future for Albemarle. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[03:24:08] Sherry McKinney and Phil Reese is on deck. Good evening. I'm Sherry McKinney and I have the privilege of being the CEO at Foothills Children's Advocacy Center and I also live in Southwood, which I absolutely love. On behalf of the children and families in Albemarle and my board and staff, some of whom are here tonight, and our community partners, I just want to thank you for the support that you have given us over the years. I know that you have heard from us quite a bit, and I just wanted to reiterate that one thing that is really important that you understand is that we are a

[03:24:44] critical part of the child abuse investigative process for the county alongside our law enforcement and Children's Services Partners at DSS. The difference between us and them is that we are not fully funded. And it's also important that you understand that the services that we provide are not duplicated.

[03:25:03] So there's nowhere else in Albemarle that a child is gonna be able to get a forensic interview. I also think it's really important that you know that we serve eight localities, but 30% of the children that we serve come from Albemarle. So in fiscal year 25, it cost us about $3,200 dollars to serve one child so we provided approximately 269 thousand dollars worth of services to the county in fiscal year 25 because we're not fully funded we do a lot of fundraising and so i wanted to let you know that we're having a pickleball tournament called seville cup the

[03:25:41] first weekend in may and i hope that you would consider registering if you're a pickleball person or help us spread the word we are also having a open house next week on the 21st you've all received an invitation we would love to have you join us if you aren't able to come i welcome you to reach out to us we would love to give you a private tour and i just again want to thank you so much for your support and i hope that you will really reconsider fully funding our request thank you thank you thank you phil reese and vernon like like deep thank you is on deck thank you

[03:26:20] um this is this is i'm phil reese thank you thankfully this is my last time i'm up here today so i want to make one point about the overall budget and then one about the school portion first the size of this budget when i saw that this year's proposed budget is 13.5 percent higher than last year i assumed it was an outlier but it's not in 2023 the budget was 494 million dollars This year, it's $724 million. That's nearly a 50% increase in just four years. Over that same

[03:26:54] four years, inflation was 12%. So how is our county budget growing by four times the rate of inflation? I know there are a lot of pressing needs in this county, but we can't afford to have our government growing at four times the rate of inflation. The board has been lucky to have significant growth in tax revenue due to rising property assessments. But this budget growth is unsustainable. If you can't find ways to start trimming the budget, this level of spending puts the county at real financial risk down the road. Now on to the school budget. I know the

[03:27:28] school board sets its own budget, but you control the total funding and that matters. Let me ask you a rhetorical question. Do you know how many students ACPS gained this school year from last year? It's a trick question because they didn't gain any students. They lost 111 students year year. In fact, since the 2018 school year, ACPS has gained only 49 students in seven years. That's an average gain of just seven students per year. Now, how many new staff positions have been added

[03:28:05] since the 2018 school year? 284. So in seven years, they gained 49 students and 284 staff members. In other words, for every one new student enrolled, they added six new staff positions.

[03:28:24] This should concern everyone in this room. Look, I know you all saw my four-year-old today in the first public hearing. She's going into kindergarten next year at Halloween. I have two other kids in ACPS. I want our schools to succeed as much as anyone.

[03:28:43] But wanting strong schools also means expecting accountability. when enrollment is essentially flat and staffing is growing at this rate something is way out of balance i'm going to say something that needs to be said you as the board of supervisors has to step in not to micromanage but to ensure fiscal discipline and accountability for our school budget and if you're not satisfied you control the total amount going to the school budget you have influence there when taxes go up residents don't go to the school board and

[03:29:18] complain. They come to you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Vernon and Stuart Garner is on deck. Forgive my mispronunciation of your last name. No worries. Hello, I'm Vernon Lectie. I am a teacher at Albemarle High School. I am a resident of the city, but I have been a resident of the county for almost 10 years prior to that. I am here to talk about the proposed budget for the schools coming

[03:29:54] up. Elmore County Public Schools requested, they went through a lot of work and effort to request an operating fund budget of $23 million. Sorry, I apologize. Specifically, in new operating funds, $23 million right there. The proposed budget currently in front of the Board of Supervisors is calling for $2.3 of that million to go instead to capital improvement reserves. I guess I'm just a little bit confused about that because the school board is also elected uh by the people

[03:30:29] as well and these new operating funds is something they spent a lot of time on they had their staff work on uh very very strenuously on and in order to make sure that positions get to be maintained in the school year they said okay well we want to make sure that we have these new operating funds set and ready to go. Instead, if this current budget proposal goes into effect, that is $2.3 million going elsewhere. And as the gentleman said, it is up to them to determine where that money goes to. But I guess for me, the big thing is we want to make sure positions stay. People

[03:31:06] live and work in this county for a reason. We want to be able to send our children to these schools. We want to be able to have a workforce that is able to live here. I can tell you pretty much in my department alone in world languages, I probably have at least 75% of them are working second jobs right now.

[03:31:27] And that's teachers. If I go into specifically support staff right there, the percentage is probably even higher than 75% right there. So a big thing I just want to make sure you guys are aware of is that the school board made that operating budget for a reason.

[03:31:45] They're counting on you all as you gave them kind of the leeway to basically be like, hey, what do you all need? Here's what it needs to go. And I think the biggest investment we can make is in our staff right here. And that's all I have to say. Thank you all so much. Thank you. And Stuart Garner.

[03:32:04] Thank you for having me. Thank you for your support. My name is Stuart Garner. And I moved here from New Jersey six years ago, so I know a little bit about property taxes and budgets and how to chase people out of areas because I'm here for – that's one of the reasons.

[03:32:32] So since I've been here, my property taxes have gone up 70 percent, and I'm just – I like things to make sense. And so one of the things I just noticed driving around as my taxes are going up and I'm seeing what they're doing at Brook Hill and North Point and Burkemore Landing and the Victorian place there and Profit Road.

[03:32:58] At least I'm thinking, gee, more people are coming in here, but at least my property taxes are going to go down. And then when you get the tax bill, it's like, no, they're not going down, they're going up. And so that does concern me a little bit because as a family member, and we all do it at home, we have to make decisions and we have to watch.

[03:33:21] And just recently we were redoing my kitchen, our kitchen. We picked out a granite countertop and then we realized the cost of it. We came back, we picked out another one that was third the price and it's just as beautiful. And so I would just admonish you guys, treat this like your own family.

[03:33:42] Look at the budget, see where you can cut, make sure there's no waste, and we would all appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes our list, Chair. All right, I will close the public hearing, and I'll just do a quick round for reactions to the specific comments we heard, and then we'll start getting into probably a more involved conversation.

[03:34:06] Supervisor Lapisto-Kirtley, any reactions here? Well, I know one person mentioned regarding the 15 cent increase that it would be about $50 more a month on their personal property tax. And while that may not seem a lot and may seem affordable to him, there are a lot of people, I don't know.

[03:34:27] And he did say that he had, what, beater cars? Was that it? Anyway, I guess not real expensive. But anyway, you know, that's a lot of money to some people. That could mean a good amount of food for their family.

[03:34:43] So I'm always cognizant of that, and I think that's all I have for right now. Supervisor Missal? No comments. Look forward to the discussion. Supervisor Pruitt? I just want to, for the record, note that the $14 a month was for the example case of $100,000 in total personal property, so two new cars.

[03:35:07] I was correcting your summarization of Mr. Monaco's numbers. Supervisor. Sorry, I thought he said it would be $50 more a month. No. $1.50. Oh, he did. He said $1.50 more for the beater cars. It was $1.50. Then I missed her. Sorry, I stand corrected.

[03:35:25] Supervisor Duncan. No comments right now. Supervisor Malik. The only point I would have before the discussion begins is that all those new residential units which people see when they're driving everywhere, Those residential units are not paying for themselves.

[03:35:42] They're actually costing the overall tax burden because of the cost of providing services for residential. So unfortunately, that's not going to help us in keeping our costs down. There's more to say later. Thank you. And I just want to, I always appreciate it when, especially we hear from an employee or a teacher from the school division, To clarify, of the $23 million asked for by the schools, all but $7 million of that was to cover the existing operations and the opening of the two new schools.

[03:36:17] $7 million of the requested 23 were for new things that do not exist in the current year. Of that $7 million, they were suggesting to give $4 million to the CIP as a one-time expenditure in just for one year.

[03:36:33] And the remaining, their biggest chunk was about a $1.3, $1.4 million for the Scholar Studios' year two implementation and sustainability.

[03:36:49] There were $400,000, I'm sorry, about $400,000 for some special ed positions, $800,000 for data specialists and math support. And there was about $800,000 in educational resources.

[03:37:07] And I'm watching Andy and Jacob's eyes track, I think. Did I get those all correct? Did I miss anything? I would say conceptually, that is correct. I do not have all the dollars of the school budget in front of me. And the school's discussions remain ongoing, including the meeting they'll have tomorrow night, as they consider both technical updates and any policy updates the school board would make.

[03:37:29] So, all right, I'll just flip to the page. I tried to do it from memory, and maybe that was a dangerous thing. $1.4 million for Scholar Studios, Year 2 Implementation and Sustainability. $800,000 for Instructional Resources, Textbooks, and the software.

[03:37:48] $325,000 for three special education positions. The $706,000 was for Math and Data Support Specialists. So these are all things that are in and over what is the current operation and the staffing needed for the two new schools.

[03:38:06] So in their meeting, the last meeting, they had suggested cutting out the $4 million if they had to live with our decision because that would be redundant. We would be sending that money to CIP. They moved some one-time dollars around, so eventually a cut about $800,000 of the remaining money, and the school division did decide they did not want to lose the math and data support specialist to the tune of four positions so those were some of the things that they did but i always want to make sure that folks understand that the money was given to not just sustain what is there now

[03:38:44] but the additional monies were provided to open the two new schools and the seven million extra that they requested were for new things that do not exist in the current year i'm not making a comment on whether those new things are needed, not needed, or what have you. But the $7 million did not go to restore cuts that were made in the previous year. And that's all the, those are the kind of decisions a school board makes as your, as the elected school board. We just have to decide the amount that goes over to them.

[03:39:18] Board, I think what, Andy, is there a slide that we could have up that will help our discussion? Probably the parking lot slide would be the best one yes I would like she'll turn it back over to Miss Malcolm who will uh kind of facilitate the next section with the board thank you Mr. Bowman so in front of you we wanted to kind of circle back I think a board member mentioned earlier this was this list was provided um via email yesterday this is just a reminder of the items that the board will be asked to vote on next week when we meet for the budget adoption um so you see that list of six items in front of you tonight you're not being asked to vote on any of these items or make final decisions on any of these items.

[03:39:57] However, as Mr. Bowman indicated earlier, staff are seeking additional input from the board on any final direction that you might give us to prepare the final resolutions of appropriations if the board is ready to give that direction tonight. So on the next slide, I'll go through that topic list.

[03:40:15] In the past few sessions with the board, we've talked about this primarily focused on the list on the right-hand side of the screen. Outstanding items that the board has previously flagged for discussion. The board may choose to talk about any item within the budget tonight. These are just the items that staff have tracked thus far. I think I heard a board member mention something that they wanted to potentially add to the list. It also sounded like the board may desire some additional discussion around the CDD proposed fee change that is included in the balancing of the budget that would be another $266,000 that's included in the balancing those

[03:40:51] are all items that we can discuss at any time tonight in addition to anything the board may choose to add to that list instead of going through it topic by topic as far as items you may want to change the funding amount on staff thought that we might try going through the list based on potential funding sources instead and so that's what you see on the left hand side of the screen so i'm going to go through that list of six items of potential funding sources all together at once and then i'll circle back to number one and give the board the opportunity to discuss those direct staff on any further information you need etc so the first item is the 6.4 million dollar

[03:41:28] transfer from the general fund to the cip for a future use to be determined and that was previously mentioned by several board members the second item and potential funding source is the 2.5 million dollars that would be generated by the maximum increase of 15 cents to the personal property and machinery and tools tax rate. To break that down that's 1.7 million dollars in ongoing funds that would be generated and 0.8 million dollars in one-time funds that would be generated. The next potential funding source number three is 4.15 million dollars from the general fund transfer

[03:42:02] to the economic development fund. A board member previously raised this as a source that they may want to go to to make some changes to the budget. So that's why we're including it here. Staff recommend that we maintain a minimum transfer of $3 million in that fund for FY27. And so that would be a change should the board wish to direct staff to do that. The next item, number four, you still have $313,000 available in ongoing monies from the reserve for contingencies.

