Coraggio Consulting
City of Fairfax City Council Meeting, Tuesday, December 9, 2025

Date: Tuesday, December 9, 2025
Place: City Hall, City of Fairfax, Virginia
Length: 3h 17m (video)
Official meeting video (city, Granicus): https://fairfax.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=13&clip_id=4421
Agenda: https://fairfax.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=13&clip_id=4421
Minutes: https://fairfax.granicus.com/MinutesViewer.php?view_id=13&clip_id=4421&doc_id=bb731eb3-d603-11f0-bb28-005056a89546

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 2026-10-12. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:01:08] evening. I would like to call this regular meeting of December 9th, 2025 to order. I'd like to remind everyone this is our last meeting of the year. We will not have another meeting until January 13th of 2026. I would like to begin the meeting this evening with a moment of silence to acknowledge the loss in our community of David Elliott Meyer, the son of former Mayor David Meyer,

[00:01:42] his wife Cindy, a 2011 graduate of Fairfax High School who died unexpectedly on Saturday, December 6th. I would like for us all to think about the family, David and Cindy and his sister Louisa, and support them in their grief.

[00:02:03] So if we could all just spend a moment to lift them up in our thoughts and our prayers. If you are able and so choose, please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

[00:02:21] I pledge 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.

[00:02:38] All right. I'm going to ask the city's police department to come down front. This microphone is very low for me, which I appreciate.

[00:03:04] It may not be tall enough for our chief, but this is a very important accreditation that our city of Fairfax Police Department has achieved, and I leave it to our chief, Pedroso, to tell you a little bit about that. Thank you, Mayor.

[00:03:25] Good evening, everybody. Good evening, Mayor, Councilmembers, Madam Manager. You know, we're really excited at the Police Department because we achieved something that is four years of hard work long before I ever set foot in this police department. It's Captain Rutter, Hillary Yu, our accreditation manager that have devoted themselves to achieving a status that is recognized internationally and I'd like to talk about that and before I get it too far into it I'd like to ask executive director of the commission for accreditation accredited law

[00:04:04] enforcement agencies Mr. Craig Hartley to join me at the front and I'll ask him to say a couple of words also but what goes into becoming an accredited agency and what that means for you as residents and people that care about our city is we have achieved standards that are set that recognize best practices internationally when it comes to how to manage a police department how to interact with the public the type of services the type of technologies how we use them the controls that are in place the training that's required and mandated to ensure that we are meeting and

[00:04:40] achieving those standards. It's four years of work, audits, examinations, assessments that have led to us achieving this status. And Director Hartley, if you don't mind, just say a few words about CALEA and what it means to be a part of this organization. Well, thank you, Chief. Mr.

[00:04:59] Mayor, Madam Mayor, and the members of the City Council, thank you for this opportunity to be here tonight in your community to make this presentation. The good thing about having good chiefs and good leaderships is it leaves very little for me to have to explain. You've done a great job of doing that. And it's really an indication of their commitment to public safety excellence more broadly by engagement with us. If you don't know already, CALEA has been in existence now for about 50 years. And our role is to make sure that we establish standards that are used by agencies on a voluntary basis to really develop their proofs of compliance with those particular standards.

[00:05:33] And that sounds easy on its face, but it really requires organizations to look very deeply into their own policies, their practices, their procedures, their outcomes, their outputs, and what they intend to happen through the delivery of public safety services. And you probably ask yourself, if you're sitting on the counselor or in the audience tonight or even watching this through some other medium, what does that really buy me as a member of this community or leadership in that?

[00:05:59] Well, you have a tremendous responsibility if you sit on that side of the lectern, if you will, to ensure that your public safety agency is delivering services in a manner consistent with what the expectations of the community are, and really at a deeper level about constitutionality and ensuring that they're embarking in a criminal justice process in a way that complements the needs of your community, and more importantly, law. And so your organization has taken that challenge in a voluntary capacity. They've been reviewed by auditors of our organization and then members of our commission. And it's important for you to know that now there are

[00:06:33] 1,297 agencies that have engaged in this process across four different countries. And it really is an indication of the resiliency of the standards themselves, the portability of them, and really the wide acceptance of them as the practice that complements what is needed in communities. So I tell you tonight, I could not be more proud to stand here and provide this award notification to you and let you know that your agency is committed to excellence and the pursuit of continuous improvement as it relates to the delivery of services in your community.

[00:07:07] So again, Chief, thanks for the opportunity. I'm proud to have you as a member of our team, and we look forward to the future accomplishments of your city, your organization, and your police department. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you. You're very welcome. Thank you, sir. We will have a photo.

[00:07:24] Mr. Lester in.

[00:07:42] I can't walk away without really recognizing Ms. Hilary Rio. She is our accreditation manager, like I mentioned. from the moment i landed here and i'm so thankful for that she's one of the first faces i met and she was telling me what was happening what went into it what she does and really working to get me on board and up to speed and i've watched her throughout this process and we attended the conference she's a machine and we're very lucky to have you and i appreciate all the work that

[00:08:18] you put into this process i don't want to over over understate this but i want you to know this cannot be compartmentalized in any one location of the agency. It takes strong leadership. It requires strong technical assistance, but it requires a commitment on every component in the organization, both with inside the police department and even outside of it within the organization, such as your human relations and your process mapping and things that you do to make that happen. So you should be proud of the efforts, and we're proud of you, Madam Mayor.

[00:08:51] Thank you. Thank you. All right. I'm now going to ask the city's fire department to come down for acknowledgment of their accreditation i tell you we're just knocking it out of the park left right and center sure we need this all right chief good evening mayor city council members those that are in the audience and are watching at home police department's always a hard act to follow but

[00:09:30] earlier this year the fire department was awarded our second five-year term as an internationally accredited fire department i cannot express enough how proud i am of the men and women of our department. A little about our process, because I know the chief and his colleagues just talked about following industry best practices and the value to the city. A little about our process. We demonstrated competency for 11 categories that included 46 criterion statements, 250 individual performance indicators, of which 94 were core competencies. The process

[00:10:07] examined and was validated by a peer review team. All of our areas of service and performance standards we provide, including the support we receive from other city internal departments and our regional partners. So with that, I'd like to thank those that participated in our process, the city manager's office, our friends and partners in finance, human resources, city fleet and facilities, city IT department, Fairfax County 911, Fairfax Water, and our partnership with GMU for GIS support and analysis. And of course, our amazing internal fire department

[00:10:44] So as a frame of reference for the fireside for this accomplishment, we're one of 335 fire departments across the United States, Canada, Department of Defense, and a couple of oil-producing Saudi and Middle Eastern fire departments, industrial fire brigades.

[00:11:03] To narrow it down a little bit more, in the U.S., we're one of 125 fire departments that are both internationally accredited and have received the Insurance Services Office Class I fire protection rating, the highest rating that they confer on a scale of 1 to 9.

[00:11:22] And a little bit further in Virginia, to narrow it down, we're one of 12 municipal departments in the Commonwealth that's internationally accredited. And none of this could be made possible without the continued support of past and current City Council and our amazing residents.

[00:11:39] So with that, we thank you for our support.

[00:11:43] So we've got Captain English and Chief O'Neill to talk about more accreditations because this city is just knocking it out of the park.

[00:12:31] Good evening, everyone. Tonight is a proud historic moment for the City of Fairfax. Our emergency management program has officially achieved full accreditation through the Emergency Management Accreditation Program, which is the national gold standard for excellence in emergency management. We are honored to share that the City of Fairfax is the first locality in the Commonwealth of Virginia to ever earn this designation.

[00:13:00] This accomplishment just isn't a certificate on the wall. It represents years of planning, documentation, training, exercising, partnership building, and continuous improvement. EMAP evaluates our program against 66 rigorous standards that measure everything from mitigation to preparedness to response, logistics, even our community engagement.

[00:13:20] Tonight's accreditation confirms that the City of Fairfax meets those national standards. Those standards that are only commonly reached by major metropolitan areas, many of our federal programs, or programs much bigger than we have here in the City of Fairfax. What this means is simple. Our community is safer. You are safer. Our programs are stronger. Our systems are tested.

[00:13:41] our commitment to protecting our residents has been validated at the highest national level. This was truly a whole community achievement. As the Chief just said, it requires partnerships from all of our city departments and our regional partnerships, from police, fire, public works, human services, finance, information technology, parks and recreation, our elected leaders, our city manager, and our regional partners, and so many others, just so I can include anybody I might might have forgotten that list. We also appreciate the partnership of our EMAP assessors, our EMAP

[00:14:14] commissioners, our EMAP team leads. Our assessor and team leads were here for over a week and they literally went through everything we had top to bottom. We're very grateful for them. The emergency management professionals across the nation that helped us guide this journey. We did not do it alone. We had many great mentors. More importantly, this accreditation reinforces our responsibility to continue improving, building resilience, and preparing for whatever challenges will bring us in the future.

[00:14:44] Because being accredited is not the finish line, this is just the beginning of the next chapter to make this the most resilient community in Virginia. Thank you for supporting emergency management in our city, and thank you for being a part of this historic moment. Oh, God bless you.

[00:15:01] I do agree, winner is getting all of us. At this time, I'd like to bring up Marsha Deppin, who's our EMAP commissioner, who's also the Director of Consequence Management for the state of Maryland, to present our award and provide remarks. Thank you, Walter, Madam Mayor, Madam Manager, City Council members.

[00:15:21] You should be really proud of the City of Fairfax tonight. I did not realize that we were going to have accreditation from the Fire and Police Department, so you've hit the public safety trifecta this evening. What does that mean for you as a citizen of the City of Fairfax?

[00:15:36] It means that all of the procedures and standard operating procedures and ways that your emergency management department does business is written down. There's a legacy for it. They've practiced it, they've tested it, and they've exercised it. And I think that's the most important thing.

[00:15:53] Out of this accreditation, there are 73 standards to hit, and each standard has multiple substandards. So this is not an easy task. This is something that the city has been working on for multiple years now, and they will be up for reaccreditation five years from now with similar standards.

[00:16:10] So I am standing here in awe of the city right now, and I am very proud to be able to present this award to the chief and to the captain. Thank you. All right. We'll do that presentation and a photo.

[00:16:31] Let me start with our proclamations, two tonight.

[00:16:59] I'm going to ask that we assemble up here the Friends of Akatink Creek. Come on. Everybody here?

[00:17:21] All righty, then. Ooh, I want one. Nays to look at it, right? Whereas, Acatink Creek provides one of the finest wildlife corridors in northern Virginia with headwaters and tributaries that originate throughout the city of Fairfax neighborhoods and parks before flowing through Fairfax County, Fort Belvoir, and the Acatink Bay Wildlife Refuge and then draining into the Potomac River affecting waters of the Chesapeake Bay.

[00:17:52] And whereas, human-caused threats to the health of Acatink Creek and its receiving waters include excess erosion from stormwater runoff, winter salt contamination, trash accumulation, groundwater depletion, invasive species, and habitat loss. And whereas December 15, 2025 marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Friends of Accatink Creek, FACC, a non-profit organization committed to protecting, promoting, and restoring the water quality, natural habitat, and ecological well-being of life of the Akatink Creek watershed and whereas for 20 years this small band of

[00:18:32] watershed stewards have served as advocates for the well-being of the Akatink Creek watershed and step by small step have rallied others to their conservationist cause always heeding the motto of their founder D. Harris Murphy find just one other person who cares and whereas the intent of the Friends of Akatink Creek is to foster environmental awareness and education and enhance recreational use, reduce stormwater runoff and its effects, restore habitats, preserve land, and enlist broad-based public and organization participation and support. And whereas the City

[00:19:07] of Fairfax has been the beneficiary of the Friends of Accutine Creek's efforts to protect the environment by mobilizing individual volunteers, school groups, civic organizations, and local businesses to participate in projects such as stream cleanups, habitat restoration, and environmental education.

[00:19:26] And whereas the Friends of Acatink Creek's hands-on events to preserve the Acatink Creek watershed continue to enable City of Fairfax residents of all ages to explore the significance of local ecosystems, the value of biodiversity, and the impacts of pollution, thereby fostering awareness and appreciation of our natural surroundings and our roles as stewards in protecting the environment for future generations.

[00:19:54] And now, therefore, I, Catherine S. Reed, Mayor of the City of Fairfax, do hereby commend the Friends of Accatink Creek on their 20th anniversary for their steadfast dedication to the restoration, preservation, and protection of the Accatink Creek watershed.

[00:20:09] The City of Fairfax expresses its gratitude to the volunteers, partners, and community members who have contributed to this vital work and encourages all residents to support ongoing efforts that safeguard the health, resiliency, and natural beauty of Akatink Creek for generations to come.

[00:20:28] And with that, I will turn it over for Commons. I just want to say thank you. I can't believe it's been 20 years. I can't believe I've been doing this with this group for 10 years, but we really want to thank the city and the city's residents for their support for our watershed cleanups, for invasive species management measures, for our educational outreach, and just general advocacy for our watershed.

[00:21:02] we don't do it just for us we do it for you um we do it for our children because we want this watershed to be there in the future to explore to enjoy and for all of our appreciation so thank you very much for this presentation for everything that the city does for us anyone anybody else okay all right so we are going to have a picture

[00:21:44] All right. I'm going to ask Mr. Doug Church to come down and join me here. I can hardly believe it's been decades and decades. Many of you know Doug Church very well. He's been part of the

[00:22:21] fabric of our city for so, so many years. And this proclamation, I think, is overdue as far as appreciation goes for everything that you've done. Whereas, Doug Church has devoted decades of exemplary service to the Central Fairfax Chamber of Commerce and to the broader city of Fairfax, demonstrating unwavering commitment, steadfast leadership, and a deep and enduring belief in the power of community. Whereas after a nearly 30-year career with First Virginia Bank, culminating in its merger with BB&T in 2003, Doug reflected on his professional journey and

[00:23:01] found himself drawn back to the roots of true community banking, where personal relationships, trust, and service to the community are the essence of business. And whereas in 2004, Doug and an enthusiastic group of local business people began the effort to found Virginia Heritage Bank in the city of Fairfax, bringing to life the vision for a community-centered financial institution and dedicating himself in service to the people and small businesses of our region. And whereas in seeking the right place for the bank to engage with the business community, Doug discovered the

[00:23:36] central Fairfax Chamber of Commerce, an organization that would become the beneficiary of his extraordinary dedication and leadership for decades to come. Whereas during one of the most challenging economic periods in recent history, when the recession of 2008 forced the chamber to eliminate its staff and operate virtually, Doug stepped forward to serve as chairman of the board, providing guidance, stability, and hope at a time when the chamber's future was uncertain. And whereas Doug has served as chairman of the board since 2008, offering wisdom, strategic vision, and tireless volunteer service that have enabled the chamber not only

[00:24:14] to survive, but to thrive, and today it stands stronger than ever, due in large part to his leadership. And whereas Doug's spirit of service extends far beyond the chamber, as he's been a longtime volunteer and board member for the Rotary Club of Fairfax, the Arc of Northern Virginia and the arc of the United States, demonstrating a profound commitment to advocacy, inclusion, and improving the lives of individuals with disabilities. And whereas Doug Church exemplifies the very best of civic engagement, he is a dedicated leader, a trusted mentor, a champion for small businesses, a tireless volunteer, and a beloved member of the Fairfax

[00:24:53] community. And whereas the Central Fairfax Chamber of Commerce has proudly named Doug Church its 2025 volunteer of the year as well as board chair emeritus recognizing his exceptional and lasting contributions to the chamber its members in the city of fairfax now therefore i katherine s reed mayor of the city of fairfax do hereby recognize december 9 2025 as doug church day in the city of fairfax and i urge all residents businesses civic organizations and community partners to

[00:25:33] join me in honoring Doug for his remarkable legacy of service, leadership, and dedication. Mr. Church, the microphone is yours. Thank you, Mayor Reed and city council and everybody else.

