Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, Business Meeting, Tuesday, January 2, 2024

Date: Tuesday, January 2, 2024
Place: Board Room, First Floor, Government Center, 1 Harrison Street SE, Leesburg, Virginia
Length: 2h 18m (video)
Official meeting video (county, Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/player/clip/7567
Agenda (Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=73&clip_id=7567

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 2026-10-19. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:10:29] Can you turn me in? Okay. Some of our colleagues are taking their beginning of term photographs. They're not quite finished yet.

[00:10:46] Everyone is here in the building, and so I'm going to give everyone about five to ten more minutes to get on the dais. And so we're all here. I know we're late, which is really, really unusual, but I'm giving everybody time to finish their photographs. Aww. And get in the room.

[00:11:04] Although, Mr. Ruffington, you can just come on up here if you want to.

[00:11:07] There we go.

[00:20:31] Well, good evening, supervisors. Good evening, staff. And good evening, Loudon. I'd like to call to order the January 2nd, 2024, Loudon County Board Supervisors Business Meeting. This room has a hearing loop. If you need hearing assistance, please switch your hearing aid to the telecom mode or see the clerk to my left to request hearing assistance.

[00:20:54] Today, I will... Just a second. I will... forgot to do something. All right, for my words of wisdom today, I'm actually going to read The Man in the Arena, which I've talked about many times as being one of my favorite quotes.

[00:21:23] It was written by President Roosevelt, and the reason I like this, especially as we start a first term, is because a couple of reasons. One, we're coming off of an election where there was a lot of it was an election let's just let's just leave it at that and over the next uh four years we are going to receive a lot of feedback and much of our feedback is going to be constructive feedback in fact most of the feedback we receive will be constructive feedback from citizens from one another from staff from family from everyone that we really should try to listen to and take

[00:21:59] heed to but every once in a while you will also get feedback from people just because they choose to want to kind of be critical without having any answers. And when that happens, I always try to think of Roosevelt's words, which were the man in the arena.

[00:22:16] So I always read this to myself whenever I need to. And so I want to just share this. And often when I say something, it's for the good of the county or whatever. But supervisors, my colleagues, this today is just for you. It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

[00:22:40] The credit belongs to the man, or in this case woman, who is actually in their arena, whose face is marred by dust, sweat, and blood, who strives violently, who errs, who comes up short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming, but who actually strives to do the deeds, who knows great enthusiasm, the great devotions, who spends himself on a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end triumph of high

[00:23:16] achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his or her place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory or defeat. Ladies and gentlemen, would you all join me in the Pledge of Allegiance?

[00:24:00] Okay, so we're going to start off today by, I'm assuming everyone did look at your package, and we're going to start off today just with motions, and we will talk inside the motions. I move to the Board of Supervisors adopt the Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct as outlined in Attachment 1 to the Organizational Matters items for the January 2nd, 2024 Board of Supervisors' Business Meeting.

[00:24:26] Motions made and seconded by Supervisor Brixman. So I would just say that I'm always really proud to pass the Code of Conduct. It was a campaign promise that I made in 2015 that we would have a Code of Conduct on this board, and I think that it's really important to do that, to have that, and to, I have it actually hang it on my wall in my office and I read it from time to time so it's important to have and supervisors after we pass this today what happens is the code of conduct gets hung

[00:25:04] on the wall outside the door and so after we pass it Ms. Grimmel has the actual resolution so if everyone before you leave the building today could sign it so it can hang on the wall I'd appreciate that. Anybody else? All in favor to say aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 902. I'm sorry, 90. I don't know why I said two. Rules of orders. I move the board of supervisors adopt the rules of order for 2024 as showing attachment to the organizational matters item for the January 2nd, 2024 Board of Supervisors business meeting. Motions made and second by

[00:25:44] Supervisor Bricksman, any discussion on the rules of order? I have none either. All in favor, please say aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 9-0. Okay.

[00:26:01] Election of the vice chair. Says chairman. I'm actually changing that to the words vice chair. I nominate Supervisor Julie Bricksman from the Algonquian District to serve as the vice chair of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors.

[00:26:19] motion made, and seconded by Supervisor Glass, discussion on the motion. So first I want to say thank you to Supervisor Karan Sains, who served as the Vice Chair for four straight years. Supervisor Sains is funny and kind and smart, and sometimes he would give me, help me when I didn't need the help, said Mr. Buffington. But he was an excellent, excellent vice chair and kind of, Mr. Carrance is kind of my ace. And Supervisor Sains, I appreciate you so much. So thank you for your

[00:26:58] service as vice chair for four years. Supervisor Bricksman. A lot of people don't know that I actually recruited Supervisor Bricksman to run for this office. I became aware of her when she gained national attention. However, and this is the important part, I didn't ask her to run because of the national attention she gained. I asked her to run because after meeting with her three separate times, I realized how active she had been in her community.

[00:27:28] She helped start the Algonquian Running Club. She was a Cub Scout mom, Algonquian swim team, the incredible amount of walking through muck and mud and cleaning up streams and ponds and rivers, and she had just been real active in her community.

[00:27:45] So although people might know her for one thing, that one thing would have never, ever been the reason I thought she should have ran for office or would have asked her to run for office. It's all that she was already doing in her community. In the past four years, she has taken the lead in the initiative on some pretty hard matters.

[00:28:07] Supervisor Brixman is you're going to always know where she stands, just period. You're never going to be surprised by where she stands. She is who she is all the time. And although I don't always agree with her, I appreciate that she is who she is all the time. She is fearfully honest.

[00:28:25] Ms. Brixman can't lie to you, even for tactful purposes. Like, she's just as fearfully and fearlessly honest. She's also, no kidding, fearless. She says what she believes, and she believes them strongly. Julie gets a lot of, supposedly Bricksburg gets a lot of people who come at her and are really negative, and she stands up to it every time.

[00:28:49] Sometimes she answers them, sometimes she doesn't, but she doesn't back down from what she believes is right. So whether I agree with her or not, and I don't always, I always respect her, and I always appreciate where she's coming from. And I've noticed that she's also willing to take and accept feedback.

[00:29:05] Those are all very good qualities in a vice chair, and I am proud to make the nomination for Supervisor Brixman. Anybody else? All in favor, please say aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 9-0. Congratulations, Vice Chair Brixman.

[00:29:23] Thank you, Madam Chair. All right. We're going to move to committee assignments. And as I emailed you all yesterday and as provided in your folder, There was a mistake in the package regarding the standing committee assignments. Just to be sure and clear, Supervisor Glass will be on the TLUC.

[00:29:46] Supervisor Umstead would be on Finance. That is switched in the package, and so it was just a mistake that was switched in the package. So that's where there will be. Some of the Board of Supervisors approved the standing committee assignments for 2024 as outlined and is in the folder provided to you in the package for the January 2nd, 2024 Board of Business Meeting action item.

[00:30:15] Motion is made and seconded. Any of discussion on the motion? All in favor to say aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 9-0. Supervisors, if you looked in your package, there were a bevy of commissions, committees, and boards, especially our regional bodies that were assigned.

[00:30:36] So I would read that motion. Move the Board of Supervisors to approve the regional and county assignments for 2024 as outlined in the January 2nd, 2024 Business Meeting Action Item. That motion has been made. I think by Supervisor Brickman's discussion on that motion. The only discussion I have on that motion is this.

[00:30:54] What is not included on those items in this item is NACO and BACO, the National Association of Counties and the Virginia Association of Counties. Those are really important organizations, and our board in our county has become much more involved in NACO and Vaco, and I appreciate that.

[00:31:15] I will really encourage everyone to become involved in NACO and Vaco because there are times when I go down and we just cannot cover all the things we want to have covered. So I have talked to you all individually, but I will encourage you all to get involved in those organizations. Those are not assignments that I make or that are made by the board.

[00:31:33] They are assignments that you volunteer for, and I'm going to encourage you to do that. Having said that, all in favor please say aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 9-0. Okay. We have some schedule adjustments in the calendar. Let me make the motion, and I'll talk about the schedule adjustments.

[00:31:51] I move the board supervisors to approve the board meeting schedule adjustments as outlined in the January 2, 2024 Board of Business Meeting action item. Motion is made and seconded by Vice Chair Briggsman. Okay, so a couple of things on that one. November 5th, 2024, is a board business meeting.

[00:32:10] The schedule, we will move that to the Thursday, November 7th, because November 5th is election day, and we never have meetings on election day for obvious reasons. There was one other conflict on the schedule. And keep on with the, oh, that's an easy one.

[00:32:32] The board business meetings in the second meeting in December and October will be held only if necessary. This year we did hold the second meeting in December, but not the second meeting in November. So that's just kind of a point of information. All in favor, please say aye.

[00:32:48] Any opposed? That motion will pass unanimously. This next item is coming off the agenda because it was placed on the agenda in error. So the advisory commissions and committees term concurrent is coming off the agenda.

[00:33:04] We will not be taking that item up. It was an error that it went on the agenda. Okay, we're going to go and adopt the consent agenda, but let me make the motion, and then I'll explain the consent agenda.

[00:33:21] I'm going to make a motion to adopt the consent agenda as follows. Item 1A, appointments and confirmations. We are, at this moment, in item 1A, only approving the district-specific seats.

[00:33:37] So if you made a motion for a seat in your district, that is what we are approving right now, okay? And the administrative's item report. So that's the motion. Is there a second to that motion? Second. All right, seconded by Mr. Crony. Seconded by Supervisor Crony.

[00:33:56] Her first second. Any other discussion on that one? All right. All in favor say aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 9-0. There are no other additions or deletions, and today there are no voice for a cause.

[00:34:13] There are also no ceremonial resolutions, but Mr. Hemstreet, do you have any administrators' comments today? Yes, Chair Randall. I do have four. It's the pleasure of the board to hear them. It is. All right. The first is that I would like to officially wish the board a Happy New Year and welcome you to the first meeting of your term.

[00:34:36] I thank you for your willingness to serve the people of Loudoun County and the staff and I are looking forward very much to serving you over your next term. Second, the Loudoun County Popular Annual Financial Report for fiscal year 2023 is now online at loudoun.gov forward slash financial reports.

