Coraggio Consulting
Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors Meeting - February 25, 2026, Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Date: Wednesday, February 25, 2026
Place: Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 5h 20m (video)
Official meeting video (CivicClerk): https://chesterfieldcova.portal.civicclerk.com/event/2021/media
Official agenda (CivicClerk): https://chesterfieldcova.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=3884,plainText=false)
Official minutes (CivicClerk): https://chesterfieldcova.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=3935,plainText=false)

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 2026-10-24. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:01:57] Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the afternoon session on February 25th, Board of Supervisors' Meeting, Madam Clerk. Mr. Chair, the first item on the agenda is approval of minutes for the January 28th Board of Supervisors' Meeting. Thank you, Madam Clerk.

[00:02:15] Could I please... Motion approved. And can I get a second? Any discussion on that? All in favor? Aye. Item two, request to postpone agenda items and additions, deletions, or changes in the order of presentation. staff has no requests. Item three, Everyday Excellence, Dr. Casey. Good afternoon, members of the board and the public that's here and the public that is watching. Again, one of the nice traditions we started a few years back is recognizing our really unsung frontline employees and all the good deeds that they do, sometimes directly to a citizen, sometimes directly to

[00:02:52] support staff and or to others. Today is no different. So with us today and something we've done in the last few years as well in this particular meeting is recognize the Public Utilities Employee of the Year and so today we have someone who's a behind-the-scenes person a quiet person who's been here with us for many many years and and I've really enjoyed getting to know her but she brings over 40 years of experience so I'm not sure we made water and treated sewer the same way back then but you've seen it all but having said that Matt Rembold our our director who will recognize a little bit more formally as the new director uh before his budget

[00:03:31] presentation but without further ado uh mr rembold thank you dr casey good afternoon mr chairman members of board of supervisors jesse dr casey i'm matt rembold director of utilities and i'm honored to be here this afternoon to recognize the utilities department's 2025 employee of the year first let me express my sincere gratitude to the board for your continued support of the department That support has allowed us to attract and retain over 300 of the industry's most talented water and wastewater professionals.

[00:04:05] Your leadership in making Chesterfield an employer of choice empowers our team to deliver exceptional public service and exceed our customers' expectations. This afternoon, I have the privilege to introduce someone who truly embodies that spirit of public service, our 2025 Employee of the Year, Beth Carroll.

[00:04:22] For those who may not know Beth, she serves as a senior administrative support specialist within our engineering data management section in the department. Beth is one of our department's unsung heroes. With more than 40 years of experience in Chesterfield County, she knows our people, our processes, and our systems better than anyone.

[00:04:43] And more importantly, she's always eager to help, to share her knowledge, and remove administrative burdens from those that she's working with. Her contributions go far beyond the desk. At department-wide events, Beth is often the first person you see greeting attendees, ensuring everything runs smoothly and even registering guests for door prizes.

[00:05:01] She brings that same enthusiasm to every challenge, often taking on responsibilities that exceed the expectations of her position, such as reviewing technical documents and providing quality assurance reviews of easement drawings and our GIS system. Beth's service-minded approach extends across the entire department.

[00:05:19] She regularly assists staff in other sections and has personally trained new administrative support specialists In everything from purchase orders and invoice processing to travel requests and expense reports. When Workday was rolled out, Beth became one of our key resources, learning the system and then training others in its use effectively.

[00:05:37] If there's a task to be done, Beth is the person we can count on to make it happen. In a department filled with deserving employees, being nominated by her peers and selected by a panel of previous employees of the year is a remarkable honor. Beth exemplifies the dedication and excellence that strengthen our team every day.

[00:05:58] On a personal note, I'll say it, when I joined the department eight years ago, Beth was one of the first employees that ever greeted me as I came through the door with a box of documents of every policy, procedure, person, plan, program that I needed to know, and she handed it to me in what should have been an overwhelming and unwelcoming experience.

[00:06:18] But she smiled and said, Matt, I'm here to help. If there's anything I can do to make your transition to Chesterfield better, let me know. It stuck with me. Beth's a tremendous person, tremendous asset. I was surprised to learn that this is the first time in 41 years that she has won this award.

[00:06:34] Fantastic employee. Wish we had a whole team of Beth Carols on the team. And with that, I'd like to invite Beth to share a few words with the board. Thank you. Thank you so much, Matt. Thank you for your kind words. Good afternoon, everyone.

[00:06:50] I have had the honor and the privilege of working for Chesterfield County for 41 years, I'm truly grateful to be here today. Thank you, Dr. Casey, Mr. Jesse Smith, and members of the board for recognizing your employees for their everyday excellence. It's especially meaningful to have Dr.

[00:07:11] Casey here today to share this honor with me before he leaves. I want to sincerely thank the entire utilities management team for creating a positive and supportive work environment. Please know that your support and the way you celebrate our efforts, from everyday encouragement to the annual Employee of the Year ceremony we hold every year truly inspires us to give our best.

[00:07:38] This recognition today would not have been possible without the support, collaboration, and assistance from my colleagues and team. Thanks to each and every one of you for being such an important part of my achievement. I would also like to give my sincere thanks to Mr. Rimbold, with whom I have had the pleasure of working for the past eight years.

[00:08:02] It makes this recognition more meaningful that as director, he knows my work and is the one speaking on my behalf. Thank you to my assistant director, Mike Nannery, for the guidance, support, and confidence you have given me over the past 10 years.

[00:08:19] Your encouragement in me, especially in those meetings, when I struggled to articulate what I was trying to say, means more to me than you'll ever do. Thank you for everything you've done for me, and I'm grateful to have learned from you along the way.

[00:08:34] Thank you, John Harmon, former real property manager, for hiring me in utilities in 1993. I would not have had my 41-year career with Chesterfield County without you, and I tell him that whenever I see him.

[00:08:52] I also want to express my gratitude to Lynn Snow, current real property manager. I first met her 41 years ago when I began as a deputy circuit court clerk. And even though we've worked together on and off since then, it's reassuring to know that she's still supporting me.

[00:09:08] Thank you, Chris Cook, engineering data manager. You have been far more to me than a supervisor. You're a treasured advisor in front. Over the past 20 years, your guidance and support has helped me to get through quite a few challenges that we've had to face together.

[00:09:26] I'm truly grateful for everything I've learned from you, for your thoughtful leadership. I'm sorry, I truly mean these words. It's not just, you know, wordsmith. I truly appreciate your leadership and for the effect you've had on me during my time with utilities.

[00:09:44] It's been an honor and a pleasure to work with you. And lastly, I want to express my gratitude to Kevin Carroll, Mutajka District Supervisor for 40 years. You have been a source of support and a guiding light through both challenges and triumphs.

[00:10:02] I am truly grateful. In closing, I just want to say that I will continue to bring my dedication, energy, and positive attitude to everything I do. Thank you for listening to me. I'm not used to this.

[00:10:36] Like I said, I'm behind the scenes. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. I'll start off with, you're not planning on going anywhere, are you?

[00:10:59] No, I'm not. I don't know if that sounded like a good vibe. It kind of sort of did, so I was just making sure you weren't going in that direction. We do appreciate your work over the years, and we appreciate everything you've done to help utilities stay as a top-rated department in Chesterfield County with fantastic customer service to all of our residents.

[00:11:25] And with all of the different areas you've worked in, thank you. Thank you for what you do. Thank you very much. Jessica? Well, I'm so glad to have finally met you in person.

[00:11:43] and this is it's obvious that you care deeply about the work that you do and all the people that you work with and that's so important to make those connections it makes work so much more enjoyable and and fruitful and and we are so grateful for all that you do for the county and have done for 41 years that's amazing thank you thank you very much so uh i met you I met you.

[00:12:14] I was going to say the same thing, Dr. By accident. So I knock at doors. I called the board when I met you because I was so excited. And just the conversation that you had that day and the enthusiasm that you have for working at the county is inspiring.

[00:12:35] And it's something that I know we have in common. And I appreciate just your emotion. Because I get emotional when I talk about the county and what we do and what the employees of the county mean to the citizens.

[00:12:50] And it's just amazing to see you, to talk to you. And I'm glad I knocked on your door that day. Yeah, me too. I've been going around knocking on all the doors in the county and just passing out my business card and letting people know how to get in touch with me if they need me and introducing myself and just happenstance knocked on your door.

[00:13:13] And it was it was amazing. So thank you so much for your inspiring story and just ask you continue to support us in everything that you do and continue to inspire us. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm glad to be your supervisor.

[00:13:29] Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm so happy for you. You know, you've been a wonderful employee. We both know that ever since you started in the circuit court.

[00:13:48] And John made a very wise decision by hiring you many, many, many years ago. And this is not the first time you've actually been put in for employee of the year. It's just the first time that you've actually won it. I know how lucky they are.

[00:14:05] And you know if you never did anything from me, all you have to do is pick up the phone and call. Congratulations. It's absolutely well-deserved. Thank you very much. And you're not supposed to make everybody cry up here, but you did. Thank you. It was very heartfelt. Thank you.

[00:14:21] Well, Beth, congratulations. Thank you. Hey, John, you changed people's lives, man. You have. And that's really what it's about. I mean, when you were going through with Matt and Mike and with Lynn and with Chris and, of course, with Kevin, is that in so many ways I hear it over and over again for the folks that work here.

[00:14:44] it's a family it's work family but it's family but this is a family we choose in so many ways and we go and live it every day and when it gets into your heart soul and into your dna it just it is who you are and so congratulations thank you for everything that you've given your heart your soul, your life, to Chesterfield, and we're so much better for it.

[00:15:12] Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you again so much. It's an honor.

[00:15:25] Small token from us.

[00:15:53] Those mean a lot to us in the military, those challenged ones. Yes, I know, absolutely. And they mean a lot to local government, so thank you for everything. Thank you. I was wondering if you were going to remember me because I didn't want to say anything if you didn't remember me. No, I didn't. I came on the spot. You will remember that.

[00:16:09] Thank you so much. You made my day that day. Okay, thank you all. Bye-bye. Item four, work sessions. A, state legislative update. Ms. Spillman and Ms. Walker.

[00:16:34] Good afternoon, everyone. Members of the board, Dr. Casey, Mr. Rinks. We're happy to be with you all in Chesterfield. So, thank you. Today is day 17 that remains left of this long 2026 General Assembly session.

[00:16:52] We are. crossover took place about a week ago last Tuesday February 17th on Sunday the Monday committees met to present their respective proposed budgets those half sheets were published yesterday around noon and so we're still coming through those details but Miss Walker here will give you an update this afternoon on the information that we have sorted through and then I'm going to go through a couple of the highlight priority bills that we've been tracking for you all in response to where we were last month and what's happened to them now. So a number of those bills

[00:17:26] have failed. And there's quite a few ways for a bill to be killed. They can be tabled. They can be continued. They can be passed by indefinitely. They can be left behind in a committee. So you'll hear a couple of those terms. Senator Survelle's SB 228, which was a waiver of sovereign immunity, has failed. It was continued to 2027. Senator Marsden's, both of his local juvenile detention bills have failed. Senator Favola's SB90 that would have required the extension for maintenance of effort to English language learners, at-risk add-ons, and special education

[00:18:01] was continued. The teacher salary bill to national average was continued. The bill which would have required local governing bodies to meet or exceed the funding levels that were set out in the school board's needs-based budget was left behind in committee. Even though it had been converted to a study. It's no longer anything that's viable. The comprehensive overhaul to taxation changes across the Commonwealth, that was HB 900 and 978, were both continued to next year, along with bills that would have eliminated the additional sales tax on groceries. The study to eliminate the car

[00:18:36] tax was continued. Delegate Martinez, HB 518, which would have mandated localities to require ADUs as accessory uses has been continued, as well as Delegate Cohen's ADU bill. That has also been continued. Senator Van Valkenburgh's housing targets bill was stricken from the docket by the patron. Delegate Helmer has the cognate in the House that has yet to have action taken on it, but we expect it will receive the same fate. The adequate public facilities bill that Senator Sturtevant had carried, unfortunately, died in committee, was passed by indefinitely.

[00:19:13] The bills related to VRS enhanced benefits for 9-1-1 dispatchers have all failed this year. There's no good explanation. All of the House bills never even got a hearing, which is in complete contrast to where we were last year, where these bills actually ended up on the governor's desk.

[00:19:28] The Senate bill got a hearing, but it was voted to be continued. So that's not even a topic this year. Delegate Tata's bill that would have created the centralized intake and validity for child abuse and neglect was laid on the table and Maldonado's HB 1314 that would have created new causes of action against police and supervisors was also continuing to next session. So while a number of the big problematic bills have died, there's still some significant ones lingering out there of which collective bargaining ranks pretty high. And so just want to take a moment and recognize

[00:20:07] you all on your leadership with this topic. So with the article that was published on Monday, we have continued to receive a lot of feedback and appreciation and support for, again, your leadership on that topic. It's significant. You know, as one of the core principles for what we do, the work that we take down to the General Assembly is protecting local authority. And from this standpoint, this is an unfunded mandate that puts an extreme amount of pressure on localities and extreme fiscal implications downstream, you know, now and into the future for the burden that

[00:20:42] it creates for our taxpayers. With that, you know, we're hearing that it's going to make it out. It's going to be pushed to the governor's desk for her consideration. And so to the extent that there's folks who don't know how to reach out to the governor's office, we're happy to help connect them. This is a huge risk for localities across the Commonwealth. I just want to remind folks that the state in 2020 gave localities that authority to enact collective bargaining agreements. And so that option exists. There's about 17 localities across the state that have

[00:21:16] executed those agreements. What this legislation does implicates them in a particular position for what's already out there. And so this is very problematic. Again, if you've got folks in constituents whomever we're happy to help make those connections to the governor's office doesn't this also make those 17 jurisdictions have to start over from scratch and the work that they've done is thrown out that's correct even the city's getting ready city of richmond who's got collective bargaining is i believe getting ready to pen a letter similar to ours

[00:21:52] because of the situation leaves them in which doesn't even make any sense they've already got it. And now they have to start over. And I just, you know, on the topic too, in 2020, when the state authorized this legislation for localities, they selected to exempt themselves from that legislation. And so they could have provided themselves with that opportunity. They are mandating this, not only on localities, state employees, but they've exempted higher education for the cost. They've exempted hospital employees and workers for the cost. So they recognize that

[00:22:28] There is a cost to deliver this, but yet are still pushing this on localities as an unfunded mandate. And our cost is about approximately $0.28 on the real estate tax rate. It's equivalent to that. Isn't that correct?

[00:22:44] Yes, that's correct. About $0.28 on an $0.89 residential tax rate or real estate tax rate. It would be another $0.28. I just want that to sink in. That's like a 33% increase in taxes.

[00:23:04] That's gigantic. Just to continue with that theme and where Ms. Spillman mentioned before is the example of the enhanced benefit, Leo's, for the 911 dispatchers, animal control officers, and juvenile detention officers is something that we've been asking the state repeatedly for because that is a benefit that we think is worthy.

[00:23:26] Staff has given us the input. You as a board has given concurrence, and it almost is the fool me once, fool me twice statement because what it was a simple ask for just local opinion whether we should fund ourselves at a higher rate and you know and calculate it out you all were accommodating to what that budget impact would be you know the word is that the state has been rejecting this to staff only because they don't want necessarily burden their 9-1-1 state dispatchers with a cost and and we're like you don't have to we just want a local option for ourselves so much so we're done knocking on a door that we thought would open for us and just not to get ahead of ourselves, but for

[00:24:04] the March 11th budget, we're putting aside that money in an equivalent, you know, deferred compensation account equal to what we otherwise would be paying BRS for our own employees to have that benefit, but then, to Mr. Engel's point, these things with collective bargaining, you just can't have that nicety arrangement as much as you would with employees in the future of trying to enhance something without going through many more protocols and perhaps barriers.

[00:24:29] So I'm just giving that as one illustration of something. We're working around a system, but the system may be coming down on top of us to prevent even common sense. Well, the other issue, Joe, is that collective bargaining doesn't deal with VRS, right?

[00:24:44] It's a state issue. So there would be no collective bargaining even included in this to even solve that issue because it's one of those things that you can't collective bargaining for unless you're in one of the few jurisdictions of Virginia that has a private retirement system, which are far, I think there's only two maybe left, maybe Arlington, I think is one in Fairfax, right?

[00:25:05] So, so very, so it's not even an issue for collective bargaining and the fiscal impact of the state was negligible. It's just, I'm not sure why they didn't move this, but I do have a question. How about, I think it's still in committee.

[00:25:20] I think it's been reported Senate bill 454. Sorry, I'm getting there. All right. You ready to move on? No, let's move on. Any other comments on collective bargaining from the board? I just want to make a point in that after that got published, I got a text that said I was anti-worker, and I just was blown away that that's what I would get because clearly it was a misunderstanding, a fundamental misunderstanding of what we were requesting.

[00:25:48] What we were requesting is, in many ways, exactly the opposite, which was for us to be able to maintain control from what the legislation was in 2020 on a local level. That's what it is. And it gets conflated to this much bigger issue that somehow, against anti-union, against, I mean, it just doesn't make any sense.

[00:26:10] And I am just so profoundly proud of this board that we were willing to take a stand on this and to be able to say, you know what? This is an opportunity to make sure that we are able to really, truly represent our workers.

[00:26:25] and represent our teachers, represent our firefighters. That's what this was about, and to be there for them instead of this unfunded mandate coming from the state that was going to fundamentally change our relationship with them. So thank you for all your hard work on this, too.

[00:26:43] One last comment on that, Mr. Chair. Yes. Look, you know, we've put a pay plan in place just for public safety. We'll talk about that for a second. That is extremely competitive in the market that we're in. If you look at the employee satisfaction surveys that have come in, we've won awards for that last three years in a row.

[00:27:04] That's not something we did the study on. It was an outside agency that did the study on that. And so we've done a lot of other things from a benefit package with all the pay studies that we've done for all of our county employees and the pay plans, the career development, our teachers. We've addressed this over these last two board cycles.

[00:27:23] For the previous board in this board to make sure that we are compensating our employees The way we should be and including with several different leave options for you know maternity leave and other things We've added in that quite frankly if you added if you would initiate collective bargaining There's not much left to collect a bargain for quite frankly And so anyway, I think that we're not anti-union here. We're not anti-employee by far And I think this board has shown that by the way we actually treat our employees.

[00:28:00] All right. So I would say probably of equal importance and priority is SB 454 and Delegate Helmers Cognate, which is HB 318. And so these are the by right multifamily bills that would just be problematic in the biggest possible way.

[00:28:18] They work to effectively eviscerate zoning in our localities, and they would allow for multifamily across the board. And so what that does is establishes just sheer chaos. There's no other way to put it. It's catastrophic to the locality as we know it today.

[00:28:35] It basically, as I said, eviscerates zoning, but doesn't give us any control. The level of uncertainty that it creates is astonishing. And so there's been a lot of conversation been going on. The bill has now been passed by for the week, the last past two weeks, expecting it to come back up in committee either tomorrow morning at sub, CCT sub two, or it's going to be Friday morning.

[00:28:59] We're still waiting for the agendas to pop. Again, there's been a lot of conversation. There's a lot of push from behind the scenes to have these patrons get these bills through in some form or fashion. So again, on this topic, we're having conversation with the governor's office because it's critical that they understand the significance and the implications that this puts on our localities.

[00:29:20] The conversations that we've been having have been, you know, to the extent, again, local authority matters, having the ability to engage the public matters and being able to have a ordinance, a comp plan, those things would be irrelevant in the light of this bill passing.

[00:29:38] So you've done a lot of work. We've done a lot of work in this space. Quite frankly, Chesterfield's been contributing to the solution and what has been identified as the housing crisis across the country. And so to the extent that we need to be getting credit for that, this bill does not allow us to have that opportunity.

[00:29:56] So keep you all posted and see where things are going to land as that continues to move. Mr. Chair, this bill, these pieces of legislation are a fundamental problem that's happened in 33 states across the United States.

[00:30:12] And I'm sure that our land use attorneys could opine to the legality of zoning and why it originated. But there was a federal U.S. Supreme Court case, I think in 1910, Euclid, I think was the name of it. Jeff, am I right on what I'm saying here? And that case pretty much decided that the localities and states have the right to actually set up laws to govern zoning and land use in the United States of America.

[00:30:41] And it's a landmark case that they're trying to erase. And what they don't understand, comprehensively, is that if you don't have the ability to manage your land use, people think that we've fallen behind in Chesterwood County on our infrastructure now.

[00:31:00] We've made strides to get caught up in the last six to seven years. If you start allowing multifamily to pop up, 75% of the land that's already zoned for commercial or single-family residential or multifamily use, as this is listed, it will create a huge problem, not just in Chesterfield County, but everywhere.

[00:31:26] And it's a problem. And it's a philosophical attack, quite frankly, across the United States. It's not the way to solve the problem. You cannot build your way out of an affordability issue.

[00:31:41] Yes, it will help in the short term if you start popping multifamily up everywhere, perhaps with rents. But in the long term, it's going to create a much bigger problem that the localities are not going to be funded to handle. And so if you're watching out there, if anybody's watching out there, if you're worried about what could happen in Chesterfield County, you need to contact the governor's office, and you need to contact your senator's office and your House of Delegates' office, and you need to call them every day, all day long, 24 hours a day, 365 days to let them know this is going on and tell them no.

[00:32:15] And if you shut their phones down where they can't do business, they actually might pay attention. Thank you, Dr. Miller. I just, I usually don't echo in on these, but just to reinforce that. An example, what the state was trying to do is maybe look at a few localities that may not do anything in regards to housing, get lump in the entire 136 cities and counties across the Commonwealth.

[00:32:41] You know, the math person to me says, you know, our commercial corridors exist for a purpose. That's where the goods and services of the people needed are. Housing is a better profit margin than commercial by nature. So it's not only creating a housing crisis to come in.

[00:33:00] Where they're going to go to is they're going to go to good quality of life communities first. They're not going to set up and create these profit margins in other communities that they may have even wanted to try and target with this bill, quite frankly. And then there are other ramifications before overwhelming us with the services needs of people, which, again, we try and moderate through zoning practices and whatnot, you invariably could very well see our butcher, baker, candlestick maker, mom-and-pop stores all getting displaced, becoming residential, and people then having to traverse farther on roads and so forth to get needed services.

[00:33:38] Because, again, the underlying property value of residential and profit margins by far is greater than commercial. And the bill doesn't address any of that impact whatsoever. Yeah, to be clear, there's no, it doesn't provide protections for businesses that are in place.

[00:33:56] It doesn't provide protections for business-ready sites. So to the extent that the upper mag we have going on and, you know, pursuit of new development happening out there in a focused area, that could be developed for multifamily. So we have vocalized all of these concerns and challenges.

[00:34:12] The state has made investments in those business-ready sites. And so you're wiping the slate on that. There's also no affordability specifically described about in the bill. So it doesn't address that either. I actually was just meeting with a developer about a large piece of land that they were wanting to designate.

[00:34:36] It's right now agricultural and they want to designate like two thirds of it into commercial corridor. And I'm just I'm hesitant to even think about doing that just because of what it could mean should this go through.

[00:34:53] And so I just think that it's making us to have to pump the brakes on a lot of things that, you know, might be in the works and being put forward to planning because I just think that it's opening up the door to, given the fact that there's no guidelines or restrictions or density or material mandates, et cetera, on the quality, I think it just opens the door for developers that are not of the best um ethics maybe to come in and build things that are

[00:35:28] not um what we are used to as far as standards and qualities so just to make their money and run so thank you mr chairman just just one other point too and that it doesn't just affect all the jurisdictions it affects virtually every zoning category that we have so when talking about agricultural property it actually applies to agricultural property as well so it's commercial it's agricultural. There was some some talk about industrial being being taken out of the mix but

[00:36:02] that's a very very small percentage of our property. Agricultural is a very large percentage of our property and and if that all of a sudden becomes by right converted to residential be a totally different way of looking at planning in this county. Wouldn't one of the only recourses for the county to protect itself be to increase our utility connection fees to the point that nobody can afford them at all so that nothing can be built?

[00:36:35] What's that? No, yeah, there will be real needs within the utility area should there be expansion like that, yes. So, yeah.

[00:36:52] I'm sorry, and Mr. Mix can correct me, but there's actually code provisions about actually how high you can make a connection fee. So you can't be punitive in that line of business. It cannot be punitive, but you can indeed deal with the costs as they might arise because of unplanned growth in various areas.

[00:37:11] Just for the board, anyone else comments? I just want to make a couple of comments in that back to the local control, because if there's something that we have a commercial property, which is in my district, I approved apartments for them and they're sitting on it.

[00:37:30] They're not even doing anything. It's been sitting around for two and a half years and I've already approved it. So that says something right there where we already believe that maybe there are some places where that could occur, but that doesn't mean it should be a blanket where it could be everywhere. And it's really, for me, the crux of the argument is that it's so important that the local and the state work together.

[00:37:51] So if they have an idea and they think it might be something worth putting in legislation for, to take a moment and talk to people and to see if on the local level, if they have no experience working on the local level, then they don't understand the unintended consequences as a result.

