Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, FY24 Budget Work Session, Monday, March 6, 2023

Date: Monday, March 6, 2023
Place: Board Room, First Floor, Government Center, 1 Harrison Street SE, Leesburg, Virginia
Length: 3h 21m (video)
Official meeting video (county, Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/player/clip/7207
Agenda (Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=73&clip_id=7207

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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[00:11:37] Good evening, supervisors. Good evening, staff. Good evening, Loudon. I'd like to call to order the March 6, 2023 Board of Supervisors Budget Work Session. Supervisors and Loudon, everybody in the room, would you please join me to the Pledge of Allegiance? Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[00:12:07] Mr. Turner, if you want to move over one seat, you can. Mr. Turner, if you want to move over one seat, you can. Okay, board members, I'd like to stress the importance of these budget work sessions as the time for us to offer changes, additions, and deletions to the budget.

[00:12:30] If you try to, board members should try to offer all desired amendments and ask questions you have during the work sessions. Please offer only motions that you intend to support that we can be efficient with our time. So let me go through that a little differently and once more.

[00:12:47] times during a budget work session somebody might vote on an item but then at the end of this at the whole session you don't vote to support the budget that would that those items support so in other words if you're going to vote on the item vote on the budget because otherwise you get to the end of the session and we have to start all over again so please please support the the final budget if you support the items if you'd like to offer motion the items that are not appearing the proposed budget please work with staff prior to the work session to ensure your motion is inaccurate and accomplishes your intended result. When we get to our final vote on April 4th, we will not be able to make large changes

[00:13:27] to the budget during the meeting, and the vote in the budget could be delayed if there are substantive changes to be discussed for later. Mr. Letourneau, later on you and I will talk about your request and your email. I do know what it is, and we can have that discussion. Mr. Whites, how are you doing, sir? It's good to see you.

[00:13:45] Good evening, Chair Randall. So what we're going to start by doing, supervisors, is there have been some fairly significant changes that happened between the time that Mr. Hemstreet presented the budget and today, in fact, quite significant.

[00:14:02] And so we're going to have the staff talk about some of those changes, and then we will make a motion. And I will make the, just so you know, supervisors, I will make the motion. I intend to make the motion that's in the package on page four after Mr. Whites goes through the information about the interest rates, and then we can go from there.

[00:14:28] So I will hand it to you, sir. Thank you, Chair Randall. Members of the board, pleased to be here tonight for another year of budget deliberations. Joining me at the table for this budget staff update is Ms. Keysacker, who's our revenue manager.

[00:14:44] I just wanted to get organized a little bit with what we had in the packet that was put out on Friday. So everyone at the dais should have the agenda for tonight's meeting. And included on that agenda is a table that indicates where the resource requests and budget information for each department can be viewed.

[00:15:06] And one of the reminders I just wanted to say about that is the budget narrative sections throughout the document are in support of the proposed budget. The resource requests that are included in the increase option are only contained in the executive summary.

[00:15:23] So the best place during deliberations on those resource requests to be able to see not only any resource requests that are in the proposed budget, but also in the increase option is in Section 5 of the Executive Summary.

[00:15:39] If you're looking at your agenda, the far right column description of resource requests, that would be the best place to go in the budget book. Also in your work session packet, we distributed the first set of county operating budget questions.

[00:16:00] We answered, I believe, 53 written budget questions that are included in the packet. There's also a packet from Loudoun County Public Schools where the schools answered some of the budget questions that you have posed to them.

[00:16:19] For both sets of questions, at the end of it, there is a tracking sheet that shows which questions were answered and on what date. So as we move forward through the work session and budget questions keep coming in, we will be tracking where the questions are, but it will also be a reference guide for board members to be able to look back and see where your question was answered and in which packet.

[00:16:46] The main item that I want to walk through tonight is item Roman numeral number two, which is titled Budget Work Session Organizational Matters. So this item walks through a couple things, and I'm just going to go through each element, and then, Chair Randall, I will end on the significant update since I think that will have the most interest for board discussion.

[00:17:10] The TOTE board, which is up on the screen here, this is the same TOTE board that you all have grown accustomed to seeing during your budget deliberations. This is the tool that we will use to be able to calculate the impact of your motions during the work session on the real property tax rate, as well as tracking all the motions that have occurred during the work sessions.

[00:17:36] For future work session packets, we will be distributing the Tote Board actions up to date as a running list throughout the work session. So that will be provided in your next packet reflecting any motions that are made tonight and the fiscal impact of those motions.

[00:17:55] Just a real quick refresher, so the TOE board right now reflects the proposed budget, the proposed budget tax rate of $0.87. At the proposed budget, there is an unallocated, in the proposed budget, there is an unallocated balance of $1.25 million.

[00:18:14] But when we get to the more significant update, there is a revenue update that will change that number. So just hold that thought for a second. we also have direction in the item on motions so as in past years we are able to support motions that are made in real time here in the meeting that are adding or removing resource requests that are contained in the proposed budget and the increase options we would request that any motions that um are not a simple you know addition or deletion of a resource question and that would

[00:18:51] require uh research outside of what we have available here that that you would work with budget staff ahead of the work session so we can help you develop those motions to make sure we understand them and they achieve your intended result and as the chair mentioned earlier on april 4th for your budget adoption when the board officially adopts the appropriations resolution As we've said in past years, so this should not be a new reminder, the staff has very limited ability to make changes to the appropriations resolution that evening.

[00:19:25] So the work session process is the substantive time to be able to make changes to the proposed budget. Moving to the issues section of the item, just wanted to highlight two things.

[00:19:42] First, while it's not written in the item, there is an item on your business meeting agenda tomorrow evening, item number four, with a recommendation from the commissioner of the revenue to establish a 95% assessment personal property tax valuation assessment ratio on vehicles.

[00:20:06] That item was developed in collaboration with budget staff and that assessment ratio matches the budgeted numbers that we planned for personal property tax revenue here in the budget.

[00:20:22] So I just wanted to mention that and that your action tomorrow night to, if you choose to accept that recommendation for a 95% assessment ratio, fits right within the numbers of the budget so it would not require any modifications.

[00:20:38] The second update that we have is, so since the proposed budget was printed, staff has continued to monitor regular revenue monitoring as we do. You'll see a more detailed update on our FY23 revenue numbers next week at the Finance Committee when we provide our second quarter financial update.

[00:21:04] But what we have noticed since the proposed budget was published is that revenue from interest on investments is trending more positively in FY23 than was contemplated even a few months ago.

[00:21:20] So that caused the staff to go back and take a look at the revenue forecast for FY24 as well. Based on reexamining that forecast with the most recent information, we are recommending that the board recognize an additional 6.7 million dollars of revenue from interest on investments this updated revenue number is in a line with the with the budget in terms of our typical practice for being reasonably conservative for estimating revenues so we are confident that the board can

[00:21:59] recognize that revenue on the top board and that it will be available to you during fiscal year 2024. That additional $6.7 million in revenue, the easiest way to think about it is at the proposed budget tax rate of 87 cents. With that recognition of an additional $6.7 million, the board would have approximately $8 million for additional expenditures in the FY24 budget at the proposed budget tax rate of 87 cents when the motion here in the packet

[00:22:38] is made the tote board will update to a new real property tax rate of 86 and a half cents with an approximately 1.5 million dollar remainder so we are recommending that the board recognize that revenue tonight and the other motion contained in the item, which the chair already mentioned, is to begin budget deliberations with the tax rates and appropriations that are in the county administrator's FY24 proposed budget.

[00:23:10] Those are the staff updates I have, Madam Chair. I'd be happy to take any questions. So let me, what I'd like to do is put a motion on the table, and then we can ask and answer questions within the motion, and the motion on the table will be the motion that's in the package, and this is the motion that would just begin the deliberation.

[00:23:28] So without objection, I move the Board of Supervisors begin budget deliberations of real property tax rate of 87 cents for tax year 2023, the personal property tax rate of $4.15.6 for tax year 2023 and tax year 2024, and the appropriations proposed by the county administrators FY 2024 proposed budget.

[00:23:48] And I further move the Board of Supervisors increase interest from investment revenue by $6.7 million and recognize this revenue on the Tote Board. All right, motions made and seconded by Mr. Buffington.

[00:24:04] So thank you, Mr. Hemstreet and Ms. Burke, for having this fairly long discussion with me today about this item. So we have a very slim budget this year, a very constrained budget for I think, you know, valid reasons.

[00:24:25] It's just a tough year overall anyway. And so as Mr. Hemstreet and the staff went through and decided what are the items that we will see over the next couple of days, especially today's item, they believed in during our budget deliberations and during Mr. M Street's budget presentation, we, to a large degree, agreed with them that we were only going to fund the most direly needed things in the county budget this year.

[00:25:01] And when you look at what we're looking at today, the sheriff's budget, family services, mental health community corrections they are the they are the almost can't do without out items they are the most important items but none of those items are in the base budget and so if we if we don't take this 6.7 million dollars and put it on the tow board you know now we're discussing whether or not we can um do the patrol officers that the uh sheriff's office is asking for and And let me say right now, he's probably asking for a quarter of what he actually needs, to

[00:25:40] be honest. Can we do inmate stats? Can we do these things? And so I know that there are some people who might think that we have money that we don't need to be using here or there, and I would say find it, find it.

[00:25:58] None of this in this budget this year are the board's priorities. or not most of the departments, even their number one need. This is base salary increases.

[00:26:13] This is opening new facilities that we put in the budget, and if we use this money, we can at least start to get to the very, very, very critical issues that we're going to discuss tonight, and so I think it's not just a wise and prudent use of the money.

[00:26:31] I think it's a necessity to use the money in this way if we're going to effectively fund the county departments that right now are being used so significantly. Our mental health services department, our community corrections, our sheriff's department.

[00:26:49] Those are the departments, our family services, that are taking the largest hit right now. And these are much needed positions. And so that is why I believe we should put this money on the toe board. Thank you. Mr. Letourneau?

[00:27:05] Thank you, Madam Chair. Two questions about this specifically. Did we sort of react to where the markets were when the budget was developed and budget our interest revenue more conservatively because the markets were not performing well at that time and because the markets have picked up?

[00:27:27] Is that the reason why we're seeing this gain? So, revenue from interest on investments is a combination of two factors. Number one, how the interest rate market is performing and that, you know, it's been a while since we've been in an interest rate environment this high.

[00:27:47] The second factor is how much money at any one time is being invested that is generating revenue. So we work very closely with the treasurer's office on these forecasts, and short answer, yes, market performance has held up a little bit better than our initial forecasts had for the budget development.

[00:28:10] Next question, which is a little bit off topic, but not really because it gets to, I think, the heart of everything, which is vacancies. So I think I asked a question, somebody asked a question, I guess it was me and the budget questions about how many vacancies we have. So of the FY23 adopted budget, we authorize 190 FTEs and 111 of them of those positions are still vacant.

[00:28:33] And then in 22, we authorize a total of 155 of which 66 are still vacant. So almost a third. Have we looked carefully at the vacancy savings number and could there potentially be anything to gain from that?

[00:28:51] I also sort of feel compelled now to go back into 21 and maybe even 20 and ask the same question, so I'll sort of put that on as a budget question. But is there anything additional we should account for in vacancy savings that we haven't or that wasn't accounted for when this was put together probably several months ago?

[00:29:09] And you don't necessarily have to answer me on the spot, but that might be something to update us with at the next work session. Yeah, we would be happy to take that back as a budget question. Yeah, okay. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Turner. Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to make sure I understand. So the $6.7 million is increased interest revenue off our investments.

[00:29:31] Did I hear you correctly that you want to, if this motion passes, that you want to apply that to the tote board and start us an $0.86 baseline property tax rather than $0.87? What I was explaining is just mechanically how the tote board works is once that recognition of $6.7 million in revenue is applied to the Tote Board, the tax rate will drop to 86.5 cents.

[00:29:58] You'll have about a $1.5 million remainder. But the other way you can think about it is you have approximately $8 million now before you would get back to triggering a rate higher than the $0.87 proposed budget tax rate. Which covers the delta with the school budget and some change.

[00:30:17] So, we'll, we have a... Depending on how we want to use it. So, the school board's adopted a budget. There is a $6.2 million gap. There is additional uncertainty about state revenue, which we'll be discussing in the next item.

[00:30:33] Okay, thank you. And I would just add that typically we do not split interest revenue between the schools and the county. That's a county revenue that stays on our side. And Mr. Turner, when Mr. Freeman and I think Mr. Yud might come up, they will have some discussions about the budget as it is that the state just passed.

[00:30:54] That might help. Yeah, the skinny budget, which is the skinniest budget ever passed, ever. It's like the starving budget, but okay. Ms. Klaas. Thank you, Madam Chair. What is the residential equalized rate versus the commercial equalized rate?

[00:31:14] Yes. So I'll start. The overall equalized rate, obviously, is 80. 5 cents. The homeowner's equalized rate is 83 cents. And we're looking up the commercial rate. I know it's under 80 cents, 75 cents.

[00:31:42] and that's obviously just correct so that the the large delta in between those is because of the strong commercial revaluation that occurred late in the the budget process. Okay thank you. Mr.

[00:32:00] Kirshner. Thank you Madam Chair. I think I understood so when we do adjust this will it adjust the rate automatically up there? Yes. So in essentially by recognizing this new revenue that the staff has brought to us we would have a new rate of 86.5 excuse me 0.865 correct it will update to 0.865 when this revenue that's great so no new motion is made other than to recognize the revenue which will be great I'm really happy to see that I love it when we when we increase things on the revenue side since we're within the motion I kind of have a statement rather than questions

[00:32:37] I think I got my first of all I agree with Mr. Letourneau I would really like to see the numbers in terms of those FTEs that have not been fulfilled, perhaps in past years. Perhaps there's some savings that we can find there. As Chair Randall said, we have, you know, this is a tight budget year, so where we can find savings, I think it's valuable to kind of look at that.

[00:32:56] I went back and pulled the numbers for 2021. We only increased the tax burden on the average resident, $110, 2022, $39. 2023, it went up to $225, and right now, under the proposal, absent this new revenue, We're looking at $305 per resident, which is almost twice as much as we've done in combination in the last three years in terms of the tax burden.

