Coraggio Consulting
Prince William Board of County Supervisors Meeting — Organizational Meeting, Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Date: Tuesday, January 9, 2024
Place: Prince William County Board of County Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 1h 56m (video)
Official meeting video (Prince William County, Granicus): https://pwcgov.granicus.com/player/clip/3419
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 2026-11-02. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[00:31:44] please join me for a moment of silence thank you all rise for the reciting of the pledge allegiance

[00:32:03] all right thank you please be seated we are now on agenda item three with the approval of the meeting moment meeting minutes from december 2nd and from december 19th 2023 i will now

[00:32:40] entertain a motion to approve agenda items 3a and 3b so move madam chair second Any discussion? All right, please vote.

[00:33:02] Vote unanimous. Supervisor Horty abstaining from vote. Supervisor Franklin absent from vote. All right, thank you. We are now going to move on to agenda item four, which consists of five items.

[00:33:20] We are going to begin with my annual remarks. I kind of hope to do it from the podium, but I'll do it from the day of this because we're not properly set up today. My name is DeShondra Jefferson. I am the chair of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors.

[00:33:37] I want to begin by wishing everyone a happy and prosperous start to the new year. As this is my first opportunity to address the community as your new chair, I would like to take a moment to share my vision for the future and what I hope to accomplish during my tenure as your chair.

[00:33:55] Hope is a powerful word. It is a word full of promise, a word full of goodwill, a word full of excitement of what may come. I am very hopeful about the future of the Prince William Board, about the future of Prince William and the future of this board.

[00:34:12] I am hopeful that we will come together to collaborate so that we may better govern and lead in a way that encourages dialogue while respecting each other's opinions in a way that best serves the needs of the people. I strongly believe if we can collectively commit to working together, we can achieve great things for our community and be the positive change makers that our residents and businesses need us to be.

[00:34:37] I can say confidently that I am committed to working with each and every one of my colleagues to navigate what's ahead of us and to collaborate on solutions that will support the greater good of this community. A community can be defined as a feeling of fellowship with others. It is a feeling, but one that gives us a collective sense of purpose.

[00:34:57] It binds us together from the very eastern end of the county to the farthest stretches of the western end of the county. That's why I'm also confident that we as a board can work together To find solutions for responsible growth so that we can meet the needs of our growing population and guard against incompatible land use.

[00:35:16] To find solutions to diversify our tax base in a way that takes the financial burden off of our residents. And to find solutions to assist our most vulnerable neighbors by investing in affordable housing, public safety, and other much-needed services. We must also find solutions to ensure the safety and security for all members of our community.

[00:35:36] I have often said that Prince William County is a hidden gem, thanks to our proximity to our nation's capital, our strong school system, and our cultural diversity. So, I am hopeful that we will continue our strong partnership with the school system to ensure that we are providing the best possible education to our students who are truly the future of Prince William County.

[00:35:58] I am also hopeful that we will find ways to celebrate our cultural diversity and our differences. We are actually more alike than different in our shared existence. We can learn from each other and how truly interconnected we are and how special our community is because of it.

[00:36:15] If we can do all of these things, if we can foster a culture of unity and resilience, if we can be the catalyst of positive change, then we will leave a legacy of progress and shape a better future for our children and all those who come after us.

[00:36:32] Prince William County is indeed a gem. It is a very special place. All of us on the Board of County Supervisors, and many of you know that and believe that. That is why it is truly an honor to serve you and this community. Those of you who attended or watched the swearing-in ceremony last week heard the words of our poet laureate, hope is the hardest love we carry.

[00:36:55] But when we choose to carry it together, the weight feels lighter, more bearable, less burdensome. I am looking forward to working together with my colleagues, the staff, and each of you in the community to build a legacy and hope and progress here in Prince William County and it's time to get to work doing that just that thank you thank you we will now move on to item 4b which is the resolution

[00:37:28] to elect the 22 the 2024 vice chair for the board of county supervisors as a matter of form I will typically refrain from making motions but in this instance I have held individual conversations with each of the members of the board of county supervisors about who I would like to nominate for our 2024 Vice Chair and Pro Tem. These positions will obviously rotate each year, but I would like to be intentional in naming the two people who I think will be best in filling these roles this year. So first, I would like to nominate Supervisor Kenny Bodie as the 2024 Vice

[00:38:03] Chair. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? All right, please vote. Vote unanimous. Supervisor Bodie abstaining from vote and Supervisor Franklin absent from vote. All right, thank you. We will now move on to item 4c which is a resolution to elect the 2024 chair pro tem for the board of county

[00:38:42] supervisors i move to nominate oh sorry i move to nominate supervisor yesley vega as the 2024 pro tem second is there i can't even get to that is there a second any discussion madam chair yes congratulations thank you and uh i wanted to say uh i was um i'm very excited about this year with you and i'm i want to say to my colleague uh supervisor vega you rock that's all i'm going to

[00:39:17] say that's all i want to say i appreciate that all right if there's no further discussion please vote vote unanimous supervisor vega abstaining from vote supervisor franklin absent from vote all right we are on to item 4d which is the resolution to adopt yay which is the we are now on to item

[00:39:53] 4d which is the resolution to adopt the prince william board of county supervisors 2024 meeting schedule i will entertain a motion to improve item 4d so move madam chair second all right any discussion all right please vote vote unanimous supervisor franklin absent from vote all right we will now move on to item 4e which is the discussion of the prince william board of county

[00:40:30] supervisors rules of procedure i'm waiting um i know for the board this is something that um we have a board retreat coming up and i definitely like to entertain a discussion during that time i don't know if anyone has hold on um madam chair yes i'm sorry go on trying to leave i'm trying to learn because you weren't coming up take your speakers all right take your time i apologize i had supervisor weir come first and then supervise you'll go all right supervisor boat i'm sorry

[00:41:09] supervisor bailey i um i wanted to uh thank uh the county attorney for uh the initiation of this process and uh for and thank you for giving us an opportunity to have more input on this process It's something that we do traditionally every year, but there is opportunity for change and updating and revision.

[00:41:30] Not a lot, but we appreciate the additional time that you're giving us to make any updates that we need to make. So thank you for the advance notice as per usual. Thank you. Supervisor Weir. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[00:41:46] I'd really honestly like to postpone any further discussion on this until the work session. I've got a number of preliminary suggested amendments to the rules. I've been forwarded in this rule for review.

[00:42:02] I think we need to sit down and have a more in-depth and broader discussion of the impacts, what the upsides, downsides, and that sort of thing could be with potential changes to the rules. So I also give everybody else the opportunity to make some suggestions between now and the end of the month.

[00:42:20] So if we could defer any action on any of this until the work session, and Ms. Robles, since the work session will be actually a meeting, we can adopt the rules at the work session if need be.

[00:42:36] Madam Chair, members of the board, you can take action, transact action at any public board meeting, and your rules of procedure can be amended at any time. It does not have to be at your organizational meeting. It can be at any time during the year. That's all I've got.

[00:42:53] I do agree that we need to have a more thoughtful discussion, and thank you, Supervisor Weir, because you have shared some of your suggested changes with me, and I think that it does merit a good discussion. I'll be sharing with everybody else as soon as I finish going through the county attorney's changes. Well, I need the updated version myself.

