Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, Business Meeting, Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Date: Tuesday, February 4, 2025
Place: Board Room, First Floor, Government Center, 1 Harrison Street SE, Leesburg, Virginia
Length: 6h 35m (video)
Official meeting video (county, Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/player/clip/7863
Meeting page: https://loudoun.granicus.com/player/clip/7863

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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[00:07:46] you know what we have julian um miss miss brixman and miss miss brixman can you hear me i can madam chair miss glass can you hear me i can hear you madam chair okay just for my own just for my own kicks and giggles i'm gonna make you talk a lot miss glass please i ask you not to i'm so glad i'm sad you i'm sorry you don't feel well all right we're gonna get ready to start ladies well good evening supervisors good evening staff good evening loudon i like to call the order the loudon county

[00:08:25] Board Supervisors business meeting, our February 4th business meeting, this room has a hearing loop. If you need hearing assistance, please switch your hearing aids to the telecom mode. If you need a headset, we have those available as well. Please see the clerk to request one.

[00:08:42] Before we do anything else, and we'll talk about this a little more later, but I want to have a moment of silence for the victims of the plane crash. We don't know. Well, we might know, but we're not completely sure how many people yet were from Loudoun County.

[00:09:07] Not all the names have been formally released. Supervisors, I have been, if you've noticed, I've been very hesitant to say names, even though we know some, because they haven't been formally released. And what I thought was at the next meeting, we can say all the names, and if they're your constituents, you could say those names. I want to make sure I get the phonetic spelling. I want to make sure that we know every one. We make sure that we have it right before. I know names are out there, but it's different than names being out there and coming from the governmental bodies. So that's why I've been just slow

[00:09:42] to say them until they're formally released. I don't know where families are. I'm just to be very careful and very respectful so um if all of you and all of you at home would join me in a moment of silence please thank you would everybody please join me for the pledge of allegiance

[00:10:34] all right um pursuant to code section 2.2-3708.3 and the board of supervisors rules of order supervisor brixman from the algonkian district and supervisor glass from the broad run district Both requested to participate remotely by electronic communications.

[00:11:00] A physical quorum of the board's supervisors is present in the boardroom, and the board has made arrangements for the voices of Supervisor Brickspin and Glass to be heard by all persons in the boardroom. Supervisor Brickspin and Glass made this request within the required time frame, and the county attorney determined that the request met the qualifications to participate remotely.

[00:11:21] The board will record in its minutes that Supervisor Brixman participated remotely from a private location in Brookline, Maine, for personal reasons. Supervisor Glass participated remotely from her home in Loudoun County due to an illness. We do expect Supervisors Kirchner and Supervisor Sane to join us this evening.

[00:11:41] They are probably just running a little late from their jobs. Supervisors, I'm going to defer the Black History Resolution tonight, everyone who's in the resolution has been called and told. I'm doing that because we can defer to the to the 19th of February that's still Black History Month but in light of of the of the tragedy that happened I just I just I just decided that we can do celebrations and resolutions another time so there are no resolutions on the dais tonight there are no there are no then the

[00:12:17] resolutions tonight um we do have item number 11 which which we have to do a ratification of a straw poll and that straw poll is to grant the george c marshall center um the donor manor expansion project for the 2020 put it in this 2025 state legislative program so i have one addition to the agenda and one deletion to the agenda does anyone else have any other deletions or the additions to the agenda miss glass miss briggsman anything else no madam chair no okay Before I read the consent agenda, Mr. Rogers, I do have a question for you.

[00:12:57] Item one is the Avonlea Affordable Multifamily Home Loan Program application. If this is approved tonight, will the board be under any legal obligation to approve other loans that come in, not so much at this amount, but with the same stipulations that are around it.

[00:13:22] I just want to make sure, because this is a large sum of money, but it's not the sum, well, the sum of money is large, and so that's concerning. But my bigger concern is that we don't, that no one else can legally come to us and say, well, I have all these same AMIs in my application.

[00:13:43] I have all the same number of homes for rental. have this so why am i not receiving or not getting the same so is there any legal obligation around that when it comes to avonlea there is not um each one of these loans stand on their own they have their unique facts and circumstances and so one does not create a precedent for the other legally um it may in the eyes of the public but it is not in the eyes of the law okay okay all right all right having said that having heard that i'm going to go on and read the consent agenda Item R1, resolution to recognize Anthony Cimino Johnson, that's for approval only.

[00:14:21] Item 1A, the affordable housing, the multifamily housing loan program application for Avili Apartments, phase two. Item 1B, affordable multifamily home loan program application for Dogwood Farm Station Apartments. Item 2A, appointments and confirmations. Item 3, administrative items report of February 4th, 2025. Item four, nomination of Union Street School in the Charles Hamilton Houston Courthouse to the African American Civil Rights Network of the National Park Service. Item six, response to board member initiative, enhanced pedestrian

[00:14:58] safety on whitening road between Broad Run Drive and Algonquian Parkway. Item seven, Leji 2023-0109, Novak South Substation CPMT 2023-0015, Item 8, Leji 2023-0090, Raceville Substation CPMT 2022-0007, Item 9, Leji 2023-0102, Century Corner at Goose Creek Village,

[00:15:30] ZCPA 2023-0009, special exception 2023-00035, special exception 2023-00036, and ZMOD 2024-0006.

[00:15:47] Item 10, Legi 2023-00070, Hiddenwood Assemblage, ZMAP 2023-0004. That item, that motion on Hiddenwood is to refer that back to Planning Commission.

[00:16:04] So we're not, nothing, that's not being approved. That's just going back to Planning Commission. I will make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Is there a second on the motion? Second. Motion seconded by the vice chair. Discussion on the motion, on the consent agenda motion.

[00:16:20] I have two things. First, let me go to the nomination of the Union Street School and the Charles Hamilton Houston Courthouse for the African American Civil Rights Network of the National Park Service. I want to thank the staff for bringing this to our attention and doing this.

[00:16:38] If you know the history of the Union Street School and if you obviously know the history of why our old courthouse is now named the Charles Hamilton Houston Courthouse and who he was and what he argued there, if you know that history, it's incredibly important.

[00:16:56] incredibly impressive. And for us to be considered for the Civil Rights Network for the National Park Service is quite the honor. So that's important. I also do want to speak on the Abilene Apartments. I have been back and forth on this one quite a bit because it is a large amount of money. But my bigger reason for going back and forth is that when a, first we want attainable homes in our county. We absolutely do. At every AMI, at every level, level, we want them, we need them, we should have attainable homes.

[00:17:32] When these projects come to us, though, it's important for the developer of the project to have sought out other funds of revenue before they come to us. We do not want to be the main funding source.

[00:17:50] And we're not the only funding source, but we are the main funding source. So it's really important that that is not a precedent that is set. This one is -- it's an impressive application with a vast array of availability at all different AMIs.

[00:18:13] That's important. There are also some in there of universal designs. That's really important for people who have disabilities, maybe in a wheelchair, they need a wider door, they need lower ovens, that type of stuff. So it's important. It's a good application. however i will for lack of a better word say to the development community as much as we want and i have talked about attainable homes please try to bring us applications where there are other funding sources otherwise we will we will shoot through our housing fund that will be replenished

[00:18:48] by our housing trust fund but we'll shoot through the money in our housing fund really quick and we don't want to do that so i'll be a yes on this one but it doesn't mean i'll be the yes on the next one thank you madam chair uh i think i saw mr letourneau's light on first miss letourneau thank you um i did want to address a few things on the consent agenda first one is there's two commission permits for substations that you would notice i wanted to just point out these have accompanying land use applications that are coming but have not been heard by the board yet

[00:19:23] haven't come to us yet one in particular the novek south fourth fork substation um i am not necessarily satisfied with the level of screening that is in that application the race field one which is the other one is probably not visible almost anywhere it's pretty much adjacent to industrial site certainly we'll look at that too but particularly the novek cell south fork substation is not screened to the east and then i think would be visible as it currently

[00:19:59] stands to route 50. now you know if you've driven on the new north star boulevard there's these substations are very visible everywhere but i don't think past practice means that has to dictate what we do in the future and i would like to prevent that from happening and i think we have more tools at our disposal to do that now so um with that in mind i just kind of want to serve notice that although i will support the commission permit because these essentially are adjacent to power lines and this is an appropriate location when you know we get to the public hearing and

[00:20:34] we get to the the board item on on these i am working with the applicant on better screening and some things that we can do to try to really each you know hit the visual impact of these i want to sort of echo what the chair just said on the avonlea application i am a little bit uncomfortable with where we are on it i will i will support it partly because i don't want to sort of jam up the applicant at the 11th hour going forward with the deadlines that they have

[00:21:04] and such but you know and the other reason is we have new criteria coming that we haven't seen yet on these i'm told that this application will probably meet the new criteria we haven't reviewed yet but we're kind of in a little bit of a limbo period on that and then finally the hidden wood application as the chair said this is for it to go to planning commission once again we've begun hearing from residents on both sides of this today i think some of the same concerns remain regarding the application given the proximity in this case fewer buffers so i think the planning

[00:21:44] commission is going to need to do some work on this with the conversion from data center to to industrial site the some of the same things that we had negotiated are not part of this application so we will certainly be having conversations about that i have been telling folks in the community this is not you know this sort of resetting this process it will still come back to us thank you thank you ms umster madam chair i apologize but our office was under the impression that the avonlea application would not be on consent tonight i cannot support it i don't

[00:22:21] need to go into a long discussion of why if it is easiest to divide the motion yeah that's what i would do that it's on consent because it came out of finance five zero um so what i will do is is i will just without objection say that this consent agenda is the consent agenda vote minus the uh item 1a the avonely application and then i'll go back and do a vote on the avonely application separately thank you without objection okay miss glass do you have anything or miss miss brixman do you have anything miss glass no madam chair i don't have any

[00:23:03] thank you very much i'm just messing with you miss brixman thank you madam chair there there were a couple things um i'm glad to hear that avonlea is is not going to be on consent i i have a little bit of difficulty with the ratio in that application compared to the other applications that we've had um and and since it's not going to be on consent i might abstain on that one um i would like to thank supervisor letourneau for confirming that he will be looking into the screening on those um substations i was concerned about the request to reduce the screening um dogwood i want to thank my colleagues for supporting the dogwood application um that

[00:23:43] that is the general ratio that we have been going with on these on these loans my colleagues may recall that that is the former blue bluemont nursery and they're going to have a age-restricted LIHTC building with child care on the first floor. And we have some voluntary proffers for Bless Park Phase 2 and a local school. I also want to thank my colleagues for supporting the winding road. Very similar to the last discussion we had about a BMI on traffic and sidewalk improvements, this is just going to be considered. It's not jumping in front of anything in the line,

[00:24:21] but it will be considered for prioritization in the cip i i fear it might come in pretty low but i'm just glad it's gotten through and the study has been completed thank you madam chair thank you all right so this is the consent agenda minus um item 1a all in favor say aye aye aye any opposed That is a 702 with Mr. Sainz and Mr. Kirchner being off the dais.

[00:24:54] I will find the Avonlea application, which is, whose district is this? This is your district, Mr. Attorney. Can I make this motion? It's fine. It's on page 6 of the item.

[00:25:18] I move the recommendation of the Finance, Government, Operations, Economic Development Committee the board of supervisors approve a loan for avonley apartments phase two for an amount not to exceed 15 million of the housing fund with the loan terms and conditions describing attachment one to the february 4 2025 board of supervisors business meeting action item second discussion on the motion mr letourne i don't have much more to say that i didn't already anybody else

[00:25:49] all right all in favor say aye aye aye opposed nay abstaining abstain and absent okay so that would be a 5-1-1-2 vote with five yeses um one no that's miss umstead one abs abstaining miss rixman and and and mr kirchner and mr saynes uh being off the dais all right all right supervisors let me just do a couple things and again i'm going to want to truncate my my board my chair's comments just because of the week that we're having right now um the general assembly update

[00:26:29] because we did go and spend time at the General Assembly talking about our ledger slater program. Everyone, well, Mr. Turner and I were down there two separate days as chair and vice chair. Everybody else was down there one day and we'll have the whole update a little later on. Overall, our program has done pretty well. We have had a couple things pop up since we were there. I will talk about those when we get to the Ledge program. Today was crossover and so we had a couple of bills crossover that we really didn't want to crossover but they did and so we need to

[00:27:07] kind of go deal with them post crossover. And so we will talk about that with Mr. Freeman. Again, I won't go into all the NACO things because there's a whole lot of them, a whole lot of them. But I will say that one of the Health Steering Committee items that we're discussing right now is what Medicaid and Medicare will look like as it relates to home-based services for people with -- well, home-based services, period. For the elderly,

[00:27:41] obviously, for Medicare. But for people with disabilities, for Medicaid, there is, you know, a lot of unrest and we're not quite sure what's going to happen with the Medicaid, Medicare programs and many other federal programs. And so just some early talk to try to know how to make sure that people who have disabilities or people who are elderly who need that home-based care and it's paid for by Medicaid and Medicare, they can still get that. And so those are some of the discussions that we were having at NACO. And of course, the other thing that

[00:28:18] I have been talking about a lot and trying to lead in the charge on is the mental health impacts, especially to young people, but to everybody, but especially to young people as it relates to social media use. And in NACO, it will be in May, I'm going to say May, if I need to come back and change that I will, that we're going to have an entire seminar on that and bring some professionals in just to talk about, because what we know right now is so much of the anxiety and depression and things that we see in our young people

[00:28:56] especially can be tracked right back to social media for a number of different reasons. So although there's some things social media does very well, there's also some issues and so we're going to try to address some of those. Supervisors, let me also say to you all that I am going to make some efforts to shorten our meetings.

[00:29:17] I appreciate everyone's robust involvement, but we're going longer than we need to. And so you're going to see the following things that I will be bringing to the board in motions, not tonight, probably not until March, but I just want to give you an early heads up.

