Coraggio Consulting
Manassas City Council 2/23/2026

Date: Monday, February 23, 2026
Place: Manassas City Council, Virginia
Length: 2h 24m (video)
Official meeting video (Wistia / RegionalWebTV): https://fast.wistia.net/embed/iframe/wi6c9qxdml

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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[00:00:06] - Mayor Davis Younger. - Present. - Vice Mayor Wolf. - Here. - Councilmember Ellis. - Here. - Councilmember Smith. - Here. - Councilmember Osina. - Present. - Councilmember Vasquez Luna. - Present. - Councilmember Hudson. - Here. - Thank you very much. If you're able to please stand with me for the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance.

[00:00:27] Dear God, thank you for another chance to come together to provide governance for our community. Please continue to protect our staff, this council, and most especially our men and women in uniform who serve us locally and overseas. Thank you for providing continued guidance as we lead this community the best way that we can.

[00:00:45] We remain thankful for all things. Amen. Please welcome First Class Scout, Michael Doyle, who is representing Troop 670, who will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance this evening. Michael attends Marstello Middle School, and his troop meetings are held at Grace United Methodist Church.

[00:01:05] Michael currently serves as a Bears Patrol leader. Take it away. Do the play. Very much, Michael.

[00:01:29] Welcome, everyone, to the council meeting again this evening. Brave in the wind to come out and be with us. Always good to see everyone's smiling faces. We have a pretty full agenda tonight.

[00:01:44] I thought I saw, where's the Commissioner of the Revenue? Was he? Did he leave? He was here, but he must be gone now, so I don't see any other elected officials here. And to everyone joining us by social media on TV, we welcome you to the meeting as well Pretty full agenda, but we think we can get through it pretty swiftly if we move on now with council time I'll call on Vice Mayor wolf Yeah, just one quick thing Talk about service and turning a negative into a positive We had an outage the other day on Sunday afternoon Sunday evening And that's regrettable and we're sorry that happened

[00:02:22] Equipment parks, but 37 minutes on the Sunday afternoon 37 minutes after the outage power was restored And it's because of those people back there in the room In part and I just thought that was spectacular service And I just want to recognize your utilities for people for what they do. So thank you. Thank you That's it councilwoman Ellis. Thank you mayor I'm really happy we were spared honestly for this storm because I have family up in Boston and they're really getting hammered

[00:02:58] and so hopefully we're heading into March, which is spring, and we can enjoy the budding of flowers soon. There was an interesting report that came out from VCU News, their .edu, about data centers as how they're impacting air quality, which is worth a read.

[00:03:23] I did actually send this to Community Development before the meeting to just make sure we take in consideration as we do our our regulations for the data center that we're going to actually talk about tonight that it is a living document we have to constantly keep up with this technology and how it could impact our community so let me see what else here if anyone needs Girl Scout cookies they're selling them I know that there are quite a few troops in our city if you just go

[00:03:59] online you'll see it there is one little girl that is trying to sell a thousand boxes to break a record and her name is Alyssa and honestly send me an email and I'll hook you up so that's about all I have thank you okay thank you Ms. Elvis. Councilman Smith. Thank you Madam Mayor I think this evening I want to give a shout out to our friends students family and all supporters of Osborne High School, they have had their football team, obviously we are proud of the work the teachers are doing and the administration and all of that, but I want to talk to the

[00:04:37] students a little bit here. Osborne's football team has had some very good successes since I think 96 when they joined the Cedar-run district. They won district titles in 2006, 2008, and 2010, but those mighty Eagles reached the pinnacle 20 years ago this year, 2006, They became state champions, winning the Virginia High School League group title, AAA Division VI state championship with a 14-0 record.

[00:05:10] I'm sure this is going to be observed and celebrated throughout the year and this nation's 250-year anniversary. We have locally a lot of history ourselves that's connected coming just before 1776, And I'm certain that the city and the school board and the tremendous alumni association will be acknowledging those students.

[00:05:38] But I did want to take this moment to put a note out to you that 20 years ago today, and you can check the water towel, 20 years ago today, not today, 20 years ago this year, the Osborne Eagles became state champions. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Smith.

[00:05:55] Who's next? Councilman Osina. Mayor, in recognition of all the things that we'll be doing this evening, I am going to defer any comments. Clutch the pearls. Councilwoman Sonia Vasquez-Luna, thank you, Mr. Osina.

[00:06:11] Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'm going to believe that. Thank you. Well, good evening, everyone. It's great to be back. I was worried about the weather, but I'm glad that we didn't get that much and everybody was able to continue to their regular busy schedule.

[00:06:29] we have an early in the month we always get an update on the projects so if you beat the city hall if you go onto the website you're always going to find the brick by brick update and it's for the projects that are going on around the city so you can be up to date i ask if you're interested in uh in elections and how they work and if you're willing to serve there's always opportunities to serve as an election officer or election official please visit the website and

[00:07:02] just in our Manasseh City website you can find election official and you will find all the information it's all about you being able to serve and now they'll train you they will teach you and it will be I believe so far it is three elections in the book there is also information outside here in the City hall and in the website. There will be a special statewide election in April 21st. March 6th there will be early voting and there is more elections but I just want to make sure that you know that

[00:07:39] you have an opportunity to volunteer. You get a small stipend. That's something that I did for years and I enjoy sharing with others. At the BRE, we just had the meeting on Friday. They provided the 2025 annual report i have requested copies for each one of you so we're gonna get it in the mail we have a new ceo she just started like a month ago she's doing she's doing great and all the projects are moving forward please if there is bad weather just be mindful that it will be a

[00:08:15] smaller service or different services and i still continue to celebrate that after almost 10 years We have a new train in the Manassas Lane, so we are doing great things. I still continue to ask for the weekend service as far as, you know, I understand so far.

[00:08:33] There's no coming anytime soon, but we continue to talk about it or at least bring it to the table to make sure that we have a good estimate and that we have good information, whether it's a Saturday train service or a weekend service.

[00:08:49] In the TPV, I shared it on my social media information about a project. There was almost $2.5 million awarded for the Center Build Sidewalk. I hope that everything comes true.

[00:09:05] I know I participated and some of these parties participated on the assessments and talking to the community. So I'm looking forward. If that happens, that will be positive for everybody. and that is coming from the TPV.

[00:09:23] It might take a little bit to get here. I also wanna share the community center. They have a lot of events, free different special events and free programs. For some of them are getting a little bit trendy and you're gonna have to sign up for the waiting list, but I just wanna make sure you know you can visit our new community center and learn about all the programs that they have.

[00:09:56] I know it's a little bit cold, but we still have the trash and the recycle. If you have hazardous waste, don't forget we have the free hazardous waste events where you can bring everything. You can always check for the information in monassasvirginia.gov and look for trash.

[00:10:16] That will have the information for recycling and also regular trash. I'm looking forward for tonight. Tonight, we're gonna hear about the budget. I hope that together it will be a long session, but I'm looking forward to working with that and doing what's best for the city of Manassas.

[00:10:40] To close, I just want to thank everybody that's here for the Irish month proclamation. We still are celebrating this week Black History Month, And I just wanna take the time to continue to praise our mayor, who is the first woman and first African-American person to represent us and to be elected in that seat.

[00:11:06] And I'm also thankful for our trailblazer, Councilman Smith. If you don't know his personal story, learn about it. It's inspiring, it's beautiful, and it is a true testament of how people, how people have made a difference right here in Manassas, and some of them are sitting right here with us.

[00:11:32] So if you are joining some of the celebrations, some of the events, please continue to do so. Last one I wanted to say, I met Ms. Gabriela Ardon, and she's sitting here tonight.

[00:11:48] I just want to, you know, thank you for the interest. She emailed us. She has been working, she is studying Nova Community College and soon going to JMU, and I'm looking forward in showing you and teaching you a little bit about how our city is, your city, and how does that work.

[00:12:12] So thank you, Madam Mayor, those are my highlights. - Thank you, Councilwoman Hudson. - Thank you, Madam Mayor. Wanted to echo what Councilwoman Vasquez Luna said from last week's meeting at the Transportation Planning Board. There was a resolution R10-2026 that was passed to approve funding from the Federal Transportation Alternative Set-Aside Program.

[00:12:31] And Manassas is fortunate, thanks to our transportation staff, that these funds, 2.5 million were applied for and are being awarded to Manassas to close a gap on Centerville Road in the sidewalk from around Prim Lane to about Weir Place.

[00:12:48] This is gonna give the kids in that area a safer walk to school as well as everybody else who walks that area on a foot will have more sidewalks and we're hoping to see those funds awarded in fiscal year 2027. Only my other note is about the Northern Virginia Regional Commission.

[00:13:04] Under the leadership of Mr. Pfeiffer, the commission is going to undergo several strategic work sessions this year. We closed out last year with a work session on housing and then upcoming over the next couple months, we'll have work sessions regarding workforce, AI, and energy.

[00:13:20] I will continue to post those agendas on my Facebook page and welcome the community to share any thoughts as those come along. So thank you, Madam Mayor. - Thank you, Ms. Hudson. For my comments, I'll cut them down. I had a little bit more, but since everyone's trying to be brief, I do wanna thank everyone who tuned in or came out to our first interjurisdictional meeting with the county.

[00:13:41] Ms. Vasquez Luna and I are the representatives from council on that. And we are continuing discussions with them and we have encouraged them to make sure if they have community meetings, when the time comes, most of the discussion was about the Judicial Center and the Bennett School.

[00:13:57] So you'll want to stay tuned into that as we planned, and we will definitely keep everyone updated on that, but we do thank everyone who is tuning in and paying attention to that. I wanna thank the council for agreeing to have the county submit a letter to attempt to get a billed grant for that road work on Godwin and Clover Hill.

[00:14:17] This is in the beginning stages, so we'll be watching it as it develops and community conversations will be held. I did some reading to some pre-K and kindergarten classes at Hayden this week. I wanna thank Ms. Forrest Marshall for that invitation. And I wanna thank everyone who came out to Jenny Dean for that legacy video showing and program.

