Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, Finance/Government Operations and Economic Development Committee, Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Date: Tuesday, February 13, 2024
Place: Board Room, First Floor, Government Center, 1 Harrison Street SE, Leesburg, Virginia
Length: 2h 50m (video)
Official meeting video (county, Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/player/clip/7596
Agenda (Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=73&clip_id=7596

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 2026-10-21. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:10:54] Good evening and welcome to the Finance, Government Operations, and Economic Development Committee meeting for February 13th, 2024. I'll call the meeting to order. This room has a hearing loop. If you need hearing assistance, switch your hearing aids to telecoil mode. If you need a headset, we have those available as well.

[00:11:11] Please see the clerk to request one. Likely take a dinner break around 7 p.m. this evening. We have seven items proposed for our consent agenda. They are number five, Contract Award Consultant Services for Transportation Planning and Preliminary Engineering.

[00:11:27] Item six, Contract Award Roadway and Civil Design Services for Arcola Mills Drive, Segment One, Belmont Ridge Road to Stone Springs Boulevard. Number seven, Contract Renewal Engineering Services for Loudoun County Stormwater Management Program. Number eight, Contract Renewal Information Technology Solutions and Services.

[00:11:45] And number nine, Affordable Multifamily Housing Loan Program Application for Commonwealth LOFTS. number 10 affordable multifamily housing loan application for old arcola school apartments number 11 community development block grant funding recommendations public service activities i will move adoption of the consent agenda is there a second seconded by everybody i'll give it to supervisor brissman any discussion on the consent agenda hearing none all in favor say aye aye anyone opposed motion carries 401 chair Randall is not able to join us this

[00:12:24] evening okay we are really beginning our FY 25 second phase of our budget development process we'll say this evening with the proposed FY 25 to FY 30

[00:12:51] capital improvement program presentation so I'll let staff take their seats and I I think I'm turning it over to Ms. Bork for the presentation.

[00:13:08] Good evening. Office of Management and Budget and DTCI are here, but I'm going to hand it over to Nikki Spade, our assistant director. Good evening, Chair Letourneau and committee members. I'm here to present the county administrator's proposal for the FY25 through FY2030 proposed capital improvement program.

[00:13:29] Consistent with past practice, the CIP is being presented ahead of the county administrator's full proposed budget. The county CIP is developed biennially with the six-year period moving out an additional two years every other fiscal year. FY25 is the first year of the biennial.

[00:13:47] This slide shows the factors that influence the development of the CIP. As always, the budget is constrained by availability of revenues. The school board's adopted CIP could not be fully accommodated in the county's proposed CIP. The full level of increases requested in the capital facility renewals and alterations program in FY26 through FY2030 could not be accommodated. However, the funding was increased in FY25, FY26, and FY29. Other changes that were accommodated include the addition of an Eastern Transportation Facility and a school replacement program, as well as the delay of ES34 Dulles North Elementary School.

[00:14:28] Project cost increases on existing projects, particularly road projects, were again a factor in the CIP development process, which are always accommodated first before any new projects are added. Renovation and renewal programs continue to be an important part of the CIP for both the county and schools. The county's recurring long-term has a recurring long-term program but also has larger individual renovation projects such as the Shenandoah building which has re-entered the CIP with an expanded scope and the Cascades Library and Senior Center renovation. The same is true

[00:15:04] on the school side. As noted earlier the schools have included a new school replacement program to the CIP, which targets significant renovations, modernizations, additions, and or replacements of schools. This chart shows the major expenditure areas of the CIP over the last five years.

[00:15:24] Overall, expenditures in the six-year planning period have generally increased over the last five capital budgets. The budget for the six-year CIP is $3.5 billion. Funding for county projects represents 32%, transportation at 40%, and school projects at 28%. The CIP proposal complies with all debt ratios and debt issuance guidelines. County projects total $1.1 billion over the six year period. A few new projects included in the proposed CIP includes funding to begin preliminary

[00:16:00] design of the Cascades Library and Senior Center Complex and an Eastern Loudoun Community Arts Center, as well as the Percival Fire Station addition. Transportation projects total $1.4 billion over the six year period. As mentioned earlier, road projects have experienced cost increases. Two notable new projects include the Route 15 Hogback Mountain Road Roundabout and Route 7 improvements, Route 9 to Dulles Greenway long-term improvements. This project also now includes the scope of the Route 7 improvements Phase 3 project. School projects

[00:16:38] total $996 million over the six-year period. New projects include the addition of the Eastern Transportation Facility and a school replacement program. This slide shows an overview of the different revenue sources used to fund the six-year CIP. The CIP continues to leverage a variety of funding sources, which reduces pressure on local tax funding over time. Debt is 65% of total funding sources, and local tax funding is 21%. The next few slides highlight some helpful information you

[00:17:13] will find in the CIP executive summary, which is the first tabbed section in volume two of the document. Would you mind actually delivering us the documents now so we can kind of see it while

[00:17:25] here. Because I can't read that. Okay. Which tab did you say this was? The CIP Executive Summary.

[00:18:04] It'll be the first tab section. Comparison tables can be found beginning on page 7-55. These tables compare the changes between the FY24 adopted CIP shown in gray bars and the FY25 proposed CIP shown in white bars. And any changes between the two are highlighted in yellow. Okay.

[00:18:35] This slide shows the new projects that were added to the proposed CIP. These can be found on page 7-16 of the CIP executive summary. A summary of changes to projects is also included, beginning on page 7-16.

[00:18:55] Changes include projects that were rephased or if how the project is presented in the document has changed from last year, including name changes. None of the project changes shown in this section resulted from funding constraints or the addition or acceleration of another project, Rather, new or accelerated projects were accommodated after these changes are made.

[00:19:16] Staff continue to facilitate the past practice of soliciting requests from our incorporated towns. There was one project that was accommodated in the CIP this year, the town of Roundhills-Airmont Water Storage Tank, as this is a public health and safety-related project.

[00:19:34] Standing board direction is for staff to prioritize county and school projects over town requests. And finally, this slide shows the next steps in the board's FY25 CIP process. We have already been in contact with board offices to provide individual briefings and answer questions.

[00:19:53] By Tuesday, February 20th, we hope to have all questions and alternative scenarios from your offices so that staff can prepare formal responses ahead of the Finance Committee's first CIP work session on February 27th. If it is the desire of the committee, you will also provide direction to staff to prepare alternative funding scenarios following discussion during the February 27th work session.

[00:20:18] Please remember that alternative scenarios should include specific project offsets as all available CIP revenue is fully programmed. If the committee directs staff to prepare scenarios, those would be discussed at the March 6th work session. So we actually are canceling the March 6th work session, and we're going to roll that into the March 12th finance committee meeting.

[00:20:41] If there's a significant amount of questions that emerge on February 27th, we can move the committee meeting up an hour to five, but typically that second work session is pretty quick, so I didn't think it was needed for us to come an extra night. Sorry. With the hope that the committee, finance committee, would recommend the CIP move to full board for discussion and strong vote approval in March. And this concludes my presentation, and we will take your questions.

[00:21:11] All right, great. Thank you. You mentioned at the onset that the full school board request, CIP requests could not be accommodated? Could you elaborate a little bit on why and how short we were and that sort of thing? The school's capital facility and renewals program, they did request pretty significant increases in that program, if you'll recall. In the FY24 budget, they had

[00:21:43] deferred some of their requests, and so this year was a request to kind of restore and really just put forward their needs-based requests for that project. We were not able to fit all of those increases in.

[00:22:00] However, we were able to accommodate some level of increase in certain years. And additionally, that was the main issue there. And then we were able to accommodate their capital asset preservation program request, which was a very large increase as well.

[00:22:22] And the only thing I would add is that we're continuing to work with LCPS for the out years of their needs for renewals, and we were able to accommodate their increase in FY25, the year of appropriation. Okay, so it was just the out years that we didn't have anything.

[00:22:39] Okay, just helpful to know if we're going to hear some concerns from schools on what is or isn't here. We did provide increases, just not the full increase that they requested. Okay, other questions?

[00:22:57] Supervisor Umstead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to follow up on Chair Letourneau's question, I'm looking at the school section now. Is it going to be obvious to us which projects we could not fully fund?

[00:23:15] Is there a notation to that effect? You won't see the project page that shows FYI, what they've requested versus what we've accommodated. So you won't see that. What you will see is the change in funding in those comparison tables that I mentioned that begin on page 7-55, a comparison of what their funding level was in the FY24 adopted CIP compared to what is in the proposed.

[00:23:40] Okay, thank you. But we can certainly provide that information. And it was just one project that couldn't be fully accommodated. It's their Capital Renewal and Alteration Program. All right. Yeah, if we could get that specific information.

[00:23:57] Thank you. Thank you. Sir Advisor Briskman? Thank you. Well, I'm, of course, really excited to see the Cascades Library and Senior Center being added. Could you just describe the process now that happens now that it's added to the, I'm assuming, year six, And then explain or describe how attached it will be to the proffers or not attached to the proffers that are coming from the Cascades Revitalization Project.

[00:24:33] Yes, I will ask DTCI to answer that question. So as far as the project's concerned, that would be, I believe it is year six when it is introduced as a planning study. Happy if it's year five. That'll be the first design element into it, and you kind of build towards a concept plan of what we are going to put into this project and how elaborate and kind of detailed that would be.

[00:24:58] So that'll be the first step, and then, of course, design and construction will follow after that in what I'm assuming are the out years currently. Okay, so I'm sorry, what will happen in year six? The preliminary design documents kind of running through the design, doing a planning effort of what the project is fully going to entail.

[00:25:17] um at that point okay so so the first year will be like planning and then the next year might be design and correct yeah it'll follow sequentially after that okay and and how um reliant is it on the proffers do you think the budget that you'll see in the cip just anticipates the cost of the preliminary planning um part of the uh project and so as more information is known about the full cost of construction, we'll leverage the proffers as they're available when they come in.

[00:25:50] Okay, great. And then one other question, another proffer that we had in there was for the dog park and the pickleball. Are those big enough to merit a separate page in the CIP? Okay, so those will just kind of happen in our normal processes of stuff. Okay, I think those are all the questions I had. Thank you. Thank you. It looks like some of the projects that I'm familiar with have some pretty big cost escalations.

[00:26:19] Is there anywhere that sort of provides or revisions to projects that were estimated up that were existing CIP projects? If you're asking the change from last year to this year, that'll be in those comparison tables.

