Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, Business Meeting, Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Date: Tuesday, January 3, 2023
Place: Board Room, First Floor, Government Center, 1 Harrison Street SE, Leesburg, Virginia
Length: 5h 37m (video)
Official meeting video (county, Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/player/clip/7151
Agenda (Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=73&clip_id=7151

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 2026-10-20. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:02:00] - President Briskman, can you hear me? - Yes, I can, thank you.

[00:02:07] - Great, thank you.

[00:04:59] - Good evening, Supervisors. Coming to the staff, good evening, Loudon. I'd like to call to order the January 3rd, 2023, Loudon County Board of Supervisors business meeting. This room has a hearing loop. If you need a hearing aid, please switch your hearing.

[00:05:14] If you need hearing assistance, please switch your hearing aid to teleco mode. If you need any other assistance for hearing, we have that as available as well. Please see the clerk to request the assistance. Pursuant to Virginia Code Section 2.2-3708.2 and the Board of Supervisors' Rules of Order, Supervisor Brickspin requested to participate in this meeting by electronic communication.

[00:05:37] A physical quorum of the Board of Supervisors is present in the boardroom, and the Board has made arrangements for the Board of Supervisor Brickspin to be heard by all persons in the boardroom. Supervisor Brickspin has made this request within the required time frame, and the county attorney determined that Supervisor Brixman meets the qualifications to participate remotely.

[00:05:57] The board will record in this minute, Supervisor Brixman has participated remotely from a private residence due to illness. Ms. Brixman, can you hear me? Ms. Brixman? Always, always.

[00:06:14] Julie? You're on mute. I don't know what to say at this point. Wasn't she on earlier? She was, right? Okay, so we're just going to make an assumption she stepped away for just a second and she'll be right back. There she is. Okay, I'm here.

[00:06:30] You froze on me for a second, but I'm here now. No, I didn't freeze on you. Did I freeze on you? You froze on us. Okay. Thanks, I'm here. Supervisors, today for the words of, quote, wisdom, unquote, I wanted to actually say something for the first time, not for the public, but for this is for us and for any staff and appointed officials.

[00:07:01] And I say this because, as I said before, I have been very humbled and grateful to serve on this board, and I think that we've had and we continue to have one of the more functional bodies in the region. And as we look today at what's happening in Congress, you know, I am all the more grateful that we have a board that may not always agree but are always respectful.

[00:07:25] We disagree, but we're not disagreeable, we're not disparaging, and we're not disrespectful. and so to start this year I thought I would read um and you just heard this a couple days ago one of my uh favorite poems and it's called the man in the arena and it's by Theodore Roosevelt now it's called the man in the arena because he that's how he wrote it of course it could be the person in the arena or the lady in the arena but he wrote the man so I'm going to read it as it is written okay well because you know well now i just lost you know how that happens all the time right

[00:07:59] right i mean obviously it doesn't have to be only the man but i'm now i've lost it okay so the man in the arena it is not the critic who counts not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better the credit belongs to the man who was actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcomings, but who does actually strive to do the deeds, who knows

[00:08:39] great enthusiasm, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory or defeat.

[00:09:06] My colleagues, I say to us, welcome to our last year in the arena. Would everybody please join me at the Pledge of Allegiance? One nation, under God, invisible.

[00:09:31] Okay. We are going to first go to our organizational matters in the agenda. Supervisors, let me say that I have talked to, I believe, all of you over the break to make sure that I included all the things that we had talked about except for one and what we didn't include. I talked to you about that.

[00:09:55] The only thing I forgot, and we can have a discussion if we want to put it in there at all today, I totally, I just forgot it, was whether or not we wanted to have a scheduled hard stop to the meetings. And if we did, the way it would work is we get to that hard stop time, might be 12 midnight, and then we would take a vote.

[00:10:17] Do we want to go on or do we want to finish the item that we're on and stop? So I won't speak to how I feel about that because it's not appropriate for me to speak to how I feel about that while I'm explaining it to you. But if somebody wants to make that motion that we do that, I'll speak about it at that time.

[00:10:35] But that did not make it until the rules of order simply because it just, I just forgot. So otherwise, I think everything else that we talked about is in the rules of order. David, do you have anything you want to add before I go to basically a motion?

[00:10:50] Madam Chair, if you'd like, I'm happy to walk through the pertinent changes. Okay, that's fine. All right, great. So the pertinent changes are as follows. The board business meetings start times has changed from 5 p.m. to 4 p.m. The board's order of business, current item number nine, has been modified to combine board comments, regional updates, and disclosures within a five-minute block.

[00:11:15] You'll note, too, in the red line found in attachment that there is a slight deviation there for the chair's organizational updates. There is language in both Sections 4 and 7 in the rules that amend current language related to packet delivery and off-site presentation of ceremonial resolutions, as well as staff availability to answer board questions prior to meetings.

[00:11:45] Similarly, the Section 7 updates rules relative to debate, and Section 14K has been updated to make reference to the Board's procurement resolution rather than a specific dollar amount with respect to the Finance Committee's delegated authority.

[00:12:07] There have also been some updates on the remote participation policy, but those are consistency with state code updates. Can you finish?

[00:12:27] Okay. Yes, ma'am. I'm going to go on and make a motion, and then we can talk within the motion. I move the Board of Supervisors approve the board meeting schedule adjustments as outlined in the January 3, 2023, Board Business Meeting action item.

[00:12:47] Is that the right motion? It's not the right motion, is it? Okay. Help me find the right. I'm missing it. Oh, okay. We have them in two different places. Okay. It's the, yeah, I move the Board of Supervisors approve the meeting schedule adjustments No, I just said that. So if you go to page two in the item, you'll be able to find the draft.

[00:13:04] Sit by me and help me. You've got to help. I move the Board of Supervisors to adopt the Rules of Orders. Don't you need to withdraw the motion? I didn't make the full motion, and we didn't have a second on it, so now I'm fine. Okay.

[00:13:21] I move the Board of Supervisors to adopt the Rules of Orders for 2023, and so on as Attachment 1, the organizational matters items for the January 3, 2023 Board of Supervisors business meeting. There's the motion. Motion to be made and seconded by Supervisor Armstead. Okay, discussion on that motion. First, I would say this.

[00:13:39] I want to remind everybody again. There are meetings by time, or some of the shortest meetings in the region. It's just because we start so much later that they seem to go that much longer. But by how many hours we sit in the dais, we're doing it less than anybody else, and also we don't do Saturday meetings.

[00:13:57] I do want to ask you all, and this is not something, I won't make a motion right now, but I want you to think about this just for our legislative agenda. So right now we are allowed to miss meetings and participate remotely, other than a medical reason, three times in a year.

[00:14:18] For me, every time I missed a meeting last year, every single time, it's because I was in county business. I did not miss any meeting and participate remotely that I wasn't remote because I was doing county business. I actually don't think we should count county business, if you're away doing county business, as against your remote time.

[00:14:38] So if I did go on vacation or if I did, you know, go do something else and want to participate remotely, I would have lost those times because I participate remotely in county business. It is a state code issue, so I would actually like to put in the state code to change that to say that whenever someone is is on county business that their remote participation does not count against them so i won't this is not the place to do that that's to be done on the legislative program but just let to let you all know when the ledge program comes up i am going

[00:15:15] to make that motion when the ledge program comes up um otherwise i think i think for this part of the motion. I think I have everything in there that I would have needed. Mr. Letourneau.

[00:15:31] Thank you, Madam Chair. First, just a question and then a comment. We have some language in here about our efforts to streamline information items and brief board members ahead of time. I don't think that's actually in the rules of order, so I just want to make sure that we're clear for staff moving forward sort of what our intention is with that and if that's sort of situational depending on the meeting depending on the item or that's a good question i can answer that i believe what that should be that shouldn't be every information item i think that was actually

[00:16:06] focused on the the um with with sheriff chapman and oh just the significant significant incident report update okay i think the item reference information items more broadly that would be Well, I will ask the staff. Maybe it depends on the information item, but just something to.

[00:16:26] Yeah, the assumption I would make is a great question. So the assumption I would make is the staff is going to not go longer than they deem appropriate for an information item. Yeah, and I think one of the comments I made when we were discussing this before is we don't need somebody to come up and run through a PowerPoint that we already have and just read from it.

[00:16:46] If there's additional information or analysis or some color to be added, that's helpful, but maybe that's how. The other comment I'll make is... Do you think some language needs to be changed in which year right now? No, I think it's something at your discretion, running the meeting, that could be just kind of reminded or enforced that way.

[00:17:07] The other comment I'll just make is, and the chair was very kind to make effort to talk to me about the start time. I am going to try to make the 4 o'clock work because that was sort of the will of the board. There could be times when that's challenging for me, for my other professional obligations.

[00:17:27] I think we're going to try to make an effort to do either information items, resolutions, those kinds of things in the beginning of the meeting instead of business, which has been what we do anyway. If it ends up being a real problem, I will speak up and communicate that, or for anybody.

[00:17:45] I mean, I'm not the only one, as Mr. Stange walks in probably from his job a few minutes late, that has that pressure. So I think we just need to keep communicating about that. I understand, obviously, we're trying to keep staff here not as late. So I will make an effort to try to make it work.

[00:18:03] And if it doesn't, I will say something. And I will talk to, if you guys, if you look at the agenda and you see something that, you know, you think might be early in the meeting, just let me know. And I will adjust the agenda so that you don't miss things.

[00:18:20] Yeah, most of the ceremonial stuff will be early on, and an information item might be earlier on. But I will work really, really hard. And if it's just impossible, then we can change it back if we need to. So, Mr. Kirshner. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to piggyback off from what Supervisor Letourneau was mentioning, I did notice in the item that the staff briefings, it was a little confusing and wasn't in here as well.

[00:18:44] Just to kind of piggyback off that, obviously, especially those informational items that impact your district are always extremely helpful to have briefings in advance, and I'm always appreciative of the staff when they actually do those. Most of the time they get done, there have been a couple of times that I was kind of running a little more blind than I wanted to, so just a note to the staff, thank you for when you do that.

[00:19:04] It's extremely helpful to us as supervisors sitting here. The other question I had, and I don't know why it was put in, and that is under Section 14K, it was basically the review of contracts. Less than $500,000 it was amended. Was there a particular reason?

[00:19:19] I heard previous discussion about that on page 13 of the adopted Finance Operations Committee. I think that's what it was. It just wasn't in there. Is that right? So the delegated authority in the rules was up to $500,000.

[00:19:34] The board updates this. delegated authority from time to time through the procurement resolution and so the board rules were amended to make reference to the limit in the procurement resolution as opposed to both the procurement resolution and the rules specifically and then I'll defer to Mr. Hemstreet if he's got anything else to add. Mr. Hemstreet do you have anything else you want to add? I don't know I mean what Mr. Stree just said is exactly okay so your your authorities are defined in your procurement resolution. That's your governing document. And so what we noticed when we went back through the

[00:20:11] board rules is that we had this old limit here that's like 10 years old. And so as opposed to having to catch it in both every time the board changes it, we just changed the language to refer to the procurement resolution. I see. That makes sense. Okay. I appreciate that.

[00:20:29] Ms. Brixman, do you have anything? Yes. And I apologize. I meant to call supervisor umstead today but i was um back and forth in appointments um following up on what mr kirchner said i also was a little bit confused about that change that he was just talking about does that mean we're not going to see the numbers listed um of the contracts like the the dollar numbers or no you'll see i kind of like seeing that in our finance packet yeah you'll see you'll see contracts and leases consistent with the amount set in the procurement resolution. This is

[00:21:09] simply the language in the rules setting the bar at $500,000 as opposed to whatever the procurement resolution figure says. And so in effect, nothing changes with the finance committee's order of business. It's just a duplicative reference is removed in the board's rules. Okay, so it's like semantics. I mean, generally our packets are going to kind of look the same. Yes, and then the board reviews from time to time, the procurement resolution. And so you'll get an update on the limit at that point. Okay. All right. Thank you so much. That was my only question. Thank you,

[00:21:44] Madam Chair. Sure. Mr. Buffington. Thank you, Madam Chair. Would you accept a friendly to do the hard stop that we mentioned at midnight? Oh, sure. No, it's not in there at all right now, but I would, but I'd like to discuss it. Absolutely. Okay. So my question would be this.

[00:22:06] Now, obviously, I would look at the package, and if it's an application, I make sure anyone who has a critical action date goes first so they're not waiting past midnight. My only consternation is that if we don't do something, it goes to the next meeting, and that makes that meeting longer, or the next meeting, and that makes that meeting longer.

[00:22:29] So at some point, you've got to do it anyway, and you don't want to get way down the line and have a meeting like the one we're about to have on the 17th. It's going to be a god-awful meeting under 17. It's going to be very, very long. So I'm fine with that. But once again, this is my full-time job. And so if I'm on this dais, you know, to 3 in the morning, that's my hours.

[00:22:48] You know, that's kind of my good time anyway. So I would absolutely say 12 midnight, we finish the item we're on now, and then take a vote to see if we want to keep going is how we would do that.

[00:23:04] That is fine with me. We suspend the rules and decide to move on or decide to not move on. I would accept that. Ms. Umstead, as the maker of the motion, would you accept that? Okay, yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Madam Chair. David, you get all that? If I could just recap, I appreciate the opportunity. So the idea would be to, when the clock passes, 12 a.m. midnight, the item that is currently under consideration completes, the board could then consider a motion to extend, which would then need to pass by two-thirds majority to extend the meeting past the cutoff.

[00:23:35] you got it that's it that's it that's fine with me mr turner two things now based on what mr street just said so the first thing is um if we don't default to a meeting the following night starting at four o'clock to finish unfinished business we're doing exactly what you're saying we're just kicking the ball down and creating a log jam down the road and it has to be the next day at four o'clock because what supervisor turno said a lot of people can't get here before four o'clock so I mean if we're going to vote whether we continue it or not continuing it to another board meeting I'm not going to ever vote for that and continuing unless it's to the next night it

[00:24:15] doesn't make a whole lot of sense I would not recess the meeting I would adjourn the meeting the meeting would be adjourned and the item would go to the next business meeting okay so we'll incorporate that whether we in the and the second thing is it requires a two-thirds vote yes which is pretty high ball yes okay yes thank you yes but yeah but yes but that's a great question what What are you vigorously shaking your head for?

[00:24:37] Because we're still in Mr. Buffington's time. The only thing I was going to point out was that if you adjourn the meeting, that's two weeks before the next business meeting, you don't have to suspend the rules. They'll just go to the next meeting.

[00:24:53] It'll be on there as a particular item. Yes. Did I say suspend the rules? I didn't say suspend the rules. I believe what Mr. Turner meant was that if you want to go to another item after midnight, then that vote would be either a suspension of the rules, or the board could put in a majority vote, should the board so desire.

[00:25:10] Or the board could suspend the rules and not have the time limit. Okay, stop the time, because let me just walk through this. Okay, it's 12 midnight. We're talking about, you know, should we have ducks or geese? And we're going to finish talking about the ducks or geese item because when the clock strikes 12, we're talking about ducks or geese, right?

[00:25:30] The next item on the agenda are cats or dogs, right? Before we go to the cats or dogs item, we will take a vote to whether or not we want to continue that meeting or not or not continue the meeting or not.

[00:25:47] If the vote is to stop, then the meeting is adjourned, and the cats and dogs item goes to the next meeting completely. If it's not, then you don't have to suspend the rules about anything because the cats and dogs item is already on that agenda. Yes.

[00:26:07] Mr. Hemstreet? The question I believe Supervisor Turner was bringing up was whether or not the continuation of the meeting requires a two-thirds vote or if it is a majority vote, because we would need to write it in the board rules that way. But we already said it's a two-thirds vote.

[00:26:24] I thought it would require a two-thirds vote. That was the friendly Mr. Buffington made, as I heard it. So it's not a majority vote to continue the meeting. It's a two-thirds. It's a supermajority. That's what Mr. Buffington said. That was my understanding.