[00:14:38] I think they had a very good showing that night and the presentations and videos were amazing. And I went and spoke at Osborne for Black History Month the invitation of dr wallace who has me come out every month but this time she surprised me and had like a hundred students out there so we'd like to welcome to the city frontier learning center they moved into the old mini land building their new learning center right now I think they said they have two students so they are really looking for people to enroll their their children ages zero to I can't remember the top number but babies babies they have a

[00:15:16] a daycare center there so i'd like to welcome them to the city this week i will be at a at a different elementary school every day reading to kindergartners i was supposed to go to dean today but they didn't have school so i'll be doing that all this week we have our work session budget work session on the 25th that's 5 30 right here at city hall and we'll be focusing on setting our budget priorities to get ready for our all-day work session on march 6th we have the prince William Chamber Awards this week which is on Thursday there's the black history program at Mayfield on Friday and then the midday with the mayor and city

[00:15:54] manager which is virtual from noon to 1:00 on Friday as well and that is all I have so I'll turn it over to mr. Burke for city manager time thank you madam mayor first I do wish to thank our crews for their response to the snow events and the electric events and the water break events we're continuing to experience those and and we have a dedicated group of folks that respond to those events the city will be conducting our 2026 City Resident Academy beginning Tuesday April 7th and continuing each Tuesday through May 5th sessions will be begin at 6 p.m. and we'll present an overview of the work

[00:16:32] performed by the various city departments please visit our website for more information and to sign up HMI will be hosting a business meetup with city manager event this Thursday at 11 o'clock at the public house our director of electrical services will be making a short presentation this evening about the recent electric outages and the efforts that the city is taking to address them repairs of the rink facility at the Harris Pavilion continue construction is anticipated to be completed by the beginning of April the city will be adjusting our meeting agenda beginning at the March 9th

[00:17:08] council meeting where public comment will be received earlier in the meeting following the presentation portion of the agenda and the city will be providing notice to this change in advance of the meeting and then I'm pleased to announce that the city's efforts to establish a city of Manassas license plate is nearly complete the city's plate is awaiting final approval from the DMV commissioner once the green light is given our city plate will be available through the DMV in about three months, and that's all I have.

[00:17:41] Any questions for City Manager Burt? That is awesome about the license plate. I can't even remember. I think I was on council, I think, when that effort started. It's been a long journey. Glad to see that coming, so thank you for that.

[00:17:58] Next on the agenda is presentations. Item 1.1 is the Proclamation for Irish American Heritage Month. I'll go down front, and Mr. Fitzpatrick and others will join me down front. This thing on, yes.

[00:18:24] Thank you, Eric. I'll read the proclamation. thank you all for being here tonight as always every year we love welcoming you getting ready for our parade which i know you'll talk about so the proclamation reads whereas irish heritage month is observed in march of each year in the city of manassas providing an opportunity for all residents to celebrate and appreciate the significant impact of irish culture traditions and accomplishments

[00:18:53] And whereas Americans of Irish heritage have made invaluable contributions to various aspects of society, including but not limited to arts, sciences, politics, business, and sports, enriching the diverse tapestry of our city.

[00:19:09] And whereas Americans of Irish descent have played and continue to play a critical economic, cultural, and social role in every sphere of American life, and whereas the spirit of the Irish community is marked by resilience, determination, and a commitment to fostering a sense of unity and inclusivity among all citizens.

[00:19:29] And whereas celebrating Irish Heritage Month gives us an opportunity to honor and recognize individuals who have contributed to the history, society, and culture of the United States of America, and whereas today more than 39 million Americans who claim Irish heritage, a number almost seven times greater than the entire population of Ireland today, can look back with pride on the many achievements and contributions of their ancestors.

[00:19:58] Now, therefore, I, Michelle Davis Younger, and on behalf of the Manassas City Council, hereby proclaim the month of March 2026 as Irish Heritage Month in the city of Manassas and urge all residents of the city of Manassas to celebrate the contributions made by individuals of Irish descent and to observe this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities that honor and celebrate the enduring legacy of the Irish-American community.

[00:20:25] Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. We'll try. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'm Vince Fitzpatrick, President of Innisfail, Inc., the holding corporation for Manassas-St. Patrick's Day Parade.

[00:20:45] It's unbelievable that this is our 26th year of producing the parade. Let me say that we have enjoyed every minute of it, from pipe bands to Irish dancers, the ancient order of Ibernians, Irish cultural groups, the fire and rescue departments, the sheriff and police departments, the politicians from the state down to the local level jurisdictions, and yours truly, St. Patrick, at the end of the parade.

[00:21:14] We have had grand marshals from politicians, clergy, police, fire and rescue chiefs, local business owners, and representatives from the ancient order of Hibernians from the state level down to the local divisions. We appreciate the participation of all who participated and the many residents from the local jurisdictions to Manassas City residents and beyond who have enjoyed our parade.

[00:21:41] Manassas City Council has supported our efforts each year with proclamation declaring March's Irish History Month in the city. We appreciate the support of our parade and the Irish community in the city of Manassas. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

[00:22:11] Okay, next on the agenda is Item 1.2, the Department Annual Report for the Manassas Regional Airport.

[00:22:57] Mr. Rivera and company Mr. Hall. Good evening. How are you doing?

[00:23:16] Good evening, Mayor, members of council, Mr. Burke. I'll start off with a few comments and I will turn it over to our chairman, Mr. Hall. So bear with me as I hit you with some statistics so that you don't have to read them later on.

[00:23:35] But anyway, I am pleased to present the airport's annual highlights and key accomplishments from this past year. The information I referenced earlier is in the City Council's packet, so you can review that at your convenience.

[00:23:51] First, I would like to recognize our airport staff, who work diligently to ensure the airport remains safe for the flying public, financially self-sustaining and welcoming through a strong customer service culture. Without their dedication, we would not be able to meet the City Council's strategic objectives.

[00:24:11] In FY 2005, airport noise complaints decreased by 30%. This reduction can be attributed to our voluntary noise abatement program, the cooperation of pilots who consistently follow established procedures, and the staff's proactive attention to noise concerns.

[00:24:29] Fuel sales increased in 2025 with 3 million gallons of aviation fuel sold compared to $2.5 million the previous fiscal year, an increase of 20%. The total operations were slightly lower in 25.

[00:24:47] We recorded 97,688 operations, down from 102,777 in 24, slight decrease of 5%. As part of our annual base aircraft survey submitted each January to the Virginia Department of Aviation, We reported this year 390-based aircraft compared to 426 last year at 8% decrease.

[00:25:19] This decline can be contributed to the three flight schools that went out of business in the last year, two of which went bankrupt. The airport currently maintains a waiting list of 187 individuals seeking hangar space, supporting a strong 98% occupancy rate for our T-hangers, and demonstrates a continued demand in general aviation for aircraft housing. Despite being short two positions last year, our maintenance personnel completed more than 359 work orders last year, reflecting their

[00:25:56] commitment and productivity. According to the U.S. Customs, in FY25, the airport cleared 76 aircraft carrying 384 passengers, while the number of aircraft cleared decreased from 106 the previous year, the total number of passengers increased from 370.

[00:26:17] We onboarded two additional airport operations officers. This ensures we can fully support commercial service operations seven days a week for up to 16 hours per day while maintaining high safety and service standards. Internally, we reorganized the airport maintenance division to better align with operational needs to remain competitive with the private sector in recruiting and retaining skilled employees.

[00:26:44] At the same time, the aviation industry continues to face challenges, including pilot and aircraft mechanic shortages, limited FAA fundings that does not meet national infrastructure needs, ongoing post-pandemic recovery, and significantly higher construction costs.

[00:27:01] Despite these headwinds, the airport continues to make steady progress. We continue to make steady progress in our transition to commercial service. While significant milestones have been achieved, we are actively advancing key initiatives including developing a landing fee structure, establishing air carry incentive programs, and negotiating airport and airline use agreement.

[00:27:24] All essential components required to successfully launch commercial service. In closing, this year's accomplishments reflects our strong commitment to safety, operational excellence, fiscal responsibility, and strategic growth. We appreciate the council's continue to support as we strengthen the airport's role as a critical economic engine for our community and advance our transition to a commercial service airport.

[00:27:49] I will now be turning the presentation over to our chair, Mr. Rod Hall, who will share additional highlights and also share our annual video. Don't go too far just in case they have complaints.

[00:28:10] Madam Mayor, members of the Council, distinguished residents of the City of Manassas, and Prince William County residents at large, good afternoon. It is a pleasure to come before you once again to provide an update on where we stand with respect to the progress at the airport, making sure that we honor your unanimous vote some many months ago with respect to how we execute going forward.

[00:28:40] Before I move forward, I'd be remiss if I did not take an opportunity to recognize a couple of the commission members that are here present with us this evening. My eyes don't work as good as they used to, so bear with me. Commissioner Carla Cox, Commissioner Allison Paylor, and Commissioner Phillips here.

[00:29:02] Madam Mayor, I am pleased to report that the airport stands strong, resilient, and strategically positioned for continued growth. As Virginia's largest and busiest general aviation airport, as the director indicated, we support just shy of 100,000 aircraft operations annually, and we're home to the largest based aircraft fleet in the Commonwealth of Virginia with just under just shy 400 aircraft representing private, corporate, and business aviation interests.

[00:29:34] Its owners and operators range from private citizens to local businesses, the federal government, to multinational corporations. From its sleepy days in 1960, with just one runway spanning about 3,700 feet, the airport now consists, as many of you know, two parallel runways, 6,200 by 100 feet and 3,715 by 75 feet, on-field weather reporting, and some of the latest and greatest with respect to instrument landing and approach procedures, which are all enablers of our safety quotient out at the airport and on the airfield.

[00:30:09] The director touched briefly on the economic impact both local and state. The airport's contribution to our community goes far beyond runways and hangars. According to the most recent economic impact data, the airport contributes over $517 million annually to the local economy, making it one of the most economically vibrant engines in the city of Manassas and the surrounding region.

[00:30:37] The activity supports more than 2,300 jobs with wages exceeding 237 million positions in aviation services, maintenance, operations, aerospace technology, and supporting sectors. It also builds on the strength of Virginia's statewide aviation system.

[00:30:57] The National Regional, Manassas Regional accounts for over 30% of statewide general aviation economic activity. And I just consider that just an amazing number and an extremely large feather in the cap for the state of Manassas and the surrounding regions, which contributes tens of billions of dollars to the Commonwealth's economy and supports hundreds of thousands of jobs across commercial and general aviation airports alike.