[00:33:20] And if we go with the increase option, which we gave guidance on, that's an additional $103 or $4. That's $408 this year that we would be increasing the average residential. I think we need to be cognizant of that as we go through this process.

[00:33:38] I have kind of, when I went through the budget, and correct me, staff, if I'm wrong, I think when you really look at the budget, the operating budget overall, and you adjust it for inflation, it's about two pennies as a result of inflation, maybe $27 million or so, give or take some, which is basically two pennies.

[00:33:54] So when I kind of look at this budget, I say, if the residential is 83, as you mentioned to Ms. Glass a little bit earlier, that's $0.04. We're currently at guidance $0.04 above. We save a half a penny by including this revenue. That's a penny and a half above what I call the adjusted for inflation equalized rate.

[00:34:15] So I would love to see us as a board look at trying to save a little bit more of that to take some of the burden off the taxpayer, especially the residential. Obviously, I know we have some things we're trying to fund, but I mentioned that not to, you know, make any sort of political statement or whatnot, but that's real money that these folks are going to be paying year, that they have paid year after year.

[00:34:37] It went up $205, it's gone another $305 this year. It's been a tough year through COVID, tough term through COVID, tough as inflation goes up. I don't think anybody, any of our, most of our constituents understand that, hey, the budgets go up sometimes, especially when adjusted for inflation.

[00:34:53] But when we add a lot of that burden on, and maybe are we really showing the services for that? So I'd appreciate that consideration. It was good for the process. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Umstead. Thank you, Madam Chair. When the sheriff comes up and when community corrections come up, I'd like to get each one's take on the other's requests.

[00:35:22] The sheriff, I believe, is asking for more field deputies, which would seem to me to be a critical need. But community corrections and the sheriff's department tend to provide service in the same general area.

[00:35:41] And so if the sheriff's department feels there's a critical need in community corrections, I'd appreciate hearing comments on that. And if community corrections feel that if there are more deputies out there, it's less of a burden on them, I'd also like to get a sense of that.

[00:36:03] Thank you. Ms. Umset, I'm going to try to, just for them, help ask you what you're asking them to do. Because are you asking them to assess one another's budget requests?

[00:36:20] Because I don't know that they can do that. What are you asking them to do? Pretty much that. Yeah. which I believe they all understand how each other's area of expertise operates. Community corrections has to gear up whenever more dangerous or violent criminals are released.

[00:36:43] Sheriff's deputies have to go out and bring folks in if they're repeat offenders. So right now, we're operating in silos, and I would like to get a sense of how each department works best with the other department, because they do serve somewhat similar functions in law enforcement.

[00:37:13] Would you be, would you, and of course, they can ask, answer or not answer how they feel, but if they can't answer today, could they either get back to you or let you know, you If they feel that that's an appropriate thing for them to be doing at some of the time.

[00:37:33] Absolutely. I just, I want them to start thinking about that. Okay. All right. I understand. Thank you. Mr. Sains. Thank you, Madam Chair. The question will be directed to, I guess, Mr. Hemstreet. Through the Chair, Mr. Hemstreet. Mr. Hemstreet, what would be your recommendation with this new amount of funding that we have?

[00:37:58] What would be your recommendation for us to do? Mr. Hemstreet. So I would recommend that you use the funding to fund at least the top five resource requests.

[00:38:17] A way to get there would be to also direct me to find an alternative funding source for the $3.5 million of capital that's part of the sheriff's budget request, which would then lower the operating expense and allow you to get most, if not all, of those five resource requests funded.

[00:38:41] Thank you, and when it comes time for motions, that would be my motion I would like to lay on the table, Madam Chair. Okay, I was going to do it, but... Or you can do it, that's fine. It doesn't matter, either way, it's fine with me. In closing, I would say this. So, I say this every year.

[00:38:58] I come to the dais without a tax rate in mind. I think it's inappropriate to walk up here with a certain number in mind that I'm trying to get toward one way or the other. I come to the dais with one goal, to have a tax rate as low as possible while still funding needed county services.

[00:39:16] And we run a county pretty slim anyway. We do. We do not have positions that we don't need. I say especially to four of the five constitutional officers, they over time have not asked for enough and should ask for what you need, to be quite honest.

[00:39:35] and so we don't run a county in a surplus, we just don't, and we don't, this board doesn't do the tax assessments, we don't do that either, and so I understand, Mr. Kirsten, what you're saying, but I am not going to, one, have a tax rate in mind, and two, underfund needed county services, that is not fiscal responsibility, that is irresponsibility to not fund, especially, Well, any of our departments, but we're talking about Sheriff's Office, Family Services, inmate staff, and community corrections.

[00:40:11] Those are the first ones up. And if you've spent time talking to Ms. Umstead's discussion, what I have found most recently is most of the Sheriff's Office calls right now are mental health calls.

[00:40:30] The department that they may know better than anybody else are mental health calls. And so these departments, they do work together, but it's not clean lines by no means. And so that's why I wouldn't ask them to kind of comment on one another, because they do have their own responsibilities.

[00:40:50] But I come here to keep this tax rate as low as possible while funding needed county services. I've done that every year. This is my eighth budget, and that's what I intend to do this year as well. All in favor of the motion, please say aye.

[00:41:08] Any opposed? That motion will pass 801. Ms. Bricksman will not be joining us on the dais this evening. Okay. I think that, is that all for now? I think we're going to do the state budget update first.

[00:41:26] So the question that you just had, Mr. Turner, you make it ask. So Mr. Yud and Mr. Freeman, would you like to come to the table?

[00:41:46] Mr. Freeman, who has been a superstar for us. How are you doing, guys? Gentlemen, how are you? Good. How are you doing, Madam Chair? Want to talk about the, quote, skinny budget, unquote? We're ready when you are.

[00:42:02] So, Madam Chair, members of the board, on February 25th, the General Assembly adopted the skinny budget. They dubbed it the skinny budget because they handled their financial obligations to the Commonwealth, which included the K through 12 technical adjustments to address the VDOE funding error, the rainy day fund appropriations, VRS adjustments, as well as the capital supplement

[00:42:31] pool appropriations. And so to that end, there's about $3 billion in surplus funding left on the table. And so remains to be seen if a special session will be called to handle that. As far as we know, we unfortunately don't have any information on that. Good. Yes, ma'am. So before we ask questions, I do want to clarify something because Mr. Freeman, and this is important, it goes to

[00:43:07] Mr. Turner's question. I think it will kind of, my colleagues need to have this understanding before they ask questions. So I just want to do kind of a point of clarification. When you say that the that the general assembly corrected the funding error now that this adjustment and I'm number one the k-12 technical adjustment to hold localities harmless for voe error wasn't that money going to be coming to localities anyway wouldn't that have been money that localities would receive

[00:43:38] no matter what so we are still working with lcps to fully understand the breakdown of if this money was funding that was going to come to us anyway. The sales tax revenue forecast changes, as well as the enrollment updates. To our understanding, they do enrollment updates about four times a year, I believe, fall, December, March, and at the end of the school year. So we're still just trying to make sure that we fully understand that piece of it. To our understanding, the General

[00:44:18] Assembly has communicated that these technical adjustments have fixed the Virginia Department of Education error. Okay. Really? Okay. Mr. Turner? Thank you, Madam Chair. So the devil's in the details. It sounds, the way this is framed, like the Youngkin administration managerial error is made whole through HB 1400. But based on what you just said, is there a possibility that we're robbing Peter to pay Paul, that there is money shifting around in pots that would have otherwise

[00:44:57] come to us that is now being claimed to fix that error, when in fact the net net is that we're still out seven point, what is it, two million dollars? So for FY24, we know that they did not address FY24 as of yet. For FY23, the General Assembly is saying that they handled the VDOE error, and so So that is, so far, our understanding, and we're still working with LCPS to fully understand that.

[00:45:29] We're still trying to work out and make sure that, in fact, is the case. Absolutely. Okay, thank you. And I believe LCPS will be at the next budget work session, I believe, so. I don't know, one of the last. Not the next one, but March 16th, next Thursday. Thank you.

[00:45:46] Mr. Letourneau? All right, so wait a minute. They haven't addressed FY24 yet. Then how do we know, or maybe we don't, what the impact would be on this budget discussion that we're having with LCPS right now? So what the General Assembly was attempting to do, as far as we know, was to handle FY23 right now, as far as FY24.

[00:46:11] And that is in the $16.8 million out of the general fund in FY23. But as far as FY24, we're still working with LCPS to fully understand what the General Assembly was attempting to do with FY24.

[00:46:31] Okay. I mean, I think the bottom line for us is we need to know whether, I mean, there's a shortfall right now in their request to us with what we have budgeted by like $6 million. So we need to know whether that number is actually like $13 because of this or whether it's actually just the six and it's handled.

[00:46:51] So I understand you don't necessarily have those answers for us tonight, but that's what we need to know at the end of the day. One thing that I'll add is that Vaco sent out a spreadsheet to which, in that spreadsheet, it looked as though Loudoun County would not get any money out of the $16. 8 million due to the fact that the sales tax revenue forecast change as well as the enrollment update provided that we were not held in harm, if you will, to the VDOE error.

[00:47:25] So that is why that piece of information you all probably received from VACO says that Loudon wouldn't get anything out of the 16.8. Not held in harm because our enrollment didn't increase? The technical adjustments that they made at LCPS would definitely be able to speak to it better than that.

[00:47:47] I'll quit asking you questions. It'll be for them. But I'm just trying to frame it so that we'll get the information we can make. Yeah, no, I know, I know, I know. Yeah, I understand. Ms. Umstead? Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. A follow-up on Supervisor Letourneau's questions, they've corrected for the Department of Education's error, but from what you're saying, that doesn't do us any good.

[00:48:12] I mean, that's how I take what your observation is. From what our understanding is, you know, the technical adjustments that they made, technically, from what we're seeing, if you did have a shortfall after the technical adjustments, then you would have received some funding out of the $16. 8 million, which is how they did that math on that appropriation out of the technical adjustment.

[00:48:40] And apparently, from the technical adjustments from the sales tax revenue forecast, as well as the enrollment updates that they did, Loudoun was not short. And we were not held in harm. So we didn't receive any out of the additional $16.8 million they allocated to hold locality across the Commonwealth harmless from the VDO year.

[00:49:05] But again, LCPS will be able to speak to it better than I. Thank you. I'm trying to remember because the figures kept shifting.

[00:49:20] At one point, we were going to be over $10 million down, and then at a later point, it looked like it was either $7 or $4 million down. Are we still $7 or $4 million down? To our understanding, for FY23, I believe it's about $3.3 million, and for FY24, the impact is about $7.5 million or so.

[00:49:42] And so for this immediate school year from the technical adjustments that the General Assembly made, that $3 million is supposedly made up. Again, LCPS will probably be able to speak to it better than I, But what the figures that kept changing that you're referring to was the governor introduced his budget, which was before the error was discovered.

[00:50:08] Around the end of January, the error was discovered, which was the same time that the Senate and the House were developing their budgets. The Senate appropriated $58.1 million in their budget because that was the amount that was the immediate impact for this school year for localities around the entire Commonwealth.

[00:50:27] local jurisdictions if you will and the house it was 4.8 and at the time staff did not want to misrepresent what that number meant but we believe that well we still don't want to misrepresent what that means but the immediate impact to our knowledge was 58.1 million and the senate had that in their entire budget in this skinny budget which was the result of the senate conferees and the House conferees coming together to hash out this final agreement, if you will, they came up

[00:51:03] with these technical adjustments to make sure that localities around the Commonwealth were held not in harm, if you will, from the VDOE error. From the technical adjustments that they did, the money that they calculated was left over to fill in the gap with $16.8 million. And so if your sales tax revenue forecast change for your local jurisdiction as well as your enrollment updates did not meet the requirement to hold your locality harmless, then there was a trigger there for you to get money out of the $16.8 million, which is what they calculated for the whole state after

[00:51:43] doing those technical adjustments. That's staff's understanding, but again, LCPS will be able to speak to that better than I. Thank you. Thank you. So I do want to clarify something that you said because it's important when they reported it was not when they discovered it they had discovered it well before they just didn't report it out right away and i think that actually needs to be said not for you but just me put it on the record that they did not report the error when they when they discovered it they reported the error that they had discovered some weeks before so just

[00:52:21] to put that on the record so i'm gonna try to and you're right lcps we hope can speak to this but they're probably as confused as everybody else because you know this is a confusing this is actually confusing so the the error was made there was supposedly money put in to make 23 whole the delta for 23 in loudon was just over three million dollars that has not been 24 which is the budget

[00:52:54] We're working on right now has not yet been made whole and we don't know what's going to happen there And if they go back for a a another budget session and they usually do when they pass the skinny budget It will be well after we finish our budget process anyway that all correct To our knowledge matter our knowledge. Okay, and of course, you know We will get any other items from LCPS when they come. So thank you. Yes, ma'am anything else all right thank you very much i appreciate it yes ma'am thank you thank you all have a good one

[00:53:31] all right so here we go so for the first resource request which yes if you want to read the full description it is on page e40 and e41 it is the sheriff's office request if the sheriff will come down with anybody he'd like to bring with him introduce who he is come with who is coming with him and discuss his resource request. For departments, I should say that as you are presenting, not answering questions, but if you are presenting, I'm going to keep departments

[00:54:05] pretty close to talking about the resource request and not other things at this time, unless you're asking a question about other things. Good evening, everyone. Mr. Chapman, Sheriff Chapman, would you like to introduce everyone who is with you? Sure. Thank you, Chair Randall. To my left, I have Lieutenant Colonel Chris Sawyer. He's our Operations Bureau Commander. And to his left, we have Lieutenant Colonel Gunn Lee. He's been with us for about four months. Gunn Lee is our Bureau Commander for Administration and Tech.

[00:54:36] Can you say his name one more time? Gunn Lee. Gunn Lee. Mr. Lee, it's good to see you. Great to see you, Madam Chairman. So he's been with us for close to four months now. And he came from the Fairfax County Police Department. He was a deputy chief over there, so we're very happy to have him. So we He oversees our administrative tech section bureau, as well as our jails, our jail rather, and the courts.