[00:43:11] So with that, then, it doesn't seem like we have any discussion on this. I am going to move over into public comment time, and let me get my list together. so the board will hear in person in remote public comments we will begin with the in-person public comment time this afternoon we have two people who have signed up to speak um so i will call both of you um to the microphone we have rachel ellis from the gainesville district and alan goss from coles

[00:43:43] good afternoon um i'm my name is rachel ellis i live in the gainesville district good afternoon chair jefferson members of the board mr shorter and ms roble as i enter into the year 2024, I bring the word gratitude with me. Gratitude that there are people with the courage to stand up to corruption and challenge it. Welcome Chair Jefferson. Gratitude for change in the future. Gratitude for leadership that has a moral compass that is calibrated by integrity

[00:44:19] rather than greed. Gratitude for supervisors that vote their conscience to protect environmental and historical resources rather than abstain. Gratitude for a community that bands together to protect citizens whose quality of life is threatened.

[00:44:39] Gratitude for leadership that is willing to look beyond the promise of dollars generated to investigate the actual impact of land use decisions across the county and their impact into the future. Gratitude for a vision that sees one Prince William County representing all of us.

[00:44:57] Chair Jefferson, I'm asking you to listen to me and really to these words that I have to say to you. Do not let anyone else make you feel less than or undeserving. You deserve to be here. The community looks forward to a chair that is open to working across the aisle to propel our county forward.

[00:45:18] This is the first time that I can stand before this board and know with certainty that all citizens actually have a voice in what we say matters. I leave the whole board with this quote from John F. Kennedy. Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer.

[00:45:36] Let us not seek to fix blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future. I'm asking this whole board to seek the right answers for our future. And then finally, for you, Chair Jefferson, my daughter Georgia wanted to be here today, but she had school and other obligations, and she wanted me to say congratulations to you.

[00:45:59] So welcome. Welcome, Supervisor Gordy. Thank you. Thank you, and now we'll hear from our next speaker. Good afternoon, board. Alan Gloss, Coles District. I just wanted to take a moment to welcome the new board. I want to express that a lot of folks in the community are looking towards this board as not the last board.

[00:46:32] Though there's a lot of you that make up, compromise the old board, I really hope that the board of old is gone. We look forward to it. We're hopeful that we can bring some sanity back to our county, where the elected officials and the county staff and the people can all work together. You know, my wife and I, we have a small little non-profit. It's called Transparency in Government. We've been very busy over the last four years, because there's been a lot of things

[00:47:07] that are not transparent with our government. I'm hoping, and I'm very hopeful, that this next four years is going to be completely opposite. I hope that there's nothing for my wife and I to do. I'm confident that we have the leadership in place now that we did not have previously, and I hope that we all can work together to make Prince William County the best county it can be.

[00:47:38] Thank you. Thank you both for coming down today, and I apologize. I forgot to read that each minute has three three minutes to share their views um next up we have four speakers during virtual comment time wait you did all right so hold on i apologize and thank you everyone for your graciousness as i get used to this um we will now move into remote public comment time we have four people so i'm to speak today for our remote public comment time this afternoon and

[00:48:16] again each speaker has three minutes and we ask that before you speak that you state your name and Ministerial District. So I'll now turn it over to Vice Chair Bodie. Thank you, Madam Chair. Ms. Mann, shall we begin? Yes, there are two speakers and your first speaker is Jacob Mosser.

[00:48:36] Thank you, ma'am. Good afternoon, members of the board. My name is Jacob Mosser and I live at 4560 Daisy Reed Avenue, Woodbridge, Virginia, 22192 in the Occoquan District. As this is your first meeting of the new year and a new term on the board, I just wanted to welcome those who are new and then say congratulations to all those who are returning and just wanted to offer you my brief thoughts. The last term for the Prince William County Board of County Supervisors, I feel like was one filled with great challenges. Many external situations that you all couldn't control,

[00:49:16] you know, things such as COVID-19, civil unrest in the country, and other situations that created quite stressful environments that you all had to deal with, working with county staff to address problems, working with stakeholders in our community to deal with getting folks vaccines, getting folks, you know, where they needed to be during the chaos of COVID. But I would also say that the last board dealt with many internal situations that were self-created that created quite a bit of angst among individuals in our community. I think of many board meetings that had

[00:49:54] very contentious votes, very angst-filled meetings that pitted citizens against one another. I think of many land use votes, votes on taxes and budget that, in my opinion, should be guided by logic and reason, guided by the best intention for our citizens. So I just wanted to offer you three quick thoughts with how you can do better in 2024 and onwards. One, be transparent with the public in all that you do. Even if it is something that is just being talked about, allow the public

[00:50:34] to know. This will build trust even with those who will vote against you or may even oppose your idea. Trust should be the foundation on what we do as a community. Two, treat every dollar that goes into county operation as if it were your very last cent. Keeping your head above water is difficult in these economic times, and citizens deserve to know that their taxes are being spent wisely. If you believe taxes have to be raised for a specific program or purpose, make sure that money is being used as effectively as possible. And third, and in my opinion, the most important

[00:51:10] vote with empathy. You're going to vote on matters where there will be disagreement. I don't, I'm not naive about that, but don't doubt for a second that your vote without consideration of the opposition won't have an impact. Vote with empathy and allow everyone to know that you care regardless of the individual's political opinion, geographic status, or any other factor in their life. I wish you only the best and look forward to working with you over these next few years to help our wonderful county god bless thank you mr mosser next and last speaker please your last

[00:51:50] speaker is jessica growth um good afternoon everybody um i am i apologize i did not come up with a write down a speech but i wanted to come here today and express my gratitude for everybody who is on the board today um i look forward to a bright future um i can only say that i certainly

[00:52:24] expect and i am so gracious and um hopeful that when we as citizens take this time out of our lives and away from our family to come and speak to you as the board that this new board is going to listen. And like Mr. Mosser said before me, vote with empathy and take into consideration all of the impacts that will come with your decision and your votes. I'm looking forward

[00:52:59] to the future and hope that we can protect Prince William County and the bulk of the residents. I know that not every vote is going to go what I think or my neighbor thinks or board house doors down things but i hope you will really make an effort to protect all of us as citizens and protect our quality of life and i appreciate you and thank you very much welcome chair jefferson and welcome commissioner gordy or supervisor gordy thank you thank you miss grove

[00:53:33] miss man are there is there anyone else who's signed up to speak there are no more speakers at this time thank you so much as always for your assistance back to you madam chair all right thank you so very much we will now move on to the county executives executives time mr. shorter the floor is yours thank you very much madam chair and members of the board just a few quick quick items for me this afternoon first as a reminder and certainly as you all know that this is the time of year where we do our annual point in time count and so just wanted to remind board members really

[00:54:11] thank the community I understand from social services that we have all the volunteers that we actually need this year last year this time I was actually asking for volunteers to support us but thankful that the community really came out to support to support the point in time count this year so just want to really thank the community and certainly thank social services and the entire team for all the work that is done there.

[00:54:41] For anyone who is interested in volunteering or supporting the event, please don't hesitate to reach out to Dana Carey with Social Services. I'm going to give her email. I hope that's okay. Dana, forgive me if you were not expecting this.

[00:54:59] It's dcarey2 at pwcgov.org. feel free to reach out to Dana for any opportunities to donate or to provide whatever support you can.