[00:31:26] This economic footprint reflects jobs, tax revenue, business growth, and quality of life improvements that radiate well beyond our airport gates. It's a testament to the value of aviation as a catalyst for regional prosperity. Operational and regulatory milestones, as the director also indicated, in May of last year, the airport successfully passed the FAA's Part 139 inspection, a critical milestone required to support expanded flight operations and a foundational step towards commercial service offerings.

[00:31:59] This achievement reflects our commitment to the highest levels of safety and regulatory standards, and I'd like to thank Mr. Rivera and the dedicated airport staff that went into making this achievement possible. It is indeed a notable milestone.

[00:32:15] We're also proud to operate as a reliever airport, as you know, for Washington Dulles International Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, helping to reduce congestion at those major hubs and improve capacity across the national capital region's aviation system. Financial and infrastructure strength, I'll just touch on this briefly.

[00:32:35] the airport remains financially self-sufficient. Operating without reliance on the city's general fund, this fiscal stability allows us to maintain robust infrastructure, modern facilities and ongoing improvements that directly support business aviation and now the transition to commercial service. Supported by strong business aviation demand, resilient tenant operations and thoughtful investment, our infrastructure positions the airport to capitalize on growth opportunities while continuing to serve as a dependable base for private, corporate, and public aviation.

[00:33:10] As chairman, I've spelled out three core principles that track our capital improvement plan, ensuring at all times we cultivate the highest levels of safety and security. Two, create and sustain a robust and welcoming business climate. As the director knows, I'm fond of saying I'm a capitalist.

[00:33:26] I want business at the airport, and I want them to thrive. And then lastly, supporting the next generation of airport modernization, Our six-year capital improvement plan calls for replacement of the current air traffic control system, which you will hear more about. Mr. Vero, I'm going to charge you $5 for every time that phone continues to go off.

[00:33:44] Current air traffic control tower, which you'll hear more about as we proceed into the summer. We are unique amongst airports across the Commonwealth for that fact that we have an air traffic control tower that is staffed by FAA air traffic control tower uh FAA air traffic controllers and so when you hear about the ineptitude out coming out of Washington and government shutdowns that also has an impact out at the airport as well as the air traffic controllers are FAA FAA staff controllers um after control tower uh rehabilitation of

[00:34:21] our runways taxiways and parking ramps and security upgrades all of which will contribute to a robust business climate. And I also like to take the point of personal privilege to thank our congressional delegation. In the most recently passed FY26 Consolidated Appropriations Act, there was just shy of $1 million included in the appropriations bill for rehabilitation and replacement as needed for vital taxiway bridges out at the airport as well.

[00:34:54] And so I'd like to thank our lead congressman On that effort, Congressman Subramaniam, with the endorsements of both Senators Cain and Warner. As I close, given its prime location, sensible land use policy, amenities, and planned modernization, the airport is expected to continue a positive level of growth in the years to come.

[00:35:15] Looking ahead as we prepare for the next chapter, offering a scheduled commercial service, we're committed to ensuring that growth aligns with community values, environmental stewardship, and regional economic priorities. In closing, the airport is more than a transportation hub. It is a vital economic driver, a job creator, and a gateway that connects Manassas to the world.

[00:35:37] With your continued leadership and support, we will build on our successes and ensure a thriving future for the airport, this community, this county, the Commonwealth, and the nation at large. And so that concludes my prepared remarks.

[00:35:54] Madam Mayor, I believe the video is already teed up.

[00:39:22] So that's our script.

[00:42:47] Madam Mayor, members of the council, hope you found it formative. I saw a couple of heads bobbing, a couple of feet bobbing, so I guess the soundtrack is still apropos. Jolene Berry is not here. She's usually my bad idea, please. I thought about James Brown, but we'll see going forward.

[00:43:07] But in the words of James Brown, I do feel good about the current midterm, long-range perspective. prospectus for the for the airport we have a very able partner in half ports which is under new leadership Mr. Mark Ricks who I've had pleasure sitting down with on a number of occasions I trust that he's also I know he's met with the vice mayor and yourself on a couple of occasions and hope he's made the rounds with the rest of you as well but I truly do feel feel good about where we're

[00:43:41] headed and I think that will that will conclude our presentation and happy to happy to entertain any questions you all might have thank you mr. Hall thank you mr. Rivera really good video thank you for honoring the the members who have gone on Cheryl was near and dear to all of us all the commissioners but thank you for doing that at the end there council members any questions for mr.

[00:44:04] Rivera mr. Hall miss Ellis thank you very much for the presentation chair and director and our commissioners I was on the airport Commission before I was elected that was probably 12 years ago and was a liaison up till like a year ago so you all have been very busy and we are I knew I could probably speak for all of us so we're so proud of sure the work that you all have done to bring us to this level just the increase you know even the way everything all the

[00:44:41] improvements I drive through observation once in a while and I have been watching the progress of the on the other side of the airport all the the wall that was put up and all the work and you should be commended I know that the community is very excited about what's coming for commercial air we look forward to it do did you mention a date yet I don't know I might have missed that is there any anticipated second quarter of 20 27 okay thank you once

[00:45:15] again that's all i have to say but i i would add conversations are occurring in earnest with potential suitors and so i you know don't let that you know be you know a deterrent to the op you know any any reduction in optimism there are ongoing conversations and so uh we continue we continue to be excited about mr smith thank you thank you so very much and um director chair Commission to finish out your input about James Brown.

[00:45:55] We feel good because we got you. Thank you so much. I think the city is moving forward. The airport certainly is diligently working to move forward with the commercial progress.

[00:46:12] And I was very much impressed how far you've come with the rescue function, the air rescue operations. So thank you. Thank you. We do feel good. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments or questions?

[00:46:29] Mr. Ocina. Thank you. See, I'm going to make up for it now along the way here. So Chair Hall, thank you for your presentation and Director Rivera. Great to see commissioners here. You know, one of the things that I and two of our other counselors do is we were on the appointments committee.

[00:46:51] so we get to see the folks that are applying to come on. For instance, the Airport Commission. I did have the occasion to sit in on one of your meetings last month, and I was certainly impressed with everybody that was there, the kinds of discussions that took place.

[00:47:10] Particularly, everyone was focused on the issue at hand. You could disagree without being disagreeable, and it was nice to see the commission doing the work That we, as council members, expect you to do in that regard here.

[00:47:28] I look back, and it's when you describe all the achievements of this, of the airport, it's hard to believe that, and believe me, I wasn't around at the time, but when the airport was over there at Manaport Plaza there off of Sudley, how far we have come along the way nowadays in this regard here.

[00:47:49] You did have a commission member, Travis Nembhard, who was the other appointee from Prince William County, who did step down because of other new job responsibilities. And I believe you have a new member coming on. Did you want to discuss a little bit about Mr. Willis?

[00:48:06] I appreciate that, Council Member Sina. The way I look at this, the county has made its recommendation, and we are anticipating you all's action with respect to concurrence.

[00:48:24] And so before I be so bold as to crown him a new commissioner, I would like to make sure that you all have your imprimatur on said appointee, and we go from there. Now, with that said, having served as a colleague to Mr. Willis at one time during many moons ago as a young political appointee to the Federal Aviation Administration, I will say that he is the best in class.

[00:48:52] He is also considered one of the four authors of public-private partnership policy with respect to the Part 139 environment space.

[00:49:03] And so given that we have matriculated to a point where our conversations with the Federal Aviation Administration have become more substantive and the frequency has increased, having a veteran like Mr. Willis, who not only has served at FAA, but in some of the most complex authorities across the country, Port Authority of New York, et cetera, having him will most certainly be of value add.

[00:49:34] And so I would encourage you all, as he takes the hot seat tomorrow, let him have it. Don't worry. We won't. No, yeah. Don't worry. Council can rest assured. You won't let us down, I'm sure. That's right. Thank you, Chair. Sure. Any other comments?

[00:49:50] Ms. Vesquez, Luna. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you for the video and the report. Sure. I echo our mayor's note when it comes to the tribute to the two former commissioners.

[00:50:05] You know, I think it had a great impact, and I appreciate it. First, you know, I know that you mentioned a little bit about the money or the grants coming. I think one of the biggest concerns for me is the tower replacement.

[00:50:25] I know the tower is working. I don't want to worry anybody, but it's something that needs to be done. So is there any feedback or information on that right now? I'll yield to the director other than to say that we are one of the things I shared with Mr. Rivera that, look, if there's federal money out there, I want to go hunt.

[00:50:50] And so I think I echo your sentiments as well. And so we are in the hunt for sort of the last remaining pot of the bipartisan infrastructure law funding that was made available via the last administration.

[00:51:10] If you know the history of the current air traffic control tower, it is beyond its useful life, and it is something that I think with the appropriate justification, we intend to make our case very hard with the Federal Aviation Administration.

[00:51:32] And, you know, having served as chairman of the Virginia Aviation Board, we are not precluded from going down to knock on Richmond's door about potential funding opportunities there as well. So I guess I would answer that with stay tuned.

[00:51:50] Conversations are ongoing, and we hope to have word soon with respect to where we stand there, with respect to our competition there. Thank you, and that is a great update, and I believe not only at the airport, but all over the city, you know, the staff is really good at attracting or winning those grants, and, you know, it makes it better for our residents, and, of course, you know, we need to get that done soon.

[00:52:21] And I worry about how busy the airport is going to get with commercial flights. And then, you know, how soon can we get that done? But I, by no means, I just want to, I don't want to worry anybody. I just want to make sure that that is still, you know, for me, it's a responsibility in the back of my mind.

[00:52:40] So, again, I believe it was stated if I call it the first flight, or at least when the flights will be available now has been pushed, and it will be anytime in the second quarter of 2027. So if people is looking into when they'll be able to use it as to take a commercial flight.

[00:53:01] We're looking at summer 2027. We've been told that it's second. Councilman, if I could, I want to, you know, it's just not a cut and dry pushback, if you will, right?

[00:53:20] Because obviously with respect to the environmental assessment and the submissions there, you know, I'm blanking on how long the government shutdown was. But a lot of our submissions to the Federal Aviation Administration sat on a desk for a good amount of time there.

[00:53:39] And so I don't want to make it seem as if our P-3 partner here has been dragging their foot, if you will. I guess I would just say that there have been real-world implications to the inability of sometimes our federal partners to get their act together with respect to the continuity of operations here.

