Coraggio Consulting
Prince William Board of County Supervisors Meeting, Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Date: Tuesday, January 16, 2024
Place: Prince William County Board of County Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 2h 18m (video)
Official meeting video (Prince William County, Granicus): https://pwcgov.granicus.com/player/clip/3421
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.

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

[00:27:59] rise for the reciting of the pledge of allegiance thank you and please be seated all right we are now on agenda item three um actually before we do that i just want to make a note that we do have an agenda update to county executives time there was a correction on page two of the resolution

[00:28:35] the iupa local number listed when attachment three should read 5010 and on page 22 of the agreement with the principal and police association mrs amos's first name is misspelled and i'm Hopefully I'm not badly mingling her last name.

[00:28:51] It is now corrected to read Catherine Zamas. All right. So with that, we are going to start with a, we have a proclamation agenda item three. The proclamation is from our police department, and it declares that February 7th, 2024 will be School Crossing Guard Appreciation Day in Prince William County.

[00:29:13] I am going to move down to the podium with Chief Police Newsom, who, if you could join me and other representatives who are here, please assemble at the front of the room. Chair Jefferson, can I get a motion to approve the proclamation? Oh, yes. Oh, I didn't realize I had a vote on.

[00:29:29] All right. So moved. Second. Thank you. All right. Now we can assemble. All right. Vote. I'm sorry. All in favor? You're so close. All right. I'm so excited.

[00:29:51] Vote unanimous. All right. Who would have thunk that? Let's go.

[00:30:11] All right, so Proclamation for School Crossing Appreciation Day. Braille's child safety is a major concern in the everyday lives of the citizens of Prince William County, and whereas during the school year, student pedestrian safety is the primary mission for the current 60 school crossing guards working 75 crossings at 47 schools in Prince William County every day.

[00:30:37] And whereas Prince William County is blessed with professional school crossing guards, all highly qualified men and women who, by temperament and training, are fully prepared to meet the challenges of protecting our school children and training them in pedestrian safety. And whereas in the 57-year history of the Prince William County Crossing Guard unit, there have been no deaths or serious illnesses of any child at any school crossing.

[00:31:03] And whereas in the past year, crossing guards conducted 27,000 safe school crossings and safely cross school children over 1,000, I'm sorry, over 1 million times. Whereas it is proper and fitting that we give special recognition to those men and women who provide an inviolable service to our community, often going to other areas to cover staffing shortages by working vacant crossings in addition to their assigned crossings, sometimes under adversarial, dangerous, and hostile conditions in the performance of their duties.

[00:31:38] Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby proclaims February 7, 2024, a School Crossing Guard Appreciation Day in Prince William County. Be it further resolved that the Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby encourages the citizens of Prince William County to make a special effort to let school crossing guards who are in the street protecting our children every day to make our county a safe place to live, work, and play, know that they are appreciated.

[00:32:08] And I signed this knowing, and you know, the mom of a school-aged parent, I see the work that our crossing guards do, and I really commend you. Thank you. So, do you have a few words? Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the board. I'm Pete Newsham, I'm the Chief of Police.

[00:32:28] I think one day is probably not enough to recognize these folks right here who go out generally in days a lot of times the days are cold like they are today I know we didn't have school today but normally they're out there cold rain to make sure the nearly 100,000 children that we have Prince William Public Schools get to school safely and get home safely and you heard from the chair for the past 57 years they've been making sure that happened so I'm going to ask a person who works with them every single day Lieutenant Sean Peake to come up and say a few

[00:33:01] words. Thank you, Chief. Madam Chair, welcome to the Board. Supervisors, I'm Lieutenant Sean Peake with the Police Department with Special Operations. Along with me, I have Lieutenant Michelle Wheeler to my left. Right behind her, Sergeant Mary Bouget. Sergeant, our newest Sergeant, Will Guillermo. He just started with us just a little over a month ago. And Althea Keene.

[00:33:28] Missing with us today is Sergeant Julie York and our Administrative Assistant, Teresa Cotula. We couldn't do this job without the exceptional help that they provide to the crossing guards on a daily basis. We have over 60 guards with over 75 crossings, as we mentioned.

[00:33:44] As the chief noted, they're out in all different kinds of conditions, but that's not all they do on a daily basis. They're also in the schools helping the students. They participate in the Read Across America campaigns and various functions throughout the year. So on behalf of all the entire crossing guard unit, who's enjoying a snow day today, I appreciate you recognizing February 7, 24 is crossing guard appreciation day.

[00:34:08] So thank you.

[00:34:54] Thank you again.

[00:35:26] We are now on to the consent agenda, which today consists of 10 items. Are there any items anyone wishes to remove from the consent agenda because they have specific questions or concerns that they have not had answered before today?

[00:35:50] I will entertain a motion to approve agenda items 4A through 4J. So moved, Madam Chair. Second. All right. Any discussion? Madam Chair. Thank you. All right. Just for a couple quick notes.

[00:36:09] I will, Supervisor Franklin was first. You'll go. Let's go with Supervisor Franklin. Sure. Just want to highlight just a couple items, starting with item 4C, to authorize street dedication and conveyance easement for county-owned property located at 14544 and 14550 Richmond Highway.

[00:36:31] The street dedication and convenience of utility easements for county-owned property must occur before the road can be accepted in the VDOT system. Obviously, staff recommended action on this, and I agree with that. So just flagging for Woodbridge residents. And then for items 4i to authorize a grant funding for the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail Gap Analysis Project.

[00:36:56] This is something that we've been working on. We've gotten a lot of funding, and we just have one portion that we need to complete that we're working on now. And so completing this segment that runs through Prince William is a key priority for me and has been for the board to increase recreational and tourism opportunities, particularly in the Woodbridge District.

[00:37:17] So thank you to staff for working on this and looking forward to seeing the final outcome. Thank you. All right, Supervisor Bodie. Thank you, Madam Chair. Sorry for jumping in a little ahead of that. A couple of things from me on my side. So 4B is to transfer and budget appropriate $3 million in the NBTA, 30% funds for the Telegraph Road and Summit School Extension Project.

[00:37:38] Again, always sound like a broken record over here, but I want to thank Rick Gonzalez and his team in transportation for moving the ball forward on that project. It's going to be a really good connection point for folks over in the eastern part of my district, especially as that 14th high school comes online here in a few years.

[00:37:53] We also have number 4F, which is going to be a contract with Dewberry Architects for the master planning for the new county-wide space project, which is going to be just next door to here. You know, the county, it was either last year or two years ago, purchased the Maxfield property, which sits between this parcel we're in right here right now and the Bacon Race parcel.

[00:38:17] We'll be able to eventually make that a sort of a master complex with the county. Landing isn't getting any cheaper, so it was great for us to be able to secure that land, and now we have to figure out what we want to do with it. I was looking forward to working with those folks in the Parks Department to look at making a very large linear park between this complex and Davis-Ford Road.

[00:38:37] So we're looking forward to moving the ball forward on that. And finally, I just wanted to echo Supervisor Franklin on 4I. We're always looking for opportunities to extend it and connect our trails. and having a gap analysis on how to do that is another good start in that direction. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[00:38:52] All right, thank you. Now we have Supervisor Angry. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to take a moment to recognize Executive Director Rico Fleshman. He's in here representing Keep Prince William Beautiful. If you don't know this organization, they do a lot of work to keep Prince William Beautiful. So 4A is just a pass-through grant for this organization, but I just want to recognize you.

[00:39:13] Thank you for being here. Thank you for the work that you and all your volunteers do for Prince William County. Thank you. All right, thank you so much, and I have Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I just want to echo what my colleagues had said about the project for Occoquan, Potomac, and Woodbridge magisterial districts.

[00:39:31] Of course, this will enlighten parks and recreation, and we're answering a prayer for Mr. Charlie Grimes that's been talking to us about this for so long. So, Charlie, it's on our minds and in the books, and we're moving forward with it. And so we thank Parks and Recs for keeping this in the forefront to make Prince William even more acceptable and a place to come and have fun.

[00:39:53] Thank you. All right. Thank you so much. I don't have any other speakers, so let's take our vote. Vote unanimous. All right.

[00:40:08] Thank you, everyone, so much. We are now going to move on to public comment time. So we're going to start with in-person public comment time. The board will hear in-person and remote comments. We will begin. We have nine people who have signed up to speak. I will call speakers, five at a time. Each speaker will have three minutes to share their views and opinions regarding matters before the board.

[00:40:28] We ask that all speakers state their name in their magisterial district at the beginning of their remarks. So we will close the in-person sign-up list after the first 15 minutes of in-person public comments. So first, I'm going to call. We have Mike Bizzik, Neil Nelson, Liz Kronauer, Tim Cheneau, and Russell Bryant.

[00:41:03] Right over there.

[00:41:23] Hi, I'm Michael Bissick. I live in the Aquan District. And as Supervisor Angry knows, he and his wife are huge Cowboy fans. And as he knows, I have to really apologize. I wasn't expecting an all-out aerial attack and bombardment and everything else.

[00:41:42] But Packers were up by, I think it was 48-16. And then Green Bay took out all of its starters. And the Cowboys thought we could pad the stats so it's not so bad. They came back, and it was 48-32, and Green Bay said, we better put back in the starters.

[00:42:02] And so Victor and I made a bet, and he lost his Green Bay Packers cheese bow tie, but next Tuesday he'll have one, and he will be keeping up his part of the bet. But Cowboys are my second favorite team, you know, but I've lived down here since 68, born at Walter Reed, and I've been a big Packers fan since 1970, And I'm a Packers owner.

