Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, Business Meeting, Tuesday, January 7, 2025

Date: Tuesday, January 7, 2025
Place: Board Room, First Floor, Government Center, 1 Harrison Street SE, Leesburg, Virginia
Length: 3h 17m (video)
Official meeting video (county, Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/player/clip/7847
Meeting page: https://loudoun.granicus.com/player/clip/7847

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 2026-10-11. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:06:34] Well, good evening, Supervisors, good evening, staff, and good evening, Loudon, and Happy New Year to everyone. I'd like to call to order the January 7, 2025 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.

[00:06:54] If you need a headset, we have those available as well. So please see the clerk to request one. So my only comments this evening, another year, and I continue to be very, very, very grateful to be chair of this county.

[00:07:11] It is an amazing opportunity, an amazing way to serve. And every year when I get to do my, I'm the first one of the year that gets to do the inspiration or statement, I start my year with the serenity prayer. And that's what I'm going to do right now.

[00:07:29] So, God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Amen. Would you all join me in the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all.

[00:07:55] Okay, we only have two items on the consent agenda, and they are as follows. Item 1A, appointments and confirmations, and item 2, the administrative items report for January 7th, 2025, I will make a motion to approve. Is there a second?

[00:08:15] Second by Vice Chair Briggsman. Is there a discussion? Seeing none, I'm happy to say aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 9-0. I don't believe there, well, there are additions to the agenda, but all those additions to the agenda, all the motions that are already running around on the agenda, are actually part of one of our items, and so those are technically not additions to the agenda.

[00:08:43] As far as I know, there are no other additions or deletions to the agenda. Is that correct? Okay. My comments today will be brief. First, this is an organizational meeting. In the past, we have done board comments and voice for a cause and public comments and all those things in organizational meetings, but really you shouldn't.

[00:09:05] Really, the organizational meeting should be just that, organizing the board for the next coming year. So if anyone has asked why I took those off, I really should have taken those off before. And so going forward, as long as I'm chair, organizational meeting will just be organizing the board for that year.

[00:09:23] So there's no other anything to that. So there's no voice for a call tonight. There's no resolutions. There's no public comments. There's no board comments because we're doing an organizational meeting. So that's all that is. My only other comments, I have three more. Supervisors, we're doing a pretty good job continuing to fill out our commissions, committee, and board seats.

[00:09:43] Please keep making those nominations. I'm going to try this year really to start using those bodies more because I do not think we use them as much enough, and they have lots of great expertise on all of those bodies.

[00:09:59] I won't give my regional meeting update tonight. I'll give that next time because, again, this organizational meeting accepts to say that the NACO-led session does start on March 1st, and so I'm telling you that now because if you're not registered for the NACO-led session, it's about time to do that right now.

[00:10:18] I won't call any names, Supervisor Kirchner, but I will say that this year there's going to be a lot more focus on rural items at NACO, but I won't call any districts, Catoctin and Little River. One of the things that we know we're going to discuss a lot more is the health policies and rural health, including rural maternity health. Mr. Kirshner and I have already had this conversation of what it is to be an EMS person in rural America or in areas that are not even called rural counties, they're called frontier counties.

[00:10:54] And so that's going to be a lot of our focus. And so I can't always get to all the Rural Action Caucus meetings. So it would be really helpful if I can get some help from our rural supervisors on those.

[00:11:10] And also that NACO is now starting to put in place, I'm not sure what they're going to call it, but NACO has the Rural Action Caucus, which is counties that are under 100,000 and they have the large urban county caucus, which are counties that are above 500,000 people.

[00:11:30] So we fall right in the middle, and we've been talking about that a lot. So now they are talking about putting in place something that catches a lot of counties, those middle counties. I'm not sure what they're going to call it yet, but thankfully that's what we actually have a place to land because right now I've been trying to kind of go to both of them, and that's been really, really hard to do.

[00:11:49] And finally, for my board comments, I'm going to take a moment of personal privilege and say to Mr. Letourneau that I have received a gift for you that I have been asked to have you utilize at this very moment.

[00:12:07] So this is the gift. Oh, no, no. And I have been, it is, it is, it's a Metro sweater. They tried to give that to me at the last Metro Point meeting, and I didn't take it. And it lights up when you put it on.

[00:12:22] Matt has refused to take it in the who's on the metro board but I am so positive that really this is one of the highlights of his season and so Ms. Bricksman will do the honors Matt, Matt there you go sir they actually sold out of these so maybe I can sell it on eBay thank you but there you go sir there you go i have done my job i've done my job mr himstreet do you have any comments for this evening

[00:13:00] yeah turn he says maybe not it won't come on really there you well now they all came on you're not on now you're on there you go well thank you madam chair i have four comments for this evening

[00:13:31] The first is I would like to begin by wishing everyone a Happy New Year and passing on a New Year's resolution from our emergency management and public safety officials, which is to resolve to be ready. The arrival of snow and colder temperatures in Loudoun this week demonstrates the importance of taking proactive steps to prepare for the unexpected, such as a winter storm.

[00:13:49] You can find more information about how to prepare for winter and how to stay safe at loudoun.gov slash winter. Second, the Loudoun County Water and Wastewater Program is accepting applications for county assistance with community water and or wastewater projects through March 31st.

[00:14:05] The program is designed to support communities experiencing issues with deficient or non-existent water or wastewater systems. More information, including a link to the application, is online at loudoun.gov slash waterprojects. Third, the county's Christmas Tree Recycling Program is accepting trees through January 20th.

[00:14:22] The Christmas trees are converted into mulch, which is available free of charge. to loudon county residents year-round at the loudon county landfill there are five convenient locations where trees are accepted for recycling details are online at loudon.gov recycle and then finally adults and teens in loudon county are encouraged to share their voice and imagination with the community through the loudon county public library's short story contest this year's contest encourages participants to craft compelling original stories in 3 000 words or less submissions will be accepted online through february 15th more information is available

[00:14:58] at library.louden.gov story contest those are my comments this afternoon thank you madam chair thank you sir thank you so i did forget one thing um by the next meeting you will have different seats um i will meet for i will wait for um miss jenny to come back and we will pull those out of a hat sometime this week or next week and so by the next meeting you will have you will not be in the seats that you are in right now that happens every year to make new friends i think if the second graders can do it so can we that's how it goes um we have just the two action items tonight

[00:15:37] and the first is if you do have any um appointments please put your light on miss um stop uh thank you madam chair i would like to nominate phil jones to the facility standards manual public review committee and danny austeen for reappointment to the advisory plans examiners board thank you okay anybody else all right wonderful so we're going to go on and do the um we're going to do everything tonight before we get to the organizational items which is just one more action

[00:16:15] item and then we'll do the closed sessions come back and do the organizational items at the end of after we do closed session. But let's go on and do right now our second item, which is the unassigned FY 2024 unassigned general fund balance item. So if staff can come to the table, I would appreciate that. While staff is coming to the table, I'm going to say this. There has been, in my opinion, some reporting on the unassigned fund balance that has been maybe not purposely misleading, but definitely has missed the mark on what a fund

[00:16:53] balance is and how it should be used, and the fact that a good deal of that fund balance is pushed into the next budget to re-up our contingency funds and things like that. So the idea that the entire amount of that fund balance, I know Mr. Turner is laughing because he had this discussion at the last meeting before we went on break, is there is just not true.

[00:17:19] It's really, really not factually correct. And so I'm just going to ask Mr. Hemstreet or Megan, whoever would like to answer that, to answer this, can you just talk a little bit about why we take so much of what a fund balance is and move it to the next budget?

[00:17:38] And so in other words, that's not, what's the word? But it's not slush fund, it's not free money, it's not pet projects. It's literally money that much of it is already accounted for because it rolls right into the next year. So, Mr. Humsey, would you like to talk about that at all?

[00:17:54] Megan, would you like to talk about that at all? Yes. Sure. I can do that. So, we, as the board knows, the board approaches the budget process with a conservative revenue forecasting picture because we never want to end up in a situation where you have less revenue to spend.

[00:18:16] And so what happens at year end is likely you have either an over-recovery of revenue or under expenditure of expenditure authority. Once the finance department is through with the audit and they've accrued the different entries to the last fiscal year or the next fiscal year, there is what is called unassigned fund balance available for appropriation for the board.

[00:18:41] That unassigned fund balance is an accumulation of prior years fund balance that if goes unspent in the subsequent process continues to accumulate. And so that's a really important aspect of unassigned fund balance that you're talking about tonight. A lot of times we say it's unassigned FY24 fund balance, but it's really an accumulation of prior year's fund balance going forward.

[00:19:08] And so then that funding is available for appropriation. The board has been very purposeful in programming that unassigned fund balance to already articulated priorities of the board or current capital projects of the board, as well as adhering to your fiscal policy, which is to cash fund your capital program in the next year.

[00:19:33] So a significant amount of the unassigned fund balance recommendations that you have tonight is either sending the unassigned fund balance to meet your cash contribution requirements for FY26 or replenishing contingency accounts in this year's budget to support your capital program so that you're not having to issue additional debt in the future.

