Coraggio Consulting Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, FY24 Budget Work Session, Thursday, March 9, 2023 Date: Thursday, March 9, 2023 Place: Board Room, First Floor, Government Center, 1 Harrison Street SE, Leesburg, Virginia Length: 2h 1m (video) Official meeting video (county, Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/player/clip/7213 Agenda (Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=73&clip_id=7213 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [00:04:24] Matt will just join us when he joins us. [00:04:45] Good evening. I'd like to call to order the March 9th Board of Supervisors Budget Work Session. Board members, I'd like to stress the importance of the budget work session as the time for us to offer changes, additions, and deletions to the budget. Board members should try to offer all desired amendments and ask any questions you have during the work sessions. [00:05:05] Please only offer motions that you intend to support so that we can be efficient with our limited time during each session. In addition, if you would like to offer motions on items that do not appear in the proposed budget, please work with staff prior to the work sessions to ensure your motion is accurate and accomplishes your intended results. [00:05:23] When we get to our final vote on April 4th, staff will not be able to make large changes to the budget during the meeting and the vote on the budget could be delayed if there are substantive changes that were not discussed and voted upon during work sessions. [00:05:39] All right, this evening we're not gonna have Chair Randall with us and pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2-3708.2 orders Supervisor Brisbane requested to participate in this meeting by electronic communication a physical quorum of the Board of Supervisors is present in the boardroom and the board has made arrangements for the voice of Supervisor Brisbane to be heard by all persons in the boardroom Supervisor Brisbane made this request within the required timeframe and the county attorney determined that Supervisor Brisbane's request meets the qualifications to participate remotely the board will record in its minutes that Supervisor Brissman participated remotely [00:06:15] from a private location in her home due to illness. All right, we have updates. Mr. Weitz. Thank you, Vice Chair Sains. Just three items to note for tonight's budget update. [00:06:35] First, included in your packet for tonight's work session was the tote board transmittal, which includes a summary of the Tote Board actions that were taken at the work session on Monday evening. The second thing that we distributed in the work session packet was additional county budget questions. [00:06:57] So there were three budget questions that were taken at Monday night's work session that have been answered in writing in the packet as well. And the third item that I wanted to draw your attention to is item Roman numeral number two, budget update, because there is a motion that staff is recommending be made here at the start of the work session. [00:07:20] So what this item overviews is at Monday's work session, staff was requested to explore an alternative funding solution for the one-time capital outlay associated with the sheriff's deputies that have been added into the budget. [00:07:40] So staff has examined that, and we are recommending that the board lower the local tax funding transfer to the major equipment replacement fund by approximately $4 million. The exact amount is $3,979,840, and that would facilitate the funding of the capital outlay for the one-time purchases associated with the sheriff's deputies that you're adding to the budget. [00:08:12] Just to review, there are three resource requests based on the board's action on Monday night that would currently be sitting in the budget that have sheriff's deputies with them, the field deputies, the school resource officer, and then the three deputies associated with the crisis intervention team community access response. [00:08:33] We're making this recommendation because we believe that within the major equipment replacement fund, there is either there is sufficient fund balance and also potential debt financing options to execute the planned FY24 expenditures so there would be no detrimental impact of taking this action. [00:08:54] So assuming the board accepts this recommendation of staff and makes the motion, the kind of true up between the estimated numbers that we used on Monday night and what would be reflected on the Tote Board now is an additional $479,840 in savings. [00:09:14] So once the motion here in the packet is made, that will update the Tote Board to reflect a real property tax rate of 87 cents with an available balance of $62,000. And with that, I'll be happy to take any questions. [00:09:31] Okay, make the motion, then we can ask questions within the motion, if that's okay. All right, sounds good. I move that the Board of Supervisors lower the local tax funding transfer to the major equipment replacement fund by $3,979,840 to support the capital outlay costs associated with additional positions for the Loudoun County Service Office and the general fund and recognize the resulting additional savings in the tote board. Second. All right, that was fast. I will give it to Mr. Buffington. Anybody have any questions for staff on this? Okay, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? [00:10:11] Ms. Brisbane, are you there? Yes, I'm here. I actually, I was listening, but it went by pretty fast. I actually do have a question for staff. Oh, okay. We'll hold the vote. Go ahead, Ms. Brisbane. Sorry. Thank you. The major equipment replacement fund is normally used for what? [00:10:33] The major equipment replacement fund is used to replace capital outlay that is not vehicle related. So things often bought out of the major equipment replacement fund are, for example, poll books, some tractors, a lot of parks and general services maintenance materials. [00:10:59] Okay, so that's not the same fund that we would be buying the electric vehicles from that we've been discussing? Correct. Okay, thank you. All right, any other questions? [00:11:16] Okay, let's redo the vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Ms. Brissman, is that an aye? Aye. Thank you. Any opposed? All right, motion will pass. What is that? That's six, one, two, three, five, six, yep, six, zero, three, no, two, oh, three, excuse me, yeah, six, zero, three. [00:11:38] We're missing Chair Randall, Supervisor Letourneau, and Supervisor Turner. I forgot to note Supervisor Turner will be running late, Supervisor Letourneau, I guess he's en route from his day job. [00:11:55] Okay, Mr. White, do you have anything else for us? Those are all my updates, Supervisor Sains. Okay. All right. There was a request to change the order, but I'm not going to change the order because that is in front of us. [00:12:15] So we're going to go Parks and Rec, Elections, Commissioner of Revenue, Planning and Zoning, and then Circuit Court in that order. Reason being is some of the priorities. One of the priorities is further down for one of the departments than the other, so I don't want to take anything out of order because of that. [00:12:33] So, Parks and Rec, we are ready for your presentation whenever you are. [00:12:56] Thank you. Good evening, Vice Chair Sains and board members. I appreciate the opportunity to come to you this evening and discuss the needs for PRCS in the upcoming FY24 budget year. This past year, as has been the case for some time now, continued to be an extremely busy year for programs, events, and service delivery. [00:13:16] And although we did have challenges at times, there were quite a number of accomplishments, and I continue every day to be very proud of the staff and the work that I see happening each and every day. Since last year, when we met to discuss our previous budget requests, working alongside DTCI, we have opened the Sterling Community Center, the Lovettsville Community Park, Lovettsville Community Center, the Conklin Bike Park, the Hall and Bernie Hanson Regional Park. [00:13:42] We also broke ground on the Ashburn Recreation Center and opened several new trail sections as a part of your linear parks and trails initiatives. We worked on the acquisition of park property along the Goose Creek and continued to work on the park project down in Sterling. [00:13:58] PRCS was recognized nationally this year with the NACO Award for our Discover Your Outdoors program, which was run through our parks division, and several of our staff were also selected to present at both the national and state conferences about our programs, our operations, and how we actually go about providing the best possible service for the residents and visitors of Loudoun County. We continue to work on the development of the strategic plan as well as the efforts with the Linear Parks and Trails Initiative. This year we approached the budget with the knowledge of the significant support of previous budget cycles and I would like to thank you all again for that support that we've received in the past. We also [00:14:38] took into account the very real limitations from a budget standpoint that the county currently is facing. Additionally, we took into account that next fiscal year in FY25 with the opening of the Ashburn Recreation Center, there's going to be a very large ask from our department, so we took that into account this year as well. So after careful review of service levels and what could continue to be handled without requests this year, I've only included three enhancement requests for this fiscal year, one of which is included in Mr. Hemstreet's proposed budget, which is the sports program manager position, and the two that I would like to focus on briefly on the remainder of my [00:15:16] opening comments are a case manager position within the Elder Resources Division of the Area Agency on Aging and an inclusion programmer within the children's program area, which would also support some of the department-wide activities. All would be considered current service level requests. With regards to the Elder Resources Case Manager, within the Area Agency on Aging, or what we call AAA, the Elder Resources team only currently has one full-time case manager, which is dedicated to providing those types of services to Loudoun County older adults age 55 [00:15:52] and older, their family members or caregivers, and then any adult that happens, any adult with disabilities over the age of 18. Over the past three years, the Loudoun County older adult population of 55 and over has increased by approximately 11,000 seniors and has increased by over 65 percent over the past 10 years. This request is for an additional case manager and is necessary to continue to provide the crucial program at the current service level. This service enables those older adults and people with disabilities to remain in their homes and be a [00:16:29] member of the community as long as possible. As you know, older adults are at risk for illness, injury, and sometimes institutionalization, and the Loudoun County Case Management Program helps them and their families to prevent those things as long as possible. It is a service that is mandated by Virginia DARS and falls under our Care Coordination for Elderly Virginia's Program Grant and is considered a core service within AAA. Over the past decade, the complexity of the cases that we see has grown from non-speaking clients to some of the complexities [00:17:05] that we saw coming out of COVID to increase social isolation as well as the loss of jobs that many have experienced. The main responsibilities of these positions include providing an assessment, a care plan, assisting with connections to service throughout the county for all clients. [00:17:43] The case manager also meets with these adults in their homes or at the senior centers and adult day centers, and then they do an evaluation, coordination of those services, and help with things such as Medicaid, transportation, dementia, Alzheimer's, caregiver support, and medical needs, which helps them to remain in their home and age in place. and then if the time does come, it does have a part of the program that helps with transitioning into long-term care. Many of these cases are complicated, and oftentimes the clients do not have the support of a caregiver or a family member here in Loudoun, and thus the case manager oftentimes does become the sole advocate for that person. [00:18:12] With respect to the inclusion program position, we also have experienced a steady increase in the number of participants, child participants, requiring inclusion services, as well as the number of site staff that are requesting support for assistance with participants with disabilities. [00:18:30] CASA has needed as many as six one-on-one staff participants at a time if you recall back in FY 20 