Coraggio Consulting
Manassas City Council Meeting, Monday, July 27, 2026

Date: Monday, July 27, 2026
Place: Manassas City Council, Virginia
Length: 1h 47m (video)
Official meeting video (Wistia / RegionalWebTV): https://fast.wistia.net/embed/iframe/a96lshfwq5

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 2026-10-16. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:05] please call the roll. Mayor Davis. Present. Vice Mayor Wolfe. Yo. Council Member Ellis. Council Member Smith. Here. Council Member Osina. Here. Council Member Vasquez Luna. Presente. Council Member Hudson. Here. McCormick's present. Thank you very much. If you're able to please stand with me for the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance. Dear God, we thank you for another opportunity to gather to provide governance for the residents of the city of Manassas.

[00:00:35] We are so thankful that we're able to continue to enjoy the many events in the city with our families and friends. Please continue to protect this council, our staff, and our community as we strive each and every day to make this community the best it can be. Continue to also protect the men and women in uniform who selflessly put their lives on the line for us each day. We remain thankful for all things. Amen. Tonight we are so pleased to have Jacob Fleming who is representing Troop 670 and is going to lead us in our Pledge of Allegiance. Jacob will attend Manassas Park

[00:01:12] High School in the fall as a junior and attends his troop meetings at Grace United Methodist Church right here in the city of Manassas. He has earned his life rank and currently serves as a senior patrol leader. Jacob, you want to come on down? You stand wherever you like.

[00:01:44] Thank you. You may be seated. Thank you. I don't see me. I want to welcome everyone again to the council meeting. So good to have a full chambers and all the smiles looking back at us. We really enjoy having you all here. Our treasurer, Patricia Ritchie, folks, is here. I think she's the only elected in the room i don't think i'm overlooking anyone anyone else but we are so glad to see you

[00:02:23] all tonight we have a really short um agenda tonight so we're not going to prolong and we'll go ahead and get started with council time i'll call on vice mayor wolf first madam mayor i will yield my time all right councilman smith councilman osina oh boy we're rolling along so a few things i just did want to relay and then i did have a short uh sorry uh just a couple of

[00:03:01] things i wanted to be sure got mentioned here and then i did have a short uh kind of attaboy that i wanted to point out uh along the way so obviously uh first of all it was uh great to get out to the Washington Manassas Airport last week for our official dedication of the new ARF fire equipment that's going to be needed when commercial air service begins in 2027. And I'm pleased to see that the firefighters out there are training with the equipment right now. We've had several ribbon cuttings, including one that celebrated a dabble reuse in the purchase of their retail space,

[00:03:37] the opening of the grocery outlet, and Bright Path opened its latest location in the Canterbury Village Shopping Center. Later this week, we have another ribbon cutting for Virtus Wellness, or Vitus Wellness. I wanted to note the passing of Dan Groves, a staple of the Old Town restaurant Life, who died in his sleep on July 19th. A memorial service will be held this Thursday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on the patio of Monza. And then lastly, as I've mentioned previously,

[00:04:12] I've been doing monthly neighborhood walks and talks in our city for the last two years. And while I do hear of concerns and questions from residents that I pass on to city staff for them to address, I'd like to share one particular incident with you from two months ago.

[00:04:29] While I was out with the Manassas City Public School Vice Chair Zella Jones in the Cedar Crest neighborhood last month, We had a resident whose property backs up to a development in Prince William County.

[00:04:48] Her house shares the property line with the county, and she was frustrated that there was a tree that was in the county side of the HOA that abutted the back of her property and her fence.

[00:05:03] and there was a very large dead branch which reached over into her yard, and she was concerned that the branch would break and destroy part of her fence and then be stuck with the repairs. So I took that concern back to Mike Morgan, our director of public works. He reached out to the county arborist for assistance, and when it really appeared that this was the HOA's problem in the county, Mr. Morgan took time, drove to the HOA president's home, left his card after several calls had been made that hadn't been returned. He did that above and beyond. And while the matter

[00:05:43] remains unresolved, I tell this story because I think this is an excellent example of how our staff goes beyond the expected to try and realize a positive solution for our residents. Mike says this is just part of his job, but I believe that it shows the kind of folks that we have working for our city, and he's to be identified and appreciated for those efforts, because when you have folks in positions that oversee others, leading by example are a key part of how you get employees to understand what's important, and so that Mr. Morgan would do this himself

[00:06:22] and do this just for a residence in hopes of getting a fruitful resolution is a wonderful thing and with that i return my time thank you thank you councilman vasquez luna uh thank you madam mayor i just want to uh take a short moment to welcome everyone and uh really happy to see the full house again i'm looking forward for our short break uh next month and uh you know it is uh great to and you know and a good note with two uh one great proclamation and we also have um our

[00:06:57] commendation. So thank you. Thank you for making time to be here, and congratulations to the beauty queens that are here today. So thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Ms. Hudson. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us. Just a couple quick notes. I attended the Northern Virginia Regional Commission last Thursday, where we received a presentation regarding the Potomac Heritage Trail Network. This 137-mile trail network does not cross through manassas but it is a scenic trail that will soon have receive infrastructure updates and it is

[00:07:32] available to any and everyone to use it so please check that out it kind of starts in northern loudon and tracks down through woodbridge it seems like it's a really great trail i also attended the community criminal justice board meeting where we heard about prince william county's pre and post trial data last week was pre-trial probation and parole supervision week so happy pps week to all who celebrate and lastly parks and rec committee met earlier this month and dove deeper into the planning for the 10-year parks and recreation uh plan update so thank you to everyone who participated in that conversation and as always thank you to everyone who participates

[00:08:09] in all of our boards committees and commissions thank you madam mayor thank you um for my time as councilman osina said we have had several um ribbon cuttings and we always welcome new businesses to the city. We try to make sure that we are a welcoming community in all aspects, but when we see new businesses coming in and those that have been here and they've expanded what they're offering to this community, it just speaks volumes about how easy our staff is to work with and the accomplishments that they achieve is a direct reflection on their relationships with

[00:08:46] us and how we handle ourselves and making sure that they have what they need and they continue to grow because that's jobs in this city that's that's helping our economic growth so um congratulations to all of the businesses that um that have come here and decided to call manassas their home as far as their businesses so we're we're glad to to have them here um we have summer school graduation this week council members so that's on the 30th at 6 30 at osborne high school if i'm not mistaken we have the african-american festival coming up on this coming saturday that is from 11 to 6 at

[00:09:22] mets they do have shuttles i believe that will be running back and forth for that event because parking can get a little crazy they use the parking lot for the actual event and so it can get a little little crazy but they do have shuttles that will be going back and forth we are looking forward to the jenny dean elementary school ribbon cutting that is going to be on august the fourth at noon um and that same day we have national night out on the fourth as well um and that's at six on the museum lawn and that's also the open for business opening reception which

[00:09:58] is at five so if you just come there and plan to spend the entire week uh evening um there that night you'll be good so um and then i have the next mayor's pick of the market um on the 8th at 9 a.m. And so I think that's it for my part. And again, our last meeting before recess, we do encourage you. We're on recess, but we're never out of your reach. If you need to reach council members, me for any questions, issues, anything that you have to bring to the city, our city manager, we're all still working. We're just not having meetings. So we're all still here for you and to handle any issues that you need to bring forward. So with that, I'll turn it over to city

[00:10:37] manager, Burke, for his city manager time. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Last week, the city experienced two larger electric outages. One was caused by a tree knocking down a utility pole, and the second was a cable failure in a junction box. Our crews continue to respond to these emergency outages and conduct preventative maintenance to limit the likelihood of future events. Our police department conducted the annual memorial event, recognizing the sacrifice of Sergeant John D.

