Coraggio Consulting
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Meeting, Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Date: Tuesday, March 7, 2023
Place: Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 3h 31m (video)
Official meeting video (Fairfax County): https://video.fairfaxcounty.gov/player/clip/2775
Official Board of Supervisors page (Fairfax County): https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/boardofsupervisors/

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 2026-11-04. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:05] Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our board meeting of March 7th, 2023. And in a moment, we are going to begin our meeting with a moment of silence to be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. But before we rise for that, we always take a moment to keep in our thoughts and prayers members of our community today.

[00:00:23] And I'm going to begin and then ask my colleagues if they would like to be recognized by keeping in mind a few people this morning. First, Robert Bob Kahane was one of the founding members of the Annandale Mason Roundtable and former chair of the Taste of Annandale Planning Committee.

[00:00:41] Bob was born in Manhattan but spent much of his life in Virginia. He was an active member of the Annandale Rotary Club and served as club presidents for four years. He was titled Community Champion for Mason District in April of 2021 for his work on the Taste of Annandale.

[00:00:59] And sadly, he has passed away. And in addition to his wife, Bob is survived by his daughter, Michelle, stepson, Jeff, and grandsons, Evan, Brett, Wyatt, and Carson. If we could keep Bob in our thoughts and prayers this morning, and I'm certain Supervisor Gross will have more to add.

[00:01:18] Secondly, I'm sad to announce that Patricia Galliott passed away on February 16th. People who know the Galliott family know that they own and operate Hilltop Sand and Gravel in the Franconia District for literally generations and are major, major contributors to the Park Authority.

[00:01:37] She was a mother to six children and felt that being a mother was her most important role. At the funeral, the priest mentioned that the family had written mom on the funeral planning sheet when asked to describe her career, just simply mom. And, you know, obviously the Galliott families made a lasting difference in the quality of Fairfax County, particularly South County.

[00:02:00] If we could keep Patricia and the entire Galliott family in our thoughts and prayers this morning. Next, really sad to report that John Kiefer died suddenly on February 26th. He's husband to our longtime county employee and chief of staff to former supervisor Mike Fry, Megan Kiefer.

[00:02:22] They have two sons, Mitch and Brent, and John was a VMI graduate and commissioned naval officer where he flew missions around the world as a naval flight officer. And we will keep John in our thoughts and prayers this morning as well as Megan, her entire family, and all of the county staff that know Megan and know her well.

[00:02:45] We're all thinking of her and her family this morning. And then lastly, another person we all know who was recently admitted to hospice is John Horishi, and I think all of us know John well. He was admitted to hospice care as he fights stage four cancer.

[00:03:04] He and eight others formed SALT, social action linking together. John formed one of the most active and influential nonpartisan advocacy groups in northern Virginia with 1,200-plus active members. John and Salt's mission are simple, keep social justice issues front and center with Virginia lawmakers.

[00:03:26] He's often seen here testifying on behalf of Salt as a part of the budget process. John dedicated 30-plus years to leading Salt advocacy efforts right here in Fairfax County. His everlasting wish for Salt is that they continue advocating for those in need and plead their case for justice to those controlling the levers of power.

[00:03:51] If we could keep John and his family in our thoughts and prayers as he gets treatment at hospice and know, John, that the legacy you've made in Fairfax County will last forever through the work of SALT and so many people who benefit from the work of SALT.

[00:04:08] And so if we could keep all of these folks mentioned in our thoughts and prayers as we progress, that would be appreciated by the chairman. Others who would like to be recognized? Supervisor Gross. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for mentioning Bob Cahane.

[00:04:24] He was president of Rotary in Annandale. He was, as you mentioned, a chairman of the Taste of Annandale. In fact, when we moved the date from October to this April for this year, it was to accommodate Bob's planned cruise with his wife, which apparently never was able to happen.

[00:04:44] But he will be sorely missed. He always had a great smile and was outspoken, always outspoken. we also lost Steve Ledford. Steve was a longtime federal employee who always advocated for employees. He was an Annandale resident. He was always at the polls handing out Democratic literature. And he also was active in the Annandale chapter of NARF, the National Association of Retired Federal Employees. And his obituary, I didn't realize

[00:05:20] is because I'd known Steve for a long time, but this never came up, but his obituary indicated at length that he was a friend of Bill W. and had been in sobriety for many, many, many years. We also lost Gary Sherfy, who passed away on February 27th with a short and sudden battle with cancer. He grew up in Annandale. He graduated from Annandale High School and then spent 41 years with the Annandale florist running their family business of the Annandale florist right there at

[00:05:54] the corner of Columbia Pike. And I'm trying to remember what that corner is now. But right in downtown, it was very well loved by the community. Parking was terrible, but they did beautiful, beautiful floral arrangements. And he was very active in Annandale United Methodist Church, with mission trips and feeding the hungry and the homeless.

[00:06:22] He loved to play golf and go to the beach and watch his grandkids play sports. He's survived by his wife, Pat, and two sons and nine grandchildren. So please keep in your thoughts and prayers. Bob Kahane, Steve Ledford, and Gary Shurphy, thank you.

[00:06:41] Thank you very much, Supervisor Gross. Others who would like to be recognized, Supervisor Palchuk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to recognize someone who was not a Fairfax resident, but passed away in the D.C. region and was known as the mother of disability rights movement.

[00:07:00] Judy Heumann, widely regarded in that role, and learning more of her, even more than I ever imagined and heard about, she really was at the forefront in the major disability rights demonstrations. She helped spearhead the passage of the disability rights legislation.

[00:07:18] She founded national and international disability advocacy organizations, and she held senior federal government positions. In the 1970s, Judy attended Camp Henned, a summer camp for people with disabilities in the Catskills, and she later returned there as a counselor.

[00:07:37] Several of the leaders of the disability rights movement also were from Camp Henned, which was the focus of the documentary Crip Camp. But during the same decade, the New York Board of Education refused to give Judy a teaching license because they feared she could not help evacuate students or herself in the case of a fire.

[00:07:56] She sued, and she went on to become the first teacher in the state to use a wheelchair. Continuing her fight for civil rights, Judy helped lead a protest that shut down traffic in Manhattan against Richard Nixon's veto of the 1972 Rehabilitation Act.

[00:08:11] She launched a 26-day sit-in at the Federal Building in San Francisco to get Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act enforced. Judy was instrumental in developing and implementing national disability rights legislation, including Section 504, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

[00:08:39] In addition, and this I was less aware of, she helped found the Berkeley Center for Independent Living, the Independent Living Movement, and the World Institute on Disability. She also served on the boards of many institutions and many across the board.

[00:08:56] Judy moved to D.C. in 1993 to serve as the Assistant Secretary of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services in the Clinton Administration, a role she filled until 2001. She was also the first advisor on disability and development at the World Bank.

[00:09:14] She worked as special advisor for international disability rights to the U.S. State Department, and she was appointed as D.C.'s first director of the Department on Disability Services. As Judy said, some people say that what I did changed the world, but really I simply refused to accept what I was told about who I could be, and I was willing to make a fuss about it.

[00:09:36] As Judy mentioned, a president with polio could serve in the presidency, but she could not serve as a teacher and really led the fight for disability rights. So in honor of everyone in the community, we've lost a champion, and to her loving family, we send our thoughts and prayers.

[00:09:55] Thank you very much, Supervisor Palczyk. Anyone else who would like to be recognized? Supervisor Stork. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to recognize the passing of Edith Wiggs-Nader. She's a longtime member of the Fairfax and Fort Hunt community in Alexandria.

[00:10:12] Edith worked as the school secretary at Wayne Wood Elementary School and was later the bookkeeper for the family business, which I think many of us here will know, the Village Hardware Institution in the Fort Hunt community. She devoted her life to her children, grandchildren, and to her beloved Washington Nationals.

[00:10:31] So I just wanted to make sure we recognized her passing. Thank you. Thank you very much, Supervisor Stork. anyone else would like to be recognized before we rise, if we could also keep in our thoughts and prayers, Senator John Bell, who recently announced he is not running for reelection as he is battling prostate cancer, does not directly represent Fairfax County, but has been so instrumental in so many things for us in the General Assembly and has had an outstanding career in the General Assembly. And just want him to know that the prayers of this board and the people of Fairfax

[00:11:07] County are with him in the days and weeks ahead. And with that, if we could rise for a moment of silence to be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Please face the flag. I pledge allegiance to the

[00:11:40] 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. And this morning we have four presentations, and as we always do, I will announce the proclamation and invite our speakers down to the podium in front of me.

[00:12:09] We will then read the proclamation, and after our speakers' remarks, we will pose for a photo from the dais. And first, we have a resolution to recognize Marshall High School senior Ilya Melanin for his outstanding accomplishments in national and international ice skating competition.

[00:12:27] And this was requested by myself and Speaker Palchik, and if Ilyan and anyone who is here with him could come on down to the podium. And at this time, I will recognize Supervisor Palchik. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And Ilya and his dad, Roman, are both here with us today.

[00:12:46] I think mom is at work and sister is at school. So we're very delighted to have him here with us. And first of all, I just have to say, Ilya, we are so honored. I know all of us here on the board and across the community have been following you, your career, and I personally have just been so impressed, not just by your performance, but by your thoughtfulness, the way you reflect on your performance and are always striving to do even better.

[00:13:12] I know it's very challenging. I can't imagine to be in the international limelight at this point. And also, I believe you were named Time Magazine's one of their 2022 Next 100. We are so delighted that you are here in Fairfax County.

[00:13:30] Actually, Mr. Alcorn's constituents, and that we know you came for the schools, but stayed for ice skating. But no, truly, we are very excited for what's ahead. I'm excited to see you at the Marshall High School graduation this June.

[00:13:47] And I'm especially delighted, as a former language teacher, that you are multilingual and continuing to focus on your studies. as you continue on. To that, the other thing for me that I think is so critical and wonderful is that you are absolutely honored and respected, not just by your colleagues and by those who came before you and whose footsteps you continue to grow, but that as you land these quadruple axles, you want to go even farther and you truly are the future of our county.

[00:14:23] And so we're so delighted for you to be here with us today to take some time away from your studies and your work and for your dad, Roman, to be able to join us as well. Let me turn it over to the chairman. Oh, should I go ahead and read? Alrighty, here we go.

[00:14:38] Here we go. So, whereas last October, 17-year-old George C. Marshall High School senior Ilya Malinin became the first and only athlete to successfully land a quadruple-axle jump in competition, widely considered the most difficult jump in figure skating, earning him the nickname the Quad God.

[00:15:02] And whereas Ilya Malinin followed up this incredible feat by winning the U.S. Figure Skating Championship at the end of January, And whereas Ilya Malinan began skating in 2010 under the guidance of his parents, both Olympic skaters, and began competing in 2015, garnering numerous championships since, including the 2022 World Juniors, the 2021 Junior Grand Prix France, and the 2021 Junior Grand Prix Austria.

[00:15:31] I'm sure this is outdated at this point. And whereas Ilya Malinan has been called America's next great skater. And many in the sport have suggested a quintuple jump is in his future. No pressure. Along with what we know will be a career of tremendous figure skating accomplishments.

[00:15:49] Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, on behalf of all Fairfax County residents, does hereby congratulate Ilya Malinan for landing the quadruple axle and for his history at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships and wishes him great success in his future endeavors.

[00:16:10] Further discussion on the motion? Mr. Chairman. Supervisor Alcorn. Yeah, thank you, Ilya, as a Hunter Mill resident. And also, I wanted to thank you. You are giving back to the community in ways you probably don't even realize.

[00:16:26] There's a long history of of athletes, not just in in in Reston and the Reston area, but also in all of Fairfax County that over the years have have really done remarkable things. And we appreciate what you're doing here. Appreciate your family's choice of living in the area and look forward to you keep going.

[00:16:48] So thank you for being here today. Thank you, Supervisor Alcorn, Supervisor Harry. Yeah, I'll be very, very brief, but congratulate. Incredible feet, and you're going to have a legacy here for a long time, like Alex Ovechian did for ice hockey.

[00:17:04] I believe your feet is going to lead to a lot of new figure skaters here in Fairfax County that follow you because you skate at our local rink. So you've got a long legacy. Anytime I do four spins on the ice, it's usually because somebody's hit me when I'm playing ice hockey, and it's usually not in the air.

[00:17:24] So I can't imagine going around four times in the air and landing it. But congratulations. And again, you've got a long legacy here in Fairfax County and look forward to following your career. Supervisor Gross. Thank you and congratulations.

[00:17:39] I'm tempted to ask you to turn around to see if you have wings because that may be the only way that most people can even conceive of what you have accomplished. If Congressman Connolly, who was former chair and former Providence District Supervisor, were here, he would be really, really excited because his daughter Caitlin skated, was an ice skater.

[00:18:00] She was not competitive, but I can remember when he was sitting where you are and I was sitting where Pat is, sort of moaning and groaning about how early in the morning he had to get up to take Caitlin to her practice. And so that any parent whose child or children have a dream, athletics, my daughter was dance, knows, and your daughter's dance knows how much effort has to go into just what the family support is going to be.

[00:18:33] And so those early mornings or late nights or travels are really so important for the development of the youth athlete or dancers or athletes. So thank you very much to your dad and your mom also for helping you achieve your goals.

[00:18:56] I think we can all sort of think about when we're taking our own children around and just what it meant. And we sort of went, ah. But then you see what is created, and it makes it all worthwhile. So congratulations, and thanks to mom and dad, too.

[00:19:15] Thank you, Supervisor Gross. And let me just add a few things. First, my daughter is a dancer, as Supervisor Gross acknowledged. and a dancer watching what you're doing on the ice can really appreciate the incredible nature of what you're doing. And when I left this morning, I dropped my daughter off at school and I told her I was going to meet the quad god today. And she was very jealous and asked if she could take the morning off. So Elia, we are so proud of you. I watched the video that was done

[00:19:49] um partly at your school um telling the story of of your success and interviewing your parents and you know i know the the dna that you have gave you a head start uh in this career for sure um but i think i don't remember if it was your dad or your mom but i remember them being asked what it's like to do what you have done and they said they they didn't know uh because they had never been able to do that and so you have you know dna but special talent uh that we are so proud of I know your school is, FCPS is, you're being watched.

[00:20:24] I know you're on social media. You're a sensation among the high school kids in the county for good reason and so many others. But what you did on a national stage and, you know, watch, I had the great joy of watching you throughout the competition and a whole lot of other people in this area.

[00:20:42] But the amount of pride that we had in Fairfax County, that one of our own is on the national and international stage the way you are, makes us all so proud as a community and so proud of what you're achieving in school as well.

[00:21:00] I think when you watch the tapes of what he's doing, we forget that Ilya is a high school student in Fairfax County Public Schools and a celebrity in so many ways. And we want to take this opportunity to not only acknowledge all your past success, but as others of my colleagues have said, your future success as well.

[00:21:19] Because you have a gift and a talent, and I know you've worked really hard to get where you are. And we're going to be following you and cheering you on every step of the way. So congratulations. With that, I think we're ready for a vote. Mr. Chairman, if I can say one thing, I asked Elia what his favorite class was, and he said physics.

[00:21:35] So he's got me beat at every level. I don't know. with that all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions that motion carries and ilia we would welcome you to say a few words or your father but welcome to the board auditorium and we're so proud of you i would just like to say thank you to this this means so much to me i've put so much work and effort into trying to get where i am and i'm just really happy for my parents that they put through all this time and effort to wake me up in the morning and take me to skate and they're just the best they're also my coaches so it's really helpful and again

[00:22:14] I just want to say great thanks to them they've been here with me through the whole journey I hope that the future will bring good things absolutely we know it will so well said and I don't know if you're if your dad would like to say anything you're welcome to yes I want to say thank you to the school and the teachers because they've been very supportive and understanding and tried to help him with any work or i mean he missed lots of school days so um and teachers were very supportive so and also i mean i want to take ilia too like i we didn't expect this gonna turn

[00:22:54] out to this and uh but of course um he and he was very um as a child we woke him up very early sometimes 4 30 in the morning to drive because we lived in prince william county first but drove to the restaurant for the practice so for 30 in the morning he really didn't have any hard time to getting up and always was motivated and tried different things that's why I think he's here now where he is because he's just not afraid to try anything so but I want to thank

[00:23:29] the school and everybody to I don't give this a word that's pretty pretty cool outstanding and thank you and thank you as we've said for your dedication uh as parents i know it's a major sacrifice but uh and i know elia wouldn't be here without that work but uh well done because this is an amount of work i don't think most people can understand and i would encourage anyone who's watching uh to google this young man and watch the video of what he is doing on the ice because if you haven't seen it uh you're missing out so congratulations and with that if you two could come forward and face the audience, and the board will rise for a photo.