[00:34:53] The document is designed for residents and other stakeholders who do not have a background in public finance. The report provides important, informative and understandable information about the financial condition of the county government in a concise and accessible format. Third, the Department of Economic Development has announced the 2024 schedule of events for Launch Loudoun. The program provides experiences and services to members of the small business community, including networking, education, and one-on-one consultations. This year, the program is expanding to include events within the county's incorporated towns to better assist small businesses in those communities. More information is online at

[00:35:32] biz.loudon.gov. And then finally, Loudoun County will be accepting natural cut Christmas trees and wreaths for recycling through January 21st. The trees are converted into mulch, which is available free of charge to Loudoun County residents year round at the Loudoun County landfill. There are five convenient locations where trees are accepted for recycling. Details are online at loudon.gov slash recycling. Those are my comments for this evening, Chair Randall. Thank you, Mr. Hemstreet.

[00:36:01] I appreciate that. There are also no information items, and so we're going to go to our action items, which will be appointments, confirmations. Okay, supervisors, all right. So let me just walk through how we're going to do this today, the action items.

[00:36:16] We've already approved appointments and confirmations that were put forward in the past or last term for district-specific seats. If you are making your nomination for a district specific seat other than the planning commission, which we're not doing for this for the purpose of this discussion, I'm not talking about the planning commission.

[00:36:41] I will then go back and suspend the rules and approve people who are being made for district specific seats. If you're making motions for non-district specific seats, we're going to take those seats up at the next meeting.

[00:37:03] We cannot, the staff could not put a tally board together at this latent stage for all the non-district-specific seats we might be making, not to mention, as Mr. Crony is new, she may have many district-specific seats that she has not been, had to afford the opportunity to make yet.

[00:37:21] And so if they're district-specific, we will go on and approve those, which will give all the committees and commissions and boards enough of a quorum to meet if they're going to meet between now and the end of the year. However, otherwise, we will wait till next term.

[00:37:39] Now, having said all that, I'm in next meeting. I'm sorry. Thank you. See, that's how that works. Having said all that, I'm not at this moment talking about Loudon Water Board, which we will have a vote on tonight, and I'm not talking about Planning Commission, which we will have a vote on tonight.

[00:38:01] However, for the two supervisors who have not made sure Planning Commission's nomination, make those tonight as well. And I think that's Mr. Crony, and I forgot the other person, and Mr. Sainz. So make those tonight as well, and we'll do Planning Commission and Water Board tonight.

[00:38:18] Does that, does that, everybody got all that? Yes, you have a question? Yes, Madam Chair. The point of image? Yes, ma'am. So if I have a nomination that I'd like to withdraw for district specific, would I do it at that time as well?

[00:38:37] Oh, well, if it's district specific, we just confirm those. We'd have to, yeah, yeah, we just confirm those. If it was district specific and you made it last time, we just confirm those.

[00:38:53] So we would need to do a motion to reconsider for the purpose of just that. I'm sorry, Madam Chair, it's an at-large seat. I was asked to take the name off. Oh, it's an at-large seat.

[00:39:10] Then we would not have confirmed that person yet, so you're good. But you've already made the nomination? Yes. Then you do need to withdraw the nomination. Okay, thank you. You can do that right now.

[00:39:26] Okay. I withdraw my previous nomination for Cliff Kearse on the Fiscal Impact Committee. Thank you. And I'm going to take a point of personal privilege and ask my staff, do you guys have my list? Because I don't see it up here. Maybe, hold it. Maybe it's here.

[00:39:43] Oh, I'm wrong. I have it. Thank you very much. We're good. Okay. For appointments and nominations, so I'm going to go down the row, and if you have nominations, and I think everybody has, whether they are at large, District-specific, planning commissioner, whatever they might be, make them now.

[00:40:02] We're not going to vote on all of them now, but go on and make them now, okay? All right, I will start with Supervisor Glass. Your nominations, ma'am. Supervisor Glass. I don't have any. You have any nominations. Supervisor Umstott. I'm simply reaffirming my nomination of Ad Barnes for the Planning Commission.

[00:40:23] Well, that was already been made. Supervisor Turner. I nominate Jason Ulner to the Art Advisory Committee to fill an at-large seat. Supervisor Kirshner. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have several. I would nominate Ron Hall. His term just expired at the end of the past year, but I would re-nominate Ronald Hall to the Fiscal Impact at-large Committee for the at-large position, sorry.

[00:40:46] I would also nominate Kevin Murray as the at-large representative on the Fiscal Standards Manual Public Review Committee. I would nominate Drew Thomas as an at-large representative on the Fiscal Standards Manual Public Review Committee. For the Heritage Commission, I would nominate Kate McGinnis-Wyatt as the Catoctin District Representative on the Heritage Commission.

[00:41:10] I would also nominate Jane Covington as an at-large representative on the Heritage Commission. I would also nominate Emily Houston as the at-large representative on the Heritage Commission. I would also nominate Lori Kimball as an at-large representative on the Heritage Commission.

[00:41:26] and I would nominate Robert Pollard as an at-large representative on the Heritage Commission. Mr. Kirshner. Uh-oh. No, no. I have down Kate Wyatt as well as at-large, and so if you made Kate Wyatt your Catoctin district-specific, then you can actually, I can take that for you and you can have another for Catoctin if you'd like it.

[00:41:50] Okay, I just... It doesn't have to be the day, but you just can have another seat if you'd like it because that's up to you. Or you can move somebody else that you just said into that Catoctin seat so you're not using it up for no... You don't have to use it up if you don't need to.

[00:42:06] I'm just not sure. I have to go back and look to see how many... Okay, so you want to leave it? That's what I don't know. I don't know either. So you can leave it like it is, but you're... Unless you wanted to nominate her. I'd certainly prefer to you if you would prefer. No, we both think Kate's wonderful. I'm just trying to let you know that you could have more room in your nominations if you want to give it, because you made her for your at-large.

[00:42:29] I mean, you make it for your district-specific, yeah. Correct. So you may not want to use that for that if you don't want to. But it's cool. Either way, it's fine with me. I think it'll wash out. Okay, cool. That's fine. Okay, okay. That's fine. Mr. Crony. She'll use that large sheet.

[00:42:44] Oh, I'm sorry. Did I do you yet? Okay, Mr. Crony. Thank you, Chair Randall. All right, I have lots. I'm sure you do have lots. I'll do Planning Commission first. I nominate Robin Eve Jasper as the Little River District Planning Commissioner.

[00:43:02] I nominate Pam Curran as the District Representative on the Advisory Commission on Youth. I nominate Thyrumul Munkachula as the Real Estate Representative on A-DWAB. I nominate Sharon James as an at-large representative on the Agricultural District Advisory Committee.

[00:43:26] I nominate Dr. Mike Strickland as a district representative on the Animal Advisory Committee. I nominate Lina Burton as a district representative on the Commission on Aging. I nominate Katie Coe as an at-large representative on the Disability Services Board.

[00:43:49] I nominate Elizabeth Ellers as an at-large reappointment on FSM and Peter Lazarevich as an at-large reappointment on FSM.

[00:44:05] Karen Moreland and Rick Stone as at-large appointments on FSM. I nominate Ted Lewis as an environmental representative on FIC, and I nominate Tara Connell as a district representative on the Heritage Commission, and Mitch Steinman and Katie Johnson as at-large reappointments on the Heritage Commission.

[00:44:32] I nominate Avi Fector as a housing policy representative on the Housing Advisory Board. I nominate Vinod Matwani as a district representative on the PROS board, and Shridhar Bandy as an at-large representative on the PROS board.

[00:44:52] And finally, I nominate Fred Schwery as a district representative on the Transit Advisory Board. Thank you, Mr. Crony. Ms. Glass, is there a reason your light is back on? Yes, ma'am. I overlooked one nomination. Okay. I apologize.

[00:45:09] I nominate Ms. Page Riggs Bradley as an at-large representative on the Fiscal Impact Committee. Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Sains. Thank you, Madam Chair. I nominate Cliff Kears for the Sterling District Planning Commission seat. Mr. Letourneau.

[00:45:26] Ms. Brixman. Thank you, Madam Chair. Oops, I probably need my glasses. I nominate Stephen DiTulio to serve as an at-large representative on the Loudoun Water Board of Directors. I nominate Carol Smith to serve as the Continuum of Care representative on the Housing Advisory Board, and I re-nominate Matt Durham to an at-large seat on the Fiscal Impact Committee.

[00:45:52] Okay, and I have for, I nominate Kate Ellen Davis, I'm sorry, Catherine Ellen Davis for the chair at large, I mean sort of the at-large seat for the district at-large seat for the Library Board of Trustees.

[00:46:13] I've already done Maureen Robbins as the real estate seat for AROB. For Parks and Rec, I nominate Frank Blackstone as the district at-large seat. and Kelly Fultman for an at-large seat.

[00:46:29] For the Animal Advisory Board, I nominate Danielle Black for the district at-large seat. For the Transit Advisory Board, I nominate Lorraine Terry as the district at-large seat. For the Loudoun Health Commission, I nominate Ivy Ahmad Donnelly for the district at-large seat.

[00:46:50] For the Commission on Aging, I nominate or re-nominate Lakeisha Gorham McDurphy for the district-at-large seat. For the Heritage Commission, Ms. Wyatt has already been taken care of. I will nominate Derek Clark for an at-large seat.

[00:47:09] And for Akoy, I nominate Jeffrey Goldman for the district-at-large seat, Jacqueline Phan for an at-large seat, Cheryl Fields for an at-large seat, and Brendan Hines-Ike for an at-large seat. Okay.

[00:47:26] Supervisors, I'm going to now make a motion. I'm going to make a motion to suspend the rules so that we can vote on all the district-specific seats that were just nominated, with the exception of Planning Commission and Loudoun Water Board.

[00:47:45] So I move to suspend the rules. Discussion on suspension of the rules. All in favor, please say aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass. Madam Chair, were the nominees that were made today, were all of their resumes in the packet?

[00:48:03] I'm going to make the assumption that people who made these, that's a great question. I'm not comfortable voting. That's a good question. Well, the problem is, if they had meetings, they're not going to make quorum in other words. Supervisors, look at your, I'm going to ask you all, because I know mine's word.

[00:48:24] Look at your nominees that were made today that were the district seats, not the at-large seats, but the district seats. Look at your packages. Are they in the package? I mean, I know mine's are. Are your people, well, of course yours is just one person.

[00:48:43] I know mine's are. If you made a district seat, are they in the package? Is anyone not sure? You are sure. All right.