[03:42:34] Again, staff recommendation here is that we would have a minimum balance in that fund of $350,000 going into FY27. So the amount above that that is available to the board to allocate to something, should the board wish to, is $313,000, and that's ongoing money.

[03:42:51] Number five, you still have a balance in the one-time reserve for contingencies. Staff would recommend a minimum balance in that reserve of $250,000 in FY27, so that would still leave the board with $260,000 that you may choose to allocate to something as a one-time cost in FY27.

[03:43:12] And then finally, the board still maintains in the proposed budget a $394,000 balance in the CIP strategic priorities reserve. You may choose to allocate that as one-time funding to any of the topics in the budget particularly some of the ones that you've already raised on the right hand side of the screen so staff are recommending that again we walk through this list one by one to try to focus on the available funding sources and really the question to the board this evening is are you prepared tonight to give staff any final direction on something different than what's in the proposed budget and if so what is that direction if you're not prepared to give us that direction is there

[03:43:50] additional data that staff can provide to you between either tonight or before next week to help with your discussion around those items. Mr. Sumner, Mr. Bowman, any additions to that? So I'm going to go back to number one. So the question for the board for this one is, does the board have any direction for staff that would be different than what's in the proposed budget? And the proposed budget recommends a transfer of $6.4 million from the general fund to the CIP for a to-be-determined purpose.

[03:44:25] Thank you. All right, we'll just go see what folks are thinking. Supervisor Lepisto-Curtley, got some thoughts. I agree with number one, and I agree transferring it to the $6.4 million to the general fund, to the CFP. So leaving it as recommended?

[03:44:40] As is. Pardon? Leaving it as recommended by, as it's advertised and as it was recommended. Correct. All right. Supervisor Missal? Thank you. I know we discussed this a couple weeks ago, and at the time I was in favor of the $2.3 million going to operations and the $4.1 million going to the CIP, the county CIP, the $2.3 million going to operations at the school.

[03:45:10] I have since further understood the rationale behind this and support now the $6.4 million general fund transfer to the CIP, number one, as is. As proposed. Supervisor Pruitt. My position is identical to Mr. Missiles, though I don't think it's that I've changed my understanding of it.

[03:45:31] It's more I've been, frankly, I've said this previously on the record, a little baffled by the school board's negotiating posture, and I'm frankly unclear what the current ask to this board is. So I am going to incorporate the current proposal.

[03:45:51] Supervisor Duncan. I would just say I'm willing to go along with that as well, but I believe that it should be earmarked for schools. If we say that we want this money to be for schools and to be used for CIP in the future, I think we should earmark it for it because, you know, boards change, employees change, priorities change.

[03:46:15] I think the public and all of the school people who, you know, All of the questions I got at the town hall, almost all of them, were school-related. There was a lot of school staff there, a lot of parents there. People are, as we've seen with the emails, people are really upset about school funding.

[03:46:37] They want the funding. I think it's only fair that if we say we want this money to go to the schools, that we promise it goes to the schools. All right, understood. Supervisor Malek? I support the $6.4 million to CIP as proposed and do not support earmarking for schools.

[03:46:57] I need to see serious improvements in accountability of money used before I would support that. And I agree. I started out on this statement the last time we talked about the budget that this money should remain as proposed and going into reserve.

[03:47:15] I would follow it up again with the statement I made that coming out of the budget, I think we have to have a very specific conversation about the timing of the data study that we'd like to do. I was serious about putting on hold all CIP projects until we figure out a more nuanced, better way to get at this.

[03:47:41] I think what the school division came back with us for this last time is dealing with what has been how we've done cip planning for a long time and it's been problematic and it's a two-pronged problem climbing out of a hole and trying to get ahead of the growth and the things that are needed and in a lot of ways it's the same thing that the county has contended with you know we've our biggest projects some of the big projects we're doing right now the courts the jail the library aren't necessarily things that would have been if they were just pure for us to decide to do and didn't have other jurisdictions would they have rise to the level of priority that

[03:48:20] they did we have to do them and you have to coordinate with timing with funding with some of the other agencies that you're in but but for us to do the things that we want to do that the school division has come forward with and uh the things that the county is going to need to do cip wise we have to we have to figure out a different way to do this reserving the money and the reason i'm not in favor of the earmark um is that i think we were all being very hopeful about this one cent sales tax and i'm not convinced that's going to happen now and i'm so frustrated about

[03:48:56] that but it got hung up right it's hung up by the in the senate no it's in the budget it's in the budget they said they were going to put it in a budget piece but the last take i got on it didn't sound like it was a done deal yet and the budget certainly isn't approved so i'm i i asked mr Blunt about this the other day. I said, is this technically hung up? He said, well, they're talking about putting it in a piece in the budget line, as you're saying to. But David usually gives me a different response if it's a done deal. So I'm suddenly not as confident as I used to be

[03:49:31] about three weeks ago about that item. And that's going to be a big piece. But we need to figure out a better strategy for all of our CIP projects in terms of how they get prioritized. It gives us the point to step back and figure out how we're going to not just find the capacity to do it but afford to do that capacity and man knowing if that sales tax piece is going to be there from the state is a big part of that conversation if I were you know we've got a few emails from folks from from the Stony Point community about Stony Point and I think that's a great example yeah I

[03:50:06] mean Stony Point came forward I was looking at just that project and back in 2021 you know the last two long-range planning advisory committee reports and school board pieces had it lumped in under elementary programs elementary renovations but stony point in their explanations did rise to the top and like two reports ago i believe it was 10 million dollars for stony point and then when 23 rolled around it became 18 million dollars and then um then in this most recent iteration they they decided you know what stony point needs to be just outlined specifically not lumped in with

[03:50:45] elementary renovations but then the high school moved ahead of it so its prioritization dropped down then that was what we saw in december uh then with some of the conversations going on what's in front of us now is the high school got moved back different the 6.4s got moved ahead for heist for western and albemarle and stony point got moved back to the third year for uh what a third less more than half of it cut in terms of the budget and i'm not that's i'm not criticizing them for that but that's what i mean by they're trying to work within something that has always been done that way and if we think that we're going to get the projects done that the people

[03:51:25] at stony point would be happy for and all the other things doing it that way it's never going to happen so that's why i don't mean to be overstating my point but i'm in favor of reserving these dollars, I think it's smart from the standpoint of giving us some runway with the CIP. I hope I share your, I'm going to hope that you all's optimism on the one-cent sales tax carries the day, because by that year three, we will have $6.4 million at the ready in case the state short funds the school division like they have, and then we'll have $12.8 million

[03:52:02] to go to a CIP, and by that time, we could have the monies coming in if that referendum gets allowed and then does pass in Albemarle. So I think that's just smart, long-term, multi-year budgeting. And I think that that is the way that, that's what the new budgeting philosophy is going to be for Albemarle County moving forward.

[03:52:22] And we do have some sunshine coming in terms of revenues that could help with this, but it's going to take a couple years before some of the economic development initiatives kick in. Yes, ma'am. Just to follow up and add on there, for years, from 2008 to at least 2015, the only capital projects which were done were school projects because there was no revenue with the recession and the climbing out of the recession and then the taking off of the development.

[03:52:55] All those plans that had been approved for years came off the shelf all at once, and it was like a rodeo from then on. But I do want to emphasize that with the division of authority, It is the school board's responsibility to prioritize where they want their capital investment to go, and that has to be done at a reasonable pace and with all the data that's needed to support it, not saying we're going to go find the data to support what we want to do.

[03:53:22] So I look forward to really good new information and thorough information across local government and the schools about the needs that are coming. I mean, the recent research of 500 fewer children and 397 more staff in the last seven years, that was shocking to me.

[03:53:44] And that's not our choice, but it is their responsibility. And you can't send hundreds of parents, fill them full of information that isn't right, and then say, go get after the Board of Supervisors, it's all their fault. They have to take responsibility for this and figure out how to manage it.

[03:54:01] So I am very grateful that we are continuing on with being the grown-up here and make sure that this money is properly sequestered. Chair, if I might expand on one thing. I'm going to go through the order just to keep us so could you all. I thought we'd been through. Before you all, no, no, you're fine.

[03:54:17] I thought it was one question, but then others start to like to get in. Supervisor Lopisto currently. Yes, I'm really, really disappointed to hear that if Stony Point dropped to number three because I knew that they were number one in the CIP, then with the new high school they were number two.

[03:54:35] but you're saying now that they've dropped to number three. Well, it's proposed. That's proposed, okay. But that's very disappointing, and it's really disappointing also to hear about the increase in, I don't know if they're teachers or administrative staff, support staff, but personnel in regards to the amount of children, students that have increased.

[03:55:01] That bothers me because either, A, they're administration or they're support staff. If they're teachers, okay, then that means that the class size, that was used to lower the class size. When you lower the class size, of course, you need additional rooms, you need additional space and such.

[03:55:19] I did ask the superintendent this year how much the class size they proposed. Last year, they, or for this year, they reduced the average class size by half a student.

[03:55:35] So, and that's fine. That's their choice. I mean, it's, we give them the money and then they make all the decisions. We don't have any input there. But I, like I said, I know Stony Point Elementary as I do the other elementary schools in my district.

[03:55:52] and I'm really disappointed to hear about the fact that the proposal is to drop them at number three, which means that it doesn't look like anything is going to happen quickly. But I am optimistic, once again, with future economic development authority things coming in the future, that things will be, I think things are going to turn around in about three years, start to turn around in about three years.

[03:56:19] I'm the eternal optimist, and I do believe that that could happen. Supervisor Misson? Great. Yeah, thank you. And a couple of things to clarify. One is, you know, I've been learning a lot over these last couple of months or a few months that we've been the new guys on the board.

[03:56:37] And one of the things that, you know, my day job, my world, we live off of essentially strategic planning, long range planning, capital budgets, maintenance reserves, all of these things that are made that make up good planning.

[03:56:53] and that allow you to be as proactive as possible as you're thinking about funding sources and how to go about that. And when I say that my understanding has increased, what I mean is that I'm not seeing that structure at the school board. And so that's what I've learned more about.

[03:57:08] And so it's not necessarily about mistrust. It's the fact that I just haven't seen a detailed long-range financial or capital planning document that we're used to seeing. I know there was one, Learning for All, in 2021, I believe. So to that end, I've actually set up meetings with Bob Beard, who's the school board representative in my district, as well as several others on the school leadership, to learn more about what this looks like.

[03:57:37] So in the meantime, and until I fully grasp that, again, it's not about a trust thing. It's just I haven't seen the documentation and the clarity that allows me to say, oh, that's where we're headed. so um that's that's the clarity that i've gotten thank you supervisor pruitt any um the only thing i would mention just because i think it's a distinction that has emerged since i last spoke um which is the discussion of of earmarking versus non-earmarking which just as a tangent i don't think is a practical thing it's just how we think of this money moving forward

[03:58:11] um i would place myself this probably isn't surprising in earmarking camp uh this board knows that I abhor savings for savings purposes. I abhor savings for stability purposes. I believe you save in order to buy something. And in this case, setting aside the question of how immediate the relief from the sales tax referendum authority is going to be, I see the major capital project that the school has identified as being the thing that has to be saved for, and this being the step

[03:58:46] that is necessary for that and I would just further add like if a future board got a slide exactly like this for some future board priority and number six was oh there's 6.4 million in one time CIP strategic reserves that a previous board put in there that you could access for it and it was not discussed as being in the context of this was set aside for the purposes of school capital I would be frustrated as citizen peruvit watching that board consider that proposal.