[00:19:55] That is very helpful. So thank you for saying that. Because again, I never assumed that our publications are saying something that is purposely incorrect. But having read all the stories, I have felt that if you don't know what this is, they can be misleading.

[00:20:15] And they have resulted in, you know, people saying that, well, you've got this much money left to spend. You've got $250,000 million. I want you to send it back. And that's just not true. It's not real money. We are replenishing our fiscal reserves.

[00:20:34] We're sending things to revenue stabilization. And so that amount of money, it's not what we actually have to use or spend. And then so and quite frankly, you know, we have been able to to lower the tax rate year over year because we do approach these things very, very conservatively.

[00:20:54] So I appreciate that. Would you like to go on and give a staff update on this? Sure. And then we do have, I think, three motions on the dais. Is it three? I think it's three motions on the dais. You have two. You have one. You have one.

[00:21:12] I'm saying you have one, so just two. Yeah, yeah, I will after they finish. Yeah, I will after they finish. In fact, you will. After they finish. All right. All right, we're ready. This item was discussed by the Finance Committee last December with a recommendation for approval from the Finance Committee. I will note that there is one change that we had to incorporate into the item after it went to the finance committee, which was an error in the amount of unassigned fund balances available. And so that transcription error is noted in the

[00:21:50] item. And so the change that you'll see is the recommendation to send an additional amount of money to the FY26 capital budget. In the finance item, it was $60 million, and the transcription error increased that amount to about $69 million. That's the only change from the Finance Committee's recommendation. Okay. Anything else? All right. So I think we can go straight to a motion because I think we've all been, we've all seen this and talked about this and had meetings on it and all kind of stuff. So I think I'll put the, well, Mr. Latoya would

[00:22:28] like to put the first motion on the table. I move the recommendation of the Finance Government Operations Economic Development Committee that the Board of Supervisors approve the use of unassigned general fund balance as described in table one and amended by the finance government operations and economic development committee in the January 7, 2025 Board of Supervisors business meeting action item appropriated $129,757,540 for FY25 uses, direct staff to include up to $69,244,201 for one-time purposes in the FY25 proposed budget, and direct $30 million to the fiscal reserve, $25 million to the revenue stabilization fund, and $5 million to the other post-employment benefits trusts.

[00:23:08] I further move the recommendation of the Finance Government Operations and Economic Development Committee that the Board of Supervisors appropriate $115,000 of restricted transient occupancy tax fund balance to provide for visit at Loudoun for purposes described in the January 7, 2025 Board of Supervisors business meeting action item. I further move the recommendation of the Finance Government Operations and Economic Development Committee that the Board of Supervisors appropriate $47,700,000 of general obligation bond financing for Loudoun County Public Schools capital projects for the purposes described in the January 7, 2025 Board of Supervisors Business Meeting Action Item.

[00:23:40] I further move the recommendation of the Finance, Government Operations, and Economic Development Committee that the Board of Supervisors direct staff to take no further action on the establishment of the district discretionary funding program as originally directed with the approval of item 15th on the November 7, 2024 Board of Supervisors Business Meeting Agenda. Second. All right.

[00:23:57] Mention is made in second. Mr. Letourneau. Thank you. Yeah, so the Finance Committee did a considerable amount of work on this. I just want to reiterate and maybe add to a few points that Chair Randall made. One of the discussions about this, and I think one of the confusing pieces about it, is the concept that we should be giving money back because there's a surplus.

[00:24:16] And effectively, what a significant part of this motion is doing is actually doing that. But the way that it's doing that is by applying this fund balance to expenditures that would otherwise be in the operating budget in future years. So if we weren't addressing some of these items, such as cost overruns on capital projects, both LCPS and county, as well as a number of issues that the board needs to address that's funded through fund balance, then we would have to include those in the upcoming budget, and that would increase the tax rate.

[00:24:49] So by taking these actions, we're using funding that we know is available to us, and we do have an unusual amount of funding available in order to do that. The other thing is some citizens have raised, why wouldn't we simply just rebate the money? The money has to be rebated proportionally back to those users who are spending it.

[00:25:09] In this case, a significant part of our revenue is coming from data center industry. And so that's where most of the rebate, quote unquote, would go to. It wouldn't be to individual citizens. So this is a better way to approach this. and as you heard from one of the components of that motion, a significant part of this is going into our reserves in order to meet our fiscal policy, in order to have a certain percentage of our funding available for future uses, should they be needed in the event of an emergency, as well as a revenue stabilization fund that we created and the OPEB fund, which funds our employees' benefits.

[00:25:43] So these are good uses of funding. It's not simply that the board is just deciding to spend a lot of this money willy-nilly. This is all very well thought out and a component of our overall budgeting strategy that will allow us, hopefully, to have a lower tax rate in the future, as well as some of the other things that we're doing, such as lowering the vehicle personal property tax rate.

[00:26:02] Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Turner. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have one question for staff, if anybody can answer this for me. There's $150,000 in there for the Goose Creek and Broad Run water purification testing. Will that money go directly to Goose Creek Association?

[00:26:19] It seems to me during the discussions, we have a track record of giving money directly to Goose Creek Association, or will it go directly to GMU for the Potomac Research Project? I believe we discussed sending it, or providing it directly to George Mason University for performing the work, and we'll do that through an MOU.

[00:26:35] Okay, and then how soon will the money be available after we vote on this tonight? We, well, generally, I mean, it'll be available as soon as we process the entries tomorrow. Great, thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Chair. - Ms. Bricksman.

[00:26:51] - Thank you, Madam Chair. I would agree, Madam Chair, that it has been a little bit frustrating, the coverage that we've gotten about the large fund balance this year and some of the opinions that have been expressed in letters to the editor and on social media.

[00:27:07] Just to be clear, we have an unusually large fund balance and we have this year and the previous year because of a bill in the General Assembly that would have changed the rate at which we tax or the amount of revenue we're getting from data centers. So we conservatively estimated what our revenue would be knowing that we would probably have a surplus.

[00:27:30] But I would argue that taxpayers would prefer that we are conservative in our revenue forecasting rather than not conservative. Because if you end up with more expenses than revenue, then you get into a whole nother pot of hot water, so to speak.

[00:27:48] To be clear, the board has recommended, and will pass right now, the following uses for FY 2024 fund balance. 69 million for one-time needs in the capital budget. 60 million in contributions to the county's fiscal reserve and stabilization funds.

[00:28:04] Nine, almost 10 million to LCPS for one-time operating expenses. 105 million for active county capital projects, including funds for sidewalks, trails projects, contingency funds for county land acquisition and LCPS. capital projects, $15 million for board-directed uses, including the Cascades Library Senior Center Complex Project, Belmont Ridge Corridor Study, Destiny Drive Corridor Study and Improvements, Invasive Species Removal, and a couple of other minor requests from board members.

[00:28:37] So we are reinvesting in the community, and in doing this, we actually are contributing to our ability to continually have a triple triple a bond rating to drop the real estate tax rate which we've done by i believe 18 cents since this since we took office in 2020 we have the ability now to reduce the car tax i believe the finance committee recommended by 48 cents and we are actually looking at fiscal year 2026 to actually have the tax rate be an equalized

[00:29:11] tax rate. So in all of those ways, the fund balance is being used to the benefit of the community to build needed infrastructure, to provide county services. It's not like supervisors are going and building recreational pools in our backyards. We are reinvesting in projects that might not sound so sexy, but trust me, when you're driving the roads and your kids are able to go to school at excellent public education facilities, this is what we're doing here right now. Thank you.

[00:29:40] Thank you. Before we go to the other motions, I would say that, again, I really, really do appreciate and so value an open press. But I also think that as much as press tries to get it correct, sometimes you might not.

[00:30:00] And when that happens, I think it's important that some of the things that have been put out there are, And I won't even use the word correct it, but restate it, because I do think that what has been put out is not factually correct and a little bit harmful.

[00:30:18] And so I do hope that there is a follow-up story and that some of these things are put into context. Now having said that, we do have two motions on the dais, on the sign fund balance, Mr.

[00:30:33] Sains and Mr. Crony. I'll go to Mr. Sains first. Mr. Sains, would you like to offer this as a friendly first, which you would be offering to Mr. Letourneau, I mean, as a friendly, how would you like to do this? Yeah, I'll be glad to offer that as a friendly. Mr. Letourneau will accept it. I actually might hear him.

[00:30:50] No, I mean, go on, just, yeah, go, don't offer it as a friendly, because I'm going to say no. Okay. And I may not vote no, but there's some things I want to say, and if it's a friendly, I can't say those things.

[00:31:06] Okay, I'll just make the motion. All right. Where's my motion? I move that the Board of Supervisors reduce the line item land acquisition and county contingency by $400,000 to create a new line item sanitary district program and allocate $400,000 for this purpose in Table 1 in the January 7, 2025 action item.

[00:31:26] Motion is made. Is there a second? Motion is made. Second by Supervisor Glass. Discussion on the motion, Mr. Sains. Thank you. Yes, and I will in advance apologize in my comments to my colleagues, this should have been brought during our discussion. However, I was waiting to go through our normal process 'cause we re-approved, if you remember, we approved this item back in May of 2024.