[00:25:53] I'm not sure who that was describing, but I'm really proud to be standing up here next to him. But at any rate, no, as a matter of fact, Mayor Reed, you know my son, Douglas, and Clintus and Douglas are sitting back here, and I'm not sure how you set up having all the police department fire department being recognized and he was able to stay quiet during that because those are his favorite people in the world but at any rate no i've been very fortunate and i believe everything kind of happens for a reason uh starting a business in the city of fairfax i did not really know much about the city of fairfax uh i've been in fairfax county my entire

[00:26:32] life and uh quite frankly this was a thoroughfare to get from my branches in annandale to my branches in Greenbrier at First Virginia. And as I came into the city, I was very fortunate to find out more and more and more. And it was all about relationships and building the relationships.

[00:26:52] And I was kind of at the right place at the right time over and over again. So it really, I guess I adopted the city and I was fortunate the city kind of adopted me back. So it is with great pride looking back on all those things i can't believe um that all happened yeah i remember it all but the um i think it's time for us to be excited and committed really about the future and the relationships that we've had with the city and the staff and the leadership over the years getting to know all these people certainly the economic development authority uh group sits out

[00:27:29] very close to my heart but watching businesses thrive in the community in general has has been

[00:27:35] the highlight of my life so thank you very much. I'm now going to invite Mr. Justin Wilson forward

[00:28:16] to give us a presentation on Nova Parks. Mr. Wilson. Good evening Madam Mayor, members of council. Thank you so much for the opportunity invitation to be here this evening. It's my pleasure to to be with you. I am the relatively new now two months executive director of Nova Parks, the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority. As a manner of introduction, I am entirely unused to being on this side of the dais. I had the opportunity to serve on the

[00:28:51] Alexandria City Council for 14 years, including six years as mayor. So forgive me for getting used to this side, but I'm looking forward to being with you this evening, telling you little bit about what we are doing at Nova Parks as well as providing, I believe, some important milestone updates that I think will be of big interest here in the City of Fairfax.

[00:29:15] And so I want to begin here and I have -- we can move to the next slide here. I'll try to move through my slides very quickly. I want to first of all introduce two of my bosses. We have the two members of the board of directors that represent the City of Fairfax, Douglas Stewart and Mark Chandler, who are both behind me here. Mr. Chandler served on our board for five and a half years, Mr. Stewart for the last two and a half years, and they joined 10 others representing the six jurisdictions in the North Virginia Regional Park Authority, that is the

[00:29:49] cities of Fairfax, Alexandria, and Falls Church, and the counties of Loudoun, Fairfax, and Arlington County. If we can flip to the next slide here real quickly. We do span across those six jurisdictions, have 37 regional parks covering just about 12,500 acres. And one of the things that is beautiful about this system is that we serve an entire region. Folks like you all and folks like me, we think it's very important when we cross jurisdictional borders, but most of the

[00:30:24] folks who live in our region cross our borders multiple times a day and don't recognize when they go across one of those imaginary lines. And so we provide services and unique recreation opportunities across this region to folks throughout the region and beyond. The city of Fairfax joined the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority in 1963. The authority started in 1959 and Gateway Park opened in 1995, which I'm going to be talking a little bit about later.

[00:30:54] If we can move to the next slide. I won't spend a lot of time on this one except to say that as we have grown as a region, we have grown as an authority. And I'm going to talk a little bit about that in a second. We can flip to the next slide. There's a couple things that make the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority, Nova Parks, unique.

[00:31:13] One of them is the incredible diversity of services that we provide across the region. And I won't go through all these, but we provide the residents of the city of Fairfax with a whole variety of different things, ranging from three public golf courses, tons of parks with trails, a nature center, a ropes course, one of the only public shotgun ranges in the entire Commonwealth of Virginia.

[00:31:39] We have three holiday light shows going on right now at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens, at Cameron Run, and at Bull Run. We encourage you to show up and check those out throughout the holiday season. We have historic sites as well as water parks and a working farm out in Temple Hall in Loudoun County.

[00:31:58] We can jump to the next slide. Another thing that makes Nova Parks very unique is how we fund these services. We rely on money that I'm going to talk about in a second from the local jurisdictions to fund our operations and our administration, but our park operations are generally funded by the operations themselves.

[00:32:22] And 89% of our overall revenues are coming from the operations themselves. And I think as you'll see on the left part of the slide, we have assembled over the years a very diverse set of revenues. So it allows us to weather different storms. When golf is up, pools are down.

[00:32:39] When the light shows are doing well, other things are down. And so we have no heavily, we are not heavily relying on any one revenue stream at any given moment. And it allows us to use those revenues to invest in providing more services to this region, to expanding the system.

[00:32:58] And I'm going to talk to you a little bit about how we do that. If we can flip to the next slide. Specific to the city of Fairfax, and as someone who did have the opportunity to lead another smaller jurisdiction in northern Virginia, Your money goes a long way.

[00:33:16] You are able to, by contributing only about 1.2% of our jurisdictional allocations, you are able to leverage a little over $11 million out of your neighbors to provide services to your residents and provide services across the region.

[00:33:35] And so we assess on both the operating and capital side on a per capita basis, And that works out very well for the city of Fairfax. If we can flip to the next slide. And we have a very, very dedicated but nimble workforce that serves in our parks, 148 full-time employees and other 200 full-time equivalent part-timers.

[00:34:01] And during the summer, we get up to about 1,000 people overall who are serving. We have a lot of seasonal employees. And perhaps most significantly, we are one of the larger employers of youth in the region. We have a ton of youth who get a lot of their first jobs in our parks.

[00:34:20] If we can flip to the next slide. We are on the tail end of a strategic plan, and we'll be starting a strategic plan process next year to spell out our next five-year strategic plan. But the current plan that we are operating on and nearly done achieving is built on a couple different pillars, certainly environmental sustainability, and we're going to talk about that a little bit later when we get to Gateway Park.

[00:34:43] Environmental sustainability is a big part of what we do. We serve a very diverse region, and so our goal is to make sure that every person in this region can see themselves in both the current and future of our parks, but as well as how we interpret the past in our parks, and that has been a significant focus for us.

[00:35:03] We invest in our people. That's why we have people who serve in our authority for long careers, because they're dedicated to the work that they do. And we work very hard to expand and grow. And we're going to be talking about an opportunity to grow here later in this presentation.

[00:35:20] But even outside of the city of Fairfax, we work to add parks, to add park land on a constant basis. And finally, as I mentioned earlier, our financial model is one that I believe is unique in public agencies. And so we are constantly looking for opportunities to generate additional revenue, again, to reinvest that revenue in the parks and the services that we provide for the residents of this region.

[00:35:41] If we can flip to the next slide. So I had the opportunity tonight to make a little news and announce an important milestone as it relates to Gateway Regional Park. That was me out there in the freezing cold yesterday taking pictures right before I got lunch in the city.

[00:36:02] I didn't take that picture. My picture wasn't good enough to be included in the slides. But nevertheless, we are excited. We are reaching an important milestone this year. And in 2026, we will be building the new Gateway Park, Gateway Regional Park.

[00:36:18] And I'll talk to you a little bit about the details of that. We will be going to market in January to select a contractor to do the work, and we'll be bringing that to our board of directors in March to award that contract. And we hope to be under construction this summer and completing the work that we're doing later this year.

[00:36:38] So that's our goal, and we'll be back with updates to you as we go forward in that process. Why don't we go ahead and flip to the next slide. So for those who are familiar, this is a partnership with the city. Back in 23 and 24, in your capital improvement program, you guys put $500,000 to represent a 50-50 share with Nova Parks to invest in this park.

[00:37:07] This is actually a park that we don't own. We have a long-term lease with the city of Fairfax. This is a lease that was entered into in 1994. It extends 40 years, and so it expires in 2034. And we have been together working to design a park that I believe will transform an important gateway to the city and one that ultimately aligns to plans that you all have adopted, including your small area plan for Fairfax Circle, as well as other plans that you have adopted as a community.

[00:37:44] If we can flip to the next slide. So in the new Gateway Park, we will be, as I said, a little over a million dollars of investment that we will be bringing to that park. This is going to be creating new wetlands in an area that is certainly prone to flooding.

[00:38:02] We're going to be addressing some of that flood mitigation, adding a whole bunch of new trails, new boardwalk, new signage to provide environmental education. I think it was very fitting that we had our friends of Akateek Creek here because we're going to be doing a lot of significant work adjacent to the waterways and the RPA in Gateway Regional Park, including a lot of invasive removal work, planting a ton of new trees, additional shrubs, a total of 22,000 square feet of ground cover is going to be added in this area.

[00:38:32] This is a really significant environmental effort for this area, and we're very excited to be reaching this milestone. It's been a long time coming. And that's kind of it for Gateway.

[00:38:48] And so, as I said, we will be bidding this out in the early part of the year, and we'll be back with updates as we get farther along. If we can jump to the next slide, and that's a picture of our dual trails there on the Washington and Old Dominion Trail, which is a 44-mile trail that Nova Parks is proud to own and administer.

[00:39:08] And at this point, I'm happy to entertain any questions from the council. Thank you so much for the presentation. I'm sure that there are questions here. No? I'm astonished. I am absolutely astonished.

[00:39:25] I love it. It's amazing to me, too, the quality of your presentation. Thank you. Obviously. So, this seems very quick to me that in January you're going to put something out to bid, award the contract, and get started, like, all in the same year?

[00:39:43] We are. That's the plan. That's the plan. We do have some, and let me caveat, we still have some permitting work to do with your staff, and we'll continue to do that. We have been working on a number of permits already, and so most of that has already come together. But, yes, we expect to be underway this year, or 26.

[00:40:03] It's already 25, isn't it? It's 25, yeah, so I'm just, yeah, 26, all of that in one year. That is amazing to me. We're excited. Okay. Any questions for Mr. Wilson before we let him go? All right, thank you so much for coming out. All right, thank you very much. I appreciate it. We appreciate you. Thank you. All right, then, we will move on to the adoption of the agenda.

[00:40:24] Is there a motion to approve the agenda? I move to adopt the agenda as presented with the following amendment to remove agenda item number 6f consideration of approval of the city of fairfax board commission and advisory committee handbook is there a second uh yes second okay uh motion's been made and seconded a roll call vote before we do roll call vote is this the point at which we are adjusting the consent agenda or is that going to happen after the initial public comment period i'm not

[00:41:03] I'm not sure I'm following your question. You mean removing items from the consent? I believe the mayor would ask for that now. I'm sorry. Oh, this is the agenda. You'll be doing that during the consent agenda motion. Okay, so that will come up separately later.

[00:41:20] Great. I just wondered because we, I think, just removed something from the consent agenda. Yes, 6F is part of the motion that's being removed. The consideration of the approval of the City of Fairfax Board Commission Advisory Committee handbook.

[00:41:37] And so, again, let me ask, is this the point at which other items from the consent agenda would be removed, or are we going to do that when the consent agenda comes up for approvals on item six? So if I could ask a question, are you asking that the items be removed for discussion this evening or removed from the agenda completely this evening?

[00:41:58] Removed from the consent agenda, but reserved for discussion this evening. Then that'll be later, during the consent agenda. Great. Okay. Thank you. The motion's been made and seconded. A roll call vote. Councilmember Amos. Aye. Councilmember Hall. Aye.

[00:42:15] Councilmember Hardy-Chandler. Aye. Councilmember Peterson. Aye. Councilmember Bates. Aye. Councilmember McQuillan. Aye. Motion passed unanimously. We will now go on to initial general public comment. I had a total of seven people sign up by 5 o'clock p.m. today, so I will call the first speaker up, which is Ann Hammond.

[00:42:46] Good evening, Council. I've never been here before, so I've not addressed you about the subject I'm going to approach.

[00:43:04] Removal of trees. I'm against it. I'm one of the chorus of many, especially considering the extension of the George Snyder Trail and what you're proposing to do. I live across Cardinal Road in Cambridge Station, where I've been watching the devastation and removal of old-growth trees this spring, and it was devastating.

[00:43:28] They are now planting little shrubs and twigs, which, if we should get a heavy rain, the way they upgraded that, they will be probably flooded down into the stream. But that's not what I'm here to talk about. George Snyder Trail above that removal of all those trees with connection with the stream restoration is above that area. And if any of the trees are cut down above there, that is definitely going to add to a lot of devastation that could happen. We don't need those trees removed. We need to have them remain there.

[00:44:04] And my question is this. After the trail has been upgraded by the funds from the I-66 toll project, how are we going to cover the maintenance and upkeep of the trail? If that's going to come out of city taxpayer money, I for one am not at all enthused about that.

[00:44:25] We have had tax increases in the last few years, and I don't want any tax increases in future years to go to maintenance of a trail that I don't think needs to be upgraded at this time. Trees serve a purpose of helping to clean the air, provide lodging for birds and animals, as well as places for children and adults to explore.

[00:44:53] Balancing nature and population should be a concern of this council. Fairfax has been known as the city of trees. At this rate, we're going to be known as the city of concrete and buildings. Thank you. Our next speaker, Susan Kyler.

[00:45:18] Hello. It has been suggested that the authors of the Fairfax Independent George Snyder Trail op-ed expressed opinions that are not based on facts and indeed made up their own set of facts and did not research the GSP repayment issue adequately.

[00:45:40] Tonight I am here to address those suggestions because they continue to be made. Here are the facts. We reviewed the documents and other information obtained through FOIA requests and from the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority and the Virginia statutes referenced in those.

[00:45:55] A council member during a work session used a Google search of one of the statutes we reviewed to justify his position that the city must repay approximately $3.3 million in concessionaire funds because the GST is in the six-year improvement program. Had the council member read further, he would have learned that per that same statute, the GST did not and does not meet the criteria for inclusion in the six-year improvement program.

[00:46:21] Transportation projects that use state money have council resolutions that stipulate that the city will repay all funds expended if the city cancels the project. The GST, which uses concessionaire funds, does not have a council resolution that stipulates repayment.

[00:46:38] Four, the Prince William County slash Manassas project for Route 28, which was canceled, has been cited as an example of the requirement to repay expended funds. However, the Route 28 project, per NVTA, did not use concessionaire funds.

[00:46:55] The cancellation provisions of the memorandum of agreement between the CBT and NVTA do not require this city to continue the project because, A. The MOA cannot bind the city, which is not a party of the agreement. B. The parties are required to consult with the city in deciding which option applies upon cancellation.

[00:47:13] And C. The MOA does not contain any provisions for repayment if the project is canceled. We did not base our determination of GST repayment terms on our own research findings. Instead, we obtained legal advice from lawyers who were neutral, that is, had no stake in the outcome of their research, and who gave us the results of their legal analysis of the GST repayment terms, if any.

[00:47:36] Our conclusion about the GST repayment terms is based on the interpretation of increments, memorandum of understanding and statutes, that is, on available facts, and buttressed by legal analysis. Thank you. Our next speaker is Mariana Fournier.

[00:48:01] Good evening. I'm Mariana Fournier, a longtime resident of our much beloved city.

[00:48:19] I have a question I want everyone to ponder. How did a simple gravel trail morph into a multi-million dollar project, which has divided our community, eroded our trust in our elected officials, and made us question how our local government functions?

[00:48:43] And yes, I'm getting old and I'm slowing down. Nothing in any of our education or experience has prepared us for the current state of our present national government.

[00:48:58] We need to go forward with a firm commitment to transparency, honesty, and a willingness to compromise. Let our community be known for spirited debate with mutual respect.

[00:49:19] May our future leaders be inspired to serve the best interests of our community. And from the bottom of my heart, I wish you all a joyous, happy holiday season.

[00:49:44] God bless you all. Our next speaker is Jeb Mann. Good evening.

[00:50:02] I'm glad that the city took time to have a proclamation for the Friends of the Act team because they are true stewards of nature and they don't like the GST any more than I do.