[00:26:36] Okay, it's in the tables. Okay. Yes. All right. I did have one project that I had asked to be looked at that's clearly not in here, which is Bull Run Post Office Road. So we can do it offline, but maybe tomorrow we can connect on why it couldn't be accommodated and go from there but i'm very disappointed um okay other questions from members of the committee seeing none so first work session will be tuesday february 27th at six o'clock as we said um so what we'd like is for any member of the board not just committee to submit all their cip questions and

[00:27:16] and then if there are specific projects that are not accommodated that you would like to see accommodated we're asking that you identify potential offsets staff will do the work to look and see if those offsets work but I think we want to try to give them a general idea and it can be kind of an iterative process usually they're very willing to work with board offices on this but to look at potential funding scenarios for those so those should go to Nikki by the close of business on Tuesday February 20th and that will give staff a full week to be able to prepare to respond to the questions and then the work session

[00:27:55] packet will come out on February 26th so there won't be a ton of lead time there between the work session packet and the meeting but we're trying to maximize the amount of time that staff has to be able to first give board offices some time to work with this and then ask the questions staff as mentioned has reached out to board offices to set up CIP briefings so please take advantage of those and then at the 27th meeting we're going to review the CIP and the committee will decide whether to advance specific alternative funding scenarios

[00:28:31] for projects that we can consider at the next work session which as I said we're going to try to accommodate on March 12th and then you know if there is an alternative scenario the board as I said should try to identify at that time on the 27th which specific items would be moved to accommodate it and after the 27th it becomes really difficult to do this because we start kind of getting locked in and some of these takes some analysis and some time for staff to figure out given funding sources so um encouraging everybody

[00:29:07] to have kind of an iterative process with staff on this and and be be ready and willing to uh potentially offer changes that you would be willing to live with in order to see something else accelerated i'm sorry i thought of one more question that's okay is that okay that's fine um on the eastern loudon community arts center i see 86 million under construct under the construction phase how do we know already that it'll be 86 million and that seems quite low frankly this is in it says in the construction as a construction that is an estimate that was done as a part of

[00:29:44] the study very conceptual estimate so okay okay it's in the the it's not based on a very specific scope so it's it'll be refined over the years okay okay first effort all right thank you okay any other questions on process all right thank you so much appreciate it look forward to working with all of you okay on to the rest of our agenda our first item is our monthly department of economic development reports and we also as part of this we'll be getting an update from the Economic Development Advisory Commission, and joining us tonight is Director Buddy Reiser,

[00:30:24] Executive Director Buddy Reiser, in person. And also, well, can you introduce the Vice Chair of EDAC for us as well? Sure. Thank you. Tim Shinbara, the Vice Chair of EDAC, and he'll have his report in just a moment. Great. Just a couple of things that I wanted to call your attention to. We are We're at 83 wins, 2,030 jobs, and $4.14 billion in investment as we speak this year.

[00:30:53] Those are bigger numbers than you'll find in your packet, but that's as of this morning. Jobs in the U.S. increased by over 350,000 in January, stronger than was expected by economists. Labor participation rate, 62.5.

[00:31:10] The latest unemployment numbers are from December 2.4 in Loudoun, 3.1 in Virginia, and 3.7 for the U.S. Earlier this morning, consumer prices were announced up 3.1 year over year. That's a tad higher than had been predicted.

[00:31:28] It's unclear how much that will impact the future of Fed decisions. They had held rates steady in January. I did want to talk a little bit about the USDA ag census that came out today. We are still obviously going through it.

[00:31:43] There's over 600 data points in the study, but a couple of headlines and some good and a little bit of concern, I guess. Mirroring a national trend, the acres of farmland is down from 2017.

[00:32:00] But here in Loudoun County, the number of farms are actually up 6% to 1,332. The market value of ag products sold also up 50.2 million.

[00:32:15] That's up about 14% from 2017. So I think the board and economic development's efforts to grow the economy in Western Loudoun seems to be working. Some interesting rankings across the Commonwealth. We are number one in honey production, number two in grape production, number one in cut flower sales, number two in women-run farms, number one in veteran-run farms, number one in Asian farms, number one in Hispanic, Latino, or Hispanic farmers, number one producers are reporting more than one race, and number one in new or beginning farmers, which I think

[00:32:55] is very cool. The other thing that's of note, we are number two in the Commonwealth from farm-related agritourism with $4.9 billion or million dollars. So overall, I think that the early reports out of the study look pretty good. And we're excited about the growth of the number of farms in Loudoun County. And with that, I'll turn it over to the vice chair. Thank you, buddy. Chairman Letourneau, committee members, good evening. Tim Shambara, I'm the vice chair for EDAC. In my day job, I help Blue Forge Alliance as their chief strategy officer. We're helping the U.S. Navy put Columbia

[00:33:34] class, Virginia class subs in the water faster with the industrial base, which Loudoun County with our cluster strategy has a unique position to help with. Our chairman, Siobhan McFadden, couldn't make it tonight, had some important family business. His six-year-old son has a birthday today. There were plans that he could not get out of, obviously. So I'm taking his spot.

[00:33:57] A few notes for this evening. Starting off the year, we love to talk about the mission of EDAC, and that is to promote the long-term economic growth and development of Loudoun County in a way that is economically sustainable and results in the expansion of its commercial and industrial tax base. We hit the ground running this year. With our first meeting, we had workforce development as a priority, Dr. Aaron Spence, superintendent of LCPS, along with our own, Dr. Julie Leidig from EDAC, the provost for Nova Community College, talking about what we do here in this county and

[00:34:32] how we can affect and increase the workforce development pipeline. Very useful for all those in that room. Thank you to the board also for approving our four new commissioners. So we have Rod Williams, CEO of the Williams Centers, Mitra Setiesh, CEO of ION International, Michael Whitlock, GM of SEBI Data Centers, and Ted Argleben, the business banker with Bank of Charleston. So thank you for that. We're excited to have them on board. We also, this was the first time we had an inaugural orientation with all EDAC, EDA, and REDC

[00:35:10] members kicked off that retreat. A lot of great discussions around, of course, normal relevant policies, FOIA and the like, but how do we improve our experience as advisory board members for the department? Talking about things in which interest to the members, but also how do we work that into work plans so that we have actionable stuff that we can support the county with. It was really interesting there, and we want to underscore the diversity and the strength and the inspiration from those board members that were present in the advisory commissions. Not only in that sense

[00:35:48] of the diversity and their experience, but the access that the Department of Economic Development has to those folks as advisory members in the bodies. Looking forward to 2024, we are having a county administrator coming to our March meeting for the budget updates. And also just as an FYI, EDAC, we are preparing to recommend a data center ad hoc at the April FGO EDC meeting. And with that, I am done.

[00:36:19] We're happy to take any questions. Why don't we start with that last one? So just a preview for us. So what's the thinking behind the ad hoc? It's obvious, but what are you thinking? It's very important for us from an economic development standpoint. There's a lot of diverse inputs we want to get, be strategic and intentional about providing it.

[00:36:37] Therefore, the ad hoc to go alongside the post-ZOAM and all that stuff. Okay. Vice Chair Bresma. Sure. Well, I'll start with the ad hoc as well. I had a question on that as well. So the makeup of that committee, is there any thought to putting somebody on there that would have expertise in power and or the environment?

[00:37:01] And also, I was thinking maybe it might be of interest to have somebody from finance and budget on there so that we can talk about the tax revenue implications for the county. Understood. I know we've got a list that's starting to grow right now of who that might be. certainly taking that into consideration. I'm almost certain the first two that you mentioned have been thought about. Oh, fantastic. Okay. Okay, great. And then I had the privilege to attend NACO over the weekend and yesterday, and I attended a session on global connections for

[00:37:39] your local economy, and there was somebody there from SelectUSA, FDI Intelligence, and Choose New jersey it was pretty interesting um so i'm sure that there's not much that they could teach you but i just and i think we probably are but i just wanted to make sure do we go as a county to select usa we go both individually as loudon county to select usa but also as part of the nova eda so we actually have presence on two different fronts there oh and really have been uh we were a charter member of the first select usa and have attended every one since we were of course we were okay

[00:38:19] great well and i'm happy to chat with you a little bit about about that session if you want but it was it was fascinating um and one of the things that uh just about everyone on the panel mentioned was that you know the chair of your board and your supervisors are really the ambassadors for your county when you're looking for direct foreign investments into your county so and that's that's the way we've always approached it. Yeah. And then I kind of lit on the Gen Z comments when we're talking about revitalization. And I was very curious about the notion, and I'm sure there's data behind this and studies behind it, but the notion that they actually are leaning more toward

[00:38:58] in-person experiences in retail. And so I was wondering, does that, can we extrapolate that at all into sort of, you know, when we're thinking about land use in the county, how we might look at that from a, like, for example, Cascades Marketplace, we have this great revitalization plan, but is it really a great plan for, given what Gen Zers want? And is there a way that we can kind of figure that out and weave it into our land use decisions? Yeah, we've actually done a deep dive into this when it comes to, you know, the different generations and what seems to

[00:39:36] motivate and drive them both from a workforce issue and from an experiential issue. We have really looked into this a lot in the planning of, for example, Ravana and how we are approaching that. But I think that really we should look at this, look at all of our developments with that lens of what's going to be important and what's really going to drive behavior because I think it is going to be very important. But we have done a lot of work on studies on that and have reviewed a bunch of different studies, and it's pretty clear that there's a real social change, especially

[00:40:12] for the new generation and coming out of COVID, that people are really more, they're willing to invest in experiences much more than they are in a lot of other material things in the past. That's really interesting, and I'm sure we probably have this expertise in planning and zoning, but I'll ask around. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Armstrong. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[00:40:36] so two questions one for tim on your data center ad hoc committee i assume um have you worked out a work plan yet or will that be something the committee works out yeah we're very early stages of planning right now i'm not getting ahead of ourselves um yeah i'll just stop there because this is a little preview of what we might be asking we better prepared in april and do you think you are going to be doing outreach to the data center coalition? Certainly. There's partnerships in these ad hocs. That's the best way we see business being done at EDAC, and certainly

[00:41:13] the coalition has been mentioned. Okay, thank you. And for Buddy, you talked, you had a lot of interesting information about agriculture, but it's not in the report. Do you have anything in writing you could provide us with along the lines of what you were reporting? The report was literally just released today all right so we we are going to do a full review of it and and and provide a written report to the board after we've completed that study like I said there's more than 600 data points in the study so we tried to cherry pick a few that we thought would be relevant for

[00:41:52] tonight but no we we haven't put anything in writing just yet all right do you think it would be appropriate to add to your really nice, I don't know what you call it, but your monthly update, a category involving agriculture, or do you feel that would not really fit in your monthly update?

[00:42:16] No, in fact, next month you'll have a full report on agriculture, and our EDC will be coming to give their report, and we're going to have, but we could certainly add something And I think that we're trying not to have categories so much in this two-page report because it includes agriculture and the eastern part of the economy.

[00:42:42] But we certainly reproduce a report that goes out each month to our EDC, and we could include that in your packet. Okay. All right. Given how much information you had, it might be interesting to see that included.

[00:42:58] Yeah, and like I said, we'll have a lot more deeper information for you at your next meeting. Okay, thank you. Last month in our report, the staff mentioned that there was going to be a staff delegation to India.

[00:43:14] You know that's been a particular interest of mine, an opportunity I think we have to really grow given the population we have here. Do you have any high-level kind of feedback from how that trip went? It was amazing. Um, we had 62 direct meetings with businesses.

[00:43:34] Wow. Um, we have, uh, about 13 companies that we would call qualified prospects, um, and a half dozen that have already started planning trips, including the first trip, which will happen later this month. That's outstanding.