[00:54:00] so I'll just leave it at that thank you and well congratulations I know it took a lot of work to be approved I think it was the the part was approved last last December not that long ago the environmental part so our so our 139 inspection where the FAA comes out and conducts a very extensive inspection both during daytime and nighttime nighttime operations in there and but for what I would consider some cosmetic notations we we we we hit it we hit it

[00:54:38] out of the park and show that we were big dog in that in that regard and so I again had tip to mr. Rivera and his and his team out at the airfield thank you and please take my regards to know only to the staff but also to all the commissioners last thing I will ask because I believe everybody you know it's waiting on it and I know will come before council it is the name I don't know if it's the appropriate time so I might refer to our city manager but I do know you know people is already hearing and

[00:55:12] thinking about you know what the name might be my ask I know it's going to come before us and with a presentation but is there a way that you can give me a little bit of how hard it was to come to those names that are being proposed.

[00:55:28] I don't think some of the residents recognize how restrictive FAA is when it comes to the name that you can put or the code that you can put as you changing their name. - So I'll turn it over to the director briefly, but I would just say in terms of how hard it was, look, I'm not a top-down type of guy unless I absolutely have to be.

[00:55:54] But we really got input from, I think what started this was input from one of the local business owners out at the airport, suggesting that we take a look at it, given the trajectory of where we're going. And then from there, that ensued a conversation with commission members and an ad hoc committee that held a working group session at the airport to solicit input from the current tenants and stakeholders.

[00:56:23] And we had some names that seemed to have some consensus around them. And the staff is now organizing a report to be submitted to you all.

[00:56:39] But I want to assure you, I am not looking at that as the end-all be-all look. We're going to make some recommendations. And then you all are big dogs that will determine where we go from there. I do not want to prejudice the committee's work, but I think it provides a host of options that, you know, you all might consider and some that might not have yet been brought up and that you might want to put into the mix for discussion.

[00:57:10] Any other questions or comments? Okay. Well, thank you both for being here. As always, comprehensive report. We really appreciate all the hard work from everybody, the commissioners, and we know that you love us. We love you too.

[00:57:25] And I did have a conversation with Mr. Willis, and he's very excited and hopeful that he gets appointed. And his knowledge is just going to be so well worth having him on that commission. So I hope that it works out. So thank you so much. Thank you all.

[00:57:42] Okay. Next on the agenda is item 1.3. Excuse me. The department annual report for our electric. Anna Tariq. Good evening.

[00:57:59] Madam Mayor. members of councils Mr. Burke our annual report this year is a video oh everybody's with the videos and once it's over we are standing ready for questions Eric is going to address some issues that we've had electric great and the video is actually electric water and sewer okay so it's all in okay so item 1.3

[00:58:22] and 1.4 you're gonna do okay great these are on every peak hours to reduce

[01:00:18] electricity. Reducing the demand of electricity saves the city of Manassas money so we're not paying full price when the demand is the highest. Generators usually run about two to three hours

[01:00:31] during the peak. The city has been pretty proactive in our approach of mainline replacements. Placed

[01:02:04] right around 41,000 feet of waterline since the early 2000s to date and plus more to come with that so we're always looking for streets. We try to work around the paving schedule so we're not tearing up brand new asphalt we've got to give these guys a lot of credit for what they do kind of braving the elements to make sure all the pipes keep flowing and the customers have reliable and we're done the service.

[01:02:39] Let them know exactly what the fees are for so they can keep track of themselves as well.

[01:03:04] Customers. I like helping them. Just the mic out the best I can.

[01:03:20] I like what I do I've been doing it for 26 years and I like the city I like the atmosphere of the city and what the city does. contribution to this year's annual report i forgot to mention that we also have two commissioners here commissioner angelotti and commissioner fox and with that we've been ready to answer any questions okay great no questions yet probably after tarik gives his presentation i'm guessing

[01:03:57] we'll have some good evening sir good evening madam mayor good evening mr burke good evening council members thank you uh pleased to be here tonight uh to share with you some of the information and some to answer and address some of the concerns regarding some of the recent outages in the city and thank you mr wolf for your kind words and for your support

[01:04:27] so before we start i just want to point out to some facts regarding outages if i could so when an electric utility is evaluated and the performance of its electric distribution system its crews the response time the response to outages is evaluated there has to be a consistent

[01:04:59] level of consistency on how those benchmarks are being calculated, collected, and presented and reported. The agency, the government agency that does that in the U.S. is called the Energy Information Administration, the U.S. EIA.

[01:05:20] We along with other about 1,800 other utilities across the U.S. report all this information to the U.S. EIA. All those reports are published and they are available to the general public every year.

[01:05:36] We've been participating in the U.S. EIA reliability report, which is called EIA 861 report, since 2012. They mainly use what is called the IEEE standard 1366, which is the electric reliability standard and guideline for measuring the reliability indices for the electric distribution systems.

[01:06:05] I encourage everyone to visit the website of the US EIA. The report is actually very simple and very easy to read. It's actually in a spreadsheet that collects and reports and calculates all the data, all the outage data, the response time, and uses the IEEE 1366 standard and guideline to calculate and rank all the utilities in the US.

[01:06:30] You can simply, if you want to compare the city of Manassas to any other utility, whether in Virginia, the state of Virginia or the state of Maryland or New York, you can just click or tick the state button and then you can go to the Virginia, the list of Virginia electric utilities.

[01:06:49] There is a total of 18 to 20 electric utilities from Virginia participate in that survey and produce their information and present their information to the USAIA. For the past, I would say, 10 to 12 years, City of Manassas has been in the top two to five utilities in the state of Virginia, as far as the response outage time, the number of outages, and the customer interruption duration.

[01:07:18] And I credit that to one-hour cruise and the investment that we have made into our system. What is unique about the electric system for the city of Manasseh is that we're able to pretty much, we have created a level of redundancy that is, I would say, unmatched through other utilities, whether they're our size or even larger than ours.

[01:07:39] And like Mr. Wolf said, like the outage from last week, a substation went down, five distribution circuits, about 4,000 customers got impacted and were without power. On a Sunday at night, I think the outage was about 8 p.m., and it was raining, and it was a Sunday before a holiday because Monday was a holiday, yet everybody, the crews responded.

[01:08:03] Operation notified the people, and some of my guys don't even need to be notified because all the outage notification emails go to them on their cell phones. So they even, they respond, they get in their trucks and they head back to the city without even having somebody need to call them.

[01:08:21] They came here, they came to the city, and because we have created over the years, like I said, a level of redundancy that allows us to backfeed and restore all the customers that are impacted during an outage, especially if it's widespread outage, through two things. First of all, we have created switching orders that are ready for every scenario where everybody knows in their truck they have a copy of those outage switching orders and they are ready to be implemented.

[01:08:47] That's why what happened last week was we have an outage, everybody got in their truck, they headed back, they went to their location, they started communicating with the operations center, they conducted the switching order, and everybody was back within like 40 minutes or less.

[01:09:04] To me, this is unbelievable. Because if you compare our response time to any other utility in the state of Virginia or even outside Virginia, I mean, you can look. I mean, like I said, the reports are available. You can go to the website, and you can check how do we fare compared to other utilities.

[01:09:23] That doesn't mean, like, we like outages. Nobody likes outages, and we're sorry that they're happening. The thing is, some of the outages are not preventable, and they're not predictable. And we don't like them. We know the city council doesn't like them. Mr. Burke doesn't like them, and our customers don't like them either.

[01:09:42] And it put us in an awkward position because, you know, it may look like, you know, we're not doing our job, but like I said, everything has to be put in perspective because all those indices are based on the system-wide performance, not just a group of customers here or a group of customers there.

[01:10:02] If we look at the big picture, I think we're doing good so far. Not to say that, you know, we can always improve, and we're working on improving that. And the investment and the CIPs that we have in recent years, most of our CIPs are actually geared now towards maintenance and improving the existing infrastructure that we have.

[01:10:26] I got a list of some of the CIPs that we have implemented over the past few years. For example, one of our most significant CIPs where we spend and invest a lot of money is the cable replacement, recognizing that cable failures and the failure of the equipment associated with cable, underground cable, is important and significant.

[01:10:51] We started investing on average about $600,000 to $800,000 a year to replace existing cables. Existing cables that we replace, we replace that based on a criteria that takes into account the age of the cable, the number of hits or failures that that cable have experienced over the years.

[01:11:12] the number of faults and the number of customers on each feeder section put things in perspective in 2020 we replaced about 30 000 feet in the bay mainly in the bayberry avenue and park street areas 2021 we replaced about 12 000 feet of cable 2022 about 23 500 20 23 30 500 20 24 40 000 and 2025 if we did about 22,000 feet.

[01:11:49] I know that may not answer all the questions, but like I said, we have programs that target what we believe are the main culprits when it comes to outages, which is mainly, I believe, is the underground cable that we have. We still have cables in the ground that are 50 and 60 years old.

[01:12:06] They are not in conduits. They're not protected. They are vulnerable. They are subject to the elements, whether it's somebody digging into the cable, corrosion so I mean that's all you done yeah I don't want to cut you off you just yeah I mean okay you ready for questions yes okay all right council members questions comments mr. Wolfe sure well let's get the chase so Sunday night at the Prince William substation transformer yes sir we know what ended

[01:12:46] up happening the transformer not yet okay the information we got the relay the electric relay tripped I looked at the data it's an indication of an internal fault good news is the internal fault or the fault current magnitude was not huge was not significant but that's alone not a reason to celebrate because that's still an indication of an internal fault inside the transformer so what we did was we contacted our substitution transformer vendors that actually does the repair and the maintenance on the transformer they came

[01:13:20] in last week and they tested the transformer and it tested okay and the initial recommendation was we can put it back online because it tested fine they did what's called double testing which is you measure the insulation however looking at the data again because I realized that this was an internal fault that and it could be progressing it could be brewing inside the transformer I asked them to come back again and do what's called the DGA dissolved gas analysis test. This will test the oil inside the transformer, detect for what's called combustible gases. If they are generated, this will give us an idea about what happened

[01:14:00] inside the transformer. They came in the second day. They took an oil sample. They went back. They called us on Friday, just three days ago, and told us that, yes, they found some combustible gases with some significant amounts, which kind of confirmed our decision not to actually put the transformer back in service.

[01:14:20] I don't want to get too technical, but what was found was acetylene gas, which is C2H2. That gas does not get generated until the oil temperature reaches above 600 Celsius. So that's an indication of an arcing inside the transformer that was so severe that it actually tripped the transformer on overheat as well.