the adaptive recreation program you all added an inclusion specialist to our team and since then we have seen the demand for inclusion support raised or rise exponentially with a very high percentage of those requests being specifically for staff working with children with autism. This position back in FY20 was created to help the department-wide activities. However, what we have seen over the past two years is [00:19:08] that over 80% of that person's time is spent with the CASA participants, which has been a great thing. They've supported over a hundred and sixty different children throughout this this past year and done an immense amount of staff training. But within the community and recreation center programs alone, there's There's about 2,700 preschool age and school age children that we have not had go through the same type of assessment that you have when they are already in the school program. [00:19:43] So we have a large number of requests coming from that part of the department as well for assistance. This programmer would work to provide the needed support for those growing numbers and would help the one-person team that we have right now. [00:20:00] Part of that job responsibility includes behavior management plans, on-site observation, and coaching of staff, and then training staff also so that those inclusion staff do not need to stay at the sites beyond that training time. [00:20:20] This does have an impact on our licensing. We are seeing times where we are getting written up because we have not been able to handle some of the behavior issues that have occurred at some of our sites, and this would help to get us more to a place of meeting all of the goals of being a fully inclusive program within PRCS. [00:20:42] I mentioned my thanks for the support that you have given to us in the past. Just briefly, I wanted to go over where we are with our FY23 enhancements. The two programmers that we received, both have been hired. The home-delivered meal specialist has been hired. [00:20:59] The administration IT position has been hired. The sports specialist has been hired. The maintenance IT specialist has been classified, but we are holding until the maintenance contract goes into implementation, and then we'll hire that position. The CASA Rover position was hired. [00:21:16] And, of course, CASA staffing is a continual hiring all the time. So as of today, we average between 25 and 30 open positions across the department that we are always in some form of either recruitment, interviewing, or hiring. [00:21:35] So, again, I appreciate the time tonight to come and speak with you all. with me tonight. I have my leadership team, Jeremy Payne, Ramir Martin, Myla Neal, and Janet Tape are here to table with me, and we would be happy to answer any questions that you may have. [00:21:51] All right. Thank you for the presentation, colleagues. Any questions? I'll go to Ms. Bricksman first. Do you have any questions? Yes, I do. Thank you, Vice Chair Sains. Actually, I apologize. I do have a question for staff in general, because the Tote Board I see here looks much different than the tote board that's in the packet. So I just want to clarify right now, it looked like in the packet we had a balance of $6 million, and here it says we only have a [00:22:24] balance of $62,000. Yes, that's correct. So the fiscal impact of the motion to reduce the transfer to the major equipment replacement fund that we just discussed actually lowered the tax rate from 87.5 cents to 87 cents. So what the Topor Transmittal in the packet showed was the balance available left at that 87 cent, 87.5 cent tax rate. Now that you are down to the 87 cent tax [00:22:56] rate, you're only $62,000 away from triggering that 87.5 cent tax rate again. Okay. But I thought we were taking, I'm a little confused. I thought we were moving the vehicles from one fund that already exists to another so on Monday night when the sheriff's deputies were added we kind of we estimated the impact the local tax funding impact of adding that resource request knowing the board's [00:23:31] direction to find an alternate funding source for the the capital outlay associated with that request so what the motion did tonight is even though the transfer reduction was the the approximately four million dollars. The actual local tax funding impact vis-a-vis where we were with the Tote Board was only $479,000. Okay. I'm still confused, but Mr. Torpy, if you do not get your inclusion [00:24:07] program or your elder resources case manager, were you saying that we, did you say that we were getting cited and are we in violation of any protocols or policies or laws? Not in violation of of any laws what uh i was mentioning is for example one of the the issues that we're seeing with some of our our camp program is what they call eloping which is essentially the children get upset and they run from the site that is a violation if they are out of sight even for [00:24:39] 10 seconds out of sight or sound and so in certain circumstances like that where we would have that occur, we would have a violation from the Department of Education. Sorry, I get it. I have five seconds left. Two questions. The elder resources case manager would be situated where? And even though you can get a citation, you think the inclusion program would be a second priority to the elder resources case manager? The elder resources program would be based out of the PRCS main office here in Leesburg, but that position is on the road [00:25:18] quite a bit going to the senior centers and doing home visits so it's it's not in the office quite a bit and I would agree with the priority right now simply because the elder resources position we cannot backfill that with with other staff whereas the inclusion if we had to staff up just to have additional staff at a site to help deal with a situation which is not the best case scenario but one that we have been doing uh we could for a period of time do that without the inclusion so the elder resources would be the priority thank you okay thank you miss brisbane [00:25:56] anybody else have any questions no okay anybody have any motions yes i have a motion uh go ahead Ms. Glass. It was Julie, that's it. Go ahead. Were you going to make a motion? Yes. Go ahead. [00:26:20] I make a motion to add the, I just had it. Which one, the elder? Yes, the elder resources case manager. 108,000. Yes, 407, 737. Second. Okay. What was the correct amount? So the correct amount of local tax funding is $107,737. Okay. All right. So motion made by [00:26:56] Supervisor Glass, seconded by Supervisor Brisbane. Ms. Glass, do you have your opening? Yes. I would just say that I know in the eastern part of Loudoun, in my district specifically, we have a lot of senior living developments. We have 55 and above, and I know that this would be a great asset to the community, and I hope that my colleagues will support this. Okay. Anybody else? [00:27:36] Ms. Breschman, do you have any comments? That was the motion I was going to make, so I absolutely fully support this so that we can care for our elderly residents in an appropriate manner. Thank you. Okay, so a motion made by Supervisor Glass, second by Supervisor Brisbane. Oh, sorry, go ahead. I have a question real quick. [00:28:02] Obviously, this motion is on the table. There's some support for it. How will you manage things? I'm inclined not to vote for it. I'll just be really frank with you up front, just because of the year, and we funded some pretty big things, and we funded some pretty hefty stuff for your department in the past, obviously needs or needs. How will you manage matters presently without this position? We would continue the process that we have going right now, which means that the seniors are having to wait for the services, excuse me, for the assessments to be done. And as the numbers continue to come in, that wait becomes a longer period of time. Now, have you seen these numbers [00:28:41] decline at all during the pandemic? They actually increased during the pandemic because with the increase of the home delivered meals program there was more contacts with homebound seniors and so they became more aware of the different options that were out there that the county provides so we've had actually increases would would we maybe expect those to decrease a little bit or not grow as fast given we're out of the pandemic I would say that they probably will not grow as fast as they were coming out of the pandemic but I would say that over the past six or seven years We've seen it. I think it was 278% increase in number of calls coming in. [00:29:21] Okay. I appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. All right. Motion made by Supervisor Glass. Second by Supervisor Bristman to add in the elderly resource case manager for Parks and Rec. All those in favor, please say aye. [00:29:39] Aye. Any opposed? Nay. Okay. that motion fails on a vote of 3303 okay anything else for parkinson rec colleagues nope all right thank you all very much thank you okay next we have elections and voter registration [00:30:06] that is yes direction description of resource request e32 resources request by priority The order is on E28. [00:30:26] All right, so we have Ms. Judy Brown and her trustee number two, Ricky. How are you guys doing today? Wonderful. Great, thank you. All right, ready when you are. Okay, let me begin by thanking you for your continued support and allowing me to present our resource request tonight. [00:30:46] With the increased public interest in elections as part of the FY 2024 budget process, Department of Elections and Voter Registration is requesting a voter services manager the first mid-level manager for the department. This new position will help to ensure we continue to follow all state laws, policies, and procedures related to voter registration and both early and mail voting and identify process improvements to increase efficiencies and voter confidence. [00:31:12] The position will manage the same-day registration and provisional voting processes after the election. In addition, the position will also assist with data analysis and the creation of the division budget. This work is currently handled by the deputy director and or the director. [00:31:30] Over the last several years, the laws regarding registering to vote and voting have become more complex and time-consuming for staff. In 2020, we began offering no-excuse in-person voting beginning 45 days prior to each election and no-excuse voting by mail. [00:31:46] In the four years preceding the 2020 general election, the average percentage of voters voting pre-election, either in person or by mail, was about 11 percent. Since 2020, when No Excuse Early and mail voting were implemented, the average percentage of voters utilizing these methods has been about 46 percent. [00:32:06] To put that into raw numbers, in the 2014 congressional election, about 6,000 people voted prior to election day. In 2018, the number was about 21,000, and in 2022, it was 52,000. So over the course of eight years, the number of people voting prior to Election Day in a congressional election has increased over 750%. We expect the interest in mail and early voting to continue as time goes on. In addition, voters are permitted to apply to receive ballots by mail for all elections, placing them on a permanent absentee list. This means we will be mailing more ballots for primary [00:32:44] elections than we have in the past. As an example, the upcoming June primary, if it's both, the initial mail out could be approximately 13,000 ballots for the June 2019 primary the total mail out of ballots was only 2000 to provide precinct we also had to provide precinct level results for both early and mail voting as required by law and so that means that we now must have a different ballot for each precinct in 2022 that meant having 213 separate ballot files that [00:33:19] had to be created and proved for the general election. For early voting we use a ballot-on-demand system we implemented after the 2019 election as a result of several voters receiving the wrong ballot. After passage of the new law requiring precinct level reporting for early and mail voting, Deputy Director Keech worked with the State Board of Elections as they started to develop the ballot-on-demand system for the state and our office is now, our system is now a a model for the commonwealth we are in the process of receiving approval from the state attorney general's office for the addition of non-voting precincts due to the recent redistricting this [00:33:58] will increase the number of precincts from 98 to 107. in addition same day voter registration was implemented in 2022 same day registration allows those who missed the voter registration deadline to register and update their address to do so when they appear to vote on election day or during early voting. Those who completed the same-day voter registration application