[00:48:58] I'm going to trust my colleagues, mister. But that was a good catch. Well, I know Ms. Wyatts was. I don't know. No, no, he's right.

[00:49:15] They need to be in the package for the new term, whether they've been in there for four years or not. Because otherwise, I can go by them. I can go through them one, you know, one. Or we could potentially just move all that were pre-written.

[00:49:31] Well, we could, but I don't, but then the question becomes if they have meetings before the next meeting. Well, there still should be before I went up. I don't, no, no, because they're. I think most of them were in the packet. I think there might be a handful that were. Because they. Yeah, but unless somebody else is appointed, they usually stay on.

[00:49:52] Yeah, but not technically, so that's why. All of yours were. Okay. Mr. Crony? I have one that she's in the system but not in the packet. She's in the system? Mm-hmm. She's in the system. Okay. She's in the system.

[00:50:07] Anybody else, somebody they think is not in the system? No, if she's in the system, no. She's in the system. Yeah. She's in the system. Yes, I can.

[00:50:27] Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Point of clarification, Madam Chair. Yes, sir. My nominee is in the system, but I don't have a resume in the package. If they're in the system, can the public see them?

[00:50:49] Chair Randall, not yet, because we have not validated them. Okay, people. Gracious. We've only been knowing we're going to do this for the past two months, people. No, that's a good catch, Mr. Letourneau, but supervisors, you know.

[00:51:07] No, he's right. It was a good catch. No, it's a good catch. But I would just say to come to the dais, because we knew we were going to do this today and kind of be prepared for it. Okay, so I would just, there's only two. Who are they? Okay, Mr. Crony, I'm sorry.

[00:51:30] Mr. Crony, can you tell me who your person is who's not in the system? I'm Curran. Okay, so we're going to not vote on her tonight. Her name is going to be removed from the vote right now. Mr. Turner, can you tell me who your name is who's not in the system? I'm sorry, mine's that large, Madam Chair, I apologize. Okay, so it's just one person then?

[00:51:47] Yes. She's Pam Curran. So Mr. Kearney's going to remove that one name. She's not in the package. She's in the system, not in the package. Everybody else is. Okay, all right. Vote on the suspension of the rules. All in favor say aye.

[00:52:02] Aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 9-0. I make a motion to approve all the district-specific appointments that have been made with the exception of Pam Curran that was made from the little river district motion made and seconded discussion on that motion all in favor please say aye oppose that motion will pass 9-0 all right um i do believe at this point all the planning commission appointments have been made i'm pretty sure

[00:52:40] right we made them all let me get to that motion hold on hold on hold on actually it's not okay There it is. Give me one second, please. And all the Planning Commission's documents are in the package as well.

[00:53:03] All right. I'm not going all the way to the end of this. This is insane. So I'm just going to make a motion for the Board of Supervisors to approve all the nominees for the 2024 through 2027 Planning Commission.

[00:53:20] Motion is made. Second, Supervisor Brixman. Discussion on the motion. Mr. Turner, is your light on for a certain reason? Thank you. Discussion on the motion? Ms. Bricksman. Thank you, Madam Chair. I know we've received a little bit of feedback about who's getting appointed and confirmed for Planning Commission.

[00:53:38] I just wanted to extol the virtues of my nominee, who is, in fact, a lawyer, but he's much more than a lawyer. He served on the Richmond City Council as an elected official, and he also served the City of Alexandria as their city attorney.

[00:53:56] So, he has experience on both sides of local government issues and operations, and I'm sure it will take very little time for him to rise up to a leadership role, and I know that he has a lot to offer to the Planning Commission. I'm really appreciative that Mr. Jim Banks has agreed to serve as my Planning Commissioner.

[00:54:16] Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. And I will say, this is a hard role, Planning Commission. It's an important role, and we're about to do some big things. We would do the rules OM, we would do the data center CPAM, we would do other things all along the way. And so this is an important role.

[00:54:32] I would say that first I want to thank the outgoing planning commission, my outgoing planning commissioner, Mr. Forrest-Hayes is in the room, thank you, sir, and I want to thank the incoming planning commission. I want to say that it is important to do two things, or three things. One, show up. It's a hard job, but you've got to show up.

[00:54:51] Two, come prepared. Read your packets, know what it is. And three, I think it's helpful if planning commissioners agree to take meetings. It is hard to vote on an item or even advise your board member if you are just flatly refusing to take meetings.

[00:55:09] And so I would have encouraged planning commissioners to show up, to show up prepared, and to take meetings. But I do think people have the right to have the planning commissioners that they think that they'd like to have. And I also think that, you know, any other rumors out there maybe should have been quailed or discussed before rumors were put out.

[00:55:29] All right. All in favor, please say aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 9-2-0. Okay. The Loudon Water Board is going to be a vote because we have just a, it's just so many amazing people who have, who are volunteering their time to be on the Loudon Water Board.

[00:55:55] which is also a lot of work, you know, it is an embarrassment of riches to have this many incredibly, incredibly talented people that want to be on the Loudon Water Board. And so we will have a tote board set up for the Loudon Water Board, and I'm going to call on you all, and you can, and oh, I know what I was going to say, we have four, we have five positions for the Loudon Water Board.

[00:56:24] We have three that are four-year terms. We have one that's a two-year term. We have one that's a one-year term. As you were saying who you are voting for, please say if you're voting for them to have the four-year term, the two-year term, or the one-year term.

[00:56:47] Say it and so we know who we're putting where in each area. There was one more nominee made today who wasn't made already. Is that correct, Ms. Fricksman? And his stuff, it was in the agenda.

[00:57:06] Is that correct also? Yes, Madam Chair. He's in the system, and he was in the packet. He was in the system, and he was in the package. Okay, well, then everyone would have received the opportunity to actually read about him, then, because he's in the package. Yes, Madam Chair, thank you.

[00:57:21] Okay, so, yes, sir. Madam Chair, given that we have one that was nominated today, it's procedural, but you should suspend the rules in case that person is appointed. Should I, can I do the vote and suspend the rules?

[00:57:39] Yeah, can we do the vote and suspend the rules if we need to? Rules either way. A votive vote overrules a procedural rule. Yeah, I'll do it at the end so you can't see it when they go through the process for no particular reason. All right, I need my glasses.

[00:57:56] All right, and I started down at this end last time, so I started at this end this time. Ms. Umstadt, who were your selections? Tony Buffington for the four-year term, and I cannot read that chart at all.

[00:58:18] It's in your package. Except for Dottilio. It's in your package, page two. I am. There's no one there from Sterling or Algonquian. Madam Chair, if you could come back to me, I cannot find it at this time.

[00:58:41] How about you just come, you want to walk down here and take a look at it? We're not in any all-fire hurry. The names are on page two, with the exception of the one that was just made.

[00:59:06] Three for the four-year term, one for the two-year term, one for the one-year term.

[00:59:21] Jim Bonfils has to be reappointed. I would choose him as my second for a four-year term. And Charles Yad for a four-year term. And for the two-year terms? The two-year term of which there is only one.

[00:59:41] Thank you.

[01:00:02] Chair, point of clarification, if I might. Wait, he was... He has not been nominated. He's not been nominated. Kevin Kirshner's not been nominated. He was an interested applicant, but he wasn't nominated. I'll let her finish, and then I'll give you the point of clarification.

[01:00:25] Keep waiting for one year. Okay, thank you. All right. Madam Chair. Yeah, I'm sorry. So I'm wondering if we might do only the four-year terms first, because if people don't get into the four-year terms, some people might want to vote for them for the two-year or the one-year term. You're talking about rank choice voting is what you're talking about right now. Well, maybe, but if we could just decide the four-year terms, because I had some jazz hands for rank choice voting in the back.

[01:00:59] I think that's fine. So if we have her four years, yeah, just hold off on the other two years right now, the two and the one, okay? Ms. Glass. Thank you, Madam Chair. Buffington, Moody, and Vega.

[01:01:15] For the four-year term. Thank you. Mr. Kirshner. Yes, Mr. Buffington, Mr. Yudd, and Mr. Moody for the four-year term. Thank you, Mr. Turner. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[01:01:31] Buffington, Moody, Yudd for the four-year term. Thank you, Mr. Sains. Thank you. I have Moody for four. Oh, forgive me if I pronounced the name incorrectly. Sirsicar? Sirsicar.

[01:01:49] Sirsicar, thank you. And Yad for my four-year. Thank you. Mr. Crony. Thanks, Chair Randall. I have Buffington, Keith Moody, and Stephen Daitulio for the four-year.

[01:02:05] I don't think Stephen Daitulio. Oh, he wasn't. It's Julie's first. I'm going to encourage you all to let me run this meeting. Thank you very much. Appreciate that very much. Appreciate that very much.

[01:02:22] Mr. Letourneau. Buffington for the four-year. Buffington, Yudd, and Bonfils. Ms. Bricksman. Thank you, Madam Chair. DeTulio, Moody, and Fialik. Thank you. And I'm going to do Moody, Buffington, and Yudd for the four-year term.

[01:02:43] So before we do anything else, tell me, do you have three people who received majority of votes for the four-year term and who they are and who are they? Madam Chair, it looks like Charles Yud, Tony Buffington, and then we have two people who received two votes.

[01:03:10] I think you have Keith Moody. Moody. Ms. Bixman? Oh, Moody. Yes, excuse me. I'm sorry. Moody, Yud, Buffington. Moody, Yud, Buffington. Okay, thank you. Ms. Umstead, is your light on for a particular reason? Okay.

[01:03:26] All right. So those are our four-year terms. So now we're going to do the two-year term, just a two-year term. And let's shake this up some. What are you doing? Just one person. Mr. Kirshner for the two-year term.

[01:03:44] So we're just doing the two-year term? We're doing just the two-year term. I will nominate. Wait, wait, wait. And obviously take out the three people who we need not put in here anymore. So Buffington-Yudd and Moody are now out of this discussion, obviously. Okay. I will nominate Mr. Bonfields.

[01:04:03] For two-year term, Mr. Bonfields. Mr. Turner. I nominate Mr. Fialik. Okay. For the two-year term. Okay. Mr. Sains. Miss, and help me with the last name again.