[03:59:19] So that is why I consider myself in that camp. Understood. Supervisor Duncan? Just, I think just one comment. The comment about school staff increasing. This question was asked at my town hall and the president of the AEA was there and responded and gave some clarity and I obviously don't know the numbers and positions like she does, but she basically made the point that for, you know, years and years and years, school staffing was understaffed,

[03:59:55] and so part of this increase in staffing was to bring staffing levels up to what they should be, what they are recommended as, and it includes positions like reading specialists, more guidance counselors, you know, aides. And so it's not like all of a sudden we just have Way more staff and the costs are inflated.

[04:00:16] It's they're bringing it up to what the recommended levels are based on the needs on the amount of students. And so that was her explanation for that. Supervisor Matlin, any additional? No, thank you. All right. I believe that we are all in agreement on that item.

[04:00:35] Now, let me just ask a technical question. I am on the record of stating I'm not for earmarking for the CIP. But that doesn't have to be, does that need to be determined in the budget, or is that something that... That does not need to be. The only thing that needs to be determined in the budget is the transfer to school operations and the transfer to the CIP.

[04:00:54] The decision on how that is used and what year, all of that could be made later, and that would become part of a future financial planning process. And then the reverse question would be, if it were earmarked and a future board wanted to un-earmark, they could do so. They could do so, yes.

[04:01:10] So there's a piece here that goes to if you've got better planning and multi-year budgeting and we're working together to get our needs accomplished, then I think that you're, I mean, you want the flexibility to be able to move the way you need to based on what we hope this data will inform is the higher priorities.

[04:01:29] All right, thank you. Mr. Chair, one quick thing, and you're moving down the agenda, not for this evening, but for this board. I think it's important. Ms. Malik mentioned it. You mentioned it. The centralized analytics program. Ms. Shiflett is working on that.

[04:01:45] She's with us this evening, but, again, with your agenda, we're not trying to get something in detail discussed tonight. Other than to let the board know, we're working on it. We'd like to probably check in maybe in the June time frame, and we're looking right now at potential for deliverable.

[04:02:02] I'm going to maybe throw out like an October time frame just to manage the board's expectation on that. That's great. Is that okay? We'll hear about it more in June. thank you thank you sir um and then that will take us to number two this is the did you need to say anything was bowman or i mean uh caitlin i'm sorry um i was just going to explain it again malcolm good grief i said the wrong last name no worries um you're all going to collectively become bowman at some point i'm so sorry to everyone okay so the next item is does the board have any direction on the personal property tax rate

[04:02:41] change different from what's in the proposed budget and so the reminder for the board and the public is that the proposed budget includes an increase of 15 cents to the personal property tax rate which would be dedicated to the affordable housing investment fund um and so that's for your discussion understood so board how i think we'll go through some of these like the last one it was pretty pretty clear everybody was in agreement on it if we start getting various opinions i think we can do a round to state where we're at and if it looks like there's some splits then we'll just take a vote and move on to be ready if you're prepared to go there some may still be on the on the fence

[04:03:18] supervisor lopisto kirtling i am not in favor of the raising the personal property tax 15 cents or or any amount and then supervisor missile so i'm struggling with not combining two three four five and six because the whole budget basically and i'll tell you why because what i see is they're basically all sources of funds right um and and so if we're if i'm focusing on the subject of

[04:03:53] affordable housing and i'm dedicated to increasing the affordable housing investment fund then i'm asking myself how am i going to do that and and so i have at the last or two meetings ago since it It was required for us to state the maximum tax rate at the time, I believe.

[04:04:16] I think we proposed, or I proposed, a $0.15 personal property machinery tax, and then we voted on that to move forward. Since then, I've been trying to think about all of the needs that are in front of us, with the Affordable Housing Investment Fund being one of the primary needs, And again, with the dedication of trying to increase the Affordable Housing Investment Fund to $10 million minimum.

[04:04:45] So where I've come down on this after getting a lot of input from the public, which I greatly appreciate, and learning more about the challenges that we're facing and also, you know, recent impacts on gas costs, fuel costs, et cetera, I am no longer in favor of supporting a $0.15 personal property, machinery, and tools tax increase.

[04:05:05] But I am in favor of looking at items 3, 4, 5, and 6 to try to understand how best to allocate an amount that is equal to or close to being equal to that to affordable housing. So not using taxable dollars or tax dollars, but finding other ways to contribute to that fund.

[04:05:27] All right. I think that's clean on the tax rate. So that's a no. All right. Supervisor Pruitt. Yes. So I am in favor of this. I've been pretty consistent and vocal on this, just to kind of, if I can put some flavor on that, put a little bit of stank on it, I would just note, B, I'm going to pick on you delicately, you've had a line that you said both on this dais and then to the media a few times, that you characterize this as a want versus a need.

[04:06:02] And I think that's a helpful dichotomy. And I think I might agree, right? So things that are needs for local government is that we have a police or a sheriff's department, that we operate the courts. And after 1971, when we changed the constitution over it, that we operate public schools. But prior to that, we didn't have to operate public schools. And we quite famously didn't in a few circumstances. Things that are wants, and as far as I know, Andy can correct me,

[04:06:41] that is the end of the list of needs. Those are all the things we have to do. Everything else is a want. The fact that we have a fire department is a want. The fact that we have zoning that we enforce with a code and then have developer fees, all of that is a want. There are not many, But there are localities that have none of that in America.

[04:07:06] The fact that we have transit services, microcat and macrocat, are wants. What government does is it steps in and it identifies places where there is a fundamental market failure, where the private market does not provide things that the public needs, like police, like fire and rescue services, increasingly like health care.

[04:07:32] And in our current county, I believe that housing is now in that universe, affordable housing. It is something that is not being produced naturally by our economy anymore. So I see that as being a want from a legal standpoint, but as one that has risen to the point where I think we are one of the last stakeholders that is actually able to provide this in this county.

[04:07:58] And it's therefore something that we have a need to step into doing. even if it's not a formal need. But I see that as very much on the level of these other services. I see that as on the level of fire and rescue. I see that as on the level of providing transit.

[04:08:15] I see that as on the level of having a system of zoning regulations because it's something that is not otherwise provided in this county anymore if we are not doing something about it. So, yeah, I don't like paying more on my car tax, but I think it's the way we have to get there or another tax.

[04:08:38] All right. Supervisor Duncan? That was very well said. Yeah, I feel like my position is pretty clear. Supervisor Malik? I'm sorry, you said it and I didn't mark it down. You're a yes on the... Correct, yes. Supervisor Malik?

[04:08:57] Thank you. I agree. Shelter is incredibly important and desperately a need for people who don't have it at all. I'm not in favor of the 15 cent increase in the personal property tax because it will crush the people who have the least ability to manage it. And someone called me and said, use as an example my family, a single parent with three teenage children who all need to get to work. I cannot afford hundreds of dollars extra for all the cars that my children, my old cars, that are hard to buy, hard to find, hard to repair because they're old, but it's all we can afford. And to have those

[04:09:35] extra taxes just puts them completely in a worse state than they are now i thought that was a pretty telling and personal story that is an example of why i feel this is the wrong way to go on this the 428 has been the historic level for 20 years or more i'm looking at andy because he may remember um certainly was there long before i joined the board in 2008 and the only reason it was reduced earlier was because of the shocking increase in the used car market during covid and then it was raised back over several years to get back to where it historically had been

[04:10:13] that increase itself was troubling because of the timing with all the other costs that all of our residents who have reached out to us have talked about their impacts in the rest of their budgets and i'm on fixed income too and i understand it completely this wonderful part-time job that i love to do but does not buy the groceries for my six-person family. So we all have to work lots of different ways to get things to make it happen. While I might be supportive of a particular moving of some money around in two through six, I would not support the entire 2.5 million because we

[04:10:51] already have 5.5 in your proposal. Is that right? Approximately 5 million in there? It's approximately $5 million that would be added in the 2017 budget. Okay, get it to 2027, added to whatever's still in there carrying over from last year. Is there any carryover? The amount is not fully utilized yet.

[04:11:11] And just to clarify for the public, that $5 million comes from about $1.3 million in ongoing funds from the $0.4 that was dedicated in the real estate tax rate, and then $3.7 million in one-time money, ticket to the total of five. I know the board knows that, but for the public who may be listening for the first time tonight.

[04:11:27] Thank you. That is true, that making that 0.4 from last year, 0.8 last year, would have gotten this solution to happen last year. So I won't beat that anymore. But as soon as we figure out how to properly administer the money that's already in the budget, I would be perhaps interested in adding some more to it.

[04:11:50] But I am not willing to add a whole lot more in there when there is still so many ongoing management and priorities and statistical analysis questions about how this fund will be managed for the rest of fiscal year 26. So that's where I am right now.

[04:12:07] Thank you. Thank you. So I was in favor of proposing the tax rate, and I did a little bit of extra looking into this because in listening at the town halls, the folks concerned about it being a regressive tax, but then also trying to just understand it from the standpoint of, I own one of those older cars, and I own one of those more expensive cars.

[04:12:37] So I see the range of what's on my particular tax bill with teenagers and cars that some have reminded me may be spoiled because they've got their cars. So what I did, and I could probably have a, it looks like he may have left, but Mr. Marks was in the car business who spoke earlier today as well.

[04:12:58] So he would probably have to check my math. But what I did was I was like, well, let me look at some real-world kind of examples, sort of in the way that Mr. Monaco did earlier. But back in, I said, what's the average age of the car on the road in Virginia? The most reliable number I could find was for 2024.

[04:13:15] And the average age of the car that's on Virginia is 13 years. Now, I know, 13 years old. Now, I know why that is, because cars have been expensive, especially for the last five or six years. So people keep their cars longer. But cars also last longer if you maintain them, and they can go that long.

[04:13:34] So then I thought, interesting, what was the average new car price 13 years prior to 2024? In 2011, the average new car price, and I'm just talking car, not truck or SUV, but car, like a mid-sized sedan, $25,000.

[04:13:50] was the average new car price. Average new car prices these days are over $40,000. Back then, in year one, if you know as a car buyer, the worst time for you to get rid of your car is the first year after you buy it brand new because you take an immediate 20% hit in depreciation, generally speaking. So your $25,000 car in 2012 would have been dropped down to 20. It's an interesting number because 20 is the number at which our tax relief kicks in for partial tax

[04:14:25] relief on a vehicle. In year five, at about a 10%, 10 to 15% drop per year. In those remaining years, it's down to 12, 5. And in year eight, it's at 11. So by the time you get to the year 13, you're likely under a $10,000 car. And then frankly speaking, after a car gets 10 years old, the depreciation starts to creep.

[04:14:48] It doesn't have those big drops down anymore. So if you took that $11,000 car and applied our current tax rate, it was, I had $487.30 per year for an $11,000 car that was valued at that.

[04:15:07] And then you apply, I used 42% because I thought that was the current year percentage for the tax relief. That cuts your bill to 282.63. If you change the tax rate by the 15 cents, That would have jumped your, I'm sorry, the $11,000 car was $2.7306.

[04:15:29] If you change the tax rate up to $0.15, your new bill would be $282.63. That's $9.57 per year. So I played around with that to see what's the burden. I just got this question again last night. I was at two different meetings last night, not on the budget, but it came up.

[04:15:48] And they said, and it's around the idea of if you raise the tax rate, isn't that going against your affordability interests for both the housing and where it's going? And I tried to explain, and it was a great discussion. They were honestly wanting to know how to think about that.

[04:16:09] And I said, well, if you have a $10 per year, which is what, and I mean per year, that's not per month in the example I gave. If you gave a $1.50 or a $1.12 or $1.13, and let's say you have three or four cars in that range, the folks that are owning the older cars, I love the older car.

[04:16:28] I love the beater car. I've been in the car business for 20 years. Man, I love the car that's been driven 6,000 miles a year that somebody brings in. That's the car I want, right? But for the cars for teenagers, I buy my kids cheaper cars like that. So even if you have several of them, I'm not trying to undermine or understate what 100 bucks if you have four or five cars for the month is.