[00:26:40] I'm open to whatever. I think two-thirds is fine. I heard you say two-thirds, which is reasonable to me. Did I hear that wrong? All right. So we got it. Are we good? We're cool? Yeah? Yeah? Okay. Are you still good?

[00:26:56] Can I have a little closing? No, it was a friendly. It wasn't a friendly. Thank you. Are we all good? Do we have any other questions before we go to the next item? Point of clarification. Madam Chair? Yes, Ms. Brickspin.

[00:27:11] Hold on, Mr. Turner. Yes, Ms. Brickspin. Point of clarification, I know that I don't have any more time, but I'd like to split this motion because I'm not in favor of the mandatory ending at midnight, but I don't want to vote against the organizational item. But the organizational item was a friendly amendment that was offered and accepted by the chair and the maker of the motion and the seconder of the motion.

[00:27:36] So you can't split the item on, it's a friendly amendment. You want to split a friendly amendment off everything else? Okay, that's cool, Ms. Bricksman. Okay, before I get to you, though, before I get to that, let me go to Mr. Turner, who has a point of clarification.

[00:27:56] And this is why we're off in the hair past midnight. So the way we are agreeing to it now, the meeting will end at midnight, and it requires a two-thirds vote to extend it beyond midnight. We will finish the item we are on, and then if it's past midnight, we will take a vote that requires a two-thirds majority to keep going or not.

[00:28:23] Why do you keep looking over here? Because I heard a no over here, but it looks like we're all in a violent agreement, so I'll shut up. Okay. I got that. So now we're going to do two things. We're going to take a vote on the motion in the package, and then we're going to take a second vote on whether or not to have a stop time that requires a two-thirds majority to keep going on the agenda.

[00:28:53] All right. So, for the first motion, I made the motion. It was the second motion. Mr. Buffington added a friendly that we're going to vote on in just a second. All in favor, please say aye. Any opposed?

[00:29:08] that motion will pass 9-0 she didn't vote no it's 9-0 y'all gotta stop helping me unless you're gonna help me seriously I don't need no I only need help from helpers now for the second part which is Ms. Bricksman how about you make that motion because I don't actually agree with what you're about to do until I don't want to make the motion so how about you make that motion well I would be making a motion to negate I didn't leave it in there just then so make a motion I'd rather have a discussion on Tony's motion, so Tony, make the motion.

[00:29:48] No, no, no, no, no. I didn't leave it in the motion. I split it out. If you make the motion and it either lacks for a second or fails, then that item will go into the rules of order. We will have the stop time.

[00:30:04] But it's your motion to make to not have it. So you want me to make an alternate motion to Tony's friendly? I was just going to say, I think her motion would be to take it out.

[00:30:20] Okay, it's actually not in, but okay, make a motion and take it out. But it's not in. Okay, okay, okay. It's not in, so it would be about on Tony's motion. Jesus in heaven, Christ, I love you. My good Lord. Madam Chair.

[00:30:38] We're off to a great start here. How about you? We're cooking now. Mr. Rogers.

[00:30:56] Madam Chair, may I try to restate Mr. Buffington's friendly amendment motion. in such a way that you can put it before the board as a rule. After 12 a.m. midnight, the board shall promptly conclude the item in front of it and adjourn unless the board votes to suspend the rules and continue the meeting.

[00:31:13] That would be the motion on the floor, and then that's open for discussion. So moved. Two-thirds, yes. That is the motion. Yes, I mean, that's on the motion. Yes. Ms. Bricksman, do you want to remove that from the item? Yes.

[00:31:32] Make a motion. Okay, I move that we remove the mandatory stock time from the item. That is the motion. Wait a minute, point of clarification. You said yourself it's not in the rules.

[00:31:49] It's not, but... Somebody needs to make a motion to add it. It was a friendly amendment. That's why it's not in, because it's in the friendly. It's a friendly. I took it out so she could make the motion she wanted to make. Okay, well, then she makes the motion, the first motion I told her, and she's, and you...

[00:32:05] Why would she make that motion? She would make the motion to not have it. but it's not we don't have it now that is my point she wants to somebody has to make a motion to add it in tony come down and make a motion to add it in now i'll be quiet tony come make a motion to add it in but then he has the opening and the closing and all that jazz and make the motion madam chair i move that after 12 a.m midnight the board of supervisors shall promptly conclude the item in front of it and adjourn unless the board votes to suspend the rules

[00:32:41] and continue the meeting by two-thirds majority by two-thirds majority a suspension of the rules yeah okay try and figure out this scribble okay all right i will second that would you like to have a discussion on this mr buffington i'll wait for a closing if needed i anybody want miss anybody want to talk about this okay yeah yeah sorry Mr. Letourneau well my only concern here is I'm not saying anybody up here would do that but this could become a tool to avoid a vote on something that someone doesn't support um if there's an item on the agenda that we haven't

[00:33:20] gotten to yet and you don't support it and and you think then you could use this are you saying me literally me I do not definitely not saying you okay I mean anybody on the board but I'm the want to control this controlling the agenda up here i am no but i mean you won't know what time we get to different things i mean i'm just saying i i worry a little that there could be a bit of an unforeseen implication here which is that you know say there's a land use application we haven't gotten to it yet you don't support the land use application you're never going to vote to suspend the rules because you don't want us to get there and ever vote on it if the majority supports i'm

[00:33:58] just raising it because i don't think we thought this entirely through those type of things at least i hadn't because i wasn't sure we were doing this so um i don't know if it would be better if it was just a majority as opposed to the rule suspension but i'm raising the issue okay mr um kershner i'm not as concerned about supervisor latourno's concerns in in this particular case i think one um there have been nights we've gone on beyond midnight but part of all what we're doing here is trying to make our meetings more efficient so hopefully our meetings become more efficient two we're starting at four o'clock so we have a whole extra hour three we're encouraging people

[00:34:36] to do resolutions elsewhere when possible that doesn't mean we eliminate them here but there are a lot of different aspects of these adopted or amended rules that are really trying to shorten it again the idea is and I quite frankly think it the opposite may be true from what Mr. Letourne was saying that is it we know that we have kind of this deadline coming up and it may force us to to move things along a little bit more than the ongoing discussion that we're having so I think it's actually a really good thing and i support it thank you miss brixman thank you madam chair

[00:35:09] um well supervisor letourneau did did also um bring up something that i was concerned about as well um if we have a mandatory stop date stop time and i mean obviously i trust everyone on this board but it could be manipulated also for all the reasons that supervisor for sure just said we probably don't need this stop time because we've done all these things in our organizational structure now to make the meeting shorter. I think they will be shorter. But paramount to me is the

[00:35:46] public has a right to know when we are going to be hearing items and making decisions on items. And if it's on the agenda for a particular night, the public, the applicants, staff, everybody has a right to know that that item is going to be heard that night. We've already had one item that keeps getting continued and continued and continued to the frustration of us and the public now that's not us doing that particular item but my point is the public has a right to know um that these items are going to get heard and then lastly sending it a two weeks further gives a whole nother two weeks

[00:36:22] for lobbying and pressure and discussions on items that we should probably just be taking care of taking care of them and getting them off of our plate so that again like you said earlier Madam Chair, the next meeting doesn't become longer, then the next meeting becomes longer again, and maybe at some point we don't get to certain things. So I appreciate the intent.

[00:36:42] You guys know that I'm one of the ones that kind of starts to lose my mind around midnight, but I honestly think that we should complete the items that are on our agenda the night that they're on our agenda to the best of our ability. And if it means going a little bit past midnight, if it means going to 1 a.m. every once in a while, then we should do that. But I don't think we're going to be having such long meetings because we've taken measures to shorten them. Thank you.

[00:37:07] Mr. Sains. Thank you, Madam Chair. I see it as the opposite effect of what Supervisor Brisbane and Supervisor LeTrenum were speaking about. I don't see somebody manipulating it to postpone a vote because if you look at the majority of our votes, they're majority passing with a 9-0 or 8-1, 8-7-2 here. Every so often we have a 5-4 vote, but it's not very often.

[00:37:35] So that's number one. Two, I think let's use this as a way to deter us to everything that Supervisor Brisbane is talking about. I would say it's going to be that fail-safe to encourage us to move the meeting along, debate, and vote, and hopefully we don't get to that time at 12.05 or 12.10.

[00:37:56] We're like, okay, guys, what are we doing? So I think having this in there would be a deterrent to get to that point, in my opinion. And then so I'm going to support the motion. So thank you. So the first thing to the issue of the public has the right to know, the public is not going to be sitting up here with us until 1230 and 1 o'clock.

[00:38:17] By that time, the public has left, and they're mad, right, because they've sat here until 1230 and 1 o'clock. So that's the first thing. I actually think it's less respectful to the public to make them sit that long. Secondly, I am very, very, very, very cognizant of the meeting agenda.

[00:38:34] I have two pre-agenda meetings, and I go through this agenda with a fine-tooth comb and will move things around. So this idea that we're going to, I mean, you know, we can't both say, I trust my colleagues and trust their integrity and say, but some of them might use it to basically mess over an applicant.

[00:38:54] Both those things don't work. Both those things don't work, guys. And so at some point, we're just going to have to dive in and give it a shot. And oh, by the way, the number one reason the meetings go so long is because of all the talking. Stop talking and we'll get out today. It's faster.

[00:39:11] That's just the absolute fact. And I want you all to listen to yourself because if we don't do this, that's fine with me. Again, this is my full-time job. That's fine with me.

[00:39:26] But when we're sitting up here at 1.30, I don't want to hear one person complain. Not a single person complain. Mr. Beverly, would you like to have a closing? Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. My intent is just to simply, as Karan Sainz said, Supervisor Sainz, is to encourage us to be more efficient with our time. I think we owe it to ourselves, our county staff, the public who is here and wants us to end sometime, doesn't want to be here until 2. They want us to end sometime, you know, today.

[00:39:58] So, you know, the purpose is not, I understand that it's possible that someone could use it as a tool to delay a vote. However, they are to not have to vote on something. But, you know, when it gets late, if it's an item you don't want to vote on, you could just leave if we didn't have that rule and you missed that vote anyway.

[00:40:16] So there's other ways if someone wants to miss a vote, to miss a vote. That is by no means the intent of this, and I don't think it'll be used in that way. I think starting at 4 p.m. will help because we're starting an hour earlier, so we should be done by midnight anyway.

[00:40:33] Again, it's not a mandatory delay of any sort of item. It's just a touch point where, hey, at midnight or soon thereafter, once we get done talking about whatever it is we're talking about, we're going to talk about when we're going to end this meeting because, oh, by the way, it's the next day now.

[00:40:50] You know, when are we going to end this meeting? If it's something important that we feel is timely and we need to end it tonight and there's a lot of public out here that's waited that long, which doesn't happen very often, then, you know, I'm pretty sure this vote, the vote would be two-thirds to wait, or not wait, to go ahead and finish the meeting no matter the time.

[00:41:11] But I think it's just, it would be helpful to keep having the back of supervisors' minds to only say what's needed and not to just put your light on for everything and just talk just to talk. especially in this last year where everybody's running for re-election.

[00:41:28] I noticed in my last term, in the last year, and I was guilty of it myself, sometimes I want to talk just to talk because if it's a campaign issue or something like that. Let's avoid that. Let's not do that to our public. Let's be efficient with our time. Let's be respectful of our staff, ourselves, our own staff, and the public who is here and wants us to finish our meeting on the day that it's supposed to be finished.

[00:41:52] Thank you. Thank you. Motion to say by Professor Buffington, and I second the motion. All in people, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Nay. That motion will pass 7-1-1 for Supervisor Bricksman voting against the motion and Mr. Laterno abstaining on the motion.

[00:42:14] Okay, that was fun. The next thing that we're going to do is elect a vice chair. I don't know if I need to read this, but I will. Pursuing to Section Code 15.2-1422 of the Code of Virginia, the vice chair may be elected to serve for a term corresponding with his, her term as supervisor and may be elected for such other period as determined by the governing body.

[00:42:43] If the board at any time, if the board at the time of such election fails to designate a specific term of office for which the vice chair is elected, it should be presumed that such officer was elected for a term of one year and shall serve his or her successor has been elected.

[00:43:00] A vice chair may succeed themselves in office. I nominate Karan Sainz to serve as vice chair. Motion to be made and seconded by Supervisor Eternal. Thank you, Supervisor Eternal. Supervisor Sainz has been a fantastic vice chair.

[00:43:20] Truthfully, you know, to be honest, I don't miss too many meetings, and so you don't see most of the work he does on the dais because he didn't have to run a lot of meetings because I don't miss meetings. However, the work he does behind the scenes is daily.

[00:43:38] We talk all the time. He's forever calling me saying, did you see that email? Did you catch that thing that was going on? He's been a very good net for me. And on days that I'm just having a hard time or weeks I'm having a hard time, I will absolutely get a phone call from Karan saying to start itself, hey, Madam Chair, how's it going?

[00:44:05] In that exact voice, he has been an exemplary vice chair. And, again, whenever I have done a meeting virtually, it's because I'm on county business, but he's always conducted the meetings very efficiently. And, again, so much of what you don't see is so much of the work he does.

[00:44:24] So I'm proud to call him the vice chair. I'm proud to call him my friend. Any other discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all in favor, please say aye. Did you?

[00:44:46] I did turn it on, but when it looked like you weren't going to look over here, I just turned it off. I can't stand you guys right now. I just want to say that Vice Chair Sains has done an excellent job, and I'm happy to support him for that. Anybody else? All in favor, please say aye. Aye.

[00:45:02] Opposed? Epstein. Okay, that motion will pass 801. Mr. Sains will abstain. Lord Jesus. I haven't prayed this hard in a very long time. All right, we're going to do standing committee meetings. Nothing has changed in the standing committee meetings.

[00:45:19] The Finance, Government Operations, and Economic Development Committee is, the chair will be Kristen Umstead. Members will be Julie Brixman, Matt Letourneau, who will be vice chair, Phyllis Randall, and Karan Sainz. The T. Luck Committee will be Mike Turner, who will be chair, Tony Buffington, who will be vice chair, Caleb Kirshner, Phyllis Randall, Sylvia Glass.

[00:45:40] The Joint Board and School Board Committee will be Sylvia Glass, who is the co-chair, Julie Brixman, and Kristen Umstead. I move the Board of Supervisors approve the standing committee assignments for 2023 as outlined in the January 3rd, 2023 Board of Supervisors business meeting action item.

[00:45:55] Mr. is second. Point of order, Madam Chair. Okay. I think I heard Ms. Umstead say second. Yes, Mr. Turner. I think you read Supervisor Covington as vice chair as this part of this motion. I don't think we can do that.

[00:46:11] I think the— That's true. Okay. You're right. You're right. So he has been vice chair in the past, but yes, they are members until they are, Mr. Letourneau is a member of finance until finance votes and makes him vice chair.

[00:46:27] Mr. Luffington is a member of TLUC until TLUC votes and makes him vice chair. Thank you, Mr. Turner. All right. Any other discussion on the motion? All in favor, please say aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 9-0.

[00:46:44] All right. Appointments of board members to regional and county committees. So, supervisors, you all see your appointments that are sitting there right now. There were two things that didn't have appointments. One, if you look at page four, number six, the Metropolitan Washer Air Quality Committee did not have a rep or an alternate.

[00:47:10] The truth is, my schedule is so, so busy. I just don't want to commit myself to one other thing because I just couldn't do it well. So I did call COG today, the person who runs this committee, and ask about if a staff member can be appointed to this committee and vote.

[00:47:30] And what I was told is that the main member has to be an elected official. The alternate member can be a staff member. And if that ultimate member comes, they can actually vote if the main member is not there. So for this committee, I'm going to put forward as the main member, Supervisor Glass, and as the ultimate member for my staff, Laura Tacroni, unless anyone has issues with that.

[00:47:58] And I said Ms. Tacroni because she's very, this is kind of her bailiwick of interest and things that she can do. This committee meets four times a year. On February 22nd, they will have a virtual meeting. On May 24th, they will have an in-person meeting.

[00:48:14] On September 27th, they will have an in-person meeting. And then their December meeting will also be a virtual meeting. The only other item that does not have an alternate, although I am the primary, is the region forward in COG. Again, I really don't miss meetings.