[00:38:07] And that's what's happening here is it appears that the patron just isn't interested in even having a conversation. They're convinced that they have a solution to the affordability issue, but what they'll end up doing is completely undermining it. so that's where the challenge is so uh it's been a huge amount of frustration i think on our parts that this is still hanging out there mr carroll mr chair there are those in the community who believe that all we do is just try and get new development approved in chestville county and just bring people in the build build build build build and quite frankly if that was the case we

[00:38:44] shouldn't have taken the position that we did we shouldn't be against this at all we should be able to say, you know what? The state passed this. It's by right. There's nothing we can do about it. It's not our fault. It's a politician's dream. If you want to have development and you don't want to have any accountability for it, you get to pass the buck on this. And I'm not sure if there's somewhere else in the state that asked them to do this for that reason. But I want the people in Chesterfield County to understand we're opposing this. And so if you think that we are only going out trying to get everybody to come and build here for no reason at all, that's not the case.

[00:39:19] If so, then we should go, yes, pass this, and we have the ability to punt on everything. And I wanted to make sure that people in the community understand that. That's why we're opposing this, because it destroys the ability to have a comprehensive plan.

[00:39:35] You might as well just take the code that requires one and throw it out. I'm just going to hit a couple more and then turn it over to Casey for a quick review of some budget highlights. So speed cameras has been another hot topic again this session. the waiver to sovereign immunity, that language has been stricken from the bills that are out there. There's still about five different bills that have yet to be incorporated between the House and the Senate. And so tomorrow afternoon, the House bills will be up in Senate transportation, expect to be some incorporation there. There is some other language we're just evaluating as I was sitting here, got some insight into new enforcement language that holds the vendors

[00:40:11] responsible and provides accountability on their end. So some other attorneys are looking at that. The local 1% for sales tax on school construction, the House bill has gone through. The Senate bill failed, but there was language included in the Senate budget. The Senate budget language, however, is very restrictive.

[00:40:28] And so it does not allow for use on debt service. It has non-supplanting language. You have to execute funds in a very extremely tight time period. And so like the Senate budget, Casey, we'll get into this. It's more of a vibe than an actual presentation of what we expect things to land in.

[00:40:47] And so it's the start for the negotiation, which we expect to be heavy to get closer to what the House has presented, which provides much more flexibility for the use of those funds. The retail market for cannabis is passing. There are different versions, and so that will go to conference, and where that lands will keep you all updated.

[00:41:04] And then one last thing for me is the House and Senate bills that had the additional judgeships. They did include one position each in General District and JDR, and there is funding in both the House and Senate budgets to support those two additional positions.

[00:41:22] I'll turn it over to Ms. Walker. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the board. I will try and keep this brief. As Natalie mentioned, they released their half sheets yesterday, and I think when I did my initial review I flagged about 40 on each side, and I will now read you each one. Just kidding.

[00:41:38] They are about a billion dollars apart on the House and Senate. The Senate is higher. driving that difference is the Senate found 500 million in the couch cushions that the House did not find. Expecting that to be a topic of negotiation between the two, I think that's one of the vibes that we're picking up on. Might be more of a negotiation tactic than an actual expectation of half a billion dollars. And in addition to that, the Senate also removed the exemption on data center sales and use tax. So that alone would generate 1.1 billion dollars in additional revenue so that's that being on the senate side but not the house side

[00:42:15] you're going to see a lot of major arguments we heard rumors for the first time today that disagreements on that could extend session so we've got our fingers crossed that that does not happen moving into compensation topics for both teachers state employees and state supported locals the house has two percent salary increases in for each year of the biennium the senate boosts that to 3% for everybody except for state-supported locals. This is in distinction to the Caboose budget, which has already been approved. The Caboose budget had $1,500 flat for all teachers and state employees. They did leave 2% on the state-supported locals. And I'll just mention

[00:42:55] that the teacher's element of that has some flexibility on the timing. That could go either this fiscal year or next fiscal year. The 2% for state-supported locals, there's no flexibility on the timing it's just two percent do it this year you don't get it but they claim they put two percent in but just in Chesterfield County for the math their two percent is actually um probably about 0.8 percent and the county has to pick up 1.2 percent to make any of those things

[00:43:31] happen and there's a significant price tag on that as well so um we're not even sure if they offer it that we can even accept it because of the cost to the county especially if they put some of these other things in that are going to already put severe problems into the budget so um i just want to make sure people understand that yes they're they're saying that they'll take credit for offering the whole two percent but if you look at their budget they don't even fund it at the full 2% or they don't even fund it at what they would do because they know that many jurisdictions

[00:44:10] aren't going to be able to take the money. And so they offer it out, but they don't even fully fund it at what they would have to pay because they know jurisdictions are going to say no because they can't cover the additional costs. So I just think that that's some interesting way to put out that you're doing something to help education or the state-supported constitutional positions when you don't even actually put enough in to fund it, knowing that most jurisdictions or many jurisdictions are going to have to turn it down.

[00:44:48] So I just wanted to put that out there. And I'll just add, we've been advocating since the beginning of session or even before session started that that flexibility to be able to use these funds to support our states where locals and teachers is a priority for us so yeah maybe next year moving into the k-12 space the $1,500 bonus that's included in the caboose budget and just to reiterate that's that can be expended this fiscal year or next fiscal year that would amount to just under seven million dollars for Chesterfield in addition we're also receiving funds for SOQ instructional and support positions

[00:45:25] for the 2% raise that amounts to just over $7 million again. Then moving into other just items that they're funding in K-12 education, the house budget includes $400 million in a flexible supplement.

[00:45:43] The thing that's interesting about this is that it's tied to localities implementing the 2% raise. So if you implement the 2% raise, that for Chesterfield is worth just over $21 million in flexible funds. I don't know if that's actually going to materialize because that's not on the Senate side. So that's probably another negotiation topic as well, but that's something to be mindful of. And then the House also includes some special education add-on funds. This was one of the JLARC recommended topics, and that funding amounts to $3.8 million for Chesterfield. The Senate side has not released their tables of what

[00:46:19] their funding adjustments would equal for each locality yet. We're keeping an eye out for that, but we'll share it as soon as we receive it. They do include funds for at-risk add-on, the special education add-on, and increase the infrastructure and operations per pupil amounts, similar to what the House did. They're also using skill games funding for a lot of their K-12 education. Those topics are tied together in the Senate budget. And then, like Natalie mentioned, the 1% local sales tax referendum for school capital needs, that's in the Senate budget right now. Another one that's probably going off vibes, the fact that it's a House bill in the Senate

[00:46:54] budget, some friction there going to be solved in conference. Moving on to the SNAP topic, since I think that's another one of interest for folks. So the House assumes that our error rate will remain above 10% and they fully fund the new share. That's worth $211 million statewide, Whereas the Senate side assumes that we can get that error rate between 8% and 10%.

[00:47:22] Currently, the state's at 11%. So it's entirely possible that that's achievable. But just interesting to note the different assumptions that those two houses are making. In addition, they're also taking other funding actions to try and reduce the error rate.

[00:47:37] So both are including $2.4 million for a SNAP quality assurance team. And that team would be dedicated to getting that error rate down. In addition, the House has funding for quality control staff and other positions within the Department of Social Services, and the Senate side has a task force being created, probably doing a similar type of work, and $2 million to go to a vendor that's aimed at improving SNAP.

[00:48:05] So we're probably some disagreement on how to solve that issue, but both have money in the budget. It seems like they're taking this issue seriously. So the federal government mandating that we get below 6% or it's like la la land, there's no, I mean, and so I think that at VACO they had said that every 1% or every 1% that we get down, it's like 99 million.

[00:48:35] Is that what it was? I think it's a little bit more nuanced than that just because it's brackets of funds. So I don't think a 1% is going to immediately result. You kind of have to get below a certain threshold to start seeing benefits. Because the 6% is a threshold of where we would get fully funded by the federal, yes.

[00:48:51] Yeah, thanks. Just to let you know, too, the initial look-back period, I think, goes back to October 1st of 2025. So, you know, in order even to get compliance at 6%, you would have to assume that we've been at 6% or lower for the last six months or so.

[00:49:09] So we're working hard with Akiva Rogers, Director of Social Services. They're very task-oriented. If it's a goal, if it's purposeful, incentive-based, Chesterfield can work towards that. But I just don't want to give the illusion, You know, they're going to already count the statistics that are in our rear view mirror as opposed to what we're looking at the windshield.

[00:49:29] And social services is working on this, taking it very seriously. But some of the challenges to them and some of the reason for the error rate changes is because for a good amount of time, especially during COVID, most of the information was supplied by the applicant.

[00:49:49] And there wasn't an ability to go behind that applicant and verify those details. And now they're being required to go behind the applicant and verify those details. So it's a change in policy. A lot of that change in policy has caused the error rate to be higher than it otherwise would, especially in Chesterfield County.

[00:50:11] So I think it's important that we understand that they're being judged in arrears on a policy that's changed. So what I do know is social services in Chesterfield County is working very diligently as we're one of the larger social services in the state.

[00:50:29] And they're looking, the state's looking to us because we do such a good job in so many ways to get our error rate down to help offset the error rate for the whole state. And the county social services is up to the task, but they have a lot of hoops to jump through to get started.

[00:50:48] So it's going to take a minute for them to get caught up with the policy changes. And just picking up on Mr. Ingle's point in that we could get the error rate down to 2%. If we got down there, we're also relying that other localities are going to be able to do and hold their responsibility also.

[00:51:07] And while I would hate for our folks to end up literally paying a price because other localities couldn't get their act together. So I think where there is a monster kind of collective holding of our breath, we're going to have to work together as a commonwealth to get it right so that we're able to take care of those that need it.

[00:51:29] And then just to close out the SNAP topic, the other side of that adjustment on the federal level is the administrative costs. And so I just wanted to mention the House budget, in addition to funding the state portion of those administrative costs, is also coming through and fully funding localities costs associated with that. The Senate side is funding the state portion. I'm not seeing that they're funding the locality side yet. So that's another topic to get worked out in conference.

[00:52:01] And just to close out, a couple of the topics that we discussed here today, like collective bargaining and then other compensation or labor-related topics, the paid family medical leave, paid sick leave, increasing the minimum wage, all of those topics also appeared in the budget on both sides, signaling that the state is serious about funding these topics. I just wanted to throw that out there as another signal that we're receiving from the state, another vibe we're getting from the Senate. You have all these details in your inbox. We'll probably be following up with some more details as we uncover them in the half sheets. The collective bargaining money

[00:52:37] they're putting in, though, that's just to get the state's board that's going to have to be in place to arbitrate in place. So it's most of these costs, I mean, I believe I've heard as many as six new county attorneys at the local level in Chesterfield County just to deal with collective bargaining. Like the cost, I would rather put the money into the people than the money into the process. And they're causing the money to have to go into the process. And that's just not a good

[00:53:11] way to deal with, to help our employees. Sorry. Just want to mention too, Richmond water infrastructure funding is in the Senate budget. There's a $50 million set aside with a minimum of $20 million to be allocated to Richmond water infrastructure. There's language that establishes a work group board to come together overseen by the state health commissioner. So I just had a conversation with the city of Richmond this afternoon and they're reviewing the language with their folks too and figuring out where things are going to land again it's a point of

[00:53:47] negotiation there's nothing in the house budget so they will need to put something in the house budget in order for it to be real it'll be item for conference um and then just yeah yeah the language specifically says that we are needing to be part of we are part of it yes so this is not it's a good clarifier right chesterfield henrico the language designates the administrator um from the localities of the city of Richmond, the counties of Henrico, Chesterfield, and Hanover, along with their utility director or designee to be part of the work group, along with a number of state agencies to be part of that group as well.

[00:54:25] Thank you, Dr. Casey. So just in closing, we've got about two and a half weeks to finish up. We'll keep you all apprised, keep you all posted as things are still progressing through and where we may need some additional shouting from the great locality from across the river to hear what's going on downtown. March 9th is the deadline to complete work on bills and so this week committees are finishing up. Early next week will be the final meetings.

[00:54:52] March 14th is when they're scheduled to adjourn and then April 22nd is reconvene session. Any additional questions? Thank you very much. I just want to make one final comment in that a deep appreciation to you Natalie both of you Casey for all the hard work that you're doing. I think that One of the things that folks don't realize or understand is when we were talking about the bill with regard to collective bargaining is I didn't think we'd be able to pull something together, and you did.

[00:55:25] You were able to pull together something for an op-ed, and it was just top-notch, and you did a great job of pulling that together. And with that also, I mean, even with that, folks, we were on the phone at probably 10, 30, 11 o'clock at night and back on the phone at 7 o'clock in the morning, just picking up where we left off.

[00:55:45] And this is not an 8 to 5, 9 to 5 job at all, especially this time of year. These are a lot of late nights and talking with folks and being able to get out there. So you two, fantastic. You're doing a great job, and we'll do the best that we can, and we'll see how this all plays out.

[00:56:03] We can't wait to be back here. I hear you. We'll welcome you back for sure. B, Richmond Region Tourism Update, Ms. O'Donnell.

[00:56:30] Good afternoon. My colleague, Danielle Fitzhugh, is also going to join us. Okay, good. I see we're up and running. Of the Bermuda District.

[00:56:47] I'm sorry. Oh, yes, Danielle, of the Bermuda District. Cheshire Field resident and EDA board member. Just across the road. Yes. Well, good afternoon, everyone. Mr. Chair, members of the board, Dr. Casey, thanks for having us for our annual regional tourism update.

[00:57:06] We love to come and share the good tourism news with all of you. As you all know, tourism is a powerful economic engine in our community that supports quality of life in all the places that we love about our region and the places we like to visit in 2024 visitors spent just under four billion dollars in our community which is an increase of nearly five percent over the previous calendar year we'll be getting the data for 2025 in the fall in our region it's just under 30,000 jobs that are supported of our friends and neighbors that work in our industry they're supported through tourism

[00:57:43] and for local taxes just under 300 million and as you all are aware regional tourism is our success. We have seven localities that make up the Richmond region. This works very well for us and has for more than 40 years because our visitors travel throughout our region. Our assets are spread across our localities and visitors do not really understand geographical boundaries. So this is a great model and has a lot to do with our success over the years. And this is a look back really from the previous fiscal year, but I did want to mention now that we are continuing

[00:58:18] very strongly and outpacing both the state and the nation when it comes to our performance in the hotel industry specifically, which is one of our key metrics, of course. And we continue to break records. Last year, we had 18 million visitors with about 38% overnight and the rest day trips. So we want more people spending the night to spend more money, but we are continuing to grow the number of visitors that come to our region every year. Chesterfield County had a strong year in 2024 with a 6.4 percent increase in visitor spending generating 31.5 million in

[00:58:55] local taxes and just about 6,500 jobs within the county. And I know you all are very aware from your team here at Experience Chesterfield and Play Chesterfield that sports tourism is a large piece of the group room nights that come into our region and this chart shows the breakdown of the pieces of business that Richmond region tourism touches on our sales team and sports continues to be a majority piece of that driven in in large part by the facilities and in particular in Chesterfield with the facility investment that you all have that really drives business

[00:59:35] so we continue to see great success there and appreciate the partnership with JC and the team to secure more business for the region but you also have meetings and conventions and we look forward to having even more of those speaking of facility development as more properties come online particularly the mondel hotel which will be able to host larger conventions in chesterfield you can see here the for chesterfield specifically the number of leads which are basically the opportunities for us to host meetings and conventions and then booked room nights and

[01:00:10] attendees and estimated economic impact so the breakout between meetings and conventions and sports as well as the impacts so 20 meetings and conventions with 18 million in economic impact and 37 sports events with 41 million so it's a great breakout and we foresee more of that coming as more properties open up in chesterfield because of the additional funding for richmond region tourism through the tourism improvement district we're able to advertise year-round now we're in our third year of the tid and we are able to spend over two million dollars in advertising again pooling the money through the region to promote the entire region we are on all the channels

[01:00:50] digital radio streaming regional commercials billboards pretty much any way you can be we want to be reaching travelers and what we call travel and tenders we've moved away from targeting geographic markets to targeting behavioral patterns of people who are mostly online expressing intent to travel in destinations like Richmond or the Richmond region or looking for things that we have.

[01:01:16] And so we're able to really target people who are traveling tenders for our destination. We wrapped up our Speeds for Itself campaign in December. This was the one that started out of the ARP funding, ARPA funding a few years ago that we then continued to fund. And again, it just really raised the profile of the Richmond region as a destination of choice.

[01:01:36] This year we've pulled some specific results for Chesterfield County. These are all TID campaigns, so funded through the Tourism Improvement District. We run several different campaigns, different times of year. And you can see the total lodging bookings for the county as well as the total estimated economic impact over a million dollars just from TID campaigns.

[01:01:59] And this represents about 25 to 30 percent of what's trackable. So the providers that we use are able to track about a quarter of it based on people's security profile settings and such and what they allow. And so it's a pretty conservative estimate of the impact of the advertising that we're able to do for Chesterfield.

[01:02:21] Sure, sure. We have a mimosa trail here in the Richmond region that we've been promoting for a couple of years now. This is the first ever that we're aware of mimosa trail in the United States.

[01:02:37] It's sort of like a sister idea compared to the beer trail, which has been around in the Richmond region for a number of years. Just an idea of another way to distinguish the Richmond region for travelers. And so any restaurant that has mimosas that they want to feature can be on the trail.

[01:02:54] And then they are listed on the website. And there is an advertising campaign targeting people who are likely to drink mimosas. Yeah. Yes, please. So just for instance, Riptides, which is down the street, serves a flight of mimosas and is listed on our trail.

[01:03:09] She may or may not have experienced that. One fun example we have this year of something we did new through the TID was a program called Carvertise. This was in D.C. during a major world event, World Pride, and through the month of June, where we wrapped cars with our branding and our messaging, and they were used as Uber and Lyft vehicles, so really roving billboards, and then there were a couple of what they call swarm events.

[01:03:37] One was the Beyonce concert where they all came together to make an impact to get the word out. So that was another one we'd like to share, just some different tactics we're able to try now with additional resources. Our friends at the airport have graciously let us have their unsold inventory for advertising, so you can see the Mimosa Trail is featured there in the middle.

[01:03:58] We've had these three ads there, and we continue to take advantage of what they can offer us as they later are going to be going through some strategic planning to upgrade the facility at the airport, and we'll be partnering with them there. But I wanted to point that out as something new in the last year as well. And we have been running billboards.

[01:04:17] This is the Chesterfield billboard featuring Henrikus. We feature all of our seven localities in everything that we do. These are up and down from about North Carolina to Pennsylvania and, again, are funded through the TID. Here's a few more examples of them. And then one of the things that we talk about, obviously, that we want to advertise and keep keep our destination on the radar but we also want other people to talk about us as a great place and so we do a lot in working with the media and meet journalists influencers content creators all of those folks who will talk about the great things that we have in the region and we always like to point out a few of those that we have worked on

[01:04:56] that feature places in chesterfield so we have fox news with one of their stories that featured the Pocahontas, a FAR magazine with nine things to do in our area, as well as that logo is really small. The travel pub. I can't read that one from here, which featured the Chesterfield Historical Society. A couple more, the hotel guide and also another one in a FAR. And then, of course, our visitor experience team really works to connect with visitors while they're here. So we have a mobile visitor center that we set up at various festivals and produce our visitors guides, of which that is actually last year's guide.

[01:05:36] The new guide is in your packet. We're featuring St. John's Church because we've launched our Always Revolutionary Campaign, which is our history-focused campaign that lines up with the 250th anniversary of the U.S. It's called Richmond Region 250, and the tagline is Always Revolutionary.

[01:05:54] We had a webinar a couple weeks ago to let the community understand how they can participate and download the assets through the toolkit. So that is featured, and you can see it in your packet. And finally, the visitor experience team has a couple of cool programs.

[01:06:11] We mentioned the trails already. There's a revolutionary trail that goes with always revolutionary. And then they have a net zero program, which allows us to offset some of the carbon emissions from some of the meetings and conventions that we recruit here in the region. So Danielle's going to talk a little bit about our community focus and our foundation.

[01:06:28] So while thank you guys for having us with that. Oops, I'm not on. Okay. Thank you guys for having us this afternoon. And so while Catherine shared a lot of the work that we do to bring visitors, conventions, and sports to the region, I'm going to share the other side of it, which is making sure that our region is ready for the visitors because we know that first experience, first impression helps attract repeat visitors and continue to grow that $18.3 million.

[01:06:52] Our I Am Tourism program is our signature education program that we host throughout the region, educating over 400 community residents. We have a quarterly meeting that we do at Bryan & Stratton with their partnership, and we also now, this past year, launched our digital I Am Tourism, so if you can't come in person, you can go digitally, and then when time permits, come in and do the immersive bus tour.

[01:07:20] So we do that as our education so that our community, number one, know what visitor assets and staycation opportunities that are in their backyard, but that they really understand the visitor economy. So when we're thinking about building more hotels, developing more assets in our community, that they really know what that means for them and helps lower their tax base and generate tax revenue for the communities. Workforce development. We're working with our K-12 and higher ed in our communities. We were just out at Virginia State yesterday working with their students, and we work with Chamber RVA and Junior Achievement

[01:07:56] on Mission Tomorrow, helping our young people understand what careers and hospitality look like in tourism we also partner with vrlta and in unison on advocacy work as it relates to workers and making sure that our workers and the employers that employ them have the type of legislation that they need to be able to work we're also working we were active in the richmond infrastructure water bill and their immediate work group to help get some of that legislation passed this here in the last month or two and as well as sick leave and family medical leave because that again

[01:08:30] affects our businesses and the dollars that they're having to put in. Coming up this Sunday, hopefully you guys will be there, is our RVA Sports Awards. This is our snow day but I did want to take just a moment because we have quite a bit of Chesterfield representatives as finalists at the awards. So first up we have a swim RVA triathlete as a finalist for female athlete of the year. Virginia State basketball has a male athlete of the year and is up for team of the year. On our high schools, we have Monacan and Midlothian up for youth athlete of the year.

[01:09:09] And then, let's see, for youth team of the year, we have Manchester and Midlothian up for youth team of the year. Coach of the year, we have the coach of James River Girls Track up for coach of the year and let me see that I get them all that's a lot hold on oh moment of the year the Thomas Dale walk-off is up for moment of the year um and while I know who's winning I can't tell but I'm just saying you should be there if you're not already registered to go um we have Brianna Scurry who

[01:09:43] was a U.S. Olympic um goalkeeper she'll be joining us on Sunday as well it's at Altria downtown and again, it'll be aired live with our partnership with CBS. It's a matinee with a day party. So we'll get you home in time for dinner. Our annual meeting is coming up on May 13th, and we'll be rolling out our strategic plan at the annual meeting. So we look forward to having you there.

[01:10:08] And then for our sixth year, we will have our Black RVA Community Awards, which has really TAKEN OFF. IT'S A SOLD-OUT -- IT'S BEEN A SOLD-OUT EVENT THIS PAST YEAR, AND IT'LL TAKE PLACE AUGUST 21ST, SINCE AUGUST IS BLACK BUSINESS MONTH. OUR OUT-RVA PROGRAM IS CONTINUING.

[01:10:27] KATHRYN MENTIONED SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS AROUND JUNE AND WORLD PRIDE THAT WE WERE ABLE TO ACTIVATE. OH, I MISSED MY VIDEO. MAYBE MY VIDEO IS AT THE END. ALL RIGHT, LET'S SEE IF THIS WORKS. OKAY. HOLD ON. I WANT TO SHARE A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE VIDEO BEFORE WE SHOW IT. SO KATHRYN MENTIONED the ARPA speaks for itself video and that when that video came out it was one of the first of its kind advertising a destination you was using ASMR technology we've taken that same capability and released it with some of

[01:11:06] our other recruiting efforts the one I'm getting ready to show you it's with our sports recruiting efforts so I'm sure our experienced Chesterfield folks have

[01:11:16] seen it but I want to make sure that you guys have seen it at the board level. Again another

[01:12:20] opportunity for us to highlight all of our jurisdictional partners and the assets that you guys have contributed in uplifting here in the region. So we'll just wrap up and say that you know it's a great honor and privilege to get up every day as a team and promote the Richmond region and then introduce people who've never been here to our community and we're happy to represent Chesterfield and the rest of the region to the world and and drive their business here. So So we're happy to take any questions that you might have.

[01:12:50] Thank you for having us. Board, any questions? No? Mr. Carroll? Just thank you for all you do for us. We really appreciate it. It's one of the things that's extremely important is for us to get the word out of all the opportunities that people have here, not just in Chesterfield County, but the whole region.

[01:13:10] But we're going to say Chesterfield County. You know, there's a lot of things to do here. And for all that you've shown today, it's just the tip of the iceberg of what's actually available. I didn't even see anything on Richard Metro Zoo in there, which is... Don't worry, they're in a lot of things we do. Hey, did you stop by and see Poppy on the way?

[01:13:26] You couldn't do it. Poppy's on one of our billboards. Yeah, we love Poppy. So much media play with her. So thank you very much. You're welcome. Anyone else? Well, as you know, our temperature and regional tourism is a priority to us, and we'll continue to work with you all and working together.

[01:13:47] Richmond regional tourism is very important. You said at the top of your presentation, It's a financial driver, and I would appreciate JC. I see you sitting over there. Thank you for all the hard work you do. It truly is a partnership. Couldn't do it without you all and you all working together.