[01:14:40] So that's why we decided not to put the transformer back online until further testing, which means We'll have to drain the oil, we'll have actually to enter the transformer, inspect it, look for what may have caused that fall. It could have been loose winding, core to ground issue, turn to turn, short circuit, but we cannot tell without actually entering the transformer and inspecting it from inside.

[01:15:08] Very good. And I'm just appreciative of your sense not to trust the first pass by the consultant to put it back online and it's just going to have another issue. True, true. Thank you. The weird thing about transformers is that a lot of faults will not be detected through electrical testing because there are mechanical faults as well that don't show up in the electrical testing.

[01:15:35] That's why we kind of hold back on actually putting it back until further testing were completed and that's why we came to this point where we're going to do an inspection and actually enter the transform. Ms. Vasquez, Luna? Thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you for the report.

[01:15:55] Because it's a video, it's harder to, you know, go back and try to ask questions. But at least for me, it worries me that it's, you know, the Prince William one continues to be that. And I know there's been work.

[01:16:12] I know that we continue to all look at what, you know, it's actually happened. I believe I read one of the last ones. it was a squirrel again, and I know a few before it was that, and I don't want to get deep into that, but is there anything extra that we're doing to make sure that when in our means, you know, we are avoiding these ones, especially feeling that it's always the same area, it's always, you know, like the same customers affected.

[01:16:42] I don't know if it's specific to that or is more that we can do. I know we purchased the other, the portal, the one we were using temporarily. So my ask is, I know you can't tell, you know, these things, and we hope it doesn't happen, and I thank you for the explanation.

[01:17:03] I just wonder why it's always this, and are we going the extra mile to take care of the squirrels, or what can we do for that? No, Ms. Vasquez, you're correct. It is the same transformer that just got repaired and put back online on January 15th.

[01:17:21] That's why we're very suspicious this time. I was talking with my substation supervisor this morning. When they come back and actually help us drain the oil and open the transformer, our guys will enter first because there is a protocol when you repair a transformer.

[01:17:38] And once you're inside the transformer, it's a very sensitive piece of equipment. So I remember because this was my first job. You have to empty your pocket. You have two, no jewelry, no watches, nothing. So we don't have a proof.

[01:17:55] Something could have been left inside the transformer, a tool, screwdriver. Something could have been left loose. Because when that transformer was tested on January 15, everything looked great. So it was put back online. Now it failed like a month later.

[01:18:14] So when that transformer is tested next week and opened, we are going to get there inside that transformer first and inspect it ourselves. and look for anything that could have been done incorrectly and wrong so yeah no you're correct it is the same transformer thank you and something i'm not sure if it's for you for the city manager for the gis update i know i asked at the beginning it was like instant i don't know if we should wait after the i believe when it happens it's like really quick and everything

[01:18:50] is up to date uh but when uh when the power is restored it takes a long time for the map to be updated and uh my ask is you know is that something usual how long we should be waiting before we see an update on that well part of the reason that uh operations doesn't we want to make sure that whatever repairs switching occurs from the staff holds because there's some times where

[01:19:28] it seems like it's a transformer. We'll flip the transformer, restore it, and it doesn't always hold. So you might see your power may come back on, but it may either trip or it may cause a surge elsewhere. So there is a natural delay in wanting to say, oh, everything's fixed on the GIS.

[01:19:50] But I'll defer to you guys if there's more to the story. So the map is part of our outage management system, and it basically recognizes the last gasp of our meter, right? So the meter comes out, and it sends the last gasp, and it then populates that there is an outage in the area.

[01:20:12] When they go back to restore it, it's a manual process. So once they clear all the outages, then operations goes back and says, Okay, this is clear, this is clear, this is clear, and then it will take it off the outage.

[01:20:29] So it goes on automatic, and it comes off in a junction hub. Also, just as far as our maintenance, we are in contact with Lima as well, trying to see if there's any companies out there that can actually do some testing of our lines further than what we've been doing to give us some weak spots maybe.

[01:20:57] So we are actively pursuing different things, and I know the squirrels, we have guards, we have squirrel guards on our equipment. Yeah, we're placing squirrel guards on almost all the overhead electric lines now, especially transformers and switches.

[01:21:18] So we're trying our best when it comes to the critters. As far as, like Terry said, this, let's, Prince William, yes, it was just repaired. Everything tested.

[01:21:34] Everything worked great. We have test results of the oil from a month ago, and now all of a sudden it's gone bad. There's sometimes things happen that we just can't control. It's just like when you get into your car, you turn it on, it's great, the next day it doesn't work.

[01:21:51] That's pretty much what we're dealing with here as well. thank you for the report um you had mentioned uh uh u.s. eia u.s. eia that we can do comparisons and you said we're in the top two for performance and uh again everything back online okay um okay that that's a good resource i think for our community to look at and i do understand some

[01:22:28] of the frustrations that are going on and i know that you all are trying to stay on top of it i appreciate the staff also monitoring everything um you know this is kind of a strange question i guess but it's something that's on some people's minds like we have one data center right now uh that's up and running a couple more coming in the future uh is the data center's power do

[01:22:53] they use the city for billing or is that directly to dominion so we do the billing okay do we

[01:23:33] actually have any revenue coming in from at all from the data centers for the power that they use okay all right um actually well it's good to know i in a way because when you're looking at like projections of revenue i had heard that dominion is looking like a three to five year plan

[01:24:07] on uh new projects being paused for for um yeah for the for high usage projects and one of the options they're looking at is like micronuclear and also, and I thought, well, if we're already getting a lot of revenue and they change to micronuclear, like, do we benefit from that at all?

[01:24:31] How are we involved in that? Or how does that impact us?

[01:24:48] Okay, okay, mm-hmm, thank you.

[01:25:13] - Any other questions, Ms. Hudson? - Thank you for the presentation. I wanted to first echo Vice Mayor Wolf's comments in that I think it's truly impressive how quickly our staff can get power back up when it is out. I think there is certainly a shortage of grace for our crews lately when they are truly working so hard overnight, weekends, in intense weather conditions, all kinds of things that they are to get our power back up, and I don't think anybody's had an outage over two hours any time recently, so I think that that's worth noting.

[01:25:50] I also wanted to point out one thing that Mr. Ali said was that sometimes these things are not preventable and not predictable. And I think as we see more intense weather patterns, as we have seen, you know, one of the outages happened while it was raining on the ice, melting into the ground, onto the utilities, right?

[01:26:10] All of these things are impacting what's underground, what's feeding our homes, what's feeding our businesses. And we don't control the weather. So when these things happen, that's why we have our professional crews that come out and are ready to go that pick up the call. Another thing that I noticed during the Sunday night outage was before the city could post anything online, before they could respond, my ring app was going off, right?

[01:26:36] Immediately, people are connected on something, ready to complain, ready to ask questions, looking for answers that aren't available. And that's where I say there's a shortage of grace going on, right? That, you know, within 10 minutes, then our staff is responding.

[01:26:53] are online we are people in the trucks on the way and it's back up in 40 minutes um so i just wanted to again say kudos to the work that you're doing i don't think that there are many localities that get to enjoy the single utility bill that we all get to enjoy that's all one service where we have people that know all about it um so i just wanted to thank you all for what you're doing and thank you for the report and congratulations on nine what was it 99.98 it's pretty good it's pretty good that's below our target our target is 99.99 okay so we missed it this year yeah but we hit

[01:27:29] our target eight out of ten times for the past ten years yeah our target is 52 minutes of outage per customer on the system thank you mr osina thank you mayor so uh no stranger to you folks i'm delighted that you're here speaking i'm delighted that commissioners are came in person Thank you, gentlemen. I do want to report to council. We have a very good utility commission.

[01:27:59] The folks that we have appointed are experts in their own right, have the kind of background you're looking for, electric, water, operations, legal. I mean, you think about all of that here. They're dutiful in their time and effort, attending meetings.

[01:28:18] if they can't be there in person they call in they're very focused and i will say that staff sometimes has a little challenge keeping up with them because they are are somewhat demanding in terms of what they they are looking for but they are seeking to be the best advisory commission that we can have and i think at the end of the day everybody is looks at these meetings and and we We are better for the exchange of information in that regard on that matter.

[01:28:53] Mr. Ali, you know I'm no stranger to always asking about outages here, so I'm going to be, I guess, the lone contrarian a bit here. First of all, I neglected to say this. Because of the commission and the work of the staff and then with city staff, better communication is now coming from the city and being proactive about our outages, I want to thank.

[01:29:18] Mr. Beal, who heads up our public relations department for adapting and getting that information out, especially because we can never know when, weekends, evenings, during snowstorms, whatever, inclement weather, not knowing exactly what's going on, sending folks to our outage map. I think most of us are learning that and where that is, but making it easier to find, things of this sort.

[01:29:42] This is what it takes in our city. When we see some deficiencies, collectively we work together to try to solve those kinds of problems. The commission saw this as a need and then worked with staff to get that because at the end of the day, we want our utility people working on the outage, not worrying about getting on their phones and talking about the problem.

[01:30:05] And that's why it's great to see the departments working together on that sort of thing. And so for that, I'm very pleased to see. And I think that should be publicized, that this is the way we get better. We're not perfect, and we have to make adjustments along the way.

[01:30:23] Because when summer comes, things may happen where we're still going to be needing some of this. Or there may be water situation that comes along that we have to. Fortunately, with all the cold temperatures, while there have been problems with our pipes and so forth, a lot of those got solved reasonably well and quickly in that regard.

[01:30:46] I say all of this because also in the utility packet that is now before each commission meeting, there's useful information in there. The commission has asked for more information that could be easily read, and staff has been good since they already had the data to just adapt it.

[01:31:07] And so they put together, for instance, an outage cause breakdown under electricity. It shows it on a calendar year, a month, a month, a month, and has about, I'm guessing, about 15 categories here. It uses a graph, things of this sort. This is all available.

[01:31:24] Mr. Beal, I would suggest that this might be data that, since it's already being collected, that we figure out a way to get that also on our webpage there in a way folks can see along the way so that when Mr. Ali talks about the reliability, we're not surprised.

