Coraggio Consulting
Manassas City Council 9/22/2025

Date: Monday, September 22, 2025
Place: Manassas City Council, Virginia
Length: 2h 9m (video)
Official meeting video (Wistia / RegionalWebTV): https://fast.wistia.net/embed/iframe/jgajel3mik

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 2026-10-17. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:00] of September 22nd, 2025 to order. Mr. Smith, please call the roll. - Mayor Davis Younger. - Present. - Vice Mayor Wolfe. - Here. - Councilmember Ellis. - Councilmember Smith. - Here. - I heard it here.

[00:00:15] - Councilmember Elcina. - Here. - Councilmember Vasquez Luna. - Present. - Councilmember Hudson. - Here. - Form is present. - Thank you. We need to call on Vice Mayor Wolfe for the approval of participation in the city council meeting by remote electronic communication for councilmember Teresa Coates Ellis.

[00:00:34] - Madam Mayor, I so moved. Second we have the motion by vice mayor will seconded by Councilman Vasquez only to approve the participation in the city council meeting by remote Electronic communication for member Teresa Coates Ellis any discussion hearing and seeing none. Mr. Smith, please call the roll Yes, council member Vasquez. Yes Council member Sina yes council member Hudson yes the motion carries. Thank you very much for that if you're able to please stand with me for the invocation i'm looking around feverishly for

[00:01:10] my scout because i usually have a scout here to help us with the pledge so i don't see him we'll go ahead with the invocation dear god thank you for another opportunity to gather together for the governance of our great city of manassas we thank you for the change in seasons and we ask for your continued protection of our council members our staff and every single resident of this city please continue to watch over and protect our men and women who wear the uniform as they protect us. Please help us all to be kind to one another and spread love and not hate. We remain thankful for all these things and those to come. Amen. Please join me in Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge

[00:01:49] allegiance. Be seated. Thank you very much. Thank you all for being here tonight. So good to see a full house out there. Madam Treasurer is here. Thank you for being here tonight. Madam Treasurer Patricia Ritchie folks is here. Thank you. I don't see any other electeds here. We're going to go ahead and start tonight we're gonna we have a little bit of a change as vice

[00:02:24] mayor has to leave on for Rosh Hashanah and we're gonna move up item 4.1 which is the vote on the salary it's second reading so we're gonna move that up to to the point right now so that way he can go ahead and leave second we had a motion by vice mayor Wolfe and we have the second by by councilman osina approving uncodified ordinance number oh 2026-064 establishing the annual salary of the mayor and members of council any discussion hearing and seeing none

[00:03:04] mr smith please call the roll yes no yes yes okay thank you for that and that moves us forward further into the agenda for council time i'll call on vice mayor wolf now i just want to express my

[00:03:33] appreciation thank you councilwoman ellis yes mayor yes council time you have anything for us oh um no i do not tonight okay thank you councilman smith councilman osina uh thank you mayor and

[00:04:13] Welcome, everybody. This is to fall now, autumn, instead of summer here. I hate to see summer go, as I know many of you feel the same way here, but I'm not sure I'm ready for any pumpkin spice at this point. We can wait a little bit there, if you like pumpkin.

[00:04:31] And if you don't, like me, you're, well, you wait until turkey, turkey spice, and then Thanksgiving and things of that sort. I did, rather than talk about various events and so forth coming on here, I did want to make note of a few things. One of the things, first of all, our Fire and Rescue Department completed a second day of smoke detector installations.

[00:04:57] This was in the Georgetown South community again on September the 13th here. They had done this the month before, and along with our volunteer fire department people and our rescue people, And they had done this in conjunction with the American Red Cross, as well as folks from Georgetown South, where I happen to live here.

[00:05:22] When you think about this program, it is not an easy thing to do. The volunteers are probably like the easiest part, but the Red Cross provided all the smoke detectors.

[00:05:37] They brought the equipment. They also had a form that had to be filled out so we could track what homes had been visited. And part of the teams that went out, and they were usually teams of three, you were talking about, you know, fire escape plans, at the same time putting up smoke detectors.

[00:06:00] And the recommendation is that it should be a smoke detector in every bedroom in your house. I didn't know that when they came to visit me a month ago. They fixed that problem for me. I thought it was okay. I just had it on the landing and down by the kitchen.

[00:06:18] As I told the folks there, I use my smoke detector near my kitchen as a reminder of when I cook something too long in the oven. But they said that's not what you're supposed to be doing. But I think that's an amazing achievement. They had back in the spring done Bristow Station.

[00:06:34] They did Georgetown South. The report is that a total of 471 smoke detectors installed, protecting 933 residents in that neighborhood. And why that's impressive is because most visits last about 15 minutes because you're talking to the person or people living there, as well as installing.

[00:06:57] And think about that. If you've got three bedrooms that don't have smoke detectors, that's three bedrooms you're busy putting smoke detectors in, for instance, on the upper level. So just a very interesting process there, and I know that will continue. I'm sure the chief will reference this later on.

[00:07:14] But just an amazing way of how our staff, our volunteers, and how neighborhoods are helping each other and our residents staying safe. I want to remind also that some very useful information is put out by the city and put on the website that answer a lot of those kind of day-to-day or week-to-week questions.

[00:07:40] For instance, today when I was over here by the registrar's office and I was talking to a resident who had just voted, and she was talking to me about asking me questions about the Sudley Third Lane. Well, city staff puts together a, I believe it's a monthly newsletter called Build for the Future, and you'll find copies here in City Hall.

[00:08:08] You'll find it online here, and it talks about our capital improvements going on, and it goes through and talks about the Sudley Third Lane, what's been proposed, what the status is. In this issue, it talked about the Wellington Road Shared Use Path, talked about traffic calming near Osborne High School, which is another item we talk about or we get asked about here.

[00:08:36] stormwater projects that are going on, the Round Pond, the New Britain Pond, and the Sills Warehouse Pond. And if you didn't know we had that many ponds, now you do, and there are more than that. It also goes and talks about water and sewer projects, and then electric projects, about what's being done with various things.

[00:08:58] And so it's a useful, I think, very document for you to visit. Our website is very helpful in having that kind of information. as well as they also do an on-the-move traffic report, lets you know what kinds of traffic delays you might run into.

[00:09:21] You know, there you are, and you go, gosh, I didn't know this was going on. They list where engineering projects are, electric projects, water and sewer, public works, give you the dates for it, along with the events coming up. They even give you the fiscal year 26, which we're in right now, pavement list.

[00:09:40] This is where they'll be paving, and you can go and look at that list to see, A, if your street's on it, and B, if it's along the way where you might travel along the way in that particular case, so useful stuff.

[00:09:55] And so lastly, so much going on. If you were in Old Town this weekend, particularly on Saturday, you saw all the different things going on beside the regularly scheduled things like the farmer's market. And if you ever want to know what's up to date, a lot of people say, well, the newsletter that comes with the electric bill, by the time I get it, some people will tell me, and I'm included, a lot of the dates on the back have passed already.

[00:10:21] The most current list is on the landing page of our city website, and all you do is once you land, you scroll up a little bit, and you can pick any day, and you can see what's being scheduled along the way, you know, events, things of that sort.

[00:10:37] And it's a quick, easy way. You can even do that on your phone, so you'll have it right with you. So take advantage of these sorts of things. They're made available to you. Staff does take the time to be as open, and, you know, the word transparent gets used a lot.

[00:10:53] But in this case, we want you to know what's happening here, and our staff is very proud of the work that they do, and I hope that you, in return, will, you know, take the time to look those things up along the way. So if you find something missing, we certainly want to know how we can improve these kinds of reports or what else should be included along the way that you find that is not there.

[00:11:14] So, Mayor, thank you for the time. Thank you. Councilwoman Vasquez Luna. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I feel like going right after him. I will try not to repeat myself, but good evening, everyone. and I really always enjoy when you come here in person or you watch online or you watch the recordings.

[00:11:35] It is the best way to be up to date on the information on what's going on in the city. For today, I want to start with a little bit of the schools 'cause I'm really happy about a couple of things that they're doing and I just wanna make sure the residents know some great things about the schools the marching band has been working and they did went to a competition and they got a couple of high

[00:12:12] remarks so they've been working since June June July and all the other different weeks but it's great to see how our I call them age it's cool age residents how they do their best to represent Vanessa's just like many of us do when we go to regional meetings or different locations I just want to make sure that I got a chance to praise them and and to thank the staff for what they do and I believe this week I read about Osborne High School students that they

[00:12:47] had they had their experiments launched into space back in September 19 which I think it's really great I have met the families before and to know that out of other bigger localities they were able to be picked and also be you know be able to put their their experiment I believe it was a board of blue origins new shepherd rocket and it was launched on September 18th so great things are going

[00:13:22] on and you know i really want to make sure that we highlight the positive things the kids are doing and they're going out of the way along with the staff that is supporting them for transportation i have so much going on it is really great news the manassas park bre the garage i know some of our residents do go there to park it's going to be open really soon they will be closing the the parking lot to refurbish it to to make it better but we'll be getting an invite for the

[00:14:00] ribbon cutting on october 21st at 2 p.m they have a proposed a fair increase of five percent and the BRE so there will be public solicitation of input so if you write it BRE or even if you don't write it please look into it and everything is it will be posted online to make sure that you provide feedback we also had our CEO retire his last meeting was on Friday I wish him well for all the years that he did a

[00:14:36] BRE and I've been working with a small group with a committee trying to search for a CEO so we'll continue to work in closed session until we find the right person our new attorney at the BRE also just got started and she's doing a great job so I'm looking forward into the things that they will continue to do my biggest concern and I will say you know please stay posted if you are planning to write the BRE the train schedules and some changes there will be

[00:15:14] a new train coming for that period after seven o'clock if you have tried to take the train or have done the train you will know there's like an hour gap so hopefully that will be um there will be a new uh train for that time it will get better but at the same time the uh the long bridge project is going to go from january 2026 to december 2030 and that is going to cause a little bit more discomfort to the other side uh than to the manassas line but it will be changes and i will say please you know uh understand that these changes are going