[00:24:07] I'm not used to this. And next up, we have a proclamation to designate March 2023 as Multiple

[00:25:28] Sclerosis Awareness Month, and this was presented by myself and Supervisor Smith, and I understand we have Erica Jones-Jackson, District Activist Leader for the National MS Society, with us today. And if you could come on down. If there are other folks here with you for this proclamation, we would welcome them to come on down and join you as well. And at this time, I am going to, I have the proclamation. I am going to turn the gavel to Supervisor Gross for a moment so that I can

[00:26:02] read the following proclamation. Whereas multiple sclerosis, MS, is a neurological disease of the central nervous system, affecting nearly 1 million people in the United States alone, and generally strikes people in the prime of life between ages 20 through 50. And whereas since 1946, the National MS Society has been a driving force of MS research, relentlessly pursuing prevention, treatments, and a cure, and has invested more than $1 billion in groundbreaking

[00:26:35] research. And whereas while the cause and course of the often debilitating symptoms of MS remain unknown and no cure currently exists, the National MS Society is committed to a world free of MS, heightening public knowledge and insight into the disease. And whereas funds raised through the National MS Society fuel research on pathways to MS cures and invest in the MS research workforce at the best medical centers, universities, and other institutions, leading to many breakthroughs

[00:27:10] in the treatment of MS. And whereas the mission of the National MS Society is to cure MS while empowering people affected to live their best lives, transforming what it means to live with MS and providing global leadership to help achieve their mission. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, on behalf of all residents of Fairfax County, does hereby proclaim the month of March 2023 as National Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Month and urges everyone to recognize the importance of finding a cause and cure for MS and supporting those with MS

[00:27:50] and expresses its appreciation for the dedication of the National MS Society, Greater D.C., Maryland Chamber. Seconded by Supervisor Smith, is there discussion on the motion? Yes. Very, very brief discussion. First, I want everyone to know I'm the only one that remembered to wear orange today. But in all seriousness, this is a very serious issue. And I want to thank Erica in particular for your tremendous persistence, determination and work.

[00:28:23] It's recognized. This disease affects so many people. I frankly don't know anyone who doesn't know someone who is suffering from MS. And the fact that we don't have a cure is frustrating to all of us. But what the MS Society does in terms of raising awareness for research and also helping people deal with and live normal lives who are suffering from MS is remarkable. And this is a fight that, you know, we are all in to try to find a cure. And as the motion, the proclamation reads,

[00:28:59] you know, many times this affects people in their, in the prime of their life between the ages of 20 and 50. So many people who have MS have it for a long period of time. And we need to make sure that we remain steadfast in understanding it and understanding the efforts that are made, certainly at a national and international level to try to find a cure, but also equally important, providing support and assistance for those who are suffering.

[00:29:28] And there are many people throughout the DMV and many people right here in Fairfax County who have MS. And so we want to raise awareness about this disease to thank the MS Society, Erica, and your team for the work that you're doing each and every day to help and also to make sure our county residents are aware of things they can do to support your mission as well.

[00:29:51] And so with that, you know, we salute you and we'll continue to promote your efforts and those of so many people in the county. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Supervisor Smith. So, Erica, I lose track of time. Has it been a couple of years since you first came in to see me?

[00:30:09] Yes. And when I think of Erica, I think of passion, I think of power, and I really think that she cares, but she's positive. I mean, the other word is positivity.

[00:30:27] And I think that's the challenge when you're faced with something, good days and bad days, and change of your life, and change of how you can work. And so to have somebody sharing this, sharing the passion, ensuring that we talk about this at the board level and we'll share this information with the community.

[00:30:44] Those three Ps, I think you're a good voice for this, and I appreciate you all being here because we need to share and make the public aware. So thank you so much. Thank you, Supervisor Smith. Any other discussions? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye.

[00:31:02] Aye. Any opposed, say nay. Any abstentions? that motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much, Vice Chairman Gross. And Erica, welcome. The floor is yours. Thank you. Again, my name is Erica James Jackson, and I'm a volunteer district activist leader and government relations advisory committee member for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Greater D.C. Chapter. In 2005, I was diagnosed with MS after going blind in my right eye and having blurry vision in my left eye while I was driving down the street. A few years later, I was medically advised to discontinue my career in law.

[00:31:41] After a period of depression due to the unforeseen changes in my life, I reached out to the National MS Society for guidance and was linked with someone that had similar circumstances as mine for peer support, and it had a positive result in my life. I began to see the impact of sharing my story and listening to others thus giving birth to my activism raising awareness about ms has become one of my life's greatest missions and the mission of the other activists family members clinicians caregivers and community members that are here today we are all very thankful for the

[00:32:19] unwavering support of the fairfax county chairman jeff mckay the board of supervisors especially my District Supervisor Kathy Smith, the Director of Community Engagement, Natalie Nguyen Woodruff, and the Sully District staff, Dan Dolan and Kim Ward. Receiving the proclamation declaring MS as MS Awareness Month in Fairfax County is a monumental step to shining a light on this debilitating disease and the challenges that those of us in Fairfax County face on a daily basis to

[00:32:55] live a reasonable quality of life. Those of us in Fairfax County that are living with MS believe with this proclamation and the increased awareness that it offers, we will gain the attention of other jurisdictions and ultimately the entire Commonwealth. Despite how our brain and body are being significantly impacted by MS, we will continue to fight until we have a world free of MS. Now that the Fairfax County community is supporting us, we are encouraged that we will

[00:33:30] find a cure. Thank you. Thank you very much, Erica, for your words, for your personal story. I know that is difficult to share, but important for people to hear. And we appreciate you sharing that and appreciate all the folks who are here with you today to support this as well. And with that, I think we're ready for a photo. So if you all could come forward and face the audience, Supervisor Smith, if you'd like to join me.

[00:35:19] And next, we have a resolution to recognize Fair Oaks Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company

[00:36:21] President Jonathan Wood for 50 years, 50 years of service as a volunteer with the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department. And this was requested by Supervisor Smith. I understand, obviously, Jonathan is here, president of the Fair Oaks Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company Association.

[00:36:39] And if there are others who are here with you, we would welcome you to come down and join Mr. Wood. And while you're doing that, I will pass the microphone to Supervisor Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Whereas Jonathan Wood joined the Fair Oaks Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company in 1982, having previously been a junior member of the Greater Springfield Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department beginning in 1972, And whereas Jonathan Wood has now completed his 50th year of service as a volunteer in the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department, and whereas currently serving as Fair Oaks

[00:37:14] Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company Association President, Jonathan Wood has held many operational and leadership roles during his 50-year tenure, including Chief, Deputy Chief, President, and Vice President, as well as Fairfax County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association President.

[00:37:33] And whereas Jonathan Wood is also an instructor at the Fire and Rescue Academy and a former member of the Fairfax County Technical Rescue Operations Team and has managed the procurement of numerous ambulances, fire engines, rescue squads, and utility vehicles. And whereas Jonathan Wood is a passionate supporter who has dedicated almost 7,000 hours over the course of his volunteer career in service to the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department and the community.

[00:38:00] Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, on behalf of all residents of Fairfax County, does hereby thank Jonathan Wood for his incredible dedication for his outstanding service to Fairfax County and our residents. I so move. And I'm happy to second that motion.

[00:38:15] Discussion on the motion, Supervisor Smith. I want to thank Jonathan for all of his service to the community. I'm sorry it took us a while to schedule this. I'm happy we finally got into the boardroom. We were thinking of going to the fire station, but I think it's nice to be here. Your dedication sets an example for other people in the community of how important it is to set that time to give back.

[00:38:38] So thank you very much, Jonathan. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Smith. And let me just add, 50 years is incredible. Think back to 1972. There are some people at the dais who weren't alive when you joined the ranks of the volunteers.

[00:38:56] And, you know, if you think about that, it's amazing the amount of hours. I know I've heard over 7,000 hours that you've dedicated to this volunteer work on behalf of the residents of Fairfax County. And we are so grateful in this county for all of our volunteers.

[00:39:13] But I will tell you it takes a special someone to volunteer in public safety, to put on the uniform, to do the dedicated work. sometimes traumatic, not always fun, but always important work of our public safety officials.

[00:39:29] And you have been doing that for so long and made such a difference in this department, for the volunteers and the professionals. And the fact that so many people are here with you today to honor you, I think speaks volumes about how we all feel about you as a person, but how we feel about you and the work that you've done in the county for a long time.

[00:39:49] And so for 50 years, it almost seems flat for us to say just simply thank you to you. But no, there's a whole lot of people in this county that would be saying thank you as well if they were here who have experienced improved quality of life because of your dedication.

[00:40:05] And so thank you and your family for that. Any others who would like to seeing and hearing none? All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? And that motion carries. Mr. Wood, welcome.

[00:40:21] The floor is yours. Thank you, Chairman McKay, Supervisor Smith, the entire board and the staff, and friends and colleagues. Over 50 years ago, a runny-nosed kid got some firefighter training and some first aid training and went on his first call, hanging on the back step of a fire engine speeding down the road.

[00:40:44] Thankfully, we don't do that anymore. Somehow I was able to survive and had some close calls, more than I care to admit here in public. But here we are today. Where did the years go?

[00:41:01] Over 50 years of running into burning buildings when other people were running out. There's a touch of insanity in there somewhere. Responding to incidents where we are there to help citizens on what is likely the worst day of their life. Being a strong shoulder when others needed help.

[00:41:19] It all came with the job. In the past 50 years, I've run as a firefighter EMT, ambulance driver and aide, engine driver and officer, and chief officer. I also spent time designing and purchasing apparatus and training the next generation as an academy instructor.

[00:41:38] I would like to think that I've earned my gray hair and wrinkles honestly, and I've probably given some other people gray hair and wrinkles too. But it all comes with the job. It's been my honor and privilege to be part of the system as it grew to what it is today. I'm a better person for the thousands of calls that I've been on, the people I've worked with, and the skills that I've learned over the years.

[00:42:02] So thank you very much for this honor and recognition. Thank you very much, Mr. Wood. And I know our entire public safety team in Fairfax County salutes you today also with this honor. So it's a family, and they're proud of you.

[00:42:18] So congratulations. With that, I think we're ready for a photo. Supervisor Smith, if you'd join me, and if you would come forward and face the audience, please.

[00:42:26] And finally this morning, we have a resolution to designate March 2023 as Women's History Month.

[00:44:04] And this was requested by Supervisor Grossmith and Palchik. And I understand we have Felicia Woods, who is the chair of the Commission for Women, with us here today. And if you could come on down and, again, anyone who is here with you to receive this resolution is welcome to come down and join you as well.

[00:44:22] And while you were doing that, Supervisor Powczyk has the resolution. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will read it first. Whereas the United States has celebrated Women's History Month every year since 1987, when the National Women's History Project petitioned to expand Women's History Week, and whereas this year's Women's History Month theme is celebrating women who tell our stories, an opportunity to honor the unique contributions of the many women who've devoted their lives, careers, and talents to producing art and news, pursuing truth, and reflecting on the

[00:45:00] progress and growth of society decade after decade, including here in Fairfax County. And whereas American women of every race, class, and ethnic background have made countless contributions to the growth and strength of our country and our community in recorded and unrecorded ways and have played critical economic, cultural, and social roles.

[00:45:23] And whereas, women have led the charge of nearly every major progressive social change movement, including the right to vote and the right for equal opportunity. And whereas, established in 1971, the Fairfax County Commission for Women has been an active voice for women to combat domestic violence and promote educational equality and progress in the workplace.

[00:45:47] Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on behalf of all residents of Fairfax County does hereby proclaim March 2023 as Women's History Month in Fairfax County and urges all residents to recognize and celebrate the vital role women play in Fairfax County's history and across our nation.

[00:46:09] It's been moved and seconded. Discussion on the motion, Supervisor Palchuk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, I want to honor and recognize our Commission for Women here with Chair Felicia Woods, Vice Chair Helen Cole, my apologies, and all of the women who served today and who have served in the past for the commission.

[00:46:33] I want to take a brief moment to thank all of the women who have served here in Fairfax County in leadership and who I hope will continue to serve. I know my colleagues, Supervisor Smith and Supervisor Vice Chair Gross, would love to see more women serving both at this dais and in leadership in years to come.

[00:46:54] First of all, I know we heard of the retirement, I believe this morning, of the very first speaker of the House here in Virginia. with I believe the oldest continuous serving body, Delegate Eileen Filler-Corn will be stepping down and we are very proud that she is our very own here in Fairfax County.

[00:47:15] Here in Fairfax, we also have great leaders, Sharon Bulova, Kate Hanley and Jean Packard who are chairs of this very board, as well as representatives from our districts, many here that we can name.

[00:47:31] I also am very excited. I know we had public safety here this morning are still here. that for the first time we have a deputy chief deputy fire chiefs as well as deputy chief of the police women serving in those roles we also have and i'm gonna i'm going to embarrass them a little bit here today the very first female county attorney beth tier who i'm so delighted to be able to serve with as well as our clerk to the board jill cooper and we have women across the the board and leadership our deputy county attorneys alicia seared mccormick and rachel

[00:48:09] flynn uh our chief financial officer christina jackson our chief equity officer carla bruce hope i'm not forgetting anyone today um supervisor palchick we have claudia arco our legislative chair and we have and we have the first elected female sheriff sheriff kincaid in fairfax county as well we can go at this all we can continue this the rest of the day um many many women and really my goal this morning was to encourage more women and to continue to serve in those roles i know that the commission for women does that in their leadership because i represent the providence

[00:48:46] district i also want to honor um women who have served both on this board and on the fairfax county school board linda smith ernestine hasty and patricia reed have served the county in Providence District, and Senator Emily Miller, who does and continues to live in Providence District. Here we go. Deputy Police Chief Brooke Wright, who we all know very well from her time at Mason, and Assistant Fire Chief Tracy Reed. And I know many more women who serve in leadership here and across the county, and we are so delighted that they're here. And the daughter of one of the

[00:49:22] Commission for Women, Jay Cole, who now serves as our Director of the Park Authority, and so delighted to have them. I know that as women, we represent every part of the community, every age group, and just so delighted that the Commission for Women, year after year, continues to not only elevate the work of women on focus on Women's History Month, but also to ensure that we have representation and inspire future leaders in the community so to that I know we did not include any of the men on the board this year I apologize for that but really we wanted to elevate the need

[00:50:00] for continued leadership I know we are sad that it we may be down to just two women on our board next year and hope to inspire more generations so thank you for all you do I will turn it over to my colleagues and thank you for being with us here this morning thank you supervisor Palchek Supervisor Gross. Thank you. Prior to 1991, when this was a nine-member board, six of the nine were women, including Mother Fairfax, Martha Panino, and quite many others. So our numbers

[00:50:37] actually have been going down a little bit. And for next year, let's make sure that we don't lose anymore um but i remember in 1972 at sort of the beginning of a of the the next um active women's movement we had something called strike while the iron is hot i'm not sure anybody here remembers that um but i remember marching on capitol hill about that i remember asking my

[00:51:14] boss senator frank church if it would be all right if the women in the office wore pantsuits because up until that time, we were required to wear dresses and skirts. And he looked at me sort of strangely and said, well, I don't see why not. Nobody had asked.

[00:51:31] Nobody had asked. In those days, even unless you were a senator, a female senator, you were not allowed on the floor of the Senate. I worked on the hill on the Senate side for almost 16 years, and I never, ever went on the Senate floor.

[00:51:50] So we've come a ways. Sometimes we've come a long ways, but golly, there's so much more further to go. And I was a little surprised, Supervisor Palchak, when you mentioned in the proclamation that Women's History Month nationally was created in 1987.

[00:52:08] What took so long? So we need to constantly, constantly not only remind people of women's history, but not leave it just as history. Make it move forward all the time.

[00:52:25] Women today are under attack around the world. If you look at what is going on in Afghanistan with the Taliban, where girls and women are no longer allowed to go to school, not even to religious school, they're not allowed to be educated.