[01:31:43] actually can see along the way but this data we're collecting we're tracking this sort of thing it shouldn't just stay with the with the commission in my opinion here all right having said that um you know just going back and looking at some of the data we had seven outages in january we had six in december when i look at the 2025 outage report here there were a total of 131 that ends up being on average 11 a month uh in in that and the biggest category with the most outages in uh

[01:32:18] 2025 calendar year 2025 was equipment failure yep the second highest by almost half below that were animals now i say all of this not to throw anyone under the bus i true i i i never doubt about the dedication and the hard work of not only folks here but also the people who do the repairs and do the installations and things of this sort. The frustration I think residents have

[01:32:50] is when I say there are seven outages in January they go why there's that to them that's a lot seven for whatever length of time here and that's that's the frustration along the way 131.

[01:33:06] I know all of you are working to lowering that number. You truly want that. And so I don't want anyone to walk away here feeling like I beat up on you because I'm not beating up on you. What I'm saying is the situation is such that I believe that we need to be looking at more than what we're doing. Because if we do the same thing all the time, we're going to get the same result.

[01:33:31] I worry about capacity of the utility staff to go and test equipment. At the same time, they're supposed to be doing all the other things they're hired to do along the way here. And so I am heartened, Ms. Davis, to hear that you're going to look in contact with BIMA to look at companies that can help us in doing some testing, whatever that might be.

[01:33:56] In my uneducated mind, that testing may be from walking around and saying, here are your most likely, somebody coming in with experience and someone being able to say, here are your most likely places you ought to address first. You can't do everything. And I know, you know, when things are underground, they're great, but they're also underground is a problem because you can't see. Lines that come down because of a storm, we can see and we can trace it and find it and fix it real quickly. When it's underground, it's more difficult. We all need to realize that

[01:34:29] sort of thing. But I'm looking for ways that I hope you'll start looking beyond that in that regard and that we start seeing, using the help that's available through VEMA, the American Public Power Association, whatever experiences from other utilities, so that 2026 becomes the year we get ahead of this thing. And when I say ahead, I'm not saying zero. That would be great.

[01:34:58] That's always the goal, isn't it? Zero. But we know that's not going to be, that's not realistic. But, you know, when you say to our residents, to our businesses, that number, or they experience it, they're running their business, and suddenly power goes down, and for whatever reason, it's during the time they're trying to work.

[01:35:17] It's really difficult there. And so that's what I hope we are energized about at this point. The council will will ensure that the resources are available to the utilities department to to move ahead if they should come to us with additional requests that we figure out ways to to fund those or grant those increases so that now those things can be done because we're really setting the stage for fiscal year 2027.

[01:35:47] And if we want to be ahead of all of this, we're going to have to do some investing, I believe. that. Did you, again, and please don't make sure you, I'm not trying not to come to your meetings

[01:36:03] anymore. I'm trying to really state what you guys need. Yeah, there is, we can, but there is also the

[01:36:37] other side of that approach is a lot of the testing may have to be done offline to get an actual good test data and to uncover any pending or incipient faults in the piece of equipment that we're testing, it has to be taken offline. So that's, so we have to schedule outages for that. The other issue is, and I'm talking, now I'm going to talk specifically about cables. To do a good cable testing, cable testing are classified as destructive or non-destructive. Destructive

[01:37:14] means you test the cable to the, to the limit, to its limit, to the operating voltage or even a little bit higher voltage because you want to force any cracks, any voids, any water, any moisture issues in the insulation to pop up so you can actually replace that cable. The downside with that is you may uncover or force that cable to fall or it may still look good. Then what you've done is you actually accelerated the failure rate of that cable. So you put it back in line or you

[01:37:51] put it back in service, then it fails prematurely. It fails sooner than it would have without the test. So we have to be very careful what kind of test we do and the cost. There is a new test. It's called partial discharge. It tests the cables at very low frequency, but it's very expensive, and it's going to require a lot of resources. I mean, it's definitely a good idea, but I'm just trying to point out the plus and the minuses, the advantage of such effort. It's going to be massive because, for example, we have about 56 miles

[01:38:28] of underground cables of course that in sections you have to test the cable section between every two devices or pieces of equipment whether that is a transformer switch or fuse cabinet or a hand or a manhole so that effort I mean it's gonna require tons of resources I mean and that's good to point out and I this is why we have this exchange I'm not trying to to regulate or legislate here with what you do I'm glad you educating us a bit more but I think

[01:39:06] you're right you're you're I think letting us know and by extension our residents and our businesses know there's there are costs associated with this which is why I'm saying the time to be talking about this is as we are going into planning for the next budget here what are the resources what are the options to us what does it cost so we can make some some decisions along the way, we'll see what we might be able to do in this sort of thing here, because to achieve the desirability of reducing the number of outages, we, it sounds like we're going to have to do some things we haven't been doing before, but they're going to be, those are

[01:39:45] not necessarily the people, let alone the equipment that we have just sitting around. Is that a correct, would that be accurate? Yes, Mr. Rossino, that's correct. And I just want to point out that under equipment failure, that covers everything on our system. That could be a fuse.

[01:40:02] It could be a small transformer. It could be just a T connection. I mean, it could be anything. Or it could be a transformer. So it may sound like it's a high number, but in the scheme of things, we have, like I said, we have about, I think, 4,000 transformers on our system.

[01:40:21] We have 135 manholes. We have 200 pad mount switches. We have about 180 fuse cabinets. And between every device and the other one, there are cables, there are connections on both sides of the cable.

[01:40:37] So we have about, I would say, 80,000 pieces of equipment. So when we get six failures a month, it's not ideal, it's not perfect, but also it's expected. Understood. And I have one last request, Mayor, if I may.

[01:40:52] And that is, if I could get the name of the company that sells you your squirrel, what are they called? Squirrel guards. Squirrel guards. I just need one over my bird feeder, so I've got a problem. Hopefully it won't cost me a lot.

[01:41:08] But thank you so much. Thank you, Mayor. Any other questions or comments? Thank you both so much for all your hard work and for the report and supporting us. Thank you. Have a good night. Item 1.5 is the FY 2027 City Manager's Proposed Budget.

[01:41:29] Mr. Burke is taking the podium at this time. Hello. Greetings. Okay, all set. Thank you. Well, good evening, and thank you for the opportunity to present to you the proposed budget recommended for fiscal year 2027.

[01:41:52] I'd like to start off by thanking Council, Mayor and Council, for your guidance in the development of this budget. that we received at your retreat i'd also like to thank the various departments for their development and submittal of good budgets that were only items that they needed rather than a lot of wants it allowed us to prepare a budget that is reasonable and we can defend i also like to thank the commissioner of revenue and their staff they have done an amazing job of identifying

[01:42:32] Real estate revenue opportunities for the city that will be reflected in Budget as we presented to y'all I'd also like to thank the finance staff for assembling all of the information from our departments as far as the expenditures combined with all of the Anticipated revenue sources to present the budget to you and finally Christina Wilbur my executive assistant Who was outstanding in assembling the this presentation as well as the the letter that is accompanying in the budget

[01:43:05] as it's coming to y'all. As you've heard from our departments with their annual reports and we'll continue to hear, the city has been able to complete and advance a number of significant projects that were included in the FY26 budget. And I say this to remind our residents that the budget document serves as the guide for staff in how we prioritize projects and initiatives in the upcoming fiscal year. At this point, I do need to apologize to council. The messaging that we had

[01:43:43] provided up to this point had been fairly limited and conservative we had anticipated moderate increases in property values and again thanks to the efforts of our Commissioner of Revenue's office they have identified that this was a 2026 was a great year from the city of Manassas real estate values increased by $995 million which with 461 million associated with new construction the largest increases in a trip are attributed to the energization of the

[01:44:23] brickyard data center and the construction of the the Dean Drive data centers the increase in commercial and industrial valuations has resulted in a three percent shift in the real estate tax burden from residential to non residential properties. This chart shows the historic growth of assessed value of properties in the city, and it shows the significant increase over 2026. The nearly $1 billion growth is fairly

[01:44:55] split between existing properties, appreciation, and new construction. And then this chart again shows the significant growth in total real estate assessed values. The 12.7% growth in 2026 has been the largest that we have seen in the past five years.

[01:45:16] And we believe that this growth is sustainable over the next few years due to the anticipated continued development of both data centers, commercial properties, and residences throughout the city. Looking at our history of adopted budgets, exclusive of Manassas City public school outside funding, the primary increases in our general fund is associated with one-time projects such as the City Hall parking garage, establishing our housing investment fund, and our social services needs.

[01:45:56] The primary increase of our utility funds is associated with the anticipated increased power that will be sold to data centers. We also have increases in our airport construction projects and our stormwater projects. And Council will be discussing these expenditures at your budget workshop and future budget work sessions.

[01:46:19] Looking at the revenue history, we see that general fund revenues have been consistently growing over the past five years. The reduction in the other revenues, that's the top light blue, is associated with the fact that the city has been spending down the bond and our ARPA funds over the past few years, and it's also reflective that interest rates are decreasing.

[01:46:47] general fund expenditure history shows again that we've seen growth in in most all of where we spend our money this is our total budget as we presenting it to y'all tonight it includes our transfer to the schools but not the full school budget and it amounts to about four hundred twenty three million dollars we will be discussing this the full school budget in March and your budget books

[01:47:20] will provide greater detail about all of the proposed budgets we continue to fund Manassas Public Schools we're the fund the budget this year includes sixty seven point three four million dollars that maintains our commitment of a three percent increase each year the city also contributes six point six million dollars of school debt service for a total of seventy four million dollars of city financial support like our residents the city is experiencing significant increases in the cost for commodities and services this chart

[01:48:00] identifies examples of these increases that reflect costs increasing 200 to 300 percent in recent years. And if you look down at the bottom four, the bottom three and four, those are directly associated with our electric department. The cost per foot of our larger cable has gone up threefold. So when you were asking about how we approach maintenance and proactive proactively dealing with our lines, this is one of the issues that Tarek is challenged with,

[01:48:38] is that we want to continue to upgrade our old facilities, but there is a significant cost, and we are trying to balance that in what we're presenting to you all. For our residents, the recommended budget is a living document that may require adjustment due to outside impacts.

[01:48:59] At this time, we have not received confirmation of what the health insurance rates will be for our employees. We also don't have a full understanding of what will be coming at a federal level, state level. We're in a pretty good state with the shared services and we are continuing to monitor the economy to make sure that what we are presenting to you all is what we hope will happen in this upcoming year.