[00:31:53] But my office, since that time, and then since our discussion of your fund balance during the normal fund balance process, received, continued to receive numerous complaints from constituents regarding trash pickup issues. And if you've been following along with me on this board, this has been going on for some time now, been working on this item for almost over two terms now, it seems like.

[00:32:17] So that's why I asked information from the staff to work on this motion for me and brought it back here today to make this motion. This funding would accelerate the program by six months rather than engage the consultant in July of this year.

[00:32:32] services can engage with consultant now so that our residents can start the petition process which would start the petition process in june instead of december um again as i said we've already passed the past this item so general service is ready to go we've already uh debated on this talked about it um so then there's clearly a decent amount of money in this fund i'm only asking for 400 000 so hopefully i can have your your support thank you thank you miss umset uh Thank you, Madam Chair. Questions for either Supervisor Staines or staff. My understanding,

[00:33:10] based on Supervisor Staines' office response, which was very timely and I appreciate it, is that this would be funded in its entirety by the community that is in the newly created sanitary district and no other folks in the county would be paying for that so that's a yes could staff or supervisor sayings refresh my memory how much is this going to cost

[00:33:50] a typical homeowner in these new districts on a monthly basis supervisor sayings i'll defer to staff on that one mr i do not have that information i don't understand the question actually but ernie hey mr brown happy new year thank you madam chair members of the board um the the study that was performed to analyze what the sanitary districts would would look like there's an average if i'm not mistaken about thirty dollars per household on average across the county that pay that they pay

[00:34:27] for the service this would be based on those calculations more than that but again it's optional for them to initiate a sanitary district program the benefit that the program provides to a community uh much like an hoa is able to provide is consistent service um and managed through one entity there are some communities in our um in loudon county that do not have that consistency where some some may be paying 45 some may be paying 30 and it's very different uh level of service in the community through this petition process would be able to determine if they want

[00:34:59] to pay that price uh for the a consistent service and one last question um do we have a percentage level of the households in the community that would have to petition in order for this to be imposed if i can refresh it's in state law and i believe it is 50 i'd have to get back with you on that number but it's in the state law and the item itself uh it is 50 of the qualified voters i I believe. Let me get that to you. The state statute drives the percentages for that. And

[00:35:38] the petition process, which the $400,000 would start earlier, would help fund a consultant to start soliciting and marketing for interested communities for that process. All right. Thank you. Ms. Brooksman.

[00:35:58] Thank you, Madam Chair. I think, Mr. Brown, you partially answered the question I had with that last comment. But the board has already agreed to invest $400,000 in this program, correct? But right now what we're doing is saying we're going to accelerate it and just use fund balance instead of the other funds that we were going to use before. The board sent this funding to the budget process for deliberation. Okay. So I would interpret that as a decision point for the board during the work sessions on the budget. Okay. Okay. So, um, and, and as you said, Mr.

[00:36:38] Brown, this is not to actually provide sanitary services to residents. It's to basically set up the program. Yes, ma'am. It is. This was one of those situations where we had authorization by the board. We had not received appropriations much like a federal process. Gotcha. Okay. So authorization for the program was, was established back in May. Appropriations was going to go through the budget process. Okay, I support the motion, thank you. So it would be from the unassigned fund balance, but from the line that is the land acquisition county contingency line, which has

[00:37:13] that, that has about 32 million in it right now, is that right? 33 and a half. 33 and a half million in it? Okay. So the issue, the item is not, for me, these are tough items when a supervisor brings something like this up because I never know, are they, you know, yes, you're advancing your project. If somebody else wants to advance their project and, you know, one person says, well, it's only $400,000 and one other person says, well, it's only $1.5 million and those

[00:37:48] things start adding up. So that's why I always ask for things to be done earlier so we can kind of look at it in a holistic way. You wouldn't have known that there's plenty of money in the contingency fund had I not just asked that because it's part of the item.

[00:38:04] And so it's important just to put these things out here earlier. And I'm always just a little So I'm a little hesitant to make sure that one supervisor is not pushing something ahead when another supervisor might be sitting on their item until it comes up as was previously planned.

[00:38:28] So I will support it, but if we cannot do this like this anymore, I'd appreciate that as well. Thank you. Mr. Sains, do you like a closing on this? No, ma'am. Okay, so if this passes, we will just roll this into the final budget, I mean to the final motion.

[00:38:48] So Mr. Sains, make the motion. Ms. Glass, second the motion. I'm thrilled to say aye. Opposed? No, Ms. Glass, second the motion. That motion will pass 9-0. Mr. Crony, you have an item on the dais as well.

[00:39:08] Thank you, Chair Randall. I didn't confuse you. I've done that before. I move the Board of Supervisors reduce the line item land acquisition and county contingencies by $1. 25 million to create a new line item, town vehicle license fee revenue replacement, and allocate $1. 25 million for this purpose in Table 1 in the January 7th, 2025 action item.

[00:39:37] Second. Motion is made. Second by Mr. Kirshner. Discussion on the motion. Mr. Crony. Thank you, Chair Randall. I believe the revenue replacement should be for all of the towns to offset the unexpected vehicle license fee elimination in tax year 2025 by the county.

[00:39:57] My colleague, Supervisor Kirshner, put a motion forward during December's Finance Committee to cover the western towns, and I believe we should cover all the towns. This would only be available to the towns who extend the relief to town residents in tax year 2025.

[00:40:15] So towns can only participate if they have a vehicle license fee that's zero in tax year 2025. And it would only be available this tax year, not other tax years. I think this is something that is important to do this tax year due to the last-minute decision in December by the board.

[00:40:40] It didn't give the towns enough time to prepare, and many towns would not be able to absorb the elimination of this revenue stream. I care about the towns, and I care about the residents who live in our towns and want to make sure this decision does not impact town services.

[00:40:59] I also think the county can do this because we have a higher than normal fund balance, and I think it's the right time to help our towns for the one year, for tax year 2025. Thank you.

[00:41:15] You want to say where exactly this would come from? it would come from the contingency so um land acquisition and county contingencies in table one okay and that has how much in it right now yeah remember um we had the 4.5 million that was moved in there um but how much is in there right now just just for the record 33.5 33.5 yeah actually 33 now. 33.1. Thank you. Yes, 33. All right. Thank you, Mr. Crony. Mr. Kirshner. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[00:41:53] Thank you, Supervisor DeCrony, for picking this up and running with it today. I hope my colleagues will support it. I think it's something that is certainly worthy of supporting. I know that we're going to essentially eliminate this for the rest of the county. And yes, this does kind of flow through the towns but this what this will do is really incentivize the towns to also help get rid of it they have much smaller budgets than we do and I think what we should do as a board is to say listen we want to make sure this relief goes to every single send the message that we want to make sure this

[00:42:28] relief goes to every single citizen of this county for this one year and towns you need to get rid of it what we'll we'll kind of give you a grant for this one year and then this ultimately goes away the other thing I think it's really important about this is we have to administrate it. The treasurer has to administrate this at the county. So it kind of flows, I don't know if you really call it a flow through. So by ultimately incentivizing the towns to get rid of this through this one-time grant, it now allows the treasurer to no longer have to administrate it. Now I can't guarantee the towns will do it. I think they would be foolish not to do it and I'm going to certainly encourage all the cults, all those on cults who

[00:43:06] eliminate this and benefit their citizens and this is our opportunity to help them do that. It's a very small amount of money compared to our entire budget. And so I would really appreciate the support of my colleagues here on the board to do this. You can make the argument, I know Supervisor Umpstead has made it on multiple occasions, well, these are just little fees and that what.

[00:43:25] But most of these towns don't have the deeper pockets that we have the ability to do. And again, they don't have to eliminate it, and then we won't grant them this one-time dollar figure. I think it would be foolish for them to do so, but I would really encourage our towns to do it. I'm asking this board to move through and do this one-time grant funding to eliminate.

[00:43:44] Thank you, Madam Chair. Let me just do a point of clarification on this to Mr. Crony and the staff. Would we, if a town indicated that they didn't want to do this, would they just not be extended those funds, or if they were given the funds and inside they didn't want to do it, would we be clawing that money back?

[00:44:02] How would that work? So we would have to put a program together, but I believe that we would need proof that they would have eliminated the vehicle license fee before we would provide them county revenue. So a vote of their town councils and something from their city, from their town managers that said that that was going to happen before the money was provided?

[00:44:22] Yes. Okay, because it was not part of the motion, so I just want to make sure how that worked. Okay, that's a point of clarification. Thank you. Ms. Umstead? Thank you, Madam Chair. As Supervisor Kirshner mentioned, I have difficulty with this.

[00:44:39] And part of that is the rationale given by the towns, and they were very candid, but it wasn't that they needed emergency funds, it wasn't that they needed a capital project, it was that they were reluctant to face political pressure if they did not eliminate this fee as the board was eliminating the fee.