[00:52:45] This goes back to the Middle Ages, for heaven's sakes. We should not be allowing this to happen anywhere in the world. And so women today need our sort of foundation has been set, but there's so much more to do.

[00:53:02] And we need to get in our international community, folks in Fairfax County to understand and celebrate what women can do rather than what women are not allowed to do or maybe shouldn't do. Because there isn't a doggone thing that women shouldn't be allowed to do and to take away the allowance part of it because we can do it.

[00:53:25] And we need to do that, and we need to tell our younger folks, our daughters and the young women in our districts, you can do it. That is part of our job as mentors, but we need to make sure that we uplift and encourage every single time.

[00:53:45] It doesn't mean that you'll be successful all the time, but if you don't try, you'll never be successful. So thank you very much for being here. I'll get off my soapbox right now because this is something that has for my entire life has been spent in elective politics.

[00:54:01] And I've seen what has not been available and what is now possible. And there's even more that's possible. Kamala Harris is our first female vice president. We can only hope that in our lifetimes, in my lifetime, we'll see a woman president.

[00:54:26] There's absolutely no reason why we can't do it. We can. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Gross, and I'm not sure who's going to be lucky enough to follow that. Oh, Supervisor Herity. I'll go ahead and follow that.

[00:54:44] We got Nikki Haley running for president. You're right, we could have a female president, and I think she'll do very well. But I would be remiss in the long list not to recognize my predecessors on the board, Elaine McCullough and Marie Trevesky. You know, Elaine is the mother of VRE, was a big supporter of public safety and had a big impact on not only the district but the county.

[00:55:06] But it is important to recognize History Month, Women's History Month, and to continue to make progress. And I thought you were going to go with the sports theme like you usually do. So I was all ready with the fact this afternoon at our board matters, we're going to recognize the first all-state, first state all-girls wrestling match.

[00:55:26] So, you know, even as of last year was when the decision was made, we continue to move forward and in sports and everything else. And thank you for bringing up the sheriff because that was, you know, clearly that was a big, a big first in Fairfax County.

[00:55:41] So thank you for everything you do to continue to bring history to the forefront and and continue to make progress because it is about progress. Thank you. Supervisor Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You know, I appreciate Supervisor Gross's comments, and it brought back a memory of 1996. I was involved with PTA, and we were going to PTA Day in the General Assembly, and people said, well, you have to wear a skirt when you go down there. You can't wear pants, right?

[00:56:12] I remember my kids being in high school in the early 2000s, and they were having the sports recognition for the high school kids, and it was like the dress code for the girls was wear a skirt. I feel like we are sometimes two steps forward, one step back, being ever vigilant.

[00:56:30] I think back to women in PTA, you know, years ago, ensuring that there was food for kids in school looking at you had to have labor laws to make sure that kids weren't working in workhouses and so there is a great power for women but we do have to keep struggling to get recognized to get equal pay to do those pieces and I appreciate my colleagues here I think we have a very supportive board for women's rights and where they move but we can't give up and we do need to teach the younger generation and I think one of the hardest things for women if we have been

[00:57:09] told we can do it all but we need support because you know especially if you have children and you have a job and you're trying to balance all these things and move us forward we need better child care we need support in our lives and so I appreciate you here and and doing this and we'll keep our voices going thank you thank you Supervisor Smith Supervisor Stork well thank you Supervisor Smith and Supervisor Palachuk and Vice Chair Gross.

[00:57:39] It's a pleasure to serve with you all, and particularly over the last almost 20 years that I've served on a board, it has been an amazing journey. The journey of the school board was clearly earlier on, it was a predominantly female board, which really set a different tone and different energy, one that I think our schools have greatly benefited from.

[00:58:01] But more importantly, we have a long history in Fairfax County, I think, of honoring women. I had the pleasure of serving with, actually indirectly, with Kate Hanley, many of you directly, but also with Sharon Boliva directly. And we have a unique situation in Fairfax County, not that we are anywhere near where we need to be, but we clearly are ahead of the curve, if you will, of engaging and honoring and, frankly, making sure that women have feeling in the sense that they can be everything they want to be, help them reach their full potential I didn't get here because of a lack of effort on my part it's clearly because there was so much effort on other

[00:58:41] people's parts I have not only staff and a wife and mother and others who have been crucial to the support systems that you reference Kathy to get me here now and keep me supportive and enable me to become hopefully what I can ultimately become and I'm still working on that but thank you all of you and thank you for so many of the folks here to do that and I have to take just a brief history moment Mount Vernon District really are that is the core of the history of Fairfax County and we have two really major institutions if you will that have gotten us where we are today one of them is is maybe the most important one was

[00:59:20] the core role that that the workhouse played in Mount Vernon District as part of that played and the women's right to vote in 1917 and their their silent protest in front of the white house which got a number of them arrested and then you know imagine that silently protesting walking and you get arrested you get tossed in jail you get forced fed you get tortured really to force you to become the way that the men around there wanted you to become and you said no you said no i'm not going to that started the national campaign the turning

[00:59:55] point they call it the turning point that was crucial and not only the 19th amendment the 19th amendment getting approved and not only has us being frankly having the greatest single day in history of the number of additional voters that we got so the turning point memorial is a great place go visit it the the Lucy Burns Museum at the workhouse if you want to see what that was like it's a great place to visit other there are so many other types of things like that but I at least wanted to highlight that and the fact that we have a lot more

[01:00:30] to do but we've we've come a long way and I'm here to be with you to help make that happen for the next generation so thank you very much thank you Supervisor Stork Supervisor Lusk thank you mr. chairman I'll also express my support so much of recognizing the contributions of women in particularly around Women's History Month. What I also want to say is that I'm here and I serve on this Board of Supervisors because of a woman, and that woman was my grandmother, Eleanor B. Dye. She raised me.

[01:01:08] She taught me the importance of caring for others and being of service to others. She taught me the importance of if you see someone that is suffering, if you see someone that is in pain, you have responsibility to do something. She taught me that as a young man when I was only in fifth grade that I could go to the University of Virginia and I ended up going to the University of Virginia and I ended up serving on student council with a member of this board, Walter Alcorn. I also had the opportunity to live on the lawn also with Walter Alcorn and I also want to acknowledge

[01:01:47] Kate Hanley. The very first person who employed me in Fairfax County was Kate Hanley, and I got the opportunity to work with her and to see her passion and commitment to public service. I got to learn what the Board of Supervisors was. She introduced me to the Massey Building, and I also got to meet a gentleman by the name of Mr. J. Hamilton Lambert and learned how Fairfax County has operated, learned how Fairfax County works, and spent 30 years here in Fairfax County and then became a member of this board. And I know how important women are because they're the ones who

[01:02:26] help us really see the humanity that sometimes, I hate to say this, men do not. And we need them. We need them in leadership roles, but we also need them in the supporting roles that they play because I would not be here were not for my grandmother.

[01:02:45] So I just want to acknowledge that as well. So thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Lusk. Supervisor Palchuk, you're okay? Okay. Let me just say, you know, I'm listening to Supervisor Lusk and reminded of how much we have in common, not just the zip code we live in, but literally I wouldn't be here either if it weren't for my grandmother.

[01:03:07] She got me involved in activities in the community when I was about five years old, and I'll never forget that her home every single weekend of my childhood was a voter registration location for women, literally for women only. And the stories that she told me about when women couldn't vote and why she was doing what she did, sinking into a five, six, seven-year-old's mind, even back in those days, seemed inconceivable. And so, You know, so much has been done, but so much is left to be done.

[01:03:44] And I think about young people today, my daughter who's in high school, you know, who, if it weren't for our history, thankfully might not know some of the things that she wouldn't be able to do today if people hadn't stood up and fought the good fight.

[01:03:59] And to make sure that, as Supervisor Smith acknowledged, sometimes we feel like we take a few steps forward and then we take a few steps backwards. And it's going to be up to, in large part, our young people to understand our history to make sure that we don't take step backwards, that we're always taking steps forward.

[01:04:18] You know, I come from a family of educators, and it's not lost on me that my grandmother, my mother, and my sister are schoolteachers and were schoolteachers, but none of the men in our family were. And I think that makes it all too easy for some people in today's society to attack teachers.

[01:04:38] And, you know, the fact that there's such a disparity in that profession really points to some of the underlying institutions that need to be disrupted if we're going to really achieve equity. When my first child was born, my daughter, it was 2007.

[01:04:56] And I just remember sometimes subtle things hit you, and maybe they're not so subtle. But I remember as the chief diaper changer of my household, how many times I went into a public men's room and there wasn't an infant changing station.

[01:05:11] And how many times I had to walk out and ask my wife for help. And that was 2007, 2008. And I dare say you still see examples of that around the community that even little things like that underlay so much of people's institutional understanding of where we are that leads to inequities literally and even the day-to-day things like that that we often don't think about.

[01:05:42] My first job and my first political campaign I worked on was the campaign for Delegate Gladys Keating. And Delegate Gladys Keating was the first female in Richmond to serve on the Police and Militia Committee. And it was unheard of for a woman to serve on that committee in Richmond.

[01:06:01] And to me now, it's unheard of that we would not aspire to what our chief of police is striving towards in Fairfax County, which is 30 by 30, which is that 30 percent of our police department is made up of women by 2030.

[01:06:17] And here we were in the 1980s where it was unheard of for a female elected official elected by her community to represent them, how unheard of it was for her to serve on a committee in Richmond that oversaw public safety. And here in 2023, we have a goal to make sure our department is made up of at least 30 percent female law enforcement officers.

[01:06:38] And so what Kathy said resonates because you think about some of the things and how much better we are. And then you think about some of the things that we really shouldn't even have to be talking about at this point in time. But it's critical that we do until we reach a point where there's real gender equity, pay equity, and equal rights for all people in our community and country.

[01:07:01] And so I want to thank the Commission for Women for the work that you do constantly reminding of this. This is a proclamation to acknowledge Women's History Month, but the people in Fairfax County know it's always Women's History Year. We don't just celebrate and act in one month.

[01:07:19] We act all the time in the pursuit of equity. And so thank you for all your work and the work that you do every day. It is much appreciated. With that, I think we're ready to vote. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

[01:07:35] Any abstentions? And that motion carries, and Felicia, welcome. The floor is yours. Thank you. Thank you, Chair McKay. Thank you, Supervisors Paul Cech, Gross, and Smith. Thank you for your thoughtful words about Women's History Month, things that we have done in the past and things where we need to go in the future.

[01:07:54] I am Felicia Woods, the chair of Fairfax County's Commission for Women, and I gladly accept on behalf of the commission, the DSVS staff, and the women and girls that we collectively serve this proclamation. As a result of fierce, unyielding advocacy by the National Women's History Project, President Carter issued the first proclamation declaring the week of March 8th as being National Women's History Week to broadcast women's historical achievements through the suffragist movement, the civil rights movement, and advocating for equal rights under the law.

[01:08:27] Subsequently, as the momentum and recognition grew of the week across the nation, in 1987, Congress passed a law designating March as Women's History Month, and ever since, the nation has celebrated and honored women during this month. History helps us to learn about our past, understand our present, and shape our future. Women's History Month is designated time for us to remember the ways that women have blazed new trails, overcome rigid barriers, and created change in our world.

[01:08:58] This year, we celebrate Women Who Tell Stories. We honor all women, authors, playwrights, performers, those on stage, in print, on the radio, on screen, and others. From women journalists who capture the ever-changing world of politics and policy to grandmothers who, through oral storytelling, bring the heart, history, and heritage of their families to life, women have been instrumental in connecting and shaping our society.

[01:09:29] Through our undeniably important contributions, our nation and world is better. It is vital that we honor women who keep our history alive. Women's history is our history. Thank you again for recognizing women and this important month.

[01:09:48] Thank you very much, Felicia. Thank you very much, Felicia, and thank you for your leadership on the commission. And I think we're ready for a photo. If you all could come forward and face the audience, and if Supervisor Smith, Gross, and Palchek could join me.

[01:10:07] I'm going to stay right here. Okay. That way we won't have a bunch of guys.

[01:10:12] One more, one more.

[01:11:16] Right.

[01:12:01] Next, we will hear a report on General Assembly activities. So let me turn to the chair of our legislative committee, Supervisor Walkinshaw. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As my colleagues are aware, the regular session of the 2023 General Assembly adjourned on February 25th.

[01:12:16] Board members received a copy of the draft final report by email, and a final version of that report will be posted on the board's website sometime next week. Looking at the session by the numbers underscores the volume of bills that were considered this year by both the General Assembly and this board.

[01:12:34] 2,863 bills and resolutions were introduced. 1,310 were reviewed by county operational and legal staff, and the board took formal positions on 139. bills the board originally opposed or sought to amend 50 bills and by the end of the session only two bills remained in that category but looking at the numbers only tells part of the story first and perhaps most importantly the general assembly did not pass its budget before

[01:13:09] adjourning on the last day of the session they passed a mini budget which addressed just a few must-pass items, but they'll have to return to vote on a full-budget conference report. The House and Senate budgets are separated by approximately $1 billion, but also by prioritization.

[01:13:28] While the House uses more of its funding for tax cuts, which would be in addition to the tax cuts included in last year's budget, the Senate uses more of its funding for investments in core services, especially K-12 education. Overall, the impact of the session on many county priorities, including K-12 funding, transportation, human services, and public safety, will not be fully determined until the final budget is passed. The county's legislative initiatives were successful. The first, which would allow Fairfax County to use contractors

[01:14:04] to remove illegal signs from the right-of-way, passed both the House and Senate unanimously and awaits action by the governor. The second would clarify that localities are authorized to post appropriate and clear signage requiring motorists to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks, pedestrian crossings, and intersections where the speed limit is 35 miles per hour or less.

[01:14:28] In 2020, the General Assembly passed legislation requiring drivers to stop for pedestrians in those areas, but that legislation stated that in state law, yield now means stop. Unfortunately, street signs could not be changed because federal regulations say that stop for pedestrian signage can only be used in states where the state law specifically requires a driver to stop for a pedestrian in a crosswalk. And Virginia's law is not written that clearly. The county's initiative passed both the Senate and the House and awaits action by the governor. And Mr. Chairman, I hope

[01:15:07] that's the last time that I have to try to explain that. I'm tired of talking about that one. Unfortunately, the third, which would have clarified that counties that do not maintain their own roads are authorized to reduce speed limits to less than 25 miles per hour, but not less than 15 miles per hour on highways within their boundaries within business or residential districts, was tabled by a House Transportation Subcommittee and did not advance.

[01:15:33] The GA also passed some legislation that hits particularly close to home for all of us, with commending resolutions for our retiring board members, Vice Chair Penny Gross, SJ-391, patron by Senator Saslaw, and Supervisor John Faust, SJ-386, patron by Senator Boisco.

[01:15:55] The GA praised them for their many years of service and their contributions to the Commonwealth. Finally, I want to thank our legislative staff for their hard work and dedication to the county, Claudia Arco, Jennifer Van E., Noel Dominguez, Chris Ziegler, and Ariel McAloon, almost all women.

[01:16:14] Sorry, Chris, who have basically lived in Richmond during the session. I also want to thank Ryan and Nicholas for their hard work and support that they provided our team here in Fairfax. I want to thank Frank Anderson from my office for his work and all the board members and your staff who participated and helped with our, especially Friday afternoon, legislative committee meetings.

[01:16:42] The frantic pace of the session is demanding and exhausting, but the work that our team does is important, and they do an incredible job representing us in Richmond. I know we value and appreciate their efforts on our behalf this year. And with that, Mr. Chairman, I move that the board adopt the 2023 General Assembly final legislative report.

[01:17:02] You've heard the motion. I'm happy to second the motion. Discussion on the motion? Any discussion on the motion? Supervisor Herity. Just discussion in general. And I don't know that I'm going to get any worse. I won't make a motion to adjust anything here. But, you know, I've always advocated us getting more of our share back from Richmond.

[01:17:21] but it's clear right now we get roughly 25 cents on the dollar back from Richmond. And it was just pondering and thinking of it on a macroeconomic level how much better our citizens would be if they got a tax refund, which we get back at greater than a dollar for dollar, rather than additional spending, which we get back at 25 cents on a dollar.

