Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, Business Meeting, Tuesday, June 18, 2024

Date: Tuesday, June 18, 2024
Place: Board Room, First Floor, Government Center, 1 Harrison Street SE, Leesburg, Virginia
Length: 4h 29m (video)
Official meeting video (county, Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/player/clip/7700
Agenda (Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=73&clip_id=7700

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 2026-10-18. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:10:44] Thank you. Well, good evening, supervisors. Good evening, staff, and good evening, Loudon. I'd like to call to order the June 18, 2024 Loudon County Board Supervisors Business Meeting. This room has a hearing loop. If you need hearing assistance, please switch your hearing aid to the telecom mode.

[00:11:02] If you need a headset, we have those available as well. Please see the clerk to request one. My only words of, quote, inspiration today is for the class of 2024. This happens to be graduation season. and I have attended five graduations so far.

[00:11:20] I believe we have 20 high schools in Loudoun County, and so we have a lot of people graduating. If there are any graduates listening to us right now or your families, I would first say congratulations. A high school graduation is a huge, huge accomplishment.

[00:11:36] I would also say that you are 17, 18, 19 years old. If you do not know what you want to do with the rest of your life, that really is okay. You have plenty of time to figure out the entire rest of your life. If you're going to the military, that is so admirable, and we thank you for your service.

[00:11:55] If you're taking a gap year, I actually wish I had given my sons a gap year before sending them off to college. Gap years really help people grow and learn new things. My only major, I have two pieces of major advice. Well, also, if you're going to the workforce, we need people in the workforce, especially the trades.

[00:12:12] I say all the time, you can have 20 PhDs and doctors in one room, but if you need a plumber, you need a plumber. And so the trades are an admirable way to serve, and you can make a very, very good living in the trades.

[00:12:28] My two pieces of advice are this. At some point, young people, put down your electronic devices and go outside and have a good time. Not all wisdom and all entertainment and all of everything is on those electronic devices. You're going to be able to, you have to kind of broaden that mind and have more experiences, and you do that by putting down your electronic devices.

[00:12:48] My second piece of information to you is call home. One, your moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles really need to hear from you. They need to hear your voice. And if you don't call home, they might show up at your dorm. And you would way rather call home to have them show up at your dorm, wouldn't you?

[00:13:04] But the other thing is, is although you're 18, you're not really quite adults yet. You're legal, but you're not adults, and so you're going to make mistakes, and when you make mistakes, your parents might get mad at you, but that's okay, because they'd rather be mad at you than have something serious happen that they can't fix.

[00:13:24] And so if you get into a jam or a fix or a problem, call your parents. Call your grandparents. Call the people who have been walking around, clutching your baby pictures for the past two weeks, looking at you and crying. Call those people because they are there for you every step of the way.

[00:13:39] I would say that the nine of us up here, actually the 11 of us, because I will include Mr. Rogers and Mr. Hemstreet, believe in you totally and wish nothing but good things for you. So congratulations and good luck, class of 2024. Would everybody please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance?

[00:13:57] Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[00:14:15] Okay, Mr. Sains will not be joining us tonight because he actually is at one of those graduations. He's at the graduation for Parkview High School, which starts this evening. Ms. Rixman is going to be running a little late because she's also coming from a graduation of Potomac Falls High School.

[00:14:34] Mr. Letourneau, I think, is running from work. He will be here, but he is just running a little bit late. And Ms. Umstead will not be here tonight as well. Before we get started, I do want to say that we have some very, very special guests in the room tonight. There is an organization that is sponsored through our United States Congress.

[00:14:56] And, well, actually they're sponsored by our Rotary Club, but they come through the United States Congress. It's the Congressional Office for International Leadership. This delegation is actually a delegation from Hungary. They've come to the United States to learn what the rule of law is in the U.S.

[00:15:13] and to look at county governments, state governments at different levels. This week they are in Loudoun County for the entire week. They were sponsored and are being sponsored by the Rotary Club of Leesburg, who is hosting them in their homes to be with us today, to be here this week.

[00:15:30] They have met with my office. They're meeting with the Commonwealth Attorney. They're meeting with the Sheriff's Department and some county administration just to understand kind of how county government works. I think they're also meeting with a couple of our mayors. I know they're meeting with Leesburg, a couple of the mayors of Leesburg, just so they can really understand how government works.

[00:15:49] I explained to them that, you know, in Virginia we're called supervisors. Sometimes, some places, this position is called commissioners. In Kentucky and Texas, this position are called judges. It's really very confusing that they call them judges. And I explained to them what local government does and how much we all love it and why we do it.

[00:16:11] So if Glenn is here, I'm going to have Glenn hand the microphone to our guests who are here today so they can introduce themselves, one, for two reasons. One, I want them to introduce themselves and tell everyone what the positions are, and two, I don't want to destroy your last names because if I say a last name incorrectly, I would feel terrible, and I don't want to do that.

[00:16:30] And so if you would please introduce yourselves and tell everyone what your positions are while you are here, we'd appreciate it. Thank you very much. You can stand up. I'll just say I'm Phil Rochellelli. I'm coordinator for this group from the Rotary Club of Leedsburg.

[00:16:48] Myself, Darius, and Judge Horn are hosting our guests, and I'm going to hand it over to their facilitator. We have three delegates from Hungary with us, and the facilitator today is Mate.

[00:17:06] Thank you, Phil. I'm Mate Hegedus. I work at the U.S. Embassy in Budapest. We organized a program from Hungary to bring the delegates over to the U.S. for about 10 days of programming, both in Washington, D.C. and in a host community, which in our case is Leesburg this week.

[00:17:22] Thank you for having us. Hello, everyone. Thank you for having us today. I'm Adel Tillishtiak from the Hungarian Transparency International. We are an international organization working on fighting against corruption and promoting transparency and accountability.

[00:17:47] And I would like to thank you for everyone because of your hospitality in here. And a special thanks goes to the Leesburg Rotary Club for their hospitality too.

[00:18:04] And again, thank you for having us today. Hello everyone, I'm Gabor Hachi from the Hungarian Amnesty International. It's the Hungarian section of Amnesty International. I think you have heard about our organization.

[00:18:20] And I work as a lawyer and I deal with the rule of law issues in Hungary. And this is an important topic for us because the rule of law is in decline in Hungary. But elsewhere, and we try to strengthen rule of law and especially judicial independence because it's also threatened there.

[00:18:39] And I also want to thank you, Rotary Club, for having us and our great hosts here in Lisburg and the whole community that you and all the offices that shared information with us, how you work, how rule of law, how checks and balances work in this county.

[00:18:57] Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Nora Novoseldeck. I'm a lawyer as well, and I work for the Hungarian Health Thinking Committee in Budapest, Hungary, which is a human rights watchdog organization.

[00:19:13] I work on criminal justice and rule of law issues, and I just want to repeat that we are very grateful for your time and for the officials' time who are meeting with us this week, and special thanks to our hosts, and special thanks to Chair at Large for this opportunity.

[00:19:36] Thank you. Thank you for being with us. They'll be here through the week. They actually are going to join us at law camp, And so we are very appreciative of you all being here, and we hope that we can, you know, this is what a great international cultural exchange should look like.

[00:19:52] I've learned so much, and I hope you all have learned a lot as well, and you're enjoying your visit here. So I appreciate it. Thank you. Okay, Supervisors, I'm going to read the consent agenda. The proposed consent agenda is as follows. Item R1, Proclamation to Recognize Parks and Recreation Month in association with Play All Day in Loudoun County.

[00:20:12] That's for approval only. It's through my office and the office of the vice chair. Item R2, resolution to allow in Canberra supervisors to recognize June 24th through 30th as Virginia Agriculture Week. That's for approval only, and that's sponsored by Supervisor Kirshner.

[00:20:27] Item R3, resolution to honor James Betts, Virginia Department of Transportation Residency Maintenance Administrator for his outstanding service to the Loudon community. That's for approval and presentation. Mr. Kirshner will join me down front for that resolution. Item R4, resolution of commemoration for Marcellia Regano.

[00:20:48] She is Ms. Senior Virginia USA. That's for approval and presentation. Mr. Crony will join me down front for that resolution. And Senior Virginia doesn't mean senior in high school. It means what is considered a senior age.

[00:21:04] What is considered a senior age. Mr. Crony will join me down front for that. Resolution to recognize the 25th anniversary of the Terroir Winery Summer Concert Series. That is for approval only. That is also for Mr. Kirshner and Ms. Umstead.

[00:21:20] Item R6, resolution to recognize the scrape for the grape event, organizers and volunteers. That's for approval. Is that for presentation? I didn't know that's for presentation. Okay, that's for some supervisor glasses office, Mr. Crony's office, and my office.

[00:21:37] Those are the offices that actually somebody went out and scraped bugs I personally wasn't involved in bug scraping but my staff did and I really did appreciate that and they scraped over a million eggs of the spotted lanternfly which is an invasive species egg and so amazing and thank you our seven proclamation to recognize June 19th 2024 as Juneteenth in Loudoun County that's for approval only that is from my office supervisor and Supervisor Glass that will be presented tomorrow at the Juneteenth event.

[00:22:13] Item 1A, Appointments and Confirmations. Item 2, Administrative Items Report of June 18, 2024. Item 3, Board Member Initiative, Parcel Suspension of Airport Overlay District Notification Requirement for Potential Sales by Subsequent Owner. Item 6A, Contract Award Purchase of Services Agreement for Potential Services Providers for the Children's Services Act for Eligible Youth and Families.

[00:22:36] Item 6B, 2023, Loudoun County Criminal Justice Board Annual Report. Please, everyone, go read that. Item 6C, November 24, the bond referendum. Item 6D, Community Policy and Management Team Bylaws Revision and 2023 Annual Report.

[00:22:55] Item 6E, FTE Authority for Parks and Recreation and Community Services. Additional CASA site at the Henrietta Lacks Elementary School. Item 6G, affordable multi-housing loan program application. That one's for the Cedar Terrace apartment only.

[00:23:14] Item 6H, FY 2025, Loudoun County Cycle 4 COVID-19 Vaccine Equity Program grant funding recommendations. Item 6I, Town of Leedsburg request to add a study of Route 15 and South King Street interchange improvement, Route 7 improvements, Route 9 to Dulles Greenway long-term improvement projects.

[00:23:35] And Item 7A, the Joint Committee Revised Rules of Order. That's the Joint Committee. That's the BOS School Board Committee Rules of Order. I will make a motion to approve. Is there a second? Motion made in a second by Mr. Crony. Discussion on the consent agenda?

[00:23:55] Seeing none, all the people who say aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 603. Mr. Turner, I have no additions and deletions. Does anyone else have additions or deletions besides Mr. Turner, which I do believe you have an addition to the agenda for today, Mr. Turner?

[00:24:15] That's correct. I'd like to add a motion to item 6F when we come to that motion, to that item. Would you like to say what the motion 6F would be? Yeah, the motion is, do you want me to read the motion? No, just tell it what it's about. It's about asking staff to revisit the multifamily housing loan program guidelines and then report back to the board.

[00:24:35] Wonderful. Thank you very much. All right, I've had quite a few regional boards, meetings, events since we've last been together, so I'll just go through them as quickly as possible. The DMV Moves Task Force has met one time.

[00:24:53] It went very well. That is the co-board between the Council of Government and Metro to launch of the historic initiative. We are trying to create a unified vision and sustainable funding for public transportation in the region.

[00:25:13] I think the sustainable, reliable funding is the most important thing I can talk about right there for Metro. So we met for the first time. That group includes the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Northern Virginia, all the areas that are part of the Metro Compact.

[00:25:35] I am on the DMV Task Force Committee, and I'm proud to do that. Let's see. NVTA met this past Thursday. Nothing major to report. We are now in our new space, and it's going well.

[00:25:51] And then the bad news, the fairly really bad news, is I attended on Wednesday the 12th the Council of Government meeting, MWCOG Council of Government meeting, where they had the report on our housing numbers.

[00:26:09] And I will tell you, unfortunately, Loudoun County, by percentage, has the worst homeless numbers in the region. Now, by numbers, by just hard numbers, we went up 83 homeless persons in the past year-to-year point-in-time count.

[00:26:32] But for our numbers, that is a 38% increase. The next increase that was closest to us was 28%, and that's Montgomery County. So we are, by percentage, 10 points higher in how fast we have a homeless population that is growing.

[00:26:50] So this is one of the areas that we don't want to lead. We don't want to be first. We don't want to have a homeless population growing at a percentage rate that high. I have thoughts about that, but during this time of the meeting, this is just when I report out the facts without giving any of my opinions or thoughts.

[00:27:13] But the facts are our homeless population by percentage has grown faster than anybody else in the region. The other very distressing number is for the region. Our region is 25% African-American, but almost 70% of the homeless population in the DMV area is African-American.

[00:27:33] And that includes families, which is 69% of the homeless population is African-American families and individuals. And so I'm being careful with my words. I'm not saying minorities. I'm saying the African-American population is by far the highest homeless population and is nowhere near matching the percentage of African-Americans in the region, which, again, is just 25%.

[00:28:01] So I did bring that up as a concern when we were in the meeting. And what I said was that it is not enough to just acknowledge it. We literally have to find out, like drill down and find out what is going on.

[00:28:17] And it's not just, we know there's not just an issue of not enough homes because the difference in the number would be across the board if it was just an issue of not enough homes. And so further discussions of why homelessness is hitting the African-American population in the DMV so much higher than everybody else is under discussion.

[00:28:40] And then when we kind of figure out the why, we can figure out the what, the what do we do about it. So those numbers that came in from COG were very distressing. Colleagues, I have sent all those numbers. I sent the entire report to all of you all. And so everyone has that report.

[00:28:56] I sent it to our housing staff as well. So everyone that needs that report has that report. And please, everyone, look it over. and let's maybe try to address some of the homeless problem for our youth, adults, and families in our county.

[00:29:13] Okay, so those were my regional activities over the past two weeks. My voice for a cause today is Keep Loud and Beautiful. Keep Loud and Beautiful is a nonprofit dedicated to maintaining a safe, clean, and healthy environment in Loudoun through educational outreach, litter prevention, and community cleanups.

[00:29:35] They were founded in 1972. Keep Loud and Beautiful has served our community for over 50 years, and in that time, they have completed roughly 1,785 community cleanups. Keep Loud and Beautiful has been at the forefront of efforts to institute and enforce pollution control measures, and they continually work to preserve Loud and's beauty.

[00:29:57] with us today. Thank you for coming. It's Alicia Kroenke. Thank you for being here. I have a couple of questions for you. What are the different types of cleanup programs that Loudoun might host in Keep Loudoun Beautiful? Well, we do a lot of different types of things. So we'll do the Potomac River on some canoes and clean it out. We'll do stream cleans over in Sterling. And we do the W&OD Trail. We'll do communities, HOAs, shopping centers, schools, really just

[00:30:34] anywhere on the side of the road that you can find litter, other than Route 7. We do not touch Route 7. It's just a safety issue, so we let VDOT take care of that. But they appreciate that we go around taking care of all the side roads and the communities and things that they just don't have the time or effort to do. So we'll take care of that stuff. That's amazing.

[00:30:54] Yeah, and thank you. And you're right, you do have to remain safe. That's very important. Yeah, I don't want them out there. You all have an educational outreach partnership with our county school system. What kind of activities do you offer to get more young people interested in the environment and even in cleanup?

[00:31:12] So any student that comes to us and says, I need service hours, we provide them the supplies that they need and maybe even give them an area to clean if they don't have one already in mind. and that way they can go out and do it we've tried to do some other things with them of like we had a youth committee and that ended up not succeeding we did video contests and that didn't succeed so it's very hard to get them engaged and keep them engaged so we've been struggling on that

[00:31:43] level but we do sponsor and also vote in the C's in the RSEF that the LCPS schools do so we are um helping to support them in that way and we also do some speaking events like with the new lcps wild um group that got together this year so we we try and get out to at least talk to the youth and educate them if anything are you engaging the because a lot of our schools do have the environmental clubs in our schools are you you're engaging with them yeah okay yeah that's why we'll go out and do the talks okay all right um are there any upcoming events we

[00:32:21] should know about so we have the canoe cleanup that's going to be on august 18th and then we will have the trash bash that will be out in sterling and that's probably going to be in october um most of our events happen in the spring so after winter when things have been untouched for quite a long time spring is our big hit so march to april before the things start to get overgrown and ticks start to come out that's our biggest push of the year so the summer and The fall is not as much.

[00:32:52] In the winter, it's too cold. The canoe cleanups, I'm assuming people put on life vests and you literally go out on canoes and clean the riverbeds, riversides, while you're in the canoes? Yes, on the Potomac. So we'll do it in Leesburg, starting actually at Point of Rocks, and then we'll come down on the canoes and just fill them up with whatever junk and tires.

