Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, FY 2027 Budget Work Session, Monday, March 2, 2026

Date: Monday, March 2, 2026
Place: Board Room, First Floor, Government Center, 1 Harrison Street SE, Leesburg, Virginia
Length: 1h 48m (video)
Official meeting video (county, Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/player/clip/8129
Meeting page (Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/player/clip/8129

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

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[00:07:13] Well, here we go. We start budget season. I hope all of us have told our loved ones we'll see you in April. I'm going to call the March 2nd, 2026 Board Supervisors Budget Work Session to order.

[00:07:33] Board members, I'd like to stress the importance of the budget work sessions as a time for us to offer changes, additions, and deletions to the budget. Board members should try to offer all desired amendments and ask any questions you have during the work sessions. Please only offer motions that you intend to support so we can be efficient with our limited time during each session.

[00:07:55] In addition, if you would like to offer motions on items that do not appear in the proposed budget, please work with staff prior to the work session to ensure your motion is accurate and accomplishes your intended results. When we get to our final vote on April 7th, staff will not be able to make large changes to the budget during the meeting.

[00:08:16] And the vote on the budget could be delayed if there are substantive changes that were not discussed or voted on during the work session. So, in short, please, if you're going to support a motion, please support the motion and also support the tax rate for that motion.

[00:08:34] and we have this discussion every year, and I trust everyone would do that. Before we walk through the Tote Board, would everyone please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[00:09:02] Okay. Megan, how are you doing? Good to see you. You're going to give us an update and review the work session process. She is also gonna go over the TOE board and organizational matters. What members are, if there are any questions for staff on the packet process and the work session, that would be right now.

[00:09:22] I am going to, you wanna do that first before I make the motion? - Yes. - Okay, she's gonna do that first and then I'm gonna make a motion to start with the, to start the process and then we're off and running. So we're ready when you are, ma'am. - Good evening, Chair Randall, members of the board.

[00:09:38] We are very excited to be here this evening begin an FY27 budget deliberations. Next slide. I'll begin my remarks with an overview of this evening's work session packet which was distributed on Friday. The packet includes responses to over 50 questions on the operating budget. Responses to the remaining questions will be included in Wednesday evening's packet ahead of the next operating budget work session on March 5th.

[00:10:04] The packet also includes responses from two questions from the Loudoun County Public Schools. Staff has also received many questions on the CIP, responses to which will be included in the work session packet that will be distributed tomorrow ahead of the Finance Committee's work session on March 4th.

[00:10:23] The packet also includes item two, budget work sessions, organizational matters. This item includes important details about the budget, tax rates, Tope Board, and recommendation for an opening motion. The proposed budget is consistent with the board's final guidance to constrain the growth of the operating budget for the county and schools. All revenue beyond the operating budget growth targets shown in this slide is dedicated as PAYGO funding to the CIP as well as to the housing fund. Next slide.

[00:10:55] Generally, the board's guidance was to maintain tax rates with one exception, and so the real property tax rate is at 80.5 cents, which is no change from tax year 25. A general personal property tax rate of $4.15, which again is no change. And then personal property tax rate on vehicles for tax year 26 at $3.09, which has already been set by the board, and for tax year 27, a rate of $3. Next slide. The county's growth target of 9% in the purple box on the far left provides $70 million of new local tax funding. This allocation is funding all employee

[00:11:34] pay, base budget, and funded resource requests in the proposed budget. Next slide. The executive summary of the proposed budget document provides information on all funded resource requests beginning on page 50. The executive summary also provides information about a subset of resource requests that are not funded but are available to fund at the board's discretion through a Tote Board motion. As departments come before you during work sessions, they will discuss both their funded and unfunded resource requests if they have them. Funded resource requests are noted by the blue color and unfunded are in purple in the budget document and again the

[00:12:13] description of those begin on page 50 of your hard copy document. Next slide. This slide notes that the equalized rate has been recalculated since. Hold this for a second Megan. So supervisors page 50 under the under the tab that says resource request. So go to that go to that tab because it starts to count over. So go to the tab that says resource request and page 50 from and so all that we're doing tonight as I call out page numbers will all be under or behind that tab that says resource request and and if

[00:12:50] you if there's something that is funded then no motions need to be made motions need to be made to take out something that's already funded or to put in something that is unfunded but if you're not what you don't want to do anything then there are no motions that would be required thank you thanks this slide notes that the equalized rate has been recalculated since the budget was published last month. An error in the commissioner's assessment summary has been corrected which he communicated with you about last week and the rate has been revised from 74 cents to 73 and a half cents. There is no change to the

[00:13:25] homeowners equalized rate. The value of the impact of changing various tax rates is shown in the table on this slide. The FY 27 budget will establish the tax year 26 real property tax rate and plan for the tax year 27 personal property tax rates and finally a reminder of how straw votes will be tracked during work sessions the tote board will be used to track motions and their fiscal impact during budget work sessions the fiscal impact of the motions is being calculated on the impact of the real on the real property tax rate but should the board wish to see the impacts on the personal property tax rate staff has that

[00:14:04] ability, though we may ask for a brief recess to do the calculation. All revenue is fully programmed and there is no unallocated balance. Next slide. That concludes my presentation and staff recommends the motion in the packet be made to place the proposed budget on the table. All right, supervisors, I move the board of supervisors to begin budget deliberations at the real property tax rate of 80 and a half cents for tax year 2026 and the general personal property tax rate rate of $4.15 for tax year 2026 and tax year 2027, and the personal property tax rate on

[00:14:42] vehicles of $3.09 for tax year 2026 and $3 for tax year 2027, and the appropriations proposed in the county administrators FY 2027 proposed budget.

[00:14:58] made and seconded by, I'll give the second to the finance chair. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 9-0. Do you have anything else you want to talk about, say you're good? No, I have no additional updates. Supervisors, there is no one from LCPS at this time who are here to talk. We discussed the Loudoun County Public School portion of the budget, but there's

[00:15:35] nobody from LCS who has joined us. As a note this evening for the board to discuss and ask questions for county staff to send to LCPS, but no one will be here tonight, so is there anything the staff wants to do or update us on LCPS budget at all or any questions that you want to have to send to the LCPS staff? Ms. Brixman.

[00:15:57] you on the notification of the Perkins grant that we think that the schools won't be getting from the Department of Education through the state I would just like to know how much that is please and you want that to just be sent to the schools as a question sent to this yes yes anything else any other questions to be sent to the schools and I sent you my questions today that goes

[00:16:34] the LCPS. Okay. Seeing none, we're going to start with our first department, which is emergency management, safety, and security. With that, staff, please come to the table. Was there some sinking back there? I heard some sinking from you all. Happy to be first.

[00:17:03] Supervisors, this is on page 57 and 61. Not both, but 57 and 61. And again, all of that is behind the tab, resource request. Good evening. Good evening. Sorry, getting my papers together. Good evening. Good evening, members of the Board of Supervisors, and thank you for this opportunity to speak with you about our budget requests. My name is David Short, and I am the Director of Emergency Management, Safety, and Security. With me tonight is Mr. Jeff Fletcher. He was the Deputy Coordinator for the Office of Emergency Management, and Mr. Jacob Bull, who is the Program Administrator

[00:17:42] for Safety and Security. And I think the importance of these two gentlemen is to emphasize the dual nature of my department. We do just emergency management and physical security for county government employees and buildings. It's a two-function shop. I want to make sure that we were clear on that and understood that. This year, we are requesting a security analyst whose main job will be to address the emergent service level requirements of monitoring open source data, for example, social media and conventional media, as well as other internet information sources. In addition to other shared data and intelligence sources, to proactively

[00:18:17] identify threats to the county elected officials, employees, and facilities. This proposed position will be responsible for generating regular reports that are shared with all county departments and agencies and have the goal of improving physical security for county government. Currently, threat monitoring analysis is performed as a collateral duty by two existing safety and security specialists. Because these responsibilities compete with their other core operational duties, threat monitoring is intermittent rather than a continuous analysis system reporting can be delayed during periods of high workload. Additionally, the volume, speed,

[00:18:54] and complexity of threat information has increased to a level that exceeds what can reasonably be managed through a secondary duty work model. The current work structure is reactive and capacity limited. A dedicated security analyst would eliminate competing priorities and provide continuous threat monitoring capabilities and ensure immediate triage and structure dissemination of relevant threats. This structural change will measurably improve timeliness, consistency, and the depth of threat reporting. If this position is not funded, then the work will continue in its current ad hoc and reactive manner. The risk of this operational model is that our situational