[01:17:46] And I think it's something our legislators in Richmond need to consider, the fact that really that the region is better off if we get more of our money back than if we send more of it down and get 25 cents on a dollar back so as we go through the session it's just something to consider um as the board knows i'll probably oppose the uh the the package there's some good stuff in there as always but there's some stuff i certainly don't agree with thank you just to to follow up on that briefly i think you know we certainly make our constituents well aware

[01:18:20] of how poor our return on investment is, $0.25, whether it's $0.23, $0.25, $0.27, no matter how you do the math, it's a bad return on investment. On the other hand, every time the state underfunds critical services like public education, that is the driver of our real estate tax rate.

[01:18:40] And right now with assessments soaring, if the state contributed more money to core local services that we are left paying the lion's share of the bill on, we would not have to have the real estate tax rate that we have in place right now and certainly the lion's share of our budget goes to public education and you know the state is picking up a mere tiny amount of the overall cost per pupil it's picked up by us and so any additional money the state can invest in public education as this board has long said would help us with flexibility in terms of what the real estate tax assessments are.

[01:19:19] And given housing affordability is one of the number one challenges to people in Fairfax County, it's not lost on us that part of the affordability challenge is the real estate tax rate, which is driven by a lack of funding at the state level for core services.

[01:19:35] And so, you know, all that stuff works together. But as many here have quoted, and I think he's become an unknown celebrity in Fairfax County, But at our VACO meetings, when our Rockingham County supervisor always remind us that the state has no surplus until they pay their bills, if they started paying their bills in Fairfax County, we would be able to reduce dramatically real estate assessment bills.

[01:19:59] And so this is an important conversation. Supervisor Walkinshaw. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Along those same lines and board members who participated in our work session with the General Assembly before the session started will remember this. But one of our priorities and one of the questions at issue in the debate around the budget right now is lifting of the support cap, which I think would result in $25 million.

[01:20:25] Correct me if I'm wrong. And one of the key pieces of the support cap is it doesn't go through the LCI like other education funding. So that's going to be key to helping redress that $0.25 that we get back on the dollar. So that's what we're working to do.

[01:20:41] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. But I saw another hand, too. No other hands. Supervisor Palchuk. I did. I guess I was a little bit confused. Be followed by the argument by my colleague. I mean, we just got over saying how important it is to have support for women in leadership.

[01:20:58] That requires pre-K. We are one of the lowest levels. Education, we fund it by far at the local level more than anywhere else. And without it, Virginia would be even further behind on its funding of education. transportation, the ability for seniors, young people, families to be able to get around.

[01:21:17] I'm not sure what we would want to cut. We already, $160 million or more a year that we put toward mental health services or community services board. If the state funded just a little bit more in other state areas of the county, as we have heard, we'd be shutting down mental health hospitals rather than having a bed shortage.

[01:21:35] So, yes, absolutely, we want our residents to be able to have support. unfortunately as we know we continue to have to rely so heavily on our real estate taxes I believe it's about 66 percent of our budget for this year as proposed and I guess I would love to know if we were to send back money to every single constituent how would we would fund those services that keep our schools functioning that keeps our public safety and our county is one of the most as the safest of its size and so I mean I'd love to if you want more

[01:22:10] information on that i'm sure we can get more information on how the numbers work out on what people in a state in virginia here where we do not have local authority for anything related to sorry to to payroll taxes as other states have in order to be able to have a different variety that does not rely so heavily on our homeowners knowing that not just for our workforce but for economic development it's been proven that having the ability to have affordable housing housing for

[01:22:45] all people is so critical to the county so I mean I just I didn't want to speak to it because I think it it goes without saying that the argument seems a little bit moot in a state where we absolutely want to see more not just support at the state level but but local flexibility in order to be able to fund those services that keep this not just an inclusive but a vibrant and economic engine of the state. So I'll just pause there. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Excellent. Thank you, Supervisor Palchuk. Any further discussions? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor of

[01:23:19] the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Parity. Any abstentions? And that motion passes nine to one. Supervisor Walkinshaw, was that all? That's all. Thank you. Okay. We're going to move on to board matters and again these were compiled digitally and we will go alphabetically by district following myself and vice chair gross and i have a few first i move to approve without objection the proclamation request listed in this document to be presented inside or outside the boardroom as appropriate a resolution to recognize edufatoro's 25th anniversary and a proclamation to recognize Juneteenth.

[01:23:59] Without objection, so ordered. Thank you. My second item is a joint board matter with Supervisor Dan Stork, and this concerns the Fairfax County Design and Environment Achievement Awards of 2022. I'm pleased to announce that Fairfax County's Environmental Excellence Awards, Exceptional Design Awards, and Friends of Trees Awards will be presented at a special evening ceremony at the Fairfax County Government Center on Tuesday, March 28th, 2023, from 5.30 to 7.30 p.m.

[01:24:27] with a reception to follow in the forum. The awards ceremony will be televised, live-streamed, and archived by Fairfax County's Channel 16. In the past, board members will recall that these awards were presented during morning presentations at board meetings.

[01:24:43] A special evening event is planned to draw greater attention to the awards, better honor our recipients, and accommodate the attendance of family members, friends, and co-workers. Walter Hamilton III from Land Development Services has graciously agreed to serve as our MC.

[01:25:00] The date of this ceremony is scheduled on a board committee meeting date. All board members are invited to remain for this event to help celebrate our community's accomplishments on environmentalism, sustainability, and creative building and site designs, and we all have the opportunity to say a few words and take official photos with the award winners.

[01:25:20] A special invitation to all board members will be sent to your offices, this board matter was to raise awareness and make sure people understood about this new format that we're trying to really try to to honor a little bit better the award recipients in all three of these areas and to celebrate with them that evening of march 28 2023 so if you could mark that on your calendars and then lastly i have a board matter that was added that was not distributed electronically. We've talked a little bit about this already this morning. This is an election year in Virginia with the Board of Supervisors, School Board, House of Delegates, Senate of

[01:25:59] Virginia, and Constitutional Officers, Sheriff, Commonwealth's Attorney, and Clerk of the Court all on the ballot. A very large number of Fairfax County elected representatives are not seeking re-election or seeking election to a different office than the one they currently hold. This includes two members, as we know, of our Board of Supervisors and seven members of the Fairfax county school board i move that without objection staff prepare proclamations for our retiring elected officials to be presented to them inside or outside of the boardroom at the recipient's discretion for our own retiring supervisors a celebration will be held on a future date

[01:26:36] my office will add any future retirements this year to this list as needed but it's pretty stunning when you look at this list the list of individuals here who are no longer going to serve in their current capacity a lot of folks who have dedicated a lot of years i meant to pull out a calculator and add up all the years of service here i'm not sure i have enough buttons but this is a remarkable list of people who in many cases have served our community for many decades and we want to make sure they are recognized and as the board matter says given the high volume of them we will leave it up to the description discretion of the recipient whether they would prefer to

[01:27:15] receive this proclamation at a future board meeting in person or whether they would prefer to receive it at a different event that they may be holding um in the community reluctantly without objections to orders thank you uh vice chairman gross and that is the end of my board matters uh supervisor gross thank you mr chairman i just have two brief ones and i'm really very pleased about this because um mason district has wonderful student athletes but it isn't very often that we actually get state championships. And so the Justice High School girls swim team

[01:27:51] competed in the VHSL 2023 Virginia High School Class A state championships held on February 18th in Hampton, Virginia. While the team finished fifth overall, Justice swimmers won the 200-yard medley relay and the 200-yard individual medley.

[01:28:09] I ask without objection that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors congratulate these athletes for their achievements and direct staff to prepare proclamations signed by chairman mckay and me i further ask that the uh that these athletes their families and coaching staff and other appropriate fcps personnel be invited to appear before the board on april 11th and without objection that is so ordered supervisor and secondly this is a joint matter with You and with Supervisor Faustin, by the way, that previous one was also with you, Mr. Chairman.

[01:28:44] The Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology won the VHSL 2023 Scholastic Bowl held on February 25th at Jamestown High School in Williamsburg, Virginia. The close runner-up was McLean High School. I ask without objection that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors congratulate teams from both schools and direct staff to prepare proclamations for presentation to these competitors, their families.

[01:29:08] And coaching staff at the Board of Supervisors meeting on April 11th. And that was without objection. Without objection, that is so ordered. Supervisor Gross. That's it. That is all. Thank you, Supervisor Gross. Supervisor Walkinshaw. No board matters, Mr. Chairman. No board matters for Supervisor Walkinshaw.

[01:29:25] Supervisor Faust. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I have one board matter, and it is intended to address compensation for the chairman and board members. Mr. Chairman, as this board is aware, the compensation for the Board of Supervisors has not changed since 2015, eight years ago.

[01:29:49] Per Virginia Code, the current board cannot increase its own salary. The board can only adjust its compensation in an election year and following a public hearing, and the change can only be applied to the next board.

[01:30:06] Therefore, if the board wishes to consider changing the salaries for the newly elected board to be seated on January 1, 2024, then the current board must hold a public hearing and vote on the matter before April 15, 2023. County staff has compared the salaries of our Board of Supervisors to those of the governing bodies of surrounding large jurisdictions. Staff also reviewed the pay increases county employees have received since 2015 plus projected compensation increases for

[01:30:43] the next two years using a two percent mra and an average merit increase of 2.25 percent for 24 and 26 through 26 the charts attached to this board matter show the results of these comparisons board members are not eligible for these county employee compensation increases board members also do not accrue annual or sick leave. As a result of their analysis, staff has recommended that pay for the board members be increased up to $140,000 annually, which is consistent

[01:31:19] both with surrounding large jurisdictions as well as what board members' compensation would be if they had received the same pay increase as the county staff received since 2015. For the chairman's compensation, staff found that surrounding jurisdictions pay their chairman an average of 15 percent more than board members. However, there is significant variation across jurisdictions from five to 36 percent. Currently, the variation for our chairman is just

[01:31:52] five percent. If Fairfax were to institute a 15 percent differential and adopt $140,000 annual compensation for board members, the chairman's compensation would be $161,000. It is important to consider the evolving nature and increasing demands of the jobs of board members and chairmen of the board of supervisors.

[01:32:16] In addition to county-based work, the job of a supervisor or chairman requires participation in a growing number of regional bodies in which most board members participate but are not compensated. Our constituents rightly expect us to always be available to them in this electronic era, which makes the time committed to this job more involved and complex than ever.

[01:32:41] Every supervisor and a chairman maintains full office hours throughout the year, and the board meets most Tuesdays, either for board meetings or committee meetings. It is not a part-time governing body. A reasonable compensation increase recognizes the growing responsibilities and expectations of this job and will help Fairfax County attract board members who are able to meet those demands, reflect the age, gender, and racial diversity of our county, and who do not need to rely

[01:33:15] on outside employment or personal wealth to do so. Compensation should not be a barrier to run for or serve in public office. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I move that the Board of Supervisors authorize a public hearing to be held at 4 30 p.m. on March 21, 2023, to consider the Board's compensation as described per the requirements of Virginia Code section 15.2-846. The advertisement

[01:33:48] should include a pay range of $125,000 to $130,000 for board members and $140,000 to $145,000 for the chairman, both of which include a range that is lower than staff's recommendations.

[01:34:04] Mr. Chairman, I also move that staff develop a mechanism for any board member who disagrees with the compensation adjustment to return any additional compensation they receive to the county. I further move that staff develop a process to provide compensation comparisons every four years to future boards so that those boards may have the opportunity to consider this action every four years rather than every eight years as has been prior practice.

[01:34:38] So move. You've heard the motion and I'm happy to second the motion along with Supervisor Smith and Supervisor Stork. Any discussion on the motion, Supervisor Faust? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm very pleased to be able to bring this motion. Of course, I will not be here next year, but I really want to communicate to whomever is listening the respect I have for this board and the unbelievable hours that you all put in.

[01:35:10] I think a fair compensation is appropriate. I think this, if adopted, I know that there'll be discussion, there'll be debate, and there'll be public comment. But if adopted, these recommendations somewhere within the range are very reasonable.

[01:35:27] This would be the, we've had, this board's had one raise in 16 years and none in the past eight. I recognize all the challenges we have with compensation. We're all committed to addressing them as best we can, but, you know, I just think that we should be able to move forward with this and ensure that future boards are adequately compensated.

[01:35:56] Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Faust. Other discussions? Supervisor Gross. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When I was on the Hill, my bosses would never vote for an increase in their pay.

[01:36:12] And I sort of learned that you don't vote on an increase in pay for yourself. But like Supervisor Faust, I will not be here next year. When I started in 1996, the board pay was $45,000 a year.

[01:36:30] I was going over, in my mind, the folks around the dais in 1996, and at least five, at least half the board had other almost full-time jobs. They needed to do that because the salary was not something that was really a livable wage.

[01:36:56] And so as we've moved forward, it has been a challenge every so often to figure out how to address compensation. I am glad that Supervisor Faust put in the information about participation in a growing number of regional bodies.

[01:37:19] That's a lot of what we do, and it's because Fairfax County is such an amazing place and has such leadership that people want, other jurisdictions want us to be at the table, and we make sure we are.

[01:37:35] COG is a huge piece of that. Supervisor Lesk, I've noticed, has been getting more involved in COG, and I'm really pleased about that, Rodney, because what we do here in Fairfax County and what we are able to give to others about how we operate is really, really helpful.

[01:37:57] I think, of course, it's helpful to be in all regional bodies. Once we get to hear what somebody else is doing and figure out what we should do, we find that our differences are not nearly as great as our similarities. But if you're not in the room, you're not going to be able to have that conversation.

[01:38:15] And now I would also say, as we have pivoted to virtual as a result of the pandemic, and I was sure that this was going to happen, I thought, no, I can't do this. I can't do this. You know, now that we're virtual, we're 24-7.

[01:38:32] Midnight, you're answering emails. I know that I know Supervisor Sorg is because I see his name, but you're answering, you're on all the time. And so the remuneration needs to be in line with what we're an executive and legislative board.

[01:38:54] It needs to be of a nature that more people will look at it and say, I want to do this. I can do this. And I won't have to worry about, you know, not being able to support my family.

[01:39:10] So I am going to support this, these motions. We'll see what happens when we actually have the hearing and figure out what we may do. But I know when looking at each of us gets a monthly statement about the salaries of our staff and ourselves.

[01:39:31] And it's listed as an hourly wage. Well, the hourly wage, if you actually took that hourly wage, was something like $42 an hour for members of the board. If you took that and split it up as to how we actually spend the hours, it gets to be about minimum wage, which is not fair to anybody.

[01:39:53] So I am pleased to support this, and I look forward to hearing from our constituents, many of whom make a lot more money than what is being proposed here. So thank you, Supervisor Faust, for bringing this forward.

[01:40:09] And thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Supervisor Gross. Others who would like to speak? Supervisor Herity. Yeah, and obviously I had heard this was coming, but I didn't get anything on it until 4.30 last night. So I'm just absorbing it.

[01:40:25] You know, as I look through the numbers, it looks like to get us to the average of our surrounding jurisdictions, we're looking at just the full-time. We're not averaging in the part-time. So we're saying this is a full-time position.

[01:40:41] Is that what I'm reading here? I'm just, again, looking at the numbers. It looks like overall we're at the 100%. We're right in line with our surrounding jurisdictions. If I could say, I did look at the full-time positions.

[01:41:01] I personally consider this a full-time job, and when you compare it to the jurisdictions that are full-time, we are equivalent or larger, and in my opinion, the board's role in Fairfax County is more significant than it is in some of these other jurisdictions.

[01:41:21] So, yes, the focus is on the full-time positions. Yeah, and as I look, none of those jurisdictions are in Virginia. They're the district in Montgomery and Pinch, Georgia. I know in Virginia we've had a long history of part-time legislators from the lieutenant governor down to the Senate, to the House, to our local officials.