[01:14:04] So thank you. Our pleasure. Thanks for having us. JC, FY 2027 budget update, Mr. Harris and Mr. Durkin.

[01:14:21] Oh, you shouldn't have said that. I'm glad she noticed that. I'm Scottish for the record.

[01:14:40] For the record, I'm Scottish for the record. I'm not touching that. We'll be very brief.

[01:14:56] It's just a small appetizer for next month's main course. So just a couple of slides, kind of just orient you where we are in the process and a couple of little notes. So turn over to Gerard for a few minutes. Hi, good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Dr. Casey.

[01:15:15] Just the one economic slide for you this afternoon. go into it in more depth at the March 11th presentation. But the key takeaway from this slide is, you know, things are still growing, but how it's growing is slightly changing, if you will. What you see on the chart before you is the change in real gross domestic product and non-farm payrolls. So essentially what that's doing is it's stripping out the effects of inflation. Inflation doesn't always have its place in things. But the real underlying message of this chart is that, you know, the non-farm payrolls are really beginning to slow down. The economy is still growing, so it's really firing mixed signals because the composition of what drives the economy is the labour force, essentially, the largest

[01:15:53] component of it, and is beginning to slow down. That's the message that we've been delivering the last few months. We've seen it feed through some of the data nationally as well as locally. So, not a recession, not there, but it is certainly something we're keeping an eye on, especially as it pertains to the labour market.

[01:16:11] Some key upcoming dates. March 11th is the county administrators proposed fiscal year 2027 proposed budget on march 14th the general assembly adjourns we will have public hearings on the budget as we do every year for march 25th after which the personal property assessments were going out we also will have our community budget meetings i'll talk about them that's on the next slide may is when we get into the kind of personal property billings and the first real first half of 2026 real estate bills will be due on June 5th, with fiscal year ending at the end of June 30th.

[01:16:49] So for the community meetings and for the public watching, we have a series of them as we do every year in every magisterial district, starting with Midlothian at A.M. Davis Elementary on the 12th, the night after we proposed the budget. Dale is at the Beulah Recreation Centre on March 16th.

[01:17:05] The first of the Matoika meetings at Cosby High School on March 17th. Cloverhill at the New York Pratt Library on the 18th. Facebook live that we do every year will be on March 19th, Bermuda at the Chester Library on the 23rd, and then finally Matulica Elementary on March 25th, or 24th rather, the night before the public hearing.

[01:17:24] Quick timing, they're all at the same time, correct? Yes, correct, 6.30 to 8 p.m. Okay, 6.30 to 8 p.m. And just folks from Midlothian, that's a change, it's A.M. Davis. So I just want to make sure folks know it's not at the Midlothian Library, it's going to be at A.M. Davis Elementary School. Thank you.

[01:17:40] And with that, I will turn it over to Mr. Harris. As I mentioned, next meeting on March 11th, the special meeting is when we're afternoons dedicated to going through all the particulars for the county administrator's proposed budget.

[01:17:56] So we have a number of things that happen that week. We have a media event will be that same day. So we'll push out all that information. But this is the outline we thought we would share today, kind of what we expect to go through from sort of a topical area as part of your work session.

[01:18:11] So as we have, I think every year that I can recall, we'll have Superintendent Murray and Maestro will be here to kind of go through the particulars of the school board budget. And you've heard some of that as we've gone throughout the process, but we thought it'd be good to kick off with them. A lot of positive initiatives embedded in there.

[01:18:28] Then turning back over to Mr. Dirk and myself, as we try to do every time we have the opportunity to talk about sort of the long-range trends, you know, what the revenue trends, the cost trends, all of those things have been over a long period of time. I think that's, again, we manage over that longer horizon.

[01:18:46] So we kind of start off there with a little history and then kind of show how the FY27 proposal fits into that. We'll go through the revenues with the forecast that we share with you every month, a little bit of our economic insights. So we'll show you how that translates into the revenue picture for 27.

[01:19:04] Same high-level overview on the expenditure side. And focus this year, really trying to zero in on the costs that are required to just sort of service the base group of programs and services that exist today versus what truly would be sort of a service level enhancement, sort of break it out amongst those two buckets.

[01:19:28] And also along the way highlight just a great number of innovative strategies and proposals that have emerged as we've gone throughout the budget process. We've tried to reward as many of those as possible as we've made funding recommendations to the county administrator.

[01:19:45] And as part of that, to highlight some of those examples, We are going to have some special guests with us, so we'll have police, fire, and the sheriff here to talk about some innovative strategies that they are working through, particularly on the staffing side. And then we will have our CIO here to talk about cybersecurity and some, you know, which really is sort of an extension of public safety in our IST area.

[01:20:12] But, again, cost pressures that don't necessarily have anything to do or follow any sort of inflationary trend. but we're having to invest more and more resources over time in that cybersecurity area, which has also become a very key focus area for the rating agencies.

[01:20:28] So that will be sort of the long and short of it on the expenditure side. We'll transition to the CIP. We'll have an in-depth update on your referendum. You'll get the school side of that up front, and then we'll come back and update you on the county projects, not only what's in the CIP that's before you to vote on, but the ones that you have previously approved where they are in terms of their schedule and update each one of those.

[01:20:54] And then we will have Mr. Bowles here, representative of General Services, to really highlight what I think is gonna hopefully be the overall theme for our CIP over the next couple years, really maximizing the physical assets that we already have on the ground.

[01:21:10] And there is just, there's a good number of stories, things that we've already been doing the last couple years, and then some strategies that we are proposing to roll out for FY27, I think really kind of show a very intentional and intelligent way to make sure that what we've already put on the ground that we're using to the greatest extent possible.

[01:21:31] So Clay has agreed to come up and share some of that with us. And then we will close out with community contracts and CDBG. There's a lot of good work that happens in that program. We don't always have the time to go through that as part of this work session, but we're going to make sure that we do that this year.

[01:21:49] I think there's some nice storylines that will emerge out of that block. So we'll close with that in this room and hopefully be as conversational as possible. Lastly, just a little lead-in to tonight on your consent agenda.

[01:22:06] you do have this item that authorizes staff to do all of the mechanical things that make everything that Gerard talked about from the schedule over the next 30 days or so possible in terms of all your advertisements for the public hearings. These are the rate schedule, the full rate schedule. You have already taken action on the real estate side, but this is sort of that same action on a broader basis for all of our tax rates.

[01:22:36] No changes here. Again, this is a not to exceed schedule. Very, very similar to what you've already done. But that's the consent item that you have up there. Again, that just gives us all the authority to make sure all the ads run. It's a very complex sort of legal matrix that we gotta make sure we hit deadlines and dates until we get sort of a blanket authorization from you all as part of that item tonight.

[01:22:59] So that's on your consent agenda. Just one less thing to do during that segment this afternoon. And with that, we're happy to take any questions you might have. Board, any questions? Y'all are working hard.

[01:23:16] So thank you for what we're doing. Looking forward to this evening and getting through this process. So thank you for your hard work. D, proposed FY 2027 utilities operating budget and FY 2027 to 2036 capital improvement program work session.

[01:23:37] Mr. Rembold and Ms. Sopczak. Mr. Chair, if I could just interject for a moment. You know, usually they bring new directors before you as a board to introduce them, and usually they don't have, like, a full agenda item as part of the introduction. But I didn't want to interrupt the everyday excellence in recognizing Matt Rembold.

[01:23:56] But, again, you know, as the new utility director, Jesse Smith led a good recruitment process, a competitive process, and we're pleased to have announced a month or so ago that Mr. Rimbaud has now taken the helm and, you know, he wears big shoes to fill, but Matt wears big shoes as well. So I think we're in good shape. But Matt, I know it's just a little anticlimactic, but just maybe reintroduce yourself before the board. Thank you very much, Dr. Casey, and thank you, Mr. Chairman, Board of Supervisors, for welcoming you to sit at the table. It is a great honor to have been selected. My thanks to Jesse Smith for selecting me as the next Utilities

[01:24:36] director. As I mentioned in my earlier remarks, I've been a dedicated employee with Chesterfield Utilities for eight years and this this is really a career milestone, hallmark, highlight, something that I've aspired to and I promised you I'm going to give it 110% to the people in Chesterfield County. So thank you for your trust in me in filling these shoes. If I could just speak to that for a second, you said our trust in you. It's absolutely true. You know, when we think about what happened in Richmond and that George Hayes had to make a really powerful decision as

[01:25:12] what we were going to do. I want to empower you with that also is that you know if your intuition buzzers go off we got your back okay. Do what you need to do to take care of our water supply. Do what you need to do to ensure the health care welfare safety of all of us but I just want to empower you to do the exact same thing if necessary.

[01:25:35] Okay? Do what you need to do. Thank you, sir. Further ado, we'll dive into our budget presentation this afternoon. So this afternoon, Mr. Chairman, board members, Dr. Casey, it is my pleasure to present to you the Department of Utilities fiscal year 27 budget.

[01:25:58] With me today is our Assistant Director of Finance and Administration, Kathy Sobczak. Again, I'd like to thank the board for your continued support of the Department of Utilities, Your support, not only for our long-lasting financial policies, but support for our employees' efforts in providing exceptional service to our customers.

[01:26:16] Your support plays an integral role in the success of our department and inspires our employees to find creative ways to serve our citizens better. And thank you for the remarks just now to empower me and the leaders in the department to serve our community. At today's presentation, we'll review the total operating budget and our 10-year capital spending plan and review our proposed utility rates.

[01:26:38] Our rate model is based on these operational costs and CIP investments, and the budgets cover the variety of roles the utilities department plays, not just operating and maintenance, but also our finance administration, billing customer service, our real property division, which serves not only utilities, but all of Chesterfield County, and our engineering and development group.

[01:27:00] So with that, I'll pass it on to Kathy. On this slide, this is our total proposed operating budget of $120.5 million.

[01:27:18] This is a $17 million increase, which is about 16.5% greater than our current approved budget. On the pie chart, you see the four different areas of expenditures for the department. The first area is personnel, which is $35 million.

[01:27:34] It's a $441 million increase, or about 1.3%. Utilities, like Matt said, we've got a dedicated and talented workforce. And, I mean, our personnel at our plants do work 24-7, 365 for the citizens of Chesterfield.

[01:27:50] And same thing, when elite crews get called out, always in bad weather and always at night, it feels like. But, you know, they're out there for the citizens of Chesterfield. And in addition to the proposed merit increase, we are requesting one position in operations and maintenance.

[01:28:06] It would be for an inspector to make sure that we do pipe rehabilitation projects in a timely manner. And you'll see our capital budget in a little bit, so you'll understand it's going to be big. The largest part of our budget is our operating.

[01:28:27] The cost is $66.4 billion, and that's an increase of $2.8 million, which is a 4.5% increase. One of the things I want to point out is one of the biggest expenditure increases for us that we cannot control is our chemical purchases. In our procurement process, and everybody in the industry is facing the same thing, the chemical costs are increasing at a rate that's tied to one of the CPIs.

[01:28:54] So we really don't have much negotiation in those chemical costs. And everybody across the industry is seeing these same kind of increases. And so that also affects our sludge removal because we use chemicals in that process, And then there's some rising fuel costs associated with that sludge removal process as well.

[01:29:10] But the largest cost increase in this area is in our purchased water. We buy water from the city of Richmond and from Appomattox River Water Authority. And the same pressures that we feel in the chemicals and the other factors, they're facing as well.

[01:29:26] So, of course, when you experience cost increase, you pass those cost increase on to your customers. So the biggest cost increase for us is in our purchased water. And then the smallest part is our capital outlay, which is where we buy new equipment or we replace equipment that has reached the end of its useful life.

[01:29:45] And then the part that's really driving the $17 million increase is that the utilities department, we plan to sell revenue bonds in fiscal year 2027. Those are going to fund our capital improvement projects, which I said are coming later, and you'll see.

[01:30:07] And a couple of you attended the groundbreaking at the Procter's Creek Wastewater Plant yesterday. That was one of the large projects that we're doing. Included in that $17.2 million is $1.5 million of bond issuance costs and then also the first payment on the new bonds.

[01:30:28] So that's why the increase is quite as large as what it is. Our other debt, some of our other debt is going to be rolling off soon. So this would be new debt layered on top of existing debt that's almost at its end. And just to give you an update on some of the technology things, two of the technology things are customer-facing, and two of them are things that maybe you don't know about and haven't heard because they're not customer-facing.

[01:30:58] The first one is Eye on Water. We finished our automated meter infrastructure project, and we're really excited about the eye on water app where the people can see their water usage in near real time and they can detect then they can set up leak detection um during the recent cold weather we put out an advisory you know let your water drip you know keep it going and um we got and and and blended in that message we put out an eye on water message and we got quite a few new users on that and and we did hear back from some people that said thank you you know we turned our water you know we got the eye on water app

[01:31:36] while we were letting it drip. And then afterwards, we realized our water was still running. We had a leak. So we got some good stories and good usage out of that. One of the projects that we're working on now is with the treasurer's office. We're working to get the ability for our customers to pay their utility bill through the citizen's portal.

[01:31:58] So we're working together with the treasurer on that. That is a project that's in process. Again, the citizens will see that. Two projects that you might not know about and our citizens really won't see is we upgraded our customer information and billing system February 1st.

[01:32:16] We went live. It's just something that is going to be able to enhance our ability to give our customers the level of customer service that they're used to getting. And then one that's in process, again, that's kind of behind the scenes, is we're upgrading our supervisory control and data acquisition system, SCADA is the acronym for it.

[01:32:38] And what the SCADA system does is it monitors the water and wastewater distribution system. So an example would be there's this remote pump station. It has two pumps in it, and one of the pumps breaks. It would notify us that one of those pumps has gone offline without someone having to drive out there and check on it.

[01:32:57] And so that way they could go out and implement the repair because they were notified that it happened. So that's just kind of an example of what the SCADA system can do. And here's the capital project 10-year plan, $2.19 billion of projected expenditures.

[01:33:25] This is a 10-year plan. Right now, it's the largest component of our long-term financial planning, and this is what really, really drives our rates. These capital projects, we fund them between some revenues, we use our reserves, and then we also issue bonds, which is what we're looking forward to doing in 2027.

[01:33:52] In the plan that we have right now, about 43% of our 10-year CIP is for pipes, pump stations, tanks, and then we also make a payment to the city of Richmond for part of their capital project work that they expend during a year.

[01:34:11] We give them a reimbursement because they're giving us so much water, We pay for a small percentage of their capital improvements that only affect us. If an improvement affects a different locality or has no impact to us, we don't pay anything on those kinds of projects.

[01:34:31] And then the remaining 57% will provide much-needed capacity for our water supply and our wastewater system. As you know, the county's growing, and we need to stay ahead of that growth. So we are making plans to try and be ahead of the growth curve.

[01:34:49] And we anticipate receiving our third and final permit for the fourth water supply this year. So that would be moving forward. We do have a strong history of having good financial policies to ensure that we have adequate funding to meet our infrastructure expansion, replacement, and maintenance needs.

[01:35:09] And as a reminder, we are one of the few utilities in the nation with a triple-triple-A bond rating. and we're looking forward to continuing that on our next bond issuance. So we'll go into some of the details or things that are happening in the capital projects.

[01:35:27] Thank you, Kathy. And so the Utilities Department in the past few years, we've really featured our presentation around some of our larger projects, the county's fourth water supply project, which Kathy mentioned earlier. We're nearing completion through the permit process. We're full speed ahead on design with that work currently.

[01:35:45] You've seen we presented our flood wall, a flow equalization basin that we had at Procter's Creek, the groundbreaking ceremony yesterday. With today's presentation, we wanted to kind of take a step back and feature some of the more bread-and-butter projects, certainly not small projects. These are significant investments that serve the long-term needs of Chesterfield County, but wanted to share some new ideas, new things that we're working on with the board.

[01:36:06] The first project that we're featuring is in the Midlothian District up in Bonaire. The department has experienced a series of, in rapid succession, waterline breaks on the waterline along Mohawk Drive in the Bonaire area. Looking at the water distribution system in this area there's a series of about 9,600 feet of aged pipelines that we're going to replace. We think that the break frequency is just due to the age of the pipe condition.

[01:36:43] This project is something that we've kind of expedited and fast-tracked because the break frequency. We had three breaks within three months, which was really a burden for those residents. This project is in design now. We hope to have this project out to construction as soon as possible with a completion date in 2027. Another thing that we're trying to do with this project is coordinate the paving work with the Virginia Department of Transportation to get ahead of their paving schedule. We've found some success here recently coordinating projects with VDOT so that we can save some of the asphalt repairs from our ratepayers as VDOT is

[01:37:19] performing their regular routine paving maintenance. Next project that we want to feature is our Falling Creek wastewater treatment plant upgrades. Effective January 1 of this year, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality slashed our phosphorus waste load allocation by 60 percent. Prior to this year, the effluent that left the Falling Creek wastewater treatment plant was required to be discharged with a concentration of phosphorus not to exceed on a annual limit of 0.5 milligrams per liter that's been

[01:37:57] reduced now to 0.2 milligrams per liter concentration this is significant right now we are meeting this limit we're basically running the system against the pins beyond what it is capable of being expected to do we have a project in place to fast-track improvements to chemical storage, chemical feed systems, monitoring equipment that allow us to dose and dial in the chemical feed so that we can more reliably meet this new limit.

[01:38:26] We're currently meeting the limit, but this project is going to be essential for us to reliably meet it into the future. This project is, like I said, currently under design. It's expected to be out for construction very soon. It should be completed by 2027. The next project that we're featuring is at our Proctor's Creek wastewater treatment plant.

[01:38:48] This is, on the screen here, 3D renderings of our sidestream treatment and de-ammonification reactor structures. That's some technical jargon. But the wastewater treatment plant processes, the biosolids, the solid waste is removed from the wastewater.

[01:39:09] It's run through a dewatering process. And the liquid waste that comes off of that dewatering process is reintroduced to the headworks of the plant. It's very strong waste. It comes with very high concentration ammonia loads. That ammonia load gets introduced to the plant, goes to the transplant treatment process, and essentially consumes available capacity for nitrogen removal within our biological nutrient removal treatment system.

[01:39:34] By having a dedicated side stream treatment process to intercept that waste stream, treat it outside of the main treatment process, it will allow us to, one, and primarily preserve that treatment plant capacity for our customers, but two, also provide us some long-term operational cost benefits and that we'll be dosing the chemicals and air into the treatment system appropriate for that waste stream.

[01:39:59] This project's under design currently and should be out to construction later this year. We anticipate this project will be completed in 2028. Next project that we want to feature this afternoon is our Addison-Evans Water Treatment Plant Additional Filters Project.

[01:40:20] So the Addison-Evans Water Treatment Plant was constructed in 1967 with four filters. It was expanded later in 1971 to add two additional sediment basins, and with that expansion, the plant was expanded to a rated capacity of 12 million gallons per day.

[01:40:38] The four filters each can treat 3 million gallons per day, so four filters times 3 million gallons a day, you get the 12 MDD treatment capacity. The challenge we have from an operational standpoint is the filters must be routinely backwashed to keep the sediment and debris clear and free of the filters, And when we backwash a filter, it's removed from service and can no longer produce water.

[01:41:01] So we reduce the treatment plant capacity by 3 MGD every time we have a backwash cycle. By adding filters, we'll be able to do two things. One, we'll be able to lengthen the amount of time between backwash cycles, because instead of running 3 MGD on each filter, we can run a lower flow rate, 2 MGD, and stretch those backwash cycles out.

[01:41:24] Then when we do backwash a filter with having additional filter capacity, be able to increase or basically maintain a 12 mgd production rate which is the nominal rating of the plant which will allow us to more reliably deliver that rated capacity and in the summer months when the demands are high having that additional capacity is going to be a big benefit to how our water system operates this project's under design currently it's a it's a little bit bigger project in terms of construction it's anticipated to be completed in 2029 and then And then last on the CIP projects that we're going to feature today is some additional

[01:42:02] elevated storage tank work that we have going on in Chesterfield County. We're incredibly fortunate, and I tell everybody that I work with in the industry, Chesterfield County is fantastic in having a lot of tank storage. At 26 storage tanks currently, the most recent that was raised into position last fall, seen on the picture there in Enon, is really head and shoulders above anybody else that I know.

[01:42:30] having elevated tank storage, as the board is aware, really provides a great shock absorber and cushion for swings in pressure that can occur in the system, and then also because it relies on gravity to provide pressure, it's very resilient in terms of power outages, storm damages, if anything goes on, we maintain system pressure, which is a great benefit to us and our customers.

[01:42:53] When we look at how we survived the water crisis of last year, having that tank storage and being able to isolate ourselves from the city of Richmond while we made operational changes to draw harder from our available sources really was a thing that helped separate us from our peers. And so it's with great pride that I can announce that we're planning on adding additional tankage to our water distribution system.

[01:43:18] Listed on the screen are three projects. One is a rehabilitation project of our three-quarter million gallon storage tank in Dutch Gap. If you drive through the area along Route 1 today, you will see some shrouding hanging off the side of that tank as we're getting ready to blast and recoat the paint structure on it to give us another hopefully 20 to 25 years of service life on that tank.

[01:43:41] The next project on our list is the new Centralia 2 million gallon elevated storage tank. There's an elevated tank in the Centralia pressure zone currently, but at a quarter million gallons, it's undersized for the current needs of Chesterfield County. We have a new site identified near the interchange of Hopkins Road and Chippenham near the Cogbill Park facility that's there.

[01:44:05] This tank is getting ready to go to construction any day now. That project will be placed into service in the next 18 months. And then the last project on this slide is our courthouse pressure zone tank.

[01:44:24] The courthouse pressure zone has a tank, you're familiar with it, over here behind Riptides along Route 10. That tank provides service to the courthouse area, but it's also a central hub in our distribution system where water comes into this pressure zone and goes out of this pressure zone to meet the needs elsewhere in the county.

[01:44:42] As the demands on the county's distribution system are growing, we're adding additional tank storage here to give us greater reliability and redundancy as we meet those growing needs elsewhere in the county. Once these projects are complete, you know, that'll take the storage of the county to 28 storage tanks and 48 million gallons, which will be really something.

[01:45:10] Pass it back to Kathy to talk about our rates. All right. Well, the inflationary challenges that we're facing are being faced by all the nation's utilities. But we are in a better position with our strong in-house technical expertise and our long-term financial planning.

[01:45:29] A lot of utilities only use a three- or five-year capital plan, and as you just saw, we've got a 10-year capital plan, and we also use 10 years in our rate model. And in addition to that, we're only one of the few utilities with an established rate stabilization reserve fund to address the costs of replacing our aging infrastructure.

[01:45:50] It was established in 1995, and we can only use those funds when we actually replace or rehab one of our assets. And so right now we're contributing 100% of our annual asset depreciation to that fund to try and offset future costs in the 10-year plan.

[01:46:13] So with that, we're using a 10-year rate model to look at setting our rates to cover the costs that we anticipate over the next 10 years. And our average residential customer uses seven CCFs per month, which is roughly 5,250 gallons.

[01:46:37] And what our rate model does is it's designed for just relatively low gradual rate adjustments. Rather than having our rates be like a 2% increase one year and a 17% increase the next year, we're trying to keep our rates more stable than that.

[01:46:54] And the cost analysis that for the next 10 years indicates that we need slight increases in the commodity or volume charge and in the capacity charge and in the customer charge. And the commodity or volume charge, we're proposing a $0.14 increase per CCF for water, a $0.17 increase per CCF for wastewater, and then we propose a $0.27 increase in the water capacity charge, a $0.22 increase in the wastewater capacity charge, and for the customer charge, it's a $0.29 increase for water and wastewater combined.

[01:47:29] So what you see on the screen is what are in the first column would be our current rates for the average residential customer. And the second column is our proposed rate for that same residential customer. And then the monthly increase would be two dollars and ninety four cents.

[01:47:49] We have always been very concerned about affordability. And so we are, you know, when we look at our rate model, we are making sure that we are within increases within our industry, and we're below what the water and sewer CPI are for our industry with a 4.3% increase.

[01:48:13] And then also in the rate model, it also gives us information on how much we need to charge our connection fees or our capital cost recovery.

[01:48:34] And on this benchmarking chart, you can see that, oh, well, I'm ahead of myself. What I want to show you is if you take that seven CCFs that were our customers currently use in residential, we took that and we compared our rates to what it would be if you lived in one of the other adjacent localities.

[01:49:01] And so the first column is our proposed fiscal year 27 rate, which would be $70.83. And then you compare our fiscal year 26 rate to Chesterfield, and then it goes to Hanover's 26, Henrico's 26, and Richmond's 26 rates.