[00:11:05] O'Connor last week. Sergeant O'Connor is the first and only member of the Manassas City Police Department to make the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty. VDOT and Prince William County are hosting a public meeting for improvements to Prince William Parkway and Clover Hill Road and Clover Hill Road and Godwin Drive on Thursday, July 30th from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Washington Manassas Airport Terminal Building. Acoustic Tuesday tomorrow will feature Shane Gamble at the Harris Pavilion. Community Center will be hosting the movie Hoppers on Friday at 5 30 and

[00:11:43] Friday night also offers salsa and bachetta dance dance lessons at the Harris Pavilion. The city continues to make curb, gutter, and sidewalk improvements along Hastings Drive in preparation of road paving and the city has recently installed the flashing pedestrian beacon on Main Street and Bartow Street in advance of school opening. Following that, Manassas City public schools do begin their 26-27 school year on Wednesday, August 12th. Please be aware of increased student

[00:12:15] pedestrian, bicycle, and bus traffic in the mornings and afternoons. And then this afternoon, we were notified that DMV has actually begun the manufacture of the city license plates. They do anticipate that they will be available for purchase in September. And then finally, Our treasurer's office was recently renewed their accreditation from the Treasurer's Association of Virginia.

[00:12:44] And our treasurer, Patricia Ritchie-Folks, will provide more information about this significant achievement. Thank you, City Manager Steve Burke, to our mayor and council members, to our City Manager Steve Burke, and to all of you here in our audiences.

[00:13:15] I am so proud to tell you that the Treasurer's Office has received their third and has been renewed for their third office accreditation that is received by the Treasurer's Association of Virginia.

[00:13:33] As part of this accreditation process, offices must successfully pass an outside audit and no findings of material weakness, which our office has done in the past three years. The rigorous accreditation process also requires proof of continuing education, such as completion of an ethics course, which I have taken, and educational requirements for all staff.

[00:14:02] Accredited offices all are required to have written policies in place, addressing such as personnel, customer service, and delinquent collections policies. So as our president of TAV, Donnie Dixon, has said from the president of the Treasury Association of Virginia, we are honored to recognize the commitment and hard work of 77 offices that have attained accreditation this year as they exemplify the quality and professionalism that we all strive for in our field.

[00:14:42] So we are very, very proud of this. And when I was first elected back in November of 2016, I said that I was going to be the best treasurer that the city of Manassas has had. And I intend to continue to do that.

[00:15:00] in my office has proven that with the receiving of the accreditation from TAV lets you know that we are in those standards and we are in compliance with everything. So I would like to address and have you all to meet my staff and have them to stand. Now, one of the people that come into the treasurer's office always see these three smiling faces when they come through the door so i'm

[00:15:31] gonna have them stand first so we have jatel flores miss cassie sandra chez and miss diana barn yes gentry and everybody knows diane's smile yes now i'll have my deputy stand i have

[00:16:03] uh miss andrea evan all of you stand so andrea evans is my ride or die my right left hand chief deputy treasurer dustin bergus is deputy of compliance and he's also my ride or die especially with collections all right we love that money hilda cahill rosa cahill who is my deputy of of um revenue thank you deputy of revenue

[00:16:41] and our newest person which is sarah hernding who is our deputy of finance they are all the first two people i named andrea and um dustin both have their master and governmental treasurer and the three I named which is Hilda um uh Sarah those two are working on theirs so I know it won't be long before they have it and the three ladies is up front have already gone to class for quality

[00:17:13] customer service so I thank them all very much and thank you for acknowledging us thank you so

[00:18:20] much for that any questions for city manager Burke at all okay if not we'll move forward in the agenda item one is presentations item 1.1 is presentation from prince william county circuit court and the honorable jacqueline smith is here to help us with that good evening ma'am welcome thank you good evening madam mayor members of the council thank you for having me tonight to share with you some of our details of our operations and strategic initiatives in the circuit court clerk's office for prince william manassas and manassas park i'd also like to thank

[00:18:56] your city manager, and although he just caught up, your city clerk, for helping to get this scheduled and coordinating with us to make this presentation happen. And here's the real test. So today I'm going to share with you a brief overview of who we are and what we do in the clerk's office, some of our strategic initiatives, and also share with you some future outlooks that we're seeing as a result of some service level trends. First, who are we? We are one of three state courts located in the city of Manassas. We have the general district court, which handles

[00:19:35] traffic cases, criminal misdemeanor cases, and some small claims cases. We have the juvenile domestic relations court that handles family court, juvenile court, and emergency protective orders. Then you have the circuit court. The circuit court is unique because we are not one agency. The circuit court is composed of two agencies. One is the circuit court judges, our bench, and their staff, and the other is my office, the clerk of the circuit court.

[00:20:08] I am an elected official. I was first elected almost 10 years ago to represent the two cities and the county. And I'll go into a little bit more detail of the duties that we perform. So our leadership team came together to put together our mission statement.

[00:20:27] Our vision is to provide the best court customer service in the Commonwealth at all times. Our goal is to be professional, inspire confidence, and to meet our customers' needs completely. We value our customers, the taxpayer dollar, our people, integrity, and teamwork, and we serve the people of Prince William County, the city of Manassas, and the city of Manassas Park.

[00:20:54] So what we do, the primary role that most elected officials are interested in is that we collect recordation taxes. We have a five-year average of $88 million in collections annually.

[00:21:10] We distribute those recordation taxes, among other fees, to the Commonwealth and localities every month. And here you can see our five-year distribution history to the city of Manassas, which varies typically between $1.5 and $2 million a year. What we do, there is a bit of a joke in the legislature in the Commonwealth that if you have something that needs doing but you're not sure who should do it, just give it to the clerks and they'll do it. So we have quite a long list of about 800

[00:21:43] duties. These are some of the most common duties that we perform. We create, maintain, and protect the official court record. The circuit court is the only court of record in the locality. We issue concealed handgun permits. Although we are not the largest locality in the Commonwealth, we do issue more concealed handgun permits than any other locality.

[00:22:08] And we operate the public law library and have the Commonwealth's only resident self-help center and Seals on Wheels Remote Services Program, which I'll go into more detail later in our presentation. These are some of the many local, state, and national agencies we assist.

[00:22:29] We most commonly assist our police departments, our local elected boards and councils, the offices of elections, prosecutors, and the county sheriff's office. So our first strategic initiative that I'll talk about tonight is accessibility.

[00:22:48] We have made this our number one priority, always recognizing that we serve the people and the voters of our localities. We acknowledge that nearly half of our constituents work outside of the 31st Judicial Circuit and that it may not be convenient or even feasible for them to come into the courthouse in the city of Manassas during business hours. So to help alleviate some of those pressures, we've rolled out self-service kiosks in nearly all of our libraries and several municipal buildings. You can

[00:23:22] see Gordon popping out to say hello from our Seals on Wheels van, which provides court clerk services on the weekends in people's neighborhoods. We do it very frequently at libraries as they tend to be areas where people congregate on Saturdays and it has been very popular from the start and continues to grow in popularity. We also have evening pop-ups after hours outside of the courthouse in the city of Manassas to provide after-hours services. Our other accessibility

[00:23:58] issues that we identified were not just getting there in time, but being able to have a place to park so you can actually enter the building, and also language barriers that we are increasingly seeing in courts across the Commonwealth and across the nation. We created a special widget in Google Maps that allows our customers to see real-time information about available parking in around the courthouse to provide them information of where those available parking is and help them

[00:24:35] to navigate to those parking spaces. I've long said we don't have a parking issue in at the courthouse. We have a locating parking issue at the courthouse. So anyone who avails themselves of the QR code on the many posted signs at the courthouse, they are at the right level to take a picture outside of your car window and your navigator will take you to a spot.

[00:24:59] We have also expanded our language services to include more than 52, I believe we're at 54, different foreign languages right now. We have five different languages spoken on staff, and we have on-demand translators available both on phone and in person for services.

[00:25:20] Our efforts to increase accessibility have been recognized by the Virginia State Bar, Virginia Lawyers Weekly, DC 101, Fox 5, and WTOP. While similar to access to the courts, access to justice goes a little bit deeper.

[00:25:40] Not everyone has access to legal representation, and we're seeing increasing trends across the nation of people resorting to self-help in legal matters, whether that be out of necessity because of expense or because they live in what we would call a legal representation desert.

[00:26:00] We have used seals on wheels and other engagement tactics as opportunities to interact with our constituents outside normal time and location availability. And we've tried to build trust in the community through outreach and education. We've performed expungement clinics in many of the towns in Prince William County, but also in the city of Manassas. We've provided legal presentations to the Casa Brumar Foundation in association with the Sheriff's Office.