[00:55:03] And then I have Ms. Eddie Shipp, who's our chief financial officer. So does Mr. Lee have to say to you every single day that Loudon's better than Fairfax? I do that every day, Madam Chair. Every day, every day, right? All right, we're ready.

[00:55:20] So Lieutenant Colonel Sawyer has actually done the lion's share of the work on this budget presentation. But before I turn it over to him, two quick things I'd like to address. Chair Randall, you mentioned about the mental health calls that we have, and that is correct. I would say the majority of our time that we spend in the field has to do with mental health calls here, and it is a drain on what we do out there.

[00:55:40] And the question with regards to community corrections that Supervisor Olmstead had asked, all I can tell you is that our jail population has gone down from about 450 to an average of about 200 or less now. So I have to assume that the burden on community corrections has gotten a little bit greater.

[00:56:00] I don't really know how to quantify that, so I'm not in a position to do that, although we can look into that and see. But I know that our population at the Adult Detention Center has gone down significantly, so I would assume that there's an increased burden, but I can't really tell you exactly how much.

[00:56:18] So with that, what I'm going to do is turn it over to Lieutenant Colonel Chris Sawyer, and he'll go through the presentation. Lieutenant Kermisoy, we're ready for you, sir. All right, good evening, Chair Randall, members of the board. I'm pleased to present our budget request for the upcoming fiscal year. And thank you, Sheriff Chapman, for giving me the opportunity to present tonight.

[00:56:35] We have two budget requests before you this year. One SRO position for the planned opening of the newly named Watson Mountain Middle School and a request for additional patrol deputy staffing. As the SRO position for Watson Mountain Middle School is a single position and it's included in the proposed budget and tied to a capital facility opening, I'll begin with that position.

[00:56:55] As you're all well aware, the LCSO has a deputy assigned as a school resource officer in every middle and high school in Loudoun County. With the opening of Watson Mountain Middle School scheduled for the fall of 2024, we are requesting this position be allocated during this fiscal year to allow for the recruitment, hiring, and training for the replacement of the deputy who will ultimately be assigned as the SRO for this school. As you're also aware, we strive to place veteran deputies as SROs in our schools. Therefore, the deputy who will be assigned to this school is already employed with the LCSO. This time is needed to identify, hire, and train a new deputy who will be ready to replace the void left by the deputy who will ultimately be assigned to this

[00:57:35] location. Our second and much more significant request is a request for additional patrol deputies, specifically 35 patrol deputies and one second lieutenant. The primary driver for this request is the workload-based analysis conducted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police during their recent study of the Sheriff's Office. Staffing for law enforcement agencies is a very complex topic, but in brief, the industry standard for staffing models is a workload-based model. While there's many factors to consider when calculating staffing levels, the workload-based staffing model has become the industry standard as it involves the analysis of the exact amount

[00:58:12] of work needed to be performed and compares it to the number of working hours needed to perform that work. I'd be happy to explain these calculations in greater detail if there's specific questions, but for the sake of time, I will move to the other justification for this request. The ICP recommended a workload-based staffing model that requires the average patrol deputy's obligated time not to exceed 45%. Under that staffing model, 45% would be allocated to responding to dispatched calls for service. 15% of time would be allocated for administrative responsibilities. 10% is considered flex time to kind of account for overages in either one of those areas, such as days with higher calls for service or additional reports that need to be

[00:58:52] written. And the remaining 30% would be allocated for proactive patrolling and activities such as community interactions, neighborhood patrols, traffic enforcement, etc. However, the IACP reported that to achieve a 45% obligated time model, it would require the addition of 79 patrol deputies. Obviously, with this request, we are not asking for 79 patrol deputy positions. But we believe that this request will take a significant but responsible step towards the obligated time ratio of 45% while allowing us to monitor specific impacts of adding patrol deputies prior to any

[00:59:27] additional requests in the future. These topics are of critical importance to the LCSO and to the community as we impress upon our deputies to de-escalate situations and be community problem solvers, both of which take time. De-escalation really begins with empathy and understanding where an individual is often at, you know, some of the most difficult times in their life when we're involved, where they currently are, and what brought them to that situation. This means taking time to really listen to everyone involved and identify the best resolution, and we don't want our deputies running call to call to call and not have that time to fully listen and de-escalate

[01:00:02] situations. We also strive to resolve problems as best as we can on the first encounter to have the greatest positive impact on individuals we encounter, and ideally prevent the need for future law enforcement involvement. Also of note in this request is we only have one supervisory position requested. We really strive to keep this request as lean as possible while still having a measurable impact, and we believe that our current supervisory structure can handle the addition of these deputies with the exception of one second lieutenant position needed. Otherwise, we're not asking for any additional sergeant or second lieutenant positions. One other related concern

[01:00:40] I think is important for you to know is that since the IACP study was conducted, our average amount of leave usage agency-wide has also increased significantly, largely to the addition of paid family leave. This leave is a tremendous benefit to county staff. However, it has a significant impact on sheriff's office operations. Specific to medical and paid family leave, we lose the equivalent of 23 deputy positions each year, and that was the actual number for calendar year 2022.

[01:01:09] When the IACP conducted their study, they identified what they call the shift relief factor. That's the amount of time the average deputy's not in their assigned position due to things like leave, training injuries, things like that. They identified that as 12.5%. That number has now increased to over 20%. That means that if a shift is assigned 30 deputies, on average, only 24 deputies will physically be working during that shift. Other related topics that are not specifically considered in this request but have significant impact and have changed since the icp is the amount of time spent on mental health calls we've talked about that which has

[01:01:46] nearly doubled since 2019 and currently sits at about 8 500 hours per year which on a side note is actually the amount of hours in a year also it does not include any of the impact of the metro obviously not now operating in the county lastly we understand that this request is a significant request, and we will continue to work with Supervisor Sains, our local representatives, county legislative staff, Virginia Sheriff's Association, to lobby the General Assembly to increase the funding to the county from the Compensation Board.

[01:02:21] Loudoun County is the most underfunded jurisdiction by a significant margin in Compensation Board funding. In fact, we're about 103 deputy positions underfunded, with the next closest underfunded jurisdiction being Stafford County, which is underfunded by only about 30 positions.

[01:02:39] So we will continue to push the General Assembly and the Compensation Board to increase the funding to the Compensation Board, and then in turn put pressure on the Compensation Board to increase the funding specifically to Loudoun County. If those efforts can be successful, the increase in that funding would more than cover the associated costs with this request.

[01:02:59] And with that, I'm happy to take any questions about the request. Thank you. Supervisors, questions. Mr. Letourneau. Thank you. Welcome, Sheriff. Good to see you. Thank you for all the work that you and your team are doing for us.

[01:03:17] So related to the first request on the SRO, I had asked a question on this. We typically used to fund these the year that the school was opening. So if it's opening in the fall, we fund it that same year. Sounds like you want to do things a little differently because of the time it takes to train somebody.

[01:03:34] But would it be possible to look at this one like we're looking at some of the field deputies as a mid-year enhancement instead of a full fiscal year? Because it does seem kind of excessive to me to fund this in June of or July of 23 for a school that's not opening until September or August of 24, if you're following me.

[01:03:58] Sure. So, yes, the short answer is that, you know, that is possible. The time it takes. we have to have positions available to be able to extend conditional offers of employment and things like that. By the time you talk about the recruitment process, the background and all that, that takes an extensive amount of time. But if we fund it mid-year, that would be fine as well.

[01:04:17] Okay. So I may make a motion related to that when we get to it. It sounds like my colleagues are going to have a motion related to capital. I did want to just ask a question about it. So I don't want to, it's probably an intricate answer to this question, but do we handle every field position as a one-to-one for capital for vehicles because i'm just sort of thinking about it i mean obviously not all those vehicles are in use at one time i think in most cases the deputy stays with the vehicle but is there any scenario in which that potentially we

[01:04:51] wouldn't need a vehicle for every single person hired are you referring to transitioning to like a fleet car type system where we have yeah i mean i was available or just whether every one of these positions is actually going to need a vehicle so the short version is yes every position would need a vehicle um the the discussion of transition to a fleet vehicle system would be a completely different yeah system that also has a lot of collateral impact even on the vehicles themselves and the lifespan of those vehicles right um so that would be and i'm sure you know obviously the deputies appreciate being able to stay with the vehicle but i guess i'm just wondering if

[01:05:29] But something that we don't, you know, I don't think it's anything for this budget year to look at. But if there could be some element of that in certain positions, particularly as we look to the future and maybe some of the different type of policing we're going to have with some of the urban areas and things like that. So I'll take that one and put it aside for maybe a discussion later, you know.

[01:05:50] But I will probably make a motion on the midyear for that SRO position, if it makes sense. And I'm otherwise supportive of the request to add to the field deputies in light of where we are. I just will say in my last seven seconds, you have not asked us for a lot of field positions over the years.

[01:06:10] In fact, some years I was like, you sure? So I think, you know, we need to probably catch up. Ms. Homestead. Thank you, Madam Chair. I would agree with Supervisor Letourneau. I would like to support the addition of the field deputies.

[01:06:30] If, however, we're, and we theoretically could cover that cost out of the investment interest increase, it wouldn't leave much left over for the other critical needs in community corrections and mental health.

[01:06:48] So if you were not going to get all of those positions for field deputies, is there a certain number that you feel are absolutely critical?

[01:07:06] And I don't really want you to downplay any of those positions because I think these are all critical positions. But I don't know if the board, in trying to meet all these needs, is going to be able to fund all of them. So this is very difficult to scale and largely because whatever the number is, you have to divide it by four patrol shifts and then by four patrol areas.

[01:07:33] So it gets divided by four and then four again. So with this request, we're really only talking about two deputies per station area per shift. So it sounds like a lot, but it's not. Trying to have a measurable impact to what we're doing in the field needs a high number, unfortunately.

[01:07:54] All right. Thank you. I hope to support this. Thank you. Mr. Turner. Thank you, Madam Chair. Sheriff Chapman, Colonel Sawyer, and Colonel Lee, thank you for coming in on. I really appreciate it. So there's some moving parts in this paragraph.

[01:08:09] I just want to see if I can kind of deconstruct them. So in the first part of the item, it says at present, field patrol has an established benchmark to ensure the deputy's obligated time does not exceed 60%. Then down at the bottom, it says best practices establish an optimum level of proactive time between 30% and 40%.

[01:08:29] What changed and who changed it? So really that was a change prompted by the IACP. So we can kind of go back to FY 2019, 2020 a little bit. And we were, you know, we were looking at staffing models and really trying to get up with industry standard.

[01:08:49] And, you know, coming in the FY20 budget year, the county moved towards smart performance measures, which is great. And that's where we really put in the benchmark of 60%. At that time, that wasn't because we believed that 60% was really the ideal of where we should be.

[01:09:06] We literally didn't have the reports, the reporting ability to be able to run it, and we didn't want to pick a number lower and then have our reports come back and say we're so high and end up having to come before the board asking for, you know, 79 positions. So really, that's where the 60% number was, was a ballpark we thought we weren't probably going to exceed to give us the time to build the reports needed to explain where we are and then be able to move from there.

[01:09:33] And that was compounded by the implementation of paid family leave because it effectively took officers out of the line, right, deputies out of the line. Yeah, so there's multiple simultaneous factors. Yeah, so you've got increased leave, which is taking deputies off the street, but then you also have increased hours on calls for service, such as mental health and things like that.

[01:09:52] It's kind of hitting us on both sides. And lastly, I'll just make a note, the operative number is not the 36. The operative number is the 79. Correct. The 36 sounds, it takes your breath away until you realize it really ought to be 79 to get down to 45%. In fact, it's only a 36 ask.

[01:10:09] So thank you very much. Thank you. Mr. Kirshner. Thank you, Madam Chair. And gentlemen, thank you for coming. First, I want to just say I appreciate the approach that you have taken in past years. Obviously, this study and I think some of your explanation explain why perhaps this resource increase is needed here.

[01:10:31] Part of my questions have been answered by previous questions, but I had some follow-up. First of all, you talked about how these deputies potentially would be deployed. Is that the plan to deploy these to per station per shift, or would they be deployed more heavily and perhaps more needed, higher crime, higher traffic areas?

[01:10:48] Could you speak to that? Sure. So what we're currently working on, and as I talked with Supervisor Turner about the reports, we are generally, or we are, the ICP looked at us countywide. We are working on developing the reports that will allow us to break it down by station to be workload based in each individual station area, not just as a county wide level so that we can we can allocate these deputies where where the work really is.

[01:11:14] And that's the goal of a workload based model is to put the number of deputies into the right area where that level of work is to be able to effectively handle it while still allowing for the appropriate time for proactive work. In part, to be determined, but when you break it down.

[01:11:31] Okay, that makes sense. Now, you also mentioned staffing levels compared to, or one of my questions is staffing level, this kind of staffing level that we have compared to other jurisdictions. And then you came back with the statement that we are underfunded by 103 deputies.

[01:11:46] And what was that in comparison to? And then the next jurisdiction, I think you said, was Stafford, and there are only 30 underfunded. Was that on state standards, or what standard was that? Yes. So Virginia Sheriff's Association uses a 1 to 1,500 population ratio to allocate, that is supposed to allocate money to localities.

[01:12:08] But the compensation board isn't fully funded and then in turn doesn't fully fund jurisdictions. And they have, for whatever reason. That's the funding that you're talking about. Okay, I got it. Okay, that makes sense. So 103 deputies and the next is 30. Why is that?

[01:12:26] I don't know. So now it falls on us to try to help make up that difference, which makes sense. I know the first funding request, I think I like Mr. Letourneau's idea. I think that just makes sense. Are we, and I know we're not supposed to ask about stuff that's not in here, but.

[01:12:45] Oh, I didn't say that. I said, no, they're asked questions as you ask them. I said, when they come up, I didn't say that. So two questions, obviously it was, I think last year we fully funded the opening of the new courthouse, which is coming this spring, and that is on track, and we're in good shape there.

[01:13:02] The other question I have is your school resource officers. Obviously, we have one for each middle school. You're asking for one for the new opening, and we have them in the high schools. What kind of needs potentially in the future do we see for the elementary school? You want to speak to that?