[04:16:54] But what comparison I made last night to folks was I said, what's the bigger burden for the person? If we can help get rents dropped, I think the money that goes to a subsidy for these folks, right, to have housing, that when you compare the ten dollars per month that that is less of a burden than having to have sixty percent of your sixty percent of your monthly income go to pay your rent so the good that we're trying to do with that because the option is now they have to take that 13 year old car and go live two counties away and drive back here every day so i don't want to raise taxes i've

[04:17:31] never wanted to raise taxes i will when i think the need is there and i can explain to folks why we're doing it somebody mentioned that point earlier i want to know where those dollars are going, and I've said that, and I said that in my town hall, and I've said it in previous town halls, even if we don't raise the tax and your property values go up and we collect more tax, where's the new dollars going? That's always important to be able to explain that, because then that's when I could state a case as an elected official and go, I believe it's worth it, even though it is a burden and it is an increase on folks that I do appreciate, that I think the need and where it's going to,

[04:18:10] the value is something that i think is it's worth doing that for and then that's the that's how this works right then my constituents get to decide whether they agree with me or not on that and then they have to decide come election time whether or not they were going to they're going to send me back up here to to continue to do this to do this job um so you know the only other point i'll make to just to the public comment is the 428 got reduced for covid um due to the different impacts that we were there, and then we held it that way for a few years, and then we increased

[04:18:48] it to the 396, 398, and then it jumped to the 428 again to restore it to the previous amount. So the 428 has been always the historical amount. I guess the last thing I'll say, the dedicated funding to the affordable housing is important, but I think the car tax is probably the easiest one to flex on in future years. I think if we do what we want to do and we're starting to get traction on with our economic development activities and start to see the revenue come in from those projects down the road and that starts to change things over i think the

[04:19:25] car tax is the easiest one to go to and start moving down from the economic development activity and somebody said it's not sustainable when are we going to see maybe a decrease in taxes well that one i bet could be high targeted the only reason i say that is because that's what other counties are doing who have data centers. They have taken their data center revenue and they've decreased people's taxes. They haven't done a whole lot in decreasing down the property tax, although they're lower than ours, but they're not that much lower than ours. But what they have been doing has been cutting the car tax significantly. Now, we're not going to get data centers in

[04:20:02] Albemarle County, but we could potentially get other economic development projects like that that could bring that revenue in. And then I see that as a viable way to start saying to folks, This is how we can finally start to equalize a tax rate, and we can start to decrease tax rates on things.

[04:20:18] But we're not there yet. Two years ago, three years ago, I couldn't have seen the horizon, though, on when we might get there. But I'm starting to see that horizon to get there, and I'm saying that we need to invest in the Affordable Housing Investment Fund.

[04:20:35] I know what those dollars go for, and I think it's a high enough need and priority for me that I will remain in support of the car tax for all of the monies to go to that fund. By my count, we've got a split board.

[04:20:54] So I'm just going to go back around one more time, see if anybody has any additional thoughts, and then we probably need to have a vote on this one. Supervisor Lepisto Kirtling. Yes, I wanted to speak because I have to address my esteemed colleague, Supervisor Pruitt.

[04:21:12] I think we're all for, in favor of affordable housing and wanting to get there. It's how we get there, that's number one. But this has been something that has really been bothering me because I'm not sure our affordable housing plan is working.

[04:21:31] And I'll give you my understanding, and I know this board will be more than happy to jump in if I'm wrong, that the area median income, I understand, is $103,000?

[04:21:47] $126,000 for a family of four. Okay, $126,000. Eighty percent of that, that's for to purchase a home. That is still a lot of money, and not a lot of people can do that. You had mentioned, Supervisor Galloway, Chair Galloway, about rents.

[04:22:05] I would like to see us, and I'm throwing this out, this is my opinion, of having a way to lower the rental properties, the rates for people, so that they can save money, and then should they, because not everybody wants to purchase a house, but should they want to do something in the future, fine, but give people who are renting who need the assistance, give them additional assistance.

[04:22:33] I'd be much more in favor of that rather than going into purchasing a home, except for I would support purchasing homes for our first responders. Those are the people you want in our county when there's a disaster that strikes.

[04:22:48] You want the people like that living here. But I would like us to see, frankly, a rewrite of helping people with their rentals, And that's my position, but I'm definitely not in favor of raising the personal property tax 50 cents.

[04:23:08] Supervisor Missel, any additional? Yeah, just a couple of quick things. One is, again, fully supportive of affordable housing and finding ways to do that. I will echo what Supervisor Lapista currently just said, which is given that we even had $10, $15, $20 million in the Affordable Housing Investment Fund right now, I'm not sure we're at the point as the county to properly implement that, to properly distribute that.

[04:23:34] And we were talking about updating housing out tomorrow, which we'll be doing and thinking about that. I just want to learn more about how we do that. We had a couple of bumps in the road this year as we were looking at implementing that. And so I think it's important for us to not only think about how to build that fund, but how do we distribute it well.

[04:23:54] And then, I mean, I'm perfectly, you know, I understand well through projects that I'm working on that local funding is key to unlocking other funding for housing, whether it's LIHTC funding or otherwise. So I still think, and I still, as I said before, support building that affordable housing investment fund.

[04:24:15] Supervisor Pruitt. Just a few very quick things. First, just to Supervisor Lapisto Curley's previous point. I know I've said this before, but I do just want to really ram home. The Housing Investment Fund currently, in the past year, exclusively went to lower people's rents.

[04:24:34] There was not a single for-home, for-sale housing development that was built using AHIF last year. So what you're saying you want to do is what the money is currently doing. Exclusively. Literally exclusively. And I'm looking to Khaki, who is nodding at me.

[04:24:54] Okay. Can the minutes reflect that Khaki nodded back to both Mr. B and to me? It was pretty tentative, I don't know. And secondly, I would just note, I don't think I drive a beater car.

[04:25:15] My car has not previously had any major repairs done. It has a major repair that needs to be done that I've been putting off, but nothing that would set me out too much. It's a little over a decade old. We're not supposed to say this because it's such a ripe target, But my six-month assessment came in, and I'm paying $60 on it, right?

[04:25:39] The $0.15 increase would be a less than 4% of that increase. Pennies. It would be pennies for me. And I think I'm pretty median. I mean, frankly, before I stepped away from my campaign, I was making, as an individual, an amount that is in the targeted band of who we try and target with our housing, right?

[04:26:05] it is a matter of googleable public interest. I made $55,000 in my previous job. I am the low AMI person that we're trying to serve that people are saying, oh, but their cars, that's how they get to work and they can't afford that. I'm the person who's affording that. My car assessment is 60 bucks. I don't think it is a strain that is insurmountable for the people that people are hand-wringing and expressing concern for. It is a real strain. I don't want to denigrate that,

[04:26:40] but it is one that I think we can bear as a community for the need that it's serving. Supervisor Duncan. Yeah, I can't pull it up fast enough, but we did, when we had the discussion and pulled from the consent agenda about the affordable housing, how we were spending the money, we did receive the applications in an email. And for example, the one I can remember is we had a project that had 194 units for people at 20% AMI that I believe were rental units. So we are

[04:27:17] spending the money on really good projects. And yeah, as somebody who, you know, has a hard time affording housing, we have four cars in our family because we have so many teenagers.

[04:27:34] It is just frustrating to hear people say that, you know, we support housing, but without a plan to get there. Like, you know, there's people in way worse situations than I am, than all of us are, that need help literally not living on the streets.

[04:27:59] And we are able to do that through how we fund. And yes, Supervisor Pruitt's points were well made of just, you know, when we're asking people to support their neighbors in this way, the fund is, the amount is less than, you know, the real estate tax, which is why it didn't get approved.

[04:28:22] So yeah, it's just, we need to help people have housing and it costs money and we have to find that money somewhere. Supervisor Malik. Thank you. I guess the only thing I would add is the LIHTC certainly makes a lot of money for the venture capital investors, but there's an awful lot that comes off the top that is not getting to the residential, which has always been a concern, the users.

[04:28:53] I would reiterate that the county has, since 2010, been heavily involved and dramatically helpful in Southwood and needs to be focused on what we have already started so that we can finish it and get the rest of those 400 families who have lived here for decades into the stable housing that they need so they don't have to worry about sewage outside their trailer and the terrible cold.

[04:29:21] I can't imagine what it's like in those houses when it's so six degrees outside. So it's just a matter of priorities. and the fact it is true that we had nothing that supported the highly leveraged homeownership in the last round. And that's troubling to me because there are people who don't want to have anything to do with owning a house, but there are others who would really like to build a stake for the future. And that nonprofit is leveraging and bringing in 10 to one or more dollars from outside

[04:29:56] to support what the county is putting in. And that to me is a good investment for our families. but i hope we will finish what we start out there and i still would i'm still i haven't changed my vote on number two thank you i'll just make two quick points and we'll get to a to a vote i hear what you're saying about oh is the process oh is for the plan need to be updated uh it does housing album or all need to be looked at but we just had the presentation earlier today that said the objectives aren't going to change the reason we couldn't do the objectives is because we didn't have the money to do the objectives and the housing subsidies this is probably one of the

[04:30:34] cleanest ways i can answer to my constituents what are the dollars going for if it's for rental it's a subsidy that goes to a developer whether a non-profit or a for-profit to bring down the over cost of the project so that it pencils and they can provide affordable units to people at lower than the market rates the reason why we don't do a whole lot for home ownership because because one, if you did an analysis of how much your dollar gets and how many units you can produce, it's going to be way higher. So the few homes that we've done where we've partnered with the land trust in the past, it comes to a tune where you can maybe do six or seven homes, but

[04:31:11] that's about six or $700,000. And they're bringing down the property basically cost by $100,000 so that then through all the other donors and things, they can build the sticks on top of the property. So your $100,000 gets sucked up a whole lot faster for a lot fewer units.

[04:31:28] So if we were doing the, if we had, back when we passed Housing Albemarle, the funding commitments, we would have achieved a lot of those objectives. We haven't. And the reason we haven't is because the funding hasn't been there. We have been scratching and clawing to try to get at it.

[04:31:45] And when you can start getting to the tune of $20 and $30 million, like we've seen other localities who've been successful with this, and you can get into revolving loan funds and be able to provide 0% loans, you really start to get traction and can have bigger impact. But it's very difficult when you're in the $5, even $10 million, because we know the requests that have been coming in have far exceeded what we've had.

[04:32:10] And then we have to come up with some sort of ranking and priority to try to spread that out as best we can. And it's similar to our CIP. If we keep doing it that way, we're not going to have big impact. So I just want to make that point. I think I had another point, but it won't matter at this point for the vote.

[04:32:31] Who would like to make a motion to, we can either do one where you want to approve the increase or we can, and let's see how it goes. Perhaps we'll do it that way. Can we make a motion on the tax rate at this time?

[04:32:48] I think we made a motion to advertise for it. I think what I'd like to do is to decide if we're going to bring this forward next Wednesday or not. We're split 3-3 on this by my count. Can I ask a complicating question before you go there? Is there any appetite to lower the 15 cents?

[04:33:06] I mean, okay. I will take what I can get, Fred, if that's the question, right? But this is kind of just round two of the game I suggested we play where we shout numbers back and forth at each other. I'm always down to shout numbers back and forth at each other.

[04:33:23] if the number we get at is higher than ex-ante. I don't know what the right number is. I could offer this then. Legally, can we vote on this now, on the property tax? What the motion would be would be to direct staff to come back with a certain rate for next week. Yeah, and I was just trying to get some of this firm about as best we can.

[04:33:41] Yeah. So, you know, if we keep it where it is, we have to have this decision next time, and I'm hearing firm answers. Even if we do, either way we go, we're still okay because the proposed advertised rate, we don't make the final call on until next Wednesday.

[04:34:01] But staff needs to prepare motions and get ready and know how this is going to play out. And, Mr. Chair, you know this without me saying, but in addition to the staff being ready to follow the board's lead, this decision may inform other decisions down the page that the board is trying to make this evening, even if it's just general guidance.