[00:48:32] Ms. Bricksman has offered, and I'm happy to take that, except if somebody else would like to, because there's a couple of people, especially Mr. Buffington and Mr. Kirshner, who really don't have regional appointments at all. And so if you'd like to have a regional assignment, a COG regional assignment, it would be an alternate assignment, but again, you probably would never go because I really don't miss, but I'm happy to do that because I'm trying to make sure everyone has a chance to sit on regional bodies and committees and such.

[00:49:01] So we can vote on this right now as it is, And if somebody wants to come back later and tell me that they want to be the alternate and region forward, then I'm happy to do that later. But we can keep these as they are right now. Ms. Umstead. Madam Chair, I know on TPB, Supervisor Letourneau and I have an alternate who is county staff.

[00:49:24] That works pretty well because they have a lot of expertise. Do you feel that I have enormous respect for Ms. Ticcrony and her level of knowledge? but do you feel it's better to have board staff as an alternate or county staff?

[00:49:41] I hadn't talked to Mr. Hemstreet to see if any of the county staff was interested, and I don't know their schedules. I'm happy to put Ms. Glass's name down right now and then come back and have that discussion. I know that sometimes our county staff is pretty busy, and they sometimes had, I'll put it like this, I have seen the attendance sheets of COG, right?

[00:50:07] so I know what's actually happening or not happening. That's how I'll say it. Yeah. Right, okay. But I can pull it and then talk to Ms. Hemstreet if somebody wants to, and otherwise, if they don't, I'll put her name back for it. How's that? All right, thank you. All right, cool. So we'll go with how it looks right now. Okay.

[00:50:22] I move the board supervisor to approve the regional and county assignments for 2023 as outlined in the January 3rd, 2023 board business meeting action item. Motions made and seconded by the vice chair. Discussion on the motions. Seeing none, all in favor, please say aye.

[00:50:42] Any opposed? That motion will pass 9-0. And the last motion we have is the schedule. If you look at page 6, item E, you see some of the schedule adjustments that have been made. Mr. Buffington did, Mr. Buffington had put forward the idea of not having a Tuesday meeting after a Monday holiday.

[00:51:09] And looking at the overall schedule, including the regional bodies, a lot of regional meetings are held on Tuesdays. I'm sorry, on Wednesdays and Thursdays. So to not have a Tuesday meeting really messes up the regional body meeting. So that's why we didn't adopt that as part of the rules of order. Otherwise, I move the Board of Supervisors to approve the Board meeting schedule adjustment as outlined in the January 3rd, 2023 Board Business Action Item.

[00:51:35] Motion is made and second by Supervisor Buffington. Discussion on that motion. Seeing none, all in favor, please say aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 9-0. Yes. Okay. We're going to go on to the next item, which is the additions and deletions.

[00:51:55] At this time, I think Mr. Kirshner has one. No, actually, it wouldn't be time for that. I'm sorry. Actually, it would be time for that in just a second. Well, it's on consent. Yeah. Well, additions and deletions. Anyone have anything there? Okay. Before I read the consent agenda, which is just two items, Mr. Kirshner, do you have anything you'd like to say for that?

[00:52:17] Yes, Madam Chair, at this time I would ask that we, my nomination to the five. Loud and water. Hold on, I'm looking at the wrong one. Yes, loud and one, to move Terrence Allen's confirmation to, would you like to move it to the January 17th meeting?

[00:52:35] I think it would be easier if you just withdraw it and see. So at this time I would withdraw the Terrence Allen's nomination at this time since several supervisors asked to have an opportunity to speak with him. So we can make that nomination later. Thank you. Under 70, if you want to make it again.

[00:52:50] Okay, sounds good. So then, having seen that, the consent agenda is to appointments and confirmations, and the administrative items reported January 3rd, 2023. Is there a motion to adopt the consent agenda? Motion was made and seconded by supervisor saying, discussion on the motion.

[00:53:10] All in favor to say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. So I don't have any regional updates, and I'm not doing a voice for a cause this evening on purpose. So are there any other regional updates? Let me know. Put your light on right now. Wonderful. Then I will go to Mr. Hemstreet for your comments, sir.

[00:53:32] Thank you, Madam Chair. I have four comments for this evening. The first is that I'd like to begin by wishing everyone a Happy New Year. I'd also like to pass along a New Year's resolution from our emergency management officials. Resolve to be ready in 2023. I encourage everyone to take a few minutes to make an emergency plan.

[00:53:48] By taking proactive steps to prepare for the unexpected, you can be ready for whatever happens and better able to protect yourself and others in the event of a disaster. More information about how to make an emergency plan can be found at loudon.gov forward slash ready. Second, the Commissioner of the Revenue encourages Loudoun County residents to verify their personal property tax information online for the 2023 tax year by February 1st.

[00:54:13] Taxpayers are receiving notifications in the mail with instructions on how to review and update their records. As a reminder, personal property includes automobiles, trucks, motorcycles, campers, trailers, boats, motorhomes, aircraft, and mobile homes. Third, Loudoun County's popular annual financial report for fiscal year 2022 is online.

[00:54:33] As part of the county's commitment to transparency, the report is specifically designed to be easily understandable to members of the general public who do not have a background in public finance. The report is available at loudoun.gov forward slash financial reports. And then finally, the second phase of the county's community-wide survey is underway with the posting of the online version of the survey.

[00:54:52] As you know, we periodically surveyed Loudoun residents to get their feedback on government services, the county's quality of life, and priorities for government initiatives. Residents may take the survey online by visiting loudoun.gov forward slash survey through January 9th. That's my comments this evening, Chair Randall.

[00:55:09] Mr. Dempsey, can you ensure that all the supervisors have that link for the survey so we can put it all on our social media pages and send it out on our newsletters? We'll take care of that. Wonderful. Thank you. Supervisors, we are moving right along, and so normally we don't start public comments until 6 o'clock, but because we're a little early, I'm going to start calling names.

[00:55:31] If the person's here, you can go on and speak, and if not, I will wrap back around to you since I'm calling names about six minutes earlier or so, eight minutes earlier or so than we normally would. But if you are here, you can speak right now. If you're not, then if you're not here, say aye.

[00:55:47] Okay. All right. Larry Rader followed by Mark Wynn followed by Matthew Hurley. Good evening Mr. Rader. Hold on one second is this mic on? Stop his time. Actually start his time over. When do I start? There we go.

[00:56:17] Good evening Madam Chair. I'm Larry Rader CEO of the Edwin Washington Society. We applaud the board's interest in studying the history of the enslaved peoples of Loudoun and their descendants who suffered under segregated education. We believe that collectively between our own organization which has been studying this question for a decade, and other bodies and experts in Loudoun with an interest in black history, we should be an important asset to the research you envisage.

[00:56:43] We recently completed a two-year effort to write a book on the education of blacks in Loudoun County from the age of enslavement through Jim Crow to 1968 integration. This is the first major comprehensive study on segregated education in Loudoun history and will be published by Georgetown University Press this summer.

[00:57:03] It was the subject of numerous faculty reviews and consultations with legal scholars in and outside Loudoun, but is only the first of several books we have in mind on inequity. I also refer to you to the front page of our efforts by the Washington Post on February 23, 2020, as well as our 2018 county-wide conference.

[00:57:24] Since 2016, we have partnered with the prestigious Country School Association of America, CSAA, whose members are university professors, museum managers, we regularly lecture on segregated education at their annual conferences.

[00:57:40] In addition, we will be opening a research center on segregated education at the Douglas High School building this spring and are in the planning stages of producing a journal on segregated education. Background has been handed to your clerk. Our research has been accomplished through the selfless efforts of individuals and organizations with close ties to Loudoun and Leesburg communities, whose only interest is in preserving the truth of our history.

[00:58:06] And finally, we work closely with Loudoun County Public Schools under an MOU and are scheduled to meet with county staff on Friday, thanks to Supervisor Bricksman, to seek ways of supporting the Board of Supervisors, believing that a Loudoun shared task force, which might include experts external to Loudoun, can improve our knowledge base.

[00:58:25] Thank you very much, Madam Chair. It's always an honor to be here with you and the rest of the Board of Supervisors. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Raider. Mark Wynn, followed by, if you are here, Matthew Hurley. Good evening, Mr. Wynn.

[00:58:44] Good evening. I'm here to speak about two different issues this evening. One, the upcoming budget and the surplus from last year's budget. I thought it would be a novel idea if the government would give back to the taxpayers the leftover money from last year instead of using it for projects, pet projects, and getting a head start on the next budget that's coming up.

[00:59:15] The funds earmarked for many viable and good projects with the leftover funds should go to law enforcement and to youth programs in troubled areas, a better investment for the future.

[00:59:34] Those youth facilities could also be used to teach many of our new residents to the county to speak English and to how to assimilate into our county and into the American dream.

[00:59:54] Think about the future, not about the past. Money is going to get much tighter. Secondly, I think most of you have seen the articles in different papers and online about a petition about hate speech that was brought up at the school board.

[01:00:14] I just want to go on record here, as well as the school board, saying that God's word and the word of the Bible is not hate speech. Any society that considers the word of God as hate speech is a society headed in the wrong direction.

[01:00:40] Matthew 10, 23, whoever acknowledges me before man, I will acknowledge him before my father in heaven. Whoever disowns me before man, I will disown him before my father in heaven.

[01:01:01] The school board, y'all, is really out of control. I appreciate you stepping up and encouraging things to change, but you need to be the parent again and continue to do that. Thank you.

[01:01:16] Thank you, Mr. Wynn. Matthew Hurley, and you will be followed by Chris Rowland and Darian Thornton. Good evening, Mr. Hurley. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Matthew Hurley, and I am the sales director for Bancor Mid-America.

[01:01:32] I am also a subject matter expert in special pay plans. The reason I came here tonight is to hopefully help all of you by unlocking a wealth of money hidden in Loudoun County. Every year, a wealth of money is paid out through accumulated leave. According to your annual comprehensive financial report, there are millions of dollars that are paid out through retirement and or separation when employees leave for unused vacation and percentages of unused sick time.

[01:02:05] I specialize in helping local, state, and county governments unlock this money. And I've provided all of you with this little pamphlet to these lovely young ladies over here. And hopefully there will be a couple of minutes of information that will catch your attention and allow me to show you millions of dollars that can go back into the county for any public infrastructure that you might need.

[01:02:27] Thank you very much for your time. Have a happy new year. Mr. Hurley, can I make the assumption that you are speaking on behalf of Bincor? Ben Corey, yes, ma'am. Okay, thank you, sir. Yes, ma'am. Chris Roland, followed by Darian Thompson, followed by Robbie Valeram. My name is Chris Roland, and I'm from the Catoctin District.

[01:02:46] Mr. Sainz likes to remind the public that when someone tells you that you've hurt them, you don't get to say you have not. At the last supervisor's meeting, many people showed up to voice opposition to an equity policy stating it would hurt the county. Chair Randall's response at the end of the meeting was, you can't read or comprehend what we are doing, and you speakers are a political stunt.

[01:03:05] Equity, when defined as the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, has, is racism. Equity, when defined as Mr. Turner read from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary that night, is not. This body has a responsibility, a duty, to allow public debate and input on which definition they want to be governed by.

[01:03:24] Chair Randall's comments are an attempt to subvert that and are a violation of our oath of office and duty to support the Constitution. When citizens wanted London to be declared a Second Amendment sanctuary at County, because 96% of the state did, Chair Randall said we don't do that. When Ms. Perskman wanted a Gun Violence Awareness Day proclamation, Chair Randall went all in. Now when a minority of counties implement an equity office and force a bastardization definition of equity into local policies, this body can't hashtag me too and quid pro quo fast enough for votes. You told us masks worked. That was a lie. You told us these vaccinations are safe. That was a lie. You told us our sheriff's office is terrible. That was

[01:04:03] a lie. You told us we needed to put up these barriers in our house, this house, because officers with guns here weren't sufficient to protect you. That was a lie. You said enacting this policy on equity will cost nothing, and that is the mother of all lies. Mr. Rush has been on payroll since July 8 of 2021. That is a cost. He's asking for a specialist to be put on payroll. That is a cost. This policy will take employees' focus from their jobs and reduce the efficiency of government.

[01:04:35] That is a cost. When this policy starts determining that white men speak too much at board meetings or submit too many FOIA requests, that will also be a cost. When you use the definition from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, that is the point. Stop hurting us and vote no on this policy when it comes to the floor.

[01:04:54] The next speaker will be Darian Thornton, followed by Robbie Bellarone, followed by Dennis Boykin. Good evening, sir. Good evening. I want to start off by saying, slaves, obey your earthly master with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.

[01:05:15] That also is in the Bible to keep the slaves in check, by the way. Hello to members of the board and to my fellow citizens. My name is Darren Maurice Thornton, Jr., and I have been a Leesburg citizen all my life. Not only that, but I stand here today proudly and humbly, a descendant of the enslaved Africans at Oatland's Plantation, 12 minutes from Leesburg, Virginia.

[01:05:37] Simply to put it, my family never left. We stayed here in Reformed Communities in Gleesville, in Aldi, just to name a few. My great-great-great-grandfather Bushrod Murray was one of the first African-American school teachers in Loudoun County, where he taught for years and even got on the school board, which he was paid far less than his white counterparts.

[01:06:04] I grew up here hearing the stories of triumph, horror, happiness, sadness, and all of the emotions of the human spectrum. Imagine going to the local Roy Rogers or come to the grocery store to come across people who assaulted you, harassed you, and even attempted to lynch you. That is daily life for many of the descendants of African Americans also like myself. I came here today to let everyone know that there are many like me who wish to see this initiative to continue and you have our full support in doing

[01:06:36] so. Quite frankly, others flew here. We grew here. So I'd like to end this with a quote from the first African-American publication in 1827, the Freeman's Journal. We wish to plead our cause. Too long have others spoken for us. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Robbie Bellaram, followed by Dennis Boykin, followed by Scott Smith. I don't think Robbie is here. He's stuck in traffic. All right. So it's Dennis Boykin, followed by Scott Smith, followed by Carolyn McCulley. Good evening.

[01:07:14] Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. I'd like to congratulate you all on a wonderful organizational meeting which apparently is going far smoother than the one down on capitol hill tonight for the first time in two decades i'm addressing you from something other than my previous two decades experience but always about aviation and i have over 30 years experience in aviation airport management and today i'm representing the brambleton community association my client is very concerned about the airport impact overlay district we've been working very closely with supervisor turner who's doing really really good work so i got this shot in there from my vfw buddy but he really is doing a lot of work and he's done an enormous amount of research

[01:07:53] however i understand that we're pushing forward and trying to get this done sooner and of course here after you all said that you want to keep things moving and not keep pushing them out in meetings that's what we're going to ask you to do there's a whole lot in this legislation that brings a lot of issues the fix for the aviation side of this issue and ravi who's on the board at at the BCA will be talking about the legal issues that they're concerned about and the reason why they brought in legal representation. But on the aviation side, it's a fairly simple fix that Supervisor Turner and I have worked on, and that is getting with the FAA and moving to a community

[01:08:26] roundtable. That's a specific FAA term where the Board of Supervisors and MWA together with the community associations go to the FAA, who, by the way, are expecting the request. They know the issue is there they've been addressed by the communities and they're waiting for the the board of supervisors hopefully with emwa and in uh around them to come forward and look for a community roundtable where all the communities get involved and talk about the different issues the fa does not want to change flight paths until all the communities are heard they gotta hear all the voices and that's a good

[01:09:00] thing to do but a simple fix to the departures to the west will ameliorate a huge number of problems so the ask on this uh particular day is that the board the bca board is asking for you and you've gotten this in writing in letters previously you delay this action for 90 days and move forward with talking to the faa and mwa to get a community round table going to bring forward the recommended change have them give some sort of response back to that and then move forward with the legislation

[01:09:37] And that would allow you to do something in a zoning ordinance that doesn't have to be temporary. Thanks for your time, and good luck in your new year. Thank you, Mr. Boykin. And Mr. Boykin and everybody in the room, the way I'm going to do this tonight is before we leave the dais, the supervisors will have our comments.