[00:45:06] And I think that argument extends across many, many different taxation sources. They are going to face political pressure inside the towns when we lower the vehicle tax.

[00:45:25] And that political pressure may be even bigger than what they are currently concerned about. The other issue I have with this is the towns clearly have asked that this be a permanent allocation to them.

[00:45:42] And I know that Supervisor Tacroni, Supervisor Kirshner both are advocating for this just to be this one year, but they are not going to be able to prepare any better next year for a reduction in this funding than they would be this year.

[00:46:08] They're going to face the same political pressure next year. And so I think what the board should probably recognize is that they will come every single year with this request.

[00:46:23] And so the question is, are we prepared to basically write them a check every year for something that is based solely on their reluctance to face political pressure? And if this were an emergency, if they needed to repair a water storage unit, if they had a massive fire and they lost their town hall, I would say, yes, I think the county should step in and help.

[00:46:59] But this is an issue of they don't want to face political pressure, and yet we face political pressure, and all politicians do all the time. um so i unfortunately cannot support it thank you mr latourno thank you megan you said you have to set up a program on this i i think the idea would be a grant program so we would just need to make sure we would do our due diligence to make sure we could check that the towns are truly some level of administrative burden on us on this um look this is a grant so let's be very clear on that

[00:47:38] we're giving a grant to the towns and no one can really explain to me why we're giving a grant to the towns, at least in a way that I could walk in the middle of the south ride and explain to people why their tax dollars are now going for a $1.25 million grant to the towns to support their budget for next year, because that's what it's for.

[00:47:56] It's just for their general obligation funding for their budget. If the towns and the county had the exact same taxation and the messaging on this had been the same for decades and everything the county did, the town did, was exactly the same forever, I guess I could understand this.

[00:48:12] But it is not. if you live in a town you pay a different tax to that town specifically if you live in a town some of them you pay a meals tax every time you go out to eat the taxation systems of the towns are completely different than the county and so when it comes to this particular tax why does it have to be the same it doesn't make sense to me why does it have why if the county eliminates it why do the towns have to eliminate it i think if you look at the budget on this and the size of the county of the town budgets and how much money this is, they're going to have difficulty eliminating this, at least some of them are, because of the amount of line item it is in their budget.

[00:48:48] So this year versus next year isn't going to make any difference, as Supervisor Umstead said. It's still going to be a burden on them to eliminate this, and they very well may decide not to do it, in which case we've provided a one-time grant for one year, but then it's going to come back in the subsequent years, which is why their request, by the way, which came into us, was for this to be permanent.

[00:49:09] I understand my colleagues are saying that's in the letter. I understand that's not what my colleagues are making a motion to do, but they can't. But the pressure isn't going to be any different in subsequent years. So I just think this is a difficult thing to justify to the average citizen as to why we would be doing this.

[00:49:26] Because if you live in a town, you have a different tax structure and you're paying a different amount of money. And so, you know, I appreciate that this creates, you know, a difference between the county. But guess what? We're about to lower this car tax rate significantly, and that's also going to create a big difference between what the town residents are paying in car taxes and what the county's paying, county residents are paying in car taxes, just like we've had differences in water rates and all sort of other things.

[00:49:52] So we can't step in and address that every time, and we shouldn't feel like we have to because then we'll stop doing it for the county as a whole. So I don't know why this discussion would be any different when we lower the tax rate because it's going to be the same thing. So, for those reasons, I will continue to oppose this.

[00:50:09] Thank you. Mr. Turner. Thank you, Madam Chair. Can I get some clarifications, Bert? My understanding is that this was somewhat unexpected by the towns and that when we passed this resolution, it basically instantaneously dries up a revenue stream for the towns.

[00:50:28] Is that correct? That is inaccurate and not correct. Okay. Then can you explain to me what the issue is here? So the board is considering, and you haven't done so yet, reducing the county vehicle license fee to $0. That has nothing to do with the town's vehicle license fee.

[00:50:47] So you are considering that at a public hearing this month. That would effectively reduce that revenue out of the county's budget. It has no bearing on the town's ability to continue to have a vehicle license fee or to reduce the license fee.

[00:51:06] So there's no relationship. I think the unexpected characterization is that the board is potentially choosing to make this change off budget. This is not a planned for reduction in revenue. So you are absorbing the cost of reducing that revenue.

[00:51:22] And so that's, I think, what the unexpected nature of the policy discussion that you've been having. But how would that affect the towns? It's off cycle for us. But how would that affect the towns? the only i guess let me drill down to the bottom line is the only concern the political fallout of the county doing away with the vehicle tax and the towns then being pressured politically to do the same thing i believe yes that is how it's been characterized to staff okay well you may have just

[00:51:54] lost my vote thank you very much miss sings thank you madam chair and do we know the exact breakdown for each town how much they would you know well i guess that's how we got to the 1.25 if that number is correct but do you have the breakdown for all the towns by any chance i have their budgeted revenue from prior years that i can pull up for you would you mind just sharing that real

[00:52:19] quickly can we stop this time until that gets pulled up sorry i'm under pressure now well sorry about that well we're all staring at you we're all staring at you sorry about mr crony actually has it in her hand would that be more helpful yeah i know mr troney can she just read the numbers can you read them all please we start this time again okay so the it's uh 14 000 for hamilton

[00:52:59] 934 000 for leesburg 53 000 for levittsville 17 000 for middleburg 181 000 for percival and 16 000 for round hill okay thank you so majority of that would be it makes sense leesburg which is the biggest town and probably the biggest town in the commonwealth so let me just ask my colleagues who represent towns because we just got an email this this afternoon at 3 43 p.m from miss sherry jackson from the town of hamilton town council and it says that we'll discuss this matter at our next council meeting so are you aware of any of the towns actually already having this discussion and

[00:53:38] what they plan on doing, if they plan on doing away with the fee as we are, are they going to stay the course, or what, like, do we have any indication? Can anybody answer that question? Madam Chair, can I speak through the Chair? I have some information on this.

[00:53:54] I do too, but go on. Okay, so my staff has been in touch with a number of the town council. Some, I think, a large majority of them would like to, I think, eliminate it. I can't, I think some may not, but obviously they have to have that discussion with their individual elected bodies. And, again, that's why this grant is being set up so that, one, it would encourage them to do so because it is a kind of a pesky fee that has to be administered by the treasurer's office here and whatnot.

[00:54:20] So that's, yes. So you're not going to, I don't know if you'll see 100%, but you're going to see some. Okay. And then, Ms. Burke, so is it my understanding, like, if we were to vote and approve this, give the allocation, but say, for example, Hamilton and Leesburg, for example, say, no, you know what, we're going to keep as is, would that money revert back to us?

[00:54:39] it won't be given i just asked that okay okay all right thank you miss bricksman um so just just to clarify excuse me right now the towns tax their residents 25 for the decal tax all towns except hillsborough have a vehicle license fee yes okay and they can maintain that and maintain that revenue coming coming into their coffers whether we eliminate ours or not

[00:55:18] Okay, thank you. Ours is 25 as well, right? Yes. Okay. It feels like we're getting what a town is and what a city is mixed up here. The ideal that we keep saying, you know, why would we do this? How can I explain this to a county resident? Our towns are county residents, unlike a city.

[00:55:38] You know how you know that? It's because when you go to vote, if you live in a city, you can't vote for the county supervisor. If you live in a town, you can. So the ideal that the towns are not part of our county is a misnomer, and I don't think it should be stated like that. In addition, there are some things the towns have adopted because we adopted it. There's a 25 because the county is a 25 too, so you can't like say, yes, they have a different funding and different tax structure, but a lot of their tax structure is based on what we do. I disagree that they didn't find this out until November. We were sitting right in this room when the mayor of Levittsville came to talk to me

[00:56:15] about this. I think it was October when he first talked to me about this, so they have had time to to talk about it but if i was a town representative right now i would be so offended by this conversation i know for a fact no one had even talked to the town of leedsburg about this at all they didn't they didn't even know it before i approached the mayor and asked her about it a motion was made to take them out without ever having to talk to having talked to them and people who are upset here saying what the towns will do in one year or two year or five years have not talked to the towns. Not at all. And so we're talking about our elected colleagues

[00:56:52] in the towns as if they're children, and they don't know how to do their own budget. That's just offensive. Whether I agree with it or not, there are adult people who were also elected to office. They are. I'm not sure if they're going to come back to ask us for something later. We can make a different discussion later, and we can say something different. We don't have to say yes.