[04:34:19] So, the more you guys can tell us on number two where you're at going into next week, it may help you as much as it helps us. Thank you. And it will give the public a chance over the next week to be able to have feedback to us, whether that's applause or booze.

[04:34:35] So, we need a motion? Mr. Chair, what I'd say is I'm ready to make a motion that I know will fail. But if Mr. Missel, knowing he is the swing vote, has a motion that he would support that he knows I would vote on, I invite him to make a motion instead.

[04:34:53] I think you should make a motion. Okay. I would like to direct staff. I move that we direct staff to prepare the budget in the expectation of a 15 cent increase to the personal property tax rate. Second. All right. The motion has been made and seconded.

[04:35:10] Is there any further discussion? All right. If the clerk would please call the roll. Ms. Malik? No. Mr. Missal? No. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Ms. Duncan? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. LaPista-Curtley? Nay.

[04:35:26] All right. The motion fails. So if there are any other conversations between that amount and the zero or no change, maybe it would be best for those who are on the no side to suggest if they're interested in any amount over what was originally recommended. That might be faster to get at it.

[04:35:50] All right, not seeing any takers on that. We'll move to the next item. So this is the General Fund Transferred Economic Development Fund. I suspect three through six are going to be lumped together. Yes, sir. So we're not going to go through these one, one, one.

[04:36:06] I think these are going to have to be talked about in tandem with one another. Sure. If you'd like, I can go through the minimum balances that staff are recommending for the transfers. If you feel like you're comfortable with that, I'm happy to say that. think to clarify the number that's by the actual numeric order is the number available to us correct so that's well except number three that would be one point one so that's one point four one point five one point six about two million dollars there do I did I do that you did so to board for all those things that are over there on the right we've got about two million dollars if

[04:36:44] we follow the recommend the recommended minimums to remain in some of the buckets. 2.117. Supervisor Lepisto-Kirtley, do you have some thoughts here? I know what, and I'm sorry, and yeah, and this wasn't for you, but I, we know where some of us are at on some of these individual items. It's time to say I want this amount from this bucket to go there, I think, because that, I don't know how else, it's going to be mucky, but we're going to get, we're just going to have to work through that. I'm sorry. Do you want the specific bucket that it comes from?

[04:37:20] yeah we got to start figuring this out oh geez um okay number five to go into um g charlotte's hill ballet uh for the same amount that they had last year which was 2500 any other changes or adjustments i'm i'm amenable to other things but i'd like to hear what my

[04:37:55] colleagues have to say so 2500 from the reserve for the one-time reserve for contingencies is that right yes we're good that's what you said yeah right supervisor missile so my math is i'm trying to do my math on the fly here but i'll tell you what i did and i may edit something so if i recall correctly at one point when we were looking at numbers four five and six i may have

[04:38:30] misremembered this i was thinking that the 260 plus the 250 balance was totaled of 510 and there was not a request to maintain a balance I thought wasn't that a total of 510 without your memory is is correct and mr. Sumner would you like to speak to the strategy around that sure so when we looked at the historical uses of the reserve contingencies we have historically used around the 350,000 for reserve contingencies which is represented in the ongoing amount so

[04:39:09] number four. However, as we're looking at the economy and looking at inflation, particularly oil prices, the recommendation from staff was to have another opportunity or another place to go should there be continued increases and fluctuations in inflation as we go through 27. So that's new, right? That was a new recommendation. Yes, sir. Okay. So again, I may need to do some new math here. I'm sorry. Could you just repeat that? I'm sorry. I was talking. I didn't hear what you said. No worries. Historically, we've used reserve for contingencies,

[04:39:45] which is what they're there for, and we've used on average, let's say around $350,000. And that's what is represented in the recommendation, a number four, for the use to maintain in the reserve for contingencies for ongoing. As we look at the economy and inflation, particularly oil prices, energy prices, to have another reserve to go to to help absorb or work through those inflections throughout 27, it was recommended by staff that we maintain a minimum of $250,000 in the one time to help through those times.

[04:40:17] So that's a change of $100,000 from last week is what we're saying, and that's just basically giving us another week to look at it to say where would you be most comfortable with your ongoing reserve, your one-time contingency. So that's what Jacob's saying, basically.

[04:40:34] Oh, I thought it was a change of $250,000. To clarify, They were throwing around a lot of numbers. The ongoing reserve amount remains the same. The change is the one time. The county executive, I believe, just misspoken a number of, say, 250 instead of 100.

[04:40:49] But the 250 minimum balance is what would be recommended the one time as we continue to watch what's going on in the world around this. Okay. That's okay. So let me just check my math here. If I'm looking at funds available per your recommendation, You're saying $1.15 on the general fund, right, plus $3.13 plus $2.60 plus $3.94, which is $2.117.

[04:41:17] Correct. Okay. So what I'm going to suggest, and I get the contingencies and I understand the fiduciary prudence, we also have quite a few other reserves that were originally baked into the budget, right, that we've talked about over the last month and a half or so.

[04:41:38] So you're adding another 250 to that for currently, for being careful because of the current environment, right? So what I'm suggesting, and I may not be backed up on this, but my suggestion is we look at the 4.15, use the 1.12.

[04:42:05] Instead of the 1.12 there, we actually, I'm sorry, 1.15, we boost that to 1.25. So it lowers slightly the amount that would be transferred to the Economic Development Fund by a slight amount.

[04:42:27] So you've got 1.25 in that fund. You have the 313, you have 510, so you're not keeping that 250 balance. And then you have 394, which gives you roughly $2.5 million. So I realize I'm pushing the envelope a little bit, which may not be the right thing to do.

[04:42:45] But that 2.5, what I would suggest out of that 2.5 is that 2 million of that go towards the Affordable Housing Investment Fund and the remaining 467 and change. And this is where we've had these conversations about how we allocate these funds and whose initiatives are more important and how do you sort of work that through.

[04:43:12] My feeling is that we could break this into categories. So you have Category 1, which in my mind is the Affordable Housing Investment Fund. You have Category 2, which is vetted high-priority programs. So in my mind, that is Therapeutic Docket, OAR, it's Foothills Child Advocacy Center.

[04:43:29] And then you have one-time community requests, which are like Dogwood Memorial, arts organizations, et cetera. And those three categories, to try to be fair and reasonable without allocating specific numbers to each of those, I would suggest of the remaining roughly half a million dollars, $467,000, that we would look at, of that, 30%.

[04:43:57] So actually that would be, well, let's say 60% of that go to Category 2 and 40% of it go to Category 3. So I realize that's complicated. I'm sorry. I'm just trying to figure out an objective way to do this that is fair and reasonable to all and still boost the Affordable Housing Investment Fund.

[04:44:17] All right. I do understand. So $2 million to AHIF, spreading out $467,000. You said some percentages there that I assumed they wrote down. And those are...

[04:44:33] Cat 2 and the one-time items that are on the right. That's right. Correct. And Matt, at the discretion of staff, I'm fine with how those are allocated. I'm not going to get into the details on that. Got it. All right. And then Supervisor Pruitt?

[04:44:51] Sure. So I want to begin by just saying, in my mind, I'm starting to categorize things. chair how this is going to come down has got to come down to you but the way i'm thinking of it are getting four votes in both where we're taking money from and getting four votes in where the money's going to so i'm almost treating those as separate things um mentally um and i want to make sure i'm going to direct a question to my peer if that's fine can i catch one more time how much money you're saying you are comfortable taking from the economic development fund from its current

[04:45:25] allocation um yes were you saying only putting 1.25 million into 5 million okay which would mean basically freeing up 2.9 million correct okay um i this board knows that i like to be bold and shaving off money and i often pick on economic development um i when the county executive told me a very specific number that he was comfortable with that going being reduced to

[04:46:02] the specificity of that i took with a certain amount of gravity um because that was unsolicited um and so i i'm putting some amount of weight on that and i also say that with a bit of humility uh having been proven wrong on the necessity of the amount last year um when i proposed a slash to the economic development fund and boy howdy we managed to zero out the economic development fund uh in the next year um so i am not i don't think and i i i'm putting a little bit of stink on that think because maybe maybe you can convince me i don't think i'd be comfortable taking more than

[04:46:40] 1.15 million out of economic development but i am comfortable taking 1.15 million out of economic development um and i am comfortable going to the proposed stops on four through six um and there's a part of me, you know, I have now such a learned, you know, touching the hot eye on the stove about certain reserve funds, but there is a part of me that wants to politely push back against the newly established, newly as of this week, established one-time reserve.

[04:47:18] I understand what you're responding to and the instabilities that are introduced. Have we in previous years fully accessed fully drained how much of our ongoing 350 reserve is normally left at the end of the calendar year i realize that's a challenging kind of question to answer because it might not be a clean answer i think if it would assist the board we give the data prior to next wednesday of how this is varied but thank you to safely plan for 250 000 it's a pretty

[04:47:53] safe floor some years it's been that been more the issues vary but there may be something that comes up whether it be to the board's desire or the county may not have a choice and so this is one for me just a financial management perspective these would be the floors we would recommend of 350 ongoing 251 time and certainly the board has the ability if they would like to to do something a little bit different one of the responses for the Q&A that we shared if the board may not have had a full chance to see it was if there was a spike in fuel what would that look like and so I won't repeat that now but that could be another item if the board or public listening would like to reference what that what that could look

[04:48:31] like as it played out um thank you so as of now I would say I am I would be comfortable draining three through six to the stops that we are permit that staff recommends here which would grant us a pool of usable funds around to 2.117 million of that for the tidiness of it i might propose i mean i could go around and around

[04:49:05] a few different ways i think my notional uh way i would do it would be 2 million to a hiff and the the remainder to a serp which would be a modest uh uh 117 000 i think i've got that math right ah i've got knots i love knots so you're just to repeat 1.15 from number three from economic development to go to oh in combining the rest down to what he's saying to the stop so not

[04:49:44] to zeros but to the recommended balances uh to be a total of two million to ahif and then the the $100 plus to a CERP. Is that it right? Nothing else. Nothing else. I think I've been consistent in my statement on D through H.

[04:50:05] As sympathetic as I find some of these causes, particularly D and E, I think we have a strategic plan that we have previously adopted directing how these funds get used. I do think there might be a compelling issue for us to talk with our legislators about whether Foothills, again, I'm looking for nods.

[04:50:24] do y'all receive state subsidies for your operations there might be a discussion that we could have with our legislators about whether or not they're actually adequately funding through court services and otherwise uh the work that needs to be done all right supervisor duncan i'll make this super easy and just say i agree with supervisor pruitt and that's what i would do as well okay all right supervisor malik well i will say that in the recession there was in the reserve for contingencies about twelve thousand dollars at one point and so don't joke around

[04:51:01] with saying this is fine because i don't think it is and it's just there are reasons why we want to be able to meet payroll and things like that when things get really bad so the you know i can make a whole bunch of different proposals and advertise i just think that cutting out everything on the right hand side except for two programs is there's a lot of need there that and you propose to use the whole of the one-time CIP for your combined dollars

[04:51:40] instead of using it for the CIP use. So, I mean, I would do it differently. I would fund the memorial, as we talked about before, to meet their original request, which they made years ago.

[04:51:58] To get that part of it finished, I think Charlottesville would likely say, uh-oh, we better match the county because otherwise we're going to look bad considering that our changes were what caused this problem to begin with so but i do think that foothills does a service that we are not since they're the only one in the state that is not publicly funded i think that we need to fix that and the oar therapeutic docket is also very important the two arts groups that are surviving are very small amounts for the benefit that they

[04:52:35] provide and the huge numbers and percentage of county residents who benefit from their work So I don't know whether we take some amount out of this $2 million that you're proposing to put into what is already $5 million for the AHIF and spread those around a little more generously or not.

[04:52:57] I don't have dollars and cents proposals right now, but that's certainly what I'm thinking about. Um, I mean, essentially the last go around a week or two weeks ago, I was essentially in agreement with what supervisor Pruitt recommended accepting the band, um, which was like three grand.