[01:09:55] And so if you want to just hang out so somebody may or may not want to respond to something you said, we will do that before we take a break tonight. Sounds like a plan. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Scott Smith followed by I think Robbie you came in the room I will no Mr. Smith please please come and then Mr. and then and Robbie and then Carolyn McCulley Mr. Smith welcome to the boardroom hey everybody uh never been here before a little smaller than the school board me

[01:10:31] I uh that's not the only difference smaller is not the only difference yeah so you know uh you know I got a lot to say but we only got two minutes and it's kicking down quick You know, I got this during, you know, the mail over the holidays, so I took some time to read it.

[01:10:52] And, of course, there's some good stuff in here, but there's some concerns. And, you know, just hear me out, really. You know, my wife and I are concerned with you guys as a board that really didn't step up and stop the dumpster fire before the special grand jury report came out.

[01:11:13] We do feel in the bottom of our hearts that you guys had a pretty good clue what was going on. With that being said, we need to move forward. The dumpster fire is burning out of control while we're there.

[01:11:31] I want to, you know, the biggest problem that my wife and I have just with going forward is LCPS's attorneys. I mean, they were called out in the grand jury report, basically, you know, as obstructionists.

[01:11:51] And, you know, basically, the school board is saying that they didn't know. Nobody knew. Well, they were all going off of Falcone's advice, and that's got to stop. Nothing's going to change until he's gone, and we really like to see that happen.

[01:12:09] You guys control the funds of LCPS. LCPS is spending a ton of money right now, and the bleeding's got to stop. We have a couple other problems, you know, that the special grand jury report came out with.

[01:12:25] And, you know, the problem we had with the report was is that it didn't put names out, and it didn't go far enough in depth. You know, and it was scathing against LCPS, but we have two other problems going on in this county.

[01:12:40] One is Budabiberi, you know, and the other one is the SRO program under Sheriff Chapman. The SRO program under him failed my daughter horrifically and caused further damage.

[01:12:58] We just need, you know, Sheriff Chapman, you know, he... Mr. Smith, I hate to stop you. Your time is up and so. So this is what I would say. As I said to Mr. Boykin, if you don't mind just hanging around a little bit, you know, there may be that some of my colleagues might want to respond, but I also will ask my chief of staff to get your number, and I will be giving you a call this week.

[01:13:25] Well, I would really appreciate that. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you very much. You know, just on the last note, you know, my wife and I, we just want to see change and protection for all the children. I understand. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Ravi, and then we'll go to Carolyn McCulley and Anna Kinhanio.

[01:13:47] I think I'm saying that right, and if not, you can correct me when you come up. Good evening, sir. Good evening, everyone. My name is Colonel Ravi Balaram. I'm an active duty Army pilot, board member of the Brambleton Community Association.

[01:14:03] And we've also just established an airport executive committee specifically for the airport impact overlay district. So I wanted to talk about that very briefly today. This legislation that potentially could be voted on on the 17th of January, we think, is not ready for prime time.

[01:14:24] You've heard from Dennis already, Mr. Boykin, an aviation consultant, that our community association has seen that this is such an important issue that we've hired him specifically to engage on it. And I think you've seen the written correspondence we've already sent.

[01:14:42] And I'm going to highlight just a few of the key points, right? So this causes undue burden on HOAs and potentially one in three residents, your constituents of Loudoun County, 135,000 people.

[01:15:04] Those are estimates of looking at hiring, working with a map professional, looking at the impact. It's not just Brambleton or Birchwood. It's not an isolated westbound issue. It is much larger than that.

[01:15:20] 135,000 people in Loudoun County. We've reviewed the public strategies, strategic priorities from the board. Very impressive stuff going into 2023. We don't see this anywhere on there. So we're wondering why there's no compelling reason to push this through as a priority when it hasn't really got in the right data for an inclusive approach that is going to be effective and

[01:15:54] considers the second and third order effects of implementing it to existing residents. Great idea in protecting for future residents, balancing for the land development, but we can't do that without thinking about those other issues. The last part is we've hired now a property rights lawyer to consult with your attorney to further engage on this issue. That's all I have. Thank you for the time, and I appreciate everything that you all do. Thank you, sir. Carolyn McCauley,

[01:16:26] followed by Anna Cujano, followed by Ken Reed. Good evening. It's good to see you again. It's great to see all of you all, and I hope that you've had a very healthy new year. As you can hear from me, not as much, but I'm negative for COVID and flu, so no one needs to worry. It's just a cold.

[01:16:46] You all have heard from me a lot in the last few months, and I'm grateful for your time and your interest, and for your interest in the Loudoun Aircraft Noise Mitigation Committee. But the one thing we really want to stress to you all tonight is that when we come to these meetings, we hear the county can't do anything about where the planes fly, and that's true, although as Dennis Boykin just invited you to participate in and sponsor an FAA roundtable, that's where you would get to influence this.

[01:17:15] And you've seen through our mapping software that the proposed new AIOD does go and follow where the flights are. The problem is that this noise map that Dulles has given you, that the AIOD is based on, is a huge pipe dream.

[01:17:36] It is based on the noise of one million annual flights, and the airport is nowhere near that. It's at 300,000 annual flights, and it's been declining since 2005. So when you are ready to put my home and other people's homes in noise contours, you're saying this is the reflection of actual noise.

[01:17:57] An independent aviation specialist would tell you that the airport is unlikely to ever reach it if at the earliest next century. But you would put the burden of your ordinances on current residents for noise that doesn't actually exist. Now, the FAA will tell you it's about 100 flights in a 24-hour period at 94 decibels that would achieve an LDN 65.

[01:18:23] That's my neighborhood, not my house. I can tell you if we experienced that, we'd all move. We're at about, according to my obsessive measuring, about 12 flights a day that exceed 90 decibels. If you had that number, you would obliterate all that you have built in this beautiful area in eastern Loudoun County.

[01:18:45] people would move. And people are moving. Two of my neighbors, one on either side, they both sold. They swear it wasn't because I talked about airport noise too much, but people are affected by it. So I just want you to know that this is an emperor has no clothes on issue. This is not the actual noise where it is. It's unlikely to ever be. So why would you put the burden of noise insulation, of loss of navigation? Ms. McCulley, I'm sorry. I hate to I thought I'd get to it. Every time, guys. I really came for it.

[01:19:17] I'm sorry. Thank you, though. Thank you. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. I'll wipe that down. There you go. Anna Quijano, followed by Ken Ree, followed by Colin Donninger. Good evening. Good evening. My name is Anna Rosada Quijano, and I am a candidate for the Ashburn District Board of Supervisors.

[01:19:39] When the grand jury investigation of Loudoun County Public Schools handling of the assaults on two female students began, members of this board criticized the investigation by their silence and support of the school board who tried to squash the investigation. I watched members of this board refuse to hold the school board accountable last year.

[01:19:58] Mr. Turner, you led the walkout at the Virginia Association of Counties meeting in February of 2022, claiming that the grand jury investigation was all political. Ms. Briskman, you wrote a letter in support of the school board and Chair Randall. You claim to support victims and survivors like me.

[01:20:16] But why were you silent instead of demanding answers and accountability when the assaults happened and evidence was showing the school board and Ziegler at fault? If I was on this board, I would have immediately supported the grand jury investigation, called out the school board and Ziegler, and pushed hard for accountability and transparency because assault and abuse is not political.

[01:20:38] It took me six years to walk away from an abusive relationship. There was one incident where I was thrown on the floor and had a recliner held over my head. My own daughter ran in at the last minute, crying, telling her daddy to stone-hurt mommy. Another incident in 2018 earned my ex-husband two domestic assault charges, which led to a standoff with the Leesburg PD and SWAT team.

[01:21:01] Mr. Turner, you said at the December 6th Board of Supervisors meeting, and I quote, this is a moment of reckoning, a moment of truth for us. Well, now is your chance. Please call out the school board. Instead of a raise, use those funds to support the girls and their families through counseling.

[01:21:18] Cut funding for the school board until they release the independent investigation. Call out the school board members individually and hold them accountable. Only until the evidence proves too much to ignore does this board finally speak up. The only people I see playing politics are members of this board.

[01:21:38] Assault and abuse is not political. It is a tragedy. No matter the circumstances, it should not be tolerated. Take it from me. Those girls like me will carry scars that will last a lifetime. Thank you. Thank you. And same answer.

[01:21:53] You may want to just hang around and have a response to your comments. Mr. Reed, followed by Colin Dollinger, followed by Gary Higgins. Thank you very much. Happy New Year to you all. Happy New Year. My name is Ken Reed, and I preceded Ms. Umstadt as Leesburg Supervisor.

[01:22:11] co-chaired the Joint School Board, Board of Supervisors Committee, and each year I supported full funding of the schools. My twins attended LCPS from 2002 to 2013, and I was not disappointed. However, this grand jury report and what I've been seeing on television the last year or so, as I don't live in the county now, has really appalled me. It really has. And I just think that when the grand jury findings came out, as the previous speaker said, it kind of became trouble for a lot of you who opposed that investigation by the attorney general. This all would have been swept under the rug if it weren't for Jason Meares and Governor

[01:22:50] Youngkin. You showed pity for Mr. Smith who just spoke, his daughter and the other girl assaulted, but I really believe it would be very good if this board put your money where your mouth is, and if you really want to have counseling, set up a fund, and I've emailed Ms. Umstadt and others about this, for helping people with counseling if they've been assaulted on any county property, including the schools.

[01:23:11] Don't just pass the buck to the school system. You also can do an audit of the schools. And I remember this is when I was on the board several years ago, and I think Ms. Quijano actually referenced that when she spoke to the school board a couple weeks ago. You have a right to do an audit of the schools if it's financially related.

[01:23:29] And I think there are some financially related issues here. For example, I cannot get answers as to why that assailant was transferred from Stonebridge, to broad-run high school instead of to the school for at-risk kids, which was formerly at Douglas but now is under reconstruction.

[01:23:46] Maybe the school system is not utilizing Douglas. Maybe they're not putting kids there. There were issues with the Title IX fund program. I can't understand why the chief of staff of the school superintendent was the Title IX director. We can't depend solely on the grand jury. It's looking at criminality.

[01:24:01] The school board cannot be trusted to oversee itself. It just can't. I would really request that this audit be done. It's a suggestion, of course, and have the results delivered to your finance committee, which Ms. Umstadt chairs in your joint schools committee, by the spring and maybe to the full board.

[01:24:20] I really think that people in this room are going to be holding you accountable, and you're not just going to be able to say that's a school's issue and show pity in the press and not do anything about it. And here's your chance to do it. Thank you very much for the time. Thank you. Mr. I'm sorry, Mr. Colin Doinger, followed by Gary Higgins, followed by our last speaker, Christine.

[01:24:43] I don't know if it says Lohser or Lesser, so I apologize. Good evening. Good evening, Chair Randall. I actually came here because I wanted to personally thank you for meeting with me. I wanted to do it in public because I was very moved by our conversation.

[01:24:59] It's affected me still to this day. It's so easy for in the day of Twitter and social media for us to view each other as like the sum total of our tweets and not as humans. And we had this amazing conversation where we just put each other in each other's shoes and were able to see things empathetically and from each other's point of view.

[01:25:23] And even though we have disagreeing views, we can still have a civil conversation. It just gives me hope that maybe we can see more of that just in general. And I think back to imagine if the school board would have, you know, done this two, three years ago with some of the constituents who might not be where we are now.

[01:25:41] I think, you know, the ship may have sailed for the current board, but, you know, I just really wanted to thank you. I was very moved by that, and I felt the need to come here and say it in front of God and man. So thank you. Thank you. And I also very much enjoyed our conversation. I learned a lot.

[01:25:57] It was thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. Gary Higgins, followed by our last speaker, Christine, I think it's Loser. Good evening, Mr. Higgins. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the board. My name is Gary Higgins from Waterford, Virginia.

[01:26:12] We are or should be extremely thankful that our governor and attorney general saw fit to investigate Loudoun County Public Schools about the sexual assaults and released a special grand jury report on Loudoun County Public Schools. Without their courage and initiative, we would have never known the deep complacency, incredible lack of transparency and how much Superintendent Ziegler and the senior staff have fought to hide the findings of their own independent investigation.

[01:26:43] The firing of Superintendent Ziegler is just the tip of the iceberg. In my opinion, the four indictments are a clear indication of how deep the lack of oversight runs and transparency lack thereof runs through LCPS administration and a lot more needs to be done.

[01:26:59] I want to welcome a number of you to the party, but I find some of the recent outrage from members of this board about the grand jury findings to be quite disingenuous. For the last two years, most of this board has sat back, asked no questions, funded the school system, praised Ziegler and LCPS, and ridiculed anybody that came forward to address the issues with you.

[01:27:21] I came to this board in the spring of 2020 and laid out what was going on over at LCPS. One would think you might read the newspapers. I asked if you were aware of the events, the sexual assaults, the CRT, dumbed-down curriculum, and Loudoun parents being labeled domestic terrorists.

[01:27:38] I was later ridiculed in the comments of many of you about my comments and my remarks, and Chair Randall, you stated they were false. In February of 2022, the joint meeting of the Board of Supervisors and the School Board, when the LCPS budget was discussed and questions were raised about Ziegler and these issues, Supervisor Turner went on a verbal tirade that had to be gaveled down by Chair Randall.

[01:28:03] And then you guys went on to praise LCPS and talk about how wonderful the superintendent was. I hope that Chair Randall, Supervisors Brissman, Turner, and Glass will now take these issues seriously after walking out on a VACO meeting earlier this year in Richmond and claiming that the investigation was a political stunt when the AG's office just mentioned that they were doing an investigation in Loudoun County.

[01:28:28] Chair Randall, you've asked the Washington Commanders to release their internal sexual assault review, but you have not asked LCPS to release their investigation. I hope that now we can view these issues outside of the realm of political theater and hold LCPS accountable in the budget process.

[01:28:43] Mr. Higgins, I've asked them to release that multiple times, multiple times and publicly. You're incorrect. Ms. Loyser, welcome to the room, please. Thank you. Thank you for this opportunity to speak to you once again.

[01:29:00] My name is Christine Lozier, and I am a member of LANMC and a resident of Birchwood. You have heard a lot from Loudoun residents about the AIOD in the last several months, and we have had the very interesting experience of learning about the workings of county government and how it works with residents, and I appreciate your listening ears.

[01:29:20] I will not say much tonight because I believe we have presented you with not only the necessary information to come to the conclusion that the new AIOD as presented is not a workable situation for anyone at this time. The Board of Supervisors, AMWA, LANMC, and all the residents involved in the new placements. However, LANMC has presented you with a very workable temporary solution

[01:29:49] which will allay your concerns about new building in the 65-plus areas, while also keeping our concerns of being moved into the 60-65 and 65-plus locations from coming to fruition. If you have not yet heard of this solution, although I sincerely doubt that any of you have not heard and seen the maps of the fix, I implore you to take note of it prior to voting in any manner.

[01:30:18] Thank you for your time. - Thank you, ma'am, I appreciate that. Okay, Supervisors, let's go ahead and do our public comment, I'm sorry, our board comments and any disclosures you might have before we leave the dais, and after that we will go on break. Let's start with Ms. Brixman, would you like to start?

[01:30:44] Oh, before you start, Supervisors, so from here on, for the next meeting on, we just adopted in our rules of order is that not for the chair, but for Supervisors, These five minutes will be your regional updates, your disclosures, and your public comments all at once.

[01:31:04] Today, it's just disclosure and public comments, but from here on, it will be all three. So we will start with Ms. Bricksman. Thank you, Madam Chair. Sorry about that. I was trying to press too many different buttons here.