[00:26:36] We've been recognized in multiple national publications for our litigant self-help center, where we are provided by the Prince William County Bar with some helpful information and some forms to help people to perform their own legal services in simple cases such as an uncontested divorce, where it may be still expensive to engage an attorney, but one may not necessarily be required.

[00:27:06] We've heard from our constituents a real concern about property fraud, deed fraud. We have seen national campaigns from companies that will sell you as a subscription, another subscription service, that they will alert you if there's activity on your deed.

[00:27:30] These services can be expensive. They can be cost prohibitive. So we were able to secure grant monies to create our own free property alert service. We're up to about 1,100 subscribers in the locality.

[00:27:46] It's absolutely free. You sign up with your name and your G-PIN. And if you don't know what your G-PIN is, we have resources on the website to help you figure out what your G-PIN is. And anytime there is activity on your title within our land records, whether it be a lien or a transfer, you get a notification that something has been filed. And while this won't prevent deed fraud, It provides homeowners with the opportunity to intervene at a very early stage to try to mitigate any damage that there can be. And it's been very effective so far. We have had no cases of deed

[00:28:26] fraud in our court, which is unique. We've also identified the area of responsible gun ownership as an important strategic initiative for us. As I mentioned, we issue up to 10,000 concealed handgun permits annually. I no longer sign those by hand anymore. We have hard cards, I'm happy to report, but we have taken an initiative to provide all of our customers with appropriate information for gun training, responsible gun ownership training, and we also have created a program where we

[00:29:02] provide free gun locks to anyone who wants them, and we always encourage people when they pick up their concealed handgun permit or apply for their concealed handgun permit to take one or frequently more than one. This project was featured in a national campaign. We were on a video billboard in Times Square acknowledging that we have distributed 4,000 gun locks within our locality in a short period of time. And we were held up as an example of leadership offering real solutions

[00:29:35] to gun safety issues. Another strategic initiative is civic education. We have the annual Manassas Fair on the Square, which happens on the courthouse square. We invite local businesses, government agencies, including the sheriff to participate, to share with our constituents what services are available to them, both through government and through the courts to increase awareness and also to try to remove some of the stigma of coming to the courthouse. The courthouse, we acknowledge,

[00:30:12] can be a scary place for people who haven't worked there or like a lawyer. And we want to try to convey to our constituents that, one, going to the courthouse isn't the only option. We have other outlets if you are uncomfortable coming to the courthouse. But two, the courthouses should not be a scary place, and it should be a safe place for you to come. Going along with our civic education, we provide educational opportunities to all of our local public schools, as well as the Homes

[00:30:48] and School Association. Our scout troops, League of Women Voters, Casa Brumar, we invite students to come into the courthouse to experience court in session. What you're seeing here is they're examining some of our oldest artifacts. The book they're looking at is our absolute oldest artifact from 1731. And it is so old that it's not only handwritten and on parchment, but it refers to our great king and sovereign King George. So I would encourage you, if any of you want to come

[00:31:23] by and take a look at those artifacts, not just the city council, but any of our constituents, those opportunities are available to you. We also host an annual art contest for our local area students. Each year on May 1st, Law Day, we have a different national theme relating to freedom and the law and how it can relate to everyone in our community, including children. And we've had, it's been increasingly popular this past year. We had more than 150 submissions and we hope to keep

[00:32:00] it growing. In addition to civic education, we have advocated for preservation of our shared history. All of our documents in the circuit court clerk's office, current and historical, have been digitized and are available to our constituents online from home. We have the historic online portal where what we would refer to as our ancient documents or documents over 100 years old are available. Not only are the images available, but for people who haven't learned how

[00:32:37] to write in cursive, we've also had those translated into print so that all members of our community can read and understand our history. And if you want to come and examine any of our artifacts, we have a historic documents facility where our archivists who you see here in the pictures, we'll walk you through and show you whatever artifacts you want to see. If you see something on the HOP, the Historic Online Portal, and you say, I want to see that in person,

[00:33:09] you send us an email and we'll be ready for you and your group if you would like. Now I've talked a lot about services, and of course services cost money, but we have made it a priority to shift the responsibility of funding those services from the taxpayer to grants when possible.

[00:33:33] Many of the projects that I have spoken to you about today, including the property fraud alert, kiosks, and seals on wheels, have been fully funded and continue to be fully funded by grant monies.

[00:33:45] In addition to those services, we have also been able to have many of our ancient documents and books preserved by through grants through the Library of Virginia to have them scanned, cataloged, transcribed when necessary, and rebound in a responsible way so that it represents its initial presentation as closely as possible.

[00:34:16] And we have been able to do that for documents and books of historical significance dating back to the early 1700s. We've also invested internally to improve efficiency.

[00:34:33] We have extensive employee development, satisfaction, and retention initiatives within our office. We have the NEST Employee Skills Training, which is the first training and development program that our employees will participate in. It addresses primarily customer service and professional interactions with our constituents.

[00:34:55] The next step is the reality-based rules of the workplace, which focuses more on your interactions with your co-workers. And then the reality-based leadership program is for the people that we see who are going to be future leaders in our office, and it focuses on management skills.

[00:35:13] To address fiscal responsibility, we annually audit all of our expenditures internally for necessity. Those are the big expenditures and the small expenditures. We look at everything and always examine what could we possibly shift to grants? What could we possibly save by shifting to a more technological or electronic approach? The grants have been used to improve our facilities, accessibility, preservation of our shared historic artifacts, and at no cost to the

[00:35:48] taxpayer. We also value transparency. In the last two years, we have started publishing our service trends and the internal data analysis we do to help our local governing boards plan effectively for budget. As we've mentioned, we do remit quite a bit of money and fees to the different localities. And if we foresee that changing, we are proactive in trying to make sure that you know that as soon as we know that so that you can plan appropriately. And on those lines, we have some

[00:36:28] future outlooks. The most significant future outlook we have right now is a rapid growth in the number of judgments docketed and judgment liens asserted. You can see the numbers here. That's a pretty rapid increase over a period of three years.

[00:36:45] This is a significant economic indicator because the growth we're seeing is very similar to what we saw leading into the last housing crash, which resulted in tens of millions in lost revenues.

[00:37:02] And while right now we are seeing that the revenue gaps are being made up by larger land recordings with certain land policies changing in Prince William County, we may see these numbers continue to grow. And the reason it's significant is because as liens are asserted, it's followed by lien enforcement, which is frequently followed by foreclosure. Another future outlook is our

[00:37:36] probate administration has had rapid growth. The clerk probates wills for the people of Prince William Manassas and Manassas Park. Last year, we saw a 14% increase in wills probated, which is really unprecedented for our office. We expect those numbers to increase for a variety of reasons, including, of course, our aging population, population growth, increased property values, and asset complexity, and also the increased popularity of estate planning. And our final

[00:38:09] for future outlook is we've seen an incredible increase in our number of self-represented litigants. This is a nationwide trend. It's not unique to the city of Manassas. Our self-represented litigants center has seen the number of customers it serves grow by 30%. We support access to justice not just in the circuit court, but also in the general district court and the juvenile and domestic relations court, as well as the federal courts, but not quite as much.

[00:38:44] And again, we expect this demand to continue to increase at an accelerated rate. And that's all I have for you, unless you have questions. I hope you will engage with us on social media. We also have a very helpful YouTube channel with information about coming to the court, serving on a jury, and ways to avail yourself of the services we have on offer.

[00:39:09] Thank you so much, Jackie. Questions, comments, council members? Madam Chair. Mr. Smith and then Mr. Smith. I have a comment, and it really is a commendation, a very deep appreciation and congratulations for the success of your office.

[00:39:25] Those initiatives, particularly accessibility issues, initiatives, I always point to seals on wheels, but that points to a much larger and much more successful strategy that you have. But now when we in the community and working with individuals on individual needs and so forth, when we recommend someone that we refer them to the circuit court, there's not a dread in their face now.