[04:53:21] So just for tonight's purposes, although, um, I'm not thrilled. I mean, it's 3000. I think at the end of the day, it could probably shake out where something that small could maybe maneuver around, but for cleanly, for just being clean, you know, I hear fairly and reasonable but you're saying fair and reasonable for these remaining items the objective fair and reasonable was the process now people can be unhappy with the application process and the monies that came out i'm not saying that that's not allowed or shouldn't be the case but that

[04:53:55] is the process so the fair and reasonable was what came to us and that was we designed that to be the objective so we didn't get here i've made that point before so i'm going to stick to that discipline, just like I have in previous budgets. I've seen the board in past, I'm thinking now back in my first couple of years, get hung up on a couple of places to, you know, to the others not getting in the mix. And there is something to be said about an organization that comes, I'm not saying you shouldn't advocate or it's a negative on them to come advocate. You should

[04:54:32] advocate for your stuff. But there are also applicants who said, okay, we went through the process it was defined and this is what we get from it um i think so i have i have a couple questions about this dogwood baboral because last week the the commitment between the city and all that became a little muddier than what i thought it was when we're talking about because that would be when we've done this in the past it's always been on bigger sizes and they've i remind me did they go to cip like i'm thinking boys and girls club and the center or did they come out of like

[04:55:11] one-time monies or a combo yeah the uh the boys and girls club the ymca and some of those really predated this process this process was really the board's direction to say you know these things are coming up we'd like to support them but we'd like to have them work through the process so the board approved uh that eight criteria that we look for and the idea is there's not a designated bucket of funding but these come into the budget process and it's weighed against everything else about how can those things uh you respond to the strategic plan leverage funding improve services and that so this is i believe the third maybe fourth year we've had that um

[04:55:47] i'll stop there my confidence in committing money beyond what the city's committed to is i think that the two do have to come to an agreement of what they're going to put in i think if we're going to do work and prioritize that in some fashion beyond it that it may take another it may take another budget cycle to get there um but i'm torn on that one but uh i think there's some creativity even with what we're remaining with with some of

[04:56:22] these kind of things that could be we could potentially get at some of this stuff um but you know i the last few budget cycles i have had priorities and the housing priority has taking a back seat to some of my other priorities in the last two to three budgets so this time i'm sticking with that as my priority and want to get that housing investment fund, and with the tax not going, then I think everything needs to go to AHIF. I'll agree to allow some of the monies go to

[04:56:59] ACERP because I think that they are combo kind of deals, and I think if one became short and the other one was flush or not being used, there's some wiggle room that we could do between those two funds for similar purposes. So I'm okay with that, but I'd like to see it all go to the Housing Investment Fund. And that's where I'm at. So I'm just going to do another round to see where I mean, we've got three on all of that over. So there is still other things out there.

[04:57:32] You've got Supervisor Pruitt, myself, and Duncan saying we'll take all the leverage we have on the left and move it to the Housing Investment Fund and ACERP in the way that Supervisor Pruitt said we would do it. So we have three supervisors that have different versions of how to use.

[04:57:52] It seems like the thing we can agree on that I haven't heard any objection to is that $1.15 million will come out of the Economic Development Fund and go to the Housing Fund. So I haven't heard anybody object to that. I suggested a higher number. Well, if you're objecting to that, then that's one of five. So while I'm saying you're wanting a higher amount, Bea's saying you're not interested in moving money out of the Economic Development Fund?

[04:58:21] No, but if I'm only one vote, it would probably be take as little as we can because my thinking is that we don't know what's coming up. I mean, I think the next two years, first of all, with economic uncertainty, but I think with the next two years, we don't know what's going to be coming up for Rivanna Futures.

[04:58:41] That's what I'm concerned about. understood that the county executive is the one who recommended the three million dollars to us um and that the one that that would be a come to supervisors Pruitt's point that it was an unsolicited number right and my thinking well it's not my turn yet never mind it is your turn okay um I'm almost thinking and this is I hope everyone doesn't think I'm you know I'm almost thinking of putting this on hold and and using you know what is proposed here that's fine but But I'm thinking of putting things on hold for maybe three months, six months.

[04:59:20] I agree. The more I look at this and I see, frankly, some of the ones that are really in need, like AHIF and, you know, ACERP, I'm looking at the others, and even though I support them and want money for those, I'm thinking, well, it doesn't help people as much as some of these other things.

[04:59:40] But I'm also thinking, I'm also worried about, I want to make sure we have reserves. That's the way I think. And I'm wondering whether or not we shouldn't wait, you know, three months or six months into it, see if anything comes up that we need.

[04:59:55] If we don't, then go ahead and use some of the monies, not on, you know, on AHIF and ACERP and maybe Foothills Child Advocacy. All right, I appreciate the thought, and this is in no way meant to be rude, but it's time for us to decide how this budget is going to come together.

[05:00:14] And building in that type of decision is basically not balancing the budget or just leave things as they are. And that would be leaving things as they are. So that's your position.

[05:00:29] That's my position. All right. So you're not for moving anything around anywhere? I'm for putting everything on hold to see what we need. All right. Supervisor Missile, any additional thoughts? Yeah. I'll try to keep it easy. So my preference would be to use the $510,000, the $250,000 balance there, to add that to the $260,000 and make that $510,000 and put that together with a $1.15 to create a fund.

[05:00:58] Out of that, $2,000,000 goes to AHIF, and the remainder, at the discretion of staff, is divided amongst the A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H on this screen. That would be my preference. Hold on. D through H. Is that what you said?

[05:01:14] I'm sorry. Yes. Yes. Well, C through H. C through H. Yeah. Thank you. That's my preference. If that's not, my thinking is I get the gasoline, et cetera, and the additional costs and the prudence that's around that. I just feel like we have reserve funds. I don't know what our, I don't recall what our total reserve funds are, but it feels like there's, if we're talking $100,000 here, feels like there's availability if something happened in the existing reserve funds to capture that.

[05:01:47] if we're talking $250,000. But if you tell me no. I'm certainly not going to say yes or no, but I can answer the question of what our reserves are. Yeah. Thanks. That'd be great. Yeah, so really the reserve contingencies is the undesignated budget reserve.

[05:02:05] Right. And so outside of that, the board also, when we had the technical update from CAT, there's $150,000 because transit could have a fuel pressure as well. So that's one thing we would look at. And that's built in. So, yeah, that is built in. So there would be the $150,000, and then there would be whatever's left in the reserve.

[05:02:24] Beyond that, there would be the remaining budget stabilization reserve. Now, I would say before that, staff would, of course, look like, what can we do differently in our services? What else is going on in our budget? We would go through a management process, look at service impacts before we did that. Then we would look to the reserve contingencies, that transit reserve, if appropriate.

[05:02:43] And obviously, the board would need to wait on that. But then, and my answer is the same, whether it's fuel or any really unexpected expense, then you'd get into the combination of the budget stabilization reserve, which would be 1% because the other 1% of the 2% reserve is planned over the next two years.

[05:02:59] So that's sort of the order of operations of how that would work. That's helpful. So my sense is that that $250,000, I would rather see that go to our partner organizations than knowing that we have the backstop of the other reserves.

[05:03:15] So that would basically mean the remainder, like I'm not doing the math, it's roughly $2 million to AHIF and about $400,000, if my math is right, to the other. C through H.

[05:03:33] Yes, C through H. So $367,000 would be the answer. Thank you, Mr. Davidson. Thank you. Let me suggest this just as maybe a way to get some, in your spirit of doing the consensus.

[05:03:49] Nobody else has really talked about taking that $250,000 balance that's there out. Nobody had suggested that yet. This one? That one. Okay. The rest of your dollars, we're going to afford to AHIF.

[05:04:06] $2 million of it. The remainder, I was saying, would be divided. Well, I understood. But that leaves, what, $100,000 in between what I said? If you do the math here, if you keep all those numbers the way they are, it's $117,000.

[05:04:24] So what I'm getting at is would you be willing to consider if the board wanted to have a conversation about it, it changes what you're proposing, but just for a cleaner conversation saying the monies in the top lines, the 1-1 from economic development, the 313, the 260, and the 394 go to AHIF, and the remaining 250 that you're proposing can go to the other organizations.

[05:04:50] Yes, I would accept. All right, we were in Supervisor Missal's slot, so I'll go to Supervisor Pruitt next. Now we're getting some proposals out there. Yeah, I'm trying to refine down and, like, assign votes to different things.

[05:05:08] So in addition to what I previously stated, I'm now looking at the $250,000. So just I want to be clear in what I'm stating. what i previously said was two three through six is recommended of which two million to a hiff and then 117 to a serp um i'm now hearing the recommendation for the 250 in the one-time contingency fundings but saying heard but disagree with the stability concerns given

[05:05:41] current economic uncertainty and redirecting that you said to all of them c through d c through h i am saying looking at 117 from just the top lines already going to acerp so i'm now going to drop c if the board is following and then the remainder um and d through h as someone who tries to be as consistent on philosophy as possible i could support that because i i do see

[05:06:17] d through h as being needs that are present and in the real term and in the immediate term and um i i'm with you right we have now 11 in in oh shit money um one percent in oh crap money and ten percent in money right um that in the event of a of a true crisis where we struggle to meet payroll we do have that ability to tap it maybe it affects our bond rating that's a big deal but we we would not be in a position where we're not meeting payroll so I could get

[05:06:55] down with that I would say I can get down with it in in order to get four votes my preference personally and this is more of just a statement because I don't think it'll get four votes would be rather than D through H's identified priorities to be re-kicked into the entire public agency funding process for for reallocation again because to supervisor galloway's chair galloway's point previously we're talking about these yes um these agencies are very important ones and i really do value the

[05:07:32] work they do but loaves and fishes isn't here because loaves and fishes said thank you and went home with their amount of money and so we're not considering funding up to their uh on our own sea bill is not on this list because on our own sea bill said thank you for this amount of money and they did not bother us after that.

[05:07:53] And so my personal preference would be rather than the identified priorities of D through H, it would be kicked back into the public agents, the 250 back into the agency funding process for staff to determine and reallocate. But I'm not sure I have your vote on that, so I'm willing to support your proposal for the 250.

[05:08:13] And if I could just, I would support your approach there. I wasn't concerned about how that 250. I was just saying it would be allocated according to staff, and so if that includes a review, that's fine. Okay. I'll keep going, and then we will have to do another rat just because I know other people might have questions.

[05:08:35] Supervisor Duncan? Yeah, now, you know, without having the tax increase, every sort of discussion of, you know, do we put this here, do we put this there, is, you know, funding a bridge or helping people stay in their house, you know, Funding the band or helping people not be homeless.

[05:08:56] And so I am happy to, you know, take all of the money we can, including, you know, the reserves, and put it all into AHIF and ACERP. But I do think the idea of if there was disagreement on some of the extra money, putting it back into the agency funding and letting staff do it, I would be willing to support that.

[05:09:20] Okay. Supervisor Malik. So allocations and appropriations have to be done by the board. So I would not support giving the balance off to staff to figure out what to do with. That's our job, and it should come back here for any deliberations of whatever the leftovers are.

[05:09:38] That's my opinion, but I think that's what law says. And you can overrule me if I'm wrong. But it certainly has been the case in the past that the board has made those decisions of how to spend the tax money. So that was my main clarification. And I guess the city things that you mentioned on our own, those others are in the city, and we are giving $20 million of tax revenue to the city in the revenue sharing,

[05:10:11] and that's an ample fund in which to pay for many of those city agencies that have very small county benefit. And that's where that whole evaluation that I did on the participation, there are numbers, and they're not even verified.

[05:10:26] Their numbers are proposed, some of them rather outlandish, that had funding for arts parks and things that they were saying 100,000 county residents went there. And I'm going, really?

[05:10:42] Where's the evidence for that? So it's just an accountability thing for me, for sure. But I think it's the board's responsibility to make those decisions when new information comes forward, whatever it is. So I think we're actually, and I may ask a question of staff, it seems clear with giving $100,000 here or there for the monies that are going to come out of economic development to AHIF.