[00:19:30] awareness will be diminished and delayed impacting our abilities to provide senior county government officials with key data and our staff the data to make proactive protective action decisions. Additionally, any work performed to support this security need will be at the expense of existing safety and security analyst duties. I'd also like to take some time to talk about, while not included in the proposed budget, I'd like to take a moment to summarize an additional resource request that is included in the county administrator's alternate scenario. As our second priority, this additional request is for a senior emergency management specialist to work in the Office of Emergency Management. This position will be responsible for managing the county's hazardous chemical

[00:20:09] inventory reports, commonly referred to as the Tier 2 program, also responsible for the leadership of the local emergency planning committee or the LEPC, conduct facility plan reviews, which includes child and adult daycare, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and other facilities identified by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as regulated facilities. It would also be responsible for managing our state regulated dams and empowerment program and responsible for managing our OEMSS equipment and vehicle program. Currently, these duties are being accomplished by an assistant coordinator for operations, which is a supervisor position, and an emergency preparedness

[00:20:46] specialist. The demands of these programs have experienced growth and are expected to continue to grow. For example, each new data center that becomes operational requires an additional tier two reporting requirement. The addition of this new position of the senior emergency management specialist would shift responsibility for these tasks away from our assistant coordinator for operations, the supervisory position, and put it back on the staff of the senior emergency management specialist. This would allow our supervisor to realign his focus on supervisory tasks such as management of all the programs and expansions in the other service level areas to include technology enhancements, special events management, and overall project management. Thank you for your time and I'll take some questions.

[00:21:26] Thank you. So supervisors, their first request is already in the budget, the request on page 57. The second request is the alternate budget is not in the budget yet, so there needs to a motion to put that in there if we wanted to do so. Supervisors, do we have any questions?

[00:21:42] Mr. Croney. Thank you, Chair Randall, and thank you for that description. So in the FY26 budget, the board approved six safety and security specialists. Yes, ma'am. And I believe they're hired. Yes, ma'am. Do you hire them? Okay. It looks like they were responsible for risk assessment as well. Do you see any overlap with those six positions versus this security analyst?

[00:22:11] Small overlap, but definitely different areas of responsibility. And to be more clear, our analysts that were hired last year, combined with the existing analysts we have on staff now, are responsible for maintaining physical security at our over 250 sites and over 5,000 employees across the county. They do a lot of field work. In addition, they do training, provide training and fit testing for county employees. They've got a full plate on their hands. This new position is mostly designed to look at cyber, social media, and conventional media threats. It's to kind of get the flavor of the zeitgeist and understand the threat from the world for that level. So

[00:22:50] one's physical security for our facilities in the field. One is maintaining a picture of the security picture for the county so it sounds like you'll be looking at threats for elected officials is that something that you would be sharing with us or you know if there is a threat yes ma'am you are tier two customer of that okay so this would be the position that would share yes that information primary customer for that information absolutely okay thank you very much anybody else Mr. Letourneau.

[00:23:21] Yeah, so is this related to special events? Can you, I don't understand your question. Can you clarify? No, sorry, the alternate, the one that's not, the alternate one that's not funded. The next tier request.

[00:23:37] Indirectly, yes, but directly, no. So we're looking to get this new position to take over existing duties so my assistant coordinator for operations can then refocus some of his activities on special events. I know a special event ordinance is a long-term plan for the shop. We just don't have the bandwidth now to get there.

[00:23:53] And by hiring this new position, we create bandwidth so I can start focusing on that area. Okay. Because my kind of anecdotal experience with this has been that there is, I think we might be kind of meeting a basic function when somebody makes an inquiry. But then the steps that are involved, like coordination with VDOT and the sheriff's office and all those things, seem to be not necessarily happening or it's all on the permit applicants to do it without a lot of guidance.

[00:24:22] Is that fair to say? I can give you a specific example of one last year that really fell apart because there was no follow-up on anything. I'm not saying that because it's your fault. I'm just saying there clearly was a lack of bandwidth to be able to deal with the issue.

[00:24:41] I think you've lasered it on the issue. We do have a staff person that's helping with that right now. They're capacity limited. They do provide guidance to those that make inquiries and ask for assistance in the process, but it's just a person. just one person yeah okay all right i think this is probably worthwhile i'm not sure we'll kind of see how things go with the rest of the budget but this is one to consider adding from my perspective thank you thank you sir mr turner thank you madam chair i really struggled with the term alternate i didn't understand what we were trying to do here i didn't understand alternate to me means

[00:25:19] if you don't want this one then use this one it was either or in fact what it sounds now like these are additional unbudgeted requests if we decide we want to fund them, correct? Do you want to talk about the alternate? No, that is exactly what it is.

[00:25:35] That's why when you look across the top of the page and you see the purple, that's exactly what it is. It's like a request that's not part of the base budget, exactly. But it's not an alternate to something in the budget. It is additional to what's in the budget, and it's not currently budgeted. Yes. Mr. Dempsey. I was just going to say that is my fault.

[00:25:51] That's not, I know his first name. What's his name? Sure, that's not Mr. Short. Mr. Short's fault. Chief, your first name is Chief. What kept coming in my head was Chief. That's not Mr. Short's fault.

[00:26:09] So Chair Randall is absolutely correct. What I included in the budget was a series, about $7 million worth of items that would have been presented to the board had the board priorities not been in place.

[00:26:25] And so these are things that could be alternatives to board priorities or they could be alternatives to anything else that's presented in the budget. However, Chair Randall's correct. You would have to subtract something out of the budget or make an affirmative decision to increase the tax rate should you want to fund anything that's in that unfunded list.

[00:26:45] So just to put it, not to put a fine point on it, but if we can find, and I think my chief of staff added up, I think it's $8.3 million in additional requests. If we can find $8.3 million in the existing budget by reducing another expense, then we can fund all of the additional items without changing the tax name.

[00:27:04] That's correct. Just keep in mind that what's funded in the budget would be considered higher priorities than what is in this list. It's just the board sends things forward to be in the budget. Those are typically not prioritized because they're sent, but they're sent without the board being able to see anything else that would be a competing priority with it.

[00:27:25] So that's why the list is here. Okay. Thank you very much. So because this is safety and more importantly security, I don't want to ask too many questions because they're security questions, obviously. But I will say that these things are things we have talked about before and why the needs are there.

[00:27:45] I don't plan on making too many motions until we get to the end to add things that are alternates in, but if we get there and we can, this will be something that I, your alternate would be probably one of the first ones that I would add in for reasons you and I both know about and things that have happened and such. And so I understand why it's the alternate, but it will be one that I try to see if I can figure out a way to get in there, slip in there. The first priority, thank you, because thank you, I really appreciate it. And so I don't think right now there are any motions on the table for you all. Is that

[00:28:25] right? Okay, we're good. Thank you so much. Thank you, whole staff, for everything you do. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, board. All right. Next up is equity and inclusion. They are on page 59. Good evening, Mr. Rush. Good evening, Chair Randall. Good evening, members of the board. Thank you so much for allowing me to present to you this evening. My name is Carl Rush. I'm the Chief Equity Officer here for Ladman County, overseeing the Office

[00:29:04] of Equity Inclusion. So while not including the proposed budget, this evening I will summarize the Office of Equity Inclusion's resource requests, including the county administrator's alternate scenario, specifically OEI is requesting funding for a learning development supervisor, which is one FTE, which is found on, or outlined on page 59 in the FY27 proposed budget.

[00:29:26] This request is critical to enhance current service levels and moving us towards our recommended service levels and workforce development and readiness. This is an enhanced service level requested intended to strengthen and to scale our capacity and the response to the growing county's wide demand.

[00:29:42] OEI has seen a steady increase in requests and consultations, professional learning, cross-developmental collaborations, and our evaluations and analysis, and all these things pertaining to continuing the advance of the LEAP initiatives and to embed our principles across the organization.

[00:30:01] Currently, we operate without a dedicated management layer the day-to-day project coordination and operational oversight are handled at the executive level of our office limiting our ability to scale our program adding a learning and development specialists or our supervisor will establish the infrastructure needed to move toward that recommended service level this role will provide direct supervision to our specialists strengthen our quality control enhance our curriculum oversight and data tracking and improve our response time to departmental requests It also allows the chief equity officer to focus more fully on our strategic leadership, our board priorities, and our regional collaborations.

[00:30:37] This request aligns with the board's strategic initiative number four, which is improving diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging by strengthening the systems necessary to expand enterprise-wide learning and accelerate the LEAP implementation. Ultimately, this position enhances employee performance, improves our service delivery, and also centers our practices on the board's commitment.

