Coraggio Consulting
Prince William Board of County Supervisors Meeting, Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Date: Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Place: Prince William County Board of County Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 6h 21m (video)
Official meeting video (Prince William County, Granicus): https://pwcgov.granicus.com/player/clip/3436
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.

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[00:21:25] all right good afternoon everyone it is two o'clock on tuesday february 20th please join me for a moment of silence thank you for all that who are able please rise to join me for the pledge

[00:22:00] of allegiance all right thank you so very much we are going to start the meeting out with proclamations and accommodate and accommodations we have one proclamation to proclaim february 2024 benefit program specialist appreciation month and one proclamation to proclaim march

[00:22:38] 2024 as irish american heritage month i would like to entertain a motion to approve agenda items 3a and 3b second all right um any discussion all right please vote vote unanimous all right thank you so very much. I'm going to move to the podium to present the resolutions. Ms. Tierney, if you

[00:23:16] can join me for the first. All right. Benefit Program Specialist Appreciation Month. Whereas Prince William County recognizes the importance of providing a level of economic stability by

[00:23:50] administering federal and state benefit programs to over 130,000 residents, including supplemental nutrition assistance, temporary assistance for needy families, Medicaid assistance, subsidized child care, long-term care, auxiliary grant, refugee cash assistant, employment services programs, and energy assistance, and whereas benefit program specialists continue to experience unprecedented implementation of rapidly changing complex policies and procedures in all significant benefit programs, as well as continuing changes in service delivery and technology, while

[00:24:27] navigating through the Medicaid-unwinding, ending public health pandemic-specific policies, And whereas Prince William County's 2012 Benefit Program staff provide ethical public service adhering to Prince William County's vision and values to ensure that those qualified for federal and state benefit services receive and continue to receive them.

[00:24:50] Now, therefore, it would be resolved that the Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby proclaims February 2024 is Benefit Program Specialist Appreciation Month. Thank you. Before we begin, I'm going to ask you, thank you, someone cut off my mic, all right? Thank you. I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Tierney, if you have any words.

[00:25:09] Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm Courtney Tierney, Director of the Department of Social Services, and with me today is our DSS Deputy Director, Phyllis Jennings-Holt, DSS Assistant Directors for both Public Assistance and Customer Support and Services, Moran Gebermedin and Holly Handy, with Program Managers, Diana Kouya, Lucia D'Antoni, Michelle Hansen, and Norma Sanchez.

[00:25:33] We thank you for honoring our 212 staff members who help over 130,000 local public assistance recipients. They process and determine eligibility of the many new applications. Over 10,000 were received in the last six months while also renewing the benefits of current recipients.

[00:25:54] We have 45 days to determine eligibility for new applications and 30 days to renew benefits for SNAP. Renewals happen twice a year, and for Medicaid and TANF, renewals are once a year. The number of households on Medicaid has increased 53% in less than three years.

[00:26:16] Almost half of all recipients are children. These are people with extremely low incomes in need of health insurance. SNAP provides food, and TANF provides additional support for families with low income. Employment requirements exist for both, and the VIEW team handles this.

[00:26:35] Federally subsidized child care and energy assistance, along with assistance to refugees, are also robust public assistance program, as is SNAP fraud, is also investigated. Those with Medicaid who have severe medical needs may be eligible for long-term Medicaid.

[00:26:53] This population has also increased 50% and requires an additional psychosocial assessment jointly with the health district's medical assessment. State code requires completion within 30 days. It's complicated work.

[00:27:09] The staff has large caseloads and works hard to meet the timeliness deadlines while also being accurate. It can be challenging. They transform lives through self-sufficiency. Your appreciation of their dedication in serving over 130,000 local residents means a lot.

[00:27:29] Thank you for hearing the cry of the poor and supporting our efforts in serving them. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else have a look at the photo?

[00:27:39] All right.

[00:28:51] On to our next. Now we're going to see if Mr. Fitzpatrick, Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan can join me at the podium for Irish American Heritage Month. And if you have any other representatives that you'd like, have them come as well. Hey, how are you?

[00:29:08] I wore green. Perfect. So I wore green last week, and I'm like, do I really want to repeat the same coloring? Yes, I do. Yes, I do. Anyone else? All right. All right. Irish American Heritage Month. Whereas, and actually, I'm sorry, I had it earlier, I had it wrong earlier.

[00:29:26] It's March 2024. Whereas millions of Americans traced their roots to island shores, and whereas many early Irish immigrants endured several hardships to build new lives, they transformed our largest cities into centers of commerce and industry and made great cultural, spiritual, and economic contributions that exemplified the diversity of our nation.

[00:29:47] And whereas Irish Americans played an important role in creating the fabric of our history through their service in the government and military, also through their faith and family values,

[00:29:57] And whereas today many Americans of Irish descent continue to play a vital role in shaping our history and culture, enriching all aspects of our lives, and whereas the men and women of the ancient order of Hiberians, Father Edwin Kelly, Lieutenant Colonel John A. Dowd, and Father Michael Judge Divisions of Prince William and InfantSol, Inc. are pillars in our community who represent the Irish American population in our county.

[00:30:27] Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby proclaims the month of March 2024 as Irish American Heritage Month. If you would like to say something, please come forward. Thank you, Madam Chair, and all the board members.

[00:30:52] I'm Vince Fitzpatrick, President of Menace Vale, Inc., the holding corporation for the parade. With me today, I have Patrick Sullivan, our parade chairman, and unfortunately his wife, Kay, could not make it. We are in the final planning stages of the parade and look forward to another wonderful parade on March 9th, starting at 11 a.m. at the corner of Prescott Ave and Quarry Road in Manassas.

[00:31:20] The parade will march down Center Street through Old Town Manassas and end at the Harris Pavilion. We would like to thank the Board of Supervisors for the Irish History Month proclamation in support of the parade.

[00:31:38] How many times, how many years have I been there? I've been up here at least 20 years at this podium, so I really do appreciate it. We welcome any and all of the board members to participate in our parade.

[00:31:54] What we have is we put the board members, all the VIPs in Division I so you get done with the parade real quick. And off you can go to other events as needed. Again, thank you for support and the proclamation.

[00:32:18] Thank you.

[00:32:20] Thank you.

[00:33:15] We are now moving on to the consent agenda. Please note that item 4F has been withdrawn from consideration. Before we go on, are there any items anyone wishes to remove from the consent agenda? Madam Chair. Yes.

[00:33:30] I'll have to remove item 4N. All right. We will move that to the end of the consent agenda, after we go through the consent agenda. I will entertain a motion to approve agenda items 4A. I'm sorry, Supervisor Weir.

[00:33:48] Could you pull 4A? 4A. We are pulling 4A and 4N from the consent agenda. So for the remaining items, 4B through 4M, I will entertain a motion to approve items 4B through 4M.

[00:34:14] So moved, Madam Chair. Second. Any discussion? Madam Chair. First, I have Supervisor Frank, but Supervisor Bodie? Sure. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just for folks looking and listening online, 4B is matching requirements to apply for a grant to support development of an innovation district around the GMU SciTech campus here in Prince William County.

[00:34:36] fully support that 4c is a 25 million dollar federal grant application for the old bridge road and 123 intersection improvement project we have a very clear path now on how we want to move forward with that revisions of that project made by our dot and our friends at vdot so i appreciate the opportunity to get that project funded and 4d as in david is a tpb grant series of grant applications include a potential roundabout at hedges running cotton mill holy road corridor bike and ped study and bike and ped connection study at our interstate crossing so 66 and 95 and i support those uh moving forward as well just wanted to elucidate that for folks madam

[00:35:14] chair thank you all right thank you supervisor franklin sure just want to highlight 4m um for one point essentially 1.2 million for the cherry hill community development authority which is the cda for the potomac shores area a lot of this funding will go towards infrastructure improvements, and so just wanted to highlight that for that community.

[00:35:35] All right, Supervisor Bode. I mean, sorry, Supervisor Bailey. I'm sorry. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just want to ditto that what Supervisor Franklin just said in reference to the CDA board. We share that together, and so this is great news for that area.

[00:35:51] And then in addition to that, 4E, just want to thank Rick Conosalas for including the Southbridge Activity Center and the Dumfries Road Activity Center. fettler park which is close by my office for the inclusive inclusiveness and the grant thank you madam chair and supervisor bode yeah thank you madam chair there was one free thing i forgot to do so 4-h madam chair before the board considers and votes on agenda item 4-h to accept budget and appropriate funds for battle of all field improvements at tyler elementary school i need to declare a personal interest in this matter my wife is a school's employee as a school's employee my wife and our members of a group with which is affected by this matter i'll be participating in

[00:36:31] because I am able to do so fairly, objectively, and in the public interest. Thank you, Madam Chair. Supervisor Ingrid. Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, before the board considers and votes on Agenda Item 4-H to accept budget and appropriate funds for ball field improvements at Tyler Elementary School, I need to declare a personal interest in this matter.

[00:36:50] My wife is a special education instructional aide with the schools. As a school's employee, my wife and I are members of a group which is affected by this matter. I will be participating in it because I am able to do so fairly objectively and in the public interest. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right.

[00:37:06] Thank you. So we are going to take a vote now. Vote unanimous. All right. Thank you. So now we are going to start with agenda or what was formerly on the consent agenda is item 4A, resolution to transfer 27,270,000 from contingency to the planning office to develop revisions to the county noise ordinance. Supervisor Weir. Thank you, Madam Chair. Wade,

[00:37:45] thank you for getting up and saving me the trouble calling you. When we discussed this last week, I want to confirm that it's my understanding that in order to conduct a more comprehensive review of the noise ordinance because of the narrow confines of what the data center overlay advisory group has put together, it's going to require more funding to look at hours of operation whether it's a civil criminal we're going to have to expand this and thus the cost will go up at some point madam chair members of the board wade hugh deputy county executive that's correct that this is going to be a comprehensive study that we're doing so

[00:38:23] outside of just looking at the ordinance itself it's going to be looking at enforcement tools it'll be looking at sound modeling using land use cases so it's really a broad broad view so i'm assuming at some point in the relatively near future you're going to come in with a amended contract an amended request for funding well this is we actually the contract's actually in place so we have a so we're doing a task order and this is just a funding for that task order so anything is that going to include all of the additional tasks like looking at hours of operation and that or is that going to require a change to the task order no well we we talked

[00:38:59] about the ordinance itself and i know you wanted to tie it in with with what you talked to the attorney about and so some of that with construction noise and all we feel we can really separate that because data center construction noise is going to be similar to other types of construction noise, so we feel we can separate those two.

[00:39:15] Okay, thank you. All right. I have you up. Oh, you're sorry. Supervisor Bailish, you had a quick question. Just quick clarity, please. Clarity, please.

[00:39:32] So same contract, additional task order. Well, what this is, it's an A&E contract, so we have a number of architectural and engineering firms that are under contract that can do this type of work. I think there's six firms.

[00:39:48] And so we shortlisted, we met with two of them, and then we settled on JMT. Because they're under a county contract, then you just write a task order against that contract. You don't go out to bid. Yeah, just put a more extensive task order. Yes. Okay, that's all I'm saying.

[00:40:04] Okay, thank you. Okay. Okay. All right, thank you so much. I would like to entertain a motion. So moved. Second. All right. Any discussion? Please vote. Vote unanimous.

[00:40:23] Thank you so very much. We are now going to move on to item 4N, which was previously on the consent agenda, and that is a resolution to reallocate nearly $2 million of American Rescue Plan Act, coronavirus state, and local fiscal recovery funds within the COVID-19 Special Revenue Fund to support the American Rescue Plan Act.

[00:40:51] Task Force for providing an additional $190,000 to the Northern Virginia Food Rescue, $60,000 for the county to purchase additional food inventory for community feeding, and to support the community safety initiative by providing $270,000 for the development of community-centric safety strategies.

[00:41:16] and an additional, you know, just over $1.5 million to the special revenue for capital projects to fund additional costs associated with the Judicial Center Renovation Project.

[00:41:33] I did not read the full resolution. It's quite long. But I at least wanted to give people an idea of what it is who do not have an agenda in front of us, what it is we are voting for. Supervisor Franklin, I will turn it over to you. Madam Chair, I would like to make a motion to actually defer this item.

[00:41:51] Second. All right. Any discussion? All right. Date certain, date uncertain? Sure.

[00:42:07] I would say maybe 90 days. So the motion then is to defer it for 90 days? All right. Any discussion?

[00:42:31] Did you want to say something to Supervisor Rear? All right. Because, yes, I'm not. It's not popping for me. So, Supervisor Rear. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm not going to vote in favor of the motion to defer.

[00:42:50] Most of the board is aware. I've had issues with some of the spending since last June when we got our first audit report. And here we are eight months later and the problem hasn't been fixed that's being addressed by this.

[00:43:05] So I'm not keen to give yet another 90 days, especially given the time frame in which we have to expend and or encumber the funds that are there.

[00:43:21] We've got a December 31 hard deadline, and I think that pushing it another 90 days is going to leave us in a rather precarious position, especially with all of the needs that are currently out there, for direct relief that we could accomplish with, otherwise accomplish with this funding.

[00:43:39] Thank you. My speaker's list is out. I know that Andrea has had problems loading it. Does anyone else have anything else to say before we vote? All right, then.

[00:43:55] Let's take a vote. Motion fails two to five. Supervisors Bodie, Vega, Weir, Gordy, and Chair Jefferson voting nay.

[00:44:13] Supervisor Bailey abstaining from vote. Madam Chair. All right. Supervisor Franklin. Sure. I'd like to make another motion to allow CASA to retain $800,000 of the funds. Second.

[00:44:32] Any discussion? Madam Chair. Yes. I believe they submitted an updated plan for how those monies will be spent in a detailed plan. And I believe that was released to everyone. All right.

[00:44:51] There are a couple people who have indicated, at least one person indicated that this person hasn't seen it. Any other discussion? Supervisor Weir then, Supervisor Bode. Perhaps I missed it, but I have not seen that revised plan. Madam Chair, members of the board, it was attached to the email that I sent to the board yesterday.

[00:45:12] All right then, Supervisor Bode. Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate Supervisor Franklin and your efforts to give them more time and also maybe set aside some more funds for them. unfortunately, I'm in a place where I can't support that. As was said before, you know, these are federal dollars. There's very tight guidelines surrounding these monies and when and how we can fund them. You know, even with the most ambitious of timelines, we know how long it takes for folks to encumber funds, get bid orders, get contracts in place, and get through the

[00:45:48] permitting process. So I just am still concerned about giving more slack here. The current proposal by the CXO and then staff still allows them an additional amount of monies that totals over almost $500,000 for them to keep, to still put towards what they would like to do with that money. And I think that that is sufficient for this point. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[00:46:13] All right. I guess you have something, Supervisor Ingrid? I do, Madam Chair. The light's not working, so I'll just... It's, yes. So unfortunately to all of us on the dais, the system we normally use is not working, so that's why i'm kind of looking around it's i'm not you know i want to make sure that i i get everyone so supervisor angry supervisor bailey over here um all right so we're going to go thank you madam chair just a real simple question i don't know who can answer this uh maybe it's you uh mr shorter but is there a time frame where i i asked for 90 days uh for them

[00:46:51] to look look at this new list that has been produced is there a time frame for any of the comments that Supervisor Bodie just made about the window of opportunity, meaning if you gave 30, 60, 90, I don't know how much time, but enough time to review that request, can that still be done and allow for them to allocate these funds and still have a window of opportunity if it is not done to present these funds to another organization? Thank you, Supervisor. Angry for

[00:47:24] the question. I'll say that if the board today collectively decided to take action that asked staff to go back and examine eligibility for all of the items listed on the proposal sent in to us, we would do that as quickly as possible. We would work with the organization to figure out what would need to happen then once eligibility was determined. And yes, of course, if we had some

[00:48:01] time, let's say three months, four months to work with them to assume contracts, to solicit bids, we would certainly do that. And thank you for that. I know that was putting you on the spot, but my only point to that was is that when you lock in a contract, the funding doesn't necessarily get spent that day it can be committed and spent in january as long as they're obligated and they're locked in and it's correct and arpa's good with it the county's good with it so i just don't understand why allowing a window of opportunity if they agree to that window of opportunity isn't

[00:48:38] something that we wouldn't consider on this board uh to just explore that so thank you madam chair Thank you, and Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess thank you to the county attorney for just resending the list here, and it's just a refresher in my mind.

[00:48:58] Things like just so the community will know infrastructure upgrades and access to accessibility, meaning developmental accessibility, functional enhancements, I realize it is an older building, And then sustainable practices, incorporating sustainable energy provisions as well.

[00:49:17] And then timely completion of all with the contracts that they've established. One of the things that I just want to bring to the fore is that when we were talking about this opportunity and how we can support this organization, which is vital to our community, to all of our community, specifically to our Hispanic, Latino community.

[00:49:46] We were talking about how do we walk with them to assure that they understand the time frame as it relates to the ARPA funding. And so I guess my question is, does that put us in jeopardy in terms of the time frame that we need to help them understand the expending or the expenditures of these funds?

[00:50:07] I would like to know that in terms of ARPA funding, because I know there was a parameter set around that, and I don't know if there's anyone from the finance committee or county exec. Is there a time frame in terms of the ARPA funding that? Thank you for that question, Supervisor.

[00:50:24] There is a time frame. All money has to be allocated by way of the Treasury guidelines by the end of the calendar year. We have established internal for Prince William County's purposes October as a date where all funding has to be allocated.

[00:50:41] So that said, we established a date in October to give ourselves an opportunity, if needed, to reassign, to reallocate funding so that it will not be sent back to the federal government.

[00:50:58] I hope that answers your question. That answers my question. And this is the, I think it was the second tranche of money that we got for the ARPA funding to the tune of $91 million, and we were trying to disperse it throughout the county, please. That is correct, Supervisor. Okay, and so in closing, I guess my concern with this is I certainly understand the fact of establishing contracts to adhere to these five or six things that CASA is looking to do.

[00:51:31] And I think that the given opportunity with the funding that's being dispersed or that we're recommending to be dispersed, we could come up with a time frame of walking alongside, if you will, in terms of the expenditure of the funding to make sure we're within that time frame with the finance department.

[00:51:52] Does that make sense? It does. It certainly makes sense, and we are certainly here as the collective board moves. I will say we have been doing that all along. And so we have worked, and I will say the finance team in particular, worked very closely with CASA over this period of time.

[00:52:14] We have provided, as we have with all sub-recipients, good, clean information. And as Supervisor Weir has mentioned, we also followed up after audits were done. And so I will say we will continue to do that.

[00:52:32] There is, based on the agenda item here, still funding left or remaining with CASA. And so we will continue to work with CASA in the funding that remains. If the board decides today to provide for additional funding, then we will do the same.

[00:52:49] We will work with CASA to provide continued support, training if necessary, to do the same. So just for clarity, Madam Chair, and I'll be done. So for clarity, the amount that we disperse, there is a portion that we are recommending to continue with the organization.

[00:53:11] There is. So we are proposing that the funding associated with this agenda item, as laid out, be dispersed to the three causes that we've listed, namely violence intervention, Nova Food Rescue, and the Judicial Center.

[00:53:31] All remaining funds will stay with CASA, and we will continue to work with them to make sure that they are allocated by December 31 and then spent. by December 2026. Okay, I appreciate the timeline. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right, I don't know if anyone has anything else. Going once, going twice, yes, I'm going to go.

[00:53:54] So this is not how I want to begin my relationship with CASA. Last month, I'm on the audit committee with a few others on the STAS, and there was concerns about CASA, you know, using the ARPA funds before the deadline. I had been briefed by staff. We had been briefed at the audit committee mediating. I was not here for the last board when the money was given, but I believe that this was addressed during closed session. And I spoke with Supervisor Bailey, who encouraged me

[00:54:30] to call Louise Aguilar to have a conversation, let them know that, hey, we're coming to a critical point. And I held off on, and staff encouraged me, we're going to have to look at reallocating the funds. And I held off until this month. For me, I do have concerns that we have a limited timeframe. And these are federal dollars. There are very strict requirements. There are very strict guidelines that have to be adhered to. And, you know, I'm willing to work with CASA to explore

[00:55:05] additional avenues for funding and to make sure that you're working closely with county staff to spend down the remaining dollars. So we're not taking all the funding away, but, you know, there will be some remaining and we want to make sure that you're able to use it.

[00:55:26] But I will have to say for me, this is a policy vote. It is not a political vote. And I have tried very hard to keep politics out of the board chambers. I respect the work that Constance is doing, and I respect your mission.

[00:55:44] However, I will be voting to reallocate the money, simply because I have concerns about the time frame. Again, this is not how I want to start a relationship, but we will continue to work together. That said, let's vote.

[00:56:00] Madam Chair, to be clear, we're voting on supervisor. So hold on. We're voting on Supervisor Franklin to allow CASA to retain $100,000. $800,000.

[00:56:18] Yeah, put it back. I think I pulled it back. Let's see. Is your voting anybody's voting button? Yes. Supervisor Gordy. Very good. Motion fails.

[00:56:37] Supervisors Bailey, Bodie, Vega, Weir, Gordy, and Chair Jefferson voting nay. Madam Chair. Yes. For purposes of discussion, I would move 4N. Second. And I've got some questions for staff.

[00:56:54] Madam Chair. Yes, Supervisor Franklin. Franklin. I'm sorry. I am having a day today. All right, I'm having a day. Supervisor Franklin. I have an amendment to 4N. What is your amendment?

[00:57:14] To have some of these expenditures go to the Human Services Alliance of Greater Prince William County. Greater Prince William, not Greater Prince William County. Is that a friendly amendment? It is. If we could postpone, I'd be probably willing to accept it, but could we wait until we get some questions from staff first?

[00:57:35] I will, yes. Supervisor Weir. Is there anybody from staff that can address it? I'll do my best. Okay, the $60,000 for the county to purchase additional food inventory for community feeding, how is that to be dispersed and to whom?

[00:57:53] Ah, sure. So ultimately, NOVA Food Rescue, as our DCXO gets up and comes around, Nova Food Rescue, as you know and many others know, was really active and involved during the pandemic.

[00:58:10] And they are still providing rescue support to residents around food and food rescue. But is that the 190, not the 60? I'm sorry, I thought you did ask about Nova Food Rescue.

[00:58:27] No, the 60 for the county to purchase additional food inventory for community feeding. Is that right? Thank you, Michelle. I did not realize you were.

[00:58:43] Excellent. If I may, on the two questions, the 190 is for Northern Virginia Food Rescue. They administer the distribution of food. The $60,000 is for staff in the county. We actually purchased the inventory of food for distribution. And then do we know what the total gap funding required for the judicial center renovation is going to be or is?

[00:59:14] Want Quentin to do that one? Yes, we'll have DCXL Haynes. Good afternoon. Quentin Haynes, Deputy County Executive of Government Operations, Performance, and Innovation. So particularly the total is under $2.5 million, and so we're currently allocating within this resolution 1.4, so it will be the gap of that.

[00:59:34] Thank you. Supervisor Franklin, how much did you want to go to human services? From staff recommendations. Because I'd like to actually amend my own motion to have the $60,000 for the county to purchase transferred to the various food pantries in the county in fact I'd actually like to bump that up to a hundred thousand all right I know other people also have other things like Supervisor Bodu you know sure so first I'll say I as a secondary original motion I accept that second as your amended motion and that's

[01:00:13] a hundred thousand dollars if I can just I really do want to take the opportunity to be clear about the response to the question around what the food pantry does versus the funding that would support the purchase of the food.

[01:00:28] So I'll have Deputy CXO Johnson respond. Madam Chair, members of the board, the $60,000, we work in conjunction with Nova Food Rescue. We actually do all the food purchasing in conjunction after they've assessed need.

[01:00:46] They have over 30 partners, all the organizations you're looking at to making direct that utilize them in specific zip codes. We will not be able to give it to every organization because the federal government has strict requirements to where the money can go and who it can serve.

[01:01:06] So working it through Nova Food Rescue by us purchasing it allows us to have a bigger impact than just sending it to organizations because you would not be able to give it to every organization in the county. I'm assuming that 501c3s are eligible? It's not so much the 501c3, It's the location of the citizens that's being served.

[01:01:27] For ARPA funding? Yes. So the system that we have in place now, the partners come to Nova Food Rescue. We know the zip codes that are eligible. They work those zip codes with those organizations, and they can serve that community that way.

[01:01:44] It's the most efficient way to do it. The reason I bring this up is we've been approached by several food pantries that are having issues because the number of people that they're serving has grown significantly in the last two years, and their ability to purchase products that fit the demographics of their particular clientele are limited by what they get in terms of donations from a lot of the suppliers like grocery stores and that.

[01:02:13] And they're having to expend significant out-of-pocket funding to meet that demand, along with the rising price of milk eggs and the other staples that they have to purchase because those don't get donated. I'm struggling a bit with how they are not eligible.

[01:02:35] I've been on both sides of the ARPA CARES Act issue, and I know that other jurisdictions in the past have granted that money directly to them so long as the contract is in place and the measures there for audit purposes are there. So I'm kind of curious as to how suddenly the county has determined that they're not eligible when they're eligible for everybody else.

[01:02:58] the difference between CARES and ARPA, ARPA made specific guidelines as to who we could serve with those dollars. CARES was more broad, so it could be community-wide. And they have to be in either zip codes or census tracts that met a certain income qualification. So we work with our partners with finance and IEM to determine what those categories would be to meet the requirements of the federal government and in doing it that way we're able to serve more people if we had not done it that way we would have been even more restricted on who we could serve

[01:03:37] with those fundings because if we give it to those organizations as you're suggesting they have to do means testing to make sure that person is within the zip code and meets the income requirements and not presumed eligible as we've done with how we set it up now are the are the food pantries eligible to come directly to the county if you're procuring the food? Or are you going to go strictly through the Northern Virginia Food Rescue? They would not necessarily be eligible because they may not be distributed in a zone that's eligible. I'm fairly confident each one of them has a census tract that's in an eligible zone. Is there a provision by which they could

[01:04:17] come directly to the county for the food that the county is going to purchase with the 60 or whatever we give you currently there is not a mechanism to do that the way the system works nova food rescue operates the warehouse where all the food comes in we buy in bulk yeah when we buy we buy bulk orders from amazon and various the capillary food bank it comes into nova food rescue then they distribute it to those organizations based on their need and what they request so if

[01:04:51] we wanted to raise it from 60 to 100 we would have to still either put it in your hands either put it in the county's hands or put it as an additional earmark directly for the Northern Virginia Food Rescue. You would have to put it in the county's hands. In the county's hands? Yes.

[01:05:08] Are you amenable to that amendment, to the amendment? So just to be clear, we're amending the $60,000 that's currently in the resolution, upping it to $100,000. Correct. Yeah, I'm amenable. So I also want to be clear, if we're upping it to $100,000, where's the money coming from? Are we going to allocate less at a judicial center? That would be my, yes, to follow on. And if I could madam chair yes yep i have you go on thank you madam chair and to that point so i agree with that which would you know diminish by 40 000 that remaining arpa that was the judicial center it sounds like there's a lot of interest in here of it going somewhere else but it sounds like we're

[01:05:47] not exactly ready to have a prime time discussion from the dais on it so could we divide the question out and save the rest of this to reallocate maybe a week from now or two weeks from when our next board meeting is to give staff time to do more research on where we could send this and what the most appropriate way to get that out to the community.

[01:06:07] I'm sorry, I'm promoting you. Mr. Shorter. Sure. Thank you for that, supervisor or vice chair. I will say and want to make sure that I'm clear that the numbers in the agenda item were very specific in that the organizations actually made a request for the 190 and the 60 and for the violence intervention request.

[01:06:34] And so I appreciate the ability to have the board take action on those two requests and then have us come back. It would be helpful to understand where the board is on how much around the judicial center renovation that the board is interested in we are happy to come back if needed but would would be interested in clarity madam chair yes I would offer that we should we can probably figure that out right now it's not a huge amount of money that

[01:07:11] we're talking about to supervisor we're you're increasing that to a hundred thousand I would also like to give a hundred thousand to the Prince William to the Human Services Alliance of Greater Prince William and obviously that money would also come from the Judicial Center. So does that mean that we are going to be reducing, so we're going to be reducing our allocation to the Judicial Center by $140,000. I just want to make sure that I'm okay. I think it's $200,000.