[05:11:13] I think that's clear. I think the monies that are beyond, that would have been $4,000, $5,000, and $6,000 to the stop, as Supervisor Pruitt said, are also given $100,000 maybe to ACERP or AHIF. We see where that's going. The 250, based on the proposal and where it goes and how it goes, I'm not thrilled with the notion of going back out to all the agencies and all of that.

[05:11:39] At least in this budget cycle, the advocacy that's happened to get these ones on the page has been transparent and clear and has been there for several cycles with us, and supervisors have brought it up.

[05:11:54] So we have to own that decision. I think that's going to be interesting next year and be complicated next year, frankly. but at least we have to own it and not throw it back to staff and go figure out how to sort these dollars out. My additional concern would be, which is leading me up to my question, H, how the monies now get from those buckets into these things, because we're taking one-time monies and putting it in this year.

[05:12:25] So for an organization in these agencies where the whole prior year funding and then what comes back, does it get new leveled because we gave them a boost this year, or do they resort back? So there's some things there that are making my brain hurt a little bit. Then there is the dogwood would definitely be a one-time expenditure.

[05:12:45] So I'd want to make sure that was coming from a one-time bucket. I think there's the wiggle room there with what the board has arrived at here. I don't know if there's six people, but there's at least four, I think. And it sounds like everybody else would reasonably start thinking about where the dollars would go.

[05:13:03] So is it unreasonable for staff to take a swing at tightening this up for us and say, all right, you want, you know, if you're going to take $250,000 and spread it out through D through H, that's one-time monies, and then try to put some guardrails around it for us.

[05:13:21] definitely would work for the dogwood vietnam memorial we'll have to determine the exact amount but for the foothills the band the ballet or all of that putting one-time money into an annual piece i mean we don't use one-time money for that so that's the part i'm struggling with i'm okay with doing this to move us forward and advance it to a vote for us for next week but there's some there's some we need to put some eyes on this in a tighter way so that we don't one make a decision we don't understand but two do something to these agencies that sets them up to wonder what the hell

[05:13:59] happened in in the next budget um seems like the only use the only reasonable thing for six is a one-time capital because that's what it's for and this is what i'm saying like maybe some some some scalpel going in there and going all right maybe you take 200 and put it to dogwood and you take the 194 and put that into a if or you put that the 100 you want to go to acerp comes should come from here and not from the economic development fund i want to get the one-time monies in a bucket now that we kind of have an idea of what's going where and the ongoing monies

[05:14:36] in a bucket and then make sure that we're drawing the lines to the things that they could end up in the right way does that make sense what i'm asking it does to me mr bowman can lean in or mr sumner but i think what i hear you say chair is that you'd really like for us do we have a conceptual idea of what you want on the right side we'll take the one time and we'll take the ongoing come back next week and say it makes most sense to do it this way use as much one time here as much ongoing here but we also would need to want we would want to reconcile with you where does that leave us going into next year not 27 but 28. Andy do you have anything to add to

[05:15:16] that? No, I don't. I think the board has not said any of those items are off the table, and the board hasn't given direct, there's been different numbers thrown out on the economic development funds. I'm kind of thinking of that one a little separate. So if there's a way that the board, if they would like to direct staff to kind of help narrow what that focus would look like, that would help us. But we can certainly, to Mr. Richardson said, give something to board to respond to next Wednesday. On economic development, and Andy, I may not be addressing what you're saying on economic development what the board has said that i've heard is keep the

[05:15:54] balance at three million dollars going into next year and take one yes and take the 1.1 and move it to ahif that wasn't your original piece but i was since you introduced the 250 that was the compromise i was looking for there sorry and so i'll clarify myself the i've heard that too but there has not been a direction to staff and to vote in the way there was some of the earlier other items understood um but that would be what i'm trying to get at is if we sit here and try to do all of what i just asked you tonight i don't know we're going to be able to accomplish that

[05:16:28] so board um i'm gonna i'll go back through and just get your temperature on it seems like we're moving about to what's the total number 2.1 2.367 and that uh all but all but two one of that is in question really because two one of that or two of that was going to the housing fund two of that was going to the housing so we've that number at least is clean so maybe that's the next motion we should take is to direct staff to uh take two million dollars uh from the economic development

[05:17:05] fund or i mean 1.1 1 100 1 million from the you state it because you've got it written down so i would just say what we're talking about is a total of 2.117 million that's including all of the numbers on the left here right that's 115 from the economic development fund 313 260 and 394 that's your 2117 all right and then we're saying an additional 250 which gets us to 2367 of that

[05:17:39] total 2 million would be allocated to the affordable housing investment fund and 367 would be distributed across c d e f g and h and there's been a proposal that 117 of that 117 000 go directly to c so you're just looking at d e to the a circle they're just looking at d e f g and h and you're talking about um well you guys are probably faster than i am on this 367 minus one one seven we're talking about two hundred fifty thousand dollars of course yeah

[05:18:19] that's the balance that's the balance i think you've got an extra 250 in there are you taking away zeroing out the reserve yes because that's new that's a new deduction did not exist when we talked about this at our last session correct correct and it is a proposal from staff and is also one that some members of the board are are challenging its prudentialness it's not been a previous reserve. That's new. Previously, we had the 350 as reserve. It is proposed here for the

[05:18:53] first time in reaction. I think it's not unfair to say primarily to the Iran crisis. Well, and the total chaos in funding from Washington is even more than, I mean, it's going to be with us longer than the total funding chaos in Washington's already baked in. We are, we all are in, I'm sorry, go ahead. I don't have anything finished right now. I just want to clarify that we're not. I think what we should do, if everyone thinks it would be appropriate, is for Mr. Mistel to make the motion that he has listed here, knowing that it's not in a final vote, that it's going to go through a level

[05:19:31] of scrutiny from both one-time purposes, etc. It gives everyone here a chance to absorb what passes on the vote, so that when we walk in here next Wednesday, we'll be able to make the final decision on it. Is that a fair? Any objection to that as the process? Please.

[05:19:47] Question. Thinking about this and realizing how many people are in need and such and Supervisor Pruitt mentioned loaves and fishes, which I'm a great supporter of loaves and fishes. I would almost like to switch out Charlottesville Ballet for loaves and fishes and any monies would then go to them. I know they were appreciative of what they got, but I think they can use more. I think that would help more people and then i'll just have to work on private donations for the charlottesville ballet i don't know if that would be acceptable to the board or not i think i think that the wiggle room of that

[05:20:26] at this point um i'm happy to go around to see what people think but um any of the money to be clear from my perspective anything going through d through g i'm trying to give in to get us forward, because I wanted those dollars to go to AHIF.

[05:20:49] The H was a different item. So if we have to start going back through all of these things... I'm just talking about doing a clean shift out from G. Charlottesville, Ballet, take it out, put in Loves and Fishes. That's what I'm talking about. Nothing else changes. Do other supervisors have any thoughts? I don't know whether they're fully funded with their request.

[05:21:10] They're not. Thank you. Loves and Fishes is not? Yeah, they're not fully funded. That's my understanding, but clarification. thousand dollar gap pardon there's about an eight and a half thousand dollar gap well why don't we add those and fishers to the list and take out charlotte's hill ballet let's keep it on there keep charlotte's hill ballet okay we're talking about eight thousand dollars well it doesn't this isn't necessarily committing them to their full ask i didn't no no no i know but it's giving them additional monies that they could desperately use if you all want to do that i'm going to let

[05:21:48] Supervisor LaPista currently, Mr. Bissell, are you? I can make a motion. Well, I mean, this specific item we've got to get. I don't, I, you asked me. Yeah. I would not add Lowe's and Fishers, which my wife volunteers at Lowe's and Fishers.

[05:22:06] It's a great organization. I think we should keep what we have. This is what's been on the information we've been sharing, and I would just keep it like this, because we could keep adding stuff. No, and I realize that, and I realize this, and yeah. Supervisor Pruitt. Well, you know, Sin Bareris disproportionately serves my community.

[05:22:23] I'm personal friends with their executive director, and they got zero of their 60K. So I think I'm joking. Sarcasm is not lost. Were I one to bring up individual organizations, that would probably be exactly where I'd go.

[05:22:38] But I've tried to be, again, philosophically consistent on this. I think I'm comfortable with the compromise, as you and Fred just walked through. I think that kind of is the best approximation of where this board feels to glom around.

[05:22:56] Supervisor Duncan, any change in that thought? No change. This is just why I didn't want to get into the weeds of funding decisions on agencies and follow the process. Got it. Yep. Supervisor Malek? My only concern is doing away with number five.

[05:23:14] The 250. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm understanding how the reserve, and this is a new one coming in, and I think for the amount that we will, I'm comfortable with, even though we're using the budget stabilization reserve, I'm comfortable with that kind of amount not being in reserve.

[05:23:35] And I've always been a proponent of reserves. But the way that I'm tracking with this right now, I'm okay with that moving. And would Supervisor Malik in favor of that also or not?

[05:23:52] No, no, she's not. I'm very concerned about losing number five altogether. I agree. I agree. I'm not sure that, I mean, we've survived without it in the past, and we do have the stabilization reserve, which we didn't have five years ago. So that is something.

[05:24:08] Excuse me. I was going to say something, and now I can't remember what it was. I agree with Supervisor Malik, and I think we can do the rest of it as proposed, frankly. Just take out that amount and do the rest for it as proposed by.

[05:24:25] So, okay, I understand in here. I'm going to ask Mr. Missel to make the motion. If Supervisor Malik and Lepisto currently want to keep the $250 there, then I would recommend you vote no on the motion. Okay. All right. I'm going to try this now just a second.

[05:24:44] I'm sorry. I'm trying to, I'm floundering around trying to remember what it was. I was about to ask staff. And remember, we're locking in to give staff, so they'll bring this back to us next week.

[05:25:01] So if something pops and it changes. We're voting on what the slide that we're going to look at next year looks like. I guarantee you we're not going to be changing it next week. There's some historic reference that this is the day that anything's going to happen. Otherwise, it's just not going to happen.

[05:25:17] Well, let's go ahead with the motion, and then we'll see how it goes. All right. I think I'm confident in the first two words. I move. that direct staff we i move that we direct staff thank you to uh allocate the available potential funding sources um as follows and can i refer to the eighth slide item three on the slide of the 415 million general fund transfer to economic development 1.15 million of that

[05:25:57] would be allocated to okay i'm going to just do this to the affordable housing investment fund Of the ongoing reserve for contingencies, $313,000 of that, I hope I'm not complicated, I'm trying to make it easier, would be, let's do it this way, I'm sorry.

[05:26:34] So we go back to the general fund. So $1.15 million would be held back. $313,000 of ongoing reserve for contingencies would be held back. $260,000 of one-time reserve for contingencies would be held back.

[05:26:50] $194,000 of one-time CIP strategic priorities reserves would be held back for a total of $2.117 million. In addition, of the one-time reserve for contingencies, an additional $250,000 would be added to that total to bring it to $2.367 million.

[05:27:12] Of the $2.367 million, $2 million of that would be allocated to the Affordable Housing Investment Fund. $117,000 would be allocated to ACERP, and the remaining funds would be allocated to items D through H on slide 33.

[05:27:40] Did you wish to specify the amounts, specific amounts on D through H and the specific allocation? No. Pending staff analysis of one-time monies versus ongoing dollars, I think would get it done.

[05:27:57] Great. Second. All right. Any further discussion? I remembered the point I was going to make, and that is, while I appreciate all of everybody's optimism, and it's likely very justified that the AstraZeneca is going to solve our problems for affordability, for taxes, et cetera, if the growth rate which we have had in residential over the last two years continues, AstraZeneca will not be able to offset those increase in the cost of services.

[05:28:27] So this is always in the back of my mind, and I just, we need to be careful and not be thinking that that's going to be the magic bullet that solves everything for us if we don't sort of look at the big picture here. That's all I was going to say. And just go ahead.