[01:41:47] I mean, the way I look at this, this is a board position. this isn't us 10 mini county executives trying to run the county that's what we've got this gentleman over here up against the wall to do he's busy running the county right now looking at his phone but he's um yes it's busy i mean i've got three teen job fairs three town halls we get to shape the future of aging plan just this month to name a few there's a whole much else going on um you know my staff like uh like supervisor storks wakes up to a full inbox every

[01:42:20] morning because i i burn the midnight oil but you know my my big problem here is is you know we talk about not having to rely on outside employment or personal wealth to to do so and compensation shouldn't be a barrier to run for a serve in public office i mean this is public service but what we're forgetting here is that you know our county our police officers um they're not even at the average starting salary we're going to take ourselves to the average of a select group

[01:42:54] full time and our police officers we haven't even addressed the fact that they're the lowest in starting salary and in alexandria and arlington have both uh both announced increases i think arlington was 10 so we've we've got some work to do there and i'm going to be proposing some changes there but you know this comes on top of 100k increase in our board salaries that's a it's a 20 or 25 increase in our in our board budgets last budget cycle something i didn't support didn't have in my my budget um i like to ask a budget question if i can um and how we how

[01:43:33] do we how do our board budget offices compare to surrounding jurisdictions in virginia and i guess across the river these same jurisdictions i'd be interested in no i don't know the answer that i haven't looked but be very interested in seeing how the total budget for government for for board positions look. You know, budgets are about priorities. And to me, this kind of sends to the wrong message, you know, from a board that won't even second a motion to look for cost

[01:44:04] reductions. I think this isn't a, this, this is, we got to do a little better. I don't think I can support this. You know, certainly it should be looked at on a regular basis, but our residents are struggling with inflation, high inflation. They're struggling with a 50% increase in their taxes in the last 10 years um and we got a budget in front of us that doesn't even address public safety and some of the other critical positions we just increased our office budgets last year by

[01:44:38] 100k um so i'm not going to be supporting this um thank you supervisor harry and if we could make a budget q a the comparison if we could also run the numbers by district because i'm listening to supervisor harry and it's interesting because nobody on this board of supervisors since Supervisor Herity was elected has spent more money on their office budget than Supervisor Herity.

[01:45:02] And just by comparison, the chairman's office over that period of time has returned nearly $1 million of unused office budget money. Supervisor Herity is dead last in the county, returning $240,000 and as little as $678 last year.

[01:45:21] And so we know who the big spender is in the budget. Might be different than the words that come out, but if we could include in the budget Q&A not just the office budget comparison of other jurisdictions But also the amount of money each district has returned back to the county on an annual basis dated back to FY 2008 Supervisor Palchuk. Thank you, mr. Chairman And I absolutely support this I think for similar but really slightly different reasons And I think the reasons we were talking about this morning with a commission for women I'm not surprised, but disappointed.

[01:46:01] This is public service, but in a county where the average median income is $127,000 a year, what was $45,000 years ago, when my parents, thanks to an oil spill, were able to afford a home for $150,000, which is about what I paid for my very first condo that was built in the 70s.

[01:46:23] I know that in districts across our county, especially I know in my district, many leaders of boards, including the chair of office for women, have had to leave my district in order to afford to live here. We know that child care, everyone here on this board has a person, a spouse, a family behind them that helps ensure not only that you have those hours, those hours during the day, the 40 hours during the day, but the night meetings, the weekend meetings, the morning meetings.

[01:46:53] and the ability to have a support system that allows those of us here to do that, it is a sacrifice, and unfortunately a sacrifice that many aren't able to do if they need a second job, a third job, if they're struggling to figure out child care.

[01:47:11] I hope to not be the only woman who is able to give birth and have a child and try to figure that out while serving on this board. I'm extremely disappointed that we don't yet have new candidates coming forward who are women, women of color, young women, young families of color, wanting to represent and be more representative of who our county is today in 2023.

[01:47:35] And we can give all of the thoughts and support that we want for more women and more diverse candidates and younger families to make that sacrifice. But we know that that's a lot to ask for of a family when they are struggling with being able to afford this county with inflation, with the ability to make that sacrifice not just personally but for their entire family the hours we spend away from them I know my scheduling meeting every single week is a struggle

[01:48:07] because I started to serve in public office being single not having a spouse aging parents or a child to think about when I said yes to events that I was saying no to them that I'm saying no to time spent with them that we are trying to figure out how to make that work how to make child care where it's just so unaffordable work how to figure out all those hours and it is not about those of us here on our board which is why we make that for the next board hopefully many of us will have the privilege of serving again but we have done as much I think as we possibly can to try to encourage

[01:48:47] candidates to come forward and to do what I know is the most important office that you can serve in this county in addition to the school board but if families cannot make that happen if our if the pay for this job continues to be below the average median income if housing and being able to stay in your district and I know our state delegates and senators struggle with that this year as they were redistricted they had to make tough choices about some of them running again moving their families or being able to make some tough calls in order to live in a district I know I had to

[01:49:25] work with a realtor to draw my map so that we could figure out where to look for housing and the state delegates and senators do that as well I don't think that's a reason for us not to move forward and it's not to for us not to try to encourage and make it a little bit easier for those candidates to come forward to make that sacrifice and not to have their families absolutely sacrifice not just the time but the income in order to be able to live in this county and so I think it is critical I really want to thank especially supervisors gross and fast who are

[01:49:59] understanding as they retire that we need this new generation of leaders to be able to make that choice and make it a little bit easier a little bit less challenging on their families to be able to do this. I don't think it's about those of us here on this dais. For me, it really truly is about encouraging and bringing forward more families and young families who are already making, are already so challenged with housing, with daycare, with transportation, with costs of food and everything above that to be able to make this choice and this sacrifice. So I think it is

[01:50:36] absolutely critical I wish it did not have to come to this kind of fight in some ways only come up every 8 to 12 years because I it would make sense as we work to bring up the salaries of our staff we absolutely in our budget and those of us who vote for the budget and support that budget every single year know that the commitment is to having the best possible workforce and staff we can in this county and that includes the representatives on this dais so I really want to thank my colleagues who are supporting this I look forward to hearing from the community and hopefully we are able to make that slight change

[01:51:14] so that when we come around to another four years we have a very representative body and candidates who are able to make that choice thank you supervisor Palchek other discussion any other discussion supervisor Herdy there was one budget question that I forgot to put in there and I understand that there are some supervisors that have county take-home vehicles I haven't confirmed that but I read that in an article this morning if we could get someone to the county to let us know whether that is an option for all supervisors some supervisors I don't remember that coming before the board but I would it

[01:51:54] would be useful to have that information and take that into account when we're looking at compensation because compensation is bigger than just the paycheck. Thank you supervisor Harrity and you know I think if the county staff could also confirm for me because there was some talk in the past and there's a item in the motion about for board members who disagree with the compensation they can of course return that compensation to the county could the county also confirm if that has happened at any point in time with the board because I know some were vehemently opposed to this but then also certainly have collected that in the past so if we could get that confirmation as well so long as

[01:52:34] we're asking budget Q&A any other supervisor here yeah I was just going to confirm it has happened before my dad actually my mom told me the story my dad wrote a check back to the county every year for or every every paycheck for a period of time she didn't like doing it but she did do it so it has happened and you can do that and I want to recognize that and I I know you had talked about doing that the last time we voted on this as well so i just want to see make sure you know that we make it easy for one to do that because you know people come to this board for various reasons and

[01:53:09] you know some may have been you know born into a political dynasty and have wealth and have part time jobs that allow this work to happen others don't come from that background and as supervisor Powchick said consistent with you know our one Fairfax policy I certainly don't want to preside over a board where continually people tell me that they would be interested in running for the board of supervisors but they can't afford to do that we need to make sure that people who want to run for this board can afford to do that and recognize all people come from different walks of life

[01:53:44] so for a single parent that feels like they're in a position to lead this county they should be encouraged to run and participate and I know that some may approve this and that there's a lot of disapprove this and that there's a lot of political theater but there's a lot of protectionist incumbent protectionist going on here as well I certainly want a broad swath of individuals in the county to be able to afford to run and serve on this board and have a passion for doing that and reflect our actual community and not just our retired our wealthy or lucky enough to have a spouse that makes a lot of money because that leaves a whole lot of people who want to run for

[01:54:23] office behind. And I've talked to a lot of them. And, you know, it's a shame that anyone would say they're not going to run for the Board of Supervisors because they can't afford to. It's also a shame as the motion, Supervisor Faust's motion, hopes to improve upon that this political theater discussion, you know, happens once every eight years. Frankly, you know, we should be having this discussion more often so that people who do want to step up and serve can know what to expect in doing that when they decide to run for office. And that's one of the reasons why the Virginia Code section requires boards to raise salaries for future boards of supervisors,

[01:55:02] not the current board, so that people who are thinking about serving their community know what the rules of engagement are. And I think at this point in time, to have those salaries below median income tells a whole lot of people in this community you shouldn't apply to run for public office because you can't afford to do it sends the wrong message and so i do look forward to the public hearing testimony that we receive from people i know that there'll be a lot of theatrics we heard some of it today compared to this one year pay increase in the county

[01:55:38] executive's budget i mean this board hasn't even deliberated over that budget yet and many of us on this board are proud to have for all the years where the charts show salary increases for county employees many of us on this board have voted for those salary increases every single year that were used as a guide to determine the figures that are in here and so certainly look forward to a conversation about this in a public hearing but I think supervisor Faust for putting this on the table and illuminating these issues for the entire

[01:56:12] county and with that i will support the motion supervisor lusk yeah thank you mr chairman i'll just make one little personal point when i had to deliberate on running for the board of supervisors this issue was a very significant one from conversations with my wife she was trying to understand how i could take a salary cut is what she described it because of the compensation that we make on this board i have two daughters one that's in college she will be graduating uh this

[01:56:45] year and the only reason the only reason i could run is because i had spent 30 years working in this county prior and i retired and then i became able to meet the financial requirements that i would have as a parent father husband and it's unfortunate to think that if I were not in that position I would not be sitting here and I'm not trying to draw

[01:57:21] special attention to myself but I represent this board with pride I represent the residents of Franconia district with pride and I acknowledge and this is something that is unfortunate but true, I'm the first African-American male to serve on this board. I would not be sitting here. I would not be sitting here if I did not have the opportunity that I have. And there are many who don't. And it becomes an impediment. And if we

[01:57:56] want diversity, if we talk about the value of it, and if we're serious about it, I think we have to be honest about this question of compensation and I hope I hope that when we get to the discussion on this as Vice Chairman Gross has said we'll we'll see where we go but I think it's only fair that we at least have the conversation that we at least give the public information and then hear back from them my guess is most will see most will see that this makes sense but

[01:58:34] But, again, we will see how the process unfolds. But I just want to be clear in saying we don't want to have impediments for people to run. And this would be unfortunate. So thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much.

[01:58:51] Supervisor Lusk, if there's no other discussion, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Parity, nay. And division, let's do division. Supervisor Alcorn. Nay. Walkinshaw, aye. Kirk, aye. Smith, aye.

[01:59:07] Gross, aye. Lusk, aye. Lusk, aye. Harrity, nay. Palachuk, aye. And the chairman votes aye, and that motion carries 8 to 2. Thank you, Supervisor Faust. And next up is Supervisor Lusk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[01:59:24] I do not have any board matters for this meeting. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Lusk. Supervisor Alcorn. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have one board matter, and I have one additional info request. My board matter is a joint one with you. It relates to the review of the Reston-Town Center North redevelopment and procurement opportunities.

[01:59:43] So as the board is aware, a community task force led by former Chairman Kate Hanley has begun meeting and is gathering information to make recommendations for community facilities on county property in Reston-Town Center North, also known as RTCN. As a reminder, RTCN is owned primarily by the county and Inova, and a land swap has been long planned between the county and Inova, consistent with the site design approved and updated in 2021 by the Reston Association Design Review Board.

[02:00:14] There's a pressing need for new and updated public facilities and affordable housing, including a new regional library and emergency shelter for our homeless population, as those facilities are at or near the end of their functional life. On the edge of RTCN is property owned by the county's Redevelopment and Housing Authority, on which 30 RHA-owned townhouses were constructed in 1985.

[02:00:40] The RHA property, along with a portion of the parking lot of the North County Governmental Center, was the subject of an unsolicited proposal from Folger-Pratt under the Public-Private Educational Facilities and Infrastructure Act of 2002, better known as PPEA.

[02:00:57] The Folger-Pratt proposal would have delivered up to 350 new affordable homes and a new Reston Regional Library. It should be noted that this board, on my motion on April 12, 2022, directed staff to initiate steps to formally authorize and schedule a public hearing to consider conveyance of approximately 1.6 acres of the Reston District Police Station site located on tax map parcel 0171-01-14B to the FCRHA.

[02:01:26] The purpose of the transfer is for the development of affordable housing with appropriate replacement of secure parking spaces dedicated to police use. Although Folger-Pratt withdrew their unsolicited proposal, it is critically important to keep the momentum going for the redevelopment of this vital part of Reston and Fairfax County and the delivery of long-promised public facilities and affordable housing.

[02:01:52] Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I or we move that the Department of Public Works and Environmental Services Capital Facilities is directed to develop a strategy for the county's health and human service public facilities in RTCN, both existing or planned, that will best serve the Reston community and Fairfax County for future needs.

[02:02:14] This strategy should be coordinated with the district supervisor, with the appropriate deputy county executive, along with the chief financial officer, to be presented to the RTC and task force for discussion and feedback. And I further move that the board request that the FC RHA develop a procurement strategy for the redevelopment of the property that has had previously been the subject of a PPEA process to deliver new affordable housing and, if feasible, and with input from the RTC and task force, a public facility which serves both the residents of the new housing and the surrounding community.

[02:02:50] And I would so move. Second. Heard the motion and I'm happy to second that with Supervisor Lusk. Any discussion on the motion? Supervisor Alcorn. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just very briefly, the RTCN task force did meet for the second time last night, gathering information, starting to get its legs under it.

[02:03:08] This motion will, I think, really help move the process forward as the community starts to basically get its arms around what needs to happen there in RTCN. So I appreciate the board's consideration of this.

[02:03:23] Thank you. Thank you very much. Supervisor Alcorn, any other discussion? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? And that motion carries. Supervisor Alcorn. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Finally, just an information request.

[02:03:40] I'm not sure if my colleagues have been getting this, but I've been alerted by a couple constituents that our document shredding program has been suspended. And there's some information on the webpage about it. It includes that county staff had identified at least a dozen free document shredding events open to the public.

[02:04:03] So I would ask if county staff could provide us additional information about this move. I realize it's been paused and it's under review. But in the meantime, maybe it's just my Internet skills aren't as good. I was having a hard time finding all those free events.

[02:04:20] If staff could provide those, that would be really helpful. And I'm looking at Mr. Castrilli, who will work with the Wright County agencies to make sure that we circulate that information, so without objection. Next up is Supervisor Stork.

[02:04:38] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have two items. The first one is one that I have had the honor of doing annually for many, many years. It's recognizing March as Alternate Dispute Resolution Month. Alternate dispute resolution refers to several processes, tools, and techniques used to manage and resolve conflict. ADR is an alternative to traditional adversarial processes and helps disputing parties reach mutually agreeable outcomes that consider the needs for all involved and minimize cost while providing communication and morale. Alternate dispute resolution services

[02:05:14] have been especially relevant throughout the pandemic in helping employees navigate high levels of stress, communicate effectively, and build team relationships. Fairfax County historically celebrates March's ADR month, and each year chooses a leader in this field to receive recognition. This year, the ADR office would like to recognize the Alternative Accountability Program, or AAP. The AAP serves as one strategy to address disproportionate minority youth representation in criminal justice proceedings. AAP is a result of many years of collaboration and dedication to provide alternatives to the traditional justice

[02:05:54] system. The program is a collaborative effort between the Fairfax County Police Department, Fairfax County Public Schools, Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court, as well as Fairfax County Neighborhood and Community Services and NVMS Conflict Resolution Center. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, without objection, I ask that we recognize March as Alternate Dispute Resolution Month in Fairfax County and that a proclamation be signed by the chairman, and myself to be presented to the AAP agency outside the boardroom, and this is a joint one with you, sir. Absolutely, and without objection, it is so ordered. Supervisor Stork.

[02:06:31] Thank you. The second item is a fairly long one, so I'm going to be cutting a few points in here. They're in the overall board matter, but it, again, is a fairly long one, and one that I'm I'm doing jointly with Chairman McKay as well as Supervisor Rodney Lesk.

[02:06:51] In May 2021, the National Defense Authorization Act considered military bases across the country for potential renaming. Fort Belvoir was added to the list of bases. Now I'm going to go down because over the course of six months, there were some back and forth in hearings that they held.

[02:07:08] Then ultimately, the final naming commission report was then released in September 2022. The Naming Commission strongly encouraged the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Army to review these historical facts and consider renaming Fort Belvoir based on existing protocols for the renaming of installations and facilities.