[00:50:18] But I like trails. I like natural environments. The George Schneider Trail is not a trail. It's a paved road through the woods with a buffer on each side. It's a bloated proposal which should be terminated as soon as you can. As a citizen of Fairfax City, I urge the council in your working sessions and whenever you meet to look at the different projects we've got going on and look at the affordability of it because a lot of this is falling on the property taxes of the

[00:50:53] citizens. I'd like for you to take a look at the physical health and the tree canopy around the city. But congratulations to the Friends of the Akatink and No on the George Snyder Trail. Our next speaker is Moroni Gomez.

[00:51:12] Hello, council members. My name is Moroni Gomez. I wanted to let you guys know that for once, since I moved here five years ago, everything was beautiful until the trees began being removed.

[00:51:28] From there, the sound pollution started coming in, the noise pollution started coming in. It looks ugly, quite honestly. I have to see it from my balcony. I could see the whole thing. It's really, really ugly. But I also wanted to ask you guys to think of this situation.

[00:51:46] have you ever left you left your kids with with their uncle and then they come back with a bad haircut seriously this is what it's coming down to you guys are you guys were we're putting you guys in this position to take care of the city then return return everything with the bad haircut honestly i have to stare at it every day it's really ugly thank you our next speaker is doug

[00:52:17] cox good evening council doug cox up at fairview again yeah i just want to call out some things that I missed last go round and, you know, took the eye off the ball. And I want to call out the hinkiness of big party politics that have entered the city because, you know, there's three of you up there that seem to vote in a block all the time. And what's it get us? Like I say, I missed this one, the Davies property, right? Hey, it got approved. Great, I suppose. Kind of an abandoned

[00:52:55] lot. Had a house on it. No one's living in it. And this council approved 276 units to go on that right there up off the university uh it was a zone for nine units per acre and you guys approved 102 units an acre we have a comprehensive plan quit throwing in the trash for this stuff i have no idea what's going on why suddenly all this group votes in a block and this stuff happens time and time again almost happened courthouse square all right what do we got here 3.85 acres you guys

[00:53:35] wanted to put 315 units on that 3.85 acres up by Safeway. Not the entire property because they're going to come back and build more. The three of you together again voted for it. And let's see what the comments are. Davies, this is a much more efficient use of the site. Courthouse, this is an opportunity to make much more efficient use of prime real estate. You heard from people. They like trees in this place. They like the nice, quaint character of Fairfax City. We don't want

[00:54:09] giant apartment complexes everywhere you go for efficiency. I just don't get it, folks. I just don't get it. And it's all done, I think. What I keep seeing is affordable housing, all right? We get a few little units, 6% that the mandatory these builders have to put in, and we give them the moon uh we want to talk about affordable housing how about affordable housing for those of us that have lived in the city for 30 years sweat owned our houses and we see our taxes go up

[00:54:44] eight nine percent every year because of bad money management really bad money management all right giant things like the willard for 56 million dollars a firehouse you want to build for 56 million dollars on and on and on and on you're going to build the george snyder trail let stuff go into the creek and then spend half a million dollars every year to try to keep stuff from going in the creek how does that make sense it's not funny it's sad it's the push me pull me guys

[00:55:17] start listening to citizens quit voting the block thank you very much good night our next speaker Actually, the last speaker is Francis Deeds. Last speaker.

[00:55:34] How about that? You guys are psyched. I just want to first start by thanking all of you for the incredible amount of work that you do for our city. What we see at these meetings, I know for a fact, barely scratches the surface of all that you do.

[00:55:52] The effort you put forth, and I just want to acknowledge that as we reach the end of the year. I might not always agree with your votes, but I certainly do appreciate your effort. Now, if you're like me, you probably wish you would never hear the words George Snyder Trail ever again in your lives.

[00:56:09] I doubt even George Snyder would like to hear his name anymore. I think my kids were in elementary school when this was first brought up, and now they're out of college. I think that it's time that we put this to bed one way or another. I just want to note that we're still paying attention.

[00:56:26] Many of us would like to see an outcome on this issue that works for everyone. I think I've heard a lot of people up here and all around the community say, you know, who could be against a trail? Trails are great, right? And I agree. When they're actually trails, they are great.

[00:56:42] I mean, my wife and I take advantage of them many weekends. But this is really not a trail in any real sense. This is a high-speed bike lane. This is a road that's going through the woods that, frankly, aren't even woods anymore. It's not a nice leafy trail where you're going to walk your dog or your kid or grandma.

[00:57:02] It's just an honest-to-goodness road, and it's really not what we need. So if you want to forge a path through the woods, then great. I mean, I'm definitely there for you. But this is not a trail in the real sense. This is what you have, like, besides 66, which is not a trail.

[00:57:20] It's a corridor. It might be called a trail, but it's not. It's a corridor, and that's not what we need. So please, just let's put this to bed. Let's just get it right. Okay, thank you. We can move on to the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda?

[00:57:40] Council Member Hardy-Chandler. I move adoption of a consent agenda for agenda item number 6A, consideration of the November 8, 2025 special meeting minutes. Agenda item number 6B, consideration of the November 13, 2025 special meeting minutes.

[00:57:59] Agenda item number 6C, consideration of the November 18, 2025 special meeting minutes. Agenda item number 6D, consideration of the November 18, 2025 regular meeting minutes. Agenda item number 6E, consideration of resolution amending previously adopted city council rules of procedure.

[00:58:18] Agenda item number 6G, introduction of an ordinance amending chapter 102, utilities, article 1, in general, section 102-33 of the code of the city of Fairfax, Virginia, pertaining to wastewater, lateral repair and replacement charges, and connections to public utilities.

[00:58:40] Agenda Item 6-H, Introduction of an Ordinance Adopting Printed Supplement Numbers 16 to 26, inclusive to the Code of the City of Fairfax, Virginia. Agenda Item 6-I, Introduction of a Grant Supplemental Appropriation Resolution in the amount of $4,600,000 for the Transform 66 Outside the Beltway concession funding for the George Snyder Trail, Agenda Item No. 6J, Introduction of an Ordinance, Amending Chapter 2, Administration, Article 3, Officers and Employees, Division 2, Disclosure of Interests, Pertaining to Required Financial Disclosures

[00:59:20] by Certain Enumerated Officers and Employees of the City. I move to approve the Consent Agenda Item 6A through J and the motion accompanying the Consent Agenda item as printed. Is there a second?

[00:59:39] I second, but we'll note that I am going to request a couple of items to be pulled. Okay. So are there any items Council would like pulled for additional discussion? I'd like to pull Items E and I. Okay.

[00:59:55] Items 6E and I will be removed for discussion. roll call vote on the consent agenda minus items 6E and 6I. Council Member McQuillan? Aye. Council Member Bates? Aye. Council Member Peterson? Aye. Council Member Hardy-Chandler?

[01:00:10] Aye. Council Member Hall? Aye. Council Member Amos? Aye. Motion passed unanimously. We'll go to 6E, which is a consideration of a resolution amending the previously adopted city council rules of procedures. I'll recognize Brian Lubkerman for the staff report. Mayor, just from my perspective, Given the interest of time, I only have one extremely brief clarifying question if it helps.

[01:00:34] I'll allow you to restate the motion if you feel it's needed. Otherwise, I'm happy to just ask the question. I'm more than happy not to speak if I don't need to. Just very simply, I know we had an extended discussion and an agreement to make some further changes to it. So I just, so far as I can tell, that has happened.

[01:00:52] I just wanted to double check from your standpoint, have all of the changes that we discussed in the last meeting been incorporated into this updated draft? All of the changes that have been discussed in the several meetings that we have had on this have been incorporated into this latest version.

[01:01:08] Thank you. Are there any other discussions or questions on motion 6E? Hearing none, a roll call vote. Actually, we'll need a motion to approve 6E.

[01:01:23] Okay, a motion to approve 6E. I move that the City Council adopt the attached resolution amending its previously adopted rules of procedure. Is there a second? Second. A roll call vote. Council Member McQuillan? Aye. Council Member Bates?

[01:01:40] Aye. Council Member Peterson. Aye. Council Member Hardy-Chandler. Aye. Council Member Hall. Aye. Council Member Amos. Aye. Motion passed unanimously. We'll go to 6-A, which is the introduction of a grant supplemental appropriation resolution and the amount of $4,600,000 for Transform 66 Outside the Beltway concession funding for the George Snyder Trail.

[01:02:03] I'm going to recognize J.C. Martinez, the chief financial officer for the staff report. Sure. mayor council as discussed at the november 4th city council work session the city of fairfax has previously been awarded 20.6 million dollars in i-66 outside the beltway project concessionaire funding for the george nari trail project the city recently received construction bids that exceed the 16 million remaining in the project budget the estimate to complete the project with an additional cost of such as contingency and construction management and vdot oversight will exceed the remaining budget by 4.6 there is additional concessionaire

[01:02:41] funding available in the balance entry account at vdot to accommodate the city's funding need accordingly the city requested this funding via the northern virginia transportation authority nvta which is the entity that makes recommendations for this funding to the commonwealth transportation board ctv the nvta recommended approval of this funding the final step is for ctb to approve which is scheduled to occur at the CTVs January 6th meeting this introduction is more of an administrative function for public hearing

[01:03:17] that is scheduled for January 13th for action where council will take action happen to answer any questions council member Peterson thanks and I think the primary reason I asked to have this poll is to get some clarification much of which I think is driven by inquiries that I have received, I'm sure other council members have as well, that suggest a little bit of confusion about what we're doing tonight and potentially what we're doing in January.

[01:03:51] It's my understanding that the proposal this evening is procedural. It is to enable a public hearing to take place in January and not to actually make a vote on an appropriation this evening. i think that's very critical for everybody uh to understand again it's not surprising there's been a little bit of confusion around that and folks thinking this evening we were reaching um a final conclusion on this so we're not the other thing which we've heard from a couple of speakers and i think is indicative of feedback that's been broad scale is a little bit of confusion about

[01:04:26] the project itself what i know i have heard and i suspect others have heard um broadly is uh an interest in having a trail that would emulate the daniels run woods trail and this is the trail that so far as i can tell is very much loved in this community and understandably so it's a trail that i use frequently weekly but it is different than the george schneider trail as i think folks have pointed out this evening i think it's just important to call this out because the trail in

[01:05:04] Daniels Run Woods is not graded. It follows the contour of the land. It has not been leveled out with a bulldozer. It's also a gravel trail with the exception of a pretty small section on a steep hill on a couple hard surfaces on bridges, but it uses a packed gravel surface. That is different from the George Snyder Trail, which was designed to be leveled out and involve a substantial amount of earth moving in order to accomplish that and then to have a paved bike trail in place to enable higher speed bike travel as well as ada access but it is a completely different configuration

[01:05:44] than we see in daniel's run woods i will say that in my own experience in daniel's run woods and again i am there regularly i'm the guy with the green helmet and the big fat tires on the bike there are children playing and using the trail parents with little children and strollers seniors who are there on their own or being attended to by caretakers people walking dogs there are many bikers including some electric bikes but they're not traveling at a high rate of speed they're traveling slowly because of the nature of the land and the nature of the surface so it's a very very

[01:06:23] different configuration there than the george snyder trail which again is a paved essentially flat surface that enables much higher speed use and much higher volume of bicycles part of the reason i call that out is another issue and i think we may have heard a little bit about it this evening but it has come up and i suspect will continue to come up and that is safety concerns and we heard um when we had um a work session and other discussion about the blenheim boulevard project that i think our director of dbw indicated one of the reasons that we're having

[01:07:03] both a shared use bike path and a separate pedestrian sidewalk is concerns the community has about the safety of only having a hard surface bike path that would have to accommodate both foot traffic and bike traffic at the same time and instead of doing that and having only that one shared-use bike path, we also have a separate pedestrian-only sidewalk.

[01:07:32] And this is what we heard from council members in the city of Falls Church when we walked on the Washington and Old Dominion Trail that is a bike path, but it now has, at least for a pretty good stretch, a separate pedestrian-only trail that was created to alleviate safety concerns from people who are using or were using the bike path in the face of what is now high volume high speed bike traffic so we see the concerns uh around bike safety and potential

[01:08:07] conflicts with pedestrian use and we see that materializing into separate paths the george snyder trail is trying to pack that all into one path and one can only imagine that at some point that may become an issue that will also need to be addressed to deal with the safety concerns there okay okay trying to bring it back to this particular motion which is about funding for the george snyder trail this is the project that we have in front of us whether we like it or don't like it we're either going to fund this trail or if we're not going to fund this trail this trail goes away and what happens after that and how anything in the future is funded is probably up

[01:08:47] to whoever the next counsel is but right now our our today is are we going to vote on introducing this topic for a public hearing on january the 13th to give the public an opportunity to weigh in council member mcquillan okay i just want clarification so i'm looking at our city attorney so our options here are to vote yes which would continue the funding element moving forward to go

[01:09:21] to the ctb which would include having a public hearing portion correct yes this is in anticipation of the money coming from the ctb and the council would have to appropriate it but to keep the timing going you do the introduction now you schedule a public hearing for january the 13th and i assume if the funding doesn't come through then this would be moot okay but this is purely procedural Okay, so the options are vote yes, and that includes the public hearing would continue on as long as the funds are available to us.

[01:09:56] Or we can vote no, and that expresses that we do not want to continue moving this forward, correct? And that would then mean that there would be no public hearing. Not moving this particular aspect. This funding element, this part forward, which is needed in order to continue with this project.

[01:10:15] Is that correct? There might be other options, but yes, you were stating it correctly. This is a discrete element in the project, which is the additional funding. So if we want the community to have an opportunity to provide feedback publicly in a hearing, we would vote to continue this moving forward.

[01:10:36] If not and we say no, then that eliminates the ability for the public hearing portion. Public hearing on this, yes, but there's always opportunity for public comment during, as we had this evening, under general public comment. Thank you. Any other questions pertinent to this motion?

[01:10:54] Council Member Hall. Thank you. I do believe, as I think most of us up here do, that public engagement and input from the community is extremely important. Therefore, I will not be standing in the way of this, even though I do disagree with the trail. Thank you. Any other questions or comments?

[01:11:13] Council Member McCullough. I, too, agree with having full transparency and the option for people to provide public comment. But given that this is the third time now additional funding keeps coming up, this is not the same project that I originally voted and supported on.

[01:11:32] I'm going to be voting no. So I'm just putting that out there now. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Okay. Council Member Stacey Hardy-Chandler. So this funding really only closes a financial gap that was a timing factor, right, in terms of the time it took to even get to this point, which increased the funding for the same project, correct?

[01:12:04] So this puts us back to where we were when we took the original vote in terms of where the project was. This simply closes a financial gap. Is that a correct assessment? Without getting into the characterization, the CFO may have something. There is a gap.

[01:12:19] This is one mechanism for closing the gap. I think that's all I will say. That doesn't change the nature of the project. I can't characterize that. Maybe the CFO can. As the city attorney stated, that is my understanding as well, that this is a part of the increase was some delays that occurred in executing the project on schedule.

[01:12:43] But there are some additional, I don't know if Director Summers would like to come forward. No change, just the bids were higher than were expected. The project has not changed. Thank you. Any other questions or comments before we vote on this?

[01:13:02] Okay, I will just say, for my part, I've spent three years listening to testimony about the George Snyder Trail. It was, a pause was voted on. There were significant delays, and that is one of the reasons that this project costs more is because of the delays.

[01:13:23] We have an opportunity for funding to complete the project, and contrary to people saying that there is absolutely no financial impact for canceling it, that is simply not true. So I do think allowing the public to come in January so that they can express their point of view on this project is important.

[01:13:46] And so I will ask at this time if there is a motion for 6-I. Council Member Hardy-Chandler. I move to introduce a supplemental appropriation resolution in the amount of $4,600,000 from the Transform 66 outside the Beltway concession funding for the George Snyder Trail Project.