[00:29:36] I want to bring that we change the board comments, board's comments, our comments from five minutes to three minutes i'm going to more often go to motions and then have a discussion inside the motion versus asking questions and then having a motion and asking questions again and the five o'clock public comment time that we do once a month that once a month once a month that was put in place years ago when a constituent came to us a man named albert bland he's no longer with us that was put in place for the elderly population especially during the winter because

[00:30:15] they didn't want to come speak at six and then have to drive home because it's dark outside and sometimes the roads are not good not well but as it turns out that's not who comes speak to us ever it's not the elderly population and and that was put in place before we had an opportunity to do virtual virtual comments and so I'm going to make a motion to leave everything in place as it is the same exact time the same exact time limits for the six o'clock public speaking time but to but to take away the five o'clock

[00:30:50] public speaking time and if we do have a person who is elderly or disabled who really does want to come talk to us would would do that in the case by case basis if they feel that's what they want to do we'll figure that out in the case-by-case basis but right now it's not serving the purpose that was put there for and so you'll see um you'll see you'll see those three motions coming soon so that we can so i can try to just manage the length of the meetings and i will say to you all everybody talk less that we'll also manage the length of the meetings all right my voice for cause today changed from what

[00:31:26] it was going to be and for the first time ever supervisors if you want to ask questions on this voice for a cause, because it's not really a typical voice for a cause, then that will be fine. If Mr. Costa can come up. My voice for a cause today is through the Greater Washington Community Foundation, but it's about the DCA Together Relief Fund. So in other words, it's the relief fund that is being put together for the victims of Flight 5342. And so, the

[00:32:02] I don't know, a couple days after the flight, Ms. Acosta started, we started talking about what is the best vehicle to help the families receive money as fast as possible for needs that they might have to come up very quickly.

[00:32:20] This is, through the Community Foundation, what was decided. I want her to talk about that just in general. And then, again, because this is not really a normal voice for a cause, supervisors, if you have questions about this, feel free to ask Ms. Acosta as well. But what we're really trying to do is get out to the public where they can give money and what will happen and how it gets dispersed and all those types of things. So Ms. Acosta, I'm just going to leave it to you to talk a little bit about it. Thank you. Thank you, Chair Randall and Board of Supervisors for having me today. I'm just going to give a brief overview of the Community Foundation for the public and then

[00:32:56] I'll talk about the fun. The Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties is a nonprofit community foundation serving the geographic area of Loudoun County and the areas surrounding Middleburg and Northern Falk here, including the Plains, Stella Plain Marshall, Upperville. Our mission is simple. It's to grow community giving. We do this in partnership with local donors, individuals, families, and businesses, and help them bring their charitable vision to life. Our work falls under three main pillars, grantmaking, leadership, and partnerships.

[00:33:28] Our grant-making is the foundation of our work. In 2024, we granted $2.4 million to 290 nonprofit organizations, 90% of that stayed here local in Loudoun. We also support local nonprofits through our leadership programs, providing annual nonprofit management and capacity-building trainings to more than 300 nonprofit professionals and board members annually.

[00:33:51] And we don't do this work alone. Partnerships are at the core of our work, and that's why I'm here today to share about a recent partnership we formed in response to Thursday's tragic air crash that has devastated our region and our Loudoun community. One part of the work community foundations do across the country is what we call disaster philanthropy, which means community foundations help mobilize their communities to support those impacted by disasters or tragic events.

[00:34:18] A good example of this was our Community Emergency Relief Fund, which we launched in March 2020 and dispersed over a million dollars into our community in partnership in some parts with the county. Because the air crash impacted so many in our community across the region, last Friday the five community foundations in the DMV area formed a partnership called the Capital Regional Community Foundations and together we established the DCA Together Relief Fund to provide crisis support to the Flight 5432 and Army Blackhawk families and support the

[00:34:56] ongoing recovery efforts. This fund is a collaboration between our organization, the Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties, the Greater Washington Community Foundation, the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia, the Arlington Community Foundation, and ACT for Alexandria. Those are the five community foundations serving the greater DMV area donations to the fund will likely support the following assistance to the impacted families to help meet their immediate needs resources and support for our region's first responders and organizations aiding in the recovery efforts and support for non-profits that are providing

[00:35:34] services to the impacted families and communities with resources such as mental health services trauma and grief counseling and other community healing efforts the fund is administered fiscally by the Greater Washington Community Foundation, and decision-making-related disbursements is done in partnership with all five of us together, in collaboration with many other community partners and community members who are providing feedback to us.

[00:36:00] Members of the community who wish to contribute to the recovery efforts in a meaningful way through a trusted organization can do so by visiting our website or any of the other community foundations but i'll give you ours it's www.communityfoundationlf.org there you will find a donation link to the fund on our home page we also ask the public for their assistance and sharing information about the fund so others will consider supporting recovery efforts so i thank you for having me here today and happy to answer any questions thank you so much um let's go to

[00:36:34] miss miss glass do you have any questions not at this time madam thank you thank you miss brixman uh no questions madam chair just a big thank you for this coordinated effort really appreciate it thank you anybody mr crony yeah just a quick question i noticed it's a donation of money can people donate items i mean are you looking for items i'm fielding inquiries from the public already who want to give back in other ways so i'm collecting that information for our

[00:37:07] community and coordinating with lcps and um and connecting with the folks at the ashburn ice house to see how we can help. So anyone in our Loudoun community interested in supporting that way can contact me and I'm happy to help the link. Okay, thank you. Mr. Thank you, Madam Chair. Two things just based on that comment. I used to be in the Red Cross and disaster relief and after Hurricane Andrew, people donated tons and tons of in-kind stuff without being asked for specific

[00:37:42] items. And at the end of the disaster, they had to bulldoze warehouses of stuff that had no useful purpose so before you're going to make an in-kind contribution make sure you contact the community foundation and find out that in fact there is an in-kind need the second point is someone asked the other day about the military members that were lost i looked online every service member has access to servicemen's group life insurance right now that totals five hundred thousand dollars at literally pennies almost nobody i don't ever remember anybody in my career that did not have sgli and so those families should be all covered by sgli if you're wondering why those families are

[00:38:20] not in this process that's probably why and i'm just guessing it's an educated guess thank you very much for your service you're doing a great job we appreciate it mr costa um have you well yet decided how disbursement will look but both the decisions of who and how um we're working that out this week and next week so we've been having multiple meetings as a group and part of this is also um taking a beat to assess the greater landscape we understand there are other community fundraising efforts to support families so we're going to of course not do this in a vacuum

[00:38:54] and get feedback on where there might be needs that aren't met by other funds being raised in partnership with the rest of the community right now i think the concern most immediately this week um in addition to the families was one of the first responders who are um recovering the bodies so we're working on a process in which we'll accept requests and disperse the funds quickly so it's reasonable to assume that that that would be just supportive in mental health services for the first responders yeah there were other needs too including like meals boots on the

[00:39:30] ground okay oh okay okay all right um yeah that was my next question was about the first responders and what that looked like and what they needed. My last question is, often when these things happen, there's a huge community response immediately.

[00:39:54] And then as time goes on, I don't think we forget, but something else happens that might also need our response. So is this meant to be something that will help sustain these survivors, I mean, these families of the loss, are the first responders for months, for a year?

[00:40:17] What's the thinking on that one? Our goal is that the fund will support needs now and in the long term. So much of that, our capacity to do that will depend on the amount that's raised from the public and our capacity to do it. But absolutely, if we're in a position to be able to support longer term needs, we will.

[00:40:36] Thank you. Ms. Acosta, I would also say that the nonprofit community, including and especially the Community Foundation, does a lot. And some of those, there are times when community trauma will hit you too. And just remember that as well. Thank you for what you are doing. It is very, very, very, it's hard work. It's needed. It's unfortunate that we need it right now, but it's appreciated. So thank you, Nicole. Mr. Hemstreet, do you have any comments this

[00:41:11] evening. Thank you, Madam Chair. I've got four comments for this evening. The first is that the Department of Economic Development has officially been recognized as an accredited economic development organization by the International Economic Development Council. This place is loud in economic development among an elite group of economic development organizations. DED is only the third organization in Virginia and one of just 85 worldwide to achieve this distinction.

[00:41:39] The accreditation validates DED's efforts to drive sustainable growth, foster innovation, and deliver measurable results that benefit businesses and residents alike. More information about this and other awards the county government has received can be found at loudon.gov slash awards.

[00:41:55] Second, Loudoun County fire officials are reminding residents that the 4 p.m. law will take effect on February 15th, which will prohibit open fires or open air fires between the hours of midnight and 4 p.m. The restrictions are in place because wildfires are more likely during late winter and early spring since winds are usually elevated.

[00:42:15] The relative humidity is lower, and the fuels on the forest floor are extremely dry. Details about the burning restrictions are online at loudon.gov slash openburning. Third, Loudoun County is hosting a virtual grant application training series designed to help organizations seeking grants to learn how to craft successful grant applications.

[00:42:34] The material presented is intended to prepare organizations to secure funding that supports projects and initiatives relevant to their mission. The sessions are scheduled for February 18th and 25th and March 7th. More information and a link to register for the sessions may be found at loudon.gov slash grant opportunities.

[00:42:54] And then finally, there are two upcoming tax deadlines to note. The first is that the deadline for payment of supplemental real estate and personal property taxes is tomorrow, Wednesday, February 5th. And the second is that the deadline for businesses to file their reports and submit payment for their business license tax is Monday, March 3rd.

[00:43:13] The county offers several convenient payment plans or payment options for taxpayers. More information is online at louden.gov slash taxes. Those are my comments this evening, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Hemstreet. Very much appreciate it. Okay, supervisors, we have three, count them three, information items.

[00:43:30] And the first one is our significant incident report. And Mr. Amina, Chief Johnson will be coming to the table with Chief Williams. this is chief johnson's last time he's going to be giving us a significant incident report i am told that he has said that he is going to be leaving in april or may i am not convinced that is true and i am working really hard to convince him otherwise but i have a feeling not going to

[00:44:09] be very successful at that. So Chief Johnson, I literally call you my fire chief. You literally are, but also how long have you been serving in fire services? 42 years in April. 42 years. That's an amazing career. That's as a volunteer and then as a career both. A career of 42 years.

[00:44:34] Career of 42 years. Oh my gosh. And then volunteer before that. About a year before that. About a service is almost unmatched you are you you have been well we'll do all that at your at your big surprise going away part i'm going to throw you but but i do want to publicly put on the record just how wonderful you have been you're you were kind you were competent you are caring you are efficient as heck you are funny um and you know you are we we will replace the position but you

[00:45:09] irreplaceable so i'm going to do a lot more before we get to the day where you leave but otherwise we are ready well thank you for those kind words chair randall i will certainly miss the board as well um with that um good evening and uh tonight i have chief williams with me to deliver the significant incident report chief pro is actually doing the training and delivering a class this evening so um i also want to start off by expressing our department sincere sadness and prayers for all those that perished and affected by flight 5342 in the

[00:45:46] Department of Defense helicopter. Our community has endured a tragic loss and the community is suffering. While we respond to many tragedies, the loss of so many local residents to include so many young people that had their lives tragically cut short is truly hard to comprehend. We will continue to remember them in our thoughts and prayers. As a result of that incident we sent two of our Loudoun County Fire and Rescue behavioral health specialist along with our facility dog Birdie and their handlers John Myers and Lauren Parker to support the first responders that continue to work at the site at Reagan National Airport.

[00:46:21] They're back within Loudoun but they did spend some time down there during the initial phase. So with that, our Loudoun County combined fire and rescue system responded to a total of 10,073 incidents in Quarter 2 of fiscal year '25, over which 70,456 were EMS and 2,617 were fire incidents.

[00:46:43] At the end of this quarter, for a year to date, we responded to 20,216, and you have the charts in your report item that you can break down the various types of incidents we responded to. As always, I'll be brief in my presentation. I know you have time to review the report, but as always, I want to highlight some of significant incidents during this period. Again, some familiar causes and some ones that are not so familiar. But on October 6th, a fire occurred in a garage of a single-family dwelling in Lovettsville, causing $80,000 in damage due to improperly discarded oily rags. Well, we've talked about that before, but it is not a common cause. And as a reminder for those listening,

[00:47:22] that oil-soaked rags and brushes should be disposed in a sealed airtight container to decrease the concerns related to spontaneous heating never pile rags brushes or rolls together and lay them flat on an exterior surface and allow them to completely dry before disposing of them it's something that we really don't think about when we're doing common things such as staining and painting and things of that nature on october 28th a duplex type dwelling in leesburg incurred a fire on a deck due at a heat source igniting nearby combustibles causing two hundred twelve thousand dollars in damage. On November 22nd crews responded to a house fire in Ashburn to find a

[00:47:59] dwelling with fire engulfing the entire home due to an accidental fire originating in the basement in the area of the drainage pump or sump pump causing 1.4 million dollars in damage. Two house fires occurred in Sterling on November 27th which was caused by an electrical malfunction in the bedroom with damage estimated at $431,000 and another on November 28th caused by a malfunctioning exterior light. On December 1st, combustibles placed too close to a heat source caused a fire of $661,000 in damage to a house fire in Leesburg. And two days later, a barn, subsequent wood fires

[00:48:38] in Leesburg sustained $80,000 caused by the familiar cause of lithium-ion battery pack malfunctions. I think we've talked a lot about how to prevent lithium-ion battery packs or try to prevent them from malfunctioning. As you're aware, our system has been very busy complying with the unfunded mandate to establish our new pharmacy for the Loudoun County Combined Fire and Rescue System and with a deadline of April 15, 2025.

[00:49:05] So here are a few updates that we've been very busy working on. All of our Virginia Board of Pharmacy and Drug Enforcement DEA licenses have been approved and obtained. The Controlled Substance Order System application is in process. We now have a total of six of our Pixis machines, those are the big pharmacy machines that distribute our medication systems, have been delivered to our various locations.

[00:49:30] Four of the systems are all online with power, security, data, and the machine's functioning and design. We continue to bring up the other two online. Our initial system-wide training, which includes hands-on training, have been done for 100% of our advanced life support providers and staff, over 90% of our volunteer ALS staff. EMS staff continues to develop pharmacy program materials into official pharmacy manuals and continues to develop our policies and update our procedures and protocols as needed to establish this new program and I'm very pleased and thankful to say that all of our pharmacy

[00:50:07] or four of all four pharmacy staff positions have been filled. Our administrative assistant is already online and working and our two pharmacy technicians and the pharmacy manager have been filled and accepted and will be starting here in this month and next month and we're well on our way to be total compliance by april 15 2025.

[00:50:28] our system mourned the loss of two volunteer long-time volunteers aldi fire chief buzzy carter and past leesburg chief tommy downs both passed away during this last quarter it is the contributions by system members such as those two long-standing members that paved the way for mine and everyone's success that we have achieved today and we will surely miss both of them. Another area of our report I'd like to highlight is our Fire It Up for Safety program, which we've talked about before.