[00:33:11] And we will fill up two super large dumpsters worth of trash and tires. Wow. So, yeah, it's about 50 people that we'll have out there in the canoes. Wow. Does anybody from Maryland ever join you on that effort? They do not. Okay. Well, that is amazing.

[00:33:29] Do you have contact information? Yeah, so you can actually just reach me if you need to at alicia at keeplightandbeautiful.org or, of course, our website, which is keeplightandbeautiful.org. And we have a Facebook page, Instagram page.

[00:33:46] So we try and we work with other organizations. So if they have events going on, we try and push out anything that's environmentally based so people can get involved and help out and be a part of it. Well, Alicia, thank you so much. This is amazing, and it's hard work and important work, and thank you for helping to keep loud and beautiful.

[00:34:06] Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Mr. Hemstreet, do you have any remarks for us this evening? Thank you, Madam Chair. I've got four comments for this evening. The first is that with extreme heat in the weather forecast, our health officials remind everyone to guard against heat-related illnesses by spending as much time as possible in air-conditioned locations, staying out of the sun, drinking plenty of water, and monitoring the weather forecast.

[00:34:35] More information and links to helpful resources can be found at loudon.gov slash heat. Second, I'm pleased to announce that the National Association of Counties has recognized 12 innovative Loudoun County programs with 2024 Achievement Awards. The award-winning programs represent a wide range of services, including animal welfare, civic education, economic development, information technology, libraries, public information, public safety, and sustainability.

[00:35:00] Details can be found at loudon.gov slash awards. And then third, Loudoun County Public Library's popular summer reading program is underway. The program is open to all ages and reading levels and includes challenges that encourage library use over the summer break. This year's theme is Rock at the Library, and as the name suggests, there will be music-themed events throughout the summer.

[00:35:21] Prizes are also involved. Participants can register to be part of the fund at library.loudon.gov slash SRP. And then finally, Loudoun County's monthly auction of surplus items has been recognized as one of the top online auctions at the publicsurplus.com platform, which hosts auctions for more than 2,500 public agencies.

[00:35:43] Loudoun County was among the top five counties in terms of sales volume and in the top 10 of sellers overall in 2023. In addition to the revenue it generates, the surplus auction helps keep items out of the county landfill by repurposing them. More information about the auctions may be found at loudoun.gov slash surplus. Those are my comments this evening, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Hemstreet. Appreciate that. Okay, supervisors, tonight is one of the things that I really enjoy so much, which is the Design Excellence Awards. In person tonight, we have Buddy Reiser from DED, Alan Hanson, who's the chair of the Loudoun County Design Cabinet. He is an

[00:36:20] architect, and they're going to come up. And so I think in the past, which we've done, is we've let you guys kind of do this down here, and when we're ready for a picture, we'll stand back here and do that, because what happened, well, Mr. Turner and I, because he's the next in line, because Ms.

[00:36:36] we're happy to come down. We're happy to come down, Mr. Turner and I, and then everybody else can take a picture when... Okay, how's that sound? Okay, Mr. Turner, will you join me down front, please? Hello? Oh, there he is. Just real quickly, my name is Buddy Reiser, and I'm with Loudon Economic Development. The design cabinet actually started in our department more than two

[00:37:10] decades ago, and over the years, we've done some great, great things. One of the things that I've and very excited about is the way that we've impacted the way the county looks. I think if you don't travel a lot, you know, you don't recognize how beautiful Loudoun really is.

[00:37:28] When we have people come in from other parts of the county or other parts of the country, they'll say inevitably, what a beautiful community it is. And part of that is that commitment to design, that commitment to quality, and the commitment to place that has always been so important in Loudoun County.

[00:37:45] Tonight, we will recognize a lot of those projects that have made an impact in our community. And to lead us in that discussion tonight, I turn it over to the chair, Mr. Al Gooden. All right. Thank you. Thank you. That's okay.

[00:38:01] Good evening to the Board of Supervisors, our guests, citizens, and our award winners. You know, as we said, as Buddy said, tonight is always a special night for the members of the cabinet. And I'm excited to hear that it's a wonderful night for the board as well.

[00:38:22] As Buddy said, we've been doing this for about 24 years now. It was a little idea of saying, wow, this is a special place to live, and we really need to start recognizing it. So the cabinet was developed.

[00:38:39] And what the cabinet is, it's a collection of, those of you who don't know, It's a collection of architects, planners, and engineers that either live or work in Loudoun County. The mission of this cabinet was to encourage the highest quality of design, and it is believed that we live in a quality environment known as Loudoun County.

[00:39:05] It's one of those places that, with the old adage, a great place to live, work, and play. And the cabinet, being the professionals that we are, we also see it in the economic development that good design is good business.

[00:39:23] So at that time, the cabinet formed what is called the Signatures of Loudon. It's a recognizing where we see quality design throughout the space. This year, we had, you know, the pandemic really kind of put a damper on us coming out and celebrating here.

[00:39:40] But this year, we were lucky to have 16 extremely talented and wonderful entries. Of that, we were able to give nine awards winnings, and it was hard to only give nine, quite frankly, to that.

[00:39:58] I just want to know, so you'll be seeing up on the stage behind you, behind the desk there, the award winners and photographs of them. And those winners, what we're going to ask you do is, as Supervisor Randall said, we will ask you to come forward, accept your award, and then as we read out the description of your award.

[00:40:20] And then please remain there because we're going to take that group picture that we all talked about, okay? Well, the whole group. Yes. So come up, take your picture, take your award, be happy.

[00:40:39] And then we're going to ask that you kind of hold the claps until then, okay, as well. And then move aside. so the next winner can come up and then we'll do a whole group. Does that work well? Okay, great. All righty, let's, with any further ado, let's move on, okay? Our very first category is called details. Now, details category recognize design excellence or whimsical demonstration of the form of finished touches which visibly delight or offer a sense of continuity with Loudoun's history.

[00:41:13] The award winner for details this year is Migration Spring and Fall, the mural at the wall of Waxpool Apartments in Ashburn. The cabinet really loved this mural. Its inclusion isn't...

[00:41:29] Oh, there she is. Yes, ma'am. Yeah, get up there. This inclusion of affordable housing project, especially as it is visible for the public to enjoy. We thoroughly enjoyed the double-facing structure of the mural as well.

[00:41:47] Joan Gardner, the artist, has been a previous winner, and her great murals have created our libraries throughout the county as truly the signatures of Loudoun. Receiving the award is Joan Gardner, Unison Pottery Tile Works.

[00:42:08] You can clap now. Thank you. Our second award category is Contextual Design. Now, contextual design demonstrates exceptional attention to the surroundings of the buildings, places, and details during that project's design.

[00:42:29] This new place, whether new construction or an adapted reuse, appears to have always been in harmony with its community through form, massing, texture, and colors. This was an exceptional year for the contextual design category because we had very, very several deserving entrees.

[00:42:52] This design cabinet decided that we had to give it to two award winners, and they are well-deserved. Our first winner is the Percival Group House in Percival. The project took the rural agricultural barn-like vernacular that speaks to the agricultural heritage of the Percival area and truly fits it into the community while providing a much-needed service.

[00:43:20] This thoughtful design says, welcome home to the residents. Receiving the award is Carl Rydell, Carl Rydell Architects, and Josh Garrity.

[00:43:44] Okay, our second award winner is Elsys Furniture in Roundhill. While its previous life was originally an auto dealership and most recently an auto repair shop, this transformation to a furnishing shop preserves the original texture and architecture while updating its use into a beautiful and value-added commerce opportunity in Roundhill.

[00:44:13] Receiving the award is Pamela Graf, Elsa's Furniture, and Catherine Kowalski, the Carved Tulip Interiors. Congratulations. Isn't that incredible?

[00:44:31] All righty. Our third category is Infrastructure. This category is best described as the backbone or the skeleton of the county.

[00:44:52] It is our public works facilities, our utilities, our bridges, and yes, our roads. The Cabinet Felt This Year Award winner truly is the backbone of Loudoun County. The winner is Loudoun's Gravel Roads.

[00:45:10] These arteries of travel began as Native American trails and connected our agriculture to towns and cities and exemplifies Louden as a special and a new place, a union of nature, history, and continued connections.

[00:45:31] Receiving the awards is Jane Covington, Jane Covington Restoration, and Emily Houston, America's Roots. You're allowed to clap. Our fourth category, near and dear to my heart, is interiors.

[00:45:54] This category is for interior spaces demonstrating excellence in design. This could include places of residence, commercial, retail, and public sector structures. This year's award winner for interiors is Hanley Energy in Ashburn.

[00:46:12] The cabinet was very impressed with how they made a refreshing contemporary space emphasizing collaboration and enhancing the workplace of employees. Receiving the awards is Niall Franklin of Hanley Energy and Patrick Bartlett DCS Design.

[00:46:28] Our fifth category is historic renovations.

[00:46:50] Historic renovations is a design excellence demonstrating in the form of historic renovations and or adaptive reuse. These projects may mirror Lowndes' unfolding reputation as a place of rich contrast and effort characteristics by the preservations of pieces of Lowndes County's unique history.

[00:47:10] The award winner for historic renovations is the Waterford Mill in Waterford. The cabinet commended the level of detail and efforts in being true to its history and original structure and making it a safe and secure place for its visitors.

[00:47:30] The heritage of the Quaker community and the construction was a celebration in this restoration. Receiving the award is Stephanie Thompson, Waterford Foundation, and Gibson Worsham, Glaive and Holmes.

[00:47:46] Thank you. Alrighty, our sixth category is Pacesetters, which celebrates recent visually groundbreaking projects that continue to shape Loudoun County as a unique environment.

[00:48:14] While Loudoun's signature buildings, places, and details mark the community's beginnings, these projects mark its current state of affairs and potentially set the pace for the future. This category actually showed us three winners, showing that the future of the county built and fired is forward thinking.

[00:48:36] Our first award winner for Pacesetters is the historic Douglas School Education and Development Campus Restoration here in Leesburg. The renovation of the high school was a very detailed and provided new life to an extremely important building in Loudoun County's history.

[00:48:55] The completion of this project took passion from several stakeholders to come to a unified mission to celebrate the site significance in the African-American history here in Loudoun County. Receiving the award is Melissa Tello, Loudoun County Public Schools, and Jill Cavanaugh, Bauer Blinder Bell Architects and Planners.

[00:49:25] We're allowed to clap.

[00:49:30] So of all you can see, it did take several stakeholders to make this thing happen.

[00:50:27] Actually, we might work out that everybody move to your left. Always a planner.

[00:50:45] All righty. Our second award winner for Pacesetters, here you go. This is real shocker. The Douglas Community Center Playground of Leesburg. This facility was built on the grounds of the co-winner of this category, The Douglas High School featured the latest trends in playground equipment while offering a historic lesson at nearly every turn throughout its unique and innovative features.

[00:51:23] Receiving the award is Steve Torpe, Department of Park and Recreation and Community Services, and Chancey Coleman, All Recreations.

[00:51:32] Yes, we had a need to have a third award winner in Pacesetters.

[00:52:18] The Barnes at Bramilton. In Bramilton. This 1940s dairy barn has been refurbished and repurposed as an event center. As a paysetter, it shows ingenuity to take a vital part of Loudoun County's agricultural history, marrying the traditional structure with contemporary construction and fitting a new need within the historic fabric of the county.

[00:52:44] Receiving the award is Steve Schulte and Danny George of Broughton Suave Real Estate.

[00:52:57] Hi everyone. Our seventh and final category is public spaces.

[00:53:27] Design excellence demonstrated in this form of public greens, plazas, squares, streetscapes, parkways, and trails, which by their attributes have become a favorite mixing place. These are places where exceptional design has created gathering places that are iconic to our community. And the award winner for public spaces is Hal and Bernie Hanson Regional Park in Aldi. This 257-acre site houses 36 buildings, dozens of recreational amenities, and nature trails. The park has created a recreational

[00:54:06] center for the entire community and has become a destination place for not only residents of Loudoun, but the surrounding counties and beyond. Receiving the award is Steve Torpe, Department of Parks, Recreation, and Community Services, and Lauren Helgeson, Lowe's Design.

[00:54:29] You can clap again. Lastly, I got one more. I got one more.

[00:54:47] Lastly, I forgot to mention it at the very beginning, but one of the things we're at the Cabinet is very proud of is we've included the students in high school, in our county high schools, to be part of this exciting attitude.

[00:55:07] The attitude is, if you start them young, believing that this is a great place to live, when they go off to college, they're going to come back and work here and be part and build their own families. So getting them to appreciate design and then see their enthusiasm when they were doing these awards, they were kind of scary.

[00:55:25] Their comments were actually better than ours, quite frankly. But so this year we had, and how that works is the students then, they sit in while we're doing the judging of all of you, and then they get to take from the winners their favorite winner is how it works.

[00:55:45] So this probably awards probably more equally prestigious as the others, if I would say something. All right, including these high school students is very paramount in our process. These students are not just volunteers.

[00:56:01] They are the next generation of architects and planners and designers. By involving them, we're investing in our future. And that's the most important thing here. Through a hands-on experience, these students gain invaluable insight in the intriguing design of the very world and challenges and ward of a profession.

[00:56:22] They learn the balance of aesthetic appeal with functionality, sustainability, and community needs. This exposure not only equips them with practical skills, but it also ignites passion for innovative and excellent design.

[00:56:38] This year, we had five students, Elliot Brady from the Academies of Loudoun and Tuscarora High School, Max Glegg, also from the Academy of Loudoun and Loudoun County High School, Marvin Feckle, Academy of Loudoun and Stonebridge High School, Quincy Finnegan, Loudoun Valley High School, Hudson Walker, Academies of Loudoun and Loudoun Valley High School.

[00:57:02] While deliberating, the students talked a lot about form versus function. I told you their comments are crazy. They were better than ours. Within these projects, and ultimately chose a winner based on the impact of the community and the history it preserved and retold.

[00:57:19] This year's Student Choice Award is the Historic Douglas High School Education and Development Campus. Okay, we're asking Melissa Tello of the Loudoun County Public Schools and Jill Cavanaugh, buyer blinder bell architects and planners to come back and and receive the award and that concludes

[00:57:48] our awards i want to the cabinet the cabinet wants to thank the board of superpowers for continually supporting this program and for inviting us here tonight and thank you as well for the department of economic development buddy and his team and and and god are instrumental in in helping the design cabinet move the signatures program forward each and every year.

[00:58:21] As mentioned, the Loudoun County Design Cabinet also serves the public through community design charrettes. If your town or your community group needs design assistance, please visit loudoungov.gov design cabinet to learn how this cabinet can help you.

[00:58:39] Congratulations again to all of the award winners, and we ask that you would join us one more time for a grand applause.

[00:58:56] Yes. Oh, okay.

[00:59:01] I'll be right back then.

[01:01:53] Can you start public comment without a forum? Yep. I'll be right back. I can.

[01:02:09] Yeah, the barn's beautiful. Yeah, I was thrilled by that. School's amazing. The playground's amazing.

[01:02:32] I'm just going to wait a couple of minutes until we hit 5 o'clock to do public comments.

[01:02:49] So some of my colleagues that left today, it's just for a second, they would be right back, and then we would do 5 o'clock public comments.

[01:03:17] You probably have it in your mailbox.

[01:04:49] You do have it in your mailbox, too, because I copied you on it. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep. We're just waiting for the gentleman on the board to come back in the room. Exclamation point in the word, the gentleman on the board to come back in the room.

[01:05:16] All right, public comment is technically at 5 o'clock, so they'll have to catch it.

[01:05:35] When they do, because I don't like making people wait. We have two people at the 5 o'clock time. They're both going to speak on the bamboo ordinance. The first speaker is Pam McGraw, followed by Mike Littman. Are there any other speakers, Jessica, on this item? No? Okay, we're ready when you are, then.

[01:05:53] Good evening, Ms. McGraw. Good evening. I'm here to thank you for considering the enactment of a bamboo ordinance here in Loudoun County. As a founding member of LERA, and then also as the vice chair of the Grounds Committee in Countryside, I can assure you that it is a problem here in this county, and it's one that we hope you can help us with.

[01:06:14] And interesting enough, the problem is created by unknowing homeowners who, in their efforts to screen their own property, make a very bad choice and introduce bamboo into our neighborhoods, which then expands into the common areas. And if we're not careful, perhaps it will take over all of Loudoun County.

[01:06:33] But I hope that's not the case, because I think that an ordinance, such as the one you're considering, would be a great help in controlling this, both to HOAs and also to prompt homeowners to be responsible for such occurrences on their own property when it impacts their neighbors and their community.