[00:15:53] gonna be positive and everybody is I'm track and everybody they they uses those lines are going to be working together in order to make the construction happen and during a limited time I will be attending this month the Metropolitan Washington Air Quality Committee which will be this week on Wednesday I'm also looking forward to other events. The TPV meeting was canceled for this month but

[00:16:28] we have the hotlines we have a lot going on there and I'm thankful to our staff and Miss Chloe who's here because they helped me to make sure that we do our best for Manassas City. Please keep as we continue to celebrate the Hispanic heritage month please continue to look whether at the website or if you get your connection late like I do a lot of times it's already the next month when I get my bill so I get the old connection card but you can find it on on the

[00:17:04] website or you can find it when it's posted in social media as well and to end you know thank you for the fire department congratulations I see a lot a work is being put in I know there's in social media a lot of posting and sometimes I don't get a chance to congratulate each one of you but I do want you to know that you know your hard work doesn't go unnoticed and I truly appreciate it I know every time that I hear the car go by you know not only I pray for you but you know for whoever it is part of that incident because I know

[00:17:43] know you're running to it and you know and you chose to be here in Manassas you chose to protect the people of Manassas so I truly appreciate it thank you madam mayor Councilman Hudson thank you madam mayor very quickly over the weekend I was reviewing our comprehensive plan and the many many comments that we received from residents and agencies both online and in person and all kinds of comments and all kinds of thorough responses from our staff so I just want to thank the residents for taking the time to comment and then thank you also to the staff for taking the time to reply thank you madam mayor thank you for my time I attended

[00:18:20] the sci-tech advisory board meetings we got a great update from President Greg Washington of George Mason we welcome Chico's t-shirt business they're located right beside the bail bonds folks on Peabody Street there and we also do river cutting on sliced pizza and more so please make sure you stop by these new businesses and show them the Manassas love that we have we had the roar car show this weekend and I picked I get the mayor's pick every year they allow me to pick a favorite car and this year it was the winner was Joe Hughes and

[00:18:56] he had a beautiful midnight blue 1941 Buick special it's a really beautiful car so yeah and he was I guess really happy I didn't stay around I just picked and ran away so it was good to see everybody out um for that i couldn't drive away right this week i have i'm going to be meeting with the prince william realtor association they want me to meet with their board of directors i think with all the development and things that we've been doing it's important for i think for me to sit down with them hear what they're thinking about development and just kind of give them an update on what we're doing

[00:19:32] in the city and so that way we can try to partner and work with each other to make sure that we're are doing things the right way and we can use their help as well so we have the commonwealth senior living living ribbon cutting coming up and then we have a block party the true by hilton has been here for five years which i don't think people realize that was a fast five years that that flew by um so they're celebrating their fifth year and they're doing a joint event with the chamber of commerce who's doing their ribbon cutting on their new facility and that's on the 26th and then we finally which i'm really glad to to be able to do this is cut the ribbon on our

[00:20:08] community center on the 29th that has been such a long time coming and i went there for middle school and to be able to cut the ribbon on that as the community center is going to be a pretty special day for me so i want to especially thank everyone who came out to the council meeting the last council meeting as well as the town hall and expressed concerns issues brought things forward Our staff works very hard to try to answer people and get back to you and at least get the dialogue going so that your issues can be addressed in a timely manner.

[00:20:41] We're not perfect, but we try to get to you as quickly as we can. So I just want to thank everyone who came out to make comments and bring issues to us. We always appreciate that. And I want to, it's in our consent agenda, but we do have a new deputy city clerk and she's not a big speaker, so I won't put her on the spot, but her name is Parisa And she's our new deputy clerk, so that's part of our consent agenda to vote her in place.

[00:21:06] So we are so glad you are here. Thank you for it. You can wave your hand at least. You don't have to talk. I know. It's scary. It's okay. But thank you for choosing us. And I think we haven't managed to scare her off yet. It's been almost two months, I think. So I think we're doing good.

[00:21:23] But thank you for choosing us for your next chapter of your career. And we're pretty good. So I think we love what you've done so far and we just encourage you to ask for help if you need it. But Eric, he's pretty good. He doesn't smile much, but he's pretty good to work for. So thank you so much for that. And I'll call on City Manager Burke. Thank you.

[00:21:45] Thank you, Madam Mayor. October will bring a number of exciting events for the families in Manassas. First Friday is October 3rd. HMI will be hosting their annual Fall Jubilee on Saturday, October 4th in the downtown area. Liberia House is celebrating its 200th year with tours and living history demonstrations on Saturday, October 11th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

[00:22:07] The city also invites you to our Public Works Public Utilities Open House that same day, Saturday, October 11th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. And on Sunday, October 12th, Station 21 will have an open house from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to let all of our families view any of the equipment and meet some of the staff.

[00:22:29] We would also invite you to visit the museum to view Give Me Liberty, Virginia, and the Forging of a Nation exhibit that will end with the 250th Mobile Museum arriving in the city from Monday, October 20th until Wednesday, October 22nd.

[00:22:47] And as Councilwoman Luna indicated, Hispanic Heritage Month continues through October 15th in Manassas. The Manassas Museum is hosting an art exhibition of the work of Puerto Rican artist Julio Z. Berrios, whose recent series of work is titled Original Natives.

[00:23:05] And the Manassas Museum also is offering a celebration collection featuring products from four local artisans. This past Saturday, a Mooney single-engine aircraft experienced mechanical issues with its landing gear. That resulted in an emergency landing at our airport.

[00:23:23] A number of our firefighters were able to respond to that incident. Thankfully, there were no injuries, but the NTSB is investigating the incident. For everyone in the city, personal property taxes will be due Tuesday, October 6th.

[00:23:43] So please visit the treasurer's office either online, by mail, or downstairs. Paving is scheduled to be conducted on Douglas Street in early October during the daytime. and at night we will be paving church street from zebedee to west street the city is also currently seeking individuals involved with real estate development urban planning or housing equity to submit applications to serve on our house housing advisory board visit our website for more information and to apply and congratulations to historic manassas incorporated they are our

[00:24:21] main street program and they are celebrating their 40th anniversary in October HMI's farmers market continues to operate Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at a at the pavilion and every Saturday at Prince William Street Park commuter lot as has been indicated please visit our website for information about all of the events that are occurring in the city as well as the events that are available at our community center and that's all I have madam thank you mr any questions for mr burke okay we have another sort of shift in the agenda as well we're going to next have the proclamation for the

[00:25:00] fire prevention week and we're going to move the 25th anniversary commendation for panorama latino tino TV to the end of the presentation so chief mills you want to meet me down front I'll do the commendation for that saying earlier to

[00:25:38] make sure the mic was working I won't subject y'all to that so thank you um fire prevention me the 11th October 11 through or 5th through 11th okay so we're a little early but we wanted to make sure to get the commendation or the proclamation done for that so thank you for being here we really appreciate it so the proclamation reads whereas the city of Manassas is committed to ensuring the safety and security of all those living and visiting our city and whereas fire remains a serious public safety concern both locally and nationally nationally and the presence

[00:26:11] of lithium-ion batteries and many household devices introduces a unique fire risk and whereas most of the electronics used in homes daily including smartphones tablets laptops power tools e-bikes e-scooters and toys are powered by lithium-ion batteries which if misused damage or improperly charged can overheat start a fire or explode and whereas residents should follow three key calls to action buy only ul underwriters laboratories listed products charge batteries

[00:26:47] safely and recycle them responsibly to prevent battery related fires and whereas lithium ion batteries store a large amount of energy in a small space and improper use such as overcharging using off-brand chargers without safety certification or exposing batteries to damage can result in fire or explosion, and whereas the proper disposal and recycling of lithium-ion batteries help prevent environmental hazards and reduce fire risks in the home and community, and whereas City of Manassas first responders are dedicated to reducing the occurrence of fires

[00:27:25] through prevention safety education and community outreach and whereas the 2025 fire prevention week theme charge into fire safety lithium lithium ion batteries in your home serves to remind us of the importance of using charging and recycling lithium ion batteries safely to reduce the risk of fires in homes and communities now therefore i'm michelle davis younger mayor of the city of manassas Virginia and on behalf of the Manassas City Council do hereby proclaim October 5th through 11th 2025 as fire prevention week in the city of Manassas and urge all residents to support the

[00:28:04] efforts and activities of our fire and rescue services thank you very much all right okay thank you um everything you just heard is absolutely true um you can go online you can read about all the different fires that lithium-ion batteries have start have been the cause of and there have been multiple fatalities. New York City has had numerous fatalities just in their jurisdiction

[00:28:39] which we know it's large but they are well over the number of fires that should have never happened and they resulted in fatalities our smoke detector program that uh councilman osina spoke about we started our sound the alarm program in november of 2024 to date with everything that we've done we've installed over 1,000 smoke detectors protecting over 1,300 citizens we're going to

[00:29:17] continue to be out in the communities we generally do something each quarter in conjunction with the Red Cross. If there's ever anyone that wants to volunteer and become part of that great initiative, you can reach out to the American Red Cross or look up Sound the Alarm and tell them you would like to volunteer to be part of that. And whenever we do it, they'll send you a link to sign up and register so that we know how many volunteers to expect that day. And in the two Georgetown South events we were uh thankful to have over 40 volunteers each one of those days that that's

[00:29:56] some of the largest that they've ever seen so that really speaks volumes about uh the people

[00:30:02] that want to support our community thank you all right thank you so much for this thank you so much

[00:30:51] for that um next on the agenda we have northern virginia food rescue presentation dr megan franco executive director is here to help us with that hello there come on down well good evening thank you for having me. I'm Dr. Megan Frankel. I'm the Executive Director of Northern Virginia Food Rescue, and I'm happy to share a little bit about what it is that we do. So I'm going to assume that this is mine to use. All right. So when you're thinking about food rescue, you're like, what is