are required to vote a provisional ballot. The 2020 presidential election was our highest turnout election to date. [00:34:29] In this election, we counted 818 provisional ballots. In 2021, we counted 496 provisional ballots. And in the 2022 election, we counted 2,055 provisional ballots. Same-day registrations must be processed immediately following the election so that we are able to review and provide any available information regarding the voters' eligibility to vote in the precinct in which the vote was cast to the electoral board on the Friday following the election. This process was an overwhelming challenge in 2022 despite the fact that staff worked through the Veterans Day holiday [00:35:07] on the preceding Friday and the weekend to prepare. We are currently working on a process that would involve all staff and require oversight. Over the past few years, there has been an increase in interest in elections from various groups and individual voters. Our office has received and processed over 350 Freedom of Information Act requests since August of 2022. The requests touch on all parts of how elections operate, including requests for vendor contracts, copies of emails, voting equipment information and logs, cast vote records, and overall requests for information about general office operations and how things are done. [00:35:47] While this has been a challenge by way of quickly responding with available staff resources to manage the large volume of requests for information, we are committed to ensuring that all voters feel comfortable with the voting process and they know our office takes transparency very seriously. [00:36:04] This has also led to a concerted effort to increase voter education through outreach and communications and ensuring that factual information reaches the voting public. It is important for our senior management to shift their focus to general oversight, strategic planning, public relations and education, process and procedure improvements, and ensuring compliance with all established security protocols and laws. [00:36:26] The Voter Services Manager will allow us to do that in a sustainable and professional way. The Deputy Director is currently serving on the State Voter Registration System Inflammation Committee to ensure the new system meets the needs of large localities like Loudoun County. [00:36:44] Our office is among the first to implement new systems that make voting more secure and easier for voters, and we often are called upon to consult with the state and other localities when implementing new systems. The past few years have brought new challenges to our office and election officials across the country. [00:37:01] We in Loudoun are lucky to have the full support of the Board of Supervisors, the county administrator, and every single county department. And thanks to this support, we have successfully met the challenges and continue to find new and better ways to do things. [00:37:18] I am proud to have served the voters of Loudoun County for the past 30-plus years and remain committing to ensure every eligible voter has access to safe and a secure voting process. All right, thank you. Before we move forward, for the record, I didn't call the names for those who were voting in support of it. [00:37:39] So the previous motion, even though it died, Supervisor Brisbane, Supervisor Glass and myself voted yes. Supervisor Buffington instead and Kushner voted no, just for the record. All right. Joining us now is Mr. Turner. Thank you, Ms. Brown, for your presentation. [00:37:55] Colleagues, any questions? Ms. Brisbane, we'll go to you first since you're on the Webex. Thank you, Vice Chair of Sains. I just want to express my appreciation for Judy and Ricky and the excellent work that you accomplish on a regular basis and for responding to extreme pressure with grace and making sure that we run safe and secure elections in Loudoun County year after year after year. [00:38:30] Ricky, you presented to the Metro Washington Council of Governments, And I think that Ms. Brown repeated this, but let me make sure I have this straight. Pre-voting or early voting in the congressional elections have gone up from 6,000 to 52,000 in the last eight years. [00:38:57] Yes, that's correct. Okay. And we are moving from having 98 precincts to 107 precincts. Yes. Okay. And because we have grown by 35%, obviously we're going to have a lot more voters in Loudoun County. [00:39:16] I also heard you talk a little bit yesterday about the challenges of same-day registration. Can you talk about that a little bit, please? Great. So with same-day voter registration, people, of course, I did not advertise that because I want people to meet the deadline, number one. [00:39:39] but a lot of people took advantage of it, which is also a way with same-day voter registration to give people the opportunity to be able to vote if they missed the deadline or were not aware of the deadline. So basically, the individual has to complete a voter registration application, and then they must vote a provisional ballot. [00:39:59] In order for us to be able to report to the Elector Board the status, we have to review the application, and it has to be filled out completely, And that was one of the problems that we found in the November election is that we're working with people who work the polls once or twice a year. [00:40:18] And now you're giving them another task to take on by having to review that application, make sure it's filled out, because if it's not, the provisional ballot's not counted. Then the next goal is then we have to pair those kind of up and then make a recommendation to the electoral board. [00:40:36] And the big thing was the challenge with the number of them and the short time frame that we have to turn them around. Again, as I stated, we actually had the Friday after the election and the entire weekend, where typically the deadline for that to be done is the Friday by 1 o'clock. [00:40:52] And so we're going to have to develop processes because we do expect with the 2024 presidential election that those numbers... Sorry, Ms. Brown, in my last five seconds, if I might, I just want to confirm, you've had 13 employees in your office with no increase since 2021? [00:41:11] Yes, ma'am. Okay, I'll be having a motion by Chair of Sains at the end. Thank you. Okay, thank you, Ms. Brisbane. Mr. Kushner? Thank you. Ms. Brown, first of all, I do want to commend you for the job that you've done. I've seen some of the requests that have been made, and they've been quite hefty, and I think your job has handled them very well. [00:41:30] I noticed that this position, I'm reading the description of this position to ensure that state code policies, procedures are followed by staff at all times and identifying process improvements to increase efficiency and voter confidence. [00:41:46] And this will assist, this will, I guess, free up other time for more senior, since this is a mid-level position, correct? Can you tell me what process you're following now in terms of to ensure the state code policies and procedures are being followed by staff? [00:42:03] What's the process what you're following now? Obviously, this person would help with that, but how is it managed at the moment? So typically right now, so there is a voter, what do you call, voter registration supervisor, and that person manages the front office staff and they oversee the voter registration. [00:42:24] They also fill in and help with some of the early voting, curbside voting, same-day voter registration at election time. And then we have an absentee supervisor that oversees the early voting, mailing of the ballots. [00:42:40] And then those two individuals report to Ricky, and then Ricky has to, in all the things that he's doing, has to make sure that everything that they're doing is in compliance with all of the laws and they're making sure they're getting everything done. [00:42:56] Have we been missing anything up to this point? No, it's just basically having somebody else oversee it so that we can really focus on the things that we need to be focusing on. For instance, a lot of the FOIA requests were coming in in October, And that takes a lot away from what we're doing to be able to do those. [00:43:21] Yes, Ricky. I know some of this is because you've had some low number of changes in Richmond. Have we seen any of this election period that will result in more work for you? Or this legislative period, sorry. No, from what I have seen, Governor hasn't signed anything, but there were four House bills that were passed and two Senate bills. [00:43:41] And the only one that I think will greatly impact us is just the envelope that the voters send the mail ballots back in. No longer requires a witness, but they have to provide, well, I guess it will increase the work because they have to provide the last four digits of their social security number and their date of birth. [00:43:59] So we will have to look at those, where previously we were just looking for a witness signature. Do you have? Yeah, to answer your earlier question, Supervisor Kirshner, One of the things we found through our thorough review of the requests we've been receiving is that there are certain things that we may not be required to do, but that we feel maybe we should be. [00:44:18] And having an additional person in a position to help us more with tracking of statistics and record keeping would be very helpful. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Supervisor Letourneau. Thank you. Good to see you all. Thank you so much for the work that you do running fair elections in Loudoun County, which has always been the case through my time here. [00:44:40] So, understanding kind of the workload that's driving this position, and I apologize that I missed your presentation. I was detained in traffic and getting here. But how much of that is related to the increased FOIA volume versus just complexity with the state laws? [00:44:56] Because you kind of mentioned both. I would say the majority is complexity and the changes in the way we operate. I think FOIA is informing some of our operations going forward, and we're adapting. But I would say the majority of it is just complexity and just the way people vote has changed. [00:45:13] So the only thing I'll say is we did have some conversations about some of those changes at the front end when they were being proposed at the state level as part of our legislative agenda. And I think I may have even asked the question about do we have concerns that these were going to create more of a burden. And I think generally the answer has been no, no, we can handle it. [00:45:33] Well, don't be afraid to be forthcoming. I mean, I understand everybody wants, you know, improved ballot access and those all those kinds of issues. But if there is a cost to you, it would be good to know that before the state does these things. And I understand you may not know those things until it happens. [00:45:50] But don't be afraid to tell us, you know, these these particular legislative changes will probably increase our workload for no other reason than perhaps we can try to get more resources and tell the General Assembly, look, if you're going to do this, you need to do this. and give us some additional resources as well, because I assume we're not getting any more resources from the state for any of the election-related issues at all. Okay. Has the FOIA volume sort of decreased a little bit lately? Yes, it definitely has. Okay. So hopefully that's [00:46:28] not a permanent situation. Yes. Hopefully. I mean, again, not that there's anything wrong with the public FOIAing and understanding the process, but, you know, obviously we've seen an incredibly high volume that i think are you know beyond what is reasonable so thank you okay thank you anybody else all right no thank you for your your presentation um this position who's doing the job right now currently or do you have staff that's doing the job we are i mean we kind of manage the [00:47:06] two people that supervise the other folks so you're saying if you were if the position was approved this to kind of free you up to do more uh more more other duties that you have uh i'm pretty sure we have our well as ricky said some of the foyer requests have brought to our attention some other things that we might be able to do to instill voter confidence um and help people to better understand the job that we do okay and with this position by any chance help relieve the the issue that we kind of talked about the earlier today or that would not then it wouldn't be [00:47:42] involved in that issue are we talking about the campaign finance or okay well not the finance the the whole conversation around the statement organization and kind of solving that uh we're getting one message from one side and i don't think that this will know okay um that will be a conversation i have to have with the folks at this