[01:06:52] So assuming that you do pass this forward to staff for further consideration and development, I hope you will also include some teeth in this ordinance, something that an HOA can use to bring about the result needed from the homeowner.

[01:07:08] Often we hear, it's not my problem, it was here when I moved in, I didn't know it was going to be such a big issue, and it's expensive to remove, which it is, and it's also not easy to deal with. So all of those are concerns that could come up if an ordinance doesn't have proper enforcement with it.

[01:07:27] So I hope you'll consider that, and I also hope that in a few weeks we'll see that you have enacted this ordinance. So thank you for your consideration. Thank you very much, Ms. McGraw. Mike Lipman, I think it's good to see you.

[01:07:44] Welcome. Good to see you, too, Chair and Supervisors. I actually canceled, and I guess it's crossed out, but I am here now, so I'm going to talk. Because the letter I think I sent you yesterday kind of said it all. But just as a refresher, in case you didn't get to see it, first of all, thank you, Supervisors Glass and to Crony, for bringing forth the bamboo bill, the ordinance that the state, I think, put in place in 2018, I think it was.

[01:08:11] And, you know, we've had a number of HOAs within Lira, so I'm the president of Lira, that have issues right now where they can't enforce the problems. And the problem is basically that people have planted bamboo, and if you've ever experienced it, I actually, in Portland, Oregon, helped a friend, believe it or not, tried to dig some out.

[01:08:30] It took a whole day around his driveway, and we got about halfway through it. I mean, it's just brutal, and it just spreads like crazy. And the HOAs I listed were Greenway Farms, Countryside, Sugar Land Run, a couple others that are all struggling with that right now.

[01:08:45] And if you do pass that ordinance, it'll give us the ability to enforce it within our HOAs. We literally had someone ask if they could plant bamboo this week in Ashburn Village. So it would be great if you move forward with it. I think at this point you're just looking at consideration and the staff will take a look at it and see what the right approach is.

[01:09:02] But anyway, now I'm glad I came up here. Mike, let me ask you, is there any other way to remove bamboo except to dig it out? Can you safely kill it? It's a good question. Like for a tree of heaven, there's a way we've learned to kill it where you have to get down to the roots.

[01:09:21] There's a way to do that properly. If you cut the tree down, it's going to make it worse, actually, as opposed to poisoning it in a certain way. I don't know, and I'll get you the answer to that question. I've got friends. They've got the answers. Thank you, sir.

[01:09:37] Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay, Supervisors. Supervisors, we have the look. Okay, the look.

[01:09:55] All right. We are going to talk about our upcoming strategic initiative. Supervisors, we're going to do it like this. We have the county staff that's going to present the item, and I should say a couple things before we do this.

[01:10:10] One, I want everyone to remember that as the facilitator talked to all of us, The way this was done is that no certain topic of information is attributed to one person. It's all kind of combined into the things that they heard the most.

[01:10:28] And so if you don't see exactly what you said, it's because it's been incorporated in a paragraph under something else. So you can have that discussion. Now, after the presentation, I'm going to move us into a committee as a whole for probably no more than 30 minutes.

[01:10:47] We'll look at the clock and see. I would, of course, ask that one person don't take up all the time with a committee as a whole, but I think that it would be an easier discussion about something as important as our strategic initiative to not keep you guys on the clock, move you to a committee as a whole, But with the knowledge in mind that everything you see here is a composite of what all the supervisors said and not necessarily just what you said.

[01:11:15] And so, colleagues, please keep that in mind as we're going through the item. And with that, I will turn it over to Mr. Quintine and Ms. McClellan. Good evening, Madam Chair and members of the board. I'd like to introduce our Strategic Initiatives Retreat Facilitator, Ms. Margo Horner, and her colleague, Mr. Dan Formansky.

[01:11:35] As you know, the board's retreat will be held next Wednesday on June 26th at 9 a.m. at Hanson Park. Earlier this month, Ms. Horner and her colleague conducted interviews with each of you and the county attorney in preparation for the retreat. Tonight, Ms. Horner will share her findings from the interviews and the key themes to prepare for your discussion next week.

[01:11:53] I'll now turn it over to Ms. Horner. Good evening and welcome. Thank you so much. It's good to see everybody. My name is Margo Horner. This is my colleague, Dan Formansky, and it's a pleasure to see everybody this evening. As mentioned, Dan and I have been asked to support the design and facilitation of the Strategic Initiatives Retreat, which is coming up on June 26th.

[01:12:21] As part of that, I'd love to take some time to talk about the process that we have gone through thus far and what some of those findings are. And then at the end of this discussion, we are going to be reviewing the key themes that emerged and seeking confirmation, validation that these are indeed the themes that you would like to build on during the strategic initiatives retreat on June 26th.

[01:12:53] All right. Next slide. So as stepping back and taking a look at our process during the month of May, Dan and I interviewed nine county supervisors and the county attorney. And during that time, we asked them a series of questions.

[01:13:12] We asked everybody the same questions in order to ensure that we were having apples-to-apples conversations with everyone. Those questions were around biggest concerns for the county. If there was one significant change to be made, what would that be and who would it impact most?

[01:13:30] Looking into the future, what are the biggest opportunities that folks see moving forward? And then reflecting back on your past strategy from 2020 to 2023, there were five focus areas. Reflecting on those focus areas, were there any key opportunities or areas of work that we wanted to make sure that would continue or maybe some new work to be launched around these five focus areas over the next four years for the county?

[01:14:02] And then finally, we gave everybody the opportunity to just share whatever else was on their mind. So with that, six themes emerged, and I'd like to pause for a moment, and Dan, I'm wondering if I might turn it over to you, and of course, feel free to share whatever thoughts you have and introduce yourself, and we'll jump into the six key themes in just a moment.

[01:14:25] Great. Well, good evening, Madam Chair, members of the Board of Supervisors and staff, Dan Formansky. It's good to see in person those of you that I spoke to and for those that I have not yet met. I look forward to working with you over the next few weeks. One thing we wanted to sort of say as a matter of the public record, which I think you all know, is that as we talk about strategic initiatives and we have this conversation and you hone in on what the collective work is in terms of priorities for the Board of Supervisors over the next four years, that if something doesn't emerge to the top of the strategic initiatives, it does not mean that it is not a priority.

[01:15:05] It does not mean that it will not advance over the next four years. It does not mean that one of you or more than one of you in collaboration will not champion that issue together. But what this really means is what is the collective priority work of this body together over the next four years in terms of leveraging staff time and staff resources?

[01:15:28] And the other thing we wanted to say is sort of a tone setting and level setting was that we really did hear across the board that there is a sense that there is something really beautiful about the way that you all manage to work together and be a governmental body that is deeply committed to public service and to community.

[01:15:48] We saw some of the beauty of the community in that awards presentation just now. And so I believe even one or two people sort of said there is a model here, right? We are, as there is so much polarization in discourse across the country, as a bipartisan collaborative body, we really hear that there is a lot of respect for one another and that there's so much opportunity to advance issues collectively.

[01:16:11] We wanted to name that, even though it doesn't fit into our exact presentation. Thanks, Dan. Margo? All right. So again, we'd love to share with you the six key themes that emerged. And this is sort of thinking of this as sort of mid to very high level.

[01:16:27] We're not getting into the initiatives that might have been mentioned or all the specific great ideas that might have been put on the table during our conversations. That will be part of the discussion on June 26th. But moving forward, as we look at the six themes that emerged from our conversations, the very first one had to do with strengthening existing businesses and taking a look at where there are opportunities for new economic development throughout the county.

[01:16:56] Second theme was making sure that we continue to have robust and very meaningful conversations around serving the county's diverse housing needs. The third theme was, again, making sure that the county is doing all it can in order to preserve open space and the environment.

[01:17:20] The fourth was building on a lot of the very significant work which has already been underway and improving that work and continuing that work around diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Pulling out one of the themes from your last strategy, we named this Connecting Loudon.

[01:17:43] And in this particular theme, we're focusing specifically on transportation initiatives, which we'll get into in a moment. And then finally, it's worth mentioning community programs and services. A number of community programs and services were named, and these are just things that we can come back to to review and discuss during the strategic initiatives retreat on June 26th.

[01:18:10] Okay, so next slide. I do want to just highlight that of the six themes that emerged, we heard very strong collective voice around the top three themes around identifying new economic opportunity and strengthening existing businesses, making sure that we're having strong conversations around attainable housing, and again, preserving open space and the environment.

[01:18:37] These were the three, the six themes everybody touched on. These top three were the ones that we kind of weighted as big discussion points during our strategic initiatives retreat coming up on Wednesday.

[01:18:54] Next slide. Okay. So, Dan, I'm wondering if you might pick up this next slide here. Uplifting businesses and promoting new economic development. So before I even get into the text there, the thing that we heard from so many of you was a deep point of pride in the ways in which Loudoun has really been supporting communities and services over the past several years, the ways in which we've addressed housing issues, the ways in which we've been looking at different communities, disability rights for folks who are residents of the county,

[01:19:30] and services have been a real priority for this board of supervisors and so obviously when we think about the long-term forecasts and the evolving and emerging needs for those services we're thinking about what is our economic forecast so we certainly heard that we're in a strong economic position and the question of diversification diversification and having a diverse revenue stream emerged right there at the top so we know obviously we're home to the largest concentration of data centers in the world which is an incredibly generous part of our revenue

[01:20:08] stream and so it's so important when we think about any of the challenges for instance around electricity that there are also opportunities there we know that a lot of those conversations are happening on the committee level, and certainly continuing to think about that marriage, that longer-term marriage between data centers and the county, and making it fruitful for all parties is going to factor into this conversation, and the county is looking to strengthen all of its existing businesses and business sectors, and really think creatively

[01:20:42] about how to identify and harness new opportunities to diversify its economy, so we certainly heard that right the business uh environment in western loudon it's more of a mom and pop smaller businesses is not the same as uh on the whole as the business environment for eastern loudon and looking at ways that we can meet the unique needs of of all parts of the county on the whole and what sort of innovative and strategic thinking is needed to attract new industries to the county and i know that the county is looking at a mapping project related to data centers

[01:21:17] And that there are opportunities to think about, as AI ramps up, what we do to support any sort of cottage industries. Next slide, please. And how to marry sustainability and business development, support agritourism, support agricultural interests as a whole.

[01:21:38] And obviously, people talked about transportation and landmark centers and ways to be visionary around projects around those centers. I even heard a lot about restaurants, shopping, restaurant week. Like, what does it look like to bring more consumer dollars to Loudoun in the coming years?

[01:21:56] A theme that emerged from our conversations and our interviews had to do with attainable housing. And this was, again, a message that we felt needed to be weighted in a particular way and a very important issue.

[01:22:21] The conversations indicated that there is a need for housing across all income brackets, across the county, but there was a specific focus on those residents who are at 0 to 60% AMI, and then a pressing need for those who are at 0 to 30% AMI in particular.

[01:22:44] And again, one of the comments here in this slide reflects some thinking that Loudoun County employees, for example, should be able to afford a home in the community they serve. Some other things that came up around this, the conversation about addressing attainable housing was taking a look at and potentially updating the housing plan from 2019.

[01:23:05] Thinking about multimodal walkable communities that might be tied to transportation links. And how does the county reconcile this need for additional housing against the goal of preserving the open spaces of Western Loudoun?

[01:23:24] And then finally here under attainable housing, it was mentioned that as an opportunity, The county has an opportunity to engage nonprofit organizations, developers, the philanthropy sector, the Chamber of Commerce, and the business sector in designing and executing a countywide vision as related to attainable housing for the county.

[01:23:49] Dan, can I turn it over to you? Preserving open space and the environment. So as you all know, two-thirds of the county is rural. There's a strong agricultural economy. As the county continues to grow, there is increasing pressure to develop the area.

[01:24:07] And that would, of course, compromise the unique charm and character of Loudoun, as well as its position as a key tourist destination. And so on everyone's minds is how do we continue to leverage all of the tools in the toolbox to permanently preserve those open spaces and avoid becoming a built-out housing community?

[01:24:30] At the same time, so much conversation around how to create and protect community, neighborhood, and district parks, make them accessible to residential communities. There are a lot of options in this area.

[01:24:46] I know that there are a lot of initiatives underway. Things like land baking and permanent easements, how to encourage permanent easements came up repeatedly. the idea of a non-profit a non-profit park foundation as an arm of the county that could promote green initiatives came up so a lot of rich conversation that we'll be able to have in this area and certainly the conversation of electric vehicle infrastructure expansion throughout the county there there are already things underway again in this area and what what is the work that the county wants to do collectively what are the ways in which the county wants to empower staff

[01:25:25] to advance this area will be a topic of conversation. And the next slide, please. Improving diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. The top thing that we heard was really that this is not a checkbox for all of you.

[01:25:41] It is not a checkbox. This is something that you think about deeply. You've taken a number of steps over the past few years to make this work come to life and think not just about the kind of workplace this is and the staff of the county itself, but how to be in the community and to listen to the needs of the community and to really understand what different constituencies are facing.

[01:26:06] And so really a lot of this, I would say that sort of the key words are how to leverage the progress that has been made, the great strides that have been made to make Loudoun a welcoming place for all. Establishing the Office of Equity and Inclusion was certainly lifted up by many people.

[01:26:23] The work around supporting collective bargaining also lifted up by many people. Some conversation emerged around how to keep furthering a human relations commission to support that listening of constituencies and communities to really understand residents' needs and challenges.

[01:26:41] And the goal being to ensure that everybody in Loudoun feels that they have an opportunity for their voice to be heard. Thank you. So connecting Loudoun, this is theme number five. And again, this is pulling forward a theme from the last strategy, but really focusing on transportation, transportation initiatives.

[01:27:04] And one of the things that we heard was that there are a number of significant transportations that have already kind of launched. But the perception is that the time frame for completing these initiatives is too slow. And there was some talk about how the speed at which these initiatives are executed impacts about 100,000 residents who have to deal with challenging corridors every day.

[01:27:35] Some other comments included taking a look at transportation projects as a whole, thinking about bus services and high traffic and lower income areas, and taking a look at the opportunity for an on-demand bus program. There was discussion that there would need to be state and federal funds in order to support these projects, and how do we ensure that those funds are lined up.

[01:28:02] And again, wanting to make sure that transportation projects, transportation modes would be able to support the agritourism industry of the county. Next slide. So the last theme that we wanted to mention had to do with community programs and services. And again, it is very clear from our conversations that Loudoun is dedicated to supporting the residents of the county and understanding the needs and challenges of its residents and providing programs and services to continue to support them. A few things that were

[01:28:39] mentioned was thinking about these services and programs. They seem to be sort of centralized in just a few areas of the county, and is there an opportunity to decentralize some of these programs and services and bring them into different communities throughout the county, specifically southeastern Loudoun was mentioned. Also, a second shelter came up several times, the need for a shelter to address the needs of the unhoused, the issue of affordable child care. There was mention around the county might consider subsidizing or offering child care to their employees,

[01:29:18] and being sure to look at expanding opportunities, employment opportunities, programs and services for residents who are living with disabilities. There was also some conversation around investing more into the Arts Commission and empowering the commission to build more robust programming and grant making and organizing exhibits and promoting art and providing art and installing art in accessible community spaces. Next slide. And then finally, a series of checks and balances. So overall,

[01:29:54] a number of comments were made about making sure that there is some very thoughtful, strategic thinking done around needs assessment, promoting food feedback loops within the public to better understand needs and requests for public programs and services, but also a financial analysis to understand what is the work that's already happening, what is their impact, convey this messaging and the impact that's happening already throughout the community, and make sure that the economic forecast for future services

[01:30:30] dovetail with anticipated revenue, coming back to our first theme around strengthening existing businesses and finding new business opportunities. Dan, I'm just going to ask you to bring it on home here. Thank you. One thing I'll say is as we talk about each of these buckets, we understand they're all inextricably intertwined with one another. You know, some of the things that we heard for consideration would be looking at the vision statement that the county has in place

[01:31:03] already. Does that language still fit? Is there anything that this particular seated board of supervisors would want to revisit thinking about a long-term 20 vision 2050 vision for the county itself margot touched on some of these things already sort of you know looking at what are the services we're offering what are the ongoing and upcoming needs of the community what are the revenue streams but even what is the what's the unique character of western loudon do we need to be thinking about how that looks in 2050 to preserve the open space itself like what what the opportunities for doing that longer-term visioning understanding that this is a four-year

[01:31:42] process and you're here for the next few years and then underscoring that sort of comprehensive financial analysis and impact study on the county's finances programs and services and part of what underscored this was an idea that it's important to all of you that the the residents of the county do understand all of the ways that you are providing these services to residents The ways in which that we are providing support to people, the cost of those services so that together the communities can be doing the thinking about how to keep meeting those needs in the future.