[01:04:21] Circus Carr. Circus Carr, thank you, yes. Mr. Letourneau. Bonfields. Thank you. Mr. Crony. um steven detilio thank you miss um stop i think i had already nominated uh angeline sarissa scar for the two year you had you'd also nominated jim bondfields for the four years and he didn't get in so you want to stick with that i'm going to stick with angeline thank you um

[01:04:54] miss glass faga for the two year okay miss i got all you guys right okay this mr detilio and i'm want to do Mr. Bonfields for the two-year term. So do we have anybody who received five votes for the two-year term? It's like Mr. Bonfields has the most votes. Mr. Bonfields would be for the two-year term. Okay, and now we have one seat left, and it's for the one-year term. Now, I do feel the need

[01:05:34] to say something right now, and I'm not trying to push one way or the other, but as this has turned out, I think I should actually say this. I talked to, I spoke to Terry Allen, who is the chair of the Loudon Water Board. He did tell me that one of the people stepping down is a man named Mark Klobis. Mark Klobis is an engineer. He told me that it was really important to have an engineer on the Loudon Water Board. The only person who applied, who was an engineer, is Mr. Vega.

[01:06:12] So do what you want to, but the water board has requested, they have not requested Mr. Vega. They have requested an engineer. So I'm just putting that out there for, because I told him if it came to this, I would.

[01:06:30] So I am. All right. So for the one-year term, let's start one in. Let's start with Mr. Crony. Okay, Stephen DiTileo. All right. Let's start with Mr. Sains down here.

[01:06:51] We will go, I'm sticking with Miss... Sir Shakar? Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Okay. Mr. Turner? Vega. Thank you.

[01:07:08] Mr. Letourneau? Vega. Miss Glass? Dettulio. Mr. Kirshner? Vega. Miss Umstead? Angeline? Sir Shakar? Miss...

[01:07:24] Mr. Dettulio. And I'm going to go, did everybody go? I'm going to go with Mr. Vega. So I don't think anyone hit five. If there's not hit five, then we really are doing ranked choice voting right now.

[01:07:41] That's what's happening with five. Did anyone hit five? Four for Vega. Okay, who was the person who got, did anyone get just one vote? Who got one vote? Point of clarification. Nobody hit five last time either.

[01:07:57] Is it the most votes or the majority votes? Yes, they did. No, they didn't. Oh, I thought she said somebody hit five the last time. For Mr. Bonfields? No, he had the most votes. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought they said he hit five the last time. I misunderstood that. Darn it. I misunderstood that. Well, I wasn't clear, though, that was the standard.

[01:08:13] I thought majority, but I actually misunderstood. So that was my fault. I thought I misunderstood. Since I've done it once, I don't think I should change the process, so I'll just leave it at the most votes this time. I thought he had hit. I actually said that anyone hit five, and I thought somebody had, and so that is my mistake.

[01:08:33] And so let's not change the process midstream, because that just seems unfair to do that. And so who has the majority of the votes this time? And the priority of the votes this time, rather? Mr. Vega. Mr. Vega. Okay, so then let's go with Mr. Vega for that one-year seat.

[01:08:48] So if I got this correct, the water board, as it was today, was the four-year terms with Mr. Moody, Mr. Buffington, and Mr. Yudd. The two-year term was Mr. Bonfields, and the one-year term was Mr. Vega.

[01:09:06] Is that correct? That's correct, ma'am. everybody got that everybody got that okay thank you good job supervisors thank you very much staff okay um the legislative item report madam chair oh we have to vote on i'm sorry and we don't want to suspend the rules do we i don't think you need to suspend the rules because we actually didn't have anyone new okay let's just uh um i'm going to make a motion to accept um mr um keith moody Mr. Tony Buffington, Mr. Charles Judd for the four-year term on the Loudon Water Board,

[01:09:46] Mr. James Bonfields for the two-year term on the Loudon Water Board, and Mr. Jack Vega as the one-year term on the Loudon Water Board. Is there a second? Second. Motion made, and second made, Mr. Crony. Discussion on the motion. Same discussion.

[01:10:03] Loudon Water Board is a lot of work, and I think it's going to be a lot of work over the next four years. I do appreciate, I really want to say that I appreciate the two gentlemen who are stepping down, Sean Kelly and Mark Coppola. You guys, the two of them have been on the Waterbird for a long time and did quite a bit of work and did it at very difficult times.

[01:10:25] So thank you very much. And to say welcome to new members, and we look forward to working with you. All in favor, please say aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 9-0. okay legislative items report because we cannot do i know we have one person for um public comment but it's still a little bit too early for that so i'll just get hold on to you just for a little bit longer i'm sorry and we'll do the um legislative item report if you come to the table sir please

[01:10:59] good evening and happy new year good evening madam chair members of the board happy new year Before you is the legislative item report. We have a policy statement in Section 1 as requested by Vice Chair Burskman on adding a policy statement on reproductive rights to the legislative program.

[01:11:26] Is that the only thing that's new? In this item, yes. Okay, so Supervisors, I want to remind you that we have our ledge meeting with our delegates and senators tomorrow.

[01:11:43] And so we're really going to try to have, if you have any motions that you want to make right now, do right now, any of that, do that now, because we're having our ledge meeting tomorrow. Mr. Rogers, could you come here for a sec, please? So the ledge program is what it has been.

[01:12:01] It's not my Mr. Rogers. Oh, I'm sorry. I can't believe it's the first time that happened. I think you're wonderful, Mr. Leo Rogers, but I actually wasn't talking to Mr. Matt Rogers. I'm sorry.

[01:12:20] I'm, yeah, gosh. I pointed to the Rogers. So if everything else is there, you've read through everything. We do have some motions to be made today. And I'm going to start with letting Ms. Bricksman make the motion to have this policy statement.

[01:12:45] To have the policy statement, I will have her make the motion. or read the policy statement and then we're going to discuss it. You want me to read the policy statement? I do. Okay, thank you. This is a request to change the human services policy statements. Add the following priority statement supporting reproductive rights.

[01:13:03] Reproductive rights supports state legislation that expands the right to reproductive health care and improves access to abortion, including adding language to the Virginia Constitution that protects the right to reproductive freedom. oppose any state legislation and budget amendments that restrict reproductive rights for pregnant people and reduce accessibility of abortion care. Oh, then the motion. That's the policy statement. So I'm going to handle this like we would handle a BMI, because the staff can't speak

[01:13:39] to a policy statement that you want to have in here. That's not appropriate. And that's not, and it's actually, that's not a motion. That's not part of a motion. That's the statement itself. And so, well, we'll make the motion, but I first want people, if they want to ask questions about it or whatever, because that's not the only thing that we might include in this motion.

[01:13:59] So if you have any questions about that policy statement being added to our agenda, because what we would have to do is move the agenda apart from any policy statements that might be put forward today, because we have a whole agenda, and that's one thing.

[01:14:20] But the policy statement today is something different. Actually, the motion is just for that. So, except there will be other motions in a minute. So, let's just do the motion separately. Go ahead and make that motion. Okay. We'll do the motion separately. Happy to do so. I move that the Board of Supervisors adopt and add the reproductive rights priority statement in Section 1 to the 2024 legislative program as found in Attachment 1 to the January 2, 2024 Board of Supervisors business meeting staff item.

[01:14:51] Motion made, and second by Supervisor Saints. Discussion on the motion, Ms. Bricksman. Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate my colleagues' patience as we worked out this language that we wanted in the legislative agenda.

[01:15:09] As I mentioned at a previous meeting, I mistakenly thought that since we supported bills last year, that it would automatically be included in our legislative agenda. So I was a little bit behind the eight ball when I realized it wasn't because we supported bills last year.

[01:15:24] We didn't change any of our policy statements last year. I hope that my colleagues have been following the news nationally and have been following some of the horrific laws that have been implemented in states other than Virginia and understand the implications if we do not protect reproductive freedoms in our constitution.

[01:15:52] Part of the reason that we decided to put it in our legislative agenda, because a constitutional amendment takes three years. So it has to cross over two different General Assembly sessions. It has to pass the House and Senate this year.

[01:16:09] I believe it has to pass the House and Senate again next year. And then it has to be voted on by the people of Virginia in 2025. So the goal here is to have an ongoing thread in our legislative agenda that we believe our constituents, whoever they may be, have a right to what they do with their own bodies.

[01:16:34] And I would appreciate my colleagues' support on this. Thank you very much. And thank you, team, for really helping out with the language. And then there was a straw poll at one point, and then we didn't do the straw poll. So I really appreciate everyone's patience with this, and I think one more thing I'll add is we came up with language that includes the budget only if there are restrictions, potential restrictions put into the budget, which I do believe was attempted by this administration through the budget at one point in time.

[01:17:08] so i just wanted to make sure that that could not happen where we have something snuck into the budget that restricts access we didn't want to necessarily put something about the budget expanding access out of concerns about how health care is paid for we can talk for another couple hours about that if anybody wants to but i'll leave it there and ask my colleagues to support the new policy language thank you madam chair you are the chair okay any other comments or commentary on the motion. Supervisor Umstead. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. I'm looking at the

[01:17:48] original requested change to human services priority statements, and what I'm trying to remember is whether you included in your motion the phrase oppose any proposed state legislation and budget amendments that restrict reproductive rights for pregnant people and reduce the accessibility of abortion care. I know that I had emailed your staff and expressed a concern that if we are only talking about pregnant people, that cuts out reproductive rights that might

[01:18:28] precede pregnancy, also theoretically reproductive rights for men. And so I just wanted to get your sense of whether that was your intent?

[01:18:46] Ms. Bricksman, you can answer that. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good question. I believe that reproductive health care prior to pregnancy is definitely included in the first part.

[01:19:07] I see what you're talking about because we specifically say pregnant people in the second part. You would have to specifically have a discussion with me offline about what you think are reproductive rights for men, people who can't get pregnant.

[01:19:28] If you want to offer a friendly to take out for pregnant people in the second part, I would accept that friendly. Yes, I would, I think, like to just remove the word pregnant so it is more all-encompassing. I agree because birth control is the next thing that's going to happen if they have their way with abortion.

[01:19:46] So, the seconder of the motion, are you okay with that? Who seconded the motion? Oh. Restate which part you're taking out. You can restate it because you were in Ms. Umstead's time, but if she doesn't mind.

[01:20:02] Are you okay if I restate it or do you want to? You can restate it if you'd like. She was concerned that in the second part of the language, it specifically calls out pregnant people, and it might open the door to restrict access to things like birth control because we're saying specifically pregnant people.