[00:57:12] They don't have to do it. None of that has to happen. But I do think that the tone of which we're talking about other elected officials is pretty horrible and pretty insulting. And if we're going to talk about them, we could at the very least talk to them. And at least for the town of Leedsburg, that didn't happen. Mr. Kirshner has done a great job talking to some of the other towns that he represents, but no one had talked to the town of Leedsburg at all. Ms. Crony got a phone call from the town of Leedsburg because no one else besides me had talked to the town of leedsburg thus she got the phone call so what are we doing up here so i have been going back and

[00:57:51] forth and back and forth and back and forth on this for all the reasons that have been given i've been pretty 51 49 on this issue i am going to support it but i want to be clear i will be supporting this for one year because it does give them a chance to do whatever they might do in their budget next year i do hope that they reduce this take this tax away for the for the other this fee away for the reasons Mr. Kirshner said, because I think the treasurer doesn't need to be dealing with just this for the towns, and they have time to figure it out and do it. So I'm going to support it, but to be clear, I'll be supporting this for one year. Point of clarification? Yeah,

[00:58:29] point of clarification, Madam Chair. Can we put in the motion exactly kind of what you just said in your comments, that this is only for, you know, for the one year, you know, can we put that in there? Well, we can, I don't care about adding to a motion, but I did ask Ms. Birk, I've already asked that quantification they explained how it would be done and the fact that it the fact that they would not receive the money but you want to put in the motion that it's a one-year thing yeah is that already in that that'll give me a little that'll help me mr crony but but if but but i think mr sands is saying can we just clearly say it say for the for the

[00:59:06] calendar year yeah so put that in the motion so you want to find some language on that or do you language on that for the calendar year um for the tax year 2025 for the tax year 2025 yep okay thank you thank you that's a good that's a good addition um do you accept that mr kirschner and you accept that mr crony okay all right the motion was made by mr oh the motion was made by mr crony you want a closing yeah thank you chair randall so uh like chair randall said mayor burke called me and asked that the town of Leesburg be included

[00:59:45] in this grant, and I said I would call my colleague, Supervisor Kirchner, and he agreed that we should include all of the towns. I do, it may not have been unexpected, like Chair Randall said, but it is off budget. So this gives them one year to prepare their budget with the knowledge that the county will be eliminating this fee in future budgets.

[01:00:09] I agree that it does put the towns in a place where they will face political pressure to follow suit, but it gives them one year to make those preparations and to offset revenues lost if they decide to get rid of the license fee, which I would encourage, I agree with Supervisor Kirchner, with other sources of funding.

[01:00:33] So it gives them time to prepare, and this is just for one year if they decide to collect the fee they will not get the grant money so i want to be clear it is for the towns that decide to go to zero with their vehicle license fleet fee for tax year 2025. thank you motion was made with the president of the current second vice president kirschner all the people say aye aye opposed that motion will pass 7-2 with mr um

[01:01:06] umstead and mr latourneau voting against the motion are there any more motions on the days for the unassigned fund balance yes no i think i see none all right mr latourne want to kind of wrap those up until the motion we have on on the on the because it has to be as amended by yeah and i think i guess the amount now becomes oh those were separate motions that's right yeah the motion's fine all right so um but we didn't vote in that motion did we vote in the first but

[01:01:44] we didn't vote in the first motion okay so now yeah now we're back to there i'm sorry i'm a little rusty um is there any closing on the motion the first motion because we haven't voted on it no i don't think so okay so we're on the original motion on the original motion on people say aye aye any opposed that motion will pass 9-0 okay uh i think we're going to go to closed

[01:02:17] session both closed sessions and dinner and then come back and do the um organizational item okay i move that the board of supervisors recess this public meeting and enter into closed session pursuant to section 2.2-3711 of the code of virginia to consider acquisition of parcels of property for public use in the dullest election district i further move that the board of supervisors recess this public meeting to enter into closed session pursuant to section 2.2 dash 3711 a3 of the code of virginia to consider acquisition of parcels

[01:02:52] of property for public use in the sterling election district um hold on something okay motion made by supervisor glass discussion on the motion all in favor say aye aye any opposed The motion passed 9-0.

[02:20:56] Okay, we are back.

[02:29:36] Ms. Bricksman, will you reassign a closed session, please? I need a microphone. Turn your mic on, Ms. Bricksman. Can you start over, please? 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.

[02:30:08] Thank you. I will second that discussion on that motion. All in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Would all of you please affirm. Mr. Affirm. Affirm. Affirm. Affirmed. Affirmed. Affirm. Affirm. Affirm. Am I affirm as well? Thank you very much.

[02:30:24] We do have two motions out of closed session. The first one, Mr. Letourneau has the first motion. I move the Board of Supervisors authorize the county administrator to execute the purchase and sale agreement and closing documents approved to as to form by the county attorney with Church Road Limited and 350 South Washington LLC.

[02:30:43] in the amount of 17 million dollars for the purchase of property consisting of 14.63 acres located at 24328 marwood drive aldi virginia pin number 246-19-7273-000 and authorized the expenditure of 250 000 for due diligence and closing costs i further move the board of supervisors amend the fiscal year 25 capital improvement program and direct staff to execute a budget adjustment to appropriate 17 million dollars of appropriation back debt to a newly created marwood drive land acquisition and due diligence project and the capital projects fund to acquire the property and further direct staff to execute a budgeted judgment to move 250 000

[02:31:20] from the land acquisition contingency account to the capital projects fund to the marwood drive land acquisition and due diligence project for due diligence and closing costs motions made and seconded by supervisor saints discussion on the motion yeah just briefly for the benefit of transparency for the public this is an agreement for the county to purchase the former montessori school site in the stone ridge community in marwood near north star boulevard which is no longer being used for that purpose there are a variety of purposes that the county and the school system

[02:31:57] could have for this school site and it is a essentially a ready-made structure for several of those that could lead to long-term cost savings. Thank you. Anybody else? I will associate myself with Mr. Laterno's comments. All the people say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass unanimously. The next motion is held by Mr. Sainz. Mr. Sainz. I move that the Board of Supervisors authorize the county administrator to execute a land acquisition agreement and other necessary documents approved as to form by the county attorney with BSL company and affiliates

[02:32:31] in the amount of $26,250,000 for the acquisition of property consisting of 7.4 acres located at 21301 Ridgetop Circle, Sterling, Virginia, Penn 029-19-5840-000 and authorizes the expenditure of $250,000 for due diligence and closing costs.

[02:32:53] I further move that the Board of Supervisors amend the Fiscal Year 2025 Capital Improvement program and direct staff to execute a budget adjustment to appropriate $26,500,000 of appropriate appropriation-backed debt to a newly created ridgetop circle land acquisition and due diligence project in the capital projects fund to acquire the property and conduct due diligence activities.

[02:33:20] Motion is made and second. Mr. Sains, read the amount again because the first time you said some other amount i think it's a 26 million 500 million thousand or something that was like what you just say the first amount was 26 million 200 and 250 000 okay thank you okay thank you thank you um and we're purchasing this property for future county use anybody else that was his opening i do believe that was his opening anybody else all right all people say aye Aye.

[02:33:59] Opposed? Nay. That motion will pass -- I don't know if it's 7-2 yet, because -- No, I shouldn't abstain.

[02:34:23] That motion will pass 6-3. All right, we are now going to go to organizational items. Yay. All right, so before I start making organization motions, let me say that it is my practice to try to have different people have different opportunities on the board.

[02:34:50] In my opinion, and this is just my opinion, I think it's important that as chair I give my colleagues different opportunities to do different things.

[02:35:08] And I know there's always all this chatter of why this happened and why that happened, but that's really all that it is. It's the same reason I changed seats, right? Everyone changed seats every year. And so we're going to make some motions about who's going to be vice chair and committee chairs, and even a couple of the regional bodies will change.

[02:35:31] And I think it's a good thing to do this. I think having different experiences, different opportunities, I think it grows us, and I think we learn more. And I always, always, always especially want to say for the regional bodies, if you're not on a regional body and there's something you want to do, please come tell me because I think the regional bodies really kind of round us out as public officials.

[02:36:02] And so I'm going to make some of these motions right now. I'm going to nominate Supervisor Mike Turner from the Ashburn District to serve as the vice chair. Is there a second?

[02:36:15] Seconded by, who said that? Mr. Sainz? Seconded by Mr. Sainz. Discussion on that motion. I first want to say thank you to Ms. Bricksman for serving as vice chair. The vice chair, when you start a new term, I think it's the hardest time to be a vice chair of a new term. Luckily, our whole board came back, so that was a little more helpful, but you never know what you're stepping into when you start a new term.

[02:36:46] And I personally had, you know, a few things happened just with my family this year that caused me to have to be away more than I usually am. And Ms. Bricksman, I was going to say picked up the mantle, but I should say picked up the gavel and did an excellent job.

[02:37:02] So thank you for that. And we'll talk about you just a little more in just a second. And I want to say, Mr. Turner, you are now in your sixth year, your fifth year, but before this you also, before you served in the board, you also served on the, as we wrote, we wrote the Comprehensive Plan, and you did that for, I don't know, I think we did that for like 15 years or something, the Comprehensive Plan, for a really long time, and you did a great job at that.