[00:30:58] And with that, I thank you all for considering this, and I welcome any questions. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Rush. Do we have any questions for Mr. Rush? This is the alternate, so you have to make a motion to put it in the item. Mr. Turner, Vice Chair Turner.

[00:31:14] Thank you, Madam Chair. We're going to use this word a lot. So when we say this is an enhanced request, as I remember the service delivery standards that we're now using, An enhanced request brings the service delivery up to the optimum service delivery level, correct, by whatever metric we're using?

[00:31:32] That is correct. Okay, so the word enhanced doesn't mean we're going to go over and above the standard we're striving for. It means we're going to meet the standard we're striving for. Yeah, and I'll defer to Megan as well. Okay. I would just put a little nuance on that, that enhanced service level brings the service level closer to the recommended service level.

[00:31:52] doesn't, in some cases, there's still a ways to go, but it increases it from what's currently being provided by the activity. So it might bring it up to the idea. It might bring it up a little bit better. It might fully meet it, but it really depends upon the definitions. Okay, thank you.

[00:32:07] So advisors, I'm going to do this this time, but usually once I call on the vice chair, I'm calling on the vice chair and then the chair, and I'm not going back again. So I'm going to do this this time, but please get your lights on so I know that you want to ask questions. So I'll do this this time, Mr. Crony, then Ms. Briggsman. Thank you, Chair Randall. And thank you, Mr. Rush. So in FY26, we approved two equity specialists to help you meet the response time for requests.

[00:32:35] Have they been hired? They have. All positions have been filled. Okay, wonderful. Is that helping? Because you mentioned that there was an increased level of requests. I see 160 requests. Are they able to to respond to those requests? So for the most part I would throw in there also that the board adopted the Loudon Equity Action Plan last year so currently right now we're working on that implementation but also at the department level with our impact plans so that has increased a lot

[00:33:09] of our services. To date we looked at that 160 when I was pulling some numbers we're now over that as well and just to give an idea just working with departments to bring them closer to the implementation of the leap we've already put in over 600 hours towards that as well okay thank you very much for that yeah this bricksman thank you madam chair um thanks so much for your presentation and the work that you do how many staffers do you have now there are four four including you five including myself five including yourself okay great um i don't have a motion right

[00:33:45] now but I am hopeful that a very large resource request will not be approved by the board at which time I think in our wrap-up meeting that we will be able to fund all of the alternative requests in the budget and I'm hopeful to be able to make that motion and fund these requests for you. Thank you. As I said earlier I'm not going to make too many alternate requests right now but I do want to say that I think especially this this past year more than ever your staff you and your staff have done an amazing job in conditions that are not always easy and certainly not always respectful of the important work that

[00:34:23] you're doing and I want to say that and acknowledge that and thank you thank you and thank your staff for all you do. Thank you Chair Randall. Thank you. Anybody have any motions? All right thank you sir. Supervisors the next one would be

[00:34:35] finance and procurement they are 65 through 67. Good evening. Good evening chair randall and board members i'm elaine crawford the interim director for department

[00:35:11] of finance and procurement to my left is miss dr megan cox she's our grants internal audit and financial analysis division manager and then behind me i have our assistant director for the procurement division miss cheryl middleton sure you're the one i always call all the time you want to come to the table because you're the one i always call when they need something ready when you are um on budget pages 65 and 66 you will find the department's resource requests

[00:35:46] for two grant analysts and the continuation of the child care fee reduction program after its expiration of the arpa funding in december 2026. department staff continues to make significant achievements aligned to delivery of service and accounting payroll audit procurement grant management, and several other functions. There is a specific change in service levels associated with grants management. DFP is requesting two management analyst positions to accommodate the changes and increased requirements for compliance and monitoring

[00:36:24] on the grants the county receives, as well as the expanded management of compliance, coordination, and outreach for the grants that the county disperses. The current service level and staffing does not provide for expanded prospecting support to departments, compliant checks for grantees and departments with grant funding, and the increased data quality for long-term decision-making. The grant analyst positions would increase the county's capacity to communicate, collaborate, and manage accountability of federal and state-funded grants the county currently

[00:37:00] holds, as well as county-funded grant activity between non-profit organizations and departments that work extensively with non-profits oh just one second my newsletter just went out and now all the rejections are hitting me and so there we go thank you it's making lots of noise up here and disturbing everybody why would you put this out right now so no one can hear anything but this i apologize expanded prospecting is expected to increase the number of applications that

[00:37:33] departments can submit by approximately 12%. These positions will also play an intermediary role to enhance county cooperation with nonprofits, help identify needs and maintain due diligence of county resources provided through grant programs, such as the Human Service Nonprofit Grant Program and the Restricted Transient Occupancy Tax Grant Program. The enhanced service level would increase the county's capacity to uniformly communicate funding expectations, accountability for grantees, and develop and implement a multi-department strategy

[00:38:11] for assessing community needs and communicating those to county departments for supporting enhanced coordination of services with nonprofits and streamline coordination among departments to more effectively respond to nonprofit questions and concerns. The second request is to continue the child care fee reduction program. The county allocated 1.7 million of ARPA funding for a child care fee reduction program and for 22 months it's currently administered by Northern

[00:38:45] Virginia Family Services serving 121 children. The ARPA funding will expire as of December 31, 2026. This request is to continue to fund the program with local tax funding through the remainder of the fiscal year to maintain current enrollment. And with that, we look forward to address any of your questions. Why wouldn't that one be appropriate for fund balance? Because this would not be ongoing, would it? I believe it is shown as a future funding for FY28. Okay, we'll get there. We'll get to questions. And I was a little confused. Okay, great. Wonderful.

[00:39:23] Questions, please. Mr. Letourneau. Okay, so on the grants analysts, I'm not questioning the need for compliance work, but it does seem to me that there are going to be fewer federal opportunities, and what I'm specifically questioning is whether we really need two and whether we couldn't just have one more.

[00:39:44] So we have actually investigated the workload of our current two FTEs and the compliance measures for the extended reviews of executive orders is quite extensive.

[00:40:01] So we are looking more at the compliance side and the monitoring side, getting ready for site visits. That has typically not been a part of the grants function within DFP. Compliance with-- - Have we had site visits? - Yes. - Scheduled, okay.

[00:40:17] - Yes, and we continue to receive reports on those well as desk visits, desk reference visits. So this this would include compliance but also compliance on the non-profit side as well. So for the two analysts to do that it's for one analyst to do that it's extremely capacity limited but for for two analysts we could have the the nonprofit grantee, compliance, monitoring, supports, and technical assistance, and then the

[00:40:51] federal, state, and other external funding. And then what would the other two do if we have one doing each on compliance? We actually have a focus on data management for all of our grants so that we can report to the board more efficiently. And then the grants manager position oversees and coordinates all of the activities for the grants program in DFP. Okay okay I'll go to the question I think my colleagues are going to ask on the child care side. So my understanding is we're essentially funding six months of the existing program here. That's correct. And then there

[00:41:30] would be a separate discussion about FY28 right? That's correct. So is it no? No. Our understanding is that the board has prioritized this as a recurring program that the county would fund locally once arpa funds are expired during fy27 but arpa funds haven't been expired until the end right they will expire mid-year one-time use for this year and then a reoccurring program no that wouldn't be our recommendation you have arpa funds funding half the program costs for fy27

[00:42:03] and then local funds for the remainder of the program which would then be recurring in fy28 really that would be a board budget decision in fy28 though our understanding is that the board has asked this program to transition to local funding which would make it effectively recurring unless otherwise directed as part of this discussion i think you can make an argument that it's a one-time use for this year and then it wouldn't be but that's my opinion all right thank you mr crony uh thank you chair randall and thank you for the presentation so um could the

[00:42:41] grant um i understand you have four people right um if you add these two uh positions correct could um you have one um grant analyst focus on prospecting because i think that's something that we really haven't done is looking out for opportunities. So, yes, one of the two being requested would focus on prospecting as well as the application process and supporting departments in writing applications. Wonderful, because we know the federal isn't going to bring what we

[00:43:18] had hoped, so prospecting is really important right now. Thank you. Excellent. And then my second thing is uh yeah i my understanding was we were going to be funding for 121 children am i correct is there any um any um kind of thought about expanding that in the future are we just sticking to the 121 children uh so i think that would be up to the board to decide on um the the funding mechanism for that for this we are um budgeting for the remainder of this fiscal year And that's what is currently, right?

[00:43:56] Correct. Yeah. Do the families need to reapply every year? They go through a renewal process at the 12-month mark to ensure that they have maintained the income level that they've reported previously and that they are still residents of the county and eligible for the funding.