[01:49:21] Now, everybody in the industry is facing the same chemical and all those other increases that we're facing with the, you know, utility CPI being so high. So we're all expecting the other localities to also increase their rates, which would, again make us very competitive in the region for our for the customers and we did something a little bit different this year we looked at so the numbers that you have up there for 26 for Henrico Hanover in Richmond are their

[01:49:58] current rates not what they could possibly increase to in their budget cycles correct it's important to make that distinction because people look at and they go but yeah I mean theirs could go up substantially higher it could and right now this year today when you get your when you get your bill for the 5,250 gallons on average we're 36% below our peers and if you annualize that over a year you're probably saying of it saving about $450 or more on your average utility bill versus what you would pay for the same amount of water if you

[01:50:37] lived in one in a in on average what to the other jurisdictions so that's something we've not really shared with you guys before that kind of concept so our average homeowner average homeowner saving about 450 on their utility bill as opposed to if they lived in one of the other jurisdictions on average and then this is the um five eighths inch um capital cost recovery charge which is what our typical homeowner um you know is is paying it with a five eighths inch meter connection

[01:51:12] fee. Our rate model also gives us what costs we need to charge for the connection fee to pay for the growth that we anticipate in our system. And our cost of service analysis suggests we increase both the wastewater and the water capital cost recovery charge. And we're proposing a 5% increase in both water and wastewater connection fees. The increase in the water connection fee would be $316 And the increase in the wastewater connection fee would be $284.

[01:51:46] This slide shows you a comparison of the first column is our proposed connection fee of $12,596. The second column shows you our existing today connection fee of $11,996.

[01:52:04] And then you have Henrico, Hanover, and then Prince William's connection fees for the same size meter today. So we are competitive within the region, people, you know, another utility about our size that's nearby, and so this gives you an idea of, I mean, most of our meters are these 5-8-inch meters.

[01:52:29] These are the ones that we have the most of, and this would be the connection fee that we propose for fiscal year 27. and the connection fees are what we use to fund growth in our system and i mean and um it's important for utilities that you know that that growth pays for growth and i know that's important to the board as well so um this was just for our larger meters that are larger than five eighths they're one inch one and a half inch two we are also very competitive with the same group of

[01:53:04] localities and then the last fee that i want to talk to you about is our strong waste charges that paid by our industrial customers. We reviewed the actual cost of treating the strong waste from our industrial customers annually, and every year we proposed rates that would cover those costs, and we would need our charges to remove these contaminants to be a reflection of the actual cost of treating these extra chemicals, contaminants that come to us. So we're proposing

[01:53:41] a three cent increase in the biological oxygen demand, or BOD, which is an 11% increase. We're also suggesting a three cent increase or 11% increase in total suspended solids. And then we are not proposing any increase to total nitrogen or total phosphorus surcharges at this time.

[01:54:06] Mr. Chair. Can you give us an example of when you talk about this for the community that might be watching, what does that actually mean? What kind of customer is actually bringing something to us, a type of product that we have to clean and dispose of before we can turn it back into something we can push out the other end?

[01:54:26] So our industrial customers, we regulate them via permit, which is different in concept than the average typical homeowner. And the industries that are in Chesapeake County, they work with our industrial pretreatment staff, basically tell us very detailed information about what particular things are in their waste stream that could potentially harm Chesapeake County's collection system, our employees, our treatment plant, make their way through our plant and be damaging to the environment.

[01:54:55] And our pretreatment staff work very diligently to make sure that anything that can harm us or the environment is removed via pretreatment systems before it gets to us. However, there are some things that, you know, they pass through the waste stream. Biological oxygen demand, that's the organisms that are within the wastewater that consume oxygen.

[01:55:14] That if they pass through our treatment plant, our treatment plant removes this. But as it moves its way through the treatment plant, if it makes its way into the waterways, consumes oxygen, it can be detrimental to the environmental species in the treatment plant. And so every environmental process has something a little bit different. And we work with the industries to make sure that what they're sending us is something that we can treat.

[01:55:35] And so as our pre-treatment staff reviews this work annually, and they look at what's coming down the pipe to us and what we're charging, what the cost to remove BOD, a pound of BOD. You know, our residential customers right now are paying their fair share, and we look at what's coming and being paid for by the industrial customers.

[01:55:54] It's not being met. The cost for us to treat a pound, we need to increase the cost on that industrial customer. So that's what this is attempting to accomplish. Let me ask a question. Well, Mr. Engel. So we're going to, you know, we have a few data centers that are coming to the county.

[01:56:15] We don't, we've already approved the ones that we're going to approve, but somebody's going to look at this and say, hey, all of these costs are going up because of data centers. What would your response be? Chesapeake Utilities is where the data center is coming, and we're working with applicants and our economic development partners to review that data.

[01:56:39] The thing that I like to tell every customer, Chesapeake Utilities has a long track record of development, paying for development. We do that, and that's what keeps our rates low for our customers. And the proof's kind of in the pudding that we've seen in those previous slides. So our engineering teams are working very dedicated to try to see what's coming and then work with the data centers that are knocking at our door to make sure that the capital improvements that are necessary to support those demands are either being funded by the data centers themselves or we're addressing it via alternative sources.

[01:57:10] I've made mention that one data center in particular is looking at a reuse system as a potential solution to keeping the demand off of the potable water supply. That's in an engineering study right now. It's an aspirational vision. It's not reflected in this budget presentation, but it's something that could potentially come to fruition that would help save our current customers from seeing those costs.

[01:57:33] But these additional costs that we're talking about are not for data center service. They are for the rest of the customers that we have in the county. So the answer is that you gave the answer correct but in the um a more roundabout than I was looking for um the data centers will have to pay for their usage if they need it in the future but that these caught these rate structures have nothing to do with data centers period that's 100 correct okay that's the answer that I wanted to get strong strong waste is not that is not a it's not a real not just strong waste but just the fact that we

[01:58:12] We have increase in capacity. We have growth. Some people will attribute all that growth to data centers, and I want to make it clear that if the data centers that we have approved need growth, then we expect them to pay for that growth.

[01:58:28] That's not going to be reflected in the rates that go to our citizens, and it's not reflected in what you're asking us to approve for these rates. This has nothing to do with data centers. This has to do with normal, everything else but data centers in the county, correct?

[01:58:48] Correct. The CIP planning and utilities is a long-horizon business. We've been looking at these capital improvement projects. The Fourth Water Supply is the largest project in our CIP. That project's been in the planning stages since long before the data centers were knocking at our door. These are things that Chesterfield County needs to invest in, regardless of the customers that are here today.

[01:59:08] I had an email already today that said Procter's Creek expansion. Was that for 99 years for the county's growth, or was that for 12 data centers? That was exactly what the email said. And the data centers have nothing to do with that expansion.

[01:59:26] I just want to make that very clear. I just had some, so does Procter's Creek take waste from septic haulers? Yes, ma'am. Okay, I wasn't sure.

[01:59:42] I know some localities do not just because they're running out of capacity. And so that is, yeah. Yes, we receive septage hauled waste for businesses and customers that originate in Chesterfield County. That was part of my question, so it was good.

[01:59:58] And the point that goes along with that is that there's a stringent testing process that takes place before we even allow those type of sewages and septic systems, that kind of stuff, to even be put in our system.

[02:00:13] It's tested, and they have to meet certain requirements chemically before they can even do that. Is that correct? 100% correct. Our pre-treatment staff, we have our treatment plan is designed to remove many pollutants of concern, but it's largely designed around treating domestic wastewater.

[02:00:31] Our customer base is largely domestic. And so when industry comes in, we need to make sure that if there's anything that they're introducing into our waste stream that doesn't fit that domestic nature, they're removing it before it gets to us. And we already have a data center in Chesterfield County, right? That's correct. Capital One, now it's Clarisseur down in the Metavel Technology Center.

[02:00:48] And the type of discharges that come from them using water have nothing to do with this. Nothing significant there. The biggest concern we have from them is pacification chemicals that they use to treat their cooling systems. And they're full well aware of making sure that anything that they introduce into their system, they clean up before it gets to us.

[02:01:08] So they have to clean it up before it gets back to our system. That's correct. Thank you. I'm going to kind of pick up on those questions in that, hypothetically, if a company were to be dumping something into our system, we would be able to catch it, correct?

[02:01:28] Yes. And then we would be able to link it back to where the source was from, correct? Yes. So I think it's really important for folks to know, businesses especially, don't be playing games, because we're going to be able to source it right back when we know where it's coming from, and then there will be, oh, I don't know, court cases or whatever is necessary to make sure that they're paying for those kind of things.

[02:01:56] I'm correct on all of that, right? 100% accurate. Okay, thank you. The technical component of our presentation is complete, but I'd be remiss if I didn't just take a brief moment to, again, offer our thanks for your continued support and investment in our utility.

[02:02:23] It's a great partnership that we have within the community. I also want to take a brief moment to thank our regional partners that help us be successful in our mission. The City of Richmond is putting the people and processes in place that we believe we can depend on them into the future.

[02:02:39] But also want to give a shout out to the Appomattox River Water Authority, who in the last year we've leaned on heavy, particularly as the city of Richmond, experienced their challenges last winter. This is these partnerships, the regional cooperation is in large part due to the board's leadership in support of these regional cooperative efforts.

[02:03:00] So I want to say that and thank you. Also, I just want to offer as a reminder that on the agenda this evening is a request for a public hearing for March 25th at 6 p.m. to evaluate or consider the FY27 utility rates that we shared this afternoon.

[02:03:16] And with that, I thank you and I'm available for additional questions. Any additional questions? I think we asked enough during the process. Okay. Just one point is the shovels look really, really nice. And Mitch Schneider had the idea and I picked up shovels for the three of y'all.

[02:03:34] They're in the back of my car to make sure you get one. I don't think you should talk about shovels in the back of your car for three of us. You probably don't. That just sounds like it could go wrong. Yeah, it could go potentially, but I do have them for you.

[02:03:53] How much of those shovels? We might have to claim it. Just saying. Yeah. But they're very nice shovels. Very nice shovels. Less than $20. Less than $20 each. All right. Thank you. E, Consent Agenda Highlights, Mr. Smith.

[02:04:26] So we actually have quite a few Consent Agenda Highlights. Ms. Walker is going to owe me lunch for covering the first six. So there's a handful of transportation-related items on here. We do have a resolution supporting the installation of speed cushions in the Clover Hill District on Clintwood Road.

[02:04:43] This will actually be the second installation. Dr. Miller, I think, is first with Schloss Road down in the Melothian District. We continue to accept or revise the state acceptance of bus loops within the county. So we've been doing about 10 every month for the past six months.

[02:04:59] That will continue up through May when we will finally get through all of them. makes you realize a couple things number one is we have a lot of schools number two is VDOT really does help us out during winter storms in clearing those facilities so it's important that we have those meets and bounds correct and we are getting all of those done correctly for the highway department several requests for eminent domain on your March 11th agenda agenda related to transportation projects river road sidewalk to provide access to the library for pedestrians We've met with you, Mr. Carroll, to talk through that one.

[02:05:35] We've negotiated with three of the six successfully, so I have a few remaining. Dr. Hilton, same sort of project for bike and pet improvements to Bensley Elementary School. Only one of five is remaining on that one.

[02:05:50] I know Ms. Walker met with you to discuss that one. And then a really important project as we complete the Woolridge Road extension to 288 is widening Woolridge Road, north of Genito. We've actually successfully negotiated with 15 of the 18 property owners there.

[02:06:07] So we have three left. We're hoping to knock those out in the next couple of months. But again, I do have a request for a public hearing for evident domain on your agenda for that March 11th meeting. We're requesting $25 million in what's called now a build grant, one of these large federal programs to help fund the Poway Parkway extension out from Woolridge to Genitoe.

[02:06:33] The total project is $182 million. We believe we have $70 million in local and anticipated CVTA regional funds, thanks to Mr. Carroll's hard work with that group, and then another possible $87 million in SmartScale funding, which takes you to the next item.

[02:06:50] We have the SmartScale endorsement chart on your agenda this month with that Poet project as the number one item. And then really just a handful of other large sort of primary slash interstate related items.

[02:07:06] Chippenham and Midlothian, yeah, Chippenham and Midlothian Turnbike in Midlothian. 95 Willis Interchange continues to be on there for I think the 99th straight year. Eventually we will get that one funded. Also have Chippenham and Hopkins.

[02:07:23] Dr. Hilton I know is one we've been working on hard to try to get some improvements there, Chippet-M and Hull Street, then, of course, Hull Street Road widening. All those projects have been around a while. They're all very large, but we continue to push those as priorities so we can bring those to completion and continue to seek funding.

[02:07:41] Another transportation-related item, but this time planes and not cars, out at the airport, we're asking to accept and appropriate just over $2.7 million in grant funds from the Department of Aviation for the construction of the land side section of the airport southeast ramp project.

[02:08:01] You know, it's a companion project to the southeast ramp, which you previously approved and is underway. The balance of the project funding comes from previously approved local CIP funding. Mr. Bowles is here if you have any questions or concerns on that one. I think Dr. Worsley was here, but I can certainly speak to the opioid grants. That's on your agenda as well. So again, approval to submit and accept and appropriate. A few different sources, we've got FY27 OAA or Opioid Abatement Authority funds, just under $800,000 for Substance Use

[02:08:40] Housing Stabilization Cooperative, $433,000 for Communities and Schools, then $154,000 for the mobile integrated health expansion cooperative, and then a separate funding source of direct settlement funds for what the county uses for subrecipients, half a million dollars there. So again, good sources to help lots of folks in need through those opioid funds. We're also requesting to set a public hearing to amend chapter 12 relative to well and septic. This is the one

[02:09:19] that Mr. Ingle brought to our attention that we've had a couple issues with. So we spoke to the health department. They're supportive of amending the county's code to be in line with the state code. It honestly makes it easier for them to not have sort of one outlying locality that has different requirements for setbacks. So this would just get us in line with the rest of the Commonwealth. Requesting to surplus property on Bermuda Orchard. So this has been around a while. This is property for a switching station for Dominion Energy. They've offered to purchase

[02:09:55] it for $1.9 million for that switching station, which would support, you know, continued energy needs in the eastern part of the county, specifically including Meadowville Technology Park, but also to improve reliability and allow them to expand their system. So again, just ask you to move forward with that. And then another request for a public hearing for the James River High School field lease. So this is extending an existing lease with Rapids Baseball for the facility at James River High School for a maximum of three years. Just a little background on this.

[02:10:34] So in 2021, a previous board approved a lease with Rapids Baseball for that high school facility. They improved fields, lighting, restrooms, concessions, locker rooms. The current lease is expiring, and a three-year extension has been requested.

[02:10:51] Once that is over, then the facilities would transfer to the county. So that's a long list of items, but you can see there's quite a bit of meat on your consent agenda tonight. Do we have the retiree slide?

[02:11:11] So three on here, he's noted up there as Glenwood Carr, but you probably note him as Woody Carr on economic development, retiring after 36 years. Debbie Cosgrove Utilities, who, you know, actually worked on a lot of the stuff that Matt and Kathy just presented to you, is retiring after 20 years.

[02:11:33] And then firefighter Timothy Shock in firing EMS after 15 years. So congratulations to those folks. 27. Sorry about that. My contacts need replacing, sir. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[02:11:56] F, other informational highlights. Dr. Casey. Yes, members of the board, and actually for the public, too. This is a new afternoon work session agenda item. We've gotten some feedback that, you know, if there are certain things that we can accelerate to the afternoon session of informational items, we promote them out through blogs and social media posts and other news, and just trying to be respectful of people's time for the evening session, public hearings unscheduled matters and things of that nature. So I'm going to make some attempt in the future and starting with today of just some other items I otherwise would have disclosed at

[02:12:30] night. But actually for the board's awareness but just as much for the public. First and foremost and new director of community enhancement if Rich Billingsley could come and just have a seat up here. You know part of new director training is you have to sit through an entire work session if I'm going to be doing these in the afternoon. But and again this is a little anti-climatic too because it's another internal promotion.

[02:12:53] You are very, very familiar with Rich Billingsley. But just as an example, you know, he is, you know, came to the county in 2003, I believe. He started leading our license inspection department when I came here. A great team that he built with very specific tasks under the Code of Virginia, quite frankly.

[02:13:12] And then when the genesis was that we needed maybe something that was broader than just what their finite scope was, that was the genesis of "community enhancement" and Rich to his credit led the effort of five different departments in essence coming together as one and I hope you realize there are many things that you see and do out in the community, many things that the public sees that they really need a singularity department and go to so community enhancement has actually become ingrained as far as a go to get it done in the field type department.

[02:13:44] So with that said, Rich, really, his background in the Navy training, I think, has led him to be a task mission-oriented, skilled person. But, again, I just wanted to bring any new director before you, even ones that you are quite familiar with.

[02:14:00] And, again, there was a nice article written about him, I think, last month. So, Mr. Billingsley. Thank you, sir. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Casey, I just want to take this opportunity to thank you all for naming me as the director for the department.

[02:14:15] Department of Community Enhancement. Being a director in Chesterfield County is a position that comes with a lot of responsibility. And I just wanna assure you all that I will be doing my best to validate that trust that you placed in me. And the staff for the department remains committed to ensuring the health, welfare, and safety of the residents of the county.

[02:14:42] - Thank you. - And Dr. Casey, I just wanna thank you for this training opportunity to come up here For this meeting, that was one of the most comfortable chairs I've sat in in many years. There was cushions on the other side.

[02:15:06] Thank you, Rich. You're a good man with a great team. Just a couple of other short updates for you. Ron Clements, our building official, who you all know as well, was appointed to the Governor's Clean Energy Advisory Board.

[02:15:23] The board's purpose is to establish a pilot program for disbursing loans or rebates for the installation of solar energy infrastructure in low-income and moderate-income households. But he was recognized for the talent he can bring to that statewide body. Chesterfield County has been recertified as an age-friendly employer by the Age-Friendly Institute.

[02:15:42] For 19 years, they have worked to identify and celebrate organizations that prove to be the best places to work for people age 50 plus. I can attest to that. I think I applied for the job at age 51. Having said that, you know, they do a thorough evaluations of recruitment policy and compensation and benefits.

[02:16:00] We were originally certified in 2023, and Chesterfield is the only locality in Virginia to have earned this designation. Outdoor Fest is an activity that was recognized by the USA Today's Best New Festival as number seven nationally as far as a new event.

[02:16:22] This recognition highlights the impact of a community-driven experience that brings our residents together while also attracting visitors to the county. So that concludes my remarks, Mr. Chair, but I know that there may be some things that you and other board members may want to share that otherwise aren't being shared tonight.

[02:16:39] I think I have a presentation. There it is. That's not it, by the way. So, the board, my board colleagues and I joined more than 200 local elected officials and staff from all the Commonwealth and Richmond for Vaco Local Government Day.

[02:16:59] We received legislative briefings from Vaco staff, which provided details on important pieces of legislation and pressing issues for us to review, many of which we discussed in this work session earlier today. And then, of course, we went over to the Capitol to meet with state legislators and advocate on behalf of many of the positions that our staff talked about earlier today.

[02:17:26] Next. And just as a reminder, is this me or you? It might be you. I think it's me. Just as a reminder, coming up, we have had several meetings already to solicit input from the community on our process to select a county administrator.

[02:17:51] I want to thank the employees and those community members so far that have attended. I know Jessica and I were at a meeting the other day, and there were several people from the community there. If you have not had a chance to attend one yet, there are still two opportunities left. Tomorrow, there'll be an input session at the Clover Hill Library at 4 o'clock p.m.

[02:18:08] and another at Stonebridge Recreation Center at 6 p.m. If you're unable to attend the meeting, an online survey will also be available at chestfield.gov until March 1st for all public comment. The online survey will cover the same topics as those that will be addressed in the community input sessions.

[02:18:25] And, again, we seek input from the community for this. So if you have an opportunity to attend, please do. and if you can't, please do something with the online portal. Thank you. That concludes my afternoon report, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Carroll. Just want to speak to what proved to be a momentous event here in Chesterfield County, and that is at a group of Buddhist monks, a 2,300-mile walk apiece made their way through Chesterfield earlier this month, and the walk apiece began in Texas in

[02:19:00] October and it just recently ended in DC. As you can see from those pictures it was a very cold day. The group stopped at Virginia State University, traveled along Route 1 through Chesterfield and then stopped for lunch and visiting hours at the Spring Hill Suites at Chester. They spent the night and then held visiting hours at Kingsland Baptist Church in the county as well. So just appreciation to Virginia State University, appreciation to Dr. Worsley, appreciation to the the Kingsland Baptist Church. Appreciation for all staff, oh my, because this is really,

[02:19:34] truly was a way of welcoming them and at the same time providing opportunities for them to stay. It was an incredible community event. It's an honor to witness the monks as they walk peacefully, embodying compassion, mindfulness, and a unity with every step. Sharing space with them was a genuine pleasure and it was a gift. And they were also giving out bracelets. They're hoping that you got one. I'm noticing that Jessica and I are both wearing ours. So just a daily reminder that you can always say that today I'm going to have a peaceful day. And that's what he put out there

[02:20:12] is remember that every day, that today you can make that intention that you're going to have a peaceful day. So thank you for that. That includes my report. Cook, I guess we're going to item five. Yes, sir. Item five reports. Okay. Are there any questions regarding the reports?

[02:20:35] Seeing no questions, the reports are approved. Item 6, 15-minute citizen comment period on unscheduled matters. We have no speakers. Item 7, closed session pursuant to Section 2.2-3711A3, Code of Virginia 1950, as amended, to discuss the acquisition by the county of real estate for a public purpose, where a discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position and negotiating strategy of the public body.

[02:21:05] Mr. Chair, we need a motion to go into closed session. So moved. Any comments? All in favor? Aye. We are in closed session.

[02:24:38] Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the evening session of the February 25th Board of Supervisors meeting. I have verified that all board members have received copies of the comments posted on the online comment portal for consideration on the matters before us tonight.

[02:25:03] These comments are part of the public record and will be attached to the meeting minutes. And please know we do take the time to read them and consider them. In addition, for those members of the public here for public hearing to consider the exercise of eminent domain for the acquisition of temporary construction easement for the Walton Park Waterline Improvement Project, the property owners have signed the necessary easement agreement, and accordingly, no action is needed on this item.

[02:25:35] And as a result, there will be no public hearing. There's nothing to go forward on. At this time, I will ask Mr. Carroll to give the invocation. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Let us pray. Almighty God, as we assemble for this board meeting, we humbly ask and seek your divine wisdom and guidance.

[02:25:56] Grant us discernment and clarity in our deliberations and unite us in our purpose to serve with integrity and respect. May our discussions be conducted with civility, our intentions be honorable, and our decisions be aligned with the principles of justice, righteousness, and good governance.

[02:26:12] We ask for your blessing upon our work that all we accomplish may reflect your will and serve the greater good of our community. I ask that you watch over Roger Joel Clifton's family. Roger works for the people of Chesterfield County in environmental engineering for over 30 years.

[02:26:30] Roger was planning on to retire in April and passed away unexpectedly. Father, this reminds us of just how precious your gift of life is and that no day should be taken for granted. I ask all of this in your heavenly name. Amen.

[02:26:48] We would like to call forward Deputy County Administrator Matt Harris to lead the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[02:27:15] Item 11, County Administration Update. A, recognizing Valor Awards recipients, Dr. Casey. Members of the board and the public that's here and the public that's watching, This is one of our greatest moments of the year where we recognize the Valor Award recipients.

[02:27:32] Valor is a program through the region that recognizes our men and women in public safety that put their life on the line and in some extraordinary feats and stories. So what you're about to see and hear tonight is just an example of some of those stories. So I welcome the board to come on down, the two chiefs and the Valor Award recipients all to come to the stage before us.

[02:27:52] And then I have some other comments after the end of this presentation.

[02:27:56] we have loud voices all right good evening everybody i'm frank carpenter chief of police

[02:28:37] chesterfield county police department in which you have here silver valor ward recipients these individuals acted with bravery and courage in the midst of an armed confrontation motorists and they were recognized throughout the state as silver valor ward recipients so please give them a hand clap of praise you know so many times so many times they um you know they do things and they do it behind the scenes and no one ever gets a chance to see it um and i will tell you this they're very uncomfortable being up here um so i don't want to speak long on it and

[02:29:15] they really don't look forward to these type of accolades but they truly are deserving of the recognition so thank you well good evening everyone it's uh my honor to introduce three of our members, three of eight that were recognized at Valor Awards recently, so we have Captain John Jacobson, I have Firefighter Joe Sims, and Firefighter Tyler Yountz, who are here with us tonight. They were part of Virginia Task Force 8, which is a team of Chesterfield firefighters that can be deployed anywhere in the state for specialized rescue situations under the direction of the Virginia Department of Emergency Management. And during Hurricane Helene, as the remnants of the storm started approaching Virginia,

[02:29:55] Governor Yunkin declared a state of emergency, and Virginia Task Force 8 was deployed here from Chesterfield County. Soon upon their arrival in southwest Virginia, they quickly were involved in rescue operations as floodwaters rose in the area, trapping multiple residents in Wythe County.

[02:30:13] Within, again, hours of their arrival, they began operations in over four days. I'll give you some statistics. They ended up rescuing eight individuals and five pets using a boat and a trolley system under very hazardous conditions. They evacuated eight other individuals to high ground, performed welfare checks on 90 residents, and posted evacuation notices at over 100 structures and searched and reported damage to 167 structures.

[02:30:40] You may also recall, Mr. Chairman, that we have a separate group of Chesterfield firefighters who were recognized last year, And they were part of the Virginia Helicopter Aquatics Rescue Team, which is a joint partnership between Chesterfield Fire and EMS and the National Guard. And they received bronze stars from the National Guard in a ceremony last year for their efforts during Hurricane Helene, where they rescued multiple victims in floodwaters with helicopter hoists, and that was a very risky operation.