[00:31:29] that? It's literally just that. We are rescuing food from grocery stores, restaurants, farmers markets, restaurant distribution centers, and we're taking it and redistributing it throughout Prince William County, and that includes the city of Manassas as well as Manassas Park. Why is that important here? When you look at statistics on food insecurity in the DMV, Prince William County, and this includes the city of Manassas and Manassas Park, we're actually number two. We're right behind Prince George's County. And when I started here two years ago, it was actually 36 percent and now it's up to 43 percent. And I would imagine that number has probably gone up a little bit. I'm concerned about that. So, you know, we need to

[00:32:08] talk about these things. So what we do, this is a wonderful mission. It's an innovative network of donors and volunteers and distribution partners that improves food resiliency out here but again what we do is take this food and we're making sure that we're feeding folks the really crazy thing is I get food for some of the the most oddest reasons you know maybe a label misprinted and a store says we can't put that on the shelves they're going to throw that away we've gotten food because the produce isn't pretty enough we've gotten food because someone over purchased that would go in the trash. We are rescuing almost 3 million pounds of food each year and getting it back out to

[00:32:47] schools, senior communities, some of the neighborhoods out here. So how we started, we actually were a subsidiary of Axe. If anyone's ever heard of Axe and Dumfries, they have amazing programs. And we were just one of those programs. But in 2020, because the pandemic hit, it was important for us to make sure that we fed our community. So we broke off and we became our own entity. And to date, we have completed nearly 50,000 rescues. And those numbers have actually gone up since I submitted this. We've completed about 36 million pounds of food being rescued,

[00:33:24] which equates to about 30 million meals. And the other thing that I tend to forget, because I get so excited about the fact that we feed people, that we're also mitigating CO2. Because when that food goes to landfills, it just decomposes. Well, we could be sitting here and feeding folks. If anyone wants to become a food rescue hero, we have an app. We have a licensed app that allows us the infrastructure to be able to move this food because actually it's only four of us staff and we're able to move that food because of volunteers in the community such as yourselves. You download that app and you can help us claim a rescue and you can help us to either

[00:34:04] bring the food to the warehouse that's in Manassas or you can take it directly to so-and-so's food pantry on our behalf and we would really appreciate that. Just to give you an example of some of the food donors that we have, these are just some of the names, and we have a partner relations coordinator who's amazing. When she has the opportunity, she's out and about in the community to educate people and encourage them to become one of our food donors. I think a lot of times people have misconceptions because they're scared of, well, if I give you something and you get sick, I don't want to be sued, where you're actually protected by the Good Samaritan Act, because if

[00:34:40] you're giving food with the intent of nourishing people and with good intent, it's okay, you are safe you know as long as you're not trying to give me some radioactive shrimp that you knew was bad you're okay so we support hundreds hundreds of programs in our community and I think that people tend to see that end result in which that's exactly what we want to see we want to see children going home with food we want to see food pantries we want to see churches giving out food but people have no idea the origins that that food came through northern virginia food rescue

[00:35:15] It came through our staff. It came through our warehouse and getting it out and doing a small survey of our partners to keep in contact and understand what's going on. We learned that we're serving essentially 7000 people weekly through the food that comes through our warehouse. Another so our primary focus is rescue. But because we understand the need, we have a weekend backpack program initiative. And this also started during the pandemic because the children, they were home all day. If I don't have breakfast or lunch, what am I going to do? And so this continued on because we continue to see the numbers and food insecurity of the youth. And so we have this backpack program

[00:35:55] where we get food out to schools. It's a discreet little bag. We try to cover protein, veggies, fruit, a grain. They can slide in their book bags with dignity. They can take it home. And so we are serving about 15,000 to 20,000 students annually to make sure that they can take this food home.

[00:36:15] And so we support schools everywhere from Baldwin Elementary to Weems, the whole nine. And when the kids are out of school, we are dropping food off to the libraries and the community centers where the families can go and collect the bag. So here's my information. If anyone wants to learn more, you want to carry this conversation offline, I could talk all day long about food insecurity.

[00:36:37] And I will leave a couple of pamphlets here. If anyone wants to come to our warehouse, if you haven't been, I would encourage you to come and learn more. But thank you. thank you very much for that um you can did you leave him with the clerk or yeah so that way he yeah so that way he can give them to us you you're located over by Cracker Barrel right over on that okay so I know that I had downloaded the app I feel bad because I never rescued who but I have the app on my phone I promise I just haven't gotten around to it but it is so easy to use and thank you all for what you do um and helping people eat and especially now it's just so tough

[00:37:16] um for a lot of people having to get help for the first time you know and ever i mean they've never had to do it and so um thank you for that did anyone have any questions mr osina has a question you want to come back thank you i do actually i i see you bought brought your board chair person with you here so i wanted to and would you like to do the introductions this is julia biggins and she is our board chair and she's been incredible she's been with the board about almost two years. Two years. Two years at this point. So Chair Biggins, could you talk a little

[00:37:56] bit about the volunteer involvement, first of all, on your board, how your board is made up, how you recruit people along the way here. And doing all of this is great to get the food, but somewhere there's got to be money to pay people and keep the lights on and pay the rent in the warehouse and things like that.

[00:38:21] So what kinds of, how do you raise your money? And is there anything coming up this fall that you're doing that raises money? Thank you so much for bringing up that topic. So we have a eight member board right now. We're always looking to increase that board.

[00:38:37] We're very focused on making sure that our board members are local to Prince William County and the Manassas because this is our community. We wanna make sure to help them. And we're all volunteers and we work to make sure that the organization is sound, we're good stewards of our financial operations, and things of that nature.

[00:38:55] And we do have a event coming up this fall. On October 25th, we have our annual fall fundraiser called Hunger is Scary, because it is, right? Hunger is scary, it ties in nicely for that time of year at the Halloween time. And we're going to have our fundraiser this year at Dill Dinkers, the pickleball port in the Manassas Mall.

[00:39:16] We can send you all a link for it. We'd love to have you come out. You'd be welcome to say a few words if you'd like to to the folks that are there supporting our mission. But this is our main fundraiser for the year, and we do find right now, especially in the current federal environment, reduced funding at the federal level, and it's just continuing to trickle down.

[00:39:34] And with the rise of food insecurity in our area, we're finding it really tough, and the dollars are spreading very thin right now. And I think you would all agree that food insecurity is the common denominator when it comes to our community. We can't learn in our schools, we can't seek out jobs, we can't get help for our mental health if we don't have the food that we need.

[00:39:54] So, thank you. And I do just want to say I appreciate what you've been doing over the years along the way, because as you did point out here, when you're hungry, it's very hard to, if you're an adult, look for work, to work along the way.

[00:40:13] And if you've got a family and kids, you know, studying, learning, those kinds of things. So it's great that you add to the fabric of our city here by helping out along the way here. In a perfect world, we have no need for this, but unfortunately we do.

[00:40:31] And so I'm glad you folks have stepped up to continue the mission. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Just to say thank you very much for the service you're providing. Very valuable. Thank you. Thank you so much for being here. Okay. That'll move us forward to item 1.4, the fire staffing update.

[00:40:50] chief mills will come back for that good evening madam mayor members of the city council um i'm honored to be in front of you today to provide you with updates on the staffing of our fire and rescue system and let you know that we're making strides in everything that we do we knew there were going to be some times due to high vacancy rate that things were

[00:41:30] going to be tough if you remember if you recall i sat in front of you in june of 2024 and provided you with the current staffing levels across the board and as you see the obligation from the city volunteers for the fire company was being met 27.44 of the time and the fire and rescue

[00:42:05] Department, the career side was providing 33.85% of the staffing that was generating excessive overtime costs. Even with the excessive overtime costs, Engine 501 spent 38.71% of the time unstaffed. So as of August 2025, with a lot of effort tackling our vacancy rate, the number of

[00:42:41] volunteers has continued to go down at the fire company. Training is a very big part of that, the demand that there is for training, the amount of time that it takes to bring somebody in and get them trained. Just the physical aspect of what we're asking these folks to do is extremely hard.

[00:43:04] So currently the volunteer fire company is meeting the officer and firefighter duties within the obligation of the contract they have with the city 1.88 percent of the time. Since we have been able to close our vacancy rate, we've also been able to reduce our excessive overtime cost. The career fire and rescue service provides a driver, officer, and firefighter 96.91 percent of the time, but we

[00:43:35] have reduced the unstaffed rate down to 1.21 percent of the time. So when I went back and looked the data going as far back as April up till today or up till August, during the month of April we were able to staff that engine 20 days without the use of overtime. Only nine days required overtime and the engine was only unstaffed 3.3 percent of the time. In May, as we continued to fill our

[00:44:14] vacancies, we were able to staff that engine 25 days with no overtime. Four days required overtime. It was unstaffed two days for the night side, so the daytime hours it was staffed for 6.4% of the time.

[00:44:35] In June, again, we were able to staff the engine with no overtime for 20 days, 7 days required overtime, 2 days for 24 hours, 1 day for 12 hours it was unstaffed, meaning 10% for that month.

[00:44:53] In July, we were able to staff it 21 days with no overtime, seven days with overtime, two days for 12 hours, one day for 24, leaving it unstaffed 9.6% of the time for that month.

[00:45:12] In the month of August, we were able to staff the engine 25 days with no overtime, six days with overtime, and there were zero days that that engine was unstaffed. We are making strides. There's currently one volunteer that meets the minimum staffing standards with the fire company. The way we've addressed this is with the support of the council. We've been able to put in a lateral hiring process, which has proved to be very beneficial to us. Thank you for that.

[00:45:51] We've implemented a more streamlined intern process for our employees that we hire through that program because they are already trained, they bring experience to us, and we compensate them for that experience. So we have tasked our training committee with taking a look at our process that was in place for getting them turned over and streamline that process so we get them into being minimum staffing much quicker than we were in the past.

[00:46:23] So, again, with the support of the council, we were provided three firefighter positions approved within the 2026 budget. Although one of them is currently funded, pending later review, it also has allowed us to continue to bring on new hires.

[00:46:54] We continue to fill our vacancies, which currently stand at four, down from nine when we started this process. The Fire and Rescue Department currently has two candidates that are ready to be interviewed.

[00:47:11] We have three that are testing this coming Wednesday. And when I look this morning, we have four additional candidates that are ready to take the agility test and the written test. So I'm very hopeful that we're going to be able to fill those existing vacancies and continue to reduce our overtime.