[00:50:57] This program occurs each October during Fire Prevention Month and each month, October of each year, staff from the Fire Marshal's Office and firefighters from across the system, both career and volunteer, join efforts for the Fire It Up for Safety first grade fire prevention campaign.

[00:51:13] This program is coordinated directly with Loudoun County Schools and our first grade teachers so that fire and life safety professionals can deliver critical fire prevention information and life safety information to all of our first graders. The goal of the program is to provide current, consistent, and age-appropriate fire prevention messaging at an early age to promote lifelong fire-safe behavior.

[00:51:38] This year we delivered 165 presentations to 49 schools for a total of reaching 4,594 first-grade students in both public and private schools in Loudoun County. Feedback from one teacher includes the following.

[00:51:54] The presentation was wonderful and all the students truly enjoyed it. Some went home and tested their fire alarms and realized they weren't working in their house. So thank you for coming out and teaching our students about fire safety. And while it is often difficult to measure the impact of classes and programs like that, as a reminder, in October of 23, a house fire on Round Hill, information learned from that first grade or program allowed a family of four to escape safely outside.

[00:52:22] After the fire, the family's father stated that they had just practiced their home escape plan the week prior to the fire and attributed that to everyone's safe exit. It was confirmed by our staff that the child did indeed receive education from this program one week prior with one of the homework assignments to create a fire safety and practice their fire safety plan.

[00:52:44] On Friday, December 13th, we welcomed our new explosive detection canine Zoe to the fire marshal's office, replacing Thor, who retired just last month. We also graduated eight career firefighters and EMTs from our academy.

[00:53:00] Our system members continue to support our community in December by our annual One Warm Coat program providing over 900-plus coats and winter items to the community. I can attest that as soon as those items were delivered to Mobile Hope, they were immediately distributed to those in need, especially given this harsh winter that we had.

[00:53:21] Our annual 2024 Toys for Tots drive as part of the 77th annual Marine Corps Toys for Tots campaign was also a great success. Our system members participated in staffing the Marine Corps Marathon on October 22nd and most recently provided staffing for the presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C.

[00:53:42] We continue to see much progress on several of our ongoing fire and rescue station construction projects, and I'm pleased that working with DTCI, we've had great progress. Our Roundhill Fire Station 4 has the footers and utilities being placed in the ground with concrete being installed and walls already starting to go up.

[00:54:02] Our Lovitzville Fire Station 12 is basically done. We're working through a punch list and our operational opening is scheduled for March of this year, so just another month away. Aldi Fire Station is not far behind it. The final completion is scheduled for the end of this month when an in-service schedule for April of 2025.

[00:54:22] If you haven't been by those two stations, they are absolutely beautiful inside and outside, and all of you will get an opportunity to be part of our grand opening shortly. Our basic training facility is currently in the construction phase, scheduled for completion with walls going up in April of '26.

[00:54:39] And our longstanding progress at Philomont is we have 100 percent design. Construction is planned to commence in September of this year, final completion in January of '27. But in closing, I want to thank all of you for your continued support of our Fire and Rescue System.

[00:54:55] I also want to thank each of you for attending the many volunteer banquets that you get invited to. I attend as many as I can and know you do as well with your busy schedules. Your attendance means a great deal to our volunteer system members, and on behalf of me and my staff, thank you for attending them.

[00:55:13] Supervisor Letourneau, I know you don't get to go to many of the volunteer banquets, but But if you ever want to go as my guest, please let me know, and we'll go together. But I and staff remain available to answer your questions that you may have. Thank you very much. I'll tell you, the food at the Ashburn was amazing.

[00:55:33] It was pretty good. It was really good. All right. Questions. If you have questions, please put your light. Let me first go to Ms. Bricksman. Do you have any questions, Mel? I do not, Madam Chair. I just want to say thank you to Chief Johnson and everyone in the combined system for all that you do and you know for going to help help out um and and i hear that you guys backfilled some things after the crash so thank you for everything you do we really appreciate you thank you thank you miss glass thank you madam chair i just want to echo what supervisor gristman has said that

[00:56:08] we really appreciate you uh chief johnson we're really going to miss you we appreciate your years of service. And I really appreciate, I try to go to as many of the EMT and firefighters graduations that I can. And I just appreciate you talking to them and telling them about how important mental health is and for them to take care of themselves. And I appreciate your openness and willingness to take a critical look at um the areas where changes needed to be especially um after um the incident

[00:56:46] in supervisor brissman's area um we just i want to thank you and wish you um a good retirement thank you thank you mr letourneau yeah i assume madam chair we will have an opportunity to recognize the chief before his retirement we're gonna do yeah oh my gosh the roast

[00:57:07] All right, so I will save my, you know, full-throated, I will say, so I started with Chief Brower and then Chief Johnson, and in addition to both being Keiths, which means, Mr. Hempstreet, if there's a Keith somewhere out there that can somehow fill these shoes, but just outstanding, exemplary public officials that I've had the pleasure of getting to know, so the shoes will be massive to fill.

[00:57:36] the legacy here is enormous it is it is mr turner you have anything before i will save my remarks um for uh a much more ballyhooed occasion i was thinking about giving my three war stories speech at your retirement since you've never heard it before thank you very much um i there are no words to describe how much i appreciate your service to the county and you're just terrific so thank you thank you yeah we will have events later but i just thought some of this should be on the record to be honest, some of the things should be on the record.

[00:58:09] My only question, Chief, so we have -- I'm speaking to the LCFR pharmacy update. We have hired the pharmacy staff positions, an administrative assistant, two pharmacy technicians, and a pharmacy manager.

[00:58:25] Is that all the hiring that needs to be done? Are we now fully hired up for that? That was the four, yes. That was the four positions you approved. And then -- boy, I am real thrilled that those have been hired. And is there any other training that's needed for anyone else? No, all of our EMTs.

[00:58:42] We will change eventually because, remember, we were an emphasis on the controlled medications. But we're going to use these systems to use it for routine EMS items as well. It's a greater accountability. When you use a box of something, it triggers an inventory control. So this won't just be for controlled substance then?

[00:58:59] No, we'll plan on using it for more than just controlled substance. Interesting. Things such as aspirin and things that are not controlled medications, we'll be able to use it for that. It has great potential. Okay, all right. Yesterday we received our first shipment of controlled medications. That comes through the mail sometimes and we have to have staff to receive it.

[00:59:17] Obviously they don't leave it on your doorstep, but that was our first shipment of controlled medications yesterday. Okay, and then finally I will say that for our -- we did provide mutual aid at the CRAS site and so we want to thank everyone who went down there and make sure that they are doing okay.

[00:59:34] And I have talked to John Myers, who is the father of Bertie, right? And I do know that Bertie has been doing, Bertie's the emotional support dog, has been pulling lots of duty. And so we really do thank Bertie and his owner and his other handler as well.

[00:59:52] Yes, thank you. So thank you. All right. Thank you, Chief Williams. Thank you, Chief Johnson. You're right. Chief Johnson, there's a whole lot to say. Thank you both. We appreciate it. All right, we're going to go to I-2, the real estate assessment update.

[01:00:08] Supervisors, this is actually in your package, but it's in your package under staff presentations. If you look under staff presentations, yes, it's under staff presentations. It did not go out to the public, which is actually going to be a question of mine.

[01:00:27] Why don't you want to send this out to the public before you actually offer it? So I'll ask that question at the end. Good evening. How are you all? And if you go to staff presentations, you'll find it. Everybody good? Okay. We're ready when you were.

[01:00:43] Thank you. Good evening, Madam Chair and members of the board. This is our annual real estate assessment information item. With me are Jim White, my residential real estate assessment deputy, and Brian Williams, who oversees our commercial real estate assessment division.

[01:01:00] Information provided today will cover year-over-year countywide magisterial and special tax district information. both residential and commercial real properties were up over the previous year congratulations to anyone who owns real estate in loudon county you made a wise investment the residential market continues to be constrained by limited supply and data centers are up significantly as well property owners will begin receiving their 2025 assessment assessment notices soon the vendor is scheduled to mail them beginning this week. However, if you are curious, this year's values

[01:01:40] are available online now at loudon.gov forward slash parcel database together. And you can look up my property address there. I encourage property owners to review their property characteristics and sales of similar property. They can click on the neighborhood sales tab to see what similar properties to theirs are selling for. Property owners who believe their assessments are incorrect may file an application for administrative review with my office until the March 14th

[01:02:16] deadline online at loudon.gov forward slash REAA. After that, date appeals may be made to the Board of Equalization by June 2nd. The notices that taxpayers will receive contain the appraiser's name, phone number and email address so the property owners can be directly in contact with the appraiser responsible for evaluation of their property.

[01:02:44] The 2025 annual assessment summary, which was emailed to board members last Friday, will be posted on my office's website under the real estate assessments page, and it will show how the values of various types of property performed. Jim White's going to begin with an overall summary and cover residential data, and Prine Williams will cover the commercial data and then we'll be happy to answer any questions after the presentation. We're also happy to meet with you individually if you have questions about

[01:03:13] property within your district. Thank you. Jim. Thank you, Bob. So yes, the first slide is our countywide taxable real property. The first slide provides a summary of Loudoun County's real estate assessed values effective January 1st of 2025. The total real property value for residential and commercial real estate is 170.5 billion. This represents 19.6% increase over the prior year, which translates to an overall value change of 27.9 billion.

[01:03:48] Revaluation considers the value of Loudoun County's real property without the impact of new construction and new parcels. For 2025, the countywide percent change in assessed value is 16.9 billion, or 16.9%, which equates 24.1 billion residential commercial new construction totaled 3.6 billion of the total residential construction was 1.5 billion and commercial construction was 2.1 billion compared to the prior year residential construction increased by 15 percent and commercial construction decreased by

[01:04:27] 36 percent the net change from the prior year was a decrease of 22 percent in new construction the value added from new parcels which is categorized as growth was 186 million compared to last year residential growth decreased by 41 percent and commercial growth decreased by approximately 100 down to 461 million the number of taxable parcels is 149 927 an increase of 698 parcels residential revaluation this table summarizes the residential revaluation percent

[01:05:07] change for existing single-family detached townhome and condominium and rural properties since 2023 except for condominiums on rural property greater than 100 acres valuation was higher for each property type compared to 2024. single-family increased 2.67 percent townhouse increased 0.17 condos decreased by a half percent single-family up to 20 acres increased 3.9 percent and rural property 20 to 99 acres increased 20.2 percent the revaluation percent change for rural properties

[01:05:45] generally will fluctuate more year over year as this class property this class of property is less homogeneous and includes vacant land residential new construction the table on the left summarizes the property type the total value of new construction and the construction of value change compared to the prior year in 2025 the construction value for single-family detached properties increased by 8.3 percent townhouse construction increased by 40 percent and condominium construction also increased 43 percent the construction value for single-family detached

[01:06:25] properties without public utilities decreased by 20 percent the line graph on the right provides a three-year history of the number of single-family townhouse and condominium units built and assessed since 2023 for 2025 the total number of units built was 2173. condo construction experienced the largest year-over-year gain with 258 more units townhouse construction contained 174 units

[01:06:55] and single-family detached was a modest gain of just 13 units taxable value change this taxable summarize this table summarizes the district's residential changes both with and without new construction the distribution percentage of each district's residential housing stock along with the corresponding total taxable residential value the revaluation range for all districts is five point seven to eight point seven percent with the average for all districts

[01:07:29] at six point seven percent total value change ranges from seven point four to ten point one with the average total value change at eight point two percent the distribution of value column illustrates the ratio of the residential assessed value compared to the county-wide residential taxable value of 109 billion the distribution percentages range from eight percent to 19 and each district's distribution ratio and total value are a reflection of the housing characteristics in that district such as the number of parcels age size condition location and the type of

[01:08:08] development distribution percentages fluctuate from year to year however no significant changes in distribution were observed for the 2025 reassessment real property distribution by value this chart illustrates the value distribution of real property classifications in loudon county Residential value distribution is still the largest category at 58.1%, however, it declined 3.2% from the previous year.

[01:08:38] Data center value distribution is the second largest category at 22.9%, which is an increase of 7% from the previous year. All other real property classifications did not have significant changes from the previous year. Value allocation by class and district. This graph summarizes each district's total value into four categories, residential, multifamily, commercial, and exempt property.

[01:09:11] Residential value remains the predominant tax base for Little River, Leesburg, Dulles, Catoctin, Ashburn, and Algonquin. Broad Run and Sterling are the two districts that have a commercial tax base larger than their residential base. The commercial value in Broad Run increased 48 percent, or $6.1 billion, and Sterling increased 40 percent, or $6 billion, from the previous year.

[01:09:32] Data center revaluation and construction is the predominant reason for the value allocation increase. Broad Run also contains the highest value for multifamily property at $2 billion, and Little River has the highest residential value allocation at $21.7 billion. Dulles District contains the largest exempt value allocation at $2.6 billion.

[01:09:52] 10-year average residential assessment, this graph summarizes the 10-year average of assessed value for single-family detached townhouse and condominium properties. Since 2015, the average assessed value has increased approximately 88%.

[01:10:11] When compared to 2024, the average assessed value for single-family detached increased 8% to $983,625. The average townhouse value increased 6% to $633,998.

[01:10:29] and the average condominium assessed value increased 6.7% to $439,521. Average sale price and days on market.

[01:10:44] The real property assessments are based on market sales from the prior year. The table summarizes data from Bright MLS regarding average sale price, days on market, and number of units sold. The average days on market is 17.8.

[01:11:00] This is a decrease from the prior year of 13%. the previous year was 20.4 days. In 2024, the average sale price was 1.2 percent above the list price, which is approximately 2 percent higher than the previous year. Inventory continues to be below average for Loudoun County. As of December 2024, there was less than a 30-day supply of inventory, and the 12-month average was one and a half months, or 45 days. In real estate, a month's supply is a measure of how long it would take to sell all homes on the market at

[01:11:38] the current sales volume. Generally, a five to seven month of supply is considered to be a balanced market, where neither the buyer nor the seller has an advantage. If the supply exceeds five to seven months, is it considered a buyer's market? Conversely, if a market is below this range, then it's considered a seller's market. And ours is 17 days, a month and a half? The days on market is 17. 17 days. Yeah. And that's all I have for residential.

[01:12:13] Good evening. Good evening. So the first commercial slide is a county-wide year-over-year comparison for 2023 through 2025. For the commercial property types listed, the total value includes existing structures, those currently under construction, and vacant land.

