Coraggio Consulting
Henrico County Board of Supervisors Regular Meeting, Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Date: Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Place: Henrico County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 1h 54m (video)
Official meeting video (Swagit): https://henricocountyva.new.swagit.com/videos/325751
Official agenda (Henrico County): https://henrico.gov/pdfs/manager/meetings2025/011425ag.pdf
Official minutes (Henrico County, regular meeting): https://henrico.gov/pdfs/manager/meetings2025/011425regmins.PDF
Agend-O-Gram, Jan 28, 2025 (records the Board's approval of these minutes): https://henrico.gov/pdfs/manager/meetings2025/1-28-25Agend-O-Gram.pdf

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-25. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:08:25] Good evening. Welcome to our January 14th, 2025 Board of Supervisors meeting. We are appreciative of you being with us tonight. If you are giving public comments, they will be given from the lectern in the back. For everyone who is watching the live stream of tonight's meeting on the county website, you can participate remotely in the public hearings and public comment portion of the meeting.

[00:08:52] Go to the Board of Supervisors webpage at henrico.us forward slash supervisors. Click on Guidance for the Board of Supervisors meeting and scroll down and click on WebEx event. And a moderator will let you know when it is your time to speak.

[00:09:14] Speakers will address their comments to the board and will begin by stating their name and address. Discussions between speakers and members of the audience will not be allowed. Speakers who have brought printed documents to share with the board are asked to give them to a sheriff's deputy.

[00:09:33] The documents will be included in the record of the meeting. Please stand as we recite the Pledge of Allegiance together and be led in our invocation prayer by Stephen Boots, chaplain for Henrico County Police Division.

[00:09:50] Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic. Father, we thank you so much for an opportunity we have to be here tonight.

[00:10:10] Thank you so much for your goodness to us and for a new year that you've given us here. I do thank you that you brought us through the crisis that we dealt with last week. I do pray for those that are going through the wildfires and the situation out in Los Angeles. I pray that you just protect them and keep them safe as well.

[00:10:26] And I do thank you for all of those that are being appointed to the positions tonight. I thank you for their willingness to serve in those positions. I pray that you would help them as they do that. I pray for our board as well and for our county manager. I pray that you give them wisdom as they make decisions for this county. I pray that you give us a great year.

[00:10:42] Again, we thank you so much for the privilege of being able to be a part of this. I do ask for protection for our first responders, for our police officers, and our firefighters, and those that are doing that work. And again, we thank you for all that you do for us in Jesus' name. Amen.

[00:11:06] Andrew, approval of minutes.

[00:11:22] Mr. Chair, we have a request for approval of minutes from December 17th, both the regular and special, December 17th, 2024, both regular and special meetings, sir. Is that a motion? So moved.

[00:11:37] Motion made by Mr. Smith, seconded by Reverend Cooper. All in favor say aye. Aye. Thank you. Mr. Chair, members of the board, members of the audience, I want to take a minute and recap the events of last week for the members that are here today and those that are watching online.

[00:12:00] I'm going to take my time for a minute and just relay exactly what we know happened, when it happened, and there's more that is coming out regarding the water crisis that our county experienced last week.

[00:12:17] There will be a briefing to the Board of Supervisors on February the 11th with our 30-day post-op, if you will, that was committed to on Saturday by members of the board, myself, to the residents of the county.

[00:12:34] And you'll hear about those efforts. But going back, if you recall, it was Sunday, January the 5th. Our county actually opened our emergency operations center. We didn't do it for water. We did it because we were making sure that all winter storm plans and needs were addressed for snow because we had snow that we were dealing with.

[00:12:58] And little did we know that that emergency operations center would actually not close until Saturday, January the 11th. So we went from January the 5th to January the 11th. January the 5th, we pretreated and plowed thousands of lane miles of road for snow.

[00:13:22] Then as we moved into this water crisis, our call center answered almost 8,000 calls. Our teams through pods throughout the county distributed more than 153,000 cases of water.

[00:13:39] We made available 120,000 gallons of potable water through 20 tankers. We made deliveries to 48 daycares, 900 separate residences that needed assistance, and 11 assisted living facilities.

[00:13:57] More importantly, we had hundreds of employees and even more community and volunteers from our school system working, yes, 24 hours a day to meet the needs of our community during this crisis. I want to thank all of the employees and also members of the board that were also delivering water and seeing what individual residents that may have needs, how they could be addressed.

[00:14:27] I want to begin by thanking Terrell Hughes, our Director of Public Works, for how we handled that snow, not just on January the 5th, but also this past weekend.

[00:14:42] And then especially give thanks out to Bentley Chan, the Director of Public Utilities, for navigating an issue and his work crews. This issue, I want to underscore, and perhaps double and triple underscore, was not of our creation.

[00:14:59] Our Chief of Emergency Management and Workplace Safety, Rob Rowley, guided us and supported our agencies partners through all of these events. So that snowstorm that closed our schools and led to flooding and a loss of power at the city's water treatment facility, that will be a conversation I think this region is going to be having for many days and weeks ahead. The disrupted water service in our county, this disrupted water service in the county because Henrico and Richmond

[00:15:36] share the region's water resources under an agreement that dates back several decades. So with the city's plan out of commission, our residents started losing water late Monday, and those problems worsened through Tuesday. At its peak, we had more than 24,000 of our customers without water. We needed to act. We proactively disconnected from the city's water system and thought that we could route water across the county from our treatment facility on three-chopped road that proved extremely difficult because the system was simply not

[00:16:15] designed to do that working in frigid weather our crews crisscross the county making careful adjustments to valve after valve in our water system and ultimately we were able to restore 6 000 additional homes by taking that approach those efforts however were further complicated by a water main break that we had in sandstone we declared a local emergency that you'll hear the board act on tonight but not lift which allowed us to act quickly and we began providing bottled and potable water to impacted communities on wednesday as the city's pumps began to

[00:16:55] re-pressurize the system with the assistance of henrico and hanover the virginia department of health issued a boil water advisory for eastern henrico that was inevitable that we that was the second day that we did not have water moving through the system and we recognized that and And we needed to issue a similar advisory countywide because we really can't be 100 percent certain where all of the water goes that comes in from the city of Richmond.

[00:17:26] Again, our water system and Richmond's are connected. By late Thursday, service had been restored to our neighborhoods and pressure was strong enough for us to begin the series of water quality tests. Then finally, Saturday morning, our test results were clear, and we were able to lift the advisory.

[00:17:46] Now, the story does not end there. As promised, Saturday, Enrico County has already hired and released two outside firms, and they are Whitman, Recwart, and Associates, WRA for short, and Aqualaw, to complete analyses of all aspects of our utility system and response.

[00:18:10] The scopes of the reports include a timeline of events, evaluation of infrastructure, let me say that again, evaluation of infrastructure, and recommendations on how to make our system, particularly in the eastern portion of the county, more resilient, and contractual agreements that we have in place with other local governments.

[00:18:30] Additionally, the county will be completing an after action on our community response and public communications. As noted in my comments as I began, that report will be presented to the board on February the 11th, which is exactly 30 days after it was after Saturday's briefing.

[00:18:55] However, these reports, I want to assure the residents of the county and actions will be the first of many. The underlying question, particularly from our central and eastern residents and businesses, is how will the county become more reliant on our system?

[00:19:14] This question, quite frankly, cannot be sufficiently answered in 30 days. So we are going to take a little more time in getting that answer, but I think that 30-day review is going to give us an early indication as to how that may be possible.