[00:39:54] There's a much calmer relief. And that's a direct result of making people feel and appreciate equal access to justice and understand the purpose that your office serves. So I commend you on your initiatives and your leadership because I've seen the changes from when you were elected to now about how people feel, the comfort level, and know that that office is there for their help in addition to the other things that might have to happen.

[00:40:26] So thank you and congratulations to you and to your staff. Thank you very much. Mr. Osino. Thank you, Mayor. So welcome. Nice to see you again here. I, too, think the seals on wheels concept has made a big, big difference there because you were absolutely right.

[00:40:50] People can't get to the courthouse during the work week, and the fact that you bring it into neighborhoods on the weekends, the fact that your staff is willing to do that as part of their responsibilities is certainly appreciated and noted because that goes a long way.

[00:41:08] We don't, our legal system is very important, but it is not always accessible at times, nine to five, Monday through Friday. And so ways that we can take some of that off, such as the expungement clinic is a wonderful idea and that you continue to offer that along the way here in that.

[00:41:32] One thing I'm surprised you didn't mention, but the marriages that you do and the fact that, what is it, once a week you post pictures of the folks? Can you talk a little bit about that? So every Friday we perform weddings. This past Friday we performed 11, but we usually perform about eight. We just had a lot of last minute couples last week. It's always a really happy occasion, not just for our constituents, but for our staff who've spent an entire week listening to the ins and outs of the other stuff that happens in court. So it's a nice way for us

[00:42:08] all to end our week and feel the community of the city of Manassas. We also have two annual events that many of you have attended. Thank you. On Valentine's Day, we have an all-day wedding event for anybody who wants to sign up. It's supported by local businesses and vendors who really make it a special day. And then we do a similar event in December in the town of Occoquan because of overwhelming demand. But it is definitely the highlight of what we do in the

[00:42:41] office. Very good. And then another part, just so that we put it out there, you know, I serve as the chair of the appointments committee, but city council makes appointments to our boards, committees and commissions. Many of them require the requirement of being sworn in. Can you explain what you do there? Sure. The clerk of the circuit court administers the oath of office for all elected officials and appointed officials. Those oaths are recorded in our permanent retention system. We have them going back to the very beginning in the 1730s of Prince William County,

[00:43:22] And I tell people that every time I swear them in, that they're in good company. We have every police officer ever sworn. We have every fireman or fire person ever sworn. And then I just lost my train of thought because I thought you were going somewhere else.

[00:43:39] Oh, yes. We sign it. We swear in all of our electoral officers and various officers who work with the Office of Elections. And the fact that you post the photographs of that, it's always kind of nice to see. that the folks the city council has has approved and appointed to see them actually taking their oath of office there is is very nice we do that because as someone and i'm sure everyone on the board has had this experience i've been appointed to positions and sometimes it feels like you get the appointment letter and then you're just on your own and uh we want to recognize people for

[00:44:16] their community service you all also are kind enough and i think you were the one that sent sent them to me last time to nominate jury commissioners who are the people in the community who make sure that we have a fair and equitable jury system. Without them, we would not be able to operate. You looked at my list here because I did want to make mention of that here. How do you get on the, I have people who say, I've never been asked to be on a jury before, what have you.

[00:44:49] how do you gather the names? So in the Commonwealth, you can't volunteer to be on a jury because it has to be completely random that you're summoned. But if you want to serve as a jury commissioner, that is the person who reviews the voter rolls, reviews the DMV records, and decides or determines who is eligible and who is ineligible for jury service. They can contact us through social media or email or contact the board if they want to be appointed through the board, but we are always welcoming of volunteers for those positions. Excellent. Very good here. And is this something

[00:45:28] you can speak to? Also at the courthouse is the Public Defender's Office, correct? No, the Public Defender's Office is at the Massey Building. Okay. Yeah. Very good. But we do have the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office in the courthouse. All right. Very good here. Well, Thank you very much for everything.

[00:45:45] Please let your staff know how much we appreciate everything to make our jobs run smoothly with appointments and swearing-ins and things like that sort along the way. I absolutely will. Thank you. I know the clerk used to have a lot of hair, but he lost it because he needed to get so much done here.

[00:46:03] But you've made it a lot easier for him at this point. So thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor. Thanks. Any other? Ms. Vasquez-Luna. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Well, I think he was reading my list as well. But may I ask, who's here with you from your staff?

[00:46:19] Sure. Gordon. Gordon Bayer. One of the initiatives I mentioned, the Language Access Committee, Gordon heads up. And he's done a great job bringing that to fruition and also ensuring that we are reaching out to the community, not just in English, but in languages, again, where the court and the clerk's office feels accessible to them. And he's done a great job. He does a great job with everything he touches.

[00:46:52] Well, thank you. My favorite moment that I watched, I think it was the Pride Festival, and he was able to marry a couple. That was really nice. That was really cool. That was a first for us, but wonderful.

[00:47:08] Well, but also I want to highlight the farmer's market when you have the seals on the wheel, but they also able to do that. So I just want to thank you because it makes it, it makes a difference, you know, it makes it better for them. And, you know, I tried to congratulate the couples online, you know, and.

[00:47:25] Oh, I see. You're always the first one to pop up. Thank you. You do a great job. I was a jury commissioner a couple of years back. So I encourage everyone if they would like to look into that. believe it's two days too it's our jury pool has grown significantly it's actually three days now but it's still a good time yeah so no yes uh so that is something that you can do and then uh you cannot do it every year but it's something if you're looking into uh work and volunteer you know that might uh you might be able to do that and the last thing i think nobody said it but

[00:48:00] i really enjoy when you uh bring up the history or when you uh bring up an artifact especially when it's their national day or something, and then you relate that to something that is in your archive. So I really thank you for that.

[00:48:15] Of course, you know, for us, we may have all have received the off from you, and, you know, it's a special moment, so thank you for being here and for the report. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments, questions? Thank you, Jackie, so much for being here.

[00:48:32] I appreciate the update. Okay, moving forward in the agenda, we have item 1.2 is a presentation from our police department on 2026 mid-year statistics chief keene is here to help with that good evening sir thank you mayor council i'm here tonight to give you a short presentation where we're at with our statistics for the calendar year 2026 mid-year update for you our residents and our businesses i know these are frequent questions all of us get asked where is crime at, crimes up, crimes down, what's happening. So it's always important for us to

[00:49:09] get the data out so that you and they have the facts and you'll be able to speak about it in a more honest and open and transparent manner. First, I just want to give you a quick update of our new initiatives that we began last year. That was our renewed commitment to policing in Manassas. It was a five-step process. I've been over this numerous times with you. We started off with rewriting our mission, vision, leadership, and value statement. We reorganized the department

[00:49:43] into four divisions. Then we focused on succession planning for the future and how we were going to police. Part of that process was not only involving all of our staff, but we also had input from our inaugural resident community policing academy i believe we have two members here tonight we thought it was important that they had input on what our priorities were and and have the community input on that part and the final phase was the implementation which we did on july 1st that was to be taking place combined with fiscal year not calendar year

[00:50:23] One of the things I want to point out was the change from neighborhood teams to the three districts. Now we have a north, a central, and a south district. This is also the map that's on our webpage with our Citizen Connect, so you or our residents or our businesses can go to that webpage.

[00:50:44] They can get the full strategic plan that outlines our goals and objectives. They can go to this map. They can look at crime data. they can put their own demographics on there what crime or call incidents they are looking for where they occurred in the city they can draw a circle around their very own street and get what police calls were there as well so we're very excited about this just trying to make ourselves more accessible to the uh to the public so they they don't have to call us or you they can go right to the web page and get this information immediately. Finally going into some of the data

[00:51:23] for the mid-year this is going to be from January to the end of June. First up is our calls for service trend lines. As you can see calls for service were down through the first five months however the the month of June you saw a spike. We correlate that with two things. A is all of our young people are out of school coming back from college coming out of our high school and i want to remind you fully staffed so in june we had our final um officers that were released from the field training so for about the past year we have been fully staffed so that uptick

[00:52:00] is also officer initiated calls for service that get put into this at my year end i break this down a little bit more but again tonight is just to give you a quick update of where things are uh second thing up is crime and incident analysis of our part one which is our serious and violent crimes one of the things i want to point out is you'll see on the right hand side are percentages when we're dealing with small numbers percentages go up greatly as you'll see in the first one there is the manslaughter it says 100 because it went from zero to one and that call if you were if you

[00:52:38] recall was the fatal accident we had on liberia avenue that gentleman was charged with manslaughter that's where that call arises from. Otherwise, you see the call trends going down. We do watch the aggravated assaults. That is something that you're seeing trending across the region as well.