[00:47:33] For 2024, filling those overtimes, we were able to reduce our overtime expenditure a little over $200,000 for FY25. So we're seeing that continually go down, and I thank you for that.

[00:47:50] And I'm ready to answer any questions you may have. Thank you, Chief Mills. Can you talk just a little bit about the lateral process? Again, I know we approved it, but for people that may not be aware, what does that mean? Yeah, so the lateral process, one of the things that is happening throughout the entire region because the training for the firefighters is so hard to come by now, there's not as many classes as there used to be, we're really robbing from one another to just we get our employees,

[00:48:24] somebody else takes them because their jurisdiction pays higher than us being a smaller jurisdiction. You know, we don't have everything that we can offer like Fairfax County does for career advancement and things like that.

[00:48:39] So when we started this discussion, we talked about how we had to be competitive salary-wise and benefits-wise. And the Human Resources Department did a fantastic job listening to what we were saying we needed to be competitive.

[00:48:56] And they made those changes. And again, thank you for approving those changes because there was obviously a cost associated with that. But what that allowed us to do was bring people into our jurisdiction and give them credit for the time that they have in the fire service.

[00:49:15] As long as they took their training in the state of Virginia, we recognized that. And we were able to calculate out an incoming salary, recognizing their time of service already provided within a community.

[00:49:32] And I will say, we were able to attract some very, very well-qualified, well-rounded candidates that will serve our jurisdiction for years to come with top-level service.

[00:49:50] So thank you for that. Thank you, Amy, Mr. Smith, and then Tom. Thank you, Chief. I really do appreciate the, well, first, having personal experience with our fire and rescue. I think we have the greatest in northern Virginia, probably the state of Virginia, and it ranks very high nationally.

[00:50:10] So thank you to the firefighters and volunteers and so forth. I appreciate the analysis, and I would encourage you to continue to feel free to come to the council, general manager's talk.

[00:50:27] The kinds of analysis that you're providing, I've kind of labeled it that you Magic Mills hiring maneuver. But I'm curious that kind of thinking so that we can continue to attract top quality in the staff and the obvious impact that's having on reducing the need for overtime, eliminating some concerns that we as a council and the residents have about the required use.

[00:50:59] Sometimes it's not fully understood why we make some changes, so don't get discouraged. In terms of the analysis, I would encourage you particularly, and I'm sure you are, I know you are, looking at the impact. Two things, looking at how we can even more encourage volunteers for that section, but also a capital analysis of the impact that could have or would be having in terms of your staffing needs.

[00:51:30] I know we can't and don't hire people and put them on reserve, but we need to be ready. And I'm encouraging you to keep us posted so that we are ready, lateral hiring or other recruiting that might be needed so that we can continue the level of service that you provide in our residents.

[00:51:52] Thank you very much, sir. Keep maneuvering. Thank you. Mr. Osina. Mayor, thank you here. So, number one, if you went to your slide right after your opening one where you showed the data, yeah, that one, no doubt in one year's time to see such, you know, an improvement is remarkable along the way.

[00:52:20] And it's good to see that there's several reasons for that. But when we get to the unstaffed part there, where you say, you know, Engine 501 goes unstaffed when no one from Manassas Volunteer Fire Company staffs are off to the city of Manassas Fire and Rescue Department personnel are not available.

[00:52:41] So explain a little bit like that. So when you've got openings and they have basically, one of these people have fulfilled their shift and they're not required to work overtime, is that correct? So we do have a mandatory overtime policy, but because we are responsible for staffing Tower 1, Engine 521, two advanced life support medic units, and Engine 501, 7 to 5 Monday through Friday,

[00:53:17] I generally tend to shy away from doing mandatory overtime on engine 501 for the reason that the way the current documents are out there, the volunteers are responsible for holidays, evenings, and weekends.

[00:53:39] If we have personnel that are willing to sign up and work that overtime, we will allow them to work to keep that engine staffed. But I also have to think about their mental health and wellness. And if I continually hold them over, that doesn't do anything for our employee morale.

[00:54:00] They are meeting their obligation in coming to work every day and taking mandatory holdovers that impacts their time off away from their family, where their family may be expecting them to come home the next morning and they have to call and say, I got held.

[00:54:20] They're meeting their obligation. They know their obligation. And I think it would be unfair to them to continue to do that. And I also think it's unfair to our citizens to where if we overwork them, I don't think any of our citizens want an overworked, extremely tired team of emergency workers coming to provide critical services to them.

[00:54:49] My thoughts, exactly, because there come the limits of, you know, human endurance along the way. And if you're working shift after shift after shift, whether it's part of your regular shift and then doing overtime and then your next shift comes up, that's the best.

[00:55:07] And it also becomes a safety problem when you have chronic fatigue. It becomes a safety problem along the way here. Then on the next slide, you indicate that, yes, we did approve three firefighter positions in the budget year we're in right now.

[00:55:26] So with these three firefighter positions that have been approved, if they were all filled, going back to the first slide, would the unstaffed portion of Engine 501 drop even more?

[00:55:44] Absolutely. Would it drop to zero or close to zero? It would, and because of training, there still may be some days that we would require over time because if we flip that to where we take full responsibility for staffing that, we still have to make sure that our personnel attend training, and it's mandatory training to maintain their certifications, but it would be greatly reduced and diminished.

[00:56:11] And what you just said. So in addition to their work or while they're working there, and most of us who follow your department on Facebook see the various announcements about certifications being earned along a licensure along the way here, various officers or fire personnel or EMTs earning those sorts of things here.

[00:56:39] So while they're working, they, when I say working, they're on duty, they would be working on their certifications, too. Is that correct? So in many cases, they are. Some of the training that's required, especially the EMS training for their annual recertifications, the state doesn't allow them to do that on duty because if they're sending them to that training, it has to be continuous, uninterrupted hours of training, or you can't.

[00:57:11] They're not going to accept it. Okay. Well, I think those are important things for all of us to keep in mind here that, you know, we all want to run lean and mean here. But lean and mean on certain things is not always a good idea because the nature of this kind of work, as a, for instance, along with our EMTs and our police officers as well here, things they have to do and see the stress they're under is not like me sitting in front of a computer and the stress I have because my computer glitched out or something of this sort and I have to recreate the work.

[00:57:51] And I will say the volunteers are making considerable efforts to attract volunteers. I know just recently when I met with the Greater Manassas Volunteer Rescue Squad, They had indicated that they just had, I believe it was four or five volunteers that graduated EMT school.

[00:58:12] And because they are down to one preceptor right now due to one of their members not being able to actively engage in duty right now, we're going to support them and have our crews help them with getting those members precepted to expedite that process for them.

[00:58:34] And I know the volunteer fire company has a couple people in fire school right now. But if they're just starting their firefighter one, it will still be 18 months or so before they complete everything to even start the internal minimum training packet that they have to do.

[00:58:55] So we're looking probably at two years before they would be considered minimum staffing. And that's one of the drawbacks to attracting volunteers. It takes so long to obtain everything. Well, and our volunteer fire company has a long tradition of service to our city.

[00:59:13] It continues to do so. I've seen that firsthand. They are having an open house, I believe, October what? Is it 12th? 20th. 20th? No, it's the 3rd, the 4th.

[00:59:29] Thank you. Sorry. Pick a number. Somebody fortunately gave me four fingers, not something else here, which i appreciate thank you um and that's right over here where engine i mean uh station one is right where they're going to be having it correct yes they're nodding yes uh and that's that's open and that's a great way would folks who are with the volunteer fire company raise your hand because if anybody is interested in volunteering raise your hand so they know who to talk to go ahead so they're with the rescue squad well someone from anyone from the fire yeah there we go see

[01:00:08] they'll take the the the the request there you know this this is what it takes though uh we we can't as residents sit back and say you know we wish you know we wish we need to cut costs or we ought to be you know having more volunteers it's within each of us to step up and do that uh along the way here if that's what we want somehow we have to fill the gap I know the chief does that very well is working toward that police are doing that EMT's along the way here and certainly appreciate all the fire volunteer fire

[01:00:45] and rescue folks that help us out here but is there anything I've left down in terms of understanding how this this is working we are we have also looked at creative ways to hire people and one of the things I was able to do is work out a an agreement with Falkir County their current fire chief was my lieutenant when I worked for Prince William County so we have a good relationship and he has allowed us to if we have people that may have EMS certification but don't have

[01:01:21] fire certifications if they are holding a recruit class in Fauquier County they are allowing us to send people to that class so that has allowed us to have one person graduate in August and we will have a another person that we brought on that will be starting in December and we have brought them on and we're getting them through a lot of the early stuff they need to do to go to class so they're going to be ready

[01:01:58] for that so that's also opened up some doors for us also and it's probably a good opportunity for us to also uh be able to attract some of our uh citizens that have been interested where in the past we because we hired already trained personnel it just wasn't feasible uh but now that we have this agreement in place the the one candidate that will be going in December is an Osborne grad you'll meet him later on tonight his family has a very

[01:02:33] long rich history in the volunteer fire company and I'm really excited that we were able to get him so chief thank you very much please keep us informed along the way here right as I know you will bear thank you thank you miss Vasquez luna uh thank you madam mayor thank you chief you know i believe um the page uh shows you know improvement and it might not show all the hard work and everything that is being done uh uh to come to a zero but it's definitely making it a lot better so i thank you for that i uh you started

[01:03:10] talking about something that i wanted to say i went to our high school for a tour and we were also talking about how you know the EMS program on how they the students can learn and how they you know maybe in the future be a volunteers I still have my picture from you can from last last meeting but yeah that that is great you know not only then uh that we call out to our residents I know some step up others come from other jurisdictions not only to volunteer but also to

[01:03:46] to support the department. But thank you for what you're doing. And thanks, everybody. I mean, sometimes what it takes is, you know, one staff member to speak highly of what they're doing and how they are feeling and what's happening here to be able to also attract other people.