[00:44:16] And is there a wait list? There is. Okay. Do you know how many are on the wait list? As of today, it is 51 on the wait list. Thank you very much. Thank you. Ms. Bricksman. Thank you, Madam Chair. My colleagues asked a number of the questions that I had about the fee reduction program.

[00:44:36] I was also interested in perhaps discussing expansion at some point. Just to be clear, what is the maximum amount that a family can receive in child care fee reduction? Approximately $11,200.

[00:44:54] A year? For the year, yes. And that constitutes roughly 50%. That's correct. So they can't get more than 50% of what they're paying in child care? That's correct. Okay. Okay. Thank you. And then you said we have about 51 on the waiting list.

[00:45:13] Is the criteria, what is the criteria? I know that we've discussed it before, but is it an AMI? Is it cost burden? What's the? Yes. So the criteria are that the family must reside in Loudoun. The child care provider must be a Loudoun business located in Loudoun County.

[00:45:31] They must have an 80% AMI or below and not be receiving Virginia's child care subsidy. Oh, okay. Virginia's child care subsidy. Okay. All right. Interesting. So they have to choose between the state subsidy and the local subsidy.

[00:45:46] Many of the families do not qualify for subsidy. are in the gap between 80 percent ami and what would qualify for subsidy i hear you okay okay great thank you and yes indeed the board did make that a priority um in a number of our other meetings and discussions about it i think it was at our board retreat it came up a couple times so i appreciate your work on it thank you mr kirschner thank you madam chair and thank you for being here and all the hard work that you do oftentimes i think we get kind of the public attention. You guys do all the hard work, so if I haven't reiterated that, and we'll probably do so

[00:46:26] multiple times with various departments. Thank you. As far as the grant analyst, I've always been kind of in favor of beefing up this department, largely because I think it kind of pays for itself in the end. Obviously, the positions appear to be largely management positions, but kind of springboarding off from supervisor to cronies question which is um do one of these will my understanding one of these position will be not just compliance but actually uh what was what was the term prospecting i like that word like like a like a gold prospector um we feel like i mean

[00:47:05] i don't know how i mean honestly i don't i don't know how much we're missing out it seems like we do a pretty good job of identifying potential grants and a lot of the our our um projects that we fund but what is your sense of really I mean do we have a decent chance of paying for this these two positions I mean back to Supervisor Letourneau's question do we need two versus one can you make an argument for me on that or at least some analysis for me I'd really greatly appreciate it. Certainly I can give you an anecdotal note right now that we were interested

[00:47:37] in applying for one specific grant that was a very quick turnaround and staff were unable to support the writing of the application. And so we had to potentially use contract augmentation to help with the writing of the application. And the contractor did not have enough time because they had other clients who they were also writing for the same application. So we actually missed out on that opportunity, which was a multi-million dollar grant. So this position, one of the positions would support prospecting and support departments and applying for the funds. So I'm

[00:48:16] curious, how do you become a grant writer? You don't go to school for that, or do you? There are specialized trainings. There are specialized trainings. I would assume it's pretty specialized. Do you, okay, no, I think that probably answers my question. I certainly support these two positions as they currently stand, and I'm glad that we're moving in that direction because i think anytime we can out out out service the funding that we're putting forward for that person we should do it do we do we outsource a lot of our grant writing already currently uh there are multiple uh components to a grant uh application so we do um augment with

[00:48:56] in one case a cost benefit analysis was augmented um the application writing itself has been augmented in some cases. So it really is an individualized plan based on the grant and the department's capacity to support. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Sains. Well, thank you, Madam Chair.

[00:49:19] But I just want to clarify in regards to the prospecting. We do actually currently now with the two that are in the position they do prospecting. There is limited prospecting. Yes. Okay. I just want to clarify that, that they are doing some of that now. We're not doing that at all because that's why we caught a lot of the grants that we do get for for the county and for for some of our non-profits would that be correct to say that is correct okay thank you mr vice chair turner thank you madam chair i want to make sure i understand this because i thought there was

[00:49:53] a correction i saw so this request for five hundred thousand dollars for january 1st through june 30th of 27 for 500 000 basically carries at the same level the end of the arpa funding at the end of this year correct that is correct so what will carry us at 121 children till june 30th that is correct and then the a million dollars a year half in each fiscal year the subsequent will allow us to continue to take care of 121 kids approximately it will depend on the market and

[00:50:30] um the the fees and tuition uh for the the child care providers okay thank you that was really helpful thank you that was my question and you really cleared that up for me thank you and truthfully i wasn't sure about the grants program only because i see a lot of discussion about around here about them a lot of the grants are tied to current executive orders and executive orders are not law right they're they're not and i don't know what will be what

[00:51:00] will go back to "normal" after this administration is no longer in the end or if some of these executive orders are overturned and law is written. And so I didn't know if you needed long-term people when we have short-term executive orders, so to speak.

[00:51:19] However, what Mr. Crony said and what Mr. Kirchner said really kind of convinced me because I do know that especially for some of our human services grants and things, there are some that we just don't get to get in time because we don't have enough prospecting and people writing. I also know that unfortunately there are some things like you know from the state that we really money that we really should qualify for but often times we don't because I think the belief is that in this part of the Commonwealth we just don't need it and so we lose out on

[00:51:53] funds that we would otherwise receive and so especially because Mr. Kirshner's right, money begets money, and grant makers kind of go find money if they're doing it well. I will absolutely go in and support these and not make a motion to take anything out.

[00:52:13] And really appreciate what you all do, and thank you so much for bringing these to us. So, supervisors, do we have any motions on the dais? Seeing none, thank you so much. Okay, next is General Services, 74 through 78.

[00:52:31] Pages 74 through 78. Good evening. How are you?

[00:52:50] I am fine, Madam Chair. Thank you very much. And thank you, members of the board, for allowing us to present our fiscal year 2027 budget requests. I'm pleased to share with you all tonight the results, the responsibilities, and strategic priorities that shape them. Before I do jump into that, I would like to introduce our Deputy Director for Environmental Services, Ms. Marilyn Brower, down to my left.

[00:53:14] She is also our interim director while I'm out on military Coast Guard duty for the next couple of months. Wow. Well, welcome. Just dropped you right into the deep end of the pool, didn't they? Welcome aboard. She can handle it.

[00:53:29] She's amazing. When are you leaving for Coast Guard duty? I left Friday. Okay, okay. Well, welcome back. Right. Thank you. Welcome back. Also with me is Ms. Michelle Monteith, our assistant director for management administration, who is really our backbone to our budget operations.

[00:53:45] So I can wade into the shallow water, but if it gets deep, that's what you're saying. Okay, so 2025 has been a year of measurable progress and meaningful transformation for DGS. Our team has remained focused on two core responsibilities.

[00:54:02] The first being maintaining the essential infrastructure and services that enable county government to function effectively. And the second is advancing environmental sustainability and operational efficiency in alignment with the board's priorities. Every division within general services has contributed to these goals.

[00:54:19] Our public works and water programs teams continue to manage and maintain a vast and complex network of county infrastructure, including 8.8 million square feet of county owned asphalt, drive services and trails, over a thousand miles of stormwater pipes and drainage systems and nearly 80,000 stormwater structures, ponds and best management practices.

[00:54:40] In addition to the maintenance operations, stormwater team began continued or completed the design of 12 total maximum daily load retrofit projects this includes four four stream restoration projects one outfall restoration project three stormwater pond retrofits and four constructed wetlands these projects do not only are not only regulatory requirements but also invest in water quality environmental resilience and long-term cost avoidance most importantly they provide tangible benefits to our community implementation of the 23 elements of the board approved environment and energy work plan continue to

[00:55:16] deliver collaborative results highlights include tree planting initiatives and installation of petway stations in many neighborhoods the advancements of our of our government by example initiatives and partnership with parks and recreation to identify park properties requiring invasive species removal and revegetation in fact work has already commenced at franklin park where crews are removing seven acres of invasive autumn olive This initiative improves ecosystem health, restores native habitat, and reinforces the county's leadership and environmental stewardship. Moving on to our facility management operations,

[00:55:51] they continue to manage what is arguably the county's greatest capital investment, 5.1 million square feet of facility infrastructure across approximately 159 owned facilities and 49 leased facilities. In FY27, the county's facility footprint is projected to increase by nearly 30 000 square feet with the opening of fire rescue station 28 leesburg south and the expansion of the percival fire and rescue station this is in addition to the lakeside buildings that we purchased mid-year last year as well as the trail view facility which we purchased purchased mid-year