[00:42:28] So, anyway, thank you very much. Supervisor Anger. Thank you so much. Madam Chair, that was a gentleman's agreement. I am a Cowboys friend, so I shall refrain from commenting. Yes, sir.

[00:42:47] Good afternoon. My name is Neil Nelson. I live in Lake Ridge in the Occoquan District. I'm here today with a comment or a recommendation about the FY25 budget as that process is getting started. I would like to encourage the board to include funds for trails in the FY25 budget in the annual general fund.

[00:43:10] Some of our large trail projects in our greenway corridors like Vacaquan Greenway Trail and the Potomac Area National Scenic Trail are being funded by the 2019 bond funds. But in addition to that, we need annual funding in the general fund.

[00:43:30] The challenge for the county or many jurisdictions is that we put items in the comprehensive plan and the long-range plan, but it's hard to translate them into actual funded projects, and that's what we'd like to do. We are encouraging the development of an active transportation plan, which would develop those more detailed plans for implementing projects with costs for trails and bike and pedestrian infrastructure.

[00:44:01] The annual funding in the general fund could be used by the Department of Parks and Recreation to acquire easements and rights of way to fill the trail gaps. It could be used to make needed improvements and expansion of the existing trail network. There are a number of maintenance needs out there.

[00:44:18] I'm speaking as a trail user, a trail advocate, and a person who volunteers to do some of that trail work. I guess in conclusion, without adding funds to the general fund, dollars to the general fund, the annual general fund, the county will be building just a small portion of the trails that we put in our log range plan.

[00:44:38] So I encourage you all to consider that as the budget process goes ahead. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker. Good afternoon. I'm going to need...

[00:45:00] Oh, okay. Okay, good afternoon. I'm Liz Kronauer in the Brentsville District, and I'm on the Trails and Blue Ways Council. I am also here to request funding for trail projects in the FY 2025 CIP.

[00:45:19] And I wanted to start kind of reminding the board that, first of all, in the most recent opinion survey, which was in 2019, walking and biking trails were the number one most highly desired need identified by the public. They were number one out of 34 rec activities, and waterfront parks were in the top fourth of the 34, ranking number eight. And secondly, in the Energy and Sustainability Master Plan, which was adopted in October of 2023. Improving bike and pedestrian infrastructure was one of seven high-priority

[00:45:57] items among transportation goals for reducing greenhouse gases. So why are trails and bike pets so desirable? Well, they're used by a wide variety of people of all ages. They're used for a wide variety of inexpensive, healthy exercise options like walking and running and biking, riding horses, observing nature, and their purpose goes beyond recreation by providing people with options for non-motorized, non-polluting access to things like public transportation nodes, shopping centers, schools, libraries, and parks. And on top of this, they are a fiscal bargain

[00:46:36] compared to other recreational and transportation facilities, and they cost only a fraction of what roads and rec centers cost to build and maintain. So this year, there is an opportunity for you to enhance the county trail system and public access to the county's rivers and streams by committing funds to a group of trail related projects that can truly be described as low

[00:47:01] hanging fruit. And this is where I'm going to run out of time. So some are low hanging in that they're shovel ready. And a shovel ready project means that the front end design and permitting costs, which is anywhere from 20 to 30 percent, 10 to 30 percent of the total project cost has already been expended. Other of these projects include funding from grants and other sources

[00:47:38] that would be lost if the projects were not built. The Neabsco Creek Wetland Preserve Boardwalk Project and the Neabsco Creek ADA Parking Area are both part of the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail, a regional national trail, and the Neabsco Creek Kayak Launch and the Lake Ridge marina dock replacement would aid in providing some much needed water access points. So why fund them now? As time passes, construction costs continue to grow, permits become stale, and grant and other funding sources go away. So please include them in the FY 2025 CIP. Thank you for

[00:48:13] your attention. And the TBC looks forward to working with you in 2024. Thank you so much. Our next

[00:48:20] Speaker. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, Supervisors. I'm Tim Chenault. I lived in Woodbridge, been there for 32 years. I would like to speak in favor of general funding for trails. Since I retired, I volunteer hundreds of hours a year out on such trails, and it is volunteer-owned efforts like this that give such funding the potential to have a

[00:48:54] tremendous return on your investment. So they have a benefit and a great return potential. Thank you. Thank you. And before we hear our next speaker, I just want to call up the final speakers so that we're going to have Charles Grimes, Katie Zemeas, Ashley Studholm, and Mitch Nason. And with that, we can go on to Mr. Russell Bryant. Good afternoon, Chair, Supervisors, County Executive, and county attorney. My name is Russell Bryant, and I still live in the Woodbridge District

[00:49:28] after moving here in 87. As the county's next budget cycle is starting, it is worth remembering that the outcomes of realizing county objectives are to address common good. A budget area for that common good is maintaining, connecting, and improving trail segments. Trails also address part of the parks and open space county and mobility objectives and provide citizens opportunities to engage with nature, exercise, and be refreshed. The grant funds for the Potomac Heritage National

[00:50:07] Scenic Trail Gap Study helps in that area for connectivity, though some other avenues are available to actually provide funds from county general revenues to trails projects directly.

[00:50:22] They are via projects inclusion in the county CIP during the annual generation, review, approval, and funding cycle. Thank you. I'm Charlie Grimes. I'm from the Gainesville Magisterial District.

[00:50:44] And as you are hearing today, there's a lot of people from a lot of districts who are advocates for us to have more options than just getting in the car and driving around. We need an active transportation program to match our car transportation program.

[00:51:02] We've been funding roads since the Shirley Highway got to the Occoquan River in 1949. It is time for us to balance our investment in transportation, build a mobility network that offers the alternative of walking, biking, e-biking for us to get around.

[00:51:20] Today, of course, we're asking for you to focus in particular on the fiscal year 25 budget and begin to use general fund money so that we can build out the 400 miles that are in the comprehensive plan in the mobility chapter for bike and pedestrian trails, many of which are for mobility, not just for recreation.

[00:51:41] But we're not going to build 25 miles of trail each year until 2040 unless we put money in the budget. And we need general fund money. It's nice to get grants. It's great to have an occasional bond issue. Proffers are good. We get fragmented segments rather than a connected network of trails.

[00:52:00] We need general fund money to be incorporated in the budget. Let me encourage you to speak to the man at the end of the row who's got the capacity to incorporate in the budget. But he has the skilled staff now to use this money in order for us to build out a trails network using general fund money.

[00:52:20] Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm Katie Zamas. I'm an Occoquan District resident, and I'm the president of the Prince William County Police Association. First, I just wanted to take a minute to congratulate the new board on winning your elections and re-elections and welcome all of you.

[00:52:41] Second, obviously, I'm here to talk to you about item 7A on today's agenda. This is a huge deal for us as the police association and the entire police department. There's some really important things to us on item 7A coming in our collective bargaining agreement, so I just want to make one last bid for all of you to please vote yes on that item.

[00:53:01] We're going to be raising the patrol shift differential from $1 an hour to $1.50 an hour, well-deserved for those evenings and midnights officers who work hard to keep us safe when most of us are sleeping. We're going to get on-call pay for those of us who are on-call. I've been in CID for the last eight years. I've never once been paid to be on call.

[00:53:18] I was once told that'll never happen in your career. This is a huge deal for us. We're going to have a CST or crime scene technician stipend. When I was on patrol, I was a crime scene technician. It involves a lot of extra work. They'll be making an extra dollar an hour, and I can tell you that's well-deserved. We're going to have a new FMLA policy.

[00:53:37] That's going to be a great thing for everyone in the county, not just the police. Never again will another female officer have to doctor shop to get someone to sign a piece of paper so that she can take 12 weeks off with her newborn instead of six. And in fact, if both parents work for the county, both parents will get to take 12 weeks off.

[00:53:54] And not only that, we were able to go above and beyond what we even asked for and get six weeks of paid FMLA leave built in. That's an enormous deal for us. It'll modify the tattoo policy to allow the chief of police to make exceptions when hiring so that someone doesn't get exempted or not hired on the police department just because they have a tattoo in a certain location.

[00:54:15] It's going to put us on a pay scale subcommittee, finally allowing us to be directly involved in negotiating for our pay and benefits. And that's probably the biggest thing on this item. Never before have we had the level of involvement to be able to do that. In the meantime, we'll receive two lump sum payments of $1,000.

[00:54:33] It'll repeal the off-duty tobacco ban, which previously did not allow officers to smoke even off-duty and was a fireable offense. Yeah, I'm a cop, not a public speaker, but I just wanted to say that we're here to support item 7A, so please vote yes.

[00:54:53] Most of you, when you were campaigning, pretty much all of you said that public safety was important to you, so this is a chance to show us that. Thank you. Good afternoon. Ashley Studholm, Occoquan District, speaking on behalf of the Prince William Conservation Alliance.

[00:55:14] I'm going to keep my comments brief. You've already heard wonderful comments from Charlie and others in support of allocating funds from general funds to support the build-out of trails and a trail system here in Prince William County, and we certainly support that effort.

[00:55:34] And I grew up in Woodbridge and have fond memories playing and walking around in different neighborhoods growing up, And it would just be such a wonderful asset and show the county being proactive in creating accessible spaces for people to walk around and access our green spaces or to access stores and other things to do to carry out their day.

[00:56:07] And I think that that could really be a benefit to all residents here throughout Prince William County. So, thank you. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, distinguished members of the board.

[00:56:23] My name is Mitch Nason. My address is on file. I stand before you as an 18-and-a-half-year employee of Prince William County and president of the Prince William Professional Firefighters. For the first time in our history, I can say that I represent over 700 firefighters, paramedics, support staff, and dispatchers here in Prince William County.