[01:20:21] So strike out pregnant people. Yeah, that's fine. Okay, thank you. Okay, anybody else speak on the motion? Mr. Letourneau. So it may not be a surprise to you all, but I'm not going to be supporting the motion. Mr. Freeman, is it fair to say that under this definition, this policy statement, there are hundreds of bills that would probably fall in this?

[01:20:44] that have been filed already? Dozens, at least? Because we don't have board direction yet, I haven't necessarily looked. So it's any legislation that expands the right to reproductive health care, including the Virginia Constitution, and oppose any legislation and budget amendments that restrict such rights. So essentially, any bill that's filed on this topic or budget amendment. In the last session, is it fair to say that there were hundreds of such bills?

[01:21:17] I would have to go back and look, but there were a lot of bills. There were a lot of bills. So this is kind of where we get into the discussion of what the purpose of the Board of Supervisors legislative program is. We just had an election. The people of Loudoun County elected their General Assembly members.

[01:21:33] Nobody can claim that this was not a topic of discussion in that election. And the will of the voters is being expressed to their General Assembly members. They did not elect members of the Board of Supervisors to deal with these issues because we don't deal with those issues in this room.

[01:21:48] we don't vote on these topics, we don't have that authority. Without getting into a discussion on the issue itself, I continue to have concerns when the board creeps into areas that are solely state responsibility that we really truly have no decision-making authority over and we have no particular unique perspective on. And what I mean by that is, does the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors taking a vote on behalf of the Board of Supervisors, is that going to change anything in Richmond on a particular issue, whatever the issue is. There are some issues where it does,

[01:22:25] because there are things that our government does that we have unique expertise in. There are things that affect counties, municipalities. We work with VACO. We work with others on those things. And then there's a whole category of things that are not. I could sit here and bring a list of truly hundreds of these type of issues that I have feelings about, that I believe one way or the other on, and we could do this all day.

[01:22:51] But that is not really what the legislative program is for. In addition, this motion creates tons of work for staff because now they have to track every one of these bills, they have to express the will of the board on those bills, and it diverts attention away from the issues that we really can and should be making a difference on in the General Assembly.

[01:23:12] So I will not support this. Again, reserving the actual discussion on the issue, but just on the process of what the board's legislative program is and what the use of taxpayer dollars, because that's what we're spending with our legislative program, should be going toward.

[01:23:29] I think our legislative program should be more narrow than broad. Thank you, Mr. Letourneau. Mr. Oh, he's turned his light off. Mr. Kirshner. Thank you, Madam Chair. And again, no surprise, as Mr. Letourneau said, I will not be supporting this in any form.

[01:23:45] I'm going to talk a little bit about the issue, but I want to reiterate what Mr. Letourneau did have to say. We as a board should not be delving into these particular highly controversial issues that really in a Dillon Rule state, we really have no business involving ourselves. I know there's arguments concerning that, but quite frankly, this is purely a political play, so to speak, to put this in our legislative agenda to gain something that's important to certain board members, which really we as a board have nothing to do with.

[01:24:14] And it is a colossal waste of time for our staff to be working on matters here. You may agree with it. You may not agree with it. But as a board, we should not be putting this in our legislative agenda for that alone. With that said, when you put in a language that says oppose any proposed state legislation and budget amendment that would restrict reproductive rights for pregnant people and reduce accessibility to abortion care, that is so far out of line with the majority of what Americans believe.

[01:24:42] I mean, when we're talking even second and third trimester, it says you can't—our lobbyists are supposed to oppose that. You know, if you want to be on record supporting that kind of language, that is on you and your conscience. But quite frankly, I could not ever support anything along those lines, so I will be opposing this.

[01:25:01] Thank you. I do think that this is broad as far as how many—not broad as far as—what is broad is how many bills would be tracked Because I don't believe it is possible for us to track all the, putting aside the issue itself, just the ideal of how many of these bills will be put forward to be tracked.

[01:25:29] And I hadn't thought about that, but I think it's a valid point. Tell me how this works, because we say, because this says oppose any and all or support any and all. is it better to say to support or oppose a constitutional amendment that protects rights to reproductive freedom? Would that just be like a more narrow statement? Because is what this statement asking feasibly possible for staff and our advocates in Richmond to do?

[01:26:09] Well, we could feasibly track the legislation. You know, we tracked over 100 bills or so last year. Not all of those were reproductive rights bills, but we tracked a lot of bills last year.

[01:26:27] So staff will do whatever the board asks us to do in terms of direction. And Ms. Freeman, I'm going to pause you. I know you will because our staff is absolutely amazing. But we have a lot of bills going on right now.

[01:26:43] And we do want them to all get enough time. So when this says follow all legislation, is it some way that those of us who want to be supportive to supporting a constitutional amendment, is there some language that could be more helpful so that it narrows, I think, what Ms. Bricksman's trying to do, which is saying, you know, This board wants to tell our legislators in Richmond to support a constitutional amendment.

[01:27:19] That's what we want to do. That's what we're doing with this. This board is saying to our legislators, can you support a constitutional amendment for reproductive rights? That's really all we're doing. Is it a way to do that in a more narrow fashion so that you're not tracking?

[01:27:37] Because unlike last year, I don't think there's going to be 100 bills. I think there's going to be 300 bills this year. Easy. So if the goal is to try to tell the General Assembly that represents Loudoun County, hey, we support that bill or that effort, how does that look?

[01:27:53] That's my first thing. My second thing is, is it three years or is it two years? Because I know it's to go through two General Assemblies and go on the ballot. But can it go through a General Assembly this year, a General Assembly next year, and then also go on the ballot at the end of 25? So it's not a three-year process, it's a two-year process?

[01:28:08] I would have to double-check, but my understanding is that it would go to the General Assembly, then be reenacted by the General Assembly, and then go for a voter referendum on the November election ballot.

[01:28:25] Yeah, so that's two years. You just said two years. That's correct. It goes to the two sections of the General Assembly, and it goes to the next general election. That's two years. Okay, all right, but my first question. So if we were to do what you just noted, which was basically, you basically said support a constitutional amendment that expands the right to reproductive health care, and then so on.

[01:28:50] I said it protects the rights to reproductive freedom. Yes, that would narrow it to the constitutional amendment that it would be filed. Okay. Ms. Brixman, would you accept that? Because I just don't think that the staff can track everything. I won't accept that, friendly, Madam Chair, and I'll have some comment in my closing.

[01:29:13] Well, I can make it as a motion, and I can make it as a motion, which means you won't have a closing, because it's made as a motion. Well, I'd like the opportunity to get a closing on what's on the table.

[01:29:32] Then you want to have a vote on what's on the table. Robert's Rules of Order doesn't allow you to do that unless I don't make a motion, an alternate motion, which, truthfully, I'm going to make an alternate motion. um and i make you know what i won't i'm going to respect you put a lot of work in that go in and close it go in and close okay thank you madam chair um as of now three bills have been filed so far um i don't disagree that a constitutional amendment may solve many many many of the issues

[01:30:06] um that we are seeing crop up across the nation um we have a legislative agenda for a reason and that is to either support or not support certain things that are happening down in the General Assembly in my opinion we are the voice of our constituents to our legislators we have many many constituents thousands and thousands of constituents who are fearful that access to health care will be denied to them from birth control to DNCs to life-saving procedures and

[01:30:43] they want us to use our voices for them, I am confident. I can't even imagine what would happen to some folks on this dais if someone told them they could not get a procedure that would save their life. If they were told that a General Assembly and a bunch of General Assembly members could tell them what to do with their bodies, certain issues such as constitutional amendments,

[01:31:17] access to reproductive health care, reproductive freedom, voting rights, and gun sense issues rise to the level of critical, critical necessity to pay attention to them. This is one of them.

[01:31:35] I know that staff has tracked many, many bills. I am confident staff will take care of this. I'm also confident that our professional staff will be able to identify which bills will have life and which bills won't have life and which bills that we have to pay attention to. I hope that it's a matter of tracking and maybe checking a box to someone that says Loudoun County supports this.

[01:31:58] I don't, you can tell me if I'm wrong later, but I don't think that it is an exorbitant amount of time to put them in two categories, support or don't support. I don't want to minimize the work that you do, but I know that you are very experienced in the General Assembly and in Richmond, and that you will be able to decipher which things deserve a lot of time and attention and which things don't.

[01:32:24] Madam Chair, I really appreciate that you're going to let this go to a vote. I really do. We both actually worked really hard on this, and so did our staffs. I think the language is appropriate right now, but I also think later we should have a motion to support the constitutional amendment, because the constitutional amendment is huge.

[01:32:39] Thank you. Well, how does this language not support the constitutional amendment point of clarification? Doesn't this a point of it? It does. I'll talk to you offline. I'm going to ask for some grace in the school out of order, because I actually do need to ask the staff.

[01:32:59] I'm not going to make any assumptions. I'm going to ask the staff to be as clear as you, because we have a pretty heavy legislative agenda this year. Is this agenda, and is this written in a way that, I don't know how to ask the question, that you believe this could take an inordinate amount of time enough that it would put a greater strain on staff or take time away from other things that are on our leg agenda?

[01:33:27] So because all of the legislation hasn't been dropped as of yet, the General Assembly members have until the first day of session to introduce all their bills that have been pre-filed.

[01:33:45] We just don't know what this session will encompass in terms of workload. We do have over 20 pages in our legislative agenda of policy statements, priority statements. But, and I don't mean to repeat, but staff will do whatever work that the Board of Supervisors gives us direction to do.

[01:34:11] Okay, well, I'm going to call it to a vote and then maybe make it. I want a clarification, Madam Chair. Yes. I'm sorry, I didn't see you all's lights on. Just turn it on. I'm sorry. The clarification is, can someone restate the friendly amendment that was accepted?

[01:34:28] Does it just remove? There was no friendly amendment except that she didn't accept my friend. Oh, down here before. I don't remember what that was we we struck the term pregnant people out of the second part so that we that we didn't exclude folks who were trying to access like birth control and stuff like that in other words reproductive health care happens before pregnancy as well STD testing whatever you have a point of something no point of clarification just wanted to well we're We're in discussion on the motion.

[01:35:05] Do you have to have a point of clarification? Is that what you're asking me right now? No, Madam Chair. Okay, then, yeah, because we're in a motion. And she already did her closing, yeah, yeah. So we're past that. We're past that. All right. The motion was made by Supervisor Brixman, second by Supervisor Sainz, with a friendly amendment offered by Supervisor Umstead that was accepted to strike the words pregnant people.