[02:37:36] never had a chance to be vice chair i think you're going to find it's really different than being the committee chair um some ways um just different than being the committee chair and so i hope you do accept the the nomination anybody else all right all in favor say aye aye opposed abstain that motion will pass 801 mr turner abstaining on that motion okay um the next item is the

[02:38:09] appointment of the standing committees. So the standing committees for the most part, the members on the standing committees will not change. We will change the chair and vice chair, and I'll do those at the same time. I nominate Laura Tacroni to be, well, I'm sorry, let me change that. I don't nominate the vice chairs. The chairs of the committees choose their own vice chairs. And if they want to say who that is, they can, and that's up to them. I nominate Laurita Crony to be the chair of TLUC, and I nominate Julie Bricksman

[02:38:44] to be the chair of Finance. Is there a second? Motion made and seconded. I'll get to you in second, to your committee in second, Ms. Glass. Thank you, Ms. Glass, for a second. Mr. Crony, and I've said this many, many times, there were things that did not happen in Western Loudoun County that probably should not have happened in Western Loudoun County that would of if it wasn't for Laura Tacroni. Laura was my, for eight years, she was my chief advisor

[02:39:17] on things on Western Loudoun County issues. And she taught me so much. Laura knows, Supervisor Tacroni knows more about land use than, she will forget more than some people will ever know about land use. She is diligent and smart and she cares very much about these issues.

[02:39:37] And so I think she'll be a fantastic chair of this committee, and she will let you know who her vice chair is going to be if she will accept this nomination. I do not think that people always understand how smart, just flat smart, Julie Bricksman is, because it wasn't the first thing she was known for.

[02:40:05] don't think people understand what her education is I think people understand what her background is and there are times I will say to Julie on this day is please stop talking but you know why she can talk on all the issues because she does all the homework and she pays attention and she knows what she's doing she has not had a chance to be a committee chair and again in some ways being a committee chair is is tougher than being a vice chair so I think that Mr. Turner and Mr. Bricksman are kind of changing roles and they're going to find that they're very, very different roles.

[02:40:39] And especially since we're about to go into budget, I do want to say that if my memory serves me, six or seven of the years that I have been chair, Mr. Letourneau has been finance chair.

[02:40:55] And, you know, what Mr. Letourneau has been gracious to not say about me is that I just didn't know a lot about some stuff financially when I first came on this board. I am a mental health therapist by profession, and I knew all the stuff I needed to know about human services.

[02:41:12] But I would quietly ask Mr. Letourneau some questions, and he would graciously answer them all the time. And so his service, both before I ever came on this board, and since I've been as chair in the area of finance, has been absolutely incredible.

[02:41:34] And so I do want to, no kidding, say, Matt, Ms. Supervisor-Leturno, thank you so much for serving as finance chair for, I don't know, I think a total of, what, 12 years probably in total or something?

[02:41:52] Even before I came on the board. before I came up? Oh, that's right. Okay. There's been more than, it's been four, it's been more than seven. Anyway, a long time, a lot, a lot. So thank you very much. So finance chair members will be Ms. Bricksman as chair, Mr. Letourneau, Mr. Sains, who am I, myself, and I'm missing somebody oh miss umstock the the uh uh telec chair committee will be mr crony and whoever she chooses

[02:42:27] her vice chair mr turner miss um uh glass and mr kirchner and myself so um anybody else want to say anything and and do the chairs want to say who your vice chairs will be because you can if you if you know that already okay yes yeah okay and thank you for the kind words i really appreciate it it's a pleasure working with you for eight years you are my mentor as you know um but my vice chair um i'd like to have a supervisor turner um you know he's been tlac chair for i think five

[02:43:07] years am i right so he's he will be my mentor so i thank you for being my vice chair and we have a lot of work to do so thank you thank you madam chair i'm looking forward to the challenge of of being finance chair with a background in private industry and an mba it has always been in my wheelhouse and something i've been wanting to do for a while i do want to thank supervisor letourneau because i have learned a ton from you being on finance for the last five years and you've always picked up my phone picked up the phone when i've given you a call so i hope that you will continue to do that and i really appreciate everything you've done on finance

[02:43:46] and with metro and all of it um i have asked uh supervisor um sayings to be vice chair of finance madam chair wonderful wonderful and thank you all any other statements you want yes mr turner thank you madam chair um i'd like to thank you for uh nominating me for the i think real honor of being a vice chair i really appreciate it i look forward to the work and uh thank you from my colleagues for the vote of confidence anybody else all right i'll quickly say hi any opposed any abstentions that motion that's nine zero nine zero the ladies are like i'm

[02:44:23] not staying i'm going by myself sorry um and and miss um i'm going to nominate miss glass to continue to be the co-chair on the um joint school board committee um is there a second for that motions made and seconded by Ms. Bricksman. I think people don't know how hard the school board committee is because it's not one body, it's two bodies together, so they can't vote on things to send them forward. They have to keep kind of sending it back to the separate

[02:44:58] body. And so Ms. Glass, one, being a teacher and education being one of her passions, and from what I understand, it's a passion that she learned from her father about how important education was has done a magnificent job and she is our main liaison to school issues I've watched those meetings sometime and it's interesting to watch because it's two bodies coming from wanting the same thing for our kids but sometimes coming from different perspectives and miss glasses one very very gracious and and two I think represents the board well in this in

[02:45:36] in this capacity, so thank you for serving, if you will accept them. And her, the way they do it is a supervisor, Ms. Glass chairs, and then the school board member chairs, and Ms. Glass chairs, and so I'm not sure who your co-school board member is, you might know who it's gonna be next term, you might know, or this year, but I have no idea.

[02:45:59] So, Ms. Burksman? - Thank you, Madam Chair. No, I just wanted to, first of all, I failed to say thank you for your kind words a moment ago, but I wanted to say that I really enjoy serving on the Joint School Board with Supervisor Glass. She does a great job and it is sometimes a tough committee to be on because of the two different sort of fiefdoms, for lack of a better word.

[02:46:23] Also, the school board is meeting tonight, so they are picking their chairs and vice chairs and stuff tonight, so we won't know about their appointments probably until they're finished as well. - Oh, okay, that makes sense, that makes sense. - Thank you, Madam Chair. - Thank you. The three people on the joint committee will not change, and so that is as it has been.

[02:46:42] All the people who say aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? All right. That motion will pass 801. Okay, supervisors, we do need to discuss the -- well, let me just make the motion about the regional bodies, and I'll tell you -- I will say this.

[02:47:02] There are two small changes to the regional body motions, well, is that regional bodies? BIC isn't, nor is the other one, but I think this is where they belong though. So for the Dulles, I'm sorry, for the, Mr. Sainz, what is it actually called, the authority, the Dulles Town Center Community Development Authority.

[02:47:28] By practice, the person who is on that is the person who is in the, who covers the district that the Dallas Town Center sits in. That has been Ms. Glass, but when we did the boundary line change, that is now Mr. Sainz. And so he will be the person on that authority because it's his district now.

[02:47:49] I don't imagine that they have a whole lot more meeting to do. I think it's almost done maybe another year or something, but not much more than that. And then former practice, we had the chair of the finance committee be the liaison to FIC, and so we're going to go back to that practice no matter, well, for the next couple years at least, no matter who the chair of the finance committee is, they're going to be the chair of FIC as well.

[02:48:17] So without objection with those two, I will make, I move the Board of Supervisors to approve the regional and county assignments for 2025 as outlined in the January 7th, 2025 Board Supervisors Business Meeting Action Item.

[02:48:32] Motions made and seconded by Ms. Brixman. Please try to make sure you attend your regional body meetings, either in person or virtually. They're really, really important. I do want to note that Mr. Letourneau has been on the Metro Board for how long now?

[02:48:54] It'll be five years in February. Five years, and you're coming. That hasn't been publicly discussed yet. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Well, let me just say this. Mr. Letourneau is amazing. Mr. Letourneau has said to me. It will not last forever, Madam Chair. He has said to me literally this, that he spends as much time doing metro board stuff as he does doing county board stuff.

[02:49:16] And if you talk to anybody about Mr. Letourneau on the metro board, he is lauded. He is just, I mean, anyone, no matter who they are, no matter what party they're in, is how wonderful he is on the metro board. which is why he got that beautiful sweater that he refuses to put on his body.

[02:49:35] We're all confused about that. We are confused. I didn't know it made noise, though. That's hilarious. You should wear it. So any discussion on this item, Mr. Turner?

[02:49:55] Just point of inquiry. Am I in the TPB? You are from the right now. So that's, if we pass this, then... Then we can change it later if I need to. Okay, thank you. That's why we had that offline discussion earlier. Mr. Crony.

[02:50:12] So the Chesapeake Bay and Water Resource Policy Committee, I mentioned that if somebody else wants to do that... Oh, you know, did I get that email from you? You didn't want to do that anymore? I'm sorry. Then what I'm going to do is we'll leave that vacant. Okay. And then I will talk to our colleagues and assign somebody else.

[02:50:30] Yes, ma'am? Thank you, Madam Chair. No, I'm just, I'm really happy to do NBTC and FIC, looking forward to the NBTC again for another year. And it is my honor to serve on the VACO board with you in the second Loudoun seat. I don't know if we've talked about that those re-nominations did happen, so.

[02:50:45] Yeah, they did. Yeah, you and I will be on the VACO board again together, so I'm excited about that. Thank you. I love the VACO board. I love VACO. All right, all in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 9-0. All right, so we did find today when we were looking at the calendar that there did need to be some adjustments to the calendar.