[01:07:45] I'm sorry, $200,000. It would be $1.42 million would be their ultimate. Yeah, they're still getting a huge piece of the pie. Madam Chair, can I withdraw my motion and restate and offer a restated one? Yes, you may. Let's clean this up. Okay. Make sure I've got this right. Reallocate $1,986,922 of American Rescue Plan Act Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds within the COVID-19 Special Revenue Fund to support the American Rescue Plan Act Feeding Task Force by providing

[01:08:21] an additional $190,000 to the Northern Virginia Food Rescue for food distribution and related administrative costs and $100,000 for the community to purchase additional food inventory for community feeding and to support the community safety initiative by providing $270,400 for the development of community-centric safety strategies and an additional $100,000 to the Human Services Alliance of Prince William County and with an emphasis on community violence prevention and

[01:08:58] intervention and transfer and budget and appropriate an additional $1,426,522 of American Rescue Plan Act, Coronavirus State, and local fiscal recovery funds from the COVID-19 Special Revenue Fund to the Capital Projects Fund for additional costs associated with the Judicial Center Renovation Project. Second. I'm sorry, who made the motion and who second? Okay. All right.

[01:09:26] All right. Any discussion on that? Madam Chair. Supervisor Bode? Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the board, and I appreciate you all wanting to take action now, so I'm fine with that. I'm glad we were able to have a good discussion here. I just wanted to say something very, very clearly here. I support CASA. I'm proud to have the Welcome Center in my district, and I'm proud of the work that CASA does for our community.

[01:09:52] Again, as was said before, these are federal dollars that have very specific uses for them. And as we discussed, there are specific deadlines for them. You know, this has been clearly audited, as Madam Chair said, and clearly sort of talked about from the dais here.

[01:10:08] So I just don't want it to go unsaid that I do support costs in their mission. I supported them for years. I've supported the work they do. And I was a big supporter of them getting this $2 million originally to begin with. Big supporter of them getting the funds through Richmond that they've previously and are supporting now.

[01:10:25] But I wanted to make sure that was heard loud and clear. I'm hopeful that in the future we can, as Madam Chair said, find other avenues to support them. I know the Community Partners Program is one such avenue that's been indicated before. Obviously, we as board members have sort of no say in that program anymore, and I think that's the proper way to do it.

[01:10:44] but cost is more than happy to apply through that community partners program to continue getting funding for that Welcome Center, which again, I wholeheartedly support and agree with. So I just wanted that to be said that despite this reallocation of monies, I still support their mission, still support the Welcome Center, and looking forward to work with them in the future.

[01:11:04] Thank you, Madam Chair. All right, thank you. And I just want to let everyone know that my system is down again. Thank you, Supervisor Rear, though, for going through that and walking us through the amended motion. Did I have anyone over here or anyone else who wanted to say anything? Supervisor Franklin. Sure, yeah. I just want to point out that I was hoping that we can at least get a deferral so that this organization can work with county staff to figure out next steps.

[01:11:29] I think everyone agrees that there are probably things both on the county side and the organization side in terms of communication that can be better, this would be a great start for that process. And so I just wanted to highlight that.

[01:11:45] I hope that we can continue to think this way in terms of our organizations that the county works closely with, being able to kind of have that relationship where we can give them additional support. All right, I'm looking around.

[01:12:01] I see Supervisor Bailey. Supervisor, where your light is on, did you want to speak after her? Okay, I guess not. That answers it. All right, Supervisor Bailey. It's not your turn, Bob. Thank you, Supervisor Bodie, for bringing the community partners program up and talking with CASA's executive director.

[01:12:21] I think that that is a grand opportunity. The level of service that you give to this community is unparalleled, and so I think that you probably should have been a community partner a long time ago. And so I really would encourage you to follow through.

[01:12:39] the county exec is doing a revamping of that program and so that it is more user friendly across the county and I think it's a grand opportunity to build a stronger relationship with the county as well as with the community like and enrich what you have with the county already and so please allow us to to shepherd you with that as we go forward and so thank you very much for entrusting us to go through this process. I know it's difficult, but thank you so much for allowing us to go through this discussion. I know Supervisor Inger, you wanted to speak. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll be brief.

[01:13:19] I know we have many council members in the room today, and so unfortunately, public comment time is after this, and so this decision clearly is already made. What I just want to offer to you is to continue to work with the board so we can find a partnership or continue this partnership and relationship that we have.

[01:13:38] Everything at this point won't matter for anything because right now you're going to be losing funding to do more things with your welcome center and the many community needs that you have that I'm very proud that we've been working with. So I just want to offer what you really, I don't know if you're going to hang around for public comment time, maybe not needed at this point.

[01:14:01] I would simply say reach out to our offices and please come by and have conversations of where we go from here okay so i just want to offer that and building and continuing this relationship so thank you all for bearing here as well thank you manager i'm looking over this way supervisor franklin spoke i don't know if there's anything else um but you know thank you everyone for coming out here we received a lot of calls a lot of emails texts i realized that this you know for many of us this was a tough vote you know but again i you know give you my assurances that i plan to work with people

[01:14:35] i plan to have discussions and you know again you know that's all i'm going to say because it was a tough vote i know for a lot of people and i'm glad that we were able to um to move forward and to continue the conversations so um with that just trying to think it's time for us to vote motion passes six to two supervisors angry and franklin voting nay all right thank you everyone so now we

[01:15:13] are going to move on to public comment time the board will hear in person in a remote public comments we will begin with in-person public comment time this afternoon we have 14 people signed up to speak who are in the district and we have additional two people um signed up to speak i will who are outside of the jurisdiction 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 we ask that all speakers state their name in magisterial district or generally where they

[01:15:48] reside at the beginning of their remarks. We will close the in-person signup list after the first 15 minutes of in-person public comment time. First, we have Josh Quill. Good afternoon. My name is Josh Quill. I live in Gainesville, Virginia. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the board.

[01:16:10] I come to you today as the Gainesville Veterans Commissioner. I also come to you today as the former Chief of Staff of the Veterans Benefits Administration, a 25,000-person organization within the federal government, and I also come to you today as a disabled veteran, and I'm speaking in support of the exception to the moratorium on tax exemption for veterans groups that provide programs to veterans and housing. Very specifically, I'm proud, as being the Gainesville Veterans Commissioner, to have a group called the Willing Warriors in my district. I know some of you as

[01:16:47] supervisors have been out to the Willing Warriors. I've been fortunate enough to have a full tour and get the full grasp of everything this organization provides to veterans. Veterans in each and every one of your magisterial districts.

[01:17:04] It's quite amazing. I remember going there, and you have the director here, the founders here. They shared with me what this group does. For those who don't know, and you're going to hear a lot about this today from the supporters, they have two different houses, soon to be three, on the property where they will bring in disabled veterans, injured current service members and their families.

[01:17:33] Each house, if I remember correctly, can hold 10 folks, and they bring them in. You got to imagine, these folks are going through medical procedure after medical procedure. Things are not going well for the family. They bring them all together to spend quality time. Some of these folks have suicidal ideations, and what this time away from the rigor of their medical procedures does it shows them why they are still needed.

[01:18:01] You know, we have a mental health pandemic going on in this country. Up to 22 veterans commit suicide a day. So when you look throughout the county and you look at programs that are helping to combat this, Willing Warriors is one of those programs.

[01:18:19] Unfortunately, they're required to spend some of the money that they receive on property tax. So this money that they could be supporting veterans in your districts, they are forced to pay back to the county.

[01:18:39] So I ask you to look into your souls, look in the mirror. I know you all support veterans, so I'd ask that you support this. I've called many of your offices today to ask your stances on this. And a lot of them said they couldn't provide it.

[01:18:54] But I will say, Supervisor Franklin, your office, said that this supports numerous veterans and that you support this. So thank you very much for your support. Thank you for your time. Thank you. And actually, I didn't get a chance to call everyone who's next. So we have Sarah Ford, Carl Gretton. If you can go up, Larry Zilloy, John Liver, and Carlos Colas.

[01:19:23] So, all right, Ms. Ford. Thank you. Sarah Ford, Executive Director for Survivaling Warriors and also a proud Navy submarine veteran spouse. I thank you, Chair Jefferson and Board of Supervisors, for this opportunity to be here before you again today. I thank you, Supervisor Weir, for bringing the proposal, the resolution forward to lift the moratorium on property tax exemption for veteran service organizations like Willing Warriors.

[01:19:47] It has been a long five-year process to get here today. And in that past five years, Willing Warriors has paid over $134,000 in property taxes to Prince William County, which is a burden on our supporters and on our donors.

[01:20:03] That is money that we could be spending for our warrior family stays. I'd like to thank Josh Quill from the Veterans Commission for bringing forward a resolution from the Prince William County Veterans Commission to recommend property tax exemption for Willing Warriors. And I'd like to note that that recommendation was passed unanimously by the Prince William County Veterans Commission.

[01:20:22] It passed unanimously by members that you each appointed to that commission, with the exception of Chair Jefferson, who wasn't on the board at that time. So we appreciate the support, and we appreciate you trusting those Veterans Commission members that you appointed to that board. As Josh mentioned, Willing Warriors provides cost-free respite stays to wounded and injured active duty and veteran service members.

[01:20:43] We provide programs for service members that are dealing with PTS, that are dealing with moral injury, that are survivors of female or military sexual trauma. We provide much-needed programs for this community, for veterans right here and service members right here in Prince William County. We know our programs are not only life-changing, but life-saving.

[01:21:02] And we know that by the personal stories that our warriors tell us, by the letters that they write. We know that our warriors come to us in severe mental health distress. And we know that our veterans leave with a renewed sense of hope and resiliency from stays at the Warrior Retreat. We know that we have not lost a single veteran who has come to the Warrior Retreat from one of our programs or our stays.

[01:21:22] to suicide. And that is a fact to be celebrated and applauded and supported by this county. Prince William County has a large number, as you know, a large number of veterans and a large number of military members in our community. Prince William County should serve as the role model for other counties in this state and not only how we treat our military and our veterans, but how we treat our service organizations that support our military and our veterans. Our warriors come from all jurisdictions that you represent here today. Our warriors come from Woodbridge, from Bristow, from Occoquan, from Dale City, from Bristow, from Gainesville.

[01:21:56] Our volunteers come from every jurisdiction that you represent here today. There's not a single place in this county that has impacted the Warrior Retreat or been impacted by the Warrior Retreat. So I ask you, I ask you to look to support veteran service organizations, support willing warriors to vote yes to this resolution by Supervisor Weir, to lift the moratorium, to grant veteran service organizations like willing warriors to apply for property tax exemption. Thank you. Thank you so very much. Next, we're going to go to Mr. Carl Gretton. Hello, I'm Carl Gretton. I live in the Gainesville District. The Gainesville

[01:22:35] Haymarket Rotary Association also supports the Willing Warriors. On a different topic, does Prince William County give away free gas at parking lots? Why are we giving away free electricity? The total cost of EV charging stations at McCourt was $237,760. This cost including the design, construction, running conduit and electricity from the McCourt building to the parking spaces and the chargers themselves. At the Potomac Neabsco Mills parking garage that is under construction, there will be at least 14 charging stations. As part of the construction of the garage for future use, conduit to the electrical panel will be installed to support

[01:23:13] an additional 54 spots for a total of 68 spots. Without knowing the specific number of charging stations at McCourt, let's assume nine, the Potomac-Nyabesco location will take seven times more spots than McCourt. The total cost of the EV charging stations at McCourt was $237,760.

[01:23:33] Seven times this number will be $1,664,320. We paid a one-time fee of $12,475 for a five-year maintenance program. This covered maintenance and programming of the charging devices. Seven times this number for Potomac-Neapsco will be $87,325. From February 22nd to October 23rd, 2023, we have spent $9,420 on electricity. Seven times this number for Potomac-Neapsco was $65,940. Sorry for all the numbers. The above three numbers added together during a year and a half, the cost for

[01:24:11] Prince William County taxpayers will be approximately $1,875,585 to recharge an EV within four to eight hours. On the fiscal year 2025 budget item 11A page 20 the Neabsco Potomac parking garage is funded with an additional $700,000. Currently EV chargers do not include taxes for road use whereas gasoline charges do. You've all asked for money today here's a source Ford has already lost 4.5 billion dollars on electric vehicles. Please do not subsidize EV charging stations in Prince William County, why are we subsidizing someone else's choice

[01:24:49] of vehicle in which they bought? Why should Prince William County pay for a product that the majority does not want? If this is what you are thinking, why is not Prince William County not paid to have gasoline pumps in the same spaces? Why would we want to put EV charging stations in parking spaces? Currently, EV cars are not popular and are too expensive.

[01:25:12] Our tax money can be better spent instead of paying for the luxury of what a few people have purchased. Will these be universal connections? As new EVs are built, will Prince William County continue to subsidize multiple companies for the EV chargers? Thank you, Matthew Villarreal, for your numbers.

[01:25:32] All right. Next, we're going to have Larry Zilloy. My name is Larry Zilloy. I'm a resident of Gainesville. I'm a disabled veteran. I'm a member of the American Legion Post 1799 in Haymarket. I'm a member of the Northern Virginia Veterans Suicide Coalition, a member of the Northern Virginia Veterans Collaborative, and a member of the D.C. Military and Veterans Advisory Council.

[01:26:00] I'm also the Director of Culinary Services at the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run. I've been involved with the organization for 12 years. I wanted to take a couple of minutes today to tell you a little bit about the impact that the Warrior Retreat has on the guests that come to stay with us. Most of them are active duty soldiers, men and women who are currently in soldier recovery units around the country, but primarily from Walter Reed and Fort Belvoir.

[01:26:30] Our first guest came to us, was a cancer patient, lived in Philadelphia, and rode the train down every other week for cancer treatment to Walter Reed. In 2015, he was scheduled to come. He called and said he couldn't come because his wife didn't want to leave the house.

[01:26:49] She was distraught because two months earlier, their 22-year-old son had been murdered on his way home from work in Philadelphia, two blocks from their house. She was very, extremely distraught. We rescheduled that family twice.

[01:27:05] They eventually came to stay with us. After that, they wanted to move to Virginia. We were very fortunate to have warriors that not only does the warrior have problems, but the family has problems as well. And for the longest time, we thought everything changed for the family once you had a wounded warrior.

[01:27:23] And what we came to believe was that it was just another problem piled on all the other problems that families have. So the work that we do at the Warrior Retreat, the primary mission is to surreptitiously convince the warrior that their family is not better off without them.

[01:27:39] They come to us in sometimes very dark places with suicidal ideologies, and everything we do is geared towards the family. All the activities, the visiting chef night, the photo shoot that each family gets, everything that goes on at the Warrior Retreat is geared towards helping that family get through this life-changing event that affects the entire family.

[01:28:05] The one thing I did want to leave you all with today is I really think this is a very simple solution and a very easy vote for you all. It comes down to who needs the money more, the county or Wounded Warriors.

[01:28:21] Thank you very much. Thank you. And next we have John Liver. Good afternoon. I'm Dr. John Liver. I'm a resident of Gainesville, and for full disclosure, I'm also the Gainesville Planning Commissioner.

[01:28:39] I'm speaking to you today of something I'm very proud of. I'm a retired veteran of the United States Navy. I was fortunate. My years in the Navy, I went through and was not injured or disabled in any way. And I encourage you to support the motion 9AY today to give tax breaks or the option for tax breaks to charitable organizations who are supporting our veterans.

[01:29:07] Our veterans are our American heroes. These veterans that come through on the weekends with their families are disabled. They have been injured in protecting our freedoms, and through that, we owe them a debt of gratitude.

[01:29:25] We, the residents of Virginia and of Prince William County. To give you an idea what this tax break would mean to the Willing Warrior Retreat Center is they bring in roughly two warriors in a given weekend, so it's about $100 a year.

[01:29:48] The amount of money that they spend on real estate taxes right now is equivalent to about one more warrior each month. So 10 more or 10% of the, they can increase their throughput.

[01:30:05] They're adding a third house there for supporting the veterans, and that's going to only increase with the tax burden that's out there. For those of you on the dais, if you have not been out there, I strongly suggest you go for a visit.

[01:30:24] Go see what they are doing, the beautiful environment that is out there that they set up for these families, the activities, the home environment. Larry was talking about the chef's night is well known throughout the area and the veterans community is a wonderful thing.

[01:30:42] Healing is not just a medical thing. As Larry mentioned, it's the suicide prevention in the dark places. But healing, if a warrior can go back to his rehab center, his veterans' hospital, or wherever he is residing, and feel better about himself, feel better about his family, his family feels better about him, he will be healed and will be much better off for it.

[01:31:11] So I strongly urge you to support this measure and go visit the Willing Warrior Retreat Center. they would love to have you come out and visit them sometime thank you all thank you before i call our next speaker i'm going to call up the next five people after him i have mr patrick harters um shirley dominic luis aguilar if he is still here carter cam um so if you guys can all of you can make your way up and the next speaker is carlos um carler good afternoon uh madam

[01:31:51] chairman board my name is carlos colat and i'm a resident of the gainesville district i'm a veteran in the United States Army. A total of 31 years. Served in quite a few tours in terms of specifically combat. Six to be exact in terms of covering three wars from Vietnam all the way through Desert Storm. I'm disabled. I've had disabilities, but it didn't stop there. You just got to press on because that's the code. That's the code we have in the military. And as veterans,

[01:32:30] we have the same code. We press on. I strongly request your support for approval of Agenda Item 9A-Y, to allow Prince William Board of County Supervisors to consider and grant applications for tax exemptions for real property owned by charitable groups that provide programs, housing for wounded veterans and their families.

[01:32:54] As veterans, we serve the country and are asking that you remember our service. And I see that I have time left, and I'd like to expand that a little bit. I am proud to be not only a veteran, but shepherding post-1799 American Legion with 140 members, all veterans. We're getting older. We need support. And yes, it's out there. And willing

[01:33:28] warriors is a prime example of what is available today. When you think back 50 years ago, when I came back from Vietnam, there was no willing warriors. There was nothing. We didn't even get a good welcome home. So I'm telling you now, I would advise you, think about what's up at stake here. We have young soldiers, old soldiers. They need help. They need to clear their heads. They need to believe in themselves again and i expect that you'd understand what we go through we all

[01:34:06] have veterans in our family somewhere don't let them down it's it's it's probably one of the best things we have in the district and i want to support it american legion as i am the commander and all the guys that that i speak with every day every week we support this we support it strongly that's what american legion is about that's what other support organizations are about you don't have to take it from an old guy like me take it for what it is it's out there support it support

[01:34:44] willing warriors thank you thank you next we have um shirley dominic can i have the overhead projector as well is it possible or is that done we're working on it i believe yeah sorry i apologize patrick yes you are next yes i'm patrick harters uh with the gainesville district by the way chair jefferson it is great to see your smiling face here and the great turn it might

[01:35:24] want to turn it come keep going bro keep going we'll let you know go go go go one more time you got it got it is that good so my wife and i began working with willing warriors or putting some time with willing warriors in 2019 there is a need um for outdoor lighting and my company was so excited to to do what so many other companies and so many other individuals around the community have done where we got to lend a hand and and donate uh something like this and as i saw so many other corporations do and this is a lighting system we did because people are connected emotionally with

[01:36:00] lighting and that darkness when people when the soldiers would come in was oppressive and lighting helps calm the situation and they saw that insight and this project actually went on to become one of the top projects internationally i think it lost to the acropolis but um it's our pinnacle project that we ever worked on and we're so proud of it while being out there at the willing warriors we saw so much. We saw the community coming together. We saw people coming together, so many people donating time, energy, treasure, and for such a worthy cause. We ask young men and women to go

[01:36:34] into complete hell holes on earth and to go into the line of fire, to go into where bombs are going off, and to see things that no one should see. We cannot comprehend what they go through when when they see fellow soldiers getting shot, when they themselves get shot, injured, and wounded.

[01:36:54] And we ask them to come home, and many of them come home injured, they're torn, and they're recuperating. And it's a tremendous stress on the families, because the entire family is uprooted, and they spend time at Walter Reed a year or two, where the whole family is living around there, and their whole lives are turned upside down. And many of these soldiers feel that they're a complete burden to their families. They feel their family would be better off without them.

[01:37:22] And as a country, we lost more soldiers after Iraq and Afghanistan than we did during the wars, and that's a tragedy. And so when you have an organization like this that is bringing the community together, that is bringing people together for such a noble and great cause, and is pouring into people's lives and showing the value of human life, and especially those who have paid such a dear price for our country, it's something that should unite us. And I spoke months ago about a new Prince William County, a united Prince William County, and this is one issue that we could all unite on. As Americans, as Virginians, and the people of Prince William County, taking

[01:37:59] care of our soldiers and taking care of those who paid the ultimate cost is something that we should do. It's our obligation, and it's a very small thing for us to do to show our appreciation to them. All right, now this time we really will have Shirley Dominick at the microphone. Good afternoon. Shirley Dominick, and I am the co-founder of Willing Warriors. First of all, I want to thank

[01:38:31] you, Madam Chair and the board, for just having us and being able to hear the testimonies from those that have spoken so far. I want to, I'm going to be brief because a lot have been said already, but I want to go back to my reality when it comes to this retreat. I have the pleasure, the honor to sit with the warriors and families when they come in on a weekly basis.

[01:39:09] And I would say this, there are lots of stories, and behind those stories, there are a lot of pain. What the Warrior Retreat have done is given each of these families hope, give them dream for tomorrow.

[01:39:29] But it also gives the community at large hope, because when we look at the list of volunteers that have come forth and wrapped their arms around what's going on at the retreat.

[01:39:45] It's a community affair. We take it personal. We take it personal. And so when I sit with a family, I sit with one not too long ago. This is a chaplain, a chaplain of 30 years that can sit.

[01:40:03] And when I say cry, he literally cried, saying, I tried to commit suicide three times. Why would you do that? You're a chaplain. Well, I'm supposed to care for others and help others, but I don't know how to help myself.

[01:40:28] So he gets to come to the retreat. We get to change his life. He gets to really help others because there are so many that are hurting.

[01:40:45] So this facility, this retreat, is not only making the warriors better. It's healing us as a community because there are so many veterans here that don't know how to get back.

[01:41:03] They want to give back, but they get to come and they get to cut the grass. They get to paint our new home. They get to help with furnishing. They get to be a part of saving one's life.

[01:41:19] And so I honestly believe that we, as a county, we talk about role model. We'll call such a time as this. This is our time to shine. And I just want to thank you really in advance for that yes vote.

[01:41:37] So thank you. Thank you. Madam Chair, before this, next gentleman speaks. I want to recognize General Carter Ham, retired. He's a former commander for U.S. AFRICOM, former CEO for Association of the United States Army, my former boss for the Comprehensive Review Working Group. I don't ask until, and sir, it's great to see you.

[01:42:01] All right, thank you. So quickly, before we go to you, Mr. Ham, I don't know if Luis Aguilar is still here, but he is, yeah, I believe he left. And before we get to you, sir, I want to call up my next group of speakers, Alicia Gloss, Alan Gloss, John Steinbeck, Faith Lemieux, and Cameron Hamilton. So if you all can assemble, I appreciate this. Thank you. All right, sir, you may speak.

[01:42:28] Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the board. I'm Carter Hamm, and I'm a proud resident of Haymarket. I would like to correct the Supervisor Angry. I'm not sure who worked for who in those days, but I am honored to be here. I had the honor of serving in the Army for nearly 38 years, beginning as a private and concluding as a four-star general, and I am very, very proud to now call Haymarket home. I'm here today, like others, to recommend your unanimous vote yes

[01:43:01] for Supervisor Ware's proposal regarding veteran organizations' tax exemption. Our county has long been leading the way in Virginia and in the nation in its support for service members, veterans, and their families. Providing tax exemption for deserving organizations that specifically support wounded warriors is consistent with these efforts and very clearly conveys that our county recognizes and supports the women and men of our armed forces who have suffered injury in their service to America. While there are numerous wounded warrior organizations

[01:43:37] that will benefit by your action today, the one I'm most familiar with is the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run, the flagship program of willing warriors about which you have heard so much today. This extraordinary program has hosted wounded warriors and their families from each jurisdiction represented by the Board of Supervisors. These service members and veterans tell of life-changing impacts following their stay at the Warrior Retreat. Just last year, the Warrior Retreat hosted four groups of veterans who were dealing with severe effects of post-traumatic stress and were at high risk of

[01:44:12] suicide. Each one of those participants is alive today. The Warrior Retreat and many other well-managed caring veterans organizations across the county provides a way for the community to connect with and support those who have been wounded in the service of our nation. This is in the finest tradition of Prince William County. In its simplest terms, providing tax exemption for the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run and other deserving Wounded Warrior programs allows each organization to serve more wounded warriors. It's that simple. Your action today to unanimously approve Supervisor

[01:44:50] Ware's proposal sends a strong, clear, and unequivocal message that this board, this county, stands on the side of those who have stepped forward to serve our nation and were wounded. Match the courage of the wounded warriors today. Please vote unanimously to approve this measure.

[01:45:08] thank you all right thank you so very much next we're going to have alicia gloss good evening alicia gloss coles i'm here to speak about item 4n the real reason why the funds had to be reallocated away from casa prince william county recently audited casa because they were allocated 2 million in funds back in 2022 when the disgraced former chair aggressively pushed through a vote to fund casa despite legitimate concerns voiced by other fellow board members at the time prince William County auditors have found CASA has misused nearly $200,000 in taxpayer funds when they

[01:45:47] submitted non-authorized expenditures. Audits are meant to ensure the guidelines are followed and to prevent fraud, and thankfully, this fraud was exposed. Let's talk about CASA. CASA, the non-profit charitable part, and CASA in action, the political activist part, where some of the same individuals work for both organizations. I don't have a problem with that.

[01:46:10] However, CASA, the non-profit charitable part, is often seen in the CASA shirts, but doing activism for the activist part of CASA in action. Confused yet? You see, there is a conflict. The lines aren't blurred between the so-called charitable part CASA and the activist part CASA in action.

[01:46:29] They simply do not exist. The audit revealed improper spending of hundreds of thousands of dollars in marketing materials and tabling supplies. And remember, this is supposed to be the charitable part of CASA. So was the marketing money that was supposed to be the part of charitable CASA?

[01:46:46] Was that marketing material money used to purchase mailers sent out to support certain candidates? Question. We all know that CASA in action, the activist part, only donates to Democrat candidates. That's fine.

[01:47:01] But my concern is that there is intermingling of funds between the nonprofit charitable CASA organization and the activist part, CASA in action, which is the political activist part of it that I'm talking about. The group also spent thousands of dollars on marketing items such as lip balm, ham sanitizer, draw, string bags, hoodies, lanyards, thermometers, sunscreen, pills, boxes, and fidget fun blocks, whatever that is.

[01:47:27] What were these items for? Did they have wording on them? CASA also misspent more than $25,000 on administrative and utility costs at locations other than their designated Woodbridge location. Who and what is at that location?

[01:47:42] That's the question I would like for the board to look into. I have concerns and find it outrageous that after the fraud has been exposed with this audit, some of you are willing to continue to work with CASA and suggest adding them as a community partner. Are you going to bend over backwards and allow fraud in other organizations as well?

[01:48:01] That is the standard you will set. Fraud cannot be tolerated and CASA should be removed from receiving any funds, future funds from Prince William County with unanswered questions. And I believe further auditing into the so-called charitable organization, CASA, should be conducted immediately. I ask one simple question of you, my elected officials, which is all of you.

[01:48:22] Transparency. Next is Mr. Alan Gloss. Ms. Madden, can I get the one eye and keep it on that?

[01:48:45] Alan Gloss-Coles, I'm here to talk about transparency. Mr. Shorter, you, sir, should be the standard bearer in this county. You set an unforced standards of conduct and ensure the government acts in the best interest of the people, regardless of political persuasion. I brought up discrepancies in the board's agenda to you directly in the past, and today, yet another example of your lack of transparency.