[02:07:28] According to the History Commission members who researched the history of the Fort Belvoir name, the findings regarding Fort Belvoir are limited with specific inaccuracies and omissions. In addition, based on their letter sent to Chairman McKay and I on February 4th, 2023, the Fairfax County History Commission believes that the naming commission's report does not reflect a full and accurate picture of the events that led to Belvoir's renaming.

[02:07:53] And then they identified several points. One was how the name, actually the original name was Camp Belvoir, how it got changed to Camp Humphreys, and then ultimately how it got changed back, and frankly the complex interactions of all of those. And there's, again, some additional information on that.

[02:08:12] We fully support the recommendation made by the History Commission on the potential renaming. Any action taken by the Army to rename Fort Belvoir should be transparent, based on evidence, and include the local community and stakeholders. Also, removing the name Belvoir may reduce the likelihood that these stories of the enslaved African Americans and the free black residents who lived on base will be told.

[02:08:34] In addition, based on the findings from the History Commission's Confederate Names Inventory Report, Fort Belvoir has four street names named for Confederate generals that are in need of renaming, Beauregard, Stewart, Johnston, and Lee. These streets are all located on the North Post within a collection of streets named for U.S. Army engineers from the Revolutionary War to the 20th century.

[02:08:58] Additionally, as part of the National Defense Authorization Act, considering renaming of bases, it is our understanding that there is a desire from Fort Belvoir leadership to work with the History Commission and local historians to be consulted on renaming these streets. Any new proposed name should abide to the following criteria.

[02:09:17] Use names of prominent families in the historic African-American community of Woodlawn. Use names of African-American war heroes that were removed when the segregated housing area called Young's Village was demolished in the mid to late 1960s. Therefore, I move that the Board of Supervisors direct the Fairfax County History Commission to send their February 4, 2023 letter to the Secretary of the Army and the Naming Commission historian voicing their concerns on the potential renaming of Fort Belvoir and ask in a letter that the Secretary of the Army address the following questions.

[02:09:51] First is, what are the criteria for deciding whether to rename Belvoir? The naming commission concluded that, quote, renaming Fort Belvoir falls outside the legislative language provided in the FY21 NDAA for making a recommendation to rename the base, unquote.

[02:10:12] Is there another policy or mechanism for changing the name, and will it be applied consistently across assets? The next bullet, next item is the History Commission has stated, quote, with respect the effort undertaken by the Naming Commission historians, but do not believe the interpretation of history presented in the Naming Commission report is a full and impartial weighing of historical evidence, unquote.

[02:10:37] Will there be a fact-checking of the Naming Commission report or a re-evaluation of the evidence, and if so, will it be transparent to the community? And the last point, does the Army plan to seek input from the descendants of African-American enslaved people in the community or any others?

[02:10:55] I further move that the Board of Supervisors direct the History Commission to designate a small subcommittee to support any efforts by Fort Belvoir in renaming four streets on Fort Belvoir, currently named for Confederate Generals Beauregard, Stewart, Johnston, and Lee. These efforts should be done in consultation with any descendants of the community of Woodlawn Village to consult on the renaming.

[02:11:17] So move. I'm happy to second that motion. Discussion on the motion? Let me first just thank you for bringing this forward, Supervisor Stork. I had an opportunity. We had a community meeting Fort Belvoir not long ago, and I had an opportunity to sit down with the base commander for quite some time, and this was the subject of the conversation.

[02:11:40] I know it's created a lot of angst for Fort Belvoir, and I know that our history commission has done an outstanding job of recounting a lot of the history in that area and involving Fort Belvoir as well. And I think it's really important that as this consideration is being made not by the county, but that county input is a part of the decision-making process, including the good information from the History Commission.

[02:12:05] So support the motion, and thank you for bringing it forward. Supervisor Herdy. Yeah, and I want to also thank, while I don't support everything in this motion, I think it's critical work that the History Commission did to show the reality of the renaming and where it came from and that we need to keep Fort Belvoir, Fort Belvoir.

[02:12:24] So I'll be supporting this and, again, echo the thanks to the History Commission. I know it is something the base is concerned about and should be concerned about. Any other discussion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

[02:12:40] Any abstentions? And that motion carries. Supervisor Stork. That's all. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Supervisor Stork. And next up, we have Supervisor Palczyk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I apologize. I have, I believe, five, so I will try to go quickly.

[02:12:57] The first one is a joint board matter with Supervisor Lusk. Request to designate April 2023 as Child Abuse Prevention Month. Members of the board, April is a time to recognize the importance of families and communities working together to prevent child abuse. The pandemic increased stressors on families, thereby increased risk factors for child maltreatment.

[02:13:19] Nearly 3.1 million children were involved with child protective services across the country in 2020. In 2022, nearly 53,000 children in the Commonwealth of Virginia and nearly 3,600 children in Fairfax County were reported as possible victims of abuse or neglect.

[02:13:37] Additionally, Fairfax County's Child Protective Services 24-hour hotline received approximately 13,300 calls in 2022 for protective services and information about prevention and family support services. Child abuse prevention is a community responsibility, and finding solutions depends on involvement among all people.

[02:13:57] The lives of our children can be positively changed and saved by active and aware community members, making a critically important decision to ask more questions and offer help. Adverse childhood experiences result in long-term health impacts. Fortunately, the trauma of child abuse and neglect are preventable.

[02:14:18] Every child deserves to grow up in a safe, nurturing, and stable environment. Fairfax County is dedicated to the safety of children and providing the appropriate supports to parents to keep families healthy. Without objection, we move that the Board designate April 2023 as Child Abuse Prevention Month in Fairfax County and present a proclamation to the Fairfax County Department of Family Services at its meeting on March 21, 2023.

[02:14:44] Without objection. Without objection, it is so ordered. Supervisor Palchuk. Thank you. It's been a long morning already. The next one is a joint board matter with Chairman McKay and Supervisor Walkinshaw for Fairfax Coral Society's 60th anniversary.

[02:15:01] And I mentioned we have quite a few 60th anniversaries coming up. Members of the board, with a legacy stretching back to 1962, the Fairfax Choral Society, FCS, a non-profit public charity, enriches lives through the performance, education, and appreciation of choral arts.

[02:15:18] With six ensembles and the opportunity to join skill-appropriate musicianship classes, FCS is one of the largest choral groups in Northern Virginia and the only organization providing opportunities to 230 choral singers from preschool through adults.

[02:15:34] their vision is a world where choral music uplifts inspires all people and unites communities the fcs symphonic chorus has received rave reviews for its performance of choral masterworks in collaboration with the fairfax symphony cathedral choral society choral art society national symphony orchestra city of fairfax band and other arts organizations in the region the fcs vocal arts ensemble is an adult chorus that held its inaugural season in 2018-2019. Under the direction of artistic director Michael Ehrlich, this ensemble performs

[02:16:10] a variety of genres including traditional choral literature, major works, American folk songs and spirituals, music of different cultures, vocal, jazz, and Broadway. Along with bringing choral music to the community, the ensemble embraces the true meaning of community by seeking diversity in its makeup and its repertoire. The FCS Youth Choruses under the direction of Patrick Vaughn provide singers ages 5 to 19 the opportunity to expand their vocal experience in an auditioned choral program. Singers participate in musicianship classes and performing ensembles at their campus

[02:16:48] in Annandale. The FCS Youth Choruses have sung for choral festivals, schools, and church concert series with the National Symphony Orchestra and the American Youth Philharmonic Carnegie Hall at the White House and in collaboration with other youth choruses throughout the Washington area.

[02:17:05] The repertoire includes classical, folk, and the finest contemporary compositions for treble and mixed voices. FCS was honored by the Arts Council of Fairfax County with the 2016 Arts Education Award for its Outstanding Music Education Program. Their 60th Anniversary Gala will be held this Saturday, March 11th at 7.30 p.m., where their choirs, along with the special guest, the Children's Chorus of Washington, will present Dan Forrest's Jubilate Deo.

[02:17:36] They will be joined by internationally acclaimed soprano Simone Palwell. And not noted here, it will be at Capital One Hall in Tyson, so I invite you all to join us. Without objection, we move that a proclamation be prepared and presented to the Fairfax Choral Society at its anniversary gala on March 11th to honor and celebrate 60 years of enriching lives through the performance, education, and appreciation of choral art.

[02:18:01] And without objection, that is so ordered. Supervisor Gross. Mr. Chairman, the Fairfax Choral Society's headquarters is in Mason District, so I would like to align myself with this joint board matter and perhaps be added to the list. Friendly amendment. And again, without objection, incorporating that, it is so ordered.

[02:18:19] Supervisor Palcic. Absolutely. Thank you very much, Chair Gross. And as you all probably know, Michael Ehrlich was a very beloved director of a choir at Woodson High School. The room has been named after him, so we're delighted that he's still performing and leading choruses, choirs here in Fairfax County.

[02:18:38] The next is a joint board matter with Chairman McKay and Supervisor Lusk for My Brother's Keeper. Members of the board, pursuant to Chairman McKay's board matter directing the Successful Children and Youth Policy Team, also known as Skipped, to pursue the possibility of the county becoming a My Brother's Keeper MBK community. The board received an update and recommendation as part of its February 28, 2023 Health and Human Services Committee meeting. Specifically, the board directive was for Skip to identify and engage community partners in shaping the participation and infrastructure

[02:19:14] necessary for building, improving, and scaling initiatives that serve and support improved life outcomes for boys and young men of color and to determine the resource needs to implement organizational and operational recommendations. Accordingly, Skip has worked with Venture Philanthropy Partners, the Capital Youth Empowerment Foundation, and EduFuturo to lead the preparations necessary to join the MBK Alliance. President Obama launched MBK in February 2014 as a White House initiative to address the persistent opportunity gaps boys and young men

[02:19:51] of color face and to ensure all young people can reach their full potential. It is now an Obama Foundation program rooted in the belief that communities are the unit of change to realize improved life outcomes for our boys. MBK is aligned with the One Fairfax policy and is rooted in six key life milestones that research shows are especially predictive of later success and where interventions can have the greatest impact. While MBK Fairfax will adopt all six, the initial focus

[02:20:25] in Fairfax County is the following milestones graduating from high school college and career ready completing post-secondary education or training entering the workforce successfully and keeping kids on track and re-engaging them when they need it in order for Fairfax County to become a certified MBK community a formal board vote to accept the challenge is required Mr.

[02:20:52] Chairman I therefore move that Fairfax County join my brother's keeper alliance and take the necessary steps of becoming a certified my brother's keeper community and so and subsequently unleash the power of communities working together to solve problems for boys and youth men young men of color at a level to improve real life outcomes and i'm happy to second that along with supervisor lusk uh discussion on the board item any discussion very supervisor i just want to thank i think some of them are here in the audience with us here today and i want to thank everyone who's made mbk

[02:21:27] a possibility. There have been countless hours of work and initiatives since your initial board matter, which is attached here from June 23rd, 2020. I want to thank you. I want to thank Supervisor Lusk for your leadership, both here and in SCIPT, to ensure that we join this initiative, which I love, number one, because it is evidence-based and targeted universalism, as Carla Bruce reminds us, is so important in the work that we do, especially in such a large county, to ensure that our investments and the programs in our community are measured,

[02:22:04] that they will have the most valuable impact and return on that investment, and that we can make sure that we address and really fight to reduce the opportunity gaps at every level. And finally, just really want to thank all the staff who have worked on this over the years and look forward to the next steps.

[02:22:25] Thank you, Supervisor Palczyk, Supervisor Herdy. Yeah, I'm coming this way. Okay. I'll be supporting the item. You know, as I said when we discussed this in committee, you know, these are great goals and great evidence-based goals, and I just hope that we can work to achieve them for all of our residents, regardless of race, creed, or color as we move forward because there are challenges all over the place in the county with the achievement gap.

[02:22:59] Thank you. Supervisor Lusk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And again, I'm very supportive, obviously, and I'll make the point that the data that we received at the committee meeting was pretty compelling as we looked at the graduation dropout rates for Hispanic males and then also for English language learners, a pretty significant number on both of those.

[02:23:23] And I'll say, you know, we do need to intervene. We need to step in and come up with solutions that will help us address this particular issue. And then my own personal passion, as many of you have heard me say many, many times here, is really preparing people to move into the workforce and get jobs that are going to make them able to move into the middle class.

[02:23:46] We're going to solve a lot of issues that are in our communities because of the failure of folks to be able to support themselves. And I'm just excited about, you know, how we will partner and the steps that we will take working with my brother's keeper as well as others to enact these changes.

[02:24:12] So with that, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Supervisor Lusk. Any other discussion? Let me add my support. I want to thank Supervisor Palczyk for bringing this full circle because, you know, Attached is the board matter that I did on June 23rd of 2020. And I also want to thank VPP and the Capital Youth Empowerment Foundation, EduFutoro, the organizations who have worked on preparing all the things necessary to join the alliance.

[02:24:39] You know, we are able to stretch our investments so much further because of these partnerships. And the data is real. You know, we always, under our one Fairfax notion, want to support all people in Fairfax County. But when the data clearly shows that there is a very distinct discrepancy with some people in our community, you have to go the extra mile to be able to address that and to address it with real data.

[02:25:06] And clearly, those numbers were there. And so this is a what I do like about this is specifically driven towards addressing those dropout numbers among those young people who are disproportionately dropping out of high school and not getting graduation or a GED.

[02:25:23] And so I think it'll be easy to measure the success of this. I look at this alliance as an investment, not an expense, because left without intervention, these young people continue to live challenged lives after getting through some years of school and not walking away with a GED or a diploma.

[02:25:49] They're set up for a lifetime of challenges, and we have an obligation to step in and try to help correct that. And any time we can do that, even for one young person, we are making an investment in their future, which is necessary to sustain us as a county as well.

[02:26:07] And so I do want to thank all the people that worked to get this here. I'm glad to hear that all that time wasn't lost, that there was work being done, and certainly look forward to seeing this new enrollment with this alliance be successful and change some of those metrics that we saw because they were eye-opening for all of us and disappointing.

[02:26:27] but what would be more disappointing is if we weren't putting in place a response to it that specifically can address that issue so thank you uh with that all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions and that motion carries supervisor palchik thank you mr chairman am i i serving correctly i do see to leak on isaac in the back so just want to congratulate you both on the work um next up is a joint board matter with supervisor faust for the 20th anniversary of the Traveling Players.

[02:27:01] Members of the board, the Traveling Players celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. The Traveling Players, founded by Jeanne Harrison on June 10, 2003, is an educational theater company that brings unique theater training to students. Their mission is to enhance self-expression, self-reliance, and problem-solving skills, and to heighten appreciation of challenges and beauty by bringing great theater into the great outdoors.

[02:27:27] They foster this by providing an outstanding theater experience for students, which contributes to their maturity and cultivates a lifelong love of both theater and the outdoors. Classes and camps offered by the Traveling Players provide a full continuum of actor training.

[02:27:42] The students create theater in small ensembles, founded on the principles of inclusion, diversity, and equality, which is reinforced by the robust financial aid program. In 2020, the Traveling Players opened their studio in Tyson's Corner Center in partnership with Mace Rich, offering family-friendly theater year-round. They perform plays for the community throughout the summer at the Tyson's Corner Center Plaza. The National Endowment for the Arts selected traveling players as one of its 25 summer schools in the arts based on the players' comprehensive and intensive curricula, recommending that other institutions follow

[02:28:19] their educational model. Therefore, we move without objection that the board present a proclamation to the traveling players at a board meeting in June to recognize its 20th anniversary and to thank them for enriching the lives of our youth and providing meaningful opportunities for self-expression and growth.

[02:28:37] And without objection, that is so ordered. Supervisor Palchuk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And just a word of warning to my colleagues. You may be invited, as I was with Congressman Connolly, to one of their plays if you show your interest in theater. So just a word to the wise.

[02:28:56] Finally, a board matter for the modified process for Capital One, Block D. members of the board capital one recently reached out to me regarding a time sensitive matter they have a pending site plan under review for the development of the block d metro park that was recently approved via via an fdp to save several months of time they have requested concurrent review of the rough grading plan rgp and site plan although land development services staff do not have any substantive concerns with the request lds has determined that a board action is necessary to facilitate concurrent processing of the Site Plan and the Rough Grading Plan.

[02:29:33] I therefore move to approve Modified Processing Request MP-2022-10-01 to allow the Rough Grading Plan to be processed concurrently with the review of Pending Site Plan 6835-SP-0009 for Block D of of the Capital One headquarters campus.