[00:55:16] I also wanted to recognize the Cooperative Council of Ministries. They, as many of you know, have done amazing work over the past 30 years providing meals every day to those experiencing homelessness at our Hildebarg shelter, Ferlazo shelter, and the drop-in center.

[00:55:41] They have done this for, as I said, 30 years. I wanted to recognize them today. In December, they held a tailgate holiday event in the parking lot of the Ferlazo building where they provided for all sorts of donations, invited local organizations to provide gifts, food, and all kinds of other resources to those experiencing homelessness right there at ProLazzo.

[00:56:13] So I just wanted to recognize them today. As always, we appreciate the Cooperative Council of Ministries for all that they do for our community and want to use every opportunity always we can to recognize the work that they do. Last but not least, on Saturday at 10 a.m. right here in the board chambers, the Human Rights Commission will be doing its annual Universal Human Rights Day event where they will honor the 2023 recipients of the Human Rights Award.

[00:56:48] So, invite those who are interested to come out and certainly support and honor, recognize those who are being awarded and recognized by the Human Rights Commission. And with that, that is all for me, Madam Chair. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Shorter.

[00:57:04] Supervisor Margaret Franklin is here, and she requested a moment to speak. Sure. And my apologies for being delayed. Mr. Short and I talked about this a little bit, but wanted to just publicly kind of point out some concerns about some of the trash I've seen on some of the major roadways.

[00:57:23] And I guess before I even go there, I do want to give a lot of credit to our county services that perform that duty. I know that there is kind of a shortage of employees along with the holidays and some of the inclement weather doesn't make it easy.

[00:57:41] But I do want to point out, particularly Route 1, 234, I think probably needs a little bit more attention. So whatever we can do to kind of increase kind of our oversight in those particular areas, I think will be important. And I wouldn't say it if I didn't get calls about it or notice it myself, particularly along 234.

[00:58:02] It's particularly bad around this time. So I just want to flag that publicly, and I know Ms. Shorty and I have had this conversation privately as well. Well, thank you very much for that, Supervisor Franklin. I will say I appreciated the heads-up last week and appreciate the DPW crews that went out.

[00:58:23] We were able to get pictures of the conditions before and then get pictures after the crews came through after. So I appreciate the work that they did in light, Supervisor Franklin, of your making me aware. I'll say I had an opportunity to talk with Deputy County Executive Wei Hew and the DPW team.

[00:58:45] A lot of work underway. I will say in mid-April, I suspect that the VDOT crews who do the mowing and landscaping work for major thoroughfares will be back in regular rotation.

[00:59:03] So they will be back and doing the work that they do. In the interim, I understand from the DPW team that they are partnering with Parks and Recreation starting next week to help supplement their work. So the DPW crews have a regular schedule where they are going around on primary and secondary routes to do litter abatement.

[00:59:26] When we call them, like I did last week, it takes them off their regular route to go to those major corridors. What this partnership with Parks and Recreation will do is allow for the crews to continue to do what they do in terms of their regular schedule, and we'll be able to send the Parks and Recreation team to those hotspots.

[00:59:49] We are also recruiting four additional, there are four vacancies on that litter crew. We suspect that by mid-April we will have those positions filled and be able to get back on a regular schedule. So I am, again, appreciative of any awareness when we see a letter that needs to be abated.

[01:00:14] The DPW team is eager and ready to help, and we are doing everything we can to make sure that we give them the capacity that they need to do the work. We are also working to evaluate the feasibility of a potential third-party contractor to help us with the work as well but in the interim we're really focused on filling those positions the partnership with parks and recreation and looking forward to vdot taking over

[01:00:45] in the late in the late spring when they usually do all right all right thank you mr shorter and supervisor franklin next on the agenda we have the county attorney ms roble the floor is yours Madam Chair, let me get the speaker, Kenny, supervisor voting.

[01:01:09] Thank you, Madam Chair. Before the county attorney goes on, both myself and Zuerza Angry have declarations that we need to give. Thank you, Madam Chair. Before the board votes on Agenda Item 7A to authorize closed meeting, including discussion of appointments to the county and school's joint audit committee, I need to declare a personal interest in this matter.

[01:01:29] My wife is a school employee. As a school employee, my wife and I are members of a group which is affected by this matter. I'll be participating in it because I am able to do so fairly, objectively, in the public interest. Thank you so much. Supervisor Angry. Well, Madam Chair, I wish I could just say ditto because I'm going to read the exact same statement.

[01:01:49] And I won't say that again because this is going to happen many more times throughout the year. Madam Chair, before the board, votes on agenda item 7A to authorize closed meeting, including discussion on appointments to the county schools and joint audit committee, I need to declare a personal interest in this matter.

[01:02:06] My wife is a special education instructional aide with the schools. As a school employee, my wife and I are members of a group which is affected by this matter. I will be participating in it because I am able to do so fairly, objectively, and in the public interest.

[01:02:22] Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Supervisor Angry. So now, Mrs. Roble, the floor is now yours. Thank you, Madam Chair. members of the board. This afternoon in closed session we will have personnel discussions relating to the following members to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission Board of Commissioners, the Virginia Railway Express Operations Board, the Virginia Association of Counties Board of Directors Region 8 along with the Steering and Operational Committees, the Northern Virginia Regional Commission, the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority Planning Coordination Advisory Committee, the Community

[01:03:00] Criminal Justice Board, the Innovation Owners Association Board of Directors, the Board Audit Committee, and the County-Schools Joint Audit Committee. And there will be a discussion of reports or plans related to the security of the McCourt Government Building Complex and the safety of persons using such building complex, including briefings by staff members, legal counsel, and law enforcement or emergency service officials concerning actions taken to respond to related threats to public safety these items are appropriate for closed session pursuant to 2.2 dash 3711 a 1 and 19 of the virginia code so moved madam chair second i didn't even get them

[01:03:39] well you already beat me to giving a motion all right thank you guess what we now go into closed session all right so um please vote vote unanimous and madam chair members of the board we were asked to provide some training with regards to the conflict of interest act and the freedom of Information Act. These will just be quick, high-level training for the board. If any board member has any questions regarding legal advice or specifics, I would ask that you contact me

[01:04:17] directly outside, as our legal advice is confidential under the attorney-client privilege. So first, we will have Chief Deputy County Attorney Alan Smith with the Conflict of Interest Act, and then Deputy County Attorney Rob Scoff with regards to the Freedom of Information Act. Thank you for your time, members of the board. Madam Chair, members of the board, thank you for having me. Again, Alan Smith with the county attorney's office. I'll try to be brief. The big takeaways I would point out to you on this slide are that COIA is the law. It is intended to be the single uniform law on conflict of interest that applies throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia to both

[01:04:57] state and local government elected officials, appointed officials, and employees. It sets the minimum legal standards on conflict of interest. It is not intended to be a code of ethics, And this, I know, can be an issue and a concern for members of the public that their personal beliefs, their personal ethics may differ from what COIA requires of you.

[01:05:25] And we are happy to work with you to try to address as best we can those concerns and those questions that the members of the public may have. Again, it doesn't necessarily address the public's perception of what is proper or what is improper. And we're happy to work with you to try to address that.

[01:05:42] The board can adopt aspirational guidelines, aspirational beliefs, but it can't change COIA. You can't adopt more stringent requirements, but you also can't reduce the requirements of COIA.