[00:19:30] It will take many years and millions of dollars to put into place all of the components necessary to make our system more resilient. Now, as I close, I don't want to give anyone any false assurances regarding the reliability of the city's water treatment plant.

[00:19:51] That water treatment plant continues to come back into operation, and there are many, many things that need to happen over the next week for that operation to be fully functional and reliable. That is the information that we have.

[00:20:08] We are going to continue to pump out information, reliable information, as soon as we have it for all of our residents. But right now, we are up and running, and I did want to comment on that timeline. And once again, thank the members of the board for their particular actions and the Herculean effort of the staff that I saw working so hard last week.

[00:20:33] Mr. Chair, I have no other comments unless you have anything for me. Do you want to have anyone, is there anyone here that could speak to the earthquake? I do see messages. We see stuff on social media, so I don't want to put anybody on the spot.

[00:20:52] But we did have an earthquake in Henrico. It was in, so earlier today while the board was in work session, there was an earthquake in Hanover County. We believe in northern Ashland is the information that we got.

[00:21:11] But if you heard a loud boom, that's what that was. It was an earthquake in Ashland. And right now we don't have any information regarding any damage to any county homes or buildings. But we'll definitely be going through that assessment.

[00:21:27] Thank you, sir. All right, colleagues, do we have any comments? Mr. Chair, I have a comment. And I would ask Ms. Kay Alfario to please approach the podium. So, as some of you may know Kay, she is the president of the Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen and serves very diligently and passionately in that role, and I've enjoyed getting to know her.

[00:21:54] But last month, and the reason I asked her to be here today is last month, she was integral and part of a Christmas program at the James River Juvenile Detention Center, and I was able to attend as well as a couple others of us there.

[00:22:09] And it was very personally touching to me because I have, some of you may know, I work with juveniles who are court involved. And I have some children that are in the James River Juvenile Detention Center. And so to be able to watch them participate in a normal event and to be kids and to, you know, show their talents and to put down their guards was incredibly moving to me.

[00:22:35] So, that was one part, but even better than that, I think, is a program that they have been working on wherein they have brought artists to work with the children to be able to commission pieces. I was able to, and they were for sale, and I asked staff to bring them down for me, and I wanted to show them off here today.

[00:22:55] These are done by our young people, two young ladies, I believe it was, that painted these two with the help of staff brought over from the Cultural Arts Center, and they were for sale. And so I was able to purchase these two, and this is money that is saved for these young people, and they go into their bank accounts, and they're able to use it to get a fresh start.

[00:23:17] But even more than the money, I dare say, you know, when I told these young ladies that I had bought their works, they were really beside themselves. and they couldn't believe that folks believe in them the way that they do. And these are the types of works that we do and folks that work with our folks in the county do that we don't often get to brag about.

[00:23:37] And so I really just wanted to be able to share what was being done last month and give Kay an opportunity to speak to us from her heart about it as well. Thank you. And it is very near and dear to my heart. And we could not do what we do without the support of the County of Henrico.

[00:23:56] I am constantly amazed, consistently amazed at the way you guys govern with both integrity, with honesty, and with real caring. I think that, you know, Mr. Batokas, you talked about all the people that came out for the water crisis. It's because of the way you guys lead.

[00:24:12] It's because you don't forget, in the midst of all of the things you have to do, you don't forget about the humanity of it all. And you remember the people. And that's what you did for us. And James River is very near and dear to my heart. We got this idea several years ago.

[00:24:29] My first, I remember sitting in Reverend Nelson's office and saying, we have an idea. We want to do something at James River. We believe that art can make a difference in the lives of these kids. And we really want to try this program. And thanks to your support, my next step was Mr. Patokas' office to say kind of the same thing.

[00:24:48] And you guys were so supportive. And you have been with us every step of this program, and it has made a difference. I am absolutely amazed at the difference that this is making in these kids' lives. Seeing that they can recognize their worth and they find a voice through their art is just amazing.

[00:25:08] I love going to the third floor, even though I have to have somebody let me in up there. I love going to the third floor. When you take a left out of the elevator, there's a wonderful painting on the wall. That was done by one of the youth at James River. It was the first painting he ever painted.

[00:25:25] He had never painted anything before. He worked on it for months, and we were just so proud. And when the county purchased it, it made his day. He was already out, but he got the money for it, and it's made a big difference. At the event that you were talking about, we do a couple of art shows every year where we invite people to come in.

[00:25:44] We put the art on display and sell it. I'm very excited to say that 17 artists combined made over $4,000 in the sale in one day. Yeah, I bought one, too. I couldn't help myself. But that's just the kind of thing that is making a difference.

[00:26:00] And at least three of the kids came up to me afterwards, and they were amazed that the county manager, that some of the supervisors were all there to see them. It just was, it amazes them that people that are important, that are people they would never meet, in their daily lives would come to see them, and it makes a huge difference.

[00:26:22] So that's been big. We have – I just found out today that the kids from the program have been invited to go to the Governor's Mansion to meet. They've also – they've been to several – they've had several opportunities to come to shows at the center where they can meet with the performers afterwards.

[00:26:42] But, you know, it's talking to the individual kids. It's the young man who said to me one day, you know, before I learned to draw, if I got mad, I just wanted to fight. And now I've realized that if I draw, I'm not mad anymore. There's the young man who I bought a painting from.

[00:27:00] He was doing it. He said he wanted to learn to paint for his daughter. I bought the first painting he had ever painted. And when I learned what he wanted to do, I offered to give it back to him so he could give it to his daughter. I said, you can have the money, but I'll give it back. And he said, what would you do with it? I said, well, hang it in my office. And he was amazed. He said, people will see it.

[00:27:16] And I said, yes. And he said, you keep it. I'll get my daughter another one. So it is making a difference. They're really getting involved. And we have plans to continue. We have plans to grow. I met with the people from James River today.

[00:27:32] We are, thanks to Ms. Roundtree, we have connected with the first poet laureate of Virginia, who is going to start a poetry program out there. We hope that will culminate in the kids not only being able to have their first experience sitting in a theater, but have their first experience on stage actually performing.

[00:27:51] We're going to look at improv classes. We already have music classes going on, but the improv is going to teach kids to listen to each other, to cooperate, and to verbalize, and to really express themselves. So we're very excited about that. We also have a program in the works to do a music recording, teach them how to record their own music, write and record their own music.

[00:28:09] So we have big plans for the future, and we couldn't, again, do it without you all. And I would just like to close by saying that at the end of the program, we went into the pods to see where the kids had decorated their living quarters. And one of them, in one of the pods, one of the young men had gotten out and unfortunately had committed suicide the week before, so it prompted a lot of discussion.

[00:28:31] And as they were working on their art projects, they started to talk, and they had a big – they had created a sign. And what they talked about was the fact that there is hope in the world, and they have hope. And they said that to them, hope stands for hold on, pain ends.

[00:28:49] So this is the kind of impact you guys are having, and I just cannot thank you enough. Thank you for your support. We will continue to try to make you as proud as we possibly can by making as big a difference as we can. Thank you. Mr. Chair, I apologize for the breach in protocol.

[00:29:14] We do have notice now from the U.S. Geological Service, the epicenter of the earthquake that was noted earlier. Earthquake was magnitude 2.8. It was 7 kilometers north of Wyndham, just inside the Hanover County line.