[01:14:06] I further move to waive the first reading and to set the public hearing for January 13, 2026. Is there a second? second we have a motion and a second may we have a roll call vote council member mcquillen no council member bates aye council member peterson no council member hardy chandler aye council member hall abstain council member amos aye okay motion passed three to two with one abstention

[01:14:44] we'll go on to public hearings our only public hearing tonight is the public hearing on the Germantown Road Improvement Project. There's no council action tonight on this. I will recognize Wendy Sanford, the Transportation Director, to provide the staff presentation. Good evening, Mayor Reed, members of the City Council. This evening, we are holding the public hearing for

[01:15:21] the Germantown Road Multimodal Improvements Project. There is no council action. This is a forum for us to present the details of the project at the 60% design and receive public input. We did discuss this in a work session recently but again tonight is the formal public hearing and so we will be reviewing much of the presentation that you heard but we will try to move through it a little bit quickly quicker so again we'll be going through the project background discuss the corridor and what is proposed discuss the public outreach that we have conducted and what we've heard next steps and then finally we will close the presentation with us and

[01:15:58] hold the public hearing in terms of the project goals we're looking at the corridor of Germantown Road roughly between Route 50 and the city project line. And we are looking to improve current roadway operations for all travelers to plan for both the future demand and the travel needs, maintain connections to the county, improve transit operations, as well as pedestrian and bicycle safety and connectivity. So again, looking at all modes. This project has been going on roughly since 2017. There were earlier projects on Germantown Road, but then in 2017 this was looked at in the multimodal transportation plan and recommended for

[01:16:36] improvements. Since then we have adopted this into our two-year program, developed a concept plan, conducted initial public outreach, received MVTA funding, and then in 2023 started with the design kickoff now that the funding was online. We have had two open houses at Catherine Johnson Middle school. And we have had a walking tour. We've had individual property owner meetings. And then this evening, prior to this meeting, we had an open house in the atrium. And as I've mentioned, there is a public comment period that is open for the next 10 days to receive comments now on the 60%

[01:17:14] design. When we had our initial public outreach, we heard some common themes. We heard about improving bicycle and pedestrian access. We heard about the difficulties turning right and left onto Germantown Road, and we heard about congestion and the way that the, and some issues with the lane configuration. We took what we heard from this initial public outreach and worked this into the improvements that are proposed that you'll hear about tonight. In terms of where we are in the project, as I mentioned, we've been working on this for quite some time. We are now looking at what is shown as step 10 in this capital project roadmap. We have 60% plans. We are presenting them

[01:17:51] at a public meeting. And again, a public meeting can be held anywhere. We always have chosen to have our public meetings as part of a city council meeting so that there could be public testimony heard by the city council. So that is where we are this evening. So with that, I am going to pass it to our consultant, Jordan Howard, who will walk us through the corridor challenges and some of the design improvements. Thank you, Wendy. And thank you, council members, for allowing me to come speak tonight the existing conditions along Germantown Road are sort of presented here the challenges that we have are rear end and angle crashes there's

[01:18:29] congestion today we have closely spaced entrances and as far as multimodal access goes there's quite a few uncontrolled pedestrian crossings there's limited bicycle accommodations and limited transit amenities there are bus stops but not many shelters I'm gonna hop into the crash history in the period 2020 to 2025 there were 38 crashes within the project limits angle crashes which are typically the most severe type of crash were 45% of those and rear-end crashes were 37% so those were the two highest crash types and the

[01:19:05] ways that we look to address that are to improve traffic operations and manage access so with that the proposed improvements that we're looking at include adding dedicated right and left turn lanes and replacing the two-way left turn lane with median and individual left turn lanes where possible. I'll just mention that one of the things that we look at is called a crash reduction factor. So for each of the elements that we're proposing, we look at what the expected improvement is as far as crashes go. So both adding the turn lanes and replacing the two-way left turn lane reduce crashes by 30 to 35 percent or are expected

[01:19:44] to do that. We're also looking to extend the northbound merge lane from Route 50 to optimize signal timing throughout the corridor and to provide turn lanes on Germantown Road into the school driveways. Those exist today, but we're looking to extend them where possible to help with those school peak operations since we know that we have both Providence Elementary School and Catherine Johnson in the corridor. As far as access management goes, that term is used in the transportation industry to mean the spacing between intersections and on germantown road today we

[01:20:20] don't meet the current standards for that spacing so as many of you who are familiar with the corridor know there's many entrances um in the the project limits um what we want to do is increase the distance between them to allow for additional reaction time for drivers so in several locations we're proposing to have partial access that means that people would be able to turn in right and outright, but maybe not make left turns. We're also looking to extend turn lanes to allow people more space to make their decisions for turning. So can you go to the next slide, Wendy? We'll be

[01:20:56] looking to convert some of the full access driveways to right in, right out configuration that has a crash reduction factor of 45%. Those locations are the Comfort Inn and the H Mart Northern Entrance and Gainsborough Court Southern Entrance. We're also looking to shift one entrance at Gainsborough Court north side of Orchard Street to create a four-leg signalized intersection.

[01:21:20] When we talk about access management, we also talk at a signalized intersection, we talk about something that's called the functional area of the intersection. That's the area not just between the stop bars, but the area that's needed for drivers to make their decision about what to do as they approach the intersection.

[01:21:38] So ideally, there would be no other driveways or streets within the functional area of any signalized intersection. And on Germantown Road, We have quite a few signalized intersections where there are issues with that. So we're looking to address that by making some changes, which I'll identify here.

[01:21:56] So looking at H-Mark, Kuttner Park, and 3,900 Germantown Road, starting at the southern end of our corridor. Currently, there's an offset five-leg intersection. The traffic signal there does not serve all of those streets. And we have three unsignalized intersections within the functional area of the intersection.

[01:22:14] So if you go to the next slide, Wendy, showing the proposed improvements, we're looking to convert H-Mart's northern entrance to a right-in, right-out configuration. We'll be shifting the signal approximately 70 feet to the north, relocating the crosswalk there to the north side of the intersection, converting the Comfort Inn entrance on Germantown Road to right-in, right-out, and adding a concrete median along Germantown Road from the H-Mart southern entrance to the new signal with Kuttner Park and 3900 Germantown Road.

[01:22:45] This increases spacing that I mentioned between the signalized intersection and adjacent driveways, but note that it's still substandard. It eliminates the use of the intersection for truck maneuvering from H-Mart and creates controlled access point for additional driveways.

[01:23:04] Moving north to the Gainsborough Court-Orchard Street intersection, today the traffic signal only serves Orchard Street, and there's closely spaced unsignalized intersections for Gainsborough Court north and south of that. There's also a shared left-turn lane from northbound Germantown Road that accesses both North Gainsborough Court and Providence Elementary School.

[01:23:24] And we have a short left-turn lane from southbound Germantown to Orchard Street. So we're looking to correct some of those challenges. The proposed design on the next slide will be creating a four-legged intersection by relocating the Gainsborough Court community's entrance.

[01:23:44] We'll be converting the southern entrance to a right-in, right-out configuration by adding a median, providing dedicated right and left turn lanes at the intersection itself for those turning onto Orchard and into the Gainsborough Court community. The signal will remain in the same location, and the north entrance into Gainsborough Court will be converted to a right-in entrance.

[01:24:06] Again, this comes closer to meeting those spacing requirements that I mentioned, and it moves cars waiting to turn out of the through lanes, which should help with our crash. history like to just touch on multimodal access for a minute we know that today there the corridor has some gaps as far as sidewalk and shared use path go there are some segments that have those facilities and some segments that don't we want to provide dedicated space to improve safety and access for all users and we want to really look at some of the uncontrolled pedestrian crossings

[01:24:40] and see if we can provide some mitigation for users there so the proposed design looks first to close the network gap and provide that connectivity, we'll be proposing a sidewalk along southbound Germantown Road and a shared-use path along northbound Germantown Road. The shared-use path is for both pedestrians and bicyclists, but the sidewalk is only for pedestrians, and so that allows for some separation for users who don't want to use the shared-use path.

[01:25:10] The shared-use path will be a 10-foot asphalt, and the sidewalk is five feet in concrete. And we'll be providing regional connectivity between those two facilities to the I-66 Parallel Trail, which is just north of the bridge over I-66.

[01:25:28] There's a connection along Parallel Lane, I'm sorry, blinking on the name of the street that's just north of Phoenix. Phoenix, I'm sorry, Phoenix Drive. We're also looking to enhance crossings by using high visibility markings, by installing rapid flashing beacons.

[01:25:51] There's three locations where we're proposing those at Catherine Johnson Middle School, at Providence Elementary School, and at Carroll Street. We're also looking to install a pedestrian refuge island at Carroll Street to help with the crossing there and providing lighting throughout the corridor so that users are provided with that additional safety element.

[01:26:07] I want to touch on Carroll Street. We have heard from many residents that they desire a signal there. We performed a signal warrant analysis in 2021, and the intersection did not meet the criteria for the study year of 2021 or for the future year of 2041.

[01:26:26] There is a potential that there are eight warrants that are evaluated to see if a signal is necessary. You need to meet one of them. Warrant four is about pedestrian volumes, and so with the shared use path coming in, there's a potential that it could be met in the future if pedestrian volumes are high.

[01:26:44] you just want to note you'd need 125 pedestrians per hour to cross at Carroll Street to meet that warrant. So knowing that there's a current concern there, we are doing our best to implement other safety improvements, including dedicated turn lanes, the pedestrian refuge island, and RRFB. The proposed design is shown here. Again, the elements that I mentioned, we're adding the refuge island, adding a northbound right turn lane, adding the RRFBs, and a southbound left turn lane. From a transit perspective, one of the things that we look at is ridership and

[01:27:21] satisfaction. That's really our measurement for whether or not the project is meeting the goals. Stop placement and ridership. Stop placement is based on ridership. The frequency of stops impacts the route length, obviously, but we want to make sure that stops are placed in places where they will meet the ridership needs. So we also know that amenities improve comfort for riders, So we're looking to add bus shelters and benches, trash cans, elements like that where they're warranted.

[01:27:54] And I think at the work session that we were at, you had a presentation also by the bus. The Q development. The Q development study. And so we'll be using that study to inform this project as far as what elements are introduced.

[01:28:12] We're looking, I think just the one thing to also note is that we're consolidating one bus stop at Kuttner Park in the southbound direction where the Q bus and the WMATA bus are at separate stops today, so they'll be at one stop in the future.

[01:28:29] I mentioned lighting. We'll be providing lighting throughout the corridor. It's a combination approach. There is some existing decorative lighting in the corridor. We're also proposing decorative lighting along with what we call a shoebox fixture in arms, so those lights will be spaced approximately 75 feet apart throughout the corridor.

[01:28:51] And then from a landscaping perspective, there are 53 trees that are currently impacted. Most of those are on private property. We will be proposing plantings to mitigate those impacts. The proposed plantings include nine shade trees, 96 ornamental trees, 284 shrubs, and approximately 4,500 square feet of ground cover.

[01:29:18] Otherwise, all disturbed areas will get turf grass. We do also have three retaining walls that are required. The largest one is in front of Catherine Johnson Middle School. It's approximately 500 feet long and will vary in height from 4 to 10 feet.

[01:29:36] There's also a shorter, approximately 95-foot-long wall with a 3-foot maximum height at the Kingdom's Hall of Jehovah's Witness, and a 75-foot-long wall at 3623 Germantown Road. For the proposed wall aesthetics, they were shown on a rendering out in the atrium, but it's a dry stack pattern shown here.

[01:29:59] There's the rendering. This is in front of Catherine Johnson Middle School. And Wendy, I think I'm turning it back to you for project funding. Thank you. So where are we? We are at 60% design.

[01:30:14] So we are just past the midway point, and we are moving towards finalizing the design. But before we do that, we hold the public hearing. We receive any comments, any final comments on the design before we really set it and have the footprint set before we move into right-of-way acquisition.

[01:30:31] So that is where we are at that 60% intermediate design. And that's where we are tonight. And you can see after that, we move to finalized plans. Then we move into right-of-way acquisition, 100% plans. And then into construction, you can see we're looking at May 2028 to start that construction.

[01:30:49] Our estimate at this point that is inflated out to our construction year is approximately $18 million. We have full funding for that from the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority. We have actually $21 million in funding to meet our $18 million need.

[01:31:05] In terms of the public hearing, I've mentioned this already a number of times, but this is a public forum to receive comments. We had an open house ahead of the meeting. We mailed letters to 290 residents. We posted signs along the corridor. There's a photo in the bottom right-hand corner of one of those A-frame signs.

[01:31:21] The plans are available on Engage, and the public comment period is now open for 10 days. So there are multiple ways for residents to comment. They can come this evening to the public hearing. We heard from many people already in the hour preceding the city council meeting, and then we expect to receive additional comments on Engage.

[01:31:39] That concludes our presentation. We'd be happy to take any questions ahead of the public hearing. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Are there questions of staff? Councilmember Hull? Thank you very much. I can attest to the volume of signs that were out, notifications that went out, alerting the community to this event.

[01:31:59] And I want to thank you for that. I know it's an important part of this. And I don't know how many people actually came tonight, but I'm hopeful that people have continued to engage in meaningful ways. And I also do think that there are a lot of opportunities to make this road better, which I think a lot of this plan does.

[01:32:15] I had asked some of my questions out there earlier, but we kind of got cut off. So I was hoping to ask just a couple more. So initially, the traffic study that was done that led to some of this, was that before or after the H-Mart went in there? And was it previously when the Giant was in there, timing-wise?

[01:32:33] I believe it was when the H-Mart went in there, but I will double-check and let you know. Okay. Thank you. I'm not sure. I didn't write down the slide number on this one. But the 7-Eleven, is that going to have a right in, right out, or will that still be able to turn left? 7-Eleven is just outside of our project limit.

[01:32:53] But yes, it will remain full access. Okay. Do we see a lot of incidents there with turning left to get onto, I never know my directions, north, south, north, nope, south, to get onto south? Is that an area of high volume?

[01:33:09] I will have to go back and look. Are you asking about the crash data specifically? Yeah, I just, when you looked at the 38 crashes, did that include anything coming in or out of the 7-Eleven, or you said that was out of your purview? It was outside of our study area. Okay. There are crashes in the vicinity of the Route 50 intersection, and 7-Eleven is sort of lumped into that area, I guess I would say.

[01:33:30] Okay. But it was not included in the 38 crashes. Okay. And I do know that that area got a pretty major upgrade a number of years ago that made it better, but it also added more lanes, which I think makes that left turn a little bit harder to do. Neither here nor there. Just a question. Was any consideration done with the AT&T redevelopment that the county will be doing that's adding in about 800-plus new homes in retail right at 123 and Germantown Road?

[01:33:57] Do we think that these improvements will be sufficient to deal with additional new traffic coming out of there that we've not previously seen? That's a good question. So when the traffic study was done, it does anticipate, it puts in a growth factor. Now, did it put in that specific redevelopment?

[01:34:13] I don't believe so because I don't believe that it was approved. And so when we're doing a traffic study, it only considers developments that have been approved. So when you're looking, it takes a generic growth factor into account. I don't know if that answers your question, but we're always looking at how traffic will grow.

[01:34:30] And I believe that the year for this traffic study was 2040. And projection for traffic is what, 2040? Yes. So they look pretty far into the future. Okay, correct. Thank you for clarifying that. On slide 21, there's a representation of the separate sidewalk and the shared use path.

[01:34:51] And I understand that you said that the shared use path is intended to have pedestrians and bikers, but that the sidewalk will not have bikers. It's just an interesting... In general, sidewalks are meant for pedestrian use. Bicyclists are encouraged to use the roadway.