[01:06:02] The top bullet, the first bullet, is the one we would recommend the most, and that's whenever you have a question, a concern, or an issue comes up, please contact us as early as possible. Particularly when it comes to COIA, it is often easier and more beneficial in the long run if we can have a discussion as early as possible whenever something has come up or you think something may come up.

[01:06:26] Please do not assume that something is or is not a conflict. COIA is very fact-specific, and it is very driven by the particulars of your situation. And so there may be a fact in your situation that makes it very different than either a prior circumstance that you have dealt with or something that you've heard from someone else. And also CUIA does apply differently to you all than other officials and employees.

[01:06:58] And so again, for that reason, we ask you to reach out to us and not make an assumption because it may apply differently to someone else that you know or a situation that you've heard of, but that may be because that person was an employee or occupied a different elected or appointed position. These are just the general sort of areas of COIA that we'll briefly cover today. Again, happy to discuss them at greater length outside of today at any time with you or your staff. COIA lays out certain things that are simply prohibited. I don't think

[01:07:33] these would be a surprise to you all or to members of the public. Going back to that first slide, they're really intended, as the General Assembly stated, to provide that citizen legislative members represent fully the public in the legislative process and that citizens maintain the highest trust in their public officers and employees. What is a gift? Relatively straightforward.

[01:07:59] I would just encourage you to think of anything that someone wants to provide you that has monetary value. Just think of it. This may be a gift. And so if you have any questions or concerns to please reach out to us. We know that there are numerous members of the public that want to provide you with gifts or opportunities because of your position and in gratitude for the service that you provide to the community.

[01:08:24] What is not a gift is less straightforward. I obviously don't expect you to read all this, but just to give you an idea of Koya is not always as clear and easy to use as we might hope. But here are some of those in that list in a hopefully more digestible format.

[01:08:45] As you can see, a number of them make sense. A number of them are based on your service as a board member and the types of events and duties that you are expected to undertake. I'll point out a couple of them. If the gift is related purely to your private employment, I know a number of the board members have private employment outside of their service on the board.

[01:09:08] Again, a number of different types of events or situations you may be in while you're performing the official duties of your office. Another one that comes up frequently with members of the public, campaign contributions that are properly received and reported under the laws of Virginia. They are not a gift.

[01:09:25] Certainly, there are members of the public who have concerns about that. We're happy to have that discussion with you outside of this presentation. And then there is a provision for gifts that may be considered at a lower value or de minimis. There is a limit on the gifts that you can accept from particular individuals based on the fact that you all are required to complete the statement of local, excuse me, statement the annual statement of disclosing your financial situation and we're happy to have

[01:10:00] discussions with you now or as the year goes on to address gifts that you may be receiving or offered i would just point out to you that it's it's very important to look at who is the gift giver and sometimes that's not always as clear or straightforward as you would hope because sometimes, particularly as an example with tickets to events, they can make their way through different hands before they are offered to you all. But if the gift giver you know or have reason to believe is a lobbyist, a lobbyist principle, which is sort of the fancy term for someone who

[01:10:37] employs a lobbyist to represent them or lobby on a cause, or they are a county contractor or someone seeking a county contract, please reach out to us. It does apply to you and your immediate family. We can have a discussion if you have any questions about who may constitute your immediate family.

[01:10:57] And then there is an exception for widely attended events. Those are the types of events that many of you are asked or invited to attend throughout the year based on your service on the board. And again, county employees are also subject to the personnel policy. So it may be there are situations where county employees are going to be subject to somewhat different requirements or rules than you are.

[01:11:19] And this may be one of the reasons. If you are in a situation where you've accepted a gift and later on you make a decision that maybe you have a concern about it or a question about it, please reach out to us as soon as possible.

[01:11:35] There are potential avenues to address it, and we can have that discussion. FOIA is very definitionally driven. Definitions are sometimes very extensive, and they build upon themselves.

[01:11:53] And so we, in a particular situation, are going to look at how the facts of your situation fit into each definition and then work our way through the analysis. And then ultimately we'll determine whether or not it's a situation that you may need to disclose before you can participate or potentially a situation where you're required to disclose and then you are not able to participate in a particular matter.

[01:12:17] But again, we'll be happy to have the discussion of those facts, specific situations with you at the time. Similarly, you can have a personal interest in a contract. This occurs less often, but it does potentially come up.

[01:12:34] Again, there are different provisions applicable to you as board members than other potentially elected officials or county employees. And you may hear it will not apply to advisory bodies that are appointed by this board because those bodies do not have the authority to issue contracts.

[01:12:55] The Statement of Economic Interest, hopefully you all have received it from the board clerk at this point. It is due shortly. It addresses the prior calendar year through December 31st. We did not create this form. It was created by the staff and the COIA Council.

[01:13:13] um it is it is going to be a public document it will be on file with the the clerk's office for five years and she is required to make it available within a particular period of time we do often receive questions about particular areas we're happy to sit down with you whenever you would like wherever you would like to have a discussion if there's anything that you are concerned about or any questions you have believe it or not the form has gotten clearer and is more I think understandable and digestible than it has been in the past there's also a guide that they

[01:13:49] provide that we're happy to provide you if you don't already have it to completing the form but that being said the form is not always as straightforward or as easy to understand as as one would hope the last bullet is up there not to to raise any concerns but just to point out that this is it is an important matter and it does have consequences for failure to comply again Just pointing out serious matter, there are potential consequences for noncompliance.

[01:14:23] That's why we're here to try to provide some information, and that's why we're always available to you all to answer any questions that you may have. The last bullet is an important one because many members of the public believe that our office is the office authorized to enforce COIL. We are not at the local government level.

[01:14:41] That is up to the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office, not the County Attorney's Office. Advisory opinions are available. They are available from the Commonwealth Attorney's Office and can help you prevent future issues related to COIA, as well as the COIA Council can also provide advice.

[01:15:01] We are happy to work with you to request the advice of either the Commonwealth Attorney's Office or the COIA Council, and we have helped facilitate requests in the past. Happy to do so again. We can also provide written opinions. However, the written opinion of our office does not carry the same weight under Virginia law as the other opinions would do.

[01:15:23] The opinions are only after and based on a full disclosure of the applicable facts. Unfortunately, there is COIA training, and unfortunately this training does not satisfy the requirement for that training.

[01:15:43] We will be following up with an email to the board as another reminder and to provide some additional information on how the COIA training can be completed. It can only be provided by the COIA Council. They do provide online training.

[01:16:00] And new board members will need to complete the COIA training within two months after you've assumed your office. And then the returning board members will need to complete it within two years of the last time that you completed your COIA training. And once you've completed that, please let Andrea know so that she can keep it in her records.

[01:16:19] That is the end of my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions that you have at any time in the future and happy to sit down with you and your staffs to discuss anything that you need. Madam Chair. Governor-Visor Bailey. Thank you very much.

[01:16:34] Thank you, Alan, for your gift, but it was not really a gift because we still have to do it. But our staff has to complete that as well, correct or no? No, your appointed board aides should not be required to complete the statement.

[01:16:51] Nor our staff. I'm sorry? Our staff? Ma'am, no. your your board staff is not required to there are members of county staff that are required to complete it okay but i'm happy to to follow up with you no that's fine i just want to clarify thank you anyone else thank you for the presentation all right we'll now be moving on to supervisor's time before madam chair we have the freedom of information i was trying to

[01:17:20] really make this a spree to me i know but you know this is kind of important thank you very much I'm Rob Scoff, Madam Chair, with the County Attorney's Office.