[00:56:25] last year our facility operations team is on track to complete more than 32 000 work orders maintaining an average customer satisfaction rating of extremely satisfied this feedback confirms that our work directly enhances the experience of every county employee and the residents served in our facilities our commitment to sustainability is reflected in our waste management and recycling operations as well our public recycling centers continue to provide convenient access for residents to participate in reducing waste by collecting approximately 2 000 tons of recycles annually this results in diverting significant material from the landfill and contributing to a cleaner environment additionally the proposed budget includes

[00:57:04] support for the board's priority of the glass recycling expansion reinforcing the board's commitment to responsible stewardship of our shared resources. Our transit and commuter services launched the transit on demand pilot in Leesburg this year providing flexible application-based transportation options for our community. After eight months of highly successful performance the pilot program per board direction is now expanding into eastern sterling area of the county. This team continues to promote and support the vast range of transit operations that the board has invested in over the years this includes metro real access ride sharing programs and commuter

[00:57:42] services this is in addition to paratransit and our local fixed route these efforts reduce congestion support economic vitality and enhance the quality of life of many of our citizens beyond every visible service is a strong operational backbone the divisions that support our operations include finance administration and internal services under the the guidance of miss michelle monteith these divisions are on track to process over 1600 purchase orders this year that is approximately a third of all the purchase orders processed for the county and those purchase orders are processed an average of less than a day and a half turnaround

[00:58:20] time while simultaneously this team manages over 4700 purchase car purchase card transactions our surplus team continues to improve sales performance and recently earned the public surplus excellence award for the second consecutive year, ranking them among the top online public surplus auction providers in the country. These achievements reflect discipline, fiscal management, and a culture of continuous improvement. Looking ahead, our fiscal year 2027 proposed budget builds upon this strong foundation while also focusing on resources and initiatives that drive continued

[00:58:56] success and sustain our current service levels. The proposed budget includes four resource requests plus one additional request under the alternative scenario. All of these can be found on page 74 through 78. The proposed budget requests include facilities maintenance staffing to support capital facility openings, the glass recycling expansion, which is a board priority, and a local tax funding neutral request for waste management operations, a program administrator, and the department's priority one request, which provides direct support to operation.

[00:59:31] This ensures we are able to maintain our current service levels through efficient and effective finance, procurement, HR, internal services, mailroom, surplus, and janitorial operations. These requests directly align with the board's and county administrator's budget priorities and are focused on maintaining current service levels and ensuring operational stability.

[00:59:53] Should the board proceed with the alternative scenario, one public works crew chief and two public works technicians would also be brought on board. This is a current service level request. These crews maintain stormwater systems, county-operated wastewater infrastructure, paving, sidewalks, hard trails, and signage.

[01:00:11] This work touches nearly every part of county operations. These additional positions are critical to sustaining performance and preventing more costly future repairs. Without these positions, the number of work orders per staff member will increase from 300 to 342, resulting in an inability to maintain the current service levels.

[01:00:30] The existing backlog will continue to grow, leading to deferred inspections and maintenance activities. To mitigate heightened infrastructure risks and potential non-compliance issues with regulatory requirements, existing staff resources will need to be reallocated to mandated responsibilities, adversely affecting other essential services such as stormwater and signage maintenance, if that request is not funded.

[01:00:55] Before concluding, I want to express my sincere appreciation to the entire general services team. Their dedication to environmental stewardship, infrastructure reliability, resilience, integrity, and innovation is evident in every metric I have shared tonight. It is an honor to serve alongside them and to serve you as Loudoun County's Director of General Services.

[01:01:15] Thank you for your time and consideration this evening. We'll make ourselves available for any questions you may have. Mr. Brown, thank you, and you were correct. Your staff is phenomenal and always so, so kind and responsive, and they are just wonderful. So please, from us, please thank them on our behalf.

[01:01:34] Supervisors, do you have questions for Mr. Brown? Ms. Bricksman. Thank you, Madam Chair. And Mr. Brown, thank you for all your work and your staff's work in this department. Really appreciate it. On the glass recycling item I'm looking at, it's nice that we can fund it with the plastic bag tax.

[01:01:55] um do we think that the plastic bag tax revenue has kind of leveled off um because it says here that that you'll be monitoring it to see if the tax revenue will still be enough to fund these positions moving forward as i recall we started out with something like 356 000 coming in and now it's down to 170 or something like almost half of what it was i think in the beginning So I guess my question is, and I can submit this as a budget question if you don't have the answer tonight, but do we think that's kind of what it's going to stay at annually?

[01:02:34] So, Supervisor Bruce, when I say this with a fair degree of caution, I've always been concerned about funding recurring programs with funds such as this because the goal is to have it disappear because the mindset of our community moves away from the bags themselves.

[01:02:57] That being said, there are many jurisdictions, if not all jurisdictions in Virginia that have the bag tax, have seen a sustained recurring income. I don't necessarily think that's a good thing because it means that the mindset has not changed in the community.

[01:03:16] I mean, if I had my preferences, we would ban bags altogether because they are an absolute nuisance for our landfill operations, and they do not degrade. So that is not our purview, but that is my preference.

[01:03:33] So that being said, there's another factor. As you know, there's a bill going through the General Assembly right now that talks about cost-sharing those funds. Oh, yeah. I'm aware of that. Thank you. Yeah. That would reduce our share then. Yeah. I'm sorry. I only have about 45 seconds left, but I do want to ask Mr. Hemstreet if he knows if you if you mind, Madam Chair. Do we have the authority to ban plastic bags altogether from the General Assembly? Like, can we do that?

[01:04:06] I don't know the answer to that. I don't believe so, but we'll go ahead and get it. We'll take that as a question and come back to you. Okay. All right. All right. Thank you. So just to expand on what Mr. Brown was saying is that there was legislation put forward by Delegate Martinez that any county that has towns within it disperse the plastic bag tax that is collected by the cost sharing for the town.

[01:04:40] Now, the way Loudon has done it is we've always said that we're going to fund environmental initiatives, And most of those environmental initiatives sit in our towns anyway. So now that we're going to lose some of the plastic bag tax money, it's possible that we'll do less environmental initiatives in those towns, and they've just got to pick up that cost themselves.

[01:05:04] So, Mr. Crony. Thank you, Chair Randall, and thank you, Mr. Brown, for all that you do, especially with the energy and environment, as you know, my favorite. So in FY26, it looked like the board approved about $4 million for their Alvarez reorg.

[01:05:22] Did you hire most of those people? Are you still kind of looking to fill those positions? Because I'm asking because you're asking for six more people for operations. Yes, ma'am. Great question. That was a three-year process in which they were, the first year we accomplished the hires through reclassifications.

[01:05:43] The second year the board funded, and the third year the board funded, and all those positions have been filled. Okay, great. So the six that you're asking for is just to maintain current service levels. It has nothing to do with the reorg? Nothing, no. Interesting. Okay, great.

[01:05:59] And then do you see the department getting to your goal of 45,000 square feet per maintenance staff? So last year we presented to the board what we call the International Facility Maintenance Association's gap mitigation plan.

[01:06:20] And you saw it again in November when we had a discussion with the Finance Committee about recommended service level versus current service level. So that proposal was over a five-year period, seven to eight positions in addition to our 45,000 in addition to the CIP positions.

[01:06:40] And that will, that process, if it is, if it's followed through on, will get us to that, that balance. We're not there. We have a gap of about 68, about 68 staff right now to meet that. So our current service level is in a reaction, reactive posture, between a reactive posture and a managed care posture.

[01:07:01] That allows us to respond to incidents, do corrective action, but not preventative maintenance, but corrective maintenance. The recommended service level goes to a more preventative maintenance model and a few other things. It also, the current service level does not allow us with existing funding to get after some board priorities like the ADA study.

[01:07:23] For example, we would require additional staffing and resources to do that. Those are not things that we can actually take on at this point under the current service level. So there are a number of things that we can't do in the current service level. The eight positions on the CIP is simply to keep pace as we add more square footage to the county's building infrastructure.

[01:07:45] Thank you. Thank you very much for that. Mr. Letourneau? I thought when you were talking about the county's greatest asset, you were talking about the landfill. I truthfully was, sir. I know. Yeah. All good general services people love the landfill. It's a great landfill.

[01:08:02] On the priority to the alternate on the public works staff, is this kind of an all or nothing thing? Because the way it's kind of structured here is there's a crew chief and a supervisor. So if we come down to it and we could only fund one and not three FTEs here, would you take that or would you rather just wait and have the full crew?

[01:08:27] So it's a span of control issue at that point. So if we do, say, two technicians and don't do the crew chief, then you wind up with a span of control issues where you're now creating a degrading environment for the team as a whole. If you do one crew chief and one tech, then you actually don't have the right blend of staffing to supervisory ratios.