[01:32:16] Margo? And so, next slide. We end where we started. So the objective of this presentation here today was to share feedback that we heard from the series of interviews that we conducted with the county supervisors and the county attorney.

[01:32:35] We wanted to present the six themes that emerged, which we propose are for discussion for the June 26th Strategic Initiatives Retreat. And our question before we wrap up is, is there anything that should be added?

[01:32:53] Is there anything that should be removed? Is there anything else that we should be taking into consideration as we work to design this retreat for delivery next Wednesday? So, Madam Chair and the Board, thank you so much for your time, and I turn it over to you for discussion.

[01:33:09] Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Supervisors, we're going to put 30 minutes on the clock to do a committee as a whole. Let me start, before we run the clock, let me start by saying that the one thing that I have told our facilitators is more important or as important as the six themes that they touched is that the strategic retreat is a time for us to come together as a board, learn more about one another.

[01:33:34] I know we've been together for, this is our fifth year, with the exception Mr. Crony, who just joined us. But we also started off with COVID. And so a lot of the things that we did early on, that a board would do early on, we weren't able to do some of those things.

[01:33:51] And so some of the gelling that just happens naturally, we may have kind of jumped over some of that in a way. So as well as talking about these six areas, us being coming together as a board, maybe learning some things about each other, making sure that we see one another as, you know, not just as letters, but really understand one another a little bit more is as important to me as anything else we will do on that day.

[01:34:24] And so I just wanted to put that out there a little bit. And now, again, we'll do a committee as a whole. Please remember we have 30 minutes, and so no one person take up all the time. I may have to pull you back up. I think that's happening, but we will kind of speak freely.

[01:34:42] Mr. Turner, I saw your light. Thank you, Madam Chair. I realize that you're just reflecting the inputs that you got from the majority of the board members. On number five, connecting Loudoun County, we've worked certainly for five years. I've been a board member on creating a multimodal transportation environment in Loudoun County.

[01:35:01] So the focus of number five is almost entirely, in fact, it is entirely on major roads and accelerating those projects with virtually no discussion about multimodalism. That concerns me. I mean, I really, really think we need to focus on moving people around on something other than highways.

[01:35:21] But I understand the frustration with a lot of the board members that we have a lot of highway projects that appear to be taking an awfully long time to advance. But I would just like to put out there that I'd really like a more extended discussion on multimodal movement around the county.

[01:35:37] Thank you. Mr. Turner, are you kind of having that discussion a little bit with your board members to say that because this is the committee as a whole, you're kind of just saying to them that this is something you want to... I would like to have that discussion in the retreat. Okay. Is there any objection to that, to have a discussion about not just moving people around in vehicles, but at the retreat?

[01:35:58] At the retreat, yeah. Okay. All right. All right. Wonderful. All right. Mr. Crony. Thank you, Chair Randall, and thank you for the report and for your effort. I want to add something to the environment and open space section.

[01:36:17] I'd like, and I'm hoping my colleagues will support this, I'd like to look at doing a study to determine the organizational structure for new department to support and prioritize the environment and energy.

[01:36:35] The Environmental Commission in this year's annual report recommends that the board establish a focused, organized body, such as an environmental department, to continue building its strategy. And also reading Supervisor Turner's white paper, I think that just screams for a department that is focused on energy.

[01:36:59] Other jurisdictions have this department. This is not something new. The District of Columbia has a Department of Energy and Environment. Montgomery County, Maryland has a Department of Environmental Protection. And Fairfax County has an Office of Environment and Energy Coordination.

[01:37:17] I think given that we're the county with the largest concentration of data centers and with such challenges with our grid and with energy capacity, this makes sense to at least discuss it and study it.

[01:37:34] It doesn't necessarily mean that it will happen, but I do think it's worth studying. we did do a Department of Housing and I think it is time also to look at potentially a department that's focused on the environment and energy so I'd ask that that we discuss this I was going to do a BMI for this but chair Randall thought it made sense to discuss it in the strategic retreat so I'd like that added. Supervisors, just thoughts on what Mr. Crony is saying at all? Because this is a committee

[01:38:13] as a whole, so just thoughts, Mr. Letourneau. So I would be interested to get staff's thoughts on whether it's more semantics than it is an actual substantive change because, you know, we do have staff that work on energy. We have a cluster within general services, essentially a sub-department that's working on this, and I wonder if more, we've had some discussion about bringing out

[01:38:48] expertise as it relates to our greater power grid issues and data center discussions and things like that, which I think the county administrator is working on, probably through a consultant, I believe. So I'm maybe a little less interested in kind of shuffling the deck and what we call it and more just in what the sort of functional issue is and maybe I'm sure I don't want to get us off topic but one of my inputs which isn't really here which I kind of understand because

[01:39:23] of what I said was I want us to do less and what do I mean by that I mean I want us to focus more on what matters and not layer more things on top of it because I don't believe we're doing as good a job is in my 13 years here this is the worst job we've done since I've been on the board probably except for maybe the first couple years an actual execution of items in a timely manner and that is not a blame kind of statements in any way that is a statement that's reflected the fact that it's a

[01:39:55] very it's a board has a lot of active activism kind of feelings and initiatives and we've layered a lot of things on staff and I don't think that we're necessarily I think we've gotten away from the core to the point where our permitting process is not working well and all our kind of central functions have deteriorated some because I think we've just spread so thin so I'm interested more in kind of rebuilding that core going back to a time when we had actual fast track for economic development which we really don't anymore I know we did just did a great job with an affordable

[01:40:31] housing project but in general when you talk to people who are trying to build things here including commercial projects that we really want they do not have a good experience that wasn't always the case all those things i think we can fix before we kind of proliferate into other areas and i don't think it's going to take a huge amount of effort because we still have the great people and the and the dedicated staff and all that i just think that they're spread too thin so that's kind of my and bringing it back to where we started that's my that would be my concern with kind of a continued proliferation which isn't to say we don't need this functionality

[01:41:09] because I think we do, but I think we've kind of been trying to address that. So, Mr. Letourneau, let me try to reflect what you just said and kind of spread it out a little bit more. So, not the second part, but the first part, that it is very possible that the duties that might be done in the department that Mr. Crony is talking about are already being done in other departments, so that it's not that those duties are not being addressed, is that they're not being addressed under the head of environment and energy.

[01:41:41] And you wanted the thoughts of the staff on that, is that correct? I do. Mr. Brown's team has a group of people who work on this and would be interested in what their thoughts would be. Are they, I don't know. I don't know if anyone was expecting to speak right now, any staff member. Mr. Emster, would you like to add anything to that?

[01:41:57] We can be prepared to have the conversation on Wednesday if this is a dialogue the board wants to take up. And definitely myself as well as Mr. Brown and Mr. Jones will be prepared to have that conversation. I will say to the board, and I have spoken at length about this with Supervisor Tecroni, what I will strongly advise the board against is mixing regulatory and non-regulatory elements into the same department.

[01:42:26] So if, you know, that I will tell you that is a bad idea. But if the board does want to move chairs around, we can definitely look at that and make it work. But that's more of a, I don't want to use the word political, but that's more of that type of effort as opposed to functionally what we're doing.

[01:42:53] So, again, just because I feel like I need to make sure we're on the same page here. What we're saying we will look at, or we might discuss at the retreat is not, we're not saying we're going to discuss creating it or even studying it. We're saying we're going to discuss if it's needed or if it's already being done in other departments, and based on that discussion, make some decisions.

[01:43:17] Everybody got that same understanding? Okay, so I want to make sure I got the same understanding. Sounds good. If I can. I might. Yeah, go on. Just very briefly. Thank you, Mr. McGroney. The challenge that we can discuss at the retreat in which I'll talk about on Thursday is, to Supervisor LeTourneau's point, the one challenge is doing it more efficiently, what we're doing and what we've got available to us.

[01:43:40] But the other challenge that I hope will make clear on Thursday, we're facing a radical change in energy in this county, a radical short-term change in the way our infrastructure handles energy in this county. So if our existing streamlined, improved, more efficient design of the way we've got the county staff organized right now can handle that kind of tectonic shift, that's fine.

[01:44:09] Recognize, though, it's not going to be a more efficient way of business as usual because business as usual is not going to cut it much longer. So that kind of issue, I think, needs to be brought up, too. Okay. That sounds good. Ms. Brooksman. Thank you, Madam Chair. To address Supervisor Tacroni's suggestion and maybe Supervisor Letourneau's suggestion and kind of wrap it up, I think Supervisor Tacroni's suggestion would fall under one of these themes of the environment and those sorts of things, but we've also been talking about, and this might cause a new theme, but we've also been talking about things like

[01:44:47] you were mentioning with how long it takes applications to get through, and we've also talked about maybe having a scoring scale when we talk about applications and would that be easier for us to have votes up here if we knew staff was like kind of 80% on okay with an application versus 20% okay with an application so maybe I don't know if that can kind of all get wrapped up into sort of an operations discussion or an application streamlining I don't know if the

[01:45:20] environmental piece fits in there but that's kind of where i'm going with this because we've had these discussions about you know making things go faster and chair randolph my address yes so just for the board just to recall you have directed us to do a study of all of the regulatory processes that have to do with land use and so we have kicked that study off okay okay all of you are i think the consultants were anticipating that they will interview each of you as well as

[01:45:58] all the stakeholders so that that we will be coming back to the board with what that okay shows in terms of how we're organized what our processes look like how we can address um a lot of the issues that you just articulated and the scale idea would be part of that discussion so then we don't need to discuss it at the retreat is what i'm hearing no i think which is great it's great if we're already doing it just a confirmation that you remain concerned and very concerned about our regulatory processes when it comes to land development great may i sure uh expound on some of the other things i was thinking about um i would uh if if my colleagues are okay

[01:46:37] with it i i think that it would be wise for us to um review the vision statement i'm not you tell me why because i saw that i i just think no i don't know that i want i don't know that i'm aiming to do something very different with the vision statement.

[01:46:52] I just think this is an opportunity and probably a good idea just for, you know, we're starting a new term. Maybe some other people have different ideas about our vision statement. Maybe some of our views have changed. Maybe it stays the same. But I think when you're doing something like this, it merits, I mean, we're talking about our entire term strategy, so I think it merits looking at the vision statement of the county as just a conversation.

[01:47:17] I'm not, I don't have anything, you know, particular I would like to change in it, but I think it's worth, like, maybe there's some new things that we want to focus on in our vision statement that we didn't think about four or five years ago. Maybe there's some stuff that we want to, anyway, I would like to talk about it.

[01:47:34] That was, that's my input on that. Can I respond to that? Of course. What I would say is this. I would say if any supervisor wants to do something with the vision statement, look at it in advance and maybe send out what you'd like to say. Because to kind of begin a conversation of do we want to change it, do we not?

[01:47:51] I mean, really, eight of us wrote that business statement four years ago. Yeah. And, you know, if we were a whole new board, I would understand that a little bit more. But since eight of us are still here, I think that if you look at it individually and see that there's something you want to change, bring that with you.

[01:48:10] And so we can have that discussion so we'd be kind of ahead of the game in that discussion versus starting that discussion there. I think that's great. Maybe we can set aside 30 minutes. And it might just be everyone likes a vision statement and we move on. No, we're not going to. Well, no.

[01:48:25] Well, no, I'm saying in the retreat we could set aside maybe 30 minutes to confirm it. Why? I'm saying if you look at it in advance and think something should change, sure. But it may be that you look at it in advance and go, this is cool. And no one thinks things should change. So then at that point, why set aside any time?

[01:48:42] I think any healthy corporation should look at their vision statement every four or five years. and i'm saying do look at it okay everyone look at it everyone sees that they want something to change we'll bring it and discuss it okay if no one comes and says let's change this let's not let's not put 30 minutes aside for it all right well if we get a lot of ideas then yeah then yeah exactly okay um the i mean i understand that i think a lot of things are covered that specifically I was hoping to discuss in the part about new businesses and diversifying the economy, I would like to talk more about,

[01:49:22] and maybe we will, about the idea of a streeteries program or helping businesses do things a little bit more out of the box, if possible. That might fall into our regulations category. Under housing, one thing I didn't see was the idea of a housing authority that we've sort of batted around here and there.

[01:49:43] Do we want to do a housing authority in the county? Where would it go? We have some ideas about where it probably should go based on what Mr. Hemstreet has said. And the last thing I think that we might want to talk about is compensation for board members in the next term, early in our term.

[01:50:05] So those are some of my ideas. I know where the housing authority and the eateries would fall. don't know about the board board uh compensation yeah i agree mr kirschner thank you madam chair and thank you folks for doing such a great job um i saw a lot of statements in here i know statements that i've made i'm sure other supervisors i'm not gonna take full credit for them but it's always good to see like i felt like that was verbatim i really like that so thank you very much um so i just have a couple of quick comments kind of going in what i've kind of done and I've had my staff do is go through each of your kind of focus areas and each of my individual initiative I've had them kind of where would this what would this fit under

[01:50:44] I'm assuming that would be kind of your suggestion on how we approach this in terms of specific either because I'm going to bring some of my past initiatives that we had in the last strategic planning session as well as new initiatives that I've obviously talked to I'm very much of a kind of specific sort of guy and so thinking in these kind of broad terms is this ephemeral sort of environment is a little hard for me So I'm like, how do I take this initiative and where do I put it?

[01:51:08] I would assume that's why we've kind of created these categories and it would be helpful when we get into them to talk about those initiatives where we fall under. The one thing I was struggling a little bit, but I think it's going to largely fall under uplifting loud. One of my big pushes, and it's no secret, is continuing to help to grow and foster an environment here in the county to grow our agricultural viability into the future.

[01:51:32] one not only that helps preserve land but but that's that's kind of mixed into a couple categories i think i think uh you had that under kind of i saw it could fall under area one maybe area three as a preserving open space and so my kind of goal is when we get to that to talk about those probably under the business since agriculture is largely a business oriented is that kind of the approach that you see us taking as we get into this initial as we get into this discussion next week yes so i think that there are some themes that are cross-cutting i think that it would be

[01:52:05] important to name those and pull them aside. I, being a strategist, am very aligned with your thinking, taking an idea, defining exactly what we mean as a goal. What does that look like? How do we know we're successful? And then what is the most important work to be identified in order to get us to that goal within four years? There are a couple things I would suggest. And again, And I know this is just kind of a formal open discussion here.

[01:52:37] The one thing I didn't really know, and I thought it might actually should be included in kind of one of the titles, was preserving. You have preserving open space and the environment. I also think that someplace, my thought was there, that Loudoun's heritage should be kind of included as a major theme.

[01:52:54] And perhaps we may, the board may consider when we get to that discussion on Wednesday to include that as part of the title. That obviously would include a lot of our historical, a lot of historical aspects of the county would also include, you know, many of our towns and our villages throughout the county. Obviously, things we're very focused on in a number of our initiatives.

[01:53:12] So maybe there's a reason you don't want to put it in there, but I thought maybe that would be a good place to put it to make sure that was part of our strategic discussion and plan as a whole. That's really the only comments that I have, at least at the moment. Okay, thank you. I think the word heritage was a word we took out of our either a vision statement or a mission statement.

[01:53:33] Four years ago, we purposefully took that out. I don't remember which one we took it out of, but, yeah, I remember we had that discussion before. Ms. Bricksman, you don't remember? Yeah, we did. Oh, I'm sorry. The only thing I did forget to mention, and I just wanted to respond a little bit to Supervisor Turner's conversation about making sure that under connectivity and transportation projects we include multimodal forms of transportation. And as I read it when it was talking about projects going slower than we would like, I did read into that the sidewalks and trails project is going a little bit slower

[01:54:11] than we'd like. The bus shelters project is going a little slower than we like. And so that might be worth discussing, or it might fall into what Mr. Hemstreet was talking about. Those are more CIP projects, though, than applications, so maybe it is appropriate to have it in this discussion, but I would agree with you that we need to have a little bit of that focus on Wednesday. Thank you.

[01:54:37] Mr. Croy. Thank you, Chair Randall, and I agree with you, Vice Chair Brissman, that, you know, it is going slowly with the intersections and the sidewalks and trails. We do, what, three to five miles of sidewalks every year it'll take us 60 years if if we're at that pace because we have 300 miles of missing links so there's got to be a way to put a priority on the sidewalk and trail programs program and the intersection program because they're both for safety and I think it is about connectivity I actually feel those projects are more impactful than kind of

[01:55:17] the big road projects because they are just you know they take up all the funding and it would be better if we could do these smaller projects that really impact people's quality of life on a real level. The other idea I had was with the housing. I think the idea of having a housing ambassador for Loudoun's towns might be something to look at because I went on a tour of Windy Hill and they're doing amazing things in Middleburg and it might be neat to have a housing ambassador

[01:55:50] help you know get some affordable housing in the towns and I just think we don't really have that but I know that the towns have stated that they would like to increase affordability so having an ambassador might help that and then also I do think land banking we talked about that for affordable housing is really critical so that we can have public land for public good so thank you So, you know, I want us to just reflect on something.