[00:29:38] Thank you. Colleagues, any more comments from you? All right. Recognition of our news media, known news media here tonight, WTVR, A.J. Nwuku. I hope, A.J., I'm sorry if I messed your last name up.

[00:29:55] All right. Your friend, A.J., from WTVR, and also Maggie Marshall is here with WTVR too, right? Yes. All right. Thank you guys for being here. All right. We move to, oh, well, Mr. Manager.

[00:30:13] Chair, so this is the first meeting of 2025, the organizational meeting. First item on the agenda is agenda item 1-25, and this is the election of chair.

[00:30:29] So here you're going to see our county attorney, Andrew Newby, come forward to conduct the election of the chair for the Board of Supervisors for the 2025 calendar year. Thank you, Mr. Manager. We will now conduct the election of the chair of the Board of Supervisors for calendar year 2025 and thereafter until his or her successor is elected and qualified.

[00:30:53] So we'll now open the nominations. Are there any nominations for chair of the Board of Supervisors? Nominate our current vice chair, Dan Schmidt. Thank you. Is there a second to the nomination of Mr. Schmidt? Are there any further nominations for chair?

[00:31:11] Hearing none, I declare the nominations closed. And I will now call for a motion on Resolution 1-25, nominating Mr. Schmidt as chair. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion on the motion? Mr. Newby, I would take a moment for discussion here.

[00:31:29] And I say this sort of preemptively, recognizing some of the things going on in our region and across the pond a little bit. So when we had the elections of 2023, it did represent a bit of a monumental change for this board.

[00:31:45] As I understand it, it's the first time that three new board members came on at the same time in the history of Henrico County. It also represented a flip politically in the board, and it certainly represented a couple of firsts for my particular seat.

[00:32:02] And so recognizing that, I think that throughout this year I have carried with me the knowledge that there were many who were elated and excited and had expectations about the results of that election, and others were quite the opposite, were disappointed, dismayed, perhaps even a little bit fearful as to what that would mean, changing the composition of the board. And so I not only carried that through the year, but I carried that into our discussion or into our consideration of the election of the chair this year. So some of you may know that, unlike other jurisdictions,

[00:32:39] Henrico sort of has a way of doing elections of chair, and it follows a bit of a loose rotation, which is designed to ensure that folks have opportunities to serve. And that loose rotation over the years has meant, for example, that Reverend Nelson served as chair, I believe it was twice while he sat in the minority politically of this board. And I think that people agreed that that was a good thing. And so as we came up on this, I wanted to have a conversation and discussion with Mr. Schmidt because the way that that rotation worked meant that as vice chair last year,

[00:33:18] he was expected or presumed or sort of suggested that he would be chair this year. And I wanted to have a discussion with him because it is a unique situation and I don't ever ignore elephants in the room and I wanted to acknowledge that and and we had a good a good hearty discussion I think and I you know asked him about what his views were for leadership what his views were you know going forward especially with the dynamic that we had what his priorities were and I shared my thoughts on leadership and the dynamic and all of those things and we really weren't weren't that far off with the big picture things.

[00:33:53] You know, the fact that, and I will say this, I think it is important to note that I, myself, had no intention, request, thought, aspiration to serving as chair this year. To my knowledge, none of my Democrat colleagues had that aspiration at all.

[00:34:08] So it was not a situation as occurred across the pond where there was a bit of that division. So that didn't come into play at all. But I do serve as a Democrat. And what that means is that I am a Democrat because, generally speaking, the values that are important to me, the mores, the priorities, the humanity, as Kay spoke of, those all, in my estimation, align with what I view to be more aligned with the principles of the Democrat Party.

[00:34:39] But more so and more importantly than that, when we're serving here at local government, we recognize and I recognize that you all just want us to get things done for all of you and your kitchen table issues, regardless of whether there's an R behind our name or a D behind our name.

[00:34:54] And so the question that I had to ask and have to know the answer to is, is there anything about Mr. Schmidt and his services chair that would impact or interfere and impede the goals that I have for the coming year or that I believe my colleagues have?

[00:35:09] And I am confident and comfortable after my discussion with Mr. Schmidt that that is not the case. And so, again, I don't say this to belabor it to be overly dramatic, but I recognize that there are questions and people have, again, feelings and thoughts and i wanted to affirmatively state them and address them and so based on that mr newby i do support mr chair for excuse me mr schmidt for chair thank you thank you any further discussion on the motion all right so we have a motion on resolution 1-25 nominating mr schmidt as chair there's been a proper second in discussion all in favor say aye aye all opposed the resolution

[00:35:45] passes congratulations mr chair mr schmidt the clerk will now swear in mr schmidt thank you all

[00:36:26] thank you to my colleagues i think at this time i'd like to invite the um our former chair mr nelson to the podium uh my colleagues and i this county county staff have a gift to present to him and thank him for his service also on behalf of this board this county county staff the residents that we collectively serve uh we are grateful for your service your outstanding service and we thank

[00:37:04] you sir mike george am i supposed to look at this now all right some of cooper's nice shirts

[00:37:42] thank you i do have some prepared remarks so that i won't get too far off but clearly um you know our public relation team shared some facts and uh because i got too lazy i didn't write i didn't type my comments in and so this paper's all handwritten so we'll see how this works out

[00:38:16] i do want to thank you colleagues um because you are the ones who after the residents elect us give us the opportunity to serve. So thank you for allowing me to be the chair last year. It meant a lot to the Verona District and our entire community for allowing me to serve as an elected board member for my fourth term on the Board of Supervisors. It truly, this past year, has been one of the busiest and possibly the most rewarding year of my life professionally.

[00:38:51] Please know that for the past 13 years, I've taken this responsibility serving our citizens every day seriously. Last year as chair, I strive for us to communicate and collaborate as a board so that we can build consensus around key issues and articulate a vision for our county's leadership and staff to implement.

[00:39:16] I've encouraged us to tell our story, the Henrico story, with transparency and boldness and what a year it was, not even counting last week's extraordinary challenges with our water system, which I'll touch on in a minute.

[00:39:37] Last night, I thought back to my first year on the Board of Supervisors, how excited I was, the expectations that I had for myself, and the expectations that others put on me. There were those, and ironically, Misty Roundtree shared these same things in her comments, who thought that my win was a fluke and the county was doomed.

[00:40:05] Others who were giddy and excited that both Shannon Taylor and I were the first Democrats that had been elected in a while. Some who thought that because we were elected, new and fresh ideas would flow, and they did.

[00:40:23] But I knew that I had worked with a board who had worked together for 16 years. And it was somebody new, young, 25 years of age younger.

[00:40:41] I didn't know what to expect. And honestly, they probably didn't either. But each day, each week, each month, and as the years went past, I learned my job and I learned what I was called to do.

[00:40:56] There were moments when decisions were pragmatic. There were other moments when thoughts were guided by what we had done. There are many moments when we were challenged to think outside of the box.

[00:41:13] What I learned most importantly was how to connect with the community that we were called to serve, the people of Henrico County, the employees who work for Henrico County. I enjoyed my time working with those who came before this current board.

[00:41:33] Dave Cackley, Dick Glover, Peto Bannon, Frank Thornton, Tommy Brannon, Courtney Lynch, and my current partner, Steele, Dan Smith. I always thought, even though we disagreed on ideology, that we all thought we were doing what was best for our districts and for Henrico County.

[00:41:59] The thing that I appreciated most was what Misty referenced earlier. We respected each other. So much so that the board elected to choose to allow Frank Thornton to serve even when he was the only Democrat on the board. Four Republicans, one Democrat. First African American elected. They didn't look at his ideology or his race. They didn't use that to keep him from serving multiple terms as chair.