[01:17:44] I'm an attorney with the office, but I'm going to be here really in my capacity as one of the FOIA officers. There's two FOIA officers for the county. Erica Hilton, paralegal with the office, is the other FOIA officer. So I'm not really going to be giving legal advice or answering legal questions about particular FOIA requests that you may have gotten or hypotheticals.

[01:18:04] I'm just going to give a general overview. FOIA is a state law, and these quotes are directly from the law, and the reason we're starting off with this is because they're so important, they sort of permeate all of FOIA, which is that the presumption for people reading FOIA, including judges, is to presume that meetings and records are open, and that if there's ever any exemptions that are invoked, they are narrowly construed.

[01:18:31] So FOIA concerns public meetings and records, so we're going to talk about meetings in the first part of this little presentation, and the second part's going to be records. With regard to meetings, you know, what is a meeting? Well, we're in one right now, obviously.

[01:18:47] So broadly defined, meetings anytime there are three or more members of a public body transacting public business. And the location really doesn't matter. You could have a meeting whether you're in the county or out of the county, on the phone, at a retreat.

[01:19:03] The main key is, are there three or more members, and are they discussing public business? So if you just happen to be at the same party or, you know, at a ballgame or something, but you're not discussing public business, just physically being there at the same time is not enough to make a meeting.

[01:19:23] You have to be discussing or transacting public business for it to count as a meeting. And the reason why it even matters if you've created a meeting is because if you do create a meeting, there are certain things you need to meet, no pun intended. you got to give notice of it that obviously happened today that's why members of the public are here it's open to the public and minutes are being taken those are the requirements of a meeting that's why if you do create a meeting it's important because all these things need to be done I'm not going to go into the details of the notice but obviously those those details are part of the law and they've been met today most of your meetings are obviously going

[01:20:01] to occur here but if you have meetings somewhere else it's important that they are in a place that's open generally to the public the public does have a right to recorded meetings. Telephone and electronic meetings are generally disfavored. I won't go into detail, but for the most part, it's not possible to do electronic meetings. There were some minor changes that were made because of COVID, but generally there needs to be a quorum and you cannot have a telephonic meeting or an electronic meeting. Now you can create a meeting, like I said, on the phone or physically being together, but you could also create one maybe inadvertently

[01:20:41] through email. So it's important not to be sending emails back and forth too close in time because that could be viewed as itself being a meeting because it's almost like having a telephone call or email messages or something. So one tip to not accidentally do that is to maybe send emails that would be to everyone on the board without having the recipients in the BCC field.

[01:21:08] That way, if you accidentally reply all, it doesn't go to everyone because you don't want constantly having messages back and forth to everyone because you might accidentally create a meeting and and there are obviously requirements for closed session which I won't get into into today this is a sample which you just heard from a moment ago the the closed meeting needs to be certified again I apologize for zipping through it but in the interest of time so that was the meeting section we're going to talk about of FOIA with regard to records so

[01:21:47] So FOIA concerns what they call public records, and all public records, unless there's some exemption under FOIA or some other law, are, as I said in the beginning, presumed open to the public, and they're open to members of the media as well.

[01:22:03] Well, what are public records? Public records, this quote, is from the law, and it's a lot of words there, but I've highlighted the most important words, which are that it's basically recordings concerning the transaction of public business.

[01:22:21] So if something's being recorded in some way, and it has to do with transacting or conducting public business, that's considered a public record. So if you're just talking to someone on the phone and it's not recorded, that would not be, you know, any sort of recording. But if it's set down and moralized in some way, then it is a public record.

[01:22:43] That would include emails. That would even include drafts. People are often surprised to learn that drafts are also considered subject to FOIA. That doesn't mean you need to keep them forever. Once you're done with the draft, you're allowed to delete it. But drafts are subject to FOIA as well. So as long as you're doing something that has to do with your job as members of the board, that is generally going to be considered a record.

[01:23:06] That's why it's advisable not to mix personal and work-related things because they're very hard to untangle later. So people often make requests, and requests do not need to be in writing. FOIA does not require requests to be in writing, but we ask people to do so because it's usually easier to handle the request.

[01:23:27] That way we get it right. We know that we're understanding someone properly. So if someone makes a request, it's fine to ask them to put it in writing. That way we can process it properly. I mentioned it doesn't need to be in writing. The request doesn't even need to mention FOIA.

[01:23:44] If someone asks for a record of something, that's a FOIA request, even if they don't put it in writing and even if they don't say the word FOIA. We have FOIA liaisons within the county, and that's every department, like Public Works, Department of Social Services, police.

[01:24:01] They all have someone that's kind of a FOIA expert in that department, and that's who generally Eric and I will interact with if it's a record concerning that department. What's the timeline?

[01:24:17] Well, five. Five is the magic number. So you have five days. The public body has five days to respond to a FOIA request, and that is five days from receipt. So, for example, if we got one during workday today, it would be due next Tuesday. No, no, I guess, is there a holiday?

[01:24:33] So it would be due next Wednesday. And what kind of response should it be? Well, the law only allows for a certain number of response. One's the easiest, just give the records. Someone asks for the records, you give the records, you've completed your responsibility. Sometimes it's not possible to do that within five days, however.

[01:24:52] And the law FOIA allows you to invoke an extension, which you sort of automatically have by right. The requester does not need to approve it. You just need to say why you couldn't do it within five days. Maybe there's the volumes too much or people are out of town or maybe the documents are at another location.

[01:25:10] Whatever the reason is, you just need to give another reason. Then you'll have seven additional working days for a response. It's also sometimes the case where someone asks for something and you just don't have the record or you can't find it. That's a perfectly good response too. It's just that you've asked for X, we don't have it. The other thing that sometimes happens is people will ask for things from us but they really should be asking another locality, like maybe they got confused and it's really the city of Manassas that has the records or Fairfax County or whatever.

[01:25:39] If that happens, we're supposed to give the request or the contact information for the other public body. The other possibility is that maybe there's a record that contains confidential information. That's where things get trickier and that's where it's important to talk to Erica and me to help with a response because the law requires that if there's any redactions or, going to the next slide, if there's any entire exclusions of records, we need to cite a law that allows that.

[01:26:07] We're not allowed to just redact things or not give things without citing the law. So that's why it's important to work with us if there's ever any records that get requested that for some reason are confidential. Like maybe they have to, there's lots of reasons they could be confidential.

[01:26:23] Some of the common exemptions are law enforcement records, personnel records, those are exempt. Internal affairs, advice that Michelle Robel and others in our office give, attorney-client privilege, tax records. There's a long list, but generally I would say if there's something that you have that's been requested and you think, I think there's probably a rule that would make it allow us not to give this out because things are confidential, talk to us and we'll try to find it.

[01:26:52] These are just the sites to the various, some of the exemptions that we've been talking about. There's other laws that impact us, too. HIPAA, you all have probably heard of, concerning medical records. There's some interplay with FOIA there.

[01:27:09] People don't get access to those types of records or mental health or substance abuse types of records. People can ask for the records in any format that we normally deal with. So if they want paper, we give them the response in paper. Generally, we give responses in PDFs because that's kind of cheaper and easier for everyone.