state okay and then since we're having that kind of brought that subject would you mind sending an email to to everybody notifying of what the what the proper procedure is so there's no yes sir i'd be glad to question thank you okay [00:48:21] um and again thank you for all your work dude we really appreciate it you guys definitely do a great job year in year out as you know we have elections every single year so your job there's never a dull or a law period in your office once you get done with one election certified then you're on to getting prepared for the next one coming right right behind it so we always appreciate the things that you guys do and you have great staff the volunteers that you have coming out every single election period running the the polls at the the different locations they They do a great job. [00:48:51] I've not once heard a complaint about somebody who's running elections. So that goes to the work that you guys do every single day. I believe Ms. Brisbane, you wanted to make a motion? I do. Thank you, Vice Chair Sains. I move the Board of Supervisors add one FTE position in the FY 2024 budget for one voter services manager at $146,788 for the Office of Elections and Voter Registration. [00:49:22] All right. - Motion made by Supervisor Brisbane, seconded by Supervisor Umstead. Ms. Brisbane, you're opening, if you have one. - Thank you very much, Vice Chair Sains. If I might ask Ms. Brown, Ms. Keech, one more question. - Sure. - When was the last time you added a resource or a staffer to your office? [00:49:41] I'm sorry, before '21? - In 2018, we added an administrative assistant. - Okay, okay, right. So that's what I assume that we've been sort of leveled at the number of people staffing this office of all our county grew by 400 i'm sorry 35 percent um you know as we said earlier the early voting is increased by 750 percent we're going from 98 precincts to 107 and same day registration has been very very challenging and a bit overwhelming from what i understand so i hope that [00:50:18] the full board will agree that while the weaponization of foyer requests may be reduced our office of voter registration and elections really needs a little bit more staff and so I hope everyone will agree that we should approve this motion thank you okay thank you anybody else okay we have a motion on the table made by Supervisor Brisbane seconded by Supervisor Umstead all in favor of the the motion please say aye aye any opposed all right the motion will pass So one, two, three, four, five, six. [00:50:57] Six in favor, two against, and two off the dais. Is that correct? No, that's not right. One, two, three, four, five, six. [00:51:13] Six, two, one. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, six, two, one with Chairman Randall off the dais. That's right. Thank you. All right. All right, thank you. All right, next is Commissioner Revenue. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and board members for the opportunity to come visit with you again this week. [00:51:45] good to see you again good to see you um this uh our budget request this year is for one fte for commercial real estate appraiser it's driven by the growth in the number of data centers that we have here in the county ftes were last added to this division one each in fy 19 and one in fy 20 Back in FY19, I presented a multi-year plan to get where I thought we needed to be with commercial real estate appraisers. [00:52:24] It was a plan requesting three additional FTEs. You granted one in FY19, one in FY20, and I'm asking for the third now based on that plan that was presented at that time. You see the growth on the ground in the data centers that we have here in the county, and you understand the important role that they play in Loudoun's economy. [00:52:54] All positions authorized in FY23 budget have been filled in my office. I presently have seven vacancies. Four of them are residential real estate appraisers. I present that to you because I figured that you may be interested in asking me to utilize one of those vacancies for a commercial real estate appraiser. [00:53:16] Back in FY19, at the time that I presented this multi-year plan, I also requested FTEs so I could get to one appraiser per 5,000 parcels for residential real estate. I still need to get to that. We are recruiting for those positions, but I do present that to you because I knew that might be an option that the board may present. There is no industry standard for commercial parcels per appraiser due to the wide variation in complexity of commercial real [00:53:54] estate. The commercial office condominium usually is valued based on market sales versus data centers, which are valued on income and expenses. So the number of commercial parcels, as an example, for commercial office condominiums, a commercial appraiser can handle more of those than they might an income-producing property that's complex as the data centers are. [00:54:19] I will note that the real estate assessment division moved from Leesburg to Sterling in mid-November. and at that time I also created a rural agricultural appraiser team that's actually located here in the Leesburg office and some of those vacancies for the residential positions will be here in the Leesburg office. I do presently have space to accommodate this additional FTE. [00:54:52] You'll recall that I had a business tax auditor position that the board of supervisors granted to my office last year it was not on the county administrators recommended list of enhancements however you all felt that it was important for the purpose of focusing on the data center industry this position is going to do the same one of the challenges that I'm currently facing is getting the information that we really need to do our jobs as far as valuation of data centers [00:55:27] And I think this additional FTE will help us in that endeavor. And I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Buffington. Thank you, Mr. Wirtz. The load to fund on this is $140,000 a year. [00:55:45] My guess is by having this additional person and with given what this person would be doing, that they will probably bring in a lot more than that. Would you agree? I would anticipate that that will transpire. can't be guaranteed it's going to be based on what the market does and what income and expenses are for these commercial properties. Thanks. Okay, Ms. [00:56:14] Umstead. Thank you very much Mr. Vice-Chair. Do you anticipate that having this extra position would allow you to have this individual do more frequent follow-up? I know you have expressed in the past that you haven't been able to to get information from the data centers, and that has stymied your efforts to accurately assess property. [00:56:45] Is the main function of this individual going to be to just be on the phone or emailing constantly to keep reminding these folks to get back to you? I do think that's going to help this effort. We have seven positions in this division as a whole, including the deputy. [00:57:04] Three currently work with the data center group. It's not exclusively with the data center group, but three work on that. And I do think this will help us in that effort, working closely with my compliance team as well. [00:57:21] Thank you. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Kushner. Thank you. I have a couple follow-up questions. Obviously, the first thing I will say, just kind of out of the gate, is I do favor positions like this simply because I feel like they will be probably net neutral or actually help increase income simply because they're doing a more thorough job. [00:57:44] With that said, I have a couple of follow-up questions. You said you had, did I hear you say you have two right now? That seemed low. Two commercial real estate? No, I have seven total. Seven total. Seven total. One is the deputy under the division. Got it. Okay. And then three under him are responsible for working with the data center. [00:58:05] And this new position will help that effort. So this person will be dedicated data centers only? That's my hope. So kind of how many data centers do we have in the county now? Over 100, obviously. It's 120 plus 110, something, somewhere in there. [00:58:21] Probably. Okay. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, sure. Yes. Probably parcel-wise, it's probably in the neighborhood of 130 distinct parcels. Number of buildings is probably 30% higher than that. And this person will be dedicated only to data centers, or will they expand out? [00:58:39] And I'm not trying to get into your business. I'm just kind of trying to understand their kind of thing. It's my hope that's going to be their primary focus. Okay. And how many data centers can one person generally handle? You know, it's going to vary. As the industry continues to change over time, and it has changed during my time here, I think we're seeing it evolve a little bit differently than we have in the past. [00:59:06] And I think a lot of the importance is to stay current with where the industry is and where it's going because it is very complex and it is very dynamic. And so I think that, you know, we're going to have to continue to stay abreast of the industry in order to make sure that we believe we are valuing it appropriately and in the correct way. [00:59:28] And so that's, you know, that's going to be part of that as well moving forward. Okay. I think that's helpful to me. I think I'll probably support some sort of motion here. But I had one other question, and now it's slipped my mind. [00:59:46] I think you've answered it. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Luterno. So, Mr. Wirtz, are there workload issues with the existing staff? Because honestly, one of the ways I'm kind of looking at the budget this year is when I hear from departments that we've got people that are just getting really stressed out, too much to do, can't do their job properly, I'm more likely to give them another position if they're asking for it. [01:00:08] I will say that the workload. No, I just set you up there. so answer honestly but i will say that the level of effort that's required with this particular type of property is substantially more than we have with other types of commercial property here in the county there is a level of secrecy in the industry as a whole that inhibits a lot of them from providing us with information so there's a level of trust that has to be built with each [01:00:41] property owner so that takes a lot of time um i think part of the reason for that is you have localities um that not may not be as diligent as we are protecting their information so they've been stung in other places so it makes them hesitant to provide us what with what we feel we need to to value them correctly wow so okay that's one of the challenges that we know the universe in which you don't get this position what are the implications just that [01:01:15] you know we are not going to be able to do as thorough a job excuse me okay thank you okay miss brisbane any questions no thank you vice chair sains okay then we would like to make a motion i'll make a motion oh well okay go ahead someone else go ahead mrs umstead all right all All right, and Megan, if I get the numbers wrong, please let me know. [01:01:45] I would move that we add to the budget, Commissioner of the Revenue Priority 1, a commercial real estate appraiser, which is increase option 8 for $140,033. [01:02:02] Okay, we've got a motion made by Supervisor Umstead, seconded by Supervisor Buffington to add the commercial real estate appraiser. Go ahead, Ms. Umstead, you're opening. No opening, thank you. [01:02:17] Anybody else? Any commentary? Okay, Ms. Brickspin, any questions, commentary? I'm good, thank you. All right, all in favor of the motion by Supervisor Umstead, second matter of Supervisor Buffington, please say aye. [01:02:34] Aye. Any opposed? Okay, motion will pass 7-1-1 with Ms. Brickspin opposing. All right. [01:02:50] Thank you, have a good evening. Thank you, sir. All right, next is planning and zoning. Come on down. [01:03:11] All right, why don't you guys decide the seating arrangements? Go ahead and start. [01:03:26] I'm too used to sitting near the computer. All right, ready when you are. Thank you. Good evening, board members. It's my honor to be before you tonight to represent the Department of Planning and Zoning and its hardworking staff. [01:03:42] With me tonight are Keith Fairfax, our Zoning Enforcement Manager, as well as Amanda Johnson, our Assistant Zoning Enforcement Manager. Mark Stoltz, Assistant Director, is available on the WebEx. He was supposed to be here tonight, but was feeling under the weather. I still wanted to be here in case you had any questions. Our Deputy Director Judy Burkett and Assistant Director Jackie Marsh are just down the hall in the Dulles Room for a Planning Commission meeting, if any of you would like to go say hi to them later. [01:04:05] They