[01:56:30] We have added more staff, and we are still saying or even saying more that the staff, that we are behind in some of the things we want to do and want to get done. Perhaps it's us. Perhaps it's that we keep adding things on and that we are very, and there's nothing wrong with being an active board, nothing at all.

[01:56:53] But if we are looking at just the facts, and the facts say, even with more staff, the staff can't keep up with what we're asking them to do, maybe it's us. And so I just want you all to consider that as we start talking about doing more things.

[01:57:12] I mean, for example, Housing Ambassador, we have a whole thing called COT, Coalition of Loudoun Towns. If they want to have a Housing Ambassador within COT, they can do that without having us do that. And so, you know, we have an amazing staff that will almost always say words like, we will figure it out, supervisor so-and-so, or we'll try to get that done, supervisors.

[01:57:37] But whenever we add something to their plate, something gets pushed or comes off or moves. And so a little bit to Mr. Letourneau's point, you know, there is a core responsibility for what a local elected official is doing or should be doing.

[01:57:58] And when we see that some of our core duties are taking a much longer time to do, even though we have more staff, maybe it's us. and these things that we are asking for are not free and there is a lot of discussion about what we want to do or don't want to do with one of our revenue um our chief revenues which is the data centers and i don't disagree with those discussions in fact i agree with those discussions but if we're going to have those discussions we have to also remember that less of that may mean or will

[01:58:33] mean less revenue and so there just needs so i'm just trying to push us into a little reality about how much we can do how much staff can do and how much it will cost to do these things so i'm not saying we can't talk about anything but let's keep all those things in in our heads as we're going through these discussions miss latour well first of all yeah you articulated what i was trying to get a little bit earlier um just on the discussion on the on the multimodal projects i i i definitely agree that the sidewalks and trails and also intersections, but I do want to put a plug in

[01:59:13] for the big Route 50 corridor projects, and hopefully Supervisor Ducroni will agree with me on this, but we have, you know, over a 20-plus year period, the board and VDOT have strategically placed emphasis on the 7 corridor and the 28 corridor to improve those intersections, upgrade them to interchanges, I think four or five of them across those.

[01:59:44] Obviously, we have a tax district in place. So what I, you know, and you heard me say this before, and I'm consistent with it, but I do want to bring it up in the context of this discussion now about larger projects and smaller projects. Please don't forget about us, because the time has come where we need to do that on Route 50.

[02:00:03] The level of service, VDOT level of service levels at some of these intersections are failing. And I do believe going back to something I said at a public hearing, it is actually impacting the conversation around housing because people are really reacting negatively toward more housing in this part of the county, which has some room for housing because we haven't fixed these infrastructure problems.

[02:00:28] And it's understandable. And I don't have a good answer for them when they raise those concerns. They'll say, you know, I'm already sitting in too much traffic and now you want to add more. Well, of course, I want to fix that traffic, but these are really big, expensive projects. And they're things the county has been moving very, very slowly on.

[02:00:46] And again, that's not a fault of us because they're big projects, but the end is not in sight on these by any means. So, you know, whatever we can do to try to make that a point of emphasis and figure out a strategy to help get some federal infrastructure funds involved.

[02:01:03] I know we do look at that, but I think, you know, we're getting to a point on both the big Route 50 projects, which is the interchange upgrade at Loudoun County Parkway and the 50 bypass, where we will have enough design done where we can, I think, can start really trying to pursue and get to the next level.

[02:01:20] So I just don't want us to lose sight on that when I'm suspecting I'm a little bit responsible for some of that language about the transportation, and that's really what I was talking about. And I do agree with my colleagues on some of these other things, too. I'd like to add and just say everything that Supervisor Turner just said for Route 15.

[02:01:37] My dog sitter lives off of Montressor Road, so I get to experience this now. I was at 50. I know. You were talking 50. I'm saying everything you just said about Route 15. My dog sitter lives off Montressor Road, and I get to experience the joy of a completely dysfunctional roadway that's four or five hours a day.

[02:01:57] It just does not function as a highway. I agree. So everything you just said for Route 15, I agree. That's those cluster houses. And that's why we end up with these big project discussions, because we have these big issues, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Anybody else?

[02:02:15] No? Well, first of all, thank you. And secondly, I want to say to my colleagues one more time that my main goal, my first goal, I don't know if I'm in my main goal, but my first goal is in the board relationships. That doesn't mean I don't think we have great relationships already, But I also always think that they can be, always can be improved.

[02:02:36] And so that would be my, what? I think we should do a team building out in the woods with some ropes courses. Truthfully, I probably have ridden more horses than all y'all combined up here. I am from Denver, Colorado.

[02:02:52] Cher, camping trip, a camping trip. I'm not going camping. I'm not going camping. I'm not even going glamping. I'm not doing any of that. With horseback riding, I'll take you along on that any day of the week. I'll get you a very exclusive tent.

[02:03:07] I'll tell you what. Very exclusive tent. I so don't trust you at all. At all. But I do, I do, I do seriously. I mean, I think we're a great board of public servants, but I think any public body can be, you know, even more joined and more functional in those types of things.

[02:03:27] And so that's one of the things that I, that's one of my main goals. Mr. Kutcher, I'm surprised that I haven't heard the magic words from you as we talked about connectivity, and that's broadband. You think that's kind of wrapped up enough that we don't have to do that anymore?

[02:03:45] I mean, I definitely have it in the things I want to talk about in terms of past strategic, and obviously we're continuing to work on it, but I'm sure we'll have that discussion. I had that. Where did I follow that? That was one of my initiatives. That was on the connectivity discussion. I thought.

[02:04:00] We'll have that discussion on Wednesday. Okay. We can discuss it now, but I... No, no, no, I just, it wasn't there at all when I saw the raw material. Yes, I have it in my initiative to discuss, so I guess we could, if we need to add it, let's add it. Okay, and then, of course, my one initiative that I talked about, and I do want to talk about, is having more services for people with differing abilities who are aging out of the system but not able to work, so we have services for people who are aging out who can have a job, but for people who are not able to have a job, who are hitting that age 23,

[02:04:38] 24, and up, to have both respite facilities for their parents and facilities for them as well. And I've talked about this now, supervisors, for, I don't know, quite a few months I've been saying this to you all. So anything else? Any other thoughts? Did you all get what you needed, you think yeah to take you yes and we're going to debrief and um are looking forward to designing an agenda for some feedback prior to the retreat and i am looking forward to the retreat as well and thank you all for all that you are doing and i think next week's going to be a good day

[02:05:16] a good day thank you very much supervisors we have some people who are speaking at six o'clock six o'clock speaking do we have any more people to sign up if you do we have none more that signed up okay we have three speakers at six o'clock i'm going to call your name and when i do if you come to the podium nearest for you i'd appreciate it the first speaker is kurt muller followed by william marsh followed by todd odegaard good evening sir my is this my my timer up here i've

[02:05:54] never done this before so all right that is okay thank you um sorry i'll make sure i get everything All right. All right. Good evening. My name is Kurt Mueller. I'm a graduate of the University of Virginia. I was a scholarship earner, a member of the varsity team, after which I coached at Washington University in youth lacrosse in the Northern Virginia area for the last 30 years, including Prince William Lacrosse Club, where I was board of directors in Cavalier Lacrosse Club here in Leesburg, Virginia.

[02:06:21] And most recently, I was a lacrosse coach at Stonebridge High School in last season. I've been in the staffing and recruiting industry for the last 30 years, including director of recruiting for a government consulting firm, after which I opened my own successful small business in 2021. I was married in 2008, had two amazing sons that I raised by myself as a single father after I filed for divorce in 2015.

[02:06:43] In 2020, I moved to Ashburn for my sons for a better life. There are many other details, but I'm trying to keep this as brief as possible. to begin with. I've never been in trouble my entire life. I'm very patriotic. I love the United States of America. I'm very thankful for those brave men and women in the military and law enforcement who put their lives on the line to preserve our freedoms and liberties, rights, defend our rights and the Constitution and the rule of law. On May 5, 2022, I was abducted from my home by a group of heavily armed men who took me to a fortified torture facility. During my captivity, I was subjected to inhumane condition and tortured. While being held in captivity, the captors trafficked my two children to a man and a woman who helped them plan the abduction.

[02:07:19] One was a former stripper and the other a known criminal. They forced me to pay $10,000 in ransom to get out. Once out, the conspirators helped fabricate more lies and brought it into the courts to bring me against other criminal lies, basically.

[02:07:42] And the courts have since regulated me to involuntary servitude to the man and woman and the courts using extortion by court order. and I'm levied to pay over $250,000 to them, or I face jail time, and I've denied my right to parent per the 14th Amendment. If this sounds like it occurred in Nazi Germany in the early 40s, you'd be mistaken.

[02:07:59] This happened in Loudoun County in Belmont Green neighborhood where I used to live. My abductors and captors, a Loudoun County Sheriff's Office with the lead deputy being Daniel Butcher, number 3390, who colluded with magistrates on video to fabricate Pablo cause in order to produce a warrant for my arrest.

[02:08:16] Despite me never committing a crime and based on lies, The SWAT team was sent to my home the next day on May 5th, where I was unlawfully arrested. The woman and man, my ex-wife and her husband, latest husband. I finally saw my day in court eight months later on 12-13 after wearing a GPS ankle monitor and among other things.

[02:08:34] During the trial, Deputy Butcher admitted he never witnessed anything he wrote in the criminal report, and that he omitted everything I said. Despite all of that, truth prevailed and I was found not guilty, but it got worse. Sir? Yes? I'm sorry. Your time is up. What you can do? Can I have one final comment, please?

[02:08:50] No, because I never do, I'm going by my normal policy. But, sir, what you can do is email your remarks to the full board. I have with me my latest pleading for disqualification of the numerous judges that have violated my rights.

[02:09:06] Sir. I continue to do so that I was told I could answer the clerk. You can give that to the clerk if you'd like to. Judge Fisher. Sir, and you can send that to the full board. We're going to cut his mic now, please. thank you. You can email the full board. Thank you. Our next speaker is William Marsh followed by Todd Odegaard. Good evening, sir. Evening, Madam Chair and members of the board. One of the things I managed to do today was forget my glasses. I'm going to try and read it as

[02:09:45] best I can. I serve on the Loudon Environmental Commission as Vice Chair. I have spoken to you previously on this topic back in January. I'm here to revisit a topic that's of interest to our commission, which is the expansion of community solar and utility scale solar in the zoning ordinance of Loudoun County. We believe this is a good measure for us to consider and something I respectfully request that you all consider during your strategic planning meeting next week. Where we stand on this topic as a commission is that we presented an executive summary of you all to you all back in January. We've since completed the paper that appends that executive summary. That's now on our webpage. This also will be a document that you receive with our

[02:10:25] annual report that you'll get in July. I ask that you consider what we talked about because the paper goes into more detail about talking about the various ways that folks who want to do the scale of solar can do this in the state or the power company or PJM. And but for the restrictions of the zoning ordinance, this is an option that property owners and people who rent in the county could choose to do. We believe in expanding this use, but we also conclude in this paper that we can protect natural resources and agricultural interests at the same time.

[02:10:57] This is a big focus of our research. We talked to a number of folks on soil and water. We did an amount of research with Nature Conservancy publications, what other parties have done in this region of the country, as well as what other local bodies have permitted through the city and counties, especially in Shenandoah Valley. And we found that we have developed good standards in this state to handle this kind of use. So it's something that we feel strongly from both sides of our commission. Recall that part of our focus is on sustainable energy. The other part is on natural resource protection. And both sides of our commission have congealed around

[02:11:33] this position. This is something that we should pursue. So the goal of our paper, finally, is to sort of be a kickstarter. We know this is a complicated issue. We know if it's something that you all want us as a county to pursue, that it's going to take time from staff to develop an amount of outreach to the public that's why we wrote the paper it doesn't get you all the way there but it's a kickstarter and we think it's something that is there's worth staff's time worth y'all's time to do and we're ready to support you all in any way that you want to proceed in this effort thanks thank you mr martian thank you for your service on the environmental

[02:12:03] commission um and the last speaker is todd odegaard hi oh i got it right okay thank you uh good evening thank you um todd odegaard that's my name yes that's correct um 25 year resident of Leesburg and I'm here to talk about the bamboo ordinance as a homeowner and person who has experienced bamboo personally. I'm from Greenmay Farms just a little bit south of the bypass as I'm sure you're all familiar and you've heard several speakers already on this topic but

[02:12:38] somewhat in the abstract I'm going to give you a very concrete example and this is my first-hand account. My wife and I walk our dogs every day. We've done this for 20 years so I've been up and down this particular walk thousands of times, and when the leaves were gone last fall, we were walking along what we call the wetlands area.

[02:12:56] It's a common area, and we noticed a very dense patch of green, turned out it was bamboo, but we didn't know what it was. We went and visited it. It is not managed, it was run amok, and at this point, it is not manageable.

[02:13:13] As I sit in this room, it's maybe not quite as big as this room, but getting to that size. So it is a lot of bamboo. It is on common ground, so it's not associated with any one house. It's no one person's problem. We do know who planted it, but that's kind of immaterial at this point.

[02:13:30] It's prohibitive for any one homeowner to try and take it on. So, you know, I don't know the cost to remove it. That would be prohibitive for anyone as well, and anything you can do in this area to help would be greatly appreciated, and that's my account. Thank you. Yeah, thank you.

[02:13:46] Thank you very much. Thank you very much. All right, those are all of our speakers for the evening, And you know what, sir, you know what we're going to do? We can go on and maybe just do the bamboo, because I think there are people in the room who might want to see that. Huh? I don't know what you just said to me.

[02:14:08] Oh, yeah, that's right. It's time for resolutions. Yeah. Are they here? Is everybody... Well, wait a minute. Just give me one second, because it's a little early for... Well, we can start resolutions. Is your person here for a resolution, Mr. Kirshner? Okay. We have a couple of resolutions that we're going to do right now, And after we do that, what we could do is come on back and just do the bamboo ordinance before we take a break so that people who just spoke about this, I think are still in the room and they can see it.

[02:14:36] But we will do the resolutions first. The first resolution, I will be joined down front by Mr. Kirshner. The second resolution is for Marcella Ragano. I will be joined down front by Mr. Crony. And the third resolution is for the Scrape the Grape event.

[02:14:55] I think, Ms. Erickson, are you here for the scrape the grape resolution? I will be joined down front by Mr. Buzzer Glass and Mr. Buzzer DeCrony for that one. Thank you very much. Mr. Kirsten, would you join me down front, please? Sign up, Ms. Briggsman.

[02:15:24] No, you did not. We're going to walk here, and when we walk over there, you're going to hand it back over to us. Here, you haven't signed any of these. Hand me that one right now. Thank you.

[02:15:41] How much you like the public attention, and you always work, not behind the scenes,

[02:16:30] but in front of the scenes. But after how many years have you now been with VDOT? I think 36 years, is that right? Well, that is a long time. So I'm going to say a few things about you, but first I'm going to read the resolution. I really appreciate you coming. All right, so this is honoring James Betts for his outstanding service to the Loudoun community.

[02:16:49] Whereas James Betts has dedicated 36 years of exemplary service to the Virginia Department of Transportation, that is VDOT, beginning his career in 1988 as a crew leader. I was only 12 years old at the time.

[02:17:06] And rising to the position of residency maintenance administrator for all Loudoun County, Virginia. And whereas throughout his tenure at VDOT, James Betts has demonstrated unwavering commitment, professionalism, and leadership, earning the respect and admiration of his colleagues, community members, and local government officials.

[02:17:28] And whereas James Betts has been instrumental in the successful planning, development, and maintenance of numerous transportation projects that have enhanced the safety, efficiency, and connectivity of the Loudoun region. And whereas his efforts have not only improved the quality of life for residents, but also supported the economic growth and sustainability of the area.

[02:17:52] And whereas James Betts' dedication to public service extends beyond his professional achievements as he has actively engaged with the community, fostering strong partnerships and promoting a collaborative approach to addressing transportation challenges upon his retirement.

[02:18:10] James leaves behind a legacy of excellence, setting a high standard for future generations of VDOT employees and public servants. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors does hereby recognize and honor James Betts for his outstanding service and valuable contributions to the Loudoun County community.