[01:35:34] And anything else? Just that. All right, all in favor, please say aye. Oppose? That motion will pass 7-2.

[01:35:50] And I would ask if the staff in the future feels like this is becoming unduly burdensome to come back and let us know. Okay? All right. Thank you.

[01:36:07] We have, I think, other motions on the dais. Yes? Okay. I think, though, I think that this is our... Jonathan, is this not in the package already? I thought it was in the package already.

[01:36:30] Number one, to support the Constitutional Amendment to automatically restore voting rights for convicted of a felony after release from incarceration without further requirements for release. Is that not in the package already?

[01:36:45] Support for that is under the election section on page 14. Okay, so that's already been. A point of clarification, Madam Chair, may I ask staff a quick question on that? You may not. No, you may not. I'm going to go to page 14 and read it so we can compare to see what it is.

[01:37:02] Because I, okay. Support a constitution amendment that automatically reinstates voting rights after a convicted felon is free from any term of incarceration. It's the same thing. It's the same thing. So that's already in the package. That one's not required to be made.

[01:37:17] It's already in the package. The next one. So point of information? Yes. So, and if you're referring to the email that Ms. Bristman sent at 2.06 p.m., we have four items on there.

[01:37:33] Number one was... And number one's in the package already. Okay, that one's in the package. So then we have items number two, dealing with fundamental right of reproductive freedom, and then item number three, dealing with private menstrual health data. Can I ask staff a question on that one? No, because unless I move this into the committee as a whole, we can't do that.

[01:37:53] We have to have a motion on the table to do this. But I do think that I'm going to rule number two out of order. I think we just did it. I believe we just did number two already, and I don't think we need to do it again.

[01:38:11] That was going to be Mike. Because it was part of the same language. So I'm ruling number two out of order. I'm going to go to number three because it's a different issue. So let's just review. Number one's in the package already. I was going to make that motion.

[01:38:27] It's in the package already. Number two, I'm ruling out of order. Number three, I'm going to ask Ms. Bricksman if you'd like to make that motion. Oh, that's an issue. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the Board of Supervisors support SB 16 and HB 78 that prevents search and seizures of someone's private menstrual health data to include period and or ovulation trackers on their personal devices.

[01:38:56] Second. Ms. Bricksman, would you like to open it? Thank you, Madam Chair. This is actually being brought to the Senate by Barbara Favola, and I really appreciate her doing that. I'm not sure if my colleagues recall that during our last presidential administration, we actually had one of our departments tracking menstrual cycles for potential immigrants that were seeking asylum.

[01:39:25] And that made the news, and it was appalling and disgusting. This is a prophylactic bill that would prevent access to this sort of data from folks with nefarious or other intention.

[01:39:46] It is their health care data, it is their health data, and nobody should be having access to it. So I really appreciate them bringing this bill, and I would love my colleagues' support. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Letourneau. So, two things. Everything I said in the first comments applies to three and four here.

[01:40:03] But from a process standpoint, I think it's very problematic when the board is being asked to vote on legislation that's being brought as part of our legislative packet on the day of the meeting when there's been no prior notice of the bills or the intent or anything of that nature, which is the case, I believe, for three and four.

[01:40:22] So I think that leaves everybody else, you know, I haven't read these bills. I probably would agree with what Supervisor Brisbane just said, other than the fact that I don't think it should be our legislative program, but I don't know what these bills say, and I'm not going to look it up on the spot. Do you mind if I respond to that in your time? Sure. I just don't think that should be our practice.

[01:40:38] Yeah, and Mr. Eternal, normally I completely agree with you a thousand percent. The issue for this right now is we had a ledge program scheduled before the holidays with our ledge team, but with our General Assembly members.

[01:40:55] Most of them couldn't make it, and we had to cancel that, which would have given us more time to know what these were and to put them in the package. We're meeting with them tomorrow. Sure. And so because we're meeting with them tomorrow, I feel like we are in a bind that I wish we were not in.

[01:41:12] I understand. That's why I allowed them. Reclaiming my time, Madam Chair. We just had a two-week or three-week break. I don't think the idea to do these just originated today from my colleague. I think that there was probably prior discussion or work with others or discussions with legislatures or so on to bring these forward.

[01:41:31] So at any point previously, other than the day of the meeting, it could have been brought up. I don't mean to sound grumpy, but I'm a stickler for these things because it puts everybody else in a bad position. So I understand I will be outvoted and outruled in this, but that is my objection. I did not outrule you, but I think you, I think, I think.

[01:41:48] That only figuratively matter. I think it was a point. Okay. Mr. Kirshner. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I appreciate what Mr. Letourne had to say. I'd agree with that. But again, because it's just appeared this evening, I haven't had a chance to go read the bill or even research the bill. But the way it reads here is to prevent search and seizure. We already have a constitutional protection of that.

[01:42:11] So I'm not sure what this bill actually does. You know, you cannot search or seize. Government cannot search or seize people's property without a warrant of some sort. and usually a warrant requires probable cause that a criminal matter has occurred. So I feel like maybe this is somewhat repetitive.

[01:42:30] I'm not sure what it's ganging at, but for the same reason as Mr. Letourneau said, I mean, this is fully protected under the laws of the Constitution now, as far as I can tell. Okay. Actually, I really respect what Mr. Letourneau and Mr. Kirsten are saying, because I do believe that the public needs to see these items.

[01:42:55] And I think that I'm not going to fight when somebody makes a good point. And I think the idea that these are probably thought of before today is a valid point. Having said that, we are meeting with our legislators tomorrow.

[01:43:13] And getting this meeting on the books seems to be like pulling teeth for them. And, you know, they have pre-filed or filed most of their bills already. And so I think we just want to say that we're supporting the bills that have already been filed.

[01:43:33] I think you make a good point, but I think that a very good point, in fact. But I think that this is a valid exception to the rule. To speak into the item, this is the most bizarre thing I've ever thought I'd have to discuss on this day or so anywhere else.

[01:43:50] And it does apply to, I think, every person. First of all, it's medically, it should be medically protected records. Secondly, how does that even work? I mean, really, how does that even work? And thirdly, at some point, I would tell you that women feel that their rights are being rolled back just overall.

[01:44:16] And I don't mean like women of one party or the other party or one favor. I mean, women that I talk to across the spectrum, almost all, are asking what is going on and why is there so much discussion of what is happening with our bodies.

[01:44:33] For anyone to have any discussions whatsoever about a woman's menstrual cycle, with the exception of that woman, her doctor, and maybe whomever else she wants to share it with, is completely ridiculous and somewhat appalling. Not to mention, if you ask most men, they don't even want to go to the store and buy their wife some tampons, let alone have a discussion about it at the daggone general assembly.

[01:44:56] This is just absolutely ridiculous to me. I can't imagine that we're in 2024, we're having discussions about whether anyone has the right to track anyone's menstrual cycle, period, the end, hard stop.

[01:45:14] And at some point, at some point, the burgeoning assault on women's rights has got to stop. It just does. It just has to stop. So I understand that and respect that we need to do things faster.

[01:45:34] I hear that, Ms. Letourneau, Mr. Kirshner. But on this one, I think this is a valid exception to the rule. Ms. Bricks, would you like to close in? Thank you, Madam Chair. everything you said um and more uh also on the timing of things uh i i i agree although these bills uh were filed just in the last couple of days so um i you know i i think especially in the legislative agenda and during session i don't think that it is um intentional to catch anyone up

[01:46:09] short on on bringing a motion but when bills are filed i think that we have a responsibility to sort of be up to date. And if we want to bring a motion on it, we should be able to bring a motion on it because they don't work on our timeline, right?

[01:46:25] The General Assembly doesn't work on our timeline. So we can't expect that they're going to file bills in time for us to brief all of our colleagues on the day about the bill before we want to bring a motion about. I do understand other items and having motions late, right before meeting and those sorts of things.

[01:46:41] But in this case, on the legislative agenda, I do think it's appropriate. It does, Madam Chair, feel a little bit 1984-ish, doesn't it? Actually, we had more rights in 1984, didn't we? Anyway, I'll just say that I trust Senator Favola, who has been a senator for Loudoun and Fairfax for many, many, many years.

[01:47:03] And if she did not have a concern that there was some sort of a loophole or potential for a data breach somewhere down the line, she would not have brought this bill. And she's not a novice. She's not a newbie. She understands the law, and to a certain extent, I trust Senator Favola is bringing a bill that we need because I know her and she's been representing us for so long.

[01:47:29] On the face of this concept, one should be able to support the denial of access to this sort of information. We are operating our own health department right now. We have medical facilities all throughout the county that all of our constituents use.

[01:47:47] They use applications on their phones to track what's going on with their bodies, and it's no one else's business what is in those apps or online on their personal devices. Whether they are trying to prevent pregnancy or get pregnant, it is nobody's business.

[01:48:07] So thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to my colleagues for supporting. All right. Mr. Brixman made the motion. I second the motion. All the people who say aye. Any opposed? Any abstain? Okay, that motion will pass 702 with two abstentions from Mr. Kirshner and Mr. Letourneau.

[01:48:28] I want to take a quick moment of personal privilege. My big sister just walked into the room from Alabama. Hi, Robin. Thank you for coming. She knows all the secrets. She knows all the secrets.

[01:48:50] All right, Ms. Bricksman, did you have one more motion? Thank you, Madam Chair. I move the Board of Supervisors support Senate Bill 55 that requires a three-day waiting period before a firearm may be sold after someone requests a background check.

[01:49:14] Second. Thank you, Madam Chair. This is Senator Salim, one of our new senators, who has filed this bill. I will ask staff, I actually am not sure if we have a policy statement on firearms. I do remember at one point we were tracking a ton and ton of pills. That's why I paused before a second because I didn't know if we had this already.

[01:49:31] Yeah, and so I don't know that it might just be on gun sense. It probably doesn't hurt just to pass the motion. No, no, no. We're not going to pass pills for a second time if we don't need to. Mr. Freeman, do you know if we have a position on this already? We don't have any positions on firearms in our program.

[01:49:49] You all might remember from last year, there was a bill introduced about firearms and government buildings that you all took a position on from last year. So that would have rolled back part of our ordinance, if I remember correctly.

