Coraggio Consulting
Prince William Board of County Supervisors Meeting, Tuesday, September 12, 2023

Date: Tuesday, September 12, 2023
Place: Prince William County Board of County Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 4h 47m (video)
Official meeting video (Prince William County, Granicus): https://pwcgov.granicus.com/player/clip/3364
Official Board of County Supervisors page (Prince William County): https://www.pwcva.gov/department/board-county-supervisors

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 2026-11-03. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:07] Good afternoon. It is 2 p.m. on Tuesday, September 12th. Please join me in a moment of silence. Thank you.

[00:00:23] If we could all now rise for the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[00:00:41] Thank you. We have a long meeting today because we've been gone on hiatus for six weeks. A lot to cover, but it's exciting to be back in Chambers and have everybody here with the start of the fall season.

[00:00:58] We are on to item number three, approval of the minutes, from the meetings of July 11th and July 25th, our last two meetings. I'll entertain a motion to approve 3A and 3B. So moved, Madam Chair. Second. Motion made by Supervisor Bailey, seconded by Vice Chair Bodie.

[00:01:17] Any discussion? Seeing none, please vote.

[00:01:33] someone not voted okay thank you we are now on to section four commendations and proclamations uh we have four today uh five today um if i could get uh entertain a motion to approve agenda items

[00:02:01] 4a through 4e so move madam chair second is there any discussion seeing none please vote vote vote unanimous supervisor Vega abstaining from vote okay thank you we're going to begin with our first two proclamations I'm going to leave the dais and move down to the podium I'm joining me

[00:02:34] for the first two items will be Neabsco supervisor Victor angry and the regarding the accomplishments of mr. David Allen senior and the seventy first the 75th anniversary of the executive order nine nine eight one and as well as the woman's armed services integration act supervisor angry if you

[00:02:52] can come down and join me. Okay. Hi, everybody. Mr. Allen. Come on up, sir. And your wife as well.

[00:03:28] Come on. No, ma'am. You come on, too. Come on, ma'am. Very good to see you. So what I guess what I'm going to do is stand you all right here.

[00:03:45] Okay. Stand you right here. I'll just kind of stand over here and people see you. We'll go from there. And your camera actually goes over here now. We have all the cameras. Okay, we got new cameras. Okay. We're joined by Mr. John David Allen, Sr.

[00:04:11] I'm going to give you a few words to speak, okay? Let me get to this. He really laid this out, didn't he? Okay. Whereas John Allen, Sr. has been a resident of Dell City, Virginia, along with his wife, Mary Allen, for 33 years.

[00:04:27] John David and Mary Allen have been married for 53 years, and whereas Mr. Allen is a retired U.S. Army colonel, served on the Prince William County Board School Board as the Coles District Representative and served as the vice chairman, and whereas after calls began for defunding police departments nationally and negative characterization of law enforcement were prevalent in the media and the way police were being treated, Mr. Allen began and personally funded a law enforcement thank you for your service coin program.

[00:04:59] Whereas the coins that were designed by Mr. John David Allen Sr. were to honor and show the Prince William County Police Department, Prince William County Sheriff's deputies, and Virginia State Police Officers that they were respected and appreciated as of July 1, 2023, Mr. Allen has given out over 450 coins.

[00:05:21] Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby commends, affirms, and recognizes the accomplishments of Mr. John David Allen, Sr., and recognizes Mr. Allen as an outstanding member of the Prince William County community.

[00:05:39] Yes, sir. I'll let you talk for a second. Here we go. Oh, no, no.

[00:06:01] No. Yeah, okay. Come on. Mr. Supervisor Angry, members of the board, thank you so much for this special accommodation. I deeply appreciate it, and it's just good to go out and honor the policemen.

[00:06:22] And I just told Victor I started a coin program for firemen, and I visited the three stations as of today and given out 30 coins. So, again, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

[00:06:38] Thanks. and so now i would um i would ask so before i get started with this we have some significant um

[00:07:17] serious historic uh and legendary folks in the eight in the uh chamber with us today and so i'm just going to do a quick introduction i hope you guys can hear me here because i you know you can't turn your back to generals that's a bad thing no so in the uh chamber today uh with us we have um Lieutenant General Arthur Gregg, who we'll get to his accomplishments.

[00:07:47] Yes, yes, we have Brigadier General Clara Adams Ender. Yes, we have General, that's with four stars, Carter Ham, and we have Lieutenant General Les Smith.

[00:08:08] And these outstanding leaders have joined us today to witness and be a part of a commendation and recognizing on July 25th of, you know, July 25th was the 75th anniversary of the executive order, signing of Executive Order 9980-9981, which basically 9981 desegregated the military.

[00:08:36] and also, I'm going to get this right, and also the Women's Armed Service Integration Act. And that's why these outstanding leaders have joined us here today to be witness to this. And so I'm going to read this commendation on behalf of their service and all of us who served after, before, during the service of what they have created for us and the opportunity and the service that we've all had and those that are still serving today.

[00:09:05] So I'm just going to start reading here. The 75th anniversary of Executive Order 9981, the Women's Armed Service and Women's Armed Service Integration Act. Whereas on July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981, which marked a historic milestone in the pursuit of equality and justice by desegregating the United States Armed Forces, thereby challenging the discriminatory practices prevalent wherein generations of African Americans selflessly served our nation

[00:09:39] with the knowledge that they were fighting abroad for many of the freedoms that they were frequently denied here at home. And whereas the Women's Armed Service Integration Act, enacted on June 12, 1948, recognized the invaluable and growing contributions of women to the armed forces, opening the doors for their increased participation, allowing them to serve in various roles that were previously restricted.

[00:10:04] And whereas the impact of Executive Order 9981 and the Women's Armed Service Integration Act have been profound and far-reaching, performing the landscape of the United States military and setting a significant precedent for societal progress.

[00:10:21] And whereas these pivotal actions demonstrated the nation's commitment to the principles of equality, diversity, and inclusion, fostering a stronger and more unified armed forces that better represents the rich tapestry of our nation.

[00:10:37] And whereas the 75th anniversary of these historic milestones provides a monument opportunity for us to reflect upon the progress made, honor the sacrifices of countless individuals who champion these changes and recommit ourselves to the ideals of justice and equal opportunity. And whereas the Prince William community is home of thousands of veterans and active service members who have served their country with honor and distinction, and whereas today the improved equality and opportunity and treatment in the military allows recruitment and retention of the most talented Americans to support and defend

[00:11:16] our Constitution with an armed forces more representative of the country it serves. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Prince William Board of County Supervisor hereby recognizes and honors the 75th anniversary of Executive Order 9981 and the Women's Armed Services Integration Act and recognizes the Americans who continue removing barriers to equal opportunity in the armed forces securing all qualified Americans the freedom to serve.

[00:11:44] Be it further resolved that the Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby commends the visionary leadership of the lawmakers, advocates, and activists who supported and found the implementation of these transformative measures which continue to impact the community of Prince William to the present day.

[00:12:03] We're going to ask General Smith if he'd like to say a few words. It's always a mistake to give the general mic. Thanks, Supervisors, for this august welcome, and thank you for doing this.

[00:12:25] I retired about two and a half years ago now, and now I realize the importance of the supervisors and the importance of the things that you do. So thank you for what you do. Thank you also to all those veterans who have served and who are serving today and their families.

[00:12:41] Thank you very much. And General Adams Ender, would you care to say a few words? Thank you, Sergeant Major.

[00:13:01] Thank you so much, Prince William County Board of Supervisors, for their recognition. The act, of course, itself recognized the contributions of women in defense more than 75 years ago now.

[00:13:20] The military and the nation is still dragging its feet, however, in recognizing the contributions of women. I just heard the other day, quite sadly, that the United States ranks 75th in putting women in leadership positions in government politics.

[00:13:40] They should take your example from here, the Board of Supervisors. Your resolution resolves that, quote, you recognize the history and you recognize those who continue removing barriers to equal opportunity in the armed forces.

[00:13:59] serving all qualified Americans, giving all qualified Americans the freedom to serve. On behalf of all the women who have served, are serving, and will serve, I thank you.

[00:14:19] And I would be remiss if I didn't have the general and offer him a moment. General Hamm, would you, you're good? General Adams said it all. All right. General, would you, General Greg? Okay.

[00:14:35] Good. Thank you very much, and thank you to the Prince Williams County for recognizing the executive order integrating the armed forces signed by President Truman in 1948, and for the extension of the sign for women to join our armed forces in 1948.

[00:15:13] I must share with you that in 1948, I was a serving staff sergeant in the Army, and nothing happened in 1948. It was not until 1950 that we saw the real integration of the armed forces of the United States.

[00:15:36] Until that time, we essentially had two armies, one black, one white. But the urgency of the Korean War helped us to move forward more rapidly, perhaps, than we would have otherwise.

[00:15:52] And we integrated the armed forces. And I can tell you, as a serving member of that force, it went more smoothly than any of us imagined. I always believed that we could integrate our armed forces.

[00:16:08] And when it occurred in 1950, it was better than anyone anticipated. The men of the Army at that time welcomed the integration, and it worked very well.

[00:16:26] And as a result, we have a stronger armed forces today than we have ever had. I'd like to also point out that the integration of the armed forces had a tremendous impact throughout our entire society.

[00:16:44] And I think what we have seen in the coming together of all of our people in the years following 1950 was spurred on by the example of what occurred in the military service.

[00:17:01] So, it was a great movement on the part of President Truman, and it was a great movement on the part of the armed forces of the United States. Thank you very much. I'll point out this last piece.

[00:17:20] Each one of these outstanding leaders resides here in Prince William County.

[00:17:49] This is the only time a Sergeant Major gets to tell a room for the generals they are free to leave.

[00:18:18] Thank you, Supervisor Angry.

[00:18:38] We have the best residents, don't we? But I'm a little biased. Next, we are going to proclaim September 10th, 2023 to September 16th, 2023, Suicide Prevention Week. I believe Heather Martinson is here to join me at the podium.

[00:18:54] Heather, are you here? Very good. Okay. Is anyone else representing the proclamation beside you? Nope. Okay. Very good. And this is Heather Martinson with Community Services. Suicide Prevention Week. Whereas suicide is the 12th leading cause of death in the United States, the third leading cause of death among children and teens, 10 to 19, and the second leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 20 and 34 as of 2020.

[00:19:24] and suicide rates have increased 36% over the last two decades, with a recent peak in 2021. And whereas over 48,000 people died by suicide in the United States in 2021, and it's estimated that there were over 1.7 million suicide attempts.

[00:19:42] And whereas in 2020, suicide was the 11th leading cause of death in Virginia, and 1,202 people died by suicide in Virginia that year. And whereas over 90% of the people who die by suicide have a diagnosable and treatable mental health condition, although often that condition was not recognized and treated, and whereas the organizations such as the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention are dedicated to saving lives and bringing hope to those affected by suicide through research, education, advocacy, and resources for those who have lost someone to suicide who struggle or who struggle and urge that we,

[00:20:19] 1. Recognize suicide as a prevental national and state public health problem and declare that suicide prevention is a priority. Acknowledge that no single suicide prevention program or effort will be appropriate for all populations or communities. Address the disparity in access to mental health care for underserved and underrepresented groups and advocate for ending those disparities.

[00:20:43] Fund new suicide research to support culturally informed and evidence-based mental health care and services. Encourage initiatives based on the goals contained in the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention and the 2016 Suicide Prevention Across the Lifespan Plan for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

[00:21:01] Promote awareness that there is no single cause for suicide and that suicide most often occurs when stressors exceed the coping abilities of someone struggling with a mental health condition. Develop and implement strategies to improve and increase access to quality mental health care, substance abuse, and suicide prevention services and programs.

[00:21:20] and continued advocacy to ensure we reimagine a comprehensive suicide, mental health, and substance use crisis and develop a response system that builds on the new 988 number for suicide and crisis lifeline. Now, therefore, be it resolved that Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby proclaims the week of September 10th through September 16th to be Suicide Prevention Week and encourages residents of Prince William County to help build awareness and knowledge about the warning signs and available resources to prevent suicide. Thank you. Thank you, Madam

[00:22:00] Chair Wheeler, Board of County Supervisors, for recognizing this very important week. And I'm here along with AFSP, along with the Suicide Prevention Alliance of Northern Virginia, to encourage everyone to continue making Preventing Suicide Everyone's Daily Mission.

[00:22:19] Suicide Prevention Alliance of Northern Virginia was established about six years ago. through funding from DBHDS, and on behalf of Community Services and David J. Cobb Foundation, who are both the local members of SPAN, we'd like to encourage you to visit the SPAN website.

[00:22:40] It's suicidepreventionalliancenva.org. It has some great resources on it. It has a whole list of regional suicide prevention trainings and workshops that residents can get involved in. We also just launched our new messaging initiative, Ask, Talk, Connect, encouraging people that may be struggling with mental health or suicidal thoughts or behaviors to reach out and ask for help, talk to trusted loved ones, connect with resources, but also more importantly for

[00:23:16] people that may be concerned about a loved one or friend or family to reach out and ask Ask them about their mental health and their concerns and talk safely about mental health and suicide and then connect with resources.

[00:23:35] Our community services team offers suicide prevention trainings throughout the year. We actually have one this evening. Question Persuade Refer, or QPR as we call it. It's virtual tonight at 7:00. We have a couple more coming up this month, but also SPAN has a webinar on Monday evening that can be found on their website.

[00:23:56] So we're really encouraging people to do that safe talk, safe connections. And so that all can be found on community services, whether our events page or SPAN. That information is there too. I just want to say thank you again for recognizing this very important week and that it should be every day that we're asking, talking, and connecting around mental health and suicide prevention. So thank you. Thank you. Madam Chair. Madam Chair, if I may. Me. I just wanted to

[00:24:35] publicly acknowledge the hard work that Heather always, you're just wonderful, and being one of our, one of our 93 stakeholders for the Crisis Receiving Center, and the hard work that you've done to continue that fight to get that crisis receiving center stood up and for the wonderful work that you do for our community as it relates to mental health thank you thank you next up we

[00:25:13] have proclaiming september 17th 2023 through september 23rd 2023 forensic science week in prince william county i believe major kim missouri is here joining us today at the podium and anyone else who is representing this proclamation please come up and stand beside if we can for a lot of people. Forensic Science Week. Whereas in 2013, forensic leaders instituted National Forensic

[00:25:51] Science Week to recognize the contributions that forensic science makes to the criminal justice system. And whereas the National Forensic Science Week acknowledges the importance of forensic science and the dedication of forensic professionals. And whereas forensic science professionals address critical questions in criminal investigations by providing scientific conclusions relating to forensic evidence and serve a vital role in the criminal justice system by providing scientific evidence to investigators and officers of the court. And whereas the police department is committed to the use of forensic science and the investigation of crimes and partners with local, state, and federal agencies to collectively build and maintain criminal

[00:26:31] databases relating to latent prints, DNA, and other information relative to criminal cases. And whereas this national event is an opportunity to celebrate academic programs, forensic professionals, and scientific research in the various forensic disciplines, now therefore be it resolved that the Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby proclaims September 17th through September 23rd, 2023, as Forensic Science Week in Prince William County.

[00:26:58] Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I can definitely say that members of the Forensic Service Section, FSS as we call them, often work in environments that are pretty harsh and often unpleasant.

[00:27:21] This team has been phenomenal, at least in my time since I've definitely been here. We are so very proud and I'm honored to be here. The work that this team does actually impacts criminal cases. More importantly, their expertise is vital as these cases move throughout the judicial process.

[00:27:44] So thank you for this time. Thank you for the recognition and a great job to our FSS team.

[00:28:48] Last but not least, proclaim September 22, 2023, Car Free Day. I believe Bryce Barrett is here to join me at the podium, and anyone else? Are you bringing anybody with you? Just me today. Just you today. Okay. Car Free Day, September 22, 2023.

[00:29:06] Whereas Car Free Day is a worldwide event celebrated in 46 countries and over 2,000 cities that encourages greener methods of travel and commuting, And whereas the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board, through its Commuter Connections Program, organizes and promotes the annual Car-Free Day event along with its jurisdictional members throughout the region.

[00:29:27] And whereas Car-Free Day invites residents of Prince William County and the region to telework and or alternative forms of transportation, such as transit, bicycling, scootering, walking, and car light methods, such as carpools and vanpools, in a safe and healthy manner. And whereas Car-Free Day supports Prince William County's Strategic Plan Mobility Goal to provide accessible, comprehensive, multimodal network of transportation infrastructure that improves local and regional mobility through the objective of decreasing congestion and fossil fuel vehicle usage.

[00:29:58] And whereas Car-Free Day benefits the National Capital Region, including Prince William County, through improved air quality, mobility, energy conservation, and reduced parking demands. And whereas all Prince William County residents are encouraged to take the pledge to be car-free or car-light on September 22nd, 2023 at www.carfreemetrodc.org, now therefore be resolved that the Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby proclaims car-free day on Friday, September 2023, be it further resolved that the Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby endorses the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board's

[00:30:38] regional car-free day efforts. Thank you. Thank you so much, Madam Chair. I just wanted to take a few moments to really thank the Board for your continued recognition and support of regional efforts such as this that really go a long way to help raise awareness for alternative means of transportation. Events such as these go a long way to help educate the public and really challenge them to break outside their normal routine, try something different, and potentially find a healthier, more environmentally friendly alternative to their normal single occupancy vehicle commute to work.

[00:31:16] This is an international event celebrated in over 43 countries, and we're just really happy to be a part of it again this year. Regionally, it's put together by the Transportation Planning Board's Commuter Connections Program, and so I'd just like to say thank you.

[00:31:34] I think that went well for our first time with new picture arrangements.

[00:32:18] All good. Let's see, that brings us on to Item 5, Mr. Shorter and our consent agenda items. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to pull Item 5A related to the Master Lease Agreement at Innovation Park.

[00:32:34] Staff, we want to do some additional work, and we'll do our best to bring that item back on September 26th. Very good. Thank you very much. item 5a is pulled which means uh we have item 5b through 5 double a um are there any that people wish to pull yes ma'am sure i'd like to pull 5b please 5b as in boy yes please madam chair

[00:33:01] supervisor bode can we pull 5-0 please 5-0 okay okay um seeing no one else um could i get a motion to approve 5C through 5AA, with the exception of 5O.

[00:33:22] So moved, Madam Chair. Second. Motion made by Supervisor Bailey, seconded by Supervisor Vice Chair Bodie. Discussion. Supervisor Franklin. Yes, Madam Chair. Just very quickly want to highlight item 5F.

[00:33:41] This action provides funding for planning, design, engineering, the segment portion of the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail that goes from Lisa Vann State Park to Potomac Shores. Voters approved a bond issue in 2019 that included $9.5 million for this segment.

[00:33:57] Please see this moving forward, and this brings us closer to completing nearly 40 miles of the trail planned throughout Prince William County. So I just want to flag that, and also I'm not going to really just speak about it. I want to highlight item 5L, which will transfer funds from the Vent Hill Road Improvement Project, which is completed to the Potomac Historic National Scenic Trail Gap Study.

[00:34:22] Thank you. Very good. Seeing no further discussion, Ms. Madden, can we vote? Vote unanimous.

[00:34:39] Very good. That brings us on to 5B. Supervisor Bailey. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, and to the audience, I just want to bring attention to this project. This project is one that addresses the much-needed affordable action opportunities that we have here in the county.

[00:34:58] It is a project that will be physically located in the Dumfries area, but it is one that a community church, along with its parishioners, have brought to the fore to address the affordable housing needs in our community.

[00:35:19] I want to compliment and thank the Industrial Development Authority for their vision and working with this project. And for those developers that are here this afternoon, we thank you for being a partner in this community as we look at the Eastern Corridor and the needs on that end of the county.

[00:35:43] So thank you, Madam Chair. And with that, I move forward for approval. Second. Motion made by Supervisor Bailey. seconded by Vice Chair Bodie. Discussion. Supervisor Weir. Thank you, Madam Chair. I was looking at this over the last two days, and I'm just curious. I'm assuming that the town of Dumfries has bought into this, since it's going to, at least by my judgment, or based on current records, it's going to require rezoning, and do the residents surrounding the affected parcel have

[00:36:14] any idea this is coming? We have anyone from staff who can address this. Ms. Winn, welcome. Hello, Chair Wheeler, members of the board, Christina Nguyen, Economic Development. We do have the IDA as well as the applicant here.