[00:42:36] Neither did they keep Petal Bannon from serving as the first woman, and technically still, beyond six months, the only woman before Misty Roundtree to serve a full term on the board.

[00:42:54] I respect the fact that we respect each other. We have, we are, and we will always look to each other as human beings first before we judge based upon politics. So that led me back to where we were last year with that spirit in mind.

[00:43:15] I approached 2024 with extreme optimism. We started with the swearing in of three new board colleagues, Roscoe Cooper of Fairfield, Mr. Roundtree of 3Chop, Jody Rogish of Tuckahoe. You might have expected a board with three newcomers to take a while to jail to have a learning curve before we could get down to the business, but I quickly learned that was not us.

[00:43:43] Dan we realized that we had three very special people in Jody Misty and Roscoe who were working with us I know my first year and Dan you probably can attest to this we may have felt alone I know I felt like I was drinking out of a spigot or water hose with information I didn't want to make a mistake I was scared to ask questions because I thought they may come off as dumb I also had four vets sitting there who had done it before i didn't get that with jody misty and roscoe

[00:44:22] they have been very smart intelligent decisive they're all committed studious they ask the right questions they listen to their citizens they push when they needed to pull product and i'm telling you it didn't take long before they knew what they were doing look at the year that we had guys

[00:44:47] On the 17th day of our first term together, we were standing in the cold on a Verona Riverfront, voting to purchase Verona Farms, more than 2,000 acres of land that represents the birthplace of Henrico County.

[00:45:05] I believe that set the tone for a remarkable year. We focused on our young people, engaging, inspiring, and challenging them. Monica Callahan and her team led the second Teen Summit RVA that all of us did the best that we could to support.

[00:45:24] Within Ricoh County Public Schools, we launched in Ricoh CARES to strengthen our mental health support systems for students and for families. We approved a budget that reinvested in core services, including schools and student safety.

[00:45:40] We advanced our bond projects, provided residential and business tax relief. Our triple AAA bond ratings were reaffirmed, which is another independent confirmation of our outstanding financial management.

[00:45:58] We celebrated as a team this summer with events marking both Juneteenth and Independence Day. We continue to enhance our quality of life, modernizing Henrico's first park, Cheswick Park, and opening Taylor Farm Park, which is now the standard for what a local park can be.

[00:46:18] We focus on sustainability and protecting our environment. With our heart committee, we reforested parks and school grounds, providing shade and reducing runoff into creeks and streams. We also initiated a project to install electronic vehicle charging stations at more than a half dozen county facilities.

[00:46:41] Sports tourism exploded with the first year of activity at the Henrico Sports and Event Center. March brought us the Atlantic 10 Women's Basketball Championship and a record month of hotel revenues. We also hosted our high school graduations and scores of other events with more coming.

[00:47:02] I was trying to push Dennis Bickmire to allow me to say we had a half million visitors, but he says it was close to 400,000. We partnered with community organizations to expand the Nova Swim Facility at Regency to improve Striker Park and acquire the Crossings Golf Course, which is being improved as a potential stop on the PGA Tour.

[00:47:26] We also have a new championship pickleball complex at Ponce Track Park. For me, one of the most important things that happened this year was establishing a $60 million trust fund to put home ownership within reach of more of our community's workforce.

[00:47:45] New affordable homes are already coming to both Verona and Tuckahoe districts, and our fund is attracting attention as a model, a local solution to a national problem. With the city and other partners, we made sure that our region has an emergency shelter during extreme weather.

[00:48:08] And with our broadband project, we're making high-speed Internet access universal to Henrico. We created a new Department of Outreach and Engagement to supercharge our efforts to make Henrico a welcoming place for everyone. Construction was non-stop with road projects, like the improved Creighton Road project that borders both Fairfield and Verona.

[00:48:34] A new and expanded sidewalks and the Fall Line Trail. We're getting ready soon to open the police's new South Station and Bungalow City Firehouse 23, both in Verona. We work with GRTC to increase residence mobility with expanded transit service north to Virginia Center Commons and the new Link Microtransit Service in Sanston.

[00:48:59] I was honored to serve as chair of GRTC on the board with our new chair, Mr. Smith and Todd Ewer. We also passed a critical milestone in efforts to secure our water resources and thus our community's future.

[00:49:15] Can't wait for that to come online. In November, we assumed operational control over our massive new reservoir in Cumberland County. To be clear, these are just highlights. You all know we did so much more. We had lots of positives last year.

[00:49:33] We also had some challenges, some things that did not work, some things that we tried, that we failed at, but we persevered. I'd like to thank everyone who made 2024 such a success for our county.

[00:49:52] Our county manager and his team, our departmental leaders, and all of our hardworking employees. None of this would be possible without such a tremendous team of highly skilled individuals with compassion and a commitment to deliver outstanding public service.

[00:50:16] As the outgoing chair, I especially want to thank our residents for believing in us, for trusting us, and yes, challenging us to do better. The challenges we faced last week with our county's and region's water systems are stark reminders that our work continues.

[00:50:37] Public service is an active, ongoing exercise. We must plan for better tomorrows, but we also must remain nimble and ready to respond to whatever comes our way. I'm honored to serve. I was honored to serve as chair and incredibly proud of the work that we have done together as Team Henrico. I'm definitely excited that I serve on this board with these four

[00:51:08] individuals. The number 13, as I was growing up, was a number that usually elicited a negative response. Scary, spooky, something that we avoided every month. I wanted to see which day the 13th fell on and hope that it didn't fall on the 13th. Last year was my 13th year on the Board of Supervisors, and I must say that it has been my favorite. And this part only some of us will get,

[00:51:45] so this is my subtle humor. I'm glad that Jody Rogish came all the way from Tuckahoe for Juneteenth. I have a lot of love for our mascot Stewie, our environmental mascot Stewie, but it seems like Stewie seems to love Roscoe Cooper more. I look forward to the new additions to our agendas, what I call the misty moments. And I've learned in reflection that maybe

[00:52:18] I just may care about short poem. Dan, I don't have a moment listed for you yet, but I'm sure this year we'll find one for you. As I constantly tell y'all, we're just getting started and i mean that we literally are just getting started thank y'all for letting me serve

[00:52:42] as chair god bless you mr nelson i i will do my very best to not give you that moment um that you can write down um folks i do want to provide a quick welcome uh but i'd like to do it here from

[00:53:19] the from the dais for a reason i want to be clear that statements from that podium and tonight's message and story be reserved to the gentleman that we just heard from thank you sir folks i'm humbled and I'm honored to have been elected chair of this board of supervisors for 2025. To my colleagues, thank you for entrusting me to lead this board and our county forward in our pursuit of what I know to be our shared priorities for this coming year. It is my intention to continuously build upon that trust in the days, weeks, and months ahead. As we confront our challenges, we seize our opportunities, and we do all that we can to continue to make Henrico

[00:53:54] the best community it can be to live, work, play, and visit. I'd like to congratulate and thank again Mr. Nelson for his tremendous service this past year as our chair. Let there be no doubt that not only did Mr. Nelson lead this board with conviction, with class and conscience, it is my opinion that he rewrote the script of exactly how to effectively lead a county and a region with those same exact traits. This past year and particularly this week we've all been witness to Reverend Nelson's leadership, his humanity, his character and most visibly his compassion as many of our residents, including his constituents in Verona, to include his own family, struggled

[00:54:30] for days without water. As those residents shared their well-founded fears and frustrations, Reverend Nelson provided leadership that was consequential, it was empathetic, and it was genuine. Speaking of consequential, it is worth noting, and this is going to read like a who's who, that Reverend Nelson stepped into this role of chair on this board of supervisors as we welcomed three new members. I dare say my colleague would concur with me on this, but I would offer that And Mr. Nelson was the ideal person at the ideal time to serve in that role.