[00:43:49] We, we, we, uh, I could not have been more encouraged. Um, we've really built a lot of momentum there. um, the last couple of years, and we base this around the India soft conference. And, uh, the last two years I've been able to give one of the keynote addresses about doing business in the United States and particular in Loudoun County. Um, and, uh, and it's really driven a lot of interest in, in what we're doing. So, um, you know, we, we signed three businesses in the last year from india and uh and i think we could do perhaps a little better even this year so it's

[00:44:28] significant that's great news thank you well keep up the good work uh we're certainly supportive and uh we'll see you soon and thank you tim for coming thank you all okay we have several other information items this evening our next one is our annual update from loud and water i see there's a contingent here and we even have some board members here including our one of the newest board members I see here. So maybe as you get started, you could just introduce the board members that are here. Hi, good evening, Chair Letourneau and members of the committee. I'm

[00:45:06] Carla Burleson, General Manager at Loudoun Water, and it is my pleasure to be here with you this evening to give our annual update on Loudoun Water finances and operations and activities. Before I begin, I will provide those introductions. Joining me tonight is Chair of the Loudoun Water board, Mr. Terry Allen. Also in the audience is Vice Chairman Brent Campbell, Mr. Jack Vega, Mr. Charles Yudd, some of our newer members. I'd also like to introduce my Deputy General

[00:45:39] Managers, Mark Peterson, Elton Echols, and to my left, Brian Carnes. Brian is currently the DGM of Finance for Loudon Water, and effective March 1st will be the General Manager of Loudon Water as I retire from the authority at the end of the month.

[00:45:56] And I expect a seamless transition. So it will be Brian sitting in this chair for years to come. And did I miss anyone? I miss anyone. Okay, great. All right. Well, thank you all for your service. Thank you.

[00:46:14] So this evening, we do just want to touch on our financial condition, talk to you about some financial assistance programs that we're providing to our customers, highlight projects that really focus on our investment in capital to ensure capacity for generations to come in the county. We will talk about our education and outreach programs, which are a critical part of what we do in the community. We'll touch on our industry connections and our community partnerships. And then finally, we'll talk about our continued collaboration with

[00:46:50] county staff on critical initiatives. With respect to financial condition, Loudon Water continues to maintain AAA credit ratings and a stable outlook from all three rating agencies. We did receive a clean opinion on our 2022 financial audit, and we are kicking off the 2023 financial audit as we speak. We are managing a very robust capital program, totaling $767 million over the next five years, all while maintaining comparable rates and

[00:47:26] charges for our customers. Back in 2021, our board approved 3% rate increases for various fees and charges, 3% each year, effective January 1st of 2022 through 2024. Of course, we are at the end of that cycle, so we are also initiating an independent rate study in the next couple months that will review those rates again. And of course, these rate adjustments allow us to continue to meet all of our financial guidelines and our debt coverage ratios and again remain comparable

[00:48:05] to surrounding utilities which we will show on the next couple slides this slide is showing you a an average residential quarterly bill and as you can see lot and water is on the low end of that that spectrum compared to our neighbors on the other side of the house when it comes to capital and availability charges we are on. Sorry. Do we have this presentation? I don't think it's attached to the item if we do. Can you go back? We just. Supervisor Leturna, there's a separate

[00:48:43] folder in Granicus. I apologize. It's separate from the meeting agenda. Okay. Give us a second. Is it under the finance committee folder though? No. Yeah, it says staff presentation. Oh, I see.

[00:49:04] okay staff presentations here got it okay there it is everybody else find it okay going back to that last slide though the residential quarterly bill looks like it's sewer that we're well under on right water we're a little bit higher than fairfax and prince williams yes can you just explain the kind of the dynamic how that works between water and sewer well the on the the water

[00:49:42] side, a lot of it depends on whether you're a wholesale customer of someone else or if you provide your own. We are a combination. We have our own plant, but we also continue to buy water from Fairfax Water, which gives a good economy of scale, which results in that water rate.

[00:50:02] On the wastewater side, of course, we have our own plant. We do send some flow to DC water, but sewer is always going to be more expensive than water. But again, it's still comparable.

[00:50:20] Now, keep in mind that we are expanding the broad-run plan. I don't know that that will negatively affect our residential quarterly bills, but we are able to keep pace on the wastewater side. Does that answer your question? Yeah, I was just curious.

[00:50:36] I mean, clearly we're well under on sewer, not necessarily on water, So I'm just curious as to why, but it sounds like it has to do with how much we are able to treat ourselves versus sending elsewhere. It does. And it's also the age of the other systems. Okay. Got it. Okay. Thank you.

[00:50:54] Oops. Sorry. And again, on the availability charges, we are on the higher end of that. But as I've mentioned in the past, that's really indicative of a system that continues to grow and expand. And it's not that out of line with the others that are experiencing growth as well, such as Prince William.

[00:51:17] So, we stay committed to assisting our customers who are dealing with financial hardships by offering payment plans. Also, in 2023, we participated in the Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program. Although the funding for that has been exhausted, the program did distribute more than $20 million to benefiting 30,000 household accounts in the state of Virginia.

[00:51:48] To highlight a couple projects that we're currently undertaking as an investment into the future, our broad-run water reclamation facility is currently being expanded from 10 million gallons per day to 15 million gallons per day, and that construction is expected to be complete this year, so we're very excited about that.

[00:52:14] In parallel with that, we have already initiated the planning and design for Phase 3 expansion, which will then take the plant to 30 million gallons per day. A milestone reservoir, which is our project to convert a retired Luckstone quarry into a raw water storage facility, had construction kickoff at the last quarter of 2023, and that is expected to be complete in 2028.

[00:52:42] With respect to the Leesburg Joint Land Management Area, there are numerous projects happening in that area, both developer-driven and loud and water-driven projects. Most initial phase one projects, as we referred to them, began construction last year, and others are actively in design.

[00:53:03] As I mentioned, our education and outreach is a critical component of what we do in the community. One of the projects that we are working on right now is Reservoir Park at Beaver Dam in partnership with Nova Parks.

[00:53:21] If you'll recall, construction began in the fall of 2022, and it is nearing completion. We're happy to report that the reservoir is refilled. It had been drained to do some of the construction or brought down to do some of the construction, and that is now full.

[00:53:40] And we are expecting a grand opening spring or summer of this year for the park. Keeping in mind that the park elements are all designed with source water protection in mind so that that Beaver Dam Reservoir always remains a drinking water reservoir first and foremost.

[00:53:59] We continue our ongoing partnership with Loudoun County Public Schools and various community groups. We provide both in-person and virtual programs. We work with the Children's Science Center, the Loudoun Environmental Education Alliance, and as well as the Global Inheritance Leading Ladies Initiative on STEM internships, career day, after-school club activities and programs. And Sue Crosby serves as executive council member of the Loudoun County

[00:54:35] School Business Partnership, and I did want to give her a shout out because she is critical in pulling all of this information together that we're presenting this evening. And lastly, certainly not least, is the collaboration with the Loudoun County government, and I personally want to thank Joe Kroboth, who has taken over as our liaison after Charles retired, and that has been a seamless transition, and we certainly appreciate his time and effort in working with us.

[00:55:06] We continue to collaborate on issues to address any water and wastewater problems in the county, including Howardsville, Broad Run Farms, and of course the Peony Springs Waterford projects in unison, which come right out of your water and wastewater program.

[00:55:24] And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions. Okay. Questions from a board member. Just a reminder, we don't time questions, so we don't have to run the clock on those, just on a motion. Supervisor Umstead. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[00:55:41] Can you give, are you comfortable giving any more detailed information on Loudoun Water's ability to provide water and sewer service in Leesburg's JLMA and the schedule for various parts of the jlma i'm going to defer to my uh deputy general manager of engineering for specific time frames as far as capability we have the capability to serve that area um our motto is always the county tells us when and where and we have to figure out how and we're able to do that

[00:56:20] so i feel confident um on the capacity issue from a construction standpoint i'm going to say Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[00:56:42] Some of the last projects that we have underway are entering the construction phase this year. And those generally are following a two-year construction duration. So within the next two to three years, we expect most of the core infrastructure to be in place.

[00:56:59] so that any new facility in the in the jlma within two years would be able to hook up to your system that's our approximate timeline and is that every section of the jlma yes ma'am all right thank you you're welcome supervisor bruceman thank you thanks for the presentation um on the low-income household water assistance program the 22.5 million that was dispersed you know what time frame that was? That was over the calendar year, correct, Brian? Yes. Over the calendar year

[00:57:37] 2023. That was a one-year one and done. Okay. Where did that money come from? It came through the CARES Act, I believe. That was the CARES Act money. Okay. Okay. Wow. That feels like a lot for one year. Do we know if there's any need still out there? I believe there is still a need there, and there was discussion about trying to keep that going, if you will. It was a lot of money. Of course, it was across the Commonwealth. Loudoun Water benefited, you know, I think it was

[00:58:16] 55 customers, about, it was less than $20,000 for us. We just didn't have the need, as much of a need as other areas of the state. Oh, I'm sorry, the $22.5 million was for the entire state? Yes, yes. Oh, I thought it was just in Loudoun.

[00:58:34] Oh, so Loudoun just needed about $20,000. Yeah, we were. Oh, okay, okay, we can, okay. That wouldn't be too difficult to find. And then I had a question about the expanding the Broad Run plant. That's water, not sewer, correct?

[00:58:50] That's wastewater. Oh, that's wastewater. Okay, okay, so we're not taking more water from the Potomac for that? Not for that. No, this is the wastewater side of the house. Okay. Are there any projects happening soon where we're taking more water out of the Potomac for our needs?

[00:59:12] We will, in time, expand the Trap Rock Water Treatment Facility, but that's five, ten years, probably. Yeah, that's at least on a five- to ten-year time horizon where we would expand our withdrawal from the Potomac River.

[00:59:33] But as Carla mentioned earlier in the presentation, we are entering construction for our Milestone Reservoir facility, the Luckstone quarry conversion. And the intent of that facility is to store water and withdraw from the quarry during times of airflow in the Potomac.

[00:59:49] I mean, I'm assuming there's some authority that tells us how much water we can take out of the Potomac. Yes, we have approved. Okay, because we had some discussions about that in NVRC last year or the year before, the concerns about downstream not having enough. Um, and then, uh, do you have any update on the Broadwind Farms waterline project?

[01:00:10] I do. I do. Um, and I think Joe can probably help me with that update as well, but, uh, Loudon Water has completed, um, the design and, and obtained the permits for their part of the project.

[01:00:27] Okay. Of course, there is the EPA project as well, and they do anticipate that, um, they will be bidding that in the next three to four months, I believe that was. And then we would follow on the heels of them awarding a construction contract and bid our portion. But we're probably looking at a two-year project.

[01:00:53] Okay. All right. Thank you. Just keep us posted so we can tell residents. Absolutely. Please. And then two more questions. Sorry, Chair. We've been hearing a lot about attacks on utility facilities across the country and globally, cyber attacks, those sorts of things. So I'm sure you guys are, hopefully, if you're not starting to think about those things, you're thinking way down the line about those things. Can you just make us secure on that?

[01:01:29] Yes, we have a very robust team, IT team, operations and technology team, information technology teams that are um are doing everything that they can to to prepare for those things okay and keep them at bay okay okay great um and then on beaver dam i actually was out there the other day um actually on the vice of our chair went out to that area and drove around to look at a land use um site and then i hiked around um beaver dam and like two people commented to me

[01:02:02] it's filled up it's filled up and um someone said well do you do you know how the county did that and i was like i i think it was natural right it just we let it do it naturally right as i recall yes okay that's what i told him but um yeah i'll be looking forward to i'll be looking forward to the um the completion of that thank you um where is the milestone reservoir where is the milestone It is over by the Luck Quarry.