[00:36:34] The applicant went through a rezoning last year with the town of Dumfries where there was a public hearing. There was support. And if you have further detailed questions, they are here that they can answer those questions. Thank you very much, Ms. Nguyen.

[00:36:52] Supervisor Bailey. Yes, Madam Chair. Thank you. I just wanted to thank you for your question, Supervisor Weir. I just wanted to highlight that as well because I had the similar questions when we met. Everybody's nodding their heads. And so thank you so much for answering those questions, bringing in the community when you were beginning to talk about this, and then picking up the mantle and circling back to make sure that all I's were dotted and all T's were crossed.

[00:37:20] And so, but as we had the discussion earlier, that was something that was going to be brought up. So thank you, Supervisor Weir, for those questions. And this is a special project in that it is by right, but it is also community-driven, so we appreciate that.

[00:37:38] Thank you. Seeing no further discussion, Ms. Madden, can we vote? Motion, vote unanimous. Supervisor Weir abstaining from vote. Thank you, and thank you for all you do for our community.

[00:37:56] Thank you. That moves us on to 5-0, Supervisor Bode, or Vice Chair Bode. Thank you, Madam Chair. Rick, I know I saw you earlier. There you are. You moved. You were over there earlier. I know that this item specifically only authorizes the public hearing, but I want to talk through with you a little bit, because I know that when we had our public engagement meeting about this a couple months ago, there were business owners that were concerned about this project and sort of what the county could do to sort of help, especially access concerns.

[00:38:30] How much work and what have we done since then to help alleviate those concerns? We are working through some of the concerns that we heard at the public information meeting on access regarding the plaza with the Safeway and that shopping center there, the Glen basically area.

[00:38:49] We also heard access issues from the building and the business park that has the mini land and some other businesses on there, some office buildings, the Wash Colucci building on there. We have not been able to solve additional access issues for that building, as that building does not have direct access from the parkway at this time.

[00:39:10] That building is only served through write-ins, write-outs from currently and through a back entrance on Touchstone. So what we will continue to do is work and make sure that those write-in, write-outs that they continue to have continue to be there for their access, as well as making sure that there's movements to get back onto Touchstone, either through the shopping center, through U-turns, or through Touchstone itself to get back to that building back on the Touchstone site.

[00:39:38] Appreciate that. And I guess my other question is, since this is just to authorize a public hearing, is there a deadline on this? Do we have to act on this today? this is a federal project uh we do have deadlines on them we're trying uh we're trying to match uh a what we call uh our dashboard on vdot so vdot's keeping track of what we're doing here today this just authorizes the public hearing we can then we're not planning on having this public hearing at the next meeting we were planning on having it in october if we'd like to delay the public hearing beyond october we could do that but this just gives us the avenue to be able to move forward the public hearing when the public hearing plans and the board is ready to have the

[00:40:17] the public hearing appreciate that because the concern is and i've been hearing from business especially in that business part you talked about is that this continues to move the ball down the field and makes it harder for us to make changes in between now and the public hearing is so if there are things that we might be able to still work out by the public hearing we may not be able to do that is that the case that is not the case the public hearing serves as a as the forum where the public comes to the county to tell us what they think of the design that we have up to that point. Usually a public hearing design is at about 60% and shows the access, environmental, social impacts that the project creates, as well as the alignment and the geometrics of it.

[00:40:56] Once we have that, we show it to the public, the public comments on it, we take back those public comments, and we act on them if we can. Now, again, I think that the reason we're getting a lot of confusion is because we are so used to having VDOT do projects where they only have public hearings. So they initiate a project, all of a sudden they have a public hearing a year down the road, and that's the only time the public's able to talk about the project or comment on the project. Here in Prince William County, we take it a little different. When we have a major project such as this one or large-scale projects, we always take the time to come in at about 10%,

[00:41:31] 20% at a concept level plan, as you know from dealing with 123 and Old Bridge as well, And we come back and say, hey, public, what do you think of this concept? And if everybody is okay and if we get the approval of the board, we move forward on that to a public hearing plan. We come back for that public hearing, with that public hearing plan, again, to get comments from the public and take those back and be able to make adjustments as we do in that moment before we finalize the plan and go to the next stage, which is usually utility relocation and right away.

[00:41:58] Sure. Then my last question, because you said that, you know, you were planning on having the public hearing in, say, October. What's the far that we could push it out? I'll have to check back on you and where we are on the dashboard on that, sir. And this, I didn't look at the resolution specifically, but does it have a set date in the resolution?

[00:42:16] No, it does not. It is open. Okay, so we could, in theory, authorize it today. Correct. But then work with you all to push it farther out. Whenever you would like to have it, whenever the board would like to have it. Okay. Yes, sir. I'd like to hear from some of my colleagues. I know they've heard concerns on this as well.

[00:42:34] Yeah. Supervisor Angry. Thank you, Madam Chair. Hey, and thanks, Rick. so you know this started out in the actual district and the whole key to this is really about that parkway realignment because of that one lane yes sir so you know i don't i i wasn't looking at for for any unintended consequences um so i will say like that design and that project has to happen and you know i think this was smart scale or it is sir yes yeah and you know because i was really looking at how can we get this thing funded fast and i think we've gotten to this place but i wasn't expecting unintended consequences if what i'm hearing about the public hearing

[00:43:11] allows those um owners in that area especially that gas station road that private road whatever that little road is yes sir because i can tell you i made that you turn a lot i i don't like that design i think if we can if you guys can work and figure out a design to help them get access better than what that is then we just need to to me that is the spotlight that's on this project right now. Everything else looks great. We just got to figure out a better access to get into that gas station area, the daycare, and those real estate buildings back there.

[00:43:49] We'll take a look at it from here up to the public hearing, and we'll take a look at it after the public hearing when we receive comments as well. But I do have to say that we are in that envelope of a VDOT project that is funded by VDOT, that it's going to go back to VDOT for maintenance and it's going to be owned by VDOT, of what VDOT will allow us to do through accident.

[00:44:06] Right. So my hope is that based on this and based on the calls and the email we've been receiving, that there is a sense of urgency between those owners and you all and VDOT, you know, state whoever, to really try to redesign that portion of the corridor to come to a win-win so that we don't miss the mark on this project. Because we've been waiting long enough to try to get that intersection.

[00:44:30] And so we will try our hardest, but I really want to be honest here and tell you that Old Bridge Road will be a closed off road through that area. Right now, like you mentioned earlier, the point of it is to open up the parkway and close up Old Bridge Road to allow that to be the neighborhood road.

[00:44:48] And in order to do that, that intersection is the sacrificial lamb of that access and allowing for the general public to have better operations of that road instead of, again. And so I hear you with that.

[00:45:03] And I will continue to work on it. Yeah, because a creative mind on some other way. I know Old Bridge is cut out, but there's still the parkway. There's still back a little bit trying to see what, you know. So just, I'll leave it at that. Yes, sir. We will continue to look at it. All right. We will continue to look at it. Supervisor Lawson.

[00:45:20] Thank you, Madam Chair. So I have a few questions. It sounds like Supervisors Angry and Bodie were referring to concerns related to the Garcia property. Is that? And really the shopping center.

[00:45:37] Well, I was going to ask questions about the shopping center, but am I tracking you that the Garcia property was one of the e-mails? And when you say the gas station supervisor, are you referring to the Exxon at the corner?

[00:45:59] You need to use your microphone if you're talking to her, just so people can hear. Yeah, and also that Lake Ridge auto in the back of that. Got you. That's behind the Exxon. So, MIDCO had sent a letter raising, you know, concerns related to the Safeway Shopping Center.

[00:46:18] And thank you. I was hoping you all would do that. So, help me out.

[00:46:34] What's that? Yeah, there you go. That little orange, right. What's that? That is the, that's the other side of the road. What we're looking at, opposite side of the road, Paolo, please. That is, what you see, do we not have a, oh, no.

[00:46:51] The shopping center is at the top of the page on the right. The Mike Garcia building and Walsh Colucci is right there. And the gas stations and questions are right there with Lake Ridge Auto right behind it on the other side, right behind Apollo on the little square there.

[00:47:10] Correct. So what we are looking at right now, and this is what we are currently looking at. We are currently looking at the office park currently has two accesses as shown on the map here. It has two ride-ins, ride-outs that come into the parkway currently. The one thing that they don't have anymore is before you used to be able to go straight on Old Bridge.

[00:47:30] And at the same time, since you were able to go straight on Old Bridge, you were able to take a left at that intersection and be able to get to Touchstone right away. What's happening now is that the through movement is the parkway. The straight movement is the parkway. It's a triple left to get onto Old Bridge Road.

[00:47:48] So it's a triple left to get onto Old Bridge Road. So what they would have to do instead of getting directly on touchstone is they would have to take that triple left movement, take it down to the next intersection, and either make a U-turn there or go through the shopping center, which brings you right out to the exit, or go to the next touchstone entrance and come back around and hit that entrance from the back.

[00:48:10] So there's three additional ways to get there from the original way now. But that intersection, if you see how close that is to where we're making that movement And where that triple left is, you're asking me to be creative, but it becomes very, very difficult to be able to change that because that's the actual change that we're making to improve the intersection.

[00:48:32] So to your point, this is a smart scale project. It is, ma'am. Which means it's going to be funded. Will the project itself ultimately be approved by the CTB? It is funded by the federal government, so it will ultimately be approved by VDOT and the federal government before letting us go to construction or approving the design.

[00:48:52] Okay. Correct. And if I recall correctly, you had a meeting at, was it Kerrydale? Yeah. Yes, ma'am. And all the business owners in this area were obviously invited to attend. Yes, ma'am. And if we set a public, if we authorize a public hearing, that'll be an opportunity for them to come here.

[00:49:13] Another one, ma'am, yes. Right. So my colleagues already took care of the Garcia questions, the shopping center, who owns it. And I'm assuming, Rick, that they weighed in on the impacts of this project.

[00:49:29] I was stuck in some serious traffic there the other night. But that was related to a pretty serious car accident right in front of, yeah. And that's what we're trying to prevent. Right, right. But that, I mean, look, we can't prevent every car accident. No, ma'am. And this was a serious one that just created a lot of gridlock over there.

[00:49:48] but the shopping center folks are they weighing in and we have not heard from them okay because mid to mid coast credit they were weighing in for the shopping they were yes ma'am um okay i i see your point i mean mr garcia might want additional access but you're you have a limited scope here and what you can do given it's a smart scale project and the whole purpose is for the parkway traffic right correct man all right well i appreciate your work on it thank you i'm sorry supervisor angry uh we have supervisor beg and supervisor bailey who also want to say something

[00:50:27] but you just want to say something that's related to that quick and it was because all those left you just mentioned and i can see this because all that's going to jam up in those parking lots and i would hate to be a tenant in any of those we'll just call them the garcia buildings and you have to go all the way down to make it you turn to go all the way back through just to get to work like that's a whole issue like something in there and i know what you're saying about the park i'm not like i understand go in here this is limited access parkway i cannot take a left into that into that area that's why they don't have a left there yeah what happens is that they're in the operational area of the turn lane and vdat will not allow for a break in any turn lane like that

[00:51:05] yeah okay all right supervisor vega thank you madam chair rick thank you for explaining that But Supervisor Angry, your point was just proven right now with the statements that you made. So my question really is this. We've got several emails.

[00:51:21] We have a lot of businesses that have expressed their concerns because they feel that once we approve this to go to a public hearing, you can't really close the door if there are additional issues. Would it be prudent on our part to perhaps defer this to next week, which is a work session, to allow Supervisor Bode, because I know that some of these business owners imply that they wanted to connect with you and have time to speak to address these concerns and then everybody's on the same page and we are all ready to move forward in the same direction, I at least would feel much more comfortable if we gave that opportunity to the district supervisor to meet with these business owners.

[00:51:56] We could do that even after authorizing the public hearing. But the concern, Rick, is that they want to do it beforehand. And so, you know, I want to be mindful and, you know, we have a partnership, a good working relationship. I just think it's good, you know, moving forward that, you know, we do it. So, Supervisor Bodie, I don't know what you think about that.

[00:52:13] Again, you're right, ma'am, and like I said, we can do it before the public hearing, but that doesn't stop the fact that we can authorize the public hearing today, hold the public meeting in December if we want to, and have those conversations between now and then. So the authorization just doesn't have to make us come back to the board again for another meeting and then have to go to the public hearing after that.

[00:52:37] So it saves a couple weeks to a month in time if we just authorize the public hearing. Mr. Collins, you know, it's on today's consent agenda. We don't have consent agenda items on next week's work session. So just for that information, Supervisor Bailey. I think Supervisor Angry touched on something that I wanted to ask, but the U-turn piece, is that, I'm sorry?

[00:53:05] Oh, okay. I thought she said something. The U-turn piece I know was a concern of some of the owners from the Garcia piece, And I think some of the concerns, but also I think that they need to have their say or their input.

[00:53:22] Yes, ma'am. You know, on this. That's my concern, just taking it all in, having all input from everyone before we make a final decision. It is, and that's a perfect segue because we had a public information meeting on this project a couple months ago, so they were able to give their input there, and we heard them, and I've told you some of the thoughts we've had.

[00:53:41] They, again, are obviously giving their input here today to the board while we're doing this. And the public hearing, again, once we authorize it, once we have that public hearing, that gives them another opportunity to give us input again. And like Ms. Vega said, or anybody else here said, they have the time between this authorization and the time we decide to have the public hearing to give us input again.

[00:54:01] So there are many, many, we have already heard from them, and we will continue to work with them even through this process. So the other part that I had was with the smart scale, is it an automatic approval once that's done? It's not an automatic approval from VDOT and the CTB, is it?

[00:54:20] No, ma'am. We will have to finish up the design, and once we go through the public hearing and the board endorses the design, we can then finalize the design and then turn it into VDOT for approval. And so that's the window that we have for more input? Correct, ma'am. Okay. Thank you.

[00:54:37] We're not going to be, I'm sorry, and just to make sure you understand, We're not going to be ready to finalize this design probably for another nine months to a year. So, I mean, there's a lot of time to work here. We're just trying to have the public hearing so we can move forward with the design. Okay, thank you. Supervisor Lawson. I was just going to ask you that question.

[00:54:54] And we have a long, well, I don't know how long it will be, but we'll be here for a little while. You don't know what your deadline is. You're going to check. Yes, ma'am. Maybe we could revisit this conversation later in the board meeting. It sounds like the board's not okay with authorizing a public hearing for a specific date.

[00:55:17] It's not. Well, I understand that, but you don't even know what your deadline is. Don't you have a hard deadline? What we have is we have a dashboard. If we don't meet those deadlines, the project continues. It's just that we're failing to meet our deadlines with VDOT, and we're looking bad in what we're doing in the project.

[00:55:35] We're looking like we're not meeting our schedule. But there is no deadline for us, but we're not going to lose the money or lose the project. It's just the dashboard deadline. Sure, sure. I'll defer to Supervisor Bodie. I was just trying to help out with offering maybe later in the board meeting. Supervisor Weir.

[00:55:51] Rick, this is all about managing expectations in my view. And in looking at the traffic flow and the engineering considerations you've got, is there an expectation that you can come up with a solution that's going to make those certain landowners happy or those certain businesses happy?

[00:56:14] Because looking at the configuration you've got there, I don't see it. No, sir. I doubt it. That's why I've said that I'm trying here and I'm working, but it's... This is an exercise in futility if you're trying to get to the point where they want to get. We would have to go to VHAT and ask for exceptions and see if we can get exceptions from VHAT.

[00:56:30] It's going to be a very uphill climb, yes, sir. On a road project of that scale, with that magnitude of lanes, you and I both know the answer is no. Most likely, sir. I don't remember. Is there a motion yet? Madam Chair.

[00:56:48] Supervisor. Can I just close out? I'll just close out with this unless you got something else. I mean, I think the reality is because, you know, I'm trying to be creative off the parkway and you're saying that's not going to happen. The reality is we can go to public hearing. We're going to go on this road. I just want to speak on behalf of what I know they're going to be saying and they're right is this is the design.

[00:57:07] And so I don't know if there's some creativity of something little thing you can do that helps all those triple less and the folks that work in that back end that have to go all the way around town just to get to work off the parkway. That's really what the discussion is, and if there's no way there's something that can happen to figure that out, which clearly is off the parkway, but you said that's because it's in that curve, then unless VDOT's willing to do, and I think I heard you just so, Supervisor Ware, there's this shot out there, moonshot, that says they may waive one of these things to make that happen.

[00:57:41] And I think that's the moonshot reality of what we're talking about. That's the only thing I can think of asking VDOT for waivers on this issue. There's no way we can solve the issue without a waiver or exemption of standards. So that would have to be the call, and we'd have to take a look at that and see what VDOT would say.

[00:57:57] So that was to manage expectations, as Mr. Weir says. That was really what I was going to be looking at to see if there's any chance we can do. But again, like I told Mr. Weir, it's a very long hill climb with a lot of hurdles behind it. Madam Chair.

[00:58:13] Supervisor Bode. Thank you, Madam Chair. Appreciate that, Rick, and I appreciate my colleagues sort of having this conversation. I know that we didn't exactly plan to talk through this, but I wanted to make sure that we had this discussion before we made any decision, because this is, to the point, a very large-scale project.

[00:58:29] This will be a game-changer for this entire area of both the Old Bridge Corridor but also the Parkway that I know that Supervisor Angry Eyes share. That all said, I would like to have an opportunity to reach out to some of the business owners that have not had a chance to connect with me yet.

[00:58:46] So if we could, I would like to move to defer action on this until next week's meeting. There's no until the 26th, sir. 26th? Yes, sir. Sure, the 26th. There's a motion to move this item to the 26th.

[00:59:02] Second. Motion made by Vice Chair Bodie, seconded by Supervisor Vega. Any discussion? I'm just going to chime in and say, you know, this is a procedural, this may not be scheduled until December, and this is really just window dressing, and you can talk to the, you know, this is just trying to get the business of the board done, and it's on the consent agenda item, and why don't we just get through with it?

[00:59:27] So I'll be voting against it, but I understand that you want to reach out and talk to people. That's fine. You can do that even if we pass this today or pass it on the 26th. Seeing no further discussion, please vote. Madam Chair.

[00:59:49] I know we're never. Motion passes, 5 to 3. Supervisors Bailey, Lawson, and Chair Wheeler voting nay.

[01:00:06] Okay, thank you. That moves us off our consent agenda item to number 6, public comment time. We're going to hear in-person and then remote public comments. We're going to begin with in-person public comment. Each speaker will have three minutes to share their views and opinions regarding matters before the board.

[01:00:22] We ask that all speakers state their name and magisterial district or generally where they reside at the beginning of their statements. We'll close the in-person sign-up list after the first 15 minutes of in-person public comment. Ms. Madden, do we have anyone besides the 11 people currently signed up, to your knowledge?

[01:00:39] Okay. Our first five speakers, if you want to go to the back, are Barry Brayden, John Bloxton, Sonny Yachmaz, Carl Greetin, and Russell Bryant.

[01:00:56] And the microphone is in the back. Barry Brayden, John Bloxton, Sonny Yamaz, Carl Green, Russell Bryant. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, Board of County Supervisors.

[01:01:13] My name is Barry Brayden. I'm from the Brentsville Magisterial District. I've been a resident of the county my entire life. My family goes back to the mid-1800s. And yesterday I received a notice in the mail that the county is now going to apply a $40 a ton tipping fee at the landfill. Doesn't sound like a lot, but with all of our commercial projects and stuff that we've got at Hornbaker, this is going to wind up running tenants out of our

[01:01:52] facility. In the past three weeks, with just the turn of the economy and stuff, we've got between seven and ten vacancies now. It's going to increase our dump fees to the tune of two to $400 a week per building that we've got. Doesn't sound like a whole lot, but we already pay $700 a year flat rate for solid waste. Our residential fees are $75 a month, or I mean a year, excuse me.