[01:12:35] In the aggregate, the value of all commercial industrial property increased $19 billion from 2024 to 2025. The multifamily portfolio also increased to $196 million, which is a 9% overall increase from 2024 to 2025.

[01:12:52] For 2025, there was also significant value in growth of the data centers, and Flex Industrial were our two biggest gains. This slide graphically illustrates the distribution of the primary assets within the overall commercial portfolio.

[01:13:11] Countywide, for this select group, the data center value represents approximately 75% of the overall value of the commercial portfolio, followed by multifamily at 7.7%, flex industrial at 5.7%, retail at 5.5%, and office at 3.8%.

[01:13:30] For the tax year 2024 compared to 2025, data center value only represented 56.6% of the overall commercial portfolio. This slide illustrates Loudoun's data center market and measures two important data points from 2021 through 2025.

[01:13:52] The bars represent year-over-year growth and total valuation. The blue portion of the bar represents the total value due to reassessment, and the orange portion of the bar represents new construction. The white line illustrates data center growth in square feet.

[01:14:10] The valuation includes all data center land and structures, even those that are not 100% complete. For 2025, the total square foot number of $49.4 million is based on all data center records where the structure has been completed and the completed square footage is in the record.

[01:14:30] There is an approved site plan or building permit that lists the square feet of the structure and that information has been entered into the record. In this case, construction may or may not have begun, but the structure has been approved. If there are no approved plans or permits, the parcel would be valued simply as vacant land within one of the data center buckets.

[01:14:50] Of the total square feet for 2025, 36 million square feet are 100% complete, meaning the appraiser has verified the construction of the structure is 100%. Average annual growth in data center valuation over the period shown on this slide is 54%, while the average square footage growth is 17%.

[01:15:11] Data center growth in 2025 is primarily driven by continued build-out within the existing data center portfolio, land acquired for data centers, and new construction. There are currently 25 data center projects under construction, which added $1.95 billion in new construction for 2025.

[01:15:31] Of this total, $325 million of new value was added by projects that became 100% complete in 2024. Here are some additional statistics regarding data centers that are made up of the portfolio.

[01:15:52] I should note that when we talk about structures on this slide, that refers to all improvements located on the parcel, not just data center buildings. These structures may include buildings, office buildings, and storage warehouses. The sales shown in 2024, or the sales shown occurred in 2024, and the average sale price per acre was $2,341,000.

[01:16:16] It's important to note that prices paid for acre for data center property will vary based on size, yield, whether it's part of an assemblage, and adjacency to power, water, and fiber. The total number of acres that were purchased for data centers this year is 292.

[01:16:36] This slide illustrates the valuation of the commercial properties within the Route 28 tax district for 2025. The portion of the Dulles Airport leaseholds that are within the Route 28 tax district are not broken out but are included in the flex industrial totals you see on this slide, as they are mostly the portion of the airport that are warehouses and hangars.

[01:16:59] For the period of 2024 to 2025, the value of commercial real estate in the Route 28 tax district grew by $6.25 billion, or 40%, from $15.7 billion to $22 billion. This slide shows the value of the commercial properties within the Metro Rail Service District for 2025.

[01:17:23] For the period 2024 to 2025, the value of commercial real estate in the Metro Rail Service District grew by 9.3 billion, or 60%, growing from 15.6 billion to 24.9 billion.

[01:17:39] And with that, we are happy to take any questions. Oh, boy, that's a lot of information. My first question, and I'm literally just asking the question, I'm not making a judgment. Usually when we send the package out, the goal is for the public also to see what we're sending out.

[01:18:01] So if there's anyone that wants to comment on what's in the package, they can do that. Tell me the reason that this doesn't go out to the public in advance of us seeing it. I'm sorry, we used to provide this to the board at the meeting.

[01:18:18] It was not released to the public in advance. Then we've provided it to the board in advance. Now we're gonna post it on the website for the public's consumption as well. I'm more than happy to have that out in advance. I'm not sure the board wants to entertain questions relative to changes in assessments in advance of their being informed about it, but I'm happy to provide that.

[01:18:42] - We wouldn't entertain questions, but if somebody wanted to come speak on the item, like during public comment, then they would have seen it so they could come speak. So, you know, what I would just say is if anyone in the public wanted to come speak, come speak.

[01:18:57] And then if they have questions, they can just get a hold of you all. Sure. Okay. Thank you. Wonderful. All right. Questions on this very well done item. Ms. Glass and Ms. Brickson, I'll come to you all in a minute, but I'll go to Ms. Letourneau first. Thank you. I think I might have misheard something.

[01:19:15] you were saying the total number of new single-family detached units in the county last year i have 13 written down that can't be right it was just 13 more than the prior year there was still 797 built yeah 797 built yeah okay 13 more than the prior year yeah it wasn't much um still that's a lot more than all right um so one question that has kind of come up before and was sort of relevant to this discussion on valuation is on commercial properties um you know

[01:19:49] just being blunt occasionally the board buys property as you know and we get hammered because we pay way more than the assessed value recently there's a property like this um when i sort of started inquiring it sounds like a lot of this evaluation is really based on what the revenue generation is at that property.

[01:20:11] And if there's a business there that's not generating a lot of revenue, then it sort of affects the assessment. But when you take it out to market, it's a completely different sort of judgment. Could you explain that a little bit further, if that's in fact true?

[01:20:28] So all the commercial properties in Loudoun County are valued every year using the three approaches to value, the income approach, the market approach, and the replacement. So we give preference to certain approaches depending on the type of property that it is and the data points that we have to be able to value it accurately.

[01:20:54] So that occurs every year. Not all commercial properties are valued on the income approach. A lot are, but a lot are also valued based on sales comparison as well as replacement cost approach, especially for properties where we don't have a lot of information because there may be owner-occupied or we just don't have the facts to be able to say, okay, now we're going to pay for it.

[01:21:23] So if it's like a leased property, do you get the information of how much a tenant is paying? We ask for it. We don't always get it, but we do ask for it. So I think the difficulty with using assessed value to try to infer a going-forward market decision based on a purchaser's sense of value is difficult because we look to history to inform our valuation, and we have to group-like properties together and use statistical analysis to basically come up with our valuations.

[01:22:01] We don't have the manpower or the time to do a fee appraisal for every single property, and that's a much more detailed look at a specific property than we have the ability to do. We have to group like properties and then make analysis based on that.

[01:22:18] So from that standpoint, assessment's not speculative. So we have to look to what is the property being used for, how do all the other properties in Loudoun County that are the same type, have they functioned over the past 12 months and then we base our valuations on that i think the speculative nature of real property that may be purchased with no specific purchase purpose or an appraisal may affect that as well and we're more than happy to assist in discussions relative to

[01:22:54] future purchases of real property where the board may be contemplating real property purchases thank you miss umstead uh thank you madam chair so things are changing in washington at the federal level and um significant federal worker layoffs are being seriously discussed so if they are to

[01:23:24] take place what do you think that will do to our residential uh real estate tax base well we're going to look to see what happens to the market i don't know what the portion of federal employees is here in loudon county or those that may be in agencies that might might be affected by some of the actions that the federal government is taking taken as well it might lead to a more balanced

[01:23:57] market as jim mentioned the the days on market is very low for a balanced market i i think that probably jurisdictions that are closer in may be more seriously affected by that than we are but i i think we'll have to see what happens all right thank you miss glass thank you madam chair and

[01:24:29] i thank you mr wards for coming in you had um had spoken on one of your slides the revaluation for broad run is 5.7 percent could you explain what does revaluation mean the revaluation question okay that's basically uh the market change where we've analyzed uh the income and the sales and apply a new value based on that information so the income of the home

[01:25:06] and the sale i'm sorry not well i'm speaking to commercial property when i said income okay okay and so uh also the um on the slide we had the data center statistics and yet um talked about um it included uh buildings um did that also include um uh substations if the substation is owned by a private party it would include the substation that's correct if it is a owned by a

[01:25:44] public service corporation then those substations are valued by the State Corporation Commission okay and also if a property owner does feels like they have a problem with their assessment how can they contact who should they contact yes our assessment notice does have the appraiser's name and email and phone number and we also have an online uh application form where they can express their

[01:26:19] concerns uh with the assessment and then our our staff will contact them and and uh work through the the issues thank you thank you miss brixman thank you madam chair um i guess i don't know how to solve this maybe we can maybe we can have a conversation for me this lacks a little bit of context because for example on page 15 it says the total valuation of metro rail service district taxable real property is 24 billion but i think you said that was like a six percent increase from

[01:26:54] the year before so for example it would be helpful i think in these kind of presentations to know what it was at least the year before unless i'm missing the chart somewhere so yeah for the the The Metro Rail Service District, the growth from 24 to 25 was $9.3 billion, which is a 60% growth.

[01:27:21] 60%? Yes. Okay. So it went from $15.6 billion in 2024 to $24.9 billion in 2025. Okay. Maybe there's a way we could get those comparisons, because for me, it doesn't—it's not telling a story to me if I don't know what it was the year before, if that makes sense.

[01:27:44] I mean, what I'm gathering from this presentation is basically massive growth in value, right? Like I kind of get that story, but maybe we could get together and share some more numbers. And then on slide 13, the number of parcels data center statistics on the very left-hand column, it says 246.

[01:28:07] So does that mean that 246 parcels were purchased by data center organizations in 2024? no that's the cumulative total number of parcels that are that we consider to be data center related for valuation purposes okay okay and we do we know if that has increased or decreased over the year before um i would have to get back to you on that because it's it is um sometimes they

[01:28:43] consolidate sometimes they subdivide uh so i can get back to you on that okay um and then i guess my i'm looking for the other question i had oh so we're talking about overall value change i'm looking at page two of nearly 20 revaluation nearly 17 can you put a little context around that like what is what's the average for nationally and what's the average maybe for the state Um, and then this, this may be a Mr. Hemstreet question, but I'm wondering what this is going

[01:29:21] to do. Like what we've, what, what did we forecast for? And then what is this going to do for our revenue picture? Uh, supervisor Briskman, uh, we do not have figures relative to what might be normal in another locality. I will tell you Loudon is not normal when we're talking about real estate values and we're talking about data centers. There is no place in the world that has the concentration and value of data centers as Loudoun County does.

[01:29:54] So no one else is going to be anywhere close to where we are relative to increases in value due to the concentration of data centers that we have here. Okay, okay. Loudoun's not normal in the most wonderful way, though, right?

[01:30:15] Mr. Hemstreet. Thank you, Madam Chair. And just to answer the last portion of that question, you know, we obviously have the Commission on Revenues Assessment Portfolio, and so that does play into the proposed budget that you will be given next week. So we'll find out next week.

[01:30:33] You'll find out before then, but next week is when it's formally delivered to you. Thank you. Mr. Crony. Thank you, Chair Randall, and thank you, Mr. Words and Mr. White and Mr. Williams. So thank you. So I have a question on page 8.

[01:30:51] You mentioned 88% of assessed value. I don't know which product you were talking about. It's gone up from 20, there's been an increase from 2015. So do you mind maybe explaining that?

[01:31:07] Yeah, the 88% was all three categories together over the 15 year. But for single family, it was 83%. For townhouse, it was 80%.

[01:31:25] and for condo 99 percent wow okay over 15 over a 10-year period over oh 10-year period okay so yeah it's not 15 it's 10 right okay um so we've seen an increase um in assessments and value year after year in areas where even data centers aren't allowed like in the rural policy area and the transition policy area how much would you think this is related to um the rush the land rush for data centers, the amount that they're paying per acre?

[01:31:59] Residentially, I don't see an impact. I think the current zoning is controlling what would be allowed in certain areas. So I don't think there's a battle between residential development and commercial development at this point, which I don't think is.

[01:32:21] Right now, I spoke too earlier about the inventory and the day zone market. that's still super low and that's buyers do not have time to think about it if they found a home that they like they better make an offer and they are and on average they were offering above the list price okay so you think it's mainly the inventory that that's um you know creating this increase in in value and assessments until that inventory increases to when i first started 20

[01:32:53] years ago, a 30-day to 90-day day zone market was common. We haven't seen that in the last eight years where something would sit on the market that long. Do you see an increase in revenue just projected from data centers? I believe it was $895 million with real and personal property. Have you thought of what that value might be this fiscal year?

[01:33:23] The answer is yes, we do see an increase in that. You'll hear information about what's projected during the county administrator's proposed budget. Next week, one thing I'll caution you about is the way that personal property taxes work in the Commonwealth of Virginia, business owners report that equipment to us.

[01:33:45] So we don't know what that number is going to be. The filing deadline is early March. Taxpayers are afforded the opportunity to request an automatic 30-day extension if they do it prior to the deadline. A lot of our property owners that have a substantial amount of equipment wait until the beginning of April to report that equipment.

[01:34:10] So the board has already probably settled on a real property tax rate by the time we get the data. That would give you a hard and fast number. And even after that, we're still reviewing asset lists of equipment and data centers. Our data centers may have 1,500 customers within them.

[01:34:29] And then we have data centers that provide us lists of equipment that are over 100,000 lines long. so it takes quite a bit of time to review that information and reconcile it with what's reported to us. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you. Mr. Kirshner. Thank you, Madam Chair. I wasn't going to ask any questions because I felt the presentation was good and I want to move on, but you said something that was a little outside the presentation that I wanted to follow up on, and that is the reporting of the personal property tax. You said they can get an automatic 30-day extension? Correct. Okay. If it's requested in advance. And that is that state

[01:35:08] law that they have to provide it by March 1st and then 30 day if they request it in advance, is that correct? It is, correct. Has there been any attempt to change that at the state level that you're aware of? I'm not aware of any. I'm sorry? I'm not aware of any. Okay, because obviously at a local level like this, it obviously makes the evaluation more difficult in terms of setting the tax rate, especially for a county like us when we depend, when there's a significant dependence on it.

[01:35:32] I would say that you will get pushback from business owners. Sure. Most business owners keep records for income tax purposes, and a lot of this reporting is tied to those deadlines. So that might be a challenge trying to move that up.

[01:35:48] Of our data centers, what percentage requests the 30-day extension? I don't know the answer to that, but a significant number of our largest property owners request it. Okay. And do we know why? Is it just because it's an accounting process for them?

[01:36:03] It's an accounting process. Like I said, it's often tied to their income tax reporting, and they might not have the information yet available in order to do that. Fair enough. We do our best to provide an estimate to the budget office for their use in preparing the county administrator's proposed budget.