are here working hard as well. The mission of the Department of Planning and Zoning is to assist decision makers in shaping and managing the county's land use goals through ongoing community outreach, comprehensive planning policy, regulatory recommendations, timely development review, and enforcement of adaptive regulations. [01:04:26] Our mission is implemented through seven operating divisions within the department. Administrative management, customer service center, land use review, community planning, zoning administration, proffer management, and zoning enforcement. The department has accomplished much over the past 12 months, as you've seen in our regular updates of the DPZ work plan. [01:04:47] To highlight just a few, we have adopted a conference of plan amendment for Route 15 North. We have adopted a rezoning and zoning ordinance amendment for the solar project at Dulles Airport. We just recently completed the Airport Impact Overlay Conference of Plan Amendment, Zoning Ordnance Amendment, and Rezoning in January of this year. [01:05:11] Outside of some of these projects that come before you, we've also had the Customer Service Center continue to serve the public, primarily on the second floor in conjunction with building and development, to create a one-stop shop for those sorts of requests and applications so that we can try to bring everyone together and solve the needs of the public. [01:05:33] We also had a detailed data center discussion series at TLUC with recommendations that were ultimately approved by the board. That will be forthcoming as one of our next efforts to go in front of you. And in support of the fiscal year 2023 capital improvement program, our proffer management team completed 51 determinations, which supported the use of approximately $16.3 million in proffer funding in the adopted fiscal year 2023 budget. They have completed and are working on dozens more for this budget as well. The past year for planning and zoning has been a tough [01:06:12] year. We've had a lot of work to do and we have a number of vacancies within the department that have been tough to fill. Recruitment is always a priority and we do strive to be fully staffed at all times, but the reality is that that rarely occurs. In the department's update for you last year at this time, we had four open positions and as the closest to zero that we've gotten in the close to six years that I've worked here. Currently, our vacancy rate is at 13% or 10 positions. And you may recall that I informed you two weeks ago that we had 11 positions that were vacant. Since then, we've actually filled three, but two of them have been internal [01:06:50] promotions. Over the past 12 months, we've had resignations of deputy director and two division managers. And the department has also had two acting directors before my promotion to director in October. And these are just a few examples of the numerous internal promotions that have occurred over the past year. While it's a wonderful thing to be able to promote from within, DPZ has also had difficulty attracting well-qualified external candidates. Of our 10 current vacancies, three are for principal planners, four are for senior planners, two are planner twos, and one is [01:07:25] for a zoning inspector. All three principal planner positions have had interviews held or are scheduled within the next two weeks. Interviews are also occurring for the zoning inspector position and two of the senior planner positions. The two remaining senior planner positions are currently being advertised and the two planner two positions are not yet posted because they were only recently vacated due to those internal promotions. So I hope as you can see the department's making every effort to fill its open positions but as I noted before it's just been a very difficult year to attract external candidates and as evidenced by the DPZ work plan that we're bringing to you quarterly [01:08:02] the department's workload is high and that's something that is known amongst the planners and inspectors throughout this region. Currently the department's highest priority is a zoning ordinance rewrite. This project has a large portion of DPZ staff supporting the effort, approximately six members of a core team that are almost solely devoted to the effort. So in addition to vacancies, we've had those team members sort of removed from their day-to-day jobs in support of the rewrite. And as you know, we've had to extend the anticipated completion date of [01:08:36] that towards the June to July timeframe as things currently stand. That said, we've led a successful third round of public engagement back in the spring and summer of last year. The planning Commission has had two public hearings to consider portions of the draft zoning ordinance on August 30th and January 24th and both of those have been followed by several Planning Commission work sessions as well as subcommittee work sessions that the Commission created one thing that's not regularly highlighted when we come before you with the work plan is that the department continues to support the landmark project with building development and [01:09:13] others and we do have two staff positions essentially solely devoted to that although we have been able to backfill those with temporary positions We view this project as one that has some pretty significant short-term impacts, but we're hoping for some real long-term benefits. [01:09:29] We anticipate a significant number of efficiencies and benefits that won't happen beyond the go-live date, which is currently planned for May, although we are expecting some transition issues and a learning curve for both staff and the private sector through at least the summer. So we're before you tonight to discuss some of our accomplishments and challenges, but also specifically to submit for your consideration three resource requests, with the top request being a supervising zoning inspector in support of a board priority for a board-directed ZOAM [01:10:06] for the short-term residential rental program, which will be back in front of the board on March 21st for your consideration for potential adoption. Our next priority would be a business analyst that was primarily in support of the department's future use of the landmark system. And a third priority is a plan or two in the proffer management division. I'll focus primarily on our top position, but I'll touch briefly on those as well. The supervisory zoning inspector position is directly associated with the short-term residential rental program, but I would like to note that the [01:10:45] board will also be having future items coming to you in the next few months for things that will still go into Mr. Fairfax's division's list of responsibilities should the board choose to adopt things, such as additional chapters of the Virginia Maintenance Code, as well as the new ordinance for, help me out here, Keith, vacant and unsecure structures. Thank you. [01:11:07] Keith, use your microphone. So primarily, to start with, assuming that the board will approve the short-term residential rental program, this position is needed to address the increased workload that will consist of inspections, responses to complaints, as well as engaging property owners who fail to obtain the proper zoning permits and education, and if necessary, enforcement. The target metric in this area is to complete inspection within 48 hours of receiving a complaint, and T-Scheme is very efficient at doing that across the board. However, without this inspector position being [01:11:46] funded, we do anticipate that that will be where one of the areas where things start to lag a little bit. That work level will just have to be distributed amongst the staff, which already carries heavy caseloads pretty much across the board. And given this new program, the volume of additional workload obviously will yet to be determined, but we do expect roughly 40 to 60 complaints in the year after adoption just for this one additional program. I'll also note that while the position would not only perform the inspections, it also serves as a coordinator for the program and a supervisor within the division. [01:12:23] Ms. Johnson is one of the members of our team who directly supervises five individuals. I'll note that for the others across other divisions that do, they're primarily senior level positions that ideally need a little bit less management. And so one of the things that we'd hope for this position is that they could take a little bit of that workload off of her as well. [01:12:42] The department's next priority would be a business analyst to support Landmark, but also just operations across all operating divisions. This would be an FTE with a specific skill set to manage computer database and workflow issues in the department, as I mentioned, including the new landmark system, because DPZ does not currently have any staffing resources devoted to the development and maintenance of database systems, technologies, and workflows. We do have some staff that use Microsoft Access databases, particularly in zoning administration and zoning enforcement, for tracking violations, [01:13:18] bond releases, and issuing quarterly cash profit reports. However, we typically have, or we quite often have to rely on resources within the Department of Building and Development, if not information technology whenever any issues arise with the need for creating new databases, for working within them and modifying things. That's just outside the scope of our current staff's capabilities. And our third and last request would be for a plan or two in the profit management division. Currently, the defined service level for bond releases is 80% [01:13:55] over a 90-day period, and 80% of administrative application reviews being completed within 30 to 45 days. Where we are currently at with our staffing levels, as well as the other workload that I've explained to you a little bit across the board, we're only currently achieving that at 25% of our bond releases. And obviously, that's money being held up for applicants and businesses that would like to have that money back so they can go do additional things, hopefully within Loudoun County. So we recognize that that is a cause of concern, and it's one of the primary [01:14:29] reasons that we've also asked for that position as well. We would hope by having a plan or two added to that team that they would be a reviewer that could address a number of the more simple reviews and bond releases, particularly referrals for county construction projects, including county road projects, construction plans for residential development, and land dedications under approved proffers. Without this position, we anticipate that it will be tough for the proffer management team to be able to keep up with those reviews until a couple things. One, if the zoning ordinance [01:15:06] rewrite is ever completed, and also if the two senior positions on that team would be filled. So there's just a lot of holes throughout the department that we are trying our best to move people around and keep things rolling as best we can. So with that, we'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. Okay, thank you. And before I open it up to my colleagues, A quick question, Mr. Hemstreet. [01:15:29] If I remember correctly, during your presentation of the budget, you mentioned that planning and zoning would come in front of us for some of their positions. Is this any of those positions, if I remember that conversation correctly? Yes, Chair Sains. [01:15:46] What I mentioned in the budget presentation is that I had prioritized the top 11 items, which are the departments that are appearing before you. Planning and zoning item that's in in that top 11 is the board priority related to the short-term rental short-term rentals However, they also have other priorities within because the second option the board asked me to prepare Included running out the entire one and a half cent potential increase Assuming a hundred percent of those funds went to the county So within that second option planning zoning has two more [01:16:24] resource requests which is what Mr. Glendo just presented. Okay perfect thank you just wanted to make sure remind some of my colleagues of that conversation and make sure I was remembering it correctly too. Right anybody have questions for staff? Ms. Brisbane do you have any questions? [01:16:43] Thank you Vice Chair Sains I do. So you talked a little bit about vacancies and some being filled internally but I'm not sure I got the final number of vacancies you have right now. We currently have 10. 