[01:02:30] At the end of the day, the added costs are going to cost us around $16,000 a year per building just for additional dump fees per building I have been on the commercial development committee now for 23 years I have not heard the first word at any meeting we've had this past year about a proposed increase in fees and stuff for the landfill that's going to wipe out some of the

[01:03:07] the commercial tax base so I look for the board to somehow go back and and look at this and see if we can't find another way to offset the costs and stuff that we're having to deal with with the landfill there there's a number of things that need to be done this hasn't happened in 20 years i remember years ago when there was a tipping fee at the landfill county was going in the hole so we

[01:03:42] come up with a set rate every every year per address that's going to alleviate all this and here we're back at it again. There's nothing in here about our annual fees being dropped or reduced. It's just another added fee that the businesses are going to have to take. At the same time, one parcel that I've got at Hornbaker, my tax assessments went up four and a half million dollars this past year. Yeah. Thank you. In the past three years, your time is up,

[01:04:22] But I suggest you reach out to us either individually or your supervisor. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Yes. Good afternoon. I've attended a lot of these meetings here for the Prince William County Board about two and a half years ago.

[01:04:44] Can you tell us your name and generally where you live? My name is John Bloxton. I am a resident of Prince William County since May of 1980. And I've attended a lot of these and on a potentially ginormous project that Prince William County could ingest in.

[01:05:03] I've lived in Cat Harpen since fall of 1982, have four generations on the farm, and we've always loved it here. Cat Harpen always meant to be a farming community, rural and pristine. Gas and grocery, an obvious store, plus the post office, was all we ever really wanted.

[01:05:22] Everyone in Prince William County is going to benefit now from the budget increases Prince William County will receive from this data center deal. Please remember that the people who are standing in opposition to the development of old farms are currently living in an upscale gated golf course community, which used to be an old farm.

[01:05:43] Let's get this deal done so that we can move on to the next task because there's a lot more going on in Prince William County than rehashing decisions that have already been made. Not a question of building thousands of homes that will further increase our traffic problems, and it's not a situation where an outside entity is trying to exploit the residents of Pageland.

[01:06:05] This is an initiative started by us, people who have lived here for 30, 40, or 50 years, to leave this area, which has grown up tremendously over time. Benefits of job creations, tax revenues, landowner support will make this a great win for everyone.

[01:06:24] In closing, I want to make it clear that my family and friends who are residents along Pageland support the proposed data center to the comprehensive plan for Prince William County. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. My name is Sonny Yilmaz.

[01:06:44] I'm residing in Woodbridge, actually, Ripon Landing Community. And Ms. Fang is actually the supervisor. I just want to shout out a couple of things about what's going on around this neighborhood. The COVID-19, I know nobody wants to hear that, but it's surging a lot.

[01:07:03] And last two weeks, actually, I lost the loved ones, actually, because of the COVID-19. And still, there is no preventive, you know, the maintenance going on around this, you know, the community or whatever.

[01:07:19] And I don't know if you guys have any plan to do so, but I would love to, you know, to get together with, you know, any of you guys just to talk about it. Just, you know, to map out something according to, you know, the people or the scientists that we probably going to have a really rough winter season.

[01:07:39] And, of course, everybody's going to force to go inside, indoors, and we're just going to get together no matter what. And the research that I'm doing right now, 9 out of 10 hospital infections transmitted by hands, and we just touch all over the places and stuff like that.

[01:07:57] And I would love you guys to do maybe some preventive solution, like antimicrobial coating that we are in, actually in the service base right now, me and my wife. We would love to, you know, offer the service to our community, just create a safe, healthy, and hygienic environment for everybody.

[01:08:17] Because, unfortunately, the last two weeks, I guess, in Gainesville, I don't know if you heard about it, 29 people hospitalized because of COVID-19. Nine people is in critical conditions, and last week only just in Jersey, 15 people passed away. So we have to just, you know, be cautious what we have in front of us and just, you know, create something that we're not going to get that hit really bad like what we did.

[01:08:43] Because everybody's life has changed after the COVID-19, as you know, all the habits and stuff like that. But I am so sad that I lost, you know, the really good two of my friends last week, just back to back, and it really concerns me a lot right now. So I really appreciate it for your time and just listening.

[01:09:01] Thanks so much. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Hello, I'm Carl Gritton of the Gainesville District, and we are against the Prince William Digital Gateway and its associated rezoning. It is interesting to see the Great Wall of Prince William County before the public and Board of Supervisors on the desk. It is amazing that the five lame ducks on the board are even considering a vote on the Prince William Digital Gateway before you leave office. What is your goal? Is it to destroy the county and then leave?

[01:09:34] Staff encourages a resubmittal, the fourth, of the project to address the remaining issues, which are identified in their submittance. What has happened to the Prince William County Historical Commission? Major Land Use Committee's work on Civil War burials, noise, and viewsheds.

[01:09:50] What has happened to the sustainability report? What has happened to the data center overlay report that cost taxpayers over $100,000? The lame duck board has chosen not to listen to these reports. Why should we care about the page and landowners? They are just trying to make money for themselves while the rest of the county suffers and cannot afford daily living.

[01:10:09] Reporting from the Piedmont Journalism Foundation and the Prince William Times suggest the cost of the transmission expansions in Prince William County alone could be $16.7 billion. This is the cost that will be picked up by ratepayers and make individuals' electric bills skyrocket.

[01:10:27] The Board of Supervisors is trying to force homeowners to move because owners cannot afford the cost. The Prince William County Democrats on the Board of Supervisors do not care about middle-class Hispanic union members, black, LGT, QIA+, hardworking residents, union members, and union members. They do not care about what your water bill will go up, your electric bill will skyrocket, and this is all in the name of building data centers. The Democrats on the Board of Supervisors do not care about you. We just heard a moment ago how tipping fees in the landfill will go up. Residents will move out of

[01:11:05] the county taking more jobs with them. We have five lame duck supervisors that may be out of office in just a couple of months. The lame ducks have set an arbitrary date and now all PAWC must suffer. We will not mention their names because no one would want to utter those names in the future.

[01:11:22] They do represent Occoquan, Neabsco, Woodbridge, and Potomac. There is no reason that a decision cannot made until the newly elected board assumes power. When I was on a three-week vacation, all we heard about was the statute of limitations that may expire on the Biden crime family. There is no statute of limitations on the decision on the principal and digital gateway this land has been agricultural for over 100 years with president biden's policy who now has an impeachment inquiry against him inflation has skyrocketed over nine percent now the board of supervisors want to add additional costs a city tax a mails meals tax and now possible chair jefferson wants to give grants

[01:12:01] to people that cannot afford homes in the name of equality why do these grants not exist for all homeowners. Why are we leading to a Marxist socialist agenda? Thank you. Before our next speaker, I'm going to call the next six up. Robin Stroud, Teresa Minns, Jay Hart, Mrs. Johnson, Carla Maradiaga, and Gerald Scott. Before our next speaker, after that, it's Robin Stroud,

[01:12:34] Teresa Minns, Jay Hart, Mrs. Johnson, Carla Maradiaga, and Gerald Scott. Good afternoon, chair, supervisors, county exec, county attorney. My name is Russell Bryant and I still live in the Woodbridge Magisterial District. My topic is related to property, responsibilities, services, and common good. Many of us own our homes, maintain them, and are happy when valuations go up, though some voice a concern regarding taxes paid, collected regarding those valuations.

[01:13:11] There is an expectation that services provided by our government are provided and delivered via the expenditure of the taxes and fees collected. Government and citizens both share responsibilities in that financial exchange, with government working towards the maximum common good for the largest section of the population.

[01:13:35] Not all will agree with how that common good is achieved or measured. Going forward, establishing the next budget directions to the county staff must include the overall best common good for the whole population of the county as a factor in that guidance and direction to the staff for the next budget, irregardless of the makeup of the board.

[01:14:01] Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi, my name is Robin Stroud. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, County Board of Supervisors and County Executive Shorter.

[01:14:19] My family and I live in the Coles District. I've been an employee, provisional, part-time, non-benefited employee at Chen, and also serve at Dale City, fitness instructor, personal trainer.

[01:14:37] I'm also on the employee engagement liaison team. I have been since its inception, what was the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism. I'm also sit on the SEIU 512 Organizing Committee Member Board.

[01:14:55] I'm here today to just simply ask for conclusion, decision, as we're coming up on the one-year anniversary of nearly 500 Prince William County employees being excluded from the November 2022 Collective Bargaining Ordinance.

[01:15:14] We were told that there was going to be a 90-day review period when after it was adopted in November 2022, there was a time for input for whatever changes needed to be made.

[01:15:31] We met with county board, county executive shorter, firefighters, police officers, their attorneys, the county attorneys. There was a mediator there. SEIU 512, representing the regular general non-sworn employees, were there as well and provided our input.

[01:15:52] to simply have the board either include the provisional part-time non-benefited employees in the collective bargaining ordinance or not. That 90-day period ended in February. We were then told that by July 1st, Human Resources was going to reclassify us into part-time benefited or temporary employees.

[01:16:19] we had a zoom meeting with county executive shorter and i'm paraphrasing his reply to us on the matter was what's the urgency why does it matter when we complete that reclassification so that you'll know that you're included in the collective bargaining ordinance or not we are mostly clustered at the chin aquatic center and dale city fitness center one of which has been

[01:16:50] recognized as a revenue-producing part of our county government, and we're still waiting on a decision. If the Human Resources Department needs help, I respectfully suggest that you use the Employee Engagement Liaison Team. All of our employee information, which I heard County Executive Shorter in the previous meeting say to you, the board, when questioned, that Human resources was reviewing each employee's file. All of our information is online. So we're simply

[01:17:30] asking the board to make a decision. And if you need help with that, happy to volunteer. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. I wish something could be done over here because that gentleman was speaking and I couldn't hear a word he was saying because of all the activity going in and out, in and out. I want to hear what these citizens have to say. Okay, my name is Therese Cements. I'm

[01:18:07] in the Potomac District. I want to thank the law enforcement and first responders for all they do, and they're always in continuous harm's way. Amazing, this board of supervisors haven't even completed one term in office, and they have given themselves a 70% pay raise, our tax dollars. Keep grinning. I didn't get a 70% tax raise or pay raise, excuse me, pay raise. Tax raise, yeah,

[01:18:39] you'll keep taking my taxes. To my knowledge, the little people didn't get a 70% pay raise. I call this self-serving. But Supervisor Bailey did say this is her livelihood. This service is her livelihood. She's not serving us. Under Democrat dictatorship, we are nothing but an endless piggy bank. This is to all voters. Before you vote, know who the Democrats are and the

[01:19:13] Republicans are. The information I keep hearing is the ballots will not identify the party the candidates are with. School board is supposed to be nonpartisan, but that is not true. Find out who is the Republican and who is the Democrat. Local elections are extremely important. This early voting of 45 days is just a way to manipulate the elections. Our government is the middleman

[01:19:43] for drugs, sex trafficking, pedophilia trafficking, cartels, etc. Yes, our government is the middleman. This is why they won't secure our border. This is why they both parties do not want and always fight President Trump, our former president. Now, I voted for Obama the first time. Within three months, I regretted that vote. Through Beijing Biden, this is Obama's third term as president.

[01:20:25] Do you know a group of people took over Speaker McCarthy's office? Just like they talked about the J6 people, nothing has happened to those people. Why? Because they're Democrats. Nothing's happening. When are you people all going to wake up? When are the citizens going to wake up?

[01:20:48] President Trump wasn't the problem. It's our career politicians that are the problem. They've got a big sign saying, for sale. You don't work for us, especially if you're Democrats. And after Obama, I can never, never vote for a Democrat again.

[01:21:05] Thank you. Next speaker, please.

[01:21:16] Good afternoon. Good afternoon. My name is Mrs. Johnson, and I am from the Woodbridge District. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, County Attorney, County Executive, Mr. Shorter, Board of County Supervisors, and ladies and gentlemen. here virtually and in the chambers. I stand today as a wife, mother, and advocate to foster parents and foster children. I've been thinking about my family's journey and where it started and where we are now. Sometimes you have to go backwards in order to move forward. So we'll start at the beginning, Mr. Shorter, March 7th, when I first had the opportunity to speak with you. Mr. Shorter,

[01:21:52] for 33 months and 28 days. For 89,251,200 seconds. For 1,487,520 minutes. For 24,792 hours. For 1,033 days. For 147 weeks and four days, my family provided stability for a foster child. We asked for transparency and accountability to members of the Prince William County, making that very specific child welfare system as it relates to doing what is in the best interest of a child in their legal custody. And again, our family is not confused about that, Mr. Shorter, so we want that

[01:22:29] to be tabled. We know who has the legal place in custody of a child. Let's table that publicly. My pleas were met with retaliation and insults and the ultimate act of abruptly placing the child with another family. We get that foster care, the main priority of it is reunification, but this child was able to be adopted, so we're not confused about foster care either. Again, that's on the record as well. I continue to emphasize we have not received transparency. You completed an investigation, yet you gave us a response we already have. We asked you to intervene before

[01:23:04] matters reached a critical point. You did not. That was January 23rd and January 24th, while a child was still in our care. We asked you to complete an investigation based on our treatment as foster parents and matters related to actions taken by the Department of Social Services after our family first spoke during public comment, which was March 7, 2023, you did not provide a response.

[01:23:27] We asked you to find any evidence, which is important, any evidence we have failed to tell you the truth in any allegations that we have made. You have not. We will continue to advocate. We will continue to speak. We will continue to wait for the remaining documents from the information requests that we made so that we can meet with you again. I recently read a comment and put a smile on my face when I read it. I recently read a comment that NOAA was considered a conspiracy theorist until it began to rain, Mr. Shorter. Well, guess what, Mr. Shorter? We will

[01:23:58] wait for the rain because we have umbrellas. Next speaker, please. Hi, my name is Jay Hart. I live in the Potomac District. Earlier this year, I heard that basically the board wasn't going to rate property taxes. And two, three weeks ago, that was proven wrong when I got my bill for cars.

[01:24:21] 2017, I bought two brand new cars, $38,000 total. They were valued at $31,758 for property tax purposes in 2017. I paid $604. The effective rate that I would have paid if I owed them all year would have been $604 in property taxes. That would have included each car having a $24 registration fee. In 2023, those cars are worth $23,225, and my taxes are $599. That's $5 less

[01:25:01] than what I paid when they were brand new. Car values dropped over 27%. Why hasn't the property tax on those cars falling 27 percent additionally the um registration fee has gone up from 24 to 33 okay the lower the value of your car the higher the portion of that fee is my wife's cars running over 13 mine's about 11 collectively it's 11 when you factor across the board 11 to register your

[01:25:35] car. By the way, what am I registering for that? I get my tag somewhere else. I get my mission somewhere else. What's the $33 registration fee for? And why am I sending that to Pennsylvania? Why can't you find a local place to it? Why can't you renegotiate a lower fee for your residence?

[01:25:56] Don't you like your residence? Don't you advocate for us? That's what I thought. Second thing, This is the next. I came across an article about the solar permit fees. You guys are going to reallocate $1.2 million to help eliminate the permit cost for residents. So the way I see that is that you're advocating taxpayers' money for it to go to a private individual fees. So when I build my pool next year, I'm going to expect the county to waive all fees because if you waive it

[01:26:33] for one person, you got to waive it for all. It's equal access under the law. I don't think you want to go down that path. And I'm actually surprised that the lawyer didn't tell you that, because that's the way I look at it. It's equal access under the law. If you waive one fee, you got to waive them all. I don't, me and my wife do not approve of you transferring taxpayer monies to pay a private person's permit fees so the way i figure is you got about 200 000 residents in this

[01:27:09] county that pay property taxes 1.2 million divided by 200 000 six dollars a person thank you i want to check for six dollars thank you for me i want to check for six dollars for my wife that's my money that's nobody else's money next speaker please yes my name is gerald scott i'm actually on uh agenda 7b so i should be talking now or whatever no if you'd like to speak on the public hearing please wait until the public hearing is open but thank you okay thank you

[01:27:49] no worries uh carla maradiaga and you'll have six minutes mi nombre es carla maradiaga soy emigrante de honduras soy activista de la organización casa virginia resido en la ciudad de woodbridge condado de prince william emigre a este país hace 10 años soy una trabajadora

[01:28:24] esencial. He servido a mi comunidad con pasión, con amor y compromiso, dando lo mejor de mí. El condado de Prince William ha sido mi hogar por dos años. Mis hijos crecen aquí y asisten a las escuelas, pero a veces no me siento segura, sabiendo que mi información puede ser compartida.

[01:28:46] Les pido que busquen formas de fortalecer la confianza entre esta comunidad. Muchas gracias. Hello, my name is Carla Maradiaga, and I am an immigrant from Honduras.

[01:29:02] I am an activist with the organization Casa Virginia. I reside in the Woodbridge District in Prince William County. I immigrated to this county more than 10 years ago. I am an essential worker. I have served my community with passion, love, and commitment, giving all my best.

[01:29:18] Prince William County has been my home for all these years. My children are currently growing up here and attending the schools. But on occasion, I have not felt safe knowing that my information could be shared at any time.

[01:29:33] I ask that you look for ways to strengthen the trust between my community and this county. Thank you. Thank you very much. This will conclude our in-person public comment time, and I will turn it over to Vice Chair Bodie for our remote public comment time.

[01:29:52] Thank you, Madam Chair. As always, for those participating online, like with in-person public comment time, you have three minutes to speak. Please identify yourself and where you reside in the county. Ms. Phan, shall we begin? How many folks do we have this afternoon? We have five remote speakers.

[01:30:11] All right. First speaker, please. And your first speaker is Mike Ketchmerick. Mike Ketchmerick, Eric Chun, Gainesville.

[01:30:29] I want to state my opposition to your plans to vote on the Prince William Digital Gateway on November 21st during the Elaine Duck session. I think you should defer to the will of the voters and allow the new board to address this issue. The chair in the primary was defeated on this issue, and it should not be up to the current board to push this plan, despite what the voters won.

[01:30:50] Let the new board decide this critical issue and not impose your defeated agenda on the county. You have plenty of hard work to do before you should even consider Prince William Digital Gateway and other data center projects. You need to pass a modern-day industrial noise ordinance before you can approve any additional data centers.

[01:31:10] Approving is the easy part. Monitoring and enforcing all the promises made by developers is the hard part. Prince William County needs to start doing the hard part. If you do not pass a modern-day industrial noise ordinance prior to any new approvals, you will just grandfather in all the bad practices you have allowed.

[01:31:29] The first step is to establish who will be responsible for monitoring and how will this be conducted. Then what enforcement procedures do you have, if any? How will you ensure that developers and data centers will be held to whatever standard is established?

[01:31:45] Setting the decibel level can be the last step in this process. It should not take three years to establish as is now planned. Such a delay will only cause this ordinance to be non-applicable for Prince William Digital Gateway and other new projects. set up the controls before any new approvals take on the difficult effort first before considering new approvals do not cave in to the billion dollar data center industry and the large landowners who are only interested in cashing in a half million to a million dollars per acre windfall five to

[01:32:19] ten million or much more depending on how many acres they will be selling the voters need to finally be told how many data centers have already been approved but have not yet started construction. It should be between 40 and 20 million square feet, not including the Prince William Desert Gateway. The tax revenue windfall is already in place, and Prince William Desert Gateway is not even needed at this time. Please let the voters know how much is in the pipeline.

[01:32:54] Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Kaczmarek. Next speaker, please. The next speaker is Marianne Gadban. Good afternoon members of the board. My name is Mary Ann Gadban. I'm a lifelong resident of Prince William County and I live on the Gainesville Magisterial District and a 40-year resident of Pageland Lane. Bob, stop playing politics and act like a leader for all people.

[01:33:25] Last Thursday, 70 plus residents of Pageland Lane and I, plus another 40 other residents, attended Supervisor Weir's county no-holds-barred town hall. Bob, it's not a town hall meeting when you don't have the applicants there to present their application.

[01:33:49] What you had was a pep rally. You're a Prince William County board member now. You cannot have pep rallies. You need to present facts and both sides of issues, not just one. you know that having the applicants present their case at a town hall is part of the instructions to applicants Prince William County has required over the past 30 years. Why didn't you have the applicants there? Then on Friday, Bob, you posted on your official magisterial district page that we,

[01:34:26] your constituents, were peaceful protesters. Bob, we are not protesters. This is a land use case. We are advocates for this land use case. To call us protesters is to diminish and to try and intimidate our standing.

[01:34:46] Bob, you're not listening to us. You should listen to all your constituents, then decide. You're an elected representative of all the people now. You cannot hold cup rallies and call them town halls.

[01:35:02] You're supposed to listen to all the people and give the applicants the forum to have a dialogue and vet the application. And last but not least, Bob, you should allow comments on all your Gainesville Magisterial official page and not turn them off when we, the people, might say something you don't like.