[00:56:41] That's with the addition of the latest recruit class that stands to graduate here in a couple weeks. I want to start 2024 the same way I ended 2023, and that's simply by saying thank you. Thank you to each one of you all as supervisors for taking this step to serve this community.

[00:56:58] Congratulations on your hard-fought wins in your elections last year. But thank you for being willing to even take that first step. I want to extend that thank you to your staff. The hours that are spent, whether it's in these board chambers, it's sitting back in the office, it's remotely watching until the early hours of the morning as you all do the business of this county, your staff deserves a heartfelt thank you.

[00:57:23] To the executive management team of the county, same thing to you all. As you're getting ready to enter in the budget season, I know the hours are going to be long, but Mr. Shorter, to you and all of your staff, thank you in advance for that hard work. You know, as a firefighter, oftentimes much the same as the military, and I think Supervisor Angry and Supervisor Gordy could probably attest to this, we get thank yous a lot from the citizens.

[00:57:49] And sometimes you don't even know what to say because you're being thanked for something that you love to do. So you say, I love it. But you hear, thank you for your service. And it's almost a joke sometimes that we give to each other or we thank each other. But I don't mean to belittle it because it is important. Service, whether that's wearing a uniform both abroad or at home, is something to be revered.

[00:58:11] But I think we also owe that same level of gratitude to just general county employees and our elected officials. So I just wanted to start the year off by saying that the same way we ended last year is thank you for your service. Truly heartfelt. Thank you for that.

[00:58:28] The item 7A, I guess I'll end my thank you comments with a thank you in advance for your vote of approval on item 7A. I've been standing before you all for quite literally years addressing collective bargaining here in Prince William County.

[00:58:47] It's been an honor to do so. It's been an incredible journey as we've navigated both the halls in Richmond and then now the board chambers here in Prince William to hopefully see what will be a historic moment this afternoon where the first collective bargaining agreements in Prince William County history will be signed with your police and firefighters.

[00:59:05] And so to all the staff that put in countless hours of hard work, which has been awesome to be working together in that capacity, thank you for that. And like I said in advance, thanks for your support this afternoon. All right. Thank you to everyone who's come out and speak in person, except for the person who had some bad things to say about the Cowboys. We will now, I'm a native Texan, y'all. Come on now.

[00:59:32] And I set this on the campaign trail if anyone was listening. Anyways, we will now move on to remote public comment time. We have, I believe, three people signed up to speak today for remote public comment time this afternoon. I will now turn it over to Vice Chair Bodie. Thank you, Madam Chair. Ms. Madness, is that still the case? We still have three. We actually have one person signed up to speak for this public comment time, and your only speaker is Joe Marshall. Thank you

[01:00:02] so much. Good afternoon. My name is Joe Marshall. I'm from the Coles District and a member of the Prince William Trails and Blue Ways Council. Honorable Chair, County Supervisors, during the past couple of years, you have approved the 2040 Comprehensive Plan and the Community Energy and sustainability master plan blueprints for our county over the next two decades. Bike and pedestrian improvements are called out in these plans, and such are inexpensive ways to remove

[01:00:38] cars from our roads for short trips compared to new roads and highways. The mobility chapter of the comp plan calls out over 400 miles of new or improved trails, shared use paths, and or other bike and pedestrian improvements to create an interconnected county with much better community access to needed destinations such as schools, transportation centers, shopping, churches, community centers, and parks. If the county is to be successful in reaching these plans' goals, we must work on some of these each year. So, honorable supervisors, as you begin your budgeting

[01:01:18] process this year, please include new trails funding in the county's operating budget and CIP. Please do not rely solely on federal state grants, special bond funding, and proffers. or the county will end up with many fragments, not a community-centric network.

[01:01:37] Regular funding should allow parks and recreation to begin creating and completing trails for the community. With such funding, they can also leverage a strong community support and potential volunteer help to make verified informal paths into trails a reality.

[01:02:00] So, once again, ask for funding. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Marshall. Thank you, Ms. Pollock. Was that the one and only speaker, just to confirm? Yes, that was your only speaker for today, for the public comment time. Awesome. Thank you for your assistance. Back to you, Madam Chair.

[01:02:16] Thank you. All right. Thank you so very much, Supervisor, you know, Vice Chair Bodie and Mrs. Mann. We're now on to the public hearing portion of the agenda. We have three public hearings this afternoon. There are no presentations associated with these hearings.

[01:02:34] So I will now open the public hearing on items 6A through 6C. We have two people who are signed up to speak, Charles Grimes and Ashley Stuttle. Thank you, Charlie Grimes, Gainesville Magisterial District.

[01:02:57] It's a twofer for me today. Thank you for endorsing the conservation easement at Doves Landing in order for us to have the passive recreation park that we've been planning for 20 years. I want to express my appreciation to former Supervisor Marty Noe for his consistent and persistent effort to ensure that this land ended up as a recreational opportunity, a natural resource opportunity for an access to Lake Jackson.

[01:03:29] This is a conservation easement that will ensure that we manage this land appropriately for a very long period of time. This is not a conservation easement that restricts appropriate development at this site. It is an easement that allows us to offer all of the recreational activities that are appropriate and for us not to convert it into something other than a park.

[01:03:51] So thank you for that. Thank you. Next speaker. Hello again. Ashley Studholm, Occoquan District, speaking on behalf of the Prince William Conservation Alliance. PWCA works to establish equitable, sustainable communities for people and wildlife alike, promote environmental stewardship, and create opportunities for residents to engage in decisions that affect the quality of their lives and the future of their communities throughout Prince William County.

[01:04:24] Today marks the culmination of a 28-year journey for Doves Landing. In a time when we're seeing many of our natural areas dwindle, today we have an opportunity to ensure that a piece of this precious land is protected for the delight of all residents in future generations.

[01:04:43] Starting with the property's acquisition in 1996, and it had a sign that read Public Land, Keep Out, we are now advancing towards the creation of a wonderful park that's centrally located just a mile from the intersection of Prince William County and Route 234 that offers residents a top-notch natural area for leisurely walks in the woods and wildlife conservation.

[01:05:13] In 2007, our founding executive director, Kim Hosen, recognized the importance of Dove's Landing as a haven for residents to connect with nature. And she organized walks in collaboration with, at the time, it was the Prince William County Park Authority, and unveiling an extraordinary quality and diversity of wildlife habitats.

[01:05:36] But beyond homes for wildlife, these habitats play a crucial role in cleaning our air and water, providing residents with a sanctuary to unwind and decompress, and numerous studies emphasize the positive impact green spaces have on mental and physical health, which is why we hear things like forest bathing and taking your dose of vitamin nature.

[01:06:02] Through protecting this area with a conservation easement through a third party, it showcases how the county values our natural areas and passive recreation opportunities in perpetuity. Seth Handler-Voss and the dedicated team at Parks and Recreation, as well as Alan Rosam and the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust team, building on the efforts of Kim Hosen and PWCA, have worked hard to get to this point.

[01:06:32] and I hope to witness seeing it through today and thank you so much. Thank you. Now is there anyone else who has not signed up to speak on item 6A through C who would like to speak? All right we have one person coming up. Anyone else please get in line. Again my name is Russell Bryant. I live in the Woodbridge District. In the comments from the public comment time we raised the point of

[01:07:03] connectivity. The conservation easement of item 7C addresses and allows for improvements. One of the improvements to consider is the connectivity from Doves Landing over to the reserve at Long Branch. It requires two bridges. So those are two funding opportunities that would allow access from Doves Landing to the Long Branch Reserve. Thank you very much.

[01:07:34] thank you so i appreciate everyone again who's coming to speak this will officially close the public i'm sorry one more we have one online okay miss pollock it's my understanding we have one person online that's correct we have one person signed up to speak for this public hearing time and your speaker is claudia thompson deal thank you please proceed hi can you hear me we can please proceed okay thank you i just want to speak um my name is claudia thompson deal and i'm in the

[01:08:12] Gainesville District, and I want to speak to ask for your support for the conservation easement at Doves Landing Park and to support the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust in their work in getting this conservation easement. And while I have the floor, I also wanted to request funding for Trails Project. I'm an advocate for natural surface trails and extending our uh trail system thank you very much for your time thank you ms thompson deal thank you ms pollack back to you madam chair all righty i guess that really is it um so i will entertain a motion now

[01:08:52] to approve agenda item 6a through c so move madam second any discussion oh hold on i have couple folks um starting with supervisor vega thank you madam chair uh just quick remarks on item 6c. I want to thank also Kim Hosen who is no longer with us. I remember touring Dove's Landing back in 2019 when I was a candidate and well it doesn't take much to fall in love with this place and so I know that if Kim were still with us she would be very proud to see this through. I am really excited that we're able to partner up with the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust to ensure

[01:09:28] that this space is going to be preserved for decades to come. So Kim, thank you for your efforts and for everybody that was very close to Kim and you, how passionate Kim was about this. This is a great day, not just for the Coles District, but for Prince William County at large. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right, next we're going to have Vice Chair Bodie.

[01:09:47] Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to echo some of the remarks of Azura Zervega, I know a lot of work went into Dove's Landing and this entire area for quite some time. I want to thank Ms. Studholm and the Conservation Alliance that carry on Kim's legacy in getting this done. Again, also want to thank the Conservation Trust.

[01:10:04] I've said it before. we know that Mid County is underserved when it comes to having parks and public spaces for folks to enjoy. There's some private lands, what have you, but we don't have a lot of public accessible parks yet in Mid County. We're hoping to help improve that with this. And it's my hope that some of the things that we're doing when it comes to conservation easement here, we're able to replicate in areas like the Davis Ford Park that we just toured this past Saturday. So again, fully support the conservation easement here. Appreciate the work that's been done. Looking forward to more. Thank you so much, Madam Chair. All right. Thank you. Now we're going to go to Supervisor Bailey.