[02:31:11] So I'm extremely proud of all of our members that work hard every day and train and respond promptly to emergencies, not only here in Chesterfield County, but anywhere in the Commonwealth of Virginia. They're also available to respond anywhere in the continental U.S. at a moment's notice. So great job by all.

[02:31:27] Please give these gentlemen a hand. We're just sitting here thinking or standing here thinking, what's the difference between thank you and gratitude?

[02:31:47] And maybe there isn't much of a difference, but I do know this. Both those words, those phrases, just don't even cover it. There's a truth, which is that this community is safer. This community is better because of all of you.

[02:32:04] And that is about saying thank you. It's about being in that place of gratitude. Because when we get up every morning, we meaning the Board of Supervisors, the first thing I do is I look at my phone. And I look at my phone because I'm wondering what happened last night.

[02:32:23] And we get texts in the morning as to what happened last night. And I know that while we were all sleeping, you were keeping a really good eye out for all of us and taking really good care of us. And for that, thank you. Deepest gratitude and appreciate you more.

[02:32:43] Thank you. This is just a small sample of what our public safety people do every single day, 365 of the year.

[02:33:05] But it's important that you all know that when you do do something that's amazing like this, that it's going to be recognized. And it's important for us to bring it back before the community because, let's face it, when you watch the news at night, it's mostly depressing.

[02:33:25] And these are the stories that people should really be hearing about, truthfully. This is what should be highlighted on the news. So anyway, thank you very much, everything that you do. Thank you, both chiefs, for your leadership. I always said that we have the best public safety in the country by far, and it starts from the top all the way to the bottom.

[02:33:43] So thank you from the bottom of my heart. Jessica? They don't like being up here, so we don't need to talk very much more. But, again, ditto. You guys know that I value you all, and anything that we can do to help you, we try our best to do, and we appreciate everything that you do for us and the community, so thank you.

[02:34:06] I'd be glad to pass my time to any of you if you have any comments you'd like to make. well on being unusual for myself my comments were brief tonight you know when I think about as a realtor when people ask or they're debating on where they're going to live they always ask three questions is it a clean safe neighborhood or community and hire the schools and I think that has to be our three priorities and so taking care of the first responders and public safety

[02:34:44] employees is number one in my book, along with the teachers, and that's going to make our community stronger. So thank you for what you do. Thank you for easing our minds in the morning when we see those Texas that things have been taken care of and that people are safe in our community. So just thank you so much for everything that you do. I'll just bring closure to it, and I didn't introduce it you know fully but the valor awards program as I mentioned is regional they fill up a room close to a thousand people plus are there throughout the community business leader

[02:35:23] political leaders other public safety peers throughout central Virginia they don't give awards just because they have awards to give not every locality gets an award not every department gets an award so there's no boxes to check there have been some valor award programs where they may have only given one award to one department throughout the entire region I think we've been blessed you know from my vantage point and the elected officials and the two chiefs and the sheriff's office is also participatory in this program as well I think we had about 75 percent

[02:35:57] of the valor award recipients from Chesterfield County winning the awards not to dismay or take away from what other localities do they all put themselves out there all the time the stories that are behind this and i encourage you to google the valor awards program and really be participatory in it it is an amazing collection of people an amazing collection of stories sometimes they bring the people who have been saved uh before this thousands groups of people and there's when the story is told there's not a dry eye in the house so i didn't want it to go by without really just

[02:36:33] saying this is not an awards program uh this is something special because it's not just given out It's given to those that have earned something that hardly anyone in the profession has ever earned. So thank you so much on our behalf.

[02:36:49] But did you want to give it one chance to say something? All right. Well, thank you.

[02:36:55] As you're all approaching your seats, I want to bring up, I have three other things to do before you.

[02:37:56] One is a Black History Month update by Kim Conley, our Director of Community Engagement and Resources. Good evening, our Honorable Chairman, members of the Board, the Board of Supervisors, and Dr. Casey. Thank you, Dr. Casey. As co-chair of the Chesterfield County Black History Month Celebration Committee, in partnership with Virginia State University, I would like to once again express my sincere appreciation for your continued support, dedication, and participation in this annual program.

[02:38:25] For 37 years, this county has consistently been committed to educating, informing, and celebrating the rich history and proud legacy of African Americans in Chesterfield County. As you know, this year's theme was a century of Black history commemorations.

[02:38:40] Our committee curated an innovative and engaging lineup of programs to honor this theme and connect with our community. A special thank you to Mr. Carroll and Dr. Hilton for helping us kick off the month at Virginia State University, alongside the local band Evolution, DJ Reggie Mack, and as always, to energizing, break-it-down RVA line dancers who kept everybody on their feet.

[02:39:07] Throughout the month, residents experienced a wide range of programs, from Welcome to Cobalt Brook, a historical presentation to the Junior Wilson Show, Faces of Freedom, Stories of Service, Black Culinary Traditions, and History with Victoria Lucky, Living Voices, The Right to Dream, Soul of the Community, Black History presentation with the Valentine Museum, and a conversation with Coretta Scott King.

[02:39:36] We also had a well-attended vendor market and fair on Saturday, as well as Motown Musicale, where our seniors came out last night to have a good time. Those programs are just a few to name for this month. Last month, we held one of our most, I mean, last Friday, we held one of our most memorable business breakfast and scholarship recognition programs.

[02:39:59] This signature event awarded six $25 scholarships to deserving Chesterfield County high school seniors-- $2,500. $2,500, what did I say? Not $25. $2,500, I'm sorry. Big difference. That's right, $2,500 scholarships to deserving Chesterfield County high school seniors planning to attend a Virginia college or university.

[02:40:22] The morning featured a fireside chat moderated by veteran journalist Shelby Brown in conversation with the Honorable Cleo Powell, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia. Her journey, insights, and words of encouragement were truly impactful for our students as well as the attendees.

[02:40:43] We also had musical selections by the nationally known Virginia State University Gospel Chorale. If you missed it, you missed a treat, but thanks to the communications and media team, the program can be viewed on the county's YouTube channel. I am also proud to share that two of our own, Dr. Laquan Hilton, Dale District Supervisor, and Kiva Rogers, Social Services Director, along with Dr. Joseph Wilkins, President of St. Francis Medical Center, were invited to First Baptist Church Centauria to participate in kicking off their Black History Month program.

[02:41:19] Dr. Hilton and Ms. Rogers shared their inspiring stories and represented Chesterfield with great distinction. This month, we have hosted more than 25 programs and activities across the county, with over 2,300 participants to date.

[02:41:36] And for those who haven't yet had a chance to attend, there are four programs remaining. Please visit our website. I also would like to share that the exhibit Ideas Evolve and Hands Create from the Kumba African-American Quilters Guild of Richmond is on display at the Perkinson Center for Arts and Education through March 1st, where you can also enjoy a program that they have this week.

[02:41:59] As you can see from the photos displayed, The county's programs were educational, engaging, and incredibly well-attended. I must also acknowledge that none of this would be possible without the commitment and teamwork of the individuals who helped bring these events to life.

[02:42:17] Co-chair Yodonis James from Virginia State University. Members and colleagues, if you're out there, stand up. Jennifer Shepley and Pamela White with the Chesterfield County Public Library. Tanya Lebo from Chesterfield County Parks and Recreation.

[02:42:33] Donna Charles Kosky and Audra Lancaster-Boyce from Chesterfield County Public Schools, Teresa Boniface and her team, Chesterfield County Constituent and Media Services, Regina Barnett-Towler and Gwen Dandridge, Virginia State University, and the continued support of Virginia State University, Chesterfield County All-Departments, and Chesterfield County Public Schools Communications and Media Departments.

[02:42:55] Please join me in thanking this outstanding team for their dedication in planning such a successful month of programs.

[02:43:12] I would also like to extend gratitude to corporate and community sponsors whose annual contributions make these events possible. We truly could not host a celebration without the support of Columbia Gas, who's our longstanding sponsor for Black History Month, Virginia Credit Union, Bryan and Stratton College, the late Honorable James and Mrs. Judith Holland, Dr. Cheryl Bailey, and Stiff Solutions, LLC.

[02:43:36] Thank you to each of them for their unwavering commitment and support of our program. And finally, I want to just take an opportunity to thank Dr. Casey for your many years of support and assistance for this program. Dr. Abdullah for always saying, yes, we can.

[02:43:52] And Dr. James Worsley for his ongoing support. We can only do this because we have a leadership team, this board of supervisors that says we can do it. And without the leadership team that says we can do it, whatever it is, we wanted to be creative. You said, let's go for it. So I just want to say to you, on behalf of the team, thank you for saying yes.

[02:44:11] Thank you for showing up. Thank you for participating, because without you, we would not have a program this successful. And we are one of a kind in Chesterfield County. We are already excited as we look forward to next year's events, and we know that you all will be there right with us. So thank you for everything you do to support Chesterfield County's Black History Month celebration.

[02:44:34] Thank you, Ms. Connelly. Corporal Eckridge could come up. I know that you all are very participatory in National Night Out, and again, we are virtually in all parts of the county, and one of the byproducts of that is nationally, people are paying attention to how we do National Night Out.

[02:44:56] Good evening, everyone. I am proud to report that for the second year in a row, we finished third in the nation among jurisdictions with 300,000 residents or more.

[02:45:11] again our two arch nemeses orlando and arlington still took first and second but i don't think that they can compare to the program we put together it would sound like an oscar speech if i stood up here and thanked everyone who i work with sheriff's department fire department distinguished members of the board dr casey but i think the most important people we need to thank are our community members. They're the ones that show up. According to our records, we had almost 11,000

[02:45:50] participants at 90 parties across the county that showed up to publicly say, we're proud of our law enforcement, we have a bond with our law enforcement, and we're proud to work with them. I don't think you can quantify that. We work hard every year to restore faith in that bond, in that commitment, and there's not much else I don't think that we can say.

[02:46:17] Let us revel in our celebration that we've been nationally recognized, but let's take more pride in the bond with our community. Thank you. Mr. Chair.

[02:46:36] Yes, sir. Who said you could leave? First of all, thank you for doing such an excellent job every year. Thank you, Mr. Carroll. It takes a lot of coordination and outreach on our part to get the community involved.

[02:46:55] It's not an easy thing. There's a lot of time and effort put in by you and the team. How many years have you been doing this? Since 2019, about seven years. And how many years have you been on the police department? 23 this year. Okay.

[02:47:10] You're not going anywhere anytime soon, are you? About that. We'll talk offline. Okay. Well, your permission is denied. You can't go. You do a tremendous job for us.

[02:47:27] Thank you. So do all of our, quite frankly, I know I'm biased because I was a police officer too, but I haven't been doing that for a long time. But our public safety people, I said it before, the reason we have the relationship with the community is because of how good the job is done by the people we have out there every day, whether they're going on a call for service for PD, whether they're going on a call for service for the fire department, whether they're doing something with the sheriff's department.

[02:47:58] All of our public safety people that we hire and train come here because they want to do the job. they want to do a good job and that you're right it's the people but I can tell you I've been in other parts of the country and you can watch the news every day in other parts of the country and see that there are other communities that don't have the same type of relationships that we have with the people in Chesterfield County so maybe we just have better people I don't know probably so but I think it's a partnership with the community and with our public safety people and um so thank

[02:48:35] you so sorry I know you want to run out the door but I wanted to personally say thank you and some of the board members may have a comment or two for you as well thank you any other board members mr. Engel third two years in a row is remarkable and I know it takes a lot of work and a lot of documentation and a lot of back and forth with the National Night Out Association for the country but if you really think you're gonna leave you're gonna have to get to number

[02:49:03] on first. Yeah. Dr. Hilton. You know, you think about how important this event is. And often as I've done my orientation, I'll try to think about a department not being there in the gap that it would fill. Right. And so we had that happen during COVID with National Night Out. And when it returned people were like really excited about it and um it just shows how important that one

[02:49:37] night is for those relationships and so um i know i've been going on national night out since i think 20 well i think we went out one time in 2019 and then i think we stopped in 2020 and then i think we picked back up and masked in 2021 i think and so um it just goes to show that you know this is an important event um and also for the firefighters i know that in deerfield we have a they have a fire truck that comes every year and to see the kids um you know look at the fire department and

[02:50:14] the police department and you know ems is like their heroes is is really great to see and um i hope that that helps us out with our recruitment if we can get kids young like that excited about public service, then we don't have to recruit so hard as they get older, but it's just a testament to your efforts, and to see you run around and get everybody in line to take photos and make sure that McGruff doesn't, all the McGruffs don't fall out because it's so hot, but you know, it's really amazing to see, you know, the public safety department

[02:50:52] come together for that one night and support a community that builds and continues to enrich relationships so just want to pause and say thank you for for what you do and we know it's very important because we didn't do it one year and people were excited to be out that next year so thank you so much thank you thank you for all you do thank you man yeah well first i want to appreciate uh mr carroll for keeping him from leaving so thank you for that at least um look this is i say all the time it's all about relationship and what that means is that there

[02:51:32] needs to be people have to show up and they have to show up and they need to communicate and be able to deepen that connection and that's what makes it all worthwhile and so this event what you're doing is enhancing that relationship changing the community for the better and not all communities as folks have said already don't have this but you know if you make everything a priority nothing is a priority this is a priority it's about relationships so thank you for all the work you're doing and continue to do for our community and and hurting all of us cats to pull

[02:52:10] this together so thank you thank you very much i appreciate the kind words don't feel guilty or anything jess my uh my last update to you is another one in the public safety realm. So if I could have Travis Parrish come to the podium here. He is the director of

[02:52:49] client services for CALEA. That's the commission on accreditation for law enforcement agencies. And again, as was publicly reported out previously, but now we're bringing it to you live. We have achieved a very distinct mark of having three accreditations within our law enforcement division with the Law Enforcement Agency, Law Enforcement Training Academy, and now Emergency Communication Center. Mr. Parrish. Well, what a night. Holy smokes. What a great community. Chairperson Miller, Vice Chairperson Carroll, Dr. Casey, Colonel Carpenter, Chesterfield residents and

[02:53:28] guests. On behalf of the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, the Commission Chair, Colonel Matthew Packard, and the Executive Director, Mr. Craig Hartley, Kalia is honored to be here, recognizing Colonel Carpenter and the men and women of the Chesterfield County Police Department. To provide a little background, CALEA was created in 1979 when the founding organizations, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Association of Black Law Enforcement Executives, the National Sheriff's Association, and the Police Executive Research Forum recognized a need within the law enforcement community to develop professional

[02:54:05] standards to enhance the delivery of police services to citizens throughout the community they served. Since its inception, CALEA has accredited agencies under standards developed by many of the best public safety practitioners and leaders of our time. The standards are reviewed continuously to ensure each is current and remains relevant. These standards cover a wide range of administrative, operational, and logistical issues and serve as a modern management model that provides the framework for recognizing professional excellence within public safety. County leaders and citizens should take comfort in the fact that its police department, communication center,

[02:54:44] and its training academy have voluntarily committed to operating at a higher level under a set of rigorous law enforcement standards. With the most recent accreditation of the training academy, Chesterfield County has achieved a tri-arc status. This advanced award is only given to those agencies who have achieved all eligible accredited programs by CALEA. The goals of CALEA are to strengthen crime prevention and control capabilities, formalize essential management procedures, establish fair and non-discriminatory personnel practices, improve service delivery,

[02:55:24] solidify interagency cooperation and coordination, and increase community and staff confidence in the agency. Based on the goals and mission statement of CALEA, I can think of no better time or place to present this accreditation certificate to the agency than at a public meeting, especially where all of these awards have been given and recognition has been given, where all can share and recognize the hard work this agency committed to achieve and maintain its accreditation.

[02:55:52] I am especially honored to present tonight, since my home is just up 288 in Goochland. Dr. Hilton, you mentioned families moving into Chesterfield County, asking about safety in schools. Please add to that, Chesterfield County Public Safety is internationally accredited.

[02:56:09] The certificate itself is simply matted paper within a frame, but it has a much broader symbolic meaning. The certificate clearly represents the agency's efforts to achieve accredited status, thereby demonstrating its willingness to change in order to effectively address contemporary public safety concerns.

[02:56:26] It represents a commitment to doing the right thing and doing it the right way. Lastly, it represents an ongoing dedication to ensuring the agency's resources are appropriately developed, effectively deployed and constantly managed, all in the name of a safer community for workers, visitors, and customers.

[02:56:46] After an extensive review, CALEA commissioners reviewed the assessor's report, concurred with their findings, and unanimously voted to approve the Chesterfield County Police Department, the Training Academy, and the Communications Center for CALEA accreditation. If it's okay with the board at this time, I'd like to invite Colonel Carpenter and directors of the Training Academy and Communications Center, as well as members of command and accreditation staff that are present to please come forward to receive the CLIA accreditation certificate.

[02:57:16] Is it okay with the board? All right. It's unanimous. Board, if you're welcome to come down, I would...

[02:57:38] Try and give a microphone for you.

[02:58:01] Be it hereby known that the Chesterfield County, Virginia, Police Department, having fully demonstrated its voluntary commitment to public safety training academy excellence by living up to a body of standards deemed essential to the effective training of public safety personnel and having exemplified the best professional practices in the conduct of its responsibilities is hereby upon the recommendation of the members of the commission awarded this certificate of accreditation effective on the 15th day of November, 2025, and is recognized as an accredited public safety training academy for four years.

[02:58:38] Also down here, we have law enforcement, I believe, but there's also a third for the communication center. So very, very well done. congratulations. Well, I've just had the honor, just as a staff person, and, you know, I was interviewed and interrogated about the ECC, at least, on this last round, and, you know, it makes it a good experience where you can be honest answers to honest questions and know that it results in this outcome, because all we do is give honest answers to our people, and there is no

[02:59:18] salesmanship in this. This is real, and as someone said before, it's 24-7. Congratulations. I just want to say that, you know, there is a lot that they look at when they're making this determination.

[02:59:39] All of your training records, your training standards, your policies, how in internal affairs investigations, they look at so much when they look at these organizations to determine whether or not they meet these standards. I know because I used to have to provide lower records all the time. So you need to give me that, right? So it really is quite an accomplishment to continue to achieve this year after year and then now adding ECC I mean it's just in the training academy this is just y'all doing an awesome job as usual so thank you ditto and thank you all for what you do

[03:00:18] and taking the time to be the best you possibly can for our community and representing so well so I suspect they don't just give these things out like candy what does it come down to I mean Dr. Casey mentioned you know he was interrogated but what it comes right down to is integrity dependability that's what it comes down to and that means being and living in the highest standards possible not just for the community but also for our law enforcement to get up every morning and

[03:00:52] it's about integrity and dependability and service so thank you all for all the work thank you for the recognition um thank you for putting us through our paces so we can continue to get

[03:01:03] better all the time which of course that's what it's all about so thank you so much item 12 board

[03:02:04] member reports. Ms. Snyder. Okay. So it finally happened. We reopened the LaProd library. My fellow board members joined and attended the ribbon cutting that we had at the new and improved LaProd library. If you haven't had a chance to check it out, please do so. It's some much needed and lovely improvements to my community library. It's in my backyard, so that's the only reason I say

[03:02:40] that but the renovation reflects the board's commitment to investing in the people of Chesterfield we know that libraries are more than a collection of books I'm so excited about the makers place that's in there for if you have any kiddos that you need to entertain they have classes they have 3d printers and Legos and puzzles and art classes it's sewing machines and all sorts of things. So please go check it out. Next slide, please. This past weekend, Mr. Engel and I, and it sounds like Mr. Hilton was there later with his daughters. Oh, you were there also? Sorry.

[03:03:20] See, okay. Attended the third annual snowball festival. This has been a huge success and it's just multiplied in the number of people that have attended every year. We tried to shift around some things this year to make it a little more spread out had more jumpies and more slides and it was amazing and we actually had some visitors from the the zoo we had bluebell and honeydew I think

[03:03:54] were their names the penguins and there was a skunk and what was the other there was some kind of condor lizard or something like that I don't remember oh yeah the python yeah that's okay I don't want to talk about that um but anyway uh it's just an awesome event um so many people um i i think it's gotten bigger and bigger i think i was talking to parks their estimates are somewhere around 10 000 people they think possibly were there they haven't gotten the final numbers in

[03:04:26] but that's amazing and i think that concludes my report thank you mr snyder dr hilton uh thank you Mr. Chair. So I had the opportunity to go to the general assembly with the PTA. Um, so it was, it was really great to see, um, parents and students talk to the general assembly representatives that, um, that represent Chesterville County. Um, it was also interesting to see some of the kids

[03:05:00] that were there, um, listening as debates were going back and forth about bills. Um, it was a school day where there was a few kids that were there, so great event. Glad I could attend. The next event was a gentleman, Nate Banks, does a podcast, and he talks about the financial hour.

[03:05:26] So it was a really good event to go to, and not really an event, just a podcast, and that would be forthcoming, but just talking about me taking my role in public service and what that meant. So So just thank you so much to the constituent services and the media folks who helped me prepare for that.

[03:05:48] So thank you. The next event was Jack and Jill of the Midlothian Chapter. It's an organization that Mr. and Mrs. Holland helped bring to Chessville County a number of years ago.

[03:06:04] And we hosted a public safety day. So as you heard earlier, public safety is near and dear to my heart. And I want to make sure that, you know, one, kids that are and also adults that go through house fires, they know how to escape.

[03:06:21] So we have a trailer set up for that, them to go through that exercise. It was really nice for them to meet police officers on motorcycles. And we had the sheriff's department brought a horse that was really heartwarming to see the horse there.

[03:06:40] And also the drones, the fire department, they got to walk around the firehouse and see how our firefighters live and work. So that was really good. They also got exposed to CPR. So that was that part.

[03:06:57] And I also want to thank the state police. They flew in med flight so they could actually experience sitting on a helicopter. And it was really heartwarming to hear one of the little kids get off the helicopter and say he wants to be a pilot now. So I think he has a few more years, but we're looking forward to him being a pilot for us one day.

[03:07:19] So thank you so much, Mr. Chair. That concludes my report. Thank you, Dr. Hilton. Mr. Carroll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We held a town hall meeting earlier this month to discuss a pending Mobleck Farms zoning case in the Matoka District.

[03:07:37] It was an opportunity to allow residents to add an additional comments to their thoughts on the development and also discuss, you know, the comprehensive plan and the zoning ordinance and talk about, you know, how the land out there is currently zoned or how it's proposed to be zoned in the comprehensive plan and giving them an opportunity to weigh in on that.

[03:08:03] And just as a side note, if you want to go see those penguins, they are at the Rich Metro Zoo in the Matoka District. And they have many other animals out there and events for you to go see. But the line just to see the penguins was unbelievable the other day.

[03:08:20] So thank you, Mr. Chair. This is my report. Thank you, Mr. Carroll. I wanted to share a few things with you. The first one is about Chesterfield playing host to the Fort Lee Civilian Military Council's quarterly luncheon. this month the cmc again that stands for a civilian military council luncheon provides a really important opportunity for local government leaders to strengthen our partnerships with fort lee it allows us to connect directly with military leadership exchange updates and insights and

[03:08:54] deepen our understanding of military culture and priorities honestly chesterfield is really proud to be one of the first localities to create a dedicated veterans resources web page on that web page you're able to find all a bunch of resources there please go out there especially if you're a veteran there's a lot going on that you may not be aware of and um wow it was an incredible opportunity for all of us to hang out together and uh really start to talk about what the civilian military council does for our community all right on the latest episode of

[03:09:33] Chesterfield, behind the mic, I joined Brad Franklin to discuss my first tenure as chair, some of the big items facing the county for 2026, and a number of updates on projects in the Midlothian District. I invite all of you folks that are listening to go out there, listen to the podcast, and hear what's going on and what our priorities are going into the new year. And then finally, Unity Church of Bonaire held its 25th annual Teddy Bear Sunday this past weekend. The teddy bears were donated to Chesterfield police each year and provide comfort and a sense of

[03:10:11] security during some of life's most uncertain and traumatic moments to children. It was an incredible example of public safety as a shared community effort. The community is amazing. I still kind of have this warm part in place in my heart for Unity Church of Bonaire. They really put on this incredible opportunity to bring together the teddy bears and then give them to our police and fire to give them out. So thanks, deep gratitude to Unity Chair Church of Bonaire.

[03:10:48] And finally, if you're noticed, you're probably noticing that we're kind of limiting the board reports. This is only a very small appetizer of a much larger meal of what we do during the month. So you can share, you can go out and look and hear about everything that we're doing throughout the community, district highlights, community involvement, and then recent accomplishments.

[03:11:13] You can subscribe to our district updates list to receive board reports in your mailbox or scan the QR code. And ladies and gentlemen, this concludes my report. Item 13, resolutions and special recognitions.

[03:11:29] A, resolution recognizing Ms. Yvonne A. Hill, mental health support services upon her retirement. Will Ms. Hill and her guests please join the board on the stage?

[03:12:08] Madam Clerk, if you'll read the resolution, please.