[01:13:19] Well, we have, as you know, we have DARE instructors that cover several of the elementary schools. I think we have one DARE instructor that will handle about eight schools or so, So at least they get familiarity with the schools, with the teachers, and with the students. But they're not there full-time because they're bouncing around from school to school.

[01:13:35] In order to fully fund SROs in every elementary school, I mean, we have over 50 elementary schools in the county. You're probably talking over 40 or so that we'd need, and you're probably talking in a ballpark of over $10, $11 million or so to do that, you know, overall.

[01:13:53] So that's kind of what I think where that would go. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Glass. Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I'm just going to ask a simple question. What is the job of a patrol deputy, if you can just briefly?

[01:14:12] Absolutely. So I'm a proud broad-run district resident myself, so I've got to throw that in there. So thank you, Ms. Glass. Oh, my gosh. I'm a proud member of the province community. So the patrol deputies really are the jack of all trades from the agency.

[01:14:32] We call them the backbone of the agency because they really do everything that has that immediate community impact. So they are the first responders to basically every call for service that comes out, regardless of what that is. And that's why we call them jack of all trades, because they get whatever comes at them.

[01:14:49] They are also really the face of the agency to the community as they're out in the community engaging with people as well. So really this request is really to drive a lot of that unallocated time that they can be in the community having positive impact and positive community interaction.

[01:15:08] So they basically are juggling the response to dispatch calls for service and then the proactive enforcement like traffic and things like that, but also positive community interactions. Okay. So I have another question.

[01:15:25] It says, I was reading in the budget, it says that our obligated time percent in April 2022 was 64%. What's the obligated time ratio we're currently at, and how many deputies are we needed to maintain that ratio?

[01:15:44] So the best we have right now is the ISCP report that analyzed that data. The obligated time workload is an extremely extensive algorithm, essentially, that's capturing all just, it's all dispatch calls for service.

[01:16:02] So nothing, what we call CIFA, nothing self-initiated. It's all just what's dispatched out, and then the average amounts of time that that takes. But then it takes that against the number of deputies available, and then minus all their leave, minus all their training.

[01:16:18] There's many, many factors that go in there to how many hours are actually available per deputy to work, and then kind of spits out what that percentage is. So to generate those reports is querying many different data systems, and it's just very extensive and complex for us to be able to get that.

[01:16:38] So IACP did that for us in the report and came up with these. We are working on replicating all of those reports so we can do that accurately, and then also break it down to the station service area so that we can track the exact impact of these deputies as we allocate them, but also be able to allocate them in a workload-based model to make sure they're getting where they need to go.

[01:17:00] Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Burlington. Thank you, Madam Chair. So basically what I'm seeing here with this field deputy request is that you're being extremely conservative based on the workload study and the actual percentage, which should be the goal or the standard, the result of paid family leave, which we implemented, which is great, But it does have an impact, a negative impact to you all that needs to be accounted for.

[01:17:27] And we did onboard Metro. And so you're only asking for 36, which equates to about really two per station area throughout the county. And you have four station areas. So we're looking at eight at any given time.

[01:17:45] You'll have eight more people on the street if we approve all this. Right? For field deputies? Yes, with the caveat that even the shift relief factor for those eight will take 20 percent of those off the street as well. So I think it's important, colleagues, that we fund that we fully fund this.

[01:18:03] Really, it's a conservative request, given all of the factors that have that impact it. I would like to see us get to a model that has an SRO in every elementary school as well. I think there's no reason not to. If we have the middle schools covered, we have the high schools covered.

[01:18:20] It just makes the elementary schools a more likely target for somebody who's planning to do something. Why would they go to a middle school or a high school if they knew there was an SRO? But if they've done any amount of homework, it's easy to figure out that, unfortunately, we don't have enough coverage in the elementary schools.

[01:18:36] So I know that's probably not something we can do all at once, but I hope you guys will start asking for some of those. I know it's important to you. I'm not saying it's not by any means, but I'm just sharing my thoughts on that. I would love for Loudoun County to have an SRO in every public school in Loudoun County. um regarding the the idea supervisor letourneau and i i completely understand from a funding perspective why you asked about rotating vehicles per shift i think that's what you were getting at and correct me if i'm wrong please but yeah at least for some yeah so um the department i worked

[01:19:11] for for 20 years did that and it has a lot of negative implications to doing that there's a lot more positive implications especially considering the amount of funding that we're talking about the the difference that it would make is really minuscule and when you're rotating the vehicles you go through the vehicle they don't last nearly as long when you rotate them because they're being used 24 7 and there's also a lot more downtime that ends up happening because and when that begin when you begin your shift you go and take over somebody else's vehicle and oftentimes there's trash extra paperwork or whatever that you need to get out of there and first you got

[01:19:50] to clean it out then you put your stuff in then you get it how you want it and how you had the the shift prior to that exactly exactly how you like it and you still might not be in the same exact vehicle that you drove yesterday and so there's there's issues with that when you're talking about responding to life safety issues where your life is on the line and you want to respond instinctually but you're in a different vehicle than you were previously i ran out of time So anyway, I think we're lucky to have a vehicle parole officer, and I would hate to see us get away from that.

[01:20:19] Thank you. All right. So I have a lot to say that I've got to say in three minutes. To answer Mr. Kirshner's question, the reason you all don't have more is because you haven't asked for more in the past. You haven't asked. In fact, there was a year that we actually sent you all back and said, come ask for something.

[01:20:38] And so you thought having the IACP study, which actually we're using right now, and you didn't ask once in the past. So I actually don't appreciate the conservative person. I think you've got to ask for what you want. You're keeping the county safe. And so if you need them, ask for them. That's why we're the lowest.

[01:20:54] That's why we're so low, because you haven't asked in the past. And when you do ask, you've got, you received it. So I don't quite know why you haven't asked. Over the past, you know, I'll say this. I don't agree with defunding stuff.

[01:21:11] That makes no sense to me. You know, we defund the police, defund the school system, defund that, defund that. That's just silly to me. We're not here to punish any department because we don't like something. Defunding doesn't, it's just, it's completely illogical and really just very political, all that defunding ridiculousness.

[01:21:32] So let me just say right now, I'm going to support these positions and would have supported more if you had to ask for more because you need them. Period. The end, and let's put that to one side. Having said that, Sheriff Chapman, I would really appreciate it if you came into the boardroom more. If the dates we put down for your quarterly updates don't work for you, tell me.

[01:21:52] I set the agenda. I'll change the dates. We don't see you too much in the boardroom. And I do think it's okay that the county supervisors ask you all questions that we need to ask you. I ask hard questions of LCPS. I ask hard questions of Ms. Bivera.

[01:22:08] I ask hard questions. And I think that's fair, because I think it's what the county board is supposed to do. And so you, as the elected official, I would appreciate it if you started coming to the quarterly meetings on a regular basis, because there are a lot of questions that I have that I don't think are unfair to ask you, some of which I'll actually put on paper and send them to you after we get finished with the budget cycle to ask you, because I think they're fair questions to ask.

[01:22:40] On the SRO thing, you know, it's an interesting statement because all the research says that SROs don't make schools safer. All the research. It says it doesn't talk about, you know, things, the mental health issues, the de-escalation issues, all those things.

[01:22:57] SROs don't really make schools safer. And, of course, we never want to see what happened in your body. We had God knows how many police officers standing around while children were getting shot. And so I have two questions today. I'll send you more questions later, and I would appreciate if you came in so we can ask questions.

[01:23:15] Is there anything else you'd like to see that would complement law enforcement as far as mental health? Any other strategies, like what the HIDA program has, anything else in our schools besides SRO programs?

[01:23:32] Is there any complement to you that would be from the mental health side that would be helpful? And then also expect an email with lots of other questions from me. Well, I would say that certainly we're going towards a co-responder model. We're looking at other options, and as I know, we're looking at a stabilization facility.

[01:23:50] I think that's going to be very helpful if we can do that, because what that's going to do is free our deputies up that are having to stay with people at the hospital for extensive periods of time and get them back on the road and get these people in a place where they're secure and where they can then get assigned to a hospital bed someplace.

[01:24:09] So I think we're working in the right direction. and I think that's a great thing that we're looking at, the stabilization facility. So I'm excited about that, and we're looking to try to snap that up. So those kinds of things. And back on the SROs, the one thing I think is missing here is the intelligence that we gather from our SROs.

[01:24:26] It's not just that they're there to protect if there's a shootout. They actually work with the kids, and we get to identify who the problem children are in these different schools, and it gives us a leg up on where to go. Well, the kids that have challenges. Well, yes, the challenge children.

[01:24:42] So we do look at all that, and it gives us an ability to preemptively address things before they become problems. And I would say that in response a little bit to your question there, if you look at the success of the agency and the efficiency with which we work, we've done a pretty good job with very lean personnel.

[01:25:04] But we're getting to the point where this county has grown quite a bit. we need to really, we really need to expand. And fortunately, one of the things that Lieutenant Colonel Sawyer said was that a lot of it has to do with our inability to actually sit down and really go through a deep dive assessment on what we need because we're so busy doing everything else. And it was really good, quite frankly, that the IACP did that study because it kind of gave us an outside look inside as to what somebody else thought we might need here, you know. And so in that regard it actually turned out pretty good so so those are the kinds of things I think I think

[01:25:40] we're on the right track I think getting more more people on patrol is really necessary I think the citizens need that I think we're running close to where we were when I took office almost 12 years ago and on the patrol squad we've gotten a lot of specialty positions but we've done very little to increase our patrol deputies out there so this will be a huge step in that direction so we're excited about that excited about the stabilization facility and the different things that are that are going in that direction so I do think we're on the right track and I do appreciate I do appreciate everybody's comments up here tonight thank you and I'll see you doing quarterly

[01:26:14] meetings more often yes yes ma'am okay when you would like to make a motion mr. so the term I'm going to go to you because you're going to change the motion a little bit yes yeah I'm not going to be able to do the numbers on the fly though so I'll just what I can do is put the put it in words and then not, well, but we need them.

[01:26:34] I'm going to, first of all, why don't I move the, because we have to add in the resource. Why don't I move the addition of $8.507673 million to fund Sheriff Priority 1 field deputies? And I'll second that.

[01:26:52] And then? Well, you want to handle that separately? Well, let me, if you're going to just do that later, Do we need to do, do we just have to add that at all right now if that's gonna be a mid-year adjustment for the SRO? Do we have to do that at all right now or just leave it?

[01:27:08] Yeah, because some of these are mid-year as well, so it has to go on the budget. I guess I would just ask staff if they have a... Supervisor Letourneau, if, I'm sorry. Yes. I'm sorry, I wasn't looking at the right.

[01:27:23] If your question is six, so basically starting the school resource officer position in January 1st instead of July 1st, That would be a savings of $53,182. And at least from staff's perspective, I think we would request one motion per time on one resource request at a time.

[01:27:47] Okay, so I'd make that separately. Yeah, do you want to make a friendly amendment? Well, point of clarification first, or should we, if we are going to possibly take a Mr. Hemstreet's suggestion, do we need to make this motion now or do we?

[01:28:04] Megan so I believe you need to make whatever motions you want to make and I have a suggestion if you want to take super I mean mr. Hemstreet's suggestion on the capital outlay All right, thank you. All right, so then what's on the table is the the full request for the field deputies and the Say that again for the SRO. How are we doing that a separate motion a separate motion for the so okay?

[01:28:38] Alright, so I'll say I'll second that then anything on you want to speak to them the first motion is still eternal No, I think maybe we'll let my share sayings make his follow-on motion about the capital budget But I would be interested in that as well. Otherwise, I think we've we've discussed the need for these positions tonight It is a lot of money, but I think it's money that there's a clear demonstrated need for I agree Anybody else want to discuss this this item?

[01:29:05] Sheriff Chapman, on this item, it might be helpful for there to be a little bit more understanding, just in general, about what we get from the state compensation and what we don't get from the state compensation and how that's been an issue and such.

[01:29:23] I will also say in discussion this is that, yeah, my God, the Crisis Resource Center, because the amount of hours that sheriff's deputies who are spending with people sitting in emergency rooms is a complete misuse of what deputies train for.

[01:29:46] I say this all the time, listen, you all are trained law enforcement officers, and yes, you are CRT trained, you have other training, but that's not the same thing as, you're not mental health therapists, and that's not what you're there for, to be quite honest.

[01:30:02] And all the crisis response training in the world doesn't get you to where you would get if you had somebody co-responding to you who looks at a person and says, oh, my gosh, they're having a schizoaffective crisis, and that's not a substance use that we're looking at.

[01:30:23] It's just different sets of training. And so, you know, in some ways I get very, very frustrated that, you know, the request from law enforcement is to be everything, and when you can't, you know, so not that I don't want you to have that training, because I do, but it's not the same training.

[01:30:45] So a crisis resource center is just very, very, very, very, very important. At the same time, when things go not great in the field and things have some time, that's why I want you to, that's why I'm going to send you the questions and that's why I'd like you to come in for the quarterly meetings because I do think that it is important that because the board gets asked about those things, that we actually know what happened, what didn't happen and what the follow-up is and we never know and we never know and I don't I think they're fair questions to ask. Having said that can you talk a little bit about the compensation? About the compensation board? Yeah. Actually

[01:31:24] SETI, Ms. SETI Shipp would probably be better at that. It's a complicated process. It is. So we currently have 375 comp board positions and we have a total of 850 positions in our agency but out of that 375 only 352 are funded. So the positions that are unfunded are civilian positions. There are no sworn positions unfunded that are granted to us. Every year we do request positions from the comp board, but unfortunately we never receive positions very rarely. This past year they implemented some mental health positions,

[01:32:02] which didn't really pertain to us because our medical unit is run by a third party. So it's well path. So those positions that are, that we have in the medical unit because of well path are not funded through comp board. Okay anybody else? Yes I'm going to vote for the motion of course but so on that issue would this require a legislative change at the General Assembly to get that funding or how does that work exactly? Because I'm not familiar with this board that you're

[01:32:39] talking about. It would be through the legislature that it would have to be changed and there would be funding allocated to the comp board but then the comp board does have a formula that they use. still wouldn't have to give it to us would they correct it would be spread out over you think that's because of our image as the richest county in america or is it some other reason i believe so yes okay sheriff and not police though too is that that's not no the comfort is all it's all sheriffs okay it's the whole richest county which i'm wondering if you if if you could help us help you with some sort of white paper that would just kind of lay out the argument and then the reasons so we can better understand it

[01:33:19] and we can work with our legislature affairs team to get this on the agenda and see how we can best help you with that. Chair Randall. If that's something you're interested in, Sheriff Chapman. Mr. Hempstreet. So this issue has been on our legislative agenda. We have actively lobbied for the additional comp board money every year as part of the budget.