[02:18:33] And we extend all heartfelt gratitude to James for his dedication and wish him a fulfilling and well-deserved and long, I probably should put that in, retirement filled with joy, health, and happiness. So not everyone really has always got to work with you.

[02:18:55] think some of the folks up here on the board but ever since my time on the board which has been four and a half years um when we would get calls from western loud and we would say call jim he's gonna he's gonna take care of it and i will tell you that um our you have been for my office for sure in western loud an incredible and invaluable resource and uh you know stacy carey my chief of staff has been here much longer and um she was here during um mr higgins time so she's been here 12 years. And the moment I came on, she says, you need to go and get to know Jim. And I have,

[02:19:30] and I will tell you, I, when it, usually when we would call you, it wasn't really about, well, how, what do I do? It's how far can I jump and let me get this problem solved. Now they weren't always easy, easy issues. I, I will never forget when I write my memoirs one year, when I'm old and gray, and I will, there will be a chapter in there about the gravel road wars of the summer of 2023 and you're going to have a very very important part in that because you got to go to a lot of those community meetings and tried to help up come up with solutions and and would talk through both sides of the issue and quite frankly i relied a lot on your expertise and your understanding

[02:20:06] of how these things got done so i will be eternally grateful now um who's replacing you west four okay and you have you have you told him what the job's all about uh yes and he's still here okay all right well I do you want to say anything okay thank you for the support from the board I've worked with most of you all on projects and I hope that I we have made a difference in Loudon we we try our my number one goal is making sure the citizens could travel in the county

[02:20:46] safely so I want the road safe for my family and that's for everybody else so thank you you've done tremendous job and thank you for all yours and enjoy retirement you actually are retiring right excellent all right all right i would just say for for everyone to be that thank you also for

[02:21:05] what you do during snowstorms all right hey um mr crony you're gonna come on down and this is for

[02:22:14] virginia ag week where's my scrape the grape hello congratulations would you like to step right here how are you i'm sure your son doesn't want to come up all right so this is a resolution for marcella regano miss senior virginia usa

[02:22:50] whereas miss marcella regano a resident of birchwood of brambleton was crowned on march 15 2024 by miss senior usa janine burton from santa clara utah at clyde's at willow creek Creek, and Ashburn as Miss Senior Virginia USA. And whereas the Miss Senior Virginia USA pageant is part of the Senior Pageants Group International, who are women and daughters of the greatest generation, and which honor and celebrate the lives and accomplishment of women over 60. And

[02:23:27] whereas Miss Regano, who has Stargott's disease, which causes progressive vision loss, has created the platform Vision Impairment Awareness and organized a vision walk in collaboration with the Fighting Blindless Foundation. And whereas Ms. Regano has become involved in various community causes by attending the Veterans Ball in support of our troops, serving as a champion for disability at the World of Possibilities Expo, and potentially featuring in a documentary with

[02:24:03] Telltale Productions to bring light to the changing face of pageants. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors does hereby commend Ms. Marcella Regano for representing Loudoun County and Virginia as Ms. Senior, Virginia, USA.

[02:24:20] Yay! Do you want to say something about all that you're doing? Well, you said a lot that is going on. I did just really want to thank people. wanted to thank of course the board supervisors I wanted to thank my friends so with my vision impairment I don't drive and I have friends that help me get to places and my family most importantly who have been there supporting me my daughter who is also a Miss Virginia she is in the North American pageant and the 30 to 40 age bracket who encouraged me to do this and said that

[02:24:58] i had a platform and that women over 60 need to be represented and i definitely have a voice so i want to be heard and i'm here to represent women over 60 isn't there an event in las vegas coming up is in las vegas yeah in october which is awesome So thank you.

[02:25:26] Thank you so much.

[02:26:33] Ms. Erickson and all the people who were involved in killing a million bugs. Would you come on down? Two million. Oh, I'm sorry. Two million bugs. Would you come on down, please?

[02:26:58] Mr. Rogers, you were scraping some grapes. Come on down here. If you scraped a grape, come down. We all have our instructions. You already have a scraper.

[02:27:15] I got my scraper for next time. You're good then. So I'm good. You know I did. Yes, I have. I've seen them post being used. Come on. Yeah, sure. Yeah, of course we're going to do that next year.

[02:27:32] Come on both sides. Okay, here we go. Miss Glass is going to read. Mr. Crony's office, Ms. Glass's office, and my office participated in Scrape the Grape. But I should say, Mr. Crony and Ms. Glass actually participated themselves, not just my office.

[02:27:50] I sent an office representative. But they participated themselves, which is really, really fantastic. So I'm going to give this to Ms. Glass to read. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to read the resolution to honor the Scrape for the Grape event organizers and volunteers.

[02:28:07] Whereas 40 years ago, Loudon's first wine vintage was created and stay, Loudon is home to more than 50 wineries that have helped to define and shape our county. And whereas in 2022, our wineries and limited breweries welcomed 1 million visitors and Loudon residents, resulting in $48.6 million in revenue, contributing to a high quality of life and a diverse Loudon economy.

[02:28:34] And whereas the invasive spotted lanternfly and its preferred host, the Tree of Heaven, posed a threat to vineyards and other crops. And whereas Visit Loudoun, Loudoun Invasive Removal Alliance, Loudoun Virginia Cooperative Extension, and the Loudoun Wineries and Wine Growers Association partnered to create the Scrape for the Grape campaign.

[02:28:58] And whereas over two weekends in April, 147 trees of heaven were tagged for later removal, and using credits card-sized scrapers, more than 400 volunteers scraped 34,420 spotted lanternfly egg masses.

[02:29:17] And whereas each spotted lanternfly egg mass has between 35 to 50 individual eggs. So through the work of more than 400 volunteers, an estimated 2 million future adult spotted lanternflies were eliminated. And whereas, this innovative campaign will be used as a best practice for other communities combating the invasive spotted lanternfly.

[02:29:41] Now, therefore, be it resolved, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors does hereby recognize the Scrape for the Grape event, its organizers, and volunteers. And I just wanted to say I want to thank Mike Littman for organizing and talking us into going out into the woods with a scraper to get rid of these invasive species that we have here.

[02:30:19] Does anybody want to speak? Beth Erickson is one of my best friends. She could not get me out there, but you guys have no option to get me out there. But truthfully, I think I read somewhere that, and you might know this, that the first tree of heaven was bought here by Thomas Jefferson.

[02:30:40] I mean, like, is that right? A little later. Okay, all right. Exactly, because it's pretty. And a lot of the invasive species we look at, they are gorgeous. And until you came along and started talking about what invasive species were, I don't think anyone thought one thing about them.

[02:30:57] They were pretty. They were easy to plant. And so people did. But, you know, the fact that the invasive species brings invasive bugs and other things that our ecosystem cannot handle. We have learned so much over the past, just gosh, just the past year because of what you all are doing.

[02:31:19] So thank you. And Ms. Eric, she tried really hard to get people, and she did a great, great job. 400 people is a lot of people that comes great bugs. and then my my chief of staff went out and he bought the card back all covered in all covered in bug gook and then and then he told us how when he tossed them in the in the fire they made a popping sound i was like oh yeah yeah caleb they're talking about you over here so thank you all very

[02:31:57] much mr crony want to say anything before we are participating next year it was it was great i actually really enjoyed it i felt like i was accomplishing something for the community and and i think the um turnout was wonderful that day it was a cold day yeah yeah it was cold thank you um so just very quickly and then i do want to let mike and if you just make a couple of quick remarks if i may but um really where the magic happened was that first initial call because we

[02:32:29] certainly had identified this as an impact to our wineries. And I had an idea of what I would love to do, but I had no idea how to do it. And then Mike calls and he goes, do you know anything about invasive species, this spotted lantern flat? I went, oh, this is either the best call you'll ever have or you will absolutely regret it. So we did, we put this plan together, Bill, Beth Sastra, Mike and I, literally in nine weeks to come together.

[02:33:02] And it was a way to bring the East to the West to take a look at really the beloved wineries and what we need to do. But the concept, the branding is all Jen Christie, Jen Sigel and Katie Rhodes on our team.

[02:33:17] And they deserve so much for coming up with Scrape for the Grape, the branding, the way that it looks. But I am incredibly grateful. And I know that we are actually gonna be really shopping this for other areas to understand how to do it. So if I may, may I pass over here just very quickly? Yeah, just real quick. You said nine weeks. I would put it differently. I'd say we did it on the fly. Okay, sorry. But the way it started, it's kind of funny. It was. It was a conversation the first time I think we talked about it, Chair Randall, in November. And at the end of the conversation, she said, you know, I got someone you need to talk to. Her name is Beth

[02:33:56] erickson because we were talking about the spotted lanternfly in the tree of heaven so and wow i mean what a powerhouse i mean beth and team just created an incredible campaign and then i love the volunteers we got here tonight we've got all ages and thank you guys for participating dasha right dasha thank you thank you and um and the participation again having supervisors and who knows who might come out next year we'll never find me oh there we go there's a thumbs up but no thank you for the thank for the participation and the

[02:34:32] main thing is um it you know when you think about this the whole thing about invasives it's all about awareness people just don't know about it right now the plants yet it's causing as much destruction as climate change and other things right now it's ranked that high so i can't think of a better campaign to create awareness initially in the county so thank you to beth and thank you

[02:34:51] the board supervisors for supporting it saster and her entire group um map and send us in the

[02:35:29] right direction was incredible and the support of the loud wineries association thank you okay

[02:38:07] supervisors let's try to knock out at least one of the um action items before let's see what's happening here let's try to knock out at least let's try to knock out one of these actions before we uh before we uh take a break because uh we don't have a very long agenda we may want to get some of the stuff done in advance thank you all right so um let's go on and do um yeah the item number four because it's a it's a bmi but we can get it done i think fairly quickly um and we we

[02:38:45] can actually maybe even go straight to a straight to a motion on that it's miss briggsman's bmi we can we can get done really really quickly though so i don't think it would take much time So on bamboo, uh-huh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So let's go to item number four, the bamboo ordinance, which even that sounds a little funny.

[02:39:07] Ms. Glass, would you like to make a motion? Yes, Madam Chair. I move that the Board of Supervisors direct staff to research and develop an ordinance that requires property owners within the county to contain bamboo. can't even read bamboo to within the limits of their own property in compliance with Virginia Code 15.2-901 and return to the board with the draft ordinance.

[02:39:39] Motions made and seconded by Ms. Brixman. Discussion on the motion. Ms. Glass. Yes, Madam Chair. Members of the Loudon Invasive Removal Alliance Lira, some of whom have spoken tonight, came to me and Vice Chair Biskman asking for a bamboo control ordinance after learning the state gave locality's permission to enact one.

[02:39:58] Bamboo is an invasive plant that can grow rapidly like weeds, as some of our people that have come out to speak tonight, and is hard to control. It can easily spread outside someone's property if not properly maintained.

[02:40:16] This ordinance would require that bamboo must be controlled to someone's property and will protect Loudon's natural landscape and our property owners from adverse effects of these invasive species. I look forward to having the draft ordinance returned to the board. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Mr. Letourneau? So yeah, just more of a question on this. What I didn't see in the item was anything formally communicated from the invasive species group, although I believe we did receive a follow-up correspondence from them. I'm not sure if anybody knows and i know there's no staff here because this is bmi but are we are we receiving a sort of

[02:40:55] a more formal group of recommendations from that alliance i think they've been working a little bit with staff but is this part of a package that's coming or is this sort of a one-off that they're supporting or how is this kind of this i think that i think that is probably can be best answered by not not by staff but by but by your colleagues up here do you do any of you know that i'm happy to Yes, it's a one-off that we're trying to...

[02:41:22] But through this year, they're supportive. They are supportive of it, yes. Okay, but this isn't coming as like a request from that group necessarily. You want to... May I, Madam? Yes, Ms. Bricksburg. It was more of conversations than formal communication via emails or something like that.

[02:41:44] It was more conversations at events and those sorts of things and thinking, well, what can we do about it? And then we came up with this, but I wouldn't reject the idea of having them come to us, you know, once a year or whatever and propose things. Thank you.

[02:41:59] And this only would apply to other properties the way that it was at least intended to. In other words, you have to contain it to your property. So you would still be able to plant it in your own property. Correct. Yes. Okay. We do have a large selection of bamboo.

[02:42:17] You know exactly where it is. well it's you know sort of part of a yeah okay thank you Mr. Turner thank you Madam Chair my question is if this if bamboo is as wildly prolific and uncontrollable as it is why are we not just banning bamboo in Loudoun County I don't think this is enforceable I don't think most private property owners are going to know how to control their bamboo or in fact how invasive it is and how much it spreads especially since as I understand it it's the root structure that's

[02:42:54] most damaging and how are they going to know the root structure hasn't gone over the property lawn into somebody else's property I just I'm happy to support it I'm just concerned I would I'd much rather ban bamboo and in Loudoun County because I don't think it I'm I just don't think this is enforceable I think it's a great idea but I just don't think it's enforced Mr. Turner can I assume when you say ban bamboo, you do not mean the place that grows the bamboo for the panda bears in Loudoun County?

[02:43:24] I would say probably private ownership. Okay, all right. Madam Chair, the state law does not allow us to ban the, it doesn't give us the authority to ban bamboo. Okay. I can't say that word.

[02:43:40] It's a step then, I can take that. Say ban bamboo. Ms. Brooksman? Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to, you know, thank Lira and Supervisor Glass for working on this ordinance with my office. And I do want to give a shout-out to my former Planning Commissioner, Jane Kirchner, who also worked really hard on putting the Lira group together and also started a conversation at the Planning Commission level about stopping invasive species when we had applications coming before us.

[02:44:13] I do want to remind my colleagues that this is a draft ordinance. It will be coming back to us, and, you know, we can make decisions about whether it's complaint-based, which it probably will be, and also we will discuss the penalties as well.

[02:44:29] So this is just a start of the conversation, and it doesn't mean the ordinance is going to be immediately adopted, as most of us have done this before and know that, but I just wanted to point that out. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. So I would certainly support this. I have all kind of questions. One, I think, you know, because we in Loudoun County, we are the, well, we have a farm in Loudoun County that is the main contributor to the National Zoo for the pandas, for the pandas from China, for the bamboo.

[02:45:03] It may be a good idea to reach out to them to find out if there is a way to control bamboo, how that works. In other words, we have bamboo experts in the county, and it may not be a bad idea to reach out to them to find out, because I'm sure they have to figure out how to control it to some degree.

[02:45:20] My other question is, and again, I'm going to support this. My other question is, I'm a little confused by the HOA discussion, because we don't really have control over HOAs. We don't. And so if HOAs wanted to do this, they could do it without our ordinance.

[02:45:37] And if they don't want to have this done, then we can't control that one way or the other. And so a little bit that goes back to Mr. Turner's question, it would be complaint-based. But shouldn't the first complaint go to the HOA and not to us?

[02:45:54] And then, I mean, Ms. Rogers, even if it's a BMI, how does it work if it's an HOA? Because we don't have control over HOA. If a person in the HOA calls and complains, what we say first, go talk to your HOA, and then that doesn't work.

[02:46:12] If they come talk to us, we have no control over it anyway, correct? I think we need to develop an enforcement mechanism, both the complaint-based and how we would do that. I am not prepared to answer the question at this point. Okay. All right. That's a great answer. So I look forward to seeing what this looks like when it comes back with those two things in mind.

[02:46:31] One, we have people who really understand bamboo, and let's maybe talk to them. And two, let's figure out how this works within HOAs and how that enforcement works. But happy to support. Ms. Glass, would you like a closing?

[02:46:47] Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. And that's a good question because I wonder if there are different species of bamboo as well. I have no idea. You know, that we use just for ornamental, and then there's others for, you know, animals to eat. And I also just want to say that we used to have, in our backyard, three groups of the bamboo, and it just got really out of hand.

[02:47:14] And we had to have somebody come in and dig it up because it did become a nuisance. So I'm glad that we're doing this. And maybe, actually, maybe we could visit a bamboo farm. Yeah, with Vice Chair Briskman.

[02:47:34] That's it. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I'd like to thank my colleagues for supporting this. Wonderful. Thank you very much. Okay. Motion was made by Supervisor Glass, Supervisor Bricksman. All the people who say aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 702 with Supervisor Sainz and umstead off the dais so let's go on and do item um 1b well i'm sorry not item 1b um item 6f

[02:48:08] item 6f and we did not so that's why i didn't do 1b yet item 6f because i see we're going to get some people out the room if we can do this one we can send some folk home um and understanding that under item 6F, there is a second motion that Mr. Turner sent out, and we'll make as a second motion.