[01:02:35] Oh, that's the one we're filling in? Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was the quarry. Was that the one? Which Luckstone was it? They had a bunch of locations, right? Yeah. This is the one that's immediately east of Goose Creek and north of the W&OD Trail.

[01:02:51] Okay, okay. We called them letters and they called them the numbers, so I'm not sure. Okay, all right. And that's coming online in 2028. Yes. will that help or hurt on water rates?

[01:03:09] Is it more expensive so, therefore, the costs can pass on, or will it help provide more water that we don't have to get from elsewhere? My guy tells me it should help. Okay. I won't hold you to it.

[01:03:25] It's okay. You're retiring. That's right. You can ask Brian next year. We'll see what he says. Okay. I think it should help. Okay. Well, thank you very much. We are fortunate here to have a well-managed utility to help serve the county, and so we are thankful for that.

[01:03:43] Thank you. Anything else that you need to cover? I don't think so. Okay. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much. We're actually going to go ahead and take our break now before we roll into the item and also to allow Supervisor Saints to rejoin us shortly. Thank you.

[01:26:06] Okay, we're going to go ahead and resume our meeting with our last information item,

[01:28:38] which is item number four, Volunteer Fire and Rescue, Internal Control, Maturity, Assessments, Results, Cohort 1. With a name like that, how can this not be an exciting item?

[01:29:03] Good evening, Chair Letourneau and committee members. Also sitting with me is Dr. Megan Cox from the Department of Finance and Procurement. If the committee pleases, Megan will provide a briefing presentation for you that informs you of the Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company's Cohort 1 internal control review results based on an improved review process developed by the staff that was carried out by the consulting firm Cherry Becker.

[01:29:33] Or, if the committee pleases, we can take questions now. Don't tempt us. I think we'll do the presentation, but can you tell us, I know it's in here, but deep behind, who exactly was in Cohort 1, just before we get into the...

[01:29:49] Sure, it's actually in the staff presentation as well. Oh, perfect. Okay, then great. All right, I'll go ahead and share my screen. As Mr. Govan also mentioned, with this presentation, we do have staff from Cherry Beckert online for any additional questions.

[01:30:17] They also have a presentation with a bit more detail if it pleases the committee after the staff presentation. I don't think we'll probably do that to you. Two presentations. Yeah. Okay, so first, just a little bit of background. As you may recall, in 2019, the process for assessing the internal control maturity of the volunteer fire and rescue companies was a more opaque, less transparent process for staff and then also for the companies to actually make improvements to their policies and the implementation of those policies.

[01:30:55] So in 2020, we began a new process and actually began thinking about how we could measure these in a more transparent way. This collaborative effort between DFP staff, the companies, as well as LCFR brought us to where we are today.

[01:31:20] We did bring to this committee as well as to the board the new tool, which is in attachment one for transparency purposes to make sure that it fulfilled the requirements that would be necessary to really assess the internal controls, but also provide recommendations and feedback to the companies to improve their processes.

[01:31:35] So this really is an active continuous improvement model that we've been working on for the past few years. So once the tool was validated, we were working with the volunteer fire and rescue company treasurers to improve their policy development and share policies across companies, develop new policies as needed so that they could improve on their previous scores.

[01:32:00] So we actually have quarterly treasurer's meetings on a regular basis, and it's attended, and attendance is required. So someone from the company is required to be there. Excuse me.

[01:32:17] So for the internal control maturity assessment process, Cherry Beckert's staff used the tool that was developed, and they interviewed each of the volunteer company members with their senior staff and treasurer. so it could have been the chief, it could have been the president, it could have been the entire board depending on the way their policies are structured. They also tested and reviewed samples of transactions according to the size of the company. So the smaller the company, the less transactions, the larger the company, the more transactions. The scoring and test results were

[01:32:52] provided in detailed reports to each company as well as recommendations for improvements to their policies and procedures. And Chair Letourneau here, this is the list of the companies. We had Arcola Volunteer Fire and Rescue, Leesburg Volunteer Fire, Loudoun County Volunteer Rescue Squad, Philomont Volunteer Fire, Lovettsville Volunteer Fire and Rescue, Hamilton Volunteer Rescue Squad, and Perceville Volunteer Rescue Squad. So those were the seven companies that were assessed using this new tool. And a copy of the tool, as I mentioned, is provided in

[01:33:30] attachment one. But just to walk you through the scoring process, what we do have is on the left hand side of the screen or the left hand of the new measure is a zero to four scale. So the top part of that scale is the policies and procedures. Are they written according to 10 components that would make a well-designed, well-developed policy or procedure. The lower half of that is the reliability and consistency with which the procedure was implemented. So the sample of

[01:34:10] transactions was actually scored against a percentage of those transactions, and they received very detailed background and recommendations for each transaction that may have been missed or any documentation that may have been required.

[01:34:29] Excuse me. So the good news is the model worked. We actually do have very good results. In summary, the seven companies had moderate to strong controls.

[01:34:45] We had one company with average functioning controls. We were anticipating that we would see more on the average functioning and moderate functioning side and were pleasantly surprised that we did see the level of improvement over the last couple of years that we did see.

[01:35:02] So this was actually met our expectations and above. So to operationalize this, when you're looking at the tool, really what you're looking at are well-developed, consistently applied policies and procedures.

[01:35:20] So that's what you're seeing when you look at that 80% to 99% is the 80% to 99% out of the total points possible on the tool. So you're looking at like a grade B if you would want to look at it that way. B plus in some areas and almost an A.

[01:35:39] We do have a couple of areas for improvement. As you can see on this slide, the expenditures category had the highest score with a 6.6 out of 8. Vendor management had the lowest score across the companies, and this is an area where we will be focusing over the next year to help the companies either refine or redevelop or share policies and procedures that can help them improve. Most of what we saw for the vendor management scores being low was the policies were not developed fully enough or there was not enough supporting

[01:36:16] documentation. We also asked the companies whether they concurred, concurred with comment, or non-concurred with comment, did not concur with comment. And we did receive three non-concurs out of the multiple responses. So we asked for responses by category. So out of the six categories by seven companies, we got three non-concurs. So, and the non-concurs were mostly

[01:36:51] related to the plausibility of implementation of, and, you know, a recommendation that may have been best practice, but may not work for a volunteer company. So, that's where we saw some of the non-concurrence. And just some next steps. Obviously, we are here presenting this to you, and we will start planning for cohort two. This is a more frequent assessment model. So instead of every three years, the companies are assessed every other year. And that way we can continue

[01:37:26] the improvement cycle and then be assessed more frequently. So we know what is happening with the internal controls. And with that, we'll take questions. Okay. So I think it's fair to say there's really no huge red flags in any of the companies?

[01:37:44] No. There's some areas of improvement, particularly in the vendor management systems, but nothing unexpected? Nothing unexpected, and, you know, that's an area where we will work with them and Cherry Beckert and our finance staff to kind of shore up what those would look like, yes.

[01:38:04] Okay. Any other questions? Supervisor Umstead. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Do you view this report as not just important in its own right, but also important in the board's evaluation of the volunteer companies requesting additional funding as part of the upcoming budget?

[01:38:35] So when we were developing the tool, that portion was not in the scope when we were developing the tool. So I don't feel prepared to answer the question of whether this would impact funding, but when we were looking at the tool, we were looking at best practices, and we were looking at the implementation of those practices being more transparent.

[01:38:56] So really, the funding was out of scope. Okay, thank you. Any other questions? Thank you very much. Have a good evening. Thank you. Okay, we'll move to our action items. The first one is kind of a quasi-action item, but it's the 2023 Loudoun Health Commission annual report.

[01:39:17] I did think it's important that we get a face-to-face check-in with the Health Commission. I think it's one of our more active and important groups. So I did ask that they appear before us in person for this meeting.

[01:39:33] So Dr. Goodfriend and Dr. Farrell are here. Maybe you can introduce the other folks that are with us tonight. Yes. Good evening. I'm Dave, a good friend.

[01:39:48] I'm staff liaison to the newly formed Health Commission, Lowne Health Commission, and also been a member of the Health Commission and its predecessor, Advisory Bodies. And with me tonight is Dr. John Farrell, a pediatrician from the South Riding area, who's the chair of the Lowne Health Commission and has been a member of that Health Commission.

[01:40:10] for a number of years, and also, at times, the Lyme Disease Commission. Also, the vice chair, Carol Hodgson, a nurse practitioner from the Levittsville area, who also served on both the Lyme Disease Commission and the Health Commission.

[01:40:26] She was the Health Commission's liaison to the Lyme Disease Commission, and currently serves on the Lyme Disease Subcommittee of the Health Commission. And we also have Rick Meilinger, who's also been a longstanding member of the Health Commission's predecessor and also is a member of the Lyme Disease Subcommittee.

[01:40:46] And I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Farrell for the presentation, and I'll call it up. I'm going to wait for slides, but good evening, Supervisors. Thanks for having us. I'm going to try in a few short minutes to be as brief as possible, but to summarize kind of the efforts of about 14 very dedicated health care volunteers and kind of bring you up to speed, We haven't been together since before the pandemic, so it's great to see people in person.

[01:41:17] And I'll try to summarize things as quickly as I can. Basically, I wanted to start out just telling you the makeup, the organization of our committee or our commission. We have representatives from five different areas. We have basically Dr. Goodfriend is always by our side as a representative of the government, of the health department.

[01:41:38] We have representation from Loudoun County Public Schools, mental health, and family services, and they are present at each one of our meetings. And then the rest of the commission is made up of nine members representing the eight election districts and one at-large member.

[01:41:55] So each of you as supervisors assign one of us to this group, a very dedicated group. And if you want to go to the next slide. We meet monthly, and our objectives are listed there. You guys may be familiar with them already, but we provide recommendations to you all.

[01:42:13] So we do rely on communication from you to us as to what is important to you. Reviewing significant projects, providing forum for stakeholders. I think the big one there, number four, improving the health of the community in general, is what I see as our main mission, and then increasing the value of the health care system.

[01:42:30] And then recently included in our commission is addressing the Lyme disease issues and concerns. How do we do this? The four of us actually had to kind of reinvent the Health Commission because prior to COVID, I think we were kind of losing membership and decreasing in size.

[01:42:47] And so what we do is each month we have a report from all of those valued members who really have their finger on the pulse of what's going on in the health of this county and I think are incredible resources for the county. And then because there's such a diversity within the county and the health care needs of Leesburg may be different than Sterling and may be different than South Riding, we get neighborhood reports from each of those B members so that all of us are up to date on what health care needs may be necessary for that particular neighborhood.

[01:43:16] So I really value the reports from others because I may have my point of view, but it's always good to hear Carol's point of view from a different section and a different age range. I take care of children. She takes care of a more geriatric population. And I think it really provides a powerful kind of group for us. If there's any particular issue that we deem of high importance, we form subgroups. For example, Carol and Rick sit on the Lyme committee subgroup.

[01:43:42] And this is really important, and I want to make sure the board is hearing from us. I really ask all of the group members to give a monthly report to each of their assigned supervisors. And I hope that they are not annoyingly in your ear, but healthfully in your ear, to make sure that we're relevant and that we've got good back and forth, because we really do need to hear from you.

[01:44:03] And then, of course, we look at the needs assessment that comes in from the health department and from our nonprofits. So, next slide, please. Again, our accomplishments. If you don't mind me taking a second to be a proud frog and croak in our pond here, I really feel like this has established a great deal of trust between our elected officials and our health care team.