[01:33:39] We work in concert with the Sheriff's Association and the Sheriff's Office to try to gain that funding. So it's very much been a focus. You've gone down there. of the lobby team to try to get the General Assembly to allocate those additional funds. Yes, that's right. I was down there, and I did lobby, and I worked with John Jones, the executive director for Virginia Sheriffs, and with some of our legislative folks, Senator Bells and Senator Boisco.

[01:34:06] But it's tough to get that money. It is. I'll come back to you because you made the motion. Do you want to? Yeah, I do actually have to make it friendly. The motion would be I would move that the Board of Supervisors add 36 FTEs for the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office.

[01:34:25] Then my friend would be and I direct staff to develop alternative funding strategy for one-time capital outlay. And I would gladly accept that. Thank you. Then I'll go back to you. We're still on the main motion. Would you like to have a closing? No close. All right. All the people who say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 801.

[01:34:43] Now we'd like to go to the school, the resource officer. Yes. Okay. I have a motion there, so I will move to make the Sheriff's Office Capital Facility Opening School Resource Officer funded as a mid-year position for a savings of, I think you said it was 53-182?

[01:35:01] 53-982. 53-982. Motion is made and seconded. Mr. Letourneau. Yeah, I don't think we need to discuss this too much. It's just pushing it back six months because the school doesn't open until fall of 2024. But I understand we want to start these earlier than just the coming fiscal year to give them enough time to hire and train.

[01:35:24] But it's a little bit of savings that may come in handy later on. Mr. Buckington. Thank you, Madam Chair. I agree that every little bit helps if we could save it. I just would be interested in asking the sheriff and giving you an opportunity, any of you, that could best answer this.

[01:35:42] What would be the negative impact to you of us doing that? And is it a major heartburn or not a major heartburn? Just so we can consider your response. I would say it's not an overly significant impact. And in the realm of getting 36 deputies, I'm not going to split hairs over six months on a school resource officer.

[01:36:01] Okay. Well, that helps a lot. Thank you. Mr. Sains? Do I need to put my alternative motion on this one as well or no? No? Okay. No, the friendly.

[01:36:18] I have my friendly motion with language to this or no? No, we'll take that direction. to evaluate all the sheriff's request okay on the on this motion um so one of the things you said is you had to put out and train and hire is there a different a totally different hiring process because there's a totally different skill set for sros or is it like you just is one of the can any sheriff deputy be trained to be an sro tell me what's different and i'm going back to the fact that all the research shows that sros do little to reduce on-campus violence that often

[01:36:56] that there is more issues with kids of color, kids of disabilities, with disabilities. I mean, Lieutenant, sorry, I'm a very research-based person, and it just doesn't, the research just doesn't mete out the SRO issue.

[01:37:13] And so I guess I'm asking, when you're hiring for an SRO, are you hiring for, is there a different skill set and different training than hiring for just a deputy or a patrol deputy and can you tell me what that different skill set and training is? Sure so there's kind of two parts of that one is that we don't hire specifically for SROs what we do is we look for existing veteran deputies who've got you know good track records and you know will fit well in that position are interested we can do all the training there's a variety of training that we do both in-house

[01:37:52] and uh you know dcgs required state uh you know state mandated training so the hiring for this position is really hiring the replacement for the deputy who will ultimately be assigned to the school who's likely a deputy today just is not in an sro position um does that answer that that does answer that part of the question yeah um the other thing i'd say and i'm very much with you on research based and everything else but I would my word of caution would be that a lot of that research is not conducted here in Loudoun and the way we do things in Loudoun's you know pretty pretty different and I think our numbers can you talk to me about about what when you when you get that veteran officer

[01:38:30] you can talk to me about the training that they get to be an SRO officer so I don't have the list of classes but it literally is a list of classes you know that includes things such as advanced CIT which we do but is not currently mandatory for all, but Advanced CIT is really focused on dealing with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We also do a lot of training on threat assessments, you know, working with Title IX, just different things about, you know, working in the school environment, working right alongside with school administration, you know, to really make sure that

[01:39:06] we are engaging with the students, but in a positive way that's got good long-term impacts for them we do not promote charging students in schools you know i can speak to last school year there were 17 incidents where students were charged in the schools which out of 81 000 you know plus students is less than two hundredths of one percent of students that walked away with charges as a result of those things and a lot of those things were serious things like threats assaults weapons violations things that really are significant enough and and all of our sros we

[01:39:42] we work with juvenile court services very closely to again try to find restorative practices diversion things like that to to work to what is in the best interest of that student long term and not to you know we hear school to prison pipeline all the time i can tell you that does not exist here in loud and we take a very collaborative and proactive approach to handling issues that was very very helpful thank you so much mr yeah I will just for a second since we're on this general topic because we do have a very good SRO program here and I'll get on my soapbox for just a second because I think a lot

[01:40:21] of people in the kind of out there view the SROs as security guards like they're physically at the schools the whole time standing out front waiting for somebody to show up and that is not their job it's not what their job's supposed to be and I wouldn't want that to be their job because their job and you hit on it earlier is to gather intelligence to get to know the students to understand what's actually happening in the schools and be able to prevent things from happening so I do question some of the research that are simply looking at causality of where school shootings occur and whether or not there are SROs because I don't think that that necessarily tells the whole picture because you cannot study something that has been prevented so the intelligence that's gathered by those

[01:41:00] officers and the relationships that they build and I personally witness it I think is invaluable for a lot of reasons for you know both in terms of keeping the school safe but also helping with those students so you know my motion is in no way intended to at all you know diminish anything other than just the timing of when the school's opening but but I do think it's a very good program, and I thank you for it. Like I said, you gave a great answer. All right. All in favor, motion with made by Supervisor Letourneau, second by Supervisor Umstead. All in favor, please say

[01:41:33] aye. Opposed? That motion will pass, 801. Thank you very much. I think that's all, and expect an email. Thanks. Bye-bye. All right, Supervisor, let's go on to Family Services, which you will find on page, well, the description of the resource request is E41. I'm sorry, E42, yeah. There we go,

[01:41:56] E42. There we go. I find it interesting that all the people from the sheriff's office is male, and everybody in family services coming to the table is female. Hmm, just from a social studies kind of point of view, that's really interesting. Good evening, and would you like

[01:42:32] to introduce everybody at the table with you, everybody here with you? Yes, thank you. And that's actually part of my opening, so thank you very much, and you'll meet somebody new this evening. Good evening, everyone. Ina Fernandez with Department of Family Services.

[01:42:50] And thank you for allowing us to present to you this evening. With me tonight are Dee Bolden, our new Deputy Director. Welcome. Yes. Yay. Valerie Cuffey, our Assistant Director for Clinical and Residential Services. And also with me tonight, behind me, are Elise Martin, our Assistant Director for Internal Operations, and Colleen Stiles, our Finance Manager.

[01:43:14] Wonderful. Yes, and they are happy to answer any specific programmatic questions that you may have this evening. Do you have any opening? Yes. Okay. I cannot begin my presentation this evening without acknowledging your past and continued support and thanking you for acknowledging through committed resources the needs of our community's most vulnerable.

[01:43:32] Last year, I indicated the Department of Family Services had created a multi-year plan to right-size our organization. We understand, due to the budget constraints, our plan might take a little bit longer than anticipated. However, I believe it's important for us to present our State of the Union, so to speak, and what we see on the horizon for your situational awareness. As you know, last year, our vacancy rate story could be summed up in two words, dire straits. This year, I'm happy to report our vacancies are in line with other agencies our size. And in CPS, the evening shift team that you approved mid-year is fully staffed, save for one position. Even with the positions you

[01:44:12] have approved to date, our ratio of cases to family service specialists has yet to meet best practice standards, and service demands continue to grow. The Child Protective Services Program continues to command our attention, as the program's mission is to assure the safety and well-being of Loudoun County's children. From FY 2018 to 2020, the average number of referrals to the CPS hotline for child abuse, neglect investigations, and assessments totaled just over 2,100. You might recall that number rose by 550 last year. I'm sorry, in FY 21. We thought that was a lot. It's nothing compared to the last fiscal year when the number of referrals jumped again by

[01:44:51] almost 1,000 to 3,578. The September 2022 Office of the State Inspector General CPS Performance Audit Report sample tested 75 localities. The total average caseload among localities tested was 11.8 open cases per CPS employee. Five localities were outliers with high caseloads, and Lowne County had the highest with an average of 47 cases per worker, four times the professional practice standard of 1 to 10. As you are aware, these caseloads lead to an increase in worker

[01:45:27] turnover, a decrease in long-term expertise, and an increase in training time needed, all of which culminate in overall inefficiencies. Additionally, this exacerbates difficulty in recruiting new employees, essentially creating a negative feedback loop. The request for a new team features our attempt to reach appropriate staffing levels, commensurate with best practice, and lower staff burnout, ultimately leading to greater child and community safety.

[01:45:54] As with child protection, our second highest priority, the public benefits program, has seen a surge in caseloads over the past two years. In FY 2020 to 2022, the average caseload size doubled from 696 to upwards of 1,400 cases per worker.

[01:46:13] Caseloads in this program area should average around 600 per person. Additionally, the span of control for the single program manager is very large, with over 50 FTEs and does not allow for proper oversight. The Public Benefits Program receives hundreds of applications a week and maintains over 34,000 public benefits cases serving over 50,000 unique customers. All applications must be processed at a 97% timeliness rate according to state and federal standards and while the program has seen has been successful in meeting the timeliness standard for some of our program or for many of our programs it's been less successful in ensuring accuracy.

[01:46:52] And with the volume of cases for which staff are responsible, they are forced to choose between meeting timeliness over accuracy. After a comprehensive review of the program, it was determined to better function and meet mandates. A realignment was needed. This involves reorganizing current staff, requesting additional staffing resources over multiple years to meet staffing demand, service demand, I'm sorry, and includes other units that work in tandem with the public benefits programs into three separate and functional units.

[01:47:23] intake and application processing, ongoing case management and redetermination, and workforce and employment development, hence the request we bring to you this evening. And while this reorganization and additional staffing will help, we anticipate caseloads will continue to rise, not only due to growth in population and diversity, but as a byproduct of policy changes, such as broad-based categorical eligibility that began in July 2021, which increased the SNAP income eligibility limits from 133% to 200% of the federal poverty level.

[01:47:59] The implementation of the elderly SNAP application project in December of 2021 that relaxed application rules for older adults with fixed incomes and Medicaid policy changes that have allowed for full enrollment of immigrants who are pregnant and no longer requires legal permanent residents to have 40 qualifying credits, quarters of our work in the united states additional policy changes are also anticipated in the future in addition to the resources resource requests in the increased budget options other programs in our organizations are impacting are impacted as well our family service

[01:48:38] engagement preservation caseloads are growing due to the increased calls of the cps hotline as we are required to offer services to those that may not meet the cps threshold but are at at moderate risk for child abuse and neglect. This program has seen a 200 percent increase in cases over one year and serves approximately 1,400 families. Our Children's Services Act program continues to see year-over-year increases in the cost of cases, and these two are mandated.

[01:49:04] In the past several years, our child care program's state-allocated child care subsidy budget increased by 79 percent, coupled with expanded eligibility applications and caseloads have doubled. The Workforce Resource Center has experienced a steady climb in business and jobseeker services and now outweighs current capacity. Our emergency management system, our emergency management and support function has increased significantly as we continue to become a more global jurisdiction and manage the requirements and expectations thereof. And the critical support our programs need to make sure projects, grants, and contracts are accurately monitored and resolved is essential as frontline staff are ill-equipped and do not have the time

[01:49:43] or technical skills necessary for this type of work. I hope this has given you a glimpse into our current state and future forecast. We know you recognize people cannot be deferred maintenance and understand what is necessary to keep children, individuals, families, and ultimately our county safe. This is evidenced by your past and hopefully continued support and acknowledgement of what it is required to keep pace with ever-changing mandates and the demands our community sets upon us. Again, thanks to each of you and all of county administration for the opportunity to meet you this evening and your continued support and we're happy to answer any questions that you may

[01:50:20] have oh gosh miss fernandez um come a long way of a long way to go still right yeah so um before i go to questions i will i will say on behalf of the board um thank you and thank you to your entire staff um especially over the past couple of years in covet and how and and the increases we've seen in COVID. So much of that has hit your doorstep. That is not something we didn't recognize and know that was happening. So we appreciate you very, very much. So let's go to questions

[01:50:58] and then we'll go to a motion. Questions for Ms. Fernandez and her staff. Ms. Umstapp. Thank you. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I'm going to support the request. Did we fail when we added to CPS a few years ago? Did we fail to keep those positions filled?

[01:51:23] Or are you just dealing with such an overwhelming increase that you need more on top of those? I think it's yes and yes. There has been, there was turnover. I mean, last year, our investigative unit, there was a vacancy rate of about 80-something percent. We are 30 percent now and then we'll have three two other or three other positions will be down to 20 percent for investigators so i think it's a combination you know it's it's what comes first

[01:51:57] the chicken or the egg you have um turnover but then the substantial increase in caseload just continues that and so you staff are maxed out cannot investigate it takes time you heard earlier from the sheriff's department the fact that it takes it's taking more time to provide resources to provide the services with more cases and more cases and more cases you cannot these folks cannot conduct proper investigations and assessments when they have 60 cases on their caseload and they're supposed to have 10. So then that contributes to turnover so it's just a

[01:52:35] revolving door. Thank you. Sure. That's a great question. Mr. Letourneau. Thank you. So to that point. We asked about the vacancy rates and in the CPS division specifically, it's sitting at looks like about 30%, 33% last year, 25%, which I'm sure is obviously contributing to the really high caseloads and stress levels. We're talking about the safety of kids. So honestly, I'll give you whatever many positions you think you need. But do we have something sort of strategically that we can do to try to fill those positions? And I understand why this is probably a really

[01:53:14] hard area to fill, but can we do something different to not have vacancy rates that are at least 25%? Yes. Well, and again, we weren't in that particular, especially with investigators, we went from 82, 83% to we'll be at 22% now. So in just one year, we did implement several things to make sure that we are consistent, constantly and consistently hiring for those specific

[01:53:44] positions as as you may be aware it is it takes a long time to recruit you put fill out the paperwork you do the ad you schedule interviews so it could take several months what we implemented in-house was we have scheduled in the Child Protective Services area every Monday afternoon there are blocks set on on folks' calendar, and that's what happens on Monday afternoons.