[01:10:35] Thank you, Madam Chair. I, too, wanted to support and commend the work that was done for Dove's Landing. We've been working on this since, I think, when we first got elected last term, and just to see the progress is really, really beautiful. In addition to that, I also wanted to just let the public know that Item 6B, in the Potomac District, for the cell tower that's going to be installed there continuously, this will give us help and more support for our emergency management in that area, as well as cell tower provision for that area that's been longing for broadband in a very long time.

[01:11:13] And so I'm very grateful for the progression that we're making with this project. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right, now we turn to Supervisor Ware. Thank you, Madam Chair. Actually, I'm going to speak to 6A and hope that we can do a better job in the future. If anybody noticed, these are state-mandated changes from the 2022 session.

[01:11:35] were in the 2024 session. Taking 18 months to get us mandated changes to the zoning ordinance and everything else is unacceptable to me. It has been unacceptable when we've done this for the last number of years, as far as I can recall, and I would suggest that staff, the county executive, whoever is going to be dealing with this year's changes, and I suggest there are going to be quite a few of them, should be moving the process forward at least as early as the stroke of the governor's pen on the legislation and not waiting until after the enactment date which is generally

[01:12:13] July 1st so we're already in arrears and almost 18 months in arrears on some of these things and I would just hope that that's not going to be the case in the future thank you hold on and I'm going to go back over to Supervisor Vega thank you Madam Chair I'd be remiss if I didn't give a special shout out to Seth I don't see him in chambers here right now but I'm pretty sure he's probably listening thank you Seth for all of your help we couldn't have gotten this far without you so just want to make sure that I thank him and everybody else that's a part of the team that made this happen thank you madam chair all right thank you so much

[01:12:47] if there's look supervisor Bailey yes quickly I know we need to move on but supervisor we're just made me remember though the changes may be delayed according to the governor's pin I want to thank the county exec for explaining to us about the changes because off times that's not that doesn't happen in in terms of something as detailed as this.

[01:13:12] And so for the documented time that he took on the phone, as well via email, I really do appreciate it because it helps us learn how to expedite faster. So I appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Thank you so very much. We are now going to take a vote.

[01:13:31] Vote unanimous. All right. Thank you so very much for that. We are now going to move on to county executive time. Mr. Shorter, the floor is yours. Thank you. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, members of the board.

[01:13:49] I'll make a few quick updates and then I want to turn it over to our deputy CXO and the phenomenal negotiating team that has worked so hard over the last half year to get us to the point that we are.

[01:14:05] I made mention the last time we were together of the pit count or point in time count and that we had significant volunteers to support the effort. That is still the case. I just want to thank the community for all of the support and volunteers.

[01:14:22] I also made mention of donations but did not go as far as talking about gift cards because I didn't know if I could. And so I did sort of check in with the team. And if the community is interested in donating and or giving gift cards, we're asking for those gift cards in segments no more than $10.

[01:14:43] And they could drop those gift cards off with the team at 14716 Potomac Mills Road in Woodbridge on Thursday between the hours of 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. and on Friday between the hours of 10 a.m. and 12 noon.

[01:15:02] And feel free to also email Samantha Biller if those times are not convenient and don't work. Samantha can be reached at sbiller, B-I-L-L-E-R, at pwcgov.org. And we are looking for those gift cards before January 23rd so that we could actually give those gift cards out.

[01:15:26] As many of you know, the PIC count is a count of those members of our community who are experiencing homelessness, and that is an overnight count. So I just want to, again, thank the team for all they do every year to make that count possible.

[01:15:42] I want to recognize the DSS team, Courtney Tierney, and the entire Department of Social Services. I understand that the Northern Regional Director for the Virginia Department of Social Services visited our team earlier and gave significant kudos, mentioned that we have the lowest vacancy rate in the state, and that we are a top performer and an employer of choice, and just wanted to recognize the team. We know they're an exceptional team, but just want to, anytime we have an opportunity, recognize the work that they do.

[01:16:19] Finally, just wanted to kind of acknowledge the emergency management and facility and fleet management team. The decision around operational status for our government is never an easy one.

[01:16:35] I just want to make sure that I recognize that a lot of information was shared yesterday with our executive management team and with our government, and we need those updates to make good decisions. And just wanted to acknowledge the team for providing the information, but also to FFM for doing all the work of clearing our lots, our sidewalks, to make sure that we were able to enter in all of our locations safely.

[01:17:04] So just, again, wanted to acknowledge and support the team. With that, Madam Chair, I mentioned it on a few different occasions, the fantastic work that the team has done to get to this point in our collective bargaining journey.

[01:17:23] We were, and I believe that DCXO will mention this, the only county, I shouldn't say it that way, I don't want to compare us to anyone else, but we did not go to impasse. For us to have gone for the first time for this team to have worked as hard as it has and to have gotten to the point that it has with our labor leaders and to not have gotten to a point where we had to go to impasse is a very big deal.

[01:17:57] And so just wanted to, just as the Deputy CXO gets started, acknowledge the great work and appreciate that we'll be here, obviously, to answer any questions that you may have. And with that, Deputy CXO. Thank you, Mr. Shorter.

[01:18:13] Good afternoon, Chair and members of the board. Clinton Haynes, Deputy County Executive for Government Operations, Performance, and Innovation. I am here to talk to you about our journey to collective bargaining. And so the PowerPoint that we'll go through is just the ratification tentative collective bargaining agreements with FY25 fiscal impacts.

[01:18:31] So what are we discussing today? We're going to talk about a little bit of background, a little history. I know many of you are already familiar with our collective bargaining journey. But for the public, we're going to go a little bit about the background. I'm going to talk about the wonderful team that we have, the ratification of vote by the unions, the fiscal impact studies, which you have received, highlights of both the tentative CBA with PwCPA as well as highlights of the tentative CBA with IFF. We'll talk a little bit about implementation and training, and then we're going to talk about the ratification by the board today. So a little bit of a background. In November of 2022,

[01:19:07] the board, yourselves, adopted a collective bargaining ordinance, mostly referred to as our CBO. The board amended the CBO in July of 2023. Between March and April of 2023 the exclusive bargaining units were elected. So it would be the International Association of Firefighters, IFF, for the fire department and the Prince William County Police Association also known as PwCPA for the police bargaining unit. The county representatives kicked off negotiations in June of 2023, and it was a great October because in October of 2023, we reached tentative

[01:19:44] agreements with both IAFF and PWCPA. And in doing so, as Mr. Shorter said, we avoided impasse. So talk a little about this amazing team that I get to brag on often. The county's core negotiating team consisted of the county attorney's office, human resources, representatives from the fire Department and Police Department, as well as outside counsel. The county relied on the following for both input and feedback. The Office of Executive Management, which of course included our county executive, myself, Deputy County Executive Dan Alexander for Safe and Secure

[01:20:19] Communities, as well as the Fire and Police Chiefs, as well as our Office of Management and Budget. Each union's negotiating team consisted of union counsel, their respective union president, as well as various officers and representatives from that union. To talk a little bit about the ratification vote by the unions, so tentative CBAs were submitted to the unions to present to their members for a ratification vote.

[01:20:44] On October 19, 2023, PwCPA ratified their CBA. On October 26 of 2023, IAFF ratified their CBA. Now, each union's voting process is entirely managed by that respective union. the county has no input or engagement in that process.

[01:21:07] Because both tend to CBAs that were agreed to were ratified by the respective unions, we then went on to the next step in the process, which was actually the fiscal impact studies. So the fiscal impact studies, which were required by the Office of Management Budget, looked at two things, both direct costs and indirect costs.

[01:21:23] So direct costs are all your wages, your certification pay, your specialty pay, any overtime pay and other compensation. your indirect costs, or anything that had to do with leave, schedule changes, or other things that impact union business on staffing and operations. The completed fiscal impact studies were dispatched to the board January 10th for consideration for today's public meeting.

[01:21:46] Now, it's important to note here that this presentation, the information that you'll see on this deck, is specifically related to FY25. There's a full fiscal impact study in each of your board packets, as well as for the public online. But today, we just really wanted to highlight the impact that's going to happen at FY25.

[01:22:03] The reasoning before and because of that is because we will actually be going through the FY25 budget shortly. So we wanted to make sure that you understood the cost that we knew to be true as of today. It would also be important for us to mention that each of these CBAs are four-year terms with a two-year wage reopener.

[01:22:20] And so both CBAs are four years, again, with a two-year wage reopener. And so first up, we have Prince William County Police Association. And so the first thing we have is an establishment of a pay scale committee to work with a consultant to do a revised pay scale for the entire department.

[01:22:36] And that will be effective July 1 of 2026. That is about a $200,000 cost to get that consultant. We will have a $1,000 lump sum payment for the bargaining union members effective on July 1 of 2024 as well. That's about a $636,000 cost.

[01:22:52] New to this as well is an on-call pay in the amount of one hour of overtime for each day assigned to overtime. This is new at a cost of about $3.6 million for about 130 FTEs per day. An increase of 50 cent in shift differential pay at a cost of about $215,000.

[01:23:11] And new as well as $1 add-on pay for crime scene technicians. These are your CSTs at a cost of about $213,000 for about 95 CSTs. Also new to the county, a six-weeks paid family leave, medical leave, at a cost of about $157,000 increased cost, as well as an increase in comp leave cap from 80 hours to 120 hours.

[01:23:36] This is all in addition to the already-budgeted 3% merit performance increase that all of our employees will get in the upcoming budget. That was already budgeted in your five-year plan. Moving on to the highlights of our IAFF CBA.