[01:49:06] As the people here look at Agenda 4 and reallocating ARPA funds, it seems pretty mundane. But that could be further from the truth. Isn't that right? You see, folks, nowhere in this agenda does it say why ARPA funds need to be reallocated.

[01:49:22] The real story is that CASA Incorporated mismanaged the $2 million in ARPA funds that the county gave them. Looking at the auditor's reports, the board has known about this since at least June of last year, and it's been kept quiet even though it appeared no less than two times on auditor reports.

[01:49:41] Now, they might call it funds mismanagement, but according to the auditor, CASA literally spent money on things that were completely unrelated to where the money was allowed to go, Couldn't provide records for the things they claimed were in scope, provided duplicate receipts of in-scope items in an attempt to get funds released by the county, and spend it on promotional trinkets.

[01:50:00] During this last election, we saw CASA volunteers, I did personally, out stumping for Democrat candidates, wearing CASA shirts, and handing out CASA trinkets. I think those might be the same trinkets that the auditor identified as fraudulent. In all likelihood, the fraud the auditors had covered was probably swept under the rug for so long because the incestuous relationship CASA has with Virginia Democrats.

[01:50:25] In fact, in my research, every Democrat on this board received money from CASA in action, and I'm pretty certain advertisements I saw in Kohl's district, not just for a Democrat, but directly against Supervisor Vega, were paid for by CASA in action. Democrats on this board give CASA taxpayer money and return their political arm donates money to fund Democrat campaigns.

[01:50:47] Many of you who pay attention in this county will never forget the explicative laced comments during the last board where CASA goons came to these very chambers and made personal attacks relentlessly for hours, primarily against Supervisor Vega.

[01:51:04] even describing her as Myrda and Mies Pies or poop on the bottom of their shoes while almost every one of you on this board sat idly by as they did it. Right, Sergeant Major? Casa is Myrda.

[01:51:21] Giving taxpayer money to Casa is mas Myrda. And your lack of immediate action when the auditors reported fraud last June and now your lack of transparency with this agenda is shameful and it falls on your shoulders, Mr. Shorter. Do better. Give the public the whole story, not just a prettied-up version of it, shielding the majority's political donors from shame.

[01:51:41] And for the rest of you, stop giving our money to groups that then turn around to fund your campaigns. Thank you. Thank you so much, but I ask going forward that people direct any comments to the board and not to our staff. All right, next we have John Steinbeck.

[01:52:06] Good afternoon, board. I'm John Steinbeck, Coles District. I've been a resident here in the county since 1986. I am a veteran, and so I'd like to support the Veterans Wounded Warriors Initiative. So I was just looking on the Internet about inequality in the nation.

[01:52:28] And the top 10% basically control about 80% of the wealth, and the top bottom 50% control about 6% of the wealth. And this is like worse than the Gilded Age. It's much worse than the Roaring Twenties.

[01:52:44] And the reason I'm bringing this out is, oh, the other thing I want to commend you all for is supporting Virginia Food Rescue. Supervisor Weir, what you heard is absolutely correct.

[01:53:00] I work with Woodbridge Workers Committee. We work in the Bromsko area, which is the lowest income neighborhood in the entire county. and the needs are great and they are growing all the time in terms of food security in terms of rent in terms of utilities and also the human human alliance i'd like to you know commend them too because during the heights of covid working with them we were able to pay rent and utilities for dozens and dozens if not scores and scores of of low-income residents so thank you for doing

[01:53:35] that. So the reason I'm here, the main reason I'm here is I know that in the next few sessions, you're going to be taking up the issue of panhandling on street corners. And I know that there's consideration of making that illegal. And I just want to, you know, appeal to you to think about that. Think about what I first said about income inequality and why there are panhandlers, that this is a systemic issue.

[01:54:04] It has to do with affordable, available and affordable housing. It has to do with inflation and food costs. It has to do with medical costs. It has to do with the availability of jobs that pay a living wage. So it's basically, you know, for most of us here in this room, the decision you make is really not going to matter that much to us.

[01:54:32] But for the people that are out there that are desperately raising money, panhandling in order to pay for a roof at a motel, for example, over their heads, it's going to be a devastating, devastating vote for them. So when you make your vote on this, discuss it, and I would encourage all of you to reach out to the National Homelessness Law Coalition and talk with them about these issues.

[01:55:02] And then the last thing is, and that is that the courts have almost always ruled that these kinds of laws are unconstitutional. So there is that. And I appreciate it, and I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you so very much.

[01:55:19] And next we have Faith Lillimo. Sorry. Greetings, Chair and Supervisors. My name is Faith Lillimo. I'm from Culpeper, but I recently moved from Haymarket, where I lived for seven years.

[01:55:35] So I drive to Haymarket each day for work. I'm honored to be the volunteer coordinator and admin assistant at the Warrior Retreat. And actually two weeks ago today, I was able to throw a big party for the volunteers and celebrate 61 volunteers who faithfully come and volunteer at the retreat from all walks of life.

[01:55:58] We even had youth awards, which is so wonderful to have youth there and some high schoolers and junior high people. We have one boy that comes, and well, he's 17 now, and he's given over $12,000 to the retreat from doing bake sales.

[01:56:20] He has just been passionate about supporting the Warrior Retreat, so it's very inspirational. I get to welcome people when they come to the retreat warmly and find out what I can do to help them connect. I connect hundreds of volunteers constantly.

[01:56:41] I'm contacted by, well, over 500 volunteers per year. We have 50 core volunteers each week. 75 to 100 volunteers come to our beautification days, which are run March through November on Saturdays from 9 to noon if you're interested.

[01:56:57] I'll find lots of projects for you to do. But it is so amazing. We have multiple schools involved, lacrosse teams, soccer teams. We have over 30 companies that come out and do volunteer projects. I schedule those projects so that they can serve the community, and it's absolutely beautiful.

[01:57:17] It's very magical in many ways, so I would encourage you to come out. If you get a chance, I would love to schedule a tour for you. We also have junior ROTC groups, military groups from many military bases. A high percentage of our volunteers are veterans or spouses of veterans, children of veterans, or related to a veteran. I personally am related to five people in the Army.

[01:57:44] Unfortunately, my brother is 100% disabled, and he didn't get the help he needed, and he got into trouble with the law. So in many ways, I'm passionate about making a difference because when people don't get the help that they need, they make poor choices oftentimes, and they go down a road that's very destructive, not only to themselves, but also to their families.

[01:58:09] So I'm thankful that I get to make a difference at Willing Warriors through being the volunteer coordinator and warmly welcoming people and helping them connect from the community to Willing Warriors to make a difference. Thank you for voting yes to this resolution to lift property taxes for the nonprofit veteran organizations.

[01:58:31] Thank you. And we have Mr. Cameron Hamilton. Thank you and good afternoon to everyone here. Good afternoon, Madam Chair and all members of the board. My name is Cameron Hamilton, and I currently reside in a small town of Orange, Virginia.

[01:58:51] Yes, that's a real place. You go to Fredericksburg and turn west for a good little ways. The resting place of James Madison, so it's an absolute honor to live there with my family. I myself am a veteran, a veteran of the Afghan war. I served two combat tours there as well as two additional tours serving in Operation Enduring Freedom in various capacities.

[01:59:10] I spent 10 years as a Navy SEAL. In addition to that, I was also a medic within my assault squadrons, And it was an absolute honor to both provide care as well as to be an assaulter combating the war on terror, taking the fight to the enemy, so to speak. The toll that's taken on the minds and the hearts of veterans is quite profound, and I don't think it can be understated.

[01:59:30] I think many of us, or excuse me, I don't believe it can be overstated. Many of you here may be veterans, and we've heard some excellent veterans that have spoken in the past. With the discussion here on Resolution 94-Alpha-Y brought by Supervisor Weir, the indication to exempt or to amend part of Section 26-235-Alpha, the exception to an exemption on the moratorium of tax status for these properties, I really want to state the impact that has been conducted at these warrior retreats.

[02:00:03] I, myself, as a combat veteran, have stayed at a warrior retreat, and I can attest personally to the impact that it has. I'd like to give you a bit of a story of a gentleman I served with. His name was Jake Hubman. He was that SEAL teammate with me in Virginia Beach. He was an excellent warrior.

[02:00:20] Jake was a bit of a knucklehead, but Jake was a good man and I believe had a good heart. Unfortunately, some of the stressors of war, as well as personal experiences that he went through in life, led for him to make a decision that was quite awful. Jake took his life one day while I was still stationed in Virginia Beach, a terrible, terrible event that was basically laying itself out for years before.

[02:00:42] Jake had applied to go to an actual Warriors retreat and had not had the opportunity to go. So I say that because there are profound impact that these organizations are having on the lives and the livelihoods of many, not just the Warriors, but the families that they leave behind. By providing a tax exemption status, we're not simply asking you to change what's in Article 7, Section 7 of the Virginia Constitution for state and local government.

[02:01:08] What we're asking for is that those funds go further and be exercised more diligently. I've heard a testimony earlier from one that talked about how over $120,000 have already been paid in property taxes. The retreat that I personally attended ranged anywhere between $5,000 and $10,000 per candidate.

[02:01:26] That is roughly 12 to 24 additional service members that may qualify for this therapy, that may qualify for these retreats, which have life-saving impacts. So I want to thank you all for your service. I want to thank those of you that will support this Resolution 9-Alpha-Y.

[02:01:43] Again, my name is Cameron Hamilton. I'm running for Congress here in the Virginia 7th, and it's an honor to advocate for patriots here. Thank you. All right. Thank you so very much. I don't believe we have any additional signups. So we will now move on to remote public comment time.

[02:02:00] No, I'm sorry. I handed over the list to Supervisor Bodie. Thank you, Madam Chair. Ms. Madden, Ms. Van, do we have anyone online for this afternoon? Yes, we have one speaker. All right. Let's proceed. Thank you. Your first and only speaker is Laura Harders.

[02:02:21] Hey, good afternoon. Can you hear me? Yes, we can, Ms. Harders. please proceed. Thank you. My name is Laura Harders and I live in the Gainesville District. I'm just speaking today asking you to approve Motion 9-AY to provide an exemption or sorry an exception to the moratorium on tax exemption for veteran groups. My husband and I have had the opportunity to visit and tour at Willing Warriors Retreat in Bull Run. It's an excellent

[02:02:56] facility the services and all that they provide for our wounded warriors are amazing i'm going to keep it short and sweet i'm outside at the bus stop for my daughter hope you all have a wonderful afternoon and thank you thank you miss harters thank you miss van and back to you madam chair all right thank you so very much for that um this concludes our public comment time we are now onto the public hearing um portion of the agenda we have two public hearings um this afternoon and There are no presentations associated with these items.

[02:03:31] I will now open the public hearing on items 6A and 6B. All right. We have one person who has signed up to speak, Mr. John Liver. There's no presentation.

[02:03:51] You're our main star. That's a lot of pressure. Good afternoon. Again, I'm John Liver.

[02:04:07] I'm a resident of the Gainesville District, and for full disclosure, I'm the Gainesville District Planning Commissioner, and I am also the Gainesville District Representative to the Data Center Noise Ordinance Advisory Group. I'm speaking today as a citizen engineer who has studied the noise levels from the data centers here in Prince William County.

[02:04:28] Our Prince William County noise ordinance is woefully inadequate to protect our residents. And the sad thing is to say it's one of the best noise ordinances in the northern part of Virginia. And it is woeful at best. Our current noise ordinance does not address any mechanisms on how the county can enforce the noise limits that are in the noise ordinance.

[02:04:53] Right now, we're limited to a $250 fine, which would be given to a company that earns a trillion dollars a year. I'm sure that will make a major difference in their bottom line. And also, we can say a polite request, do please be quiet, which doesn't work so well.

[02:05:11] The current noise ordinance does not limit noises from individual frequencies, which are harmful to residents during long-term exposure, nor does it address how the noise levels will be monitored beyond our current ad hoc type of process. Finally, the noise ordinance only addresses single point sources of noise, like a single data center parcel.

[02:05:35] The work that the DCOAG is working on is talking about how are we going to remedy this type of work. The resolution before you is to extend the sunset clause out for a year. It's going to take about two more years in order to get that noise ordinance rewritten.

[02:05:56] And any future noise ordinance has to address individual frequencies, has to address a holistic approach to noise. It's not the noise from one data center that makes a difference. But when you combine that one data center with the other 34 data center sites which are currently operating in the county, plus the 59 more data center sites that are under construction or in the approval process, our county residents will be harmed without a better noise ordinance.

[02:06:25] Our current noise ordinance is not based on industrial sources producing noise near residential areas. Our police department is not prepared in enforcing an industrial noise on a residential area as well. But rather, we're bound more by dealing with backyard party noise and farm animals in the ordinance.

[02:06:47] You've heard me say at previous meetings, this noise can travel two to three miles to affect residents, to communities, schools, other public facilities. So I'm asking you to support extending the pen and ink change that's currently in the noise ordinance that will sunset next week, extend that out for at least another year, and to support the Data Center Ordinance Advisory Group in completing our work, which probably will take another two years.

[02:07:17] Thank you very much. Thank you. Ms. Madge, we don't have anyone online, correct? If there's anyone else who wishes to speak, please go to the microphone. If not, I will now close the public hearing.

[02:07:38] I will entertain questions and or a motion to approve agenda items 6A and 6B. So move, Madam Chair. Second. Any discussion? Madam Chair. Yes. Supervisor. Oh, I have Vega first in voting.

[02:07:54] Sorry. She's passed her on the draw. Thank you, Madam Chair. Certainly I'm going to be supporting this. It's no secret to you all that my constituents have been on the receiving end of this issue. I do have some concerns in regards to the timeline and, you know, would like to ask you, Mr. Shorter, to ensure that we expedite this process as soon as possible.

[02:08:17] I would like for us not to exceed one year. Maybe by this time next year we probably have this issue resolved. I'm not sure if you're able to provide a better timeline for me to be able to let my constituents know, but certainly that is a concern of mine.

[02:08:34] and just wanted to know if you had anything you wanted to add in regards to the timeline. Well, let me – thank you, Supervisor. I'll say I really just want to acknowledge the great work that Wade has been doing in leading this advisory group.

[02:08:51] It's certainly not been easy. I want to invite him to come up. I know as he comes up that it will be difficult today to commit to advancing this work to one year, especially given what we've heard.

[02:09:11] But we will certainly, and I know that Wade has been working really hard to provide consistent updates as we are working through this. So, Wade, I don't know if you wanted to add anything. Madam Chair, members of the board, Wade Hugh, Deputy County Executive. I'll start first by saying I really want to thank the Data Center Ordinance Advisory Group.

[02:09:30] I mean, there's been a tremendous amount of effort put into this. We started meeting back in July. We meet every two weeks. we've had subcommittee meetings. The task order that I spoke to earlier today that sets up JMT to come in and do the study, their scope of work is about a 52-week, so we're right at that one-year mark, and that includes everything from all the research they're going to do. We talk about modeling, meeting with our team. We want to do community outreach as well, work sessions with the Planning Commission, work session with the board so you understand what we're bringing forward, and then obviously the public hearing so the tentative schedule as it is in the scope of work

[02:10:08] is right at that one year um and like i said as hard as the team has been working in the team just for your benefit too is comprised of citizens we have folks in the great oak community heritage hunt amberley station silver leaf we have data center coalition prince william chamber i have folks from novec and dominion so i mean this is a diverse group we're getting a lot of good input um but i know they will uh they're anxious to get this moving forward too so they'll help keep us on task madam chair uh thank you wade for that and mr shorter thanks for acknowledging the great work

[02:10:43] that wade has done we've been in constant contact and um i know this is going to come as a shock to many but i do also want to publicly praise amazon and the reason being is because once we were finally able to get them to the table i think mr livery you would agree because you've been a part these discussions they've complied and they are now where i think we need them to be in order to reassure members of the community that they've heard them loud and clear and that they've done their part in ensuring that we mitigate some of the concerns that were raised by their projects so if amazon is listening i want to thank you for your time and for your collaboration because it's

[02:11:22] gone um it means a lot it means a lot to me and it means a lot to my constituents and i certainly know that this is not an issue that is going to be kicked down the road I know that is a priority for you for the team for my office and so just publicly want to thank you also and as we move along the process if you could continue to keep me informed that would be greatly appreciated so that I can inform my constituents as questions come in so thank you for all of the work and for the continued work that you're going to be doing on this. Thank you very much. Supervisor Bode.

[02:11:52] Thank you Madam Chair. Yes Supervisor Vega was quicker to draw with the button so I'm just used they're doing verbally but I wanted to echo much of what was said you know thank you Wade for the for your uh your work wanted to thank the task force for what they're doing I know that Wade you're you've been in constant contact with my office as well on the progress of all this and how comprehensive the discussions have been because noise is a very important issue but we also know that there are a lot of other impacts uh that they're brought by this industry in particular but also as we continue to grapple with an emergent and now maturing industry in the county, it's important for us to get a full picture of that.

[02:12:31] So I wanted to leave that with you as well. I didn't really have any questions, but just wanted to voice my support for this as well. And I appreciate Supervisor Vega's sort of pressing on. Hopefully this won't take another two years because the sound is an issue. We know there are other impacts that folks are, frankly, going to be grappling with.

[02:12:48] So we hope that we can get to the implementation and actionable phase of this as opposed to just all the talking collaboration, which is good, but we need action to come out of this as well. I also wanted to mention 6B because 6A is sort of sucking up all the oxygen in the room on this, but 6B is a very important step on us getting our zoning map in accord with us setting up and endeavoring for that homeless navigation center in the eastern of the county that I know is in Supervisor Angry's district.

[02:13:18] And I've spoken in favor of that project in the past. It's long overdue. I know last week I sort of pressed folks for us to see if there's anything we can do to get that project moving faster, but wanted to acknowledge the planning department for their work on this and all the team that's been moving forward with that navigation center, which is sorely overdue a community.

[02:13:36] Thank you, Madam Chair. All right, Supervisor Gordy. Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to echo what Supervisor Vega said. Really appreciate the working group and all the work that's been done. You know, I was kind of the one who kind of got the ball rolling by creating a proffer that the lawyer said is unenforceable because we knew that this was going to be a problem for our county going forward.

[02:14:02] But it got us to the table. It got Amazon to the table. And we're now working towards a solution. Now, clearly, after a year, we recognize there's no silver bullet to this in either how we address it or how we enforce it, which will become the challenge.

[02:14:18] So that sort of sets us up within our planning team is to ensure that our communities have confidence in our planning process that the design that these data centers are deploying within our community are not the kind that are notable for the noise problems.

[02:14:45] because once these facilities go active and they're making noise there's not a whole lot that can be done as amazon is demonstrating it's hard to reverse this problem i do want to command amazon they have done a lot of work but i also want to commend the hoa president from great oak dale brown it's unfortunate that this is an individual who as a homeowner association president is having to track noise levels for his community on a day-to-day basis and is tracking

[02:15:20] these noise the noise up and down and knows when things are getting better when they're getting worse. It is that noticeable and no community should have to endure that. So I'm with Supervisor Vega the sooner we can get to a resolution on this the better but I think in the meantime time it's about trying to prevent the problem in the first place will go a long way in helping our citizens know that that we as a county are taking their interest at heart and seeking to protect their quality of life right now we are at only about 8.3 million square feet of data centers in

[02:15:57] operation with 80 million approved so we've got a long way to go and and so we cannot expose more communities in this uh in prince william county to this um constant uh pervasive uh nuisance and uh and so i appreciate the work as from from from the working group to the citizen groups to the planning staff and mr uh hugh your leadership and all this along the way we look forward to the solution that you guys are able to uh come up with thank you all right thank you everyone

[02:16:33] if there is no more discussion real quick since Supervisor Bodie commented on item 6b I know that at our last meeting Supervisor Gordie you asked about where is the location for the west end west end west end and it's just a duty of our supervisors on the west end to make sure that we put that plug in Elijah Courtney I know you're here somewhere because it is important and we definitely need one in particular when we're discussing the panhandling issue and some of the comments that were made during public comment time to go hand in hand so don't forget the Weston

[02:17:08] please and thank you thank you so very much all right let's vote vote unanimous all right next we are going to go to the county executive Mr. Shorter the floor is yours thank you very much Madam Chair members of the board just really quickly wanted to first just acknowledge and honor Trevor Brown, the fallen firefighter that was a part of Loudoun County's fire and rescue

[02:17:46] system that we lost over the weekend. Serious condolences to him and his family and the entire fire and rescue system in Loudoun County. I'll say and just want to commend Chief LaBelle for all the assistance that he provided over the weekend. I want to thank Deputy CXO Dan Alexander for just a quick turnaround of information and all the coordination.

[02:18:13] I also want to thank Vicki Taylor and the Public Safety Resiliency Center and the great work that they did. We did certainly a lot in the way of backfill at some of the fire stations in Loudoun County to support them through this process.

[02:18:29] It's very clear that we work together beyond jurisdictional borders and boundaries. when tragedies like that occurs especially in the line of duty. So thank you to Chief LaBelle and all of the men and women who supported us over the weekend. I also want to just plug for the State of the Parks annual address next week. Parks and Recreation does this every year. I think last year was the first year and look forward to hearing from Seth the State of

[02:19:08] our parks this will be at the kelly leadership center next thursday at 7 p.m and it's an opportunity to to hear all the wonderful things happening in our county in terms of our parks and recreation system and for that is all for me madam chair all right i have a couple people supervisor franklin i'm sorry supervisor vody a little get that finger together i supervisor Franklin thank you I just want to make a quick comment about the facility for homeless on the western in the county if you all remember or some of us you

[02:19:46] know we did have some options but this board was not interested in those options so I know that I think it was at the last meeting Courtney and I don't know if it was Elijah kind of talked about that a little bit with regards to some of the work that we've done to find some facilities and so I'm assuming that those options are continuing. To that end, Mr. Schroeder, can you give an update on where we are with the Affordable Housing Ordinance? Sure. Thank you for that, Supervisor. We plan to

[02:20:17] provide early in March, if I remember correctly, this board a draft copy of the ordinance. Then in March, begin to engage stakeholders with that draft ordinance, including all those who have participated so far we hope that process of community engagement will bring us to a final draft that we will bring back to the board for consideration in the spring and is that is that right yeah in the spring or early summer so it just really depends on how quickly we get through

[02:20:54] the community engagement but you will you will see action from us in the coming weeks in terms of a draft ordinance yeah and that's spring of 2024 and not 2030 that is spring of 2024 all right before we go on to you supervisor but I just want to say regarding finding a homeless facility in the western end you know we have new members on the board and I'm hoping that we can all work together to make sure that we're meeting needs you know across the county and with that supervisor voting thank you first kudos to rest for Franklin for bringing up the the ADU ordinance

[02:21:32] I appreciate you for doing that. Mr. CXO, Mr. Shorter, we had a resident speak during public comment time about the EV charging stations. Can you please refresh our memory about actions that board has taken previously to address that issue? Sure. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor.

[02:21:52] We sent a memo to the board providing an update on this, I believe, last month. There was considerable discussion last calendar year, I believe September last year, around this and appreciate all of the direction from the board. We are in a position now where we're prepared to bring an item, FFM, in March to the board for consideration. As a reminder, we leverage an organization called ChargePoint to provide support, and ultimately ChargePoint will be the organization that collects the fee.

[02:22:30] What was in that memo that we sent last month was a listing of fees that would be charged and a description of how the process would work. We will be asking for the board's approval in March for that, and with that approval, we will be providing for charging at McCourt as well as charging at the new commuter garage at Neabsco and Potomac.

[02:23:04] So that should respond, I think, to the comment we heard a bit earlier this afternoon and look forward to the board's consideration. Thank you so very much.

[02:23:19] And we are going to move on. Do you have anything else, Mr. Shorter, or no? Thank you, Madam Chair. Nothing else for me. All right, we're going to move on to the county attorney. Ms. Reville, the floor is yours. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the Board. This afternoon in closed session there will be consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members pertaining to discussions concerning two economic development items regarding the prospective business or industries to the county as the expansion of an existing business or industries where no previous announcement has been made of their interest in expanding their facilities in the county along with the related discussion or consideration of the investment of public funds for the economic development matters

[02:23:58] where competition or bargaining is involved where if made public initially the financial interest of the county would be adversely affected and where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the litigating posture, bargaining position, or negotiating strategy of the public body. These two items are appropriate for closed session pursuant to 2.2-3711A5 and 6 of the Virginia Code.

[02:24:20] So moved, Madam Chair. Second. I love this. Please vote. Vote unanimous.

[02:24:40] All righty. Now, we are going to be moving on to supervisor's time. Before we begin with the individual updates, we have a few items to vote on. And I want to first, I'm breaking it out, I want to first vote on the appointees. Can I get a motion to approve agenda items 4A through, I'm sorry, 9A through 9AX?

[02:25:01] So moved, Madam Chair. Second. All right. Please vote. Vote unanimous. All right.

[02:25:17] We're going to move on to the Rules of Procedure. That is 9 -- actually, hold on. We are going to move on to Agenda Item 9A. We're going to -- hold on, because I broke these out, because I know there might be some discussions on these.

[02:25:37] Let me go -- I'm going to use this one. 9AY to direct staff to prepare a draft ordinance to amend Prince William County Code Section 26-235A to provide an exemption to the moratorium on tax exemption by designation for veterans groups that provide programs slash housing for wounded veterans.

[02:26:03] Supervisor Weir. Second. Any questions? I did. Any discussion? Please vote. We're in discussion.

[02:26:20] Yeah, I said discussion. Just a question. Is this, does a cost analysis, is that provided in this when you put out this resolution? It was, and I believe Michelle Attrade might still be on the line if there are questions about the financial impact.

[02:26:40] But when a memo was sent to the board last calendar year, we did include. Excuse me, I am still on line, Michelle Attrade, your chief financial officer. We did do Directive 23-13 last year when we looked at moratoriums for this one particular individual.

[02:26:58] As you heard, they've paid about $100,000 in taxes over five years. They own five properties. It's about $20,000 in taxes per year. We don't have a way of accurately determining the number of other nonprofits that could fall under this particular caveat or exemption that you put in place.

[02:27:17] We do know there's about 14 other nonprofits that own properties who have previously asked for tax exemptions over the years, but they do not seem to be related to this particular exception. at this time all right supervisor franklin oh yeah i just want to um thank everyone for uh speaking in uh support of this item i'll say to miss dominic i've actually been speaking with your daughter um quite frequently um about this issue and so i'm very happy to uh support this all right supervisor pody thank you madam chair uh want first thank you sir as we're for bringing this

[02:27:55] forward uh thank you to the folks that spoke today especially in favor of the warrior retreat in Haymarket. As a spouse of a combat veteran, I deeply appreciate the work and sacrifices that are made in service of our country and believe that we should do all we can. These emotional and physical burdens that so many military members carry home with them every single day on the battlefield, off the battlefield, long after they've come home for the last time.

[02:28:21] Separate from this, I wish that we had more tools in our toolbox as a county to give partial and discounted tax to other organizations that are definitely willing and able to serve. But in this situation, our options are either we exempt them fully or we don't, so I will probably be supporting Supervisor Weir's motion here, authorizing a draft ordinance to provide an exemption for those organizations.

[02:28:46] I know that this is actually, as mentioned by Ms. Ford, I believe, part of recommendations brought forth by our Veterans Commission, and they have a whole host of other recommendations they are making as well. in that unanimously served resolution. I will be making a directive on those other recommendations here when we get to Supervisor's time, but I want to acknowledge that as Ms. Ford brought it and wanted to thank our Veterans Commission for the work they've done on this.

[02:29:08] Thank you, Madam Chair. - All right, Supervisor Rear. - Thank you, Madam Chair. With respect to Supervisor Angi's question on the fiscal impact, if my math is correct, which is dubious sometimes, last year's total tax was just frog hair under $24,000.

[02:29:27] dollars, which would equate to 1.4/100 thousandths of a percent of the budget. And I would suggest that the language of this is crafted so narrowly and with intent that I'm not sure that there's going to be many, if any, additional impact for other organizations. That being said, If there are similar organizations with similar circumstances, I would certainly welcome the opportunity to afford them the same consideration.