[01:44:25] I think we can see at higher levels of government where that failed citizens quite a bit, and I'm really proud of the communication that we have formed. Pre-pandemic, multiple accomplishments. I can't list them all, but sitting next to me, Carol was instrumental in getting the drug drop-off boxes that are present in every one of the safety centers. This was really her passion, and she did an amazing job. Establishment of health care facilities, always promoting immunization education and then going through the health care assessments. I think one of the places where this commission shined was with the help of Ms. McClellan and Mr. Hemstreet right there.

[01:45:01] It's nice to see you guys in person finally. We exchanged multiple emails during the pandemic and nobody wants to think back to this time but we'd like to all forget it but it was really great to see the coordination between the government officials and health care practitioners. If you remember the shortage of testing, the shortage of PPEs, and the fear of what to do. And so I think it was great to see that we distributed PPE shortages to places that actually needed it, because some of those resources were going to health care facilities that were fully staffed and fully stocked. So it was really wonderful to see. And then, of course, assisting the health

[01:45:40] department with the COVID vaccine rollout. And then, again, just quickly, we did get funding, thanks to you guys. And I think we were struggling with what to do with that. So I want to fill you in on what was done. We had $40,000. We took $20,000 of that and distributed that to create 3,000 kits, which I don't know if anybody has seen these kits, but I think one of the biggest anxiety-inducing aspects of Lyme disease is when you're bit or one of your loved ones is bit, what do you do? So these kits that Carol has in front of us, and if anyone wants to inspect them,

[01:46:17] they really have education material, tick removal tweezers, tick identification cards, and information for further care. And they cost about $6 each, so that's where our $20,000 were placed, and they were distributed throughout the county with great fanfare. They were very well received from the people that were able to get them. And then near and dear to my heart, we took the other $20,000 and really tried to combat the overwhelming amount of misinformation when it comes to vaccines. We piggybacked with the Stay Well Nova campaign and the funds were used for loud and specific promotion of certain vaccine information. So, and I think that was a success

[01:46:53] for the money that we spent. For FY24, we are still continuing to look at Lyme disease, of course, which is part of our health commission. We're really focusing on what we felt was an underserved population. And that is, you know, for the last many years, I think it went to the population in general. But now we're focusing on outdoor workers, day laborers, people who may not always have English as a second language because I think they were underserved. And the commission has been wonderful at distributing that. And that's where those 3,000 kits this year went and really

[01:47:29] was received very positively. Again, continuing on immunization education. And as long as I'm chair. I think that will be always on the list. But as a citizen of Loudoun County and a physician for 28 years, and speaking to some of my co-physicians today, actually, I said, how much do you guys know about what the health department does for our county? And I think it's really under-recognized. So our goal for this next year is to campaign to really educate both citizens and health care practitioners of the role of the health department, because it is an incredible resource with a very good leader, if I may say so. And I really would like to see some of its

[01:48:06] abilities kind of promoted. And included in that is the mental health services education and promotion of the Loudoun County's Revive Program, which you guys are familiar with, but I also feel is underutilized with the ability of our citizens to take an online course and then be provided with the dose of Narcan as one of the ways of kind of combating the epidemic. Again, future direction, I just want to say we exist to advise you all. Again, I always want that back and forth communication. If there are key initiatives that you guys are interested in, I think the citizens

[01:48:43] are going to come to you. They're not going to look up the health commission and come to me or Carol or Rick. Occasionally we get a few requests, but a lot of times they're going to come to you, So we need to hear from you what those initiatives that you have in mind are. And again, whatever appropriate funding levels you all determine to accomplish these objectives, we are welcome to hear.

[01:49:03] So I'll leave it open to questions. Thank you, Dr. Farrell. And I think you hit on something there. It's actually really been remarkable to me how much we went through in COVID and how quickly we moved on from it. And there's been not a lot of look back at that.

[01:49:18] So I guess this is maybe our first chance to thank all of you in person for the work that you did, just helping us, advising us with the steps that we should take as a government and county administrator and others. And yeah, absolutely, them as well.

[01:49:35] But it really was a great collaborative effort. And I remember the phone calls that we had and all of that. And Dr. Frail, you had a presentation that was several that were very well received, specific to the schools issues. So all of that, we're just really thankful for all that work. So let me open up to questions. I have a few, but I'll go to my colleagues first. Supervisor Brisbane.

[01:49:58] Thank you. And good to see you guys. You as well. So the neighborhood reports have been good. I get mine from Dr. Galindo. She now has her PhD. And she is a clinical nurse specialist, as you well know. And I do get them, but I had a question. Are they more based on experiential and qualitative

[01:50:32] rather than data-based, probably? Is that correct? Well, I'd like to say both. I think we have some vigorous discussions in there and discussing issues for an hour and a half each month, and I allow those Group B members that you trust to bring to you what they think is important that may pertain to their section of loud and county and so i think when it comes to the report from the health department the schools and mental health we do get a lot of data driven date data driven information that we try to come out with and then also some of it is is just events

[01:51:08] or things that may help the citizenry of that particular neighborhood so a little bit of both i guess um and it sounds like the the the lime commission now that it's moved in you guys have melded well together it sounds like the the kit is awesome i would love to have one of those in my car because i am outside quite a bit but i love the idea that you're going to be doing trying to get them to underserved communities one of my questions though is you have the removal tools but do you have a way to save the tick because i heard that you should save the tick and have your

[01:51:41] doctor test the tick i'll let david answer that one yeah so sometimes it's good to save the tick for identification purposes, because when the Lyme Disease Commission first started, we did a study to look at the types of ticks in Lowne County, and it was very helpful to find out that the black-legged tick, which causes Lyme disease, is a small percentage of the ticks that people come in contact with. So identification is very important, but testing is not recommended for the tick. Oh, so that's why the cards in there are not. Okay. Cause last time I had one,

[01:52:20] I got all freaked out and I put it in like a medicine bottle thinking I had to save it for the doctor. So thank you. Thank you for clarifying. And one challenge though is sometimes people would try to save the ticks and the ticks would escape. Yes. And now you have to worry that it's a family member. All right. Um, I, and on the, on the funding levels, I'm hearing a little bit of a undercurrent there um so i believe if a commission or a board that advises the county believes that

[01:52:51] they need funding for something specific you can write a letter um to your liaison um that to with the county i don't know if that's dr good friend or if it's somebody in admin for this for this commission but um the liaison can um take the request from the committee um it's helpful if it's in writing so we have that that backup and then dr good friend can submit that through the budget process to the county administrator for your consideration yeah so if you think there's

[01:53:28] some programming additional programming that's needed i'm sure uh we we would be willing to listen yeah i would appreciate that we are new to this funding aspect of government life so i will i will you can treat me like a kindergartner and i will happily acquiesce with that but but i do think we would love to have more of those kits. All 3,000 went very quickly, but they are not inexpensive. And I was also quite surprised, although I know as some politicians, you may not be at how expensive the internet campaigns were, although it did seem to go far. So we will

[01:54:03] happily get together and draft a letter for you. Okay, fantastic. And then I was just wondering, and maybe you already do this at the health department, I'm not sure, but has the, you know, We just got back from NACO, so you're going to have all these ideas coming at you, which may be half the stuff you're already doing.

[01:54:21] But we had a very interesting conversation about the social determinants of health, and I'm wondering if the commission has considered looking at that or analyzing that. We had a really great presentation about ESRI mapping things and how that really clarified where they are falling down on the social determinants of health in particular parts of the community.

[01:54:45] And then the other thing I found fascinating is there's one health commission that has the coroner on the health commission so that the coroner can say, well, these are the things that I'm seeing. And I don't know if they regularly report to you, Dr. Goodfriend, or if that's if that's an idea you guys might consider.

[01:55:00] So that's a good point. So last year, the Board of Supervisors approved a new population health function for the health department. Perfect. They are our experts in looking at social determinants of health. We're just staffing that up.

[01:55:18] Erica Wickline, who's in charge of that, sits in on the Health Commission meetings every month. Okay, great. And is a resource to them. I am a local medical examiner, and I sit on the Health Commission. Okay, well, there you go. Definitely, if they have questions that relate to deaths, whether natural or unnatural, I could provide that information to them.

[01:55:38] Oh, you do it all. Okay, all right. Thank you. Thank you. I didn't know that. I really, did you guys know that? I didn't know that. Yeah. Okay. Supervisor Umstead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First, I want to assure you that June Chang does email me a detailed email every month, which I am delighted to get, and I find it fascinating to read.

[01:56:06] So please tell her she's doing a great job. I did not know that was a formal policy, but I think it's a great one. Strong suggestion. Okay, all right. On opioid fentanyl overdoses, the Leesburg District School Board member, Lauren Chernoff, has reached out to Mayor Kelly Burke and myself with a request that we try to put together a community meeting on the issue.

[01:56:46] Is that something you all would be interested in attending or helping us with? So I can speak for the health department and also the health commission. We're always here as a resource. I think in Loudoun County on the government side, we would first look to MHSEDS as the lead agency for this.

[01:57:10] I think they've done a tremendous job in this area, both on the treatment and awareness side and also with the Revive programs. And I could take that back to them with that suggestion.

[01:57:25] Please, please do. I'll separately reach out to them as well. Do you see a need for more community education and outreach in this field? I know the schools have done some. Yeah, and I have a conversation with that with our representative from Loudoun County Public Schools every month, and I am impressed with what LCPS is, what they are doing for the education.

[01:57:52] So I think that is occurring, but there is always room for more communication about this, and I think, you know, there's so much to talk about that we could do offline, but to answer your question directly, yes, there's always more communication about this issue that could go forward. And we would be happy to help out in any way, but to Dr. Goodford's point, Dr. Gupta on our commission is an amazing resource and really has a deep knowledge base.

[01:58:15] And if we can get her there, I think it would be great for that presentation. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. So a couple questions. Try to answer. Oh, sorry. Mr. Sainz, answer your line. That's okay. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation tonight. question for you what's your thoughts if you have any on possibly passing out testing strips for fentanyl to uh to our students and to the general public just so obviously we're not advocating for folks to take fentanyl and whatnot but you know if they are going to decide to go down that route make sure you know they're testing um appropriately and knowing what they're what they're what they're

[01:58:52] taking yeah and well i i don't know all that mh sads is doing i do know that as part of their revive training which again is tremendous that they have this online rapid revive training both in english and in spanish and for folks who take that they'll send out to the those individuals address a not only the naloxone but fentanyl test strips okay so it's in the package yes okay um and um and again i would speak to them if they think if to as to what it where else they also may be providing that but it is a tremendous resource to the community both to have that and also not

[01:59:30] the requirement that folks have to physically come in because going back to the social determinants of health it makes it a lot more challenging for people who don't have English as a their primary language or don't have that excess time to go to a class to just be able to take a five or six minute class online. Thank you. I'll comment just briefly I have mixed feelings about it because just like any other test, it has its false positives and false negatives. So there's always that false sense of security that can be provided by something that has a potentially high false negative rate. And as you guys may know, a lot of these pills are reformulated by dealers. And

[02:00:10] within a pill, all the fentanyl could be contained in one quarter of it, whereas the top half has none. And so it can give a false sense of security to people. So not perfect, but still a resource. Thank you. Okay. Have you noticed any changes as a result of the county health department or the health department now being a county health agency versus a state agency? It's more for you, Dr. Farrell. I know Dr. Goodfriend, you're kind of administering it. I have not, but that may be because over the years I've developed a pretty good relationship with Dr.