[01:36:24] They have to do projections. We won't know until later this year exactly what those numbers look like. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Vice Chair Turner. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm on page, slide 10. The number that jumped out at me was 78.7% increase in valuation 2025 at data centers. Next highest is 9% for multifamily. There were three factors that went into valuation, the market method, the income method, what was the third?

[01:36:53] The replacement cost. Replacement cost. Okay. On the income method, that's the income to the commercial property owner, an estimate of their income value to the property owner. Correct. What would cause, what are the factors that would cause data centers to jump almost 79% in valuation year over year?

[01:37:17] Part of it is our analysis of the market. Our largest data center portfolio, which is the retail, wholesale, hyperscale portfolio, you know, we review the information we receive from industry, which we review publicly available sources of information.

[01:37:41] And so we have increased what we believe the market is for those assets. The enterprise data centers are valued on a cost approach. We reviewed that in the early fall with our vendor to try to understand better how to value those using our mass appraisal system.

[01:38:08] And so we did make some fairly significant changes in the enterprise data center neighborhood. So it's a combination of things. It's growth. As I mentioned before, there's 25 data centers under construction right now.

[01:38:24] While only 300 million came in at 100% this year, there are 24 other data centers that are in some stage of construction from 30% to 80% or something to that nature. So it comes into play.

[01:38:42] It's reassessment, it's new construction, it's the value of new lots, it's all of those. Really quick, I'm going to run out of time. So I would assume the income evaluation is probably the most relevant one for a co-location data center, since they've got tenants.

[01:38:58] It would also be the one that we've most affected in its evaluation based on if, for example, a state imposed or removed the sales and use tax exemption, that would have a massive impact on income capacity for the co-location revaluation as opposed to the hyperscales, correct?

[01:39:14] That's potentially true, yes. Okay, thank you. Thank you. So I'm going to meet with you all before we start our budget process because this is a lot of information, really helpful information, but I want to know that I know before we start in the budget.

[01:39:31] The only question I had, and to follow up to Ms. Umstead's question about the federal government possibly being a lot of layoffs with federal government workers and federal contractors, which we know Loudoun is full of both, and your response was it may make for a more balanced market.

[01:39:49] Is that because there will be people who will be selling and are losing their homes and so there will be more homes coming on the market as a result of so many people possibly leaving their federal government jobs? Is that where that -- It could be that they're more willing to sell their homes. Yeah.

[01:40:04] Okay. So more willing to sell. Absolutely. Yeah. So selling or leaving for some reason, either they want to, they don't want to, whatever, because they're leaving their homes, so there would be more homes on the -- that's unfortunate.

[01:40:22] One more time. So the average homes on the market is around 17 days. For 2024, that was the average. But the average market supply was one month? Explain to me those.

[01:40:39] 45 days was the inventory. It was the inventory. So 45 days, if no other homes came on the market, we would sell all those homes. In 45 days? In 45 days. And what is balanced?

[01:40:55] When it's balanced, I was going to say healthy. When it's balanced, it would take more. Five to seven months? Yeah, five to seven months. Five to seven months. Yeah. Okay. all right that's a humongous difference yeah 45 days to five to seven months is a really big difference that's really not balanced so okay that was helpful and and i will have um my staff reach out so we can make an appointment thank you thank you thank you very much thank you gentlemen yes all right before we go to our next item i should say the amazing a comparable incomparable um buddy riser whose department is accredited by the economic development

[01:41:32] organization three of those in virginia 85 of those in all the country has walked in the door we've already um bragged on you but now we can brag to you because you're here that's an amazing accomplishment mr riser congratulations and congratulations to your whole team you all are you are phenomenal and as is your staff so thank you very much sir all right let's do our next item our next item is the um ledge our ledge item supervisors we're going to do item number 11 which is the ratification of the straw poll right after the ledge item that's an actually

[01:42:07] actually an action item but we're going to do that one right after hello hello i'm assuming mr freeman's on the line with us uh good evening madam chair members of the board how are you sir good how are you all we are very good there shouldn't be any votes tonight this is an information item only except for the straw poll vote ratification that we'll take after the item, correct? That is correct. Okay, we're ready when you are. Well, today is crossover, so happy

[01:42:44] crossover, everyone. To start off with an update on our initiatives, the airport disclosure bills did pass the House and Senate unanimously. The erosion bills that we have did pass the House senate as well um so that's just the update on our initiatives are going very well we don't uh you know think that we'll have any problems going forward um and you know we have a separate effort that we've been working on which we've talked about a couple of times um during the

[01:43:19] previous board meeting which is the effort for the state's acquisition oak hill to turn it into a state park uh that bill did pass the house and there was language included in the house budget as well for that effort so we were happy to see that um just two bills to also note in terms of um our effort uh in regard to data centers um the bills that we saw that would have drastically affected the sales of use tax exemption uh that's sb 1196 from senator deeds and sb 1425 by senator

[01:43:57] Stewart. They were heard last week in Senate Finance Subcommittee on resources. They passed by those bills for the day, and then those bills were just left in committee. So those bills are effectively dead, especially now that we are moving past crossover. A separate bill, just to also bring up, the Undergrounding and Transmission Lines Bill, qualifying projects. That bill was introduced by Senators Srinivasan and Delegate Singh.

[01:44:33] Unfortunately, Senator Srinivasan's bill was defeated last week in Senate Jen Laws. However, Delegate Singh's bill did pass the House 49-48, and that is to, you know, essentially aid with our effort that we're seeing in regards to transmission lines here in Laos.

[01:44:56] And if there's any questions on that, I would defer to our prestigious county attorney, Leo Rogers. to give an update budget sunday was this past sunday and so essentially what budget sunday is is when the house and senate finish their budgets they will present those budgets tomorrow on the floor as well as vote on those budgets and so from there the house and senate conferees will then start to work together to craft a final budget agreement to give to the governor.

[01:45:37] Staff is still evaluating the House and Senate budgets. The summaries are posted alone. However, the full budget language of the House and Senate budgets have not been posted yet. What we did notice is that the additional funding number for WMATA was fixed in the House and budgets as we expected. And so that was good to see. And, you know, we also saw in the house budget specifically, language to extend the sales and use tax exemption from 2035 to 2050.

[01:46:16] So that was great to see as well. But staff, again, is still evaluating house incentive budget. And I'll stop there for any questions. Okay, wonderful. Questions, questions, questions. Ms. Glass and Ms. Brixman, I'm going to go to you guys first this time.

[01:46:38] I don't have any questions. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Ms. Brixman. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just had a question about who the budget conferees are. Is there anyone from the Loudoun delegation in that group? Ms. Boyceco on the Senate side and on the House side.

[01:46:59] Do we have anybody on the House side? Well, not specifically from Loudoun County. Boisco, of course, used to be our senator. I guess she's still our senator by honorary means, if you will. But, yes, that's the closest conferee.

[01:47:15] That's correct, supervisor person. Isn't she the only one in Northern Virginia on the Senate side? That is correct. The conferees are Chair Lucas, Senator Locke, Senator Boisco, Senator McDougal, and Senator Pillian.

[01:47:33] Yeah. Okay, thank you. Mr. Letourneau. Just confirming, Jonathan, there are no Greenway bills, and there is no Greenway budget language in either budget. For once. That is correct. Okay, great.

[01:47:50] A year without the Greenway. Okay, a couple things. There was a bill that came up, and it was misresearched, that simply said that localities have the right to, I believe, put more voting locations where we believe appropriate.

[01:48:11] That bill was flying through until one of the people from our, Loudon's, electoral board went down and spoke against it, which, okay. Do we know the status of that bill? Did it cross over?

[01:48:27] Did it die? Is there a companion bill on the Senate side? That's my first question. The second question is for the, you said this, and I may have missed it, for the tax exemption bills, there was one in the House and the Senate.

[01:48:42] You're saying both of those are laid down and they didn't cross over on both sides. And so in other words, whatever died in the Senate, there's not a companion bill in the House for the data center tax exemption bills because we don't want those to pass. So that's my second question.

[01:48:57] And then the third question is Mr. Delegate Singh's bill of the undergrounding. Can there be any education, for lack of a better word, done to the members of the Commerce and Labor Committee on the Senate side, even if they're not going to pass it so that the understanding that Loudoun County is not legally allowed to take into account our power usage or where our power lines are located when we're making decisions about data centers?

[01:49:35] That's not something we can even take into account. So to make a decision of yes or no on that issue, when we can't take that into account, I think it's something that needs to be known by the Commerce and Labor Committee. So I know I threw three questions at you all at once, but if you could, yeah.

[01:49:53] Madam Chair, just to go in order, Delegate Research Bill, the voting, the election bill did pass the House. Okay, good. The sales and use tax exemption bills were left in committee.

[01:50:10] On both sides. On both sides, that's correct. We are still evaluating the House and Senate budgets to just make sure that we don't see any language in there that slips in and precludes that sales and use tax exemption or puts any conditions on it, as the board took that position after the JLARC report.

[01:50:34] And then for your last question, we believe that there are some letters that we could give out to the General Assembly to essentially note what our issue is with transmission lines to clarify any confusion or any inquiries that there may be on that matter.

[01:50:59] All right. Well, thank you. Thank you very much. And thank you for everyone who went down to the General Assembly, who talked to our General Assembly members. Jonathan, you're doing a fantastic job down there, so we appreciate it very much. So with no other questions, there is an item. We did get a straw poll vote on the ratification.

[01:51:20] We need to ratify the straw poll vote. It's the grant to the George C. Marshall International Center, the Dodana Manor Expansion Project, to put that in the 25 ledge program. It is in the town of Leesburg.

[01:51:36] So, Ms. Umstead, if you'd like to make that motion. Madam Chair, I don't think I have any language for the motion, but I would simply repeat what was in the straw poll, and I would make a motion that the board approve both question number one and question number two.

[01:51:56] Would somebody pull up, just for the record, if you would pull up the straw poll vote and read that. Do you have that in front of you, Mr. Yes. You have an item on your iPad. It's called potential item number 11. Number 11, yeah.

[01:52:11] And it has two motions at the end. Madam Chair. I think thanks to Supervisor Kirshner. Hold on one second, Mr. I was just going to offer to read it, and then someone could move it. I move that the Board of Supervisors ratify the straw poll taken on January 31, 2025 and approve a grant in the amount of $1,500,000 from restricted transient occupancy tax funds to the George C.

[01:52:41] Marshall International Center Incorporated, which will be payable on a reimbursement basis for approved facility design construction or fit out expenses and authorize the county administrator to sign a grant agreement between the county and the George C. Marshall International Center Incorporated approved as to form by the county attorney. I further move that the Board of Supervisors ratify the straw poll taken on January 31st 2025 and add support for Commonwealth funding to the George C.

[01:53:16] Marshall International Center incorporated project to its 2025 state legislative program second I'm taking that second sorry I'm taking that second discussion on the motion just I really appreciate staff's hard work the chairs support support of the other board members and the hard work of the folks at the george c marshall center thank you miss glass and miss brixman do you have any comments i do not madam chair miss bless yes madam chair i just um wanted to say that i um will be um

[01:53:56] supporting this motion and i did go visit the dodonna um the two folks that are there and i'm sorry i can't remember their names but um we had a great conversation there and i'm about to support All right. I would associate myself with Ms. Umstead's remarks. I would also remind people that we have a sister city in Main-Tinus-Christ, Germany.

[01:54:22] One reason that is a sister city, because the Sister Dodonna Manor, the George C. Marshall Sister House in Germany, is actually in our sister city in Main-Tinus-Christ, Germany. So one of the things they're going to do with the expansion is a lot of education around, well, around a lot of things, but one of the education pieces will be about our sister city in Main-Tinus-Christ, Germany.

[01:54:47] So just to kind of sometimes things feel disjointed, but then when you get more information, you realize how pulled together they are. So would you like a closing, Ms. Umstead? uh just to thank um delegate david reed and delegate marty martinez for their support in getting a budget amendment through richmond thank you ma'am all in favor please say aye aye any opposed that motion will pass nine oh that will put much from past eight one eight zero one with mr latour abstaining um okay thank you all very much congratulations

[01:55:23] mr riser supervisors we have enough time to go on and do the last um action item before we take public comments and then um and then go to closed session i think we only have like five people who have signed up for public comments so we're doing really well on time so will everyone come up for

[01:55:44] the last action item which is the um the equity plan it's uh it's it is item number five good

[01:56:12] evening good evening good evening you're ready when you are good evening chair randall members of the board of supervisors it's my privilege to present the loudon equity action plan which

[01:56:49] we call the leap this evening this plan represents a significant milestone in our commitment to fostering a more inclusive and equitable county government and it's grounded by the board's equity resolution and informed by the findings and recommendations of our dei a assessment report which we reported on earlier this year.

[01:57:08] The LEAP outlines a strategic approach to advancing the board's directives and the DAI assessment recommendations within our workforce, services, and community engagement. Tonight, I will walk through the background, the development process, the key component to the plan, which includes our six strategic goals and the implementation strategy that will ensure its continued progress.

[01:57:33] So as part of fiscal year 2021, the adopted budget, The board allocated $125,000 for a county-wide DEIA assessment or a study and the subsequent development of an equity action plan. Following a competitive procurement process, we contracted with MGT Consulting on September 29, 2022 to conduct that assessment.

[01:57:57] The primary objective was really to establish a baseline evaluation of the county's performance in relation to DEIA indicators benchmark against our comparators' jurisdictions and align with the industry best practices. This evaluation was designed to provide the county with a structured framework for developing an equity action plan that would guide the strategic efforts over multiple years.

[01:58:17] And 2022, that evaluation, we engaged MGT and evaluation took place. The targeted engagement, we had over 40 employees through structured discussion groups.

[01:58:33] There was a deployment of a comprehensive DIA survey to full-time regular employees at the time, which numbered 3,800 individuals on April 10, 2023. That survey gathered both quantitative and qualitative data related to employee perceptions around DIA-related issues.

[01:58:52] We looked at our comparator benchmarking against our regional jurisdictions of Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, and Prince William. And then we developed a review of the draft of the report, which was actually delivered to us by the consultant in July 2023.

[01:59:08] And the my office facilitated an internal review process and convened an equity action planning committee in September 2023 to analyze those preliminary findings and recommendations. The finalization of that report was delivered on January 2024 to my office and to the county, and we formally presented to the board on February 6, 2024.

[01:59:29] Building upon these findings and recommendations, the county partnered with Zellos in May 2024 to translate the assessment insights into actionable strategies. This process involved extensive collaboration with over 80 county representatives and was structured through three critical planning sessions.