[02:48:34] And so after he makes the first motion and we do that, I will give him the mic, because this was an addition to the agenda, to very quickly explain what the second motion is, make the second motion, and then proceed forward with that.

[02:48:50] So we'll start with the first motion on 6F, and I will go to Mr. Turner on that motion. Would you like to go straight to a motion, Mr. Turner? Yes, Madam Chair. Okay. I move the Board of Supervisors approve an exception to policy for a loan from the Multifamily Housing Loan Program for the Atlantic Boulevard Development in an amount not to exceed $6,336,829, which represents a one-to-four leverage ratio of the housing trust to non-county funding with the same loan terms and conditions described in attachment 1 to the June 18, 2024 Board of Supervisors business meeting action item.

[02:49:25] Second. Very briefly, we had a long discussion about this in the executive review team. We currently have a 1 to 5 ratio, meaning one-part county funding, five-parts non-county funding of a project for affordable projects.

[02:49:46] And our comparators, Fairfax County has a one-to-four ratio. Arlington, I think it's Arlington, might be Alexandria City, and Montgomery County have a variable ratio. But when you calculate the loan-to-door amount, their loan-to-door is substantially higher than ours.

[02:50:07] And essentially, our ratio is acting as a disincentive for LITIC funding for our projects here in Loudoun County. And so we've had a discussion among staff and with the applicant.

[02:50:25] And what this is proposing is to go from a 1 to 5 to 1 to 4 ratio for this specific example for Atlantic Boulevard. And then the second motion will say, can we review our housing trust fund ratio? policy going forward with an eye towards establishing the policy of using one four ratio on all of these kinds of projects so that's what we're doing here I think staff is amenable and and I think it would help the applicant right now who is gapped but there's a gap between using the one to five ratio with

[02:51:00] how much money the county would underwrite and other outside funding and I I believe, I could be misstating this, that that hurts his score in LIHTC, in the LIHTC loan process, and also acts as a disincentive. So that's the purpose of this motion.

[02:51:16] Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. Ms. Glass. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a question. So increasing the loan amount, would that affect like another application that may be coming in, you know, for them getting a loan and them not receiving, you know, a certain amount?

[02:51:39] You ask staff that question? Are you asking Mr. Turner that question for the chair? I can ask staff, yes. Good evening, Chair Randall and members of the board.

[02:51:56] Supervisor Glass, the response to your question, if we increase the loan amount for one applicant, how does that affect any other applicants that we have in queue? So in general, it would decrease the amount of funds that are available in our multifamily loan program.

[02:52:17] Currently, this particular round that we are reviewing applications, these two projects, Atlantic Boulevard and Cedar Terrace, are the only two that we are reviewing to move forward. We do anticipate we will have another round later this fall of applications. The fund balance is currently $19.9 million. We average about $6 million in originating loans, so that would leave us with about three more loans to originate out of the housing trust. However, we do have additional sources of funds, such as the local tax fund

[02:52:56] dollars, that has about $20 to $23 million available that we could leverage in the future. Thank you. Okay. Mr. Letourneau. Yeah, so I guess my, I almost like the second motion better than just doing one as a one-off here first. It seems a little bit random. And I guess in staff's view, Is it necessary to make this adjustment on this application?

[02:53:30] Yes, it would help to decrease the gap funding that is needed for the project. It would help to increase the likelihood that the state would award the 4% tax credit that is in place.

[02:53:47] But I do agree that the longer-term strategy is to look at our policy and make enhancements. the first part of your answer wouldn't that be true for the other project that we voted on tonight and other projects that we've considered in the recent past yes so why this one what before looking at the policy why and this is maybe not a question for you might be more rhetorical why why take this one out now as opposed to looking at the policy and then deciding if we want to change the policy or flexibility it just seems like we're treating this applicant differently and we have another

[02:54:23] application tonight that we already voted on is on consent that we didn't do this for i guess i'm not sure why this one and not the other one madam chair if i may as part of the underwriting so the other project that is before you that the reason why we're not doing that one is that that one had more cash flow so it did not need the the actual waiver per se this particular one needs it in order to help further decrease the gap but is that because they knew what our

[02:55:00] loan amount was going to be and obtain more cash flow when we look at i doubt we ever told anyone that we would consider this that that is correct our our policy states the one to five leverage ratio so when staff was reviewing all the applicant applications that we normally get we look at their pro forma we we look at um the sustainability of the project and we make recommendations accordingly i'm certainly i want this project to succeed i just i'm worried that

[02:55:35] we're sort of not treating people in an equal setting at the level kind of 11th hour changing the terms on one project to be more favorable that we didn't even consider for others without having a policy discussion first so i'm not sure i'm going to get there here mrs berksman uh thank you madam chair just procedurally do we also need to make the packet motion since this was taken off the consent agenda no you want me to address it no no oh we already addressed it okay

[02:56:09] all right maybe i wasn't here supervisor turner's motion substitute motion addresses oh that is actually a substitute okay i thought there was something because he's increasing the amount to recognize the one to four ratio okay okay okay um so along the lines of what a supervisor letourna was saying um do we think there's going to be a number of other folks coming to us now i don't i think maybe you said there's three or four in the pipeline so if we were to approve this tonight do you think folks that are in the process are going to then come to us and say we want i

[02:56:46] suspect they will come to us and say well we want the one to four ratio as well and are we prepared to are we prepared to accept that with whatever's in the pipeline right now so currently we have the the two projects or applications that are before you tonight we do not anticipate any other applications until this fall the next round will open up july 1st to october 2nd okay so in that interim we anticipate that we would take a look at our policy our underwriting policy

[02:57:22] and make any necessary modifications to present to the board for consideration okay and then what What do we do if the other project that we passed on consent tonight comes back to us and says, the project that was passed on the same night got better terms, can we get better terms?

[02:57:38] Would they have an opportunity to come back and ask for that, even though their cash flow seems to be fine? Would they be able to come back and ask for the same terms? Most likely. Okay. And we could handle that? Yes. Okay. Given that we could possibly handle that if they come back, and then the next applications won't be till the fall, where we potentially will have the whole process change to a one to four. I think I'm comfortable with this. Thank you. I continue to learn more about attainable housing and how to finance it and how to do it and what happens when you have whole units that

[02:58:17] are attainable, not just parts of them. It feels like this is an interesting kind of never-ending lesson that I'm getting. And especially since we did make an exception the other night and we are trying to, you know, fast accelerate some of these projects for all the reasons, and given the numbers we, I discussed tonight and we'll discuss later of our housing, our housing numbers and needing housing at all levels, but most especially attainable housing across the board, I will happily support this and we'll get to the next motion in just a

[02:58:56] second. I have no issue with this at all. Mr. Turner. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a quick question. Is it fair to say that the Cedar Terrace application has more favorable terms than the one to four ratio we're proposing here for Atlantic Boulevard already? Yes, sir. Sir, Provisor Turner, I would say that that is somewhat true given that Cedar Terrace was part of a multi-phase development that included an inclusionary housing requirement, required

[02:59:31] minimum number of ADUs. Typically, this program will not fund those ADUs. Those ADUs will be developed as AHUs, as part of the Cedar Terrace Apartments, and we will fund the entirety of those AHUs. And so we are providing additional funds beyond what we have historically funded those types of projects. Great. Thank you very much. That's all I have, Madam Chair.

[02:59:56] All right. Mr. Turner, make the motion. I second the motion. All in favor, please say aye. I oppose that motion will that motion will pass six one nope nope nope is it five six six zero one two six zero one two with two people being gone and Mr. Mr. Turner I mean Mr. Turner abstaining next motion Mr. Turner and just just if you can maybe in a quick second just say why you not a

[03:00:32] quick second but you know what i mean a minute or so why this this next motion is coming um in the discussion both of atlantic boulevard and in the evaluation review team and in talking with staff um the um there's a desire here to uh for loudon county to be competitive on affordable housing projects attainable housing projects and this is one more element of that and the unmet housing needs strategic plans been in existence for three years I think it's fair to say that staff wants to review some of the aspects of that program to include how we administer the housing trust fund what funds other pots of money that the

[03:01:11] county can access in order to underwrite attainable housing projects and so staff said it would we in the discussion about this we decided that the two-pronged approach would be good is to take advantage of the one to four in this Atlantic Boulevard case, which we've just done, but also then to look at a larger lens at the policy as it exists right now to make sure that we're not disincentivizing attainable housing projects. And so that's what this motion does. It just says, let's have staff go back, look at the current policy and see if we can't make it more attractive to the industry to fund affordable housing projects.

[03:01:51] I would. I move the Board of Supervisors and direct staff to evaluate the leverage ratio contained in the multifamily housing loan program guidelines and return to the board with a recommended revised ratio for county loans to maximize county funding that can be leveraged by developers to obtain non-county funding.

[03:02:08] Second. Discussion on the motion, Mr. Turner? Anything else? I have no more. Okay. Thank you. Any other discussion on the motion, Mr. Letourneau? Yeah, so I'm supportive of the motion. The only thing I'll point out is we have had pretty focused discussions on this topic in the Finance Committee, and that's where we've done the policy.

[03:02:25] So I understand Mr. President Turner is not on the Finance Committee, and I would want him to be part of the discussion, but I wondered if that would be more appropriate and what my colleagues thought. You mean the Senate to finance? The Senate to finance instead, yeah. I'm fine with that. So you want to do a friendly?

[03:02:43] Just a friendly, yeah. The Senate to finance? Yeah. Yeah. I would just make it friendly. It's a friendly. And we'll move back to the finance committee. Yeah. Add that to the end of the moment. Okay. All right. Cool. And I would take that as the second order of the motion. Not an issue. Okay. Ms. Bricksman. And I, never mind, I'll say it when I get there.

[03:03:00] Ms. Bricksman. Thank you, Madam Chair. I failed to say this in the last motion, but this is awesome. Like, really good catch for us to catch up with our comparators around the region and to make sure that we're incentivizing developers with this new and improved ratio.

[03:03:20] Congratulations. Great idea. Very excited. And I think it's a really good move. And I look forward to seeing it in finance. Thank you. Thank you. I would just say that I would associate myself with Ms. Bricksman's comments. And I hope this means we can move a little faster and do a little more when it comes to attainable housing.

[03:03:39] I would also say this is one of these issues that could sit in both the committees to some degree. So if you're on TLUC and you want to know about this issue, I would say that maybe come to the Finance Committee or at least watch the Finance Committee meeting after so you know what's going on so we get back to the meetings.

[03:03:57] You are caught up with the discussion, that's all. Mr. Turner? Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to set the record straight, both with the expedited review of the Atlantic Boulevard Project and with this particular motion. These would not have happened.

[03:04:13] That entire process would not have happened without the very thoughtful input from Mr. Hart. And I just want that on the record. I hope the press catches this if they're here watching this. These were Mr. Hart's idea. And he simply approached me as a T-Luck chair and said, what do you think?

[03:04:28] And I said, well, let's see what we can do with it. So thank you, Mr. Hart. We really do appreciate it. And I think I agree with Supervisor Brissman. This is pretty awesome. I did ask, Mr. Turner, why didn't you come to me? What happened? What was that about? And he goes, well, it's the two-look, them the two-look, Sheriff.

[03:04:45] I'd just like to say, I thought Mr. Hart's choice of a supervisor was excellent, really excellent. Okay, motion made for Supervisor Turner, seconded by Chair Randall. All the people who say aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass, 7-0-2.

[03:05:04] Okay, we are going to do appointments, do nominations, and then we're going to read in the closed session because I'm told by Mr. Rogers, closed session is not going to take very long.

[03:05:22] We're going to get staff out the room. So let's do nominations first. If you have a nomination, please put your light on. Ms. Glass. - Thank you, Madam Chair. I nominate Mr. Julian Jenkins to serve as the Brown District Representative on the Community Criminal Justice Board.

[03:05:42] - Mr. Letourneau. - Thank you. I would like to re-nominate Monty Mercer as the Dulles District Representative on the Library Board of Trustees for a second term, and I'd like to nominate Lee Gansel as an at-large representative on the Community Services Board.

[03:06:01] - Ms. Brixman? - Thank you, Madam Chair. I re-nominate, I reiterate my re-nomination of Elaine Barokov to continue her service as the Algonquian District Representative on the Community Criminal Justice Board. I will just say I re-nominated her December, but staff felt like I had to do it again because of the way the terms were falling or the dates. So reiterating my renomination. Thank you. Okay. And I nominate Michelle Burton for the chair at large seat in the Community Criminal Justice Board and Richard Bibby to the chair at large

[03:06:37] seat on the Communications Commission. So I also need to do one more thing. So if you remember through the Ravana Community Development Authority, Mr. Sains is our representative to that body.

[03:06:53] Well, his term is coming up, and we need to actually re-nominate him, but we also need to suspend the rules to put him on back on that board. And it is a four-year term. I did check.

[03:07:09] It's a four-year term, no matter what happens, Because the four years were running us out of this term on the board. And I have no idea what Mr. Sands is going to do for next term as a board member, if he's going to run again or not.

[03:07:25] But this nomination will run him into the next term, and you don't have to be a board member to be the representative from the board. So it would carry him into the next board's term no matter what. So I'm going to make a motion to suspend the rules.

[03:07:44] Motion made for Supervisor Brickspin. A motion made for Chair Round 2, seconded by Supervisor Brickspin in discussion. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 702. I move that the Board of Supervisors confirm the nomination of Supervisors Karan Sainz for reappointment to the Brabana Community Development Authority as the Board Member Representative of the term of July 18, 2024 to July 17, 2028.

[03:08:09] Motion is made in second by Supervisor Glass. Thank you very much. All I would say is this is now his district. So it also makes sense for a couple of reasons. Anybody else? All the people who say aye. Any opposed?

[03:08:25] That motion will pass, 702. Okay, when we come back, we have, I think, one more action item? Yeah, it was on consent. We have one more action item.

[03:08:42] So, Ms. Brixman, would you please read us into closed session? Yes, ma'am. I move that the Board of Supervisors recess this public hearing and enter into closed session pursuant to Section 2.2-3711A3 of the Code of Virginia to consider disposition of parcels of property for public use in the Catoctin and Little River Election Districts.

[03:09:02] Motion is made by Mr. Crony. Discussion on the motion. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? That motion will pass. Thank you.

[03:41:13] We are back.

[04:02:35] Oh, I've got to read this out. You do? Okay. i move that the closed session be adjourned that the board of supervisors reconvene its public meeting that the minutes of the public meeting should reflect that no formal action was taken in the closed session and further move that the resolution certifying the closed session be adopted and reflected in the minutes of this public meeting excuse me both is made and seconded by supervisor was that supervisor glass i said supervisor glass discussion on the motion all in favor please say aye aye any opposed that motion passed 702 um would everyone please

[04:03:10] affirm a firm firm affirmed a firm firm firm and I affirm as well thank you very much okay we do not have any motions out of closed session we only have one I think no actually we have well we have one more item but we also have a board comments but miss Brickspin ice calm down okay it's fine I see you we'll do the item and then we'll do board comments okay I know you told me are I know I know we'll do the item we'll do the item and then we'll do more

[04:03:47] comments all right item is a board member initiative miss Bricks been very much like I did with mr. Turner just a second ago how about take you take them just a quick minute to to to kind of introduce the item and then go on it go to a motion okay great well this this item came about to further our our work in in DEI and inclusivity and equity it is backed up by our equity resolution and our vision of the county we decided to bring it during Pride Month because

[04:04:24] it pertains mainly to the LGBTQIA community and we're basically looking for some staff work on it and to file our findings with the HRC's municipal equality index and then discuss the the rating okay so having said that would Would you like to make a motion?

[04:04:45] I would. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the Board of Supervisors direct staff to review Loudoun County's policies, programs, and practices relating to the LGBTQ plus community, apply to the Municipal Equality Index, and present the findings at a future board business meeting with recommendations.

[04:05:03] Motions made and seconded by Supervisor Glass. Ms. Brixman, I have a point of inquiry before we go further. This motion is not mentioning the human rights campaign.

[04:05:18] Or did you not mention them on purpose? We'll change my motion. No, Madam Chair, we did not mention them explicitly because we mentioned the Municipal Equality Index, which is the HRC.

[04:05:35] So it's explained in the item that the HRC does the MTA. So by saying Municipal Equality Index, you're actually de facto saying HRC? Yes. Okay. Yes. Yes. All right. Discussion and motion. Ms. Bricksman.

[04:05:51] Sure. So this direct staff to undergo holistic review of our policies affecting the LGBTQIA plus community, our policies with our personnel, our employees, but also our policies and how we deliver services to the rest of the community through that lens.