[00:52:57] But overall, these are on their way down. We also, again, going back to our annual report, we pull out certain select quality of life calls for service and reports. Happy to report that our domestic reports are down, both in violent and non-violent.

[00:53:17] And those arrests are down. That's all good news for us and our community. That's something that we watch very closely. If you recall, we have one officer. They read every domestic report to see if there's other services that family may need.

[00:53:34] Again, trying to intervene before something violent does occur. Also on there are overdoses, although that does not get the media that it was getting. It is something that we still like to watch here to make sure we don't have a trend coming through that we need to try to get with our partners, both at the state and local level, to try to get more intervention.

[00:54:01] The last one here is our mental health reports. You'll see the tensions orders are up, but the calls are down. One of the good things coming out of this that we did dig a little deeper since we have the crisis center now down on the east end.

[00:54:18] Remember, I stood before you and said, there's many times we're spending two, three days with one client, as I'm going to call them. Now we're seeing that average went from approximately 16 to 17 hours. We're down to eight hours average time.

[00:54:34] So that crisis center is paying off on staff time, getting our officers and the client there to get the resources they need quicker and getting our staff back here to the city of Manassas. That is good. I believe it's a good return on the investment there.

[00:54:54] The one thing all of us here hear about more than anything else, traffic, traffic, traffic. Our traffic is, traffic stops are up. Again, that is one of our focuses now, our traffic services section is fully staffed.

[00:55:09] Again, the growth that we've seen in the department has been when that traffic services section, that is also paid for out of the photo red light and speed cameras. That does not come from the general fund, but we'll see more traffic stops is trending up because that is what our community has consistently asked us to do, more traffic enforcement on our streets.

[00:55:34] Also, you see the highlights there, the charges. That fluctuates from year to year, but in a relatively different order, but usually the same calls for service. The other thing, again, I attribute to being fully staffed because it allows for more staff non-directed patrol time.

[00:55:52] You'll see our DUI arrests are up as well, And that's also positive news of us having the ability to get out there and do enforcement. It is not good news that we're having to arrest more people, though. I talk fast. That's it. In a nutshell, you've gone fast.

[00:56:10] But I thought it was very important to get this data out to you and our community. And I'd be happy to take any questions that you may have. Thank you, Chief, so much for that. Council members, Ms. Hudson, I saw first and then Ms. Vesquez. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Chief Kean, for the presentation.

[00:56:26] A question about the Crisis Relief Center. At last, or whenever the Community Criminal Justice Board met, they mentioned a pretty substantial amount of hours that they calculated as being saved from the work of our first responders. And it was kind of hard to understand how they were calculating hours saved, but it seems like you just addressed that as well.

[00:56:52] Can you just talk a little bit about if somebody, if a mental health crisis is called in, what happens? Like, are you, is the police driving people to Woodbridge or how, like what happens and how is time saved? Yeah. So the biggest time saver there is before when they have a commitment, they have to have a medical clearance.

[00:57:12] So they, we would transport them. Once we take custody of them, they are our responsibility. we have to stay with them until they get that commitment order and find bed space somewhere in the state. Sometimes that could be Virginia Beach. Sometimes it could be Southwest Virginia that they have to be transported to once they found bed space somewhere. So sometimes that medical clearance and finding bed space could take up to 48, sometimes three or four days that we may have they're around the clock be with that patient or client at the hospital until that bed space

[00:57:49] is cleared up so the whole purpose of the crisis center is to get them trauma care so they don't actually have to be committed so they're they can hold them up to 23 hours because at the 24th hour by code they have to go to an actual facility so that crisis center is preventing over indulgence in the centers, the bed spaces at the facilities, and it's getting people help immediately, getting them stabilized so they can get back home or to a care center locally

[00:58:25] without having to be transported. That's where the majority of that staff hours comes into play. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I appreciate the report, Chief King. One thing that I love, which is, you know, the UR 100% staff.

[00:58:45] And going through the class, you know, I understand how hard it is to get not only qualified but to attract and retain those officers. So that's great. Thank you. And, you know, I echo, you know, the sentiment about the mental health cause.

[00:59:02] And now hopefully that, you know, hopefully in the future it becomes even bigger. and bringing down the hours from 18 to 24 to 8, I think is great. So great. My ask is for the traffic stops.

[00:59:19] I know that we get emails or requests, and, you know, there is extra work there. Is there any reason why it's higher now? Or could you comment a little bit more on the traffic stops? So one of the reasons we record every interaction we have with our community, if that's a traffic stop or any other kind of interaction.

[00:59:43] So one of the reasons this is higher, as I mentioned earlier, are traffic services, mainly the people on the motorcycles that you see. But over the last two years, we've added one person each year out of the traffic, red light and speed enforcement that are also assigned to that doing more enforcement action.

[01:00:04] They work Monday through Saturday. So their whole focus is on traffic enforcement. They focus on our most busiest roadways and complaint based as well. So each one of those traffic stops is driving that number to go higher, as well as our overall initiative.

[01:00:25] Again, it's for that non-directed patrol time. All three shifts, day, evening, and night, they understand that our community is openly asking for more traffic enforcement, and they're trying to focus on that as well. So that'll drive that number up. okay uh thank you so much and i have to because it's big uh when it comes to the uh dui arrest is that do you think is that related to uh first fridays and i don't want to get deep into i just even if it's not related to that if you can just give me a little bit of no it it is not related

[01:01:00] to first fridays at all this is out on the roadways i'm going to attribute that to we have a couple of very young staff members when i say young they're all younger than me but in career wise two to three years on they're very passionate about this those that are on the evening and night shift we also have a dmv grant that will pay overtime just for dui enforcement so again between their passion for trying to get that enforcement and then those targeted grant operations those numbers are going up. Despite publicly in the region through COG, you see the initiative

[01:01:39] drive sober, call for a ride. Those public relations campaigns or PSAs are out there. We're still finding this across. Again, the DMV is still high. All right, the last one. And thank you for all the answers. When it comes to the cars and the sound, And I believe the noise from the cars, sometimes it's coming from the Liberia area where true traffic is coming by.

[01:02:08] Yes. So it's... Yes, so a new, the General Assembly passed a two-year window for us to explore sound enforcement, again, automated. We are actually in the process, got a briefing today of trying to find a vendor.

[01:02:28] Us and other jurisdictions in the Commonwealth are now trying to find a vendor that can actually help with that enforcement. And once we are able to narrow that down a little bit more, I'll come back before you and brief you what that initiative is. But it's a new thing. It's a two year window.

[01:02:45] So trying to find a vendor that can provide that and that it will hold up in court, that's where we need to be. Thank you so much. Thank you, Matt. Yeah, thank you, Chief. Two things, or three things, actually. Number one, Montgomery County, as you're probably aware, has that.

[01:03:03] We've reached out to them. And I wanted to, A, congratulate you in the department on not only the reports and the data, but the accessibility you're now providing through COG in their crime dashboard.