[03:12:49] Yes, sir. Whereas Ms. Javon A. Hill retired from Chesterfield County Mental Health Support Services on January 1, 2026, after providing over 30 years of excellent service, and whereas Ms. Hill began her tenure with Chesterfield County as a placement services social worker for the Chesterfield Colonial Heights Department of Social Services, on December 16th, 1991, and was promoted to Independent Living Program Coordinator in June 2000, and whereas Ms. Hill went on to expand her public service career joining Chesterfield Mental Health

[03:13:22] Support Services in April of 2008 as a service coordinator, attaining levels of expertise that promoted her to service coordinator 2 in 2013 and service coordinator 3 in 2016, and whereas Ms. Hill participated in the Employment First in Virginia Work Initiative in 2012 and the inaugural Telework Committee in 2015, and whereas Ms. Hill was a certified trainer for Casey Family Programs, training numerous human services professionals and community partners, and whereas Ms. Hill

[03:13:57] participated in the Chesterfield Leadership Institute, and whereas Ms. Hill served on committees that included the Independent Living Council supporting adolescents into adulthood from 1998 to 2004, a committee she also chaired from 2001 to 2004, the Trauma-Informed Committee in 2022, and Diversity, Advisory, and Inclusion Team in 2023. And whereas Ms. Hill compassionately and consistently supported individuals and their families in each capacity she served in,

[03:14:33] from working with children in adoption to individuals with ID and DD diagnoses. And whereas through her tenure, Ms. Hill supported all initiatives launched in the department, as well as engaged as a volunteer for internal and external events, such as the holiday dance for clients, mental health tabling, and food and supply drives to assist clients in need.

[03:14:58] And whereas Ms. Hill dedicated her career to providing life-changing services to individuals and their families, as well as supporting and training staff, and will be greatly missed by all. And whereas Ms. Hill's stellar commitment to person-centric case management, grounded in a positional leadership core, provided an embodied example of professionalism at its best, yet never lost sight of the humanity required to do so in every interaction with clients and colleagues.

[03:15:29] Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors this 25th day of february 2026 publicly recognizes ms yvonne a hill and extends on behalf of its members and residents of chesterfield county appreciation for over 30 years of exceptional service to the county and be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to ms hill and that this resolution be permanently recorded among the papers of the board of supervisors of chesterfield county virginia i'm going to make the motion if i may be so bold but i need a second all in favor Hi. Congratulations. Thank you.

[03:16:13] I'll start off just as the county administrator. We have a small token of our appreciation for you, if I could give it to someone else to hold.

[03:16:30] Thank you. They get heavy after a while. What is in that bag is a brick, and it's more than just a brick. It has your name inscribed with your tenure of service. It will be placed amongst many of your fellow colleagues of yesteryear, but, again, people who have devoted more than 25 years of their life to making Chesterfield County better.

[03:16:53] So we have a brick there, and this is a brick for you to take home as well. It's just the same exact brick, but it's more than just the, it's that dash that you read, you had me just at Independence Living, 'cause I, and you did so many different things to so many people, and I know it just sounds like job titles that may have been espoused, but if the people don't know, what you have done and helped people, people upon people and families, children to adults, adults as they age.

[03:17:24] The clear person was here and giving accolades of this is a nice community. I don't know if he's still here, but we'll exhaust him with how nice we are because of the things that you have done on behalf of Chesterfield County. You have made a difference to so, so many people. So we thank you very much, thank you.

[03:17:47] - Yvonne, I also wanna express our congratulations on behalf of the Chesterfield Community Services Board, as well as the Department of Mental Health overall. So many things that were stated in your resolution, people don't understand, were really far and beyond your basic role as a case manager in our department for all those years.

[03:18:07] You were a trainer, aside from being an advocate, you did volunteer work, you were on so many coalitions, you were on internal committees within our department. Your resolution just speaks volumes in so many ways. A lot of people don't realize this, But the department or the program that Yvonne has worked in is one of the most highly regulated programs from the state.

[03:18:32] And there are so many administrative requirements on top of what you really want to do, which is work and help individuals. And we have a hard time maintaining staff because of the regulatory burdens, administrative burdens. And you are just a testament of not only did you master that, but you did all of these extra things on top of that.

[03:18:53] And so I just, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you so much for what you've done for so many citizens in the county. So thank you.

[03:19:12] All of these things are completely from the heart. You don't do these things if you're not a heart-based person. And thank you for sharing your heart with so many people in the community and making sure that they felt heard and seen. Yes, thank you very much.

[03:19:33] This is going to sound corny, but when you do your job, you think you're just doing your job, but you're touching lives. And when you touch someone's life like that and you make a difference, there's no way to measure, there's no way to measure what it meant, what it did, and how it spun out beyond that.

[03:19:54] So everyone's life, no matter who you are in here, by the way, every day somehow you have the ability to touch somebody and do something good. It just so happens you did it for us, for your community, for a long time. So thank you to you and your family. It's good to see you.

[03:20:13] Yvonne and I worked together for like a decade. And what I love is your sense of humor, your ability to deal with whatever is in front of us. I think that it is really appropriate you're wearing purple today because, folks, we're among royalty.

[03:20:34] We are. Thank you for all the work. Thank you for the honor of working beside you. Man, it doesn't get much better than that. So thank you for all the work. Thank you all. So standing here, thank you, with me here is my mother. This is Reverend Dr. Pinky Hill. And so she is, she is my right hand and my left hand and was that rod when I needed it.

[03:21:11] So, but I also have my cousin here, Eunice, and another cousin, Carmen Sita, and this is my godson, Andre. He chose me. You know, I told him most times the parents choose the godparents, but he came to me and said, may I be your godson?

[03:21:27] And so I said, if we get your mother's okay, we're good with that. And so what I really want to say to Chesterfield County is thank you for the opportunity to serve. It has truly been my pleasure to be of service, to work with the families that were appointed to me, to work the court cases that, you know, sometimes were very difficult.

[03:21:49] What we do in human services has never been easy, but the rewards, you just cannot imagine when you've helped someone through a difficult time. I feel like I'm a firefighter sometimes because I go through the fire with my families.

[03:22:05] I've told my friends who are police officers, the difference between you and I is you've got a gun, and I have that other badge. But we're going into those same situations, which are very chaotic and crisis-driven. And our families, if we treat them well, will welcome us into those crises and allow us to bring them out of that fire.

[03:22:28] And for them to go forward and have better lives, which allows us to have better lives as those who are working with them. So I'm grateful that I've had this time to serve. And I'm also grateful for retirement. I understand that police officer very well when he said, oh, let's talk about that off the mic.

[03:22:46] But I am so grateful. I'm grateful to Kelly and to Stephanie for working with me. And I have another tribe here with me. And those are my aqua buddies from the Petersburg YMCA. And I'm there now, Monday through Friday, and our slogan is fun, fitness, and fellowship.

[03:23:07] So thank you all, Aqua Buddies, for supporting me. And again, thank you, Chuttsville County, for allowing me to serve. Thank you for carrying that.

[03:23:36] Madam Clerk. B, resolution recognizing Captain Randolph F. Randy Horwitz, Police Department, upon his retirement. Will Captain Horwitz and his guests please join the board on the stage?

[03:23:58] Madam Clerk, if you'd read the resolution.

[03:24:26] Yes, sir. Whereas Captain Randolph F. Randy Horowitz retired from Chesterfield County Police Department on February 1, 2026, after providing 43 years of quality service to the residents of Chesterfield County, and whereas Captain Horowitz began as an investigator in 1983 and continued to faithfully serve as a recruit, police officer, senior police officer, master police officer, career police officer, sergeant, lieutenant, and captain. And whereas during his tenure, Captain Horowitz also served as

[03:25:03] administrative lieutenant, field training sergeant, field training officer, and desk officer. And whereas Captain Horowitz earned the Police Star Award for actions taken upon arriving at an active shooter site, confronting the shooter, assessing his mental state, and then approaching and confiscating a rifle.

[03:25:22] And whereas Captain Horowitz received a unit citation recognizing his dedication to the unit as a detective for his teamwork in supporting criminal investigations with essential surveillance and intelligence on 87 cases during a one-year period, which required being on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week for an extended period.

[03:25:44] And whereas Captain Horowitz earned a unit citation for his role in the resolution of in one year of all nine homicide cases either through physical evidence or confessions and for the countless hours devoted to the investigation of cold cases dating back to the 1970s and whereas captain horowitz earned a chief's commendation award for his leadership ingenuity and sacrifice in developing the criminal apprehension and suppression team designed to produce immediate and sustained results and leading the first team of six officers who achieved over 300 arrests for possession and distribution of narcotics, seized multiple

[03:26:24] vehicles, and confiscated hundreds of dollars of currency. And whereas Captain Horowitz was presented with an achievement award for successfully meeting the assignment of steering the Chesterfield Police Department through challenges of the COVID pandemic, altering the existing focus and priorities and ensuring protocols were established and followed for the protection of all officers.

[03:26:48] And whereas Captain Horowitz was commended during his entire tenure for his impressive teamwork and support of fellow officers. And whereas Chesterfield County and the Board of Supervisors will miss Captain Horowitz's diligent service. Now therefore be it resolved that the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors this 25th day of February 2026 publicly recognizes Captain Randolph F. Randy Horowitz and extends on behalf of its members and the residents of Chesterfield County appreciation for his service to the county, congratulations upon his retirement, and best wishes for a long and happy retirement.

[03:27:26] And be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to Captain Horowitz and that this resolution be permanently recorded among the papers of this Board of Supervisors of Chesterfield County, Virginia. Mr. Chair, it would be my honor to make a motion to approve the resolution. All in favor.

[03:27:44] Aye. I'm going to hand this over to the chief first. Randy, you know, that's a mouthful, man. Congratulations for such an amazing career. You know, when I think about, you know, everything that you've done and how you serve this community, it just makes me proud.

[03:28:01] I've known you for 26 years. Your dedication and commitment to this community is second to none. I think I've told you before that you're a bridge builder. You connect the community with the police department, and you're going to be truly missed. the dedication and commitment again is second to none the work that you do and then you know all the cases that you were involved in and how you impacted the lives of the people you know around the community is just amazing and to your lovely wife thank you for the many years of support he couldn't do it without you you know so many times you know when you look at 43 years that's a long

[03:28:40] time and I'm glad you actually came before the board of supervisors to acknowledge and let this be publicly known that, you know, most police officers last 20, 30 years at the most, but 43 years is an amazing feat, and the whereas is, I think they were probably the longest whereas I've heard in a long time, but no, yeah, you're truly deserving of all the recognition and honor on today, and I wish you much success in the future chapters of life.

[03:29:17] Well, if you're ever looking, if you get bored at home, you know, we can maybe have some part-time work for you to do, so. We will greatly miss you, and that's just an amazing career, 43 years. I mean, that's a long time, and obviously you enjoyed it so much.

[03:29:35] But, yes, thank you for all of you that you've done at home by yourself sometimes because I know it's a little difficult sometimes when your husband is away working, taking care of another community, so thank you. Randy, look, a couple of things.

[03:29:53] One, when you have to use a six font on the writing, know there's a lot on that resolution right you know I hope and I'm pretty sure I'm right on this that you along the way took some of that wisdom and knowledge of yours and imparted it upon some of the people who are going to replace you because when someone with your years of service walks out the door it's not just the person that's walking out the door it's everything you know is walking out the door and that intellectual property that you're taking with you when you're walking out with that many years of experience, that's hard to get back.

[03:30:31] You're the type of person, you can ask you about something that happened 20 years ago, and you go, oh yeah, this is what it was. You don't forget. And so, and I know Virginia State University is going to miss you too, because I think it was your second home working all the, every time someone went to an event down there, there's Randy.

[03:30:49] Now, I don't know what you're going to do, because he's going to be home a lot more now. So you better have a big, long honey-do list for him to keep him busy, but yeah, but... But look, brother, congratulations. And for me, this is, again, I'm a corny guy.

[03:31:06] It's an honor for me to know that my signature is on your resolution, brother. You were talking about institutional knowledge, right? That's what you bring with you. That's what you have. I figure you're well along in writing your book because there is so much information that we could benefit from a police officer that has worked for 43 years.

[03:31:32] I mean, how does a county thank you, but just to know in our hearts about appreciation and know that we only wish you the very, very best because you gave us the very, very best.

[03:31:49] So thank you very, very much. So, Randy, you know, I was your partner on the National Night Out a few years ago, and I tell you, this guy's like a celebrity.

[03:32:06] Everywhere we went, they knew him. He knew exactly what time to get us to all the neighborhoods. And it was an honor to ride with you that day. And when I got the email that you were going to be the officer assigned to me, I was like, yes. So, you know, just your knowledge and your care for the community.

[03:32:30] You know, we're going to – we know we have some good officers. We have really good officers that have that too. but I'm going to miss that from you. But I hope to maybe see you at some Virginia State games or at some of the graduations or whatever.

[03:32:45] You're a fixture there. And so just really appreciate everything that you've done, not only for Chesterwood County, but also when we had the event for you recently for the police chief of Virginia State to come up and he had another officer with him.

[03:33:02] And for them to share some kind words from the university, it meant a lot. So thank you so much for everything you've done, and I wish you Godspeed. Thank you so much. Well, I know it's been brought up now because I got near the end of it, but I was expecting you to show up in uniform, Virginia State University uniform, not necessarily as a police officer, but just I think you have become a part of that.

[03:33:30] And quite frankly, we may have to redo his resolution a little bit and add that to it Because I don't know how we can honor your career without honoring what you've done to represent the Chesterfield County Police Department to Virginia State University and their police department and how they actually considered you a member of their own department, not as Chesterfield County.

[03:33:54] And to have that relationship is so important, especially if there's some kind of event where we have to work together to handle it. And there's so many other things you did, but I think we missed that part of it because what you did for Virginia State and Chesterfield County together was definitely worthy of great conversation.

[03:34:20] Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Hilton's going to hand you a nice commemorative brick, again, with your name, years of service. And just as I said before, we're honored to place that brick in front of our historic courthouse forevermore for you and your family to forever see.

[03:34:38] The only thing I'm glad about is I think the CALEA person left because he was here right now. He'd probably make us start another application process because we're losing one of the reasons why we got the CALEA award for everything that you've done. I know just from my vantage point as a county administrator on behalf of all the staff, we're appreciative.

[03:34:54] But just my personal accolades to you, there's lots of situations where a police chief may have to brief a county administrator about something that's really important going on to the community or within the police department. it can be very stressful you know there's a lot of people wanting and needing the accurate truth and information and and then for some reason every time i heard horowitz is is assigned to this you know it just gave me comfort to know that we're going to do the best thing possible to get to the answer and and and do it in the professional standards of that you actually helped write

[03:35:32] so uh there's no better accolade i can give than just when i heard your name even though it may not have been resolved or solved I knew we were gonna do the best we could so thank you on behalf of all of Chesterfield County please introduce yourself and your family this is my sister Elise and wife Patty Patricia and like everybody said I couldn't have done it without the support I got at home and understanding that you know when the phone rang at 2 o'clock in the morning I was leaving and although people might not have been happy about it they understood 43 years

[03:36:08] is nothing I ever planned on, I mean, really thought about leaving, you know, at 25 years, but things didn't work out that way, and in the last 16, 17 years, I've really loved what I do because I've been in the investigative division, either criminal investigations or internal affairs for 16 years in a row, and I loved every minute of it, so I thank everyone for coming out, Thank you for all the kind words.

[03:36:52] Madam Clerk. See resolution recognizing Mr. Gerard J. Duffy, Environmental Engineering Department, upon his retirement.

[03:37:12] Will Mr. Duffy and his guests please join the board on the stage?

[03:37:49] Madam Clerk. Whereas Mr. Gerard J. Duffy retired from Chesterfield County on January 1, 2026, after providing 37 years of dedicated service to the residents of Chesterfield County, And whereas Mr. Duffy started his career in 1988 as Clerk of the Works in the Department of General Services, was promoted to Drainage Superintendent in the Department of Environmental Engineering in November 1995, and was promoted to Stormwater Operations Manager in 2022.

[03:38:21] And whereas Mr. Duffy was the field coordinator for a multitude of county construction projects, including the Quartz Building, Fire Stations 3, 4, 11, and 15, the Drainage Shop, Bon Air and Mendlothian Libraries, Painter and Rogers Buildings, Eanes-Pittman Building, and Government Center Parkway.

[03:38:44] And whereas Mr. Duffy was the Department of General Services Employee of the Year in 1990 and the Environmental Engineering Employee of the Year in 2005. And whereas Mr. Duffy was part of many storm response teams including Tropical Storm Fran, Tropical Storm Isabel, Tropical Storm Gaston, and Tropical Storm Irene, working long hours to remove downed trees, blocking roads, and repair infrastructure damaged by the storm, thereby keeping county roads clear for first responders.

[03:39:17] And whereas Mr. Duffy was a member of the county snow and ice removal team, working tirelessly during snow and ice storm events, keeping county facilities open and accessible. And whereas Mr. Duffy led the successful development and implementation of the county residential BMP program.

[03:39:36] And whereas Mr. Duffy led the team that won a 2011 NACO award by developing a program consolidating all county department-owned BMP facilities. And whereas Mr. Duffy led the department's environment management team training to adhere to ISO standards in 2012.

[03:39:54] And whereas Mr. Duffy led the department team in the development and implementation of the swift stormwater infrastructure tracking system. And whereas during his 30 years in the Department of Environmental Engineering, Mr. Duffy oversaw the implementation of many stormwater capital improvement program projects, which provided much needed improvements for the citizens of the county.

[03:40:18] And whereas Mr. Duffy will be sorely missed by his co-workers and the director, who wish him the best as he enjoys a well-deserved retirement marked by more time to spend with his family and his favorite pastimes. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, this 25th day of February, 2026, publicly recognizes Mr. Gerard J. Duffy and extends on behalf of its members and the residents of Chesterfield County, appreciation for 37 years of exceptional service to the county.

[03:40:49] And, be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to Mr. Duffy and that this resolution be permanently recorded among the papers of the Board of Supervisors of Chesterfield County, Virginia. Thank you, Madam Clerk. I need a motion to approve this resolution, please.

[03:41:05] Second. All in favor. Aye. Where? Where's a good place to start? As with the previous retirees tonight, Jerry epitomizes the definition of a public servant.

[03:41:30] He's dedicated and loyal to the county for the last 37 years. He's helped numerous citizens with their drainage issues. He's been a mentor, a confidant to his fellow employees. It was a pleasure working with Jerry. The one thing I could complain about is that I wish we were in the same department for longer.

[03:41:50] I met him 30 years ago. We worked together in various capacities in different departments. And once we started working together in environmental engineering, I can't say anything bad about Jerry. I could always rely on him.

[03:42:06] He was just the best co-worker. And I miss him, and his coworkers miss him. You know, when I first started in Chesterfield County, I think there was a tropical storm not too soon afterwards. And back then, we were all in the basement, you know, 25 of us or so, and everyone's supposed to have assigned tasks.

[03:42:26] And all I remember just as the new person is Jerry Duffy's got this, or Jerry Duffy's doing that, and Jerry Duffy's doing this. And I was like, how many Jerry Duffys are employed here? And what are the rest of the people doing? But your name would mention. We were like the MacGyver during a storm, that whatever you did, and I'm not sure what policies and rules you may have followed in the heat of some storms, but you did it.

[03:42:50] And you did it to give safe passage to people. You did it to save lives so that first responders could get through, people could get through, power lines and things. And I can go on and on. Tonight, I mean, hopefully for the public's sake, we've had three all-stars come before us, all in their unique professions.

[03:43:08] and so this is government. It just shows you that all three of you have come from three different spectrums. And I'm glad I'm leaving, 'cause I'm not sure we can replace all three of you, because you are just a powerhouse team. And if we have any powers as a board, the next tropical storm that comes through Chesterfield County we'll name it Tropical Storm Cherry in your honor.

[03:43:30] So on behalf of Chesterfield County, Mr. Carroll has a commemorative brick. Don't need to repeat the whole story, hopefully you were paying attention, but Basically, in front of our courthouse forevermore, you will see your name and tenure there.

[03:43:46] And after the storm's gone, we'll clean it up each time. How about that, sir? Thank you very much. Well, I believe at some point you and I ended up in a stormwater ditch putting riprap down together with our teams in Mrs. Snyder's neighborhood.

[03:44:05] So I've gotten to witness your work firsthand, side by side. So thank you for all your work. You know, one thing I said when I took the job is that public safety was important to me. And when I sat down with Dr. Miller, I asked him what was important to him.

[03:44:23] And he said, clean air and clean water. And that's public safety. Because if the water is not safe and if it's not cleaned properly and drained properly, then our community pays a heavy price. And you've made sure that we didn't pay that price.

[03:44:40] With your knowledge and your experience, I just want to say thank you so much for all that you did. to make our community safe, and I consider you a member of the public safety folks that we talk about a lot. Thank you. I did have lots of interactions with you in Bexley, because I was the HOA president before I started doing this, and so I know that you were out at our neighborhood several times, and so we always knew who to call when we had some kind of drainage situation.

[03:45:13] So thank you so much. You will be greatly missed, and hopefully you guys have some great plans to do some things together, now that he's home more often. That doesn't mean you can't give him a list before you walk out the door.

[03:45:30] Everybody else's wife does that. I'm sure you do it too. Am I right? I know I'm right. Congratulations. As I said earlier, what you're taking with you, that property, that knowledge, it's irreplaceable. I hope you've trained other people and imparted that wisdom upon them because if not, they're just going to call you and ask anyway.

[03:45:51] So congratulations, sir. I had a conversation with my mom the other day and I asked her, when do you know when it's time to retire? And she said, you'll know. And what I've been struck with this evening is that folks aren't pushing to retire from Chesterfield County. It almost is one of those things where it just feels so much like home. It just feels like your life. It just feels like your calling, passion, that

[03:46:23] there's no reason to retire and so um the county uh it just the kind of community we create the kind of um that we do we just amongst ourselves it's family and so thank you for all your work um but for all your passion over the years um this is my wife lisa she's still working for chesterfield county so anyway i just want to say thank you board thank you leadership of the county for the culture you have created my long tenure here is because it's such a great place to work

[03:47:03] um it's a mixed feeling leaving i'm ready to go um but uh it's hard to leave such a greatly run organization top to bottom and um it's in good hands that's the reason why i can leave i know i'm leaving it in good hands and um i've been very lucky i remember when this this space was a courtroom so you too so um but uh i've been also blessed with uh some really good uh supervisors There's Bill Howell, Bob Rivers, Fran Pataro, Dick McElfish, and last but not least, Scott Smedley.

[03:47:38] Again, I'm leaving. I'm very grateful. It's been an honor to work here, and I'm looking forward to not working anymore. Anyway, thank you.

[03:48:10] All right, Madam Clerk.

[03:49:02] D, recognizing 2026, my Chesterfield Academy graduates, Ms. Halp. Good evening. Honorable Chair, members of the Board, and Dr. Casey, I am Natasha Halpe, the Assistant Director of Community Engagement and Resources, and it is my privilege to introduce the Michesterfield Academy Class of 2025. This year's cohort includes 15 graduates representing nine countries of origin and one U.S. territory. Within this group, our academy now reaches a

[03:49:42] total of 83 graduates representing 30 countries of origin and one U.S. territory. Our graduates are residents, business owners, community workers, and professionals across multiple sectors. What unites them is a shared commitment to strengthening belonging and community in Chesterfield.

[03:50:01] Their presence here today is a reminder that civic life grows stronger when new voices are welcomed to it. This academy is made possible through the steadfast support of the Asian and Latino solidarity alliance of central virginia also we extend sincere appreciation for their continued partnership and sponsorship of our academy lunches we were joined today by angela chang the secretary of the also board but she had to leave a little early but thank you angela for your leadership and for ensuring our graduates remain connected to regional and statewide committees where their perspectives shape policy and inform new opportunities to our board members

[03:50:41] county directors, and staff. Thank you for investing your time and your expertise in this cohort. Your willingness to share the breadth of county services has strengthened the Academy's impact and affirmed the value of partnership. I also want to acknowledge the Chesterfield Partners represented among our graduates who were granted professional development leave to participate. The American Red Cross, Chesterfield Food Bank, Community Tax Law Project, crossover healthcare ministry, project homes, and YWCA Richmond. Your support reflects a shared

[03:51:16] belief in the power of community-rooted leadership. Now, as I step into Delilah Medrano's role today as the academy steward, I want to offer a special acknowledgement on her behalf to Dr. Worsley and to Kim Conley. Dr. Worsley's leadership in convening academy graduates as advisors has strengthened our human services planning and deepened the county's commitment to community informed practice. And Kim Conley's dedication to inclusion has ensured the Academy remains a place where community advocates feel seen and supported. Their guidance has helped define the

[03:51:54] Academy's leadership ethos, grounded in ethics, service, and the power of the collective. And to the graduates, Delilah has asked me to share this brief message with you. I am proud to witness your leadership. I stand with you in solidarity as a multicultural sister, and I hope you continue to lead in ways that make room for others. At the heart of this work is sharing power, and as you rise, may you bring others with you. Over the past seven months, academy participants have explored local government and the many pathways to civic engagement. In keeping with tradition, we have

[03:52:32] selected one graduate with perfect attendance who demonstrates leadership in the community to offer reflections on behalf of the class, and it is my pleasure to introduce to you Gracie Gill. Gracie Gill is a proud mother of two teenagers and a dedicated community advocate and leader.