[01:27:28] FOIA does not require the government to create any new documents or give any summaries. FOIA just has to do with existing records. So if someone is asking questions, it's not really a question-and-answer service. It's an ability for people to ask a tool for people to get access to records, not answers, and not to require the government to make some new record in response.

[01:27:58] What about costs and charges? Well, the way FOIA works is it's a system that basically makes everything equal. People can ask for whatever they want, but the way it works is the government charges their actual cost to respond to the request.

[01:28:14] So those charges are generally due to the time it takes people to do the request. So if it takes someone a couple hours, a county employee, a couple hours' time, that's going to be passed along to the requester. There are other charges that could be involved, but it is almost always people's time.

[01:28:33] So that's how FOIA is set up. People can ask for whatever they want, but the government, the local body, can and does charge the actual cost to respond. We have a county policy of not charging if the total is less than $50.

[01:28:50] But that's not a law or anything. That's just how we internally have things set up. Sometimes the requests are voluminous, and the charges really can add up. And the law is set up in a way that the deposit of $200 is requested if we ever think that it's going to cost more than $200 to respond to a request.

[01:29:14] And if we are going to be asking for a deposit, I mentioned earlier we have five days to respond. Well, the way it works is the clock is stopped whenever we send out the request for the deposit. We say, I don't know, whatever the amount is, say the deposit takes $250, and it's been a couple days that we've had this request in.

[01:29:34] The clock stops on that second day, and then once the deposit comes in, it does not go all the way back to day zero. It restarts on day two. So it's really important if you get a request in and you think it's going to cost more than $200 to respond, tell us soon so that we can get that information out to the requester.

[01:29:52] Tell him or her the amount and stop the clock as soon as possible. People can also ask for cost estimates even if it's going to be less than $200, and that's very common to do, and we do provide those cost estimates to people. As I mentioned earlier, because there are charges, sometimes people don't pay their bills.

[01:30:12] If there's an outstanding FOIA bill over 30 days, the law does not require locality to continue to process a request if people owe money on their past FOIA bills. These are just a couple of the policies that are found in our county policy.

[01:30:29] It's on our, I think it must be on our internal website. These are some of the more important ones that I mentioned earlier. We have FOIA officers. I'm one of them. We have FOIA liaisons. None of our policies can trump FOIA because it's a state law. It's its own thing. But things like our cost policy of not charging more than $50, that's something that we do ourselves.

[01:30:53] Thank you for your time. And as Alan said, and I'll say as well, we're happy to meet individually with people because we do know things come up and things can get very complicated. So Eric and I are happy to meet individually with you and your staff for any FOIA issues you have.

[01:31:10] Thank you. All right. Thank you so very much for an informative presentation. And thank you to members of the board for your patience with me as I'm jumping the gun a little bit. It takes a little time to learn all of these, so I will be leaning on people who have more knowledge than I.

[01:31:26] All right, so now we get to move on to supervisor's time. All right, we're good? We're right placing the agenda, right? Okay. Before we begin with the individual updates, we need to vote on some appointments. So can I get a motion to approve agenda items 8A through 8P?

[01:31:45] so moved second all right we're fast any questions all right please vote vote unanimous all right now we are going to move to individual updates and i'm going to start with supervisor gordy and then we're going to work our way down with myself being last well uh good afternoon everyone uh it is a pleasure to be here on behalf of the brentsville district and i just want to first

[01:32:20] say thank you to the voters of Princeville for honoring me with the opportunity to represent them and represent you in the here on the Board of County Supervisors. You know the I just want to commend my predecessor Janine Lawson who served in this role for nine years and thank her for her service and look forward to carrying forward many of the a lot of the work that was started under her leadership but then continuing forward in some things that that other folks in our community

[01:32:58] have brought to our attention and seeing what we can do to help solve as the chair said earlier this during her remarks some holistic solutions to the to the challenges that we face um i also want uh just to come in last night we attended uh the chair and i and and mr shorter attended the prince william county department of fire and rescues volunteer recruit graduation uh the seven heat wranglers uh uh graduated and will be going to different volunteer units throughout the county and so i want to congratulate them and um and the commitment

[01:33:36] that they've made to our county and in as we are starting to put together all of our appointments for representing the Brentsville district I just want to make note that I intend to appoint Scott Crockett to the committee on aging Vida Carroll to the parks and recreation commission Elizabeth Cronauer and Catherine O'Connor to the Prince William County Trails and Blue Ways counsel, Joseph Diaz to the Prince William County Committee for Persons with Disabilities, Dean Woodard to the Veterans Commission, Michael Kitchen to the Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee,

[01:34:14] and Christopher Carroll to the Planning Commission. My staff has sent over the resumes and contact information to the clerk. And that concludes my remarks. Thank you. All right. Thank you so very much. Now we're going to move on to Supervisor Franklin. Sure. Thank you. And welcome to our new seatmates, Chair Jefferson and Mr. Gordy.

[01:34:35] I'm looking forward to working with both of you as well as the rest of my seatmates as well. I just want to flag that on Monday, January 22nd at 7 p.m., I am hosting a Woodbridge District Town Hall via Zoom. We will provide updates on key projects in the district, and we will also be joined by Chief Peter Newsham of the Prince William Police Department, as well as Eastern District Commander Captain David Smith.

[01:35:01] So please check our website and social media for information. Also, I want to flag that on Monday, February 12th at 7 p.m., we will be hosting our annual Black History Month program. Please check our website for information. We are still deciding whether it be Zoom or in person, but just check for updates there.

[01:35:20] And then just want to thank everyone who attended the swearing-in ceremony, my family, friends, and all of my seatmates here. Again, looking forward to working with all of you. Thank you. All right, thank you so very much. Yeah, I just want to do a quick notice of intent for Cynthia Moses-Ned, and we will provide her resume for the Planning Commission.

[01:35:45] We'll forgive you. All right, now we're going to get on to Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair. Well, congratulations. I think you're doing a fine job being this your first meeting. Congratulations to Supervisor Tom Gordy as well on securing this seat and representing the Brentsville District.

[01:36:03] Just want to wish everyone a very happy new year. I hope that everyone had some time to spend with family, with loved ones during the holiday season. We have a lot of work to do here in Prince William County, and I am confident that the next four years is going to be a breath of fresh air, if you will, a much-needed and a much-welcome change.

[01:36:21] So congratulations again, Chair Jefferson, and congratulations to my colleagues also. I look forward to serving alongside you all for the next four years. All right. Thank you. And I will go last, so we're going to move on to Supervisor Angry. Thank you, Madam Chair. Happy New Year, everyone, and welcome aboard Madam Chair and Supervisor Gordy.

[01:36:42] I want to start by first recognizing the last four years of service that we've given to this county, and I want to state on record that I'm extremely proud of the work that I've done over the last four years and the progress that we've made in the county. I'm looking forward to serving with everyone on this new four-year term of the board and hope that we can continue that progression that works for everyone.

[01:37:07] I want to say this as far as it goes for hope. My hope is that we don't experience another COVID in the next four-year term. My hope is that we also don't experience another civil unrest in the next four-year term. My hope also is that as we find out what quality of life means, that we can find that definition for all people in Prince William County preserve quality of life needs for many folks who are living under incomes of $30,000 a year.