[01:54:18] If we don't have somebody to interview, then that blog, you know, then it gets freed up at every single one. And so it's taking a look at resumes. We are recruiting in different places, looking at different states, Puerto Rico, different societies to be able to recruit in so that we're not just putting it out on our website and LinkedIn.

[01:54:41] We're really taking a... Is there a similar dynamic with the public benefits side with vacancies? It is nowhere near as high. I believe it's about 11% at the moment. Okay, okay. Yeah, that's manageable. Public benefits. That's good. So we're just flat out understaffed there from an actual number of positions.

[01:54:59] Exactly. And I'll tell you, while right now we're just holding on by a thread at 11%, folks are starting to feel the pressure, and they're talking about the fact that they cannot do that. If we don't give more positions, their workload, they just don't want to be at that level of workload.

[01:55:16] And we'll see an exodus there as well. Yeah. Okay. Well, again, I'm going to be supportive of these requests because I think that there are things that we simply have to do. Thank you. Ms. Glass. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you for all that you do.

[01:55:33] As Supervisor Letourneau and others have said, it's such an important job that you all do. I had a question. So when you talked about recruiting people, do you all also go out?

[01:55:52] Do you go to colleges? I was just going to say our assistant director does have connections and sits on panels with George Mason. We have connections with VCU. So there are some pipelines.

[01:56:09] We can get into it later. we can answer a question, but Title IV-E allows folks to be placed in departments of social services in specific areas, unfortunately not in the investigative part of the CPS, but in in-home, the ongoing, or foster care and adoptions, to be able to allow for that pipeline into Department of Family Services.

[01:56:33] So are you also competing with other jurisdictions as well? Oh, yes. When it comes to... Yes, absolutely, and we compete, it can be anywhere with regards to salary, but we've started to see that comparison sort of become more in line, although now another jurisdiction is giving high raises or completely revamping their class and comp, very similar to Loudoun County.

[01:57:00] But I think we're also implementing some things that other jurisdictions have, especially stay bonuses or recruitment bonuses. Either way, all of us are competing for the same people, and sometimes what you'll see is people move from one jurisdiction to the other, but it's a finite group of folks who want and feel compelled to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every holiday, to really ensure the safety of kids in this community.

[01:57:37] They could be anywhere else and work eight to five. Ms. Glass, aren't you our family service rep on the board? Is that you or is that Ms. Umstead? No. I believe it's Ms. Briskman. It's Ms. Briskman. Okay. All right. I was going to go to you for the motion, if you were, but I'll still come to you to motion.

[01:57:54] I'd be happy to come to you for the motion. Sure. Mr. Kirshner. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for coming and sharing today. Obviously, your request is not in our base budget, but it is a fairly significant request. I did go back and I looked at what you've been funded, I think, over the last two years, where we have on page E55.

[01:58:17] We gave you a pretty significant increase last year, correct? How many of those were actually Child Protective Service, I guess, the same personnel that you're requesting now? There was a team. So mid-year, you authorized us to hire our evening shift.

[01:58:37] So that was a one supervisor, a senior worker, five frontline staff, and a case aide. And then... Total of 27, correct? Total of 727 in the... And then the year before, a total of nine.

[01:58:53] Nine. You should talk about that year as well. I'm sorry. So those were hotline workers. We've also included in the past in-home, so not the investigators. We've also included hotline staff, so at the front end, because while the crisis especially is in the investigators, what happens is you also, if we are having folks transferred for longer services in our in-home, sooner you're going to need to increase those as well because, as I said, this year we had 1,000 extra calls, right?

[01:59:33] And so those cases, a percentage of those are then going to need further services. Okay. So I'm not sure if I'm going to continue to listen to questions and hear people's discussion. I'm not sure if I'm going to support your request this year just simply because we've given you a number.

[01:59:48] I'm not suggesting it couldn't be needed. It wasn't in the base budget. This is a tight year. We significantly bumped you up 27 last year, 9 the year before. But if we maybe pard that down, your request down a little bit. If we were to par your request down, I think your first request, and that's really what you're talking about largely, though, eight FTE positions.

[02:00:09] Is that right? It is, yes, eight. Okay. If we were to par those down, say, like, half of them or whatnot, would you kind of utilize them in the same way that you've currently described, or what would be the? They would be conducting investigations or assessments.

[02:00:29] What would happen then is we would have to add those to other units, and they are already at the standard of six workers to one supervisor. I see. Okay. Yes. All right, thank you. Supervisor Kirschner, I just added on an administrative note, on page 3-10 of the budget, there's a detailed staffing history for the Department of Family Services, and it includes the CPS workers that were added mid-year in FY 2022 as well as the actions that have been taken in other years.

[02:01:04] So that whole detailed history of the position enhancements is included in the budget document. 3-10. Mr. Buffington? Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to thank you all for your work. You're doing amazing things.

[02:01:21] Mr. Hemstreet called each one of us and had a long conversation with us before the budget process and told us, no matter what you do, it's really important to me, and I think it's critical for the county that you fund at least these top five recommendations on his priority list, which I think is a conservative list, to be honest with you.

[02:01:43] And your requests right now here tonight are number two on that list and number four on that list. Number one was the sheriff's office, which we just took care of. So I am fully supportive. I'm going to vote to fund all of your requests, and I appreciate it.

[02:01:59] You mentioned, I just want to give you an opportunity to help convince Supervisor Kirshner a little bit more. You mentioned the kind of hours that your folks are working. How many days a week are there? I know you said they're 24-7, but I know they're not working 24-7, although maybe they are.

[02:02:15] I don't know. They could be getting phone calls. Basically, we get phone calls 24-7, Facebook instant messages. It's like you can't get away from work, which is fine. It's what we ran for. But what's life like for your current employees? Right now, paint the picture for us.

[02:02:32] I will give you a lead-in, and I'm sure Ms. Valerie will be able to explain. The calls come in 24-7, and especially in Child Protective Services, not so much public benefits, but, again, with 1,400 cases on a caseload when you should have 600, you're working more than 40 hours a week or 37 1⁄2 hours a week.

[02:02:53] One employee has 1,400 cases? Oh, yes, in public benefits, you're supposed to have 600. And in Child Protective Services, you're supposed to have 10. they're upwards of 64, if we're fully staffed, 41. And so in Child Protective Services, it is quite literally 24-7.

[02:03:13] Hence one of the reasons why we asked for the evening shift, because even then you are still, when folks have two to three jobs, you're not seeing them during normal business hours. You have to see them in the weekends.

[02:03:30] Child abuse does not stop at 5 o'clock in the afternoon. So at 2 o'clock in the morning, folks are going to the hospital. On average, are these folks working six days a week, seven days a week? It's seven days a week. Eight-hour days? More than eight. More than that?

[02:03:46] Yeah. And so how is this going to help you in terms of that? Like, are people going to get a day off each week now if we do this? What's going to happen differently? Then let me, sorry, let me qualify and clarify. They are working seven days a week, and so they will sleep, and again, Valerie can speak to this, but they're not, I was going to say, they're not getting cases seven days a week, but sometimes they are, so I'll let you, sorry.

[02:04:14] As they are receiving cases, and sometimes there's a second rotation during the course of the day, they also work the on-call and the weekend, so we do a monthly calendar every month in advance to see when they can schedule, they perform duties to respond.

[02:04:32] in the evenings, although they've worked during the course of the day. And they're often on five and six times a month. So it's the weekend work, it's the weeknight, because we don't have the rotation to go around where they can get it, have an opportunity to rest. I look forward to the day that we can give them what we call a day to complete the work so that they don't get new assignments. The number of cases that come in now, they're constantly getting new assignments and often it's difficult to complete the work and then they have to go on on call and many times

[02:05:07] during the week in each month. Thank you guys so much. Appreciate it. I think the other thing that should be said is there's a higher acuity now that used to come in for these cases. Some of that is COVID. Some of that is others as other factors. But because there's a higher acuity or maybe even sometimes a higher lethality, the burnout is much higher. The compassion fatigue that you all are dealing with is much higher.

[02:05:36] I worked my whole career with offenders in jails, in prisons, juvenile and adults, and I couldn't do your job. I mean, I couldn't. Give me 35 male inmates any day than 47 cases on a CPS caseload.

[02:05:55] It is really the hardest jobs that there are in this behavioral mental health field and the things you have to see and the things you have to deal with. You know, it takes years of training to be able to walk away from that and decompress just so you can even go home and enjoy your night.

[02:06:13] You don't walk away from the work if you're not working. It's just very, very taxing, emotionally taxing work. And I will tell you all, and I've said this before, when you have caseloads this high, it becomes literally dangerous to everybody.

[02:06:32] And the moment we lose a kid in the system or a kid goes something, what we will pay out will be so much more than this budget request. If I'm just talking flat dollars, what we will pay out if we lose a kid in the system, it will be so much more than these budget requests.

[02:06:55] We cannot continue to run this county like we're a county of 250,000 people. I don't care what we gave them last year, the year before, the year before. If that's what they need, that's what they need. It just is. That's like saying, well, I ate yesterday, so I'm not going to eat tomorrow.

[02:07:11] What? If you need it, if they need it, they need it. This county has 435,000 people. You keep adding people, you have to add the resources to see the people. And after the past two years and the issues we've seen in the past two years, if there are two departments, the jobs got a lot harder.

[02:07:32] well, maybe all of the departments tonight, but really, it's all the departments tonight. It's family services, inmates' ads, it's sheriff's departments, community corrections. All of those got so much harder. If I had one question, and it's a hard question, given all that you've said, is what do you all do to decompress?

[02:07:52] What do you do to combat compassion fatigue? What do you do for their employees to combat burnout? How can you incentivize people who have caseloads of this? How are you taking care of your employees would be my only question.

[02:08:10] I will start off, and then you can give some very specific things that you have done in your division. But how I will start off that answer is answering one of the questions that you asked me last year with regards to clinical supervision. So that program is up and running.

[02:08:28] And so, yes. Good. That is one thing we do. Very good. So it will allow folks to get their supervision. We also, we've negotiated with our EAP to have something very similar to public safety with regards to critical incident debriefing.

[02:08:44] So we have implemented those as well, that when something happens, it's not just here's your 10 sessions, but there's something immediate within the next 72 hours for the entire team. Even if it's one person's case or family, the entire team is able to take advantage of that because as you're right and I appreciate that this our staff are putting in 24-7 and it is is untenable not just in child protective services and public benefits but really all the rest of our organization as well but I'll let you speak to some of the other things that you've implemented

[02:09:24] we learn to appreciate life and laugh as much as we can right we try to have as much fun as we can we recognize what people do well we have discussions at times when things aren't going so well so that we can address it we also try to award them reward them with little tokens recognize their work we do shout outs you did a great job with this that and the other we do that immediately and encourage and we actually have an opportunity i often ask staff i come in because i will see the types of cases that are going on particularly if they have to coordinate with

[02:10:00] foster care and other areas when they're tough cases I actually get involved and have conversations with them and so do the supervisors they also go out in the field and work with them so they can show so that they see that we are all there together and have those conversations and where I can make changes particularly in our processes to make things easier for them I work hard at doing that wonderful well wonderful well I I am I have planned on making this motion but I'm going let Ms. Scholast make the motion. Thank you, by the way. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move to add

[02:10:37] Family Services Priority 1 Child Protective Services Unit to the fiscal year 2024 budget deliberation. You're going to do just one at a time? Can we do both at once? And Family Services Priority 2 Public Benefits Unit. I was going to make the motion, but I let her, so I'm going to take the second yes she done both um all right uh discussion on the motion miss glass i i think

[02:11:09] it's you all just told us what you all see and um i i think most of us understand the need for us to have people like you all serving our most vulnerable constituents i'm taking care of them and I know we're going to do our best to support you all in the efforts that you do for our county and we just wholeheartedly thank you for what you do. Thank you ma'am. Mr. Kirster.

[02:11:46] Thank you ma'am chair. So I think I got convinced after your discussion I understand heavy workload and I also had forgotten and I had looked at the option one and four that Mr. M Street had specifically said that so thank you for reminding me that mr buffington um and i trust mr hemstreet significantly in this process obviously um we are seeing growth here and you guys obviously need the help so i'm happy to support the motion here in this particular case i think it was my you ate yesterday you got to eat tomorrow analogy that really moved in but i'm gonna take that just made me think it was dinner break time i was just saying whatever he says though once in a while he said that just made you hungry

[02:12:25] thank you very much um i know i i just like to really thank you for what you and your whole team do it's uh probably the most critical work in the county so just thank you um i think we're going to go unanimous post, I'm going to stop why I'm ahead up here, and so good job, and I mean, really, seriously, great job. Would you like a closing? All right, all in favor say aye. Opposed? That motion will pass 8-0-1. Thank you. So, by the way, let's take 15

[02:13:11] minutes before we get to the last two. Oh, that was really, really good. All right, we're

[02:35:56] back. We're going to now move to inmate SADS, Mental Health, Substance Abuse, and Developmental Services. That is on the descriptions on pages E43 and E44. Good evening, Ms. Graham. Would you like to introduce your staff that you have brought with you today, ma'am? Yes, thank you very much.

[02:36:18] Good evening, Madam Chair, Board of Supervisors. With me this evening is Deputy Director Cheryl Watson and Medical Director Dr. Rania Gupta. And in the audience, I have Assistant Directors Michelle Petruzzello and Lisa Snyder. I want to thank you very much for this opportunity to present the Mental Health, Substance Abuse, and Developmental Services FY24 resource requests.