[01:08:51] So it is a proposed, those three are proposed to actually maintain service level. So any one of those three would not be able to manage. And the only reason I was asking that, though, is I have to imagine you have people who call out sick or whatever on any given day. Yes, sir.

[01:09:07] So do you just staff higher than the three, or are you short? So if we gave you one, you could plug. That's just what I was thinking. Right. We don't model based on a degree of vacancy. We model based on work order requests.

[01:09:24] So, you know, there are other staffing models that build. But like on a given day, if you have a three-person crew and somebody calls sick, what happens? Work gets deferred. So if we gave you one, though? Work would continue to be deferred. You wouldn't do it, even if you could plug somebody.

[01:09:41] Well, I would just say that it would not achieve the outcome, right? So the outcome here is to maintain current service level. Okay. I think that means you're not going to get any. So that's why I'm trying to help you. No, sir. I mean, I understand the ask, and I appreciate the ask. No, that's why I'm asking. That's why we have this. Help me understand, though, because we get metrics like 300 work orders per staff member versus 342.

[01:10:02] And if I'm being honest, I have no idea what that actually means. So can you just quantify that really a little better? Not quantify, but maybe qualify that. I'll qualify that. So you figure that's approximately one work order per. Like what's an average work order?

[01:10:17] So an average work order is when you have a blowout on a stormwater facility and the riprap's blown out, This team goes in, and a work order would be to clean that out, redline it, put the riprap back in. Is that really an average work order?

[01:10:33] That's actually a pretty average work order. I mean, in that category. So another average work order would be today or right this week they're replacing the signs that were demolished by snowplows. Yeah. So that's another type of work order. The maintenance of our wastewater systems, many of our facilities have on-site wastewater systems and not connected to the central service.

[01:10:54] So maintaining those wastewater systems is another type of work order that they would deal with. So they can range from four hours to three days to a week, depending on the nature of the actual work order. I don't know if that helped. Mr. Kirshner.

[01:11:11] Thank you, Madam Chair. All right, so this is a little bit outside of the budget request, but you brought it up in your opening statement. So it's, as they say in court, you open the door. You talked about all the stormwater management that we are managing.

[01:11:32] It is my understanding that we take on that liability in most all these developments and whatnot across the county. But most counties don't do that. Can you talk to me why and how much resources does that actually require? So I'd have to get back with you on the actual numbers, the cost.

[01:11:51] But, yes, Loudoun County takes on the responsibility of maintaining the stormwater system. It's our MS4, which is the permitted system. We have an obligation to maintain the county's ultimately responsible and is the maintainer of last resort for all of these systems.

[01:12:09] So many, probably two decades ago, I want to say maybe in the late 90s, the board made the decision to actually maintain those to ensure compliance. So we take on the liability, essentially. We have the liability because we're the maintainer of last resort.

[01:12:26] So if somebody has a stormwater system that enters into our permitted system, the MS-4, and they can no longer maintain it, then by law, the county is the maintainer of last resort. But that doesn't mean we can't go back and try to recover costs.

[01:12:43] But they are ultimately responsible for that. So I do not know of another county that does that. Right. Well, that's why I brought it up, because you brought it up. And I've always wanted to ask you that question. and obviously it requires a significant, I can only imagine the significant amount of oversight that it requires through your department and fairly expensively.

[01:13:02] And I don't know if that's something at some point this board may want to revisit. Obviously we do have a level of responsibility as you mentioned, but I feel like some of these developers who have to put on these stormwater that we're letting them off the hook a little bit by just accepting the liability and all the management of it.

[01:13:18] So anyway, I just, maybe we can talk more offline, but I found that to be a bit, I don't know, disturbing is the right word, but surprising. Yes, sir. Thanks. Mr. Sainz. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right, so when you say a crew, and you said that you can't have just one or two, you're looking for three.

[01:13:38] So a crew is always three members at a given time? So a crew is a crew chief and a minimum of two technicians. Right, so a crew is always three people. A minimum of three people, ideally, yes. Okay. And then, so it's kind of like, you know, the partnership deal, a package deal, I guess you could say.

[01:13:59] Yes, sir. Okay, so that's why you're not saying, okay, one or two, we need three to have a true crew to go out and do all these various tickets that are coming in for sign replacement, stormwater management, cleanup, and others. You know, I'm assuming some of the work orders are in regards to cleaning up of debris or whatever.

[01:14:19] Yes, sir. Would that be accurate to say? Okay. How many crews do we have now? We have two crews right now. And we have two crews right now. And another responsibility of the whole county, we only have two crews right now.

[01:14:39] Yes, sir. Now, those crews have a total of, what's the total count on those crews? Is it four to five? Oh. Yeah, five to six. So there's usually five to six people on each of those crews. And that's why we wouldn't just add another tech because it overburdens those crew chiefs.

[01:14:58] So this would allow us to get those crews right-sized. You bring another crew chief in, then you can distribute them out so they would have a more balanced. So we only have currently two stormwater management crews right now for the whole county? Yes, sir. And give us an example.

[01:15:15] How many crews do you have for other things? Oh, gracious. Crew chiefs and facilities have eight crew chiefs right now. Because it's eight crews and facilities. And they'll run between 8 to 12 people underneath that crew chief.

[01:15:30] And it's a different function, the safety factors. The crews do not go out individually alone, so there are always at least two people going out on the public work side because of the exterior isolated nature of many of the folks. And just out of curiosity, if you have the answer, say Fairfax or Prince William County, do you know how many crews they have for storm management?

[01:15:51] So we'd have to run it on a per capita or per work order basis, but they have a lot more, but Fairfax is a much larger... What about Prince William County? I don't, we don't have to look at that as well. Okay, all right, thank you. We are smaller. Well, yes, but I was just trying to, you know, compare.

[01:16:09] Thank you. I have nothing that I'm going to take out or add into your budget right now. We'll see what we look like at the end. I will say that I, we talked before and it was helpful to know that for your facility maintenance staffing, this is staffing that is for facilities that already exist.

[01:16:28] This is not facilities that are gonna come online in two to four years, you're not advanced staffing. you are actually doing catch up so I am more than happy to support all of your requests and thank you and for your host staff which you all do do we have any emotions on the dance wonderful thank you mr. Brown thank you everybody thank you thank you for your service mr. Brown thank you humans human resources is

[01:16:56] next pages 88 86 through 88 good evening good evening chair Randall and members of the board. I am Erin Moore and I am the director of the Department of Human Resources and joining me tonight is my deputy Michael Drager. So thank you first for the opportunity

[01:17:32] to present our FY27 budget requests. To maintain our current service levels we're requesting four positions across three key program areas and our first request is for a reasonable accommodation coordinator. Currently our employee relations team manages the reasonable accommodation process centrally for the entire county and our ADA caseload has more than doubled since COVID and this increased volume really limits our ability to keep up with the other important

[01:18:06] employee relations activities such as conducting investigations or supporting management with performance and conduct support. And this position would take the most complex reasonable accommodation cases and also look at process improvement of how the flow is working within the county. This will help to reduce compliance risk, minimize delays, support our employees, and help our managers meet their operational goals. Our second request is for two positions in our staffing and compensation

[01:18:39] program area to support the growing demands of our hiring. Since FY23, we've seen our application volume double from 30,000 applications to more than 60,000 per year. We've had a 12% increase in the number of jobs we've advertised and a 64% increase in the number of reclassification requests from the departments. So these positions are essential to ensure that we can help the departments fill their vacancies quickly and for us to ensure internal pay equity and competitiveness with our other jurisdictions. And our last request is for a benefits specialist in

[01:19:19] our risk management program area. This is to support workers' compensation, FMLA, and disability claims management. So staffing in this area has remained unchanged over the past decade, but the county's benefits eligible workforce has grown by 48 percent. And so during this time we've also seen increases from workers compensation, FMLA claims, or disability claims have all increased anywhere from 19 percent to 76 percent. And so this additional capacity is really needed to

[01:19:53] mitigate risk and provide timely support to our employees. And collectively these positions will strengthen our ability to manage our current service levels and ensure we're providing timely high-quality hr services to support every department in the county and with that i will take any questions you have thank you so much you appreciate it questions for hr staff um put your lights on one question you have one question mr crony um and and thank you miss moore thank you so

[01:20:31] much so uh it looks like you have this benefit specialist as a priority three is that truly a priority three it sounded like that was something that you needed because it's gone up 76 in short term disability claims yes it is my third priority okay so it's it's if you had to get rid of one that would be it the third priority or i mean i'm trying to understand why it was i understand how many different priorities this board has to manage um and of course we'll adapt to whatever the board

[01:21:09] approves for us but it really does require recalibrating service level expectations it'll you know if it's that position in particular there could be higher operational risks it might take longer for claims to get processed for our employees okay okay thank you for explaining that my only question is for the ADA coordinator does reasonable accommodations on cases include not just cases of physical health but also cases of mental health or substance dependence or any

[01:21:45] of those types of things yes anything that qualifies as a disability so mental health qualifies for that and and this is for our employees yes I understand yeah yes yeah I understand what about somebody that has an addiction I do think that that the addiction Or deals with an addiction of any type.