[01:35:25] That is taking away our constitutional rights to verse our opinion on public issues. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Ms. Gadban. Next speaker, please. Your next speaker is Zafir Imam.

[01:35:42] Zafir Imam, Gainesville District. I support the Prince William Digital Gateway. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Imam. Next speaker, please. Your next speaker is Ali Imam.

[01:36:05] Ali Imam, Gainesville District. Thank you, respected board members, for your hard work for Prince William County.

[01:36:20] It is a shame to still hear from some of the speakers today that PWD Digital Gateway vote should be hired by the next new board sometime next year. No more delays. We, the Pageland residents, have been living with uncertainty for too long for this project to be over.

[01:36:39] Yes or no vote must be heard or decided this year. Please do not fall for any more delays. This board has the most knowledge about this project, and it will only be fair that this board make a decision on PWDigital Gateway zoning before the next board takes office in January 2024.

[01:37:00] We all know data centers are not the problem. The problem was poor planning on the part of previous Republican control board that created the data center overlay opportunity zone. To keep Western Prince William County free from residential housing and out of their back years, they allowed by-right data center without safeguards, protections, buffers next to residential neighborhoods and schools.

[01:37:25] However, we thank the current Democratic Control Board, who is mitigating the previous poor planning and leading the solutions to this problem with new ordinance standards, initiated February 2023, and with new detailed comprehensive plan guidance, such as those for the PW Digital Gateway.

[01:37:45] And the PW Digital Gateway CPA provides an opportunity to create significant public benefit, both countywide and in the Gainesville area, new critical commercial tax-based revenue for the county budget, and a means to bring certainty to future development while respecting the environment and providing sufficient buffer to neighboring parks and housing.

[01:38:09] Your vision will help benefit our county for generations to come. We know hard work and many overnight board meetings are yet to come to finalize this vision. But we are optimistic that this will show the same courage you have shown over the years.

[01:38:29] Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Imam. Next speaker, please. Your next speaker is Ken Nahr. Ken Nahr, Gainesville District. I have a sick dog with an intestinal issue and a deployed wife, so I'll keep this very short.

[01:38:48] I support the Prince William Digital Gateway as the largest economic opportunity this county has ever had. I respectfully ask for your support when these rezoning applications come before you, the board, later this year. The citizens across the entire county have a right to own a home and prosper right here in the county.

[01:39:08] Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Knorr. Next speaker, please. There are no more remote speakers for this. Thank you so much, Ms. Phan. Thank you so much to the citizens who spoke. Back to you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Vice Chair Brody. Thank you, Ms. Mann, as always.

[01:39:24] That brings us on to item number seven, our public hearings for today. We have four public hearings. There are no presentations associated with these items, so I will begin with opening our public hearings, a consolidated public hearing for items 7A through 7D.

[01:39:45] Looks like right now we only have one person signed up to speak to 7B. Ms. Madden, is that correct? Mr. Scott, if you'd like to approach the microphone, tell us generally where you live in the county and your comments for three minutes on 7B.

[01:40:07] Yes, the county here has declared my property a nuisance, and they gave me until today to get it sold. Mr. Scott, could you just tell us your name and generally where you live? Are you Woodbridge, 1317 Columbia Road, Woodbridge? Thank you very much. Okay, and they considered it a nuisance, and they told me I had until today to get it sold.

[01:40:26] Well, I have a signed contract, but it's not until the 22nd of this month. So I need an extension. Are those the entirety of your comments, Mr. Scott? What's that? Is that, are your comments over?

[01:40:41] Yeah, that's it. Okay, thank you. Is there anyone here speaking on 7A, B, C, or D who hasn't signed up and would like to approach the microphone? So seeing no one approach the microphone in the back, this will officially close the public hearings for 7A, B, C, and D.

[01:41:02] Is there anyone here from staff who might be able to address 7B? for us and Mr. Scott's concerns yes please approach and make sure you turn on the microphone if you could just help us understand the situation thank you hello my name is Paul Lynch I'm the assistant director of public works for code enforcement and my staff and neighborhood services has been working with this property for my the entirety of my career 10 years

[01:41:36] this goes back a little further even but the the the house that we're talking about is no longer habitable. We've had property maintenance cases, if you've read the report, over a decade. The property owner has been in contact with us and we with him, and we explained that it would be wise, in my opinion, on his part, to sell the property so he could avoid the fees that we would be imposing if we had to tear the house down based on this action if you find this house

[01:42:16] to be a nuisance today. The good news is if he sells the property and transfers ownership, this whole thing stops. He told us that he had a pending contract. He said he had a signed contract just now. That's the first we've heard of it. He will have to go through the settlement process. We actually have quite a few liens on the property from our maintenance and mowing that we've been doing to this property over the time so the county is a lien holder we

[01:42:53] need to recover those costs and and hopefully we can avoid the substantial cost of demolition of this property it's it's really not savable or salvageable it is a good property to redevelop and we wish the owner the best outcome and a new possible owner a good outcome to build a new house on this parcel so that's um sorry supervisor franklin sure uh thank you for that

[01:43:33] and thank you sir for for coming in today a quick question if we go ahead and declare it a nuisance would that prevent him from still selling the property not not at all okay i i would recommend that you consider declaring it a nuisance today uh the way the ordinance is written And if a new owner bought it, and I couldn't imagine somebody would buy it and not do anything with it, but if that happened, we would have to start this process over again.

[01:44:00] Okay, and then I guess my, and I'm not sure protocol, but I guess my question to the gentleman is, because I don't believe you live in the county anymore, is that correct? Okay, it sounds like we can still go forward with this process, and it actually gives us the ability, Once you sell and you're kind of done with the property of whoever you sell it to, if they continue down the path of not developing or doing anything with it, this action gives us the opportunity to still do what we need to do to kind of clean it up and get rid of it.

[01:44:38] So are you okay with us? Because I think it's the staff recommendation, and it's something that I would support to still go ahead and declare it a nuisance. it doesn't impact anything on your part. You can still go through with the sale, and it sounds like that's the hope that you still go through with the sale. Yes, sir.

[01:44:54] Yes, sir. So, you know, I will recommend that we still go through with this process, and, sir, we'll continue to work with you on that particular property, and then we'll hopefully be on our way with this. Supervisor Weir. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[01:45:10] Question for staff. Is the house currently inhabited? No. No. Okay. Maybe by Byrds. I'll just say this. I mean... I'm going to support it given the extensive property code history of the property, but I do sort of have a little bit of an issue with staff taking a position.

[01:45:29] Is it appropriate for staff to encourage someone to sell their property to avoid an otherwise financial obligation to the county? I mean, that's their decision. I don't think the county staff should be entering into that sort of suggestion. Just my two cents. Well, and I would just respond and say, well, he doesn't have to do that, but then it puts us in a position to take its property.

[01:45:51] So it's to his benefit to actually sell and get some money out of it as opposed to us just taking it. Okay. I will entertain a motion to approve agenda item 7A through 7D.

[01:46:09] Second. Motion made by Supervisor Franklin, seconded by Supervisor Bailey. Any further discussion? Madam Chair. Supervisor Bodie. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just very quickly on item 7C, I want to thank Rick and his team for the continued moving through this process.

[01:46:25] I know that the old bridge, Occoquan Road project has been a long, arduous thing. You guys continue to take properties, do utility relocations, work with different folks around that intersection. So just wanted to give you all kudos continuing to work with that. Thank you. Seeing no further discussion, please vote.

[01:46:47] Vote unanimous. Okay, thank you very much. That concludes our public hearings for today, and we move on to item number eight, county executive time. Mr. Shorter, the floor is yours. Thank you very much, Madam Chair and Board.

[01:47:07] What is before you and for your consideration are two resolutions, one to adopt an organizational structure and one to amend the county's procurement regulations in alignment with adopting the org structure.

[01:47:24] We're going to put up the structure on the screen here for me to talk through. I really appreciate the ability, board, to be able to bring this before you. We've obviously had several conversations internally with staff and are all very excited.

[01:47:47] I will start just by saying that the quadrants that I'm going to review here are consistent with the 2021 through 2024 strategic plan. And so if we maybe, Nikki, if we could expand just to get the quadrants here, I will say that this org chart will go online.

[01:48:12] I want to really give it, just acknowledge the communications team, Nikki Brown, and really the entire team for the great job they did in pulling this chart together. It, as you can see, denotes our constitutional officers, quasi-government agencies, state agencies, and other partnerships, liaison relationships that we have in the county.

[01:48:37] This will go on our website for our residents who are interested. I will also say it denotes offices and departments and also lists out the liaison relationships with our deputy CXOs and all of the various organizations and agencies that we work with in partnership.

[01:49:00] As you can see here, based on what is listed on the chart, we are asking for your consideration in moving from public safety, as it is currently described, to safe and secure community as a quadrant represented by our Deputy CXO, Dan Alexander.

[01:49:21] We're moving from community development to mobility, economic growth, and resiliency. This quadrant led by our Deputy CXO, Wade Hute. We would be moving from government, general government, thank you, to government operations, performance, and innovation led by our Deputy CXO, Quentin Haynes.

[01:49:48] And we would be also moving from human services to health, well-being, and environmental sustainability in that quadrant, led by our Deputy CXO, Elijah Johnson. We are also asking for your consideration in renaming the Office of Communications to the Office of Communications and Engagement.

[01:50:11] There are a number of reporting relationship changes that are happening with this reorganization as well. and I want to make sure that I review those for the public's consideration. One is the move from the Office of Tourism from our Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Department to the Economic Development and Tourism Department.

[01:50:41] So the formal changes and names is listed in the resolution for your consideration. We're also moving zoning from planning to development services. So we would be calling development services.

[01:50:57] We wouldn't be changing the name, but just for reporting relationship purposes, moving the zoning office. And then finally, we would be moving sustainability. In terms of reporting relationships, we would be moving procurement services to the general government operations performance and innovation quadrant from our finance quadrant.

[01:51:24] and wanted to make sure that I covered, I think that is all by way of reporting relationship changes. What is also listed in the resolution is the creation of a temporary Office of Transformation Management that is temporary by way of two years.

[01:51:49] We are not asking for and recommending new FTEs associated with this change, but will absorb the FTEs, and really I will be looking for our internal talent, all of the leaders within our government to help with this process, the process of transformation and the creation of this office.

[01:52:11] And so really excited about this and excited about this conversation, internal conversation with our staff. You could also see listed here on this org chart in the move of procurement services to government operations, performance, and innovation from our Director of Finance and Chief Financial Officer, and I believe that covers all of the reporting relationship changes

[01:52:50] and the creation of the Transformation Management Office. In the corresponding resolution associated with the regulations, the Prince William County Regulations for Procurement, I want to just thank and acknowledge our Director of Finance and Chief Financial Officer, Michelle Attreat, and our Deputy CXO, Quinn Haynes, for their work in developing that resolution, and I should say editing the resolution and bringing it forward, and just want to sort of open it up if there are any questions.

[01:53:22] Again, very excited to bring this to you, Board, and excited to subsequently have this conversation and go through this change with our organization. Thank you very much, Mr. Shorter.

[01:53:38] And I, for one, I don't see anyone signing up to say anything. I think it's wonderful. I know that you've come in and you've looked at the organization. The organization had been that way for a long time, and we have obviously changed as a county over many years, and redoing the organization seems like a step in the good direction.

[01:53:58] Next question is a comment from Supervisor Weir. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Shorter, I don't disagree with rearranging the deck chairs to some extent, but if this is being done to comport with the strategic plan and we're getting an update on the strategic plan at the next meeting, shouldn't this be deferred until after we get the update to make sure that the organizational chart reflects where we're actually going with the strategic plan.

[01:54:30] And a couple of things I want to look a little further into as part of that deferral. One of them is I don't know that I'm comfortable with removing procurement from under finance. It just seems to me that that's where its logical place is from a financial accountability standpoint.

[01:54:52] And I do take some issue with there being no fiscal impacts. I'm assuming there's got to be significant new materials with the rebranding of all the positions. And I'd kind of like to get a better cost on what that's going to do. So if you don't mind, you know, waiting until after we get the update, we could even do it at the same meeting.

[01:55:10] I'd kind of like to see the update and make sure that this is aligning structurally with where we're going with the strategic plan update. I do mind and would lack the board's consideration here. I will say, Supervisor, in terms of the strategic plan itself, this strategic plan is one that is in place and adopted by you and your colleagues.

[01:55:34] And that strategic plan won't change regardless of the update that is coming to the board for your consideration. The org chart being proposed here is in alignment with that very public process that we have gone through here in the county.

[01:55:53] And so I'd say that I think in renaming the quadrants and changing and shifting the reporting relationships, we are consistent with that plan, even if we need to push harder. And honestly, the intent here is for us to make sure that we are pushing harder to make sure that we are in alignment and satisfying the community in the board's goal of meeting our priorities.

[01:56:21] In terms of the reporting relationship between procurement services today and the Office of Procurement, if the Board so approves, is that we are not at all suggesting that the relationship between procurement and finance in any way is interrupted.

[01:56:41] I'll say generally that this change in org structure, reporting relationships, is in no way a reflection of anything negative happening within the organization. This is really about making sure that we are prepared as a government to meet the demands of tomorrow.

[01:57:00] And so I want to make sure that the relationship between procurement services and that I'm clear that the relationship between procurement services and finance is expected to continue. These are not silos where our leaders and our county staff will not be working together.

[01:57:18] The thinking behind moving procurement services to government operations, performance, and innovation is really focused on internal, if you will, internal services.

[01:57:34] Our employees need office space. They need human capital or human resources. They need information technology. And they need to be able to procure goods and services. The workflows associated with that, with those various processes, in my mind, belong together.

[01:57:58] And in that, all of the technology that we will bring to bear to help with those various improvements, I think will bear fruit in the years to come. So this is really, again, not about, you know, a desire to cut the communication and working relationship between procurement and finance.

[01:58:26] I do see and value that our finance team, under the great leadership of our director of finance, is really focused on transactional interactions with our community and internally. So you could see here things like payroll, tax administration, our treasury management, audit functions, all focused, as it should be, on making sure that our transactional interaction with our county is improving.

[01:58:59] I see procurement services and the procurement of goods and services generally as more akin to and having an affinity to all of the internal processes that we as employees need to get the job done and to get it done well.

[01:59:19] Supervisor Brody. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Shorter, for bringing this before us today. I'm really excited about some of the changes that you are proposing here. i also really like the office of transformation management um i know there are a lot of things under the hood that need to be looked at and sort of uh delved into over the next couple years so a couple comments and a question um i know that uh under the department of i think it says the wellness uh yes yeah wellness um yeah health well-being environmental sustainability

[01:59:59] we have housing and community development i know that uh i think it was a couple years ago um as this board continued to start and talk about in earnest our desire to see more affordable housing options in the county um so looking at maybe possibly transitioning the nature of our housing office to be a more robust housing department to be more than just right now sort of a glorified pass-through for hud funds and some other things is that part of the consideration and as you continue to move forward with that?

[02:00:30] I definitely appreciate the question and appreciate the great work that our housing and community development team that they're doing. I'll say that, yes, that we are not by any means done continuing to evaluate the scope and the level of services that we provide.

[02:00:50] That said, as part of the budget process, development process that we're going through now in preparing a budget for this board's consideration. We are absolutely exploring and have even talked about the need for us to build some internal capacity around a number of issues, including young people, as well as affordable housing and some of the work that we are doing there.

[02:01:12] So, yes, I expect that we will be able to come back to the board as part of the budget process for FY25 with some additional recommendations on changes to offices and or the creation of or separation of some offices from others.

[02:01:32] So more work to come, but I did not want to wait for this to happen for next spring. Sure, and just one more follow-up question, Madam Chair. I know that you're moving tourism from DRPT, which I guess we'll lose the T from the DRPT, TPRT, sorry, to economic development.

[02:01:58] I know that one of the strengths that we've been able to have over the last few years is having that tourism piece as integrally connected and wedded to our parks and all the events that I know that Seth and his team have been able to do over the last few years. And I know that recently we were even featured in a magazine about that integral link.

[02:02:21] I'm not going to necessarily have a concern about that, but just wanted to see what your thoughts were on that fact that since we're sort of de-wetting those two and putting them underneath, how that working relationship will continue and how we can make sure that that tie continues on. Very much appreciate that question as well.

[02:02:37] We've talked quite a bit with Seth and team. I will say that, again, the expectation is not that the tourism team and its movement to economic development will not be available to the parks and procurement staff, I'm sorry, parks and recreation staff, to do the lifting up and marketing of our park system.

[02:03:02] It is something that we should absolutely be proud of and be prepared to continue to market. It is why we have as many visitors as we do. The intent here really is to make sure that tourism and the tourism team is leveraged and used to market our entire county, all of the various benefits that our county offers to visitors, and to make sure that from a business perspective that we are doing some of the marketing to current businesses and future businesses for our county.

[02:03:39] So really it is, this is again, I think an opportunity not at all to suggest that the work that was happening was not sufficient in parks and recreation. I hope that the future will see us continuing to highlight our park system in a way that is appropriate for our county.

[02:04:05] Thank you, Mr. Shorter. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. County Exec Shorter, thank you so much for this presentation and to your staff for making it clear, you know, the pictorial is very clear.

[02:04:22] I agree with my colleague, Supervisor Bodie, that the movement of the tourism piece to ED is very valuable. It's a balance I still see with Parks and Recs because it gives us an opportunity to apply for grants and expand that opportunity as a...

[02:04:42] As the response goes further, because one of the things we experienced during COVID is that we didn't have that flexibility to serve in that order. And so I think that that gives us an opportunity when we talk about providing funding across the board, so to speak, that that opens the door for that.

[02:05:01] I also see that one of the things that we talked about when we were creating and crafting the strategic plan to make it a more robust document, One of the things that that team talked about was the alignment of the different departments and the productivity thereof.

[02:05:22] And so the alignment, certainly what I've learned in being in this seat, the alignment with the strategic plan has to be very clear as we govern. And so this gives us an opportunity to look to see if we are really checking the boxes as it relates to what the citizens expect of us to do as it relates to the management of the staff.

[02:05:45] So I can appreciate it from that perspective as well. The other thing that I wanted to say was with Dan's department, and Dan, welcome again. You've been here a long time. You're not new anymore. But I like the alignment because one of the concerns right now in our county definitely is focused on public safety.

[02:06:07] And I think with the new staff that we've hired and the direction that we have to take to make it a more secure and safe environment, that connection and that department, the way you've aligned that, is very clear and makes it a better opportunity for us to do so.

[02:06:24] I wanted to ask you, and this may be as clear as mud, but no question, this is a bad question. The Office of Transformation and Management, what is that? Sure. Happy to talk a few minutes about that.

[02:06:41] Really, we are, as a staff team, exploring a number of automation, digitization, reengineering of processes. We want to centralize that effort and make sure that the support for those transformation projects have the attention that they need and that we deliver.

[02:07:07] And so really the Transformation Management Office is one that will help drive and make sure that that change is actionable and accelerated. So I don't think that we have the luxury of time here.

[02:07:22] I think we need to move quickly as an organization to make sure that we are serving residents, visitors, and those doing business in our county, serving them in the best way possible. And so that said, you know, really as an executive management team, we are focused on making sure that those projects have our support and attention.

[02:07:47] What I intend to do is really ask our leadership team, all of the directors within Prince William County government, for their support. I will likely name in the next, if the board approves this today, in the next month and a half or so, name one of our directors to serve as the chief transformation officer for our county for a two-year period.

[02:08:12] and we'll ask them to express interest in that position and then we'll go through a process of naming someone in our county who knows our government, knows how to get things done within our government and knows our county to serve in this role for a period of two years.

[02:08:31] And so I am excited about this. I think it's a good approach to focus our attention on transformation and not just allow it to occur over time. So I appreciate the explanation for that, and we certainly appreciate the fact that there will not be an additional FTE opportunity there that will use internal resources as it relates to our budget.

[02:08:54] And then lastly, Madam Chair, I have one more thing that I'd like to say is as it applies to the tourism piece and the parks and recs piece, but specifically the tourism piece, one of the things that have been discussed over the past years was preserving our historical sites and identifying where those are.

[02:09:18] And so I think that with the opportunity to apply for more grants and identify that this certainly gives us an opportunity to preserve our history in this county, the way that is aligned with an economic development arm.