[01:50:05] But on firearms as a whole, there's no statement in the program on that. Okay. All right. Okay. Well, thank you, Madam Chair. I'll keep it brief. I mean, I think that my colleagues understand, hopefully, the concern with gun violence across our nation and would want to make sure that someone is vetted before such a purchase of a firearm and letting the background check happen.

[01:50:32] Thank you, Madam Chair. So, okay. Really? Nobody else? She made a motion. It's a motion. Okay. All right. No, Mr. Crony, you cannot ask anything.

[01:50:49] As a new supervisor, you've got to wait six months before you can ask. I can say anything. You can say anything. Yes, Mr. Crony. John, I remember reading about sometimes it takes more than three days to get a background check. And so some people are getting, you know, getting that firearm sold to them without a background check because it expires.

[01:51:12] So three days expire. And they didn't get the background check. I remember reading about that. I don't know. And I don't know if this is an issue. but um i'm being serious like if i don't i don't know if you've heard about that type of legislation like where you have to extend it beyond the three days because they didn't get to the background check uh i have not been following that so i okay but we could get information if the board would like yeah because i think it's important to have a background check and if you and if you're if you

[01:51:47] don't if you aren't able to get to it because of complication usually the people that aren't able to get the background check in three days have issues. And so they shouldn't be given that. You know, they shouldn't be given a firearm. That's just my question.

[01:52:09] Mr. Letourneau? I can't resist now. So these are really good discussions to have in the General Assembly where they have staff and committees and experts who can answer these questions because they make laws on these issues, which we don't.

[01:52:27] So once again, we always come into these things halfway blind because we don't have access to the committee staff that the legislatures do and i will once again reiterate that people i i just think that the concept that voters look to their supervisors to lobby on their behalf to their members of the general assembly who they directly elect and have just as much access to as they do us is rather preposterous they don't have access to them mr kirschner what he said and on top of that answer miss lagroni i have bought

[01:53:01] a lot of firearms in my day a lot just letting you know and you have to go through a background check and that background check goes through a number of different databases and they check you thoroughly out so there's no that i'm aware of i've never seen any hey if it doesn't come back in three days you get the gun you have to go through that process so does it take three days no i honestly don't know there's an no it usually takes an hour or so to go through the process an hour or so yeah they check your it goes through a number of databases it goes to feds et cetera. I don't know all of them that they go through, but it takes way too long when I'm sitting there coming, come on, come on, you know, going through the computer. I mean, it does.

[01:53:42] But the truth of the matter is, it's very thorough. And a lot of people will make false statements on those, and the systems will flag it and do a really good job of it. I mean, I'm not saying it's perfect, but quite frankly, I've been pretty amazed at it. So in your time, may I ask you a question, please? Of course. Tell me about what happens with the red flag law, and when we're talking about a black background track, so if somebody has a mental health issue.

[01:54:06] Well, if you have, I mean, if you want to go into the Virginia statutory process, if you have ever been involuntarily committed, or even committed, I believe, you have to answer that, and that will alert.

[01:54:21] But that's different than a red flag law. Well, so, but your answer is... It will get flagged in the system. So you have to say you have been committed. There is a question on the questionnaire, correct. If you lie about it and it gets flagged, which most of the time it does, because I've reported a lot of individuals who made false statements on that, you'll get charged with a felony.

[01:54:40] Even if it's a voluntary commitment? I think you have to. You can't make a false statement about that either. So any commitment. So it asks you if you've ever been committed for it. Okay. All right. I'm pretty sure. I've never been committed, so I usually say no on that one, but I probably should read the question a little bit.

[01:55:00] Mr. Turner. Thank you, Mr. Kirsten. Thank you, Madam Chair. I support all these motions completely. My question is, are we going to have motions made by the board throughout the legislative session on each individual bill, whether we support it or oppose it, because we're going to be here for years?

[01:55:24] No. No, we're not. I'm questioning where this is coming from. I don't ever remember the board voting to support or oppose individual bills. Because in the past, we've been able to have a meeting with the ledge team and have these discussions in advance.

[01:55:40] Because they canceled the meeting, and the meeting is tomorrow, we're trying to get everything together for tomorrow, so we never had to do this like this before. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. So to this bill, so that's the answer, guys. I mean, I understand those are valid questions, and it's a very valid question with the public sees and all that.

[01:56:00] They're valid. And truthfully, even after we changed our date for tomorrow, we still have people who are not coming from the ledge team, general assembly members, which is, you know, I mean, we can't make them come. So, yeah, we still have people who are not coming tomorrow, but it is tomorrow, even if it was later this week or something, but it's, you know, it's tomorrow. To this item, you know, Mr. Letourneau, I actually, on this one, because oftentimes when you say that, I disagree with you, but on this one, I don't know that I disagree with you on this. I mean, that I agree with you on this. I think that there are

[01:56:36] some things that are so overwhelming and important that every elected official in office, you know, should speak on it. When gun violence is the number one reason for childhood death in America, I don't believe that there's any elected official from dog catcher to the president who should not have a voice on the thing that kills more children in our country than anything else.

[01:57:02] if we were you know you know supporting research for childhood diabetes we wouldn't have any discussion about whether we were supporting research for childhood diabetes we would just support the research for childhood diabetes whether or not we could do anything about it on this board if that was on our ledge program we would support it without discussion we just go right through so why if it's not so why if it's the number one killer of children do we have to decide that because we don't vote on it, we can't say that we support it. On this one, I'm going to call you on this one because I just don't think that's a valid argument. I think everyone should

[01:57:40] have a discussion or can have a thought on the number one killer of children in this country. And so that's the first thing. The second thing is I don't know that I know what the right waiting period is to get a gun. I don't know that I know that. And I learned a lot from Mr. Kirshner right now, so thank you for that. I do know that I'm not, I haven't been an attorney, but I've worked in a lot of jails and prisons. And I know many people who walked in and legally walked out with a gun who probably should never have had a gun in their hand for a lot of different reasons,

[01:58:16] a lot of different reasons. And I have spent, I spent my almost entire adult career with the offender population, youth, and adults. And I think people would be surprised how many people have committed acts with a firearm who purchased those firearms legally after waiting one hour.

[01:58:40] And so I have no trouble saying that there should be some period of waiting. I don't know what that period should be. Three days sounds reasonable to me, but you know what? Two weeks sounds reasonable to me, to be quite honest. And so I will enthusiastically support this and hope that from here on out, we don't have to do this like this because we would have had a meeting if our legislators won't advance.

[01:59:07] Ms. Bricksman, would you like to close? Thank you, Madam Chair. I will not close. I just appreciate everyone's support. Thank you. All right. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? Nay. Any abstain? So that motion will pass 7-1-1 with Mr. Kirshner having educated us, but opposing, and Mr. Letourneau abstaining on the bill.

[01:59:33] That might be everything for tonight. Is that everything? Mr. Hempstreet and everybody. Oh, we do have a speaker. I'm sorry. I'm just going to say, Mr. Hempstreet, before we get to the speaker, what time, for everyone's knowledge, what time tomorrow do we have our alleged meeting?

[01:59:51] It's 5.30. 5.30 in the boardroom. So, advisors, I have, for the first time, invited the school board to come, the new school board, in the Dulles Room. They won't be part of the meeting at the table, but I do want them to be there because there's a lot of legislation that actually is education-based, especially the JLARC study, that discussion.

[02:00:12] And so the school board, they won't be at the table with us, but they'll be in the room with us. They have all been invited, as has Dr. Spence. We do have one speaker, and that speaker is Madeline Skinner. ms skinner would you please come to the podium randall supervisors and uh welcome to supervisor to crony tonight i am madeline skinner here to support one of the loudest most treasured yet continuously threatened assets are rural historic villages specifically tonight is filamont i would

[02:00:51] like to provide a very important update to you on a meeting that was held on december 21st after the planning commission work session thank you to mr hemp street for listening when i asked for a meeting to set the record straight on the philomont firehouse included were chief johnson and staff nancy boyd and staff the fmg architect uh staff member from chair randall's office supervisor kirschner bill ridge the architect from philomont joe mcclidgett who is a prior chair of the philomont bfd board of directors and me overall it was a very productive meeting just as i hoped and wished we could have had long ago after it was discussed and determined that the

[02:01:31] last feasibility study reviewed the incorrect concept and our discussion finally focused on the correct one. It was decided as a whole that the proposed design to modernize the existing firehouse with an approximate 12,000 square foot addition and renovating the existing building with joint use spaces such as offices, workout area, and more was in fact feasible. Yes, you heard, it is feasible. Loudoun County Fire Rescue staff will have all their safety, health, comfort, fire, and rescue requirements achieved. The only concession would be that it's a two-level

[02:02:10] firehouse versus one. An innovative process and solution was agreed upon by the appropriate solution was, I'm sorry, by the appropriate parties. Mixing in history and tradition, Philomont will have an extraordinary 21st century firehouse that will be compatible with our century-old general store and community center along historic Snickersville Turnpike. Again, thank you to Mr. Hemstreet. If the county, I just wanted to reiterate again, remember, if the county uses the horse show grounds, the fire department, Philomont Fire Department will give it to them for free. If they build on the current part 2.3 current parcel with current

[02:02:49] firehouse, the Philomont BFD will charge $2 million, and they'll sell the horse show grounds to a developer. However, if you build the firehouse on the horse show grounds, Philemon BFD will give the county the firehouse for free to sit empty and wait for the county to spend tax dollars to renovate as who knows what. When our tax dollars could go to be used now to save our firehouse through adaptive reuse, not only highlighted in the comp plan, but a new section in the zoning you approved on December 13th.