[01:04:07] But I definitely always talk about how in our city, we might not be able to compete on the amount of money all the restrictions pay, but there's also other ways that we're always looking in to see how we can make it better.

[01:04:23] I do want to, you know, address, you know, I do understand, you know, when the posts have been, when we are tagging the posts from different events or different situations, all I want to say that, you know, it doesn't go unnoticed, but at the same time as a policy maker you know to me it's important not only today but also for the future but at the same time you know part of my job is making policy and making sure that uh our city manager and uh and uh those

[01:04:58] under each department that they have the leadership uh so i just want to make sure that you know the staff know that i do hear it i do you know try to do my part and uh you know it doesn't go notice and I hope they know that, but thank you for showing us the improvements, and I know when it comes to staffing, you know, we have been tracking, you know, the open positions for all different departments, so there has been a problem in different ways, but I appreciate

[01:05:32] all the creativity to make it come down to nearly zero, and also for the well-being of everybody but you know they don't have to uh stay i know how difficult you know uh overtime can be it gets to a point that it's not about the money and and it's about your well-being and taking care of your family as well thank you thank you ms ellis did you have any comments i forget you're online there i don't want to forget you no no i don't thank you okay thank you chief mills thank you i'm sorry ashley were you good okay um thank you so much for the information and thank you to

[01:06:09] everyone in our fire department the volunteers everybody we are just so simply grateful um when there's emergencies and you show up and you're there for all of our residents in the city we are so grateful for your time and your talent because you could go anywhere and you choose to stay here in the city and we will always appreciate you um and thanks for being such a great leader chief mills you've been great since you've come on board we really appreciate your efforts and going above and beyond to make sure that we attract the right people.

[01:06:38] So we're here to help, and we do what we can, and we'll get it together. So thank you so much. And you're still the star of the show, so item 1.5 is the Fire and Rescue Department promotion recognition. So this is the good part.

[01:06:54] This is the opportunity to recognize the fruits of what you have done. we're gonna be recognizing some of our new employees part of the process internally that that you approved was we were able to reinvent the master technician so we completed that process and we'll be introducing some of our new master techs tonight so I'll call them down some of them had to leave I don't

[01:07:29] know back yet had to do an emergency some are back okay so uh matthew adkins come on down come on down

[01:07:38] pj burrows okay charles debonis anna lavali john miller samuel rice did you recognize that name

[01:08:13] so the these are uh some of the folks that we've been able to get uh through our lateral program Ms. Lavallee here, she was our graduate that we sent to Fauquier County.

[01:08:31] She was a former volunteer with the Manassas Volunteer Rescue Squad. And Samuel Rice here is the grandson of Jimmy Rice, and we're going to be sending him to recruit school.

[01:08:49] So these are the folks that we were able to get through the lateral in our creative hiring processes. and that's how we get where we're going great awesome so as i said we uh recreated our master technician positions and we did the process for uh promoting those individuals uh ray dalvenberger

[01:09:20] frank flanagan and adam potter so each one of these three went through a uh extensive promotion process where they had to study for a written exam they had to go through a practical exam and they had to go through a panel interview as well as a interview chiefs interview so it was a

[01:09:53] pretty extensive process that they had to endure through and they were successful and this is the results of the support that the council has given us and I thank you and our whole department thanks

[01:10:10] Congratulations, everyone. Thank you. Thank you again for that. Chief Mills

[01:11:12] Next on the agenda we had to move this item to the bottom But it is a commendation for the 25th anniversary of the Panorama Latino TV show and Miss Stephanie Williams is here And she has a special guest with her And I just want to say we so appreciate all of the years of Coverage that you have done for us and making sure that our Spanish-speaking residents get the news they need the information they need we really really appreciate it so you

[01:11:40] want to come on over here that'd be good thank you so much for being here okay and i'll read the accommodation and then you can take a few moments to say hello the commendation reads whereas some 40 percent of the population of the city of manassas is comprised of hispanics and whereas the city of manassas values the well-being of all of its residents and strives to encourage participation in city events and services among all of its residents and whereas

[01:12:15] the community service Spanish language television program Panorama Latino TV show was created and has been produced since April of 2001 by Stephanie Williams after a preventable fire took the lives of a Hispanic family in our local area in the late 1990s and whereas Panorama Latino TV show has proven invaluable to the city of Manassas by providing crucial outreach to its Hispanic community and whereas the life-saving and life-enriching informational television program has made possible has been made possible since its inception in large part by novec and comcast

[01:12:53] cable and whereas panorama latino tv show has engaged the participation of the city manassas in addition to countless local state and national organizations and was instrumental in providing vital information about covid during the pandemic and in assisting the u.s census bureau over the years and whereas the television program which airs on comcast channel 2 on fridays at 8 30 p.m and sundays at 6 30 p.m and streams on youtube has been made possible through the dedication of many people including long-time co-host and interpreter suzanne alvarez priscota you knew i wasn't going

[01:13:31] to be able to do it okay priscota long-time technical director and administrative assistant Alan Beaverstock social media coordinator and show host Carol Guzman show host and well-known singer of Peruvian music Diane Aldana and new host and interpreter Victoria McCullough now therefore I'm Michelle Davis Michelle Davis mayor of the city of Manassas Virginia and on behalf of the Manassas City Council do hereby commend Stephanie Williams creator and executive producer of the Panorama Latino TV show along with her entire team as well as Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative

[01:14:08] and comcast cable for their leadership and mentoring and motivating our hispanic community for providing essential outreach to hispanic residents through the panorama latino tv show and for enriching the lives of those in the city of manassas and beyond in celebration of the program's 25th anniversary congratulations thank you so much for being here

[01:14:40] Thank you, Mayor Davis-Younger and members of the City Council for recognizing our work over 25 years.

[01:14:57] I accept this commendation on behalf of my amazing team who shared and shares my belief in the power of education and information. And I'm very thrilled that my colleague, Suzanne Alvarez-Brizgoda, my longtime interpreter for all of the guests who don't speak Spanish, So we welcome all of you to be interviewed for your constituents and longtime show host.

[01:15:25] I started serving this city soon after coming to the Manassas area in May of 1989. And in October, I became the first professional interpreter in the courts. I taught the judges and the police about the last name system of the Hispanics because they were charging them with using false names.

[01:15:51] And they were filing them in the last name, which is really should be the next to last name. So I wanted to definitely help out about that. I assisted Sheriff Hill when he was superintendent of the jail. The city asked me to teach Spanish to city personnel here, especially the social services department.

[01:16:09] And as a college Spanish professor, I was fully qualified to do this for the city. In the early 1990s, I was a founding member of your city's Hispanic Task Force, if any of you were around at that time. Along with a man I admired and was proud to call a friend, Loy Harris, for whom your beautiful Harris Pavilion is named.

[01:16:30] And he was advocate of the Hispanic community and taught himself Spanish. I helped Sheriff Garrison with the crowd control during the Bobbitt trial and received the Bar Association's first Liberty Bell Award for my service to the judicial system in the community.

[01:16:54] Your city certified me as a foster parent, which enabled me to give a home to four youngsters from El Salvador, three of whom did not speak any English if they were very recent arrivals. In your city, I founded a language academy right next to the post office on Sudley Road, and in these chambers, Mayor Hal Parrish presented me with an award that your school superintendent, whom I really love, Dr. Newman, recommended me for the Virginia School Board Association.

[01:17:26] Award. So I have a long history with you, including when Mayor Harry Parrish asked me to organize a Hispanic festival in the city that was not going to take place. I had three weeks to do it. Pulled it off. And speaking of Dr. Newman, one of our special segments on our TV show is called Si Se Puede, which means Yes, You Can. And we spotlighted your honor roll students to come on the show and serve as role models for other Hispanic families and students. And that was a

[01:18:02] fabulous, fabulous segment. And they were more articulate and wise than any of the guests on our show from national, state, local, and regional organizations were. They were, each one was amazing. We also work with several of your city departments, especially the police department, to produce a special edition on law enforcement and your city police department participated in that in addition to having many of your officers on the show over the years. I'm honored to have

[01:18:36] known various police chiefs of your city that are no longer with us and of course the current chief and many of your fine officers as well. At the beginning of the COVID epidemic your city asked for my help in getting the word out about COVID, and a colleague of mine and I worked with city staff to produce a life-saving video right here in these chambers about COVID for your city.

[01:19:04] Panorama Latino TV show over 25 years provided information in Spanish to break down language barriers. That made your city safer, healthier, and more economically sound, and allowed your Hispanic residents to become more integrated into city life to participate more in all that the city of Manassas has to offer. The life-saving and life-enriching information was and still is needed by a large segment of your population. This information, for the most part, is not provided on Telemundo and Univision because they focus on national news. Information, for example, from the

[01:19:43] Regional Gang Task Force and the Human Trafficking Task Force. Information from the IRS and the Social Security Administration, information from local organizations including CASA, the Court Appointed Special Advocates, the Prince William Health District, the Library System, the Homeless Shelter, the Hilton Center, and countless more.

[01:20:04] We conducted interviews about domestic violence, fire prevention, of course, was number one, crime prevention, health and mental health, including suicide prevention, and so many more topics that are vital for the well-being of your city's Hispanics in a language they can more easily understand.

[01:20:21] One police chief wrote to me the following: "Please take pride in the knowledge that your hard work has assisted thousands of people over these many years. You have saved lives. You have helped.

[01:20:40] The City of Manassas Hispanics have made a large and positive impact on this city. I encourage the city to make an equally large and positive impact on them."

[01:20:52] Thank you again for this great honor.

[01:21:47] Thank you so much for that. I will call on Councilwoman Vasquez-Luna for the motion to approve the consent agenda. Madam Mayor, I make the motion to approve the consent agenda. Second. We have the motion by Councilwoman Vasquez-Luna, seconded by Councilwoman Hudson to approve our consent agenda.

[01:22:04] Any discussion? Hearing and seeing none, Mr. Smith, please call the roll. Councilmember Vasquez-Luna? Yes. Councilmember Hudson? Yes. Councilmember Ellis? Yes. Councilmember Smith? Councilmember Osina? Yes. The motion carries.