[01:22:10] I would have to get more specific information on that because in my experience, it's been nuanced of how that is handled. So I would have to talk with my team. Geneva, I don't know if you know.

[01:22:27] I only ask because technically addiction falls under a mental health. It falls in the ICD or the DSM. It falls under mental health. That's the only reason I'm asking. So, I mean, so when you say a coordinator that deals with accommodations, I would assume it was accommodations for any health disorder, any health disorder.

[01:22:48] Yes. Sometimes, you know, somebody would have to stay at home potentially if they were recovering. You know, they broke their leg. It could be different chairs. It could be screen readers. Somebody must stay home and covering, too, if they just came out of a treatment program need to spend some more time recovering from at home that's that's why i'm asking yes yes um good afternoon good afternoon board members yes we do find um get a lot of requests for those as well and those are folks who are maybe covering recovering addicts from maybe substance abuse or

[01:23:23] alcohol or they're in an active treatment program not actively using and not sure getting treatment But they're in a treatment program, and we do see that. We've also seen a lot of increase for, you mentioned mental health, but also neurodiversity and how people process information.

[01:23:43] I'm really glad to hear that we are recognizing that the whole person sometimes needs assistance in whatever that might look like and whatever accommodations that might look like for the entire person. that's really important, their physical, mental health, their spiritual health, all of it.

[01:24:01] So, yes, if somebody is neurodivergent and some of those accommodations are just now starting to come online of what that might look like and what that might need. So I am really thankful and really happy that Loudoun County is responding to all the needs of our employees.

[01:24:18] So thank you so much. Supervisors, are there any motions on the table, on the dais? Seeing none, thank you so much, Ms. Moore, and thank your host staff for what you do. I suppose you're all good to press on and you want a break.

[01:24:35] No, it's not the last one. We have three more to go. We have three more to go. Okay, Information Technology, page 89. Come on down.

[01:25:01] What are y'all doing? Ready whenever you are.

[01:25:18] Awesome. Madam Chair and members of the board, my name is Nate Wendland. I am the DIT Director. Along with me is my deputy, Brian Kimberly. and the Chief Information Security Officer, Dr. Elizabeth DeBene, as well as my Assistant Director, Julie Krem.

[01:25:36] Hi, Julie. How are you? I respectfully submit a formal request for approval of a Security Operations Manager position within DIT Cybersecurity Division. The escalating sophistication of and frequency of global cyber threats have required the county to reinforce and commit to control and accountability and resilience in protecting our digital assets and public trust.

[01:26:03] Recent trends in ransomware, cyber chain attacks, nation state attacks, and targeted breaches within this region and throughout the nation underscore the urgency for protective operational leadership to safeguard our systems and data.

[01:26:21] The county has made significant investments in modern security, technology tools, reflecting a strong dedication in defending our infrastructure against malicious actors. The effectiveness of these investments not only rely on the technology, but also the skilled oversight of strategic direction provided by expertise and experienced professionals.

[01:26:48] A security operations manager will serve as a critical leader, coordinating incident response, monitoring security posture, and ensuring seamless integrations of controls access for our environment. The key responsibilities for our security operations manager will include oversight of daily security operations, managing threat detection and response effectiveness, maintaining compliance and regulatory requirements, and guiding cross-departmental collaboration and risk mitigation. This role will be directly enhance our operational speed and clarity during

[01:27:24] incidents, foster a culture of accountability, and build resilience against emerging threats. If this position is not funded, then we would impact the ability to respond to advanced cybersecurity attackers, significantly hinder our capability to coordinate real-time threat investigation and containment and recovery efforts. The absence of a dedicated operational lead would create delays in decision-making, reduce effectiveness in our security tools, and increase the likelihood that sophisticated threats could go unmitigated. The gap would

[01:28:04] expose the county to greater operational, financial, and reputational risk and undermine the substantial investments already made in modernization of our security infrastructure. The requested financial investment for this position is justified as a needed measure, strengthening our ability to anticipate, detect, respond, and potentially to any potential cyber threats before they escalate into any costly disruptions.

[01:28:32] By approving this position, the board is empowering the county and DIT to better protect its assets, its constituents, its reputation, and in an increasingly complex digital global landscape.

[01:28:48] Thank you for your consideration in this position. That was absolutely excellent. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for that explanation. I think we would have said yes anyway, but that was really very helpful. Any questions on the dais? I don't really have a question. thank you yeah that was excellent I didn't understand half of it very well done so the loud and learners program so I just wanted to bring that up just because that's that's excellent too it sounds like you have six enrolled learners in the program I just wanted to get an update on

[01:29:25] that we currently have five right now one was dropped out at the beginning of the program but we can definitely get an update on the five that we have. Okay, excellent. And they completed the pilot, I guess?

[01:29:40] We are completing the pilot this year, and we are in conversations with MWCOG right now with the continuation of a phase two of the program. Excellent, excellent. Thank you so much for doing that. Sure. So Ms. Bricksman will tell you that when we go up for the credit rating meeting, You know the literally like one of the third by the third question they're asking us about our cybersecurity and that you know counties that don't have this in place Can lose their their a higher credit rating that it is that important

[01:30:16] And I don't think I don't think we we have any idea what's out there and And and the threats and so the fact that you all are Staying ahead of this you're thinking about it on time. You know it know what we need. I really appreciate it because truthfully, you were right, you were protecting the employees, you're protecting our constituents, which means everyone who has records in the behavioral health department, you're protecting all of them from ransomware or cyber attacks.

[01:30:48] This new world we've stepped into is pretty scary, so thank you so much for what you all are doing. And thank you for Ali and Tom, who come to my office all the time and help me with my computer whenever i need it i really appreciate them so much do we have any emotion on the day is seeing none we appreciate you all thank you so much thank you public affairs and communications

[01:31:14] page 56 i was like get out of my seat how y'all doing we're ready when you are all right good evening chair randall members of the board i'm glenn barber as you know i'm public affairs officer

[01:31:47] for Loudoun County. This year we just have one resource request in the FY27 proposed budget, which is a communications manager to support the Department of General Services. The board is familiar with the staffing model that we began in FY19, where we added centralized communications resources to our office, which are then deployed to departments to provide dedicated support to them. We started with DTCI and Health and Human Services. These high demand departments like DTCI,

[01:32:24] Health and Human Services, and just last year Department of Planning and Zoning have proven successful as we deploy those resources to the assigned departments. Over the past few years, General Services has experienced a significant increase in demand for communications support.

[01:32:41] DGS projects have not only increased in number, but also in scope, complexity, and duration. Examples of the type of work that Public Affairs and Communications has been supporting for DGS include the ongoing support for the Environmental Commission, managing public information campaigns of various long-term and ongoing initiatives, such as the Sanitary Districts effort, the invasive plant species, recycling and waste management programs, and the ongoing Interconnected Water Wastewater Improvements Project for Peonian Springs and Waterford.

[01:33:17] Currently, I have multiple staff in public affairs who are providing some level of support to DGS. We also have our staff in DTCI who are continuing to provide support to transit and commuter services long after that division has moved out of DTCI and into DGS.

[01:33:41] And, of course, PAC provides many routine communication supports to DGS around facility maintenance, which often include employee communications. The proposed communications manager would assume responsibility for coordinating all DGS communications, thereby creating efficiency in the delivery of services.

[01:34:00] This position would also create additional capacity among other staff in DTCI and public affairs and communications because they would be able to redirect the time that they currently spend supporting DGS to other departments this resource request moves us closer to our recommended service level for DGS finance committee members may recall that in September I was here presenting and I presented several of our service level goals one of which was an ability to deliver 95 percent of departments required and elective communication services within the department's

[01:34:35] Project specified timeframes or within the timeframes that meets the public expectations if different public affairs and communications Continues to experience routine challenges with meeting departments Project specific timeframes for delivery of services right now 15 to 20% of the services that we provide are not delivered within the timeframes that were requested That metric along with the untenable increase in demand for communication services from DGS over the past few years which now often represents greater than 15% of all services that we provide to departments,

[01:35:11] have informed the current resource request that is our first priority in FY27. As we have seen in DTCI and the Health and Human Services departments and already in DPZ in just a few short months, this type of resource is essential in supporting these high-volume departments' communications needs.