[00:54:59] As a matter of perspective, you heard tonight, I thought it was the first time that this county had seen three brand new board members. It appears in 1972, 53 years ago, was the last time that three new supervisors without prior service had been seated on this board. The leadership and the guidance to this board that Mr. Nelson provided was, again, consequential and, again, timely.

[00:55:23] He also provided this leadership to our region. his steady efforts on the airport commission plan rva rmta the planning commission the board of the central virginia transportation authority and the greater richmond transit corporation where he has served as chair of its board of directors for the past two years and folks that's not even all the boards that he served on in our region this past year as a collective group this board has worked incredibly well together with collaboration with open communication with mutual trust and respect and an overwhelming desire to put people first this is the kind of government that our residents expect and deserve and it's precisely what i will strive

[00:55:58] for for us to continue delivering together in 2025 our priorities and focuses folks for 2025 will be strikingly familiar to those who have been paying attention what has been proven to be successful for our constituency first a disciplined continuation of the outstanding management and fiscal prudence that has made henrico a great place to raise a family and operate a business we will continue our shared and long-standing commitment towards prioritizing the education of our children both through our financial commitment within the budget but also in our actions and presence within our schools and communities we'll reinvest in our infrastructure

[00:56:34] roads sidewalks pedestrian safety and accommodations public utility systems and as promised and as you heard tonight folks we will conduct an extensive review of this county and region's water system infrastructure to avoid a repeat of last week's outages together we will remain laser-focused on the safety of our residents, businesses, and visitors through our steadfast support of our public safety partners in all areas of this county, including our Sheriff's Department, Emergency Management 9-1-1 Center, and our divisions of police and fire. We will focus on enhancing our quality of life with improvements to our parks and recreation program, which we did

[00:57:12] this morning in the Fairfield District with Mr. Cooper. We will continue to build upon our strengths and prepare to mitigate for our impending challenges, as you heard our former chair mention. I'm incredibly honored to serve this particular board, this county staff, and our collective stakeholders across every inch of this wonderful county.

[00:57:29] Thank you all for the trust. I believe there is some seat shuffling to occur. Is that correct, Mr. Manager? After the election. After the election. All right, so now, Mr. Manager, we can move on to conducting the election of a vice chair of the Board of Supervisors for calendar year 2025 and thereafter until his or her successor is elected and qualified.

[00:57:55] Are there any nominations for a vice chair? i nominate uh reverend cooper from fairfield for vice chair second all right there's been a motion made and a second for the nomination of roscoe cooper are there any further nominations hearing none i declare the nominations closed i will now call for a motion to nominate roscoe cooper on resolution 2-25 as vice chair been been a motion made by mr nelson seconded by mrs roundtree is there a second there has been all in favor say aye aye any opposed all right the

[00:58:31] resolution passes. Congratulations, Mr. Cooper. Thank you all. Mr. Manager. Mr. Chair, members of

[00:59:42] the board, we move on to agenda item 3-25, which is a resolution that establishes the dates, times, location of regular meetings for the Board of Supervisors for 2025. Mr. Newby. Mr. Chair, members of the board, Mr. Manager, this board paper establishes, as the manager just pointed out, the regular meeting schedule for 2025. Except for July, November, and December, the board will meet on the fourth Tuesday and the second Tuesday of every month. In July, the board will only meet on the fourth Tuesday of the month. In November, due to Veterans Day falling on a Tuesday, the board

[01:00:18] will meet on Wednesday, November 12th. Then in December, the board will meet on the first and third Tuesdays of the month. All regular meetings will begin at 6 p.m. with one exception. The second board meeting in March, that is March 25th, will begin at 5 p.m. to accommodate the public hearing on the next year's budget in addition if the chair finds and declares that the weather or any other condition is such that it is hazardous for board members and the public to attend a regular meeting such meeting will be postponed for a period of one week to the same time on the following tuesday board members and the news media will be notified as promptly as possible if there is such

[01:00:55] a change and notice of such postponement will be posted in the appropriate places and that is my overview mr. chair thank you sir newbies presented a resolution for the establishment of our dates and times any questions on that item any comments is there a motion so moved second would a motion be by mr. cooper seconded by mr. roguers those in favor say aye aye any post resolution carries mr. chair 4-25 is a resolution for approval of electronic participation policy for calendar year 2025 mr. newbie yes sir thank you again mr. manager members of the board this paper approves

[01:01:34] electronic participation policy for the board of supervisors in conformance with state law it's a new requirement this year that the board adopt such policy every year annually so this will be a new addition to our organizational meetings going forward there is no change in the policy from last year sir be happy to answer any questions thank you mr newbie any questions for mr newbie none heard is there a motion so moved second been a motion made by ms roundtree seconded by mr nelson those in favor say aye aye any post motion carries next mr chair uh four dash

[01:02:07] 25 5-25 is a resolution for appointment of members this is for the henrico county planning commission this board paper would appoint the following persons to that commission for one-year terms that expired december 31st 2025 and they are from the brooklyn district robert h witty jr from the three chop district bob shippey from the tuckahoe district brian winterhoff from the varina District, William M. Mackey, Jr., and serving from the Board of Supervisors, Misty D. Roundtree.

[01:02:40] What about Fairfield? Don't forget me. And, Ms. Cooper, Ms. Brackett, help me with Fairfield. Mr. Ron Dandridge. Mr. Ron Dandridge from the Fairfield District would be included on this paper.

[01:03:04] So moved. Second. It's been a motion made by Mr. Nelson and a second by Mr. Rogish to accept the members of the Enrico County Planning Commission. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any vote. Most cares. If those individuals would come forward to receive their oath.

[01:03:42] That would support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the College of Virginia.

[01:03:58] That would safely and partially discharge and perform all duties and come to plan me as a member of Henrico County Planning Commission according to the best of my ability, so help me God.

[01:04:41] Thank you, folks.

[01:05:36] Mr. Manager. Thanks, Mr. Chair. Members of the Board, 6-25 is a resolution for appointment of member to the Plan RVA Commission. and we have, this would appoint the chair of the Henrico Planning Commission to that commission for a term coincident with his or her term of the office on the Henrico County Planning Commission.

[01:06:03] Mr. Chair. Thank you, sir. Is there a motion on this resolution? So move the resolution. Motion made by Mr. Rogas, seconded by Mr. Nelson. Those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Next, Mr. Chair. Appointment of member, Board of Building Code Appeals.

[01:06:19] This is agenda item 7-25. This board paper would appoint two individuals, commercial builder Mark J. Horgan and structural engineer David W. Spriggs to a five-year term that expires December 31st, 2029.

[01:06:35] Mr. Chair. Thank you, sir. Is there a motion on this resolution? Second. Motion made by Ms. Roundtree, seconded by Mr. Ruggins. Those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Now, if any of those individuals are here tonight, okay, if you would come forward, sir.

[01:06:53] Mr. Spriggs.

[01:07:11] Thank you, sir.