[05:28:44] I agree with you 100%. In my mind, the $250,000, that's the issue, I think. And for me, the amount of good that can do to our partner organizations is the right choice.

[05:29:01] Very good. Any further discussion? And just to be clear, at my town halls, to your point about AstraZeneca being the silver bullet, I don't think it is. It only goes to the point of diversifying our tax base that we've been saying was our strategy. I think Project 2, 3, 4 after them are what will eventually help start solving some of the service needs.

[05:29:22] And I just wanted to say that because I have said that publicly in town halls. Any other discussion points? I would just add that during that motion being read off, I looked over at Claudette because I'm just imagining the minute review because that has to be, that is a paragraph long.

[05:29:40] It's recorded. It has to be verbatim as a motion. I'm happy to help. All right. Those minutes should go to Chair Galloway. We're going to go to the question, which the clerk would please call the roll. Ms. Malik? Yes. Mr. Missel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt?

[05:29:56] Aye. Ms. Duncan? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. LaPista-Kirley? Aye. All right. The motion carries. Well done, board. That's just muddy, complicated work to work through. So I think we're at a good point, though, that the public will know where we're at coming into next Wednesday, as will staff, with maybe some cleanup there to do.

[05:30:21] I'm looking to you, Mr. Bowman. What else do we need to do this evening? I think the final question would be, is there anything else the board would like to staff to prepare to assist the board on Wednesday? This is helpful because we've sort of narrowed the options. We have direction to bring back.

[05:30:38] Just any other lingering Q&As? I verbally said that we could bring back the history of the reserve, but I don't know if that's necessary based on the board's direction. I just want to clarify if there's anything outstanding, we can be responsive to the board to set you all up to do your best work. I'm looking to my left and right. Any additional info?

[05:30:54] I think we've got it. If you do have one, just as we do, send the question in to Mr. Bowman, and we'll proceed from there. All right. Thank you. Anybody that thinks that working through budget is not difficult, just tracking all the numbers is difficult.

[05:31:22] All right. We're at number 18. We did amend the agenda to add Supervisor Malik's request to add a discussion regarding support of a Virginia bottle bill under item number 18. So I'll go to matters from the board and ask that you address that when it's your turn.

[05:31:39] Can we come around? Supervisor Lepisto Curley, do you have any committee reports or matters not listed on the agenda? If I did, I can't remember. All right. No, I don't. Supervisor Missal? No, sir. We have our 5th and Avon CAC meeting tomorrow. I have several other meetings coming up, but none today.

[05:32:01] Supervisor Pruitt. Sure. I will begin thinking in reverse. Two days ago, I joined the Town of Scottsville Council to review basically what we just talked about, our budget.

[05:32:18] I have been candidly, board, out of the good habit of joining town council on a regular basis following the campaign. And so I was trying to catch up on some missed face time. A few things in addition to the budget that they keyed in on as high priorities.

[05:32:40] This board might remember that we had a community capital project that we had previously discussed in December and was realized in this budget for the levy. There was discussion of ongoing. A community capital request that might take half a year or longer to be realized is not maybe the most agile and effective way that potentially urgent concerns related to levy maintenance be taken care of.

[05:33:09] There was discussion over different possible ways that the operating agreement could be changed in the future in order to make sure that we are not having to go through the entire annual budget process in order to address that. I touched base very briefly with Trevor on some of these, but that would be, I think, a high priority for the town council and one that I share to try and make it so that this isn't something that we have to revisit and instead can have an MOU that is evergreen.

[05:33:36] The other thing that was mentioned, in reiterating a point you may have heard during our joint meeting last year, But the need for county's willingness to partnership and the town's necessity to be a first mover on projects that they want partnership with, that was kind of an open question, but one that the town administrators specifically highlighted that will be interesting to think through what that looks like for engagement.

[05:34:07] Their budget is quite strapped, frankly. They don't assess anything other than business license taxes. And with that, they don't have the ability to do streetscape beautification to try and attract tourism. That was her immediate top priority that she discussed.

[05:34:26] And it would be an interesting thing to talk through with them what a proposal with that might look like. So that might be something I follow on with y'all. And as we get on the other side of budget, I'm going to be working with all of y'all and with Claudette to figure out when we might next be able to sit down with Scottsville.

[05:34:45] I promise I won't haul y'all down to Victory Hall every time. But look forward to making that an annualized process, as it has been in the past. Additionally, I should have mentioned this during board reports earlier, but the Virginia Breeze has opened a new line that serves our community.

[05:35:06] This is relevant for all of us. It's confusing, so it's called the Tidewater Connector. But the thing that I think is relevant for us is it connects us with a line to both Stanton, Harrisonburg, and also in the other direction to Richmond, and then all the way to the Tidewater.

[05:35:23] But I know I'm much more likely to be taking it to Richmond. It's not running twice a day as a commuter, but it can be used if you're doing it overnight in any of those localities. And Chair, I am going to let you talk about what we did at the TJPDC because I don't have my notes in front of me.

[05:35:39] Well, if I missed something, because I only had one item that I was going to bring up for that. Supervisor Duncan. Nothing really from boards, but I did have two things. One, I was looking at the website to open the agenda for something tonight, and I happened to notice that there is a new column called Accessible Agenda, and it basically opens the agenda not in a PDF but just a regular HTML website.

[05:36:08] So I wanted to call attention to the work that the clerk's office is doing and making that available, which is really great. And then the second thing is just the bottle proposal. I grew up in Michigan where we have pop. And we have always, we've had a bottle deposit since before I was born.

[05:36:28] So it makes a lot of sense to me. It's also a really great way for kids to make $10 because they scour baseball fields, they collect pop cans, You take them back to my ear, pop them in the machine, and you get, you know, $10, $20. So, yeah, I'm definitely going to be supportive of that.

[05:36:45] But it really is, it was wild when we moved down here, and not everybody has that. Good lead-in, Supervisor Malik. Thank you. That was great. Talk about a segue. That's fantastic. And, yes, even here in Virginia in the 50s when I was little, it was here until the PepsiCo and that kind of thing took over and all the bottlers took over, and then they didn't want to bother because it was more profit for them to use the native material.

[05:37:12] So anyway, I was really impressed with our students who came today and sort of introduced this topic, and this came out of the last really hair-on-fire meeting of the SWAC, the Solid Waste Advisory Committee. And so reducing the solid waste of all kinds is where we're going to make huge progress and certainly is, I think, a really important element at the university to try to reduce their landfill deposits in order to meet their requirements as well so i think we will never do this by ourselves but if we can begin now to reach out to other communities i tried this 15 years ago and was totally squashed like a bug by david

[05:37:50] toscano who said he wasn't going to work on it but if i got all the support lined up he would carry i said well that's your job why am i doing your job but anyway that was how little he really cared about how county which is sad but that's the truth um so anyway we'll have to do a lot of work on that and i'm sure that there will be quite a bit of resistance no doubt maybe not as much as the other topic on my mind which is the sludge bill that lots of support on both sides of the aisle in the general assembly this year and amy law first bill was passed and is i think there's

[05:38:25] an email somewhere floating around that bill fritz sent out about work that they're beginning to do to think about how to implement that which is great and the different opportunities it does not require county money because we can leverage leak and assign fees to landowners who are applying to take it and to distributors and recoup the testing fee. That way, if we need to, all sorts of alternatives exist. So that's really great. But another very important element of the SWAC meeting was from Jeff Dumars, who talked about the remastering of FES and the climate program and environmental program. And that was just hair on fire exciting. His presentation was

[05:39:04] great. And I look forward to him presenting to everybody here or sending something out in writing when that's ready. And our ABC conference will be probably the last Friday in September, so we don't have a topic yet, but think about that. Thank you very much. So to close the door on the support for the Virginia Bottle Bill, you're asking that this be added to our legislative agenda?

[05:39:26] I think we should all be thinking about that, and please put it on the list for consideration as we get ready to do legislative, because I know that happens very quickly all of a sudden, and so I don't want to lose track of these kinds of threads. Do you need anything firmer than that for direction? If the board is in consensus on that, we can certainly add.

[05:39:43] Is there any objection to adding that to the legislative process for the coming cycle? It looks like there's support for that. Okay. Very good, thank you. You mentioned the sludge thing is playing around. And that's been passed, and we'll just be dealing with how we're going to deal with that themselves.

[05:39:59] There are lots more rounds that have to happen, for sure. Thank you. All I was going to mention about the TJPDC meeting was the, it's budget time there too. It's about a $19 million budget, which is actually a lot lower than it has been.

[05:40:18] But most of the budget at TJPDC are pass-through dollars. And what you're not seeing pass-through anymore are VODI and the broadband initiative is declining off because the work's completing. But even at the $19 million, most of that, it's about $1.5 million, $2 million is the actual TJPDC.

[05:40:35] so the rest is still passed through dollars. Cigarette tax, that's the one I don't, I should have probably made the report on, but I feel like I did that just in the fall. What I'll do is I'll send the, we got a presentation on the tax. We always get an annual presentation on cigarette tax.

[05:40:51] That keeps kind of grabbing other counties and other jurisdictions that come in. So sometimes the numbers, when you look at them, look like, oh, well, look at all the money that's coming in or all the packs that are selling, But they do get, it's not a definite year over year, but the presentation would show you for Albemarle specifically what both the income, the monies that are coming from it, but also the packs that are getting purchased in Albemarle.

[05:41:18] And you can kind of do a comparison to the other jurisdictions. So I'll just make sure I send that presentation to you. But that's all I was going to mention from the PDC. I would just add on the cigarette tax, I think the more interesting conversation that came out of that is that there's not really a controlling mechanism for how big that board can get, and the region is not particularly prescribed or defined.

[05:41:43] So there might come an inflection point in the near future as to how feasible it is that TJPDC continue to be the fiscal agent for that organization. do they get agency fee three percent of everything for management i'm blanking on how it works but there's just a question of whether or not you need a whole fte no no the cost yeah the cost comes before the money gets distributed back to the localities because then it's just based on your what you do but then you get the cost um i forget i think i thought it was the cost were

[05:42:18] just spread but it may have to do with the volume of and spread and i could find that out it may even be in the presentation but it's not coming out of christine's budget no that's the dollars the revenue that come in from the tax pay for all the costs to administer the program then the remainder gets spread back out to the jurisdictions is there any chance of or would they advocate for being able to increase the cigarette tax the tax rate is capped and i know it's capped i don't you mean for the legislator legislature i mean we could i mean that's up to us to decide if we

[05:42:51] wanted to go for that the counties that are in there not all are at the max rate so like the ones in the cigar in the Blue Ridge board all if you have to stay within the confines of what the state has limited but not all in our in that tax border at the same rate many are at lower rates than we are because the board sets it for their own jurisdiction worth the max right I thought we were but then somebody made a comment in that presentation that maybe led me to believe that

[05:43:26] maybe we're not i thought city is i know but i'm pretty sure the city i'll i'll confirm that because that actually popped in that meeting when i went somebody and i might have just misheard them because i believed we were at the max and then that comment came up so i'll double check any other items the only thing i would add is that um what you just said about the cost recovery for the cigarette tax admin what popped into my mind was the the fees for community development is exactly why they need to be going up with the cost of living as is proposed so that the general

[05:44:03] taxpayer is not paying for all the services that benefit the development all right um just real quick so that the board the rest of the supervisors know what to expect next wednesday supervisor malik and i have an npo meeting at 4 p.m it's virtual so we'll be here in the building online. Supervisor Malik will be to this meeting by five. I'm the chair of the MPO, so my plan is that the action items or some of those things are not completed by that time, that I will remain and finish that meeting, and Vice Chair Missel will get the budget meeting started. I don't expect that

[05:44:42] I'll be very far past five, but just so you know why I'm not sitting here, if that's the case, is I'm still in the office on the MPO meeting. Cool. All right. With that, if there is no objection, the board will adjourn to April 22nd, 2026, 5 p.m. here in Lane Auditorium. And thank you, everybody.

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