[01:59:47] These sessions systematically shaped the equity action plan's strategic framework and defined our shared equity priorities and implementation goals. On December 13, 2024, Zellos delivered a final draft of the Leap to County staff. So just to summarize and extract some of our stakeholder engagement of what we just went through, there was the server that went out to 3,800 employees, 40-plus employees were in that focus group, 80-plus participants from departmental levels, and we had 10 feedback sessions at multiple levels of leadership throughout that.

[02:00:22] And throughout that developmental process, we engaged our employee focus groups, which was our employee advisory committee, our equity ambassadors. We looked at that DEIA study. We looked at our benchmarking and our best practices analysis. So when we look at the county, a strategic approach has developed a structured phase implementation approach spanning three years.

[02:00:45] In phase one, we'll focus on diversity and inclusion. Phase two of the LEAP plan focuses on equity, and phase three focuses on community engagement. But it's important to note that these phases are not linear. They're interconnected, and they will evolve based on progress and the outgoing evaluation throughout this.

[02:01:06] And as mentioned, these are aligned with the assessment findings. These are also aligned with the equity resolution objectives. And through our feedback sessions, we talk about ways to integrate this into county operations. So looking at our goals, as we work through this plan, it will work inward and progress outward.

[02:01:27] Internally, the first five goals that are listed there are internal focus. So we have our equitable recruitment and onboarding, which is really aiming at strengthening our countywide recruitment and onboarding standards to attract and hire a diverse and highly qualified workforce.

[02:01:43] Our workforce readiness really looks to fostering the understanding of the application of our principles through training, professional development, and policy implementation. When we are looking at welcoming people-centered culture, that's creating a more inclusive work environment where all employees feel valued and empowered.

[02:02:03] Our lead with data, we look at utilizing data analysis to identify disparities to measure progress and to inform our decisions. And then that fifth goal of equitable access to services really ensures that we look at our county programs and services and facilities and to ensure that they're accessible and equitable for all of our community members.

[02:02:23] And that sixth goal was our external focus on inclusive community engagement. And this was really informed by some of the things that we're working on for the board as well as your strategic initiatives retreat on focusing on more improving our diversity and equity inclusion efforts in the community.

[02:02:44] And so that inclusive engagement, community engagement, really focuses on that meaningful engagement, the efforts to ensure that all county voices are heard and represented in the county decision-making processes as well.

[02:02:59] So our implementation planning, we're looking to have board feedback and approval of these goals. We will develop a detailed work plan as we roll out the LEAP. Our resource allocation planning on what may be needed for that, which we will be using our annual budget process for that.

[02:03:19] Performance metrics will be included. They'll be established with each goal, which ensures measurable progress and continuous assessment, and staff will report on these performance indicators at a future board meetings to maintain transparency and track its effectiveness. We also have a very unique opportunity coming up this year.

[02:03:38] Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments has started an economic upward mobility cohort, which is really funded completely by the Gates Foundation and that is really looking at communities on how they can help their populations to have mobility when it comes to their economic prosperity and so forth.

[02:03:58] And we're happy to put together a cohort here made up of staff, but also to partner with Community Foundation as they'll be part of our cohort as we learn aside our other jurisdictions here that are really, there's several jurisdictions that will be a part of this, and we'll grasp a lot of the tools that we can bring back to use within the county as well.

[02:04:21] And in that monitoring and reporting structure, we'll have a biannual progress, updates. We already have an annual report that comes to the board, but we'll have a little bit more frequent updates on these goals in specific, and then our regular assessment of our goals and continuing our stakeholder engagement.

[02:04:39] So what we are asking the board is the approval of these goals that are listed to direct us to develop that work plan for development and then your guidance on implementation priorities. I would say in closing, the development of this equity action plan and the LEAP reflects the board's commitment to fostering an inclusive and equitable county government.

[02:05:02] The contributions of the large number of county employees and our contractors and consultants and stakeholders have been instrumental in shaping this plan. I'd also like to take the opportunity to thank the board for their clear directives in guiding this work and extend my sincere appreciation to Mr. Hemstreet for his leadership throughout this process.

[02:05:22] But most importantly, the countless amount of county staff that contributed to this was just quite remarkable. This really was a county-wide effort and my office was just sort of orchestrating, pulling all of these things together for a report. So this document is more than just a strategic plan, but it really is a commitment to understanding, to actively understanding, respecting, and empowering both our county workforce and our diverse community.

[02:05:46] And with that, I conclude my presentation. Happy for questions. Thank you very much. As I said earlier, I'm going to try to go to the motion, and then we can ask questions within the motion. All right, Ms. Bricksman, would you like to make a motion?

[02:06:02] I would love to make a motion, Madam Chair. It might be the proudest moment of my five years in office. Thank you. I move that the Board of Supervisors approve the Loudoun Equity Action Plan goals as provided in Attachment 1 of the February 4, 2025 Board of Supervisors Business Meeting Action Item.

[02:06:18] I further move that the Board of Supervisors direct staff to develop a work plan and provide biannual updates on the progress of the Loudoun Equity Action Plan goals and objectives for further prioritization by the Board. Second. Motion is made and second by Vice Chair Turner.

[02:06:35] Discussion on the motion. Ms. Brixman. Thank you, Madam Chair. I did have one question and then some comments. The MEI index, you know, it came back pretty good, I thought. Is it going to be rolled up into the LEAP project now, or are we still going to be getting something back separately?

[02:06:56] Yeah, so we'll actually bring back that formally at another board meeting, but it is actually contained in goal six, as we will be applying to that each year throughout this plan. Okay. That's excellent. Thank you. So, yeah, as I said, I'm very proud of all this work. Oh, I'm sorry. I had one more question. The segregated schools study, when is that projected to come back? So, we have received the draft back. We're actually reviewing that now. And once we go

[02:07:31] through that review process, we'll look to the board for the time and when to bring that back. Okay. Okay. Thank you. By way of comment, Madam Chair, I know that things feel kind of scary and unstable right now in our nation and even threatening for our vulnerable communities.

[02:07:53] But we know too much about systemic racism and bigotry. We know too much about systemic sexism. We know too much about homophobia, disparagement, othering of people that are not part of the quote-unquote norm in our country. And we know how all of these things contribute to pain and real harm to our vulnerable communities. So despite what is happening at the national level, I just want to say I am so proud of our county right now. And, you know, our vision statement

[02:08:30] says we will strive for an equitable and sustainable county for everyone. And we are pushing forward on all of this and we are not going back thank you madam chair thank you miss brixman um miss glass you have anything i'm only calling on you all first not because i'm trying to pick on you but because i can't see you and i don't want to forget you well i don't want to not i don't want to get calling on you so that not that i could ever forget you but miss glass thank you madam chair i would just like to um say thank you to our staff for a great job that they've done

[02:09:07] And a lot of hard work has been put in for the work that we're trying to do in Loudoun County. And I would agree with what Supervisor Biskman has stated. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[02:09:22] Thank you, Ms. Umstead. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll be supporting this, although I may not support creating a new commission because of the burden it would place on the county attorney's office.

[02:09:39] but we're not quite there yet. I'm supporting this in spite of the fact that the new administration in D.C. is promising to penalize entities who have DEI programs and to deny those entities any federal funding, federal grants, federal loans.

[02:10:07] So while I think we have to stand up for what we think is right regardless, I do think we need to start preparing for a loss of federal funding across many different sectors because I think this is going to generate that loss in funding.

[02:10:30] So that aside, I do support it and I thank you for your hard work. I appreciate when I emailed you, Mr. Rush, and you were tied up, You immediately contacted Ms. Green. She got back to me immediately on how best to respond to a constituent who is definitely not in favor of a DEI program, and she did a wonderful job.

[02:10:56] So you've done great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Mr. Crony. Thank you, Chair Randall, and thank you, Mr. Rush. So my question is, you know, I do support a DEI initiative, but my question is about kind of what are the resource requests that you anticipate to implement the LEAP?

[02:11:18] I know it's a three-year implementation that you've outlined, but what resource requests are you asking for? So it will actually be over those three years. We're collecting cost estimates right now on some of the things that we're looking to do.

[02:11:37] So I know up front there will probably be, and one of the goals, it calls for the equity readiness assessment. So that will probably come with a cost. But once we get all of those cost estimates really nailed down, we're happy to share those with you.

[02:11:54] And you'll be coming to the FY26? You'll be presenting? I believe there are some that are in FY26. So the one that I have the most concern about is number six, you know, just going out to the community. I mean, do you think that one, you know, I have to say, given the climate today, I am, you know, concerned about federal employees losing their jobs and us having to come up with a way to, you know, program some support.

[02:12:25] So I am, that one I think is probably the most, in my view, it would be the most costly just because you're reaching out to different communities versus the internal view. I mean, would you agree? No. So 6.1 through 6.6 are things that the board has already established.

[02:12:45] 6.7 is really there in case the board establishes something else that's not in the plan. So that's why that's listed there, 6.7. Oh, okay. So you may not be implementing kind of that level, because that's where I see maybe costs.

[02:13:02] Correct. To get out to the community. Okay. The second thing is I know when we had a recent consultant study done by A&M of the county operations, at least in a few departments, do you think implementing a DEI program internally will increase staff workload or do you see a complementary?

[02:13:25] I see it as complimentary. I think we've already implemented the program to date. And I think a lot of what's here is staff has already been working on that as well. And some of these things are already in progress.

[02:13:42] So I think it would be complimentary. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Rush. Mr. Letourneau. Thank you, Madam Chair. So I think some of the things in here are common sense, core values, core principles that i would hope would be systematic in the organization and i think in many cases are i'm not inclined to support adding layers of what i see more as bureaucracy or i see more as administration additional funding additional jobs at this time to accomplish this and i'm

[02:14:16] not convinced that we need to be so i'm not supportive of some elements of this plan thank Thank you, Mr. Kirchner. Thank you, Madam Chair, and I associate myself with some of Mr. Letourneau's comments.

[02:14:32] I want to add a little bit, and first of all, Mr. Rush, I want to thank you for all your work. I know the board has given you direction, even though I have kind of from the beginning opposed this whole process, just for a variety of reasons that we talked about a little bit. I do thank you for your hard work and everything that you've gone through in bringing this item to us.

[02:14:50] I guess really, and I want to reiterate this kind of for the record, I don't fully understand what we're -- a problem that we're actually trying to solve. And I know that some of my colleagues up here may take a different approach to this, but I feel like we're spending a lot of work, a lot of resources towards something that hasn't really fully been identified.

[02:15:12] It does make, you know, as Supervisor Letourneau said, there are some core things in here that are really good that any organization should have. But my concerns continue to be many. And I'll just give you a perfect example. I mean, for example, in goal number one, it says that it's equitable to recruitment. In onboarding, it says review and update countywide standards for recruitment and onboarding to attract and hire diverse workforce of highly qualified people.

[02:15:36] I mean, last I checked, we're having a really hard time hiring folks here. We have a number of departments that are incredibly short. Obviously, pay and those sorts of things, those are important. but I think we should be looking to hire the best and the brightest regardless of what sex, race, orientation, et cetera, that you are, and period, based upon that.

[02:15:58] I've always felt that way, and I feel like if we get too far abroad of that, we run into potentially decision-making problems. For example, let's say we have three different candidates that we are hiring who are different races, and yet they're equally qualified.

[02:16:13] Does that mean the one that has more in a particular department gets eliminated automatically? And these are kind of the problems that I think as we get further into this, we will begin to struggle with. And then we're making decisions based in some part on potential race, whereas that person could have easily competed and done just as well, but they get eliminated for something along those lines.

[02:16:33] And that to me is troubling, that we could potentially have to make those sort of decisions, and that's just one of many, many examples. The other thing I would bring up that I think we're beginning to implement some of these policies already. I have had several potential employees who approached me after they went for an interview with Loudoun County, and they were asked during their interviews what they thought of our DEI policies.

[02:16:56] I think that's completely inappropriate. I don't think we should be asking. I think that's discriminatory, quite frankly. What they think or don't think is completely opposite of the merits. And I'm not saying that you, Mr. Rush, or anyone, but I've heard that from several people. And I think that should never be a question we are asking and I don't think we should be making these decisions from some of these perspectives.

[02:17:17] That's just on the hiring aspect. We could go into more. I don't have the time. But I do thank you for all your hard work. A lot of the core things in here are great. We should be implementing as an organization. I just think we're spending a lot of extra resources that we don't need to do. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Can I answer?

[02:17:32] Yes, of course. Yeah. So as you're aware, Supervisor Kirshner, we are an equal employee opportunity employer And we don't discriminate in any form. It's listed in our HR handbook. It has been there since I've been here and even before.

[02:17:50] We strictly look at candidates for their qualifications, their experience, and their merit. Never does race or any form of protected class really come into our decision-making process. So that has always been there. That's always been a foundational piece of our hiring.

[02:18:08] To speak about diverse, it doesn't mean that you're taking that piece away, the legality of the piece. It just means that we're expanding our applicant pool to get the best and the brightest in here to work for Loudoun County. Your second concern, that's the first that I've ever heard of that, and probably is the first that anyone in this county within staff has probably heard of that as well, because that's never been asked on any interview panel.

[02:18:33] Thank you. Mr. Turner. Thank you, Madam Chair. This discussion, I think, as it has tonight, always devolves down into we don't need this program because we don't have a problem. We don't think we have a problem. It should be folded into the core values of the organization, so we don't think we have a problem.

[02:18:51] And the alternative is always characterized as you're going out to try and hire certain people because of the color of the skin, because of their cultural background. And the implication is regardless of their qualifications. Neither of those positions, in my judgment, are even remotely factually based or justifiable.

[02:19:13] DEI, to me, and the practical example is a couple of years ago, we applied a DEI lens, I believe, to our entire Parks and Rec program to go out and find out, correct me if I'm wrong on this, to go out and find out if our public facilities, if we came up with an objective DEI lens, if we could identify any issues.

[02:19:33] And there were a number of circumstances whereby it was quite clear that certain neighborhoods in Loudoun County had a paucity of public facilities, public park facilities, trail access and those sorts of things that was completely inadvertent and would not have been discovered had we not pursued a DEI lens.

[02:19:54] And it was very objective and I remember being really impressed and I believe it got fairly significant attention statewide if not nationally because of what it found. This DEI program and all DEI programs, if they are run correctly, simply assure that the processes we're going through do not have, best case, inadvertent blind spots, worst case, advertent blind spots, to create a standard metric whereby we can apply that standard metric without regard to any other difference other than qualifications for the job.