[02:09:35] But it gives us an opportunity to expand searching for those historical sites, identifying them and preserving them as well with the grants. I think that's a perfect marriage. So thank you for your answers. Thank you.

[02:09:51] Thank you, Madam Chair. Supervisor Weir. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Shorter, to repeat what I said earlier, I'm in favor of some portions of this, particularly moving tourism from parks to economic development.

[02:10:07] It's my feeling that will give Seth an opportunity to more focus his resources on his principal mission as opposed to dealing with tourism. But I still have an issue with procurement. I mean, you were talking about transactional issues.

[02:10:24] Procurement by its very nature is transactional, and it's not limited simply to procurement for county employees. It's a variety of different contracts. It's a variety of contracts for, you know, contractual support, not just widgets and chairs and things like that.

[02:10:42] I believe that does belong under the immediate purview of the finance branch, and I'm going to hold to that. But more the point, you know, I was simply asking for a deferral a little while ago until we got past the strategic update. You yourself just said that more work is to come on this.

[02:10:58] So if more work is to come on it, and it may change in the next week, two weeks, three weeks, a month, wouldn't it be better served to just hold off on this until that additional work is completed? Is this a question for me? Yes.

[02:11:13] So the strategic plan update is intended to give the board information on where we are with achieving the goals and priorities associated with this strategic plan. I do not expect that whether that update happens during our next work session or if it happens in a month or two, I do not expect that the strategic plan itself will change.

[02:11:42] And so to be clear, the quadrant and organizing the quadrants as they have been organized is based on the framework of the strategic plan, not based on our achievement of the strategic plan, to be clear. So I don't expect that the priorities outlined in the strategic plans associated with, let's say, health, well-being, and environmental sustainability or safe and secure community will change.

[02:12:07] So it is a strategic plan that will be in place until 2024 when I suspect that this board and our county will go through a process of updating a new strategic plan. Supervisor Vega.

[02:12:27] Thank you, Madam Chair. Chris, thank you for bringing this forward. I will say that the issue that I do have with this has been the process, and I've notified you of that. I was never contacted by your office to specifically schedule a meeting to discuss such a major change. The one invitation to meet that I was asked about had to do with something completely different, but I didn't learn about this until about a week ago. And so I have issues with the process and the way things have played out. I think it's important to also share with you and with the public here in Chambers and watching at home that we've received some of the emails

[02:13:05] also from folks in the community concerned about such drastic changes and how they feel that there has been very little public input, and they just better want to understand how we got here. Now, with that being said, it's been stated by several supervisors their concerns about procurement being moved to where it's at now.

[02:13:26] I will say that I appreciate your response that you gave to me a couple of days ago as to your justification for moving it. I understand it. I may not like it, but I understand it. With that being said, I wanted to ask you, did you specifically meet with every department head that was going to be impacted by some of these shifts?

[02:13:45] I did and made sure that even the leadership team, all of the directors that make up the leadership team here in Prince William, we talked actually back in July, at the end of July, to make sure that everyone understood.

[02:14:00] I did not want this to be something that folks were, I shouldn't say folks, that our government and our government leaders were surprised by. And so I was very transparent and have been for a few months that we would be working towards this before bringing it to the board for your consideration.

[02:14:21] We also, the leadership in the Office of Executive Management, met with those directors, particularly those directors that would be impacted, i.e., directors where a division and or office would be moved in terms of a change in reporting relationship.

[02:14:39] So, yes, it was very important to me that this was done in a way where communication was front burner and that no one felt like they were blindsided by this change. This is also partially why this Office of Transformation Management is important, because as we go about making changes to programs, re-engineering processes, introducing ways of automating processes, that we are thinking first about change management and what impact that has on employees and the public and making sure that we're putting them first.

[02:15:19] Much of this work will be human-centered, people-centered. So we want to make sure that we sort of put people first in that process. So I appreciate that question. And then the last question I have is where are we in terms of filling that procurement services position?

[02:15:36] Actually, I'm happy to say we, thanks to the great work of our team, just filled the position. It was a competitive process, and I will remind me, is it October 2nd, that our new chief performance officer will start here in Prince William County.

[02:15:55] Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Lawson. Thank you, Madam Chair. A couple questions for you. First of all, before I forget, I also want to recognize our park rec and tourism and the work that they've accomplished together.

[02:16:12] I think that the magazine article that Supervisor Bode was referring to was a national award, if I remember correctly. Is that right? Yes. Yeah. So as you're sitting here, kudos to you, Seth, and Mr. Costello is probably not here right now to also participate in that.

[02:16:34] But that was impressive, and my park commissioner brought that to my attention. I have to be honest with you. I am going to have to ask you to repeat a little bit of the Office of Transformation Management that Supervisor Bailey asked you.

[02:16:53] Can you walk me through that again? Because you said that there's going to be an announcement of somebody soon, a director. Oh, sure. So specifically around making sure that we leverage the internal expertise of our leaders here in Prince William County government, I do not plan to recruit, I do not plan to create a new FTE and recruit outside of our county government for a chief transformation officer or for a director of this office.

[02:17:25] It is a temporary office meant to be stood up for two calendar years. During those two calendar years, the expectation is that we will come up with a series of transformation initiatives that will be driven by this office. not solely because the whole premise is that this office is working across our county to get these things done.

[02:17:49] And so in naming an internal leader to direct this office, I'll be asking all of our directors for their interest. And through that process, we will name a chief transformation officer for that two-year period and do work internally to make sure that we are backfilling that director with an assistant director, a deputy director, and giving opportunity really across our government.

[02:18:16] It was important to me, as you know, I did a series of listening sessions within the organization over this last several months. One of the things I heard very loud and clearly is that our employees want more opportunity, opportunity to advance, opportunity to experience that.

[02:18:35] different roles and different jobs. And that I heard at every level of our government. This will give an opportunity when naming a director. It means that a deputy director will have to step up into that director role. It will likely mean that an assistant director or program manager will have to step up into that deputy director role. And you could see the trickle down. We will also to fill this office be asking for other senior leaders who want to help in this effort

[02:19:08] to also show their interests. We will likely put out some announcement to get others who want to work in this office to do the same. This will create across our government opportunities for folks to promote up for a temporary period. This is, I think, going to be very exciting for our workforce. And it keeps me honest in terms of my commitment that we would provide for more opportunities for our employees. So this is the office. So there'll be a chief. And then how many

[02:19:43] employees do you envision? I'm hoping for four, four other leaders to help assist this director. But I will also keep an open mind because the director who takes on this role may want more help.

[02:20:05] And I'll tell you, this is going to be a priority for me and the entire leadership team. And so if the director comes in and after a few months says, if you want me to do this in two years, I'm going to need some more help. then I'm going to listen to that recommendation and maybe reassign others or open up the opportunity for others to come in and help.

[02:20:26] Thank you. I'll also say, if I can, the county is aware of this sort of project action team model where we have enlisted employees from across the county to work together across agency to get things done.

[02:20:43] I am also expecting that this office will work with and re-engage project action teams. So whether an employee is assigned to this office or not, there will be a call for employees to help in the transformation management process over the next two years.

[02:21:01] So in addition to, it sounds like the workforce wants an opportunity to have more internal mobility, if you will. Absolutely. Can you give us another example of what you envisioned for the transformation?

[02:21:18] Are you, like, going to hone in on a specific agency or department that maybe needs some reform? I did not want to. This is really cross-county. It's not about any one department or one agency.

[02:21:35] I will say that the focus really will be on process improvement, process reengineering, and automation. So where we can improve how residents engage us.

[02:21:51] I gave an example during our last leadership team meeting. Today our public can pick up their phone, download an app, and engage their phone company or engage another organization in the private sector very seamlessly.

[02:22:07] We want to be a government where that's possible. And so where we can automate, digitize, we want to bring those ideas and innovation forward. And so I did not identify a specific agency, but I have identified those three priorities, process improvement, process reengineering, and automation as the key priorities for the office.

[02:22:34] Okay, thank you. The last thing, and I appreciate that you and I spoke at 9 o'clock last night. There was a mishap in arranging a meeting, so this was somewhat new to me, like it was Supervisor Vega, for an August meeting.

[02:22:52] Regardless, maybe I misunderstood you last night regarding procurement. I thought procurement was going to be a department of its own and report directly to you. So this org chart is a little surprising to me after our conversation last night.

[02:23:09] Maybe I misunderstood you, but talk to me about that. Well, yeah, I always accept the responsibility if there was misunderstanding. Yeah, so it will not be a department. I think it was important to us, and we even sort of denoted it on the chart that we separate department from office.

[02:23:29] and so the procurement team will not be a department. It will be an office of procurement, and so that was very important. The office will not be a direct report to me. It will, however, report in directly to the Office of Executive Management through our deputy CXO, Lynn Haynes, and so it will be a direct report to the office, but no, not to me directly.

[02:23:55] Okay. Who is in charge of – I know that Adam recently left in recent months, Adam Mann, and he ran procurement for quite a while. Who is our acting procurement manager or director, whatever the title is?

[02:24:11] Tim LeCartre, yes. So our deputy finance director is currently acting. Oh, Tim LeClaire? Yep. Okay. All right. You've clearly put a lot of work into this, and I appreciate it.

[02:24:27] I'm not comfortable with it. If the board wants to defer it, I would appreciate that. i'd like to have an opportunity to know more i'm even thinking that this would have been a great work session with the board at some point but um you know it's not a reflection of of what you've done i just simply don't feel comfortable enough knowing enough and i can tell some of my colleagues certainly knew a lot more and i i didn't have that opportunity so i'm not going to support it today

[02:24:59] but i certainly will continue to have an interest in in in the restructure supervisor angry thank you know earlier today we listened to a couple of seniors that you know 95 and 87 years old that talk about what change really is you know in this nation in the county look change is inevitable okay and so you know being on this board for the last five years i'll tell you there's some changes

[02:25:36] that happened in this county that i think were horrible changes i'll say and we never changed them back and did anything with them. I'm not so concerned about where you're going with the direction there because, you know, we got to start somewhere. And as I've said, with the employees, even my first day here talking about leadership and folks stepping up and rising up to the occasion and, you know, being a part of the solution of the county, I hadn't seen a lot of that. So, you know, I don't know if this is the answer. I do know I'm willing to explore it. And I do know

[02:26:10] this that whatever works we keep whatever doesn't work we have a new discussion about um because you know hindsight being 2020 which we don't have anything today on you know i will simply agree that this county needs to transform into something else uh there are too many old processes too many old ways too many old um uh ways of doing business that really aren't good and there's some stuff is good but hopefully you'll find all that out because that's your job that's why you make the money uh and the fact of the matter is we gotta start somewhere so um i'm not necessarily concerned

[02:26:47] you said something that i do appreciate is that when all of these categories and changes and titles you've done uh and i'll speak specifically to my parks and recs loving the combination between them and what we were able to do with tourism that that relationship is a real relationship because I think that's been real key to a lot of our successes.

[02:27:07] I go all the way back to Tough Mudder. That was a real good thing. As much as people want to say it wasn't, but I believe it was, it accomplished exactly everything we said through a park system. So I just want to make sure that the relationships that people who are working together continue to work together, even if somewhere in the org chart the structure has changed.

[02:27:27] And, again, the fact that what works, we keep. If we realize something's not working, that we investigate that more. and we work with all of our employees and really if you could really work with i'll just speak for my office really work in my office on you know how it's going what it's doing and i imagine that's going to be the same with every other office but i just want to make sure that we kind of stay uh joined at the hips if you will going forward this this is not going to be an easy process got it a lot of people aren't going to be on board with it got it we might find that some folks It actually jumped ship because of it, got it.

[02:28:01] But, again, we have to go somewhere, and this is how you win, you know, the battle, if you will. And I'll just stop there. Thanks, Madam Chair. Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just had two more things. One is, and correct me if I'm wrong, you mentioned that there was a resolution that was crafted and framed for the procurement position by the collaboration of Mr. Haynes and Ms. Attree.

[02:28:34] Did I misunderstand? That is correct. That's correct. And I think that's a beautiful thing. And let me tell you why I think that's a beautiful thing. Because Ms. Attree, where is she? I know she's listening to me. Is very protective of her finance department. I know she is, and she better be. But I think that that builds trust internally also.

[02:28:53] Absolutely. And how the management will go and how the transition will go. And so I trust that. I really do trust that, with Mr. Haynes being a newer part of our family, but yet Ms. Attrey being a more seasoned part of our family, and they blended together to come up with a document that we can embrace and talk about.

[02:29:12] So that's very important as we talk about the budget and as we talk about the businesses that we use in the community. That kind of discussion and that kind of collaboration is very important. So I appreciate that action. And then the listening sessions.

[02:29:29] I've had some good responses from the listening sessions because that was a new thing. That was a new thing. And that bred transparency because we probably would have been having a different conversation here on the dais if those listening sessions were not instituted.

[02:29:47] And so I would encourage you to do so to help us to understand a little bit more about our county staff because we have a very seasoned county staff, but yet still people want to come and work for the county. And so when we hear from our staff, that's real important through our county exec.

[02:30:06] That's very important. And then lastly, I just encourage you to have the listening sessions. The other thing is, with all due respect to your position and to the former county exec, when we started the reclassification piece, I see this as another phase, a progressive phase, of the reclassification piece, because that was, for our former county exec, that was a tough one, but it had to be done. So I see this as a progressive stage as well, and making sure that

[02:30:42] we are retaining our wonderful skill set here in this county as the next step. So I just want to bring that to the attention. And I'm going back to something my colleague, Supervisor Lawson, was saying about us knowing that you know i'm hr janice so that's i'm just kind of enjoying this but the the the thing about uh this also is we do need to um partner with you and your staff as we

[02:31:14] go forward with this as as we you know and because change has to come about as supervisor angry said because of what the requirements and the needs and the services are going to be as we grow. So I just wanted to say that.

[02:31:31] Madam Chair, thank you for letting me say that. Supervisor Lawson. Thank you. I just want to make sure it's real clear so that none of my colleagues think that I'm trying to, you know, be difficult up here. I didn't know about this until literally a few days ago.

[02:31:51] Mr. Shorter's office reached out for an August meeting, which I thought was going to be a performance evaluation. And it was never communicated to me in my office that there was actually something as important as this. That was an agenda item in September.

[02:32:06] And when I told my staff to move our appointment to September, thinking that his performance evaluation could wait, that's why there was a mishap. So, Supervisor Angry in particular, I just want you to know, this is new to me.

[02:32:23] You've had time to know this more than I have. It's a significant vote. It's more than a significant vote. This may be packed full of great change, but for my vote, I'm not comfortable knowing that this hasn't earned my vote because I haven't had the opportunity to know all the details that you have because this is, again, somewhat new to me.

[02:32:48] And it's pretty significant. Mr. Shorten, I had a great conversation last night, but for me, I'm not comfortable supporting these this restructure and again you know i think this would have been a great opportunity for a board work session to have these discussions um so that we would have a better understanding and and that's why i'm going to vote against it it's nothing against mr shorter himself it's just for me i haven't had the opportunity to dive into the details and have a better

[02:33:24] understanding for it to to earn my vote supervisor angry i just i just want to say my comments weren't weren't directed at you so i don't like it uh yeah and that's the case i apologize for that no they were just open in general just because i i i've been hearing so much about this and from you know a lot of folks not so they weren't directed at you so thank you so um before i ask for a motion on 8a and 8b i i just want to um sort of sum up and look at the the sort of 30,000 foot level view we have a county executive form of government and it is up to our county

[02:34:02] executive who in this case um has more experience in the administration of public government than anyone sitting up here um which is one of the reasons we hired you with your vast experience of of running really all your time has been in government hasn't it and um you know i just want to say that you know I'm not even sure this is something that we should I don't want to say stick our nose in but but get it down into the nitty-gritty of of how you want to operate your successful county government and so I just want to say I trust how you're restructuring this

[02:34:40] because I don't know how to run county government you know boards are generally setting strategic goals and it's it's the uh you know the will of the board to set strategic goals and among other things and if for the county government to carry that out and so i just want to say i'm perfectly comfortable with this i um i think it's it's your decision i'm not even sure we should vote on it i will say that out loud and be quoted on that um i think it's your decision to make the government that you want and i know and trust that it will be successful with that i will make uh take a

[02:35:14] motion on 8a and 8b so move madam chair second motion made by supervisor bailey seconded by vice chair bode any discussion madam chair supervisor bode thank you i was struggling to hit my button in time so i i appreciate the discussion we've had today um and madam chair i'm inclined to agree with you a little bit you know the cxo is the basically ceo of the company right of the organization but i do understand at the same time that we as sort of the elected board of directors as it were, should get some insights and have this kind of conversation. So I appreciate the opportunity to do that. One thing I will say, and I have not to step on his toes in that regard too

[02:35:53] much, is I hope that one of the goals of this is to bring down some of the silos that occur between departments. Because we know that what happens is, in due course of wanting to do great public service, the constituencies, my office may get a call, transportation may get a call, and police may get a call on the same thing, and we don't necessarily know that's happening. So folks will be going to continue to do their work, not knowing that other folks are kind of, you know, doing something on the same issue. So that's one example. The other issue that I've seen is, in terms of

[02:36:29] silos, is just when an office is doing great work in one area, and there's opportunities to synergize with something else in other offices, it's not as easy for those offices to really cross-pollinate those best practices so i hope that especially with your idea of having this office of transportation management having someone again from within who is able to sort of see that big picture and able to make some of those those strategic connections within the organization so everyone can be better and so we can better serve our constituency as well again don't want to step on your toes but that's just something that i thought as we talk through this thank you madam chair thank you vice

[02:37:06] Chair Bodie. Seeing no further discussion, please vote. Motion passes, six to two. Supervisors Lawson and Weir voting nay. Thank you. Mr. Shorter, are there any other items that we need to cover today? I know we have some questions. No, ma'am. Supervisor Franklin. Sure, switching gears. I know that we've all been receiving emails and phone calls with regards to the discussion on property

[02:37:42] taxes, so I wanted to take this time, if it's the appropriate time, to kind of have a discussion about, you know, what we could do with regards to some type of relief. During supervisor's time, I do plan to give a directive to have staff look into the pricing models that we use to determine assessments for property taxes and for the board to see kind of what those models are and what models exist for us to use as potential alternatives and also alongside that looking at different options for potential rebates if this board decides to

[02:38:20] go down that road and so I'll save that for supervisors time but I did want to take this opportunity to see if it's possible for my colleagues and I to kind of discuss waiving the rules of procedure to at the very least extending the deadline for when tax payments for property taxes are due.

[02:38:39] And so I have a resolution that I've prepared to extend that deadline to 90 days. That would give taxpayers, instead of the October deadline for payment, it would give them a January deadline for payment.

[02:38:55] So just passed it out and happy to have a discussion on that. but I would like to make a motion to waive the rules of procedure to do that. Second. So there is a motion on the floor to waive the rules of procedure and amend the agenda to add one item from supervisor's time to extend the tax payment due date from the vehicle classification of tangible personal property by 90 days until January 3rd, 2024.

[02:39:23] Motion was made by Supervisor Franklin, seconded by Supervisor Bailey. Why don't we enter into discussion? Supervisor Bailey. Am I up first? Supervisor Franklin, thank you so much for bringing this to the forefront.

[02:39:41] My office, Supervisor Bode, when you asked me, have you been getting calls in my office? Yes, I have. And my Karen has been fielding those calls and listening very intently to our constituents with their concerns.

[02:39:58] My neighbors have been talking to me more in the neighborhood than they have in the past six months. But not to make light of it, I think that it is an opportunity for us to stop and to listen and to pay attention to what citizens are saying.

[02:40:16] And I want to also say that we – hats off to our finance department, the taxation department. Mr. Hunter, I think it is, Michelle? I'm not, okay, because as we were going, and I keep going back to COVID, and I do that to bring it to the fore, as we were going through COVID, we wanted to be very sensitive to our citizens from a food and security perspective, from a rent perspective, housing perspective, Elijah.

[02:40:52] We wanted to be very sensitive to that and livelihood perspective. And this is under the auspices of livelihood. And in doing so, we had an opportunity to take the burden from a taxation perspective off our citizens a little bit.

[02:41:14] And I think that was the right and humane thing to do. And so, Supervisor Franklin, hats off to you for having forethought in bringing this to our remembrance and bringing it to making sure that we show our citizens that we are paying attention.