[02:51:11] Because, well, on March 1st, when we have our, because including in the calendar is the budget, is the budget calendar. On March 1st, when we start, we have our first, it's not the budget meeting, it is the first, it's a public hearing.

[02:51:29] It's the second public hearing on March 1st. That's the first day of NACO where everyone's there, it's the day for all the standing committees to be there. And so the public hearing starts at 9:30, right, 9?

[02:51:46] I know I can't be there because I have to be down in -- because I am the chair of one of the standing committees for the National Association of Counties. don't know who else can or cannot so supervisors just be aware of that if you're on if you're on if you're just if you're just in NACO then that's but on that Saturday is the day that the standing committees meet so that would be a day that I don't share that meeting so if you're understanding committee say

[02:52:16] something because we have to have a quorum on the dais so are you yeah madam chair I will be asking to attend that meeting remotely so we will already be want two seats light that day yep possibly three are you are you understanding you are a standing committee aren't you yes ma'am madam chair same here okay that's four people right there

[02:52:44] that's four people right there so uh well that's our sat we always have a saturday public um hearing that leaves five people well at least five with one with one remote so if the other five are going to be there i will leave that where march 1st saturday march 1st 9 a.m you can be there i think

[02:53:22] i think we're saying five could be on the day someone can be virtual but i just want to make sure that's right before we approve that and then the other day that we're we're talking about is that um miss brixman is going to be moving one of the miss friction you say it to yeah go do you Do you want me to make the motion?

[02:53:47] No, we don't need a motion. We're going to just let us know. So a change to the calendar that, because we did the finance chair, the finance committee work session on the CIP on February 25th is going to be moved to February 18th, same time, finance committee.

[02:54:11] I did a poll with most of our finance committee members. They can be there, so we should have a quorum. But again, just moving the CIP Work Session for Finance Committee one week earlier from February 25th to February 18th. That's for personal reasons. Okay, so there's two things.

[02:54:28] The moving of the Finance Committee. So when we vote, we're voting on these two things as well. Moving of the Finance Committee, we'll leave the March 1st date there because it sounds like we'll be able to have a quorum on the dais. So the only thing we'll change on that is the moving of the Finance Committee to the 18th.

[02:54:45] anything any other issues with dates anybody okay second ethan's texting me all right i'm with the board supervisors approved the 2025 in january 2026 board of supervisors meeting schedules as provided by attachment two including the schedule adjustments outlined in the january 7 2025 board supervisors business meeting action item there a second okay there's a second mr crony before we vote on this do you have a motion that you want to make on the business

[02:55:21] on the business on the on the on the meeting mr hempstreet so the if it's the if it's the motion we prepare for superintendent crony regarding the capital budget and the finance committee that would come under the board rules which we still need a motion on no that it wasn't that that this was the emotion for um for the public hearings that would also that would also be rules of order okay okay well then okay when okay then there's a schedule then anything else on the schedule all right all the people say aye aye any opposed okay so then now we're going to do the

[02:56:01] rules of order uh so we just give me one second okay we're going to adopt the rules i'll make the motion for the rules of order but then we have some either discussions or we have a motion on on the Rules of Order and we'll do that inside of the motion, okay? I move the Board of Supervisors to adopt Rules of Order for 2025 as shown in Attachment 1 to the Organizational Matters

[02:56:35] items for the January 7, 2025 Board of Supervisors Business Meeting. Okay. Motion is made and seconded by Mr. Letourneau. So if you look through the Rules of Orders, there are some, there are some, not many, oh, I just lost it. There are some, not many changes, but some changes already that are already in your package in the rules of order. If you take a look at that, you'll see some of those changes right now. Mr. Crony has a motion she'd like to make that will fall under the rules of order issue. So Mr. Crony, would you like to go please?

[02:57:14] Okay, so I move that the Board of Supervisors amend the Board of Supervisors Rules of Order section 1e business meetings and public hearings to read public hearings will be held on the Wednesday during the week following the first business meeting of the month at 5 o'clock p.m.

[02:57:32] as shown in attachment one to the organizational matters item for the January 7th 2025 board of supervisors business meeting motions made is there a second I'm going to second for discussion Okay, second for the purpose of discussion by Ms. Glass, Mr. Crony.

[02:57:51] Okay, so I first asked if we could do a hard stop at midnight, but since we can't, I thought moving the meeting up one hour would help. I looked at our meetings, the last 11 public hearings that we've had in 2024, and five out of the 11 have gone to midnight or later.

[02:58:12] In fact, one went to three o'clock a.m. and I do feel that moving it to five o'clock would, is very doable for constituents. Many constituents work from home. We do provide a virtual option for constituents and I know that we did offer up the five o'clock at one of the business meetings for senior citizens to help them so they could get home before it gets dark.

[02:58:42] So this would also provide an opportunity for senior citizens to speak before the board at public hearings at 5 o'clock p.m. So it gives them an opportunity to speak. I think starting at 5 also is good for constituents in the sense that they don't have to stay late.

[02:59:01] It provides that extra hour so that three of our meetings aren't going past midnight. there were three that were at midnight, and that way they can get home to their families, and it also helps staff, because I know staff works really hard for our county, I'm very proud of staff, but this gives them an opportunity to get home a little sooner.

[02:59:25] Our neighboring jurisdictions, I just looked at Prince William and Fairfax, they have meetings starting at 9:30, Fairfax County, with public hearings at 3:30, and Prince William County Starts their business meetings at 2, and the latest that they've gone in 2024 is 11 o'clock p.m.

[02:59:45] No, no, no. Well, no 2024. I just looked at 2024. No, no, that's not correct. Well, I looked at their— The latest they've gone is to 6 o'clock the next morning. Well, that was for 23, not 24. So I only looked at 24. I didn't have time to look at others. But I just—I think that starting at 5 is not a huge change, but it would have an impact on our constituents, on our staff. And I also think it just six o'clock is late. And I know people, you know, I believe people can make it and it gives people options

[03:00:21] if they want to go virtual, if they can't make it. So hopefully the board will support this. You know, we've been moving things up. I know we moved the business meetings up to four, which was a change. Change is hard, but moving it to five is not, I don't think is a big change, so I'm hoping the board will support it. Thank you. Thank you. Miss Umstead.

[03:00:46] Hey, thank you, Madam Chair. I personally don't have a problem with this, but, and I thank Supervisor Tacroni for calling me and discussing this with me, and as I told Supervisor Tacroni, If all of our members who have full-time jobs are on board with this, then I'll support it.

[03:01:12] But if one of them feels that the 5 o'clock start time would be problematic for them, then I will not support it. Thank you. Mr. Kirshner? Thank you, Madam Chair. Originally, when this was presented, I was a little agnostic.

[03:01:30] I could probably have gone either way. And I agree that we want to be considerate of our colleagues, but going really late is also a problem. I think that's just a matter of managing the schedule a little bit. I think I'm inclined to support it, and I'll tell you why. Originally, I was a little concerned that maybe by, you know, making sure the public gets here by 6.

[03:01:49] But most people, when they're coming, they know what they're commenting on. And normally, public comment is not going to come before the first presentation of whatever it is, and we can manage that. So honestly, public comment is not going to occur before 6 as it is, and so it allows us to get perhaps an application and some presentation in, et cetera, et cetera.

[03:02:10] So I think actually 5 o'clock is, from that perspective in the public, it's probably okay. I am interested to hear what my colleagues who perhaps work out of the area have to say and if that's something they feel like they can manage or not manage. I certainly can in terms of my schedule. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you.

[03:02:26] Mr. Sainz? Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll just say I'm being cute here when I say this, but I'll just put a caveat with respect. We could start at 4 o'clock. We could start at 5 o'clock. We could start at 6 o'clock until we as a board and as supervisors really take note of when you're going to put your light on and make comments because there's times, plenty of times, every light will be on, everybody wants to make a comment, and the darn vote will be 9-0.

[03:03:04] Right. Now, if we were to stop doing that, maybe our meetings will be a little bit shorter. So I'm not going to call out names, but if you go back and look at some videotapes, there's times where people are commenting like, come on, guys, this is a 9-0 vote.

[03:03:25] Or, you know, let's, you know, we don't need to say something. Or, and again, with respect, if the item is not even in your district and it's a really district-specific item, preach it brother lights will come on and and make commentary and again it will be a 8081 or 90 vote like guys come on so i've been i've been i guess what this is here i don't even know how many years now but so so you know like with you know we've been up here for a while so i'm kind of saying stuff with a little grain of salt and a little vinegar i guess you could say salt and

[03:04:02] because every every board is the same all the meetings going too long well we keep doing the same thing from the first board term to the second board term to to now yeah i'm doing it now but to prove my point so i still got some time so so i'm not going to support the motion but i just wanted to throw that out and mike yes you're proving my point but we need to we need to stop this ourselves okay so i'm not gonna support it but i just will throw that caveat out please guys like be a little bit more mindful of when we put our lights on the comment and when we take these

[03:04:40] votes thank you thank you mr saints mr latino yeah well first of all what he said that that was that was pretty well spot on um i did mention this to regimen when we talked in the deep past the board has at times if there is a particular public hearing item of interest that we know there's a lot of speakers or there's going to be a lot of speakers on.