[01:23:55] Again, FY25 costs, similar as I mentioned before, four-year term, two-year wage reopener. What is new is the support of a 50-hour workweek, so moving from a 56-hour workweek to a 50-hour workweek. The increase of staffing along those times, along those years.

[01:24:11] The first FY25 cost will be 30 FTEs at a cost of about $6.5 million. A market adjustment of $1.25 for the bargaining unit members, about 591 FTEs at a cost of about $1.2 million.

[01:24:26] Annual stipend of $17,500 for our ALS certification, as well as $9,000 for our ALS trainee certification. Currently, those are both at $6,500 each. New as well as annual stipend of $1,500 for our hazardous materials certification at a cost of about $150,000 for about 79 FTEs.

[01:24:50] Annual stipend of $1,500 for our technical rescue certification at a cost of about $197,000. You can see these zeros just keep coming to mind. 104 FTEs, as well as six weeks paid family leave of $343,000 increased costs, as well as similar to police, an increase in our comp leave cap from 80 hours to 120 hours. In addition, they will receive the annual 3% step increase, which has already been budgeted. So just wanted to review

[01:25:25] as we've been focusing mostly on the FY25 fiscal impact. I'm sorry, am I making sure? The FY25 fiscal impact, I did want to at least show both for your view as well as the public's view, the out year. And so we did look at the entire CBA term. And what is important here is that as you see the cost going up, you can also see whereas in FY26, as it is in your fiscal impact study, we will add an additional 30 FTEs and additional 30 FTEs in FY27. And then it starts to stay a little bit stagnant. Similar to with the police, you'll see that we have the initial

[01:26:02] investment of $5 million for FY25. It then goes down in the preceding years. So total cost for FY25 is at $16 million. So we kind of joke internally that the negotiations was the easy part. The hard part is actually implementation and making sure that all of our managers and supervisors as well as our employees understand what the CBA offers both management and employees and we know our roles and responsibilities moving forward. And so we have broken this down into three phases.

[01:26:39] Phase one is through the rest of January, which is a review of all the CBA's policies, both on the county and departmental levels. So we're working with both HR as well as each of the respective departments to see what the CBA and how that actually will impact departmental policies. We then go into phase two, where we look at joint training and we have, I'm going to, I always get this name wrong. It's the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. Did I get right there we go where they actually have come in free of charge to the county where they are actually helping us look at how do we make sure that this working relationship continues on through the life of the cba and so we'll have joint trainings with them they will also help us

[01:27:17] set up both our learning man excuse me our labor management membership committees as well as help us through our grievance process and so they are really they've been an amazing consultation for us to really just make sure that we are heading in the right direction and we continue the the great relationship that we have worked out with the unions thus far. In phase three, this is March to the end of June, we continue on with our training on best practices. We finalize our LMC's as well as we finalize the CBA's both grievance procedure and administrative processes. And of course we have continued to do ongoing training, not just for those that are currently represented in the

[01:27:56] unions or by bargaining unit members, but our entire workforce. I think the CXO has said this time and time again. This is a huge change for our organization. So we have been looking at change management across the organization. So you will see that we have videos online that talk about collective bargaining one-on-one to really help our employees understand where we are in this process. So today's ratification vote by the board, as you are aware, the CXO is recommending that we approve both CBAs. The board's vote to ratify the CBA today is an up or down vote.

[01:28:33] Until the board ratifies the union CBAs, the CB process is still ongoing. And so we will be making sure that we are both stewards of the process, but also making sure that we are ensuring that we are not negotiating here in the public with the CBAs.

[01:28:51] We're only talking about what has been tenderly agreed already and what has been ratified by the unions. The fiscal aspects of the ratified CBAs will be built into the county's executives' proposed FY25 budget. And of course, if ratified, budgeted, and appropriated, the CBAs will become effective July 1, 2024.

[01:29:11] So as a quick overview, I know I've had an opportunity to talk to each of you to give you kind of a little bit of download and background on where we are with the status of CBA. But today is the day where we are asking for your vote and guidance on how we move forward with collective bargaining.

[01:29:27] And with that, Mr. Shorter, I will turn it back over to you and happy to answer any questions. - All right, thank you so very much, Mr. Shorter and his team for the presentation. We're now gonna enter a discussion period on item 7A.

[01:29:48] Supervisor shall not speak to the item until recognized by the chair. A supervisor who has spoken to the item shall not again be recognized until each other member desiring to speak has had an opportunity to speak. A board member may only speak twice in discussion and debate of an item of business pending and may speak up to five minutes each time.

[01:30:10] Merely asking a question or making a brief suggestion is not counted as speaking in debate, nor is the making of a secondary motion counted as speaking in debate, so long as in making the motion, the board member makes no comment on the then-pending question.

[01:30:27] Board members may not save time for another item or transfer or yield time to another board member. Discussion and debate by the board shall be germane to the item of business pending. And with that, we will start with Supervisor Gordy.

[01:30:45] And I'm going to call you guys in order. I think unless-- let's call in the order. OK. I guess not everyone wants to talk. All right, go on. You have nothing? All right, I will start with Supervisor Bailey.

[01:31:00] Thank you, Madam Chair. What a surprise. First of all, I just want to thank the committee, the agency, for such grand work. This has been a labor of love, and we have worked through this tirelessly.

[01:31:20] And I want to thank Megan for, I appreciate you asking my input, I really do. But this has been a labor of love, and you've done an impeccable job bringing us to this point, and to all your colleagues as well. To our firemen and our policemen, we hear you, we respect you, we thank you.

[01:31:41] And I think that this process, I've done collective bargaining before, and it wasn't this easy, I promise you. But this shows the value that we give to our employees, and that's critical. It also shows the value that we give to hiring additional employees to make sure that the community is safe and secure.

[01:32:03] Your presentation was very appropriate and very understandable. Don't say I don't believe that I like that $16 million figure, but it is what it is. And I appreciate that it's over an expanded time. So you showed us what we need to do in the future as we hire other individuals to do so.

[01:32:25] So I am going to support this because it's necessary. We brag about how we have such an impeccable fire organization, police organization, emergency management organization.

[01:32:41] So we really got to support them to make sure that their work and their families are supported as well. And so I just wanted to say that up front. It's not going to be easy. It's going to be costly. But that's the name of the game when you are the 10th largest county in the nation.

[01:32:58] And so that's all that I have. Madam Chair, thank you. Thank you. Next, we'll call Supervisor Ware. Thank you, Madam Chair. I actually have some questions for staff on this. With respect to the PD contract, I see there's no market adjustments in FY25 and 26, but there is a 3% step increase.

[01:33:19] I'm assuming that step increase is predicated upon the board allocating and appropriating that 3%, if the board so chooses. The CBA has no impact on whether they get that 3%. Is that correct?

[01:33:34] That is correct, Supervisor Weir. It is a part of the current budget. What I will say is that the CBA does confirm the 3% adjustment, and so I believe... But we're not bound by that CBA, sir?

[01:33:50] Correct. Yes. Can you give me the total cost of that 3% step, FY25 and FY26? Because I don't see that here in your total costs. So I'm hearing from staff.

[01:34:08] So the police would be $490,000 for the FY25 merit, and DFR would be $450,000 for the 3% step increase. $4.9 million, $4.5 million? $4,000, $4,900,000. Total for the steps?

[01:34:25] Correct. So it's $490,000 for police, and it's $450,000 for DFR, and that is the FY25 3% step increase.

[01:34:45] Okay. Can you explain to me the purpose of the lump sum payments? So one of the concerns for the union was the pay scale. And so our way of which we were not, we did not have the right data to actually revise the entire pay scale.

[01:35:03] And as you know, the pay scale is not just those bargaining unit members, but also it impacts the entire department. And so what we did is we committed to doing the pay scale committee. But part of that, in any type of negotiation, we needed to show good faith. And so we agreed to do the $1,000 lump sum both in FY25 and FY26 as a good faith measure to do and commit to doing the pay scale.

[01:35:26] And so, again, it was just a good faith effort to ensure that we are looking at compensation, thinking about compensation, and that we would ultimately be able to come back to the board with a proposal. Within the fire department's contract, they're calling for a 1.25 COLA, both in FY25 and 26, and no mandated market adjustments, but you've got it listed as a market adjustment in the summary of the total cost.

[01:35:54] Is that just a misprint? Say that again. In the contract, it says you've got a 1.25 COLA and that there are no mandated market adjustments, but in your table at the end of the total cost, you've got it listed as a market adjustment.

[01:36:12] So it is actually a market adjustment. And so, if you remember, the board decided to do the 17.5 for police. This is us doing the 1.25 for both FY25 as a market adjustment, and then for FY26, again, a 1.25 as a market adjustment to do 2.25.

[01:36:32] I'm just curious why, in one case, you're saying it's not a market adjustment. It is. But in the table, you're saying it is. It is a market adjustment. That's fine. Yep. I just wanted to make sure I was clear on that. Do we know what the total additional funding required in FY25 over FY24 will be for both the fire department and the police department, given that they were funded largely out of surplus funds the last 18 months?

[01:37:04] I don't have the total with me, but I can get that to you. Because you're asking for what the increase would be, overall budget. What is our overall increase, FY25 to 26, going to be, roughly? We can look that up and try to get that to you. I'd appreciate it before we vote on this, and I'll leave it at that for the moment.