[02:41:30] And sometimes it's hard, sometimes it's not as easy as it can be because we do this thing called governing. But I do think that we need to do something, and I can support an idea that you have in respect to this.

[02:41:46] or anybody and my colleagues, because it's important that we listen. Thank you. Supervisor Weir. Thank you, Madam Chair. Supervisor Franklin, you and I are on the exact same page, but as a preliminary matter, I would ask for a friendly amendment to your motion, and that is to go ahead and do it now, as opposed to during Supervisor's time, both the resolution and the directive to the county exec.

[02:42:18] That being said, yes, my office has been hearing the same complaints. We heard the same complaints here, and we heard the very same complaints last week at the supposed pep rally.

[02:42:37] Here's the issue I've got, and it's a two-part issue because it's not just personal property taxes, Ms. Treat. I questioned this back during the budget season, and I went back and I asked you a question, and I got a response from you with respect to the billing strictly for the vehicle personal property tax valuations. So we went from $166.4 million to $198.2 million year over year from 2022 to 2023 in the adopted budget. So right there, you've got a 20% increase in revenue from

[02:43:14] the vehicle taxes. In actuality, due to the billing, what was actually billed, it went from 135.2 to 169.2. So instead of a 20% increase, we actually hit 25%. I've got a problem with the way we valued the vehicles. I've got a problem with apparently the issues we had with NADA last year's. I mean, we've arrived at a position that's quite frankly almost untenable.

[02:43:44] To make matters worse, I've got a similar issue with the tipping fee that Public Works adopted this year. We had somebody mention it earlier. I said at the time that I thought it would essentially double what everybody was going to pay for solid waste disposal. I was wrong.

[02:44:05] It's triple, at least in the case of some of the subdivisions out in Gainesville. I just got an email from one of the management companies that the per household surcharge per month that they're now going to have to levy on every residence in that facility is essentially double our solid waste fee, essentially tripling what they're paying for solid waste. And I said

[02:44:41] this at the time, it's being passed through on the cartage company, but it's still money that's coming to us. So on top of higher personal property taxes that they weren't expecting, after your office essentially promised them that the 20% reduction wouldn't be needed this year because, in your estimation, the assessed values would be returned to normal.

[02:45:02] Apparently that hasn't happened, and they're now dealing with higher-than-expected personal property tax bills. In addition to the increase in tip fees that they're now paying and the county is receiving indirectly to the cartage companies, in addition to the resolution, I would propose a directive to the county executive to bring forward at the next meeting, or as soon as is possible, some manner of relief.

[02:45:31] As you were stating, I would suggest starting with any remaining surplus that we haven't already spent. We are limited in the way that we can reimburse the residents for that. I believe, perhaps the county attorney can opine on this, I believe the only mechanism we've got for returning surplus funds is through refunds to the real estate tax.

[02:45:56] payers by statute. Madam Chair, members of the board, Mr. Treat sent a, actually Mr. Shorter sent a communication to the board and my understanding is if there is a surplus it's both on real property and personal property. If you could just double check that, my understanding was you could only do it on the real property tax. The code was amended recently and we double checked it. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor, we're still in discussion Supervisor Bodie. Thank you Madam Chair. Before

[02:46:32] Before I dive into my discussion on this, I guess a question both for the chair but for staff also. Would this be a good time to have Ms. Attrey also comment on the other side of this, which is the Commonwealth-administered personal property tax relief, the car tax relief?

[02:46:50] Because that's another part of this, too. We're in discussion on this motion after. After. Okay. That was my question. That all said, thank you, Supervisor Franklin, for this. I know you and I spoke on the phone recently. I had a very similar mind as you.

[02:47:07] I think that, as Supervisor just said, some of what was understood during budget season this time as it pertains to what would happen with the appreciation or depreciation of vehicles wasn't completely understood.

[02:47:24] And now we're in a situation where folks, as of that January, one of that snapshot of what their vehicles was valued at was much different than we thought they were going to be and much different from what the citizens thought they would be. So now we're in a situation where we have to really address this to make sure that folks are able to have peace of mind here.

[02:47:41] So I appreciate the opportunity for us to push that deadline farther back to give people more time, but also, frankly, to give us more time, staff more time to look at those options as discussed. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Vice Chair Bodie. Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair. A lot has been said, but I just want to be very clear that what we're going to go ahead and move forward is this proposal to just extend the payment time for folks. The word relief has been thrown out there. There is no relief. We're just extending the payment timeline so that folks can have time to try to figure out where they're going to get the additional funds needed to pay their bills. And so I know, Supervisor Weir, you stated that

[02:48:20] you wanted Supervisor Franklin to go ahead and move forward with her directive right now, but I I just, Madam Chair, just so that we can do things in an orderly fashion, I think we need to separate the two somehow so that we don't get things confused and so that the general public understands what we're doing. At this moment, we're discussing just the extension.

[02:48:38] I believe if Supervisor Franklin had continued, she would have given a directive to explore relief. We are not there right now. We're in discussion about just this waiving the rules of procedure for the extension. We can have a different conversation after that. Supervisor Angry.

[02:48:56] Thank you, Madam Chair. I agree. There's more to this, and Mr. Treat will dive into it. But, I mean, the state has an issue with this personal property tax, and we need to figure this out and do something different if we can in this county. And I will say this. You know, this is why that commercial tax base has been so important to me in raising it, because if there's a way I can get rid of this or cut this in half or have a conversation about that, then I definitely explore this.

[02:49:21] And I'll just say this last thing. No one up around this board wanted to see anybody's personal property vehicle, used vehicle tax, go up. That's just a horrible thing. It makes no sense. It's very frustrating, and we would have to find a solution that can work for everyone in Prince William County.

[02:49:37] Thanks, Madam Chair. Thank you. Supervisor Bailey. We're still in good. Can I ask Michelle something or no? No? We're in the second time of discussion. All right. I have a question for Michelle. Okay. So the question is, Michelle, what is, what's the risk?

[02:49:56] So we're still in discussion. Oh, so you said I can't or can't? Yeah, you can't. Just let's get through discussion and then we can bring her up and just grill her. Sorry. Supervisor Lawson. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm with you, Supervisor Bailey. I have a question, too.

[02:50:12] And so I know we have a motion on the floor in discussion. And I'm going to support the resolution. I voted against the car tax bill to begin with. So, of course, I want to extend this, but I do have some questions related to how staff is going to handle this from communications and those factors, but I'm obviously a yes for the extension.

[02:50:41] Okay. I don't see any other discussion. I'm just going to throw out there, I initially supported, in my mind, a 60-day because it comes before christmas and before the end before january 3rd which is in the prior year but if everybody wants 30 days that's fine i just um 90 days um i kind of worry about people then having their bills due right after christmas but that's just from a practical cash flow standpoint i mean it doesn't really matter when and if we give relief we give relief but i just want to throw

[02:51:21] that out there so with that there's a motion on the floor please vote vote unanimous okay i know that Supervisor Franklin was going to offer up some directives. We also have some questions regarding what we just passed. If we could just stick to that, Ms. Adtreet, and talk about maybe. I know Supervisor Bailey and Supervisor at Lawson had questions about what we just passed, so I'll defer to them for the moment.

[02:51:52] Thank you, Madam Chair. Michelle, talk to us about the risk. What is the parameters of what would make it the danger in this? Sure. So state code allows the governing body to extend the personal property tax deadline by 90 days by resolution, which you are doing.

[02:52:11] We certainly always have to be cognizant of our cash flows. So we have looked at our cash flows. We are in this resolution limiting this to the vehicle classification, right? So on October 5th, you have vehicles due and you also have business tangibles, which is like your computer and peripheral tax, all those.

[02:52:28] That due date under this proposed resolution would stay intact. With that, we are comfortable with 90 days. If we were to include it all, what I would caution, any large purchase decision outside of what's planned, right, what's budgeted and planned, we would just ask that we have a chance to look at it to make sure that we have the cash flows to support, you know, if some opportunity came up for us to major outlay for whatever reason, like we purchased the CRC, right, like if there was some other opportunity that came up and we made a decision to purchase an item that we hadn't budgeted for and we were pulling from reserves to do, we would just want to make sure that we have the opportunity to analyze the cash flow

[02:53:07] to make sure that we have the cash to continue to meet payroll and our regular operating costs on top of this delay in cash flow coming into the county. But right now we believe we're comfortable. I will caution the only thing is there could be a loss of some investment earnings over the next three months, right?

[02:53:25] So we'll have to just factor that into our quarterly reports, but i don't foresee that as as a huge issue to your year end where we come in at the end of the year thank you you're welcome supervisor lawson did you have a question yeah thank you um so the media will help us get this word out yeah they might maybe write in the articles right now how else are we going to communicate to the average taxpayer that they have this extension on and i know we did this a few years ago with covid but do you have a mechanism that is pretty easy to

[02:54:02] utilize so you're right so we'll work with our communications office to make sure we get messaging out on the county website social media on our own website like i said through the media we'll get the word out and this will impact taxpayers who have not paid unfortunately there are some taxpayers who have paid their personal property i was just and that was my next question There's no mechanism to refund it, so, you know, they will have a credit on their account to the new due date.

[02:54:28] And how much have you collected to this day? I don't have that number on me. Do you think 20% of the? I don't have a number on that, but I can get that to the board. Sure. Supervisor Boating.

[02:54:43] Say that again? Thank you, Madam Chair. And to go back to my original question earlier, Michelle, could you speak to the Commonwealth Car Tax Relief Fund? Sure. So the Personal Property Tax Relief Act has, over the years, the percentage of relief to taxpayers has declined.

[02:55:03] So that Personal Property Tax Relief Act came into play in around 2005, 2006, and that was following the no-car tax. So under Governor Gilmore, there was a proposal and an adoption for a no-car tax, and taxpayers at that time got 70% on the first $20,000 of their taxes relieved.

[02:55:20] and that happened up until 2005 and then the state hit some fiscal turbulence of their own and they ended that program and put in PPTRA and the PPTRA at the time was a fix they allocated $950 million statewide to be sent to jurisdictions to offset the car tax for for residents and it was a fixed amount it was based on the 2005 tax billings if you look at Prince William County we have since 2005 have grown tremendously so our share has been fixed since that time and every every year we have to recalculate and spread that out to more and more vehicles vehicles of higher

[02:55:57] values um it's because it's on the first 20 000 so now it's going you know it's getting spread over a lot a lot more places and so across the state most jurisdictions have seen a decline if you look back to 2005, about 57% of an individual's tax bill on the first $20,000 value was relieved.

[02:56:18] Six years later, it was like 48%. It's now 38%. So eventually, there will become a time when it's a fairly small amount if we continue to grow. Thank you for that. I just wanted that highlighted because, yes, the personal property tax that we set as a board is part of that, but this tax relief is another part where because we go from 80 to 100 percent with this past budget we did but there's also that diminishment of the relief from the commonwealth it sort of compounded in ways that were wasn't originally anticipated that way yeah i'll add in that added to our

[02:56:53] legislative agenda should be addressing the fact that the the car tax relief has been stagnant since 2005 before i defer to uh supervisor franklin for talking about uh what her directive was going to be. I have Supervisor Angry and Supervisor Weird. Do you have questions for Ms.

[02:57:09] Atreid? Supervisor Angry. I had two, but I forgot. So it's the vehicle registration. So I know we now charge $33 for vehicle registration. I don't think you have the number on your head. And I think in 21, we went up from $20 to $33. Those are only, I mean, every dollar matters, I know.

[02:57:36] But so if we were to not even have that, if we just went back to $20, I'll start with $20. Like, I know that's a significant amount of what the county brings in for revenue. But I'm just thinking of ways that we can try to help get away and relieve a lot of this with the board here.

[02:57:54] A lot of these issues on this personal vehicle use tax. So how much money do we generally make off of that, off the registrations? I don't have that with me right now. What I will tell you, it's part of your general revenues. So whatever we dial back, it gets shared with the schools today.

[02:58:11] It's not money that goes directly to the county. It's part of general revenues. Okay, and I fully understand that, and that's why that's really a conversation we really need to have. The other thing, you know, Supervisor Vega and I were, like, instrumental in pressing on this whole people who register their vehicles out of state and so they don't have to pay the vehicle tax and all this stuff or the decal.

[02:58:35] But I was... Pleased to see that per this document you gave that even if these vehicles are not registered in the county, they still are charged for this used vehicle tax. So they get an out-of-state vehicle license fee that is charged to them.

[02:58:55] If we find them to owe personal property tax, then, of course, we would get that as well. Some of them have valid exemptions for other reasons, but we do pursue all of those, and we have collected and identified taxpayers through that program. I think that's important for people to know because, you know, as we stood up this program and got some FTEs to go out and really, you know, find folks who are living in Prince William County with out-of-state tags and either get them to register or find them for that, which I'm wondering if that's a program we should continue or, you know, how that program is doing and will we ever get to an end of that or is the real issue really just the used vehicle tax?

[02:59:32] And I know we get a lot of revenue off of that. I know it's a state-run program, but I think somewhere in the state, you know, governor, delegation, they need to figure out how to get rid of that tax, to tell you the truth, because it's tying our hands on what we've got to do according to a deal in rural state.

[02:59:49] Got it. I know you know all this. I just want to say it out loud with everything that we're talking about here and how we can find ways to be creative in assisting our residents in either getting rid of or lowering this tax because it's a burden. So thank you.

[03:00:04] Thank you, Madam Chair. Supervisor, will you have a question for Ms. Atreid? Simply a clarification. The car tax relief is a known quantity every year. Yes. So it's incumbent on us as a body in your office to factor that in so that the public knows what they're going to be paying on an increased basis.

[03:00:27] So if we know it's going to increase by X number of dollars because the value of the total assessment of the vehicles has gone up, and we need to adjust our rate to offset that if we're going to indeed provide some sort of relief on an ongoing basis or at least try to maintain a level playing field.

[03:00:47] That's on us, not necessarily on the state. If I may. So one of the challenges we have is at the time when we propose a budget and even through a budget adoption is it's very early in the process. We are just receiving the NADA files, which have to be imported into the tax database.

[03:01:06] The percentage for tax relief, We have to estimate how many vehicles we think will be coming in over the course of a year, which when you go back historically, it's all over the place. There's not really a, you know, it's not, I can say every year we're going to add 5,000 vehicles. Some years it's a whole lot. You know, when values became very high with vehicles, people were unloading them because they could sell their cars for a profit.

[03:01:25] You know, in years where values are very low, people tend to hang on to their cars. So there are some challenges with it. We do, you know, we do try to do the best we can with the information that we have at the time. I would simply suggest that by the time markup comes around, you would have a better sense. and we could adjust it at that point. Thank you.

[03:01:41] I think she's saying that they don't. Ms. Setchley, real quick question, and then Supervisor Lawson. When we raised the vehicle registration fee from 24 to 33, do you know offhand if it had been 24 for a long time or what the history of that was?

[03:01:57] Yeah, it has been a long time. I don't recall the year it was changed last, but it had been a number of years, and that was consistent with most of our peer jurisdictions. Thank you. Supervisor Lawson. To Supervisor Weir's point, markup is four months later, so I do concur with him that we should have had a better idea of the market, and I can't help but wonder, did your revenue committee miss this?

[03:02:24] Because your revenue committee meets about this time of the year, right? They do. So who missed this? I mean, this is pretty significant, and I went back and watched the video, and we had some dialogue. and well anyway i i specifically said we're we're going to 100 value and you said yes so the the board members that voted for it knew straight up but who who um does the in who who requires us to

[03:03:00] use the nada and did the revenue committee miss the mark on on that sure so the state requires us to use a nationally recognized valuation service. NADA is the most widely used one because it's the most comprehensive. So we do use that value. What we did see in NADA is that most values did decline. You know, where in the past we were seeing them appreciating 20 to 30 percent. We were seeing most declining 10 to 20 percent. So there was that decline in value. The reduction in the PPTRA is the other piece of it. And so combined. So Michelle, you're saying last year there was a

[03:03:37] decline in value or when you said there was your tax year 2023 so january 1 2023 assessments most vehicles did decline in value so it's so then it's fair to say it's the 20 it's going from 80 to 20 then is that is that the rationale why they're seeing higher bills they are seeing higher bills because i think they appreciated closer probably to 30 in some cases the prior year and then we did 80 percent of a 30 percent appreciate appreciated value so now we're doing 100 percent of a 20 percent appreciated value okay you're throwing a lot of math at me um but but it boils

[03:04:16] down to you're saying that they were depreciating but not at the rate that was anticipated correct yes i think that's an easier way to say it yes okay all right well as long as we're talking about tax relief up here i'd love to have a conversation about the meals tax if anyone's interested. Supervisor Franklin, do you want to go ahead with your directive?

[03:04:38] Thank you for the humor, Supervisor Bailey. Sure. So currently Prince William County uses J.D. Power, as just mentioned, pricing guide to determine the assessments of vehicles. So I like to direct staff to explore other nationally recognized pricing guides as the basis for the assessment and to report back to the Board of Supervisors on available options for next year.

[03:05:03] Also, kind of alongside that and that's for informational purposes just so we know kind of what the options are out there not saying that just to manage expectations that we will change but it'll be good I think for the board and the public to know exactly how this process works and then perhaps you know there will be a discussion about you know does it make sense to use a different option. Also to that I would also like to issue a directive to have staff look at the levels of impact on revenue regarding

[03:05:33] If we were to give a 5% rebate for residents, a 10% rebate or a 20% rebate on property taxes on county operations, what that impact would be. Is that clear?

[03:05:49] Personal property tax on vehicles. Not property taxes. Not the data center tax. And if I may, it would have to be surplus revenue because we can't give a rebate. So we would have to look at what 5, 10, and 20 come up with, and is there an equal amount of surplus that could cover that?

[03:06:10] But we'll approach it with those three amounts. Madam Chair, members of the board, I would request you use the word refund, not rebate. I stand corrected. Thank you. So there's no objection to those directives. Okay, great. I think we're done with this.

[03:06:27] Does anyone else have any questions for Mr. Shorter? No, seeing none, we're on to county attorney time. Ms. Roble. I think we already did. Supervisor Roble, County Attorney Ms. Roble. Thank you Madam Chair and members of the board. We have an item for discussion in closed session. It will be consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members pertaining to the discussion or consideration of the acquisition of real property for public purposes to include park purposes where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect a bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body with the related discussion concerning an economic development item regarding

[03:07:06] expansion of a prospective business or industry where no previous announcement has been made of the business or industry's interest in expanding their facilities in the county, along with the related discussion or consideration of the investment of public funds for economic development matter where competition or bargaining is involved, where if made public initially, the financial interest of the county would be adversely affected, and where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the litigating posture, bargaining position, or negotiating strategy of the public body. And this item is appropriate for closed session pursuant to 2.2-3711A3, 5, and 6 of the Virginia Code. So moved, Madam Chair. Second. Motion made by Supervisor Angry, seconded by Vice

[03:07:46] Chair Bodie. Any discussion? Seeing none, please vote. Unanimous. Anything else, Ms. Ruppel? No, ma'am. Thank you. Okay, that brings us on to item number 10, Supervisor's Time. Today, I'm going to start to my left, and we can go around the horn. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon or evening.

[03:08:12] And we're glad to be back, aren't we? We're really excited to be back. Vacation time is over, and school time is here. You know, everybody's back in school. So it's a new year, and we're ready to go. Thanks to, I want to give special recognition, and thanks to, over the summer, I had a wonderful intern, Sabella Colson, and she's a student at Colgan Senior High, and Sabella was a great additive to our staff, an independent thinker, a hard worker. She's very interested in politics and engaging her

[03:08:50] colleagues or her friends into understanding our local politics and what we do here. And so I wish her well in her senior year. I think she's going to be great no matter what she does. So, Sabella, go forth and conquer.

[03:09:06] Thanks to Dr. Vanessa Gaddis for the Prince William County Community Foundation for hosting myself and Supervisor Franklin in an amazing event this summer preparing to serve our students. She had a vaccine clinic and a backpack drive, and I was very fortunate to really support her in that.

[03:09:26] And we served over 2,000 students, and it was really exciting this year to see the growth of that program. Overall, no dates, but, you know, didn't take a vacation. So I participated in the Black-Owned Business Roundtable with Representative Abigail Spanberger and Supervisor Victor Angry in the Maternal Roundtable with Abigail Spanberger and a lot of our local medical professionals who were very interested in maternal and women's health care.