[03:52:58] She holds a bachelor's degree in modern languages, minor in translation and interpreting, as well as a master's degree in linguistics. After immigrating to the United States and settling in Chesterfield County, Gracie's passion for learning and service guided her toward a career rooted in community advocacy.

[03:53:18] She is currently a resident of the Dale District. In her current role as Community Outreach Manager at YWCA Richmond, she focuses on supporting domestic and sexual violence survivors while advancing prevention education through community storytelling initiatives, strategic partnerships, and collaborative outreach efforts.

[03:53:38] For over a decade, she has been deeply engaged in community outreach throughout the greater Richmond area, contributing to public health research initiatives, and educational projects in collaboration with local university and non-profit organizations gracie also served as a board member of the community health workers association of virginia in 2018 gracie exemplifies

[03:54:01] how resilience and dedication enabled newcomers to create meaningful and lasting impact good evening everyone honorable chair members of the board and dr casey as an immigrant i know firsthand what it it feels like to arrive in a new community full of hope, but also uncertainty.

[03:54:37] When you don't yet understand how local government works, where to find resources, or even who to ask for help, it's easy to feel invisible. Many newcomers want to contribute, but the system can feel overwhelming and out of reach.

[03:54:55] I'm completely sure that these words resonate with many of the MyChesterfield Academy graduates who work to serve our community. That is why this academy has been so meaningful to all of us. Right after my arrival in Richmond back in 2014, I decided to volunteer for Chesterfield County to learn how the county serves residents, how decisions are made, and how community voices can truly make a difference.

[03:55:25] My Chesterfield Academy takes that curiosity that many of us have and turns it into knowledge, confidence, and responsibility. Your investment in this academy helps bridge the gap between good intentions and effective civic engagement. Through this training, we all gain a deeper understanding of county departments, public processes, and most importantly, the power of collaboration. Gustavo, who's not here today, serves as a community organizer, amplifying community voice. Halei, a co-founder of the Arab Association, helps uplift new opportunities

[03:56:04] for the muslin community gladys helps place thousands of dollars back in residence pockets through free income tax services and each one of us in this class work to serve chesterfield county with deep dedication i am proud to stand alongside these fellow local leaders serving the immigrant community sharing the common goal which is improving outcomes in our communities for future generations. This program does more than educate. It empowers. It reminds us that CBIT leadership

[03:56:41] is not limited by where you were born, the language you speak, or how long you've lived here. It belongs to anyone willing to learn, serve, and lead with integrity. I want to thank the Board of Supervisors for investing in programs like this and the county team who gave their time, expertise, patience, dedication, especially Dr. James Horsley, Kim Conley, and Dalila Medrano, who is also not here today, for stewarding the academy. Your commitment sends us a powerful

[03:57:16] message that our county values inclusion, representation, and community-driven solutions. Thank you for believing in us, for welcoming immigrant voices into leadership spaces, and for helping us turn lived experience into positive action.

[03:57:35] Especially, I wanted to thank Jessica Snyder for supporting YWCA Richmond, and I wanted to thank Rupa Marti, our CEO, who is here today with us. And on behalf of this class, we all look forward to continuing this work together.

[03:57:51] Thank you. Thank you, Gracie, for that powerful reflection.

[03:58:10] The Honorable Chair, members of the Board, and Dr. Casey, it is my pleasure to now recognize each of the my chesterfield academy graduates and before we begin i just kindly ask the audience to hold their applause until all names have been read so each graduate can hear their name with the dignity this moment deserves okay ready anna kavavid we recognize gustavo espinosa we recognize jennifer spragans

[03:58:48] We recognize Jessica Valencia Arisa. We recognize Leticia Ayala. We recognize Kamala Gobindeswamy.

[03:59:07] We recognize Karel Carrion. We recognize Khaled Hashrum. We recognize Carlos Diaz.

[03:59:30] We recognize Gladys Garcia. We recognize Gracie Hill. We recognize Kathleen O'Kelly Pelaez.

[03:59:50] We recognize Mildred Perez. We recognize Katherine Beaman, and we recognize John Brown III.

[04:03:03] Oh, yeah. Bring it up.

[04:03:32] Item 14, New Business A, Emergency Adoption of Ordinance to Amend County Code Section 7-4, Satellite Absentee Voting Locations to Establish North Courthouse Library as Satellite Absentee Voting Location for April 21, 2026 Special Election and to Set a Public Hearing for March 11, 2026.

[04:03:55] Mr. Minks. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, This is an item that is actually fairly simple. The story behind it is a little more complicated. But the item is just to adopt an emergency basis, an ordinance to establish North Courthouse Library as a satellite absentee voting location for the currently scheduled April 21, 2026 special referendum election.

[04:04:19] And if the board does that, then to set a public hearing for March 11 to confirm the emergency adoption of that ordinance. Back in February, the governor approved a bill which required general registrars of all localities in Virginia to conduct a special election on April 21st to vote on the proposed amendment to the Constitution of Virginia, which would allow for congressional redistricting outside of the normal 10-year cycle, the 10-year census reapportionment.

[04:04:52] That particular action was challenged before the circuit court of Tazewell County, who ruled in late January that the proposed constitutional amendment was not properly passed by the General Assembly and could not be considered.

[04:05:12] That decision was then appealed to the Court of Appeals who decided to pass it on to the Supreme Court of Virginia. Supreme Court of Virginia has not ruled on that appeal, but has issued an order that the election will go on while they are considering the appeal.

[04:05:32] So the election after that action was going forward. There is a second lawsuit that has been filed in Tazewell County. In the second lawsuit, Tazewell County Circuit Court again ruled that the election cannot go forward and enjoin both the state and Tazewell County from doing anything in further into the election.

[04:05:55] However, they were not in the position to be able to enjoin the rest of the localities in Virginia, so we are still under the dictate of the legislation at this moment to go forward with the election on April 21st.

[04:06:11] So the registrar here, as the registrar in every jurisdiction except Tazewell County, has got to go forward with the election. This action is just to set the second satellite location, which is the North Courthouse Library location, for the purpose of this special election.

[04:06:33] This location is already an absentee voting location for other elections, general elections and presidential primary, but is not currently for the special election. So this action would just approve that.

[04:06:50] But since it's being considered on an emergency basis, if the board approves it, you have to have a follow-up public hearing, which we're asking to have that set for March the 11th. And there'll then be a public hearing on the same ordinance change for you to confirm whatever action you take tonight.

[04:07:08] So the matter before you is to consider the adoption. It's not a public hearing tonight, but to consider the adoption of this ordinance and then to set March 11th as the public hearing date. - Board members, are there any questions for staff?

[04:07:32] Do I have a motion? We'll just start with that to pass this ordinance. - So moved. - Can I get a second? - Second. - Is there any discussion? Mr. Carroll, Mr. Ingle? - Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[04:07:49] Although I absolutely agree that if the special election does proceed and the Supreme Court does rule that it should proceed, then I do believe that this second voting location is something that should be in place. As a matter of fact, I think that we should actually have a public hearing not to just adopt an emergency ordinance if it was to be passed, but to actually make sure that we don't get in this situation again in the future.

[04:08:23] That being said, because I am not personally sure that this is constitutional yet, I'm still waiting for a ruling. I'm not going to be able to vote in favor of it, but I do understand from the county attorney's advice that it's clear as mud whether it is okay or not.

[04:08:46] And the state constitution says that you cannot present it prior to 90 days after it's passed, which I believe would be April 15th. But there's also a presumption that a law is constitutional when it's passed until it's determined to be not constitutional.

[04:09:06] And you can correct me if I'm wrong on that. That is correct. But that makes a conflict that would put everybody on this board in a position to make the best decision that they can. But even though I do agree that we need the location, I don't believe we should be doing this under an emergency order.

[04:09:25] I believe we should have been given enough time to do it under a normal procedure. And that's why I'll be voting no tonight. But I understand the position of board members that choose to vote yes. Because I do agree we need it. Yeah, I pretty much agree with everything Mr. Engel just said.

[04:09:51] I believe in following the law, and I don't know. I have my own personal opinion, and I don't believe that the procedural process that was taken to get this on the ballot was followed correctly.

[04:10:09] And apparently a judge agrees with me. I'm really disappointed in the Supreme Court in not hearing the case prior to the election. I think that was the wrong decision. I'm entitled to my opinion. They're entitled to theirs. I do, look, I'm not against people voting for anything.

[04:10:27] I think you should have the right to vote. I think that we have to open up an additional voting location so that people have the best opportunity to vote. But I believe in following the rules and following the law and following the Constitution of Virginia. I don't believe that's been done. And the problem is, if the Supreme Court decides to hear the case, I'll be shocked because if the people vote and they vote no when the court's going to say the people have spoken and there's no reason no matter which way

[04:11:01] the people vote whether they vote yes or vote no so but so I'm very conflicted on this because I took an oath quite frankly to defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of Virginia and it's very hard for me to look at this and say am I violating my oath by voting for this I don't think I am because as our attorney has said that a law when passed by the General Assembly, is considered to be a constitutional law until it is challenged.

[04:11:33] It's been challenged, but it's on a stay. But I believe we need to make the best opportunity possible for people to be able to vote. They have to make the choice to come out and vote. We want to give them an opportunity to vote. I encourage everybody to come out and vote.

[04:11:49] Sometimes I am amazed at the amount of people who don't come out and exercise their right to vote. There are countries in the world that they don't get this privilege. People have died defending this country and this constitution so people would have that privilege and so i'm in favor of voting um and i'm in favor of making an opportunity for people to vote and i think that if we don't do this we have one early voting location which is down here at the central library and that is going to create it's going to make it more difficult for people to vote

[04:12:25] and of course we need to also add that on the 21st all of our voting precincts will be open for this election so you need to remember that and you need to know where your election where your voting precinct is so that you can if you decide not to come out and vote early if you're one who wants to vote on election day then find out and make sure you know where your precinct is and vote where your precinct is and one last comment mr chair anybody who says that this is not early voting because it's considered absentee voting i'm going to say you're wrong when you walk

[04:13:00] in and they and you show your id and they hand you a piece of paper that they print and then you walk over and they print a ballot for you specific ballot for the voting precinct that you vote at and then you go into the other room and you fill that ballot out and then you put it in a machine that's voting that's not absentee voting because you're in person and you're voting so anybody who says that 45 days of early voting is not early voting doesn't understand the process but mr chair I appreciate you giving us the opportunity to speak to this tonight.

[04:13:35] I think it's an important conversation for the community to have. I'm sure it's happening at dinner tables all across the Commonwealth. And I reluctantly am going to support this, although I feel that the process has been violated by the state, and that's my opinion, I want to help the people of Chesterfield County to have the best opportunity to vote, which is why I will support for a precinct to be open for them to have the opportunity.

[04:14:01] Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Carroll. And Jessica, did you miss anything? Dr. Hilton. Um, um, brief comments, um, you know, my ancestors bought, they fought for the right to vote.

[04:14:17] So, um, you know, to have the ability to vote close to their house, um, multiple days is super important. Whether we agree, um, on the merit of the vote or the timeliness of notice or any, any such else, um, we can debate.

[04:14:39] if the state says we're going to have an election, then we need to make sure people can vote near their house. And I would also advocate for longer hours of operation to make sure that people who are working a nine to five or other jobs, that they have the opportunity to vote. And also making sure that people can vote on the weekend. If they work all during the week, people like my grandmother and my mom who worked all during the week and couldn't get off from work uh ain't enough

[04:15:13] time and the the voting uh precinct was uh closed when they went to work and closed when they got off because they worked long hours they need availability to vote on the weekends if they have that ability so we we really need to advocate for that and i appreciate the support of my colleagues on that matter so i just want to clarify that because there's a special election and and primary elections that's the only reason they don't have the the longer and um the other

[04:15:48] satellite locations normally they would if it was a general election right right and i as well as weekend hours yeah right and i agree but i just want to talk entirely about the ability to vote And my sentiments in regards to the ability to vote, I'm only, I knew people that could not vote.

[04:16:10] So that's how close I am to the availability of people not to be able to vote. My kids have the benefit, or maybe not the benefit, of knowing people that did not have the right to vote. But I knew people who didn't have the right to vote. So I'm going to fight for their right to vote in my generation and any other generation as of now.

[04:16:32] So I just, I said that privately and I want to say it publicly that that's my stance. I know that this is a special moment in time and, but overall those, that's the sentiments in terms of where I stand on voting.

[04:16:47] So I just want to put that into the public atmosphere about my sentiments. We agree on that. Thank you. Jessica, did you have any other comments? Yeah, okay. One of the challenges of being board chair is to navigate sometimes from very difficult waters with my board.

[04:17:10] And I just so appreciate my colleagues as we've wandered through these waters. Look, we could have avoided this altogether by just simply saying that the only place that you can vote is down at the Central Library.

[04:17:28] And we would have never had to take this vote. I felt strongly as I sat with the registrar that a second place, a second place, and a second place to vote was really important for what is such an important election.

[04:17:49] Yes, they all are, but this one is very different. I don't much appreciate the position that we've been put in. However, sometimes it is the position we're in. And with that idea in mind, I think I will err the side of making sure and providing that everyone that can vote or will vote can vote and make that as convenient as we were able to I want to appreciate the registrar I want to appreciate the folks that are on the board for all your hard

[04:18:29] work in conversation with all of this not easy and this is what makes Chesterfield County special a lot of it is we've heard a lot of it this evening but it's about working together in relationship we may not agree but that doesn't mean we need to be disagreeable and I think we've held that all very much in our hearts so you know dr. Hilton you brought up something that I hadn't considered my ancestors left the pogroms in Russia and came to a place

[04:19:08] where they could vote and live and be in the American dream and that means being able to show up and get your voice heard and that means voting so I think that my ancestors would be tickled to no end but I suspect all of our ancestors would be tickled to no end to know that we're up here and having the opportunity to make this kind of a decision and we may not all agree but at the same time what I I have found is that we all work so well together, and for that, I am so grateful.

[04:19:45] So with that, I'm going to call on a vote. I'd like to ask the question, all in favor? Aye. All opposed? Aye. Before one? Madam Clerk, thank you. Be appointments.

[04:20:02] Mr. Chair, we have one appointment to the Airport Advisory Board. Motion approved. Second. I mean, do you seem all in favor? Aye. Aye. Next, we have seven appointments to the Preservation Committee. We get a motion.

[04:20:20] So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Madam Clerk. Last, we have one appointment to the Community Services Board. I'll make that motion. Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. C, consent items. Mr. Chair, there have been no requests from board members to remove items from the consent agenda for public comment.

[04:20:40] Do any board members have any items that they'd wish to remove? Motion to approve is consent agenda. All right. Is there any second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Madam Clerk. Item 15, 15-minute citizen comment period on unscheduled matters.

[04:21:03] This time is designated for citizens to talk to the Board of Supervisors. It is not a time for dialogue with Board members, and it is not a question-answer period. Those conversations can easily occur with individual Board members outside of the Board meeting. As a reminder, the Board's procedures state, no citizen shall speak on any matter of business that is a subject on the board's agenda for that day and each speaker shall have three minutes to address the board we have two speakers if they'll please come forward and speak in this order

[04:21:32] sarah saunders and jerry turner welcome miss saunders thank you good evening good evening chairman and members of the board i hope i'm not seen as disagreeable after all that agreeableness i'm sarah saunders and i've been a resident of the midlothian district of chesterfield for 25 years and a resident of chesterfield for almost 50 years i'm a member of chesterfield citizens for responsible government and a practicing attorney in Virginia. My husband and I both

[04:22:10] grew up in Chesterfield and were proud graduates of Chesterfield Public Schools. When it came time to raise our family, we chose to do so in Chesterfield. However, my adult children are choosing to live in other Virginia counties and cities rather than Chesterfield. They no longer see the advantages that drew us here. Midlothian and the Hull Street Corridor have become short pump without the luxury high-end mall. We have the sprawl without the mall. My neighbors and I share the serious concern the declining quality of life in Chesterfield due to the rapid poorly managed growth what was once a charming village community has given way to urban sprawl and

[04:22:47] chronic traffic congestion the county's population growth and housing development has simply outpaced the infrastructure needed to support it I asked the board to consider the following five points number one runaway spending county spending has grown at 2.84 times the rate of CPI inflation since 2019, far exceeding what population growth alone would justify. What concrete steps are being taken to control or better yet reduce our county spending? Number two, the real estate tax burden.

[04:23:17] Modest reductions to the property tax rate have not offset the dramatic rise in assessed home values. Residents are paying significantly more year over year, and the county is keeping that excess revenue. This puts a very undue financial burden on young families and retirees on a fixed income, having a dramatic impact on that new word affordability that everyone's so concerned about for all citizens living in Chesterfield County. Number three, economic development has not delivered. Despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent on economic development over the past 20 years, residential owners still shoulder 80 percent of the real estate tax burden, with

[04:23:54] commercial owners only paying 20 percent. The ratio has not moved. Taxpayers have seen no return on the investments in the economic development, only discussions of increased commercial appraised values. Number four, data centers. We have questions and we want answers. Now the county is aggressively seeking to increase the number of data centers. Tremendous tax breaks have been given to attract data centers to locate in Chesterfield County. What impact will that additional data centers have on our tax revenue spending, including our infrastructure? How much more will county taxpayers have to pay for electricity and water going forward? As documented

[04:24:32] recently, surrounding counties are having second thoughts about pursuing additional data centers. And finally, we're concerned about a planning department that's not delivering. I understand the county's planning department employs 48 people at a cost of $6.3 million in 2026, yet residents are experiencing gridlock, overdevelopment, and strained services daily.

[04:24:55] Either the county's plan is flawed or the county isn't following its plan. Which one is it? The residents of Chesterfield County deserve honest answers and a board committed to responsible, sustainable growth and governance. I thank you for listening.

[04:25:17] Welcome, Mr. Turner. Good evening. I'm Jerry Turner. I guess the county is very good at recognizing people that are retired and the academy that you have graduation. The county does an excellent job at recognizing those.

[04:25:44] There are at least 49 committees, and I've been to a bunch of them, that meet to advise you guys on things that are going on in the county. To me, they don't get any recognition. There may be some during the work sessions or whatever, but those people work.

[04:26:09] They can't just take off and come down here because y'all want to do it during the work session. They need to be recognized at this time of the day where they don't have to take off because they definitely can't live off what they're getting paid if some of them even get paid.

[04:26:32] So they only meet maybe once a month. Just like tonight, you've nominated these people to be on these committees. Unless it's in that 300 pages in the agenda, I don't know who they are.

[04:26:50] And the only way I see who they are is when I go to the meetings or I read what that committee does, who's on that committee. I don't think the county is doing a good enough job of recognizing people that are devoting their time to advise y'all on what's going on in the county.

[04:27:11] You need to just recognize them a little better. I had the opportunity to go to the Career and Technical Education Advisory Committee, And I usually don't go to the school board things because I don't have any kids in school.

[04:27:34] They had probably about 30 people there, and I could tell exactly who they were. They had big name tags. They were a whole lot bigger than what y'all got. And I didn't have to get right up on them to see who they were and what they did.

[04:27:55] A lot of these committees I go to, I don't know who they are because they don't have any name tags. Unless I ask them who they are, you don't know. Again, I think the supervisors need to recognize these committees a little better than what they're doing.

[04:28:14] Thank you. Item 16, deferred items from previous meetings. We have none. Item 17, zoning requests. Mr. Chair, you have four zoning requests on your consent agenda for this evening.

[04:28:30] For the benefit of the public, consent items are those cases where the applicant accepts staff's recommendation and there is no previous opposition. With all the consent cases tonight, staff has received written confirmation from the applicants that they agree with the conditions being imposed and that all proffers are offered in compliance with state law.

[04:28:51] First is 25SN 1242 in Dale Magisterial District, Ramos Accessory Dwelling Unit, Accessory Building and Adjustments is a request to rezone from semi-urban neighborhood to semi-urban neighborhood with conditional use to permit an accessory dwelling unit detached and accessory buildings to exceed size limitation, plus adjustments to ordinance requirements for development standards known as 7101 Conifer Road.

[04:29:22] The 1.84-acre property is developed with one existing single-family dwelling, and this request proposes one accessory detached dwelling unit. In addition, an adjustment for an accessory structure setback for an existing garage is proposed.

[04:29:38] Lastly, conditional use approval is needed for the overall area permitted for accessory buildings to exceed the size of the principal dwelling. Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on Case 25SN 1242, Ramos Accessory Dwelling Unit, Accessory Building and Adjustments.

[04:30:03] Is there anyone who would like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing none, I'm going to close the public hearing, and it's back before the board. This case is in the Dale District.

[04:30:18] Dr. Hilton. So I really think it's important that we've had public meetings, and people have come, and they've given their input on it.

[04:30:43] And this came to us with a recommendation of approval from the Board, from the Planning Commission. So, you know, I think it's been through the due diligence that needed to, that needed to go through. I appreciate the staff and what they've done to get the case to this point.

[04:31:04] So I'll make a recommendation of approval, subject to any questions or comments anyone has. And I'm going to just make sure it's consistent with what's in the staff report, correct?

[04:31:20] Subject to the conditions in the staff report, yes. Okay. Thank you. All right. Sorry about that. Can I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Madam Clerk. Next is 25SN 1258 in the Dale Magisterial District.

[04:31:41] Signs and Wonders Ministry private school is a request for conditional use to permit a private school in the Agricultural A and Suburban Community SC districts on 3.73 acres known as 6415 Iron Gate Drive.

[04:31:56] A private school that would provide instruction from kindergarten through the fifth grade for up to 30 students is proposed. Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing for case 25 SM1258, Signs and Wonders Ministry private school.

[04:32:16] Is there anyone who would like to speak to this case? If so, would you please come forward and state your name? Seeing no one, this is in the Dale District. Dr. Hilton. So this was a case that I think I had originally as a planning commissioner.

[04:32:34] And I think that we had a neighbor that had a few questions. And I just want to take a moment just to say thank you to staff as they kind of work through those questions and those comments and those concerns. But other than that, we really had no other feedback from the community.

[04:32:55] And so with that, subject to the conditions in the staff report, I make a motion to approve this case. Consistent with 25 SN 1258.

[04:33:12] Second. Okay, all in favor? Aye. All opposed. Madam Clerk. Next is 25 SN 1293 in Bermuda Magisterial District. Manning Family Daycare Home is a request for conditional use to permit a family daycare home in the suburban community SC district on 0.24 acre, known as 6400 Arbor Landing Drive.

[04:33:37] The applicant proposes to allow for the care of up to 12 children from the home. Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 25 SM 1293. Manning Family Day Care Home.

[04:33:55] Is there anyone who would like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward. Seeing no one, this is in the Bermuda District. Mr. Engel. Mr. Chair, may I confirm that we closed the public hearing? Oh, I'm sorry.

[04:34:10] Would you go ahead and close the public hearing? Thank you. Yes, sir. This is in the Bermuda District. Mr. Engel. I make the motion to approve case 25SN1293, subject to the conditions in the staff report. Second. All in favor? Aye. All opposed?

[04:34:27] Madam Clerk. The last case on your consent agenda is 25 SN 1312 in Bermuda Magisterial District. The sustainability park is a request for conditional use to permit warehouse, distribution center, and tractor-trailer parking and storage uses in the Employment General E.G. District on 100.8 acres known as 13101 North Enon Church Road.

[04:34:52] The sustainability park contains warehouse, distribution center, and tractor-trailer parking and storage uses in a multi-tenant industrial complex. Zoning approval is necessary for these uses to continue on the property. Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report.

[04:35:11] Thank you, Madam Clerk. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 25 SN1312, the sustainability park. Is there anyone who would like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to go ahead and close this public hearing.

[04:35:29] Madam Clerk, it's back before the board. This is Cases in the Bermuda District. Mr. Engel. All these uses have been on this property for many, many years. The tractor-trailer parking in particular is really of the most importance because if we don't have locations like this one, which is perfectly suited for that, we'll end up with more requests for truck stops.

[04:35:56] and although i definitely think we need to have places for trucks to fuel and we need to have places for our citizens to fuel their cars keeping tractor trailers overnight in a gas station parking lot has not always turned out the greatest so having opportunities like this throughout the county to have tractor trailer storage is become very important and this is one of those places that actually makes sense.

[04:36:25] So with that, make the motion to approve case 25 SN1312 subject to the conditions in the staff report. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Madam Clerk. Mr. Chair, that concludes your consent agenda for this evening.

[04:36:44] You have one discussion case, which is 25 SN1074, Bella at Westchester Phase II Amendment. Mr. Ellis. Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board, and Dr. Casey. Case 25 SN 1074 in the Midlothian District is a request to amend case 18 SN 0709 relative to master plan unit types and density.

[04:37:08] A multifamily development was approved with previous case 18 SN 0709, permitting a multifamily development known as the Bella at Westchester. With tonight's request, the applicant is proposing to add a second base to that development. Additional parking, landscaping, and amenities will be provided as part of the request, as well as commercial and retail space.