[02:30:07] Thank you, Madam Chair. All right, Supervisor Gordy. Thank you, Madam Chair. First, I want to thank the Veterans Commission for its work as a former inaugural, or we call it in the Navy a plank owner, of the Veterans Commission.

[02:30:25] This was brought to our attention, and we began to get to work on it, and I appreciate Josh Quill and the work that they've done since then to push this forward. As someone, I've spent a lot of time working with wounded warriors myself.

[02:30:43] I've worked with the Navy's Wounded Warrior Program. I've worked many wounded, what are called warrior games, which supports, provides opportunities for wounded warriors to play in adaptive sports and help them find that they have purpose and they have meaning.

[02:31:01] But one thing I know, regardless of whether you're injured in war or whether or not you have physical disabilities or physical scars from war or whether they're internal, when you come back from an environment like a war environment where you're always on you're always everything is a threat um and then to come back home um and then try to decompress from that and try to find you know i mean i know for me personally every bag of trash on the side of the road it i had to remind myself you're not in a rock that's not a

[02:31:37] bomb uh every bang every loud noise uh doesn't mean you have to duck under a table that was kind of embarrassing a couple of times. But it takes time to get through this. And sometimes you literally need a place like what Willing Warriors provides, that quiet, that place to get away with your family. And it's not just the warrior. The caregiver needs a break. The caregiver needs a break. And that provides them time to just connect with their family member without having to worry about all the needs, let somebody else take care of that for a little while. So the way I see this

[02:32:16] is us as a county coming alongside them and partnering as being a donor to them to help bring healing and hope to these warriors and their caregivers and their family members who so desperately need it. And to our Vietnam veteran, thank you. Welcome home. Thank you.

[02:32:37] Thank you so very much. Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair. Vega. Oh, I thought you said Bailey. Vega, Bailey, Eric. Thank you, Madam Chair. Tom, beautifully stated. I mean, you summarized it perfectly. I don't know if we are a board that has made history to an extent with the number of, right, that I'm the spouse of a veteran, Supervisor Bailey, you are too, Supervisor Bodie, Victor, you are a veteran. Tom, so are you.

[02:33:16] So I just want to thank everybody that came out here and spoke. I know that we have a lot of veterans in chambers today, so I personally want to thank you all for your service. There are so many sacrifices that those who enlist make, but not just those that enlist, but to the families. We're right there next to our husbands, next to our wives, so are our children.

[02:33:36] And so it is quite the sacrifice. And so I'm happy to support this, Supervisor Weir. Thank you for bringing it forward. And it sounds like it's going to be unanimous, So I want to thank my colleagues on the day for supporting this as well, and to those of you that have served, I want to thank you also for your service.

[02:33:53] You know, the things that folks go through are things that the average citizen will never have to go through. The things they see, the things they experience, and so it's such a blessing to have groups like this one here at home to make sure that we're taking care of those that have already sacrificed so much.

[02:34:08] So thank you all for your advocacy. Thank you for being there for our veterans. if we have veterans that are watching, Victor, you always talk about the number of veterans that commit suicide, and I know that somebody spoke about it during public comment time as well. There is hope. There is help. Don't be embarrassed. Don't be shy to reach out.

[02:34:25] Just do so, because you are valued and you are loved. Thank you, Madam Chair. Supervisor Bailey. Is it my turn? Thank you so much, Madam Chair. This is a proud moment. It's a very proud moment as a a spouse of a Desert Storm vet, this is a proud moment.

[02:34:45] And General, it's good to see you in the place, always advocating in the right spaces. We appreciate you. We appreciate all our veterans. And for our Veterans Commission, they work tirelessly, and we are very proud of them, just advocating for truth.

[02:35:02] This is also an example of, I know that Colonel Brooks at Quantico will be proud of this moment as well. He often talks about, sir, partnership in the community, which is sometimes a newer thing for us in the military, but it keeps growing, and the love keeps flowing, and the support keeps flowing, and we are grateful for your service.

[02:35:24] And for the caregivers, we've come a long way. We've come a long way, baby. We've come a long way. And so prayers are needed, but advocacy and policies are absolutely needed, too. So thank you, Madam Chair, for this moment. Madam Chair, I know Supervisor Angry's on deck.

[02:35:40] I forgot to acknowledge our county executive. He's also a veteran. I apologize for missing you. Supervisor Angry. That's a whore. So they say the third time's a charm. I remember in 2019 visiting the Warrior Retreat, and we had this discussion, and I said, give me five years.

[02:36:00] I think you just said five years, too. And then Supervisor Ware brought it back last year, actually, and then we're here now on the third time's a charm. So we're here. But I want to truly commend the Veterans Commission. So we're one of, I think, three localities that actually has a Veterans Commission.

[02:36:15] And we stood this commission up in 2020, I believe. And for the last four years, they have been addressing and tackling issues such as this. The mission was to find the veterans in the community, also find the veteran organizations in the community, and find the veteran issues in the community.

[02:36:36] And I believe this is a huge one. I was happy to see that resolution that they all unanimously approved because it does give us a little more strength and teeth to do what Supervisor Ware just did in bringing this forward. So I always have to be one of good stewards of taxpayers' dollars.

[02:36:52] So the reason I ask about the funding piece is because I don't know, and thank you, Supervisor Ware, for pointing out, I don't know what other organization would come forward. We may have an issue to address there, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

[02:37:08] Unfortunately, today is a great day for us to take the next step because we still got another step to go with this. But it's a great day to get this out of the way. And thank you all for coming out here to be a part of this. And to your point, if you haven't visited that Warrior Retreat, you need to get out there. That is a beautiful facility.

[02:37:25] I still owe you some wood chopping, so I will get out there to cut some wood. Okay. All right. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right. And so someone was going to speak. I withdrew that. So I just wanted to take a moment and thank all the veterans and all the spouses of veterans. it's people who serve it's a lot on them but it's also a lot on their families and you know i had a chance to visit um the retreat last year when i was running and i really appreciate you welcoming me me learning more about your facility and all that you do i just wanted to take a second um

[02:38:00] i had an uncle who served in vietnam and he went to us when he was like 19 as a young adult and he never spoke about his service and i i asked you know when i was in high school because i was doing our project and he just sat there never said a word he died a few years back and we didn't know he was a purple heart recipient we didn't know this my mom you know that was her brother she

[02:38:39] she didn't know his twin sister she didn't know none of us knew it's because the scars that he carried with he tried to bury so you know i understand how hard it is i understand how hard you know and when i was thinking about this i was trying not to get emotional earlier but mission failed um i really appreciate the work that you do i want to name that you are

[02:39:17] filling a real role in our community and our region that is so very needed the number of active duty and veterans that we have in our community in this region so i am very proud to support, you know, a draft ordinance and to actually hopefully soon vote on it.

[02:39:44] I've spoken with my team, you know, my chief of staff, Sarah, will come out and speak with you. But I want to take my staff over to the retreat so that we can see it. And I thank you. You know, we got all the emails and, you know, I was trying to respond to as many as I can.

[02:40:02] But for me, this is a really easy one. It's a no-brainer. I am very proud that you're in this county. I am very proud of the work that you do. And I am very proud to support you. So thank you very much. And with that, let's vote.

[02:40:20] And if anyone voted no on this, they'd meet me outside. Not that I'm very strong, but, you know, they'd meet me outside. I can take you out in borough. Vote unanimous. Y'all don't need to clap for us.

[02:40:41] We should be clapping for you. Madam Chair. Supervisor Weir. With respect to items 9AZ through 9BD, as, if I recall correctly, these were unanimously supported at the retreat. I would move 9AZ through 9BD. Second. Madam Chair.

[02:41:04] Supervisor Franklin. I actually would like to vote on these separately. All right so I just want to because and I will say we spoke about them at the retreat but 9BD I don't think we spoke about the retreat but Supervisor Franklin what would you you want to vote on each of them individually? That's correct we can do that all right so first up 9 az resolution to amend the board of county supervisors rules of procedure section a meetings um what one regular meetings so moved second

[02:41:43] discussion just to confirm madam chair this is just removing unnecessary language correct yes nine bb yep nine nine az hold on oh wait no this is the one we're adding about yes yes weather this is the weather one that's provided for by statute that we don't have yep and I guess no discussion all right let's vote did you have anything

[02:42:21] supervisor Franklin because I know you want all right unanimous all right we are going to now move on to item 9 BA and that is to amend the supervisors rules of procedure section C quorum and actions so move madam chair just noting that this adds the county attorney to the chair of the clerk and the county executive who may subsist who may suggest the absence of a quorum so

[02:42:52] discussion all right let's vote vote unanimous all right then next we're gonna go to item 9 BB and that is to amend the Board County Supervisors rules of procedures section C quorum and actions so moved second any discussion all right supervisor Franklin sure so I remember having discussions on all this but can

[02:43:29] we just clarify what is this actually doing are we just removing removing some extraneous text but is it a problem to keep it in i guess my thing is i would i think i would want it explicitly stated that the chair has such authority to state this even if it's even if it may seem unnecessary we don't currently do it would be my response but taking that out would state that the chair

[02:44:09] does not have to. Does not have to do it, correct. But will still give her the authority to do it? If she so desires. Because my concern is removing any type of authority. This would seem to work.

[02:44:25] Madam County Attorney might want to opine on this. This would seem to suggest that the chair has to do it on a directive. Madam Chair, members of the board, as written, it does state that the chair is to state it. In the third line of D it states that it shall be deemed a request of a full board. In practice the chair for the past several boards has not stated it directly. It has been if a board member makes a motion for or requests to make a directive they always start by saying

[02:45:01] without objection. Obviously when there's an objection it turns into a motion with a second and a vote and so just for clarity what does this do madam chair members of the board this is the section that talks about your actions and being a directive when it was originally written it stated that a member makes a directive it's deemed to be a request of the full board without further action provided it's made it where a quorum is present and the rule currently says and further provided that the chair states that such requests shall be deemed to be a request to the board.

[02:45:42] Supervisor Weir's motion is to strike that phrase because it is, in his words, extraneous, redundant from what's already in the rules. So, I mean, I like having it explicitly stated, so I'm not going to support this.

[02:45:59] I just want clarification because it sounds to me, and I respect the views, but it does not limit authority, correct, county attorney? No, ma'am. All right, let me go to my little list of speakers.

[02:46:18] Supervisor Rear. Madam Chair, I would simply suggest that by retaining it, you're presenting a need for the chair to do something that hasn't been done in quite some time and calls into question what happens if the chair does not do it. With respect to understanding that we can ignore our own board rules, it just seems a step that has neither ever been done or isn't customarily done and it seems redundant within the rules.

[02:46:53] I'm not going to die on the Hill, though. All right, I don't have anyone else. All right. Motion passes, 6 to 2. Supervisors angry and Franklin voting nay.

[02:47:10] All right, next, we are going to go to 9 B.C., amend Board of County Supervisors' Rules of Residure, Section F, Order of Business, Subsection 9, Consolidated Land Use Public Hearing Agenda.

[02:47:29] So moved. Second. Discussion. Madam Chair. Yes. I also have concerns with this with regards to the provision that says that no application can be placed on the consolidated land use public hearing agenda without the consent of the supervisor whose district the land which is the subject of the application situated. I understand the intent of it but what we've learned is that we're not always on the same page with regards to land use regardless of whose district that it's in. So I wouldn't

[02:48:04] want to restrict ourselves if it's an important project that for some reason the board is not on the same page with with regards to the supervisor whose district that it sits in so I think that this is kind of restricting ourselves I understand the intent but I wouldn't want to put those type of parameters around us all right and the supervisor where madam chair I would simply note that all we're doing is taking that language and moving it to subparagraph a which is where it

[02:48:40] actually should be i would argue that it was in the wrong place within the rules and we're not we're not removing it we're simply moving it to where it actually applies supervisor bode yeah thank you madam chair and sir franklin i appreciate your your take here on this um i will be siding with supervisor we're on this one i i just knowing that yes there are obviously going to be situations where supervisor will disagree with the supervisor whose district the parcel is in. To me, the whole purpose of the consolidated agenda is for things that are

[02:49:14] non-controversial and has the full support of the supervisor. So to me, by a very nature of it not being under the consent of the supervisor whose parcel it's in, the district it's in, it shouldn't be unconsolidated to begin with. So that's where I take it. Supervisor Franklin? Yes, I think we've seen one or two instances where something was on consent that someone didn't agree that should be on consent so it's not always non-controversial so did you thank you i'll just chime in clearly

[02:49:48] uh this is um uh remnants of the last four years and and literally just cleaning up trying to make sure there's control in district so uh yeah i i see where we're going with it but interesting interesting so um we are literally moving the line um to a different place it's already in there and if we don't vote on there it will just stay in the places that land use is a really contentious issue i know that with the previous board um there are a lot of very heated cases and there

[02:50:27] are going to be times you know that we are going to disagree on land use you know i'm hoping that it will not reach the tenor that it did with the last board but i am inclined to support this again because it is already in the procedures we are simply moving it to a different spot and the rules of procedure you know they are a guideline um they're not always adhered to for better or for

[02:50:54] worse so um with that let's take a vote motion passes six to two supervisors angry and franklin voting nay all right we are now going to go on to item 9b diaz and david resolution to amend the board of county supervisors rule of procedure section f order of business consolidated land use public hearing agenda on behalf of the chair so moved

[02:51:30] second any discussion please vote vote unanimous all right we are now going to start with our updates from the supervisors we're going to start this time with supervisor gordy we're going to move in and then after vega we're going to move her to bail and we're going to move in thank you madam chair um first of all i am providing notice of my intent to appoint uh the following individual

[02:52:07] to serve on the animal advisory committee uh i intend to appoint olivia lubalbo and my staff has sent over a resume and contact information to the clerk. I just want to give a shout-out to the Noakesville Fire Department and Chief Shiro.

[02:52:25] I met with them last week and was very excited to learn more about our volunteer firefighters and contributions that they make to our community. And then last week with Mr. Shorter, the chair, and Mr. Angry, We attended the graduation of the Rescue Recruit Class 23-2 for the Prince William Fire Department, nicknamed the Hose Dragons.

[02:52:56] I want to congratulate all the graduates and certainly look forward to them already actively engaging in the firehouses across the county. And then just as a final reminder, I will be having an open house at our office.

[02:53:14] I really, it's going to be on March 1st from 3 to 5. That's a Friday, so hope folks will come out and check out our office. Our facilities guys have done a great job of repairing walls and repainting.

[02:53:31] We had, apparently, we had some floods at some point. Didn't know it until they started to paint and the wall kind of came apart. So really appreciate all the work the facilities team has done. And I can't thank them enough for their patience over the past two months, but thank them for their hard work.

[02:53:52] Thank you, Supervisor Gordy. Supervisor Franklin. Sure. On Sunday afternoon, I participated in the Black History Month program at Potomac Shores, where there were several guest speakers, including our superintendent of schools. And I just want to thank the Brown Sugar Group of Potomac Shores for inviting me and hosting this event.

[02:54:11] On this past Saturday afternoon, I also attended the Black History Month program at Acclaim at Belmont Bay. I just want to thank all the organizers. A wonderful event, great turnout, and great food. And so looking forward to attending next year. Upcoming events, we do have a groundbreaking ceremony for the affordable housing development that this board unanimously approved at Jefferson Plaza on February 28th.

[02:54:38] And I look forward to this particular project as, again, it will help to continue to revitalize the Route 1 corridor. If you've been up to Jefferson Plaza, you know what it looks like now. It is not in the best condition, and so bringing this new development will help along that corridor.

[02:54:58] Also, I just want to highlight on February 29th, I will be hosting a virtual town hall on the new rezoning application for Belmont Bay. All Woodbridge residents are invited to attend, and, of course, check out our website and social media for more information on that.

[02:55:14] I just want to point out that I won't be doing it today, but I will be issuing a directive for other organizations, and I'm happy to talk to my colleagues about that with regards to tax-exempt status, particularly looking at streetlight ministries.

[02:55:31] I've spoken about this before. They've been asking for this previously for years, even before I got on this board. And so we'll be coming with the directive with regards to that. Thank you. Thank you, Sereza Franklin.

[02:55:46] Sereza Vega. Thank you. Let's see, where do I start? Last week, I had the privilege of going out with Madam Chair and members of her staff on a windshield tour of the Yorkshire area. This is an area that I'm very familiar with and one that for a very long time, I would say has been neglected and is in desperate need of revitalizing to be revitalized and so I was really excited to be out there so that for folks could have a direct look at what's going on and we saw some things that certainly freaked us out madam chair I guess you could say that some of the safety

[02:56:26] concerns that have been raised for quite some time literally unfolded in front of our very own eyes and so it was interesting to say the least to see these things happening before us but really excited because this is part of the transportation and land use corridor program and so really looking forward to seeing the results what comes out of this and we'll certainly be keeping folks up to date as I get information coming up on February 27th my office in conjunction with transportation will be having a town hall on Staples Mill Plaza at the corner of Minerville and Spriggs Road if my colleagues recall

[02:57:02] this was um the car wash uh sup that we approved and there were a lot of concerns that were raised during that hearing and so happy to be out there to be able to listen to folks and to see what solutions we come up with in hopes of mitigating some of the concerns that were raised next on march 21st the chair and i will be having a joint town hall on the 28 bypass as you all know this This has been a very controversial topic in the Coles District, and I look forward to hearing from folks.

[02:57:33] I would encourage people to come out and to attend this town hall so that the chair can hear directly from you all as she is new and probably is not really aware or familiar with the project. This is a good opportunity to be able to discuss it with her one-on-one. This is going to begin at 7 p.m., and it's going to be at Yorkshire Elementary.

[02:57:52] That's all I have, Madam Chair. All right, we are going to now go to Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon to everyone. On February 16th, we had a phenomenal Black History event, which celebrated the achievement and contributions of six senior or seasoned citizens and five young adults from the Potomac District.

[02:58:19] And our oldest honoree was 97 years of age, young, Mr. Timothy McLean, who lives in the district. And he's still driving, active in his church, and really telling people what to do. Thanks to Chair Jefferson and Mayor Wood and Vice Mayor Nickerson and the town council and the town manager for your support and for your attendance.

[02:58:45] On February 17th, I was honored to be the guest speaker for the National Coalition of 100 Black Women Northern Virginia to share words of advocacy and leadership, and I thank them all for asking me to come. It was an exceptional interchange.

[02:59:00] On the 18th, my dad's birthday, God rest his soul, I participated in the Brown Sugar's Black History Program at Potomac Shores with Supervisor Franklin, our own superintendent, Latanya McDade, and our own delegate, Candy Mundun-King.

[02:59:16] And it was six babies and all their parents with good food, and we had a grand old time. Upcoming events on February 22nd. I'm looking forward to the Prince William County Black History Program entitled The New Negro Movement and the open house for the new planning director that I'm going to have.

[02:59:37] I welcome her to my office. We've got a long discussion, Ms. Washington, so welcome aboard. On February 23rd, I'll be attending the Chamber 2024 Business Awards. On the 24th, I look forward to participating in the annual Dumfries Black History Program at Little Union Historical Little Union Baptist Church.

[02:59:58] On the 22nd, we will be doing ribbon cutting at Fuller Road and Fuller Heights next to the Marine Corps Quantico Base. 27th, thanks to Transportation and Planning Department for coming out to support the Ashland Community Town Hall that we're having to talk about our new project there.

[03:00:21] And then on the 28th, I'll be attending the Commonwealth Coffee with Senators Warner and Kane. And then on the 29th, again, another ribbon-cutting. thank you so much to our planning and transportation department for chick-fil-a the biggest chick-fil-a in the mid-atlantic across from the walmart we're doing great and big things thank you so much madam chair for this time supervisor weir thank you madam chair i'd simply note that the gainesville district is desperately looking for volunteers for the strategic plan advisory committee please contact my office and i'll pass it on to supervisor buddy at that thank you madam chair on the

[03:00:58] opposite of the spectrum, I would like to put in my notice of intent to appoint Graydon Van and Carmen Rodriguez through the Strategic Plan Community Advisory Committee. Their resume should be on their way over to you if they haven't hit your inboxes already. I would also like to reappoint Natalie Shorter to the Library Board. In terms of updates, back last week on the 15th, it was our first Joint Environmental Task Force meeting of the year. We were able to finalize our inaugural report and voted unanimously to approve it and transmit it to the Board of Supervisors and the school board look forward to uh receiving it soon from me in collaboration with uh julia mano and

[03:01:33] her staff up in upcoming uh i have a town hall as i mentioned before with chair jefferson uh that town hall has been pushed back a couple of weeks to mid-march and has been repurposed to be our strategic plan community town hall for the occoquan district please stay tuned for more information on that and i appreciate uh chair jefferson and her staff for the collaboration on that that uh being said the last item i have is mentioned this before without objection i am directing county staff to research the feasibility and recommendations made in the veterans commission resolution 23-01 which is transmitted to the board of supervisors by the clerk earlier this month such research

[03:02:11] should where applicable include timelines fiscal impacts and other pertinent impacts for consideration by the board of supervisors when the research and work is complete the county executive county staff should report back to the board with the research and recommendations during a board meeting or by memorandum as appropriate. Again the the Veterans Commission has worked hard on the recommendations so as we're helped us move forward on one of the recommendations there's a couple others in that resolution that we'd like us to take up and I appreciate the time Madam Chair thank you. Thank you Madam Chair. I'll give my notice of intent to reappoint Eugene Brown to the taxi review board

[03:02:51] and his resume is on file. I just want to address some emails that have been coming in to me personally and more than likely to the board about Supervisor Vega's directive on panhandling. And so what you heard today with the East Air Navigation Center is exactly what we are addressing with our homeless population and giving them services, wraparound services, through that facility.

[03:03:17] So this was another step in that, And hopefully we'll get that groundbreaking soon to get that building up. What I'm having an issue with in panhandling, what I'm seeing on the streets, is another business. And I'm waiting to get data from our police department to determine if these are more or less organization having people out doing such thing as selling flowers, you know, hanging out these little trinkets.

[03:03:41] And just there seems to be an influx of business on these corners that clearly there's a process to go through that. So I don't want to take away from anyone trying to make a dollar or hustle, as we say in the streets. But the fact of the matter is we've got to make sure that there's some safety things tied to this and that our citizens aren't alarmed and worried and literally don't want to be in the turning lane where someone is aggressively beating on the window.

[03:04:09] Now, it's never happened to me before, so I can only take the word of what folks are telling me when they're experiencing these problems at these traffic intersections. So to be clear, homeless population is always going to be a concern of ours. We are addressing those. We have a lot of great services to deal with that, to even capture that person or that family that's sliding into the homeless category and those who are there.

[03:04:33] The panhandling piece seems to be something else going on. I don't know what that is, but I think we need to crack that code quickly before it becomes a true problem in the county or actually adds to some of the deaths that we're seeing, experiencing with our pedestrians on the street. So just want to speak to that.

[03:04:49] And if you want to talk to me about it, please send me an email. I'm always up for that. I've been responding to folks or come by my office or give me a call. Just want to make sure we're not misinterpreting or saying wrong this intent of what we're doing here.

[03:05:05] There's many issues to address, and so I just want to try to clear that one up. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right, thank you so very much. I had a busy week last week. I had a chance to go to the graduation for the Hose Dragons. They are our latest class of recruits for our fire and rescue.

[03:05:24] Supervisors Gordy and Angry were also there on hand. You know, a lot of you also mentioned events. I had a great chance to understand and tour the Yorkshire area with Supervisor Vega. Supervisor Bailey, that was a lot of fun with that Black History event.

[03:05:42] You know, I'm still waiting for the photos. Yes. That was a lot of fun, though. You know, I also had a chance to go to a briefing for the Solheim Cup. For those of you who are not familiar, it is one of the premier events for women's golf.

[03:06:00] It's Team USA versus Europe. I cannot, you know, wait until as we get closer and more information will be coming out. but this is really going to be an exciting event for us. And I also had a chance to meet with the new planning director, and I am very excited to start a partnership with her in her office.

[03:06:18] With that, the next item for me is basically to announce my notes of intent, to appoint or reappoint Diana Paguiga to the Board of Equalization and separately to the Commission on Aging.

[03:06:35] That's all I have. And so the board will now convene for a closed meeting. Thank you.

[03:06:45] All right, we have returned from closed session.

[03:07:38] There is nothing to report out. Motion to certify, Madam Chair. Second. Discussion. Actually, there is none. Let's just vote.

[03:07:56] Unanimous. All right, thank you, everyone. And we will reconvene at 7.30 for the evening portion of our agenda. Madam Chair.

[03:08:16] Yeah. Thank you, Madam Chair. Before the county executive begins his presentation on the proposed fiscal year 2025 budget, I need to declare a personal interest in this matter. My wife is a school's employee. As a school's employee, my wife and I are members of a group which is affected by this matter. I will be participating in it because I am able to fairly, objectively, in the public interest.

[03:08:35] Thank you, Madam Chair. Supervisor Angry. I really feel like there's a better way to do this. Okay, so Madam Chair, before the county executive begins his presentation on the proposed FY25 budget, I need to declare a personal interest in this matter.

[03:08:52] My wife is a special education instructional aide with the schools. As a school's employee, my wife and I are members of a group which is affected by this matter. I will be participating in it because I am able to do so fairly, objectively, and in the public interest.

[03:09:07] Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Shorter. First, I was looking at him like, Chris ain't here. Oh, yeah, he already down there. I am here. I am here. All right, Madam Chair, thank you, members of the board. Thank you so much. Really excited and appreciate being able to kick off the public part of this budget process.

[03:09:27] As you know, this is really a year-around cycle for us, and to that end, just really want to start by thanking the staff, all the agency leaders, OMB, finance, the executive cabinet who is here who for the last two months have come in really early with me to make sure that we worked together to bring this budget proposal to you. So just really wanted to start

[03:10:00] by giving a lot of appreciation to them for all the hard work. This process started in earnest in August with big fanfare and just want to give appreciation to them. Also want to make sure that I acknowledge and appreciate each of you. I've had an opportunity to, at this point, meet with each of you and talk through the initiatives that are being proposed tonight. I've also had an opportunity to talk with all of our constitutional officers, and I have circled back with our agency directors, our agency leaders, to make sure they know what is being talked about and discussed and

[03:10:38] proposed here tonight. So with that, thank you again. We wanted to start this conversation off really with a review of what happened last year in terms of the board's decisions last year and what we got approved. And to that end, the board approved last year to move the tax rate

[03:11:08] decrease the tax rate from $1.03 to $0.96.06. This was done and represented ultimately a $57 million return, if you will, back to day-to-day taxpayers. And happy to talk through, we have the trend of what that has looked like over the years in terms of that tax rate and how it has decreased from 2021 to present. The board last year also increased the computers and peripheral

[03:11:46] tax from $180 to $215. I know we are probably going to have a very fruitful conversation about that tonight. That increase represented a $10 million increase or generated $10 million for us last year. What that meant for us in terms of those decisions was about 11%, just over 11%, 11.8% increase to our general fund expenditures. So $173 million. Of that $173, as you can see in

[03:12:26] what is presented on this slide, is $90 million went to the schools. This was, as I've discussed with you all a historic investment in our school system last year. One of the largest transfers that has ever gone to schools. What we also saw in terms of expenditures was an $82 million increase over general fund expenditures for our government. Of that $82 million, $63 million went

[03:13:04] to staff compensation bold action taken last year in terms of investments in staff primarily geared towards and as a product of the gallagher study that was done last year what you see represented on this slide in terms of that table at the bottom of the slide is what happened last last budget year the board made a decision in december of 2022 as you know

[03:13:35] to increase police pay by 17.5%, effective January 1. Ultimately, during the budget process last year, the board also decided retroactively to increase other public safety personnel pay by the corresponding amount, which is presented on this slide.

[03:14:00] It was important for us to show this history because it certainly correlates to what we are continuing to do as part of this budget and certainly what we will do in FY26 or what we will propose in FY26.

[03:14:18] So important to note that the 17.5 for police, 15% for ADC, fire, and sheriff, with a step increase in the case of general government employees, merit increase of 3% across the board.