[03:09:58] I also participated with Delegate Maldonado here recently on a panel concerning affordable housing. And I was so fortunate that we had a ribbon-cutting at the Barracks Commons, our new strip mall here in the Potomac District.

[03:10:16] And so congratulations to the architect and the developer and the community for that. Last Friday, and I want to thank my colleague, Supervisor Lawson, for participating in the ribbon cutting that we had at the Anne Moncure Wall Park dedication where we did a lot of the renovations and upgrades and added pickleball to that area.

[03:10:39] So, Seth, thank you so much for upgrading a park that's been there since the 70s, the mid-70s. I attended the 30th Annual Afro-American Heritage Festival in Manassas, the El Salvadorian Festival where we did a ribbon cutting, and I also attended this wonderful Tuskegee Airmen and Women Air Force Traveling Exhibit, which is another historical piece in our county that's very important for our students to learn about, attended a play with You for Tomorrow, and it was entitled Every Brilliant Thing.

[03:11:18] And everyone should, if you hear about it out in the community, you should go and see it. It was a one-woman show, and she did an impeccable job. On October 5th coming up, 15, excuse me, coming up, I'll be proud to join my colleagues on the dais, don't forget, put it on your calendar, our third annual 5K Mental Health Awareness Walk, and the theme is Reset, Refocus, and Renew.

[03:11:44] And it's scheduled for Sunday, October 15th, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Prince William Forest Park. So please, I look forward to everyone participating. And with all that, Madam Chair, I thank you. That's all I have. Thank you, Supervisor Bailey.

[03:12:00] Vice Chair Bodie. Thank you, Madam Chair. I went to quite a few different community events over the August recess, from National Night Out to a lot of the things that have been said already by Supervisor Bailey. So I appreciate her going through a lot of the events.

[03:12:16] I will not rehash them. I will look ahead. Um, want to make sure that folks, uh, one, want to thank the folks that joined us for our listening session on the, uh, Old Bridge Road 123, uh, design, um, listening session a few weeks ago.

[03:12:35] Got a lot of great feedback from community members, business owners, but especially residents of the area that's going to be affected by that project. I want to say look ahead to September 20th, 6.30 to 8 o'clock. Our county department of transportation will be holding a public information session on the new design alternatives based on that feedback.

[03:12:56] I'm really excited to work with transportation on this. There's a lot of new designs that are sort of in the works that will hopefully mitigate a lot of the impacts that both businesses and residents were concerned about with the previous design, while still delivering a lot of relief, especially for folks that day after day are either having to weave across three lanes of traffic to turn left on Old Bridge Road or get backed up going the other direction all the way back from the Fairfax County line.

[03:13:19] So again, September 20th, 6.30 to 8 o'clock at Occoquan Elementary School. On September 28th, VDOT will be hosting a public information session on the 95-123 interchange. So just south of that intersection I was discussing where 95 meets 123, VDOT will be hosting a listing session, a public information session on that.

[03:13:44] The location will be TBA, but please look out for that as well. And finally, as it is almost mid-September, again, want to put on people's radar that on Saturday, October 21st, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., My office will be hosting our second annual Barktober, this time called Barktober Fest.

[03:14:05] Really, really looking forward. We have even more vendors and different folks from the pet community, the dog community. We will again have the SPCA out. We'll have the animal shelter out. We had great success getting animals adopted last year.

[03:14:20] Hope to double and triple that. This year we will be over at Chin Park Library to be in conjunction with their fall festival. So please look out for that. And on a much more personal note, over the recess, my family lost our almost 10-year-old Cyrus Eades.

[03:14:38] On August 22nd, he passed away after almost a decade on this world. Really appreciate all the outflowing support and love that I've gotten from my village over the last few weeks. This was a boy who was told very early on, they told my wife when she was pregnant with him, they would not be born alive.

[03:14:59] than that he would not see his first birthday. Well, he lived almost 10. So we cherished every minute we had with him, and we hope that he will live on in our hearts, and we'll actually be planting him as a tree on Arbor Day of next year so he'll be in our backyard forever.

[03:15:15] Thank you, Madam Chair, for the time. Thank you, Vice Chair Bodie, and obviously our condolences for you as a board. Supervisor Lawson. Thank you. Supervisor Bodie, it sounds like he defied a lot of odds, And the Lord had a mighty plan for him.

[03:15:33] And I know he touched my heart the few times that I was in his presence. And I believe with all my heart he is dancing with the Lord in heaven. And I'm sorry that your family has endured such a loss. So that's a tough note to follow.

[03:15:53] This weekend, starting Friday, September 15th, is Rosh Hashanah. And I believe the children have school off this Friday. so i want to um just wish a happy rosh hashanah to all my jewish friends and i look forward to seeing rabbi shmuley i think he's coming into the office maybe this friday or next week anyway um also just want to kind of tease the public it's been a long time coming maybe i could get a drum roll please that we are going to soon announce the ribbon cutting for the long anticipated

[03:16:28] of Rollinsford Park so if you live in that area actually it's a regional destinational park so you don't even have to live in the Linton Hall of Rollinsford area to come out and enjoy this beautiful park Seth Hendler Voss and his team have worked very diligently with me literally over the years on this park project and I'm really excited about this ribbon cutting that we will announce soon. And I also just want to say thank you to the park and rec staff who were at the dog swim

[03:17:05] at Veterans Park, Supervisor Franklin. That was fun. I got a video to show you of a whole bunch of puppy dogs that were swimming at the pool on Saturday. But anyway, just want you to know that i'm really excited about this park it was a community effort and it's finally coming to fruition even though we've had a lot of challenges along the way and mr shorter i'm sure you're going to be invited i hope you can come out and join us for this big ribbon cutting you'll i think you'll

[03:17:39] like it thank you supervisor weir i've said quite enough this afternoon but i will make one note of something. Our office will be having on September 28th a seminar on navigating Medicare that's open to anybody. It's being hosted on the Area Agency on Aging, and you can refer to the Gainesville Supervisor's Facebook page for time and any other requirements. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Angry. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[03:18:10] We talked a lot about the vehicle tax, so I'll move on that one. I want to welcome and congratulate Ideal Realty Group, the Sigmund Companies, and Rock Creek Properties for the purchase of four Dell City Shopping Centers that represent a crucial step forward in the revitalization efforts of Dell City area. This purchase was published in many business journals signaling a positive direction and interest in the Neasco District. The Neasco District is on its way to being the premier community it once was, the district that bought former Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff

[03:18:48] General Retired Colin Powell to Dell City and we will solve our overcrowding problem and bring older communities back to a standard of excellence. I continue to work with our transportation departments on many transportation projects in the Asco District and I just want to name off a few. We work pedestrian bridge across the Dale Boulevard at the Neopsicle Common Place and Stonebridge Town Center intersection there.

[03:19:15] Darby Dale Forest, Dale Corridor Improvements, Dale Boulevard Star Study, Dedicated Bus HOV Lanes on Dale Boulevard, Peak Hour Express Bus Study, a Comprehensive Safety Plan, Benita Fitzgerald Drive Sidewalk Improvements, Red Wing Sidewalk Improvements, and no parking of commercial vehicle boats and trailer sign locations throughout the Neasco District, just to name a few.

[03:19:40] So excited about what we have going on, what we've been able to complete. And lastly, I'll just simply say we are close to our Courts District dreams, and that whole intersection should be a reality here soon. And Supervisor Lawson, who left, I want to see her park and raise her a Cloverdale ribbon cutting soon.

[03:20:02] I think we're close to those improvements, those final improvements, and then we will get all of that wrapped up and have a big event out there. So thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Supervisor Angry. Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair. It was a busy recess indeed, and I hope the county staff enjoyed not having to work and prepare for a board meeting because it was Labor Day.

[03:20:21] With that being said, August 1st, it was National Night Out. I had a great time engaging with folks in the community. We were over on the eastern part of the county, and we had great conversations not just with adults who were in attendance but also with children and the youth. On August 5th was the third annual Salvadorian Festival here at McCourt.

[03:20:38] This year, due to the demand, the event was actually held in the back over at the stadium, and it was well attended, and I was honored to be able to present a proclamation. On August 12th, we had our backpack school drive for students in the Coles District. I do want to say a special thank you to all of the folks that made their donations to our office.

[03:20:56] It was just our office, and we were able to give away over 100 backpacks full of school supplies to ensure that our kids had all the essentials they needed for this school year. A special shout-out also to the Prince William County Police Department and the Lake Jackson Volunteer Fire Department who made themselves available.

[03:21:15] When the kids were picking up the backpacks, they were able to get in the cruiser, talk to the officer, and then they moved along to the fire engine. And so it was a really neat experience for them. I also attended the Tuskegee Airmen Ceremony on August 22nd, along with Governor Yunkin at the Manassas Airport.

[03:21:32] It was a really great and inspiring day honoring the men and women who chose to serve their country in spite of intense discrimination and segregation. On August 24th, I, too, attended the Youth for Tomorrow's dinner and show fundraiser, Every Brilliant Thing. I do want to make an emphasis on how uplifting the evening was and what the play focused on.

[03:21:49] It really focused on those that are struggling with deep depression, mental illness, and suicidal thoughts. And it really puts things in perspective, and I appreciate the ministries provided by Youth for Tomorrow and all that they do. On August 25th, I bumped into several of my colleagues over at the Tank Farm.

[03:22:05] It's an annual event that they have, and it's put on by the Americans in Wartime Museum off of Aiden Road, and they always put on a gray display, and this year was no different. On August 30th, I attended the Parsons Business Park community meeting to listen to their thoughts on the new proposal for Parsons.

[03:22:21] I want to thank members of the community that came out to give their opinion, and also to the presenter for being patient as folks were asking questions. And finally, yesterday was, of course, our annual 9-11 ceremony here on the grounds of McCourt. Our prayers and thoughts continue to go out to the families of the 22 Prince William County souls whose lives were taken that morning.

[03:22:41] We will never forget that day, the lives we lost, and the heroism of those who risked their lives trying to save their countrymen. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Supervisor Vega. Supervisor Franklin. Yes, thank you. I'll start by just pointing out that Freedom High School had the opportunity to play DeMatha last week.

[03:22:59] And there was rain and lightning on that Friday, so they tried to continue on Saturday, which also ended in no contest. So I was going to declare by virtue of this board that Freedom won, but I'm not sure I actually have that authority. But congrats to Freedom on having such an awesome game and awesome competition there.

[03:23:19] August 1st did National Night Out, was joined by several of my colleagues there. August 11th, I had an ice cream social at the Woodbridge Senior Center. So I want to thank them for having me come out. On the 12th, I had the privilege to co-host the third annual back-to-school event held at Freedom High School.

[03:23:38] We worked with the Prince William Community Foundation alongside Delegate Candy King, Supervisor Bailey, and other community partners where we gave away about 3,000 backpacks and hoping to make the event even bigger next year. On the 15th, I had the opportunity to rededicate the Marumsco Acre Lake Park, which underwent extensive renovations.

[03:23:57] And thank you to Seth Helmer Valls, who helped to lead that effort. Residents were very impressed and very grateful for the upgrades there. On the 17th through the 18th, I attended the VACO Conference in Richmond, the Virginia Association of Counties, where I serve as chair of the Economic Development Committee.

[03:24:15] And on the 21st, I joined residents of the Acclaim of Elmont Bay to celebrate National Senior Citizens Day. August 22nd, I also attended the Tuskegee Airmen event at the Manassas Airport to not only celebrate their legacy, but also the Women Air Force Service pilots.

[03:24:34] And so just thank Supervisor Bodie for allowing me the opportunity to speak there on his behalf. Also, later that afternoon, I met with the Vice President of Southern Management Company. This is the property owners of Bayview and Longview, and we had a good discussion about public safety and how to continue that partnership and making sure that activity levels are down, which they are in terms of public safety events in their communities.

[03:25:00] And they're very thankful to not only us, but our police department for working hand-in-hand with them. Just a couple more events. I joined the Holiness Tabernacle Church on August 26th for their groundbreaking ceremony, and this board helped to move that project along. On the 27th, I did Family Fun Day at Bethel AME.

[03:25:19] And then we also unveiled our Northwood Bridge Route 1 landscaping enhancement project. So I want to thank staff for working diligently on that to getting the landscaping done. And we had a good number of residents that came out as well.

[03:25:35] 30th, I joined Freedom High School for back-to-school night. And on September 9th, I sponsored the annual fall festival and chili cook-off at Stonebridge. So that was fun, and we were joined by a Freedom High School student who was one of the judges. And then yesterday, as mentioned, I did attend the September 11th Remembrance Ceremony here at the McCourt Building.

[03:26:00] A couple of upcoming events, the Latino Roundtable and Outreach event we have this Thursday, September 14th at Friendland Middle School from 7 to 8.30 p.m. open event. We will have free food, and we will have information from various organizations, so please come out and support. We have a public safety forum that I'm participating in with the Woodbridge Potomac Civic Association on September 21st from 7 p.m. until 8 30 p.m., and I believe that's going to be at Woodbridge Middle School, and then we have another dumpster day September 30th, and I believe that's all I have. Thank you. Not busy at all, are you? Okay. You know, I've been

[03:26:39] to a lot of the same events, and I'm partially just going to list some of them because it's important that people know there are so many things in the community, like National Night Out and the Manassas African American Heritage Festival. Got to go in Nova BMX ribbon cutting with Vice Chair Bodie with their new covered staging area. The Unity Braxton Middle School summer community event was great, even though it rained. There were so many people out there being excited for school getting coming back. The back-to-school event that my colleagues I held toast, was wonderful with the Community Foundation at Freedom High School.

[03:27:13] On the 22nd, I was honored to serve on a panel with the Northern Virginia Regional Elected Leader Summit where I discussed the importance with all of them with regionalism and how working cooperatively really makes a difference across the region and a difference. On the morning of the 23rd, I got to speak at the Welcoming Ceremony for Leadership Prince William Signature Class of 2024.

[03:27:35] Very exciting. I'm an ex-officio member of the LPW board, and it's a great organization for bringing leadership, you know, through Prince William County. The 26th, honored to speak with some of my colleagues at the Groundbreaking of the Holiness Tabernacle Groundbreaking Ceremony in Woodbridge.

[03:27:57] Woodbridge? Is it in Woodbridge? Okay. They relocated. Relocated to Aquaconda, and it was such a beautiful site, given in part by the Dawson family. Such a beautiful site for that congregation who we got to meet, given some of our issues with the takings at the old bridge, whatever, whatever.

[03:28:18] So that was a lovely end to that, conclusion to that. You know, and yesterday I was grateful to be able to give remarks at our community observance of the 22nd anniversary of September 11th. You know, it's been a lot of years, and I think about how every generation has that defining moment.

[03:28:35] You know, people talk about a day that will live in infamy, December 9th, but that's, you know, that's not, I wasn't alive then. And, you know, for me, my defining is September 11th, and, you know, and for the next generation, it will be something else, you know, and that, well, there's always something.

[03:28:55] But yesterday, I want to thank all those who attended yesterday's ceremony and came out, even in the heat and the potential for rain. It ended up being a beautiful morning. I also want to give notice that on next week's agenda, our meeting next week, under supervisor's time, there's going to be a board calendar amendment.

[03:29:18] You know, I know there's been a lot of talk that I scheduled the digital gateway for November 21st, and that's the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. And I completely agree that the Tuesday before Thanksgiving is not an appropriate time to hear the digital gateway.

[03:29:34] And so given some other changes in our calendar, it looks like we're instead of having an evening meeting with our General Assembly delegation, we're going to have a breakfast. I think we're working on it in conjunction with the school system. that might make it more fruitful than some of our other times have.

[03:29:51] Our school board, probably our meeting with the school board is going to be pushed to next year because we found it more fruitful in the past couple of years to do it in January. So all those will be outlined on next week's agenda when it comes out on Thursday morning. And I just want to give people a heads up with that.

[03:30:09] So, you know, I know there's been some talk about the digital gateway the Tuesday before Thanksgiving yet. No one wants to do the Digital Gateway the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, including myself. So it's not coming at all this week? No, it'll be coming in the weeks following that, yes.

[03:30:24] So I'll be doing those out next Thursday, but I just want to give people a heads up on that. So Supervisor Franklin, I'm done, but we're done with Supervisor's time. Yes, I forgot to do a notice of intent for Vanessa Ford.

[03:30:40] I believe her resume has been sent around for the Historical Commission. Madam Chair. Supervisor Bodie. Sorry, that reminded me. I have a notice of intent to reappoint Evelyn Brumar to the Human Rights Commission. Okay, we got this, Ms. Madden? Okay. With that, we're going to go into closed session, and we will be eating dinner here after, but we'll be eating dinner here, but we'll, yeah, okay.

[03:31:06] And we'll come out and report after closed session. Okay, okay. And with that, we'll go into closed session. Thank you. We are back from closed session.

[03:31:34] Could I get a motion to certify? So move, Madam Chair. Second. Motion made by Supervisor Bailey, seconded by Vice Chair Bodie. Any discussion? Seeing none, please vote. Vote unanimous.

[03:31:53] Supervisor Franklin absent from vote. And I will now defer to Supervisor Angry to report out on closed session. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd just like to make a directive here. Direct county staff to hold a public hearing on October 10, 2023, on a proposed interim agreement with MEB for a potential development of an indoor sports complex.

[03:32:17] Okay, thank you. That directive stands in. And Supervisor Angry, you had a notice of intent you forgot to report? Okay, Supervisor Lawson. Thank you. I'm not objecting to the directive. I'm just wanting the public to know that myself and some of the other colleagues up here, we want to hear from the public on this.

[03:32:39] We are not committing to an indoor rec center. What we are committing to is hearing from the public and their interest on the county investing in an indoor rec center. Thank you very much. And to be clear, no one's committing to a rec center or an indoor sports facility.

[03:32:56] Yeah. Okay. I guess that brings us to we have a 10-minute – No, he said he – he changed his mind. No, that's all right. Okay, so we're going to recess for nine minutes until 7.30.

[03:33:13] We will be back for our evening session. Thank you. Good evening. Welcome back to Board Chambers. It's now 7.30 p.m. and we're going to begin our evening session with public hearings. We have three items under our consolidated agenda for this evening.

[03:33:31] Because it's our consolidated agenda, we have no presentations necessarily associated with these items. So I'm going to begin by opening the public hearings on the Consolidated Items 12A, 12B, and 12C.

[03:33:49] Ms. Madden, do we have anyone signed up to speak on the Consolidated Agenda Items 12A, 12B, or 12C? No in-person speakers. Do we have anyone remote? And I will say, if there's anyone in chambers who has not signed up for the public hearing but would like to speak on 12A, 12B, and 12C, please approach the microphone in the back of the room.

[03:34:15] Seeing no one approach the microphone in the back of the room. And, Ms. Madden, do we have anyone online? This will officially close the public hearings for 12A, 12B, and 12C.

[03:34:33] Does any board member, before we vote on this, have any questions on the public hearing items? Okay, seeing no one signed up to speak from the board, I will entertain a motion for 12A, B, and C.

[03:34:50] Second. Who made the first one? Janine. Okay. Motion made by Supervisor Lawson and Supervisor Bailey. Any further discussion? Seeing none, please vote. Vote unanimous.

[03:35:10] Okay. Thank you all for coming out this evening for our land use cases. Thanks for doing business in Prince William County. Enjoy, you know. Okay. so that brings us to public comment time we're now on to item number 13 public comment time the board will begin with by hearing in person i'm going to call the speakers five at a time each speaker will have three minutes to share their views and opinions regarding the matters before the board we ask that all speakers state their name and the magisterial district or

[03:35:50] generally where you live in the county at the beginning of your remarks and if you don't do that i will interrupt you and remind you to do that i apologize in advance um we are going to enclose we're close the in-person sign-up list after the first 15 minutes of in-person public comments our first five speakers are ryan bartuff bartruff ali stoger carl greeton carol fox and

[03:36:14] alicia gloss ryan bartruff ali stoger carl greeton carol fox and alicia gloss and if you can make sure you speak into the mic or if you need to move it or tilt it down that's fine too it's our clock I need to wait for. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Ryan Bartroff. I'm a resident of the Gainesville

[03:36:49] District. I'm speaking this evening to support the Digital Gateway application. I live and work in Prince William County. I love it here. I love working in one of the most diverse school districts in the county and in the country. I'm blessed that I have a space where my kids can run around.