[01:22:22] Thank you so much for that. moves us forward to item three on the agenda for the public hearing item 3.1 is public hearing from manassas 2045 comprehensive plan technical update we do have sign-up sheets down front um they're separate from the public comment sheet so um just make sure you're signing up for the right one if you haven't signed up already i will go over the procedures for public hearings i'll read the newspaper ad certification for public hearings then staff will present the issue for consideration and the council has the opportunity to ask questions and i will open the public hearing for public comments and we'll make sure not to miss anyone who wishes to speak during a public

[01:22:59] hearing item and it'll be either closed or continue to next council meeting which requires a motion and a vote so with that i will now read the newspaper certification which reads as the mayor i certify that newspaper advertisements for the public hearing listed on tonight's agenda were published in conformance with the requirements of general law and city ordinances.

[01:23:23] As the mayor, I further certify that an affidavit of publication is before me, which is signed by an authorized representative of the Prince William Times newspaper, which states that the advertisements appeared on the required dates. And I have no one signed up, but I'm supposed to call on Mr. Deeraj Jagadev, our planning commission chair is going to open this up for us thank you for being here tonight sir thank you madam chair uh madam chair uh madam mayor excuse me thank you i forgot i'm not at the planning commission meeting city manager mr burke members of council it is my distinct honor to

[01:24:01] introduce the staff to you uh in preparation in anticipation of uh the presentation of the the technical updates to the Comp Plan 2045. This is the product of a lot of hard work and thousands of hours by city staff, city residents, and of course other members of the Planning Commission that you appointed.

[01:24:20] I specifically want to thank members of the Comp Plan Subcommittee of the Planning Commission. That was the previous Chair, Elaine Tropline, served on it along with current Vice Chair of the Planning Commission, Bob Geller, Commissioners Ruud and Miguel Perez.

[01:24:36] So one of the things I did want to point out is when I said this was the product of thousands of man hours, this, we're just talking about, we're not just talking about over a few weeks. This is months, possibly over a year long process. Staff has been instrumental in guiding this discussion.

[01:24:56] I specifically want to commend Christian Samples and his team. I want to give a shout out to our transportation planner, Chloe, the board clerk who serves with our planning commission, Kristen Miller, and of course the intrepid Matt Arcieri, the overseer of all of these things.

[01:25:19] So one of the things I would point out is that in addition to just putting in the time, folks have also had a lot of good solid discussion that made this product happen. So I give the rest of my time back to y'all and thank you for your time.

[01:25:35] - Thank you very much. Okay, Christian is gonna take it from here. Welcome, sir. - Hard to beat that, so I'll try my best. Thank you. So today, or tonight, I'm presenting to you the 2045 comprehensive plan technical update.

[01:25:51] And so the 2040 plan, which is currently in place, serves as the city's guiding document. Many of the land use decisions that are brought before you, we follow this document very closely. The plan was adopted in February of 2020 after an extensive public outreach effort that included three years of community conversations.

[01:26:09] The Code of Virginia requires jurisdictions to review their plan every five years. And the council initiated that review in March of last year and directed the Planning Commission to consider a technical update. So the scope of work is a limited technical update and obviously underlined, this is not a rewrite of the entire plan.

[01:26:27] We had early on some folks thinking that. This is not the case. is a very focused effort most of the plan remains unchanged and captures that community vision developed during the 2040 comprehensive plan update during that community conversation updates were limited to address issues that arisen since 2020 and to update plan data and as dj had mentioned the conference of planning committee met over 11 meetings in 2024 and 2025.

[01:26:58] public outreach efforts so we did not conduct community conversations that's a much larger effort because the update was very limited so we did an online survey between january and april 2025. we also reached out directly to our parks culture and rec committee met with them we also received comments from vdot there was additional public opportunity to comment at the august 6 2025 planning commission hearing at last week's town hall and tonight as well so what has changed since 2020 a lot we've had them acknowledge the effects of the covet 19 pandemic we have affordable housing

[01:27:34] affordability challenges transportation issues land use challenges we've also had projects that have been completed in that five years new property was acquired we've had significant parks improvements and we've also had demographic changes so overall changes so data from the 2020 census was integrated into the plan to adjust for population demographics things like that completed goals and projects in the plan were removed the plan now acknowledges the challenges faced by the city in the wake of the coveted pandemic since 2020 there have been new statutory

[01:28:10] required updates from the code of virginia so those are added and there's also a cover sheet and photo updates so i'll take you through some just kind of high level of each chapter now so the land use chapter part of that the changes was to increase focus on the redevelopment of the mathis avenue corridor to encourage the creation of a tourist corridor overlay district along centerville road that would connect to downtown to allow the consideration of increased density in the downtown neighborhood character area while retaining the traditional neighborhood design recommendations that are in the plan to clarify confusing language concerning height

[01:28:46] transitions within the mathis character area as well as encouraging missing middle housing adding institutional uses as an appropriate land use in the godwin technology character area this is mainly to make sure that places of assembly would be allowed in the housing chapter we now reference the 2023 housing trust fund report and clarify the purpose of the housing trust fund we've added pros to add a new goal that encourages a housing partnership with prince william county and the city of manassas park we've added a map of existing affordable housing developments in the city and then we've clarified housing goals to encourage mixed income housing to develop a wider variety of housing types to encourage accessory dwelling units for smaller

[01:29:25] households and as i mentioned to include that code of virginia required language and in this instance it would be for acknowledging manufactured home parks chapter 5 had one small amendment to map 5.1 just indicating that the hub zone expires in 2028 chapter 6 had changes from mobility chapter a lot of it pointing to the mobility master plan so removal completed strategies and inclusion of new initiatives such as manassas airport commercial service and the recent purchase of the manassas bre line by bpra implementing further proposing further implementation of

[01:30:02] completed strategies such as traffic calming complete treats etc um proposing implementation of sidewalk infill projects on both sides of the streets in downtown mathis and in traditional neighborhood character areas um chapter seven um that's our community facilities infrastructure chapter most of that was a removal of completed goals and projects such as fire station 21 the rehab of city hall projects like that is amended to include marsteller park property and then a very small change to clarify development of a watershed management plan chapter eight was has been amended to encourage implementation of the climate action plan for greenhouse gas reductions

[01:30:39] increase of tree canopy and expansion of pedestrian and bicycle facilities and finally chapter nine has updates of park age and facilities including the marcel park addition encourages updating the 2016 parks recreation cultural needs assessment references a completion of the african-american history trail encourages maintaining partnerships with the manassas city school board and prince william county map 9.1 was updated to designate openshaw park as a neighborhood level park and kinsley mill park as a community park and finally table 9.1 our level of service standards is

[01:31:15] updated to include surface sport courts and pickleball courts and to update projected park surplus and deficits for the years 2025 and 2045 the planning commission recommended approval at the august 6 2025 public hearing and we are staff recommending approval of the comprehensive plan update and i stand for any questions thank you thank you christian any questions councilwoman hudson thank you mayor and thank you for that detailed presentation and all of the work you guys have been putting on um as a newer council person i just wanted a couple questions of clarity that maybe the residents might have as well

[01:31:50] the slide that shows the hub zone expiring as well as the opportunity zone can you describe what the difference between a hub zone and opportunity zone is it's a great question i may need there better than i hey patrick in a nutshell hub zone stands for historically underutilized business zone the primary benefit that contractors get from being in it is preference in governmental

[01:32:29] contract uh it's a pretty significant advantage to especially uh small women and minority owned businesses swam businesses the opportunity zone was part of the jobs and tax act back in almost 10 years ago the first big tax package under president trump's first term that was sponsored by senator scott from south carolina that bill offers financial incentives to companies that invest into Opportunity Zones.

[01:33:06] Essentially, what it does, think of it like the 1031 exchange program. It allows you to avoid taxes on gains. So if you invest money in an Opportunity Zone, let's say you put a million dollars into a business there, and five years later the business is worth $10 million, and you sell the business, you avoid taxation on the $9 million profit.

[01:33:31] It's the government's way of both programs, obviously all incentives, of socially engineering businesses and investors to do things that have a social purpose. In this case, in both zones, investing in areas that have disadvantaged demographics or demographics that are not as strong as some of the other districts.

[01:33:58] And specifically, those are socioeconomic demographics. so again both of those are federal programs in in any way did we utilize the hub zone program before it expires in 2028 uh we have a number of businesses okay you don't have to go into detail i just kind of wanted to okay yes yes okay that's good and did you say expired i thought that's what you said it expires in 2028 i don't think the hub zone has expired in fact the i think the boundaries

[01:34:32] recently moved um center fuses now in the hub zone which was we need to talk okay glad we brought it up and glad we looked at it um if it's okay i have another question um which may be a patrick question too but um throughout the comprehensive plan um design principles characteristic of neighborhoods is discussed um are those characteristics or principles like listed somewhere of what that expectation is yes so yeah I can clarify that so character so design

[01:35:11] principles are recommended principles for certain areas in within those character areas so character areas are portions of the city that are kind of divided up based on their character so for example we have traditional neighborhood which is that kind of older neighborhoods in the city we have downtown and within each of those character areas we have design principles recommending let's say building heights building design footprint things of that sort so they're when matters come before the council the council can refer to those when they're looking at for example like a rezone for

[01:35:45] like a residential development they can see that oh so they meet the recommendation for the placement they meet the recommendation for the height etc so it's guidance to for design okay and for the like the character the you said like godwin drive or godwin technology character area like yes like is there a definition of that somewhere or is that just like we refer to that when no it's within the plan itself every character area has an introduction stating what it actually is its purpose okay and

[01:36:21] then gets into details about for example recommended land uses design and purpose things like that so every chapter every um character area has that okay and is that all in the land use chapter yes and includes there's a map as well that um shows that i've seen the map of them yeah okay all right thank you for your time of course thank you any sonia is vasquez luna sorry you're fine thank you madam mayor uh just a small comments i mean the uh comprehensive plan public comments you know i I truly appreciate, you know, the way it's always presented.

[01:36:57] Most of the comments are 2020, not all of them, but some from 2024. I know I tried to go out of my way to be present at some of the planning commission meetings, at other type of meetings, and I always tried to share.