[01:03:18] i was just pulling this up just the information point you go back to 2002 crimes per thousand is less than half what it was in 2020 in 2002 congratulations and thank you thank you i i don't think we take credit solely it's a community thing we've all been on the same page of the initiatives as a community uh you hear me say it all the time we're all in it together so it's everybody trying to trying to make improvements any mr osingham thank you mayor um so yeah i wrote down

[01:03:54] poop so i was looking at the slide about calls for service where you can find 25 to 26 and it looked like 26 was starting to trend up in the may and june time periods is this related to weather or is there any reason for some of these uh things to go up or down for as one of the things uh that was unusual last year i have the slide up now you saw it go down last year that's actually

[01:04:29] unusual it is normal that when school lets out college kids come home that trend line normally goes up at the beginning of summer that's what we're seeing again this year nothing major there again we record every interaction so again officers having more time fully staffed being proactive will also drive this number up at the year end we dive a little deeper and this will be broken out in different categories and then i i recall so i think this is a great time for you

[01:05:08] to remind our residents as well as me where i might find uh the data where i can actually see crime stats in various streets neighborhoods in the city of manassas so if you go to manassacity.org backslash police department so you go to the police department's home page i got a picture it in my head sorry man she's laughing at me uh the left hand side should be the menu if you drop

[01:05:43] down to citizen connect um that brings up this map and on that map you have tabs you can do it by traffic stop the type of crime uh draw a map around your community your street and it'll bring you up all of that data okay i i like the transparency of not only that i know that took quite a while to get that up and running here and now to maintain it is important uh but also to have these reports here along the way so that we're not going anecdotally what we think we're seeing,

[01:06:23] but we actually have real data to talk about what's up, what's down, what's happening in our city here. Yeah, I think it's very important. I think myself and each one of you at times have heard crimes on the rise, double digits, and we don't see that. We're pretty transparent. The data is showing you that that's not true although crime itself uh and the fear of crime is something that we try to address as well very good thank you thank you mayor any other comments questions okay thank you sir appreciate it yes well i just have one closing comment uh best miss vasquez

[01:07:00] luna made it fully staffed uh i want to thank each of you the last few years we've made a hard push to make ourselves competitive in our salary and benefits that is one driver of it right that's a very competitive market here in northern virginia it's not cheap but we all saw what happens when you're 20 below everybody else it's a constant turnover with your staff so we're starting to see the results of that payoff we're retaining staff and then the second one i have some of my staff member here of we've really worked hard the past year of making sure the

[01:07:36] cultural, the police department is a good place for people to want to come and work. You've seen some of that with the laterals that we've gotten from other departments that have come, they've stayed, and then they began to call their friends to get them to come from the other departments.

[01:07:51] So again, all of us working together to make it better so that we can all better serve our community. So thank each of you for that support as well. I know recently you had the tour where people could come and tour the facility, the public safety facility. That was the first one, right, that you had.

[01:08:09] How many people came to that? Well, you don't have to tell me, but I'm sure it was more than one. But it was higher than I anticipated. I wanted, for some reason, in the 40s comes to mind. For some reason, it was double what I thought it was going to be.

[01:08:27] It was pretty successful. It was the very first one. Yeah. And again, each one of those interactions, we're hoping to build support and help them understand what we're doing. So you're looking to do that once a year, once a quarter. And we also have, I know you mentioned it before in one of the previous meetings, our next resident academy starts next month, September, the beginning of September.

[01:08:53] So we're doing that once a year and then we'll do these tours once a year just before the national night out. good okay thank you nothing else okay moving forward thank you chief thank you mayor um next on the agenda we have two pro we have a proclamation and a commendation item 1.3 and 1.4 proclamation for salvadorian american day and the commendation for la luz del mundo the light of the world church um miss vasquez luna is going to go down i'm going to join her to do the commendations and the proclamation

[01:10:02] So I was just letting them know how it's going to go.

[01:10:29] so they can step up for the Salvadorian-American proclamation. I understood English in that, so I think that was me, right?

[01:10:53] So I'm going to read the proclamation in English. Whereas more than 2.3 million people of Salvadoran descent live in the United States, including one of the nation's largest Salvadoran-American communities in the Commonwealth of Virginia, And in recognition of their history, heritage, and lasting contributions, the United States Congress officially designated August 6th as Salvadoran American Day in 2006.

[01:11:24] The city of Manassas proudly recognizes the many Salvadoran Americans who have strengthened our community as entrepreneurs, educators, public servants, professionals, volunteers, and community leaders, including Ruth and Orlando Campos, Norma Guiron, Jose, I'm going to butcher it, but I'm going to try, Jose Gregorio Martinez, Sylvia and Oviedo Lasco, Yolanda and Rafael Lazo, Liz Barahona, Captain Amalcar Gio Barahona, and Alba Garza and Maricela Murray. And whereas the

[01:12:03] Florida Cafe Foundation, founded in Manassas in 2023, preserves and promotes Salvadoran culture through folkloric dance, education, and community engagement, inspiring future generations to celebrate their heritage. And whereas the Association of United Salvadorans in Virginia, ASUV, fosters civic engagement, cultural preservation, leadership development, and community service, strengthening the Salvadoran American community throughout the Commonwealth

[01:12:38] of Virginia. And whereas the Consejo Salvadorano Americano, Consalva, supports Salvadoran families through humanitarian, educational, and charitable initiatives while celebrating Salvadoran heritage through community events in the city of Manassas and beyond. And whereas the city of Manassas proudly recognizes the rich heritage, traditions, and enduring contributions of the Salvadoran American community whose resilience, leadership, and commitment continue to strengthen our city and enrich the lives of all who call Manassas home. Now, therefore, I'm Michelle Davis, mayor

[01:13:18] of the city of Manassas, Virginia. On behalf of the Manassas City Council, do hereby proclaim August 6, 2026 as Salvadoran American Day in the city of Manassas and encourage all residents to join in celebrating the rich history, vibrant culture, achievements, and countless contributions of Salvadoran Americans whose resilience, leadership, and commitment continue to strengthen our city, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the United States of America.

[01:13:51] Here you are. Thank you. I'm going to read it in Spanish, but before that, this is my fourth and last year in council, so it's a special moment for me, and I hope, you know, future councils will continue to do that, and it is a great honor, so I'll read the proclamation in Spanish.

[01:14:17] Considerando que más de 2.3 millones de personas de ascendencia salvadoreña viven en los Estados Unidos, incluyendo una de las comunidades salvadoreñas americanas más grandes del país en la comunidad de Virginia, en reconocimiento de su historia, herencia y contribuciones duraderas de los Estados Unidos.

[01:14:38] El Congreso designó oficialmente el 6 de agosto como el Día del Salvadoreño Americano en el 2006. La ciudad de Manazas reconoce con orgullo a las muchas personas salvadoreñas americanas que fortalecieron a nuestra comunidad como empresarios, educadores, funcionarios públicos, profesionales, voluntarios y líderes comunitarios, incluyendo a Ruth y Orlando Campos, a Norma Girón, José González, el pastor Gregorio Martínez, Silvia y Ovidio Nolasco,

[01:15:11] La señora Yolanda y el señor Rafael Lazo del Imparcial, Alice Barahona, el capitán Amilcar Dio Barahona y también en las escuelas Alba Garza y Marisela Murray. Considerando que la Fundación Flor de Café, fundada en Manazas en el 2023, preserva y promueve la cultura salvadoreña a través de la danza folclórica, la educación y el compromiso comunitario, Inspirando en las futuras generaciones para celebrar su herencia.

[01:15:43] Considerando que la Asociación de Salvadoreños Unidos en Virginia fomenta el compromiso cívico a preservación cultural, desarrollo de liderazgo y servicio comunitario. Fortaleciendo el mensaje salvadoreño de la comunidad estadounidense en Virginia.

[01:16:06] Considerando que el Consejo Salvadoreño COSALVA apoya a las familias salvadoreñas a través de la iniciativa humanitaria, iniciativas educativas y caritativas mientras celebran la herencia salvadoreña a través de eventos comunitarios en la ciudad de Manazas y más allá.

[01:16:25] Considerando que la ciudad de Manazas reconoce con orgullo el rico patrimonio de las tradiciones y la durabilidad. Contribuciones de la comunidad salvadoreña estadounidense cuya resiliencia, liderazgo y compromiso continúa fortaleciendo nuestra ciudad y enriqueciendo la vida de todos los que llaman su hogar a Manazas.

[01:16:48] Ahora, por lo tanto, nuestra alcaldesa Michelle Davis, la alcaldesa de la ciudad de Manazas en Virginia, No en nombre de la alcaldía y de todos los concejales por la presente proclama el 6 de agosto de 2026 como el día salvadoreño americano en la ciudad de Manassas y para animar a todos los residentes a unirse a celebrar la rica historia, la cultura vibrante, los logros e innumerables contribuciones de salvadoreños americanos cuya resiliencia, liderazgo, compromiso continúa fortaleciendo nuestra ciudad.