[02:29:56] This modified processing will facilitate the delivery of the Block D public park and the new entrance to the McLean Metro Station significantly earlier than otherwise anticipated, and will likewise provide efficiencies for related site and utility work for nearby projects at Capital One East with similar public benefits.

[02:30:18] - You've heard the motion. It's been seconded by Supervisor Faust. Any discussion on the motion? Discussion on the motion. Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. Supervisor Palchuk. Just very briefly, I know we mentioned the House resolutions for our sitting retiring supervisors.

[02:30:38] We all have received an additional resolution today, number 502. I really want to embarrass him and my constituent, Tom Bishadny, who will be retiring after 34 years in the county. Not only is being recognized by our board and our regional commissions, but also by all of our delegates down in Richmond for his years of service.

[02:30:57] So thank you, Mr. Bishodny, for all of your commitment to the county. Thank you very much, Supervisor Pouchek and Tom, and his talents are certainly recognized by every member of the General Assembly I've spoken to. So it would seem only appropriate that they would recognize him, and I'm glad that they did that.

[02:31:14] Congratulations, Tom. That is all, Mr. Chairman. Supervisor Herity. Well, two things real quick. First, while we're on resolutions, there's also going to be one for, there is one for Chairman Pete Murphy that will be presented when we recognize him, just to put that, put that out there.

[02:31:31] And then to apologize for, to my fellow board members, because I have six written board matters and four unwritten board matters. So I'm going to try to breeze through this pretty, pretty quickly, as a couple of them are just recognitions of very important milestones, but recognitions.

[02:31:51] clifton general store it's having its 100th anniversary not very often we get 100th anniversaries but it really is the heart and hub of clifton um and they are uh it sits next to the only upgrade railroad crossing in fairfax county it's really the the center in the heartbeat of the town of clifton um therefore madam chairman i ask without objection a resolution prepared mr did i do that geez it's been a long time mr chairman says it right here mr chairman i ask without objection resolution be prepared for clifton general store recognizing it is a beloved staple of the clifton community and a timeless attraction for tourists visiting the historic

[02:32:31] town of clifton resolution will be presented outside the boardroom at the clifton general store's 100th anniversary celebration in july without objection it is so ordered supervisor harry okay so the next one is a fentanyl town hall that will be held at lake braddock in conjunction with school board member laura jane cohen and i am going to try to summarize this we kind of had our briefing on the on on where we are with fentanyl and and back in 2016 i have hosted one to raise awareness and i think you know we really need to do that as to every extent we can so this is going to be entire entitled fentanyl is in our neighborhoods and schools

[02:33:11] what you need to know and do it will be hosted like i said with laura jane cohen a school board member at lake braddock on the 28th at 7. it'll include a panel of county and school experts as well as someone with lived experience and addiction which is some of the the most moving you know kind of an impactful uh speaking that you can hear um mr chairman i asked without objection opi opa publicize the fentanyl is in our neighborhoods and schools what you need to know and do about it town hall meeting without objection and just so ordered all right the next

[02:33:47] one is jointly with supervisor walkenshaw and i mentioned this briefly um this morning you know it's to recognize west springfield high school's success in the first state all girls wrestling meet so it was back in 2022 the virginia high school league and their executive committee voted to designate girls wrestling as a emerging sport after pushes for the program were spearheaded by schools across the state at this time nearly half of the 271 schools in virginia had at least one female wrestler on what was considered a boys wrestling team with those numbers growing so last

[02:34:24] month virginia held its first official girls state wrestling meet in manassas where multiple west springfield wrestlers went to compete for the first time in school's history but i guess in history period uh three wrestlers made it to the 6a state state semifinals on february 25th the west springfield freshman elena prismuk became the first ever state champion for the vhs girls state championship in the 156 pound class she's the only dc area wrestler to win a title uh after uh delays from the pandemic and injuries from playing both softball and hockey her competitive attitude and

[02:35:00] termination officially cemented her in the record books therefore i ask without objection we invite the west springfield high school women wrestlers to come before the board to receive a resolution honoring their historic success in the first girls' state wrestling meet in Virginia with a separate resolution, recognizing Elena for her outstanding performance.

[02:35:21] Without objection, it is so ordered. The next one, I have discussed at the board before. It's a request for a letter for improved signage for I-66 express lanes outside the Beltway.

[02:35:36] This past November, the entire 22.5-mile section of the express lanes on I-66 outside the Beltway opened a full month ahead of schedule offering our residents new transportation choices pay a toll for a faster trip carpool for a faster free trip ride mass transit with a guaranteed travel time or ride in the regular lanes for free with a quicker commute due to the additional capacity from the toll lanes vdot and mega projects are to be commended for this impressive feat considering the the project's magnitude however the signage used on these new toll lanes the

[02:36:12] newly opened express lanes is not as clear as the signals on the signs on i-495 and i-95 express lanes the signage does not provide the total cost information for the entire length and it does not clear information to drivers on location of exit ramps to general purpose lanes which is important for drivers deciding whether to continue to pay additional tolls vdot mega project staff has previously indicated they're working on the issue but signs remain unchanged and my office continues to receive inquiries regarding this lack of knowledge i thought a letter from the board

[02:36:46] might vdot encourage the contractor to get that signage done so therefore mr chairman i ask the board direct staff to prepare a letter to be sent to vdot leadership on behalf of the board sharing these concerns and requesting that changes be made to the signs to provide clear information on upcoming exits exit to the general purpose lanes and all related tolls so that our citizens and travelers using this corridor can make informed decisions to use or not use the i-66 express lanes so moved you've heard the motion it's been seconded by supervisor lusk any further

[02:37:21] discussion seeing and hearing none all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions that motion carries supervisor harry next wants to recognize lake braddock secondary gymnastics state champions this is done jointly with supervisor walkenshaw They won their second straight Virginia six championships in February under coach Mike Cooper, who coached the team in 99, and came back last year, coached their win last year and this year.

[02:37:52] Also, an impressive display was highlighted by Lake Braddock sophomore Madison Bell. It received a 9.8 on the uneven bars and a perfect 10 on the balance beam. She was recognized as Toyota's Athlete of the Week and brought home the all-around state championship this contributed to the team score of 151 85 just edging battlefields 148 1 and establishing the Bruins as repeat champions therefore mr. chairman I asked without objection we invite Lake Braddock secondary schools women gymnastics team to come before the board to receive a recollection resolution recognizing their second

[02:38:29] consecutive classic state championship title in a separate resolution recognizing Madison Bell for her outstanding performance. Without objection, it is so ordered. The next one, another staple in our community, Nativity Catholic Church, which is having its 50th anniversary.

[02:38:49] And I'm going to summarize because I've been going for a while here. Obviously, they've grown. They are a staple in the area. They were founded as kind of a chance out in the middle of farmlands, but they are having a 50th celebration on June 11th.

[02:39:06] Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I ask without objection that we prepare a proclamation recognizing Nativity Catholic Church's 50 years of existence in service to Fairfax County to be presented outside the boardroom on their anniversary on June 11th, 2023. And without objection, it is so ordered.

[02:39:24] My unwritten ones I'll go through very, very quickly. Teen job fairs start this Saturday. will be the uh the Saturday 11 to 1 at West Springfield High School then the 18th from 1 to 3 at South County the 25th from 1 to 3 at Chantilly High School I'd invite any of my fellow supervisors to come out and join any of those that they would like it's a great experience of seeing the young people interact with our businesses also for the board's information shape the future of aging plan it's something Supervisor Walkinshaw and I have been working on our plan is to have

[02:40:02] a draft of that plan which is lengthy it's what about 30 some pages of text it's not going to have all the graphics in it yet out to board members by um thursday at the latest um for discussion at next tuesday's meeting but you'll have another opportunity at the uh you know we're going to get the comments and then go over it again at the april 25th aging committee meeting hopefully in time to have the plan finalized by the um older adults month and adopted in a may meeting. So that's kind of the plan. I just wanted to give you a heads up that you've got some

[02:40:36] reading coming on Thursday. The third is in response. I know there is one other supervisor doing, I think it's Supervisor Stork assessment town hall. Because of the questions we've gotten on assessments, the tax department is doing a, is going to co-host a town hall with me on uh march 15th at six o'clock on the assessment process just to explain that to our residents but that certainly is open to any county resident um supervisor alcorn brought up shred events and i've

[02:41:13] been getting the same questions from my staff that they can't find these shred events um i got a different story as to why we weren't holding them so i i here's why we're not hosting them shredding events require lots of staff time we're in the process of scoping a substantial revision to solid wage management plan to meet state and board directives and need all hands working on it. So it's a little bit of a staffing shortage. We're also having service delivery challenges, a staffing problem. The third was our equity assessment of the existing program identified concerns that past

[02:41:49] shredding event locations were not equitably distributed across the county and thus did not meet the board's one Fairfax policy. Thus we're pausing the program while we reassess. And then And the fourth one was shredding events as they were previously implemented are contrary to the county's waste reduction and sustainability goals.

[02:42:10] So these, this is what I got back in January. So these very popular programs are being paused or eliminated. I am hosting a shred event with crime solvers on June 24th at Rolling Valley Mall. I think Supervisor Stork is also doing one on April 1st with crime solvers.

[02:42:29] But we're going to go ahead and see if we can't provide some shredding services. So those will be at least two dates for your guys. But they're going to have to drive to Mount Vernon or Rolling Valley Mall in West Springfield. And that's all for me today. Okay. Supervisor Smith.

[02:42:46] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My first board matter is with you. It's for in November of 1992, Reverend Dr. Eugene Johnson assumed the pastoral leadership of Mount Olive Baptist Church in Centerville, Virginia. Pastor Johnson became Mount Olive's 11th pastor in its illustrious 107-year existence, becoming the longest-tenured pastor in Mount Olive's history.

[02:43:08] After 31 years of dedicated service, Pastor Johnson is retiring from the ministry. Under Dr. Johnson's spiritual guidance, Mount Olive experienced unprecedented growth in membership. It was under Pastor Johnson's tenure that Mount Olive grew from a small rural church to the monolithic community pillar that it is now.

[02:43:26] Given his tremendous time in service to residents of this county, regardless of whether they were parishioners of Mount Olive or local residents. Pastor Johnson has found time to remain an ardent family man. He and his wife, June, are the proud grandparents to Marley and Jayden. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I ask without objection that a resolution be signed by the chairman and myself and presented to Pastor Johnson outside the boardroom for his undawning service to so many of the residents of the Sully District in Fairfax County.

[02:43:50] And without objection, that is so ordered, Supervisor Smith. This next one, I don't know how 20 years goes by so quickly. I'm pleased to recognize one of Sully District's premier elementary schools, Colon Powell Elementary. For 20 years now, Colon Powell Elementary has educated our young students, preparing them for middle school and beyond.

[02:44:10] The highly qualified educators that have walked the halls of Colon Powell have impacted the lives of these young people by providing the best educational opportunities for them to have successful educational outcomes. On April 20, a 20th anniversary ceremony will take place at the school, and the first principal, Brian Ho, will provide remarks.

[02:44:28] In addition, the Colin Powell Puma Band will perform a commissioned William Owens piece. There will also be a community celebration on Saturday, May 20, on the school grounds that will include food trucks, carnival games, and a silent auction. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, without objection, I ask that a resolution be signed by the chairman and myself to be presented at the school's 20th anniversary ceremony on April 20th.

[02:44:49] Without objection, it is so ordered. Supervisor Smith. And I was fortunate to meet Colin Powell there one year. On my last one, it's been a while since we've done this, the Journal Education Association, JEA, with representatives from the National Scholastic Press Association and the Quill and Scroll International Honorary Society, recently named Chantilly High School, McLean High School, and West Springfield High School recipients of the 2023 First Amendment Press Freedom Award.

[02:45:17] And, of course, I'm doing this with Supervisors Faust and Herring. The three schools are among 16 schools from across the United States to receive this award, and this is the ninth consecutive year that Chantilly received this recognition, and the sixth consecutive for McLean, and the first for West Springfield.

[02:45:33] The award recognizes public high schools that actively support, teach, and protect First Amendment rights and responsibilities of students and teachers, with an emphasis on student-run media, where students make all final decisions of content. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I ask without objection that the board directs staff to invite representatives from Chantilly High School, McLean High School, and West Springfield High School, and the Journalists of journalism students from their respective schools to come before the board to be acknowledged for their superior chief Without objection that is so ordered Supervisor Smith. I am done. Thank you. Mr. Chair. Thank you very much Supervisor Smith Supervisor store. I appreciate mr. Chairman

[02:46:11] I one of the things I failed to mention which which I really was just reminded of is that on Thursday March 16th Given the numbers of residential real estate assessment concerns that people have had I am going to hold a virtual which means that anybody and everybody could can can tie into it and we happy to send that out to everybody but on Thursday March 16th at 7 o'clock Microsoft Teams a virtual meeting people can come learn learn more about the assessment process there'll be a couple neighborhood examples that that they'll be showing as well to give people sense of that obviously individual specifics you'd have to call and follow the process but I think it will help people understand that it's not some black box or it's

[02:46:51] really a very transparent open process doesn't always produce the results that we may want you know for our house but but it does clearly show how we come to those decisions and the Constitution of Virginia requires us to do these assessments and have them be equivalent to the really the value of the property every single year so thank you thank you Supervisor Stork for that announcement and with that we are going to move on to administrative items let Let me ask if there is a motion to approve admin items 1 through 5.

[02:47:24] Mr. Chairman, I move approval of admin items 1 through 5, but I suspect that at least one of them will be pulled for separate vote. Yes, and actually that's been moved and seconded. And let me ask now if board members would like any pulled for separate discussion and separate vote.

[02:47:41] We traditionally always do pull administrative item number 5 for a separate vote, which I'm happy to do. Are there any others that board members have questions about or would like to vote on separately?

[02:47:57] So we will be then moving to approve admin items 1 through 4. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? And that motion carries. And action item number, I'm sorry, admin item number 5 is authorization to advertise publication of the FY 2024 budget and required tax rates, the FY 2024 effective tax rate increase, and the Advertised Capital Improvement Program for fiscal years 2024 to 2028, with future fiscal years to 2033.

[02:48:32] I would move approval of the item, Mr. Chairman. And the Chair will second that motion. Any discussion on the motion? Any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

[02:48:49] Parity, nay. Any abstentions? And that motion to advertise a tax rate was approved 9 to 1. And with that, we will move on to action items. Action item number one is approval of the reciprocal agreement between the Virginia Department of State Police and Fairfax County during the police unity tour.

[02:49:10] Supervisor Lusk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just very quickly, this action will permit the Fairfax County Police Department and Virginia State Police to work cooperatively during the three-day bicycle ride from Central Virginia to Washington, D.C. The ride is hosted to raise awareness of officers who have died in the line of duty.

[02:49:30] So from May 10th to the 12th, riders will be traveling through the Commonwealth of Virginia and also coming through Fairfax County. We want to ensure that our Fairfax County Police and the Virginia State Police are working cooperatively to ensure the safety of all those participants.

[02:49:46] So with that, Mr. Chairman, I move the county executive's recommendation for action one. I'm happy to second that. Any discussion on the motion? Let me just add that, you know, having seen this come through the county several times in the past, When we get closer to the date, if we can get an idea of, you know, kind of the exact path that the tour is going to follow just so that we can be there to support the people who are participating in this, that would be appreciated.

[02:50:15] With that, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? And that motion carries. Action item number two is approval of the disease-carrying insects program. Supervisor Stork, do you have a motion?

[02:50:31] This is action item number two. I move the county executive's recommendation. You've heard the motion. Is there any discussion?

[02:50:47] It's been seconded. Any discussion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor of action item number two, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. Action item number three is approval of the calendar year, FY 2023 Forest Pest Management Program, Supervisor Stork.

[02:51:05] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move the county executive's recommendation. It's been moved and seconded by Supervisor Gross. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor of action item three, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions?

[02:51:21] And that motion carries and brings us to consideration item number one. And just for board awareness, we do vote on these, but consideration item number one is approval of Fairfax County's 250th Commission bylaws.