[02:36:44] The department's mission is to promote mental, behavioral, and developmental health and wellness by connecting individuals and their families with person-centered, recovery-oriented services and supports in partnership with the Loudoun community. The department employs a remarkable team of more than 450 people and various contractors to deliver publicly-funded behavioral health and developmental services. MHSADS has filled all of the positions approved in fiscal year 23, and for your consideration this evening, I have two resource requests

[02:37:17] to present. The first, located on page E43 and described in greater detail on 3-29 in the proposed budget is a resource request for one FTE authority to establish a management analyst for position. This resource request is addressed in the proposed FY24 budget.

[02:37:39] The Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services is providing the funding for this position due to the significant administration and data reporting requirements that have resulted from the implementation of the system transformation excellence and Performance of Virginia, Step Virginia program. Step Virginia is the statewide multi-fiscal year implementation of a uniform set of mandated services with quality metrics across all community services boards. The second resource request is found on page E-44 entitled MHSADS Priority One

[02:38:17] Crisis Intervention Team Community Access Response, SITCAR, because we like acronyms. This request is the increase option number three as ranked by the county administrator and supports Loudoun's requirement by the Commonwealth to implement protocols and strategies of the Marcus-David-Peters Act.

[02:38:38] Marcus Alert requires coordination between 911 and regional crisis call centers and establishes a specialized behavioral health response when responding to a behavioral health situation. DBHDS has worked with localities to schedule implementation of Marcus Alert FY24 is the Loudoun planning year with implementation expected at the start of FY25 or July 1 of 2024.

[02:39:06] MHSADS, the Sheriff's Office, and Fire and Rescue have collaborated for approximately two years to define community response teams for Loudoun. The FY24 request is for 13 positions. It supports three teams to provide a mobile community response for eight hours per day during high utilization hours Monday through Friday.

[02:39:29] These teams will respond to serious incident calls for behavioral health crisis and provide community outreach. The 13 FTE required have 10 FTE for MHS-ADS and three deputies for Loudoun County Sheriff's Office.

[02:39:46] Specifically, the team is requesting one senior manager to lead the development and implementation of Marcus Alert protocols and responses and to support regional coordination. A program manager, a team coordinator, two emergency services clinicians, three crisis clinicians, two senior peers, and three deputies for Loudoun County Sheriff's Office.

[02:40:07] In FY24, the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services should have a budget of $600,000 to support our implementation. Of this amount, $60,000 will support a position to liaise between the Northern Virginia Regional Projects Office and the Northern Virginia Community Services Boards, including ours.

[02:40:28] The remaining $540,000 will be applied to offset the cost of our community response teams. However, this amount is insufficient to fund one shift of teams to respond to serious incident calls. The Crisis Intervention Team Community Access Response requires these positions to provide a behavioral health response to behavioral health calls in partnership with law enforcement.

[02:40:53] Thank you very much for this opportunity to present the MHSADS FY24 resource requests. I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Ms. Graham. Oh, gosh. Great job.

[02:41:11] Is this a state mandate to fund Marcus Davis? Is it a state mandate? So the Marcus David Peters Act.

[02:41:27] Don't start my time. Again, this is for so as we know how. I know what it is. Is it a state mandate to fund it? Is it a state mandate to fund it? It's a state mandate to develop services that rise to the spirit of the code.

[02:41:43] The only funding that DBHDS is putting forward to fund the mandate is the $600,000. And the mandate for Loudon to comply with the code is to develop a community response team, but the code doesn't mandate that we fund it.

[02:42:03] If I don't develop these community response teams as we've defined here, we won't be able to have a Loudon-specific team to respond to behavioral health calls for behavioral health reasons. Okay.

[02:42:21] Okay. Jeez. Okay, Mr. Letourneau. Thank you. I hope they didn't put you on a timer or something there. I felt like you wrapped up very quickly. So I'm trying to get my head around how this works. So we're talking about having three teams that will dispatch when there are these type of calls that come in, including will there be one sheriff's deputy per team, I assume?

[02:42:44] Yes. So how is this only three positions then for the sheriff's office? Because they don't work every day, right? So it would be a different person, I guess, that would be rotating in.

[02:43:00] So when we get into the inner workings, I may need to call. Okay, maybe I'll ask all my inner workings questions then, and then you can do that. Sure, sure. Would it, it sounds like we're going to have three teams operating Monday through Friday, basically during business hours.

[02:43:18] Would it make any sense to sort of have staggered hours where they're not all at the, because we're going from not having this resource at all to having a lot of this resource during particular times but still none of this resource overnight and on weekends so my understanding is that we're not targeting regular business hours we're targeting a shift uh monday through friday where the utilization of call the calls the volume of calls to 9-1-1 is higher so um the team was

[02:43:53] looking at an approximately something like 2 to 11 3 to 11 and we look specifically at monday through friday so that we could fill the positions to pilot this model and evaluate the impact of the joint response yes so running a 24 7 or even a seven day a week on three teams is extremely difficult so the start here would be on a monday through friday basis and that is actually where the highest call for service in this area is is monday through friday we we track on the sheriff's

[02:44:30] side we track very closely the number of mental health calls that come in and the hours of the day that they that they come in as well so we've worked with so would it take a fourth team to get saturday coverage i just i'll be honest what i worry about is we're we have this model and it's working pretty well and then we have an incident happens on a saturday and the whole world's going to look out there and look at us and say well why don't you guys just stop this on a saturday as

[02:45:00] well or a sunday but um so i uh it would take a so we're doing this as a pilot and to be able to see it's pretty significant if it's just a pilot right or maybe not maybe we we really need three times as many positions ultimately and i think that we're what we're going to be evaluating based on the results of this co-responding team and our ability to fill all the positions for the co-responding team and then evaluate what additional hours

[02:45:40] on which days will make an impact. I know I'm out of time. I'm sorry. And I'm going to back us up on this one because the Marcus Alert Bill is fairly complicated. I know you know it. It's fairly complicated and weird, and that's why I asked you, was this a mandate or not?

[02:45:58] So I think you have to take a second and explain to everybody what the Marcus Alert Bill was, how it came to be, and if every county in our region is doing it already. Because I understand Mr. Letourneau's point he's trying to make.

[02:46:16] It's a very complicated, not well done, although very well intended effort by the General Assembly. And I think people need to understand what's happening here. Because that was a very valid question.

[02:46:33] But why don't you back up and explain what it is? Okay. Okay, take your time. So, the Marcus David Peters Act was passed following a really bad interaction with an individual who was experiencing a mental health crisis, and law enforcement responded, and he ended up dying as a result of the interaction.

[02:47:02] So the first component of this set of code that was passed required that we create a platform where people can enter information about themselves and their behavioral health considerations when law enforcement or a first responder is going to respond to a 911 call.

[02:47:28] So Margaret Graham could go into this rapid SOS system and indicate that I have a history of substance use disorder and a mental illness diagnosis of X, Y, and Z, so that when law enforcement is going to respond, they will know potentially how I might present.

[02:47:46] That was the first sort of deadline that the Loudon team met, and we met it 100% on time. The second component said that each of the regions needed to prioritize, in a multi-year approach, the development of a response appropriate to your community.

[02:48:10] And in Region 2, Prince William County was the first county to roll out the co-responder model. The second county that is in their planning year now, because in the code it said the biggest entity in the region has to go second, so the second is Fairfax, and Fairfax already has developed a co-responding team or committee, because Fairfax does everything much larger than we might.

[02:48:44] Hey, hey, hey. And, sorry, proportional to the population, forgive me. So Fairfax has already developed a co-responding model, and then Loudon is going third. The team that I'm discussing today is to co-respond in partnership with law enforcement.

[02:49:04] Within the Marcus Alert legislation, there was also allowance for a whole crisis continuum to develop. And at the 988 component, we have developed the crisis call center.

[02:49:21] In addition to that, we have developed regionally a mobile response of someone to respond through two entities that are called CR2 and REACH. But they go out following a 988 call based on a behavioral health need, where they may show up and then need law enforcement, so they might call 911 upon the arrival at the person's home, but they can go independent lifespan depending on if your primary presentation is behavioral health, your primary presentation is a developmental or

[02:49:58] intellectual disability. There's a triage of calls that is being, that is reviewed in the whole crisis continuum and the discussion of crisis now, 988-2911, where there's levels of calls and levels of response that our Loudon team is working through. And this particular response team, the crisis intervention team, community access response, will respond with law enforcement to certain calls and will be reviewing the calls that law enforcement or first responders get

[02:50:36] to see if there are some we should respond to after the fact to bring resources about behavioral health services, to bring information about where you can get services so perhaps your calls to 911 will not be repeated.

[02:50:54] Did that help? Just in general, did that help? Yeah. So, okay, good, wonderful. Mr. Buffington. Do we have a motion on the table?

[02:51:10] No, this is just asking questions. We haven't done a motion yet. I wanted to give an opportunity for Colonel Sawyer if he had anything to add. I noticed you came down to the table. From a law enforcement perspective, do you have anything you want to add? I think we've pretty much covered it.

[02:51:27] Okay. Sorry to put you on the spot. No, that's fine. It is definitely a need, and this is a step towards additional teams and towards additional coverage. Thank you. Thanks, Madam Chair. Mr. Sains.

[02:51:43] Thank you. So you mentioned Fairfax County is standing up their program, Stafford, or not, sorry, excuse me, Stafford. Prince William County is setting up their program as well, or already has their program stood up, excuse me. So General Assembly has voted and approved this. This is coming whether we like it or not.

[02:52:00] What year is that supposed to be implemented by? So it was, I have to go backwards to go forward. I think we all have to meet it by 24, 25, 26. So by, I think they gave to FY28.

[02:52:17] Okay, and then you're coming asking for the staffing now because, again, as you noted, our regional partners pretty much have their programs up and running. As we all know, we share calls all the time, so it would make sense for us to have our team in place.

[02:52:36] And, again, whether we like it or not, it's coming, so it just makes sense to go ahead and get this started now rather than later. Would that be accurate to say? Yes, sir. Okay. I will be supporting it, and when the time comes, if you want to make a motion. So as I said to Ms. Fernandez, first of all, thank you and your team for what you all have done and are doing.

[02:53:02] The levels of mental health and behavioral health issues are skyrocketing, and you all know that this right now. We have some of the highest suicide rates we've seen, and not just in Loudoun, but not in Loudoun, but everywhere. The suicide rate among young girls, younger girls and females right now is just off the charts.

[02:53:24] The collective trauma that we as a country experienced post-COVID and still haven't really dealt with yet is interesting that we don't kind of know how to deal with these things. But, you know, people internalize that and deal with it different ways.

[02:53:42] And we're seeing all those things right now. And you're seeing it land on your doorstep. In addition, we also added the 988 system. How's that working out, and, you know, how do we integrate that? What you all are doing right now, just like Ms. Fernandez, is incredibly important work, and it does have a very high burnout, and it is very tough right now.

[02:54:04] So, Ms. Graham, thank you, and thank your staff, everyone. I think the Marcus Alert Bill is a fantastic start, And I guess they couldn't have done it Virginia-wide, Commonwealth-wide, to start with because of the money, how much money it costs.

[02:54:25] But the way it's being done, it concerns me because no one who's having a mental health crisis knows where a boundary line is, a county boundary line is. And so you put someone in the system in Loudoun County, and they're in Sterling.

[02:54:43] They walked two blocks, now they're in Fairfax. Is their name still in the system? So Fairfax police are now called, but they were put in the system while in Loudoun County. Is this integrated county by county? And I know, I mean, some counties haven't even started yet, but that is kind of the flaw.

[02:55:04] In fact, when Marcus Davis Peters, when he had his episode, he was no longer in his county when he had his episode because people don't stay in other counties in the middle of a mental health crisis. It should happen, and it has to happen, and I don't want anything to go, I don't want anything to be taken back, taken away, but I am worried that it might give a false sense of security, depending on where someone who's having a mental health crisis might be at the time that they're having the crisis, which could be an issue.

[02:55:42] And we do need more responders or more co-responders, as it were, to really understand what they're doing. And I will say, with all respect to them, most of the General Assembly members, because I've talked to them, have no idea what this bill is.

[02:55:57] They really don't. So how is it county to county, city to city? So I can speak really only specifically to Region 2, where I believe each of our counties in Northern Virginia are building out similarly.

[02:56:20] And I'm trying to process what you just said about the call platform. So RapidSOS, which is the platform that our 911 system uses, is driven by the cell phone number that's registered in the system.

[02:56:42] So if my 10-digit number isn't the number I'm calling to, I might not be the one that comes up. So there's some parts of that that are glitchy that we'll have to correct as we move into the future.

[02:57:01] The 988 call system has that glitch because the 988 number doesn't have the geolocator service that I think is what you were actually speaking to and at the federal level there is discussions about what will be done over time to correct that um okay but we're we're not there yet I will say this our regional crisis call center um from the day that number went live increased a 100 percent increase in the number of calls of people just dialing to talk to get the screening

[02:57:39] and to receive the emotional support and then to get referred to the appropriate level of service based on that conversation. Wow, 100 percent in one day. In one day. Jeez. Okay, Mr. Sancher, like to make a motion sure thank you I move that we add the third or add the 1.7 million dollars just do priority budget a priority budget for the 13 is

[02:58:09] it FTE all right yes 13 FTE well you're doing both of them or one of them do they have two they zero zero dollars okay so it's just one okay I will second that do You want to have a discussion on the motion, Mr. Sainz?

[02:58:31] No, I think we discussed enough. Okay. Let me just follow up so I understand how it's going to work. So are the three teams working simultaneously, or is it going to take three teams to staff between, say, 3 and 11, Monday through Friday, so that there's one team actually active at that time?

[02:58:49] The three teams are working simultaneously during one shift. Okay, so then that brings me back to my question. Would it make any sense to have one team at a different shift and the other two teams with this shift. I'm sure you've looked at it.

[02:59:05] Yeah, and I believe based on my discussions and the staffing and the data, the belief was that those three teams would all be responding to calls during that shift and that based on the geography of the county and looking at the higher volume of calls that the three teams would all pretty much...