[01:37:13] And sometimes maybe that had confused people and thinking that it's already at our level. And I have tried to steer them back to, you know, what we share is more like we're just trying to highlight it. But the posting on the newspaper or the information from staff is actually the formal way of providing it.

[01:37:41] And I'm just trying to make sure that it's clear for the residents or businesses alike. Part of the comments, I think it came up a lot. It was mostly the touristic area and the Matthews corridor.

[01:37:57] I think for me, this book has always been my guiding light for, you know, the future, the vision that we all together have. And it takes so much planning. But I do appreciate, you know, all the questions and the answers because it gives me a peace of mind.

[01:38:16] Even, you know, our Prince William County residents, they want to have a say in it. They even want to put in some information as they want improvements on the area. Even though we cannot do it, it's good to know. So thank you.

[01:38:32] I know it was a lot of hard work. I know, you know, from Ms. Chloe, from you and everybody, and, of course, the assistant manager. But I truly appreciate where we're going and all the updates. yeah can't wait to get my book I also want to thank Audra of IA for her hard work she wasn't mentioned but she helped she was at every meet every comp plan meeting and just kept meticulous track of the changes and helped to design the changes I want to just thank you I recognize that this wasn't listed

[01:39:12] as some of the technical amendments that you addressed here but does our comp plan deal with I'm going to use the word mobility though that may not be the right word mobility but in the sense for our residents who have disabilities here does does the comp plan in any way address because comp plan is aspirational to sign and it gives parameters so as we make

[01:39:49] decisions along the way here it guides us along what what was the intent this is what our community in terms of growing until the next revision along the way so so real to to the point do we address disability people with disabilities accommodations for the dis disabilities in some fashion in the comp plan at all to your knowledge I believe we do and I think I can have Chloe come up and give you more detail on that okay yes yes in the mobile chapter there are strategies

[01:40:26] to increase access for all age and abilities so there are a few strategies regarding that topic okay so that if I looked in the mobility chapter that's where I would would find that correct correct right in the in the proposed revisions okay on on that and then secondly you know we we we talk about greenhouse gases here along the way here was that a technical amendment or was that just one of the items that's just addressed in there so it is a technical amendment in that our current sustainability chapter I believe is

[01:41:06] well written and provides guidance however the greenhouse gas component was missing so it's data that you need ultimately so effectively you have all of these strategies to address that but you don't have the actual greenhouse gas gas metrics to address that. So that part was effectively missing. And so now that it's included, the sustainability chapter is more complete. Does that make sense?

[01:41:33] Yeah. Yes, it does. Because while we participate with the Council of Governments on certain goals along the way here, as we know, automobiles are the biggest contributor to greenhouse gases here.

[01:41:48] We are an automobile-dependent city here, and so we can do trees, we can do other things, but if and until we decide how we can get cars off the road or cars less used.

[01:42:08] And, of course, that's a multi-pronged effort, obviously, what kind of housing we have and how we lay that out along the way. For instance, where businesses are, do we encourage mass transit, and I don't mean just VRE, but buses or other things along the way, or my favorite, the trolley, on that.

[01:42:29] Okay, very, very good. And did I understand correctly that Mr. Jagadev is now the chair of the Planning Commission? Yes, that's correct. And is he still here? I don't think so.

[01:42:46] He is not here. I was going to congratulate him. Well, let the record show that I offer my congratulations and make sure, tell him next time, don't leave for his accolade there. I'll let him. All right, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. No problem. All right.

[01:43:02] Actually, Madam, to try and clarify the HUBZone discussion, the map does indicate that it is to expire in 2028, but we have confirmed that it is actually just up for reevaluation by the Small Business Administration.

[01:43:19] So it is not, we aren't planning to lose it in 2828. They may come back and adjust some of the boundaries as part of that revision and we will correct the map in the final version of the comprehensive plan. - Absolutely.

[01:43:35] - Thank you, thank you. I'll now open the public hearings. I don't have anyone signed up to speak, but we certainly don't want to miss anyone. So the public hearing is now open And anyone who wishes to speak on this item may do so at this time.

[01:43:52] You're going to want to just put the microphone on it. Okay, is there anyone that wishes to speak on this public item, public hearing item? Okay. If not, is there a motion? Madam Mayor, I make the motion that we close the public hearing.

[01:44:12] Is there a second? Second. Thank you. We have the motion by Councilwoman Vasquez-Luna seconded by Councilwoman Hudson to close the public hearing any discussion Hearing and seeing none. Mr. Smith, please call the roll. Councilmember Vasquez-Luna. Yes. Councilmember Hudson. Yes. Councilmember Ellis. Yes. Councilmember Smith. Yes Councilmember Elcina. Yes. The motion carries. I'm gonna make sure. Okay. Thank you all for that. Okay. Next on the agenda

[01:44:50] uh i'm sorry christian yes madam mayor and if i may so um the council still has to make a decision on the item or continue it to the i believe the hearing be the october 27th hearing so we want to vote tonight on it or move it no i would not advise that to i'm sorry advise what i would not advise voting to um decide it tonight let's move it to the next okay so make another motion to the next meeting which is 10 what is it 27 10 27 okay is there a motion council members

[01:45:26] my mother may or make a motion that we uh move it we bring it to a vote in october 27. second we have the motion by councilman vasquez luna seconded by councilman osina to um vote on the manassas 2045 comprehensive plan technical update at our next regularly scheduled meeting on october 27 any discussion hearing and seeing none mr smith please call the roll councilmember vasquez lona

[01:45:59] yes councilmember osina yes councilmember ellis yes councilmember smith councilmember hudson yes the motion carries okay thank you so much thank you christian for helping me with that next on the agenda is item number four ordinances and resolutions we already took care of item 4.1 so we'll move to 4.2 the resolution number our 2026 - two two three public private partnership proposal acceptance and you're gonna take that mr. Burton well I will start off yes ma'am basically we'll have mr. small come up and give a

[01:46:39] general overview of it and then followed by our wonderful attorney staff to provide guidance as to where we're going but for the main main thing that we wanted to convey to the public tonight we are not adopting implementing or committing any funding towards this proposal the city received a proposal for development under the public-private partnership act and as such we have reviewed it and we are asking council to accept its compliance with the PPEA and

[01:47:16] advance the consideration following the PPA guidelines so that we can receive competing proposals and then consider where we go at a future date and I'll turn it over to mr. small thank you nothing left mr. Burke pretty well summed it up the proposal includes the former Old Town Insight the City Hall surface parking lot and the recently acquired mifco property which city council closed on actually

[01:47:52] this month just a couple of short weeks ago so a hotel old town insight was purchased went through a community engagement process you've expressed a clear desire to see another hotel constructed on that property obviously as we've talked about in the past activating that property amongst others requires us to execute the portion of our comp plan that calls for a new parking deck in your historic downtown.

[01:48:19] And then there is residual property left over on the MIFCO site, which council has expressed its desire to attempt to sell to recoup some of the money that it's spent on acquiring the two properties, the Old Town Inn site and otherwise. You have in front of you a proposal from a developer that intends to use all three.

[01:48:39] of those properties to do exactly that build you a hotel build you a parking deck and purchase the residual MIFCO property from you so again there's there's not details in here about capital investment or otherwise this is their initial proposal as mr. Burke said under the PPE guidelines should you accept it you are not obligating yourselves to any future development or relationship with any future developer or project specifically you are merely beginning a process that Ms. May is going to stand up now and describe to you and if you

[01:49:19] have any questions I'll be in my chair thank you Patrick madam mayor and members of council I have a few statements to reiterate this idea of acceptance of the PPEA but I'm going to focus on timing just to answer initial questions the guidelines are 19 20 pages long and in those there is a framework laid out for the beginning of this process so as was already stated by our city manager mr burke acceptance in this context means that the entity's proposal meets at a minimum the baseline requirements in

[01:49:56] the ppa ppea guidelines excuse me drafted pursuant to the public private education facilities and infrastructure act of 2002 it does not mean approval or final contract negotiations or that the city is committing to enter an agreement with MLG so if accepted tonight the city will post the proposal within 10 business days posting it means that it will be publicly available on the city's website it shall also be advertised by publication in a newspaper of general

[01:50:31] circulation in Manassas area with a summary of the proposal and where the copies will be available for inspection in person for a minimum of 10 calendar days so those are first time blocks if we take a step back we adopted the guidelines on september 8th under those guidelines the city was then able to begin receiving proposals on a number of different public private partnerships for development of a wide range of projects as long as there a public need and where private involvement may provide the project to the public in a timely

[01:51:09] or cost-effective fashion. MLG, the entity proposing development, submitted an unsolicited proposal for purchase of those properties that Mr. Small was speaking about, and it has met the baseline requirements outlined in our PPEA guidelines. If council accepts the proposal tonight, its anticipated public notice through advertisement will begin on Thursday, September 25th this week. That's not a certain date, but most likely when it will occur. In addition to

[01:51:44] meeting public notice requirements, parties interested in submitting competing unsolicited proposals may do so within a 45-day window from the date notice is published. Publication is on September 25th. Then that 45-day window of notice would close on November 10th, 2025. That 45-day period is known as the conceptual phase the city may at any point during that process require this or another proposing entity to provide additional information and clarification to their submission

[01:52:22] the city may also reject any and all proposals at any time if the proposal purports to develop a specific cost savings then the city shall specify the basis for rejecting the proposal At the close of the 45-day period, the city may then decide to proceed to the next phase of review known as the detailed stage.

[01:52:45] There may be more than one proposal entering that phase. As its name indicates, many more details are required from proposing entities with accepted proposals. The next benchmark in the process is public hearing on all accepted proposals.

[01:53:04] At least 30 days prior to entering into any interim or comprehensive agreement, a public hearing must be held on all accepted proposals, all that meet that baseline of requirements. Again, the city shall give notice of such hearing by posting on the city's website and in the newspaper a summary of proposed agreements and the location where copies of the proposal and proposed agreements are available for public inspection.