[01:07:49] Mr. Manager. Mr. Chair, 8-25 is the resolution for appointment of members. This is to the Board of Real Estate Review and Equalization. This board paper would appoint the following individuals for a one-year term that expires December 31, 2025, and they are from the Brooklyn District, Joseph P. Marchetti, Jr., from the Three-Chop District, Robert W. Marshall, from the Tuckahoe District, John J. Schwartz, and the Farana District, Norma B. Harris.

[01:08:16] Mr. Chair. Thank you, sir. Is there a motion on this resolution? Second. Motion made by Mr. Cooper, seconded by Mr. Rogish. Those in favor say aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

[01:08:51] First, thank you, sir.

[01:09:31] And I don't know what you did to get early on the agenda. I know your VCU Rams are playing right now, so I thank you for your presence here today. You got it right. Next, Mr. Chair, 9-25 is a resolution of appointment of member and alternate.

[01:09:48] This is for the Capital Region Workforce Partnership Consortium of Chief Local Elected Officials. This board paper would appoint Jody K. Rogish, a member of the Board of Supervisors, to that body for a one-year term that expires December 31, 2025, as well as appointing Monica Smith-Callaghan, Deputy County Manager for Community Affairs, to that same body for the same period of time.

[01:10:12] Mr. Chair. Thank you, sir. Is there a motion? Second. Motion made by Ms. Roundtree, seconded by Mr. Nelson. Those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Madam Clerk.

[01:10:50] Mr. Manager.

[01:11:18] Next, Mr. Chair, 10-25 is a resolution for appointment of member, this being to the Community Criminal Justice Board. This board paper would appoint Danielle M. Harris from the Brooklyn District to that body for an unexpired term that ends June 30, 2026.

[01:11:36] Mr. Chair. Thank you, sir. Is there a motion on this resolution? So moved. Second. Motion made by Mr. Cooper. Second by Mr. Rogish. Those in favor say aye. Aye. Any post? Motion carries. Ms. Harris would come forward.

[01:12:15] May I, Mr. Manager?

[01:12:42] Chair, 11-25 is a resolution for appointment of persons eligible to serve as a third member of employee grievance panels. This board paper would appoint the following individuals to serve for one-year term that expires December 31st, 2025, and they are from the Brooklyn District, Danielle Harris, from the Brooklyn District, William E. Lowe, from the Fairfield District, Samantha Thompson, from the Tuckahoe District, Joe Rappasarda, from the Tuckahoe District, Elizabeth Smyers, from the Verona District, Carlos L. Chacon, Jr., and from the Verona District, Erica H. Mosley.

[01:13:18] As a point of information, Mr. Chair, members of the board, these individuals are not sworn in. Mr. Chair? Thank you, sir. Is there a motion on this resolution? Motion by Ms. Rountree, seconded by Mr. Rogus. Those in favor say aye. Aye. Any post? Motion carries. Mr. Manager.

[01:13:34] Next, Mr. Chair, 12-25 is a resolution. This is a resignation of member from the Economic Development Authority. this board paper would accept the resignation of philip car philip carter struther from that body from the economic development board of directors mr. chair thank you sir is there a motion on this resolution so second motion made by mr. cooper second by mr. nelson those in favor say aye any posts motion carries mr. matter next mr. chair 13-25 is a resolution for appointment of

[01:14:10] members to the Economic Development Authority Board of Directors. This board paper would appoint the following individuals to that board for four-year terms that expire December 31st, 2028. From the Brooklyn District, William Billy Gordon and from the Fairfield District, Robert W. Brown, Jr.

[01:14:31] Mr. Chair. Thank you, sir. Is there a motion on this resolution? So moved. Motion by Mr. Nelson. Second by Mr. Cooper. Those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. If those individuals would come forward to receive their owes.

[01:15:04] Thank you, sir.

[01:15:51] Mr. Manager. Next, Mr. Chair, 14-25 is a resignation of member. This board paper, except from the first T of Greater Richmond Board of Directors, this board paper would accept the resignation of Daniel J. Schmidt from that board of directors.

[01:16:09] Mr. Chair. Thank you, sir. Is there a motion made by Mr. Cooper, seconded by Ms. Roundtree? Those in favor say aye. Any opposed. Motion carries. Mr. Manager. Next, Mr. Chair, 15-25 is a resolution appointment of member to that same body, the first T of Greater Richmond Board of Directors.

[01:16:27] This paper would appoint from an at-large position Leighton Clavana to that body for a term that expires December 31st, 2025. Mr. Chair. Thank you, sir. Is there a motion? Second. Motion made by Mr. Ruger, seconded by Mr. Nelson.

[01:16:43] Those in favor, say aye. Any post. Motion carries. And is Leighton here? No? Okay, 16-25 is a resolution. This is an appointment of members to the Henrico Area Mental Health and Developmental Services Board. This board paper would appoint the following individuals for three-year terms that expire December 31, 2027, and they are from the Brooklyn District, Christine M. Campbell, from the Three-Chop District, Terry Gardner Lane, and a family consumer, Patrice Y. Banks.

[01:17:15] Mr. Chair? Thank you, Mr. Sir. Is there a motion? Motion made by mr. Roundtree is seconded by mr. Rogus those in favor say aye any post and if those individuals would come forward to receive their oaths

[01:17:28] thank you both for your service mr. manager next mr. chair 17 - 25 is a

[01:18:56] resolution for appointment of members in this case Henrico County Association of Volunteer Rescue Squads this board paper would appoint Jody K Rogish a member of the Board of Supervisors to that body for one-year term that expires December 31st 2025 mr. chair thank you sir is there a motion Motion made by Ms. Roundtree. Is there a second?

[01:19:19] Second by Mr. Cooper. Those in favor say aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

[01:19:34] Yes, sir. Mr. Manager. Next, Mr. Chair, 18-25 is a resolution.

[01:19:50] This is an appointment of members to the Henrico Housing Advisory Committee. This board paper would appoint the following individuals for two-year terms that end December 31, 2026, and they are all at large. Brian K. Jackson, Renee B. Shepardson, Lee Alford, Jonathan Adkins-Taswell, and Tracy Retchen.

[01:20:10] Mr. Chairman. Thank you, sir. Is there a motion? So moved. Second. Then a motion made by Mr. Roegers, seconded by Mr. Nelson. Those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. And if those individuals would come forward to receive your oaths.

[01:20:40] Thank you, sir.

[01:21:18] Mr. Mayor. Next, Mr. Chair, 19-25 is a resolution for appointment of members, in this case to the Henrico Housing and, I'm sorry, the Historic Preservation Advisory Committee. This board paper would appoint the following individuals for three-year terms that end December 31st, 2027.

[01:21:37] And they are from the Brooklyn District, Robin D. Smith, from the Three-Chop District, Joseph Bowling III, and Gene Norwood Knuckles, Jr., from the Tuckahoe District, Kay Francine Stanley, and from the Verona District, Henry L. Nelson.

[01:21:53] Mr. Chair. Thank you, sir. Is there a motion? Motion made by Ms. Roundtree, seconded by Mr. Nelson. Those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And if those individuals would come forward,

[01:22:05] if any are here yep thank you both mr. manager chair 20-25 is a resolution for appointment of

[01:23:35] members to the key penrico beautiful committee this board paper would appoint the following individuals to that committee to serve for two-year terms expiring december 31st 2026 and they are from the brooklyn district camila phelps and lynn your check from the three chop district manam panam kapila and from the varina district eileen rivera mr. chair thank you sir is there a motion? Motion made by Ms. Rountree. Seconded by Mr. Ruggish. Those in favor say aye.