[03:14:37] This is important, again, because as we approach this year, we will be sort of keeping to our commitment of that final 2.5% for our general government employees and 1.25 for SWARM.

[03:15:00] And we'll talk about that a bit later as we get into the 25 budget initiatives. What we also did, the board last year really pushed us hard to make sure that we were looking internally.

[03:15:16] And so we did that. And I really want to, again, appreciate the team for all the hard work of making sure that we did our part to look for efficiencies. And in that process, we saved and eliminated 37.5 long-term vacancies from our budget.

[03:15:37] As you can see from this slide, and certainly there is more detailed information if we have questions at the end of the presentation on how that broke down. Of that, 37.5 FTEs, 8.5, as you can see, weren't eliminated but transitioned into contract positions.

[03:15:59] We discussed this with each of you. The CSA special education daycare program was really a reset last year based on usage. That is a special education program mandated by Virginia Code.

[03:16:17] We did not impact services last year, but were able to save $2 million by way of cost savings. And you will see later in this presentation, mostly for the general public, an add back into this program based on usage per pupil cost and need.

[03:16:35] We also did a cross-the-county cut from last year's budget of 1.2. That cut is still realized in this proposed budget, so we did not add back those contractual cuts.

[03:16:52] Important to note as we are proposing some additional investments, strategic investments this year. Now, in terms of the FY25 budget and its overall profile, you will see here in terms of general revenue, no surprise to many of you the real estate tax is the great majority now at least now of the revenue

[03:17:26] source for our county at 19.6% personal property which includes vehicle and computer and or C&P computing computer and peripheral tax and then 27% of all other agency revenue is represented here in the budget. Important breakdown, obviously, as we are working hard as an organization and as a county to diversify as best we can. In terms of general expenditure, again, not a

[03:18:02] surprise that the schools transfer and what we provide for ADC is the majority of where our expenditures are. You will also see salary and benefits at 32% that supports just over 5,400 employees that make up our government, and then contractual services, that is all of the supplies, services that we provide to support the services that we

[03:18:40] provide to the county. I like this slide. I know I said that last year because it really does a good job breaking down our government based on how it is structured last year the board approved a restructuring of our county organization based on our strategic plan you see that represented here on this slide what you also see here is by quadrant area by functional area how our government is broken out in

[03:19:17] In terms of the amount spent, then the number of FTEs associated with each quadrant area. Again, a very helpful slide. What we do have here, based on any questions that we have at the end of the presentation, is a breakdown by agency and department of what their overall cost center amount is.

[03:19:40] And so I'm happy to provide that kind of detail, although it's obviously in the budget book as well. All right. Okay. In terms of budget priorities for FY25, it's important, and I know I said this to each of you, that we go into this discussion first understanding what our priorities were and what we focused on as an organization coming into this budget development process.

[03:20:16] important to us, and I know certainly we talked about this during the Extended Work Session, a lot of planning has happened to make sure that the vision around how we are moving as a county is clear. Everything from the Region Forward Plan to our Comprehensive Plan to our Futures Report, our Strategic Plan, and all the things that we have heard from each of you over the year, and certainly at the extended work session has gone into what what you will see in terms of this this budget proposal we also kept in mind the need to address the ratified collective bargaining

[03:20:55] agreements that the board voted on last month we know that given the amount of infrastructure that we are building here in the county and that is from a transportation perspective but also government buildings, that we need to do certain things very well, exceptionally well. And that is internally building the capacity around how we manage capital projects and keep them on time and on budget. And so you will see certainly investments, proposed investments in our capital

[03:21:33] infrastructure internally. And then, as always, some critical funding around continued and continued support to maintain efficient and effective services. Now, as I said at the start of this presentation, I did have an opportunity to meet with and talk with all of our stakeholders, and in that, you know, I will tell you we have a lot to balance.

[03:22:05] I will say we received, and I, again, commend the team, a lot of needs and asks from our agencies, from our constitutional officers, and we know that each of you have priorities as well.

[03:22:23] We had to balance the need for all of those asks with the desire to make sure that we kept in mind first the taxpayer's pocketbook. And so we did not, and kept in mind the need to make sure that we maintained the current tax rate, and that we were making sure that we were prepared to maintain the current revenue share with the schools.

[03:22:49] What this meant for me is that most folks are not happy with the budget, but they budget proposal because no one really got everything that they need. I know that there are probably a lot of staff at home and some agency directors in the atrium who certainly appreciates me saying that because a lot of work went into putting together staffing plans.

[03:23:17] A lot of work and thought went into making sure that they were sending information up for deliberation. And we did our very best to strike the balance of strategic investments, but also, again, striking the balance of making sure that we maintain our current tax rate.

[03:23:37] So with that, we wanted to make sure that we were clear about decisions that the board has already made going into this budget, funding that has already essentially been decided and that went into the bottom line for this budget.

[03:23:59] That is, first, the collective bargaining agreements ratified and voted on by the board in January. This represents $15.4 million. We will talk separately about the staffing plans associated with both police and fire and about the actual provisions for pay and other benefits for both agreements as well.

[03:24:26] In terms of property acquisitions, the board last year made several decisions that required debt service. You could see the purchases of both property and land on this slide, and we're happy to answer any questions about any of these investments.

[03:24:44] This certainly went into our thinking about this budget. Now, in terms of technology and 311 constituent services, this board decided last year to move forward with advancing work around creating technology options for residents to engage our government on many different platforms.

[03:25:03] And that is what you see here with this half-million-dollar investment. And then in November of last calendar year, the board approved the Freedom Center tripartite agreement between George Mason, the city of Manassas, and the county.

[03:25:21] And so that is represented here as well. All right. In terms of compensation, we are proposing as part of the 25 budget a $28.3 million investment in staff.

[03:25:39] This continues the investments and commitments made last year as part of our, in some cases, two-year staffing plans and investments in staff. This slide, the table on this slide actually lays out what this looks like over a four-year period.

[03:26:01] It gives us what we've done and what we intend to do by way of proposal. So we talked about this at the beginning of the slide deck, this 17.5 for police, the corresponding 15% increases that were effective in April of 23, so effective as part of the 23 budget, and so in the FY24 budget, we also approved a

[03:26:30] 6% market adjustment for general government employees, along with a, well, the 3% market for general government and step four for sworn is included in this number, but what you see here is the market adjustments.

[03:26:52] I should say they are not included in this number. What you see here are the market adjustments only. It's important if you look on the far right side to note how we are doing our very best to balance and equalize what we have done in terms of sworn employees.

[03:27:13] At the end of this process, the sort of multi-year investment, everyone on the sworn side should have received that 17.5%. And that was the goal, that was the commitment, and we are holding to that commitment.

[03:27:30] And the commitment we made around general government employees, non-sworn, is the 8.5%, so all represented here. This includes the compensation amount, also includes retirement system, health and dental, along with another compensation study to ensure that what we are doing around compensation is consistent with what we committed to doing as part of the Gallagher study.

[03:28:00] And so what you will see over the next two years is us continuing to do the work of classification and market to make sure that we are keeping up with our neighbors and that we're competitive.

[03:28:18] In terms of compensation associated with collective bargaining, this is separate and apart from the staffing plans, which we will get to later in the presentation.

[03:28:33] You see here for fire and rescue and police side by side really what our agreed upon investments are for both. Very clear sort of in a way that probably has not been presented before sort of how those investments lay out.

[03:28:57] And so what you see is our investments in sort of specialty pay, that is for ALS units. We know that it is a very hard-to-fill, very competitive source for us, and we thought through our collective bargaining work that this was an extremely good use or good investment.

[03:29:25] And so you will see incentive pay increased for our ALS employees that provide for that service. We talked about, and you saw on the previous slide, the 1.2% increase for both FY25 and FY26 for FIRE.

[03:29:44] And then some additional training and education investments for FIRE is included in the collective bargaining agreement as well. You saw a very thoughtful presentation back in January when the team gave that presentation about the benefits here.

[03:30:00] Same on the police side. We're laying out the various provisions associated with the collective bargaining agreement, including the on-call pay and the $1,000 lump sum. Happy to answer questions.

[03:30:16] Obviously, a lot more detail about the collective bargaining agreements at the end of the presentation. All right. So for budget initiatives or investment proposals for us this year, for education and workforce development, really another historic investment in schools this year, doubling down on our commitment to support our school system.

[03:30:48] This year, based on real estate assessments, we will be transferring, consistent with the budget that was presented by the superintendent, a 10.1% increase over last year's transfer at $887 million.

[03:31:13] Again, happy to talk about what that trend of investments and transfers have been over the last few years if we get into that discussion tonight. What you see on this slide is just some of the investments beyond the school transfer agreement that we make in schools, including class size grant, debt service to Gainesville High School, the school security program, very, very important and popular program that we provide for investments in, separate and apart from the school resource officers.

[03:31:52] We also include on this slide and in the budget book information on the partnership with Northern Virginia Community College around education and workforce development. Very, again, very important investments, and we're happy to talk more about each of them at the end of the presentation.

[03:32:11] In terms of safe and secure community, we are making very important investments and staffing for both police and fire. for police this is not a part of the collective bargaining agreement but clearly investments are needed in sworn FTEs those investments are needed because our police department is doing an amazing job at recruiting and making sure that those recruitment classes are filled i think i've

[03:32:47] personally gone to and seen many of you at the police academy graduations throughout the year last year and they are unmatched in the region in terms of the recruitment work that is being done at PD. To that end, we are including 20 swarm positions as part of this year's budget and then 20 swarm positions as part of next year's budget with three civilian FTEs added for each year over the next two years as well. With fire and rescue, this is very much a part of the discussion around

[03:33:24] around collective bargaining for fire and rescue. What we've essentially committed to working in good faith with fire and rescue on is getting to a 50 hour work week. In order for us to get to a 50 hour work week, we need to meet certain milestones around recruitment.

[03:33:45] Those milestones are 90 new FTEs to support our fire and rescue system. If we don't do that each year, And fortunately, we have a great partner in our labor leaders with Fire and Rescue that will work with us to meet the recruitment needs to fill these 30 FTEs.

[03:34:06] So that said, for FY25, we are including 30 new sworn FTEs for Fire and Rescue, and we will do the same throughout the next three budget cycles.

[03:34:23] We also have included in this proposal the creation of, and this is consistent with the presentation you saw from Dave around the CIP, funding to support a new medic unit, Station 27. That medic unit, it usually takes 18 months to recruit, train, and make sure that that unit is up and running.

[03:34:46] And so we are including here the 10 FTEs associated with this unit ask for your support there. In addition to our sworn, as discussed, I had several conversations.

[03:35:03] Well, I will say first, the team had several conversations with our constitutional officers and happy to talk more about each of these. But you see here support for the Commonwealth Attorney's Staffing Plan. You may recall, we just completed a three-year staffing plan for the Commonwealth Attorney, which included 24 FTEs and ended with last year's budget.

[03:35:31] We are establishing a new staffing plan with the Commonwealth Attorney for FY25 and for FY26. And you see here what is included there, eight new FTEs per year, consistent with the compensation board study that we can certainly provide if asked.

[03:35:56] We heard during the CIP presentation and I think from our chief judge after the presentation about the sixth judge for Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. We are supporting that sixth judge here with two new clerks as well as two new sheriff's deputies to support that sixth judge.

[03:36:22] Earlier today, we talked about funding to support the build-out of the court space to support the start of that sixth judge. The judge, FTE itself, will be supported by the state and not supported by local county dollars.

[03:36:39] Happy to answer any questions about that as we go. In terms of court interpreters, we've included court interpreters for the circuit court and, yes, so the Juvenile Domestic Relations Court and the General District Court.

[03:37:08] Thank you. All right. And then one attorney for the circuit court, and I have certainly seen some of you with us at the Veterans Docket, extremely, extremely helpful program for our veterans, Supervisor Angry, Supervisor Gordy, and many others have seen the benefit of that program. What is happening right now is that staff are sort of using halftime, if you will, to coordinate and support that program. We are fully funding a coordinator to make sure that we are doing the great work of

[03:37:47] supporting our veterans. In terms of mobility and economic growth, you have here our proposal around staffing to support our planning office. We have listed out the positions by functional area along with zoning ordinance update or contract funding on this slide at an amount of $1.2 million.

[03:38:18] We're happy to talk about the details in those individual positions if necessary. I'm sure planning is here as well if needed. We've also included by way of investment for economic development and tourism two new FTEs consistent with this board's discussion during the extended work session.

[03:38:41] One to better support small business development and the other to support workforce development, which we have been hearing from you quite a bit. You saw an updated presentation from Rick earlier in the month on the great progress being made around the Neabsco Potomac Commuter Parking Garage, and we are including funding here to support the maintenance responsibility for the commuter parking garage.

[03:39:14] In addition to those investments, we are also, as the chair talked about earlier today during our afternoon session, Solheim Cup in the work that is going to be happening over the next few months in preparation for and then actually putting the event on here in the county. We are setting aside 1.2 million to support the event and am happy to talk about sort of what that means for the county.

[03:39:46] We'll remind the board that last year when we heard from LPGA here during a work session, They talked about the event in Toledo, Ohio, and what that event brought by way of economic impact, and so happy to talk a bit more about that investment.

[03:40:06] In terms of tourism and marketing, we've included, consistent with the directive from the chair in January, funding to support strategic planning around agribusiness and agritourism. We've also included funding to do some master planning around tourism and advertising generally for the county.

[03:40:30] Very important strategic investments, all funded through our transit occupancy tax. So everything on this slide is funded through transit occupancy tax revenue. All right, so generally, this time of year, we would be clearer about what the funding needs would be and would have an official ask from PRTC around the support needed.

[03:41:03] We don't have a formal ask from PRTC just yet. Expect that that will come on March 7th. We also are anticipating in early April to have a more extended conversation, a more comprehensive conversation about mobility generally to really talk about not just the expenses, but to talk about revenue sources.

[03:41:31] We are anticipating maintaining the VRE local subsidy at $5.5 million and our orphan roads program at half a million as part of this FY25 budget. We've talked about the TRIP program and the source of funding associated with the TRIP program.

[03:41:53] Obviously, with recordation taxes or tax revenue, we are continuing to support the program at its current funding level, but that funding level is certainly being stretched now, given where we are with recordation taxes.

[03:42:13] Happy to talk more about that after the presentation if there are questions. All right, in terms of health and well-being, this is a long time coming.

[03:42:30] I will tell you we are clear about this from the board, the need to establish an affordable housing and dwelling office within our housing and community development department. So we are very excited to establish this office this year with three FTEs for FY25 and an additional two FTEs as part of the FY26 budget.

[03:42:58] We are also proposing, now, last year, last calendar year, in December, this board decided to set aside, approve the $5 million set aside as part of the FY25 surplus. And so with that surplus set aside, we anticipate, based on the question from Supervisor Franklin earlier today, to move relatively quickly in the coming months to bring back to the board for your consideration an ordinance around affordable housing.

[03:43:32] And in that ordinance, we expect that we will be able to address a trust. That said, we are anticipating as part of the FY27 through FY29 budget setting aside an additional $5 million per year for a total of $20 million by FY29 set aside for affordable housing incentives.

[03:43:54] A very big deal and a great step forward for our county. We're also establishing a new office around youth services to bring up, if you will, the need for us to focus on disconnected youth with a new agency.

[03:44:16] That said, this will be pulling out juvenile services from DSS, where they're already doing amazing work and allowing us to do more outreach in the community.

[03:44:32] So more community-based services, more prevention and intervention, and more collaboration with our community safety initiative team, along with schools. Very excited about the establishment of this new office and the work that will be done here.

[03:44:50] And then the HIPAA compliance line is really an FTE in our Area Agency on Aging to support HIPAA compliance consistent with an audit report recommendation. Continuing on with health and well-being in terms of park maintenance, You see here one-time cost associated with annual maintenance to parks and park land, primarily equipment, as you can see, for these parks.

[03:45:27] But happy to talk more about it, and I'm sure parks is here if we need to call them up. Continuing on with health and well-being, we know that the decision around setting aside $3 million for the Community Energy and Sustainability Master Plan was done in December with surplus dollars from FY23.

[03:45:54] important to bring that forward now as the spending we expect will happen as part of the 2025 budget and beyond. A lot of great work anticipated there, mostly around electrification of county and government buildings and some of the other work consistent with the master plan.

[03:46:20] The stormwater management fee Dave talked about as part of the CIP presentation as well, and happy to talk about this in more detail. What we are proposing here is a 10% increase, and you could see by housing type what the actual impact will be for residents.

[03:46:48] In terms of government operations, performance, and innovation, You see investments, critical investments here associated with the 2024 presidential election. Every four years, this cost ticks up in anticipation of the increased activity that will happen in the county in recognition of the presidential election.

[03:47:15] Two collective bargaining FTEs, the last of the two internal FTEs around collective bargaining, one in human resources and the other in finance to help with the pay differentials in payroll. Consistent, again, with an audit finding and recommendation, we are including two FTEs associated with our facility security program, really to assist with making sure that we are doing some of the facility assessments.

[03:47:47] And then developing plans associated with those assessments to support our government. And then finally, one FTE for do it to assist with what we talked about before, the digital modernization here in the county.

[03:48:08] As I mentioned at the start of the presentation, the reset associated with the Children's Services Act or the special education day school program, We are adding back $700,000 from the $2 million that was taken last year, really consistent with our per-pupil cost and what is a growth, if you will, in placements.

[03:48:39] We are including $1.2 million to support workers' compensation, casualty, and property insurance. This year, instead of proposing an increase in the solid waste fee, we are absorbing the additional costs associated with increases in organics processing, recycling, and household hazardous waste.

[03:49:06] I'm happy to talk a bit more about that as we go. We are also including funding to support existing technology contracts listed here, and I'm sure DOIT is here to talk a bit more about that, or Deputy CXO, if needed.

[03:49:26] There is a significant need for us to look at some of the more dated software systems that support our county operations, everything from revenue management to some of our social services software, and this $800,000 will support assessing the current status of those various software systems and to help us align our actual needs and where we can combine resources.

[03:49:57] This will allow us to do that. This will serve as third-party consultant dollars, again, to work with us to help us assess our programs. You also see on this slide inter-jurisdictional agreements, one for Birmingham Green and one for COG.

[03:50:17] This we are happy to talk more about if needed. Supervisor Bailey did mention earlier this afternoon, and it is certainly true based on the board's direction, We are evolving our community's partners program in a way that we believe will certainly benefit our community and provide for more populations to be helped by our community partners, both large and small.

[03:50:45] We are incorporating this year a 3% increase for the community partners program, consistent with what we always do. But this by no means means that we are not following the board's direction and evolving the program.

[03:51:04] I'm happy to talk more about what that means, what that means this year as we are transitioning the program, and what that will mean next year by way of new MOUs, contracts, and in some cases new partners that have not been able to engage our government in years past.

[03:51:23] what we talked about at the start, the need for us to grow our internal capacity to deliver capital projects on time and on budget. And so this slide really represents where that investment will go. And so you see here FTEs associated with procurement, FTEs associated with additional project management support you see investments in a project management software like dave

[03:51:55] mentioned during the cip presentation in some cases we are operating software that should not be used for for capital project delivery so look forward to continuing that work we started those investments last year in a software a project software system and i'm happy to say that we are well on our way in bringing new energy to our capital program and an ability really to manage capital projects in a much more strategic way and monitor those projects centrally.

[03:52:32] So in terms of, I like this slide, in terms of the consistent with our requirements, you see here the five-year plan. Really want to draw, just like last year, draw your attention to the AVAILABLE CAPACITY.

[03:52:58] THIS IS GIVEN THE RECOMMENDATIONS THAT WE ARE MAKING AS PART OF THIS PROPOSED BUDGET. AVAILABLE CAPACITY FOR THE BOARD CURRENTLY, WITH OUR CURRENT RECOMMENDATIONS AROUND THE TAX RATE, ET CETERA, ADDITIONAL ROOM FOR THE BOARD TO MAKE OTHER DECISIONS AROUND THIS FUNDING.

[03:53:23] SO YOU SEE AN FY25. $598,000 in 26,439, et cetera, et cetera. We're happy to talk about this five-year plan and what this means sort of as we go.

[03:53:40] Certainly in our discussion about tax rates, this number will fluctuate. Okay, so ultimately what we are proposing, Madam Chair and Board, is that we maintain the current tax rate at $9.66. What that will mean, based on current real estate assessments, is a 5% increase on average for our residential tax bill by way of an increase and $240 for homeowners. We

[03:54:19] are also proposing that we maintain the current fire levy rate at $7.2. This will represent an $18 increase on average for residential taxpayers, and Madam Chair and Board, we are proposing, well, actually not proposing, we are listing the current computer and peripheral tax at $2.15.

[03:54:50] Important to note that every additional nickel added to that $2.15 will represent $1.6 million dollars that needs to be obviously split with the schools and so our share of that funding will be approximately 700,000 and so what you see here it on the table at the bottom of this slide is what that looks like depending on where the board decides decides to go in terms of the the

[03:55:22] computer and peripheral rate all right I'm sure I'll come back to this slide I wonder why so the slide we see get to see every year really appreciate this one as well how our budget breaks down in terms of the dollar bill and and what this looks like in terms of the school transfer in each quadrant of our of our government all right all right so in terms of public engagement important to note that the

[03:56:02] The Q&A portal is up and running now. The OMB team, Dave and his team, they do an amazing job responding to residents and others' questions.

[03:56:20] We try to get those questions out within, what, a 24-2 business day, so 48 hours. And we will make sure that we are as transparent as possible as we go through this process. Great tools for the public to see here.

[03:56:38] The entire budget is loaded with all of the information, board members, that you are looking at. It is available to the public as well. And then finally, our budget schedule.

[03:56:53] So you see here several work sessions being planned, three in total, March 12th, 19th, and 2nd. We have some proposals around what we are talking about on each of those sessions, depending on how this conversation goes tonight and what we hear from you over the next few days and weeks.

[03:57:21] We are certainly available to change out topics in terms of the work sessions and add topic areas if the board desires. This weekend at 9 a.m., Dave and team will be leading a community discussion around the CIP in the proposed budget.

[03:57:43] Usually Dave leads that discussion with the community, budget hearings, And ultimately, we expect that we will, if all goes well, be ready for markup on April 16th and then budget adoption, if, again, the conversation goes well on April, conversations go well on April 23rd.

[03:58:12] all right and that is that is all for the presentation as always madam chair we are hoping that tonight we can get direction from the board to advertise these rates based on where the board lands after this discussion all right thank you so much first i want to thank you your team county staff i know a lot goes into preparing the budget and budget season for you guys is not just really one season it's something i know that you're working on throughout the year

[03:58:47] so i want to name thank you guys so very much for your diligent work i just want to notify everyone that we're going to go section by section and i have the slight numbers we did this last week i think it facilitates a great discussion and we're not jumping around all over the place um so i'm going to start with the just the budget overview for fiscal year 2024 slides one through five if If anyone has any questions on that section, jump in.

[03:59:14] So just one through five. One through five. One through five. I don't think there's anything on these because that's the overview. We're going to go through. Did you have something? All right, Margaret.

[03:59:31] Supervisor Franklin, I'm sorry. Well, and I'm not sure if this is the correct section, but looking at the Social Services Children's Services Act, I wanted to ask about the Child Advocacy Centers, and I'm not sure if this is the appropriate section, Um, but anyway, so I know that everyone is aware that there's been some, um, a decrease in funding, I think from the governor's office, but it's my understanding that the general assembly did put in some additional funding, uh, to make up for that.

[04:00:00] And so just wondering if we need to do more with regards to the child advocacy center, um, that we've put here in Prince William County, um, and, and just, if there's any discussion around that, we'll, we'll start, we'll take note.

[04:00:16] And I believe what we have set aside here with the increase of $700,000 was based on the, I believe, $80,000 per pupil for the special education day school program. And so what I don't know is how that matches up against what the state is planning.

[04:00:36] So we'll take that as a question and maybe send that back to you and the board. Thank you. All right. So I don't think we have any questions, again, because that was an overview for the current fiscal year. Moving on to fiscal year 2025 budget overview, that's slide 6 through 9.

[04:00:51] Again, I don't anticipate. I feel like most of our questions will come later, but everyone take a look through slide 6 through 9, see if you have any questions. If not. Madam Chair. Yes, I see. All right. Supervisor Gordy. Just in terms of comparison, one of the things that we've discussed over time is getting less dependency, diversity within our revenue streams um and and then you know and putting less of a burden on our

[04:01:24] real estate or on our residences can you do uh i'm looking at slide seven or page seven and um do you can you speak to if we move the needle from 2024 to 2025 on this budget are we reducing that percentage on real estate, and are we actually seeing more revenue come from the commercial sector in hopes of actually achieving movement towards that goal?

[04:01:59] I appreciate that question, Supervisor. I do have some information, and I'll ask Dave to jump in to color kind of what I say if I don't catch it all. What I have here is information from FY21 through FY25 in terms of change.

[04:02:17] And I do, there is a 3.2% decrease between FY21 and FY25 in terms of the overall real estate tax rate. And so I want to make sure that I say that right.

[04:02:35] That represents, and I know I have a list here that's more detailed. Let me go back. While I find it, personal property tax, that is vehicle and C&P, has increased from 17.3% to 19.6% over that same time period, FY23 through FY25, so a 2.3% increase.

[04:03:07] And then other taxes, that is, cigarette tax, food and beverage, has decreased between FY21 and FY25 by 0.9% from 26.4 to 20, I'm sorry, increased.

[04:03:27] Did I say decreased? Increased. 26.4 to 27.3. And so in terms of real estate, that change was a decrease, not an increase.

[04:03:44] I just want to make sure I said that right. Does that answer your question? I'm really trying to get, are we getting to a place where we're putting less of a tax burden on our citizens and increasing our commercial capacity to help carry some of the load for the county?

[04:04:01] And that's really what I'm trying to get at between 24 and 25. Have we moved the needle? Do we anticipate that we're going to move the needle on putting less of a burden on our residences versus commercial?

[04:04:17] Yes, I understand you now. So between that same time period, FY21 to current, FY25, we've reduced the overall real estate tax rate by 15.9%.

[04:04:34] significant. And I will say that in FY21, we went from $1.12 to FY22, $1.11. Well, I should, the percentage, the cents are so small, I'm going to actually go through the number.

[04:04:57] So $1.125 in 2021 to $1.115 in 2022 to $1.03 in 2023.

[04:05:14] And as I've said throughout this presentation, $0.966 in 2024. Those numbers in terms of trend went from, well, decreased our overall burden to taxpayers by 15.9%.

[04:05:33] Last year's adjustment, as I mentioned earlier, sent essentially sent back $57 million to taxpayers when that decision was made by the board to reduce, to go from $1.03 to $0.96.

[04:05:49] Now, does that answer mostly some? We're good for now. All right. Happy to kind of, you know, to talk with you after to make sure that I. Supervisor Ware. Well, I'm glad Tom's happy because I'm not.

[04:06:06] I don't, one of my biggest pet peeves with jurisdictions is crowing about how we've decreased the tax rate 15.9% over X number of years. That percentage is meaningless unless it's provided in context with the increased in the assessed value, which is what determines your actual tax bill.

[04:06:28] So I don't want to hear that we've decreased the rate and we've actually increased the bill because the assessments have gone up. And anybody who says that's really, really good because you're increasing the value of your home, the only time that comes into play is when you sell it. So, you know, I'm going to be very, very clear that when we're discussing this, we need to discuss both ends of the equation, both the rate and the assessed value increase because decreasing the rate does nothing for you if that decrease is less than your increase in the assessed value.

[04:07:02] Understood. So for last year, to that point, Supervisor Weir, for last year, the average residential appreciation rate was 6.6%, and the reduction of 6.4 cents essentially nullified and truly provided relief to taxpayers given the actual real estate assessment.

[04:07:26] And as you'll recall, that was not in the county's proposed budget that came as a result of increasing the C&P tax and dropping the real estate tax from what was proposed, which I suspect we're going to do again. Supervisor Bailey.

[04:07:47] Sorry. Chris, what was the number you gave for 21? You said 22 was 1.5. What was the number you gave for 21? Sure. And this is, again, real estate tax rate history.