[03:37:05] I know why people want to move here and I know the county has a vision for the future where all the great things about this county are enhanced and supported and available to all. I believe that the Digital Gateway represents a sizable investment in achieving that vision. Our schools are full of dedicated, hardworking professionals and a student body that represents the infinite possibilities for the future. But our schools are also full, and the ongoing residential growth of our county is taxing our staff and our buildings. For example, Haymarket Elementary is set to become the largest elementary school in the county, larger than several middle schools. And that's not counting the proposed housing development that will sit directly behind

[03:37:44] the school. Our school system needs the infrastructure to support our growing communities and the resources to address their diverse needs. And to provide that quality and equitable education for our diverse communities, we need to attract and retain qualified experienced teachers. Research shows that the most influential factor for recruiting and keeping teachers is with a competitive salary that is reflective of both the importance of education and the cost of living in the district. Yet Prince William County Schools is one of the lowest spenders in the state on a per-pupil basis, and our school funding can't keep up with our student population. The revenue

[03:38:22] provided by the Digital Gateway will be a considerable boon to our schools and our students. I got to attend Bob Weir's open house last week. I was excited to see some of the proposed projects in our area. It's great that we're creating additional housing opportunities for families of all incomes, but the county also needs to balance those additions with projects that create stable revenue and a strong economic foundation. An opportunity like the Digital Gateway brings not only a financial boost to the county, but would also provide outdoor green spaces available to everyone. It will allow more people to experience some of the things that I love

[03:38:58] about this county. The Digital Gateway may not be the only way to achieve our county's vision, our strategic vision, but it offers a way to address many of our goals in a comprehensive manner. It can be used as a key to unlock this county's future. Please support the Gateway so that all of Prince William County can benefit. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi, Allie Stoger, Gainesville District. I'm sure you all know this already, but the revenue from the Prince William Digital Gateway will not be available for 10 to 15 years, which means the

[03:39:36] current first graders will be on their way to college while working their first job by the time we see the revenue that's going to help, quote unquote, the kids. I spoke to a young engineer the other day and actually a few weeks ago and he took a look at the magnitude of what we're doing in terms of contiguous zones of multiple data center campuses and the word that he used was soul crushing soul crushing because when you have green space being chopped down for one concrete

[03:40:13] monolith after the next in these kinds of numbers in something that's unprecedented implemented anywhere in the United States and even the world. It is soul-crushing, and it's a giant experiment. This board has been very proactive about mental health issues, so I'd like you to consider the mental health aspects of putting up one monolith after the next. It's a well-known fact

[03:40:45] that loss of green space is a factor in mental stress and mental health, especially for children. At core scale, at Gainesville Crossing, if you count up the number of data of diesel generators that are shown on their schematic on their website, it's 300 industrial strength diesel generators.

[03:41:11] That's for five data centers. Gainesville and Bristow and Haymarket are already zoned with 50. If you add in the Prince William Digital Gateway and Devlin and the Gardner Project, we're talking about 100 data centers, which would be 20 times the diesel generators that CoreScale has.

[03:41:34] So we're talking about 2,000 diesel generators. This is a giant community health experiment. And I can tell you that it will be a big source of stress for parents to consider that this could impact children's asthma. and it could also impact long-term lung cancer risk.

[03:41:56] We are in unprecedented patterns here. We cannot keep going and going and going as if there's no environmental and health consequences and especially the stress. We know what's happened at Great Oak.

[03:42:13] Those citizens have not been able to solve the noise problems and yet they have data centers going up on three sides of their community. We can't keep going this way. Stop the madness. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening.

[03:42:37] I'm Carl Gretton of the Gainesville District, and we are against the Prince William Digital Gateway and its associated rezoning. Quotes from songs have been presented before. Here's one more from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Baby, even the losers get lucky sometimes. Even the losers keep a little bit of pride. They get lucky sometimes. Pageland landowners are adamant about saying that the county will get $400 million from building the Prince William Digital Gateway. That amount will come in at at least the 15th to 20th year. In the meantime, the cost for new power towers

[03:43:13] will be $16.7 billion. We do not hear that the Pajan landowners are saying that Prince William residents will lose $16.3 billion, which is the number. Prince William County residents will be responsible for this rate increase. Why would the county vote for this absurd proposal? What happened to the multi-million donation to Prince William County? That has been wiped out by the Pageland landowners. We must pay the price for the outer beltway, increased water bills, skyrocketing electric bills, plus the taxes that the Prince William County Board of Supervisors are raising.

[03:43:51] These numbers are only a few of the problems. The developers have eliminated buffers and will also not purchase parkland. This will be another cost that Prince William County residents will have to pay for. That's 800 acres of land. Please defer or discontinue the current third zoning submittal and listen to your staff who recommends a fourth zoning submittal. Supervisor Bode, if 100 Occoquan residents came to you and asked you to not increase their electric, water, sewer, and trash bill,

[03:44:24] and if 100 Gainesville residents came to you and asked you to spend $16.3 billion of Prince William money, how would you vote? Supervisor Franklin, same question. If 100 Woodbridge residents came to you and asked you to not increase their electric, water, sewer, and trash bill, and if 100 Gainesville residents came to you and asked you to spend $16.3 billion of Prince William money, how would you vote? Supervisors have a third option. Vote no to rezoning and you will save

[03:44:58] Prince William County $16.3 billion. When did it last time that ever happened? This is an enormity of the Prince William Digital Gateway vote. Lame ducks can be gracious losers. Why do you care once you are gone? As Tom Petty says, even the losers keep a little bit of pride. They get lucky sometimes. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. Carol Fox from the Gainesville District.

[03:45:30] I just wanted to talk to you tonight about the car tax that has hit the mailboxes of all the residents in Prince William County. Not just the residents in Gainesville, but all the residents in Prince William County. I understand that you were told that the things had gone back to normal as far as cars were concerned.

[03:45:53] And so therefore, raising the tax back up to 100% wouldn't make any difference. But somebody forgot to tell you about this little thing called inflation. And inflation is not just for one month or one period.

[03:46:10] It is cumulative. All of the cars in Prince William County, all of the used cars in Prince William County, have gone up in their inflationary spiral as far as how much money they can bring on the open market, as well as, of course, the inflationary spiral affected the new cars that people would buy in Prince William County.

[03:46:34] Therefore, there is no normal that we are now in as far as after COVID. we are in the new normal created by COVID of inflation on our cars and therefore when you thought that everything would be fine you were wrong and I know that your residents are complaining to you about their increased costs and their inability to pay this new fee that you have tacked on to every home in Prince William County who has a car or two cars or some of you have

[03:47:09] three and four and business trucks and everything else included. So all of that money has gone up and the people are not happy with it. I am going throughout the county. I have talked to many different people on many different occasions about the car tax. I have been down in the Woodbridge District. I have been down in the Occoquan District. I've been down in the Potomac District and I've been in the Gainesville District as well as the Brentsville District and none of the people in those areas are happy with their new bill that they received from you for their cars.

[03:47:41] I want you to realize this. This is one thing that they are very much against, and they are very much looking towards replacing all those people who voted to raise their car tax. Thank you so much. Have a good evening. Before our next speaker, let me call off the next five.

[03:47:59] Alan Gloss, Ken Bloxton, Padreus Prater, Teresa Minns, and Bill Wolfe. Please proceed. Alicia Gloss-Coles. So earlier this afternoon meeting, I was absolutely disgusted listening to members on this board that voted for tax increases. Every year they've been in office say, oh, we need to do something about the tax bills. We have constituents calling us, emailing us, you know, blah, blah, blah. Well, guess what? Your votes say otherwise. Talked about,

[03:48:36] you know, we care about their livelihoods. Well, I believe you care about a livelihood. You care about your own livelihood. Care about your election livelihood. You know why I know this? You guys voted yourself a pay raise of 70% increase. You know who has to fund that and foot that bill? We do, the taxpayers. You guys voted for the mills tax. That has been devastating the Prince William County businesses. You also voted to increase our taxes, like I said, every year during the beginning of the pandemic, the middle and the end. And obviously when we're in the still inflation, we haven't recovered. I just think it's rather rich that you guys are going to

[03:49:15] sit there now, say these things and try to help us out now when we all stood before you during budget season. We came before you. We asked you not to do this. Board members, not board members, what staff presented you with the evidence and what it would do, what it would cost. You guys heard all the information, yet you still chose to vote for that.

[03:49:34] So you can't say that you didn't know, oh, I didn't know. I believe that your constituents have been complaining this whole entire time, and I have believed that they have voiced their concerns year after year. What makes this different is this is an election year. You guys care because you don't want to not get elected again.

[03:49:58] I will just caution again. Please don't be duped by the clowns up here on this board. they're running this county like a chaotic circus. And don't be duped on Supervisor Franklin and Supervisor Bailey and others. You know, while we do appreciate it, I would like to say that I appreciate and want to thank all the supervisors on this dais in the minority because they argued for the residents of Prince William County because they knew how it would affect us. I want to thank them for getting the vote right the first time because I'm just cautioning what other instances is this board going to regret later down the road they regret this obviously because it's an election

[03:50:35] season but as soon as they get re-elected I guarantee you they're going to go right back to their policies they're going to devastate the county more they're going to price us out of our homes they're going to price us out of the county and it's just going to continue so we have an we have an option guys vote we are to send a clear message uh you know supervisor or I should say chair outgoing chair she said earlier I don't know how to run the county government well we all knew that that's why one of the many reasons uh we voted you out you know and you lost your primary so thank god for that so guys please vote november please vote to change they're not going to change they just got caught with their can in the cookie jar they can continue to increase your taxes and

[03:51:15] do the same old same old next speaker please ellen gloss coles i appreciate this board addressing the tax calamity that this very board caused just a few short months ago but now it's acting like the 100% rate is suddenly news to this board. It's not. You guys voted for it. You knew it.

[03:51:43] You asked about it. It was discussed here. So if you want to hoodwink voters, I guess you just went ahead and did it. But we are paying attention. The folks that are paying attention know you are responsible for it. Ms. Franklin, you who introduced this today, you are absolutely responsible for it.

[03:52:00] You all set those rates and now you are doing a symbolic gesture of postponing the tax due date. have you done anything to fix the taxes? Absolutely not. My, how the chickens have come home to roost.

[03:52:17] And boy, they will be roosting in November. People started getting their tax bills and got sticker shock over the last few weeks. Now y'all want to address the taxes only because people are blowing up your phones and it's an election year. Let me just tell you that nothing wakes up a voter like taking money from them. Convenient that you push the due date just shortly past the November elections. But let's be very clear, you did nothing to stop the bleed on taxpayers. You will continue to take their money come December or January, whatever you push it to. And oh, by the way,

[03:52:55] when that 70% pay increase for this board hits, we're going to be hit with a much larger bill the very next year. But by all means, thank you for extending the time I have to scurry around to find the cash to pay for your 70% pay raise you gave yourselves. Let me tell you a story.

[03:53:18] This past June, I bought a car, not a new car, a used car, because that's all I can afford. The car, according to Kelly Blue Book, was worth $16,000. I paid $16,200 for it. The very next day, I went down to the DMV to register my vehicle. They charged me, or they attempted to charge me, a sales tax rate on that vehicle based on the NADA Blue Book, the NADA. NADA stands for North American Dealer Association Blue Book. It's in dealer's best interest to jack up the price of the car. It's also in the government's best interest to jack up the price of a car. That is

[03:53:58] the book that Prince William County uses to identify how much money my car is worth. Now, that not a blue book added $11,000 to the value of my car. How in the world can that happen? It only happens because it's in the dealer's best interest to have the prices higher. It's in the government's best interest to have the prices higher. Now, they attempted to make me pay an additional $11,000 worth of taxes on that six, seven-year-old vehicle. But luckily, I was able

[03:54:33] to talk them out of it. But then just shortly thereafter, I got a bill from the county for the exact same amount of money. Next speaker, please. Thank you. Good evening, supervisors. I'm Pedro Prater from the eastern side of the county in the Asco district. And I have two points I would like to share this evening. The first one is I'd like to see us, and this is perhaps bipartisan, this is something I think will be good for the community. I'd like to see us get our kids off

[03:55:12] the streets. I'd like to see maybe perhaps we pull them back from their cell phones and giving them something to do. What I propose is quite simply, if we find ourself with extra cash, is perhaps giving it a grant to the community rec centers so our parents who are having trouble affording those expenses can have a place for their students or their kids to thrive in the community in a safe environment. The second piece is this. What we're finding is for our senior citizens, They're being priced out, especially those people who are kind of my parents' age now,

[03:55:53] and we're having to potentially look at putting them in senior citizen centers. They're not able to afford it. So I'd ask if there's anything that you guys can do, please look at maybe a tax cut or something so that our parents can still continue to live in the community which they raised us.

[03:56:08] Those are the two points. The first one is perhaps a grant opportunity for our rec centers so our kids can have something to do. And then also looking at lowering the rate for senior citizens going into our senior houses. areas. Pagers Prater again, Neabsco District. Thank you for your time.

[03:56:27] Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi, my name's Ken Bloxton, and I'm just here to offer my support for the Prince William Digital Gateway. I'd also like to say this is a great meeting because there's nobody here, and it's going to happen really fast. So everybody enjoy your evening.

[03:56:50] Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. And we have two more speakers lined up right now, And then Bill Billard is our last speaker, if you want to line up also. Threesome ends the Potomac District.

[03:57:10] It was sad that when Alan Gloss was speaking, Supervisor Franklin chose not to listen to him. She had her head down, like she does now. But she doesn't mind jacking up our taxes, etc.

[03:57:27] Well, this is how Nazis took over Germany. They banned guns. They got rid of God. They banned church services, burned Bibles and books in the streets, tore down statues, burned the flag, got rid of any and all history they did not agree with, got rid of the public police so only the rich could afford it, put their country in a state of fear, created domestic terrorist organizations that got rid of anything and anyone that disagreed with them.

[03:57:58] that is the democrat party that what the glosses were saying is true if these democrats get voted in again or any democrat they are not going to look out for us they are going to jack up our taxes to where i don't know where we're going to go i live on a budget okay i can't help it because the rest of you think that i'm your piggy bank and i'm sorry i'm almost 73 years old i live on a budget. And I don't appreciate my tax dollars going to fluff up someone else's life. You know,

[03:58:38] because I've seen too many people, they got to have their nails done. They've got to have the best hairdo. They have to have this, have to do that. No, I don't bother with my nails getting done. You know why? I remembered how poor I used to be. And I'm sorry, I don't care if you do your nails. I don't care. But not on my dime. Not on my dime. Now, everyone, you need to know who is running for office before you go in and vote. You need to know who the Democrats are, who the Republicans are. And God help us if you vote for a Democrat. Because I'm going to say this once

[03:59:16] again. I voted for Obama the first time. Within three months, I knew I had messed up. Obama divided us, he brought so much hate to America. I'd never seen the way people are. I didn't know how evil people could be. And the Democrat Party proved just how evil people could be. Okay, so right now under Beijing Biden, Obama has his third term. If a Democrat is elected again, Obama will have his fourth term. And I don't bother calling my supervisor because, and that is Bailey, because

[03:59:56] she's worried about her 70% pay raise. She's not worried about me. I don't matter because I don't kiss anybody's feet. Nobody. I don't care who you are. You're just as important as I am and I'm just as important as you are. Please, you people own it if you vote for a demon rat. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Madam Chair, Honorable Board Members. My name is Bill Wolf and I'm a lifelong resident of Prince William County, currently residing in the amazing Brentsville District. I come here before you tonight because I've had the unique opportunity over the past

[04:00:36] couple of months to interact with residents across the Coles District, the Brentsville District, and the Gainesville District. And one of the things that remains on their minds is the Digital Gateway. And they are particularly upset these past couple of weeks after learning that there will be a vote in November on the Digital Gateway. And so they've asked me to come here tonight to speak for them to talk to you all and ask you to reconsider the vote on Digital Gateway. We know that during the primary election that data centers were on the ballot

[04:01:11] and the voters have spoken. I believe and the residents throughout Prince William County believe that there should be no rezoning without the consent of the governed. The governed have spoken and have asked for new leadership, and as a board, you all have a responsibility to those that elect you and put you into office. You have a responsibility to respond to their needs to understand their concerns. Now, we've heard a lot of numbers tonight. We've heard a lot of concerns about the cost of data centers, but the residents that are sitting at their kitchen

[04:01:48] tables tonight are concerned about other issues. They're concerned about the noise. They're concerned that the reasons that they moved to western Prince William County for the parklands and the battlefields is being taken away from them, even when they have expressed their concern about where these are going. And they're deeply concerned about the way that this board is handling this vote that's coming up. So on behalf of the residents of Coles District, Brentsville District, and Gainesville District, I urge you to reconsider the vote on November 21st,

[04:02:26] allow the rightfully elected board to be put into place next year, and to take up a vote that is reflective of how the residents of Prince William County truly feel, and that we will rezone based on consent of the governed and not on the consent of a few in leadership. Thank you for your time.

[04:02:46] Next speaker, please. Good evening, Madam Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, members of the board. I'm Bill Billard.

[04:03:03] I live on the border of Coles, Manassas. Well, yesterday marked 22 years of the anniversary of 9-11, of course, a day that will live in infamy. Many brave first responders, firefighters, police, volunteers, blue-collar workers, military, rushed to danger and saved so many lives that day.

[04:03:23] And unfortunately, we lost 22 lives of Prince William County citizens. Despite all that bravery and the tragedy that day, all the heroism, all the patriotism that followed, there was a dark side to the reaction of federal, state, and local government.

[04:03:43] If you can remember, shortly after, people panicked and lived in fear, and we saw the beginning of the erosion of our civil liberties and constitutional rights. If you can think back then, a lot of Fourth Amendment violations were occurring.

[04:03:59] Surveillance state increased. People who followed a particular religion were harassed, and it was a horrible time for them, I can only imagine. But as time progressed, you know, fast forward to 22 years, we're seeing more and more erosion of our freedoms, of our liberties, of our constitutional rights, because we are a society based on fear.

[04:04:27] with COVID restrictions, with certain tragedies involving firearms, and everyone is calling for collective punishment. I want to remind you all that collective punishment is not compatible with our constitutional representative republic. Now, I want to go back 22 years at the beginning of all this when we saw the violation of our Fourth Amendment rights and people being harassed.

[04:04:55] that was started by Republicans. I don't mind admitting the mistakes on my side of the aisle that Republicans started something called the Patriot Act. There was nothing patriotic about it because it was a violation of people's dignity, constitutional rights, civil liberties. But now it has escalated. Now we want to label people who criticize the government as insurrectionists and traitors or threats to our democracy. That's sad because we're also seeing that on the local level

[04:05:34] and with this call to disarm people in public parks with local gun control ordinances that's just an echo of what the Republicans have started 22 years ago. Don't make that same mistake because there's a bipartisan agenda to take away our civil liberties our freedoms and to not make us live as individuals as free individual citizens. So I'm encouraging all of you to please stand up for our constitutional rights and our civil liberties. Thank you. Thank you. That will

[04:06:10] conclude our in-person public comment time. Ms. Madden do we have anyone online? We have one person. I will turn it over to Vice Chair Bode to handle the one person. Sure. We're in for a marathon night Ms. Vann. Can you make sure that one person is online still? Yes here. First speaker is Ken Nahr.

[04:06:29] Ken Nahr, Gainesville District. As with this afternoon, for the same reasons, I'll keep my comments very brief this evening. The answer to the property, mail, and ancillary tax issues is the same as it's been for the last 20 plus years. You have to significantly increase the commercial tax base. The data center industry is the core of our commercial tax base.

[04:06:52] Once that core has been established, turn our economic development team loose, to flesh it out, and to fully diversify that commercial tax base. I respectfully request your support for the three rezoning applications coming up before you before the end of the year. Thank you and have a good night. Thank you, Mr.

[04:07:11] Knorr. Thank you, Ms. Vann. Back to you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Vice Chair Bode. Thank you, Ms. Vann. I know that was rough. With that, we are at the end of our evening and our final agenda item. I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. Motion made by Supervisor Bode or Vice Chair Bode, seconded by Supervisor Bailey, any further discussion?

[04:07:34] Seeing none, please vote.

[04:07:44] Vote unanimous. We are adjourned.

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