[01:37:38] Thus, we have a housing need that we need to seriously address. And my hope is that this board is interested, seriously interested, in solving those challenges of housing. I want to congratulate our basic Recruit Class 55 session of graduation on December 21st, welcoming our new police officers to the county.

[01:37:58] Also, I want to thank River Run Apartments and also Four Seasons Virginia Crossings for hosting me at two town halls for them, both very productive.

[01:38:14] We learned a lot about the needs of both of these residents, and so I'm looking forward to working with them and continuing that work and that progress. And so my goal in the next four years also is to get out more to my HOAs and my communities and find out the needs and that we can address those.

[01:38:34] Just some upcoming things. On January 11th, you know, we're having our board retreat. I'm really looking forward to that time so we can spend. That's going to be over at – so I got Potomac Shores Golf Course. That's where we – is that – it's Old Hickory, correct? Okay, yes.

[01:38:49] Old Hickory Golf Course is where we're going to be having that, so I'm looking forward to that. Also, on January 13th, and we heard our CXL talk about this, the Human Rights Day here at McCourt Building. So I'll be a part of that, looking forward to that on the 13th.

[01:39:06] And also on the 15th, MLK Youth Oratorical Contest at Colgan Senior High School, hosted by Prince William Alumni, Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. So looking forward to that. And, again, Happy New Year. Looking forward to a productive year and a productive session season.

[01:39:23] and so thank you Madam Chair. All right thank you so very much now we'll move over to Supervisor Bodie. Thank you Madam Chair. I also think you're doing a great job for your first meeting and I know that as we continue on you'll only get better and better so appreciate you. First some housekeeping items for me notice of intent to a point. My list isn't nearly as long as Supervisor Weir's from last time but it's close. Noel Schott, the Animal Advisory Committee. Elizabeth Long to the Architectural Review Board, David Delevante to the Board of Equalization, Nancy West of the Commission on Aging, J. Wayne Barrett to the DCSM Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee, Ernie Porta

[01:40:01] to the Historical Commission, Robert Sharp to the Housing Board, Ollium T. Malone to the Industrial Development Authority, Brody Freer to the Parks and Recreations Commission, Laura Feldmashaw to the Persons with Disability Board as my primary appointee, Don Horizons to the Art Council, Kay Jack Commugin to the Service Authority, Neil Nelson and Eileen Sheridan, the Trails and Blue Ways Council, Byron Shorter to the Racial and Social Justice Commission, Andrea Wilson to the Social Services Advisory Board, Ciziana Bottino to the Solid Waste Citizens Advisory Group, David Bridges to the Zaxi Cab Review Board, and Nancy Jean-Louis to the Veterans Commission. 99% of those are

[01:40:39] reappointments, so you should already have them on file. One is the Racial and Social Justice Commission that I just sent along. So thank you for that. Only a couple other items for me. First, Happy New Year. Kudos and ditto to my colleagues. Welcome Suresa Gordy and Madam Chair Jefferson to the board. Looking forward to working with both of you, along with our returning colleagues over the next four years. And I do believe it will be a hopeful and brighter future for all of us.

[01:41:09] Also, I want to talk about a few things. Thank you to everyone who came into our swearing-in last week. I know it was a very joyous celebratory occasion for everyone that came. Hopefully, we can capture and continue to carry forward all the great feelings of joy and hopefulness moving forward from that event.

[01:41:28] A couple weeks back, I joined Holiness Tabernacle Church for food delivery to a couple different Occoquan district schools. They always do a great job every year of delivering food to some of our most needy student populations, so I was glad to join them with that. Supervisor Angry Sad, back on the 21st, we went to basic recruitment session, 55, graduation.

[01:41:48] Thank you for our new recruits for stepping up and looking forward to seeing you do a lot of great work in our community. Looking ahead, this coming Saturday, 1.13 at 10 a.m., I'm going to be joining MIDCO and maybe some of my other colleagues as well.

[01:42:04] We're going to take a hike of the proposed new Davis Ford Park site. a few years ago we the county took over what used to be a a sanitary site for for facilities there we're gonna be turning it into a park it'll be a really great addition to our offerings in the county because i know there's a lot of folks in the county right now that have a lot of great parks nearby where they live so we're looking forward to joining midco and having a hike of what will be hopefully a really great park in our community that's all i have madam chair thank you so much all right thank you so very much now we're going to move on to supervisor weir thank

[01:42:41] you madam chair in the spirit of the meeting i'm going to give you the shorthand version happy new year welcome all congratulations thank you i'm done wow all right and the award goes to all right um are you seriously done you're done all right love it get the award yet all right let's go supervisor bailey thank you forget no i'm just kidding thank you madam chair thank you bob for showing us how it's supposed to be done okay um past events uh first of all let me say happy new

[01:43:12] year to everyone uh new year new beginnings let's get started um on december 20th um we began our new term by signing our oath and having a great orientation by the staff and um yes dinner we had dinner we celebrated but um it's okay because it was a great evening and we signed our oath together And I'm really proud of that.

[01:43:37] On December 21st, in preparation for the new year, I want to thank planning, economic development, and transportation, and public works, all of the departments that came to the office and did our wonderful overview for the Potomac District to get us jump started into the new year.

[01:43:55] Also on the 21st, I want to thank Colonel Brooks from the Marine Corps base here in Prince William County for his meeting with me to discuss affordable housing, the projects that they have on the base and the projects that they're looking to partner with us in the future outside of the base.

[01:44:12] So it was a great meeting with he and his chief of staff. On the second, congratulations to everyone here on the dais, but I want to just give a high note to Nikki Brown and her staff for the exceptional job that they did for our swearing-in.

[01:44:28] It was absolutely beautiful. It brought in community and warmth in the auditorium, and we had a great time. Everyone did, so thank you so much, and congratulations to my peers. Upcoming events on the 11th, I'm looking forward to a podcast that I'm going to have, a special podcast with Mr. Kevin Glover to talk about.

[01:44:52] He's with Alpha Phi, Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, and he'll be telling us about why Martin Luther King, why we celebrate Martin Luther King, and that'll be something brief for our students, our youth in the community. On the 11th, January 11th, it has been designated as Human Trafficking Awareness Day, and so we'll be making mention of that as well in the podcast.

[01:45:16] On the 13th, also, we're looking forward to attending the Human Rights Day celebration that our county exec just mentioned entitled Freedom, Equality, and Justice for All. And then on the 15th, again, celebrating with Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated.

[01:45:33] And they always do an impeccable job in celebrating Martin Luther King and that celebration. And then on the 24th, come one, come all, but the Potomac District will be having an open house in our district to talk about the year, the future of the year, past, present, and where we're going from here.

[01:45:52] And so with that, Madam Chair, I have a list of notice of intents. But I have submitted the resumes, and so I'm going fast, as I told Andrea. Eric Fagerholm to the Animal Advisory Committee. Carolyn Vine-Sapplett to the Board of Equalization.

[01:46:08] Kenneth Lee for the Cherry Hill Community Development Authority, as well as Neville Welsh. And Ms. Hilda Bark. Hi, Hilda. We still love you. Steve Cover for the PwC Trails and Blue Waves Council. Marcus Crew for the PwC Housing Board.