[04:08:03] In 21, it was $1.12. I'm going to say it this way, $1.125. Okay, that's what I remember. Okay, thank you. Sure. All right, so we're going to go on to budget priorities, slides 10 through 12. 10 to 12, Supervisor Angry, I believe in you.

[04:08:38] You're still up. 10 to 12, all right. So then after that, Supervisor Franklin, oh, I'm sorry, Franklin, and then Weir. Sure, yeah, I just had a question about the CRC. So it was brought to my attention, I think we knew this, that this was going to be a regional facility.

[04:08:56] But, and this may not necessarily be a budget question, but I think it kind of is in terms of allocating resources and making sure that even if it's going to be a regional facility, making sure that Prince William County residents will, quite frankly, not be turned away if we're at capacity.

[04:09:17] I want to have Deputy CXO Elijah Johnson help me with this one. I just don't want to get it wrong. I know a lot of work has been done on the CRC. We're getting a lot of help from the state in terms of operating dollars, but I don't want to say the wrong thing in terms of how our residents will be prioritized over others.

[04:09:35] Absolutely. Thank you, sir. Supervisor Franklin, yes, because of the state funding that's involved, it is a regional facility, but because of location, our residents will be prioritized.

[04:09:56] Thank you for that. That's a question that I got from, I know, my appointee in making sure that Prince William County, I don't want to say prioritize because anyone with a mental health crisis should be prioritized no matter where they're from but making sure that resources wouldn't be turned away from Prince William County residents. They will not. Supervisor Weir is there anyone else because I did want to and I can go back to this with Supervisor Weir. Supervisor Vega. Thank you

[04:10:32] Madam Chair. Going to slide 12 which is where we're at right now for the record just want to say I told you guys so 15 million dollars for collective bargaining and I think we can all agree that that jumped fairly quickly Chris I don't know if you know this or if Dave does but just wondering what would we save on the average real estate tax bill if not for this expenditure we could we could certainly do the do the math what 15.4 million dollars would be we would just

[04:11:03] need a minute to do the math for someone who studied political science I'm very impressed the way those fingers are working 15.4 million is the equivalent of roughly 1.6 cents on the real

[04:11:34] estate tax rate um i need i'm afraid i need more time to determine the impact on the average tax bill but i can certainly send that out to the board i'd appreciate that thank you all right and supervisor where oh you cleared yourself all right we're kind of we're trying to oh okay all All right, Supervisor Weir.

[04:12:03] Yeah, we were holding and stretching for you, so thank your colleagues. Now you're back. Madam Chair, I think we actually do have an answer now to the overall rate. Okay. I would need to verify this and just double-check my math, but my math tonight, that would equate to about $32 on the average tax bill.

[04:12:22] I get $48, though. Supervisor Weir. That is based on the value of a whole penny, county and schools.

[04:12:39] I did not parse out our share of a penny. Just two things. I know you guys have heard this before with respect to the priorities.

[04:12:56] I do not believe nor will I ever likely to be in belief that the school and county revenue sharing agreement is a good idea. I believe it's an artificial constraint. It constrains us from providing for both the education of our students and compensation for the teachers, capital improvements.

[04:13:20] I think it eliminates any sort of oversight or responsibility by the school division to report accurately what they're doing with the money. And I wish to God we would get rid of the revenue sharing agreement, but, you know, I've said that before. And then with respect to maintaining the current tax rates, that's a non-starter with me.

[04:13:39] And we will certainly get into that. We're going to go now to compensation, pages 12 through 15. Madam Chair.

[04:13:59] Supervisor Franklin. Sure, yeah. Just a couple of questions. I want to get into kind of fire and police. I know that in the past that they've, particularly fire, have asked for at least three or four full-time employees and just wanted to kind of see what the logic and discussion is around achieving that.

[04:14:21] I know that you all have some good numbers in here for fire particularly, but wanting to know kind of where we are and thinking about getting to those three or four FTEs per engine. And particularly, obviously, I have Engine 512 in the Woodbridge District and just wondering if at the very least we can use that kind of as a pilot program, for lack of better words, for getting those three or four additional FTEs.

[04:14:53] Yeah, we actually did. That was not something that was brought forward formally as part of our conversations with Fire and Rescue. That said, happy to sort of go back with the team and talk about what that might mean and what a pilot might look like.

[04:15:11] Yeah, I'm just curious as to what that could look like. Obviously, that's a discussion for the board to have, but I'm just curious as to what that could look like. And then with regards to police, obviously, I think there's been an increase in the retiree health care credit, but was wondering if there was room, and again, this may be a board decision, but if there's room for an additional increase there, either in FY25 or in the very near future.

[04:15:40] Yeah, well, I mean, there's certainly room. I know that there's been some back-and-forth discussion. We would need a board directive, because there would be a cost associated with doing a study and analysis to increase the rate, but we are certainly happy to comply, would just want direction from the board.

[04:16:02] Understood. Thank you. I'm sorry, I want to jump in on that one quick, because that was going to be my question about retiree health, because I've met with the police union, and that was something that they really stressed that was very important, and so I know they had been having discussions with the fire union as well and I was told that there was actually again I'm new some kind of study or some kind of are you guys looking at this right now or there was a study done last year that last year study was based on sort of last year's interest rates and other factors associated

[04:16:39] with with our financial condition last year we would need to do another study I do want to remind the board that based on the way that our collective bargaining process has gone, we will have a re-opener in two years. And as part of that re-opener, this very well could be a factor that we are negotiating. So that said, I'm not sure that certainly if the board wants to have that discussion as part of the FY25 budget, we certainly can. If we did not, we certainly could

[04:17:17] added to the discussion as part of our re-opener in two years. Which will actually be one year and a half. I will be honest with you, I know there are people concerned about costs and obviously collective bargaining is expensive. But I feel very strongly with community safety. I know it's very hard to recruit right now. I know it's very hard to retain. I would like to look at making before the budget re-opener, I would like to look at increasing retiree health even if it's by a small amount to get it started because from

[04:17:54] what I understand it's been a very long time since there has been an increase so that's something I'd like to have a discussion on for this cycle I'm just throwing that out there and we can talk about a directive later I see the queue filling up so I apologize and thank you guys for because I just want to jump on what Supervisor Franklin said so Supervisor Bodie thank you ma'am turn on And if I could ask, just to make sure that I'm clear, is it retiree health or is it the health benefit credit?

[04:18:23] Retiree. Retiree. Retiree, okay. Retiree health care credit. Yeah, and it's my understanding that it will, I guess, benefit all county employees, but I think it's the police that are kind of leading the charge on asking for it, essentially. Yeah, there is a distinct difference between talking about current employees who have not retired in increasing their health credit, benefit credit, versus those who have already retired?

[04:18:54] Future, future, yeah, future retirees. Okay, all right. We're good. Madam Chair, if I could. All right, Supervisor Bode. Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. And yeah, that's the distinction, future retirees, not folks who have already retired. But to the point that you were just talking about, the collective bargaining agreement, again, the discussion was around all county employees.

[04:19:15] So, yes, police and fire have their exclusive bargaining units that are already, you know, organizing and bargaining on behalf of their units. But right now, the general workforce does not have an exclusive bargaining unit. So, therefore, if we wanted to move on this for all county employees, they wouldn't be subject to that reopener, which I think is part of the reason why we're bringing it up now.

[04:19:37] Because if we're talking about all county employees, they wouldn't be part of a reopener since they don't have an exclusive bargaining unit yet. Definitely appreciate that, and I know I've said this publicly to the board. We do really work hard to make sure that we are treating all of our employees, especially as it relates to benefits, health benefits, dental, et cetera, the same.

[04:20:02] And so anything that we would negotiate that involves those kinds of benefits, we would propose to the board that they be across-the-board benefits. Appreciate it. And the last thing I'll say, Madam Chair, is that I believe it's been close to two decades since it's been increased.

[04:20:19] So that's a long time when you think about inflation, cost of living, what have you. So I appreciate that. And Madam Chair? Quickly, yes. Yeah, just very quickly to that point, it's my understanding that this discussion is outside of the collective bargaining discussion.

[04:20:36] Do we know that to be the case? Because if not, obviously that's something that they can kind of negotiate within collective bargaining. But it's my understanding it's outside the scope. For now, well, outside of the scope, I'm not so sure about it. It is not outside of the scope. It is outside of the discussion because it wasn't something that we discussed as part of the negotiating provisions this time around.

[04:21:01] But as said, in a matter of another year and a half, we will be back at the table if the board did not decide to act on it this year. That said, if the board is interested in doing it this year, I'm going to be coming back as part of budget recap with a number of your priorities.

[04:21:20] And if this is one, we will certainly work quickly to analyze what the impact would actually be. But to be clear, it is within the scope of what they can bargain on. It is. Okay. It is a benefit. All right.

[04:21:37] Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just wanted to acknowledge that inside of the collective bargaining piece, there was a discussion with the firemen and the adult detention center and the sheriff about the balance of increase as it relates to market value.

[04:21:59] So I see that that's been acknowledged with your proposed budget, and that was speaking to the initial collective bargaining piece as it relates to retaining and recruiting. And so just wanted to acknowledge that. And then the other piece that was brought as we were going through the collective bargaining process was the advanced life support stipend increase, which was not acknowledged before, but now, and that is a part of the collective bargaining process.

[04:22:29] So just wanted to acknowledge that in terms of, again, retaining and recruiting. Thank you, Supervisor. Yes, that is absolutely correct. Supervisor Gordy. Thank you, Madam Chair. On slide 14, when you were briefing this, you used the word competitiveness, and I really appreciate you utilizing that word.

[04:22:54] When we were at VACO, I was reminded by three supervisors from a county that will go unnamed that they are not training their firemen. They said, let Prince William County train the firemen.

[04:23:11] We'll just pay them more, and then we'll recruit them away from Prince William County. So it gets to that whole idea that we do live in a dynamic region. we must maintain competitive pay for our firefighters, our police, and first responders in order for, I mean, we're putting tens of thousands of dollars of training into these individuals before the first day of employment of, you know, on the front line. And if they get snatched away by another county because they're paying them more pay, we've, now we've lost double

[04:23:47] the training because now we've got to go train someone else to take that job. And so for me, So the question I have is how often are we measuring or tracking what other localities are doing to ensure that we are maintaining a competitive edge with those that we are tracking?

[04:24:06] And number two, and we've talked about this briefly in the past, is that clawback when people do leave service, you know, that whatever that service obligation is so that we feel that we get that training investment out of them before they move on to a different locality.

[04:24:24] that we're able to regain some of that training dollars back if they leave before the end of that period of obligation. I'm going to have Deputy CXO Haynes respond. Thank you. Sure. So we look at compensation specifically every two to three years, as we did the Gallagher study, to look at market competitiveness, as well as look at actually our classification.

[04:24:46] So we'll be doing it again, as the CXO mentioned, here, upcoming for this year, which will hopefully take about a year or so for us to kind of get the full complete study, and then we'll come back to the board with any adjustments that we need to make. Do you think that gives us, keeps us on the cutting edge of competitiveness, a two to three year look, or should we be kind of even informally taking a look at this in a more routine fashion?

[04:25:14] So internally, we do look at marketing competitiveness from our own research. We use the third party as the class and comp study to do kind of a third party look. We mostly use the Northern Virginia, but we also internally look at other jurisdictions because certain classifications, we're not just competing with our Northern Virginia partners.

[04:25:32] We're actually looking at the private sector. So say, for instance, any of our laborers, et cetera, they are looking at the benefits and marketing competitiveness of the private sector, not necessarily our Loudon, Fairfax jurisdictions. And to the question of making sure if we lose an employee regaining some of the funding, We have talked quite a bit internally about enforceability of those kinds of agreements for employees.

[04:26:07] We are still in that internal discussion, and we'll be working with the county attorney's office and HR to figure out what we can do based on Virginia code. All right, we have Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, ma'am, Chair.

[04:26:24] And Supervisor Gordy, thank you so much for bringing up the piece about training, and I see it's included here, training and education. as a part of the collective bargaining but the question that um and i appreciate you bringing that up because we are we were losing our good uh staff to other regions but the question that i have is when we do that competitive study again next year will we be using the same consultant that we've always used or will we be sourcing for another consultant no we will it will be

[04:26:58] competitive it will be competitive yeah okay thank you all right so now we're going to get into the meet um budget initiative slides six oh i'm sorry victor angry you just popped up him no no or he's he's jumping ahead um so we're gonna do budget initiative slide 16 through 29 i'm waiting for that cue to fill all right i got supervisor angry thank you madam chair um okay so i'm trying to it feels like the twilight zone for me because i'm gonna be uh the conservative about dollars and

[04:27:34] So I'm just going to, on slide 18, I'm just going to start there. Slide 18, fire and rescue, 50-hour work schedule, $6.1 million. And you said 30 sworn officers for the next three years, so 90 personnel.

[04:27:54] So basically 18.3 mil, or is that, because I see that ratified collective bargaining agreement. Is that, are we saying $18.3 million for 90 new firefighters over the next three years? and is that correct okay and and my my the insaneness i'm just going to put that because i'm gonna try all right i'm gonna be nice with this collective bargaining 15.4 million dollars we just we're gonna we approve we're gonna do 4.2 million compensations 90 fire rescue personnel

[04:28:33] over the next three years nowhere in here have we even discussed the free labor that we have in this county with volunteers we got to work on this for real i'm gonna i'm not gonna spend a lot of time now because i'm really i'm definitely not feeling any of what this says because it literally decimates free labor that we have in this county that has been happening over the last five years i've been on this board for five years for five years i've been talking about the same thing it's literally like groundhog day and i'm all for the collective bargaining we spent that money we talked about our personnel but we are not doing anything for free labor of volunteer firefighters

[04:29:12] who absolutely love to be a part of this county and doing the work that we do here's what i need to know what is the total number of paid employees firefighters in this county and what is the total number of volunteer firefighters in this county and that number we somewhere should be finding a balance of a percentage that says they need to maintain and keep this up to be a part of this to be in this county because right now people are just leaving because of slides like this literally nobody wants to sit in a station where you're not running the call because you don't exist you're like a ghost in a firehouse I'm speaking on behalf of every volunteer in Prince William County

[04:29:52] right now who's sitting in the station doing nothing because they're secondary to whatever the call may be this is about saving lives and we talk about it you want to talk about training and we spend dollars on folks I went through the academy you spent money on me to do this for me to sit around and do nothing is sad and so we got to work on this seriously i don't know how this board feels about it but i can't take this anymore i mean this is getting to be too much and i'm sorry i just wanted to interject because i want to make sure that i'm also understanding the question and um what's at stake because we have our volunteers and you know thankfully we

[04:30:29] have people who are willing to put their lives on the line you know for our community you know greatly respect it but you know what i'm trying to understand is it when we hire more staff you feel that we're not properly utilizing the volunteers do you think we need to do better recruiting well i just want to understand we are not properly utilizing volunteers and if we're going to over the next three years hire 90 more staff to get to a 50-hour work week when let's go back in history we got to a 56-hour work week not because of chris martino because of our fire rescue personnel that wanted it now we want a 50-hour work week so we say to get here we need

[04:31:07] to hire more well you probably can get to a 50-hour work week if you spread out staffing across these stations anyway we need to talk more about this i'll have to get with you and chief and we'll just have to talk because i really feel like we're missing a mark here we can do better than this and really an efficiency world of spending 18.3 million dollars and totaling really 19.6 over everything that we've invested in here there is a more efficient way to get utilization out of all of our personnel who really are one force they're the same firefighters we all get along on that we

[04:31:43] get that but there is a clear separation between how this is being utilized and what this dollars are doing everything we talked about this is a lot of money and we're not we're not efficient we're not we're simply answering you know uh the the the the request and you know i've been working with my association but this is literally just answering that call no one in here is the exact thing i talked about in collective bargaining how do we protect our firefighters this doesn't protect our volunteer firefighters it doesn't it really doesn't protect them this literally

[04:32:16] tells everybody hey you know go home no i appreciate the sentiment and you know i appreciate Yeah, so it would be great to have discussion with, and I will join you, you know, if you want to have these discussions so we can better understand and come to a good compromise that works for our career professionals and also, you know, works for our volunteers and makes them feel that their service is valued and utilized.

[04:32:40] I do think you said that, great, because they're all career professionals. One just chooses to not get paid. Okay. And so. Fair point. So we're going to move on to Supervisor Bodie. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I don't want to get into he, he said, she said, who wanted what, what have you.

[04:32:58] But I've not talked to any, you know, frontline firefighter who said, I want to start working 56 hours. So I just want to clarify that, what have you. But I agree, though, that we need to continue to look at that because I support us going to a 50-hour work week over what we have right now.

[04:33:14] But I think the question is how. How do we get there? And that's more of a how as opposed to if or if not. And, again, that was part of the ratified collective bargaining grant, so we're sort of locked into that as per ratification. My question, though, goes to the next slide, which is slide 19.

[04:33:32] That talks more about the judicial folks or constitutional offices. You know, we have another iteration of staffing for the Commonwealth's attorney, which I'm fine with, but I want to ask about the other side of that scale, which is the public defender's office and the staffing there.

[04:33:49] And I had a conversation with the public defender recently, and she made an ask of one employee. So I just wanted to leave that for folks. So as we continue to talk through the budget, we make sure that we're still minding the other side of the scales of justice and make sure our public defender is well-resourced as well.

[04:34:12] Yep. Thank you for that, Supervisor. I'll say I fully expect, and I said it already, this is the start of the public process. We will be working with each of you individually over the next few weeks, and I suspect that I'll be coming back during budget recap with a number of priorities that you outline based on where we are.

[04:34:33] We have really, through the team here, done our very best over the last few months to work with all of our stakeholders, and as I've said to you, have just not heard that the Public Defenders Service needed an additional FTE, but we will absolutely work to make sure that we define what that is, what that need is, and then come back to you with that wrapped up into other asks.

[04:35:06] Supervisor, we're here. Thank you, Madam Chair. We're on 17 to end, correct? All the way to the end? 16 through 29, and then after that, we have one more section. Okay, 16 through 29. Supervisor, I'm angry. I don't want you to have a coronary, but amen.

[04:35:29] Partisanship? As most of you are aware, you know, I've served on another jurisdiction. And the problem that we've got with diminishing numbers of volunteers isn't simply that they can't or won't serve anymore.

[04:35:46] There was, under prior fire chiefs, an initiative to force them out in many cases. Some of it was warranted, some of it was not.

[04:36:03] And I warned at the time that it would have a dire budget impact on us at some point in the future. That future is now here. I literally had a fire chief, several fire chiefs ago, come to the town and meet with us and explicitly lay out that he wanted to get rid of them and go to a full professional staff.

[04:36:26] That comes with a cost. So, yeah, I'm all with you on getting the volunteers back up because it does serve as a cost savings for us. Slide 19, Commonwealth's Attorney Staffing Plan.

[04:36:45] We just had a judge in here last week telling us that she can't take on one more judge because she doesn't have any office space for them, and she can't get any staff because they don't have office space for them. So how are we going to hire four attorneys and four support staff, and where are we going to put them in the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office?

[04:37:01] And does that mean that they're actually going to prosecute anybody? I'm kind of loathe to give them eight more FTE when I'm not seeing the prosecution and I don't know where you're going to stick them over there. So I'd like to hear from the Commonwealth's attorney prior to authorizing this expenditure as to where she plans to house them and just exactly what they're going to do.

[04:37:25] Same thing with courthouse interpreters, circuit court attorney. I mean, where are you going to put them? There's no space. Supervisor, I certainly don't want to sort of speak on behalf of the Commonwealth attorney.

[04:37:41] I think she can absolutely speak for herself in terms of the need and her plan around prosecutions. I will say we do know in terms of physical space that she leases her space and has additional space for staff. But we'll leave it to her to email the board or to communicate with you in your office about her plan forward with the staff.

[04:38:06] I would rather she came to the board as a whole and spoke to it. You know, it's nice to come to my office, but that doesn't inform everybody. What page are we going through? 16 to 29.

[04:38:23] Okay, page 28. Existing community partners, 3% increase. I thought we were going to revamp the community partners program.

[04:38:40] I'm not happy with it. I don't think a lot of people are happy with it. I think there's a lot of issues with who gets money, who doesn't get money, who's eligible, who's not. But as long as we're on it, there are some expenditures in the community partners program that I, quite frankly, don't believe belong in that budget area.

[04:39:00] Namely, why is the Board of County Supervisors considered a community partner? I'm looking at last year's budget. Why are VACO dues considered part of it, NVRC dues?

[04:39:17] I mean, that's the cost of operating, us operating. That's contractual obligations that we've got. So I'd just like to see that stuff taken out of the Community Partners Program. Actually, I'd like the entire Community Partners Program revamped, and I thought that's where we were going to be at this fiscal year, but I guess I thought wrong.

[04:39:38] And that's sort of one of the reasons I had to push the willing warriors this week. But I think we need to take a serious look at how this is done, who's getting what, how it's being allocated, and whether it's actually achieving what we want it to use, because that's a considerable amount of money at the end of the day that's going to these people and for a variety of projects, and I'm not entirely sure that all of them are still providing the bang for the buck they did at one point in time, but I think that's a larger conversation that this board's going to have to have in terms of who the community partners are, what we think they're doing, what they're actually doing,

[04:40:16] and how much we want to allocate, and that takes me to the end of that section. Do you have anything else, Supervisor Rear?

[04:40:35] Nope. That's the end of the section for me. All right. Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair and Supervisor Weir. You read my mind. Chris, I certainly understand you not wanting to speak on behalf of the Commonwealth Attorney. However, if you're including her ask in this presentation, I would assume that it's because she laid out her reasons as to why she needs these additional positions.

[04:40:59] And I would assume that you would be in a position to share the reasons why she's making this ask. But to Supervisor Weir's point, we all know that felony prosecutions slash convictions have fallen through the floor. And it's not because people are committing less crimes.

[04:41:17] We all see the data, and we talk so much about being data-driven. I don't care what department is asking for what. It has to be backed by data. And so if they're going to be making this type of ask, what is the data that they have to back to support the ask?

[04:41:32] So I certainly do want to see that data. If she wants to come before this governing body and make her ask to the board, I certainly welcome that. But I do want to have access to that information before she comes and speaks to us so that we have time to process whatever it is that she's going to present as the reason as to why she's asking for these positions.

[04:41:50] I'll remind my colleagues on this day is that when we talked about establishing the public defender's office, we were told that it was going to be a one-time expense. That's not the case here. We're now hearing from Supervisor Bodie that there's been an additional ask made. and so where do we draw the line? Where does it end? And this is what I take issue with is that once you open that door, you're never going to close it because you're going to continue to come back to ask for additional funds. And so, again, whoever's making their ask should be able to justify their ask, and I certainly do expect that specifically from the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office because I personally haven't been pleased with the way that they've been handling

[04:42:29] their caseload over at the court, and certainly she can come here and speak to that, so I'm not going to put you in that position but then again she's already had these conversations with you and it's included in this presentation to the board um i want to go back to slide 18 which talks about collective bargaining i want to know if the 6.1 million figure um if those costs here are already part of the 15 million price tag quoted earlier this is a set this would be a separate number so it's separate right so the staffing plans associated with police and fire

[04:43:07] are separate from the pay and incentives associated with the 15.4 number okay going on to slide 22 what is the overall subsidy increase from last year that is for vre yes in fy 24 that local subsidy from the county was 4.9 million dollars it is increasing to the five and a half million that you see here.

[04:43:54] Slide 26. Do we have more on that, Dave, or is that it? That's it? Okay. Slide 26. I'm sorry, Supervisor. So correction, and I wouldn't otherwise correct and just would follow up in writing, but I do want to correct here.

[04:44:13] So that 15.4 did include the 6.1. Okay. Yeah, and we'll make sure that for questions that we didn't answer tonight where we have information that we want to share, that we include that as part of our follow-up to the board.

[04:44:32] That includes the state comp board study that the Commonwealth's attorney used in her conversations with the team as part of the budget development process. Okay. Slide 26, please.

[04:44:58] The collective bargaining cost, is this also included in the $15 million figure cited initially, or is this an addition? This is an addition, and this completes the staffing plan, the five-year staffing plan that we put forward last year, the last of the internal collective bargaining positions.

[04:45:16] And then my final question for these slides, 29, how do we justify, do we have documentation to justify all these new FTEs for the CIP projects? What metrics do we use to measure how many positions are going to be needed?

[04:45:40] We could certainly provide information as a follow-up. I think each of the of the agencies identified here as part of this additional capacity growth have their own story to tell in terms of the need. And so we would need to pull that together in one place to share it with the board in terms of the overall vision around growing our internal capacity. So procurement will have their own transportation in terms of utilities coordinator. We all know separately that utilities has an impact on the start of a construction project, but again, I would need

[04:46:18] to pull that all together with the team and send to the board. Thank you. Sure. That's all for now, Madam Chair. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. Page 17, where it says continue school security program, and Chris, you mentioned that that was separate from the SRO program.

[04:46:39] Is that a part of our new community safety initiative or as it relates to the schools? It is actually. It's not a part of the community safety initiative, but it's certainly in coordination with the community safety initiative.

[04:46:56] I'll say that I want to be delicate in my sort of how I talk about the community safety initiative as it relates to the school safety program. That program, as it is defined by this number, is really equipment.

[04:47:14] And so it's a very different conversation than one where we are gathering intelligence about how we interrupt violence and prevent violence from occurring. Okay. On page 19, for the sheriff's deputies, the two FTEs, I remember that the sheriff had a request from our last budget cycle of one.

[04:47:46] Is that the same? Is that the increase of the two, or is that a new number? I am going to have to recall what the justification the sheriff put forward last year as part of last year's budget. This is really connected to the addition of the sixth judge, And what we have said is obviously when those two sheriff's deputies are hired, the sheriff will and certainly has the latitude to use those sheriff's deputies however he sees fit.

[04:48:18] And so but they are here in this budget in recognition of the fact that we are getting a sixth judge and we don't want to put the sheriff in a position where he does not have the staffing to support that sixth judge in the same way that we are adding two clerks to support the sixth judge.

[04:48:34] Okay. And in reference to the sixth judge, help my recall, when the judge was here last week, she mentioned that she didn't want to overcompensate for additional judges.

[04:48:49] So this sixth judge is already accounted for, correct? This sixth judge is already accounted for. Okay. I think the chief judge spoke more to the year-over-year occurrence of judges being appointed to counties where the county did not have the capacity to take another judge and wanted to make sure that we all understood that that's not how the state operated.

[04:49:18] This six judges in the state budget, and we are anticipating that this will happen. Okay, that's what I, okay. And then at the bottom of 19, where it says veterans, docket coordinator, 1FT, is that going to be, is the need for that going to be a subject matter expert, like a JAG background, something in that nature, or is it just generic?

[04:49:43] No, more of a case manager, someone who is working directly with veterans, directly with the judge to make sure that we are supporting veterans on their journey to recovery. So more of a social services background, someone who understands how to work with vulnerable people and vulnerable populations.

[04:50:06] Okay. Okay. Makes sense. And on page 25 for the Community Energy Sustainability Plan, the $3 million, that's a continuation, I'm assuming, from our master plan for environmental and sustainability? Yes. Yes, ma'am. It is a continue. It is the investment. It is the set-aside that we put forward, that the board approved in December with surplus dollars from FY23.

[04:50:33] Okay. Moving forward on page, there was another, for the Solheim Cup. I don't know what page it is. Hold on just a second. I don't know what page it is. Anyone? Okay. Thank you.

[04:50:55] Is there, from what you have listed here, and I know we're going to need the marketing, promotional pieces, and, you know, and we're hosting this. And I guess my question is, are we covering everything with the $1.2 million as it relates to compensation for, like, accommodations, compensation for, like, you know, entertainment?

[04:51:26] You know, is this to incorporate all of that as we support the SOHA? You know, there is a component of this that LPGA will be contributing that our economic development and tourism team are working with LPGA to define and scope out.

[04:51:46] This really is, our portion of this is really about our own overtime, staffing, marketing, and advertising costs. I am not sure that I remember entertainment as a part of these costs. Okay, and that could be an unknown, but just making sure.