[01:35:07] Right. Or in this case, it would be encouraged to use the shared use path. Okay. And will there be any markings on the shared use path telling people what side of the road they're supposed to be on, or is that not common with shared use paths these days? I would have to look into exactly what the markings will be on the shared use path unless you know of those offhand.

[01:35:27] Currently, we were not proposing to stripe like a center line on the shared use path. Usually for a 10-foot path, you don't do that because you want to allow people to use a little bit more space until they encounter somebody coming in the other direction. However, it's something that we can study.

[01:35:44] And it could always be added at a later time as well. It could be added at a later time as well, yes. Slide 22 talks about the enhanced crossings and the rapid flashing beacons. I was surprised to see there's not going to be one added at Orchard Street. There's a full traffic signal at Orchard Street.

[01:36:00] So that will include the safety. It doesn't need the RFB then because of the light that's there. Correct. It's instead of. Correct. It's a full traffic signal at Orchard Street. There's a pedestrian phase for the traffic signal. Okay, thank you. It mentions on slide 23, you said an average of 125 vehicles per hour.

[01:36:22] Would, if that road is now potentially moving more than 1,100 vehicles per hour with the ability to get cars through there, I won't say faster, but at a better pace, less stopping, does that number of pedestrians per hour go down?

[01:36:41] It goes down a little bit, yes. Okay. But I guess I just wanted to stress that that 125, even if it comes down a little bit, is a fairly high number okay um i i don't want to guess at exactly how many pedestrians are going to be there i don't think we know how many people are going to use the trail but um typically in a sort of suburban environment we wouldn't see 125 people crossing in an hour in a typical situation okay and so they would need to cross then at carroll street specifically yes okay and i do think that having the um the rfb at both carroll street and providence will probably reduce the stress on the one at Carroll Street specifically with the kids going to school so I think that

[01:37:21] that that's good um and obviously the the one at Catherine Johnson I think will help on the other side but okay um I'm cutting down to the end I promise um and then on page 30 you have a representation um you mentioned a max of 10 foot I'm sorry a max 10 foot tall wall wall thank you is this an example of that wall where the bottom down there is wall and the top is fencing or would you expect a full 10 foot of wall per se 10 feet would be a combination of railing and wall okay i i'm on board with that i think it makes a much better visual it makes it much more open and feel

[01:38:01] less like prison like if you're walking along a 10 foot yes big wall like that they do two different things the wall is to retain earth the railing is for pedestrian safety yes so we're going to need so much wall to retain earth understood i just want to make sure we weren't to be continuing then with that over so okay um and yes just to remind people public comment is open for 10 days so i will make sure that my neighborhood has that on their facebook post and thank you very much for the presentation and the information other questions council member

[01:38:36] peterson well thanks um slide 30 just to come back to that and i'm just curious to know this stretch does not include a protective barrier between the path and the road? Correct. There's a grass buffer. So it's five to six feet of grass between the road and the path, but there isn't like a concrete barrier or anything like that. Right. How do you determine whether or not a protective

[01:39:09] barrier is needed in the case where you've got a path next to a busy road? We typically defer to a document that's called the AASHTO Guide for Design of Bicycle Facilities, but it says that if the path is between three to five feet away from the road with a grass buffer, that typically that's enough that you don't need a barrier. So for instance, look at North Street where the old Chabin is. We have a barrier, a concrete barrier to protect pedestrians, because there's no room, there's no buffer room. If you have five feet of grass buffer, that's considered the safety

[01:39:48] needed for a road such as this. Now, if it's an interstate, you would probably have a barrier. But for a primary road such as Germantown Road, following AASHTO and VDOT guidelines, that buffer that is being shown is satisfactory. Is that dependent upon the volume and speed of traffic as well, or is there simply a rule of thumb that says five feet is all that's needed?

[01:40:16] Well, there's recommendations in the guidelines. It's always a recommendation of depending on the type of road, classification of road, the speed, the number of pedestrians, and the amount of room you have would dictate. Plus, if there's a history of accidents, then maybe a jurisdiction would put a barrier in, which is kind of why we put one in where Old Shabin is.

[01:40:41] So this area, because it's straight and the speeds aren't that high and you have this wide enough buffer, it's satisfactory based on all the guidelines we've looked at. And just another thought or two on that.

[01:40:56] Other than Old Shabin, are there any other areas in the city where a particular barrier has been put in place? There's a small one on the Cambridge Road on the Rust Curve sidewalk project around that bend. Right after you come over the bridge, there is a small protective barrier that was put just for a short stretch in that area.

[01:41:15] And also the bridge at Rust Curve. If you go on that bridge at Rust Curve, you'll see there's a barrier to protect pedestrians on the west side. So looking to the future, part of the reason I'm interested a bit in the formula, if you will, in terms of how we make that determination is whether conditions change.

[01:41:36] And they change in a way that indicates a need for a protective barrier in the future. And assuming there is some formulaic approach to that that would trigger that need or that evolution forward, in a case like this, how difficult would it be in the future to put a protective barrier in if needed. It could be done. I mean, I don't see this as an example of something that would be needed. However, it's, you know, relatively, other than the cost, it's relatively easy to put a

[01:42:14] barrier in. Yeah, as Mr. Semper says, I mean, this is a straight area. The reason we put one in that short stretch of the curve is because it's a curve in that location. So I don't foresee this needing it, but there is the opportunity because there is going to be a buffer there. No, I agree. This doesn't seem like it rises to that level but there are some other areas in the city that start to make you wonder a little bit about whether we might get to that point pretty soon if we're not already there so i just i thought i'd check into that thanks other questions

[01:42:45] councilmember mcquillan this is an easy one how long of a stretch is that in totals 0.85 miles i think thank you other questions okay um i will open the public hearing mrs shinneberry has the hearing been properly advertised yes it has no one had signed up prior to the meeting if there's anybody in the room that would like to speak on this agenda item they may step forward go ahead sir and then if anybody else wants to speak

[01:43:19] just line up by the window good afternoon I own a property on Germantown Road I thank the council for this consideration I think it's a wonderful thing for us to enhance safety and the aesthetics of it Fairfax City is looking better than ever, and our taxes are not terribly high.

[01:43:54] But having me said that, there are two or three points that I would like to bring to the attention of the city. One is the fact that Germantown Road now is being used as a drug trail.

[01:44:09] On the average, I observed every 20 minutes what I consider to be clearly people that carrying drugs and going up and down Germantown Road.

[01:44:27] They're using as well not only the trail across the bridge, 66th Bridge, they're actually using the rain drain that actually runs parallel to 66th. And that's how actually they get drugs apparently from, by the way, I'm very lame and I'm no expert, but I have eyes and I can see that.

[01:44:52] So I would like to ask as part of what they do is to put some sort of maybe, I know I hate to say that, but maybe cameras, maybe more police patrol. This is happening between the two schools, Providence and the other middle school.

[01:45:12] That's one. So I would like the council to actually consider doing that. Two, standing water on Germantown Road. It seemed like to be almost an ongoing, almost never-ending, especially coming down from Fairfax County line.

[01:45:32] Once they cross the bridge, the way they actually have it set up, and this is VDOT, this has nothing to do with the city, but it actually drains to people's property, and that seemed to create a problem as well. The last thing I would like to say is a very good point regarding safety for pedestrians and bicycles.

[01:45:55] Maybe we'll have the curb a little higher, and this way we avoid having to pay again. If the curb is high enough, it would prevent cars from going and slamming into pedestrians. But that's pretty much it. Thank you so very much. Next speaker, come forward.

[01:46:17] Sir. Good evening, Council and Mayor. I'm here to talk about the Germantown Project. My name is Sabrina DeWald, and I reside at 3705 Hill Street.

[01:46:33] In the plans, they claim this plan will accommodate for the upcoming 20 years of traffic. However, as admitted during the open house, the consultant said the traffic study done in 2022 does not account for the newly approved developments by the county as well as the city on either side of Germantown that are bound to increase traffic flow.

[01:46:52] Additionally, adding medians for turns will not alleviate traffic flow on Germantown. Median limiting turns in and out of various entrances throughout Germantown will not assist traffic flow. Moving the turn signal by H-Mart and Kutner Park will not assist anything because you have 18-wheeler delivery trucks by 7-Eleven that just block an entire lane of traffic, sometimes two or three times a day or more.

[01:47:17] However, after hearing that 7-Eleven off Germantown has not been included in the study, that is a major flaw. You also have Q buses that do not respect the road and pull off that bus stop. They're just running in traffic without yielding or any other safety measure. The plans mention a 10-foot shared-use asphalt path.

[01:47:36] 10 foot is enough for another lane. Why do we pay personal property taxes on our cars to the city for them not to focus on roads and focus on another glorified path? Spot widening will not be enough to account for the roads and the needs of the road. The mentioned bridge coordination of four lanes shows what Germantown really needs, four lanes, not spot widening.

[01:47:57] Not another glorified shared path with another terrible-looking 10-foot wall, which in the presentation they said 10 foot. Outside in the open house, they said 9 foot. There seems to be some flaws here. In a city that consistently raises taxes in every way and requests additional taxes, costs and money should not be wasted on a retaining wall.

[01:48:18] Adding the Gainsborough Court to Orchard Street intersection will make traffic worse. Currently, Orchard Street is bogged down by those apartments using it as parking and walking across the street. There is no need to add Gainsborough Court to the Orchard Street. Additionally, Q-buses can't even make the turn on Orchard from Germantown.

[01:48:35] They will push you off the lane, and they cannot make the turn. The plan does not accommodate for traffic, as well as Q-buses not operating properly. I urge you to really reconsider this plan, as you know, time is running out. but this plan really doesn't accommodate for safety or the road or the cars that need to use this road. I urge you to currently go back to the plan and really go to the drawing board to effectively reflect and plan for the additional developments that have been approved and are in the process of improvement and not focus only on spot widening or a shared use path on one side

[01:49:08] of the road and 10 feet. Thank you. Next speaker can come forward. Hello, good evening. My name is Renee. I am a long-time resident of Germantown Road, specifically right across the street from Carroll Street. This particular crosswalk is not going to be any good unless we control the speed of which the cars are coming across the bridge. Widening this road a little bit will, you know, for the future, it'll be better for the future and the amount of cars coming through. But if we don't

[01:49:48] do something about the speed coming across the bridge and the merging, that crosswalk is not going to be any good. People do not cross there as it is just because cars are coming across this bridge at a high rate of speed. They don't see the speed marker until they turn the corner where it's a school zone. There needs to be something before that, way before that, like right when you first hit the bridge. I've seen countless cars go over the curb. I've seen the pedestrian walk sign get taken out very recently. I've had numerous cars in my front yard as a kid because this area is

[01:50:26] particularly dangerous coming around the curve one way and also coming from the bridge. And now that it's two lanes on each side, excuse me, we're going to have more cars at a higher rate of speed. There's significant amount of room already on the side where the bridge is to relocate this crosswalk that leads to this shared path that goes to a trail that we may or may not continue i'm not sure how that's going to go but that area is already congested and it's right in front of

[01:51:04] my driveway where they want to put a stand-in partition on that crosswalk and i have a feeling that it's just going to get hit over and over and over again the only way to do it is to find out But thank you very much for your time and hearing me out.

[01:51:24] Next speaker can come forward. Good evening. I'm here on behalf of the Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses. We're located right there on Germantown Road. We just want to fully understand.

[01:51:41] We see that there's the retaining wall that's starting to come into the parking lot in the area. We already kind of pushed for parking in that space. So we just want to fully understand the impact it's going to have on our parking situation, as well as if it opens up the discussion of us possibly being able to pave more parking area around the rear of the premises.

[01:52:04] That's it. Thank you. Is there anybody else in the room that would like to speak on this agenda item? Okay. I will close the public hearing. There is no council action tonight on this project.

[01:52:23] So, thank you. Okay. We will go to second general public comment. Is there anybody in the room that would like to make a general public comment on anything that was not a public hearing item? We're good.

[01:52:41] Good. So we will go on to items not requiring a public hearing, which is a consideration of the FY 2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, ACFR, presentation to the City Council. I'm going to recognize Lynn Guzman, our Finance Director for the Staff Report.

[01:53:07] Thank you, Melissa. Good evening, Mayor and Council. It is an honor to be here tonight. to present the annual comprehensive financial report.

[01:53:23] I would like to extend my appreciation to the finance department staff for their hard work and cooperation throughout the annual audit process. I also want to thank all city departments for their continued collaboration.

[01:53:41] For many years, the city has received a clean audit and that achievement is a direct result of the strong teamwork demonstrated across all departments. It was announced earlier this year that the city received its 44th GFOA award for the FY24 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report.

[01:54:04] We will be applying for the FY2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report this month for another GFOA award. Once again, thank you to all city staff for your dedication and commitment. The annual comprehensive financial report will be available for you and the public to view on the city's website tomorrow.

[01:54:28] At this time, I would like to introduce our auditor from Robinson Farmer Cox Associates, Andrew Grosnickle. Mr. Grosnickle will present the fiscal year 2025 annual comprehensive financial report. Thank you, Andrew. Thank you.

[01:54:44] I appreciate it and have a brief presentation that Lynn's going to help walk through here to guide us along. Just want to go over the results of our audit process for the year ended June 30th, 2025. Just a couple of financial highlights that I'll point out along the way.

[01:55:03] Next slide. So as an engagement summary, we were engaged to perform a financial statement audit for the year ended June 30th, 2025. That audit was subject to auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America, as well as the specifications for audits of counties, cities, and towns that is put forth by the Auditor of Public Accounts of Virginia.

[01:55:27] Also, the standards of financial audits contained in the government auditing standards issued by the Comptroller General of the United States. And lastly, the audit was in accordance with provisions of the Uniform Guidance Act, which is related to expenditures of federal awards.

[01:55:44] The main byproduct of our audit process is the independent auditor's reports that are contained in the ACFER. The ACFER is a 200-plus page document, a lot of financial information in it, exhibits, note disclosures, but contained therein are three auditor-type reports for the city for the year ended June 30, 2025.

[01:56:13] The first of those is referred to as the independent auditor's report itself. I like to say that one is on the numbers contained in the financial statements, and we've issued an unmodified or a clean report on the financial statements, and that's what you're looking for there.

[01:56:30] We do highlight one thing you notate. It's not a report modification, but what you notate in the independent auditor's report is implementation of any significant accounting principles during the year. And the governmental accounting standards board sets forth pronouncements that local governments and authorities, wards, and commissions have to follow and implement.

[01:56:52] And this year, the city and other jurisdictions had to implement what's GASB 101, governmental accounting standards board, statement number 101 related to compensated absences. It basically was a different way of measuring leave when it comes to sick leave, annual leave, and things of that nature, and kind of just measures that liability a little bit differently than it had in the past.

[01:57:19] It did require a considerable amount of time. This is one. Some of these Gatsby pronouncements don't impact that many localities. Some impact all of them. Some impact all of them, but it's a minor note disclosure change, and some have a lot of work that go into it.

[01:57:34] This one was one that impacted pretty much every governmental entity and also took a considerable amount of time to build some historical analysis and trend analysis to base some of the calculations on. So the city staff put a good amount of time into making sure that that got implemented properly.

[01:57:51] So that is noted in the independent auditor's report that that was implemented during this fiscal year. The other two auditor-type reports that are contained in the financial statements are both compliance in nature. The first being what's referred to often as the Government Auditing Standards Report or the Yellow Book Report.

[01:58:11] And on that report, we would notate any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in internal controls. Please report we did not have any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies to disclose in that report. And then lastly, the last auditor report contained in the ACFER is related to the Uniform Guidance or the Single Audit Act.

[01:58:34] and so nonprofits, governments, authorities, boards, and commissions that expend over $750,000 in one fiscal year of federal awards are required to undergo a single audit where we test major programs based on the requirements set forth by whichever granting agency relates to that program.