[02:20:31] And I think the argument that this wouldn't even be a discussion if there were not issues that we can measure and validate through a structured evaluation process, which is all a DEI program is.

[02:20:48] I understand the easy path and the ability to dive down into a political soundbite when it comes to issues like DEI. But I think there's some pretty good Loudoun County proof that looking at various programs through a DEI lens does, in fact, have value and does, in fact, raise the caliber of the workforce across the board.

[02:21:13] Thank you, Madam Chair. First, I want to respond to Mr. Kirshner because Mr. Rushman must have said 15 times, diverse and highly qualified, highly qualified. And that same example has already been asked and given in meetings of the past that the goal is to cast a wider net to make sure that we are getting a diverse and highly qualified workforce, not a workforce that is one color or the other.

[02:21:41] That literally has already been discussed on this board. So how it got brought up again is just for a soundbite. The second thing is, yes, we should have core requirements. Every agency should have core requirements. But you always check on those core requirements, and this is one way to check to see if we are meeting our core requirements.

[02:22:01] Let's not pretend that we have always been the county we are now, because just 10 years ago, there were some very different things going on in this county, and anybody in this board 10 years ago, Mr. Letourneau, knows that there were some very different things going on in this county that was absolutely not okay.

[02:22:18] So there are some things put in core values now that weren't there before, and the programs like this ensure that those core values continue to be to to to take place and so i am a little concerned that as we talk about dei it's actually not dei it's dei a and i'm not hearing a lot of discussion about the a which is also very important to me because i and i say this every time we have this discussion i don't know what that we're the most accessible county um i don't know that we're county, even on this dais, that somebody can't see how somebody would have, would function as a supervisor if they were blind.

[02:22:58] It would be very hard to function as a supervisor if you are deaf. It's even very hard when people come in and they're in a wheelchair to get, to have their voices heard. So it's not DEI, it's DEIA. And I have said many times, I as a county don't want to meet the minimum standards of what people who need accessibility assistance need.

[02:23:23] It feels like right now, we have some, we've talked about some things. They're taking a really long time to do. I have gone to county buildings and they are meeting the minimum requirements, but not always.

[02:23:38] I do know that like the bathroom downstairs is being remodeled, that's good. But I would like to have as much focus or a significant focus on our residents who may have different abilities, and I do not believe that there's enough focus on that as well.

[02:24:00] So that's all I'll say, and Ms. Bricksman, you'll have a closing. Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the discussion, and I do appreciate Mr. Rush and your office doing all this hard work. I did read this item through probably two times wholly, and I do appreciate.

[02:24:21] One thing that I did want to point out after the discussion we just heard was one of the main things that our team is doing, and it's in the plan right now, and that is rely on the data. Rely on the data so that we can see where there's gaps, we can see where there are potential disparities, we can react to that.

[02:24:44] we can be accountable um to to the actions that have been taken and that will be taken in the future um if you can't see a need for this these sorts of programs in this action plan um you're either not looking or you refuse to see it um the issues of equity and inclusion have been well documented in our nation um and and in our county actually um and systemic means it's intentional and not intentional. So I would argue, I would disagree that we have found

[02:25:18] disparities in our own county because previous government officials were not being intentional about the way they use their power. That's the exact reason why we have seen disparities and inequities in our county. Are there some unintentional things that have happened?

[02:25:35] Absolutely. I have every confidence that our staff and our county are going to rise up to this challenge, and we are going to bring forth the best work plan possible, and we will be rewarded with having better talent and better relationships in our communities, better services to our communities, especially for vulnerable communities, all the way from LGBTQ to those who are disabled, to women, to families, and to vulnerable communities. Again, Madam Chair, I'm really proud that we're doing this and i really look forward to the work plan that's coming forward

[02:26:13] thank you okay um before we take a vote just a point of clarification i think miss umset put a pretty valid statement on the table and maybe at some point mr hemstreet um we we may need to have that discussion if if we could if if we would lose any federal funds or that could be of any consequence and that may be something that i mean i don't know how we know that before the budget starts but it may be something that we need to discuss during the budget process it's interesting

[02:26:48] that the party believes that the local and state government knows best would punish local and state government but it is something we may want to discuss um all right uh motion is made by supervisor bricksman second by the by vice chair turner all in favor say aye aye opposed aye that motion will We'll pass 7 to 2 with Mr. Letourneau and Kirchner voting against the motion.

[02:27:15] All right, we have gotten to the point, in fact, past the point, my gosh, I'm sorry, of public comments. I have two people for public comments, and so we will call them right now. And I did not realize it was 23 minutes after, so my apologies. Our two people, Mr. Russell, James Russell, if you're in the room, and Sarah Bazar, if you were on the phone.

[02:27:39] Oh, we have one more. Hello. I'm sorry, Mr. Russo, just give me one second. Is she in the room? She's in the room. Okay, thank you. I'm sorry, Mr. Russo, you may continue. Hello. I'd like to share a story.

[02:28:07] In 1930s Germany, there was a sexual health clinic called the Institute of Sexology, and it provided support and gender-affirming care for LGBTQ people, and this was one of the first facilities that was targeted for book burnings. Now, why is that? Is such a small portion of the population such a threat to the country? No.

[02:28:35] I suggest that that was done for the sake of building momentum of repression. You take a group of people that, in that instance, had very little sympathy in the public, and we terrorize them. Anybody who objects to the methods risks seeming to be a friend of the LGBTQ community.

[02:29:00] Now, we've been talking about LGBTQ people and our support for them, and I appreciate that very much. But the parallels I see between that situation and this one are still very clear because our situation today, We just saw our senator vote in the affirmative on the Lake and Riley Act, which requires the detention of undocumented migrants who are accused of a crime, not necessarily a violent one.

[02:29:32] We have witnessed in Loudoun County Gestapo tactics being applied against migrants who supposedly are undocumented, although that distinction is worth less and less every hour. I have called all of my representatives at the local, state, and federal level, all of which are Democrat.

[02:29:53] Not a single one has acknowledged these tactics being applied, terrorizing the communities. I heard from two members of this board last December that there is a plan to support these immigrant communities. And speaking on their behalf, we are very interested to hear from it.

[02:30:14] They might be surprised by such terror being applied against them, but the Palestinian neighbors are not. Thank you. Thank you. Now, I don't normally do this, but I will say that the word Gestapo Tactics, if somebody wants to, no, no, I'm not asking you for anything right now. If somebody wants to send me any information on what Gestapo Tactics means, feel free to do that.

[02:30:38] Otherwise, I would take some umbrage with the word Gestapo Tactics. Our next speaker is Sarah Bazar, followed by Vicki Fishman.

[02:30:58] I think, ma'am, she is on the phone. Hello? Yes, ma'am. We can hear you. Hi. Good. Today I'm addressing Ms. Randall, the board supervisor, a leader with power, influence, and the one who sets the agenda.

[02:31:14] Recently you made a statement in the Blue Ridge Leader and Loudon February 2025 edition where you said, this issue didn't happen on October 7th, and it didn't happen in 1948. This is a biblically long issue. This comment is deeply troubling.

[02:31:29] It diminishes the lived struggles of Palestinians, Muslims, Christians, and Jews alike, whose histories and ancestors are deeply rooted in the Arab and Semitic lands. Most importantly, it undermines the Palestinian people's 76-year struggle against occupation, ethnic cleansing, forced displacement, and apartheid.

[02:31:51] Because of this occupation, I, like so many others, remain in the diaspora, longing to return to a homeland that is yet free. Your statement erases the experiences of millions of Palestinians who have been forcibly displaced, many of whom are still waiting for a liberated Palestine so they can finally go home.

[02:32:12] Even if we were to entertain your framing of this as a biblical issue, would that justify the genocide in Gaza? Would it justify the killing of over 65,000 Palestinians, the destruction of more than 80% of infrastructures, or the 19,000 children who have been killed?

[02:32:30] Would it justify children undergoing amputations without anesthesia, women giving birth without medical care, or the sexual abuse of Palestinian men and women? Would it justify the one million Palestinians who have been kidnapped as hostages at some point in their lives?

[02:32:45] Or the fatal attacks on journalists, academics, and healthcare workers? Would it justify the ongoing bombing of Jenin, Tulkarim, and Naples? Or the annexation of the West Bank and home demolitions in East Jerusalem? Ms. Randall, you are a woman of faith who believes in Jesus Christ, a Palestinian born in the very land we are speaking about.

[02:33:06] A figure who stood for justice? Why then are you silent about the grave injustices facing the Palestinian people? As Dr. King said, the time is always right to do what is right. Speak out for your communities, for justice, and for the integrity of your role as a leader.

[02:33:23] Our county is complicit in arms and surveillance technologies used to oppress Palestinians abroad and to harm vulnerable immigrant communities here at home. ICE has been trained by the IOF who are using those racist tactics here in Loudoun County.

[02:33:40] Use your voice to challenge injustice and racism, no matter who the opposition. Thank you. Ms. Fishman, good evening. Good evening. Thank you. I'm Vicki Fishman with the Jewish Community Relations Council, and I'm here today to thank you.

[02:33:58] For many months, this boardroom has been filled with calls for you to weigh in on international affairs by calling for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas that began on October 7, 2023, when terrorists, followed by scores of civilians, stormed the Israel-Gaza border and massacred Jews, Muslims, Bedouins, Thai, Americans, and other foreign nationals, killing over 1,000 people in a single day and kidnapping more than 200 people.

[02:34:26] As you may have followed in the news, there is now a ceasefire, thanks to the Herculean efforts of the Biden and Trump administrations working together in an extremely rare display of unity across the American political divide. Only the negotiations of international power brokers could possibly have brought this outcome, an agreement that remains fragile and is in no way helped or influenced by local governments.

[02:34:52] So thank you for letting those who are properly placed to do so do their work. As a result of this agreement, 18 hostages have returned home to Israel, including five Thai Nationals and one American, Keith Siegel, who we saw looking frail and barely able to stand. These hostages were kept captive over the course of almost 500 days in cages, tunnels, civilian homes, and United Nations facilities. They were deprived of food and light.

[02:35:25] They suffered beatings, deprivation, and psychological torment, but these 18 are now home and begin can begin to heal over time we will continue to learn what they endured while so many in the world and in this boardroom lionized and ex and excused their captors and tormentors i cannot help but note that despite the ceasefire those who were calling on you to call for a ceasefire to continue to fill this boardroom finding other reasons to demonize israel and jews who support Israel. Perhaps then, the call for a ceasefire was really something else.

[02:36:03] I must further note that while the ceasefire holds and 18 hostages have been released, 85 hostages remain in captivity held by Hamas in Gaza. Of those 85, seven are Americans, and of those seven, four are believed to have been killed in captivity. The Jewish community around the world, the region, and here in Loudoun County holds its collective breath as we watch this ceasefire play out and our family come home we thank you for not dividing this local community

[02:36:33] while we do so thank you miss fishman fishman thank you supervisors if you have a um a nomination i'm going to go down the line if you let me know what that that is right now i'd appreciate it miss glass do you have any nominations yes i do madam chair i nominate dr william riley to serve as the broad-run district representative on the loud and health commission miss bricksman do you have any nominations i do not thank you mr kirschner thank you excuse me thank you madam

[02:37:13] chair i nominate clinton good as the subject matter expert architect representative on the zoning ordinance committee also known as sock yeah that's a good one that's a good one and i will nominate um sherry um karamadas to an at-large seat on the community services board all right Supervisors we have two fairly we have two evaluations closed session. Let's take a ten-minute break while we take a break and then move Ms. Bricksman and Ms. Glass to the to the closed session room. We'll come back and read in the

[02:37:51] closed session after we take a break. So let's do ten minutes.

[02:54:15] okay we're back is a Miss Bricksman and Miss glass are you guys Miss Bricksman and Miss glass are you back with us yes okay yes wonderful wonderful we're gonna go on and do more comments so then when we come back from public hearing we can we're finished yay so we're gonna do board comments and I will go to and

[02:54:41] And remember, because Mr. Kirschner and Mr. Sains was not here when I said this earlier, I'll be bringing a motion in March probably to take board comments from five minutes to three minutes. But right now we'll start with Mr. Croney.

[02:55:01] Thank you, Chair Randall. So on January 30th, I met with Chuck Kuhn regarding a number of issues, including the Greenland Park application. And my comments are, I really enjoyed attending the Loud and Love song that we did at a place to be in Leesburg.

[02:55:26] That'll be released on Valentine's Day, February 14th. It was an expiring experience at a time when we need a little hope and love. There was a gathering, a community gathering for the victims of the plane crash that I attended to at the ION Center this past weekend.

[02:55:46] And I had the solemn privilege of gathering with the victims of the plane crash. It was deeply moving to witness the outpouring of support from community members, first responders, and local leaders all coming together to honor those affected and provide comfort to grieving families and my heart goes out to the families and loved ones affected by the devastating loss. There is a GoFundMe page that was established recently

[02:56:19] by CRP management to help raise funds to aid all impacted families from the Ashburn Ice House and MedStar Capitals, IcePlex, and Arlington, and those were the home rinks for the 15 souls lost in the tragedy, and that's something different from what we heard from the Community Foundation, but it's another opportunity if people would like to donate on the GoFundMe page. Thanks to everyone who came to the Route 50 safety and operational public input meeting last night at Willard Middle School.