[02:51:38] Supervisor Gross. Mr. Chairman, I move approval of the bylaws, and I do have a question. second heard the motion and the second we're going to have a question and discussion on this so let me first recognize supervisor gross thank you mr chairman and this really is not something that would be included in the bylaws but wondering if someone maybe as a budget Q&A can give us a little background on what the budget for this commission might be because this is a big deal but I don't recall that we've had much discussion about how this

[02:52:16] Commission will be supported and who will be supporting it on the county side we will do that I think it can be just done as a budget Q&A yes ma'am thank you okay we can do it that way or we can do it as a request for information but we do want to get that answer back to the board any other discussion on that Supervisor Stork. Just broadly, Mr. Chairman, we started this process actually a couple years ago because we wanted to be ahead of the curve. And frankly, we have Scott Stroh, who is

[02:52:53] Executive Director of George Mason. Yeah. So Gunston Hall and George Mason, he's the state leader. He really ties together. We want to, frankly, we know we have a tremendous number of historical opportunities here to engage and show.

[02:53:10] It isn't just about 1776 or 2026. It's about the 250 years in between and how we've evolved and how we can hopefully continue on that effort to be a more perfect union. So thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Stork.

[02:53:26] Any other discussion? Well, Mr. Chairman, if I could just. Yes, Supervisor Gross. Sometimes these things grow and become more difficult, perhaps, for the folks who are appointed to the commission.

[02:53:42] So I wanted to make sure that we're aware of that potential because it is a lot of work. But it's also a lot of work for staff, so we want to make sure we've got some sense of what it actually will be. Thank you. Thank you.

[02:53:58] Supervisor Powchick. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And just and I appreciate that and while we await that I do see that Denise Russell Martin there's your dinner here and Denise dress so we we did increase some funding and during the work of the history commission with a What they had on their plate this year and wanted to ensure that Denise and her staff had sufficient support So before we get that just wanna see if there's anything we should know today from his dressel or or moving forward in The staff support for this. Are we okay? Yeah, thank you so much this is denise dress all heritage resources department of planning and development um right

[02:54:34] now we are fine thank you so much for uh asking supervisor paul jack okay thank you i'm just delighted i know there's so much that we're asking for staff so i really appreciate that question and i appreciate that miss dressel is able to was able to be elevated and and hopefully have a full team for that um and any additional support we can provide moving forward just thank you for for being here for your work on all of our history and history commission projects okay with that all those in favor of consideration item one please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions that motion carries and that brings us

[02:55:11] to closed session and before I turn to supervisor gross for a motion let me ask the county attorney how long we need for closed session mr. chairman I estimate that will need one hour today one hour and our first public hearing is at 4 o'clock so the board will should this motion to go into closed session be approved the board will be in recess until 3 p.m. today for closed session supervisor gross mr. chairman i move that the board of supervisors recess and go into closed session for discussion and consideration of matters enumerated in

[02:55:47] Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711 and listed in the attached agenda for this meeting. And in addition, one, as permitted by Virginia Code Sections 2.2-3711A7 and 8, considerations of settlement demands regarding the following. Injuries associated with a motor vehicle accident at the intersection of Centerville and Frying Pan Roads on December 27, 2017, and a police department critical incident on July 7, 2022 at 6916 Arbor Lane in McLean and number two as permitted by Virginia code section 2.2-3711A1

[02:56:24] annual evaluations for the county executive and the county attorney. You've heard the motion the chair will second that motion is there any discussion on the motion any discussion on the motion seeing and hearing none all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions and so now that that has been passed the board will report back to closed session we will start closed session exactly at 3:00 p.m. so that we can have enough time before our 4 o'clock public hearings and I should have asked ahead of time but I'm presuming there are no deferrals for the afternoon is that right there are no deferrals that are expected okay not for

[02:57:04] the two Springfield cases okay so we will report back in closed session at 3:00

[02:57:09] p.m. Okay, the board is back in session, and we have just completed closed session. Let me turn

[03:03:13] to Supervisor Gross for a motion. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Board of Supervisors certify that to the best of each member's knowledge. Only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements by virtue of Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711, and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion by which closed session was convened were heard, discussed, or considered by the Board of Supervisors during the closed session.

[03:03:36] For the motion, Chairman and Supervisor Lusk will second that motion. Discussion on the motion? Any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries, and motion's coming out of closed session.

[03:03:54] Supervisor Gross. Mr. Chairman, the board has now completed its annual evaluations of the county executive and the county attorney, And I move approval of such evaluations on the terms and conditions outlined in closed session. You've heard the motion and the second from Supervisor Lusk.

[03:04:11] Any discussion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. And I don't believe there were any other motions coming out of closed session. So with that, we will move on to public hearings and just a few reminders about public hearings.

[03:04:30] Individuals wishing to provide testimony have a number of options. They can testify here in person or they can provide testimony by phone or by YouTube video. At the designated point in the public hearing, I will call for any speakers from the speakers list and then they will either come forward or their video will be shown or they will be connected by telephone.

[03:04:48] There will be an opportunity for anyone else who would like to speak to the application to come down to the podium or to call in on a number that will be provided on the screen. Speakers testifying via video must sign up and submit their video no later than 9 a.m. on the day prior to the public hearing.

[03:05:05] For all testimony, you're given three minutes to speak as an individual. If you're a spokesperson for a group, you are given five minutes. And our first public hearing is a public hearing to consider an ordinance to amend and readopt Fairfax County Code Section 7-2-7, 7-2-10, 7-2-12, and 7-2-13.

[03:05:27] relating to election precincts and polling places to rename precincts in the Franconia District, divide, create, and rename precincts and relocate polling places in the Providence District and relocate and rename precincts in the Sully District.

[03:05:43] And obviously there is no affidavit for this, so at this time we'd recognize staff, some of which recently celebrated a birthday, for a staff presentation. Welcome. I may be too old for this. You have before you the board item and the list of those things that we needed to do, much of which is clean up from redistricting and name changes and assorted things like that.

[03:06:14] If you have specific questions, I'll be happy to answer them. And also to say, unless you have something else you want to add legally, that we need to do this this early in order for us to be able to notify people of these changes prior to the primary, which, as you all will recall, is now the third Tuesday in June, and thank you for your help in making that happen. Thank you very much. Are there any questions that board members have? Any questions from board members? Seeing and hearing none, this is a public hearing, and I have no one signed up in advance to testify on this matter.

[03:06:52] Is there anyone here in the auditorium who would like to speak on this subject? Anyone present who would like to testify, this is a public hearing. I'm seeing and hearing no one. Let me ask the clerk if anyone has called in. No, there are no callers. No one has called in. Any closing comments or recommendations from staff?

[03:07:09] Well, I would like to be sure you get a chance to say hello to our registrar, Eric Spicer, and the clerk to the electoral board, Beth Methfessel, whom you no doubt hear from both of them more frequently than you hear from me. Okay.

[03:07:30] Any questions? Last call. Any questions from board members? Any questions from board members? Okay. I will now close the public hearing and does Supervisor Gross, do you have a motion? No, actually I don't. Okay. I'm happy to put a motion on the table.

[03:07:47] I move the county executive's recommended adoption of the proposed ordinance. Second. It's been moved and seconded multiply. Is there discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed say nay any abstentions that motion carries mr chairman thank you very much thank you thank you very much miss hanley appreciate it and thank you to the entire team i appreciate the work that you do and we are going to move on to our next uh public hearing

[03:08:16] which is a public hearing on af 2022-sp-00005 jacqueline attia hztm agricultural and forestral district in the Springfield district. And do we have someone here who can, there's no affidavit on this, so let me now recognize county staff for a staff presentation. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Sophia Fisher. I'm with the Department of Planning and Development. This is an application

[03:08:50] for a new agricultural and forestry district in the Springfield district. It's approximately 77.5 acres. This new district combines two previously established districts, they were known as Reed and JLB, into a single new district. Both districts were acquired by the same new owner in the past year, and both were due for renewal this year. So other than the change in ownership, there have been no changes to either property in the previous eight-year terms. The property is zoned residential

[03:09:29] Conservation and is in the Water Supply Overlay District. It is planned for low-density residential. The majority of the land is south of Pope's Head Road with approximately 6.6 wooded undeveloped acres located on the north side. The main house, garage, and shed comprise approximately two acres on the southern portion of the property and the remainder of the property contains approximately 33 acres that are maintained as hay fields and areas for firewood harvesting and 42.5 acres of forested land there is a small pond located to the southwest of the main house and a larger

[03:10:07] pond to the east of the house the site is located within the johnny moore creek watershed and there is also EQC, floodplain, and RPA on the property in the southwest corner. A soil and water quality conservation plan was prepared by the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District. Critical recommendations include carrying out nutrient and pest management practices and management of the RPA. The Virginia Department of Forestry provided an updated forestry management plan that

[03:10:46] includes recommendations on non-native invasive species management deer control and pest management staff finds that the proposed district satisfies the applicable group a criteria and two of the applicable applicable criteria in group B namely the zoning district and contributing to the rural character of the area it meets minimum district acreage requirements and other requirements of the code as I noted previously there have been no substantive changes to the district and should it be established it would be

[03:11:22] expected to meet all other ordinance provisions the Planning Commission heard this application on February 15th 2023 and recommended approval subject to the proposed ordinance provisions the agricultural and forestry district of advisory committee also recommended approval and staff recommends approval subject to the proposed ordinance provisions dated uh february 1st 2023 thank you thank you very much are there any questions of staff at this time okay uh this is a public hearing and

[03:11:57] i have one speaker who has signed up in advance kristen burns is miss burns here okay if you could come on down um and uh while you're making your way down uh this is a public hearing on this agricultural and forestal district is there anyone else here present in the auditorium that would like to testify on this matter on this agricultural and forestry district anyone else present who would like to testify on this subject okay uh miss burns welcome you have three minutes thank you and i don't think i'll need three minutes um i just want to sort of do a reality check with the board

[03:12:34] of supervisors here in fairfax county we have i believe over one million people in fairfax county And we have not maintained what we need for sharing a quality of life and sharing lives worth living, which includes our agriculture.

[03:12:54] D.C. got to be the seat of government because Virginia was rural, Maryland was rural. We maintain the lives that feed us. We have let that go, and if we are going to share the quality of lives that we want to share, we need to start finding ways to reestablish that.

[03:13:14] It may sound like an odd thing to say, but one chicken on the other side of a well-tended life feeds one family for two or three days. In Fairfax County, we run around, we do a lot of jobs that don't actually contribute to our real sustenance and to our real lives.

[03:13:32] And I want to encourage the board to take any opportunity it can to reestablish agricultural districts to encourage the better use of the lands that we are blessed with. I understand that earlier today you passed some bylaws for a committee that is celebrating the 250th anniversary of the independence of the United States of America. The time then was so different than the time now, but what we really need for life hasn't changed, and we need to get back to

[03:14:07] the basics of what we really need. I also want to encourage the board, there was an article that fairfax times published back in 2020 during the time we were mitigating covet it's called our real local national and global needs it's a long article at the time the fairfax times published it in full it was my thoughts at the time for how we could reorganize ourselves to change quickly to kind of share a higher quality of life here unfortunately a lot of things have changed since then not for the better but for the worse we are less organized we are less

[03:14:46] able to work together to achieve common goals that are important and that are good and I just want to encourage the board to support the agricultural districts to ensure that we're not losing more healthy lands to over development and things like that and to also just remember that we're real people we want to share life it's not a competition and we will only share it as we share it I appreciate your time and I hope you have a good afternoon Thank You Miss Burns is there anyone else present who would like to testify on this matter anyone else president seeing and hearing no one let me ask the clerk if anyone

[03:15:23] has called in no callers no callers have called in closing comments and a recommendation from county staff staff recommends approval of this new district thank you very much last call questions from board members seeing and hearing none I will now close the public hearing and turn to supervisor Harrity for a motion. Yes, Mr. Chairman. I move the Board of Supervisors approve AF-2022-SP-00005 and Appendix F of the Fairfax County Code to be amended to establish the HZTM Local Agricultural and Forestville District

[03:16:02] subject to ordinance provisions dated February 1st, 2023. So moved. And the chair will second that motion. Did I mess that up? It looks like I might have messed that up. The motion was read properly. However, if you could please request that the applicant affirm on the record their acceptance of the conditions dated February 1st, 2023.

[03:16:23] Okay, we need to do those for ANFs, okay? Yes, sir. If the applicant could come down and state for the record their acceptance of the ordinance provisions dated February 1st, 2023. I accept the provisions. Thank you.

[03:16:39] While you're here, thank you very much for doing this as the previous speaker referenced. So thank you. Do you want me to, Mr. Chairman, do you want me to restate the motion? Mr. Chairman, I move the Board of Supervisors approve AF-2022-SP-00005 and Appendix F of the Fairfax County Code be amended to establish the HZTM, Local Agricultural and Forestal District, subject to ordinance provisions dated February 1, 2023.

[03:17:09] moved and the chair will still second uh that motion along with supervisor palczyk any discussion on the motion seeing and hearing none all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye aye any opposed any abstentions and that motion carries congratulations and thank you and we have about 14 minutes before i can call our 4 30 case and so the board will take a very short

[03:17:39] recess and we will return to call our last and final 4 30 pm case it's now 4 32 so we're going

[03:25:46] to reconvene here for our final public hearing which is a public hearing on af 2022-sp-00004 ar89-s-004-04 hope foster brit tr in the springfield district and there is no affidavit So let me recognize county staff for a staff presentation.

[03:26:11] Good afternoon. Again, my name is Sophia Fisher with the Department of Planning and Development. This is an application for the renewal of an existing agricultural and forestal district in the Springfield District for another eight-year term.

[03:26:27] The property is 25.51 acres. It's also zoned residential conservation and in the water supply overlay, Water Supply Protection Overlay District and planned for low-density residential.

[03:26:44] There are two residences on the property that comprise approximately three acres on the northern portion of the property, and the remainder of the property contains approximately five acres of agricultural and 17.51 acres of forested land.

[03:26:59] There's also a pond located to the west of the main house. The site is in the Johnnymoor Creek Watershed, and there is EQC on the property. A soil and water conservation plan was prepared by the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District.

[03:27:18] Critical recommendations include carrying out nutrient and pest management practices and management of the pond. the virginia department of forestry provided a brief assessment of the forest resources and found that while the trees are generally healthy the forest itself is not due to excessive deer browse and non-native invasive plants and so they have provided an updated forestry plan with recommendations on how to manage the non-native invasive species and deer control

[03:27:53] and pest management staff finds that the proposed district renewal satisfies the applicable group a criteria and two of the applicable criteria in group b namely contributes to the rural character of the area and is in the one of the zoning districts that is set out in the state code and meets the minimum district district acreage and other requirements of the code it should be noted that there have been no substantive changes to the district since the previous approval and should it be renewed it would be expected to meet all other ordinance

[03:28:28] provisions this has been reviewed by the planning commission and the agricultural and forestal district of advisory who recommend approval subject to the proposed ordinance condition and staff also recommends approval thank you thank you very much are there any questions of staff or the applicant seeing and hearing none this is a public hearing i have no speakers who have signed up in advance to testify on this matter is there anyone present in the auditorium that that would like to speak on this subject anyone present who would like to speak this is a public hearing I'm seeing and hearing no one let me confirm with the clerk no one's called in no

[03:29:05] callers no one has called in the applicant waves rebuttal we just heard the recommendations and closing comments from staff last call for questions from board members seeing and hearing none I will now close the public hearing and recognize Supervisor Herity for a motion yes Mr. Chairman can i request the applicant's date for the record uh their acceptance the ordinance provisions dated february 1st 2023 thank you i accept all right i'd like to i had a chance to talk with uh with

[03:29:42] with hope earlier um but during our break and she she reminded me of the time in 2009 i was driving down twin lakes road and there was a goat in the road pulled over and led the goat back to uh to to her residents and understand unfortunately the goat is no longer with us but i am very happy that that the applicant has decided to renew this and i also learned how helpful staff was so i want to pass along thanks to staff for for for making this process as easy as it can be with the

[03:30:19] with the provisions that we require and with that this is a really good thing mr chairman i'm very Very happy to move that the Board of Supervisors approve AF 2022-SP-00004 and Appendix F of the Fairfax County Code be amended to renew the Foster-Britt Local Agricultural and Forester District subject to ordinance provisions dated February 1st, 2023.

[03:30:46] So moved. Chair, we'll second that motion along with Supervisor Lusk. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? And that motion carries.

[03:31:02] And thank you and congratulations. Thank you again. And with that, if there's no further discussion, this brings us to the end of our board meeting of March 7, 2023. And the board is adjourned.

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