[01:58:55] Again, relative to that program, we would notate any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies related to those major programs that we tested. and we did not have any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies related to our federal program testing.

[01:59:11] We did issue two other communication documents or issue those during the process, the first being the governance letter, which is a letter that is provided at the end of the process, certain communications that were required to make in every audit, things of the nature of we did not have any disagreements with management, Management did not consult with other accountants on an accounting principle implementation.

[01:59:39] We notate a couple of the significant accounting estimates that go into the financial statements. All of those disclosures that are in that governance letter are standard in nature. And then lastly, we did issue a management letter this year with a couple of comments and recommendations for improvements in internal controls for matters that do not rise to the level of a material weakness or significant deficiency.

[02:00:03] but for which there could be some improvements in controls or efficiencies within the organization. I'm just going to touch briefly on a couple of financial highlights for the year ended June 30, 2025.

[02:00:20] So a couple of highlights. The unique thing about governmental accounting financial statements are that there's actually two different bases of accounting. So I just want to briefly mention that when I speak of net position, that's on the full cruel basis.

[02:00:40] Those are exhibit one and two when you go through the ACFER. And basically under that basis, you have all of the liabilities and assets of the city included in that. And the delta, the equity, the retained earnings is reported as net position. And in that basis of accounting, the total net position for the primary government at June 30, 2025, was $122.6 million, and that was an increase of $6.7 million from the year prior.

[02:01:10] What we mostly work with, and as governance, when you're making decisions, mainly focus on is the modified accrual basis of accounting, especially for the general fund, where the near-term assets and liabilities are what are measured in the delta of the retained earnings, the equity is referred to as fund balance.

[02:01:30] And so that's what you're familiar with as far as budgeting process and things of that nature. And the total fund balance for governmental funds at the June 30th, 2025 was $63.9 million. That represented a decrease of $9.5 million from the prior year, which that decrease was driven by planned capital projects.

[02:01:51] The capital projects fund is included in those governmental funds. So capital projects fund decreased by around $12 million because of planned capital project expenditures. And so that's what drove the overall governmental fund balance decrease, whereas the fund balance of the general fund at June 30, 2025, which was $45.6 million, was an increase of $2 million from June 30, 2024.

[02:02:19] Within fund balance, that equity bucket, the difference between assets, deferred outflows, liabilities, and deferred inflows, you have different components of fund balance. You have non-spendable, restricted, committed, and assigned, and those buckets are based on external or internal factors that restrict or commit or assign funds for certain purposes.

[02:02:44] And then the residual after that is your unassigned fund balance. And so that's a key metric that governments want to look at is how much they have in that unassigned bucket. The unassigned fund balance for the general fund at June 30, 2025 was $33 million.

[02:03:00] And then lastly, the general fund revenues exceeded final budget amounts for FY25 by $7.7 million. Next, we'll have just a couple of charts that I'm going to go through briefly here.

[02:03:16] The first one is just showing you the trend analysis of that net position figure that I mentioned previously to where it is trending up about $122 million as of June 30th, 2025. you'll see that for 22 through 24 and into 25 it's trending up there slightly and this again is the full accrual equity residual taking into account capital assets other long-term assets and all of your liabilities not just your payables and near term but your your obligation general obligation

[02:03:49] bonds your pension liabilities really everything and on the next slide we will see the general fund fund balance, the total general fund fund balance that I referenced earlier for $25 of $45.6 million. And you'll see the information there for what the trend has been for the last four years on the general fund fund balance. And then next, we just have a couple of pie charts, one for governmental activities revenue. And so this one just gives you a feel for, out of all of the revenues for

[02:04:26] the governmental activities what the breakdown is for the types of revenues the major types so obviously the biggest piece of the pie there is your general property taxes and then the second biggest is your other local taxes and other local taxes are things like meals tax business licenses sales tax and those types of ancillary local taxes that that are not real estate personal property type taxes. And then after that, your grants and contributions are the next largest slice of the pie there. That's going to be your state and federal grants and other contributions

[02:05:03] of that nature. And then in a similar fashion, we have a pie chart to show on the other side of the ledger what the breakdown of governmental activities expenses is from a standpoint of a functional level we call these these different items that are pulled out here on the chart functions and the largest function being education primarily the contractual services with with fairfax county public schools related to the education and then the second biggest piece of

[02:05:38] the pie there is public safety and the third being public works the other thing that i want to just touch on for a second in closing is, again, as I referenced earlier, these documents have gotten quite extensive and quite detailed. The GASB pronouncements that I referenced, you know, number 101, we're at 101. Twenty a couple years ago, localities implemented GASB number 34, and just in the last 20-some years, they've really ramped those up, and every one, a lot of them add

[02:06:15] a lot of different complexity, note disclosures and things like that to the ACFER, and it can become difficult to parse through the financial statements and what's in there. And so what I would like to draw not only the council's attention to, but any citizens or others that want to read the ACFER and get a feel for the results of the fiscal year is the management discussion analysis document it's located on pages 7 to 17 of the ACFR and what that does is it gives

[02:06:48] a a narrative a narrative disclosure over a course of several pages along with some charts and and graphs and things of that nature to highlight the major increases and decreases a lot of the kind of things that I discussed tonight and go in a little bit more depth into with the revenues being, you know, increased, which specific revenues increased by what amount, and some of the factors that led to the annual highlights from a financial statement standpoint.

[02:07:19] And that's a document that the staff of the city prepares and includes in the act for, again, it becomes nice to either read to get a feel for a summary of the financials, or as you're diving through the exhibits and the note disclosures kind of flip back and forth to to see some of the explanation of some of the numbers within the financial statements but with that i'd be glad to open it up to any questions uh council may have thank you so much for the presentation it was very detailed um are there any questions of staff on this council

[02:07:57] member hall thank you very much um you've mentioned that in the management letter there were some suggestions that you made that were not you know big deal what types of things might be included in in that yeah so we had we had we had one item related to submitting reimbursement requests in a more timely manner we had one item related to enhancing some of the payroll processes related to automating some more things rather than some of the manual processes that are

[02:08:34] being used in that area. And then we had one comment related to retirement refunds and reporting information to the actuaries related to that information. And then lastly, we had an item related to centralizing, to some extent, some of the process related to grant management and developing, potentially considering developing a standardized form so that all the different departments that may deal with grants have a similar reporting mechanism to make sure that

[02:09:09] finance is part of the process and they're they are up to speed on everything going on with the grant and and it's one of those collaborative type pieces where um it's not just the the folks that are managing it within the department and then the finance department doing the accounting piece it's kind of a collaborative thing and so that was what we had there councilmember hall as the The auditor noted these are recommendations, they are not findings, yet in my experience, if a recommendation is not addressed, it may become a finding.

[02:09:45] So in collaboration with the finance director, we are starting to put together corrective actions to address these recommendations. Additionally, at least two of those recommendations, we are already in the process of correcting specifically the payroll and then also the pension recommendation.

[02:10:02] So at least 50% is already in process. we will work on the other two as well. Thank you very much. That was actually my next question. So as usual, you are on the same wavelength and happy to hear that they are not findings at this point and that they are working on being resolved.

[02:10:20] So thank you. I know this is a big undertaking for everyone involved. So thank you for all your work on this. This is the really sexy, fun part of accounting that I chose not to do. So thank you. Other questions?

[02:10:37] Anything? Okay. thank you very much for the presentation thank you all for your time i appreciate it thank you okay okay is there's a motion yeah we have to vote on is there a motion council member hardy chandler

[02:11:08] i move the city council accept the city of fairfax fiscal year 2025 annual comprehensive financial reports is there a second second a motion been made by council member hall and seconded by council member peterson is there any discussion on the motion seeing none a roll call it. Councilmember McQuillan? Aye. Councilmember Bates? Aye. Councilmember Peterson? Aye. Councilmember Hardy Chandler? Councilmember Hall? Aye. Councilmember Amos? Aye. Motion passed unanimously. We will go on to the next item which is a consideration of the city's proposed legislative program. I'll recognize

[02:11:47] Melanie Zipp the acting city manager to provide the staff report. Good evening mayor and council. Apologies I was going to pull up my email that I sent to all of you um but email is not set up on this computer uh so i'm gonna try and get out okay um very

[02:12:17] quickly uh you will see in your packet the one pager i was able to incorporate all of the requests and not take anything additional out of the one pager so the data center regulations and the cannabis retail sale were included along with the charters the one percent sales tax is the first one underneath the charter and then everything else has been incorporated into the

[02:12:48] program minus the four items that i emailed to you uh late yesterday evening um those are all All right, I was hoping I could get it switched over really quick.

[02:13:12] The first one for consideration, there were four requests that came through between the public hearing and tonight. The first one was in regards to gas-powered leaf blowers. I spoke with the person who requested it.

[02:13:29] We already have language in our program that satisfies that request, so that has already been included in the program. The second one has come from staff. It is language related to federal cuts to emergency management funding.

[02:13:48] This is UASI funding and Enverse funding. We have received from the federal government a massive cut to our programs. And because of that, our regional CAOs have been meeting regularly to tackle this multimillion dollar shortfall.

[02:14:09] These two programs include training, regional coordination, and resources for planned and unplanned regional emergency events, specifically related to the Urban Area Security Initiatives, which is UASI, and the Northern Virginia Regional Response System, which is ENVERS.

[02:14:30] Those discussions are continuing on an almost daily basis over email and then as well in regional meetings and as they continue they PDF oh you're awesome thank you as those discussions continue some regional partners have included the following or similar language in their programs to address this shortfall as it will either result in a reduction of regional coordinated

[02:15:03] services or thank you Melissa you are a lifesaver or an increase in local budget requests that is

[02:15:16] Number two, so what staff is requesting is for new language to be added to our program that states that the General Assembly, the Commonwealth, should compensate for federal cuts to public safety and emergency management, cover emergency management shortfalls created by cuts at the federal level, including those to Urban Area Security Initiative, UASI, along with others, and study options for funding these efforts on a permanent basis at the federal level.

[02:15:48] the state level. Um, if you would like, we can go through each one of these and see if there's support or I can go through all four of them and then have a discussion afterwards. Well, there's only four of them. So why don't you go through the next two and then we'll just circle back around. Sure. Uh, the third one is a request that came from the mayor following the NVTC meeting, um, shared the call to action from the meeting requesting every jurisdiction include language supportive of DMV Moves Framework for funding WMATA. After reviewing language from

[02:16:27] our regional jurisdictions programs, staff is recommending replacing the existing language to a simpler statement. Our existing language right now says Commonwealth must fully restore the $102 million of regional funding diverted in 2018 to WMATA, back to Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, MBTA, maintain regional and local transportation funding, major transportation improvements that provide benefits beyond Northern Virginia, such as WMATA, state of good repair, projects related to possible relocations of federal facilities,

[02:17:04] and projects that create additional capacity across the Potomac River should primarily be funded by the Commonwealth and the federal government. And then also added was provide dedicated and sustainable funding for WMATA and regional transit needs with state resources.

[02:17:21] The new suggested language would be to strike all of that and put in the new language, provide for long-term sustainable dedicated funding and expanded revenue opportunities to meet the growing needs of public transit in our region, including funding for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, WMATA, with the DMV moves slash SJ28 resolutions, Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, MBTA, and other regional transportation initiatives.

[02:17:55] And then the last one is there was a request from Central Fairfax Chamber of Commerce, the executive director, to include language related to right to work.

[02:18:11] The existing language we have, well, let me just say, after reviewing the right to work legislation and the collective bargaining legislation, staff recommends adding additional language to our existing collective bargaining policy statement that already exists in the city's program.

[02:18:31] Our existing collective bargaining statement is, support local authority to approve or deny a request for a majority of public employees in a unit considered by such employees to be appropriate for the purpose of collective bargaining. Concerns about the increase in cost of government bureaucracy and local government operations and more adversarial employee relations are reasons that localities have traditionally opposed collective bargaining. The recommendation is to add to that another sentence that says to reaffirm the Right to Work Act, allowing for

[02:19:10] voluntary membership in any public or private organized union. And those are the four requests we received. I am looking for council consideration of three of these requests. The fourth one is already included. And then consideration and adoption of the program. And I'm happy to answer any questions? Questions? Councilmember Amos? Not questions, just comments, but thank you for putting this together, especially I know it was kind of, we got a lot of feedback after the last

[02:19:47] Ledge program, so thank you. Which is great. Oh yeah, for sure. It's nice to know that people are paying attention even though the room's mostly empty. A shout out to Jennifer, thank you. So obviously for gas, power leaf blowers were good. For the federal cuts to emergency management funding, I think that makes sense, although I would just like to learn more about that myself, and that could be some independent research.

[02:20:09] But if you have any references or recommendations, let me know. For the WMATA DMV moves, I think that language makes sense as well. And then for the related right to work, I mean, I know just recently the governor-to-be just reaffirmed that she has no intention of repealing right to work.

[02:20:28] So it may not be necessary at this point. But I'd be curious to hear what my colleagues think. But I think it sounds like we're probably good. Just to respond to your question about USC and Envers, I have one-pagers that explain what they are and the type of programming we get from them.

[02:20:50] I can e-mail that out to the council. Thank you. Or I can go through it now, but I don't need to know. No, you can e-mail it. That's cool. Thank you. One, I will just go ahead and say to dovetail on what Councilmember Amos said, the governor has been very clear that this the right to work issue is not going to be an issue so changing the language not changing the language i don't really think it makes a bit of difference whether you add or you just leave it the way it is it's not in play for the one related to dmv moves

[02:21:24] i think it's important to add provide for long-term sustainable new dedicated funding and adding new makes a difference because as the previous paragraph pointed out they just move money around and we don't to solve our funding issues for transportation the commonwealth needs to come up with new dedicated funding and not just rob peter to pay paul from nvtc or nvta so the discussions that we have had on both those bodies is it needs to be new dedicated funding and not

[02:22:01] just moving things around and those that those two things are my only comment councilmember Peterson thanks and just maybe a clarifying question or two on that first this is the anticipated sources of funds that would be new these I understand the recommendation is to go into have the state legislatures deal with this and figure a way forward is that something that has clarity around it or is an open-ended proposition right now that that's a budget question I

[02:22:34] I mean, what we're asking for is for the General Assembly, through its budget process, to come up with new dedicated funding and not to raid existing funds already allocated to different organizations. But as far as where that's money coming, I don't know where it's coming from.

[02:22:50] Well, and the reason I ask is whether that comes back to localities like the city as a potential source of funds, whether they would be tapping us to do that or whether that's not something that's anticipated. I don't believe that that – I don't think – whatever they would ask for Fairfax City to contribute is not going to solve this problem.

[02:23:08] It's not going to even scratch the surface. So, no, I don't think they're looking at local jurisdictions to do more. I do not believe so. And then in terms of the uses of funds, this is Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. Is this for existing public transit systems, and this is intended to provide new funding to shore them up because they are running, or is this anticipating funding of new transit systems?

[02:23:42] No, I think there's clearly a funding cliff for WMATA. There is a funding cliff for WMATA, plus there is the bus rapid transit projects, And there's VRE. I mean, there's a lot of expanding transit services to meet the demand, and that has to be funded.

[02:24:00] But even if there was no expansion in the works, which there are, WMATA always is looking at running into a funding cliff. So the WMATA issue is a known issue and one that's a clear issue, too.

[02:24:15] I raised the question about new initiatives because I know that the Bus Rapid Transit initiative is in its early stages. It's not at the stage, at least everywhere, where it's been accepted for implementation.

[02:24:31] So I don't know whether this is anticipating that BRT will be adopted and this is funding in advance of that or whether this is not that. No. I mean, this funding is for these projects to even be considered, because you're not going to consider a project that has no funding.

[02:24:49] So what gets approved, what gets moved forward, what is developed going forward, what gets voted on and approved, it doesn't happen if there's no funding there. So NVTA, NVTC, WMATA, all of these things have to be adequately funded by the Commonwealth of Virginia using new funds and not moving around existing money.