[01:37:25] So I have two more people to speak. I just wanted to say this in the interest of time to keep it moving. This is a good time for us on the day to see if you have questions. But if you have general comments to make, we can make that during when we discuss between the votes. So with that, Supervisor Bode. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[01:37:41] I appreciate that because I was going to save my comments for after the motion. Okay, great. Supervisor Frank. This was a question. A question, okay. Just one question, Mr. Haynes. thank you and I want to thank the our partners in labor and the team that did this just one question Mr. Haynes I know that um for the firefighters uh agreement we have those 30 FTEs over the over those three years or 90 total 30 per year um to achieve the 50-hour work week but I didn't see any commiserate increase in the staffing for the police department was that discussed at all during I can't ask about specific negotiations but what was the consideration there uh so with

[01:38:18] respect to your question, the staffing for the fire agreement was exactly to meet the 50-hour work week. Normally those types of staffing conversations will happen through the budget process. So any staffing increases or change or structure for the police department will happen through the normal county executive's budget process. The only reason why the 30-30 was in the CBA was to directly address the 50-hour work week. I appreciate that because I know folks are wondering you know hey they see it coming on the the fire fire site is are we going to have any additional FTEs for the police that has not just not been discussed yet because that's budget versus

[01:38:53] CPA appreciate that thank you for the clarity all right thank you and we have supervisor Franklin sure madam chair thank you I just want to make a motion to move this item forward second any discussion supervisor supervisor voting thank you madam chair um like I said I wanted to reserve my comments for this time again wanted to thank everyone whether it's the folks that represent our unions, whether it's the team on the staff side that took part in this negotiation process. We're at a historic moment here in Prince William County where we are on the cusp of hopefully adopting the very first agreements with police and fire, the very front line of the front line,

[01:39:32] the people that we depend on to keep our community safe and secure. I was proud of our work to get the CBO in place that allowed the framework for these agreements. I know there's still some work to do there, but that's a conversation for another day I know a lot of these provisions that are in the CBA are things that we've talked about as a board with the individual department's personnel for years and I'm glad we're able to deliver on that hopefully not only obviously with this adoption and this ratification of these agreements but also the budget to actually fund them so wanted again thank everyone who's part of this process I will of course be supporting this motion look

[01:40:10] forward to working with all of you in the future to continue to increase the resilience of this county and to really uplift and show our first responders that we care and we want to see them thrive in our community. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. And Supervisor Franklin. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to thank our police and fire for leading this effort on collective bargaining. These conversations, I think, started a couple of years ago. And candidly speaking, you all didn't get every single thing you wanted but you stuck with it we stuck with it we all

[01:40:45] decided that this was important you all are in a position to hold us accountable to continue to work with you all on these particular issues i just want to point out a couple of reasons why this is important retention having a collective bargaining ordinance helps us with retention it makes us more competitive as a county government particularly with our public safety services. We know the challenges that we had, particularly with police. When the state police increased their salary, it kind of created a domino effect for all localities. This is going to help us not run into that problem in the future. Also, I just want to point out that this

[01:41:23] was employee-led. This was an employee-led effort from our police and fire, and we probably would not be in this position if it weren't for you all kind of leading the change and saying that prince william county uh should be a county that moves uh in this direction so thank you all for that looking forward to general uh county government coming forward with their uh particular um bargaining ordinance and and looking forward to continue to working with you all so thank you all right now supervisor gordy thank you madam chair um just to start off uh you know kind of coming out on the coming into this at the very tail end of this process i first of all i do want

[01:42:03] to thank the fire union for proactively reaching out and um sharing their perspectives um the uh while i am not a fan of collective bargaining and had this been a vote on collective bargaining i probably would vote it against it but we are where we are um and i completely agree with supervisor franklin we've got to address our retention issues um we are losing tens hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to people signing up. We're paying for their training, and then due

[01:42:39] to the competitiveness of wages within the national capital region, we're losing them to other jurisdictions. And so we're paying the cost, and we're losing the people. And so this CBA, I just want to make my hope is that it is not a double-edged sword for us, because we are looking at this from a four-year perspective. This, again, is a dynamic region. Other localities are going to be changing their wage rates. They're going to be going through their negotiations, and we've got to have the flexibility to maintain our competitiveness in order to retain our trained and our qualified

[01:43:18] people and to continue our recruitment efforts. Again, I want to thank everyone who was involved in this process uh it's you know a lot of folks were probably all right new to this process figuring out on their own as as they walk through this so thank you for what you're doing but at the end of the day i can't say enough to our police and our fire for what you do every single day to keep us safe and uh and i know at least talking to my colleagues here um everyone here has got your back and uh and just look forward to doing what we can do to continue to to strengthen our

[01:43:54] community and strengthen our police, our fire, in order to keep our community safe. Thank you. Thank you. And I have Supervisor Angry. Thank you, Madam Chair. So, Mr. Shorter, Mr. Alexander, Mr. Haynes, all of staff here, in particular, Megan, spent a lot of time with you.

[01:44:11] And then I want to say Katie and Mitch. And I'm giving first things here because we have gotten to know each other through this process. And so, thank you. There's one thing that's been said here that I've gotten from all of you all, including katie mitch that this process worked well but you all working with staff and making this happen so that's good to hear because uh you know usually how this works is in the end someone will come and say well they didn't work with us well and they forced us down our throats whatever but you all work well together so i love to hear that uh let me say this i wish we would have started here first versus getting into the pay increases that we did because there are some things that are

[01:44:49] agreed upon here that really I would call common sense things that we should have done earlier when it looks at pay for both your organizations because it would probably have stopped folks you know wanting to move on we can get pay raises all day long but at some point those pay raises become null and void because of everything else that involved I mean really when you're talking about a pay maternal leave in 12 weeks these things are reality that most organizations are doing now anyway so i'm happy to see that we're caught up and i know that cost is significant i think we should this cost right now uh i would i'd love to have this discussion in 2020 even

[01:45:27] 2019 five years ago we'd be balanced into it now and then probably talking about pay rate pay increases uh for what that would have been worth but i'm happy that we got here now um you know i will tell you you all know and i think uh supervisor gordy said it best you know coming into this thing and mitch will tell you i've had a lot of concerns with collective bargaining megan will tell you um you know i stepped back because i truly believe we have a team in place here that you all got it you all work well with these organizations and you all made it happen so honestly this process you'll notice i didn't ask any questions i've gone through and gotten

[01:46:03] everything i need answered through either you all mitch and katie or through uh the organization here and so i thank you for this process know it has been a uh a long time coming it's been a little uh rough waters at times but we're here i think it's a great package and so we'll just uh get these next four years and get this thing this train out the station and get it rolling or flowing and go from there so so thank you all for the whole entire process looking forward to it thank you madam chair all right thank you so i just want to say before we take this vote i moved here in 2015 and I remember 2016 coming to speak on the board it wasn't on the budget but it's during

[01:46:43] budget season and I saw so many blue shirts out and I had to ask you know like why are y'all here I mean what's going on and it was something was told that they come every year then I asked about fire they're like yeah they don't come you'll see a few red shirts but their work schedule as such you know it's one thing to say that we support our first responders but it's another thing to actually do it. Now, obviously, like, you know, Supervisor Gordy, we're coming late to this. We get to vote. We get to do the easy part. But I'm very proud to sit up here and do the easy part and to support our first... It is the easy part. It's the easy part. Okay, maybe not for someone.

[01:47:22] For me, it is. You know, it is... We have to support our first responders. We have a real problem with retention and recruitment. And I hope that this addresses that. I'm not saying it's going to be perfect i'm not saying it's going to fix everything it's not but i'm glad that you have a seat at the table a seat that you deserve a seat that you have fought for a seat that you should have had a long time ago um and so with that i'm going to close off discussion and i'd like to do the vote on agenda item 7a oh i'm sorry we already had a motion we had a motion

[01:47:59] we had a motion pay attention it's an old vote i heard you Okay. You both shouldn't be wearing blue. No, she's redoing it because she had the wrong

[01:48:26] second. Motion passes seven to one. Supervisor Vega voting nay. All right. Okay. I'm going to

[01:49:03] indulge Supervisor Weir. Somehow I missed the question part. I was saving the discussion. I just want to note that philosophically I'm opposed to this. We are where we are.

[01:49:25] I've been sort of torn with this over the last couple of days, and I'm still torn with it, and I don't know what the total cost is, but we'll deal with that at budget time. There are people who are going to be angry with me for voting in favor of it, but the fiscally conservative, responsible side of me sees an upside in this that I rarely find, and that's that we know what the set cost is going to be.

[01:49:52] I told the fire department and the police department last year, I'll do everything I can to make you whole don't ask me for anything else they did anyway but I I'm gonna I'm supporting this simply because I know what a set cost is for at least two years and maybe four although I do have a concern I echo Supervisor Gordy's concern with respect to where we're going to be four years down the road and if we're not back to last year all over again and having to make significant pay increases to accommodate adjustments elsewhere thank you all right thank you so very much I

[01:50:28] appreciate this hold on let's see if there are others okay members of the board there were a few questions asked during the presentation uh we're going to go through the recording uh and i will send an updated email to the board uh with any corrections and or additional information based on the questions asked uh today all right thank you so very much for your time mr shorter all right now i guess i get to move on all right i'm ready to like county county attorney our next we have the county attorney Ms. Strobel the floor is yours thank you madam chair members of the

[01:51:08] board this afternoon in closed session we will have count consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members regarding legal advice and personnel discussion regarding the following pending internal audits tax administration division funds handling accounts payable and the american rescue plan calendar year 2023 sub-recipient monitoring report interim where A discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the litigating posture, bargaining position, or negotiating strategy of the public body.

[01:51:37] These items are appropriate for closed session, pursuant to 2.2-3711A1 and 8 of the Virginia Code. So moved, Madam Chair. Second. I love it when I don't have to ask for anything. All right. So please vote with a vote.