[01:24:07] Any opposed? Motion carries. Those individuals would come forward.

[01:24:39] Thank you all for your service. Mr. Manager.

[01:25:47] Next, Mr. Chair. 21-25 is a resolution for appointment of members in this case to the Library Advisory Board. This board paper would appoint the following individuals to that board to serve for one year term that expires December 31st 2025 and they are from the Brooklyn District Patricia Band from the Tuckahoe District, Sharon Cox, and from the Verona District, Gail Atkins.

[01:26:10] Mr. Chair. Thank you, sir. Is there a motion? Second. Motion made by Mr. Rogge, seconded by Mr. Nelson. Those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Those individuals would come forward to receive their oaths.

[01:27:42] Thank you both. Mr. Manager. Next, Mr. Chair, 22-25 is a resolution for appointment of members.

[01:28:02] This is for the Local Emergency Planning Commission. These are two-year terms that end December 31st, 2026. I have a number of individuals that are being appointed. Community representatives, Herb Dunford from Brooklyn, David Cauldron from Three Chopped, Ed Rhodes from Tuckahoe, Eileen Tarr from Verona.

[01:28:22] We have from the Board of Supervisors, Misty Roundtree, Elisa Morgan, Emergency Communications Representative, Emergency Community Emergency Service Representatives are Justin Finham from the Division of Fire, Rob Rowley, our Chief of Emergency Management. Environmental Representatives are Jonathan Clary, Department of Utilities, and Steve Yob, Deputy County Manager.

[01:28:47] Industry Representative Sean Patrick McDevitt from PPD and William Walter from Polycon. Law Enforcement Representative Captain Matt Pekka from the Police Division. News Representative Ben Shepard from our Department of Public Relations and Ed Portner from the Virginia Department of Health is the public health representative.

[01:29:12] Mr. Chair? Thank you, sir. Is there a motion? No move. Second. Motion made by Mr. Nelson, seconded by Mr. Cooper. Those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed. Resolution carries. Those individuals would come forward to receive their oaths.

[01:29:43] I'm looking forward to working with you.

[01:32:37] Yes, thank you. Thank you, sir.

[01:33:08] Mr. Manager. Mr. Chair, 23-25 is a resolution for appointment a member to the Maymont Foundation Board of Directors. This board paper would appoint Roscoe D. Cooper, a member of the Board of Supervisors, to that board for a one-year term that expires December 31, 2025.

[01:33:24] Mr. Chair. Thank you, sir. Is there a motion? So moved. Motion made by Mr. Nelson. Is there a second? Seconded by Mr. Ramitree. Those in favor, say aye. Any opposed? Mr. Cooper, you're in. Wow.

[01:33:42] Mr. Cooper, Madam Clerk, Mr. Manager.

[01:34:19] Thanks, Mr. Chair. 24-25 is a resolution for appointment of members, in this case, to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission. These are three-year terms that expire December 31, 2027. From the Brooklyn District, Chris Phelps. From the Three Chop District, Phillip Parker.

[01:34:36] From the Verona District, Terrence Walker. This board paper also appoints Mr. E. Roundtree, a member of the Board of Supervisors, to that commission for a one-year term as well. Mr. Chair. Thank you, sir. Is there a motion? So moved. Motion made by Mr. Cooper, seconded by Mr. Rogish.

[01:34:52] Those in favor say aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

[01:34:56] Thank you all.

[01:36:40] Mr. Manager. Mr. Chair, 25-25 is a resolution for appointing a member, in this case, to the Richmond Region Tourism Board of Directors. The board paper would appoint Dan J. Schmidt, a member of the Board of Supervisors, to that body for an unexpired term that ends December 31st, 2027.

[01:36:59] Mr. Chair. Thank you, sir. Is there a motion? So moved. Motion by Mr. Nelson, seconded by Mr. Ruggers. Those in favor say aye. Any opposed? Resolution cares.

[01:37:08] Chair, 26-25 is a resolution for appointment of members, in this case, to the Richmond Regional Transportation Planning Organization Community Transportation Advisory Committee.

[01:37:43] I don't think we could have added more words to that. These individuals are being appointed for two-year terms that end December 31st, 2026. They're both at large, and they are Gordon and Dixon and Michael Wiebe. Mr. Chair.

[01:38:00] Thank you, sir. Is there a motion? A motion made by Ms. Roundtree, seconded by Mr. Rogers. Those in favor say aye. Any opposed. Resolution carries. Those individuals are here, not seeing any. We would move on to 27-25, which is a resolution for appointment of representatives and alternate to the Richmond Regional Transportation Planning Organization Policy Board.

[01:38:29] This board paper would appoint two elected officials, and they are Roscoe D. Cooper and Rody Jody K. Rogish. New name. I like that. I like that. Rody Jody.

[01:38:51] I'm sure at some point there's going to be a blooper reel, right? And alternate Dan J. Schmidt to that body for a one-year term. Mr. Chairman. Thank you, sir. Is there a motion? A motion made by Mrs. Roundtree. Is there a second?

[01:39:07] Second. Second by Mr. Cooper. Those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Resolution carries.

[01:39:25] Mr. Manager.

[01:39:46] Thanks, Mr. Chair. 28-25 is a resolution. Resignation of member from the Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen Foundation Board of Directors. This board paper would accept the resignation of CETA. Mliya Shah from the Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen Foundation Board of Directors.

[01:40:06] Mr. Chair. Thank you, sir. Is there a motion? Motion by Mr. Rogas, seconded by Mrs. Roundtree. Those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed. Resolution carries. In this next paper, item 30-25 is the resolution for appointment, resignation of alternate member from the Virginia Transit Association Board.

[01:40:28] This board paper regretfully accepts the resignation of Todd Yor, who is retiring from that body as an alternate member. Mr. Chair? Thank you, sir. Is there a motion? No. No. So moved. Motion made by Mr. Nelson, seconded by Mr. Cooper.

[01:40:45] Those in favor, say aye. Any opposed? Did he retire yet? Or is he still around? He is still here. Yes, sir. Todd? Don't leave us. Second. Second.

[01:41:02] Thank you, sir. Mr. Manager, is that all of the... We have one more, and that is 30-25, which is a resolution for appointment of alternate member to that same body.

[01:41:18] This paper would appoint Ashley Austin to that body for a term that expires June 30, 2025. Mr. Chair. Thank you, sir. Is there a motion? Motion by Mr. Nelson, seconded by Mr. Cooper. Those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any post? Motion carries.

[01:41:35] Madam Clerk.

[01:41:46] Thank you, ma'am.

[01:42:28] Mr. Manager. Next, Mr. Chair. We would move into public comments ahead of the general agenda. I do have one individual that has signed up to speak. It is Ms. Hamilton, I believe, Columbus, Ohio.

[01:42:44] Ms. Hamilton, are you here or online or on WebEx? Do we have anyone? I don't have a Ms. Hamilton, sir. Okay, is anyone on WebEx that wishes to address the board this evening?

[01:43:04] There's no one to speak on WebEx. Okay, anyone in person? Seeing none. There's just one. Oh, yes, ma'am. If you would go to the podium in the back right there.

[01:43:25] Chairman Schmidt, members of the board, Mr. Vitulcas, county officials and attendees, good evening. My name is Faye Weems. First of all, I'd like to congratulate Mr. Schmidt on his election as chairman of the board and Mr. Cooper on his election as vice chairman of the board.