[01:31:21] I believe I have one disclosure. On December 19th, staff and I met with the Willard team on the Cascades Marketplace. I'm hearing a bit of an echo. you guys okay over there i'm not hearing an echo at all you coming you're coming through just fine okay it's probably just coming through on me um and uh i uh wanted to share that um we have lost uh 44 231 people to gun violence this year and actually in 2022 that's a little bit lower than

[01:31:59] 2021 and we had 648 mass shootings in the united states in 2022 a little bit lower than 2021 which was good but i am really disheartened to hear that we have some pre-filed gun legislation down in richmond that would effectively reverse some of the work that we've done on this board to prohibit firearms in our county buildings, recreation centers, libraries, and parks. And so I'm hopeful that that does not pass. And I think that's about all I have, Madam Chair. Thank you.

[01:32:35] Thank you, Ms. Bricksman. Appreciate it. Ms. Umstead. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have no disclosures and no comments. Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Kirshner. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a couple. I too had a cold over the holidays.

[01:32:51] Is that your voice? Is that I'm hitting puberty for a second? First of all, I want to wish everybody a Happy New Year and look forward to the work that we have in front of us this year. And hopefully we can find unity on many things.

[01:33:07] I know we don't agree on some things, but we're looking forward to that. A couple of different things. First, in terms of news from Catoctin, I just want to – I think it was pretty quiet over the holidays, but if you have not yet had opportunity to experience Harry Potter and the Forbidden Forest, I strongly recommend that you do out at Morvin Park.

[01:33:25] It's there until February 11th. I know tickets are hard to come by, but it has been a great event. People, I know, I've spoken to many of the Airbnb folks and the bed and breakfast folks and others, they are booking people left and right from out of town.

[01:33:41] So it's a great economic driver here in Western Loudoun and in Leesburg area. So a couple of other comments that I have just kind of follow up with some of the comments that were made. I really appreciate those of you who came out and spoke on the school board matter and many of the concerns that you have there.

[01:34:00] I want to remind folks that I was calling for Ziegler's resignation and certainly for the school board to do an investigation. And I publicly stated that I had lost all confidence in him. I mean, you can read and go back to the London County Public Schools budget presentation of the board on February 10th, 2022 and see my comments there.

[01:34:21] I am very grateful that the grand jury investigation took place and uncovered much of this. It is a disgrace, and I think this in many ways is just the tip of the iceberg. I do feel that in many ways this school board was derelict in their duty, and quite frankly, perhaps even deceived at times.

[01:34:47] There is a great deal that needs to be done and needs to be dug into. I look forward to meeting with a new superintendent to see if he is taking some of those actions. And as I think was said, perhaps some cleaning of house for those who were responsible in digging deeper.

[01:35:03] I do feel like the internal investigation that was done for them not to turn that over at this time is shameful and should be turned over. And I encourage them to do that. Later tonight, we're going to get into a little bit of our budget discussion. And it is amazing to me that we continue to raise our tax rate on an annual or the taxes on our citizens annually.

[01:35:30] I know it's very difficult, especially in time of inflation, to perhaps stay at the equalized rate. But I got to looking at a number of the items that we have in front of us. And I'm going to propose, as we get into this budget season, perhaps putting us on a course to eliminate our car tax.

[01:35:47] I think it's very important. It's something that impacts every single, perhaps not this year, but over a period of time. We really need to look at lowering this or eliminating it. It's something that impacts every single Loudon resident. It's going up every year.

[01:36:04] I know we have tried to provide relief by lowering it 20 percent last year. I think we can do more. We can do better. I'm very pleased with how we have been able that our data center revenue continues to come in. but this is an area that affects practically every single pocket in Loudoun County.

[01:36:22] And I'm hoping that many of my colleagues will join and take a hard look at our car tax specifically, since now, under recent legislation, we are allowed to potentially eliminate that. Thank you, Madam Chair, and I look forward to this year. Thank you, Mr. Kirshner. I appreciate that. Thanks, Ms. Kirshner.

[01:36:41] Thank you. Ms. Glass. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have no disclosures, and I just want to say Happy New Year to everyone. And I do look forward to working with my colleagues and to let the broad-run constituents know that my door is open.

[01:37:02] If you all have any concerns, any questions, please contact me. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Letourneau. Thank you, Madam Chair. Coming to you here from the far right corner of the board, there's a little room back here. I can just hide. It's not a bad spot. I think it has the potential to be a challenging year for a number of reasons. The budget situation is more challenging than what we've experienced.

[01:37:32] And the political situation is such that it's an election year, and I've been through my share of those on this board. And I hope that we can maintain the way that we've always conducted ourselves i think we can and we will uh in these situations and our strong personal relationships are our large desire to meet consensus whenever possible i think we've always done that on this board as long as i've been part of it and not let what's happening on the outside get in the way because that temptation will be there and it goes for everybody that's running for re-election

[01:38:11] I do just briefly want to address, I think there's more dialogue for us to have about the airport impact overlay district, but my observation is that there are a number of different arguments that are coming at this from very different places, perhaps asking for the same thing, but for different reasons, and somewhat contradicting themselves in the process.

[01:38:35] I think we know that we do have issues with airport noise. We've heard residents come to us and talk about that. And so we can't simultaneously say we don't have those issues for the purposes of adopting an overlay district and then say we want you to do something about it with the FAA.

[01:38:53] I think the answer is for us to do as much as we can do with the FAA and with the tool that we have. The Airport Impact Overlay District is not new. It has been in the county since 1993, and there are tens of thousands of homes that fall within it.

[01:39:09] Almost my entire district is in it and always has been. It's been a part of every real estate transaction I've had in this county as a private citizen. So I think some of the fears, which strike me as a little bit of the unknown, are not founded because we have a long history here of development and growth and rise in property values.

[01:39:31] No one can say they have not risen well under this same regime. None of the requirements are changing. Nothing that staff has proposed is different than today, other than the map and some clarification about how to make sure that we're actually following these. But I encourage us, as we take this discussion up, to not forget the reason why we have this in the first place, and that is for our residents.

[01:39:54] It's not for me, not for any of us. It's a tool to make sure that when folks move into our county, they know where they're moving, and they know that they're going to be experiencing noise. And it may seem obvious to many people that that's the case. But having been on the other side of a lot of these emails for years, well before this year, there have been many instances where folks did not realize what they were going to be experiencing when they lived here.

[01:40:22] And it should be in all of our interest to have happy citizens and happy residents. This is not about what M-Wall wants, never has been. That was in the language that came from the Bramelson Association. That's not the motivation here whatsoever. this isn't about an outside government authority taking action against the landowners it's the opposite this is about the county trying to protect both existing and future landowners from understanding what this entity the airport is doing to the airspace above us which changes over the years hence the updates so i think we we are having a progress supervisor turner and i

[01:41:02] have some discussions about that in terms of how we can approach the FAA. But that's really a lot different than whether or not the county should have an overlay district and whether the one that's being proposed makes sense. The reality is, as we speak, there are developers seeking to develop in some of these areas that are now in the overlay district. And delaying that vote over and over again, this has been a process that's been going on for over two years. With lots of public engagement, we can go through the list of all the different public engagements, letters sent to every single county resident that's impacted more than once but as we continue to delay this

[01:41:37] all we are doing is creating confusion out there and potentially ending up with development that we know is going to have a problem and we know is going to be in conflict with some of what people are currently experiencing with noise and so delaying that is not the answer because that will only exacerbate the problem and make it worse for future residents for the board for the community. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Letourneau. Mr. Turner. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[01:42:06] I am speaking to you from the far left of the day. Note that Supervisor Brisman is to my left as I address you. I would like to just point out to everybody that the January TLEC meeting has been canceled. We had one information item. It was a fairly small item, so we will push that off to the February TELEC meeting so the January TELEC meeting is cancelled I would like to advise our TELEC committee members that I'd like to begin meetings at 5:00 p.m. instead of 6:00 p.m. if you have a concern with that please contact me offline so we can we can start those an hour earlier at three disclosures on

[01:42:44] Wednesday December 7th my staff met with Jennifer Garcia from DLA Piper to discuss the application for Belmont Park Thursday December 8th my staff and I met with Dennis Boykin and his staff from Dulles International Airport to discuss the and his staff okay this is this is wrong Dennis Boykin and members of Dulles of the staff at Dulles International Airport to discuss the airport impact overlay district and on Tuesday December 13th my staff and I met with Matt Leslie from Wallace Kalushi Packy Crown from Bowman Consulting Patrick Coggins from Tapco Properties and Tushar Awar from Garove Slade to discuss the application for Belmont automobile service station I really had

[01:43:23] no board comments until Supervisor Le Turner weighed in on the airport overlay District. I differ somewhat. We haven't caught up since I've been doing quite a bit of work over the last couple of weeks. I will advise everybody that I am going, I'm working on it now. I have some language to change the ordinance. I think I have a solution. It's a little complex, but I am working on language for the ordinance that will, I think, accommodate the homeowners. I do disagree with Supervisor Lieutenant on this. I think approving the airport overlay, the new airport overlay for Runway 3-0 will affect property values and insurability and create potential legal problems

[01:44:01] down the road around Runway 3-0. And I think, as I said, I think I have a workaround for that. But the bigger issue is not whether or not we approve the overlay. That's an important issue. I think I have a modified answer. The bigger issue is to form a community roundtable and approach M1, the FAA, and get them to change the departure procedure for Runway 3-0. If you look at the 92 overlay, it's an accurate depiction. It was a part 150 study of a straight ahead departure on runway 30. If you look at the 2019 overlay, it is an accurate depiction of aircraft takeoffs from

[01:44:37] runway 30 today, but the first time we were notified that those departure procedures had been altered from 1992 was in 2017, and I have a letter from MWAT stating that. Those houses were approved long before 2017 when those flight departure paths changed and we this board made housing decisions based on what we were told by M law based on the 92 overlay so it is absolutely essential I actually dug down into the standard instrument departures for Dulles Airport there is a Capital One departure that basically says fly runway heading 301 degrees straight ahead for

[01:45:14] until reaching 3,000 feet or words to that effect they already have a standard instrument departure that will obviate all of the noise that Bramilton is experiencing right now we simply need them to mandate that if you're taking off runway three zero sixty-eight percent of departures out of Dulles Airport take off on runway three zero when I flew to Phoenix to see my daughter over Christmas we took off runway three zero and the wheels weren't in the well at the end of the runway before we started a 30-degree bank turn and flew right over route 50 and right over supervisor Luterno's neighborhood and I know we weren't at a thousand feet yet and all of the airplanes are doing that we have to change the departure procedure off that runway and we have to

[01:45:53] do it as a combined community effort so in the interim we can adjust the language in the ordinance about the overlay but in the long term we need to get that departure procedure change for runway three zero and that's the approach I think we ought to take and you'll hear more about that I have to get this language over to staff and then to county attorneys so they can look at it and see if it's viable or not and hopefully we'll be able to and I will have a fairly complex motion at the January 17th meeting that will both hopefully implement this ordinance and form, recommend that we work with the community to form a community round table.

[01:46:26] Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Turner. Mr. Buckington. Thank you, Madam Chair. I too want to thank all the speakers who came out this evening to speak to us. I want to wish you a happy new year regarding changing the TLUC start time, Supervisor Turner to 5 p.m. I'm fine with that. Regarding disclosures, on Friday, December 30th, I met with Brian Viola and Rick Stone from the Brambleton HOA, and regarding that meeting, I am no longer comfortable, I will not be comfortable on January 17th voting to implement the newly proposed AIOD. I had initially viewed the issue

[01:47:04] as only a noise and land use issue, but after talking to them and hearing more from many, many of my constituents. Now I understand it's more than that. It's also a financial issue. It's a home insurance issue. It's a home value issue. It's a property rights issue when you're talking about navigation easements that run with the deed and are permanent and forever.

[01:47:26] So I definitely will not be in favor of voting to implement the AIOD at that meeting. So I'll put that out there. Regarding LCPS, I want to clearly state that they absolutely should publicly release the internal sexual assault investigation as soon as possible.

[01:47:48] It should have been done already. LCPS, you clearly, and I know you know, have a public trust issue, and you need to resolve that. This would help with that. I don't know what you're waiting for. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Buckington. Mr. Sainz.

[01:48:03] Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd always like to say, first, thank you to those who come out to speak today. It could have been anywhere else, but you chose to be with us to speak what's on your mind and your hearts that are near and dear to you and that's going on in our community. So I appreciate you taking the time to do that. I have no mandatory disclosures.

[01:48:19] I'd like to wish everybody a happy new year. Hopefully everybody had a good break with their family and friends and to the community. I hope everybody has a joyful and prosperous year. And I'll just quickly say, I think from day one, I've been saying up here and behind the scenes, LCPS should be releasing their internal audit investigation that they did.

[01:48:40] Excuse me. I think it's shameful that they have not released it. They should have released it. If they can't release the whole thing for various reasons, fine. But give us an executive summary. We have done that ourselves on our own internal investigations, released a report fully or executive summary. They could easily do that, but they've chosen not to.

[01:48:56] And, again, I've been saying that, and I think a few of us have been saying that since day one, since it has been known that they're doing an internal investigation. Mr. Reid, you can shake your hand, but that is the truth. That is the truth. So, and that's their internal investigation. And I'll just stop there.

[01:49:14] Well, I'll say one more thing. In regards to, I don't believe a financial audit will uncover anything. A financial audit's financial. That has nothing to do with the tragedy that happened at Stonebridge and Broad Run. And again, as I said numerous times before, definitely things need to change over there, and people need to be held accountable.

[01:49:36] But again, as it's been mentioned numerous times by various members of this board, we are two separate bodies that do not report to each other. Just how I can not come to your house and say, hey, you need to do this, this, and this. They can't come and tell me to do this. You can't come to my house and tell me to do this, this, and this.

[01:49:53] We are two separate bodies, okay? Yes, we give the funding. We legally have to give funding. But to say, oh, withhold this or withhold that. So you're saying you don't want to pay the teachers?

[01:50:11] Or you're saying you don't want to pay the custodians and the bus drivers and whoever else over there? That's what's going to happen. But we can't do that. So we all know this is definitely an issue that is impacting our community.

[01:50:32] And we need to continue to make sure things are done over there and keep speaking our piece and saying what we would like to see happen and hopefully things will get done over there.

[01:50:48] But as it's been mentioned, this is an election year and we have our say-so just as you guys do in November with who will be running LCPS and doing whatever over there.

[01:51:05] And same thing over here too. So, but I encourage everybody as I always do to please continue to speak up, email. We appreciate when you do it here. And I will always, as always, I've been telling people since day one, please continue to do so over there.

[01:51:23] But I will say that, yes, there definitely needs to be some change in how LCPS does business. And I have been saying that actually for some time, especially behind the scenes to certain folks for a long time actually now.

[01:51:39] So anyway, well, thank you. And I look forward to another good year. Thank you, Mr. Saynes. So it surprises me that people who sit both on the school board and on this Board of Supervisors does not know that there is a financial audit done in LCPS as a component of our audit already.

[01:52:00] If you take a look at this book right here, the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, start on page 64 of this book, and you'll see the financial audit that starts in LCPS as a component of Loudoun County's audit already. It's already done. If they want to do an independent audit, they can do that also, but the audit as a component of our audit is already done by LCPS, and the fact that people who sit on this board and on the school board doesn't know that is quite interesting to me.

[01:52:30] That's the first thing. The second thing is 86% of our public school students, over 86%, attend LCPS. I will not be defunding our schools. I just will not. That is not the answer. It always interests me when someone who decides that year they want to run for office comes into the boardroom or emails us or whatever and tells us what we haven't done or what we have done.

[01:53:00] Listen, people have lives. You have children. You have things going on. You're busy. I get that. So you may not be watching board meetings. I get that, too, because we're not that interesting. But if you haven't been watching the board meetings, then you can't come in here and say what I have said or haven't said.