[01:17:24] and the state of Virginia. Thank you very much. Okay. If you want, the members of COSALVA, Douglas, you can also pass.

[01:17:42] And the president of ASU, if you can give a word. Good afternoon, everyone. It's a real pleasure for us to be here on behalf of the Salvadorian American Council. We want to invite you to our seventh edition of the Salvadorian American Latin Festival that is going to be held at the Harvest Pavilion from 12 o'clock to 6 p.m.

[01:18:11] We're going to have a lot of fun, a lot of food, artisans, games, a lot of activities for the children, the families. We hope you can come and join us and have some fun with us. We're also going to have the contest of the pupusa, who eats the most pupusas, and we give them a reward.

[01:18:31] It's a lot of fun. So we hope you join us and be with us to celebrate our contributions, our culture, and the fact that we're here with all of you. Thank you to Madame and to the council for the opportunity to be here.

[01:18:49] Well, I guess I'm next. Hello, everyone. Mayor Michel and Sonia, thank you for having us here. It's an honor for us as a foundation of Florida Cafe. be here tonight with all the ideas and right here um well florida cafe foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to rescue preserving and promoting salvadorian culture through the native folklore of our town founded on founded on march 12 2023 in manassas virginia um it was

[01:19:28] initiated by individuals from ciudad barrio san miguel and marked the beginning of the discussion and strategies initially forming under the name of Comité de Ciudad Barrios. Our mission is to represent, preserve, teach and promote authentic Salvadorian folkloric art through native dance, fostering a deep appreciation and awareness of Salvadorian heritage, culture and art. We focus on education, social and economic impact in our culture and enrichment. Our vision is

[01:20:06] to be a beacon of salvadorian culture nationally and internationally ensuring that rich tradition folklore and heritage of el salvador are celebrated respected and passing of our future generation we aim to strain our culture tight and promote social welfare within and beyond our country and And I would like to mention that our group of Florida Cafe was invited in 2023 under Biden administration to the White House to represent our Folkloro of El Salvador.

[01:20:43] And thank you for all of us to be with us tonight.

[01:20:57] I also want to invite you to the event. First, Mayor Mitchell, on August 2, an event that we're going to have here in the Mets Middle School, an event deportive celebrating the El Salvadoran Day.

[01:21:17] We have approximately 18 teams participating in this event, so you'll be welcome to have a nice day. Thank you, Jose. Bueno, sí, buenas tardes. Mi nombre es José González, soy el presidente de Salvador Años Unidos.

[01:21:34] Primero, quiero darle gracias a Dios. Creo que sin él esto no es posible. Segundo, darle gracias a cada uno de ustedes porque están haciendo un excelente trabajo. Sonia, te vamos a extrañar. La ciudad de Manazas te va a extrañar, pero sé que no vas a ir largo, siempre vas a estar acá. Segundo, también quiero, tercero, quiero agradecer a todas las organizaciones.

[01:21:52] Yo creo que este es un trabajo en equipo. Todo lo que se está haciendo es gracias a todos ustedes. So thank you so much.

[01:22:13] I would like to thank everyone of you guys for all the hard workers you guys are doing. And I don't want to take a lot of time, but I think every date that we put our efforts to improve in our community. So it's something that, you know, God is always looking at us and help us out.

[01:22:32] So I take this award for them, for our community, because that's who we work for. Thank you so much, Sonia. If anybody else wants to come for the picture, and I guess we'll be there, maybe move forward so we can all be in the picture, we'll take one.

[01:24:11] Are ready for the next one?

[01:24:32] So if you come from the church, you can accompany us to those who are going to be present. If you're ready, those who are going to talk. Igual lo vamos a hacer, ella va a leer la parte en inglés, yo se lo voy a leer en español y al final tomamos las fotos.

[01:24:49] Pueden pasar todos aquí enfrente, todos los miembros de la iglesia.

[01:25:30] this is um accommodation for the light of the world church and we're so honored to have you here tonight. Thank you all for coming out and receiving this commendation for a hundred years,

[01:26:10] right? That's amazing. Thank you so much for being here tonight. I'll read the commendation and then Ms. Vasquez Luna will come behind me in the Spanish version. Whereas the city of Manassas recognizes organizations of faith, service, and commitment to others strengthen the fabric of our community and whereas the congregation of la luz del mundo how did i do all right good in manassas virginia proudly celebrates the 25th anniversary of opening its doors marking a quarter century of faithful worship spiritual guidance and dedicated service to the residents of the city of manassas

[01:26:47] and whereas this milestone coincides with the historic international centennial of la luz del mundo 1926 to 2026 commemorating 100 years of ministry under the theme 100 years of hope and salvation celebrating a century of faith and outreach around the world and whereas for the past 25 years under the spiritual leadership of the apostle of jesus christ nason joaquin garcia the congregation has faithfully proclaimed its message of spiritual salvation while welcoming

[01:27:26] all people without distinction based on religion, race, color, language, gender, age, health, or ethnicity. And whereas the members of La Luz del Mundo have enriched the city of Manassas through their commitment to faith, family, and community by promoting peace, encouraging non-violence, fostering civic and social responsibility, and exemplifying the principle that good Christians for God make good citizens for the world. And whereas on May 17, 2026,

[01:28:00] the congregation gathered in celebration of this significant milestone, reaffirming its faith and commitment to service while receiving spiritual counsel from Pastor Israel Padilla, marking a joyous occasion in the history of the congregation and the broader community. Whereas the city of Manassas wishes to recognize and congratulate the apostle of Jesus Christ, Nason Joaquin Garcia, and the members of La Luz del Mundo Manassas on the joyful celebration of the congregation's 25th local anniversary and the church's 100th international centennial, while expressing

[01:28:40] its sincere appreciation for 25 years of faithful service as a beacon of faith hope unity and compassion within our community now therefore i'm michelle davis mayor of the city manassas virginia and on behalf of the manassas city council hereby commend la luz del mundo upon the celebration of its 25th anniversary and extend sincere appreciation for its enduring commitment to faith service and the betterment of the city of Manassas. May this milestone inspire many more years of hope, compassion, and service to our community. Thank you so much.

[01:29:42] Virginia, celebra con orgullo el 25 aniversario de la apertura de sus puertas marcando un cuarto de siglo de fiel adoración, guía espiritual y servicio dedicado a los residentes de la ciudad de Manassas, considerando que este hito coincide con el histórico centenario internacional de la luz del mundo de 1926 hasta el 2026, conmemorando 100 años de ministerio bajo el tema 100 años de esperanza y salvación, celebrando un siglo de fe y alcance en todo el mundo.

[01:30:19] Considerando que durante los últimos 25 años, bajo la dirección espiritual del apóstol de Jesucristo, Noazón Joaquín García, la congregación ha proclamado fielmente su mensaje de salvación espiritual mientras da la bienvenida a todas las personas sin distinción basada en religión, raza, color, idioma, género, edad, salud o enicida.

[01:30:45] Y considerando que los miembros de la luz del mundo han enriquecido la ciudad de Manassas a través de su compromiso con la fe, la familia, la comunidad, promoviendo paz, fomentando la no violencia, fomentando la ciudadanía y responsabilidad social, amplificando el principio de que los buenos cristianos para Dios hacen buenos ciudadanos para el mundo y considerando que el 17 de mayo del 2026 la congregación se reunió para celebrar este importante hito reafirmando su fe y compromiso con el servicio

[01:31:24] mientras recibe el consejo espiritual del pastor Israel Padilla marcando una ocasión alegre en la historia de la congregación y la comunidad en general considerando que la ciudad de Manassas desea reconocer y felicitar al apóstol de Jesucristo Nazo Joaquín García y a los miembros de la luz del mundo. Manazas en una alegre celebración del 25 aniversario local de la congregación y el 100 aniversario internacional de la iglesia mientras expresan sus sinceros

[01:31:58] agradecimientos por 25 años de servicio fiel como faro de la fe, esperanza, unidad y compasión dentro de nuestra comunidad. Ahora, por lo tanto, a nuestra alcaldesa, Michelle Davis, alcaldesa de la ciudad de Manassas, Virginia, en nombre de todos los concejales, por la presente elogia a la luz del mundo tras la celebración de su 25 aniversario y extiende su sincero agradecimiento por su duradero compromiso con la fe, el servicio, el mejoramiento de la ciudad de Manassas

[01:32:34] y que este hito inspire a muchos más años de esperanza, compasión, servicio a nuestra comunidad. Muchas felicidades a todos. Ahora tendremos unas pequeñas palabras y por favor, si nos introduces a los líderes, gracias.