[01:53:31] The notice for that shall be provided at least 10 days prior to the date of public year. So those are the general time frames and benchmarks that we should expect this to follow should you accept MLG's initial proposal this evening.

[01:53:51] Thank you. Thank you. Any questions from Maria just off the top? Okay. Mayor? I have a question, Mayor. Okay. It's Teresa. Go ahead, Ms. Mazzella. Yeah, first of all, I want to thank, that was a really great summary of the steps for this process, just to educate our listeners and, you know, all of us about how this works.

[01:54:20] And just to remind everyone that this is a proposal for consideration and that we will have, you know, the 45-day window for other options. And it's a complicated process.

[01:54:38] And I know how important it is to the public after going through community conversations and that we have what the consensus is to have a hotel in the site of the Old Town Inn.

[01:54:53] That's it. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Ellis. Ms. Josina. Thank you, Mayor. If it's all agreeable, Mayor, I'd like to move the adoption of Resolution R-2026-223. Second.

[01:55:10] - We have the motion by Councilman Osina, seconded by Councilwoman Vasquez Luna to approve Resolution Number R-2026-223, Public-Private Partnership Proposal Acceptance. Any discussion?

[01:55:25] Yep, Ms. Luna. - Thank you, Madam Mayor. For me, it is important that we acknowledge that this, you know, it's just what has been explained. It's just acceptance of what is happening. It doesn't mean that we're accepting the project.

[01:55:41] This will give an opportunity for other developers to look at what it was provided and to be able to meet those guidelines and to compete. I believe, especially the property across for the hotel, it is so important.

[01:56:00] All the three developments are super important in how Manassas is going to look in a few years. It's still construction takes a long, long time. is just the step one of of a long process but I'm you know I'm hopeful that this is just the beginning of what manassas or old-time manassas will look like and I do believe the whoever wins this project is gonna make it better and it's gonna be better for everyone any other discussion

[01:56:35] points mr. Smith thank you madam the motion that we're considering subsumes what our attorney and what mr small have emphasized i just would like to say it for third time thank you this acceptance of the mls of the mlg proposal should not should not be interpreted as a final acceptance of any specific aspect of the proposal thank you anyone else all right mr smith please call the roll councilmember osina yes councilmember vasquez luna yes councilmember ellis yeah councilmember

[01:57:14] Smith yes yes okay thank you for that that moves us forward to item five on the agenda public comment time at this time we welcome residents and community members who wish to speak about services policies and affairs of the city of Manassas government residents who have not requested additional time four days prior to this meeting from the city manager we have a timer and your comments will be limited to three minutes we appreciate the time you have taken to be here we treat public comment time as a public hearing and we do not engage in conversation with speakers the lack of an immediate response to your comments should not be taken as a lack of

[01:57:52] interest or concern as we have staff present taking notes and will respond to you in a timely manner when you approach the podium give us your name and we would appreciate it if you would provide us with your address so that we may properly follow up with you in a timely manner but you are not required to do so you may simply state that you are a city resident and I want to um thank resident lynn for kill green who brought that to my attention at the last meeting um when she got up and said you shouldn't be required to do that and and I appreciate her bringing that forward so we ask that you please be respectful when presenting your comments to not only council

[01:58:28] members but to those residents and community members who are also present with that I have the sign-up sheet here there's no one signed up but we will make sure not to miss anyone if you our president and wish to address counsel at this time, please come forward. Hello, everybody. My name is Jane Jones. I live on Grand Avenue. I've lived here since 1978.

[01:58:59] I taught at Marsteller. I think I probably taught after your time. Okay, that's fine then. I was first the secretary and then the president of the Manassas Old Town Association. We helped meet at Merchant Tire Center to get the historic overlay district started and done.

[01:59:23] Mae Merchant was part of that, and Jean Heriber and Curtis Heriber. She asked me to be secretary, and I said yes, much against my better judgment. I was a teacher at Sidney Lanier in Fairfax County at that time. We published a newsletter and met every month.

[01:59:43] Lots of names you will recognize on here. Peter Alton was a member of the first architectural review board. He's on this newsletter. We had Halloween parades. Lots of things happened because we got that historic district overlay started.

[02:00:04] This hotel, I attended this meeting. I have been a caregiver the past 18 years. My mother lived with us for 10 years before she passed. I have to thank the police department and I have to thank the fire department for coming to our house and helping us with her in her last three years.

[02:00:24] They were pretty tough. This city means so much to me. This hotel means so much to me, because I have given also, I had my house on tour twice to raise funds for the scholarship program.

[02:00:41] Also, I raised money for the gazebo. Having a fundraiser, Jean Harrow, the garden club took it over. I was on the first beautification committee. So I've been really busy. My daughter also wanted lacrosse to get started, and we got lacrosse started at Osborne.

[02:01:04] My daughter really moved and shaked that program. And I'm proud to say that I think two years ago, I don't know, but the girls run the Cedar One District, the women's, they did. I coached. I'm a basketball person, so to learn lacrosse from the ground up was quite a thing.

[02:01:23] So we are a city on the move. This hotel is going to be a big deal. Whoever we get to do the project of, and I saw that it was going to be a public-private thing. we've been buying a lot of properties. I watched my stepmother get taxed out of her home in Alexandria, right across from Bellhaven Country Club. She had to move to Albuquerque and live with my stepsister. And it probably broke her heart because she was a docent at, how's my time's up?

[02:02:02] I'll take one second if you don't mind. She was a docent at Mount Vernon, paid docent, played bridge. she knew people, went to church in Old Town Alexandria. Please don't, I noticed one thing really stood out to me because I read the whole document. Your demographic that's increasing is the elderly population. Our tax burden, if my husband passes, I don't know which one of us is sort of in a race to see who's going to go first. We talk about it all the time because we want to

[02:02:39] stay in our house. And our tax burden is quite extensive right now. And we could be in that same position. So whatever you do, consider the tax burden to the elderly. He's a veteran. He's suffered from PTSD. He's one of the people I'm caring for. My grandchildren, I've been very involved in caring for them. I would love to step into the public school system here. I have a curriculum a master's in curriculum development I could do a lot for this city I have all kinds

[02:03:17] worn all kinds of hats I even knew John McInerney when his name was on the building for sale there at the hotel I have done many things with my life thank you for your time and thank you for all you do for the city you do a lot thank you I know it thank you Ms. Jones thank you thank you so much anyone else just to come forward good evening my name is Janet Plovniak and I am a resident of the

[02:03:49] city. I'm extremely disappointed over the vote for the raises. It wasn't time. It wasn't the right time. People are suffering out there. So election time, we'll all remember. And with that, with our new angel in heaven, Charlie Kirk, I'm going to pray again to ask our Heavenly Father to please, please have you understand that people in this city are suffering. I'm out on the streets talking to them and they're not happy. I already posted that the raise went through, not good

[02:04:29] comments already. People are very disappointed. So you've already done it. It didn't have to be done this soon. You could have waited and done it. It's not going to take effect till 2027, but it just shows what's more important. And this is why our government was set up to be for the not above the people and this makes you all seem above the people so father please please touch the hearts of these people to make them see us as humans out

[02:05:04] there to see that some people they make $34,000 a year as their salary and can't make it and then I hear our school board wants to go to 40,000 with our schools number two out of ten when people go to sell their houses our schools fall in a too and that's that is shameful so i you know please just realize we're all part of the same community and and last week was our our town hall nowhere was mentioned this project that showed up

[02:05:40] on facebook tuesday morning that's not transparency we need to know ahead of time or as it's happening what's going on there'll be another little closed door session tonight so more things get decided it. And then you come here and act as if you care about the citizens. It's not right. It's not right.

[02:06:02] So I just hope you all, you know, think about this and take it to heart. There are people out there, you are forcing the elderly out of the city because of taxes. And it's just a hard pill to swallow to see all this and everybody's happy about it. You want to move our fire department all the way over across town near the county line, and then you're going to put all this housing down here in the city.

[02:06:29] You're just sending them further away. Some of this just does not make sense. So, you know, as time goes on and you're making these plans, realize we're real people out here that live in this city and are having to deal with what you all are putting out there for us.

[02:06:48] So please, God, have mercy on everyone sitting here. I pray this through Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you, Miss Pat. Yeah, anyone else wish to come forward. Okay, if not, we'll move forward to item 6 Authorizing our closed meeting. Mr. Brown will help us with that. Good evening madam mayor members of council You do have one item scheduled for a closed meeting tonight It's to discuss the potential sale of city-owned real property Located near Godwin Drive for residential purposes and the terms and conditions of that proposed sale

[02:07:29] That is eligible under state law for a discussion in closed session to convene a closed meeting I would recommend adoption of resolution number R - 2026 - 234 Resolution authorizing a closed meeting of City Council. Mr. Smith. Madam Mayor. I move adoption of resolution R 2026 - 234 which authorizes council to be in any closed meeting We have a motion by Councilman Smith seconded by Councilwoman Vasquez Luna to approve resolution of our

[02:08:04] 2026 - 234 authorizing a closed meeting any discussion hearing and seeing none. Mr. Smith, please call the roll Councilmember Smith. Yes. Councilmember Vasquez Luna. Yes. Councilmember Ellis. Yes. Councilmember Osina. Yes. Councilmember Hudson. Yes.

[02:08:23] All right. Thank you so much Following a closed session state law requires council to certify that the only matters discussed or heard during the closed session for those that were identified in the motion convening the closed session and those which are lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements that certification is included in resolution number R-2026-233 Resolution certifying a closed meeting of City Council, which I recommend for Council's adoption. Thank you. Mr. Smith

[02:09:02] Madam Mayor, I recommend I move that we certify resolution R-2026-233 that certifies the closed meeting as presented by Attorney Brown. Second.

[02:09:19] We have the motion by Councilman Smith, seconded by Councilman Tom Olsen to approve resolution number R-2026-233 Certifying a closed meeting any discussion hearing and seeing none. Mr. Smith, please call the roll. Councilmember Smith. Yes Yes Councilmember Ellis. Yes Yes, thank you very much. Is there anything else to come before the council for the good of our residents?

[02:09:49] If not we are adjourned. Thank you everybody

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