[04:06:12] As I said before, it is backed up by our vision statement to be inclusive and sustainable and welcoming community. The Municipal Quality Index is a program funded and administered by the Human Rights Commission Foundation, which is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501c3 arm of their organization.

[04:06:33] Counties like Loudoun can voluntarily self-submit material to the MEI, and I think there's links to it in the in the BMI if my colleagues want to go look at it and the county HRC will work with us once we've filed and they have legal teams and policy experts that can help us improve our policies and then file again and you can file as many times as you want to get your score the score is 100. 11 Virginia localities have already been evaluated by the index, including Alexandria, Arlington, Charlottesville, Chesapeake, Fairfax County,

[04:07:10] Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Richmond, Roanoke, and Virginia Beach. So there is precedent for it in the state, but it is also a national objective, largely objective view of standards that this community believes are what is needed in local policy and local delivery services so that community feels safe and welcome where they live.

[04:07:34] Again, we brought this this month of June because it is Pride Month. We believe that inclusivity is attractive to potential employees. This BMI is fully supported by Equality Loudon. They've read through it, and they are fully supportive and encouraging us to do it.

[04:07:53] As I said, the MEI is a national benchmark. And so I hope that we can move through this. We did have preliminary conversations with staff who believe that this would not cost us a lot of money or staff time to be able to evaluate our services and our policies, because largely we've been doing a lot of it.

[04:08:15] So we should actually come out pretty well, have a pretty good score when we do it. Additionally, there is one thing in the MEI that we know that we don't have, and that is a Human Rights Commission. And that is the one thing that staff did say would be the most costly, but they've already been considering it in our DEI office that maybe it's time for us to have a Human Rights Commission in Loudoun County.

[04:08:40] And that is something that we can do later, but staff expects that might cost between $1 and $3 million, but that's something we can put into our budget in future years. I'll leave it at that, Madam Chair. Happy to answer questions. Thank you. Mr. Turner, I know you have to leave, so I will let you...

[04:08:57] My only question is, is anyone aware of any other nationally recognized objective standard of measurement of these kinds of variables in an organization? May I answer? Yes, it's your BMI. So the staffs of Ms. Glass and my office did that research.

[04:09:16] We expected to get that question. There really isn't any other organization that does this. Okay, that's all you need. Thanks. Ms. Glass? Thank you, Madam Chair. this review using the municipality equality index will allow staff to essentially utilize the free consulting services of the HRC the HRC is an ordinance that's sole sole purpose and mission is to advocate for the LGBTQ community and this is I believe this is a very good opportunity to show the county that this board continues to make sure that we're representing all of our

[04:09:55] residents, regardless of who they love, regardless of how they present themselves, and regardless of who they are. I recently heard for Pride Month a play on our county name, Loudoun County, loud and proud. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[04:10:13] In your time, can I ask you to repeat that? Did you say the HRC's sole purpose and mission is to advocate for the LGBTQ community? Is that what you just said to me? Okay. All right. Before I go back to Ms. Bricksman for a closing, let me say this.

[04:10:35] The HRC's sole purpose and mission is to advocate for LGBTQ community, which means that they are an advocacy group. Now, I am in support of everything in this item. There's not a thing in this item I'm not in support of.

[04:10:55] However, in the past, when people have asked me to bring in an advocacy group whose sole purpose is to advocate for something that is, in many ways, they can be nonpartisan, but there's a pseudo-political component to them, I have said no.

[04:11:14] There has been other organizations that have asked to come in, that I had supervisors asked to come into the county to give scores. I'll just say it. When we were doing the policy on guns, I had somebody ask for someone to come in, for the NRA to come in, and they said, nobody has this training that the NRA does.

[04:11:38] No one has the knowledge that the NRA does. No one has this. No one has that. I said, no, because they are an advocacy group for one thing, and they are a pseudo-political organization. Now, some might say that the people who are LGBTQ, that's not the choice they make.

[04:11:54] whether it's a choice they make or not, if people wanted to make that choice, I'd be fine with that. That's not my issue at all, whether someone says there's not a choice, it is a choice. If it's a choice, I'm fine with that too. But if we start allowing pseudo-political advocacy groups to score our county, then we're going to open the door to all of them.

[04:12:16] Of every single one of the 11 jurisdictions that have used this index, None of them at the time had a DEIA department. None of them. We went and checked. Right now, one of them does, Fairfax County.

[04:12:33] And so they use this group because they didn't have the ability to do it in-house. If we ask our DEIA person, and we have, would they prefer to do this with this organization?

[04:12:49] They preferred not to do it with the organization. They believed they could do it in-house. We have asked that person that. That was their response. I am not an objection of anything in here, although I do think some of their scores are a little weird and subjective and whatever, and I've had that discussion with Ms. Bricksman also, because I think in my head one of the most important things you can do is protect young kids who are in this community from being bullied and harassed.

[04:13:17] I think when you're young and get bullied and harassed, you become somebody older who has anxiety and depression and may want to do something bad to yourself. But my no vote is not to the policies. It is bringing in a pseudo-political advocacy organization. If Ms. Bricksman changed that, I would be voting for this. But she's not, so I'm not. Would you like to have a closing? Yes, Madam Chair. Thank you. The equity resolution has enacted an intersectional approach to equity addressing policy from the perspective of all categories of identity. Still, there is a strong benefit to a focused review of policies affecting

[04:13:54] the LGBTQI community. That's what this BMI does. We do have advocacy groups that come in and talk to us a lot, have seats on our boards and commissions, including the PEC and the Chamber of Commerce. If another supervisor wants to come to us and ask for, quote-unquote, an advocacy group to rate our county and how we deliver services, this board could have a choice to vote that up or down i think that it's a false equivalency to talk about the nra in this context because there actually are other organizations that um that support gun rights but also those members

[04:14:32] are members by choice and as you said um they are members by choice and the the folks that are advocating for this or that might need this or might need better services or to feel safe and welcoming in our community, the LGBTQIA community, are not of that group because of choice, and I think that's what lends their group to having an advocacy organization such as the HRC that works to make sure that they are treated equally, that they get services on an equal footing, that they

[04:15:09] get health care services and housing and all those things on an equal footing to everybody else, and And it's not just a group that is discriminated against. It is a group that is threatened, beaten, and even killed sometimes because of something that they can't control.

[04:15:28] This group, this advocacy group, has decided that this MEI index is the best way for their members of their community to feel as if a jurisdiction is safe and welcoming for them. and i am willing to allow our county to be rated by them because i think that we're doing a fairly good job first of all but also i want us rated in a way that's transparent i feel that sometimes we do things internally in the county and it's not always evident what we're doing and i think this is a very very transparent way to show the community number one that we support you we want

[04:16:07] you to feel safe and welcome in our community and number two we're going to do it in a very very transparent manner so that you know when we get the gold star we can brag about it and I'm very much looking forward to that so with all due respect madam chair I'm I think that the HRC is the best way to go and I hope that everyone on this board can support the initiative and I think good people of good conscience can this can disagree on something minor okay so I'm I want to make sure because I don't feel like having the accusations thrown at me.

[04:16:41] All right. All in. Oh, I'm sorry. Ms. Bricksman made the motion. Ms. Glass seconded the motion. That was you, right? All in people say aye. Opposed? Nay. That motion will pass 4-3-2 with Mr. Kirshner, Mr. Letourneau, and Chair Randall avoiding against the motion, and Mr. Sains and Ms. Umstead being absent for the motion.

[04:17:04] All right. Let's do board comments. Let's start with Ms. Glass. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a couple of disclosures.

[04:17:20] On June 6th, my staff met with representatives to discuss Fleetwood North residential and Defender Drive residential rezoning applications. On June 10th, my staff met with representatives for the Bays-Dulles Industrial Park ZRTD application. And again, I just want to congratulate all of our graduates from high school.

[04:17:43] It was wonderful to be a part of a few of the services, and it's great to meet folks, you know, in the stores and they say, hey, you know, you were at my child's graduation and, you know, and have that conversation because they're really excited about that.

[04:18:03] So again, congratulations to all of our high school graduates, as well as our, sorry, as well as our college graduates, because I have a college graduate as well. Thank you. Thank you. Did you do disclosures? Yes, ma'am.

[04:18:19] Okay, I'm sorry I missed those. Mr. Kirshner. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a few comments about what's going on in Catoctin, a couple of events coming up. There is a, in terms of community events, this Saturday, June 22nd, JK Community Farm will hold a workshop that teaches you how to create your own after sun oil obviously which will come in handy if you're spending some time in this heat coming up in loudon county's great outdoors morven park will continue to hold their polo in the park events every saturday through june and july except for july 6th so get out there watch the ponies run around it's a really great event and kind of tailgate event and bring your

[04:18:56] bring a few few drinks and whatnot it's a lot of fun if you bring your family out there or a date or whatever on june 30th belmont vineyard will offer their next wine education event which where guests will conduct a vertical blind test of four wine veritals. And also on June 30th, the Waterford Foundation will hold its Colonial Agricultural Day. This is a free event for all ages with interaction exhibits, hands-on gardening activities, and a presentation to the Loudoun, by excuse me, the Loudoun Heritage Foundation. And that's the news from Contoctin.

[04:19:27] Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Turner. Thank you, Madam Chair. On Tuesday, June 11th, My staff and I met with Colin Gillis and Ben Wales from Curata Partners and Timothy Rowe from Toll Brothers to discuss the application for Fleetwood North. I also offered them an advertising tagline, if you've got to buy a lot, choose the best, choose Curata.

[04:19:47] On Tuesday, June 11th, my staff and I met with Colin Gillis and Ben Wales from Curata Partners and Stephen Collins from Northfield to discuss the application for Defender Drive. Not a song, a full sonata, choose the virtuosos of Curata. On Friday, June 14th, my staff met with Amanda Williams from Cooley LLP to discuss the application for Tillotsview.

[04:20:07] On Friday, June 14th, my staff met with Michael Capretti from Capretti Land to discuss a possible future application to the Ashburn District. Is that it? That's it. Okay, thank you. Mr. Letourneau. Capretti doesn't get a lyric.

[04:20:24] Boy. Disclosures on June 17th, I met with applicants and representatives for Hiddenwood Assemblage, LEGIE 2023-0070. That application is coming to us in July at the public hearing. I will not be present for that public hearing, which is unfortunate timing.

[04:20:44] However, I continue to discuss the application with the applicants. I did let them know last night I'm not supportive in its present form. However, I understand their situation very well and am motivated to try to help them with a couple different scenarios.

[04:21:04] So we're continuing to have those discussions and we'll be having some additional ones prior to that public hearing. I'll also be meeting with the adjacent neighborhood at Briarfield Estates. I did want to also just note that we have rescheduled the July Finance Government Operations and Economic Development Committee meeting for Thursday, July 25th at 6 o'clock, which was confirmed by email with board members so the public calendars will be revised accordingly.

[04:21:34] That is all. Thank you. Mr. Crony. Thank you, Chair Randall. On June 5th, my staff met with Colleen Gillis, Ben Wales, Nate Hammond, and Stephan Collins regarding the Defender Drive application.

[04:21:50] On June 6th, I met with Colleen Gillis, Ben Wales, Tim Rowe, Dave McElhinney regarding our Cola Farms residential. On June 6th, I met with Packy Crown, Sujith Merrim, and Matt Leslie regarding Atlantic Boulevard residential.

[04:22:06] On June 7th, I met with Colleen Gillis, Ben Wales, and other representatives of Fleetwood North. On June 10th, my staff attended the land development pre-meetings for Green Energy Park at the Braddock and Holly Field locations. And on June 17th, I met with Curtin Menta of the Commanders.

[04:22:23] So I had the pleasure of attending the 30th anniversary of the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust Gala at River Farm in Alexandria. The Northern Virginia Conservation Trust has protected over 8,000 acres and serves more than 3 million residents.

[04:22:44] It's an amazing organization, and they tend to do smaller properties. They tend to look at conservation easement for smaller properties in Northern Virginia. On June 13th, I attended the Loudoun County Animal Services celebration of the newly passed law prohibiting the declawing of cats, and I toured the shelter, and I'm pleased to say that the shelter does not adopt out any cat or dog that isn't spayed or neutered, so that is great news.

[04:23:15] And on Friday, I attended the COG Farm Policy Committee, and I learned about the composting and food reduction cooperative agreement with the usda this is an agreement that local governments can take part uh can participate in to develop and test strategies for planning and implementing compost plans and food race waste reduction plans and i think that it's something that we should look into as a county there are grants available to implement it on june 22nd a farm less ordinary

[04:23:52] is celebrating american music in percival to benefit the mission of the non-profit to provide a welcoming community and meaningful employment to people with intellectual developmental and cognitive disabilities and it's from two to nine on saturday i just want to let everybody know and then brambleton what a blast is moving to the hal and bernie hansen regional park this year and it It will be Saturday, June 29th, from 6 to 10.

[04:24:24] Come and enjoy live music, food trucks, wine, beer, and fireworks. Thank you. Okay. I think that's, I think that's, I think we're to you, ma'am. Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. By way of disclosures, on June 5th, sorry, I had a meeting with Matt Leslie of Bowman on the Atlantic Boulevard rezoning.

[04:24:44] On June 7th, I had a meeting with Colleen Gillis and Ben Wales of Curata on Defender Drive and Fleetwood North applications. On June 7th, I had a meeting with Curtan Mehta of DLA Piper for engineering plan, site plan for data centers at an Ashburn, the commander's training facility.

[04:25:02] I had a great time and was very honored to sit, or sorry, be invited by Buddy Reiser for a green buildings initiative seminar, a full day seminar last week on data centers. green globes and they have the green globe certification and other certifications that are something i think we should consider in our energy strategy and in our land use applications reviews i also sat on a panel of the schar school of policy and government on data center siting this was the first of their new virginia leadership program where they work on a policy

[04:25:37] project for a week with students college students from across the state it was really great to look through different lenses from local government to land use lawyers, state government, and economic development. On that note, I will be hosting a data center town hall on Thursday, June 27th at 6 p.m. with Buddy Reiser, Dan Galindo, and Jem Bingle from PEC, and myself at the Cascade Senior Center from 6 to 7 30 p.m. Graduations have been awesome this year. It's always such a fun time. And by way of gun violence, halfway through 2024, there have been 7,749 total gun deaths and

[04:26:16] 230 mass shootings. The deaths include 106 children under the age of 11 and 549 teens ages 12 to 17. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Today, I met with Michael Capretti on a number a host of issues on 6-7. My staff met with the Bay's Industrial Park and Atlantic Boulevard.

[04:26:38] My only discussion right now will be for, be about tomorrow. Tomorrow's Juneteenth. And, you know, a lot of people, one, don't know what Juneteenth is. I would say I'm from, I'm from Denver, Colorado. Well, I grew up in Denver, Colorado. And Juneteenth was a norm for us. We had Juneteenth every year. When I arrived in Virginia, and I said, like, where are the Juneteenth celebrations? No one knew what I was talking about, which that was the first thing that shocked me. The second thing that shocked me, there was a Confederate statue in the courthouse.

[04:27:09] And the third thing that shocked me, there was something that they had here called Lee Jackson King Day, which was the most ridiculous thing in the world to me, to be quite honest, Lee Jackson King Day. But I'm so glad that in 2021, Juneteenth became a holiday, both state and federal holiday. Juneteenth denotes when the last enslaved people found out that they were free. Now, they had been free for a couple of years before they found out, but it was in Galveston, Texas. I see Juneteenth very much as an American holiday. I think it's unfortunate that

[04:27:44] some people see Juneteenth as an African-American holiday. It is not. Just like Fourth of July is an American holiday. Juneteenth is an American holiday. And both of them represent the same thing. Both of them represent freedom in different ways and for different purposes and against different tyrannies. But both of them represent freedom. And so I am thrilled to be taking part in Juneteenth ceremonies tomorrow. I really, really hope that everyone who will come out for a Fourth of July celebration will also come out for a Juneteenth celebration. We start at the

[04:28:20] courthouse tomorrow at 9 15. Please join us. Um, there are Juneteenth, um, events all through the weekend, including some at Dulles airport from three to, I mean, sorry, Dulles, Dulles town center from three to seven. Um, just look it up and you'll find Juneteenth celebrations all, all over the place. Um, Juneteenth is always a, a, a great day, a joyous day. Um, and, um, I say this all the time and people laugh at me. I am crazy in love with my country. Um, I am a, military father and a military husband. My country has not always been crazy in love with me

[04:28:58] or people that look like me, but I've always been crazy in love with my country, and I would hope that everyone who feels that way will come out and celebrate Juneteenth with us tomorrow and then come out next month and celebrate Fourth of July. Thank you.

[04:29:13] I think that might be it for the day. That's it. We are adjourned.

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