[01:53:18] about LCPS in the past. If you had been watching, you would know that I have multiple times from this dais talked about the issues of LCPS. I have supported parents, I have supported students, and I have supported teachers, and I will continue to do that. But I have talked multiple times about the issues of LCPS, and I have called for, just as Mr. Sains has many times, the release. No matter what office you're running from, from dog catcher to president, never accuse somebody of not caring

[01:53:53] that people are sexually assaulted. Whatever your history is, you don't know other people's history as well as what they may have gone through. To make it your campaign goal to accuse people of not caring that children have been sexually assaulted is inappropriate at best, and it is inappropriate. I'll just leave it at that. It is inappropriate. Mr. Smith, I do want to speak to

[01:54:25] you separately. I did speak out and, in fact, had a meeting with the former chair and vice chair of the school board and Mr. Ziegler, and we'll be happy to share that meeting with you and Mr. Hempstreet in private to ask some things of the school board and got nowhere. The stone wall was a brick wall. Nowhere. So questions were asked because we didn't know what was going on. And I heard you say you think we knew. We didn't know, sir. We didn't know. There's no way I could have

[01:54:59] known that and not done something. We didn't know. I know you may not believe that. I appreciate that you may not believe that. I respect that you may not believe that. But we asked the questions. I asked them to their face, to their face. And it was a complete stonewall. It wasn't even a denial that this happened. It was a, we're not going to talk about this. And I have people in the room who can verify that that happened. Mr. Higgins, if you're still here, I didn't say you were saying what you said was false. I said you were accusing the person of being transgender was not true.

[01:55:34] And this wasn't an issue of a, this wasn't a transgender issue. There was an issue of sexual assault, perhaps, but not an issue of the perpetrator being a transgender person. And as far as the walkout at the VML Baco, listen, when the attorney general's office stands up and starts attacking your county overall, that is not acceptable. That moment didn't belong in with every single locality, county, city, town in Virginia. That was an inappropriate moment. And he wasn't talking about this issue. He was just bashing the county in general. And that wasn't

[01:56:11] inappropriate for that moment. This is not a political issue. It's not. And if anyone understands, one, my life and what I've done for a living in the past, you'll know how I feel about these things. You will know how I feel about these things. We can make this a political issue and an election issue if you want to, but I will say, were it my child, I wouldn't want this to sit in the political sphere. That's not where I wanted to sit. I will finally say I have,

[01:56:46] I do believe that LCPS should set aside money for continuing and ongoing counseling for these young ladies and their families. Thank you very much. I will be calling you, sir. All right, supervisors, how about we take a break because I really need one right now. And we have a lot more things to do. We're not going to read in the closed session yet. We, yeah, we're not going to we can't do that. Yeah, we can't do that. We're just going to take a 15-minute dinner break right

[01:57:18] now.

[01:57:35] So 15 minutes. Thank you. That was a little more than 15 minutes, I might say to my colleagues.

[02:37:03] That's all I'll say about that. All right, we're going to do confirmations and nominations. I think we actually more have nominations. Supervisors, I have received a lot of questions about this. Let me be clear. The REC nominations are, since it was reconstituted, it is for all the new positions on REC. So that's the nominations we're making tonight. We're not confirming anyone tonight, but those are the nominations we're making tonight, specific to the industry

[02:37:35] area. Okay. All right. Is Ms. Bricksman still with us? Ms. Bricksman, you're still there? I am, Madam Chair. Can you hear me? Wonderful. I can hear you. I can hear you. Supervisors, If you have nominations, would you please turn your lights on?

[02:37:53] And Ms. Bricksman, do you mind if I start with you? Yes, Madam Chair, I do not have any nominations. Thank you. I think you said that the nominations for RADC are in the packet. Those are just going to be nominations tonight. Yes.

[02:38:08] We don't need to say, like, every name in the packet, do we? No, if you have nominations, you should say the ones you have, because it may be that for some of the areas we have duplicative people, more than one person, that might require a vote at the next meeting. So you should probably go in and say if you actually have people that you want to nominate.

[02:38:26] Yes. No, no, I do not. I just wanted to make sure that we didn't have to, like, say all those names. But I'm good. Thank you. Mr. Letourneau? Yeah. Nomination? Yes. Okay. I nominate Joseph Darden as the Unmanned Aerial Systems Representative on the REDC.

[02:38:47] Thank you. Ms. Umstead? I'd like to nominate Evelyn Ingram for reappointment to the Disability Services Advisory Board. That's it, okay.

[02:39:03] Ms. Glass? Thank you, Madam Chair. I nominate Ms. Carolyn McCauley to serve as an at-large representative on the Disability Services Board. I nominate Ms. Renee Ventrice to serve as an at-large Emerging Opportunities Representative on the Rural Economic Development Council.

[02:39:24] Okay. Thank you. Mr. Buffington. Thank you, Madam Chair. For RADC, I have several. Tell me if I'm going too fast and I'll slow down. Justin Wish as the protein production processor. Jeff Browning as the rural-based business rep.

[02:39:46] Michael Bruno Bertazzi as the equine rep. Kelly Fultman as the outdoor recreation rep. Janelle Zurchmead as the craft beverage limited brewery rep.

[02:40:01] Jill Evans Kowaljian as the Arts and Culture Rep, Avis Renshaw as the Plant-Based Food Production CSA slash Agricultural Rep, Donnie Walker as the Bed and Breakfast and Lodging Rep, Chris Van Vlack as the Farm Bureau Rep, Brian Tensman as the At-Large Emerging Opportunities Rep, and Jeff Bugard as the At-Large Emerging Opportunities Rep, as the other At-Large Emerging Opportunities Rep.

[02:40:39] Thank you. Thank you. So I'll go through mine, and Mr. Buffington, and then one for Mr. Letourneau. I think we have some duplicates, but I didn't. So what we could do, I'm going to go through mine, and then, David, you can let us know where we duplicate, and then when we don't duplicate, we can have a vote on.

[02:41:00] Okay? How does that sound? All right. So for the whole, this is RADC. This is all RADC. For the horticulture rep, William Hatch, for the rural-based business, Jeff Browning, for the protein production processor, Justin Wilsch, for the plant-based food production, Avis Rinshaw, for fiber and livestock, Tia Ehrman, for equine, Michael Bruno Potosi, for outdoor rec, Kelly Fultman, for bed and

[02:41:35] breakfast lodging, Sherry Lanshields, for arts and culture, for arts and culture, I sound like Emma Fudd tonight, Tracy Kirkman, for Farm Winery, Janet Kernan, for Limited Beverage, Janelle Zurchmead, for Unmanned Aerial Systems, Joseph Darden, for Farm Bureau, Chris Van Black, for the At-Large Emergence Opportunities, Jeff Bugard, for Hemp Farming, and Brian and Tinsman for the high-tech, low-tech industry farming.

[02:42:14] Both of those are the emerging opportunities ones. And then I have three for the Arts Advisory Board, Brett Washington, Maria Brito, and Mitra Sheriff are the Art Advisory Board nominees that I have.

[02:42:29] So again, I know some of those were duplicates, and some of them were one name for more than one thing. So we can get, especially with Mr. Buffington and I, we can get together and go through them and kind of work them out. How's that sound? That's fine. I think all the ones you made, I had all, I didn't make all the ones you made, but the ones that were duplicative were the same.

[02:42:50] Okay, sounds perfect. Sounds wonderful. I don't care who gets credit for the nomination. Oh, I don't, yeah, yeah. Okay, wonderful. Do you have anything else that you need, Mr. Street? Are you good? No, ma'am. Okay, wonderful. Okay, the next, yes, sir.

[02:43:07] I'm so sorry. I would like to make a nomination for REDC. Would you? Yes, I would. Would you too, Mr. Kirshner? Yeah, well, I didn't hear it, so I just wanted to make sure. Did anyone, did you nominate Chris Suarez, either of you, for Limited Brewery? That was one I didn't hear that I wanted.

[02:43:24] No, for Limited Brewery, I nominated Janelle Gertzmead, and so did Mr. Buffington. Do you want to go to me first, Ram? Go on. I'd like to nominate Chris Suarez for Limited Brewery at Large Emerging Opportunities. Thank you. Would you say that name a little slower? Chris Suarez.

[02:43:41] So is that for limited breweries or for at-large emerging opportunities? You said both. Oh, it's all three for both. You nominate him for two. Well, I guess I'm going to make it. You nominated so we could do the at-large emerging opportunities.

[02:43:58] Or was that the one you did? You did the limited brewery for someone else, so we'll put him on emerging. Mr. Buffington and I both did Jarrell search me for limited breweries. Would you like to do him for emerging opportunities? Yes, please. There you go. Would you like to say his name again? Ms. Juarez.

[02:44:14] There you go. Thank you. Mr. Sains? Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. Sorry about that. Nominate Daniel Sanford for the Outdoor Recreation at Large Emerging Opportunities. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Mr. Streets, you're good?

[02:44:31] All right. Okay. Let's go to item number three, which is the term salaries. And Mr. Streets, you can just stay right where you're at. Is there any new information you'd like to give us?

[02:44:49] Otherwise, we'll go straight. I will go to Mr. Sains for a motion. What I would say is no, ma'am. This is in large part the item that the board considered previously, and there are no substantive changes. Thank you. Mr. Sains, we'd like to make a motion on item number three, please.

[02:45:07] Sure. I move that the Board of Supervisors approve the Board of Supervisors' 2024-2027 term annual salaries as provided in Table 8 of the January 3, 2023 Board of Supervisors Business Meeting Action Item. Motions made and seconded by Supervisor Umstead.

[02:45:23] Discussion on the motion, Mr. Sainz. Thank you, Madam Chair. We've talked about this a few times now on the dais, and definitely we've all had conversations regarding the salaries for our board here. And then, as I mentioned before when we first presented this, this will be not for this board to see the increase.

[02:45:43] This increase that we're talking about would take a place starting in the new board, whoever that is. Yes, there's some of us running for re-elections, but we don't know who's going to win until the elections are done in this coming November. But whoever takes these seats in November 2024 to 2027 term, this increase will take a place at that time.

[02:46:01] I believe this is the right thing to do. As I've stated here before, and I'd like to clearly state this again, that I believe these salaries are necessary for those who may want to be in these positions and do these as their full-time jobs.

[02:46:17] And that's why I feel it makes sense for us to have these increases to these board salaries. So then, therefore, whoever runs, they can have the choice to be this their full-time job and not do another job also if they choose to do so.

[02:46:32] I'd also like to clear for the record, I've stated here before numerous times, that when I say I believe I could not live off of the salary, what I'm stating is saying living off the current board salary by itself. That's not including my salary that I get from my day job.

[02:46:48] I received a couple of emails where individuals, I don't think they either heard my full statement or did not fully understand my full statement when I said that previously, that when I say that, I'm stating that only for the board salary, not to include my salary that I get from my day job. And also like to just point out, you know, for perspective, you know, the $73,000 that we're talking about, the median income in Loudoun in 2021 was $100,190.

[02:47:15] So, you know, we're not even really getting to the median income in Loudoun County, but we're definitely a lot closer than what it was a few years ago. So hopefully we can vote to approve this item here today. And we'll take those steps to make this a living wage, a manageable wage for those in Loudoun who might want to take this position and do this, you know, do it full time and not worry about having another full time job on the side as well.

[02:47:43] Thank you. Sorry, thank you. Mr. Kirshner. Thank you, Madam Chair, and I thank Vice Chair for bringing this item forward. I'm going to abstain from this vote today just simply because I'm a little uncomfortable for myself personally because I feel like I'm amply paid for this, but I also understand that everybody has a little bit different perspective.

[02:48:01] The one question I do have, and I don't know if this is for Mr. Hemstreet or staff or whomever could answer this, if a supervisor so chose, and this were to pass in next session, whomever, if they wanted, Can they take a portion of their salary and donate it to their staff?

[02:48:17] Because I foresee, at least on my, for the Catoctin district specifically, there's going, and maybe we have to do a separate appropriations, but if you can answer it. But I foresee that Catoctin district, especially since it's such a large district, is going to need a significant more staff help to cover the extra villages and towns that are there.

[02:48:38] I mean, it's going to be almost half of Loudoun County in terms of land mass, not population. And there is a lot of different aspects to that, as Mr. Buffington can tell you, having represented. So my question is, is that a possibility or no? There first would be a tax issue.

[02:48:56] If it's a post-tax question, then sure, you can do what you want with your own money. If it's a pre-taxed issue, if you wanted to do it pre-tax, then that'd have to be approved by the whole board. Okay. All right. That may be, if I'm fortunate enough to be reelected, maybe something to come back and do and ask the staff to do.

[02:49:14] but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Thank you. Wonderful. Ms. Bricksman, would you like to speak on this item? I would. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to thank Vice Chair Sains for all of his hard work on this, and we did have several conversations about this.

[02:49:33] And, you know, we did some comparative work to, you know, our colleagues in Fairfax and Arlington, and we're not going to make it to what their raises will be when they finally do their raises um this year uh i don't necessarily agree that someone could live on this salary especially if you're a single head of household or even someone starting out new um but i think we're getting there and um i think this is a good step in that direction to making sure that you know anyone who wants to run for office has the opportunity to do that and can be

[02:50:09] secure and being able to serve their community um and it could potentially as we move forward to um getting better pay in these positions it could open it up to having new new voices on our board so i appreciate all the work and i'm very happy to support thank you thank you mr turner thank you madam chair um well i guess we should wouldn't be a new year if we didn't start off a little bit the controversy, so I'm happy to contribute. I fully support this, and I think it's a very reasonable pay increase. I happen to believe, and I believe since I've been elected to this office,

[02:50:49] that the absolute cap on elected official salaries in this county ought to be the area median income. Now, I know state law says that you can't tie the elected official salaries to an index, but you can use it as a guide to set the start of their term and then increase it a certain percentage every year after that as a baseline. And I think, and clearly we don't want, for example, some of the smaller elected positions, soil and water, that sort of thing, to get the area median income. But I think it ought, elected officials in Loudoun County with a county our size should be full-time, this should be their job, and they should be paid the area

[02:51:23] median income. My very productive staff did some analysis. Right now, if we accept this pay raise, In 2027, the chair will be at 69.93% of the AMI. The vice chair will be at 63.62% of AMI.

[02:51:41] And the district supervisors will be at 58.25% of AMI. The clerk of the court will be at 156% of AMI. The commissioner of revenue will be 144, commonwealth's attorney 156, sheriff 168, and treasurer 135. I would definitely support freezing all of the constitutional officers' pay, effective immediately until they come back down to the AMI, and I would immediately support anybody that said supervisors should be full-time and paid the AMI. That's where I am. So we're never probably going to get there in this lifetime, but that's kind of how I feel. And so any move in that

[02:52:15] direction, which this motion clearly does, I will fully support. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Buffington? Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't agree with that regarding the constitutional officers because all them manage much larger staffs than we do I mean I have two full-time staff that I manage they all have way way more than that that being said regarding regarding board office budgets for staff we're planning on doing that as a separate item right we are okay and madam chair if you don't mind through staff if I can

[02:52:53] get an answer to this question if if any member of the next board who this would be effective for does not believe in this does not want to take that money they can they can tell you that they don't want the raise and you would not give it to them right is that correct would you be able to do that keep the money in the general fund to be used otherwise the answer that is yes and there have been board members in the past that have not accepted the the okay so board members who don't believe in that um don't have to don't have to take it i think this is a

[02:53:29] reasonable raise that is being proposed I think it's about five thousand dollars more than what we're making now for the first year of the next term and then about a three percent increase each year that's similar to what we give our staff what we've given our staff for last seven years since I've been here they get about three percent if not sometimes a little more maybe a little less sometimes I think that's reasonable being on the board is definitely whether you have another job or not, and I happen to have another job, it is definitely a full-time job. It follows you

[02:54:05] everywhere you go, every day of the week, no matter what. The only way to get away from it, if you need a real break, is to turn your phone off and go away from your phone or your any type of electronic device and not be next to anyone. Because they will get you, if you're near any electronic device and which is fine and that's the way it should be you you are you are a public servant a member of the board 24-7 and we're always in one way or the other doing this job so it's actually hard to determine how many hours we put in per week per month per year and all that

[02:54:45] because you'd have to add five minutes for this email 10 minutes for this text message that turned into a call, and so on, and so on, and so on. I agree in general with the premise of what Supervisor Turner said, not to the amounts, but I feel you should be able to devote full time and attention to this job and not need another job in order to continue to live in Loudoun County.