[02:00:48] good friend and and he is as steady as it goes so okay um well we can talk to you in the budget maybe more about how that integration is going so i won't i won't go down that now um i don't want to you know catch you too off guard but there was some new guidance discussed about covid19 i wanted to ask generally anyway even before i saw that today how is covid19 in our community now um what are you seeing? And then also, I don't know if you've seen any of the reports that the CDC is going to sort of start treating COVID a little bit more like other illnesses and not have

[02:01:26] this strict sort of number of days and all that kind of thing. Have you any thoughts about any of that? So we track all respiratory infections on a weekly basis, which gives us a very good opportunity not only for us to see what's out there, but also to communicate it to our local providers, and also to the county. So on a weekly basis, I send up to both the county administration and emergency management reports of where we are with COVID, with flu, and with RSV. We have seen COVID cases come down significantly from the peak around December, January. Doesn't mean it's not

[02:02:04] going to have a resurgence, but we're looking like we're, well, at a higher level than we were in early fall and before Thanksgiving, much less than we were around Christmas. Flu has ticked up, and that's a concern.

[02:02:23] And just like H1N1 flu, for those who remember it, that's still around. It's just become part of what we live through every winter. And at least our expectation is COVID will always be around. It will just become more and more a norm of what people will have to deal with each year.

[02:02:42] Dr. Farrell? Definition of a pandemic is a disease that changes the way we live, work, or play. With that definition, I think the pandemic is over with the exception of three populations, people over 75, children under one who haven't had the chance to be vaccinated, and people who are immunosuppressed.

[02:03:00] But for the majority of us, things have changed for the better. With that in mind, I think the current CDC guidelines are inhibiting a lot of testing. I'm getting a lot of patients, although Dr. Goodfriend's numbers show a decrease, I would say for the ones that I do test in the office, there's still a fairly common positivity, but I'm getting 80% of the time people not wanting to test in the office.

[02:03:25] Now, that could be because they can test at home, but I also think the onus and the burden that it puts on parents sometimes, especially for a child that can't mask to be out of school or out of daycare for 10 days, is inhibiting testing for understandable reasons. It's not that they're bad citizens.

[02:03:41] I just think at this point, you know, we need to take a more common sense look at things. It also puts a difficult on us on businesses and staffing. And so I'll welcome some change in CDC guidelines when they come. But until they do, I have to follow them to the letter.

[02:03:57] Okay. And last question. You and I talked a little bit about the dearth of mental health professionals. just, you know, how difficult it is to find them, to have them, to refer patients to them in your case, or to, as a parent or a patient, to get in, not just adolescents, but the whole population.

[02:04:20] Give it any more thought to any sort of creative ways that we as a county could address that. How much time do we have? I will say one of the things that I am seeing for the first time as a practicing physician is Loudoun County Public Schools, I believe they took a fair amount of funding and really invested into mental health. And for the first time as a practicing physician, I'm seeing some of those mental health care needs being met in the school, which is incredibly exciting for me.

[02:04:53] Now, sometimes it can't officially be called counseling, but there are groups that they're forming and their mental health care services have really stepped it up in the last two years in this county. And I'm really proud of it. That said, I do see reduced waiting lists in the last few months. And we even had a few phone calls from some mental health care providers saying, hey, we're open. So there has been a little bit of a reduction in that wait. So I don't know that that's because of decreased demand. I don't see that in my office. But hopefully the economy and

[02:05:28] And they have hired enough practitioners that we're seeing a little bit of reduction. That said, one of the initiatives that we have and one of the former members of our commission did start looking at scholarships for people graduating from local mental health programs to try and bring them to Loudoun.

[02:05:48] I still think that's an avenue worth exploration. So is that something the commission can maybe take a look at? Sure, we can continue that work. We'll try and pick up where she left off. She unfortunately moved to another commission. She got moved up. So we will continue to try and further that work.

[02:06:05] Okay. Okay. Well, thank you very much. Thank you for being here this evening. All right. Okay. Up next, item 13, proposed amendment to the codified ordinance of Loudoun County, Chapter 848-023A1, Criteria for Open Space, Use Qualification, Historic Resource Protection.

[02:06:28] This one is being brought to us by the Commissioner of Revenue, Mr. Wirtz. Good evening. Chair. Chair Letourneau. Yes, Mr. Hemstreet. I'm sorry. There was a motion. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, you're right. I will move that the Finance, Government, Operations, and Economic Development Committee recommend the Board of Supervisors endorse the 2023 Loudoun Health Commission annual report.

[02:06:49] Seconded by Supervisor Brissman. Any discussion on the motion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries, 401. Thank you. Mr. Wirtz. Hello. Hello. Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board.

[02:07:05] This item is being brought forward as a result of the updates to the zoning ordinance in December. And it's an ordinance amendment to land use assessment in the open space category for historic resource protection.

[02:07:22] Presently property of at least five acres in size, excluding the home site and other non-qualifying land. that's listed as an historic property or a contributing property on the Virginia Landmarks Register or the National Register of Historic Places may qualify for use value assessment.

[02:07:47] This amendment will add similar properties that may be listed on the Loudoun County Heritage Register that was adopted in the zoning ordinance in December of 2023. The fiscal impact is unknown because we don't have any properties on that registry at this time.

[02:08:05] Currently, properties on the national or Virginia registers that are in this category result in a deferred revenue amount for tax year 2023 of $7,200. And there's a motion to move the item to the board and a March 13th public hearing if you're interested.

[02:08:26] And I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Mr. Wirtz. So the Loudoun Historic Registry, and you may not be the person to answer these questions, but who makes up the Loudoun Historic Registry?

[02:08:43] I believe it's the planning department is responsible for that here. It's a government entity. It is. And how do you qualify? Is there a difference in qualification criteria for the Loudoun Historic Registry versus, like, the other registries that we already sort of recognize?

[02:09:01] Um, the, I'll, I'll tell you what the, the, um, criteria that I have, it's designated as one of the following types of historic overlay districts, uh, Loudoun County historic site district.

[02:09:19] It's a contributing resource in a Loudoun County historic and cultural conservation district or contributing resource in a Loudoun County historic roadways district. And it may be additional information may be needed from planning relative to your specific question.

[02:09:37] Yeah, I guess what I'm trying to get at is, would we see like a significant proliferation of properties that could qualify here? You gave us a number, open space historic property deferral was only $7,200 last year, which seems very, very low.

[02:09:53] So I'm trying to gauge, you know, could we see a big influx here, or is this still a very small kind of finite number of properties we're talking about? I don't anticipate that that's going to be, it's going to be a significant number. We're talking about properties that may, the owners of which may make application to be on this registry voluntarily, and it's properties that are five to 20 acres because properties that are over 20 acres can already qualify.

[02:10:21] So it's going to be a small number in that group as well. We don't know how many people may make application, how many property owners may make application for that. Okay. so i do not have a way to estimate that and we already set forth this policy in the zoning ordinance correct okay so i can i'm happy to to touch base with the planning department and get some additional information if you feel that's necessary before it might be moving this forward um at least we can move the item forward to the public hearing i think okay unless anybody

[02:10:59] you know i'm happy to get some additional information maybe a little bit more on that sure qualifications sure okay does anybody have any questions or comments all right so i move the finance economic uh the finance government operations and economic development committee recommend the board of supervisors direct staff to advertise a public hearing for the march 13th for march 13 2024 for the adoption of the proposed amendment to loudon county codified ordinances chapter 848.023a1 criteria for open space use qualification historic resource protection as outline an attachment two of the february 13 2024 finance committee action item seconded by

[02:11:39] mr saynes any discussion on the motion seeing none all in favor of the motion say aye aye anyone opposed motion carries 401 thanks thank you mr warts have a good evening okay our final item tonight is item 14 which is the update on the county led streetlight program um this one has been with us a while and has taken a few twists and turns I had a prior conversation with mr. Sains about the item and just for the benefit of the rest of the committee I think our plan is to get this presentation this evening

[02:12:15] ask questions and then bring this item move this item to the next month's Finance Committee meeting for some additional research that mr. Sains is going to request, and then perhaps a continued conversation between the two of us about a direction that we can go in that's maybe a bit of a compromise on terms of what we're doing.

[02:12:38] But am I turning this over to who? Yes, sir. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. All right. Chair Letourneau and committee members, sitting with me to my far right is Ms. Elaine Crawford from the Department of Finance and Procurement, and then also Ms. Vian Lung from the the PFM group consulting. To my far left is Mr. Ernie Brown from the Department of General

[02:13:11] Services and Dennis Cumbie as well. As stated in the purpose of the item, staff is ready to present the results of the analysis regarding traffic and public safety data in relation to lit and non-lit areas. This study is follow-up to continued effort by staff to provide data points for board decision-making purposes on a streetlight program. Please note for clarification purposes on the item provided the recommendation of conducting a targeted survey identified by staff is not meant to be a standalone prerequisite to the streetlight program rather it is another

[02:13:48] effort to support the decision-making process to the board in relation to the implementation of a streetlight program at the service district levels as prescribed in the program manual. The staff is ready to implement a streetlight program based on the program manual created in conjunction with the survey to targeted suburban areas in district. And then also, the cost models provided in prior meetings are still applicable methods for implementing a street light program as well. The survey will provide supporting information on the cost model to use. With that being said, I'll turn it over to Ms. Elaine Crawford

[02:14:25] for the presentation. Good evening. As a background, this was brought to the September 2019 board of supervisors meeting and the staff were directed to complete the countywide streetlight program work plan the program program was to be based on a service district model in july 2023 staff presented the program manual to this committee and that was based again on a full cost recovery model which had an ad valorem tax levied on service districts that were created by

[02:15:00] the applications from interested communities we did two sample communities to model what that would look like and it resulted in a between a 3.2 and a 7.9 percent tax increase to the homeowner this committee requested research and analysis of the safety and crime concerns in lit and non-lit areas dfp engaged pfm to conduct the research and analysis and they gathered data from

[02:15:31] vdot fbi and the sheriff's office here's a summary of the the findings we found that crash and crime rates were already lower in the county compared to other regional counties they're continuing to decline and street lighting was not the only determining factor in most incidents that occurred on lit and unlit roadways and in neighborhoods the data did not conclusively prove that street lights improve overall traffic and public safety on roads and in neighborhoods but there are

[02:16:10] benefits to outdoor lighting it provides positive safety and security benefits for drivers and pedestrians and it has the largest benefit at locations with pedestrian activity and so the next few slides just kind of go over some of the bullet points from that data the crash data does show that Loudoun's number of crashes are per 1,000 residents and per road mile or at or below the average. Nighttime crashes on unlit VDOT secondary roads were 10% of all crashes in the

[02:16:47] county. We specifically looked at VDOT secondary roads because those were the roads that would be impacted by the streetlight program. The lack of street lighting was not the only factor in the crashes. There were other attributes such as alcohol, adverse weather, and speed. Loudon's violent crime rate was also reviewed, and it has declined from 2019 through 2022. As of 2022, Loudon had the lowest violent crime rate per capita in the comparable group. Property crime

[02:17:25] rates were also declining, while some of the neighboring counties' crime rates were going up. And in 2022, Loudon's property crime rate was 63% lower than the comparable group median. We keep referencing 2022 because that was when the data was available for this specific study, and that was the year that was used.