[02:03:14] Thank you. I do have a quick question. When you say that that can be done, are you talking about with that whole cell tower thing still there or moved? either either yes okay i'll make i'll go look into that okay thank you thank you very much supervisors um if you'd like to have board comment if you'd like to have board comment um i will call on you and you can or you don't have to include your disclosures if you have

[02:03:47] word comment um uh mr crony all right thank you well i just want to say thank you um to the board here. I look forward to working with you guys. I know I'm the only newbie here, but I look forward to working with you. You guys are great, and thanks for being my mentors, especially Chair Randall and Kristen. Working with you has been a pleasure. My disclosure, I met with Michelle Kang and Colleen Gillis on December 19th about a potential Washington Spirit training facility in the Little River District, and I also want to thank the residents of the Little River District for

[02:04:27] electing me i look forward to serving you um i love what supervisor sane said at the end of the year he said we're advocates and that's how i feel i feel like i'm an advocate for you um i want to be your voice i want to listen to you about your concerns and um i look forward to working really hard for the district we're going to have a lot of growth in the district um but i think working together, the Little River District's going to be great. So I look forward to working with all the residents and helping the county out. I did want to bring up during my comments, I just want to

[02:05:06] highlight some special places in the Little River District, special venues or historic sites. I was pleased to attend the barn at Brambleton grand opening with Chair Randall on November 30th, and I just want to say, wow, that barn is amazing, and it's a dairy barn from the 1940s that Suave Real Estate renovated, and it's in the heart of Eastern Loudoun, and it's just a great piece of history that'll be preserved for all the residents, and it's a reminder of the

[02:05:44] community's rich agricultural past. So Ashburn used to be a dairy farm, so I think it's awesome. So it can host, right now the venue can host up to 200 people for weddings, corporate events, or special occasions. And my favorite room, and I would encourage the public if they get a chance to go, please go, is the Anthony Suave Grand Hall. That hall is amazing and it has a gorgeous view of the pond. And I want to thank Mr. Suave for having the vision to restore this

[02:06:21] historic barn. If you looked at it at the beginning, you'd say, oh, that's going to be torn down. And I remember passing by that and thinking the developer's going to tear that down. But they didn't. They had a great vision and it's beautiful. So if you're interested in taking a tour or if you're interested in renting out the Brambleton barn, you can and an email to events at the barn at brembleton.com and i just encourage everybody to go out and see this um spectacular venue thank you mr crony welcome to the board of supervisors you're going

[02:06:56] to be fantastic um mr kirschner thank you and welcome supervisor crony good to see you i'll say happy new year to everyone and i won't welcome everybody else because they've been here for a while but welcome um uh just all i have madam chair is one disclosure i don't have any other comments. On December 20th, I met with Erin Swishelm from Walsh Colucci about the Clear Springs development. Thank you, sir. Ms. Umstead. No disclosures. I just want to welcome Supervisor Tacroni. I think this is pretty exciting, and I'm really glad that you're part of this team now.

[02:07:35] Mr. Sains. Thank you, Madam Chair. Welcome to the new year, 2024. With it being the year of 2024, Kobe Bryant famously wore two jerseys, one being eight, one being 24.

[02:07:51] I'm dubbing it the year of the Mamba mentality. Kobe Bryant, his nickname was the Black Mamba. So I'm going to try to uphold ten rules that Kobe Bryant had with the Mamba mentality, which is, one, get better every single day, prove them wrong, work on your weaknesses, execute what you practice, learn from greatness, learn from wins and losses, Practice mindfulness, be ambitious, believe in your team, we're all a team up here, and learn storytelling.

[02:08:22] So with that, that's going to be my mantra for this year, Mama Mentality 2024. Mandatory disclosures, I met with Michael Capretti regarding Innovation Gateway legislative application on December 20th. My staff and I spoke with Aaron Swishelm and Randy Michu from Walsh Colucci, Hobie Mitchell for Clear Springs Development Group, Andy Gorky from J2 Engineers, and Mike Wilkins, a property-owning assemblage member on December 27th about the Village at Clear Springs Legislative Application.

[02:08:53] And welcome to the board, Supervisor Dr. Crony. I look forward to working with you in this capacity. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Turner. I have no board comments. Thank you, Madam Chair. No disclosures? No disclosures?

[02:09:10] All right. Mr. Letourneau. Thank you. I want to join my colleagues in welcoming Supervisor Tricroni, and as I expressed to her directly, my excitement on having another Route 50 colleague on the board for the first time. I think this is the first time we've had two Route 50 supervisors on the board of supervisors, so that's exciting.

[02:09:28] I just wanted to mention, for the benefit of my colleagues, because I haven't had a chance to reach out to everybody yet, We're going to move the January Finance Committee meeting because it conflicts with the Greenway public hearing that's at Freedom High School on the toll rate increase.

[02:09:50] I know that I've spoken with several of you that want to be there. I want to be there and speak directly to the State Corporation Commission on the Greenway toll increase. So, we're working with staff on identifying another date, potentially just Thursday of next week.

[02:10:11] I don't know, Erin, if we, I don't think we've sent that out yet, but we can do that tomorrow. So, either staff or let me know, but we'll get the meeting rescheduled. That is all I wanted to say. Happy New Year. Thank you very much. Ms. Glass. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[02:10:28] two disclosures on Thursday December 21st I met with representatives for the Village at Clear Springs and Belmont Innovation Campus rezoning applications on Thursday December 28th my staff met with representatives for the Tillots View rezoning application I also want to say Happy New Year to everyone and welcome Supervisor Chikahuni and look forward to working with you as well and And, again, thank the voters in Broadbent for having me to represent them for another four years.

[02:11:06] I really do look forward to working hard for them as well. And we do have a lot of good initiatives that we are trying to do in the works for the Broadbent District. Also, I just wanted to just let folks think about, you know, the holiday seasons that just came by.

[02:11:31] And, you know, a lot of people have, you know, good memories, but then there are people that may have lost loved ones during this time. And just if you know of someone, you know, who may, you know, may have been down in the dumps because of loss of a loved one, you know, I hope that you reach out to them and, you know, say hello, see how they're doing.

[02:11:59] I recently lost a good friend on December 27th, so, you know, just want to give a shout out to the family and let them know that, you know, I'm supporting them. Thank you.

[02:12:19] Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Glass. Mr. Turner. Thank you, Madam Chair. I also didn't have a comment, but since I do, I'll start by welcoming Supervisor Takroni. I think she's going to be a terrific supervisor.

[02:12:34] I'm very happy to have her as a colleague. I did want everybody to know, tomorrow at 1 o'clock, I have the WebEx address if anybody's interested. The Department of Energy is going to host its final public meeting on the establishment of national interest electric transmission corridors.

[02:12:50] And N-I-E-T-C would immediately place the Department of Energy above all state agencies for establishing where transmission lines will go. It would take the SEC completely out of the mix in Loudoun County.

[02:13:06] They're going to announce the finalists for N-I-E-T-C candidates next spring, and they'll make the decision probably late spring, early summer. And I'd be willing to bet a month's pay, all $69,000 that I get from the county, that Loudoun County will have at least one, if not several, N-I-E-T-C's designated in Loudoun County.

[02:13:27] And we will be out of the loop in determining where our transmission lines are going to go. If anybody's interested in tuning in to that WebEx, just let me know, and I'll send you the link. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Vice Chair Bricksman. Thank you, Madam Chair. Happy New Year, everyone.

[02:13:42] Welcome, Supervisor Tacroni. I'm very excited to work with you. Welcome back to all my colleagues. By way of disclosures, my staff had a meeting with Walsh Kalushi on two applications, one for Belmont Innovation Campus and then the one for the Village at Clear Spring.

[02:13:59] That was on December 18th. On December 20th, my staff had a meeting with Walsh Kalushi about Tillots View. I don't have any regional updates, but I just wanted to say I am looking forward to serving on the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission. This is a new area for me, and I'm really excited to learn about regional transportation issues.

[02:14:19] I will miss serving on the Council of Governments, but I know Supervisor Tacroni will pick up right where we left off and add much to the regional conversations on transportation, the climate crisis, and the ongoing attainable housing issues. I'm very much looking forward to the work we started on the VACO Board of Directors.

[02:14:36] And, of course, I am truly honored that Chair Randall and my colleagues had the faith in my ability to serve as vice chair. I hope I can live up to the expectations. As we embark on a new term, I'm proud of all that we have accomplished in the last term, bringing life to our values through policy and that the voters of Loudoun County have clearly expressed their desire for us to continue the work we have started, much of it bipartisan.

[02:15:01] I will continue to strive toward the vision we set out in 2020, which is to build an equitable, inclusive, and sustainable community where everyone is free to pursue their vision of happiness, whatever that might be. According to the Gun Violence Archive, Madam Chair, there were 656 mass shootings in 2022. That was, sorry, yeah, in 2022, sorry, 2023, and that was 10 more than in 2022. In 2023, we topped 42,926 total gun deaths, 18,836 were homicide, murder,

[02:15:37] unintended. 24,090 were suicide. The deaths included 297 children under the age of 11 and 1,383 teens ages 12 to 17. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Ms. Briggsman. My staff had a meeting with the Village of Cool Springs about their application. For everyone who may not know this, in 2016 when we came to office, there were two separate swearing-in ceremonies with the Republicans on one and the Democrats on another. We kind of thought that was ridiculous, and

[02:16:13] so for the first time in 2016, we had a co-swearing-in ceremony with supervisors from both political parties. This time, we're going to add to that and have the school board join us. So the installation, the ceremonial installation, will be Saturday morning at 1030 with the gala being um in the evening i am told mr sains is learning a new dance for the gala so he didn't just have that two-step thing you do and i will tell you putting all y'all's videos together has been so much fun but but but mr kirster's has been absolutely the most fun one your kids are

[02:16:49] beautiful and and it's they do and you have so many good pictures but secondly i don't want you to tell anyone what your video music is because your video music is so perfect for your video it's just i mean when when when when the guy was working on it he he he said mr turner's video was perfect because yeah mr turner's video is perfect but then he said but he had the most fun with yours um and and making sure that the what's i i learned it's actually called the ken burns effect

[02:17:25] how things pan up and pan down for one of the pictures like to pan all the way down to your little boy and all the way up to you we had to like just extend the thing to go further because the the hype difference was because yeah you have the Jameson's in there so the hype difference was so big and it was just so precious to do it so um I think we're going to have a good time and all of your videos are done so it's going to be great I do have one thing that's been on my mind this past week and I thought I would share it if she is listening I don't think she probably is but if she just decides to ever stop and listen. Nikki Haley, the Civil War was about slavery. It was

[02:18:03] about nothing but slavery. It was because some states wanted the right to own human beings. That's called slavery. So the state's rights issue was a slavery issue. The economic issue was because the entire economy on the South was built on the backs of enslaved people.

[02:18:22] That's called slavery. So presidential candidate, South Carolina governor and ambassador Nikki Haley, in case you need to know, the Civil War was about slavery and nothing else. Hard stop. Period. We are done. We are adjourned.

[02:18:40] I will see you all tomorrow.

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