[04:37:28] happy to answer any questions the applicant is here and does have a presentation thank you are there any questions for staff in the applicant i understand is present mr geiger welcome thank you mr chairman again my name is jeff geiger here on behalf of the applicant i appreciate the board's consideration of the request before you as mr ellis indicated this is a request to add additional

[04:38:06] buildings to an award-winning community that we know as the Bella. It's located in Westchester Commons. With this request, we sought to replicate the successful community that is there today that people enjoy living in by adding additional housing units so that people can enjoy that opportunity to live, work, and play within Westchester Commons.

[04:38:38] What I'm showing on this slide is how we were responsive to staff's requests to relocate the buildings to provide better placement in line with their planning ideals. On the left is what we originally proposed. On the right is how we adjusted them to create better placemaking along City View Drive. We also moved the building on the right closer to the corner because they wanted to have a building at this very prominent corner. If you've been to Westchester, you know

[04:39:14] that corner is high above the street level. It will provide tremendous views over the county that residents in the Bella will enjoy. Your planning staff said, we want to have a building at this corner to accentuate that height and create that placemaking as you come in to West Chester. We also work closely with your staff. They asked us to commit to high quality amenities, not just the amenities that are there today, but to build upon the quality of amenities that are

[04:39:50] offered at the Bella. Whether it's pedestrian streetscaping that is a high quality urban type that you're looking for within Westchester, a community garden, grills, and outdoor seating, we have worked hard to include them within this request. In addition, we've worked to, at staff's request add a promenade along the top of the retaining wall that is at that corner of

[04:40:23] City View Drive and Watkins Center Parkway. You may remember the air at Westchester is approved next door to us. One of the hallmark elements of that case is a promenade on top of the retaining wall they will buy that they will be building. We are adding the same thing here to again enhance the ability of people who are walking and enjoying West Chester Commons to come up and have the same views over Chesterfield County that you would enjoy at the air and now you could enjoy at Bella.

[04:40:58] A zoning case is not just about the quality and the planning, site planning or case planning that goes into a case that we bring before you. Land use cases can also be about policy changes or undoing changes that were approved previously. As Mr. Ellis mentioned, this property is currently

[04:41:31] zoned. It's zoned for retail. We could build retail today. But if you choose to approve our request, you will reduce the amount of trips that would be generated from the property by 50%.

[04:41:53] Policy decisions that we make here about use can then impact the number of cars that we see on a road and the direction that they travel. There is a lot of retail in Westchester Commons and have the highest peak hour. We would exist, continuing existing retail would allow the higher peak hour to continue to increase. But if we approve residential, that traffic is then moving

[04:42:26] at both the AM and PM peak hours. So it spreads that reduced traffic volume over two different peak hours. Also with land use comes decisions by departments we don't control, VDOT. I've driven this roundabout. This is the roundabout at City View and Watkins Center Parkway. My hunch is almost

[04:42:59] everybody in this room has, and you almost get in an accident every time you enter it because VDOT doesn't have, came up with an idea that worked on paper, but how on earth they thought allowing this vehicle to cut across this ongoing lane of traffic in order to turn on to City View Drive was a smart idea? I don't know. I understand that your police department routinely gets phone calls

[04:43:34] because of fender benders caused by this movement. It needs to be fixed. We would like to fix it. With this request, we would pay for the fix. Now, I'm happy to report VDOT has gotten smarter.

[04:43:54] We don't build that roundabout anymore. We did it once. Unfortunately, you were the test case. and they realized not a good idea you have now built in the county multiple roundabouts that look exactly like this you have the two lanes four lanes coming into it north south east west is just two lanes that's what works they work you don't get the phone calls from the your police department doesn't get the phone call from this type of roundabout we would like to change it the road

[04:44:29] walk in center parkway is a public road city view drive is a private road the road on the other side of the roundabout on the east side of the roundabout is a private road we would like to spend our private dollars on our private land and in the public right-of-way to fix this for your police department but most importantly for your citizens so they don't get into traffic accidents anymore with this request we think it's reasonable to reduce the amount of traffic entering and exiting

[04:45:07] this property at the same time that we reduce the number of lanes on city view drive and also reduce the size of the roundabout. On behalf of the applicant, I would ask that the board consider the request before them and vote to approve this request. I'll be glad to answer any questions that the board may have at this time. Board, do you have any questions for Mr. Geiger?

[04:45:36] Mr. G, I have a question. Yes, sir. Can you go back to your stats on trips per day, please? Actually, it's a question for staff. Mr. Carroll. This is a proposal for multifamily housing. Is that right? Correct. What's the standard that VDOT uses for calculating trips per day per unit?

[04:46:15] The standard? In other words, for a house residential development, they say it's 10 trips per day. What's the calculation for this? I don't have it in front of me or memorized for multifamily on top of my head. Okay. I don't know if Geiger has it. Is it six? I don't know that multifamily off top of my head. So it's six. Get back into it. So that would be 900. And if you were going to go with 161 apartments that would be 966 trips per day calculated off of that if

[04:46:53] you do the math by six well they show the 554 in and out per day yeah based on the trip gen okay that they assumed using ite code 220 okay thank you so mr carroll just so i understand you don't agree with that calculation that's up there right now correct no no that's why i was I don't know.

[04:47:21] That's why I was asking staff what the actual number would be. It looks like they have 11. Correct. You add, and again, Chester can come up, Ms. Walker can come up and correct me, but in order to get the ADT, you add the enter and exit together.

[04:47:41] The other thing, as you know, and Ms. Walker can confirm, this is based on the Institute of Traffic Engineers manual. There's no, you can see that at the top, There's, it's data that the engineers use.

[04:47:59] There's no us adjusting. There's, you plug it in, it spits it out. That's what the result is. Well, I didn't think you changed the numbers beyond what they're supposed to be. I just, I was asking if they were accurate. Based on the IT. Because what you just said actually makes sense. You could put the wrong number in by accident and get the wrong number.

[04:48:17] Then that's on growth slate in terms of how they do it. I rely on them. Right. Thanks, Mr. Goecker. Any other questions for the applicant? Well, thank you both. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 25 SN 1074, Bella at Westchester Phase 2 amendment.

[04:48:39] Is there anyone who would like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Welcome, Mr. Turner.

[04:48:55] Jerry Turner, I think you all already know how I feel about apartments. But if he's willing to fix that roundabout, you're going to have to let him do it. Because that is one of the worst roundabouts that's ever been built.

[04:49:13] So I'm not in favor of all apartments. Lisa, get something done with that roundabout. Thank you. Anyone else who would like to speak to this case? With that, I'd like to go ahead and close the public hearing.

[04:49:29] It's back before the board, and it's here in the Midlothian District. I've got a question. Yes, sir. Before we move forward. Carol. Pressure for the applicant. Yes, sir.

[04:49:49] Going back to the slide you had, please, with showing the picture of the project. Someone changed it on you. All right, so based on land calculation in this portion, how big is this portion of land?

[04:50:05] I don't have it memorized. Hold on. You'll get where I'm going with this, Mr. Chair, in a second, if you haven't figured it out already. 5.66. Okay, so 5.66 acres. And how much square footage of that 5.66 acres do you think this apartment complex is occupying on the proposal?

[04:50:32] The buildings look like they're at about a third. So not quite 75% of the property. And this is already zoned commercial, correct? Yes, sir. Mr. Chair, my point, thank you, I appreciate it, my point on this is that there's a proposal, as we all spoke about earlier today, Senate Bill 454, that if that bill is allowed to go through the General Assembly, then no matter what happens with your case tonight, your applicant will probably be able to build apartments.

[04:51:06] By right, because if that bill passes based on the calculations we just discussed, then your proposal does not use 75% of the property. And Senate Bill 454 allows for by right use of multifamily on commercial and single-family residential by right.

[04:51:35] And for the people in the audience who may not understand what that means, it means there would be no zoning case that would need to be brought forward. there would be no community meetings no public hearings they would simply submit or resubmit this site plan and say we want to build this and in that site plan perhaps they wouldn't even have to propose Mr. Chair to fix the roundabout they wouldn't have to spend any additional dollars I'm not sure that we could even require them to do it in the site plan if it was done by right so it's just a concern that I have on the case I'm concerned about the roundabout as far as the

[04:52:12] traffic, as even as Mr. Turner pointed out, I've been in that roundabout, and when they first built it as a police officer, word crashes up there. Well, I didn't. My staff did, I'll be honest. I was a sergeant, I think, at that point, but my officers had to write tickets for people crashing in that intersection. It is, needs, it does need to be fixed, but I'm just saying that if Senate Bill 454 passes, they're going to be able to do this no matter what. Thank you. Mr. Chair. Mr. Ingle.

[04:52:43] Chesson. Yes, sir. Whether this case is approved or denied, will the roundabout be fixed? Yes. In a timely manner, correct? Yes. So the roundabout, the only question is who would pay for it?

[04:53:08] Correct. But other than that, it's going to get fixed one way or the other. One way or the other. Okay. That's correct. Thank you. Plan is in place either way. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Engel for that question. Ms. Snyder? And how much would those improvements cost, ma'am? Ballpark, we're estimating less than $300,000, remove the existing striping, mill and overlay, new striping, signing, maintenance of traffic, maybe night work, so somewhere in there. There's definitely other things we could do with $300,000 in my opinion,

[04:53:46] but that's just me. Mr. Hilton, did you, Dr. Hilton, did you have any comments? Let me begin by saying that that circle is the bane of my existence and uh for the moment i was elected um my police officers would um when we sit down quarterly that is one of those circles where um there is it's so dangerous and uh mr godger you're right it's very very dangerous that in a

[04:54:23] the four-way over at alversa adult buckingham which will ultimately be a roundabout jessica i agree with you that it'd be nice to spend $300,000 another way. But this is what I believe. I believe that you don't throw more wood on a fire and then hope that we're going to solve the problem.

[04:54:46] So what's the fire? The fire is that we have density over here that is already quite a challenge. And I'm not throwing more wood on the fire until we know that that circle has been fixed. There's no guarantee that even if we were to make the fixes that would solve the problem but I do know this I will not be paid off and that's what they're suggesting they're suggesting that we'll pay for it and therefore we want you to we want to be allowed to add more fuel to the fire I'm not

[04:55:23] going to do that what we're going to do is we're going to work as a community we're going to work as a transportation there is an award-winning roundabout that was created I believe in your District, Mr. Carroll, and I'm hoping it'll work. So although I, did you want to add something to that? I don't think it's the one that Beach and Nash, that's a good one, but that's not the award winning one. I think it's down there, Matoka. Winter Park. Winter Park, yes. Winter Park, okay.

[04:55:55] So I want to fix a problem before I move on to other bigger, interesting problems, and Mr. Geiger and I have had lots of conversations on this and so it's been thought out. It's not been just a two-second decision. It was more about trying to figure out, I mean, we had an individual here that came and spoke about, you know, continued development and spoke about all of that and unfortunately they're not here to listen to this kind of a conversation. They stuck around and then they delivered their message and then they walked out and they're not even here for

[04:56:32] this conversation where I am attempting to as best as I am able to figure out what is smart growth and nothing infuriates me more than someone who shows up says something and then walks out the door because now is where we're doing the work now is when we're trying to decide what works best for our community what the infrastructure infrastructure is so here we are so with With that, I'm going to move to deny case 25SN1074.

[04:57:06] Among other things, based on my discussions with the police department, there's a safety issue at the roundabout that will be used to access the site. According to the VDOT crash data, there were 83 reported crashes in the roundabout from April 2020 to April 2025.

[04:57:25] I cannot support adding new residents to this area, no matter what the cost would be. the issues of the roundabout are fixed. While the county has plans to modify the roundabout to try to address the crash issue, I want empirical evidence that those modifications are mitigated and they have mitigated the crashes. Until that happens, I can't support the case. So with that idea in mind, I'd like to move that we deny this case at this time, and I would really very much

[04:58:05] like a second. Second. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Thank you. Madam Clerk. Item 18, public hearings. Mr. Chair, at the January 28th Board of Supervisors meeting, the board set this date to hold a public hearing to consider the exercise of eminent domain for the acquisition of a temporary construction easement for the Walton Park Waterline Improvements Project. The owners have since signed the necessary easement agreement, therefore no action is needed tonight.

[04:58:41] and I can move on if you're ready. Yeah, why don't we go ahead and move on. Thank you. Item 19, 15-minute citizen comment period on unscheduled matters. We have no speakers.

[04:58:57] Item 20, closing announcements. A, creation of Chair's plant medicine ad hoc committee. Mr. Chair. Thank you, Madam Clerk. One of the honors that I have as chair is being able to announce an ad hoc committee, and I want to appreciate my vice chair, Mr. Carroll for making this suggestion, and I want to appreciate the board for moving forward on this.

[04:59:28] Today, I'm going to announce a formation of the chair's plant medicine ad hoc committee formed in response to growing interest in innovative approaches to mental health care, particularly with our veteran community. Post-traumatic stress disorder remains a significant challenge for many veterans in Virginia.

[04:59:48] While our state's estimated PTSD prevalence of 5% is slightly below the national average, the impact on individuals and families is profound. Traditional treatments, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, SSRIs, and cognitive behavioral therapy, have helped many, but they are not effective for everyone.

[05:00:15] In recent years, a substantial body of research has emerged around plant medicine therapies, especially those involving psilocybin. Early clinical results show meaningful reductions in PTSD symptoms when these therapies are administered under strict medical supervision and regulatory oversight.

[05:00:36] The purpose of this committee is not to endorse any specific treatment, but to responsibly examine the evidence, understand the regulatory landscape, and explore whether these emerging therapies could play a role in improving outcomes for veterans and others in our community.

[05:00:56] My goal is to ensure that any future recommendations are grounded in science, guided by safety, and aligned with the responsibility of the public within state and federal laws. The Chair's Plant Medicine Ad Hoc Committee will include 18 individuals collectively representing expertise and experience that will guide the committee's work an evaluation on three main topics. One, how would it best work with the Virginia Board of Pharmacy

[05:01:31] should plant medicines be decriminalized at the state and federal levels? Examples of current legislation at the state level include House Bill 1347 and SB 379, which direct the Board of Pharmacy to create regulations for psilocybin should it become legal at the federal level. Each has passed the House and Senate and will now go to the governor. They passed with 100% agreement. No one

[05:02:03] was against the idea. Number two, what other state and local programs exist across the country and how they have implemented treatment programs, focusing on what has worked and what has not worked and the challenges that they encountered? And three, what training is necessary for professionals to clinically assist those who are suffering from PTSD, depression, anxiety, etc.

[05:02:34] Meetings on the Chair's Plant Medicine Ad Hoc Committee will be open to the public and legally noticed ahead of time. The committee shall determine the manner in which to report out its activities and findings to the Board of Supervisors, but any such report issued would be by November 30th, 2026, and if any public presentation by December 2026, Board of Supervisors meeting. The names of the committee members shall be provided to the clerk of the board.

[05:03:06] Are there any questions from my board? Are there any closing comments this evening on anything other topics? Mr. Chair? Yes, sir. Mr. Carroll did a good job during the zoning case talking about one of the bills that's before the General Assembly, and if you think that we're behind on infrastructure in this county right now, you haven't seen anything if this bill passes.

[05:03:39] We need people to reach out to the House, which is still considering the bill. They haven't made a decision yet. It's been passed over twice for a week, which gives us some hope that it may not pass, but we're going to need you to reach out to the house as often as you can to let them know how bad of an idea it is to make 75 percent of your commercial and residential and mixed-use

[05:04:12] areas in the county able to be built with apartments by right. That is, quite frankly, even apartment developers think that's ludicrous um that if that tells you something so please reach out and we my personal belief is that the um we talked about in the afternoon session the uh bills that are out there for um collective bargaining look you can believe in collective bargaining or

[05:04:51] not, that's fine. This board has not taken a stance on whether collective bargaining should happen or not. What we have taken a stance on, just like we have on development, is that the decision should be made at the local level with input from the citizens. And if the state takes those rights away from the localities, it could have catastrophic effects on some of the jurisdictions, if not all of them um so again if i implore you to please reach out to the state on both of these

[05:05:27] issues i believe the uh collective bargaining you're gonna have to actually go to the governor because i believe it's actually going to her desk already um so please reach out to the governor on that one please reach out to the governor in the house on the um bill to make apartments available by right in 75% of the areas that are zoned, again, residential, your neighborhood, the commercial and mixed-use categories.

[05:05:59] I can't state that enough, but we are advocating, we're talking to the legislature some of the things we've been successful in this year that could have hurt the county, but there's still some things out there that could be very detrimental.

[05:06:16] I can't ask you enough for your help in this. If you get upset about development in Chesterfield County and you don't reach out and do this to help us, please don't come back and look at us for the things that we've passed on this board, because it'll take all that out of our hands.

[05:06:36] We need your help. Thank you. Mr. Chair, I mean, I said it in the work session earlier. I mean, quite frankly, if you're an elected official and you don't care about your community or you're just worried about getting reelected and having to be able to have a scapegoat, then Senate Bill 454 is a great bill because you can blame the General Assembly and say, I'm sorry, I couldn't stop that multifamily residential development because the General Assembly said it's by right, so it's not my fault.

[05:07:09] That's not the position we're taking. We're basically saying that we don't want that to happen, but that's what the bill says. And it's not just that bill. There's a bunch of bad legislation that's being pushed out there about zoning. There's another piece of legislation. I forgot to ask Natalie about it today.

[05:07:26] Buy right zoning for churches. If you own church land and you want to buy right, put multifamily on it, you can put multifamily on church land. Now, I'm not against church. I go to church all the time, right?

[05:07:42] I'm not against churches at all. But that does not give us the opportunity to regulate growth in the county. If a church wants to bring a zoning case forward, oh, wait a minute, I think we have one coming forward for something like that already. And they want to ask for permission to do certain things on their land, and it fits the comprehensive plan, and it works, we will certainly judge the case on its merits, and if it's a good case, we'll do what we're supposed to do.

[05:08:05] And if it's a bad case, we won't pass it. But by right, they will be able to build multifamily on church land. Now, you might think, well, it's not so bad, except if I'm a developer, and I want to make a donation to a church and i say i'll give you five million dollars to your church you buy that land and let me develop it for you they've gone through the they've gone around end around on the process church owns the land they can buy right do it developer gets the work of putting the stuff up and the church gets to make money on on on what's put there and if you flood the market like

[05:08:41] that yes in some instances it will help maybe to reduce rents but eventually what's going to happen you're going to increase the market value so much that eventually someone who can't reduce their rent, and I know someone who's given me a lesson on this recently at the other end of the dais over here, if you have a certain amount of money that you have to make in order to pay your note on your property and you can't go below a certain amount and then all of a sudden people are not there to pay your rent anymore, guess what happens?

[05:09:13] It goes to the bank, they foreclose it, and you lose your property. And then what happens? It gets sold cheap, and someone else takes it over who may not do as good a job in the property. These are bad bills, all in the name of affordability. They don't know what the heck they're talking about.

[05:09:29] And what Mr. Engel has absolutely said is correct. If you can call the House members and blow their phones up and ask them not to pass this, anybody who's watching in the community, I've done this before when I was a lobbyist. If you blow their phones up, they're going to listen. So we're asking for your help.

[05:09:47] Thank you. Mr. Chair. Dr. Hilton. You know, I don't want the community to take what we're saying in terms of negative and in way of affordable housing. Because I think we're trying to figure out how to make housing more affordable, whether it's for rent or for sale.

[05:10:10] But I just think that a blanket zoning will not help rental prices. I think that that's confusing legislators. The other thing that I want to say is that I don't want anybody to think that our comments in terms of collective bargaining means that we're against unions.

[05:10:34] At least I can speak for me personally. I'm a union kid. Both my parents belong to the union. They worked in the factories in DuPont. And I would tell you that if it wasn't for the unions, I don't think that my mom or dad would have retired.

[05:10:54] because they made sure that they had a fair, safe place to work. So I definitely value unions, but I just, I have some other thoughts in terms of collective bargaining in local government.

[05:11:11] But I think that unions are great. I really support unions, even as a federal employee, the unions were very vital to ensuring that their treatment for all was not taken lightly and they really stood up for people.

[05:11:29] So I want people to know that we're not against unions, we're saying that it's a burden for local government to to do that right now um and so that's what i want to i want to say i want to just clear the air and clarify those points mr schneider so to echo the affordability situation i am one of the biggest proponents of affordable housing and i've been working on some things with some non-profit partners my issue with a lot of these they say they're going to help they have no

[05:12:09] mechanism whatsoever to make that happen. There's no regulations on the amount of density. There's no regulations on the quality of the materials being used. 75% of land, I mean, they could just, there's no saying that we have to, you know, who has, who's going to take care of the infrastructure of roads, schools, our police and fire. All that's going to do is overcrowd an area that might already be overcrowded to begin with.

[05:12:43] And in my opinion, that's just opening the door for out-of-state, low-quality builders to come in and say, hey, we're just going to take over this land and put in whatever, you know, quality housing we can and put in as much as we can and then pick up and leave the state.

[05:13:06] And then we would be, as the elected officials, the ones that would have, and our people here with building codes, et cetera, we'll have to deal with the complaints when it comes through, when things start to fall apart. So, affordability has to be very mindfully put together and use a lot of partnerships to make it happen, I think.

[05:13:30] This is not one of them, so I agree. - Mr. Carroll? First of all, Mr. Chair, I really appreciate you putting this at the end of the agenda, an opportunity for us address some issues with the community that we think are important. This is something I think that Mr. Engel added when he was chair and I'm very happy to see you continue it.

[05:13:52] People might not like it, but I think it's important that we get some of this information out to the community. One of the other bills that I didn't reference is that they passed legislation that takes away the zoning ability for us to require a certain amount of parking spaces.

[05:14:11] They did kill it. Thank God it's dead. a bad bill. And the last thing I will say is, Dr. Hilton, I appreciate your comments on collective bargaining. I'm pretty sure I'm the only person here that's actually been trained in collective bargaining because when I was state president of Fraternal Order of Police, I went to the National Fraternal Order of Police Collective Bargaining Seminar. Actually, I was legislative chairman then. This was in 08, right after President Obama was elected. And I was the local lodge president for 18 years and state president for four. So I'm not against unions.

[05:14:45] I was the president of one for a long time. But we believe that we should have the ability to control that on the local level. So thank you. Mr. Chair, sorry. Yes, Mr. Engel. As you can see, this board comes from many different thought processes.

[05:15:06] There's five board members, and I'm pretty sure there's five different thought processes that each of us use to come to a position. and when all five of us can get to the same position that these things should be decided at the local level, and this isn't about party or personal gain or something, whatever people might accuse us of, it's five individuals that can agree on these topics. That says a lot when

[05:15:44] this group of people can come to that. And quite frankly, we get to that decision more times than not and um i just think it's remarkable and i just wanted to thank the board that even though we don't always agree on why we get to a position we tend to ultimately even with my vote no tonight i still agreed that the voting precinct was needed i'm not demonizing anybody over the decision everybody came to their decision for it what i believe in their heart was the right reason

[05:16:18] And I just appreciate serving on the board that we can get to that outcome, even though we come at it from such a different place. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Engel. Any other comments? I just want to add, in Midlothian, we have two different situations.

[05:16:41] One is commercial, where it's a strip mall that's empty. and two and a half years ago i pushed to turn that into um workforce apartments where am i talking about i'm talking about stein mart festival stein mart festival right behind olive garden is sitting empty and i worked with the developer which is sours which is the spice company and they own it they were going to build it they were going to do all and they were going to manage it that is a

[05:17:17] great situation for that place but yet they're sitting on it and they have not moved forward that is a great example of where 454 maybe will have worked however the we had a perfect example this evening where we have the bella which is not going to work but yet as mr carroll very perceptively pointed out they could have done it by right so what are we talking about We're talking about who's making the decision for the land and how the land use is.

[05:17:52] Is it going to be on the state level or is it going to be done on the local level where we know what's going on? That's the conversation. If it's about that or collective bargaining or anything else, this is a power grab on the state level that is very misguided.

[05:18:10] And so we have a responsibility as a community to reach out to our legislators and deliver that message. And that was what unified the five of us around collective bargaining. We know what's best for our community.

[05:18:27] We have the relationships with the firefighters and the police and the teachers. You could see it this evening. It was so obvious that we have that, that if they want to do collective bargaining, they have that right now. They could do it right now.

[05:18:44] However, they've made the decision not to. Why? Because it would change the nature of the relationship. And that's what we all realize is going to undermine what makes Chesterfield County as great as we are.

[05:19:00] And that's what we sit up here and we're so proud of and what we work so hard for and why we're out in the community so often, because that's what it's all about. So I implore you, as the rest of my board does, reach out to your legislators.

[05:19:17] 454, lousy idea. And make sure you're reaching out to the governor. And you explain to her that this is a lousy idea because it's not going to work for Chesterfield County. And I suspect it's not going to work for a lot of counties across the state.

[05:19:35] Any other comments, Mr. Carroll? I think you need a motion to adjourn, don't you? We need a motion to adjourn, sir. Second. You second. All right. So we are going to adjourn once we get this vote to our regularly scheduled Board of Supervisors meeting, as you heard, on March 11th at 2 p.m. in room 502 in the County Administrative Building.

[05:19:56] We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. We are adjourned. Good night.

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