[02:17:51] Property crime was slightly less likely to occur at night than during the day, with a couple of exceptions. Auto thefts and burglaries were more likely to occur at night, but larcenies were more likely to occur during the day. The violent crime robberies were more likely to occur at night than during the day, but other types of violent crimes did not have a significant difference between likelihood of day occurrence or night occurrence.

[02:18:23] The majority of violent crimes occurred at residences, and then the highest percentage of property crimes were at commercial establishments. For the less serious, which are considered a Part 2 offenses, the most common location was outdoor locations, including roadways, and it was often driven by offenses related to drinking.

[02:18:44] So these are the disorderly conduct, DUI-type offenses. More than 60% of the auto thefts occurred in unlit roadways and residences, and then in 2022, there was one homicide at an unlit residence.

[02:19:04] But other crimes were not more likely to occur in unlit areas. For example, more than 70% of residents' burglaries and robberies occurred in lit areas. And then more than 70% of assaults occurred in lit areas. And then there was a slightly less than 50% of rapes occurred in lit areas.

[02:19:26] So the benefit of the implementation of a streetlight program was not solely based on crime and safety statistics. So we're bringing back to the committee the findings from that analysis and also just a reminder of what that streetlight program was proposed.

[02:19:48] So a full cost recovery approach is one of the options. And, again, that results in, based on our modeling, between a 3.2% and a 7.9% tax increase. That requires the creation of a service district and the assessment of the ad valorem tax.

[02:20:07] In this situation, the cost of lighting is paid by the residents who benefit most from the lighting. It's the installation, maintenance, and the county costs are recovered. And then there are concerns about affordability and equity. Another model we looked at was what we were calling a subsidized model.

[02:20:30] And that results in a projected 1.5 to 2.4% tax increase. And it, again, requires the creation of the service tax district, assessment of the ad valorem tax, and then the cost of lighting is primarily paid by those who benefit.

[02:20:49] County administrative costs would be paid from local tax funding. There are still, even with the subsidized model, concerns about affordability and equity. Staff is recommending approval for implementation of a streetlight program in conjunction with a district-level targeted survey of residents.

[02:21:12] That survey would seek to input a residence within the suburban policy area to determine their interest in the program and tolerance of the cost burden. The county would apply a full cost or a subsidized model to implement the Streetlight program based on those survey results, and there would be outreach needed at the district level for the targeted suburban areas.

[02:21:38] and with that we can open it for questions thank you um why don't we start with supervisor saying so i know it's initiated this uh to begin with and then i may see if i can send you off on a slightly different direction but go ahead all right thank you thank you lane for the presentation to staff for your work and good to see uh the representative from pf uh pfm group back with us doing your analysis and work so good work as always so I'll just be real short having a little

[02:22:13] bit of heartburn with the the tax district it was initially when I brought this in my first birth term and what was it 2016 2019 I forget what year it was that was never my intent but at the time I didn't have the vote so making sessions and to move the project along and I know previously you brought brought this item before us but there was one model in Prince William County do you remember do you recall what how Prince William County does it and correct me if I'm wrong but they allocate a certain amount of funding for each district and then that district

[02:22:50] supervisor is kind of if they get requests they'll look at the different requests work with staff and then make a determination and then allocate that funding accordingly is that is that correct yes that is correct that's the prince william model how much does uh prince william allocate i believe it was 700 000 say it one more time 700 000 700 000 per district or total i believe it was per district okay no i think in so oh 17 okay well go ahead go ahead we'll have to clarify yeah they can clarify that and then you know i got my briefing last week friday um i'm assuming you

[02:23:28] didn't uh haven't had time to connect with dominion yet but if you can come back um and look at that area that we highlighted in our in our briefing in the sterling district and if you can look at how dominion energy does their lighting program currently right now and then compare that same area with what you're proposing with the the um the tax district so we can have an apples apples comparison to say okay if you went to dominion route this is how much would it be if you go with

[02:24:04] Our proposal, this is how much would it be, if you can bring that back to us as well, because I'll be honest with you, I'm leaning to my colleagues, and if you want to, if staff can make sure to update everybody, refresh everybody's memory on the Prince William County model, but I'm leaning towards something similar to how Prince William County does it, to be quite honest with you, but I would still like to have that information. Supervisor James, can you explain the Dominion?

[02:24:21] Oh, the Dominion method? I'm not sure what it means. Staff, are you comfortable answering that question? Yes, sir. The Dominion program allows an HOA the ability to go to Dominion directly with a request for street lighting.

[02:24:43] The caveat to that is that it has to be placed into private property and an easement provided to Dominion so that they can have their equipment within an easement. So that's really what their program is. Has that other, I don't want to take your time, well, we're not timed anyway, but are there examples of that in the county now?

[02:25:04] Oh, yeah. On a smaller scale basis, for a complete subdivision, I'm not aware of one. Like South Riding has some, would that be they went to Dominion? Correct. Okay, all right, so we're talking about that. All right, just wanted to.

[02:25:19] It's often called the watch light program. Yeah, okay. And your point, Supervisor Sains, is that you think that they're doing that at a more efficient cost basis? I would just like to compare it to how staff is presenting the program just to see, okay, if you take this one area, if you go to Dominion, this is what it's going to be to come with us.

[02:25:38] What's being proposed, this is what it's going to be, just to have that analysis. But like I said to my colleagues, if staff may please refresh everybody's memory from now to the next meeting, the Prince William County method, they can resend that information to us. Because like I said, I'm leaning towards that, but I'll get some more information from now until then.

[02:25:58] and I'll definitely have a motion before we come back on the dice in March. Thank you. I apologize. I misspoke. It is $17,000 per district. $17,000 per district. Okay, thank you. That is a big difference. Yeah, very big difference. Mr. Hamstreet. Yes, if I may, just a question for the committee on the Dominion model, because the majority of streetlights in the county are managed by HOAs, or Homeowners Association.

[02:26:29] So the main focus of this program was addressing non-HOA areas. And so in order to make a program work in a specific area, somebody would have to serve in the stead of the HOA.

[02:26:47] And so the way that the program was designed is the county would serve in that capacity as the HOA because you need an entity who can go out and identify the easements, who can go out and identify the area, put the program together.

[02:27:07] So that's what the county would be doing. So I'm not quite certain how to do an apples-to-apples comparison when we don't have an HOA entity to work with because that's what the program is designed to address as non-HOA areas.

[02:27:26] Thank you for that clarification Mr. Hemistry but again it was just more or less just a C even though you explained it very well that kind of the county is taking on that role as HOA but then the resident in that area will still have to pay right so the program would be pretty much identical so that's why I'm asking a question is because we would we're essentially going to Dominion and and enacting or engaging with them in that in a very similar program acceptance for government as opposed to the HOA. So because there's no HOA in these areas, I don't know how

[02:28:02] to make that comparison because what the proposal is here is there is the option for the county to subsidize a portion of the program or the entire program, depending on what the pleasure of the board is. And so those numbers never become actually really true comparisons because the programs are different. Well, but in a sense, Dominion is subsidizing it too with their program where they'll come in and do the installation and the maintenance but then the HOA will pay a fee monthly to Dominion for those lights that's correct and we would be doing something very exactly so so that's where I say that's where it's the apples apples comparison

[02:28:40] and I have this one specific area within my district that just reached out within the last three weeks so that's why I just was asking for that comparison just to get a I'm just saying the numbers are going to be the same is what I'm trying to say and so the the the question I have there is well are are we trying to what or maybe we should talk offline but but you're assuming the numbers are gonna be some reaction no because they literally are using the dominion program it's the same program government instead of an hoa yeah are the exact are you sure you're saying that what we're offering would be the exact same pricing those dominions right now because we're

[02:29:16] not an hoa i'll defer to mr brown but the the issue is is this program is for non hoa areas i understand so and so we can make it the same price but see my point is we don't know what the true cost will be the price will be that's what i'm asking for that comparison i don't know that we can do that because they're different programs on different bases okay we can talk offline but the direction was dennis has a connection with dominion or i can reach out to dominion and say hey i have this area how much would it be if we go with your watch light program then staff can take that exact same area with what they're proposing and give us the numbers for what

[02:29:55] they're proposing. And then that way we'll have what Dominion's offering for their watchlight program, what staff are supposing with this program. Then I'll just have that information just for my knowledge. And then again, I'll chew on it, talk to my colleagues and maybe come back with the motion. That's all I'm asking for. Yes, I understand it's Dominion. Yes, I understand it's county and whatnot, but I just would like to have that comparison, just to have those solid numbers. We'll do our best with that. I'm just trying to understand where the committee's trying to get to with it well there's a lot of different options we can go with ultimately like i said right now i'm just not comfortable in talking to a few other folks that are not here today

[02:30:31] and i think i can speak for miss brisbane we're not too satisfied with having a tax district pretty much to tax our residents for the lights yeah so what we've offered is if you don't want to go with a tax so we have to have a targeted district in order to know where we're where we're building the street lights right so we have to identify what's called a service area so that the tax district or service district is just a payment mechanism so the way that the item has been set up is is to say okay how does the board or in this case the committee want to go about identifying

[02:31:05] a service area where we're going to put street lights right and so so that has to be done in some way so what's been proposing the item is for us to work with the district supervisor or an interested district supervisor in an area that is not covered by an HOA to identify a service area from there what we would then do is is do a survey of in this case what's being proposed is to do a survey or input survey from those residents who are in that service area to determine interest to determine any

[02:31:42] number of things that are pertinent to the installation of streetlights in that service area then we come back to the board and then the board needs to make a a decision, are you going to, are you going to subsidize 100% of this cost? Are you going to subsidize some of this cost? Are you going to subsidize all of it? And that would be based off of the information that we're able to provide you both through the analysis that we do with that service area, as well as through the information that we gained through the survey. So, I mean, that's what's being proposed here. That's why I'm trying to understand what the purpose is of

[02:32:19] putting into the mix a model that isn't being considered. I'm not, that's, again, we can talk offline, Mr. Hemstreet, to get everything you're saying, but we're talking past each other. We can talk offline because I don't want to take too much time, but get everything you're saying, but we'll have a better, we'll have a motion when it comes back in March once I get that information.

[02:32:43] Thank you. Ms. Brisbane. Thank you. I think if I may maybe put my oar in this water, I think the concern is that the county's getting the same price that the HOAs get, and I don't know if we can get that from Dominion.

[02:32:59] But I think that's the main concern, is we don't necessarily want to pay more than what the HOAs are paying. Yeah, okay. Anyway, I appreciate staff's work on this and the briefing I had today. One of the things that concerns me about the taxing district idea is that by state code, we have to have 60% of the taxing district agree to be taxed.

[02:33:26] And I don't think that, I honestly don't think that we're going to get 60% of, you know, our suburban area communities that don't have an HOA, maybe any of them to agree to be taxed extra, anywhere from three, I think you said 3.2% to 7.9% more.

[02:33:44] So that's kind of my resistance to a taxing district. I'll stick with my thoughts on the financing and how we might go about this because we have had in our communities folks who are interested in having streetlights.