[02:25:15] And I'm guessing that the biggest and most important gap, which is the first order of business, is the WMATA gap. Correct, correct. I mean, having the metro service run at peak operation and doing adequate maintenance on that system is the economic engine, not just of the DMV, but of Northern Virginia, and Northern Virginia remains the economic engine of the entire Commonwealth of Virginia.

[02:25:41] So trying to sell that in Richmond that the rest of the Commonwealth should care about funding something that they don't use really comes down to understanding the economic engine and what is located in Northern Virginia and how dependent our workforce and our businesses are on transit.

[02:26:02] but you know that's up to the new the new transportation secretary nick donahoe i think was just appointed yes donahue yeah was just was just appointed um and this is for them to consider but you know part of us having a legislative agenda is for us to say this is a priority if everything's a priority nothing's a priority and so transportation transit at every level including what we have here in the city whether it's metro bus or q bus or the connector bus we have to

[02:26:36] maintain funding so that we can keep the wheels on the bus literally turning I would just like to say thank you and I think it's an important thing to raise among other reasons it's easy for the public not to be aware of the situation that WMATA faces and to take for granted that we have this system and that it is shored up and it's going to be there because it is at risk and this is addressing that very specific risk and it needs it's been underappreciated I'm afraid in some circles well it's difficult this system is difficult too because it is funded by DC Maryland

[02:27:14] and Virginia and all of our governments are different and how they raise money or allocate money for transportation is is different so how we're doing it in Virginia is only part of the equation, then D.C. and Maryland also have to figure out how it works on their end. And these are very different forms of government. Council Member Hardy-Chandler? Nothing to add on the technical points of both the compensation for federal cuts and for the WMATA support, but I do want to just highlight the sort of collective voice behind those two in particular. I think

[02:27:53] we did talk about prioritizing things that are specific to our jurisdiction, our locality, but I think these two highlight that collective voices need to come together for some of these issues that we raise as legislative priorities. So to hear that other mayors and other jurisdictions want to promote this collectively, I think that's a really important point. We have to think about our jurisdiction, but of course, beyond our boundaries as well. So I appreciate those comments other comments questions council member hall i will admit i don't know a whole lot about

[02:28:31] the dmv moves um so i one of the questions that i have is by putting in this request in conjunction with other localities or you know other other governmental entities are we giving away any of our voice of what we can do locally as far as how we would like to see transportation in our city no no okay no and i i have the resolution that was adopted um on october 29th i'm happy to share that with you all it i think it will answer a lot of council member peterson's questions about

[02:29:10] i don't see in here bus rapid transit at all um but no this is about more of the regional and then uh funding for our transit but as far as transportation goes in the city i correct me if I'm wrong, Mayor, but I don't believe DMV Moves has anything to do with that.

[02:29:31] No, DMV Moves was just a task force that was put together to address what we know are funding shortfalls, and it has had representatives from different jurisdictions, not just Virginia, but Maryland and D.C., to try to identify, first of all, you know, the risk, what is at risk if we don't come up with adequate funding.

[02:29:52] You know, if you remember, well, you guys weren't here last year. Last year, we also had a WMATA funding cliff, and all of the jurisdictions came together and said, all of us to the last one are prioritizing and saying, Richmond has got to come up with our share of the money, or they are going to start closing stations and laying off metro workers.

[02:30:17] And so all of us locked arms, and even though we are small, we are great when it's everybody. And so for the Wabata funding, in that scenario, all of us locked arms in Northern Virginia and moved forward and got the funding necessary to not have to do service cuts.

[02:30:35] So Randy Clark has done a wonderful job. They have won all kinds of awards. They won the major award for transportation. Our ridership is greater than every other transit system in the nation right now. I mean, he's doing a good job of managing the resources that he has.

[02:30:52] but we still keep running into not having adequate money, including for things like just maintaining the system, the tracks, the tunnels, maintaining it. And deferring maintenance is one of the quickest ways to see the system deteriorate to the point that it's even more expensive to fix what's broken because we didn't maintain it in the first place.

[02:31:13] So it's constantly a struggle, even when the metro system opened back in the 1970s. You know, there were articles in the Washington Post, you can Google it, There were articles in the Washington Post saying this model financially does not work. And here we are, like so many things, all these decades later, we're still trying to put Band-Aids on it to keep it going because our workforce and our economy and businesses rely on people being able to take buses and trains to get where they're going.

[02:31:41] And not just work. I mean, one of the things that the statistics are showing us about ridership is that it's not just people going to and from work. More people are taking VRE, which is now open on the weekends. People are taking it to leisure, to activity, to education, to all kinds of things.

[02:31:59] We always thought about this as being a commuter service. And what we're finding is transit is being used seven days a week, all forms of transit. So people are just literally, people are getting on the bus or they're getting on the train. But we have to have adequate funding to keep all of that moving.

[02:32:17] That's why they called it DMV moves. We have to keep it all moving, and that requires money. But we're only paying a third, you know, each jurisdiction is offsetting the cost. But each of us comes up with each jurisdiction, each state, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, have a different way of calculating and coming up with how they're going to produce their part.

[02:32:37] So for us to say Richmond has got to prioritize new funding, you can't just move it out of NVTA or move it out of NVTC and say, oh, look, look, we found money. No, no, we're saying new funding, no robbing Peter to pay Paul, because that does not solve the problem to just move it around.

[02:32:59] Yeah, thank you for clarifying, and I'm happy to support it. I, again, just wanted to make sure we weren't giving away a local voice for our own transportation needs, so thank you. I think we exponentially make our voice bigger in this instance. Councilmember McQuillan? I'm fully in support of this entire legislative package that we have put together.

[02:33:19] I, too, just want to say thank you to Mayor Reed for taking the time to explain that and to clarify that. I know that a lot of people watch this. I get a lot of the updates on WMATA because I'm not going to say it right. And so I've been following along as well.

[02:33:37] And it's similar to our K-12 funding. If we band together and we attack it together, we have a chance. So I view those similarly, and I appreciate you taking the time to explain that in a public setting so clearly. So thank you. Councilmember Bates, anything to add?

[02:33:54] Yes, I want to say that I support the first three additions, but not the language related to Right to Work. I've heard and read a lot of the arguments for and against Right to Work over the past roughly six years or so that I've been aware of the issue.

[02:34:18] And it is definitely not something that I support and would not support adding to this legislative package. Thank you for your extensive work on this. Any other comments or questions? It sounds like in the main we have consensus.

[02:34:35] Council Member Peterson? Well, I just, I haven't said this, but I'm fully supportive of this. I'm also very appreciative of your work to incorporate as much as possible to honor everybody's requests here.

[02:34:51] And I know that has been a bit of an effort, but certainly very much appreciated. Happy to. If I could, just so that I'm clear, number two and number three. Number two is a yes. Number three is a yes, including new funding.

[02:35:12] I'll add that. Are we okay with removing the right to work if that is a non-issue, or we have a consensus to keep it in? We'll canvas, but in the end, I don't think it makes any difference because the governor's not going to do anything with it.

[02:35:32] But how does everybody feel about leaving it or taking it out? Council Member Hardy-Chandler? First, number one is a yes for me. Number four, my question is, if it makes no difference, I'm fine with removing it because it's just taking up space.

[02:35:48] So I would be fine with one through three. Council Member Hall? I'm happy to support removing it as well. Council Member Amos? Yeah, removing it is fine.

[02:36:06] Councilmember Peterson. It's okay. Councilmember Bates. Yes, on removing. Councilmember McCullough. I'm not in favor of removing it. This was asked of us by our small business community, our chamber community, and I fully support them, so no.

[02:36:24] I'd like to keep it in. Thank you. Well, it seems like the majority is fine with just removing it, but I can appreciate Councilmember McCullough being appreciative of hearing from our chamber on this, but the governor has been very clear. so don't waste some trees by putting it on a sheet of paper i guess any council member peterson just say i'm very sensitive to that point my concern here is that uh and it's a bit of a trade-off here if this is not going to be taken seriously then there is some merit in streamlining

[02:37:01] things to increase the level of focus on what we have here on the other hand i certainly agree that i'm supportive of the small business community and this request here is just the the circumstance of it not being something that's going to be actionable is what really concerns me good good good point i think i think we're all in a good place with this ms zip so thank you for the work on it i think you can send it to the presses or whatever we actually send it to the digital so there is a motion oh there is a motion well let's do the motion and then we send it to the presses all right council member hardy chandler a motion the right one i move the city

[02:37:41] council adopt the attached resolution approving the 2026 city of fairfax legislative program with the incorporation of any amendments made at the december 9th 2025 regular city council meeting i further moved to direct the legislative liaison to forward the city's approved legislative program to senator salim and delegate fulova is there a second second okay a motion has been made by council member hardy chandler second mid-second by council member peterson is there any further discussion on this motion seeing none a roll call vote council member amos aye council member hall

[02:38:20] aye council member hardy chandler council member peterson aye council member bates aye council I motion passed unanimously go to future meeting topics all right for future meeting topics January 6th your very first work session begins the first of I think it's three maybe four four information information sessions with GMU's Costello College of Business Center for real estate and enterprise

[02:38:58] entrepreneurship and then an update on the city's parks and rec master plan any questions on that council member Peterson well this is going to come up because it's a multiple agenda item but just can you maybe remind me how the request was originated for the information session series I think I can answer that because we were discussing with this goes back to actually I think think the last council even before this council was elected and it has to do

[02:39:33] with development projects in the questions that newer council members especially have about how you decide or how you look at or how you assess the feasibility of some of the projects that are being brought in front of us none of us are developers and so one of the things that we talked about and this this was actually put into motion before Chris Bruno left because we know the City has a partnership with the Costello School of Business and David Tartar who is the former mayor of Falls Church City is overseeing their real estate their commercial real estate and so

[02:40:09] this was something that was put you know in the pipeline as a help to council members and looking more broadly at issues of real estate development it does not take a position it is not here to convince us of anything it is simply educational well that's helpful just one side note and maybe we'll pick this up as i think we're planning to on the budget this year it's a little bit difficult from my standpoint that we have not allowed employees in the city to continue with their

[02:40:48] normal level of continuing professional education and this is an example where the council is a beneficiary of it but I mean to be honest I'd love for the staff to have the same opportunity or even to come first on this because I know CPE issues are very important for their advancement.

[02:41:04] I'm anticipating we'll straighten that out in the budget this year but you know it just it's a little bit awkward here this this is not something that has a staff first orientation. I do CPE work out of Mason myself I just wrapped up a course this Sunday evening and I'm sensitive to the level of time and effort that goes into this by participants and the fact that this is coming up i guess four times i'm slightly concerned about where that leaves us in terms of other priorities

[02:41:40] we're addressing on january 6 other than the parks and rec master plan we're not doing anything else But if you go forward to February 3rd, we have five agenda items.

[02:41:57] This is one of the five. And the other four are kind of heavy items that would seem to me to be high priorities for the council. And trying to do all of them and do a CPE session, do an information session, on top of that looks like overload.

[02:42:14] And I also wonder whether anything we would do with an information session would come after the consideration of these other issues, because I think these are high-priority things for the city. And it's the Planning Commission, Sustainability Committee, it's the guns issue.

[02:42:30] There are a couple different things there, the Solid Waste Management Plan. And I don't know whether we could spread some of those things out by perhaps pushing some of them forward to early January when we have a session that's only got two things on it. But I just am a little bit concerned about the amount of bandwidth that this information session series is committing us to, given everything else we have on our plate.

[02:42:51] This is obviously also right when we're stepping into budget, and we're going to be putting, as we all know, time and effort into that. so i would be open to thoughts by other council members but i would suggest we possibly consider some flexibility in the way we're scheduling these things so that they're these information sessions are not conflicting with priorities that we have ms zip absolutely um i feel the same way looking at february 3rd that that would be it's already going to be incredibly long night it looks

[02:43:27] like um so we can work with this this project came out of the edo office so we can work with them and and possibly spread out either move this last session to february 10th um but move them around so that that they fit better and we're not here all night long yeah i think if i'm calculating it correctly i think we have 11 work sessions and 20 meetings left if i'm calculating it correctly So keeping that in mind as we're looking at all of these future meetings is that it goes all the way to December 8th,

[02:44:02] but I think it's 11 work sessions, 20 meetings, and figuring out how we can move these things around in a way that makes sense. But I do think there's flexibility there to do that. Mayor Reed, may I ask a question really quick? Sure, Council Member McQuillan. How long are these sessions supposed to be?

[02:44:19] Do you have an idea? An hour, hour and a half? Okay, thank you. Okay, Council Member Hardy-Tandler? Yeah, I was going to ask that question as well, and I think, though, that they are, for the reason that we support training and professional development, helpful in our decision-making.

[02:44:42] So I think it is a matter of timing, but I definitely support having these sessions because we frequently ask for further clarity around things, and I think having that background will provide us with some proactive clarity. As you're considering the distribution of some of these, I do want to request a work session on seniors and adults with disabilities.

[02:45:09] The main reason and where it goes, I'm open to some flexibility around that in terms of what makes sense. But we have repeatedly heard the population, which is 20%, if you go above 60 years old, 20% of our city, and our focus on, you know, how people age in our city.

[02:45:30] It's crossed, it's intersected with so many topics we've had presentations on, whether it's housing or the survey or services. It's just an area that we haven't paid explicit attention to.

[02:45:46] I would like to have that earlier in the year if possible, but we also want everything first, right? It would be helpful to have all of the information January 1st. I know that that's not possible, but I want to thank my colleagues on the council.

[02:46:06] Just without even a conceptualization of what that would look like, There was enthusiastic support of delving more into what do we have in the city? And I'm borrowing heavily from the forest, the master forestry plan of, you know, just asking the question, what do we have in terms of seniors and adults with disabilities?

[02:46:30] What do we want and how do we get there in terms of the kind of city we want to be for aging? So somewhere I would like to see that. I don't have a particular day in mind, but I'm open to what makes sense.

[02:46:46] Okay. Council Member McQuillan and then Council Member Peterson. I agree. I would also like to see that, but I would like to see it earlier too, because especially as we're discussing this course that we're going to be working on, the real estate and entrepreneurship, I think it would be helpful to also have discussed some of that as well.

[02:47:10] I know. I'm sorry. Well, I think the whole point of this futures meeting is exactly how this is working out, which is trying to figure out what the priorities are here at the end of the year so we can look at the schedule starting at the beginning of the year and try to figure out where we can slot some of these things in.

[02:47:28] Council Member Peterson? Well, let me just check. Council Member Hall. Is this the same issue or are you doing a separate issue? It's the council. Oh, so I'll follow up. I have a thought that I wanted to add to this discussion of the seniors. No, no, go ahead then. I do have, you know, a thought or two on conceptualizing this.

[02:47:48] Perhaps we can talk later. I think it would be good for us to get an inventory, if you will, or a roundup, a landscape view of what the city is currently doing, whether it's programs, policy, et cetera, so that we have that grounding and baseline. And then to understand where we have gaps, things that we're not doing.

[02:48:05] And I'd like to understand as we do that also where we are in a regional perspective because there are things that we do better as a region. So we should kind of understand that. But one thing I would like to be mindful of as we do that is that as we look at our gaps going forward, we are experiencing changes in conditions socially and economically here in the city and everywhere else.

[02:48:33] And they affect seniors as they do everybody else. And I would just like to be sure that whatever we do is a forward look that includes the changes in conditions that people are experiencing here. We've had very significant changes, federal funding budgets, et cetera.

[02:48:49] There's significant economic changes, and they're definitely translating into new circumstances for seniors. So I would just like to ensure that that is really incorporated into this discussion so that it's both current and a forward look. Okay, Council Member Hall. Thank you.