10 vacancies. Okay. And do you feel that this is happening sort of region-wide or even nationally where planning and zoning departments are having difficulty hiring? I think so. I definitely know it's an issue across multiple departments here in Loudoun. I also think that it is an issue for planning and zoning departments in other jurisdictions. It's a very specialized [01:17:22] field. So depending on the nature of the position you're looking for, it might be a small pool. The other thing I think here locally is that with some of the changes to just housing values and things in the past couple of years, people in neighboring counties that may have applied previously, just assuming they could pretty easily sell their house and buy a new and closer to the job, might be a little more fearful of that now as well. [01:17:45] So it's a little bit harder to commit to a new job if you're commuting from Prince William or potentially somewhere east of here. Interesting. Okay. And then those that are leaving, do you know if they're going to nearby jurisdictions or is it something, a family situation or what's your sense? [01:18:09] The senior positions that we've had vacated have all been relatively local. One did accept a job that was south of Richmond, but most of them are staying in the Northern Virginia area. Okay. Okay. I would, if someone makes a motion, I'd be willing to support at least this priority one. Thank you. [01:18:30] All right. Thank you. Supervisor Turner. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Well, thank you all. You're doing a terrific job with just a really tough, tough road to hoe in planning and zoning. As a survivor of the Battle of Hyde Park and the chair of the Transportation Land Use Committee, I can comfortably say planning and zoning, more bodies, check. Next. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [01:18:56] Okay, thank you. Supervisor Kushner. Yeah, real quick. I'm a little troubled by this increase option number 10 simply because I know, first of all, we haven't passed that zoning ordinance yet, but obviously it's on its way. We had a lot of discussion, I think, in TLUC. I think we've improved. [01:19:11] We smoothed out a lot of things. I think I voted no on it coming out just because I didn't want it to come out unanimously, although in all likelihood I'll support it when it gets to the full board. But one of the things that was said during that TLUC meeting is, listen, our goal is not really to go out and enforce. [01:19:27] Our goal is to educate, and both in this item here and in some of your conversations or in your presentation, we were talking about enforcement. First of all, that troubles me. I don't really want – listen, this is an industry that is doing extremely well, at least in my part of the county, and obviously when you bring enforcement into a picture, it often discourages the growth of that, And it's desperately needed, as many of the speakers mentioned in the TELUC or in the business meeting we had, I think, earlier this week. [01:20:01] So maybe you could address that. The second is you suggested that we might have 40 to 60 complaints a year. I'd like to know what you base that estimation on. And then finally, I know that we're in the middle of the rewrite and you have a number of openings. [01:20:18] I would assume, and I know every department has openings all the time, But I would assume once that rewrite is done, that's going to free those individuals up to do a number of things within the department because they won't be so focused. So is there any aspect of that very long question you care to address? [01:20:35] So the first thing I'll mention is that you're correct. Our focus would be education and not enforcement. What I've attempted to clarify in writing to one of your questions about that is that we would be adopting new regulations. And so if we receive complaints and we get to that point, enforcement would be necessary because it's just a requirement that the county would be setting. [01:20:56] But it's not something that we would be trying to proactively do. We would try to work with people, educate them, bring them into compliance simply. The other thing I would note about the ZOR team, the 10 vacancies are not including those staff members. [01:21:12] Obviously, when ZOR is done, them being available for their regular jobs would definitely be beneficial to the department. But the other 10 positions are still there. And a number of those are at the sort of project management level, which is a big part of what's holding us back from implementing more of the work plan that the board has approved. [01:21:30] And, Keith, if you want to tack on anything I said, feel free. I was still thinking about a response to Mr. Letourneau from his comments a few minutes ago. I'm the one. That's fine. I'll yield your answer to him if you want. But to Supervisor Kirschner, in response to you, we do everything we can to educate before we bring an enforcement action. [01:21:50] And I think you have seen a lot recently from some of the correspondents that come through your office. We have folks that are on one side of the issue where they report a violation. We have the folks that are on the receiving end of the complaint that we try to get in compliance. Nobody's happy, as you know. [01:22:07] So we have a very tough road to hoe. We do everything we can, but ultimately there are cases where we have to issue notice of the violation and subsequent fines and even subsequent court abatement action. So that is our ultimate goal, to get voluntary compliance, so there will be a lot of education efforts. [01:22:27] You asked where we got the 40 to 60 new complaints. I think that's very conservative. I think once the folks that have done the right thing, have registered with the county in correspondence with the codified ordinance and also get their zoning permits for the use that's going to also require an inspection from our team, they're going to complain and file complaints about the folks that are out there that aren't legally operating. [01:22:52] So I really think that 40 to 60 might be 70 to 80. So I try to stay on the conservative end, and I hope that answers your questions. Thank you. Okay, thank you, Mr. Buffington. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [01:23:08] First off, I want to thank you all. I know all of our departments work hard, but I feel like you guys are just getting crushed because of all the applications that come before us because people want to do business in Loudoun County. And I know it must be really tough working in your office, and I thank you. [01:23:30] Question about people who are leaving. Are they leaving for lower-paying jobs, or are there higher-paying jobs close by to do the same thing? I'm hoping we're the highest. Again, focusing on the senior positions that have left, I know that at least two of them have left for similar paying jobs in smaller localities. [01:23:54] One did take a lower paying job to try to find a better work-life balance. Better work-life balance. I can understand it. This is a tough budget year for me, but if there's an office or a department that I can support, it's you all. [01:24:11] So with the short-term residential units, I'm not sure I can support that number one request that you have because it's about anticipating complaints in the future. I'd rather wait and see if we have those complaints actually occur and then maybe next year do that. [01:24:30] But are these in the right order, the next two requests, whether it be the business analyst and the planner number two? You'd rather have the business analyst if you had to choose one? I know you want both. I would, and we actually flipped that during our discussion throughout this process preparing the budget, primarily just because there is no one in the department to help handle that business analyst function. [01:24:55] There are at least others in the proffer division to work on the bonds, but there is no one that we have currently that can do those sorts of other tasks that we know that we want to help with. If no one else makes a motion on that one, I'll do that one. Thanks. Okay, thank you. Supervisor The Turner, then we go to Glass. [01:25:14] Yeah. So on the short-term rentals, would it be fair or accurate to say that if we don't fund the position, we may not even want to bother passing the ordinance because you won't be able to do anything with it? That is something I would not opine on. I would refer you to the zoning administrator on that one. Okay. I'll try to soften it a little bit for the zoning administrator, for the zoning department director. If we pass the ordinance and don't give you the [01:25:46] position um what what would happen we i assume you try to do something within existing resources our budgetary goals for the last 70 years has been responding to complaints within 48 hours of receipt we have no problem meeting those timelines now as dan said a few minutes ago it's not just the short-term rental i know i'll be coming back to you late may early june to talk about the virginia maintenance code i know i'll be talking to you also about some requests that [01:26:19] may or may not come from our towns wanting that section of ordinances enforced and also as you know we have a hotel or excuse me a structure in your district that's been a very very tense subject over the last few years that we're trying to work with the county attorney's office and take action against some of these other buildings you really you really are making a play for me here um well look i mean i i i think my opinion is generally if we're going to pass the ordinance and i think we are then we ought to just give you the position otherwise we're just [01:26:56] tying your hands behind your back and then telling you to go do something without giving you the resources to do it which the state does to us all the time but we're better than them and we try not to do that and i would even go as far as to say as i actually appreciate for once a department anticipating a need I don't mean it in a negative way about other departments but instead of saying oh we did all these things and oh yeah by the way a year later now we need all these resources you're telling us you're going to need the resource in order to be able to do it and you know you do do you do an excellent job the department does an excellent job you're incredibly responsive we have put you through the ring around [01:27:32] some tricky stuff not just that one in my part of the world and I'm always impressed with the responsiveness and professionalism and i want to keep it that way because when we get these kind of complaints they are the type of complaints we need we need to act on quickly and our constituents expect that so i will support that position i'm not as sold on the other ones i think it might be the kind of thing that i would look at at wrap up depending on what we have um the especially the planner too just because i mean we're not able to fill our existing [01:28:08] positions and we have vacancies specifically there with that level so i'd really like to see us try to just focus on that first um and then i don't know why every time we add a piece of new technology to something we always end up needing more people to run it it should be the opposite but that's a different rant all right miss glass thank you vice chair sayings i don't have any questions i just want to thank you all for the work that you do um i i know my office is in constant contact with you all so I appreciate what you all do and I will support you thank you okay thank you I know well do we get complaints now about [01:28:47] short-term rentals we do but four years ago when the amendment first started being worked on the zoning administrator and his wisdom and I was very thankful put an enforcement moratorium because we did not have ordinances to address it so there will be some of those that we have to look at it again but the complaints we did receive we were looking at under the maintenance code definitions of habitable space for bedrooms so many people in each room 70 square feet for each person so that's how we were addressing them but you know there's still some questions about some areas of the county that [01:29:24] this new set of regulations won't be applicable to so well hopefully our colleagues in the tluck fix some of that issues but but in general even without the policy we've been getting complaints I know in my district there's always one or two neighborhoods where there's a couple of Airbnbs in operation, and we're getting complaints left and right all the time about those. [01:29:47] So I'm going to agree with Mr. Luterno, too. If we're going to pass the short-term rental ordinance, then we need to have the staff to go along with it to manage the program. How many vacancies do you have open right now? [01:30:05] I've had one vacancy since December and that was a medical separation so we've been recruiting actually did four interviews today and I will continue as soon as I get them in but the problem is I don't know so much as it's the starting salary I think we're pretty close to being equivalent with other neighboring jurisdictions but it's the whole code enforcement