[02:55:12] Or spouse. And not have to rely on a spouse's income, and even if you have kids, you should be able to do that solely on your income from here because this is a full-time job you should be able to do this job represent your constituents the way they deserve to be represented and live in your district thank you sir thank you miss glass thank you madam chair I don't think I have to say much more I'm thanking supervisor Buffington I agree I think salary should be high enough so that you You know, anyone that wants to hold this position as a full-time job

[02:55:49] and have enough compensation to live here in Loudoun County, I think it's needed here. You know, when I think of any other job, if you are doing your job and you're doing it well and you need to live, especially in this county, And I think it's a, you know, I think this is a good thing that we're looking to do.

[02:56:21] And, you know, when I hear things about, you know, well, you guys are, you know, trying to get rich. I also think about people who talk about educators, teachers who would like to have a raise also.

[02:56:38] You know, we just would like to live in this county and to live and not survive, but to thrive and do well in this county. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Thank you.

[02:56:56] I've never had the pleasure of being a district supervisor. I've had the honor of only being chair. And I, you know, this is not a full, the chair's job is not a full-time job. It's a full-time plus, plus, plus job.

[02:57:12] I don't put in less than probably 55 hours a week. I'm not kidding either. And I'm not complaining. I ask to be here. I love the position. It's challenging in all the right ways. It's interesting. It's fun. Sometimes it's, you know, not as fun, you know.

[02:57:31] But overall, it is such an honor to be allowed to serve in this position. But my predecessor, who was chair for 16 years, did it four times. did it full-time, which means that was about 23 years ago. So 23 years ago, the chair was doing it full-time, right?

[02:57:47] Think about the population 23 years ago and the population now. It's always been a full-time job. You know, the Fairfax, if you break down how many supervisors are on the board by how much they make, each supervisor in Fairfax makes about $100,000.

[02:58:02] The chair makes $110,000, actually. So they have 104,000 constituents per supervisor. and they're making $100,000. I have 430,000 constituents, and I'm making $83,000. When I leave this office, and if I'm lucky enough to win again, that'd be wonderful, but I will tell you, one of the last things I will do, even if I'm not going to be chair again, is to vote to raise this salary. And I would do that for the next person, whomever that person

[02:58:39] might be. Democrat, Republican, somebody that beat me, it doesn't matter. Because you're asking people in the chair's position to either heavily rely on a spouse or not be able to do the job at all if you want it done correctly. I don't know a county chair that doesn't do it full-time. Ann Wheeler does it full-time. Jeff McKay does it full-time. Every county chair in this region does it full-time. And in many ways, the county chair position is much more akin to a mayor's position.

[02:59:11] So if you think of LeVar Stoney, who's the mayor of Richmond, who has 225,000 constituents, he's making like 200 plus thousand dollars, right? We need to make these jobs full-time jobs so that anyone that chooses to do them full-time can do them full-time.

[02:59:32] This is a step in that direction, but I would tell you, even if I'm not going to be chair again, I would vote for this for the next person, whomever that next person would be. because it's the right thing to do, and you're going to get people who can actually do the job. And by the way, I'll praise to my colleagues who have second jobs, because I don't know how y'all do it.

[02:59:51] I really don't. I couldn't do it. So lots and lots of respect for that. Mr. Sainz, would you like to have a closing? All right. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed?

[03:00:08] Abstaining? So that motion will pass 8-0-1 with Mr. Kirshner, They're both abstaining and also saying that if we're elected, he doesn't want his salary to be raised next time. Kidding about that.

[03:00:25] Don't put that in a minute. Thank you. Okay, let's go to the two finance items, the general fund balance item and the final budget guidance item. It doesn't matter the order we take these in.

[03:00:42] Does one impact the other enough to matter the order? Yes, so the fund balance item does include funds that need to be sent forward to the 2024 capital plan. So if the fund balance is not sent forward, then we would need to do that one first.

[03:01:02] Yes, please. Okay. All right. Item 4A, the fund balance item. Good evening. As you've said, item 4A is the uses of FY22 general fund balance. This item was presented to the Finance Committee in December for recommended uses of the total $114.5 million.

[03:01:28] The Finance Committee recommended a split motion, which you'll see in the packet, ultimately to recommend the board-approved staff's recommendations. I just want to add one item that was discussed during the Finance Committee and clarify that the arts program, the recommendation for that funding includes art across the county and study in temporary employees for that effort, but there is no funding included in that study for a performance arts study.

[03:02:04] Just want to clarify that from the last meeting. We're happy to take any questions that you might have. I'm going to back you up on that arts question again because performance... Performing Arts Center. performing arts center although we're calling we are envisioning a performance arts center but an art center may not just be performance arts it could be i mean i i think we're kind of getting a little stuck and saying things that are that are technically not correct it may be a art center that has performance arts but it could also have other kinds of types of arts too and this

[03:02:42] this item doesn't cover that at all? Correct. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. I don't know. Does anyone need the presentation? Because I think we've been through it like quite a few times. Do you need questions before you go to a motion? Okay. That's fine. That's fine.

[03:03:01] No, I was just going to ask, Madam Chair, I'm going to ask to separate the middle part of this motion. The way that it's worded makes it easy because... It does. It's three separate. It's three separate three separate yeah sure like i will split the motion okay on the arts thing until that okay that's fine that's fine so then um miss umstead would you like to make the would you like to do them would you like to make the motion in the in paragraph one and paragraph three and then say paragraph two certainly certainly thank you madam chair i move the recommendation of the finance government operations and economic development committee that the board of

[03:03:45] Supervisors appropriate $59,011,290 of unassigned FY 2022 general fund balance for the FY 2023 uses identified in the January 3, 2023 Board of Supervisors business meeting action item, excluding funding for the art programs.

[03:04:02] And I'm now going to read paragraph three.

[03:04:16] I further move the recommendation of the Finance, Government Operations, and Economic Development Committee that the Board of Supervisors direct staff to include up to $40 million of unassigned FY 2022 general fund balance for one-time purposes in the FY 2024 proposed budget and reserve $15 million for a contribution to the county's fiscal plan.

[03:04:33] reserve. Motions made and seconded by the chair and vice chair of the Finance Committee. Ms. Umstead, would you like an opening? No, I think it's fairly clear, so I will waive an opening. Okay, wonderful. Mr. Turner. Thank you, Madam Chair. I know this is going to infuriate staff, and I apologize in advance. It's just bugging me because I couldn't figure it out last night.

[03:04:57] In the fiscal impact section of the item, it says staff recommends that the board allocate a total of 59-561-290 and in the motion it says 59-011-290 can someone reconcile those two numbers for me the difference is the 550 000 for the art program which is the second paragraph of the motion that supervisor umstead to not read the only statement i will make before i go back to ms umstead is this includes um some way to have an outreach for the conservation easement um effort that is a it's a

[03:05:33] very big deal. Mr. Bovington and I and Mr. Kirshner's staff are going to be soon having a meeting around primax soils and conservation easement and how we can all kind of work together. Western Loudoun County is very important to the overall functioning of our county.

[03:05:56] And, you know, a lot of people in eastern Loudoun County very much enjoy what they see in the West. And we want to both respect people's property values, maintain agricultural soil to use for actual growing, and get as much land and conservation easement as possible.

[03:06:17] And that's going to be the meeting. Try to marry those three things will be the meeting that we have. But, you know, the development that's happened out in the West over the past 13 years now has all been by right development.

[03:06:34] And by right development, we'll continue and continue and continue until we have no west anymore if we do not find ways between PDRs, TDRs, and conservation easement to save that land out there. And so part of what's in this budget tonight is, I think it's $30,000, is it $30,000 just to stay, $38,000?

[03:06:54] I just want to clarify that the money in the fund balance item is just to replenish the conservation easement grant assistance program. It is not related to the already approved use of balance for PDR outreach. No, no, not PDR outreach.

[03:07:09] Yeah, yes. So I appreciate that clarification. So anyway, I want to just highlight that section in here because it's really important. Ms. Umstead, go back to you. No closing. All right. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. And they oppose.

[03:07:25] That motion will pass 9-0. I'm going to go back to Ms. Umstead because it's still her committee. to make the middle motion. All right, Madam Chair. I further move the recommendation of the Finance, Government Operations, and Economic Development Committee that the Board of Supervisors appropriate $550,000 of unassigned FY 2022 general fund balance for art programs for use in FY 2023.

[03:07:56] Second. I paused so that Ms. Brixman could sing her second to all of us. Do you have an opening for that, Ms. Umstead? This is not my favorite part of the motion.

[03:08:16] So I'm sure Madam Chair or others would have stronger words in favor of this than I would. Okay. Mr. Letourneau? The chair is very gracious, the finance committee chair, because she didn't support the motion, so I wouldn't have even made it if I had still the chair.

[03:08:33] The chair has also called the finance committee chair earlier today. Oh, I know. I'm just having some fun. But it was a 3-2 vote at the finance committee. And the reason for that, it's not that I think either of us have any objections to the arts whatsoever. And it's not even that I wouldn't be open to appropriating more money for the arts.

[03:08:50] But we're kind of going from zero to $550,000 here, and we're funding two temporary positions. And that's really where I have a concern, because temporary positions become permanent positions. That's just a fact of life. And yes, the board will have to appropriate it, and it will go through a process, but this is how these things tend to happen and become a permanent fixture in the budget.

[03:09:17] And some of you, I think, want that, and that's what your intent is. But that is not what my intent is. I think this is going to be a very difficult year. I don't think I would have thrown up a flag on this in the previous couple of budgets, especially the first two that we had when we really did have a lot of issues.

[03:09:35] And I did not anticipate having a budget process in which we weren't funding county positions. But this year, we're not even getting most of the departmental priorities. We're getting some of them as options. And I anticipate we're going to be haggling over every last position in the budget.

[03:09:51] So it's a little bit to me unfair to kind of circumvent that fund to arts positions, which I'm not diminishing, but I have to really weigh those against the other positions that I know that the county administrator is going to recommend to us or at least bring to us as departmental priorities that we may not be funding.

[03:10:12] And this is money that, you know, ultimately it's all money. So, you know, I would have been willing to do something here. I think it's good to have some public art. But is this the year of all years that we have to put a half a million dollars into this and fund some temporary positions?

[03:10:29] I would say no. So that's why I'm not supporting this. Mr. DeTerno, in your time, do you have a number in mind? I'd have to understand. I think this intent, most of this money is going for the temporary positions. I think if we were, and I forget what that, what's that tied to?

[03:10:49] what's the number so the number is tied to a few different elements so funds to complete the countywide arts plan which is $150,000 supplies for satellite galleries and the relocation of art $20,000 and then two temporary positions for two years so if we took out the 200,000 and the 180 which are the two positions I could probably live with this I don't think others could I can tell that from looking at the screen but that's probably

[03:11:23] more where I would okay okay thank you miss glass thank you madam chair we've had several constituents come before the board and speak about the importance of the arts and ask the board to allocate funding towards the arts I think this is now the opportunity to respond to those constituents with actions and resources and I will be supporting this motion. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Mr. Kirshner? I'd just like to associate my, rather than taking up a bunch of time and kind of reiterating the same things, associate my comments with Mr. Letourneau. I agree 100% of what he said in terms

[03:12:01] of, I certainly would support the arts, but again, this is going to be a very tight year, and I think we need to be real careful about where we're spending this money. Thanks. Thank you. Ms. Brixman? Thank you, Madam Chair. So, as some of my colleagues may recall, this initiative came out of the committee on committees where we examined the all boards commissions and committees in the county to make sure that they're operating efficiently and to see what we could change to improve service to the county and staff came up with this plan which I fully approve and

[03:12:40] of and I think it's very creative and I think it's a good way to get started in the county with public outdoor art and also making art accessible to more of our citizens and residents through the Parks and Recs department. I also had the opportunity to speak with Beth Erickson about this over the last couple weeks and asked her, you know, what she thought about art as it might relate to Visit Loudoun. And she shared some data with me about surveys that they've done.

[03:13:14] She said, well, 22% in their survey that they just did said 22% of visitors say that visual arts were part of their travel experience over the past three years. 32% of visitors say that they will seek out visual arts and travel experiences in the future, showing a 10% increase.

[03:13:30] They also found that 19% of residents want to see more visual arts in Loudoun, while 33% are interested in engaging in visual arts in the county. And she also said, anecdotally, they've seen a strong demand recently with the launched Loudoun Art Tours in Leesburg, which is also gearing up and producing more outdoor art.

[03:13:52] So this not only contributes to, you know, vitality, health in our community, but also could be translating into numbers. The Visit Loudoun generated $108 million in local taxes, as well as $55 million in state taxes over the last year.

[03:14:11] So I really would appreciate my colleagues' support on this, and I'm sure Chair Rangel will comment on this as well, but we both are now in the Healthy County Advisory Board at NACO, and they also have done studies that show having public art and access to art in our communities makes for healthier communities.

[03:14:31] And so I would really be disappointed if we diminished this plan because it was put together by staff like this for a reason so that we can accomplish certain goals over the next two years. And then we can reevaluate how things look after those two years are complete.

[03:14:48] And I'm really excited about the sculpture program that they're going to be putting together for public art in the county. So I am hopeful that my colleagues will support. And by the way, we already sort of endorsed this when we passed all the recommendations from the ad hoc committee.

[03:15:07] So, you know, if you're going to pass something, sometimes you have to put a little bit of money behind it if you really truly support the effort. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Mr. Buffington? Thank you, Madam Chair. I, too, support the arts, and I do believe that we need to expand our arts program.

[03:15:24] However, I don't think this is the right way to do it where we prioritize these two positions outside of the FY24 budget process. So if it comes for consideration throughout that, we will see where I stand on it. But I don't think we should do this outside of that process, so I'm not going to support it.

[03:15:45] So I worry sometimes about, like, rewriting history. I have been talking for, since I've been on this board, about expanding art into our libraries, our community centers, our schools. And what I've said over and over is, you know, I have so much, so many gifts, quote, unquote, that came to the county.

[03:16:08] When I went on just, what, four trips that were sitting in my office, and finally I got somebody to come and go through them all and catalog them and everything. I then called the former chairman of York and asked him to bring all the stuff he had back so we could catalog all that stuff.

[03:16:25] And the Arts Commission did that. We have tons of things that are just sitting in storage rooms and in boxes around the county that were given to us that we haven't put on display or put anywhere. And truthfully, none of it belongs to me.

[03:16:42] Some of it's in my office, and I look at it and enjoy it every day, but none of it belongs to me. It took them, gosh, it took them like six months to catalog all the art that was given to us that is just sitting somewhere. And so I think it's the right thing to do, to be honest, to share this.

[03:17:02] And I have been saying that since I got on this board. So, yes, we are having a tougher financial year right now. But when we had kind of better times, I couldn't get any support for this at all. This is not the first time I tried. I couldn't get any support for that at all. So to say, well, now that we're in a tough time, well, some of us were here when I tried it before, and I couldn't get any movement on that.

[03:17:24] Secondly, if you look at all the studies, and I'm not saying you all don't like art, but art in the community raises property values, it lowers depression, it lowers mental health. Where there's art, there's even lower crime. And so I think that the art itself gets back in ways that you can count monetarily and that you can't count monetarily and the reason this is fund balance is because it's a one-time thing the you know maybe mr. attorney you're right it has to it will be rolled into the budget but maybe it won't it would be inappropriate to put this in the budget it's a fund balance item for

[03:18:02] a reason and and if it wasn't in fund balance mr. hamstreet would it roll into the into the into the budget this year if it wasn't in fund balance my recollection of the direction from the board was to send it to the fund balance process so if it had failed here we would need direction from the board to send it somewhere else or it would just stay here okay so so we're not taking money out of the out of that fund anyway we're not and so you know i think we should i think if we never start we're never going to start and we don't have art in loudon county and

[03:18:39] if you know we can talk about it all day long but if we don't do it we're not going to do it So let's try it. And if in two years it's not going well, we didn't put anything in the actual budget. Ms. Umstead, would you like to close? I'll just say, Madam Chair, I should have offered to give you the middle paragraph of this motion because you did a very good job defending it.