[01:46:26] Victor Genova for Human Rights Commission, Dr. Joseph Boutte for our PwC Sustainability Commission, Cheryl S. H. Lamar for our Veterans Commission, Oliver Allen for our Racial and Social Justice Commission, Jacob Geovia for our DCSM Zoning Ordinance Advisory Board, last but not least, Mr. Charles Reed for the Historical Commission.

[01:46:49] I want to thank you all for your time, Madam Chair, and Happy New Year. Happy New Year, and thank you so very much. So we are now to me, so I will try not to use my entire five minutes. I am not quite Supervisor Weir, but, you know, we shall all aspire to that.

[01:47:07] So first of all, I want to thank everyone for being so gracious today. Obviously, first meeting, making a few mistakes. I appreciate the guidance, and thank you, Supervisor Vega, for, you know, some of the nudges I needed them. I also did want to touch on the swearing-in ceremony. I thought it was an excellent job.

[01:47:24] Thank you, Mr. Shorter. Also, thank you to Nikki Brown and her staff. I, you know, have gone to other ceremonies, and while obviously I am biased, I just know that ours is the best, and any objective person can honestly see that.

[01:47:40] But with that, I want to close with my notices of intent to appoint the following individuals to boards, committees, and commissions. Mark Shuffler to the Planning Commission, Charlie Grimes to the Service Authority, Carmen E. Rodriguez to the Housing Board, Perry Wiggins to the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area Review Board, Deanna Baer to the Community Services Board, Cindy Neville to the Historical Commission, Amy Lottie Fulton to the Trails and Blue Ways Council, and Eric Faker Holm to the Wetlands Board.

[01:48:13] All their resumes have been submitted to the clerk. And I, obviously, as well as everyone else, have more notices of intent to make at future meetings. And now with that, we are on to the next item of the agenda.

[01:48:30] So the board will now convene for a closed meeting. Do we have a motion to certify the closed meeting? That's after. That's why I wasn't sure. Okay, after closed meeting. All right.

[01:48:45] We shall be back, I guess. All right, it is 532.

[01:49:01] We're resuming our session. All right, we are now at a closed session. Madam Chair. Yes, Supervisor, please. Thank you, Madam Chair. Before the board votes on Agenda Item 9A to certify closed session and votes on appointments to the county and schools joint audit committee, I need to declare a personal interest in this matter.

[01:49:23] My wife is a school employee. As a school employee, my wife and I are members of a group which is affected by this matter. I will participate in it because I am able to fairly, objectively, and in the public interest. Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, before the board votes on Agenda Item 9A to certify closed meeting and votes on appointments to the county and schools, joint audit committee i need to declare a personal interest in this matter my wife is a special education instructional aid with the schools as a school employee my wife and i are members of a group which is affected by this matter i will be participating in it because i am able to do so

[01:50:01] fairly objectively and in the public interest thank you madam chair all right thank you so very much um do we have a motion to certify the closed meeting so move madam chair second all right please vote vote unanimous now we have one thing to report out madam chair i move that we make

[01:50:33] various appointments as uh given to the clerk second would you like me to read those yes yes supervisor votee seconded the board appointments to various boards committees and commissions are as follows board audit committee regular voting members chair jefferson supervisors angry bodey

[01:51:04] and bailey alternates supervisors we're gordy franklin and vega the community criminal justice board the board of county supervisor representative will be supervisor vega the innovation owners association board of directors the board representative will be supervisor gordy Deputy County Executive Wade Hugh will serve, as will Public Works staff Lucas Heisman.

[01:51:33] Joint Audit Committee, which is comprised of county government and Prince William County schools. The voting regular members will be Chair Jefferson, Supervisor Bode, Supervisor Bailey. The alternate will be Supervisor Weir. The Metropolitan Washington Council of Government appointments will be as follows.

[01:51:53] The Board of Directors, Regular Voting Members, Chair Jefferson and Supervisor Bailey, Alternates, Supervisor Bode and Supervisor Gordy. The Transportation Planning Board appointments, Regular Voting Members, Chair Jefferson and Supervisor Angry.

[01:52:11] The Alternates will be Rick Canizales and Megan Landis. For the Metropolitan Washington Air Quality Committee, regular voting members will be Supervisor Bode with two staff alternates, Megan Atlantis, and I'm not sure of the first name, so I'm just going to say E. Santos.

[01:52:30] The Region Forward Coalition, two members, one regular, one alternate. The regular member is Supervisor Gordy. The alternate is Supervisor Bode. Human Services Policy Committee, two regular voting members. Those will be Supervisor Bailey and Supervisor Bodie.

[01:52:48] Climate Energy and Environment Policy Committee, one member and one alternate. The regular voting member will be Supervisor Weir. The alternate will be Julia Mono. The Chesapeake Bay and Water Resource Policy Committee, one member and one alternate.

[01:53:04] The regular member is Supervisor Bodie. The alternate is Supervisor Bailey. Food and Agriculture Regional Member Policy Committee, one member and one alternate. The regular member is Supervisor Gordy with the alternate Supervisor Weir. Northern Virginia Regional Commission, the 2024 appointees will be Supervisors Angry, Bailey, and Bodie.

[01:53:27] The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority Planning Coordination Advisory Committee, the 2024 appointee will be Supervisor Franklin. The Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission, the regular voting members will be Supervisors Angry, Bailey, Bodie, Franklin, Gordy, and Weir, with the two alternate board members being Supervisor Vega and Chair Jefferson.

[01:53:51] There will be three citizen appointees who will serve as alternates, Karen Mills, Kimberly Short, and Idris O'Connor. the Virginia Railway Express Operations Board. We have three voting members, two alternate members.

[01:54:08] The regular voting members are Supervisors Gordy, Franklin, and Bailey, with the alternate Supervisors Angry and Bodie, the Virginia Association of Counties Steering Committees, Economic Development and Planning, Supervisor Franklin, Education, Supervisor Bodie, Environment and Agriculture, Supervisor Gordy, Finance, Michelle Atreid, General Government, Supervisor Angri, Health and Human Resources, Supervisor Bailey, Transportation, Supervisor Franklin, Energy, Supervisor Weir, and finally, on the VACO Operational Committee's Budget and Finance,

[01:54:46] Supervisor Franklin. For the Virginia Association of Counties Regional Directors, the current appointee of Supervisor Franklin shall remain with the addition of Supervisor Bailey as the second appointee and that is it thank you i just quickly it looks like did you were there any questions or anything from supervisor we are supervisor bailey use your microphone please thank

[01:55:15] you did we leave out an alternate on health and human services for cog we did both of them okay sorry those are both vacant unless i'm not crossing out okay all right thank you so very much for reading that out we are now on our well we had to vote i thought we voted vote unanimous

[01:55:50] supervisor didn't vote it went it was me it went so fast okay i apologize vote unanimous uh 8-0 chair jefferson with an i will correct it on our end thank you so very much move to adjourn second peace out all right no we are now on our final agenda item for the for the evening um i guess we already voted we haven't voted okay i will entertain a motion to adjourn where they said Was that Weir?

[01:56:23] Weir. Second. All right, please vote. Bob, stop tricking me. You won't have to announce the... Vote unanimous. This concludes the January 9th, 2024 Board of Supervisors meeting.

[01:56:43] The next board meeting is scheduled for January 16th. Thank you all and have a wonderful evening.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Coraggio Consulting · aguyonx.com