association to law enforcement folks are starting to re-evaluate career choices and move away from those careers in all our fields so it's going to be tough and how many planner twos or similar [01:30:43] positions that we have open right now we have two planner twos um as i mentioned we're just vacated because they're both promoted that's right you know we're causing our own problems which is but that's a good thing though we're promoting within and uh moving people up so to speak um okay well Well, Ms. Johnson, you're here. [01:31:01] Do you have any comments or reply to anything from what you've heard in the conversation since you're here? No, thank you, Vice Chair. I know when to stay silent and when to... Well, thank you for the work you and your colleagues do every single day. We keep you plenty busy. [01:31:18] And Mr. Fairfax as well. You guys do a great job responding and having conversations and walking us through things and trying to find solutions to the problems. So we appreciate the work you do. All right. Does anybody have a motion? Mr. Letourneau. Yeah, I'll move that we add increase option 10, short-term rental unit, supervising zoning inspector, and planning and zoning for 188, 982. [01:31:47] Second, if no one else did. I'll second it. Sorry, I had my light off. All right. Mr. Letourneau, you're opening. Yeah, I mean, as I said, I think if we're going to actually pass the ordinance, then we might as well properly staff it. And I think they made a pretty good case for that. Okay. [01:32:03] Anybody else? Ms. Brissman, any comments? Yes. Thank you, Vice Chair Sains. I mean, there was a question about complaints on STRs, and I think we had this conversation during public hearing on that, but I have probably 28 STRs in my district now. [01:32:27] I also listed a number that we have in Broad Run, Sterling, and Ashburn as well. I get a lot of complaints. I get emails probably on the weekly basis with complaints about STRs in my district. So if anyone would like to have a conversation with me about that and why we definitely will need an ordinance, I'm happy to do that, and I'm happy to support this position. [01:32:53] Thank you. Thank you. Nobody else? Mr. Laternal closing. Okay. All in favor of the motion made by Supervisor Laternal, seconded by myself. Please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. The motion passed. [01:33:08] One, two, three, four, five, five to three, and one off the dais. All right. And the no's were Mr. Buffington, Ms. Umstead, and Supervisor Kushner. Okay. Any other motions? Mr. Chairman. [01:33:24] Mr. Buffington. I move that we add one business analyst. Six. Oh, sorry. Six. Six in favor. Sorry. And three against and one off the dice. Nope. Oh, all right. [01:33:41] Whatever. One, two. You need my calculator? Three, four, five. Yeah, five. Yeah, five, three. I need Mr. Higgins' calculator. That's what I was thinking. I am wondering, too, with Ms. Brissman if she's moving or not, because there's nothing in that cabinet behind her. [01:33:59] She can text me later. I'd like to add one... I'd like to make a motion to add one business analyst, increase option number 26, with a load-to-fund ratio of $147,959. [01:34:19] Motion made by Supervisor Buffington for the business analyst, seconded by Supervisor Umstead. Supervisor Buffington, your opening, please. No opening. All right. Anybody else have any questions or comments on this motion? Ms. Brisbane, do you? [01:34:38] No, thanks. Is this a, real quickly, walk me through this position again. Will this position be in an office or out on the streets? In the office. In the office, and walk us through what that position does again, real quickly. So, it would be a position focused on maintaining, creating databases for the department overall. [01:35:00] In the short term, primarily focused on just helping the department make use of Landmark and making sure that we're utilizing that new system to the best of its capabilities. A number of us did a training, I was in a training on Monday of about 15, maybe closer to 20 staff, and while there were a handful that got it pretty readily, there was a lot of, it's going to take a lot of training and a lot of time getting, for both us and for applicants to really get used to it and also just to learn all of its capabilities that we can do regularly with reporting and things that hopefully this is our turn on this point will save time but it's it's something that i think we need for short-term training and for long-term [01:35:38] maintaining and using that system and other ancillary systems that we have okay all right anybody else nope mr buffington closing okay and for a refresh this is your priority number two out of the three correct correct okay it's listed as priority one because our oh one is a board priority gotcha okay in the middle your office is priority number one yes out of okay [01:36:12] gotcha all right thank you good job colleagues all right all in favor of the motion please say aye any opposed nay uh mr brisbane where are you i'm a nay and mr turner what were you you're an aye. All the ayes, raise your hand real quickly, please. Okay. The ayes have it. Those voting no are Supervisor Sainz, Letourneau, and Brisbane. Okay. Anybody else? Okay. Seeing none. [01:36:50] Thank you. [01:37:01] Next, we have the circuit court judges. Good evening. Good evening. Ready when you are. [01:37:31] Vice Chair Sainz, members of the board. First, I have to pass along regrets from Chief Judge Fleming who was had some other obligations this evening so I am his emissary this evening to you so hopefully I can fill those shoes the circuit court judges have a single request and that is for a docket manager position and currently I have with me to my right I have Alex per way to who is our chief of staff who was started with us a few years ago that was a position [01:38:09] that the board approved in I believe FY 21 and to my left is Miss Amy Bain she is our docket manager currently and hopefully for the near future as far as we can see the the position is for a second docket manager one identical to the duties that Miss Bain performs I can tell you a little bit about her day as much as I know which doesn't seem to end is the problem she oftentimes logs [01:38:47] on to the to the court system before she even leaves her house in the morning she comes to work and works a full day and when she leaves at normal hours she goes home and throughout the course of the evening and before she retires for the evening she's checking the system because as you can imagine well maybe you can't, but our dockets are very full, very heavy, and constantly in motion. Evenings, weekends, I often get communications from her over the weekend about my dockets or a case is [01:39:22] settled and she's redeploying me somewhere else. But I think of a phrase that my grandmother's sister used to say is that poor girl is working her fingers to the bone. And if you want more about her day, she can probably expand on that. But currently we're supplementing her work with Ms. Rueda, which of course takes away from her duties as chief of staff. And each of the judges, [01:40:02] as you may know, has their own legal services specialist or paralegal type position. One of those positions carries a dual role of serving one of the judges and also serving as a backup docket manager to Ms. Bain. And from what we've seen, it's probably a little too much for that position, at least in my opinion, it is. And this position is one really that requires full-time dedication it's not something that you can go back and forth from [01:40:39] because it's it's moving all day long so we're currently supplementing it taking two people well one is supposed to do that but it's it's it's a it's a lot of work and then of course we draw mr. way to away from her duties to assist as well and again the problem is that it just pulls them from their other responsibilities. And when Ms. Bain takes a vacation, which we sometimes allow her to do, [01:41:12] things, I'll just say they're different when she's not there. But we manage to get through. I just, I watch what she does day to day. And it's, I know she enjoys her job. She's very good at her job because there's something that's very intangible about this position, which I believe is why it requires full-time attention to it, is that it's very objective in that [01:41:46] you've got cases you're watching, cases that are coming on and off the docket, judges you're reassigning, but there's also an intangible aspect of it, and that's really the feel of the docket, I'll call it, and knowing intuitively which types of cases, by statute, really take priority over others, which cases might need to get bumped, or if it comes to that, which cases or which types of cases are likely to settle, which attorneys are more than likely to settle their cases. [01:42:25] So that goes into her calculation of how deep she is stacking the dockets each trial day that we have so um this is that's the request is for that position to supplement her work okay thank you um before we open it up miss bain did you want to add anything else to kind of give us any more flavor for the position thank you no i can answer any questions i think judge palman did [01:42:55] a great job um it's sorry i don't have a very loud voice um you know i do start early in the day and And I check my emails late into the evening, and it's primarily because things change and attorneys settle cases late. [01:43:13] And they need to notify you, and I need to notify the judge and other people that may be involved the minute it settles. And sometimes the settling of those cases come after hours. Okay. All right. Well, thank you. All right, colleagues. Anybody have any questions? Supervisor Letourneau. [01:43:30] Thank you for being with us, Judge Pileman, and your team. Can you just help me understand a little bit how the circuit works? So we're, you know, the circuit includes Fauquier and Rappacanit County, too. So the docket manager, is the docket manager exclusively setting the docket just for the Loudoun cases or for the entire circuit? [01:43:53] Here's what I'll tell you is we have a fairly unique circuit. Loudoun could probably be its own circuit. It's comparable to Prince William. So we have one of the largest jurisdictions, a mid-sized jurisdiction in Falkier, and one of the smallest jurisdictions in Rappahannock. [01:44:11] Rappahannock doesn't demand much. They have court an average of three days a month. Falkier is maybe a couple days a week. Ms. Bain is not managing those dockets. The clerks in those counties are managing those dockets, and they're communicating with her for sure. [01:44:29] But seeing as Loudon is in the circuit, has the lion's share of all the cases, to include more multi-day cases than the other jurisdictions have, it is important that when a judge has an obligation to a specific case, if you think of the other jurisdictions as courtrooms, don't think of them as dockets. [01:44:56] we need a judge in the rappahannock courtroom she says i have this judge available i'll deploy this judge that case settles i bring him back he needs to go to fock here um if you think of him as courtrooms it's but no she's not intimately involved in their dockets but okay well i guess what i'm getting at it's not that the position is she's not doing their work or i would support it it's more is this something that they should be helping to contribute to but it's um well they do [01:45:26] on their end her job but it's much smaller so i mean if you ask me that the state should probably be handling some of this but that's that's another oh you're asking for too much i'll let you pick too much that's that's a theme up here okay thank you for helping to explain that all right thank you mr kristler thank you chair and uh so i'll start off by saying when i started practicing law in Loudoun County in 2005, they had the big book, Dal Musa's book. [01:46:04] He would come out with a book about this big, and I just thought that's the way it was normally done. Amy, I don't think we have the big, we don't come out with the big book anymore. I haven't seen it in a while, have we? We still have that? You have a spreadsheet. We don't have the big book anymore. No, I didn't think we did. [01:46:19] Here's what we have now is a spreadsheet. So we have a spreadsheet. We've moved into the 21st century, which you've done a great job at, And I will attest that Amy, when I have seen her many times, email me, email other attorneys in my office. [01:46:36] Opposing counsel will email her, and she will get back early in the morning, late at night. So she is definitely working very hard. And then, of course, when we hear from Ms. Rueda, we know that Amy is very busy or on vacation. And that happens quite frequently. So I certainly support this position just because from personal observation of what I've seen, I think you definitely deserve