[03:19:04] I would just say there's a lot of private art out there. There are a lot of nonprofits that have art show fundraisers. and we do have a lot of art in the county through the schools in part. Philosophically, I think the private sector is where art should be.

[03:19:21] But Madam Chair and Supervisor Briskman, you've made very good arguments for your position. So I'll leave it at that. Thank you. So the maker of the motion was Ms. Umstead, who's not going to vote for it. The second was Ms. Briskman. All in favor, please say aye. Aye.

[03:19:38] Opposed? That motion will pass. with the art lovers voting forward and the art haters being Mr. Letourneau, Ms. Brexman, Mr. Gershaw, Mr. Buffington. Thank you very much.

[03:19:55] All right, now to the fun part, which is the budget, the budget. Mr. Torpy, thank you. Thank you very much. To the budget. You ready? Good evening. Good evening.

[03:20:11] The Finance Committee voted on final budget guidance on December 13th and passed a recommendation that the county administrator prepare the 24 budget, splitting local tax funding between the county government and Loudoun County public schools with a ratio of 40% and 60% with a real property tax rate that would approximate the opening of funding expenditures through the opening of new capital facilities, which in this item is 88 cents, as well as a personal property tax rate of $4.15.

[03:20:45] The Finance Committee also recommended the board direct the county administrator to produce two increase options, one that would maintain the 40-60 split with LCPS, and one that would direct the full 1.5 cents to the county government.

[03:21:03] Nothing has changed in this item since we provided an overview at the Finance Committee last month, and I believe staff has briefed all board members on this item. Also, no new information since then, but we are happy to answer any questions.

[03:21:19] Wonderful, wonderful. You have a question before the motion? Yes, Ms. Glass, yeah. Yes, so as the motion is drafted in the packet, is there flexibility to bring board priorities and department requests as options in the budget?

[03:21:36] In the increased options. In the increased, okay, thank you. Talk to me offline by what do you mean by that, because I don't know. Talk to me offline about what do you mean by board priorities, because I think that everything we've actually asked for so far has been already accounted for in the budget.

[03:21:59] So we're not going to try to do any new BMI or anything like that in this last year. No, no. Okay. But I was just looking at the 89.5, 89.5, 89.5 cents.

[03:22:17] is that going to be able to cover the priorities that we have? Oh, I see her question. You get that question? Correct. The proposed budget will only fund expenditures through the opening of capital facilities, and then in the increased options there is funding that could fund board priorities and other department priorities.

[03:22:42] Okay, but you don't mean any new board priorities? No, not any new ones. Okay, all right, thank you. And those priorities are listed in the item. Okay, thank you, Ms. Glass. Mr. Turner, you have a question you need before the motion? I do. Just very briefly, if somebody can explain to me. I thought I had this understood until Ms. Burke just commented on it.

[03:22:59] Can you explain to me that the one and a half cent option does away with the 60-40 split and all of the one and a half cents comes to the county? Is there an underlying 60-40 split and it's the net one and a half cents that doesn't split? Right.

[03:23:14] One of the increased options would be to split local tax funding 40-60 through 88 cents. then that additional one and a half cents in one of those scenarios will go fully to the county government. Okay, thank you. Christian, you have a question before the motion?

[03:23:32] I did have a question. Just out of curiosity, and you may not have the answer now. I think I might have asked this. I'd like to see a breakdown as to what, if we were to decrease, when we get into the budget process, the sum of the car tax for every cent of that, if you could provide and get back to me and my office as to how much revenue that would actually end up costing the county, that would be extremely helpful to me.

[03:24:01] And is there also an additional, and I think this would probably be too hard to calculate, but is there an equalized type of rate that we could follow for car tax? Would that be too much evaluation for every single car? Yeah, that is not something we've been able to calculate thus far. Can I just clarify what your question is?

[03:24:18] It's what is a penalty of the personal property tax on vehicles worth? Okay. Just on vehicles. Yeah. All right, thank you. Okay, Mr. Sainz. Thank you. I have a follow-up to Mr. Kirshner's question. So real quickly, do we have that number?

[03:24:36] What is the car tax revenue? Do we have that on the top of your head or have that anywhere real quickly or no? We can pull it up. Yes, I don't have it right now. So vehicle taxes in the current year budget are approximately $150 million, And then additionally, there is the allocation of personal property tax relief that we receive from the Commonwealth of Virginia.

[03:25:05] So all told with that from the Commonwealth, it's over $200 million of revenue. So is that the, I know it's the car taxes, you know, the value has gone up, but is that around the same number every year? Is it close to that?

[03:25:22] But is that in the ballpark almost every single year in the last few years? So the vehicle taxes and obviously vehicle values have gone up significantly during the pandemic. Last year, the board, at the recommendation of the Commissioner of the Revenue, did implement an assessment ratio.

[03:25:38] But typically, the long-term trend on vehicle, the vehicle tax portfolios, it does grow. So as additional residents come into the county, additional vehicles come to the county, residents buy more expensive vehicles, things like that, that has been an over-the-long-term trend consistently growing revenue source.

[03:25:58] Okay, but you just said now about $100 million to almost $200 million, correct? So $150 million is good. Between the vehicle taxes and the personal property tax relief from the Commonwealth of Virginia, it's $216 million. That's a big number.

[03:26:14] Okay, thank you. It will be interesting to see how you like to replace that funding. I'd be curious to see how you would like to work that, but thank you. And hello in the audience, Ms. Brown, good to see you. Okay, Ms. Bricksman.

[03:26:33] Thank you, Madam Chair. Can you hear me okay? You guys got all garbled on me. We can hear you okay. We can hear you fine. Thank you. My only question was, and I support the motion that's in the packet. My only question was that there was an announcement recently that the governor was able to eliminate something like 1.5% of the grocery tax. And I just wondered if that will impact at all money that we'll be getting from the state. I think it doesn't because the other 1.5 goes to localities, but I just want to confirm. That will not impact the local collection of the local portion of the

[03:27:12] sales tax that is collected. Okay. But do you have any idea, and I know I'm throwing this at you kind of cold, but do you have any idea of what won't be funded then at the state level because of This reduction in grocery tax? No.

[03:27:29] Okay. All right, I'll check with our legislative folks on that. Thank you. Oh, Ms. I'm sorry, I'd like to make a motion, please. Yes, ma'am. Very good. I move the recommendation of the Finance, Government Operations, and Economic Development Committee that the Board of Supervisors direct the county administrator to prepare the FY 2024 proposed budget with a net new local tax funding being split between the county government and Loudoun County Public Schools at a ratio of 40% to 60% and at a real property tax rate of 88 cents

[03:28:09] and a personal property tax rate of $4.15 with options to increase the real property tax rate by 1.5 cents, One that would maintain the 40%, 60% split, and one that would direct the full one and a half cents to the county government.

[03:28:29] I further move the recommendation of the Finance, Government Operations, and Economic Development Committee that the Board of Supervisors send consideration of removing the Waterford Traffic Calming Project from the Capital Projects Fund and transferring $500,000 from that project to a new project to be named Village of Waterford, preserving the landmark infrastructure improvements to the Finance, Government Operations, and Economic Development Committee's Capital Improvement Program work sessions in 2023.

[03:29:07] Point for clarification before we get a second. Wait, we have to get a second before. Is there a second on the motion? Motion is seconded. Point of clarification, Mr. Sains. Thank you, Madam Chair. Please refresh my memory. In the finance meeting, we discussed the second part of the motion, the Waterford Village Project and such, but I thought that we voted that down. Was that correct?

[03:29:29] No, no. I voted against it, but the majority of the committee voted for it now. But it's a little confusing. no no but wait wait wait but what it was was to send it forward to the cip and that was what the majority of the committee voted for i'm a little confused now myself actually no can staff clarify please okay so the motion saying to send it to the cip work sessions okay that's what that's what

[03:30:08] okay and that's what we discussed in finance correct okay all right thank you okay would you like discussion on the motion miss umstead no i'm good thank you all right Mr. Sands got all kind of attitude right now. Okay, thank you.

[03:30:25] Serious attitude. Anybody else want to discuss the motion, Ms. Bricksman? Ms. Bricksman, have anything? I just want to confirm this was the motion that we passed out of finance, right? Yes. The agreement we had in finance, nothing's changed.

[03:30:42] I think staff already said that. It's like Christmas and New Year's went by and we already forgot what we did in finance like less than a month ago, but I'm good with it if it's what we pass out of finance, I think it is. And yes, Vice Chair is saying we're not allocating for the Waterford project.

[03:30:58] We're sending it to the capital projects conversation. Thank you. Mr. Kirshner? Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a couple brief things. This motion, there's things I love, things I don't like, but I think overall I think we've done a reasonably good job of asking the administrator to come back with ultimately a budget around 88%.

[03:31:20] or 88 cents, which again is below the current rate, but above the equalized rate. Again, with the inflation amount, it's going to be really hard to ever get to that equalized rate, and we are growing as a county, so there is some need to increase. But I continue to urge and encourage my fellow supervisors to continue to think about the burden. I think we started off this process that the average taxpayer house is going to pay over $500. I think it's now down around $360 or $380.

[03:31:51] That doesn't sound like a lot, but when we do this year over year over year, I don't know what the average will end up, but I bet it's close to $1,000 at this point since I first started this project, this process four years ago. So that's real money out of real families' pockets.

[03:32:07] So just an encouragement. I know everybody here is concerned about that and thinks about that, but as we go forward and as we set this budget, those are all ongoing real concerns. one of the reasons I bring forward the idea of looking at long term over a period of time eliminating the car taxes that is something that impacts every single person and does make it more expensive to live in this county and boy could we could could we attract people if we were able to eliminate the car tax and other counties around us wouldn't good solid working class people that would like to live here that's a tax that they would not have to pay and I also appreciate

[03:32:42] sending the Waterford traffic calming project to convert to the village of Waterford project to the CIP. Again, to just remind those who are not at the Finance Committee hearing or meeting, the idea behind this is the money for the Waterford Capital Calming Project has already been appropriated. The idea would be to shut that down, start a new capital project fund called the Village of Waterford, preserving the landmark infrastructure, which is a much bigger, ultimately, project that we are really looking for federal funds for, and so we need some seed money in that.

[03:33:17] We may need more than the $500,000 that's in the traffic calming, but it is a large overhaul. I've been working with Mr. Hemstreet and others on how to do this as inexpensively as possible to the county and hopefully get as many in the bulk of the money from federal grants.

[03:33:33] So thank you very much. Thank you. Mr. Letourneau. Just a question. I got hit in the head around this time, so forgive me. the General Assembly did something to allow us to separate out the car tax from the rest of the personal property taxes. But as I recall, it was only for a period of time, like three to five years, right? Can you just remind me what it was? It's for three years. It's only for three years, and we're in year two already, right? Yes. So if we were to do something like Supervisor Kirshner would like to do, that would need to become permanent, where we would separate out

[03:34:07] the vehicle tax from the rest of the person property tax. Yes, so the General Assembly's authorization to have a separate rate for vehicles from the general rate is currently set to expire, so that would need to be permanent. So I guess I would suggest Supervisor Kershner, if that's something he's serious about, that that be something to discuss in our legislative program, because given that it's going to expire next year. I actually think there is value for a county, regardless of whether we eliminate it or not, whatever, to be able to set a different rate

[03:34:44] for cars than for data centers or for other things. I think it doesn't really make sense for us to take advantage of this right now because it phases out in a year. And so we would just do all this work and then create chaos when it comes back. But that could be an authority that we could take advantage of you know future boards future years so perhaps when we have alleged item and i don't know there very well could be somebody who's got a bill that's going to try to eliminate the sunset or whatever on that but it's probably worth looking into between now and the next business

[03:35:20] meeting so i'll just suggest that otherwise i'm supporting the motion um i think you know this is a tighter year i think we're approaching it that way in terms of uh the base budget is kind of just funding, the necessities, and then we're going to take up some individual items that will look at departmental priorities and or board priorities and make decisions based on those and the tax rate and those kinds of things.

[03:35:44] I think that's the right way to approach it this year, and I appreciate the work of the staff to this point. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Buffington. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just quickly to say, I too would support the addition of something like that to our legislative agenda for next year.

[03:36:00] Thanks. Thank you. A couple of things. Mr. Kirshner, you know, once again, I wish I don't think we should be rewriting history, especially last term. We went at or below the equalized tax rate every single year last term, every single year.

[03:36:17] And we've done it this year as well, pretty low. So we don't we are not a board that just raises taxes every year. That just doesn't happen. Conditions have changed and assessments have changed. But let's be really clear about what raising taxes actually means. And as far as attracting people, having the car thing, attract people to Loudoun County, Loudoun County is the fastest growing county in Virginia, and the ninth fastest growing county in the country in the past 10 years.

[03:36:40] We grew by 35 percent, so I don't think we're having an issue attracting people. Now, I think Mr. Letourneau is right. I think we need to be able to assess the car tax differently for a lot of reasons. But I think before we start throwing around, you know, Governor Gilmore terms like no car tax, we better darn be sure we know where we're going to get the money from.

[03:36:59] Because when we did that before for Virginia, the money that was lost came out of mental health programs. It came out of education programs. It came out of places and people who were least able to take the hit, as it always does, as it always does.

[03:37:15] And so I want to see a detail about how you're going to replace those funds. And please don't tell me to look at waste, farther abuse on our budget, because we don't have waste, farther abuse on our budget. And if we did, you'd have told us that already. And so, you know, I know we're going to be seeing a lot of things over the next year, but let's be, you know, absolutely, let's look at having a different assessment rate.

[03:37:38] That makes perfect sense. But it's not because we want to attract people to the county. We're not having a hard time doing that. We're just not. And it's not because we've been raising taxes, because we haven't. In fact, for a lot of reasons, we have, I think, the lowest tax rate in all of Northern Virginia by a good low amount.

[03:38:02] So just want to be, you know, factually correct here. Ms. Umstead, would you like to have a closing, please? Nope, but thank you. Not a problem. All in favor, please say aye. Opposed?

[03:38:19] Holy moly, 9-0. I don't think I've ever seen that happen before. Jazz hands. all right so we have two closed sessions but they could be a while so let's take no kidding a five-minute break and then come back and read in the closed session because the two closed sessions could we could be there for a minute and let's take and we don't want to try to rush through them so let's take five minutes

[03:38:42] and then come back and read the closed session already all right okay I move

[03:49:10] that the Board of Supervisors recess this public meeting and enter into closed session pursuant to Section 2.2-3711A1 of the Code of Virginia to consider a personal matter involving the annual performance review of the county administrator and the county attorney. Second.

[03:49:27] Discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? That motion passed 9-0. Ms. Bricksman, you're going to log off and we're going to meet you in there. Mr. Rogers, you're going to be first today, sir.

[05:35:34] Ms. Bricksman, are you there? Yes. Okay, wonderful. Mr. Sands, will you read us out, please? I sure will. I move that the closed session be adjourned, that the Board of Supervisors reconvene its public meeting, that the minutes of the public meeting should reflect that no formal action was taken in the closed session, and further move that the resolution certifying the closed session be adopted and reflected in the minutes of this public meeting.

[05:35:57] Second. Motion's made and seconded. I need an affirmation. Mr. Letourneau. I affirm. Lovely music. I affirm. Affirm. I affirm. Ms. Bricksman. I affirm.

[05:36:13] Thank you. Mr. Sains. Mr. Buffington. I affirm. Thank you. Mr. Turner? Aye, firm. And I do as well. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? That mention will pass 9-0.

[05:36:29] Mr. Sainz says he has one more thing. Yes, I unfortunately, I made a nomination earlier on for the REDC board. I would like to actually redact that nomination. I thought I had, and I thought I had, and withdraw that nomination. I thought I had interviewed that candidate, but I did not always make it a point to interview my candidates.

[05:36:48] So what I would ask you to do is to tomorrow send that to David Street, and so he knows that. Okay, I want to make sure you put it on the record, too, but all right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Vote's done. I think we're done. All right. We're adjourned. Thank you.

[05:37:04] Good night, everybody.

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