[01:51:53] Yeah, let's vote. Vote unanimous. All right, thank you. We will now be moving on to supervisor's time. Before we begin with individual updates, we need to get a vote on appointments. Can I get a motion to approve agenda items 9A through 9AG?

[01:52:14] So moved. Second. Right. I'll go with Yesley today. Oh! All right.

[01:52:31] Mr. Bailey, thank you, ma'am. Vote unanimous.

[01:52:49] All right. Thank you very much. Now we're going to start with updates. I was going to go over to the last time we started with Supervisor Gordon. I'm going to start with Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon to everyone. On January 12th, I want to thank Mr. Kevin Glover for joining me in a podcast to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday.

[01:53:12] My chief and I had a wonderful meeting with Mr. Dennis Brandt of the Americans in Wartime Experience, and it was extremely enlightening. So we want to thank him for coming to the office and telling the story. We look forward to hopefully the museum that we'll be providing for the community in the very near future.

[01:53:33] Thanks to the Human Rights Commission for a great program on Saturday. It was absolutely beautiful. And for the Manassas City Councilman Ralph Smith, who was unfortunately the recipient of the Mastiff Resistance in southern Virginia where he had to set out school for five years, and now he's our councilman in Manassas City.

[01:53:57] I think that's a great story. And so we thank him for coming and giving us the knowledge on Wade versus education. We've come a very long way in our education system, and I'm very thankful for the impeccable education that we give our children here in the county.

[01:54:14] On the 15th, thanks to the Prince William County Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated for allowing me to participate in the amazing MLK oratorical, I have a green speech, It was absolutely phenomenal, but I'll let my colleague talk about that later.

[01:54:34] And then congratulations to Raba Raza. She was the recipient, middle school recipient, and Miles Lanier, who was the high school recipient for that honor. On the 23rd, I look forward to participating in a panel to discuss the topic of fentanyl awareness and Narcan training that will be sponsored by our own Attorney General, Mieres.

[01:55:02] And it will be a four-panel discussion, so I look forward to participating in that at the Potomac Valley Church. And then on the 24th, I'll be having a district and constituent community open house, and it's going to be rescheduled to a different location, and we'll have that on my website, so please stay tuned.

[01:55:25] This afternoon, I'd like to give notice of intent for Ms. Yolanda Green for the Historical Commission, Ariella Mia for Parks and Recs, Karen Mills for the Taxi Commission, Katrina Stroman for the Arts Council, and Mr. Curtis Porter for the Historical Commission.

[01:55:49] Thank you, Madam Chair. Everyone be safe out there and enjoy the snow. All right, next we're going to go to Supervisor Weir. Having graciously afforded me time earlier, I will cede my supervisor's time. Thank you. We will go to Vice Chair Bodie. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[01:56:05] Wanted to first say thank you to all the folks who came out for the Davis Ford Park site hike this weekend. I unfortunately was unable to attend the Human Rights Commission event because we had that hike concurrently. We had close to 100 people show up for that hike.

[01:56:21] So there's a lot of interest in that new park site out there. It used to be an old water and pollution treatment facility. It will now become a park. So I wanted to give kudos to the community that came out and showed strong interest. I wanted to give kudos to the Parks Department and the park rangers that opened up the gate for us.

[01:56:39] I wanted to, of course, give kudos to Martin Jeter and Midco for advertising the event and making it a strong success. We had folks from the Conservation Trust there. We had Conservation Alliance there. We had the Historical Society and Historical Commission folks there who were able to add a lot of great historical and environmental context to the hike.

[01:57:03] You know, I said it there, and I'm not shy of saying it here. You know, it's my vision that one day we have a cross-county greenway like they have in other communities that will connect the town of Occoquan to the Bull Run Mountains. But you only get there by doing small segments over a long period of time.

[01:57:22] You know, we have the Occoquan Greenway that's been underway for quite some time. We're hoping to finish in the next couple of years. But then after we get from Occoquan to McCourt, where we are right now, how do we then connect McCourt to Manassas? And to me, having a park site in between that's able to have great passive use and a great nature space for our mid-county residents there is a great sort of hub in that spokes of that trail network.

[01:57:48] So I wanted to say that. I also attended the MLK Orcotorical Contest yesterday alongside several of my colleagues, brought my daughter Jemison with me. She was asleep for half of it, but she got to listen to quite a bit of the great, wonderful delivery and the great oration by our young people.

[01:58:06] I always make it a point to attend that event every single year, whether it was in person like it was this year for the first time since COVID or even online. because when you listen to these young people speak and how they speak with fearlessness against some of the society's biggest challenges, it really gives you perspective and really gives me hope in the future.

[01:58:30] And I think I can say this, we had some really dynamic, awesome speakers yesterday. And it speaks to a testament to our great schools here in the community, but also the kinds of villages that raise these young people to be so fearless, so bold, and able to articulate in so many different ways the challenges that we have ahead of us.

[01:58:53] So I wanted to leave that. Looking forward, on Thursday, I will be joining MIDCO for their monthly meeting. On the docket, a particular note, is the Old Bridge Road and Prince William Parkway intersection improvement project.

[01:59:09] I know that we deferred that project, the design on that, couple months ago giving the up the community another opportunity to talk about their preferred outcomes for this project and so we can continue to huddle with community huddle with businesses huddle with county staff to continue moving that conversation forward in a productive direction and lastly we had some folks who spoke during public comment time about the need for general fund revenues and other funding and resources for our trails and our trail network. I'm a big believer in trails as well. You know, we as a board adopted a new comp plan

[01:59:48] about two years ago now where we said that we wanted to not only look at expanding our trail network, but we also look at that aspirational trails network that the Trails and Blue Ways Commission put out there. And we can only get there by not only putting grant funding, bond funding on there, but real money from the general fund towards that as well. So I'm looking forward in the future to having conversations with my colleagues and the county exec and his team on how we can make good on that promise um it's was said several times the impacts and the good benefits and assets that these uh greenways and trails can be to our community we are already a

[02:00:24] community of choice that can only enhance that so thank you so much madam chair all right before we go on to you i'm sorry supervisor angry um supervisor bailey does have one quick thing i I just wanted to acknowledge Marcus Crewe, who will be a member of the Housing Commission.

[02:00:45] And so thank you and welcome. Can you stand up? Thank you, sir. All right. Supervisor Angry. Thank you, Madam Chair. So I just want to start because I don't ask for much.

[02:01:01] But, you know, that collective bargaining piece was important for me, and I really wanted to go on the record somewhere in that. So I know we've had a long road with it. So let me take this opportunity to go on record of just simply saying why that's important to me. You know, I am a volunteer firefighter.

[02:01:16] I have been supporting and fighting for volunteers in this county. What is in that collective bargaining is everything we need for our public safety, and I think that helps tighten and strengthen the relationship of that relationship. So you all know, for those of you that were on the board in the last four years, the challenges I've had with that.

[02:01:40] And so I'm very happy in the conversations I've had with, you know, my CXO, with my staff, with, you know, my firefighters and my police association on where we are. So I want to get on record of that because it won't be on record of seeing that resolution come out. So just so you know, I immensely support this collective bargaining bill.

[02:02:01] Despite the dollar amounts, I want that known of the importance of what we just did. Okay, so thank you. Also, we had a long list of appointees on our supervised appointments, and I know there's been a lot of discussion. One thing I'm going to be introducing at our retreat is to introduce a piece that, as we take personnel discussions into closed sessions, that we add appointees to any of our commissions.

[02:02:30] If there's any discussion that we want to have about any certain appointee, that we take that into closed sessions as well. So I'll be bringing that to the retreat just to discuss and see if that's a good idea. So just, you know. Also, you heard a lot from my Trails and Blue Ways. You know, I've been hugely on that.

[02:02:46] I've probably walked around every trail in Prince William County. I have an awesome commission team of two gentlemen who not only support these trails, they go out and do the work themselves in helping extend these trails. So I think that's the importance of some of this funding that we're talking about and really trying to close that gap on that.

[02:03:04] And then last, I just want to say to Mr. Alan Coors and Mr. Dennis Brandt, as we talk about Americans in wartime, that has been a discussion in this county since about 2012. Funding has always been an issue. We've made a lot of progress, if you haven't been over there. I truly believe this is the year that we need to talk in this county, in this board, how we can actually make that a reality.

[02:03:23] I will tell you that that is the battles over time park, if you want to call it. It's an experience that is a missing link for our Army Museum, for our Marine Corps Museum, for the Pentagon. It is literally in a location of Prince William County that is perfect to pull this off.

[02:03:44] So we really need to take a hard look at that. I'm going to be discussing that in our budget cycle of what we can do to make that a reality. But I just want to end by really praising to support that. And Mr. Allen, of course, he's getting up in age. It would be awesome for him to see a ribbon cutting.

[02:04:00] I know his son and his family are definitely in tune with that, and so I'm just hoping we can have a real discussion about making that happen. That's all I have, Madam Chair. Thank you. Thank you so much. And now we're going to go to Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a couple of items. Last week I was proud to participate in the TIP, a COP fundraiser for the Special Olympics at the Texas Roadhouse off Liberia.

[02:04:20] It was a really fun experience, but most importantly, the cause is so special and dear and near to my heart. For those that would be interested here on the day is you can partake also by joining me on the law enforcement torch run for the Special Olympics. So it's a great way to get in shape and also support a great cause.

[02:04:36] A special thank you to Texas Roadhouse also. They were so generous and we're still waiting for the final total amount that was raised, but we're expecting a good amount. So thank you to Texas Roadhouse and to everybody that came out. Also would like to appoint Howard Smith to the Lake Jackson Road Committee.