[02:56:55] my office as a next step will be scheduling a town hall in middleburg this spring to gather more resident input on the proposed short and long-term improvements and i did hear from the public that they do not desire turn lanes or expansion on route 50 west of lena so i did hear that was a strong sentiment voiced by almost everybody in the room um i had middleburg office hours on january 30th and i want to thank every to everybody who came um to meet with me and thank

[02:57:31] thank you to the middleburg town council for letting me use uh town hall uh their conference room in town hall to host that and my next office hours will be at birchwood at brambleton's clubhouse on february 10th from 11 to 3 11 a.m to 3 p.m and i hope to see everybody there i really enjoy meeting constituents and speaking about ideas issues concerns or if they want to just stop by and say hello i'd love that as well thank you thank you mr crony mr letourneau thank you

[02:58:10] madam chair um obviously just want to start by offering my thoughts and prayers for the victims of the crash and also note um with some pride as i know chair renda was recognized and as a former council of governments chair myself the the regional cooperation uh that occurred on the day the night and the following days of the of the crash shows that all the work that's put into preparedness which is really at its core based on the cog mutual aid agreements across not only our virginia jurisdictions but also across the potomac and maryland and dc um really do work

[02:58:47] and uh it's it's tragic that had to be activated and we had to see in action but um still um gratifying that it was and and obviously wish the outcome had been different the only other thing i wanted to just mention i don't normally mention meetings that i have that are not lane use but i'm going to this time because it might be of interest to the board i had a meeting with tammy rais mick who's the new ceo of stone springs hospital there have been quite a few ceos during the tenure of the hospital which coincides with my time on the board and but i have

[02:59:23] i'm optimistic that the current one will be with us for a while has roots here and planning on staying in the region and we had a very good conversation about community partnerships and what we can do to improve that hospital and what the hospital is thinking and also the partnership with the county including the fact that she actually has already been on a ride along with our fire rescue which i thought was a smart thing to do so i just wanted to mention that happy to share that information if anybody else is interested in having that contact should you need it but that's a very important facility for the southern part of the county um you know it's

[03:00:02] it's you know core medical services it's where our ems takes patients and so on so always have been really invested in making sure that that facility is successful having been there a patient myself and my kids as recently as this past weekend so that's what happens thank you madam yeah you were the first patient thank you miss umstep thank you madam chair um i would like to uh just thank thank ion and

[03:00:37] the ashburn ice house for all their community building in relation to the the crash of flight 5342 and the army black hawk helicopter um i was fortunate enough to have attended the ceremony at the ion center i want to thank chair randall mayor burke sheriff chapman the governor and lieutenant governor for their remarks and i know they would all agree that some of the most

[03:01:12] moving remarks were made by the friends of the young friends of some of the skaters who were lost many of these young women soldiered through their remarks through tears and were incredibly moving and there was even humor as they remembered a friend who was a bit of a prankster and i just i think all our hearts go out to the entire community on that i have no

[03:01:54] disclosures but i do want to thank the chair for her remarks in relation to the claim of gestapo tactics i have not seen any gestapo tactics in loudon county by anyone certainly not by local law enforcement and i am glad that that was was addressed i appreciate ms fishman's coming out for jcrc and um giving us her her remarks i thought

[03:02:33] she did a very nice job thank you uh this glass because you're looking at me you got to turn yourself on there you go um thank you madam chair i have one disclosure on tuesday january 28th my staff met with representatives from jk land holdings to discuss the telos residential rezoning application um i think uh this past week has been really hard for a lot of folks and i just want um

[03:03:13] Loudoun County to know that we are here for you. I just want folks to know that I am praying for them. As Supervisor Umstad said, that was really moving to see the young ladies talk about their friends and let folks know who they were and just hold them up because I know they're going to need

[03:03:49] help they're going to need love and support for the long time thank you madam chair thank you mr saints thank you madam chair have no mandatory disclosures um yes this has definitely been a a tough time for our community um my thoughts and prayers and support go out to the friends and family of the the victims of the the horrific um crash that took place at national airport

[03:04:23] the other day um i also attended the the visual at uh at the ion uh skating complex this past saturday it was a very uh moving uh memorial and the words that were spoken about the young people that unfortunately lost their lives by their friends and coaches were were very nice and they did did a great job of getting through a tough moment and i think the words that uh chair randall and a few others shared were spot on and definitely needed at that time,

[03:05:01] and hopefully people can go watch the video that was shared by one of our local outlets for people to see because it was definitely some good comments and guidance to study us all during this difficult period.

[03:05:19] Also, we'll just say that in these moments, We all need to, again, make sure you reach out to individuals, professional and your friends or family for comfort, consoling, and it's okay to say you're not okay.

[03:05:39] As Chair Reynolds said a few times and during some other difficult times, it's okay to say you're okay, not okay, and need help. And thank you to our first responders in the DMV area responding to that tragedy.

[03:05:56] And please make sure you take care of yourself and make sure you reach out and ask for help and services. It's okay to do so because we want to make sure we think about our first responders, even though it's a recovery.

[03:06:12] And my understanding, they did recover all the lives that were lost, the vessels. So I'm thankful for that. And I'm pretty sure it's something that they will never forget and definitely need to make sure they take care of themselves to make sure they're okay.

[03:06:31] as well while they go through this process um so yeah so loud and let's take care of one another and uh we'll keep pressing on thank you thank you miss brixman thank you madam chair well i would just um echo everything my colleagues have said about the last week and how rough it's been um i definitely uh want the community to know that we are here for them and my deepest condolences

[03:07:04] and my heart is with them. My heart has been torn because I'm in Maine instead of down there, so it's been difficult. Many of my colleagues have heard and friends have heard that I go to visit my parents in Maine, and I'm here now because my stepfather, 40 years, has passed away at the age of 97. Um, and he died peacefully at home and he lived a great life. Uh, he, uh, was

[03:07:40] born in 1927. So imagine what things were like in 1927. Um, he went to Purdue university. Uh, his college was interrupted by going into the army to help counter and help the counterintelligence Corps in Japan in September of 1947. He went back to Purdue and received his doctorate in 1953, and he became a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue and eventually the dean of engineering school at Purdue. And when I was up there a couple years ago, his portrait is actually still in the

[03:08:18] hallway at Purdue University. In 1971, he was appointed president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He has served on boards on and off all through there. I found it funny that I learned when he was appointed to Rensselaer, he was protested because he was deemed a member of the military industrial complex. He did a lot as president there that we do here in building infrastructure for the school. He was a CEO of Renco Corporation in Columbus, Ohio after being

[03:08:53] at Rensselaer. He retired with my mom in 1987, and they took off sailing their boat basically around the world. They started out sailing their boat from the Great Lakes all the way down to St. Laura's Seaway and to South Carolina. He was a true Renaissance man. He built most of the furniture that's in this house that I'm sitting in right now. He's a master woodworker, and he wrote more than 100 educational papers on engineering and science so my heart is torn between these two places right now but i believe this is the place where i should be um we will be

[03:09:33] having a funeral on saturday and a big party to celebrate his long long life um and i think i think that's all i have now do you want to actually say um where your family would like to have um in lua flowers sure um uh his name is richard grosh um and uh in lieu of flowers donations in dick's memory can be made to the brooklyn fire department and that's brooklyn maine b-r-o-o-k-l-i-n

[03:10:07] p.o box 17 brooklyn maine 04616 or to the peninsula ambulance corps at 46 water street blue hill maine oh four six one four people can pm me or message me if they're really interested thank you ma'am thank you mr kershner thank you madam chair um in terms of mandatory disclosures i met with chuck coon and charles yudd last week on the greenland application i think i echo a lot of what everyone has said about american flight 5342 and i think uh you know obviously i think it's been troubling to all of us you don't really have a soul it hasn't been

[03:10:44] But what really has struck me through this whole tragedy, first of all, you know, my prayers, my family's prayers, my children's prayers continue to go out to families of the victims and our love and support. But what it reminds me of, I think, when a tragedy hits this close to home for any of us, especially one where it takes the lives of individuals so young and in the prime of their life, is how short and sometimes and brief and unknown life can be.

[03:11:12] and it reminds me of the words of jesus which is the greatest commandment is to love your god with a little heart but to love your neighbor as yourself and i continue to strive to do that i think we as a board do a really good job of that as a whole we may have our differences but we continue to support each other especially in our personal lives and obviously i think that extends to our community as a whole and i'm very proud to be a part of this board and the support that we give to our community and to these families, and I was unable to be at the vigil because I was out of town with my boys on an event that we had long planned, but my heart was

[03:11:49] certainly there, and so I'm grateful for the community as they've come together. On a little bit lighter note, in terms of a little bit of news from Catoctin, lambing season for the Kirshner household began on January 4th, and it just ended on February 4th with our 11th lamb born.

[03:12:07] So we have had six ewes have 11 lambs, and it has been quite an adventure for the boys. This is their first year going through a lambing process. I'm finally getting sleep because you have to, especially during those cold periods, you have to get up about every two hours.

[03:12:24] My wife is really smart. She decided to get a baby monitor and put it in the barn so that I could check it from the bed, side of my bed, rather than getting up and walking out. She's way smarter than I am, but it sure was great. Nonetheless, that is a little bit of the news from Catoctin, and we'll have some 4-8 slams come this fair end of July.

[03:12:44] Thank you, Madam Chair. She is so much smarter than you. She's smarter, cuter. Honestly, Madam Chair, that goes without saying. Mr. Vice-Chair Turner. Thank you, Madam Chair. On Tuesday, February 4th, my staff spoke with Matt Leslie from Bowen to discuss the application for the Century Corner at Goose Creek Village.

[03:13:03] there are simply no words to describe what uh what has happened to our community over the last week i attended both the ashburn ice house event and the ion event um i was moved to tears multiple times i watched the kids the friends of many of these skaters react to the two service dogs that were there at the ashburn ice house and it was very very touching um the the interaction really cut through a lot of the other emotions that we have to remind us that we're brought together by love, and we remain together through love.

[03:13:43] The four friends of some of the skaters that were lost at the ION event also had that same effect on everybody in the audience. I've been praying for the families, for the victims, and for the friends repeatedly since the event happened, we need to remember that there's a long road ahead of all of us, these families and all of us, and keep that in mind.

[03:14:14] I will say, having been through a number of aircraft accidents in my career, there used to be a saying in World War II, loose lips sink ships. In this case, loose lips hurt families. Mr. Trump said in a global TV broadcast a day or two after the accident that the helicopter was clearly flying too high.

[03:14:39] This kind of a statement by anybody at this stage is unbelievably irresponsible. I read an article yesterday in the New York Times, for example, that pointed out that the black boxes recovered from the airliner had the airliner at 325 feet at impact and that the air traffic control radar system and the helicopter was probably transmitting on its transponder its altitude had the helicopter at exactly 200 feet which is where it was supposed to be they can't explain the discrepancy but for anyone but obviously the helicopter was too high has been all over social media now for three or four days these are crew members whose memory is

[03:15:17] affected by these kinds of rumors no one knows the details until the ntb ntsb completes its investigations i would just encourage everybody don't become an echo chamber for information that's just not valid because it really does hurt families people are hearing these things and they have to live with what they hear and so just be very very careful what you say chair randall to her credit has been very very careful about what she says to we've had several press come up to us and ask for names and those sorts of things.

[03:15:50] Just everyone be very vigilant and remember the impact that your words can have on the families. Thank you. - Thank you, I have one disclosure. I met with Charles Judd and Chuck Kuhn this morning about Greenland Park and the Hidden Wood Assembly.

[03:16:08] Well, obviously I will associate myself with all of my colleagues' comments. As of a couple of hours ago, all 67 souls have been recovered, so everyone is out of the water. I can't imagine what a task that has been for the first responders.

[03:16:28] And so, you know, we almost say offhandedly, we want to thank our first responders, but what they have just done is a Herculean effort in so many ways, and a very emotional effort. We did, in Loudoun County, send mutual aid down, And so we did have first responders at the scene, as well as one of our emotional support dogs at the scene as well.

[03:16:55] So I want to just note that and thank first responders. I do think that in a time of a tragedy of this magnitude, to politicize this type of tragedy is evil. To be honest, it's evil.

[03:17:12] There are times for politics, and there are times that politics just do not belong there. And so politicizing this moment is inappropriate. You know, whenever we have a horrible school shooting or a shooting at all, we always hear, you can't talk about that right now because it's still fresh.

[03:17:29] But within 24 hours, this got politicized terribly. You know, let's not do that. Let's not do that for a lot of reasons. I think that the county also has to kind of gird ourselves for what is coming.

[03:17:49] We did have a memorial service at ION, and as Mr. Turner and I said, we also attended an event at the Ashburn Ice House. But we're just getting ready to start having funerals or memorial services for the victims.

[03:18:05] The first one will be on Friday at Cornerstone Church. It is the service for the Livingston family, the mom, the dad, and both daughters, Parrish. If anyone was around during COVID and the schools and all those things, you talk to Peter Livingston on a pretty regular basis.

[03:18:24] He was very measured and trying to get the people back in school, but in a way that was measured and really, really respectful. I enjoyed our conversations very much. And then we'll have others. We'll have other memorial services or funerals.

[03:18:41] And so as a county, I would say to what I said on Saturday is three things. First, take care of yourselves and your own family because you cannot take care of other people if you do not take care of yourself first.

[03:18:57] You cannot pour from an empty jug. And so self-care may sound selfish, but it's actually a very non-selfish thing to do because if you want to take care of everybody else, you have to be okay with first. Secondly, let's try to reach out to the communities that are most impacted, obviously families, but also the skating community, and in that way of reaching out, ask them what they want before we decide what they want.

[03:19:23] Right now, they may want to just be left alone, and also don't forget that the reaching out doesn't stop in a week or a month, but remember to do that in six months, and even in one year, it's important to keep reaching out to those families. And finally, take care of the community.

[03:19:39] Something as small as holding the door for somebody, not assuming negative attentions, not passing information that you haven't verified. There's so many ways to take care of each other. And so I really do, I really love this county, and I think we are the beloved community, and this is a time to show it to those victims and to show it to one another.

[03:20:04] And so, yes, all of our prayers are with the victims, and we should also, in this time, maybe give thoughts and prayers to one another. Thank you very much, everyone. Mr. Turner, would you please read us into both closed sessions? I move that the Board of Supervisors recess this public meeting and enter into closed session pursuant to Section 2.2-3711A1 of the Code of Virginia to consider a personal personnel matter involving the annual performance review of the county administrator and the county attorney motion made and seconded discussion on the motion

[03:20:40] all in favor please say aye aye any opposed that motion will pass 9-0 we're going to mr hempstreet

[03:20:46] first and then mr rogers and so we are in closed session thank you all right we are back in session

[06:33:30] we're about to read out of closed session before we read out of closed session i will say that one of our members who did read into closed session supervisor kirschner had a small issue and had to leave from closed session so he will not be able to affirm our vote today but at the next meeting where this board the next meeting this board holds he will affirm and certify at that time so i just want to put on the record that he did go in closed session and and he had to leave closed session so having said that mr turner would you read us out of closed session please Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the closed session be adjourned, that the Board of Supervisors reconvene in its public meeting,

[06:34:10] 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. Motion made and seconded by Supervisor Sains. Discussion on the motion?

[06:34:28] Seeing none, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 801. Would everybody please affirm, Mr. Crony? affirm affirm affirm affirm affirm affirm miss glass affirm miss brixman there you go all right i affirm as well um i think that might be all for tonight i think we are adjourned

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