[02:49:04] One thing I notice is not on here is Willard Sherwood. I understand we're waiting on the guaranteed maximum price before, but I think that's expected sometime in January, February, or March. Right. we just don't know the date yet which is why it's not been telegraphed on here okay um and with regard to the costello college of business um sessions i felt a little pressured i'll be honest to move forward with this um when it was presented to us and i'm wondering if i recognize the value

[02:49:38] that it could bring to this council and to future councils but i'm also wondering if maybe there's a better approach to this, that maybe the staff gets trained in a different way, if that's what's needed, or if there's a consultant that can come in and do this at the beginning of any new council or any council in general, you know, every two years, maybe there's just kind of a refresher course that goes on so that everybody who's making these decisions up here understands what we should be assessing.

[02:50:09] Because I do recognize that I think we all felt very out of our element. I'll speak for me, but I felt very out of my element with the very first land use case that we had, and the questions we were asking obviously were not appropriate, but we didn't know they weren't appropriate because we didn't know what we didn't know.

[02:50:25] We're getting better at that, so I do think that there's value in this, but I'm just wondering what the extreme value of four work sessions is versus something new as terms change. i'll um i'll talk with the economic development director and see what flexibility we have with the program um maybe we can tailor it so that it's shorter and more sessions um maybe

[02:50:59] there's a totally different way we can do it i just don't know i can find out councilmember amos just to quickly add to that i think it's also something that because to my knowledge we haven't done this in the city before I think it'll also be helpful as we go through it we make notes and be like yeah we probably could have condensed this could have condensed this and we refine the process for future councils moving forward but I agree land use was definitely a big curve for me when I first joined up with the county and even between land use development and finance is a completely separate thing from zoning and land use and all those are big

[02:51:37] challenges to overcome especially in with it with a new council less than a year in so that's I think it can be a useful tool if done correctly and I think that we're going to be forming that together as a group councilmember Peterson yeah I'd like to echo the point and an education always works better when it's tailored to your audience and their needs but professional education is extremely sensitive to that you know the need to be flexible and tailored to What you do when you're working with professionals is really, really important.

[02:52:11] So I think this should be that way. But I also would just say somewhere along the line, I think it might be a good idea to scan the horizon about that set of training things that would be helpful for councils to have on a repetitive basis.

[02:52:32] And this might be one of them, but there are others. I was tugging the sleeve of the city attorney earlier today on board and commission handbook, which it strikes me would be useful for that to fall into a cycle for boards and commissions for there to be a training thing somehow or another that's regular.

[02:52:53] That involves particular things like voting procedures and Robert's rules. It would be great for everybody who has to use that. I don't know, we've got 21 boards and commissions or something. They all have to use it. We have to use it. There are a series of things, and I think when we came in as a group, even those of us who'd been here before, we didn't really have the opportunity and perhaps we didn't have the ability to create an agenda for training that we would have found useful and that other councils would find useful going forward.

[02:53:23] But I think it'd be a good idea, and to have the ability to train people in some efficient manner when they walk through the door and get started or along the way, and to cover the key bases as we do that. because I think there are a lot of gaps here that we experience. We kind of learn by doing, but maybe we can do a little bit better than that.

[02:53:41] Great observation. I think the other thing to keep in mind, too, is that our new city manager starts on January 5th, and he will be here on January 6th. And so as Mr. Alexander gets into his new role, he may have thoughts as well.

[02:53:58] So can I keep a space on all of this for the new city manager to have a little bit of input, too, based on obviously the feedback and what we're working on right now but I'm sure he will have some ideas any anything else just one more thing on the future list we have scheduled a retreat for January 10th it is a Saturday I do not have any agenda items for it right now we don't have to talk about it tonight night but if you have ideas I would propose council goals and priorities to

[02:54:38] be set whatever that looks like but if there are other things that you want on the retreat if you could email those to me and I can consolidate everything and then shoot it all back out to you and see what the what the temperature of the council is on those that would be much appreciated is that something that we could also prior to his start date get some input from the new city manager on would he have ideas about the retreat yes we've we've already broached the subject once and we will a couple other times I will be meeting with him a few

[02:55:15] times before he starts so I've started that conversation with him but it is your retreat so if there are things that you want okay that seems fair would be helpful. Yes, Councilmember Peterson. The budget question. No. Are we living in denial? Is that what's happening? I almost said it. I almost said everything but the budget. So we're not allowed to talk budget on the 10th. Is that it? It's been banned from the retreat. Go ahead, JC. I would leave that up

[02:55:52] to the manager or the current manager. That being said, I can just give you a very quick update. So We have finished all our meetings with our departments regarding their operational requests and some of the enhancements that they've asked for. I think the manager has alluded to about 32, 33 requested positions, which is not atypical from other budget years, tolling, in addition to the FTEs and all the requests, about $8 to $10 million in new services or funding that's being requested.

[02:56:24] we are meeting later on this afternoon or i'm sorry this month to start looking at where our projections are real estate is finalizing those numbers we have locked in where we think we're going to be with residential we are fine-tuning commercial based on some of the contractual obligations and inflationary impacts that we're seeing on the expenses we'll incorporate all that and then start working on scenarios probably at the end of this month in preparation for the new manager to take into consideration. So it may be a little premature to have discussions with

[02:57:04] council on the 10th, but may be open to that. I don't know what else to say. Yeah, there may be some glimpses of information we can share, but it won't be final yet because the new manager will come in and he'll have his own ideas and want to make. So I think we learned last year the value of early information and education, and it is an iterative and evolutionary process, but the sooner it gets started, the faster and better it goes, and particularly issues like

[02:57:42] agency requests and such, so that we become familiar with that, even if they are, we recognize everything is going to be not at a final stage at all, but the initial thinking, I think, is beneficial for us to be doing as early as possible, so I would support anything we can talk about at that stage council member hardy-chandler so items for the retreat when do

[02:58:09] you want them by for planning purposes the 19th would be helpful next friday thank you any other questions or comments on the futures list which is always in the works always always coming into its own all right yes council member hall with mr alexander starting would it make sense to push the first Costello meeting so that we're not stressed with what we're hoping to gain out of it or if we're making

[02:58:47] any changes out of it? Yeah, I mean, we can ask. I guess my thought process was because this is an information session for the council, it might be an easy way to a lighter agenda for his very first second day, first meeting of the council.

[02:59:13] but I can check. I guess I'm just wondering, are we locked into doing it? Are we committed to doing it? I know we talked about it before, but it sounds like maybe there's some questions about the value of it or what we're hoping to learn out of it or how in-depth we should go compared to what we would do annually as a refresher or things like that. Let me get some additional information because I know that this was a contracted service that the school was providing and edo was paying the bill um so i just don't know what that has locked us into okay and where

[02:59:52] our flexibility is so if i can just get some more information i can share that back out with you okay thank you yeah any anything else on the futures list okay then we will move on to the manager report out and council comments mizip so the only um item to share is i got the uh Information the contact information from the gentleman who was speaking on the Germantown road and the issues that he is Possibly seeing and we'll follow up with him or have police follow up with him on that

[03:00:32] Okay, and just happy holidays to everybody and please stay safe. Okay. Thank you. Thank you We'll start with you councilmember Amos. Okay lights on there we go Not much to share just we're wrapping up our first year I'm very grateful for this opportunity and personally I love it even though we have some late nights and Sometimes I need to recover the rest of the week, but that's that's perfectly fine I'm extremely grateful for our incredible staff and all the work they've done with not only educating us through this process But the cooperation and working together as we progressed and that and also includes my fellow colleagues on the dais

[03:01:09] I know we don't always agree on everything, but I Appreciate our discussions as I do feel like it's helped me grow as a councilmember and just as a person in general And I also want to echo wishing everyone a happy holiday season. Thank you councilmember Hall. Thank you I also do want to extend a happy holiday season to everyone. It has been an interesting first year We've learned a lot together and I have certainly valued some of our not so late nights together But some of the late nights as well

[03:01:39] I want to again congratulate our police department, our fire department, and our emergency management team for their accreditation and their other awards. And I do, I want to point out something Doug Church said tonight, which was that he happened to be in the right place at the right time many times.

[03:01:58] I don't think that's the case. I think that Doug Church did a lot of the things right to be in the right place at the right time many times. And I think that's a true testament to all of the things that he has built here in the city, his work with the chamber, his work with small businesses and everything else that he has done.

[03:02:16] So I have had the pleasure or gotten the pleasure of knowing him over the past year. And I he's just a remarkable man. And so huge congratulations. I was very pleased to go to the holiday shenanigans. I did not see the dress code, so I would have worn a funner, more fun outfit next year.

[03:02:32] Funner, so not a word, sorry. huge congratulations. And just one other thing, one of the comments that was made during the public comment period was the Q buses turning onto Orchard. I think it's a good point. I know it's been raised before, and I'm curious if the reconfiguration that we're doing there could maybe allow a little bit more of room for them to do a better right turn without having to go into the oncoming traffic. Because I know that is an issue. And I know that not all drivers are

[03:03:04] open to them coming into their lane and staying on their side and to all that are watching at home or who will watch this later wishing everyone a happy safe and healthy holiday I know this time of year can be very very difficult for a number of people and there are lots of resources out there that are available and if you are struggling for any reason please contact someone you can contact me I will do my best to help you or at least get you into the right place and I hope everyone who is struggling with homelessness can find a safe warm and healthy

[03:03:40] place to spend your holidays as well and I know that our hypothermia shelters are opening up and just wishing everyone a safe and healthy holiday thank you council member Hardy Chandler okay sure council member Amos copycat a little bit just for the German town road I know you already took note of it and you'll probably address it separately but also just answering the question from the Jehovah's Witness about the parking. Yeah, I was curious about that. Thank you. Council Member Hardy-Chandler. So I know that we do this on a regular basis in terms of thanking staff for their reports

[03:04:19] and the things that they bring to us. It's easy to point out the accolades because there are a lot of them, a lot of accreditation, a lot of commendations that our staff get, a lot of awards reflecting on the past year, but there's a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that happens on a day-to-day basis that really helps us out a lot. I personally want to thank staff for taking time for some of the preparation meetings ahead of City Council and some of the committees that have met with us to give us information

[03:04:54] so that we can come to this space more informed. There's just a lot of work that happens, as someone mentioned, behind the scenes. I really hope that when we do thank staff that it's taken to heart because it's just so much in all directions at all levels that really support this work that we're trying to do. So I'm really appreciative of the fact that we can count on you.

[03:05:22] I want to also congratulate Justin Wilson on his new job with Nova Parks and not only for his presentation earlier today but just as an example of partnership not just with Nova Parks but our other regional partners those partnerships collaboration thinking about the city but also those who are around us who depend on us and who we depend on in order to have the kind of community and services that we have and we really do I appreciate some of the regional thinking that's

[03:06:02] happened this year and I look forward to more of that regional thinking as we move into the upcoming year. The next thing I want to highlight, my theme of seniors, Fairfax Village and the city is rocking it. I am so pleased to have spent this first year looking forward to the next year as the liaison to the Village and the City. They received a $10,000 grant to support training of their volunteers to help mitigate some of the social isolation that members of our community

[03:06:35] experience not only that they had a fantastic holiday dinner party that was delicious so they are not only leaders here in our city they get contacted on a regular basis to share their wisdom their resources their guidance to other villages and we should be very proud of the work that they're doing and just finally looking forward to working with the new city manager in the upcoming year and all that that has to offer as well as continued collaboration with

[03:07:12] my colleagues here on the dais in 2026 so to everyone happy holidays and certainly a happy new year council member peterson happy holidays to everybody and i would like to reiterate council member hall's thoughts to people who may not have others to spend the holiday with and would encourage everybody to reach out and include people in their holiday it's uh there's

[03:07:50] nothing like sharing that with somebody else and now is the time i know many people um celebrate their holiday at work that is the it's the only place where they have physical company with other people to celebrate the holiday and it's great that they do have that opportunity but i would be i think it'd be great for them to have additional opportunities in order to share company over the holidays and would love everybody to to do what they can to reach out to those who don't have a place to go one minor request I would make partly on behalf of

[03:08:28] my neighborhood is now and through the holidays and after please drive slow a wild animal was killed on Blenheim Boulevard in front of Fairfax high school tonight and accidents happen but it's chronically an area where people are going faster than they should and paying less attention than they should the things on the roadway we've had other issues and speed kills and this is a city that would benefit from folks slowing down a little bit wherever they can and just remember it's not just you on the road when you're out there and finally I think there's a little bit of news

[03:09:07] about this weekend would you like to do the honors on that well yes I'm sad to say that council member hall will not be in attendance at the men's basketball game this saturday which is celebrating uh the 20th anniversary of george mason university's men's basketball team going to the final four yes it has been 20 years but other council the mayor and the other council members and our city manager and our city clerk and our city attorney maybe uh are all going to to represent to represent the city at george mason this is a really important game they're

[03:09:47] bringing back the coach um of course tony skin played on that final 14 he is the men's basketball coach and they are having an absolutely amazing season this year so thank you for that council member peterson i would just say that the uh the leadership at george mason university is geared up for the game and they're counting on us to be there and uh give it every level of support we possibly can so we're looking forward to it yes council member bates um i just want to say that

[03:10:21] I'm flattered to hear multiple instances of my prior comments referenced during public comment, and I just want to reaffirm that I'm very proud to support additional affordable housing development of any amount in the city, and that I'm very proud that we recently had a groundbreaking for a beacon landing in the city, and that is a project that I hope that many who May not otherwise be able to afford housing will be able to one day call home and again that goes for

[03:10:58] All additional affordable housing in the city as well and and I also want to add that This is a very difficult time for For for any families who've lost someone close to them, but particularly for You know some families that that I know, that we know, who've lost someone very close to them recently over the past year or so.

[03:11:29] And I hope that they can find some solace in looking forward to future happiness that is still in store for them in their lives, while also reflecting on the happy memories that their loved ones have left them.

[03:11:53] And I know it's been a difficult year for me. It's it's been, I'm sure, an even more difficult year for the families of those who've been lost. And, you know, and I wish there was something that that I could do.

[03:12:12] But it's, you know, but my my thoughts and prayers are are certainly with anyone who's who's lost someone. And additionally, I look forward to the celebration of men's basketball team's success on Saturday.

[03:12:39] Don't really follow sports myself, but, you know, certainly more power to Mason and more power to our community for being a home to that team. Thank you.

[03:12:56] Council Member McQuillan. Thank you, Mayor Reed. I want to clarify my comments earlier regarding the George Schneider Trail. I made a comment that this was not the same project that I originally voted in favor of. I misspoke.

[03:13:11] I should have said that this is not the same project price tag that I originally voted in favor of. I continue to receive concerns regarding the project from the community, and I have a strong concern, given that this is the third time the cost of the project has increased, that the cost to maintain this trail, as well as the environmental costs, have also increased.

[03:13:34] Moving on to a happier topic, I want to also wish everyone a safe and happy holiday. And I want to encourage all of you to go out and enjoy the rest of your Doug Church Day, please. Thank you. Excellent.

[03:13:49] Well, I want to congratulate Rachna Sizemore-Heiser, who is the supervisor-elect for the Braddock District. She won a special election tonight, and she will be one of the people that we work with, along with other members of the County Board of Supervisors.

[03:14:06] She is taking James Walkinshaw's place. And that just brings up this whole structure that we have that we need to keep in mind, which is we work very closely with the county. A lot of our services are provided by the county. The relationship that we have for affordable housing, for our public education, All of these things are relationships with the county.

[03:14:31] And so it's important to maintain the integrity of our relationship and for them to understand that they can rely on us as their counterpart in the city government. And so relationships matter, and I hope moving forward into the new year that we'll get to know Supervisor-Elect Sizemore Heiser.

[03:14:54] And happy holidays to everyone. Be safe out there, hug your loved ones, and let's all be grateful because that's an important part of the holidays too. And with that, I am now adjourning the meeting at 10.15 on Tuesday.

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