[04:52:06] I'll say it this way. When I go back, if there is an entertainment component, we will turn that around to the board, and I'll correct that, but I don't believe that this is. That that was a part of it. Right. Okay, and I think that's all.

[04:52:25] I know that, and then on 25, we've been talking about Storm Warner management for quite some time. First term, we talked about it for quite some time. And as it relates, this $1.2 million, this is, I'm assuming, because we've had so many problems with stormwater management, this is a prohibitive measure that you're putting in place?

[04:52:54] It is really recognizing that the MS-4 permit, there's an acceleration, if you will, the state level in terms of the need so the need for us to increase is really a recognition of the fact that we are now under more strict requirements associated with what's with the infrastructure and so I'll I don't know if Wade you want to talk more to this if there's more detail I don't know is there more detail needed well yeah the only detail that I have is because

[04:53:33] we are dealing with so much so much older infrastructure do we envision to go along with this 1.2 million grant process to aid in this a supervisor Bailey I I'm not aware of a grant process but in terms of applying for grants of some absolutely if there's grant availability out there the team does a very good job of finding those opportunities and applying what this to what the county executive is saying is because of that expedited time frame that we have to meet the ms4 requirements some of that means that we have to get a stream restoration project started

[04:54:11] earlier okay some of it may be aging infrastructure to your point it has to be completed sooner okay and and you thank you wade you delve into what i was trying to understand because i know that there's a the ms4 permit is a requirement that we've got to adhere to but with the older infrastructure i was just saying what is this what we are predicting to aid that yes completely Okay, Madam Chair, I think that's all I have.

[04:54:39] Thank you. All right, thank you. Supervisor Brody. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to jump around a little bit, so please bear with me, and I appreciate staff and the county executive so far. Just wanted to sort of affirm my support with something that Supervisor Franklin was talking about earlier, just looking at that four-person staffing on the rig and looking at a trial perhaps at Station 12.

[04:55:06] We know that there's a long way to go in terms of making sure that we do this correctly, but I know that Station 12 in particular is a sensitive note for folks because that's where Kyle Wilson was based out of, so wanted to affirm that for Supervisor Franklin.

[04:55:22] Also, to go ahead a little bit out of the secure communities, wanted to go to slide 21, which Supervisor Bailey talked about quite a bit in terms of the Solheim Cup. I mean, on the Solheim Cup side, I just think $1.2 million is a lot to be spending on us promoting an event that you, like you said, LPGA, has skin in the game, what have you.

[04:55:46] But ultimately, I get it. We need to have a county person, whether that's park staff, police officers, everyone that we need to ensure that that event is safe, secure, and successful. But I just wanted to just point that as it seems like a lot of money for something that someone else is coming in to put on in our county.

[04:56:04] But, again, it's all TOT dollars, so I get the tie there. The tourism strategic plan and marketing at half a mill. Again, I support the idea of us looking at agribusiness and agritourism. I would love for us to look at something similar for our maritime businesses at some point, too.

[04:56:22] You know, I share the Potomac River with supervisors Franklin and Bailey. I also share the Ogaquan River with supervisors Vega and Weir. So we'd love to see us begin to look at our waterways, our blueways, our maritime businesses as well, and the tourism that those can bring.

[04:56:40] Because I know that, you know, we've talked about the boathouse at Lake Ridge before, but I know there's a lot of folks that love hitting on the water every day. I have a couple staffers that love paddling, and I know that if we are able to, a couple constituents as well. So I know that if we're able to grow that as well and become a lot more intentional about how we market the county and building capacity around our waterways as well, I think there's really something there to be said as well.

[04:57:11] Slide 23, I will just say I love the, and I've told you this in our meeting, Mr. Shorter, that I love the fact that you're breaking out this new office of youth services. I think there's a real need there, especially as it pertains to, like you said, these disconnected at-risk youth.

[04:57:29] My question there, though, is how much is this going to tie into things like, so as Franklin said with the Child Advocacy Center, but also other CS things, such as the New Horizons Intensive In-Home Program and the Youth Wing of the CRC. How are we going to tie all those things together into one sort of continuum of care specifically for youth?

[04:57:49] Sure. I certainly don't want to speak for the staff, but that is exactly why the creation of this office is important. That kind of coordination, not just with community safety, but with all of the agencies internal to our government that support these young people.

[04:58:10] What I will say is once the board indicates its approval, I am sure we will be back before the board many times to talk about how this office is establishing itself and working with its partners. And so I don't want to get ahead of, in terms of the partnerships now, I'm sure that we can have the team talk about what the formation of the office means and how it will be set up but in terms of partnerships and how that work will happen uh there's a there's a future i think touch point with the board that we will be prepared to do appreciate that i see that the advocates are

[04:58:49] sort of leaving so before they do also want to obviously voice my support for the affordable dwelling office and your creation there um so wanted to highlight that as well then on to slide 24 talks about trails and park maintenance there's a lot of great trails projects on here and annual maintenance that we need to do I know that the bond projects also include the greenways that we've been talking about but I do know that there's been advocates who have come in both last year and this year to talk about more dedicated funding for our trails and you know

[04:59:25] With the adoption of the comprehensive plan a year and change ago, it calls for a very robust, fully connected trail network. And frankly, this does not get there. And so my other thing that I wanted to offer is we really need to start becoming a lot more intentional in our investments in the trails to make sure that that vision of a truly connected trail system, because of reality, we get more folks out of their cars and off of sidewalks and onto trails, other ways to traverse the county.

[04:59:55] So I wanted to say that. And then finally, slide 25, appreciate Sarah Bailey about mentioning the CSMP. I know that we front-loaded an investment, you know, a couple months ago to help kickstart the CIP with the CSMP.

[05:00:11] Would love for us to have a conversation at some point about earmarking computer peripherals tax pennies onto sustainability in specific. But also in terms of the Office of Sustainability, I know that Julia Mano probably has some staffing needs.

[05:00:28] I know we talked about this a little bit, about the community-facing side of this, because a community energy sustainability master plan is only as good as our ability to communicate and interact with the community. And if she doesn't have any workforce that can do that, I think we're sort of shooting ourselves in the foot. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right, thank you.

[05:00:44] I just want to chime in before I go to the next speaker. Thank you, Supervisor Bodhi, for mentioning trails, because that's something I was going to discuss. It's, you know, I believe it's a small amount of money, but, you know, obviously staff knows better, but perhaps, you know, $100,000 for trails and connectivity.

[05:01:01] That's something we had activists come, you know, I think early last month even to discuss. It's something that we should look at. It's a low-level lift, quite honestly, so that's something I'd like to see as well. With that, I'm going to go over to Supervisor Franklin.

[05:01:17] Sure, thank you. Just a couple of comments, and then actually all comments for the most part. I'll first start with the Solheim. I know there was a concern about the $1.2 million. I do want to point out that the $1.2 million that we're investing is peanuts compared to what the ladies' golf association will be investing into Prince William County.

[05:01:44] They're going to put a lot of money into this economy coming here. It is an honor to be able to host the Solheim Cup. And quite frankly, I just want to make sure that we have the resources to be able to properly measure up to that type of tournament here in Prince William County. And so I'm comfortable with the 1.2.

[05:02:02] It's going to be a small amount compared to what the LPGA is putting into this county. And I think that's something that we should be really grateful for. and hopefully this will open up the doors to more economic activities coming into this county.

[05:02:19] So I'm very supportive of that. Also, as mentioned, I know we have the United Tenants Workers here to support the Affordable Housing Ordinance, and I think they want additional resources. I will say that I think it's a great investment that we're putting into the trust fund and then obviously setting up the office.

[05:02:38] To clarify, the proposal is to do $5 million per year up to FY29, I believe, which will equal about $20 million. And I think that's a pretty good investment for our first time out the gate.

[05:02:54] So I'm very happy with that. And I think I've spoken with the United Tenors Workers, and I think they understand that and are happy about the investments as well. But we still have a lot of work to do. we do need that ordinance that needs to work in tandem with the housing trust fund and we still have to consider exactly how we want to use that trust fund do we want to use it to help with housing assistance or do we want to use it to help provide incentives to build more affordable housing or a combination of both and I look forward to having that discussion there was a discussion mentioned about the community partners program I think I'm familiar with all of our community

[05:03:31] partners I think in some capacity I've done work with a number of them so I'm very comfortable with how we have run our community partners program and to be clear to the public we have a community partners program so that they can do services that the county just doesn't have the capacity to do for instance when COVID happened we put a lot of money into our feeding programs and I remember I worked with some of the feeding programs and a number of us did to go out and hand out food to families on a weekly basis that's just something that the county just wasn't prepared to do because

[05:04:08] of all the rest of the responsibilities that we have so the community partners program is incredibly important and they provide a service that the county for you know a variety of reasons just can't do on their own which is why it's called a community partners program so I'm very comfortable with where we are there and then lastly I've said this about transportation funding before we have to get our state and our general assembly to create some type of funding facility that will provide continued funding to our local transportation services right now we rely on the

[05:04:45] fuels tax to fund a majority of our transportation services but quite frankly it's just not enough when we talk about the VRE funding just want to clarify that it receives 30 percent of the NVTA funding, no matter what that funding source is. So regardless, VRE is going to get 30% of the NVTA funding. And quite frankly, they need it, particularly coming out of COVID. But again, I'm going to put the responsibility on our General Assembly to come up with a permanent funding source that helps local transportation or local jurisdictions to support our transportation

[05:05:21] services. We can't do it alone. We have a bunch of unfunded mandates from education to transportation and we need help we need permanent help to fund our transportation systems I've said it before I will continue to say it we have to push our general assembly to measure up to their responsibilities and so I think that's critically important that's something that we need to continue to pound the pavement on thank you all right praise it supervisor Franklin we're going to go on to supervisor gordy um on uh slide 20 uh we talk about uh staffing for the planning office

[05:06:00] um and i think last week i uh or one of our conversations i talked about you know the the the potential need for increased staffing and development services due to um increased workload due to the particularly the data center uh development taking place within the county and and we talked about the fact that you know they're funded through the permit process that's off budget however all the the equipment the space that they use are we anticipating the need

[05:06:37] for any expansion due to the staffing potential increases from development services over the next couple of years that could present some challenges, some increases in our budget? Yeah, I don't know if we want to, so we are always looking at our space, development services is obviously across the courtyard, and we do have currently adequate space for development

[05:07:10] Services. That is not, though, to say that as the office grows that there won't be some additional needs in the coming years. We are also really talking internally and working internally with and through Development Services about how we engage. So that is to say what platforms we use to engage our customer base. And so that may help with some of the growth that we see in terms of that is staffing. So it's a great question. If there's a need to supplement that answer,

[05:07:47] then I'll provide it by way of follow-up responses. Yeah, I just kind of see this as something that we're going to have this bow wave of need for folks. And then as kind of the construction phases start to wane, we'll have to see a reduction in manning that would flow along with that. But in the meantime, we've got to figure out how do we house all these folks? How We put them on our county networks, you know, and every one of those seats costs money, right?

[05:08:14] So, you know, I'm just trying to get my head around, okay, you know, what is that going to look like in terms of potentially future costs to us in order to meet this growing demand of construction for that industry over the next probably 10 to 20 years?

[05:08:36] Absolutely. Because, I mean, like I said, we've got about 80 million square feet of construction headed our way. That's a lot of buildings. It is, and a lot of work for our exceptional team. That said, I'll just remind the board that we are having a much longer-term conversation about our government center and the space that not only we use to do public meetings in this chamber, but all of the space that we use here at court and across the courtyard.

[05:09:08] So we are having charrettes and having conversations now about what that future space looks like. We are a 7, 10-year horizon, but that is exactly the point, that as we, as a county government, prepare ourselves and then execute around more building growing in the county, that we need to have the accommodations for our staff to do the good work.

[05:09:35] Thank you. Just a few comments on a few other things. On the veterans docket coordinator, I see this actually as a cost reducer to the county. This program is actually keeping people out of jail. It's actually providing a reduction in recidivism by providing quality care, a mentor who's a volunteer for each of these veterans who find themselves in the criminal justice system, in the legal system. This is a fantastic program. If you've not received a

[05:10:08] briefing on it, I highly encourage you to do so. But it is actually reducing our cost just in the fact that we are keeping these veterans out of the jail. We're keeping them employed. We're We're finding ways to help them other than just imprisoning them.

[05:10:26] So I see this as a net positive for us going forward. The Solheim Cup, thank you for your comments, Supervisor Franklin. The opportunity with the eyes of the world on us, this is an opportunity for us to promote Market Prince William County.

[05:10:44] So it's an investment in our ability to communicate to the rest of the world, and the world will be watching this, you know, who we are, where we are, and what we offer them. And so it gives us an opportunity to hopefully try to attract more businesses to our area and demonstrate that we are a good place to do business.

[05:11:06] And then on the Office of Youth Services, this is a program, I think, going back to the homeless count, point-in-time count last year, 8%, 7% of the homeless were, in that count, were young people who aged out of foster care because they did not have a safety net once they reached 18.

[05:11:35] Imagine able to keep 15 young people every year out of homelessness. This is essential, I think, to help, and I've had a great conversation with Ms. Tierney about this, the ability to help provide, I mean, think about it.

[05:11:52] You can't rent without a credit. without credit right so how does a teenager get credit and be able to go get it rent an apartment so it's about really trying to create a holistic approach to caring for these young people who like it said disconnected youth and and i see this as a way to solve eliminate future criminals in criminal behaviors because now we're getting these kids in the type of care that they need and getting them on the right path so to me that is also a nice investment for our community

[05:12:28] and then just to go back to the trails conversation i asked this question during when i was on the planning commission of our parks folks i believe you know we're building more parks but i don't see we my understanding is we only have two people who main or maintain trails throughout the entire county and you get one windstorm blow through here and trees are down everywhere uh tree limbs are down um and it's hard to use those trails um so while we are i would ask that

[05:13:02] at some point we probably need to look at as we continue to expand our trail network and we and it becomes a true mobility um opportunity for our county that we probably need to be very intentional about how we maintain those trails I was honored to go on a hike and we had to climb over trees we had to go over a washout around some rocks that washed down onto the trail on broad run and then walk through part of the trail that hadn't been mowed in who knows how long I'm just

[05:13:39] thankful that the the red bugs didn't eat me up that day so you know we have great trails but we're not maintaining them and with two people that's kind of hard to accomplish uh consistently throughout the year um so i think that's something that we ought to uh also look at going forward um that's all the comments i have and uh at this time thank you all right thank you so much supervisor hengry thank you madam chair i'll just finish finish off on that veterans docket comment

[05:14:10] because that's literally what we experience today when we approve the tax situation with our willing warriors because this is exactly what it is, folks. When folks get out of the military, it's hard to find your way, right?

[05:14:25] And when you don't find your way, you unfortunately find the wrong way. And the Veterans Locket, what I absolutely love about it is that it gives that second chance and sometimes third chance to veterans who through truly no fault of their own because sometimes things just happen and our mental stuff just goes on.

[05:14:45] And so the fact that they're willing to work with many of those vets, and I've gone to a graduation. If you haven't gone to one of those graduations, it is the coolest thing ever. So I definitely recommend anyone and everyone on this board to do so. Just a quick question. On slide 29, the two FTEs for Parks and Rec Project Management, because we heard a lot about trails, but do you know specifically, do you know what those are for?

[05:15:09] And I'll just ask because, you know, I've heard from our Historical Commission on wanting two FTEs for some of the historic buildings that we have. So for Parks and Recreation, and I'm going to get to my notes, but one is a principal planner and one is a construction inspector.

[05:15:36] Okay, I'll work with you, but I'll put a plug in now just to say that the Historical Commission was looking for two FTEs for a few of the historical buildings that we have for folks can actually explain the stories about the history of Princeton County. So I'll just plug that.

[05:15:52] And then really the last one is slide 22, and I want to kind of finish up on Supervisor Franklin's comments about needing a funding stream for our transportation. So that $17.6 is basically the well left of our motor fuels tax, which funds our PRTC and Omni-Rise system.

[05:16:15] We know we haven't gotten that budget request yet, but I want to say now and make it known that we do need to have a discussion about a funding stream for PRTC because Princeton County pays, what is that percentage of PRTC?

[05:16:31] I know we got the highest percentage, 70, I don't know what that number is, but we pay a large majority percentage of our bus system. And so we need to have a discussion, literally this budget cycle, about funding PRTC.

[05:16:47] And while I understand that we need the state to have a line in that, I don't think it's going to happen next year. But I agree with her that we need to work with the state to push that. But I will say to this board, we need to discuss a funding stream for PRTC going forward after this budget cycle.

[05:17:08] Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Supervisor Weir. Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to go back to development services with respect to targeted industries, specifically the data centers. I mean, I understand the increasing workload that's coming forward.

[05:17:25] But as I recall, two years ago, this board put in an additional significant number of inspection personnel strictly dedicated to handling the data center inspection load. At the same time, the only thing we get on a daily basis is complaints from the small businesses in this county about how they're not inspected.

[05:17:45] They have trouble getting permits. Their inspections are inconsistent because it goes from one inspector to the next, and So I think we need to address that before we address any more additional FTE for data center inspection.

[05:18:02] Just a comment in response to what was said earlier. Thank you. And Supervisor Franklin? I just wanted to point out one thing that I failed to mention. I know, Mr. Schroeder, we talked about this one-on-one, but if you can just address publicly, you know, I've raised concerns about litter on the side of the road and making sure that we have sufficient litter crews.

[05:18:29] And I can tell you that it's not just a problem in and around the county. You know, going back and forth up and down 95, I've noticed it on the side of the highways as well. And so obviously I don't know what's going on with VDOT resources. And obviously there are a lot more important things.

[05:18:47] But as I always say, the way a community looks is how a person judges a community, whether it's fair or not. And so if you can just talk about some of the resources we have within our department that handles our litter mitigation, that will be helpful.

[05:19:04] I just want to make sure that we have enough FTEs to take care of this entire county, which is, quite frankly, quite large, as we know. Sure. Appreciate that question and appreciate all of the work you do to make sure that those major corridors.

[05:19:20] And by that, you mean all the emails I send. Yes. All right. Yes. And so we are certainly working with Public Works, with Neighborhood Services, to make sure that their routes, which as it currently stands, their regular routes won't put them on these major corridors on near the kind of regular basis that they would probably need to be.

[05:19:42] So we are exploring opportunities within Public Works to make sure that we have a crew that can specifically focus on those major corridors. Now, we may need to come back to this board if there are additional costs associated with that kind of work.

[05:20:08] And if so, I want to leave the door open that, you know, I might be having a conversation with each of you as part of the next few weeks and coming back more formally as part of budget recap with some additional ask associated with crews and staffing to make sure that we are treating those corridors along with VDOT.

[05:20:31] and VDOT absolutely has a role to play here that we are treating those corridors as we should as opportunities for commercial commerce. All right thank you Supervisor Vega. Thank you Madam Chair just quickly as we continue to talk about transportation whether it's PRTC or VRE funding I think that it's critically important to consider ridership and not just continuing to throw money you know it's been mentioned already the truth is is that public transit is very different today than it was pre-pandemic and when we talk about funding I think that we need to have the data to

[05:21:11] support again I keep going back to data because ever since you came on board we talk about being data driven in everything that we do and so I understand the need to fund but at the same time we have to consider ridership levels, right, because that's the most important thing. If we don't have people utilizing these different forms of public transportation, I don't understand the need to allocate funds for whatever we're being asked to. And yes, we are the largest jurisdiction, therefore we are the ones that are asked to put the most, right, into making sure that they have

[05:21:49] funds that is needed but again i want to make sure that whatever we decide to um allocate is supported by by data and i think that that's been made made clear and there are several different factors of course that we have to consider but certainly um you know it's not the same ever since ever since the pandemic and we have to take all of that into consideration and not just continue to throw money away if that makes sense now thank you so very much for that and now we are going going to go into the we're getting to the end y'all slides 30 36 so that's towards the end of

[05:22:29] the presentation now we yeah we're there there's a there's a method to the madness all right supervisor gordy well i'll kick this one off um so on slide 32 uh we lay out um in the suggested uh tax rates uh maintaining the current real estate tax rate of 0.966 um which would impact

[05:23:06] our residents on average of $243. The one question I have, and we've talked a little bit about this in prior sessions, is we are starting to see the impact of real estate taxes also on our small businesses in the county. As industrial land values have increased a significant amount due to the land purchases that are taking place on industrial land, particularly by data centers and by distributors that are dropping millions of dollars on land that would otherwise probably

[05:23:45] would have gone in the hundreds of thousands. So that is inflating land values throughout the county on industrial land. And that just simply means that our small businesses are having to pay higher taxes on real estate as a result of that. So the one question that I have and would like to see at some point is we, I know we talk a lot about residential taxes and what the impact is on this, but trying to understand what the impact is on business, on our, particularly our small

[05:24:19] businesses. If we're seeing land values more than double in many of these, for many of these industrial areas, what is the net effect of that, those taxes on them? And I think if we are, if our tax policy is going to start undercut under is undercutting our ability to maintain small businesses in this county i think we need to be we need to be very um proactive at trying to understand what those is what that issue is and how we can start to try to find ways to mitigate

[05:24:55] it now we can't now set arbitrary rates across the board however i think we need to have a better understanding of the problem. Because again, we can't not afford to lose our small businesses in this county. They employ our people who also live and pay taxes. So we need to make sure that we are looking at this holistically across the board. Which brings me to the business personal property tax on computers and peripherals. I do believe that we should take a look at this

[05:25:34] at a starting point of $370,000, which is what everyone else is paying on their personal property taxes on vehicles. Again, this sets a ceiling with how far we can go as we go through these deliberations it could be said it's something lower than this as we go through these deliberations but we do have to hire we do have to advertise the max rate that we would be willing to go and so um madam chair i would like to make a motion that we set a business tangible computer and

[05:26:12] peripheral we advertise a rate of 370 for this for fy25 second good supervisor bode discussion all right it looks like we well so people had already started filling up the queue and i assume all y'all gonna want to talk about this so i can oh let's go wait my speaker it just went down

[05:26:39] i remember we're franklin no it was we're bode franklin that's back all right it's back all right hold on all right i was getting it we're yeah i do want to discuss this uh but i need a couple of baseline questions answered first do we know given that residential and commercial assessments generally have following sign curves where one is decreasing and one is increasing, generally speaking, year over year?

[05:27:19] Do we know where we're at this year as to which one is rising and which one is falling on average? I do have Michelle Atry on the line. I know she's not here in person, but Michelle, are you still with us? I am. Can you hear me? We can.

[05:27:36] Yeah, so right now, on average, residential is about 5%. We will be coming back at recap. keep in mind when we put together this forecast for proposed budget this is done in january we are just starting to get commercial income information in on income and expenses um so right now this estimate um is using a commercial improved appreciation of about six and a half percent that's across all property types and what we'll have for our work session and then for recap will be a breakout between the different sectors there's some sectors with much larger um appreciation like your data centers, but they all, I believe, are generally positive, trending upward, some of

[05:28:15] them much smaller than others, though. I hope that answers the question. Does that projection include the increased valuation of newly rezoned properties? Yes, it does. Not from the digital gateway rezoning, no. That will happen every cap. We're still working through all of those.

[05:28:32] You're still working. So, that's not in your preliminary revenue projection, correct? Correct. That's correct. Okay. The second question to that, do we have the FY24 actuals yet for total real property?

[05:28:54] Yes, we do. The fourth quarter report was put out, and then I can get that to you. I don't have it on me. I'm just curious if you know generally whether it underperformed or overperformed as to the budgeted $862 million.

[05:29:11] For real estate? Yeah, I seem to recall it came in $70 million higher, or 79. I believe it was higher. We did make some adjustments for reserves out of real estate. But the bottom line total collection was 79, roughly 79.

[05:29:30] If I remember the numbers correctly, it was roughly 79 million over the adopted budget. I don't have it in front of me, I'm sorry. That's okay. I have it on my whiteboard in my office because I took it off of one of your reports. If I can, if I can, that being said, if we can come back to you and the rest of the board with actual responses to this, I don't want to put Michelle in a position where she has to sort of respond on the spot.

[05:30:00] I know that ultimately we are prepared to send the board some of the what I think has already been published by way of actuals this year. We'll follow up with responses to questions around overperformance or underperformance.

[05:30:19] in terms of forecasted expectations. Okay, now let's get to the fun part. I see a lot of budget adjustments in here to address increased needs, increased spending, new FTEs, and it's largely coming, not somewhat surprisingly, as an additional burden on the residents.

[05:30:42] We have a real estate tax, as does every other jurisdiction around here, but we advertise it differently. Loudoun County, Fairfax County, they get delivered a composite tax. It includes the fire levy to the extent a fire levy exists, the gypsy moth levy.

[05:30:59] They get one bill. Everybody looks at the real estate tax bill here, but you've also got to add in the gypsy moth levy, the fire levy, your soil and water fee, your solid waste fee that we increased last year, and then cut the dump hours and cut services at Balls Ford.

[05:31:16] So, you know, not surprisingly, the residents are a little irritated. But I see a lot of creative initiatives in terms of spending. What I don't see are creative initiatives in terms of revenue.

[05:31:34] Supervisor Gordy has suggested going to 370 on the computer or peripherals tax. Mr. Sinclair, I hope my math is right. I did a little bit of figuring on that. And if we went to 370, it would mean an increase in the C&P tax based on the numbers in your chart or the published chart of roughly $49.6 million.

[05:31:56] 49.6. I would then note that if you drop the real estate tax a penny at the same time, you would still accrue an additional surplus on top of what's being proposed in this budget of $39.9 million.

[05:32:14] If you drop the real estate tax two cents, you still accrue a budget surplus of in excess of $30 million. So there's a lot of ways to deal with this. Another option would be set the real estate or set the C&P tax at $3.50 and drop the personal property tax to $3.50 for everybody else. Your net net on that at a 1% drop in the real estate tax is $21.4 million. And if you drop it two cents on the real estate tax, your net's $11.7

[05:32:47] million. What does that do for the tax bill? Give or take every penny off the tax bill saves the resident roughly $30 on the average tax bill. Is that going to make it a flat tax bill just by the numbers? No. But I think what also needs to be factored in is the significant growth

[05:33:21] in both newly developed property, significant growth in how much real estate tax is going to be accrued from upzoned properties, improved properties, that sort of thing. So I think you come closer to an actual flat tax bill if you drop it a couple of cents. We need to be a little more creative than we are here. Leaving it at 215 is not an option for me. And adding another $243 on average to the residential tax bill is not an option for me. But here we are tonight, you know, essentially operating in the dark, being asked to advertise a rate when we haven't

[05:33:56] even had a chance to go through to go through this book fully yeah here we are yet again we're giving an executive summary on thursday asked to make a decision on tuesday given this on friday and i've got all kinds of questions you know i mean i don't think we're in a position right now to be actually setting the rates because i don't think we know what we're going to want to spend you know i just took a spin through some of the some of the budget initiatives and i've got some real questions. I'll just point out a couple of them just to illustrate the point. In the

[05:34:32] elections office, why do we need to add a senior IT analyst at $114,000? Why do we need an assistant director of digital government at $177,000, actually $178,000? I could go on and on and on and on, and that's just in the first couple of pages of this budget, and I haven't even gotten in to the details for each division. So, I mean, I'm kind of loathe to determine what we're going to advertise tonight, given that we've had so little time and so little information to this point. I'd rather defer it, but if indeed we are going to do it, and I would argue that we have

[05:35:12] plenty of time to defer it to the next meeting, but if we are going to do it, I would suggest we set the C&P at the highest taxable, the highest rate possible, and then if we have to retrench and work back so be it but I don't there's a lot of money out there and there's a lot of cuts out there as well I would suggest and I don't think we're anywhere close to even being able to digest what's in front of us yet we're going to make some rather rather significant decisions tonight some of which may if the rates aren't set at a high or advertised at a high enough rate

[05:35:51] will leave us behind the eight ball potentially in a couple of weeks when we get to actual markup and determining what we are and what we aren't going to spend it on. Like I said to begin this meeting, I'm not happy with this.