[01:49:28] The majority of our budget resides in the general and utility funds. Our utility funds include sewer water, electric storm sewer, and solid waste. Our general fund includes the transfer to the school system, shared services with Prince William County, our police and public work operations, and one-time transfers to capital projects.

[01:49:52] Our general fund includes large revenue sources such as real estate and personal property revenue, as well as taxes such as sales, meals, b-pole, and lodging. Our utility funds are self-sustaining through usage fees and connection fees. This chart shows where the city spends our budgeted funds.

[01:50:15] As you can see, we are heavily invested in public education, utilities, and public safety. The rest is spread out over all of the other services that we provide. As part of the FY2027 budget, we are requesting six new positions.

[01:50:33] Two of the airport positions will be funded through the Agreement for Commercial Flight Operations with AFPORTS. Two of our firefighter positions were included but not funded in the FY2026 budget. The Assistant City Attorney position is proposed to assume duties that were historically performed by outside legal companies, primarily focusing on social services.

[01:50:55] And the funding for our emergency management planner position had previously come from grants, but those were eliminated as part of the federal budget. And this basically demonstrates that we've run by 20 employees over the past five years, primarily in fire and rescue, airport, our community center staff, and our utility staff.

[01:51:23] The good news for tonight. As a result of the increase in commercial and industrial tax revenue, staff are happy to propose a reduced real estate tax rate of $1.05, which is a reduction of $0.02 on the real estate tax rate. In order to continue our fire and rescue operations, we are proposing a flat levy at $0.19.

[01:51:45] As proposed, the average residential tax bill will increase by $289, or $24 per month. Non-residential tax bills will increase by $1,348 or $112 per month.

[01:52:05] Our utility funds, as supported by fees and rates associated with the usage, do require rate increases. We are proposing a 10.5% increase for electric rates, 9.5% increase for water rates, and 3% increase for sewer rates.

[01:52:30] We are also proposing $1.50 for non-residential stormwater rates. And we will be discussing these proposed utility rates with Council at your March 18th work session. We are proposing some use of general fund reserves, specifically $3 million towards our housing project, $12 million towards the parking garage, and the establishment of a housing investment fund with the $2 million so that we can continue new housing efforts in the future.

[01:53:04] And I do want to stress that your staff are aware that we must be good stewards of the funds entrusted to us by our residents and businesses. All expenditures proposed are necessary to ensure that we continue to deliver high-quality services and that we plan for the future of Manassas.

[01:53:26] There are several wonderful things that are included in the proposed budget. We will work with council to address any questions or concerns that you might have as we advance through the budget adoption process. The budget as presented does include $1 million in unallocated funds that council, as you go through the budget, you can decide how you'd want to best use that funds for the various initiatives that we've identified or other things that may come out of the budget process.

[01:54:03] We're beginning the journey for budget adoption, and we will start with a work session on Wednesday night to determine what priorities you want for the March 6th budget workshop. This is an all-day workshop that will provide you the opportunity to exam the budget in detail.

[01:54:23] A town hall is scheduled for March 16th to provide residents an opportunity to give you input as we look at the budget. Budget work sessions are scheduled for utility rates and the school budget, as well as many other opportunities for council as needed.

[01:54:38] And we are currently working towards a public hearing for your April 27th meeting. Thank you for your attention and your dedication as we finalize our FY27 budget. Our residents and businesses can view the proposed budget on our website at manassasva.gov forward slash budget.

[01:55:00] And with that, our finance staff will be providing you with the budget for your late-night reading. Any questions? Thank you, Mr. Burke. Any questions right now? I don't think so. I don't think so. We're getting our homework.

[01:55:16] Thank you. And we are adding this to the website tonight, so it is available for our residents. This is going to be online tonight for people. And oh, Carrie says a few minutes. I was going to give her the evening, but all right No questions. No comments. Okay moving forward in the agenda item two is consented and I'll call on vice mayor Wolfe for that motion

[01:55:50] We have a motion by vice mayor Wolfe seconded by councilwoman Vasquez Luna to approve our consent agenda Any discussion hearing and seeing none. Mr. Smith, please call the roll member Vasquez Luna yes council member Ellis yes council member Smith yes council member Alcina yes council member Hudson yes thank you that moves us forward to item 3 ordinances and resolutions item 3.1 is ordinance number oh 2026 - 443 conveyance of property the landing at cannon branch to good housing Virginia LLC the second reading mr. small is approaching the podium

[01:56:29] Madam Mayor, members of council, I appear before you again on the matter of a purchase and sale agreement between the city of Manassas and Good Housing. The purpose of this real estate sale of approximately three acres at Delaney and Cannon Branch, which includes the former DMV building, is for the construction of a new 100-unit multifamily apartment building that will support workforce for the city and in the city.

[01:57:01] We held a public hearing on this matter. We've had several community meetings. We appeared before you two weeks ago. Representatives from Good Housing are here this evening, and I stand prepared to answer any questions the council may have. Thank you, Mr. Small.

[01:57:17] Any questions at this time? Ms. Ellis. We've had a couple of emails from residents, mostly at the Landing and Cannon Branch, with some questions they could not find readily available on the website or with a FOIA request.

[01:57:41] Maybe you can help me with some of these questions. Specifically, there was the $3 million loan. The $3 million is going toward the purchase of the land, and then there's another $3 million that will be given to Good Housing. there wasn't clear details about the loan document like repayment terms interest rate default remedies for taxpayer protection when will that be provided and how do we find that as part of your budget process the city manager

[01:58:19] and you will have those conversations okay so we're voting on something where the terms of a loan is not even settled no you're voting on something that says the terms of the loan will be settled okay okay and that also includes more of a timeline and the limitations like once this is approved that we are going to finalize everything that will also include like how long they have to actually get this project completed is there any kind of timeline they have 10 years they have three years that's all going to be determined as well the

[01:58:58] timeline for the project will be dictated in part by the funding from the Virginia Department of Housing as of right now we expect to be breaking ground about this time next year it's time next year residents feel like they haven't been heard the majority actually all the ones that I've talked to and most of them that have come out to speak they have there they also know that there was project off the of a Fairview that I mentioned last time where the residents

[01:59:35] surrounding that project were heard and the project never moved forward and they feel like their voices just are not being heard at all by this council so I know that they they are upset I'll tell them to keep watching the budget process so they can learn more the workforce housing the actual they say not they can't say preferred i guess i can say preferred but it's not guaranteed of the workforce that can actually be using the housing it's really open to everyone but if you're looking at the example

[02:00:13] they gave in their their handouts only about 16 of the residents in one of their communities is actually the definition of what they're saying is workforce housing so 17 out of 107 just you know to note as we're going forward the neighbors out there majority feel like the six million dollars is a misuse of committed public funds they feel like they also have a right to say what can be used with even though this is coming

[02:00:48] out of reserves it's still taxpayer it's public funds the section section 8 housing mention of the last meeting was the first time that I ever heard that used so as we're moving forward with this community out there at the landing can and branch that we're trying to bring mixed-use we've been struggling trying to get commercial out there in the mixed-use formula and it's more the more that we commit to the residential we feel like I feel as well that it's

[02:01:22] going to be harder to bring commercial in there so we'll have to watch the budget process see if we can get some answers to all these questions thank you Any other questions, comments for Mr. Small? Motion?

[02:01:43] Sure. Madam Mayor, move approval of ordinance 2026-443. I'm a second reading. Second. May the motion by Vice Mayor Wolfe seconded by Councilman Vasquez-Lena to approve ordinance number 0-2026-443. Any discussion?

[02:02:01] One comment, if I might, Madam Mayor. Just in passing last week, Loudoun County just made a $27 million appropriation of almost exactly the same nature for three projects of workforce housing, of which Good Housing is the recipient of one of those.

[02:02:24] And what we are doing is, frankly, the state of the art and best-in-class procedure to get these kind of projects ongoing. So with that, I'm happy to move this forward. Any other discussion? - Ms. Ellis.

[02:02:39] - I think that's a really unfair comparison. The city of Manassas with Loudoun County, their revenue stream is huge compared to our city of Manassas. I do agree we can do affordable housing, but I don't believe in committing public funds.

[02:02:59] - Any other, Ms. Vasquez? - Thank you, Madam Mayor, for me with a comment, it is important that we start working on this. As I said before, this is not going to fix the problem of the Northern Virginia of Manasseh.

[02:03:17] I would love to be able in this budget to pay the whole staff so everybody makes enough money so they don't, so they make enough wages so they don't need to qualify or they don't need to have these type of housing.

[02:03:45] But unfortunately, we're not there, or just us as a city but also teachers and employees in the in the beginning process on the entry levels in the school system as well so for me it's important there's no limited to them but it will be one step forward to making a difference and now and everything that I learned about these projects it will make a difference for them I will set them up if they want to to be able to transition into home ownership in the future so to me it's important this will

[02:04:24] this won't fix it this will make it a little better but we can work there is more work in the future for the next council and in the future years to continue to make a difference this is not even gonna be available right away still gonna take time one of the most difficult things for me has been to see how long it takes for projects to be ready, to move in ready.

[02:04:50] It's going to be a while, and I believe that we need to continue to not only be the 13-city, affordable city in Virginia, but also to continue to keep that as I believe through the process we heard is so many of the light tech or the affordable, attainable housing coming to expiration so I will be I may the second I will be asking for each one of the council members to support it for the people that need it the most thank

[02:05:27] you any mr. Smith thank you madam mayor it occurs to me that most of the concerns from the residents are being addressed and will be addressed and attended to. One of the things that we all have recognized the last two or three years in dealing with attainable housing, affordable housing or housing in that category that we're looking at is that municipalities, localities will have to find unique methods to attain it. We focused a lot

[02:06:05] on rezoning and other mechanisms that were before us. I've come to recognize that this process that we're trying with this one. It's new for us, but it is being tested throughout. Most municipalities have recognized that they're going to have to be a participant in the process, and I don't believe there's that great a risk. We have the statehouse, the group involved in

[02:06:41] this. It's closely monitored. I have very much confidence in the company that we're working with and I think this is testament to our commitment to providing attainable housing so I do support this is that ideal probably not but I think anything that we did out of our ordinary process it's not going to be ideal that's why we have to have the commitment to take the risk and I think this is a risk that that that's worth taking thank you any other comments or

[02:07:13] questions. Okay. Mr. Smith, please call the roll. Vice Mayor Wolfe. Yes. Council Member Vasquez-Luna. Yes. Council Member Ellis. No. Council Member Smith. Yes. Council Member Alicina. Yes. Council Member Hudson. Yes. Motion carried. Okay. Thank you for that. Thank you, Mr. Small. All right. That moves us forward to, oh, 3.2 Ordinance 0-2026-544 Conveyance of Property at 9733 Dean Drive to Ponena LLC. First reading.