[03:05:03] We've actually had a special public hearing on a different day, sometimes even a different location, I'm sure Mr. Hamsheet will remember, to meet the legal requirements. Obviously, because of the advertising, you have to decide that ahead of time, but we kind of know, though, like very rarely is there, it happens once in a while, but some of these items we know we're going to have a lot of speakers on.

[03:05:25] So I'm just saying if that really is a concern and there's, you know, we wanted to remove that from a public hearing, a normal public hearing, and have a separate meeting on it, we could do that as an option. I personally would have some issues with this.

[03:05:42] I would perhaps pair it with moving the business meetings back to five o'clock then, if we're going to do that, which I'm not sure people want to do, but you know, you're kind of giving on the workday ends there, but that would be a little bit of a difficulty, and without much time for adjustments schedule wise for that since this would take effect immediately so um i would not i would not be willing to support the motion at the moment ms brixman thank you madam chair um i had a long conversation with supervisor to crony about this yesterday and um i'm not going

[03:06:16] to support the motion mainly not so much because of all the long talking or whether colleagues can be here or not be here but mostly because i believe our public hearings were getting extensively long because of the ruling at the General Assembly. That ruling has now been reversed and our public hearings have been significantly shorter since we've been able to move our land use cases to a business meeting for a decision and not have to go through an entirely second public hearing for our land use cases. So what I would like to do, and I'm glad we have that

[03:06:53] option that Matt mentions, I'd be willing to do that this year if we have some really big issues that we think we need a separate public hearing for, like, you know, a CPAM or something like that. But I would like to spend the next year and just sort of monitor, because I think the data that Ms. DeCrony is working off of is mostly data that we, when we were under that new rule from the General Assembly.

[03:07:14] And so I'd like to see us go another year at 6 o'clock, and if we still seem to be having issues, then maybe we have another conversation about it at the next organizational meeting. But I won't support the motion tonight. Like I said, I'd like to have us test it out another year. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. I will associate myself with everything Ms. Briggs-Mirceau is going to say exactly that.

[03:07:33] I think the ruling from the General Assembly, not I think, the ruling from the General Assembly did change our public hearings. Also, public hearings are for the public. And what we know is that a lot of people who work for the federal government or federal government contractor is being ordered back to the office pretty well starting early this year.

[03:07:54] And so whereas people might have been able to work from home or do some teleworking virtual, it's not going to be as possible anymore. And most people work a nine-to-five day, and if public hearing is for the public, then I'm not going to start the public hearing before they can get here.

[03:08:11] Usually the consolidated agenda takes us 15 minutes, and then we're into the public hearing. And there's oftentimes when it's time for the public will speak well before the 6 o'clock hour. It just is, especially if we have a very fast, consolidated agenda.

[03:08:28] And so I'm not going to do anything that limits the public's ability to speak at the public hearing. To the idea that other counties do it differently, I think, with due respect, Mr. Crony, some of which you're reporting is not quite accurate.

[03:08:46] One county, they do start at 3, but at 3, they get all the staff reports, and then they take a break, And then they go back on the day it's at 6 for the public comments and the votes. That's not the same thing. So that's a little different. The county that does it at 8.30 or 9 in the morning, that's a Saturday.

[03:09:04] Do y'all want to be up here on a Saturday? I don't think you want to be up here on a Saturday. So I think we have to be really careful how we report things out because it's not just that they start at this time in public speaking. Because I talk to my chief elected colleagues all the time, and I've been to some of their meetings, and I know how that works.

[03:09:22] And so I will not support it because this is for the public. Would you like a closing, Mr. Crony? Yeah, thank you, Chair Randall. And I appreciate what Supervisor Sainz said, and I will definitely watch my light and make sure I'm not speaking so much.

[03:09:40] And, yeah, of course, I care about constituents. I mean, that's why I ran for office. People come first, in my view. Residents come first. So I definitely would not want to impact their ability to come speak to us. That's, I think, our most important role here.

[03:09:57] But I do think five o'clock might have worked for most residents. It is once a month, so I do support the five o'clock, but I understand my colleagues that work. It might present a challenge, but I'm willing to see how it goes for the year.

[03:10:13] Supervisor Brisbane is correct that we had that legal challenge that we had to work through, and that's why a lot of our meetings went really long. And I also really like Supervisor Letourneau's idea of a special public hearing. And hopefully that we can do that.

[03:10:31] I don't know, is that in our rules of order, Mr. Hemstreet? So the board can schedule, actually chair, can schedule a public hearing on any date. It's really an exception as to when that happens. To the one instance that Supervisor Letourneau's referring to, we knew well in advance that that was going to be large public hearing on a specific issue so okay thank you okay um i i still support it but i understand my colleagues reasons for um not supporting it so thank you thank you ma'am all right the motion was made by supervisor to crony and second by supervisor glass all in favor please

[03:11:09] say aye aye oh not i i'm sorry it just came out of my mouth automatically opposed okay so that motion will fail on a um i think that was seven two vote is what i heard and the seven two vote that motion will fail no no one two three yes oh really i'm sorry who voted for that motion yeah i voted i was yes you were oh maybe it didn't oh for you okay i'm sorry you guys gotta yes

[03:11:40] he's a no, so it still failed 5-4, still failed 5-4, still failed 5-4, okay, all right, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it failed, it failed 5-4, which surprises me. Are there any other rules of order motions except for what I've already said and talked about? Now, Mr. Turner just informed me

[03:12:10] that he actually can't be here on march on march 1st madam chair yeah uh is it possible well my meeting starts at 9 30 so i could be there virtually if there's a if i could uh attend virtually i still have to have quorum in in the building okay actually miss give me um give me just one just give me one second miss briggsman we we thought much but not much first in here doesn't have it on here i was looking at something that you had earlier that's not on

[03:12:44] oh okay so as of right now we would not have a quorum on the dais is what I'm what I'm hearing had to have five on the dais as of right now there would not be five on the dais and quite frankly truthfully I must say again I actually want people to be down at the at the NACO conference you're not gonna be here

[03:13:12] anyway yes so we we mr mr hemstreet often we put the budget work sessions on Saturdays if we need them but well except what we do want to hear from the people before we start voting on things that's the problem we've already passed work sessions exactly the only other time we can do that is on

[03:13:51] 22nd does that people this does that seem plausible supervisors I know it's I'm putting on the spot right now but there's a 22nd seem plausible 22nd of February all right I'm going to without objection make the recommendation to remove the March 1st public public Saturday public hearing to February 22nd is that Mr. Hemstreet is that going to be problematic for staff so I think what we would suggest is if the board wants to tenant if that's conceptually where

[03:14:30] want to hold it go ahead and and approve that we just need to go back and check the advertising requirements okay make sure we can meet that that sounds good okay that's fine then we will tentatively say that and then you can go check the advertising requirements any other scheduling issues or any other rules of order issues the only other thing i would say is this when we get to the budget i have had colleagues make the i think valid point that there are times when the people who sit on TLUC don't feel like they have enough time to respond

[03:15:10] or speak to what's coming out in the CIP. And so when we get to the budget work sessions, because the CIP is toward the end, there is a request to have the CIP discussion earlier in the budget process.

[03:15:29] Now, right now, budget work sessions don't have exactly what will be down there listed. But just so you know, we will probably try to have either another CIP work session or a CIP work session earlier in the budget process.

[03:15:45] And so that people on TLUC feel like that they can freely speak on the CIP before it's kind of baked. Now, right now, technically, you absolutely can, but late in the budget process, people might feel like, well, it's already a done deal, and we're already so far down the process, I don't want to mess anything up, so you feel very hesitant to change anything.

[03:16:11] So we'll either do more than one CIP session, or we'll do the CIP session earlier, and I had this discussion earlier with Ms. Bricksman as well. So that's not, that's just something to know because those dates have not been programmed in yet, but that's just something for everyone to know.

[03:16:27] Okay? Can I make a comment? Yes, ma'am. And so just to dovetail off of that, I do want to point out for my colleagues that the Finance Committee will have budget work, I'm sorry, CIP work sessions on February 18th and March 5th.

[03:16:43] So those are two opportunities to come and hear what's going on with the CIP. Although I do agree that sometimes when we get to the end of budget work sessions, we're pretty fried and it's kind of late to be making adjustments to the CIP. So it would probably be better for everyone if we could make those adjustments during those two early work sessions, March 5th and February 18th.

[03:17:04] Thank you. Okay. Anybody else? All right. So for the rules of order, I made the motion. Mr. Frickson seconded the motion and including all the changes, not that there were many that were just made. All in favor to say aye. Any objections? Okay, that will pass 9-0. I'm sorry. Me and Caleb have changed places. I think that's everything. Is that everything? I'm pretty sure that's everything.

[03:17:34] I think we did it. I think we did everything. Jazz hands. Yay. So our first meeting is in the bank. We are adjourned.

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