[02:34:03] I think the safety and the numbers that you guys presented sort of bear this out, that the violent crime and the safety and all that is, to me, kind of a side benefit. My interest is that our communities are connected.

[02:34:23] People feel comfortable that they could see their way to getting somewhere without a vehicle, whether that's a bike or a scooter or walking. Those are kind of the benefits that I would be looking for on something like this.

[02:34:41] And as we're talking about the financing of it, like I said, I'm not that interested in tax districts, but I think we might be able to do something along the lines of a contingency fund so that there's something there, like we do with the sidewalks.

[02:35:01] If we have a request, a supervisor could take in that request, you know, maybe go ask staff, do we have funds in our budget to do a study of this area? Do we have funds in our budget to perhaps do a lighting project in this area?

[02:35:17] Because if we do it by district and with such a small amount, I just don't know that we're going to get anywhere. And every single district might not even have communities that want this. So, you know, and we can talk offline about it, but in my mind, doing something more along a contingency fund, I think, might work.

[02:35:38] And, of course, you know, the entire board would have to approve it and yada, yada. And then the other thought I had, and this would be more of a land use issue and maybe even a zoe, I'm sorry to say that. But as we were talking today, we do have a requirement for streetlights already in certain areas of the county.

[02:35:56] I think you said it has to be in, I don't know if it was town centers or suburban areas where the commercial area connects to residential. Is that correct? So in that case, we have to have streetlights already. Something like that?

[02:36:12] Yeah, that's correct. For new development, there's a requirement in Chapter 7 of the FSM for multifamily, private streets, and some intersections on certain subdivisions, depending on density, as well as commercial districts that will be open after dark.

[02:36:32] They have requirements for street lights, and those are spelled out in the FSM. So I'm just wondering, and of course I would defer or maybe we can talk about it, but I'm thinking maybe to solve this issue moving forward, we look at changing the FSM or something where, because we're already saying we want 10-foot shared use paths in certain areas of the county.

[02:36:55] So perhaps we put something in our FSM or a ZOAM or however it works where future 10-foot shared use paths must have streetlights. So anyone that does say a revitalization at Cascades Marketplace or a new development down by the Metro where we know we want people to be going the last mile and back, either on a scooter or a bike on their feet.

[02:37:19] So if it's a 10-foot shared use path, then we require the lights. I would need staff's help on how to go about accomplishing that, but I think that might help us with connectivity. It might help us with the last mile issue as we work around the Metro Center.

[02:37:35] It could help us with getting folks out of their cars, period, in the future. It doesn't necessarily help legacy communities, but it might be something to think about in the future. So that wasn't a lot of questions, but that's all I got. If you have any comment, feel free.

[02:37:51] Thank you. All right. I think we're going to be all over the place here because I'm going to go in a completely different direction, but it's all right. I think we need to drop the distinction between HOA and non-HOA. Yes, it's possible for HOAs now to request through Dominion a streetlight district.

[02:38:13] And there are large HOAs that have done that. However, for a smaller HOA, I believe it's cost prohibitive. And that's why none of them have it. So the reality is, if we're going to start subsidizing street lamps for here and there, I think it's probably a program that needs to be open for the entire county.

[02:38:31] And not just for, because let's, you know, HOA money is not free. Like, it's essentially a tax that homeowners have to pay that covers a whole bunch of services, yes, but it's not like it's free. So I think we get into a fairness issue when we exclude that from any discussion if we were to go to something other than a tax district type of model in which you are directly paying.

[02:38:54] The tax district was essentially meant to sort of mimic doing it through an HOA. But the reality is, I think what this analysis has shown us is that it's probably cost prohibitive for either a tax district or for anything other than the very largest HOAs that have big reserves.

[02:39:10] That's point number one. Point number two is what I might be interested in, and I did speak with Supervisor Saints about this, is more of a spot approach. So I think instead of thinking about this as big, long projects where we're doing big sections, we do have a significant number of areas.

[02:39:28] And believe me, my office gets requests on lighting all the time, but usually it's intersections and it's places where in a residential community with an HOA, there's usually a requirement that you have like a lamp or lantern out front. And that essentially provides this sort of thing that a street light does and which you don't have that requirement, not HOA.

[02:39:48] But as soon as you get out of those areas and into the entry point to the community or something like that, you typically have an intersection which is not lighted. In fact, VDOT lights almost no roads unless it's almost a highway-grade road.

[02:40:04] So we have major, major intersections, major corridors throughout the county that don't have any lights. One of the things I was hoping for was maybe a little better clarity on whether those lights actually do help from a safety perspective at night. It is most certainly driver and resident perception that they do.

[02:40:22] I don't know that the statistics here really bear that out. But instead of looking at trying to do 50 lights over half a mile, could we have a program, and maybe it's a contingency type of program like we have, where we're looking at spot improvements around the county in places that we have higher crash intersections and things like that.

[02:40:47] So that's kind of what I would be interested in looking at, which I realize is sort of a different discussion of what we were having. I don't think it would preclude us from also including non-HOA communities that need help with some of this. um you know and i wouldn't want the cost to be excessive so one of the things that i need to do is and maybe there's updated numbers you can give us and i think it's a little bit what supervisor sayings was asking for is exactly what it costs i know we do you know we just did in fairness yeah as far as in fairness supervisor sayings between the time we started this and now he did get the number one project that he wanted which was the sterling boulevard stuff funded so you know before

[02:41:24] we feel too badly you know let's be honest um facts uh but you know exactly from an operating basis versus installation basis what did that cost now that we've done it what's the pilot tell us you know those kind of things and then if we just you know is it even possible when i think it is to just simply do a a single street light or maybe two or three at a given intersection versus a larger project um and what that sort of looks like from a cost basis both to install and then to operate so mr brad do you have a reaction to any of that so i i not a reaction sir i just

[02:42:02] a point of clarification if i may we we just did the pilot study on on sterling boulevard and it did give us very detailed information on costs associated with intersection improvement relative to lighting and that was prioritized on the the the most vulnerable um intersections there so we do have that information on costing for i believe some of them had two some of them had forward I think maybe as many as six on one of them you'd have to probably speak to that but we did have different lighting scenarios in each of the different intersections and that certainly could be data that we we can

[02:42:37] compile I will say that the data the that Dominion charges the same price regardless of who's asking for it the biggest challenge is where they're placed because the only way that they can get into the actual right-of-way is through a county process if it's done in a private road they can put it within what is perceived as the right-of-way if it's in on public roads and it's not asked for by the municipality then it has to be put outside of the right-of-way into onto those private property so that is a major distinction of of lighting and lighting effectiveness frankly if you're looking at street lighting that's a that's a function especially if you're trying to maintain dark dark sky

[02:43:15] protocols because you have to put higher lumens in to be able to light the actual street sidewalks and pathways is a different conversation and the the watch light program is extraordinarily effective for that type of of solution so watch light program it's oh it's the program that is made available by by by dominion for okay all right right away and maybe you could as a reminder send us the item that was done previously on the different models i think we've looked at fairfax and prince william and everybody and how they did this yes sir and so i'll go back to you in a second but um i think between now and next month then i'm

[02:43:53] looking for more information he's looking for more information and we kind of gave you that and and then maybe between us we can work on whether there's some sort of motion or language that we can come up with that would put us in a direction at least that would make sense i think nobody really likes tax districts so we're at least we got that far out of this um where we go from here is kind of i think the question so another request last point of clarification said next month could we we would ask for maybe a little bit more time with okay with that if

[02:44:26] that's viable with next month is a transit heavy finance I so when we look at next month that's basically two weeks to do the work okay we are heading into the budget season you've given us a lot to think about so I think if you to come back with a product that kind of addresses the comments of the committee I think we're looking at either April or May just to be able to do to do it just I think we were originally thinking that there was some alignment with this in the budget process but I think you make a valid point and we always have fund balance and all those kind of

[02:45:05] things to get something started if we wanted to because what I'm hearing is you know you're not interested in really a service district program which means the basis of of the program needs to be more of an analytical base and so we need a little bit of time to kind of figure out what that is because we're just talking with ms mcclellan we're looking more like something similar at least what i'm hearing to like the sidewalk infill or improvement program and this the intersection improvement program where we have areas that are kind of analytically defined based off of a

[02:45:41] criteria and then the you know the board kind of pays for it based off of how how important yeah we just need sort of a hybrid to accommodate the non-hoa areas as well well i think your answer is that the county has to run the program and it's based i mean mr mr brown articulated why and so the the issue yeah right so it's going to take us a couple months to figure it out okay well i can work with you on scheduling then but a question and then another comment when we do

[02:46:15] intersection improvements because i feel like we see that a lot in the cip do we not do lights like this? So I can't speak to DTCI's intersection improvement program, and I'm sure it is 100% dependent on the actual intersection. We did have the pilot study on Sterling Boulevard that was specifically targeted for lighting improvements, and we are in fact coordinating one of those intersections with DTCI that is doing improvements in that area. So I think it really is dependent upon the data that comes with that intersection for improvement. Okay. I just, I feel like this

[02:46:52] was not necessarily necessarily was it necessarily started for intersection improvements i didn't think so um so uh and not that not that we don't need lights maybe at our intersections but the data that we just found out was that crashes aren't necessarily like the crash numbers don't necessarily get improved if you put more lights in an intersection the other thought i just had as as we were talking we have um the traffic calming program so maybe it's something that that kind of get set up like our traffic calming program where now that the HOAs have to write a letter but maybe it's something where you know the community can come to us and ask for something and then we have

[02:47:32] like this process whereby it happens and we're actually setting something like that up with DTCIs doing it out of the school's crosswalk we're doing with crosswalks as well where the community can come and ask for crosswalks and now there's literally a process for it so I know that's kind of down the line but i'm envisioning something like that being put together so that's all i got thank you mr shanes thank you dennis if you have it off the top of your head how much were one of the poles with just the two lights that we that are installed in sterling

[02:48:05] boulevard you're asking for the location within how much was one of the the poles oh one of the poles um it's hard to say we're about to go through phase two which is going to be six total poles dual heads and the the design cost of those was about fourteen thousand and the construction and installation looks like it's going to run around eighty thousand so about ninety four thousand for essentially twelve lights okay how much is it for one if you have that number uh

[02:48:38] i have to do the math just on a ballpark it's around fourteen to sixteen thousand uh per pole installed uh that it that's the ballpark that i remember we can do the actual math and give give you a real hard number on that yeah so but but that's going to be inclusive of the design and the construction and there's two phases of design there's a coverage design and then the electrical design and those will be more for what i think miss brisbane and supervisor letourneau are getting out for the intersections but not for say in the within the neighborhood would that be

[02:49:11] accurate to say in the intersection yes yep thank you yeah i mean i recognize this kind of maybe two different purposes here but um but i think you know they were i mean honestly they're sort of being used and proposed somewhat at a cross purpose since they looked at all these traffic statistics and everything like that so um all right well we'll try to have more discussions among ourselves i think and then give staff some time to kind of come up with some different ideas on how we could approach this make sense yes sir thank you okay um i don't think we need a motion

[02:49:48] then if we're just going to keep it in committee right okay all right well that i believe is the last item, yes, the last item to come before the committee this evening. We have our budget presentation on the operating budget at five o'clock tomorrow, as well as our public hearing.

[02:50:06] No further business. We are adjourned.

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