[02:59:31] Well, what you're basically saying is you would rather make sure that you are adequately staffed when it's active than ensure you have coverage at all times. Yes. Is that a fair way to look at it? Okay. Practically speaking, from like a law enforcement point of view, I mean, I've been on a ride-along when we've had a mental health call.

[02:59:49] So the deputy responds when they respond. So are they going to wait for somebody else to come in this kind of scenario? How is that going to work? Sure. So there's a lot that we still need to work out with this, but ultimately a lot of it's going to depend on the level of priority. So certain calls are not going to be able to hold.

[03:00:06] Right. But a lot of the calls that have, you know, some type of, you know, nexus to an individual that may be in crisis could wait as long as it's not an extensive period of time to get the right resources there for the right time. So these folks are going to be, are they going to be, the non-law enforcement, where are they physically going to be based or are they going to be spread out?

[03:00:29] No, I believe that the plan is to have our team all together during that shift. So, but again, depending on where the last call ends and the next call begins, they may be out.

[03:00:45] And are they getting vehicles? Yes. Are they able to use existing resource for that or is there some sort of specialty vehicle we need? Oh, no, no, no. For us, it's county cars. Okay, and we don't need anything additional on that, Caleb?

[03:01:01] No, sir. So the resource request contains a number of vehicles, including vehicles for the sheriff's deputies. Well, that's, yeah, that's what I thought it was. As well as vehicles for the MH staff that will be responding. Okay. Are those just standard vehicles without any, obviously the sheriff's units have five times as much equipment as the vehicle costs, but not, I assume not the case for these other ones.

[03:01:27] So in recent years, pretty much all the cars that our department gets with positions are SUVs so that we have the all-wheel drive. Okay. Okay. Thank you. So I'm going to kind of follow up a little more on Mr. Materno's.

[03:01:44] So Monday through Friday, during high utilization hours, now, listen, for a mental health crisis, I don't know what that means. High utilization hours for a mental health crisis? How are you all, or how have they determined what high utilization hours are?

[03:02:02] So I believe that our team, that includes some MHSADS staff, law enforcement staff, and fire and rescue staff, have looked at the call volume data 2911. So it's based on data that already exists that's particular to our county?

[03:02:23] Yes. Great answer. Yes. Great answer, Ms. Graham. Great answer. You know, what I think is going to happen with the Marcus Davis, with the Marcus Alert Bill, is we're going to start, and then we're going to figure out what we need to fix, and we're going to figure that out both at the county level, the region level, and the state level, and we're going to, you know, just keep tweaking this until we get it right.

[03:02:49] There's a lot here to like, and it's certainly good intention. There's a lot here that we're going to find out that it's not working well, but truthfully, you may not find it out until you start working it, to be honest. And so that's really all you can do.

[03:03:05] So obviously, you know, I will support this and expect that you all may be coming back to have more discussions and different discussions. I know because the goal is to get this to 24-7.

[03:03:20] That's the goal eventually anyway. So we expect over time that no matter what, the people who are sitting here in these seats, they're going to see this come back again, both to kind of fix the glitches, but also to try to move it to a 24-7 model. So that's fine.

[03:03:37] It is kind of incumbent on you all, and I'm not kidding about this, to help the General Assembly understand some of these issues, because as I talk to members of the General Assembly, I'm surprised at how much they didn't understand legislation that they passed, although I'm so glad they passed it.

[03:03:54] The 988 system, gosh. You know, I learned recently from somebody that it took years for 9-1-1 to get where it's at right now, and that we expect that that's going to happen for 9-8-8. It's just going to take a long time for it to be kind of the geolocators to happen and all those types of things on the platforms.

[03:04:15] And so, you know, listen, 100% increase in one day, that is, I don't even know how you handle that, to be honest. That's just shocking. But, again, I'm glad we have it. I'm glad it rolled out. And we expect that it will get better as we kind of go on and figure out what's going on with it and what we need and those types of things.

[03:04:34] I really do really, really, really, really do appreciate we're moving toward a co-responder and that everything is not handled by law enforcement and locking people up because that clearly has not been working either. So thank you for all you all are doing. I really appreciate you.

[03:04:51] Mr. Sainz, would you like a closing? All right. Motion was made by myself. Second by Mr. Sainz. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, that motion would pass 8-0-1. Thank you very much. And last tonight, we have Community Corrections.

[03:05:11] Community Corrections is located on page E-38. You're out, okay. Mr. Turner has to leave.

[03:05:32] Good evening, good evening, good evening.

[03:05:40] This is the last of the ones Mr. Hinton is talking about again, huh?

[03:06:26] Good evening, how are you? Would you like to introduce everyone who's with you? Absolutely. I'm Chip Sullivan, Director of Loudoun County Community Corrections. This is April Higgs, our Deputy Director, and Jacqueline Johnson, our Financial Analyst. How are you?

[03:06:41] We are doing well. How are you? When are you going to start the barbecue again? So I anticipated that there might be some tough questions about the cookout. I believe I was here last year and there were some promises made.

[03:06:58] Promises made? Promises made that weren't fully realized. Not yet. And now you want money. See, it's a give-and-take moment here. But a very small amount of money. But I feel very, very confident in saying that the cookout should be coming very, very soon.

[03:07:21] Okay, we're looking for it. All right. Stay tuned. We're ready when you are. All right. Well, it is my pleasure to present our FY24 resource request to the board. Our request for FTE authority for one administrative assistant position addresses a gap area in community corrections, the depth of administrative coverage.

[03:07:43] Our department's office at the county's Eastern Service Center will soon become operational. This office will serve our offenders who reside in Eastern Loudoun. The location also provides access to programs and services of health and human services departments with a presence in this building, which enhances our ability to provide wraparound services for our vendors.

[03:08:06] To best support our current service level, we want to convert an existing temporary position to a permanent FTE to provide administrative coverage for this new office. Not having administrative staff here will require officers to perform administrative duties, such as covering the front desk, answering telephones, and managing lobby traffic.

[03:08:29] As a result, officers will not be able to devote their time and focus to public safety and delivery of services to the courts. Community Corrections currently has two full-time FTE administrative assistants whose scope of work goes beyond just clerical duties.

[03:08:51] Every day, violent offenders walk through our doors. Our administrative assistants work behind reinforced glass and are the first point of contact for our clientele. There are eyes and ears observing offenders in our lobbies, monitoring their behavior, and also our cameras to detect any unusual activities both inside and outside our offices, thereby promoting officer and public safety.

[03:09:20] In the past few months, our administrative staff have identified offenders attempting to defeat urine screens by monitoring cameras outside of our offices, advised staff of an offender expressing a desire to kill himself during intake, and received death threats from an angry offender.

[03:09:40] To support this request, I'd point out that since FY21, total foot traffic in our offices has increased 143%, and this is expected to continue. Along with this, arrests conducted in community corrections offices for violations, new charges, or behavior deemed a threat to the public safety have increased 288%.

[03:10:06] Our administrative staff play a key role assisting law enforcement during arrests in our office, directing these officers to the appropriate location while ensuring that staff, other offenders, and the public are directed away from these incidents.

[03:10:21] We would also greatly benefit from adding a full-time Spanish-speaking domestic violence probation officer, which is listed within the increase option. Since FY20, there's been an 11% increase in Spanish speakers on the probation caseload and a 9% increase on pretrial caseloads.

[03:10:43] These individuals would benefit from receiving services in their native language. It is anticipated that this need will continue. The Department of Criminal Justice Services recommends a general caseload not to exceed 60 cases.

[03:11:00] Right now, our one Spanish-speaking domestic violence probation officer is supervising approximately 80 domestic violence and sex offense cases. These are not general cases and require much more casework to address risk to the victim and the public.

[03:11:15] While our officer does an excellent job, public and victim safety, as well as supervision of offenders, are best served when our professionals have manageable caseloads. Additionally, this position will also supervise Spanish-speaking domestic violence and sex offense pretrial cases and assist the electronic monitoring unit.

[03:11:38] Community Corrections requested and received permission to address this need through a temporary position, but this is not a long-term answer. To maintain our current service level, a permanent FTE position is needed. Community Corrections recognizes the constrained budget environment for FY24.

[03:12:00] We appreciate the support of the board, which makes our mission to serve our clientele and promote public and victim safety possible. Thank you for your consideration of our requests, and we'll be happy to answer any questions that the board may have.

[03:12:16] Thank you very much. Mr. Buffington has asked to go straight to a motion on this one. Would you like to make a motion, Mr. Buffington? madam chair can I see your book because I gave the sheriff that page out of my book so you would know what they requested since that was one of the questions any correction so we're looking at increase option number five madam chair I move that we allocate one FTE in the amount of one hundred thirty thousand five hundred eighty one dollars to the community Corrections Priority one domestic violence probation officer second motion is made in second but I

[03:12:55] I don't think I really need an opening other than, was I correct that you said workload has increased 143% since 2020? That comment was that foot traffic in our offices has increased 143%.

[03:13:13] What would you say is the same question for workload or caseload since 2020? Was there a big change in 2020 from previous years? Okay, and it's gone up considerably? Yes, and I would argue that we're also receiving higher-risk cases.

[03:13:35] We're having a lot more cases on electronic monitoring. Those cases, as you would imagine, are higher risk and require much more work than the average general. The sheriff said, I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong if you know, but that the jail population has reduced from 450 on average to about less than 200 now.

[03:13:58] And so I imagine we still have crimes happening, but these people are on parole or probation, and you're dealing with them now? Yes, that's correct. And I would add that right now we have 325 people on pretrial supervision. And if the jail population is 250, we have more people on pretrial supervision than those that are confined.

[03:14:21] I guess my question is, is this enough? I mean, I hate to, I hate to, I'm glad it's only one that you're asking for from a board member perspective when we're thinking about the tax rate. But, I mean, is this, what's the impact of this to your existing employees?

[03:14:37] Is it going to give them an extra day off? Is it going to give them more sleep at night? What's going to happen? Is this enough? I would honestly say no. Right now we have a. So it's going to make zero impact.

[03:14:53] Well, no, it's definitely going to make. So it's going to help, but it's not enough. Absolutely. Okay. So just talk more because I've got a minute, and you can use that time, please. So I'm going to support your request. As the impact of this specific, obviously having 80 to 90 sex offense and domestic violence cases, if we can cut that in half, that is huge for us, huge for us.

[03:15:22] So then your current employee will be within the recommended number, right? Yes. Or certainly a lot closer. I would argue that domestic violence cases are a little bit closer toward specialty dockets.

[03:15:38] I agree. Because they are high risk. But certainly being able to cut that caseload in half would, one, afford for better supervision, and it's going to support that victim and public safety also.

[03:15:54] Okay, thank you. Mr. Kirshner? Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to support this, one, because it's a very modest ask. Some of the others before I was having heartburn about, but I understand the importance. But two, I also see folks from your staff on a regular basis, being that I practice in court.

[03:16:12] I also am familiar with kind of the approach the Commonwealth Attorney has taken, and you get a lot more than you've ever gotten in the past. And I'm very familiar with how domestic cases are being handled on a regular basis. And even though I think often they should be handled very differently, from a prosecutorial perspective, that is unfair to you to not provide the resources that you need to handle these on a regular basis.

[03:16:37] So I think this is a very worthy, modest request, one that we should support. I see that from a personal perspective, and given your explanation, I think it's important as well. So I will certainly be supporting this. Ms. Umstead.

[03:16:54] Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll also be supporting this request. um some some of the information you were referring to in your notes is not in our budget book would it be possible for us to get a copy of your notes i would gladly do that thank you very much you're welcome do you all and you this might this might not be a question for you might be a question of somebody else do you know how many people are actually taking advantage right now of the specialty dockets? Not exact numbers, but are they higher or lower where the numbers are

[03:17:34] on the specialty dockets overall? I can speak to that. Can you please? Yes. Drug court currently we have 12. Out of how many available slots? Out of 50. We have 12 out of 50. We have 12 out of 50. Our mental health docket has 12. Out of how many available slots?

[03:17:57] Out of 25. Out of 25. And our veterans docket, which just started. Yeah, we are actually having our first in-person court session with our first participant tomorrow. Do you have, can you postulate, or if you can't or don't want to, that's fine, on why these specialty dockets?

[03:18:21] Because if I'm not mistaken, this board added the additional slots to drug court because when the last board put the drug court in place, we put 25 slots in.

[03:18:38] Those were hits pretty quickly, and we added 25 more, thinking it was going to keep going up. And we did that in our first year of this term. So because it was successful and happening, why do we think, do you know why we only have 25, I mean, 12 slots being used in drug court?

[03:19:01] I think there are a few factors. I think one, in general, as far as drug court, the referrals are down. In our first year, I want to say that there were 50 referrals to drug court.

[03:19:17] That's been trending down. And I will say that I do see us actually trending up, the number of referrals have gone up. I would also add that. What was the lowest they have been? What was the lowest number it had? For participants on there, maybe eight.

[03:19:36] Out of 50? I would add that, you know, 21 people have actually graduated from that program. Another factor is, and I believe it was July 2021, There were changes to the probation guidelines that, in my opinion, severely reduced any incentive for wanting to participate in drug courts.

[03:20:08] Yeah, that's unfortunate. That's unfortunate because, yeah, that's unfortunate. Well, you all are doing a great job, but I think you've had a tough time and a larger case lotion, a tough time. And, again, everything we've done tonight has a high emotional burnout in value.

[03:20:32] It's a high emotional component. So thank you very much, and please thank all your staff as well. Motion is made by Mr. Buckington. Second, Mr. Kirshner. Do I need to close it? Oh, do you want to close it? I thought you were finishing over. I'm sorry. I just wanted to let you know that I personally hope the Loudon voters will help us in the next election.

[03:20:51] And how do you make your job a little bit easier for the next four years after this year? I wanted to throw that out there for you. Thank you. However, we're not political while we're on the dais. So, no, we're not.

[03:21:09] All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? That motion will pass 7801. Thank you very much. Oh, 7202. Mr. Turner left. Now, listen, I'm going to need to cook out in the next two months.

[03:21:27] I'll be sending notes. It might be. It might be. And an invite to the board. You know how this goes. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. All right, bye-bye.

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