[01:43:49] I'd also like to sincerely thank the county manager for letting me know that at 5 o'clock this afternoon, what I felt at my house was indeed an earthquake and not my HVAC imploding. Thank you, Mr. Manager.

[01:44:04] Thank you for that. I'm not sure which of those scenarios I would actually consider to be worse. I'd also like to thank this body. I watch a lot of television. I see a lot of news mainly, and I see a lot of sometimes meetings like this with boards of supervisors, and sometimes they get really out of hand, and sometimes I see the citizens that are speaking being what I consider they're not respected. I want to thank this board because I've spoken here many times. I want to thank you particularly for the courtesy and the patience, often the patience, with which you

[01:44:42] receive the comments, the concerns, and very often the grievances of your constituents. So thank you very much. This is a very friendly body, I would like to say. So thank you very much. Now, I'll proceed to what I'm here for. At the last meeting of the Board of Supervisors on December 17, an ordinance was introduced to amend and reordain the Henrico County Employee Home Purchase Assistance Program.

[01:45:11] This ordinance will come up for public hearing and vote sometime soon, possibly at the next meeting. Now, right now, if I can pause and ask a question as to when this will actually come up, when public comments will be heard, because if it will be a few weeks or two meetings later or three meetings later, I can postpone my comments.

[01:45:30] Otherwise, I'll proceed. Mr. Newby, you can probably answer that for you. Mr. Chair, I'd be happy to answer the question. Yes, this was advertised for public hearing for January 28th. So two weeks from today, it'll come back for public hearing before the board of supervisors and copies of the ordinance are available for public inspection now.

[01:45:49] in addition to commenting at the meeting you can always submit written comments in advance as well okay will it be voted on at that meeting the board can vote for adoption at that meeting okay good in that case i will proceed thank you very much mr newbie i appreciate that for those unfamiliar with it the employee home purchase assistance program ehpap for short provides up to 25 000 towards the down payment on a house in henrico to county employees who are first-time home buyers the Money is in the form of an interest-free, 100% forgivable loan as long as the recipient continues in the county's employ for another five years.

[01:46:27] It is in essence a grant. To qualify, the recipient must have less than $30,000 in assets, such as cash, stocks, bonds, etc., that can be put towards the purchase of the house. the proposed amendment to EHPAP would increase the assets limit for eligible participants from the original $30,000 to $50,000, an increase of 67%.

[01:46:54] EHPAP was created by unanimous vote of the previous Board of Supervisors on June 13, 2023. At the April 23, 2024 meeting, when it was reordained, I noted that entitlements, real or perceived, can and usually do rapidly expand beyond their initial scope.

[01:47:16] The apparent need to substantially increase the assets limit from $30,000 to $50,000 has quickly proven that point. As was entirely predictable, complaints from employees whose net liquid assets make them currently ineligible seem to be driving the change.

[01:47:35] Some may even have voiced their discontent with their jobs as a result. Candidates for new hire may even have weighed in on the matter. At the April meeting, I pointed out other potential repercussions of such a program, including the likelihood of future litigation.

[01:47:53] In response to my concerns, Mr. Vitulkas noted the importance of retaining existing employees, and in particular the cost of training new personnel to replace those who left because of retirement or other reasons. He noted that large companies, and these would be in the private sector, have similar programs to induce their employees to stay.

[01:48:14] I'd like to point out that Henrico County is not a private company funding these programs with its own money. It is a government entity funded by its residents, most of whom do not work for large companies. He stated, quote, we're hoping with some sort of effort to get employees into homes that continue to appreciate in value because there's absolutely no supply, end quote.

[01:48:40] Just like any citizen of Brooklyn, Fairfield, Three-Chop, Tuckahoe, or Varina who wishes to buy a home, employees of the county should be expected to manage their finances in such a way and make the necessary sacrifices that will allow them to save up to do so.

[01:48:58] They should not be given an unfair advantage over the people that they serve, especially in the highly competitive residential housing market described by the county manager. Given the size of the county's budget, I am not especially concerned about the $2 million allocated for the first year or the same amount allocated for the second year of the program.

[01:49:21] I am concerned that the county seems to think it is appropriate for its employees to go to the front of the line. The principal responsibilities of county government are to provide for the safety of all its citizens, to ensure a solid education for its youths that will prepare them for the real world, to maintain the county's roads and other infrastructure, and to ensure the reliability of essential public utilities.

[01:49:46] Henrico does not have Santa Ana winds, but we do have winds. As events in California have shown, a community without water is not only inconvenience, it is seriously at risk. The Employee Home Buying Assistance Program was introduced and approved by the previous Board of Supervisors.

[01:50:05] Three of the five members who voted for it are no longer on the board. In view of the events of last week that negatively affected so many of the county's residents, I urge all five of our current supervisors to consider where and with whom their core responsibilities lie.

[01:50:22] EHPAP seems to be on a path for continual expansion. Rather than amend and reordain, I believe the board should vote as soon as possible to terminate or sunset this program. Citizens in Henrico who believe that providing a home-buying advantage to employees of the county is not a proper concern or responsibility of the county government will hopefully let their board member know before the ordinance to amend and reordain is voted upon.

[01:50:51] Thank you for your attention. Thank you very much. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. Is there anyone else that wishes to address the Board of Supervisors this evening? Mr. Chair, seeing none, we would move into the general agenda.

[01:51:08] I'm going to ask Mr. Crawford to come forward with 31-25, which is a resolution for amendments to the fiscal year 24-25 annual fiscal plan for January 25. Justin? Thank you, Mr. Manager, and good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the Board.

[01:51:24] As discussed in the work session this evening, If approved, this would amend the county's capital budget by $9.5 million. There are three items up for consideration with this budget amendment. Of note, this proposed amendment would fully fund the Tuckahoe Middle School Auditorium Edition.

[01:51:50] The board received a letter on it. This $2.9 million of appropriation, along with current resources that have already been appropriated, will support the award of a contract for this project by the school board later this month.

[01:52:08] In addition to that project, there is a $4.8 million request for baseball and softball field improvements at Henrico High School. And then the last project is for parking improvements at Taylor Farm Park.

[01:52:29] With that as an overview, Mr. Chair and members of the board, I'll be happy to answer any questions. Thank you, sir. Any questions for Justin? Seeing none, is there a motion? So moved. Motion made by Mr. Cooper, seconded by Mr. Nelson.

[01:52:44] Those in favor say aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, sir. Next, Mr. Chair, members of the board, 32-25 is a resolution for declaration of local emergency. Our emergency manager, Mr. Rob Rowley, has been busy all week, all prior week.

[01:53:05] So, Rob, would you take the board through this declaration, please? Yes, sir. Mr. Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, members of the board, This paper confirms the declaration of local emergency made by the county manager on January 7th, 2025, in recognition of the effects of winter storm Blair.

[01:53:23] The chief of the Department of Emergency Management and Workplace Safety recommends approval of the board paper, and the county manager concurs, and I will be happy to answer any questions at this time. Thank you, sir. Any questions for Rob? Seeing none, is there a motion? Still moved.

[01:53:39] Motion made by Mr. Nelson, seconded by Ms. Roundtree. Those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Mr. Manager, anything else from you, sir? Nothing else this evening, Mr. Chair. Any closing comments from my colleagues? Seeing none. Have a wonderful Tuesday, everybody.

[01:53:55] Thank you.

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