[02:07:50] Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Mayor, members of council. This is the sale of a very, very small piece of essentially undevelopable by itself real estate along Dean Drive across the street from where those data centers are going, butting up against or towards the railroad tracks and just down Dean Drive from the water tank by way of frame of reference.

[02:08:15] the property has been the city was approached by an adjacent property owner who wishes to acquire this the property owner owns two similar lots collectively the three properties would then give them something that they could develop on the property zone for industrial use city staff has determined this is not a piece of property that has any value to the city we could not use it independently and therefore recommends to you that it be sold to the person that

[02:08:52] has made the offer again $60,000 and in addition the purchaser has agreed that the city shall retain rights of way and easements along the front of that property that will enable future road widening and utility improvements that are occurring along Dean Drive and has further offered to grant us such rights of way and easements along the two lots that that property owner currently controls thereby saving us from having to acquire those rights of way and easements from that property owner in the future so

[02:09:27] again staff recommends your approval of this sale and I'm happy to address any questions council may have $60,000 yes ma'am council members any questions for Mr. Smallman? Oh, Mr. Ocina. What business is Panenya?

[02:09:49] Panenya. Panenya LLC. They're a contractor. Contractor. What kind of contractor? No. Okay. Are they using their parcels of land to park equipment or, you know? Currently, no, and the city doesn't allow that type of a use for undeveloped properties.

[02:10:09] They will have to put some kind of structure on it, which, of course, would put that structure on your tax rolls in order to be able to put equipment and materials on any of those lots in the future okay thank you thank you ma'am any other questions or comments okay motion i move adoption of ordinance 2026 544 second give the motion by councilwoman vasquez luna seconded by councilwoman hudson to approve ordinance number o 2026-544 any discussion hearing and seeing none

[02:10:42] mr. Smith please call the roll yes thank you that moves us forward in the agenda to item number four the 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 anyone who has 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 a reminder

[02:11:20] that council does not typically engage in back and forth conversation with speakers during this time the lack of an immediate response to your comments should not be taken as a lack of interest or concern as we have staff present taking notes and we will respond to your concern in a timely manner when you approach the podium please give us your name and we would appreciate it if you would provide us with your address so 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 or state which city you live in we ask that you please be respectful when presenting your comments to not only council members but to those residents and community members who are also present with that I have a sign-up sheet

[02:11:58] nobody has signed up on the sheet but we will not miss anyone if there is anyone here that wishes to speak for public comment time please come forward at this time good evening you all received an email from me last night about this sale to good housing and Tom thank you for your response no I'm just now finding Teresa said just about everything I wanted to talk about

[02:12:36] tonight I just feel like when we had the public hearing in December several people came stood up in front of you and had concerns questions doubts many many different kinds and I sat with some of them back here and as soon as the public hearing was completed, a motion to schedule a vote was set, and you voted to vote on this in January. I talked to several of them. They looked at me in surprise. Now, I know you've

[02:13:13] been talking to them along the way. There are, and I know this is one step and there's many, many things going on here, but there seems to be a lot of holes in this that need to be shorn up, and you're being told that in budget process it's going to be addressed.

[02:13:35] And what I'm asking is you continue to talk to the people that are most effective, especially the ones that live over at the landings. And my taxes are going to go up.

[02:13:52] The proposed budget is, you know. So I just feel like the freight train keeps going, and we are jumping out of the way because we're going to get run over if we try and stop things. So I'm just asking you to work with these people that have the most questions.

[02:14:14] be open to them there's not a lot of transparency in my opinion we have to go searching for things so i think that folks need to know what's going on especially with the budget saying we're going to be going our taxes are going up i think that you know the the amount of money should be reallocated something more pressing we could have this housing without that big of investment i know that you know to get certain state funds they're going to have some city funds our city commitment but um i don't think it's appropriate right now so uh i just ask that you

[02:14:54] continue to work with the people that are most effective thank you thank you mr plebniak anyone else who should address council evening janet plebniak resident of the city um in in my neighborhood in many of the neighborhoods we have other housing we have the uh adus all the additional dwelling units that's a problem problem in my neighborhood it's a problem that you know I know the police

[02:15:29] department has ridden around looking at it our school systems because of that our schools are terrible they're terrible and we talk about building we talk about you know beautifying the city walking paths all that stuff what about our kids education and that doesn't seem to be a priority. We put a lot of money into our schools and I don't know how we're going to attract people to live in the city of Manassas with the school system that we have. The protest at the high

[02:16:03] school with our high school students out there yelling fuck ice is disgusting. My tax money is not for students during the school day to come out and protest. They don't need to know what the political opinions are of the teachers that are teaching them.

[02:16:20] If that was held out of school time, I doubt there would have been students there. Other Facebook posts, you know, we need to be a community that is being united, and we're not.

[02:16:36] We are pushing different things. At the work session, it was mentioned, oh, I hope we're not going to become a Minnesota 2.0. Well, with encouraging some of the things that I see out there, it looks like we're pushing for it.

[02:16:51] See if we can't have the kind of problems here that they have in Minnesota. And also, you know, Mayor, with your announcement, leaving early because you promised eight years. If you promised eight years, you ran for a four-year term.

[02:17:08] And in the middle of that four-year term is your eight years. We as citizens vote for a mayor. You're leaving at the time you're leaving does not give us a vote as to who's going to be mayor for the remaining time. It's going to cost another $50,000 to $100,000 for a special election if we have to have a special election.

[02:17:31] So spending our money wisely is something that's really important. The transparency here is extremely lacking. So, Father God, you know all, and I trust your will will be done.

[02:17:48] You know the motives and the hearts of each one of our public servants working in the best interest of the citizens of Manassas. Please guide them in their decisions, not for personal gain, for community gain. God is in the truth, and we need the truth.

[02:18:06] And I ask this through the Son of Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you, Ms. Piveniak. Anyone else wishes to come forward and address counsel? Good evening, Madam Mayors, Council, Vice Mayor, City Manager.

[02:18:26] The Good Housing Initiative is unfortunately tied up with the landing community's dissatisfaction with the master plan developer. Much of what is being complained about by the residents is tied to the fact that there is no retail out there.

[02:18:45] There is limited restaurants. There is not the environment that they bought into. That is unfortunate, but that is not good housing's problem. That is not the attainable housing program's problem.

[02:19:01] That is Buchanan's problem. That is, with respect to Mr. Garcieri and the EDA, That's their problem to solve. I hope that they have heard all of the voices from the residents out there about the lack of amenities, the lack of parks, the broken down equipment, et cetera.

[02:19:23] That does need to be addressed, but that is not on good housing. That is not on our attainable housing problem. And so, again, I support this initiative. I think, as Mr. Wolf said, it is a good first step.

[02:19:39] I was at the Prince William County Committee on 100 housing seminar last week, and land and the ability to have land was one of the number one issues that was talked about by the developers from CFH, from Wesley Housing, et cetera.

[02:20:00] So this type of partnership is key to successful attainable housing. And again, not necessarily the greatest first spot, But our teachers, our firefighters, our public servants, most of them have cars.

[02:20:17] They will be commuting, instead of 35 miles, they'll be commuting 7 to 3, or 3 to 7, sorry, depending on which way you go. And finally, in terms of our community and our folks here, we have four to five kids in Osborne that are being forcibly deported because their parents don't have status.

[02:20:43] They are U.S. citizens. So yes, the kids are upset, and yes, they have the right to speak out. There was no violence. It was coordinated with the police. It was done in a safe fashion, and they need to be heard. They are our voters.

[02:20:59] The seniors will probably be voting in November, and the others very close behind them. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Ms. Lane. Anyone else wishes to address counsel? Okay, if not, I'll call on Amelia for setting up resolution.

[02:21:17] Good evening, Madam Mayor and City Council. The next item on your agenda this evening is a closed meeting of council. There are two items for discussion, and those are the discussion of the annual performance of the city manager, Steve Burke, and the same item for your clerk of city council, Eric Smith.

[02:21:35] Both of these items may take place under Virginia law in a closed meeting. To convene a closed meeting, I would recommend for your adoption resolution number R-2026-673, resolution authorizing a closed meeting of city council.

[02:21:51] Madam Mayor, so move. Second. We have the motion by Councilman Osina, seconded by Councilwoman Vasquez-Luna to approve resolution number R-2026-673. Any discussion? Hearing and seeing none, Mr. Smith, please call the roll. Councilmember Osina?

[02:22:08] Yes. Councilmember Vasquez-Luna? Yes. Vice Mayor Wolfe? Yes. Councilmember Ellis? Councilmember Smith? Yes. Councilmember Hudson? Yes. The motion carries. Okay, thank you very much. City Council, the Virginia Freedom of Information Act requires a certification by Council that such closed meeting was conducted in a manner required by law.

[02:22:41] Council must certify that to the best of each member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements under the FOIA Act, and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion by which the closed meeting was convened were heard, discussed, or considered in the meeting by the City Council.

[02:23:00] I recommend for your adoption, resolution number R-2026, 657, resolution certifying a closed meeting of city council. 657, okay. Am I looking at the wrong thing?

[02:23:18] I have 674. 674. I apologize. That was the last week's certified resolution. Certifying a 6. Number R-2026, 674. 674, okay. Thank you, council. So moved, mayor.

[02:23:35] Second. We have the motion by Councilman Ocina, seconded by Councilwoman Vasquez-Luna to approve resolution number R-2026-674, certifying our closed meeting. Any discussion? Hearing and seeing none, Mr. Smith, please call the roll. Councilmember Ocina? Yes.

[02:23:50] Councilmember Vasquez-Luna? Yes. Vice Mayor Wolfe? Yes. Councilmember Ellis? Yes. Councilmember Smith? Yes. Councilmember Hudson? Yes. The motion carries. Thank you very much. Anything else to come before the council? If not, we are adjourned. Thank you.

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