[02:04:53] His resume should be on file. Lastly, without objection, I would like to issue a directive. The county attorney's office is aware of this directive and assisted with drafting the directive. On February 28, 2023, the Board of County Supervisors adopted Ordinance No. 23-07, which amended County Code Section 14-4B to limit the exception for heating and cooling systems from the nighttime maximum permissible sound levels to systems serving residential dwellings.

[02:05:21] The board also included a sunset clause for the provision, which will expire on February 28th, 2024 at 1159 p.m. I would like to direct staff to schedule a public hearing for February 20th, 2024 to allow the board to consider extending the sunset clause for the provision until February 20th, 2025 at 1159 p.m.

[02:05:42] The extension of the sunset clause will provide the county staff the time needed to assess the noise impacts associated with data centers and develop recommended changes to the noise ordinance for the board's consideration. That's all I have, Madam Chair. Thank you. All right. Thank you so very much. Supervisor Franklin.

[02:05:59] Sure. On Sunday, January 14th, I had the pleasure and honor of presenting commendations to the Reverend Dr. Luke Torian upon his retirement as pastor of First Mount Zion Baptist Church. after 28 years of impactful ministry at this church and in the greater Prince William community.

[02:06:17] While he will certainly be missed, he will continue to serve as a representative in the House of Delegates, where he serves currently as the chairperson of the Appropriations Committee. Again, thank you, Dr. Torian, for your service to the Prince William County community.

[02:06:36] Yesterday, I also attended the 34th annual MLK Day Youth Oratorical Contest at Kogan High School. These students were well prepared to deliver their speeches. Amazing students.

[02:06:52] This continues to highlight the excellent students that we have here in Prince William County Schools. Thoroughly enjoy being there. I want to thank Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated, our Prince William County Alumni Chapter. Lily Jesse, who many people may or may not know, started this program 34 years ago alongside Joanne Bonnery.

[02:07:14] So thank you for those who participated. Thank you to the Deltas for continuing to host this. It's an incredibly important program. And I'll just say we were at the African-American Heritage Festival back in the summer, and there was a gentleman who walked up to the booth that the Deltas hosted and said, I participated in this contest 20 years ago.

[02:07:35] Thank you guys for continuing to do what you do. So excellent, excellent programming. Also just want to thank the police department who hosted alongside my office a meeting with some Route 1 business owners to discuss continued efforts to provide additional resources to both reduce and prevent criminal activity in and around their businesses.

[02:07:59] We also had members of county government present. Mr. Dan Alexander, I believe, was there, and a few other of your colleagues also. I can't remember, Elijah, if you were there. But it's been a continued effort with a number of different county services to continue to make sure that we're taking good care of the Route 1 corridor and reducing activity on that corridor.

[02:08:24] We've been pretty successful. We still have some work to do, and I just want to thank those business owners for coming together to have that discussion. Lastly, a couple of announcements. January 22nd, 7 p.m., we'll be hosting a Woodbridge District Town Hall via Zoom.

[02:08:40] Feel free to go to our website or social media to get the information. We will be joined by Chief Newsham as well as the Eastern District Commander, Captain David Smith, to provide updates on kind of what's going on both in the area of public safety, but we'll also be talking about general projects that the Woodbridge District is working on.

[02:08:59] And then also Monday, February 12th at 7 p.m., we will be hosting our Black History Month program. Still working out the details for that, but we believe it will be in person. But again, follow the website as well as social media for those updates.

[02:09:12] And then I just want to do a couple of notices to notice of intent to appoint Dr. Vanessa Gattis to the Veterans Commission, J. Michael Hill to the Board of Equalization, Clarice Torian to the Social Services Advisory Board, Vonica Bennett to the Community Services Board, Carly McDowell to the Disabilities Board and Wetlands Board, Mr. David Brickley to the Trails and Blue Ways Commission, Cheneika Barber to the Sustainability Commission, Vanessa Ford to the Historical Commission, and emmy roe to the animal control advisory commission thank you thank you so very much

[02:09:47] and supervisor gordy thank you madam chair um i too want to echo some of the comments that uh supervisors uh bode and angry mentioned regarding trails this county has so many incredible assets but you can't get to them we need trails to be able to get to the get to these beautiful places within our community um and to be able to link from one place to another and even even uh you know we talk a lot about trails but we forget that that we have creeks that can be floated and yet we've not done anything to really allow access to those creeks and we have we share a

[02:10:24] creek at cedar run between the potomac district and the brinsville district and if you were able to get in you could get to dove landing and uh and enjoy everything there so there so i know we're on the front end of that. I do thank everyone who came out and spoke today, and I appreciate all the work that Charlie and Liz Kronauer, who was approved today for Parks and Trails from the Brentsville District. She's just been a tremendous asset to me personally, and I appreciate them for all that they're doing for our community on that front. I also want to thank the Prince William Soil and Water District for holding a forum this past Saturday at Hector's in Noakesville.

[02:11:04] It was a breakfast, and we had probably about 50 folks show up. And the district brought out representatives from Virginia State University to help small farmers with their small farmers program.

[02:11:22] The Virginia Tech Cooperative Extension, who has a host of programs to support everyone from the lawn keeper to the large farmer. We also had young people from the Future Farmers of America at Brentsville High School, the 4-H, and then also from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

[02:11:43] They spoke to us about water quality programs. They talked to us about supporting pollinators and programs that they have to do that, how to better manage your lawn. Of course, talking about farming and opportunities that are there. They talked about their school programs where they take kids out to the waterways and talk about water quality and show them why this is all important.

[02:12:07] You know, the Soil and Water District is very, it's amazing all the things that they offer, not just to farmers, but to homeowners. They will come out and do soil tests to help you figure out how you can grow your own garden in your own backyard or even how to improve your lawn and to make sure that you don't have to spend a whole lot of money on it, but you're not putting a lot of pesticides and herbicides and fertilizers in that could be damaging to our waterways.

[02:12:39] They offer a lot of advice and counsel to, like I said, to everyone from the homeowner to the large farmer. And one program that they do have coming up I would like to promote is the 6th Annual Prince William Native Plant Symposium, which we held Saturday, February the 10th from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at George Mason University's Verizon Auditorium.

[02:13:02] uh it's a great partnership between public organizations private uh organizations as well as george mason and uh and so if you have an opportunity uh if you want to know how you can better support our pollinators support our birds uh and our wildlife uh and it's just so interesting that the picture that they have in front of their flyers from our very own julie flanagan so uh here uh on staff so uh again thank them for all the work that they're doing to help support our community, keep it healthy, and helping us know how to do it in a better way.

[02:13:35] Thank you, Madam Chair. All right. Thank you so very much. I have a couple things that I want to note. First, on Saturday, I went to Universal Human Rights Day, hosted by our Human Rights Commission. I saw our CXO, Chris Shorter there, and Supervisor Baylor was there as well.

[02:13:54] It was a wonderful event. I just wanted to name the honorees for that award. We had the Prince William County Police Women's Mentorship Program. Founders Lieutenant Astrid Robinson and Detective Michelle McAllister. The Prince William Community Foundation was honored with Dr. Vanessa Gaddis.

[02:14:13] Christine Falls, who has provided resources to help members of the community with addiction, human trafficking, and online exploitation. She was also honored. Match Up founder Rania Lateef, who is a student at Colgan High School. And Rabbi Elizabeth Golston from Congregation Neer Shalom.

[02:14:32] And then on Monday, just yesterday, you know, along with a number of other people on the Board of County Supervisors, I attended the 34th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Oratorical Competition. And I was very much impressed by the young people who spoke, the finalists, as well as the two people who actually won the competition.

[02:14:54] And I am so glad I didn't have to be a judge because I wouldn't know what to do. Those young people were truly inspiring. I do not have any notice of attendance this week. Next meeting, hopefully I'll have several. I'll be piling it on you. And this week, you know, and I just also want to touch, you know, I've been trying to make sure that I have discussions with each of the supervisors going out to their districts.

[02:15:18] This far, you know, I've met with supervisors Gordy and Supervisor Weir. I believe this week it's Bodhi and Angry, you know, I've got a few more, you know, the rest of y'all, we got to get that stuff on the calendar if it isn't already, but I really do look forward to meeting with everyone, working with everyone, you know, knowing what the concerns are for your district and, you know, hopefully getting some town halls or listening sessions on the calendar in each of the magisterial districts so that, you know, I am new to this board and I want to make sure that I am working with each supervisor as appropriate to, you know, and school board members, you know, if that's appropriate as well, to make sure that, you know,

[02:15:57] know what's going on in the county and, you know, what people are thinking and feeling. So with that, we are going to move on to the next item on the agenda. I'm sorry? Yes, that's what I'm going to move on to. I do need a little help. I got this one, I think. The board will now convene for a closed meeting.

[02:16:30] So moved, men. Second. We're out. Are we on the vote?

[02:16:54] Supervisor Weir. Vote unanimous. Supervisor Weir absent from vote. fix it madam chair yeah i've got a great so i i move that we accept the internal audit reports on tax administration division funds handling accounts payable and american rescue plan act

[02:17:29] to calendar year 2023 sub-recipient monitoring report in our own second all right please vote vote unanimous motion to adjourn no hold on guys we gonna we're gonna do this right i told y'all y'all ain't going to ambush me today we are back from the closed meeting the next board meeting is

[02:18:04] scheduled for february 6th tuesday february 6th now we are on our final agenda who i guess who's already gave the motion gave the motion all right we got to vote this out we got to change this in our procedures okay all right really angry really that was victor all right he's going to hang out here while the rest of us go home this concludes the January 16th 2024 County Board of Supervisors meeting thank you have a great

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