[01:35:33] And this type of resource makes a significant impact on moving us incrementally closer to our recommended service level as well as improving our performance measures across the board. So I hope this brief explanation gives you an idea of why we brought forward this request now, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

[01:35:51] Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Barber. Appreciate it. Supervisor, do you have any questions? The number I will say is this, I don't know who has been taking over the county's social media page, but on a regular basis, all of us share things off of the county's page.

[01:36:11] It is updated three, four times a day with really good information, really good links. And so you guys are doing just a great job in communicating. It helps us communicate out to all of our constituents as well. We all know that this is a plan for your department and how to assist other departments.

[01:36:29] and I think we're good right now. Thank you so much. All right, thank you. And then our last item tonight is real, no, we have two more, I'm sorry. We have two more?

[01:36:45] We have two more. No, real property assessment, real property assessment management and planning, all of it together. Hey, I haven't seen you in a while. Good to see you, Ms. Marsh. You miss coming before us at business meetings?

[01:37:02] Do I miss it? Yeah, sure you do. Yes. Sure you do. Yes. It's good to see you. Great to be here. Supervisors, we're on page 58 and 60. Good evening, board members.

[01:37:18] I'm Jackie Marsh, director of the Rural Property Asset Management and Planning Office. Joining me this evening is Rosario Larocchi, assistant director of the office. Tonight we have three resource requests to present, two of which are included in the proposed budget and one that is included in the county administrator's alternative scenario.

[01:37:37] RPAMP is currently seeking approval of two resource requests to support our space planning team. By way of background, three members of the space planning team that were previously under the Department of Transportation and Capital Infrastructure reorganized under RPAMP in the summer of 2025.

[01:37:54] Because the workload placed on that team remains the same and continues to grow, additional resources are necessary to work on the county space strategy, assisting in developing the capital improvement program, and to shift the office's goals to being proactive planners instead of reactionary. To help meet the increasing strategic and operational demands, we are requesting a planning program manager and a senior master planner. If funded, these positions will improve service levels in three ways. First, it will allow the team to manage an increased volume of projects simultaneously while maintaining quality control and coordination with other

[01:38:31] departments. It will strengthen upstream planning, ensuring land acquisition, leases, and facility decisions are aligned with programmatic needs before projects enter the CIP process, and it will stabilize delivery timelines and reduce the risk of planning bottlenecks that can delay capital projects or funding across the county. If these requests are approved, Several aspects of service delivery will improve while preventing declines in others.

[01:38:59] The most immediate improvement will be the county's ability to complete a higher percentage of planning initiatives each year. Based on current projections, the team will complete approximately 70% of projects this fiscal year while funding the requested positions would allow the team to complete approximately 90% annually.

[01:39:19] This improvement means reduced backlog of planning requests, faster response times to departments requesting facility planning assistance, improved readiness of projects entering the CIP, and better coordination with strategic planning, site analysis, and capital project delivery.

[01:39:37] If the requests are not funded, the county will still be able to provide space planning services, but at a reduced service level. With our current staffing, we would need to prioritize the most urgent operational projects and defer a portion of strategic planning initiatives each year.

[01:39:54] This would likely result in longer response times for departments requesting planning assistance and fewer long-term planning studies being completed. To maintain core service delivery, we would shift resources away from proactive planning activities such as site planning and long-range facility planning and focus primarily on immediate project needs.

[01:40:16] Over time, this approach can increase risk as fewer projects would benefit from the level of early planning that helps ensure facilities are aligned with the program needs before entering the CIP. These two positions will allow the team to stabilize service delivery and keep pace with current demand while we continue to refine our performance measures and workload tracking in coordination with the Office of Management and Budget.

[01:40:39] While not included in the proposed budget, I will summarize our resource requests included in the county administrator's alternative scenario which is a real estate specialist. This position will increase our capacity to lease space, which includes negotiation and administration of new and renewal leases, developing and administering new contacts in support of the county space strategy, and collaborating with multiple departments to ensure compliance with lease terms.

[01:41:07] That concludes my remarks. I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you very much, Ms. Marsh. I appreciate that. Supervisors, do you have questions for Ms. Marsh or her staff? have a quick one mr crony yeah thank you miss marsh so in fyi 26 i think there were a bunch of acquisition managers that you um asked for in the board approved correct yes so they have they been hired they have oh great okay so this this isn't related what you're asking for isn't related to acquisition then correct no it's the space planning division in our pamp okay okay um and

[01:41:45] And then how does the other, the alternative, the real estate, couldn't that be covered with some of these real estate acquisition managers? That's more of a niche position. The current real estate specialist has a wide range of experience dealing with lease negotiations.

[01:42:09] We would want someone to assist her with all of the leases that the county manages. We had 75, we just added an additional 16. So it's helping her with her capacity because that is a role that some of the land acquisition managers have played.

[01:42:28] They have helped her with her work. Okay. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Mr. Letourneau. Yeah, I'll ask the same kind of question, which is, did you give any thought to requesting one person for space planning and then this real estate specialist instead of two for Space planning?

[01:42:48] I think that the resource requests for space planning are more of an urgent need than helping the real estate specialists, so that's why the space planning positions are the priority one. So you'd rather have just two to do that? Yes. Okay. Yes. That's fair. Just asking.

[01:43:03] Okay. So as I said, I'm not going to make any motions for the alternate positions, but for the future, I would ask, and this might be a question for Mr. Hempstreet as well. So we know we have a lot of employees in lease spaces and lease buildings around the county right now.

[01:43:25] Do we think that many of both the employees and the lease spaces will decrease substantially once we bring online a new county administration building? So in other words, would this position possibly be needed if we had a building because a lot of the lease spaces right now and the employees in those spaces were coming to one building? I would say yes. I mean, the county staffing continues to grow, so even if we did build a new government center, we are taking current employees that are in

[01:44:04] county-owned buildings, and we would be moving them to a county-owned building, so we wouldn't be... You don't think you would take employees out of lease spaces and move them into a new county building? It is a possibility. Do you want to expand more on that? Yeah.

[01:44:22] It would be, however, the amount of square footage that we would have to space plan would remain the same, if not actually increase, because when we would build a new government center, we would build it, or a new building, for example, we would build it with a square footage of a horizon growth of, let's say, to 2050, right, so that, you know, we can fit for a long period of time.

[01:44:49] So all the square footage would need to be constantly managed and re-adjusted for the growth of the workforce. Let me say that back to you because I'm not sure I got what you're saying. You're saying that a new county government building would be built with a 2040-2050 outlook.

[01:45:11] Is that correct? Yes. But you believe that the government, that employees will also increase, I'm, the increase in employees to some degree matches the increase in residents.

[01:45:29] And just because, you know, truthfully, we are trying to build more attainable homes whenever we can and wherever we can, but we're losing space just to build homes, period, anymore. So the residential growth is going to slow down just because you run out of space. If the residential growth slows down, then hiring of new employees slows down as well.

[01:45:48] And so then my question kind of then remains, won't we move a lot of those employees who are in government, or rather in lease spaces right now, to a central government building? Yeah, they would, but not all employees would fit into the government building, right?

[01:46:06] So there's other buildings, and those buildings would age, so we would go through a recapitalization of those buildings, so that recapitalization will also need to be space planned. Okay. All right. Well, I'm not going to make any motions right now, but just in case for the future, if we do make us, I want to get those questions in, so thank you.

[01:46:25] Supervisors, do you have any motions on the table at all? Ms. Marsh, we miss seeing you. We do. We miss seeing you. Hope you're doing well. Thank you very much. Supervisors, just FYI, of course, tomorrow we have a business meeting.

[01:46:42] And then for Wednesday's public hearing, Mr. Vice Chair Turner will run that public hearing. I will not be here. I have to be in Ohio for another meeting, another meeting regarding local government health offerings.

[01:47:03] I'm sorry. Finance. I will miss that. Finance. I will miss Wednesday's meeting. But I'll be here tomorrow, and I'll be back on Thursday. All right? All right. Thank you, everybody.

[01:47:19] Thank you. Madam Chair. Yeah. Before we, do we, I guess, either to staff or the finance chair for the finance budget meeting, which is scheduled for Wednesday, do we need to have that meeting? Is there actually anything to work on?

[01:47:39] Put your mic on. Yeah. Are you talking about the CIP work session? Yes. Yes, there are a couple things staff is bringing back to us, so we do need to have that meeting. will have to miss that meeting I apologize no problem why don't we talk about it offline all right we are adjourned

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