[01:32:54] Claro que sí. Muchas gracias. Thank you, Mayor Michelle Davis, and all the city council, city managers, city players. Thank you so much for all the work, the excellent work you're doing for the city.

[01:33:15] And right now I'm going to introduce, and I am a member from the La Iglesia La Luz del Mundo, Church of the Living God, Life of the World. And I'm going to introduce, we have four of the pastors here, Israel Padilla, he's from Manassas.

[01:33:36] We have Daniel Monreal from Richmond. And then we have Jose Orenos from Woodbridge, Virginia. And then we have Isaac Felix from Harrisonburg.

[01:33:55] And I'm going to give the microphone today, speak it today about the church. All right. Thank you very much, Mayor Michelle Davis. And I hope this is tall enough.

[01:34:14] All right. Perfect. And thank you so much, council members. Their Light of the World Church is celebrating 100 years. Its beginning started in Mexico in 1926. It is now in over 60 countries, over 5 million members, and in all six continents.

[01:34:31] The church here in Manassas has been present for 25 years. And just recently on July 18th, we had our centennial cultural concert at Sylvan Theater right on the Washington Monument. we had, I think it was all of the DMV choir and all of the members from the DMV. So we had, I think the choir was like 300 people. And I think there was thousands in attendance. We got a rainstorm and we're like, oh, what should we do? Should we cancel? And we pray to God. And like 15 minutes later, it was perfect. And we started our concert. So, you know, we had our cultural concert.

[01:35:11] The following day, we had over 40 baptisms from the DMV area, and we have them constantly. Like in Harrisonburg, I had baptisms in April, so we're constantly growing. It's one of the fastest-growing churches, not only nationwide, but internationally.

[01:35:28] The Lord has blessed us, and we're proud to be a part of our communities where we are. As the mayor said in the commendation, we aim to be good Christians for God, good Christians for God tend to be good citizens for the world. So we're thankful for everything that you guys give us, for like the opportunity to be part of this community, to be recognized by you. One thing that we always have been taught is to pray for all those in authority. The decisions that you guys make, the declarations, everything that, responsibilities that you have, we always

[01:36:04] ask God that he guide you in all your actions and all your, in your thoughts and, you know, the way of seeing problems and solving them, everything from, you know, city council to city managers to, you know, the chief of police, the firefighters, everybody, you know, with God's help, you know, we can make our community safer and better for everyone. The one thing that, you know, the church is known for is for instilling, you know, peace and, you know, service to others.

[01:36:33] The church has also been invited and we have participated in forums in Geneva, Switzerland for the UN on human rights, because, you know, it is important, not only, you know, like, it's not a patriarchy, no, you know, the women in our church are also very involved, you know, in, like in Manassas, the choir director and everything, them taking sermons and preaching, all that, you know, it's something that we have been taught, and we're thankful for everything, and, you know, we can, we hope that you take an opportunity to get to know us. We're all over the state, you know, we're in Williamsburg, we're in Frederick, we're in Richmond, in Woodbridge, in Manassas, in

[01:37:10] Harrisonburg. So if you ever have an opportunity, we invite you to join us. And thank you so much for your time, and God bless you all. Thank you. Yeah, so let's take a picture.

[01:37:46] No olviden, por favor, pasar a la community room para que puedan compartir. Gracias.

[01:39:45] you said what

[01:40:11] it's okay it's okay all right okay okay we're going to move forward in the agenda the next item on the agenda is item two public comment at this time we welcome residents and

[01:40:51] 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 that council does not 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 give us your name and we would appreciate

[01:41:26] it if you would state if you are a city resident and you may provide your address if you so desire you do not have to do that 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 the sign-up sheet um here and i'll call out the names there's no one signed up but we will not miss anyone who is present for public comment time and if there's anyone present who wishes to

[01:41:52] address council at this time please come forward good evening janet plebniak and i'm a resident of the city of a citizen of the city of manassas um chief king i'd like to thank you again for taking care of the parking on plantation and forest wood that Ray Brady talked about at the

[01:42:27] last meeting. The first day I went down there, I was like, oh, something's different. I can make my left hand turn without worrying about cars coming up on me. So that made a huge difference. Thank you. And Tom, thank you for helping that neighbor with the tree, with the county. The city and the county don't always, since I've lived here, it's a fight, but thank you for doing that. On the ADUs that was talked about last time. I hope that the zoning board gets on some of these structures that we have out there now that have been complained about that are not up to policy

[01:43:06] before we bring in our new policy, and that we put off the vote for that until we're going to have three to four maybe new members on our city council. And so it could be important for them to have their say in what's going to happen since it's not going to go into effect until next July.

[01:43:29] And then I'm disappointed at the outcome over the old Bennett School. It doesn't seem like it's going to be preserved. Once you tear down something historic, it's gone. We just had a church that's celebrating 100 years. Things like that are important. And I agree with the pastor that was up here. And as you all know, I usually like to pray for you all, for your decisions that you make.

[01:43:54] it is very important. It's, you know, you were there representing us, but our authority comes from God. So I hope that you all keep that in mind as you are making your decisions. And I pray that you all have the best time, easiest time doing it. And I pray that through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you, Ms. Plathniak. Anyone else who wishes to address counsel at this

[01:44:22] time if not we will move forward in the agenda to item three the consent agenda i'll call on vice mayor will for that motion madam mayor i move the adoption of the consent agenda and dispensing with the reading of the ordinances second yeah the motion by vice mayor will second by councilman vasquez luna to approve our consent agenda any discussion hearing and seeing none mr smith please call the roll vice mayor will yes council member vasquez luna yes council member smith yes

[01:44:59] council member lestina yes council member hudson yes thank you for that next item on the agenda item four ordinances and resolutions item 4.1 is ordinance number 0 2026-1094 zta 2026-0003 zoning ordinance annual updates technical amendments first greeting mr arcieri your honor members of council good evening before you is the annual update to the city zoning ordinance as a reminder as you heard of the planning commission on the work session we do this every year to do a number of things. We obviously handle the technical and housekeeping items that

[01:45:35] help my staff administer the ordinance, bringing suggestions for those updates. The piece I'm most proud of, we try to address concerns raised at the permit counter and from the community customer service enhancements. And so we try to bring those each year to the planning commission and bring some of those changes before you. And last but not least, we have to update the code each year in response to legislation from Richmond. And so this evening, two of those items that we discuss at the work session some changes to our parking standards and some changes is how the city defines manufactured homes structures that are basically built in factories and brought and placed on foundations and the city is included in that ordinance as i always like to do the staff

[01:46:13] does some of this work but the planning commission spends many meetings and many hours going through these changes before they come to you so i'd like to acknowledge their work and staff does and the planning commission recommend adoption of 2026 1094 on first reading and i stand ready for any questions. Thank you, Mr. Arcieri. Any questions, comments? Okay. Is there a motion? Madam Mayor, move adoption of ordinance 2026-1094. Second. I have a motion by Vice Mayor Wolf, seconded by Councilwoman Hudson to approve ordinance number 02026-1094. Any discussion? Hearing and seeing none, Mr. Smith, please call the roll. Vice Mayor Wolf. Yes. Councilmember Hudson. Yes. Councilmember

[01:46:53] Smith. Yes. Councilmember Osina. Yes. Councilmember Vasquez-Lona. Yes. The motion carries. Thank you so much for that. Thank you, Ms. Narcieri. Is there anything else to come before the council at this time? If not, we are adjourned. Thank you.

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