[05:36:08] I'm not happy with the amount of time we've had to spend on it. I think everybody in here has had a rather contentious last four or five days given a variety of different issues. I certainly haven't had the time to expend what I normally would in examining, at least on a preliminary basis, the budget.

[05:36:28] So I just don't think we're ready tonight to come up with a proposed rate for advertising purposes. And I would offer a substitute motion to Supervisor Gordy to defer that decision until the next board meeting so we all have time to look at the numbers.

[05:36:53] All right. I just want to address that and then we can deal with the substitute motion. But just quickly, again, we're just simply advertising a rate because we are going to have to put something out there. And this is a conversation that we're going to continue to have about what the actual rate would look like.

[05:37:11] You know, I know that some supervisors, you know, have expressed interest in having a more gradual approach rather than just jumping to $3.70, which is the highest we can go without changing, you know, I believe the car tax rate.

[05:37:27] I am going to meet with some people in the industry to understand what their concerns are so that we have a fuller picture. But, you know, we can certainly address the substitute motion, and I do apologize, or the amended motion.

[05:37:42] i do apologize um because i just want to make sure i understand the process because we have you know do we continue the discussion or do we have to um second okay so yes we're gonna we're discussing the substitute motion now anyone who wants a second i'm sorry i just want clarification uh madam chair if i if i may supervisor we're you're asking to delay advertising the 370. we're

[05:38:19] not there oh well determining what so then additional time to determine what it is what rate we want to advertise i'm happy to support supervisor gordy and advertise a 370 which is well right now we don't have a second right madam chair i withdraw my motion yeah all right thank you that was easy all right uh anything else supervisor we're you good come on now now i'm confused um for the moment yes all righty so um supervisor bode you are next thank you madam chair

[05:38:55] So as we are, I appreciate your thought process there, not to belabor it since he withdrew his motion, but considering we don't have another board meeting for three weeks, do we really have the ability to not advertise something today without being concerned about the timeline?

[05:39:14] Regarding the real estate tax rate, by state code, there is a 30-day requirement to advertise the notice of real property tax increase in advance of the official public hearing.

[05:39:35] That official public hearing on the last slide of the county executive's presentation is April 9th. So if we defer until March 12th, we would either not meet the 30-day requirement or the budget calendar would need to slide.

[05:39:51] madam chair if i might interject madam county attorney that only applies if we're raising the rate correct madam chair members of the board it applies if the real estate levies over the last years exceeds 101 thank you for that um so to go back to the whole conversation though about tax rates and what have you um i i you know this question is probably coming michelle because i asked it we talked before i know that last year there was a lot of concern and frankly heartburn

[05:40:29] from residents because the vehicles still appreciated quite a bit more than people anticipated, and so a lot of people got sticker shock when they got their assessments for their vehicles. What's the outlook look like this year as it pertains to the vehicle taxes?

[05:40:46] Sure. In general, year over year, vehicles are depreciating across all category types. We're also, this year, because we were at 100% last year, we're now comparing it to 100% this year. So on average, most bills will decrease. Appreciate that.

[05:41:01] Because I know that Surizer Weir talked about different ways we could look at the personal property tax, so I appreciate that. And also, I forgot to say it, but Supervisor Gordy, thank you. That's why I was supporting your motion. For far too long, this industry, in particular, that pays the lion's share of the CMP tax, has gotten a tax break, a very significant one.

[05:41:18] And although we had made some strides over the last four years to address it, now we actually put a flag down on where we need to be. Whether we can have discussions on whether we do that all this year or we stagger it, as Madam Chair suggests that some folks might want to do, I think it's good to put our flag down this year and say, this is where we need to go.

[05:41:37] Because, frankly, data centers should not be paying less than our average resident on their personal property taxes. So I wanted to offer that to you. I am in favor of us giving as much flexibility to the CXO as possible, given what was just said about the community needs and where we want to go.

[05:41:56] So, again, I support the 370. I would hope that we can at least, right now, advertise, as soon as we're aware of this point, higher rates, knowing that, like we did last year, we worked that real estate down to be a flat tax bill for most residents, while understanding that, again, recap is going to look different than what it looks like right now.

[05:42:15] So I would hope that we can advertise the rates as they stand in the other categories, knowing that we have the flexibility to go down as opposed to up later. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right. Thank you. Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair. Chris or Dave, what would be the equalized tax rate so that we don't have to raise taxes on anyone this year?

[05:42:43] 92 cents even. 92 cents even. Thank you. To be clear, that is an on-average rate.

[05:43:03] And just wanted to highlight, I believe, Supervisor Gordy, you stated that residential tax bills would increase by 243, but that doesn't include the levy. So that's an additional $18, correct, which would then increase the bill by a little over $260, correct?

[05:43:27] Okay. You know, just want to offer this up. We do have a motion. There were several seconds on the floor. I obviously support advertising at 370. For a long time, we've been talking about how getting to this point would be the golden goose, right, the golden egg that would alleviate all of our worries and would be able to fund all of the needs presented here in your budget.

[05:43:51] And here we are today. So I would argue that by simply making data centers pay their fair share, we could, in fact, fund what you've proposed to us. Yes, Chris? Yes.

[05:44:07] And I said just round it up to $50 million when Supervisor Weir was talking. But doing my math, if $0.05 on the data center tax generates $1.6 million, then getting the rate up to $370 would almost generate $50 million.

[05:44:23] And again, simply by making the data center industry pay their fair share, we would essentially not have to cut a dime of what is being proposed here in this budget. And so I understand that when we're advertising the $370, that's the ceiling.

[05:44:39] We can't exceed that. But as we continue to go through the budget process, And, you know, we're going back and forth, whether it's with you or with each other. Keep that in mind. 370 gets us to the point where we're fully funding this and finally puts us in a position to be able to provide some relief for the taxpayers.

[05:45:00] I asked this meeting when I met with you, Chris, and when I met with you, Dave, and I'll ask it publicly. When was the last time that taxpayers in this county received some sort of real relief? How long has it been?

[05:45:22] Well, I'm not sure how you want me to answer this question, except that... The same way you answered it when I asked it, when it was just the three of us? And you didn't answer it, it was Dave. So last year, you know, what the board did by approving a 96.6 cent tax rate and reducing by 6.6 cents the tax rate for taxpayers,

[05:45:50] It created a scenario where we were at a zero base rate, and that is real relief in my mind. Now, I know that that is defined by the person speaking.

[05:46:09] So for me, I know what it meant by what I will say is sending $57 million back to taxpayers that would have otherwise, if the rate stayed at $1.03. would have come into our general fund mean something for residents.

[05:46:30] It certainly meant something for our organization to not count that $57 million in our general fund to be able to invest in the county. So the answer I was given when I asked the question was 15 years, right? It's been 15 years, and I think that it's long overdue.

[05:46:50] When you consider inflation, when you consider the cost of living and everything in between folks certainly deserve some real relief and that is what i'm going to continue to advocate for during the budget process and uh before i hand it back over to whoever's

[05:47:09] next what is the increase in the budget from last year just just give us one more sure the fy25 proposed general fund budget is including the transfer to the schools is 129.3 million dollars

[05:47:42] or 7.9 percent increase thank you madam chair if i might interject uh quickly yes supervisor did you say 129 because i'm looking at total budgeted revenue and resources on page 38 of the budget and an additional 151 million and some change that is the increase in uh general fund

[05:48:12] revenue and resources but again that totals 151 when you calculate everything in which i think Correct. Yes, I'm looking at the table at the bottom of page 34, the general fund expenditure budget increase.

[05:48:34] I wasn't looking at expenditure. I was looking at total budget. Sorry.

[05:48:47] All right, I guess we're going to go on to Supervisor Bailey, then Supervisor Franklin. Thank you so much, Madam Chair. So, Bob, I'm going to disagree with you in terms of us being prepared.

[05:49:06] I want to thank staff for your hard work, Chris and your staff. You spent a lot of time with us and getting us prepared for tonight, and I really do appreciate that. And you made it simple in us understanding it so that we could make some logical decisions either tonight or a couple weeks, whatever.

[05:49:29] But some of us should have been prepared for tonight. I love you, Bob. So, and it was very clear, and I want to thank my colleague, Supervisor Gordy, for having the courage to put it out there because I do support the 3.70, because it would alleviate some of the financial burden on our residents, which is what we want to do. We never want to leave the burden on the residents to sustain the county. It's been happening for too long, even before some of us got on the dais,

[05:50:07] even before Supervisor Angry, not to speak for you, was on the dais. And so it's time. It's absolutely time, and I support the 3.70 because taxpayers need to, we need to come together and partner together from a fiduciary perspective.

[05:50:30] And so, just wanted to say that, Madam Chair, thank you for the opportunity. Thank you. Supervisor Franklin? Sure, a couple of things. Just a reminder that our budget for FY24 increased pay for police, fire, and schools, all while reducing the real estate taxes for residents.

[05:50:51] I remember speaking to a supervisor from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors right after we adopted our budget, and he said to me, I can't believe you guys funded all those things and still reduced taxes on residents.

[05:51:07] It was like, we're in a position where we have to increase a little bit our taxes to keep up with responsibilities and obligations. So I think we had a very good budget, and I think we are off to a good starting place with this proposal.

[05:51:24] I do support advertising the rate at 370 with the understanding that we will have a discussion about how do we get to that 370. And I've spoken to Mr. Gordy and the chair and some of my other colleagues about how do we get there, because I do think it's important to make sure that we're having a discussion that's full circle with both our residents who are impacted by this, as well as industry, and making sure that we're being fair in how we approach this.

[05:51:56] I agree with my colleague that certainly corporations can afford to pay more than the average resident. And so what does that look like? Does it happen all at once? I'm not sure that I think that it does. But can we put together an incremental system over the next couple of years that gets us to that 370?

[05:52:18] That's something I can certainly be supportive of. and let's be clear the industry understands that this is coming they've known that this was coming for a couple of years now but the question is can we be cooperative in figuring out what makes the most sense i'll also just say kind of switching gears a little bit supervisor weir mentioned about kind of the valuations of some of these rezonings i actually have a bit of a concern with how we tackle on some of the assessments when we do rezonings for commercial properties.

[05:52:52] I had this challenge, quite frankly, and I hope I'm not stepping out of terms by saying this, but with the town center that we're doing in North Woodbridge, after we rezoned that land, they were immediately tacked with a tax bill that they just weren't prepared for.

[05:53:09] and thankfully we were able to work with county staff to figure out how to help make them whole. But quite frankly, you know, they were in a position where they were like, we don't know that, A, we can get financing or that we can afford to pay this without immediately going into the hole.

[05:53:25] So I do think that we need to look at how we do the valuations and assessments for new rezonings, not necessarily in saying that we shouldn't do it, but is there a more reasonable time frame because their positioning was we haven't even broken ground yet and made a profit to be able to pay these taxes. So I think that's a real discussion we need to have.

[05:53:52] Supervisor Weir. Thank you, Madam Chair. Supervisor Franklin, in principle, I don't disagree. However, I would suggest that we be very careful about going down the review of the assessment method road. The last thing that we want to do is start telling the assessment office how to do that particular job and remain in a position where it doesn't create other adverse impacts. I'm

[05:54:31] a little curious on the legality of our ability to tell assessments how to do that. And as much as I can empathize with certain developers getting hit with supplemental tax bills or in some cases is ag rollback bills. You know, my experience is from the corporate level. And part of the calculation that they should be doing when they enter into a land use process whereby they are

[05:55:08] seeking to upzone something, they should factor in all of the immediate costs in terms of supplemental taxes, increased values, that sort of thing. And if they didn't do it, you know, it's either on them or it's on their bookkeepers or their accountants because that's generally a known cost.

[05:55:32] We've seen that in the county before with some of the data centers who have come in and questioned their real estate assessments based on the methodology and gotten significant reductions over the years. But I don't think they have ever questioned the increased assessment of the raw land prior to development.

[05:55:54] That's usually a pretty much known cost, and if you're paying a premium for a property and if you are causing the average price of a commercial parcel to increase by several orders of magnitude such that it has impacts across the county on other properties, because it's not just their properties that are going to get assessed at a higher value.

[05:56:18] it's going to be their neighboring properties and like properties um sort of the you know you asked for it you got it this is the price to pay the price to play the game uh so i would just urge extreme caution on going down that road for what it's worth supervisor franklin sure yeah i i just like to say that i'm simply saying that we should have a discussion about it um i'd also say that you know particularly in the situation of the town center these aren't new guys they understand

[05:56:56] how this process works and to be caught off guard with the rezoning I think it's certainly worth exploring how that comes about I think the last thing I'll say is I represent a redevelopment corridor a revitalization corridor it's not like other parts of the county where there is new development revitalization and redevelopment costs a lot of money so I think there is a different level of attention and uniqueness to those types of projects than other projects and quite frankly

[05:57:32] I think that it is worth exploring that discussion especially if it turns off the idea of doing business on the route one corridor all right I know you guys can keep this going I will if you have a response, Supervisor Ware, and it might be worth it. I actually agree with you, Supervisor Franklin. I just think that if we want to address that issue, I think we need to address it in a

[05:58:04] different manner than monkeying around with the assessment process. I'd be, God, somebody's going to shoot me for saying this. I'd be in, I would look favorably upon some sort of redevelopment credit or I'll leave it to the town the county attorney at some point having to figure out how to do this motion but I I I think we I think we can come up with a creative solution I just don't think the assessment road is in the long term going to be beneficial can I hear from the county

[05:58:41] attorney please madam chair members of the board with the county exec form of government you have a director of finance and the board does not have the illegal authority to tell the director of finance how to assess property as required by law at the fair market value and when a property owner comes in and requests their property to be rezoned once it is rezoned the director of finance is required to assess it at fair market value the board's authority in dealing with the amount that

[05:59:14] the property owner pays is by setting the tax rate thank you for the clarification all right Supervisor Bode? Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to sort of put a couple of bows on things that have been talked about. I just, I generally do sympathize with something that Supervisor Gordy brought up earlier, which is our small businesses and our other folks that are not in the data center space.

[05:59:39] Bless you, Madam Chair. That have been sort of edged out over the years by the increasing in land values. And we also know going back to the housing space that the price of land has also adversely impacted our ability to offer attainable housing in the county. So I think as it pertains to looking at tax rates, and I mentioned earmarking part of the C&P tax for sustainability, I think we should have a discussion at some point about earmarking that part of that tax on some sort of land trusting, land acquisition, something to help out in those spaces.

[06:00:09] I also know that other places look at stabilization funds for businesses, for other types of industry to sort of be more resilient against shocks in the real estate market and how that might affect them. So I think that's something else we should look at in the future too.

[06:00:26] And as Supervisor Weir alluded to and got a very enthusiastic joke second by Supervisor Franklin, I do think that we also need to look at the ways in which we incentivize redevelopment over greenfield development. Because I know that in all parts of all of our districts, we have some brownfield that goes derelict for years.

[06:00:46] And to me, we should be looking at and partnering with our commercial developers, our residential developers, but also just the development community in general on how do we make it more intensive and enticing to look at these brownfields and be able to redevelop and revitalize those instead of looking for the area with the biggest amount of trees to knock down, clear cut, and build there.

[06:01:08] So I think those all should be things we continue to talk about, and I think that as we continue to talk about taxes and how these taxes and real estate prices over the years are going to only continue to grow, we need to look at that part of the piece as well. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you so very much, and this has been a very good and robust discussion.

[06:01:25] I thank everyone for their input, their comments, and questions. With that, let's vote. Motion passes. Seven to one.

[06:01:41] Supervisor Angry voting nay. Madam Chair. Supervisor Rear. I would move that we advertise a real estate tax rate of 0.946. We don't have any seconds.

[06:02:02] Second. Discussion? Madam Chair. Supervisor voting. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a question for staff. What would that increase the average residential tax bill by at that 946?

[06:02:21] It would decrease it to 183.34, I think. It would increase the average tax bill. Decrease. Oh, I'm sorry, you're right.

[06:02:37] It would increase the average tax bill approximately $0.94.5 would be a $132 increase in the average bill. So I'm surmising $94.6 would be around $136, $137.

[06:02:58] And that would be less than a 3% increase in the average bill. I would, Madam Chair, if I can, members of the board, completely appreciate and understand that we may get to that number as part of this process, but we are in right now a place where we want to advertise at the highest potential rate.

[06:03:28] We just went through that process with the computer and peripheral. And so to make that decision at this stage in the process would be presupposing that we're going to get there without having the necessary conversation about all of the various asks that you all have talked about tonight and all of the things that we have in this proposed budget.

[06:03:53] And so I just want to, I guess, state the obvious, that we want to make sure that we leave ourselves some room in this process. I appreciate that. Supervisor Rear? Thank you, Madam Chair. I find that an interesting position by the CXL.

[06:04:15] You know, we've spent the last several hours talking about revenue spending, that sort of thing. We just moved to raise or to advertise a significantly higher rate on the C&P tax than has been proposed by the CXL.

[06:04:31] In fact, CXO proposed no increase in the rate for the real estate tax, but it tags the residents with a $243 additional bill on average. The 0.946 forces the issue.

[06:04:49] It forces us to do something, also acknowledging that there's already additional monies in the budget and there will be additional monies in the real estate collections simply as a result of the natural growth of the developed parcels in this county and the increased valuation of quite a significant number of properties that have been rezoned within the last year.

[06:05:16] This year's tax rule will be significantly different than last year's by several millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars. So there is a natural increase in what the county will achieve.

[06:05:32] As Mr. Treat noted, they haven't calculated it yet, but we know it's going to happen. We've all seen the supplemental, or at least some of us, we've all been delivered the supplemental tax bills for several projects. And if you extrapolate the 18 days that they were charged for the end of FY24, or for the end of calendar year 24, and then extrapolate it out to $365 or 365 days over the next calendar year, it is a lot of money measured in the millions.

[06:06:06] So we have plenty of room to accommodate this. This forces us to address the burden on the residents and place a little bit more burden on the industry that has skated by for years, paying a small fraction of what the other businesses in this county and what the residents in this county are paying for both their personal and their business property.

[06:06:34] Thank you. So I just want to weigh in, and I'm sure anyone who's followed the election last year knows where I stand on this issue. And I do agree that our residents are feeling the pinch, you know, high inflation, rising costs of living.

[06:06:52] I mean, it is real for a lot of people. I will not support, however, this measure, because I think we need to have more thoughtful discussions about where we really are going to go with the C&P tax, what other things we might want to cut, you know, possibly add to the budget.

[06:07:08] I want maximum flexibility, to be quite frank. This is, you know, respectfully my first budget season. I am very open and eager to talk to people and to learn, but I'm going to argue for maximum flexibility because we're not sure where we're going to go with this discussion, so we're not sure how high we're going to go with CNP tax.

[06:07:29] We may be graduated. It may not be. So I am just going to say that I personally disagree on this issue. I respect my colleagues greatly, but I would like to see flexibility. Supervisor Vega? I appreciate your comments.

[06:07:45] I do, however, think that by supporting Supervisor Weir, we're sending a clear message as to how serious we are to getting to 370. Because the reality is, is that the vote that we just took right now is merely advertising. That's the ceiling. It's not setting it at 370.

[06:08:01] But if we were to support your measures, it would send an indication as to where we're at. Again, we can fully fund what the county executive has put forth before this governing body today if we get to the 370. And so for those reasons, I would be supporting Supervisor Weir, but certainly open to additional discussion as to what will be the rates at.

[06:08:24] Supervisor Bodie. Thank you, Madam Chair. And again, while I appreciate the commentary, and again, I agree with the idea of just looking at some point to continue to ease that burden off. And again, we were able to do it at ReCap last year during our normal budget deliberations.

[06:08:43] i agree with madam chair on this one i think that we should be again setting the cxo up to be as flexible as possible with the understanding that we all at least have some consensus here that we do want to work our way down on that real estate tax bill for residents again i support that but i think that so as we brought up a really interesting point in also looking at uh the burden that folks are paying on their personal property taxes as it pertains to to vehicles so I think that in order to have as open discussions as possible to give us ourselves as a wide variety of a toolbox as possible we should be providing that flexibility so I will not be supporting

[06:09:21] the supervisor where's motion here with the understanding that we will have more conversations we go through budget cycle thank you madam chair all right I'm sorry is there anyone else who wishes to speak all right then let's vote motion fails three to five supervisors angry bailey Bodie, Franklin, and Chair Jefferson voting nay. Alright, thank you. Madam Chair.

[06:09:55] Supervisor Bodie. I would like us to, I'd like to make a motion for us to advertise the remaining tax rates as proposed by the county executive. Second. Discussion? I knew it. Supervisor, you're good.

[06:10:12] No, it's a simple question. By the rest of the rates, are we talking meals tax, which I don't have a number for? What are we doing with the rest of the rates? We're advertising the rates as outlined in the On slide 32.

[06:10:37] Madam County Attorney, we have to advertise all the rates, correct? My understanding is if you only need to advertise a change to the meals tax. Change meals tax. And if you're not going to be changing it, it would be staying the same.

[06:10:54] So all the other taxes and our fees we'll just cover separately without an advertisement? I thought we generally did advertise those. But if we're going to change and not do it this year, that's fine with me. So, Supervisor, where you asked about the mills tax, the mills tax is by ordinance.

[06:11:11] And so the county attorney is correct. This is why I did not list it on the slide. The rates that we listed on the slide are the rates that we are asking the board's approval on this evening. In the case of other fees, those are handled separately.

[06:11:30] Gypsy moth levy. I mean, I'm forgetting how many different things we set, generally speaking, in that advertisement. But if you want to just go with real estate, fire levy, personal property, I think probably Gypsy Moth, since it's figured into their total real estate tax bill, that might cure the problem for me at least.

[06:11:53] All right. As far as I'm being advised, the rate is unchanged for Gypsy. I'll say it this way. If we find that there are fees and or taxes that after tonight needed to have board consideration and approval, then I will come back to the board for its consideration and approval.

[06:12:19] But as far as what we are being advised by staff, this is what we needed the board's consideration on tonight, and this is what we would advertise. We don't have any additional speakers, so let's vote.

[06:12:39] Motion passes, 7 to 1. Supervisor Vega voting nay. All right, thank you. I think that you're finally done. Thank you, Mr. Shorter.

[06:12:58] Again, thank you for your team. This has been a robust discussion and a start to our budget season. Madam Chair, members of the board, I will say thank you. Thank you for all the time, and thank you, Advance, for what we will do over the next few weeks. A big, big thank you to the team here and all the directors who are outside and who've been waiting patiently to support this process tonight for what they've done as well.

[06:13:21] So thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you so much. And we will now move on to public comment time. The board will hear in-person and remote public comments. We will begin with the in-person public comment time this afternoon. The list is coming up.

[06:13:39] Thank you, Andrea. I know she's all right. Yeah, I think we might have scared a few folks off, but right now I'm just going to say we have about four people signed up to speak. I will call speakers, everyone up.

[06:13:56] Each speaker will have three minutes to share their views and opinions regarding matters before the board. We respectfully ask that all speakers state their name in the ministerial district or generally where they reside at the beginning of their remarks. We will close the in-person sign-up list after the first 15 minutes of in-person public comments.

[06:14:12] We have Carla Flores, Deanna Carvantes, Carl Gretin, and Mitch Nassar. You mean everybody's not going to stand around and let me talk in two minutes, three minutes?

[06:14:30] I'm Carl Gretton from the Gainesville District. Here comes another budget for Prince William County, and here comes additional increases for Prince William County residents. Most of these items have been spoken about already, but I have a couple extra. On page 25, the stormwater management fee is up 10%. On page 32, the average residential tax bill increases 5%, or $243.

[06:14:51] Supervisor Weir has also talked about other fees that are going up, possibly. Page 23, affordable housing is listed at $5 million annually for fiscal year 27 through 29, a total of $20 million. Page 20, the Neabsco Potomac Parking Garage funded $700,000 with a cost of over $1.8 million for EV stations.

[06:15:13] That number was detailed earlier today. Why is there any increase in payments where there should be a decrease? Pager and Lane landowners have stated that data center's income would decrease Prince William County fees. That appears to be incorrect. Most of this board voted for all these data centers.

[06:15:30] According to the Amazon Housing Equity Fund website, two locations have grant amounts totals of close to $5 million. These two projects look to have 229 units. That's the Neville Street for 163 units, and the grant amount is $2.2 million, and the Park Square, which is 66 units, for $2.3 million. From these numbers, Prince William County has already reached this goal.

[06:15:56] Prince William County transferred that $5 million of funds last year in 2023. Please be careful with this process. District of Columbia has invested $25 million for first-time homebuyers, and this amount of money has run out in the third month of 2024, intended for the full calendar year.

[06:16:15] On the fiscal year 2025 budget item 11A, page 20, the Neabsco Potomac parking garage is funded with $700,000. It appears those numbers from Matthew Villarelle added together during a year and a half, the cost for Prince William County taxpayers will be approximately $1.817,585 to recharge an EV within four to eight hours for the planned 68 spots.

[06:16:40] The fees for EV charging stations will increase over time. The cost per session may increase and the length of a session may decrease. We have heard that costs will go down. We just hope to see that. Supervisor Weir and Gordy, thank you for proposing this increase in the peripheral tax rates.

[06:16:59] Thank you. All right. Mitch Nacer. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the board. My name is Mitch Nacer. My address is on file. I'm approaching my 19th year here in Prince William County as a lieutenant in your fire department, and I stand before you this evening as president of the Prince William Professional Firefighters.

[06:17:22] To be perfectly blunt, I did not intend to speak this evening other than to say thank you for the support that you all gave us last evening. last meeting with the vote to ratify the collective bargaining agreements that were before you from the police and fire unions. Those demonstrate meaningful investments in your public safety departments that will truly change lives and help us recruit and retain firefighters and police officers here in Prince William County. This evening, I feel like I did want, now that I've seen your deliberations, I needed to get up to address a couple things. I look forward to speaking with each one of you over the coming weeks as you go through your

[06:18:01] budget deliberations. But there was a couple items that were brought up this evening that I wanted to address right away. And I do, Supervisor Angra, I look forward to meeting with you specifically to talk about some of these items, but I want to be very crystal clear is that your career firefighters did not want a 56-hour work week. None of us asked for a 20% increase in our work hours. In fact, that's why we put such great emphasis on reducing our work hours in our first budget on our first contract negotiations we did so and and lost leverage in those negotiations to do such so none of us wanted an increase in work hours and we all wanted to reduce them hence the

[06:18:41] importance we put in our in our negotiations i also want to make it clear that the reduction in work hours is nothing but a recruitment and retention tool this has nothing to do with an impact on volunteer firefighters last night i staffed medic 13 in dale city at 5 30 i was staffing the fire engine about 15 minutes after 6 in the evening volunteers came in i took my gear off the fire engine i went to the medic unit we worked alongside each other i broke bread with the crews we we served the community together this is not an anti-volunteer initiative this is to increase recruitment and retention of career firefighters it doesn't it doesn't impact the

[06:19:19] the volunteers at all that's not the intention at all and to further try to underscore how not anti-volunteer we are as an organization on Friday night in Loudoun County there was a significant traumatic event that occurred and we lost a fellow brother in the fire service named Trevor Brown he was a volunteer firefighter in Loudoun County and about two o'clock in the morning Saturday morning hundreds of my brothers and sisters stood in the snow outside the metal examiner's office, his body was brought to Prince William County. Today, hundreds stood on the

[06:19:55] overpasses and along the medical examiner's route as he left to go back to Loudoun County. He's a volunteer firefighter in Loudoun. None of that matters. We're here for the citizens, and so I look forward to having that discussion. This is about recruitment and retention of firefighters in this county, and we haven't scratched the surface of increasing the needs that were brought up some of the other supervisors are like four person staffing um and support staff and and a lots of things so i'm sorry i generally don't go over my time but i look forward to speaking with you all thank you you know at the start of your budget season so thank you um miss madden do we

[06:20:34] have anyone online no one online so thank you so very much this is oh god she's stalling deep breath deep breath all right we are closing public comment time thank you everyone for coming out today our next meeting is on i'm holding it yeah march 12th thank you so very much um we are now on our final agenda item i will to adjourn second all in favor thank you so very much everyone

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