it. [01:46:58] I do have a question, though. What was the last resource request that was made? FY21. Was it 21? Okay. And it was the chief of staff. Okay. So prior to that, three years ago. I think so. And can you talk to me a little bit about what the, I mean, I know you have to deal with attorneys all the time, Ms. Bain, but why the increase, has COVID contributed to that? [01:47:21] Are we just seeing growth in dockets because of our population growth? Is there any thoughts as to why her job has increased even more? Increased from when I started or increased just the past couple of years? [01:47:38] Either or. We've increased the number of judges we have sitting on our circuit since I started. At one point, there was a freeze on judges. I think we were down a judge, and since then, we've added two. Past couple of years, we had a judge that primarily sat in Falkier County, in Rappahannock County. [01:48:03] So they basically did their own thing and had that one judge there every day. we would send somebody there on a need basis but the need in Loudoun was was much larger so we really didn't do that very often but that judge also didn't really come to Loudoun and now um you know we have five judges that we are you know covering Rappahannock and Falk Gear so the coordination of that is larger than what it was um when I started we had three in Loudoun and as far as pandemic goes we basically reset our entire docket um we don't do it the way we used to do it [01:48:40] at all. And we went from one motions docket a month to three. We do criminal dockets every single Thursday. We had four months. So depending on if that Thursday has five Thursdays in that month, we'll have five criminal dockets. Just the restructure of our docket, the additional judges taking on the coordination of the other counties. So I assume you need the help. [01:49:10] I think the most significant thing in that was actually when I started, because I replaced Judge Parker. Judge Parker sat in Fauquier and went to Rappahannock. And that was the arrangement that the judges had back then, is he would stay in Fauquier, and he lived there, and he would cover Rappahannock County. [01:49:32] He would stay there, and we had Judge Horn, Judge Shamblin, and Judge McCahill covering here, and they would just stay in Loud. What we quickly discovered was that when I was down there for the first few months that there was an awful lot of downtime, and there was an awful lot of need in Loudoun, and we couldn't afford to have that kind of downtime. [01:49:59] So we reassessed how the circuit was operating, and we send judges where they're needed. All right, good. All right, Mr. Buffington. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Is it Ms. Bain? Yes. [01:50:15] That's right. Okay. Thank you for being here. It's extremely helpful to have you here to better understand this position. Uh, I know it's nerve wracking to speak in front of us like this, but you're doing a great job. Um, can you explain if we, if we support this position and provide it, like how would that change your, your day on an average day? How would it make your quality of life better? You know, what would be different for you if you had someone else to help you with this? [01:50:43] You know, the amount of emails I get in a day, it's probably in the hundreds, and it doesn't include the phone calls. And, you know, I think even back when we had two judges in Loudoun, we had one docket manager. [01:51:04] Now there's five. So my day-to-day and quality of life, I'm sure that my husband would like it if I didn't check email at home. Or on vacation or on the weekends or sometimes on my drive home, I call him and I'm like, I didn't get to finish my work for today, so I'm going to have to do that while I cook dinner. [01:51:27] And I'll boot up my laptop and sit on the island in our kitchen and, you know, finish the emails, finish designating the docket, finish checking on the status of cases or whatever needs to be done. So to even get somebody to help with those things sometimes or to be able to go on vacation and not have my phone or my laptop and email up would be a good break. [01:51:53] I also have a 3-year-old, so, you know, devoting more time to her, quality of life would be better. And I think just balancing out some of the workload, even if it's just in the process of trying to call retired judges to come help or respond to a few emails, you know, maybe that person could be on call that night if cases come off and they need to contact judges or, you know. [01:52:20] Well, you've certainly convinced me. I think your chief of staff has something to say. As her supervisor, it's extremely important to me to provide her with a better quality of life. I'm very concerned because her morning starts at 6 in the morning, and sometimes she's on the computer until 10 o'clock at night. [01:52:42] When she went out on maternity leave, the staff attorney who covered for her was working from 6 in the morning until 7 o'clock at night on a regular basis and sometimes until midnight. When I have to cover for her, it's not a happy week for Alex. I dread when Amy goes on vacation because her job just on a regular basis is extremely stressful. It's like a jigsaw puzzle that constantly moves and changes. [01:53:14] We stack cases, about 12 cases a day, and just pray that things work out. She is wonderful at what she does and is able to manage her stress quite well, but I want her to be able to go on vacation and not check emails, and I know that she does because I get them from her when she's on vacation. [01:53:35] So having a second person to even just be, this is not a job where you can't, We have to have somebody on call on nights and weekends, no matter what, because cases come off the docket and we need to know and we need to change things. So to have a second person that can do that along with her and along with me and with the other legal specialists, now that if there's four of us all being able to work collaboratively to help is going to ease her stress because I don't want to lose this employee. [01:54:06] Thank you, ma'am. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? Ms. Bristman, anything? Thank you, Vice Chair Sains. Would a part-time position help? We already tried that. [01:54:24] One of our senior legal services specialists specifically hired to be a hybrid paralegal slash part-time docket manager. Unfortunately, that position really should be more just a full-time paralegal. [01:54:40] I don't think a part-time position really is helpful because this job is so amorphous and changes all the time. You might need to help at six in the morning, or you might need to help at midnight or in the middle of the day, or sometimes we might find out that a judge has an emergency at four o'clock in the afternoon for the following week because they have a sick child, and all of a sudden, we have to start calling substitute judges, and that can be a four-hour job. [01:55:08] So a part-time position doesn't really lend itself to this kind of work. There's already two of us assisting her with the work that she's doing. Okay, thank you. [01:55:25] Okay. Do we have any motions? Mr. Latourne, do you make any motion, I take it? Yeah. Okay. I will move the addition of priority one for the circuit court judge's docketing manager at 122-591. I'll give that to Mr. Buffington. [01:55:42] So, look, I'll be honest. I came in here not sure if I was going to support this position because the write-up didn't have a lot of data. You know me, I'm pretty analytical about this stuff. But I think you made the case, and I think at this point probably not much more than needs to be said. [01:56:02] Anybody else? Okay. Yes, sir. I'll just say I'm in the same boat. I would have been a no had you not come in here and explained to yourself. So thank you very much for having the courage to come talk before us. Thank you. All right. [01:56:17] We have a motion by Mr. Letourneau, seconded by Mr. Buffington. To add the docketing manager, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Aye. All right. That motion passes 8-0-1. Thank you. All right. Thank you. And I believe that is all we have. Mr. Chair, I have a motion. Oh, okay. You have a motion. Go ahead. Yeah, Mr. Chair, I move that the board reconsidered the vote from Parks, Rec, and Community Services on the Elder Resources case manager. I will second. Second. I'll give it to Ms. Brissman for a second. [01:56:51] We have a motion to reconsider the Elder Resources case manager by Mr. Turner, seconded by my Supervisor Brissman. All those in favor of the reconsideration, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? [01:57:08] Aye. He voted yes for it earlier. Oh, no, he wasn't here. Sorry. All right. The no's, raise your hand, please. Are you serious? It's tied again. Bring it back there. [01:57:24] Yeah, so we can't do anything. Well, I just want to talk about it. Well, the reconsideration failed because it's a tie vote. So we can bring it back and wrap up. [01:57:42] All right. Thank you. Anything else? Nope. Hearing none, supervisors, the Saturday's budget work session, March 11, 2023, is canceled. Our next budget work session will be Monday, March 13th at 6 o'clock p.m. [01:58:00] Seeing no other business before us tonight, well, actually before that, can you put up the tote just to see anything and give us an update? Was anything changed after the earlier vote and the start of the meeting? Did it change anything? - So yes, you'll recall at the beginning of the meeting, the tax rate was down at 87 cents based on the actions to add the additional resource request tonight. [01:58:24] It is back at 87 and a half cents. You have a remainder of $5.8 million available at that tax rate and it would take $684,000 reduction to reach the 87 cent tax rate. [01:58:40] - Okay, so we got some money back earlier on And then we spent it already. Good job. Question. I thought we reduced $4 million at the beginning. And I don't see that reflected on there. [01:58:56] Is it reflected? So if you look at item Roman numeral number two, what was explained in the item is on Monday's work session, when the field deputies were added, the number that was used on the tote board was an estimated number, estimating the impact of the board's direction to find an alternate source for the capital outlay what the motion tonight the transfer of local tax funding to the major equipment fund was reduced by four million approximately four million dollars which was to execute on the board's direction for an alternate funding source but the actual tote [01:59:33] board impact was only four hundred and seventy nine thousand eight hundred forty dollars based on the estimated numbers we had that makes sense thank you thank you kill okay any other anything else all right seeing just a quick question go miss latourner we have miss brisbane can can any of these i don't remember the rules on these because it's a straw poll can any of these come back at any meeting what do you mean that we did not vote on her yeah or like for instance super president just made her budget to reconsider i didn't vote for that because i didn't see the debate i wanted to watch the debate before i made a decision on it yes um so can that come back at [02:00:11] the next meeting or does it have to wait to wrap up uh usually we do wrap up but i'll defer to or him street yeah typically we would wait till wrap up okay because that's when we'll have all the department directors here so at the next meeting none of these departments are going to be here okay unless unless the board wants to specifically put them on the agenda for monday night in which case we would notify the department no let's do wrap up that's what we've traditionally done no thank you miss brisbane uh thank you vice chair sayings i think that uh caleb answered my question because he scrolled back up i i didn't realize it was when you scroll on the where it hides our previous votes for the night. [02:00:51] But my second question was what is the funding gap right now with LCPS and have there been any changes to that based on the state budget? Do we have an answer to that? So there's no update from what was already provided on Monday night. [02:01:09] So the school board's currently adopted request is a $6.2 million local tax funding gap. There is uncertainty, or the General Assembly has not yet addressed that potential additional gap of up to $7.4 million for fiscal year 24 budget related to the state's revenue calculation error, and we don't have any additional information than was already shared on Monday night. [02:01:36] Okay, thank you, and I apologize I wasn't there on Monday night, but that helps a lot. Thank you so much. All right, seeing nothing else, our business is done for tonight, and we can adjourn our work session. Thank you. Meeting adjourned. All right. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Coraggio Consulting · aguyonx.com