Coraggio Consulting Prince William Board of County Supervisors Meeting, Tuesday, April 1, 2025 Date: Tuesday, April 1, 2025 Place: Prince William County Board of County Supervisors, Virginia Length: 8h 17m (video) Official meeting video (Prince William County, Granicus): https://pwcgov.granicus.com/player/clip/3623 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 2026-10-30. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [00:44:47] everyone take a seat take a seat all right it is two there's more than one way to get folks attention all right everyone happy april happy april fool's day we are going to start today's [00:45:11] meeting with a moment of silence thank you all rise if you are able for the pledge of allegiance [00:45:30] pretty good crowd today so we are moving on to agenda item number three approval of the minutes i would like to get a motion to approve the minutes from march 4th and march 11th so move [00:46:01] madam chair second all right any discussion all right let's go ahead and take a vote all right thank you we are going to move on to my favorite time that's commendations and proclamations i would like to get a motion for 4a through 4f so move madam chair second all right let's go ahead and take a vote on this unanimous and before i go down i'd like to note that 4f is going to be [00:46:39] presented at our seven o'clock meeting all right for 4a if supervisor franklin if you would like to join me for 4b i would like to have supervisors gordy and vega and i think that's it and then later today for f supervisor vega if you would join me for that so with that woodbridge women's [00:46:57] club 60th anniversary please join us to the side so we can give you your um commendation okay uh [00:47:54] for item 4a we like to commend the woodbridge women's club for their 60th anniversary the General Federation of Women's Clubs, Woodbridge Women's Club, was founded on March 15, 1965, by 35 ladies who wanted to provide service to the community and is now celebrating its 60th anniversary. Over the past 60 years, the Woodbridge Women's Club has awarded over 194 scholarships to local college-bound high school seniors, with awards totaling more than $170,000. [00:48:28] They've provided clothing, supplies, and warm hats to students at the Featherstone and Occoquan Elementary Schools. They've volunteered at Fellowship House and supports it with yarn, prizes, and holiday decorations and snacks. They've also sewed heart-shaped pillows and other comfort items for the cancer and surgical patients at Sentira Hospital. [00:48:50] and several other ways that together led the Prince William Chamber of Commerce to nominate the Woodbridge Women's Club for the Agnes Colgan Award for Community Service. Today, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors commends the Woodbridge Women's Club for their 60th anniversary, and we affirm and recognize that the Woodbridge Women's Club is an outstanding contributor to the success of Prince William County. [00:49:14] Chair Jefferson and Supervisor Franklin and honorable members of the board. [00:49:31] Good afternoon, and thank you for the honor and the recognition of our 60th anniversary. Thank you all. My name is Lucy Williams. I'm sorry I didn't say that first. [00:49:48] I'm the president of the Woodbridge Women's Club, and I stand here today with members of our club. And there are some of our board members here, Pam Montgomery, Carol Bowen, Lori Post, Kathy McNeely, and Pat White, and Karen Townsend, and all the members of the Woodbridge Women's Club. [00:50:15] Not everybody, but who we have here today. So, and we express our sincere gratitude for this recognition. We are committed to helping our local community. We're working collaboratively. [00:50:33] We exchange ideas, which enables us to achieve our goals of dedicated service to our community. Over the past 60 years, we have provided over $171,000 in scholarships to the Prince William County students, provided hundreds of service hours in our Prince William County schools, volunteering in the classrooms, reading, teacher appreciation, breakfast, providing much needed supplies for the students. [00:51:05] Our heart-shaped pillows projects for cancer and heart patients earned us media recognition and dollars, which would provide it right back into our community. Now, our recent project is Adopt a Bus Shelter, and we're working with Keep Prince William Beautiful and the director there has commissioned an artist to depict what we want to do as the project we named Coming Together for the Environment. [00:51:46] The bus shelter that we have this project with is over on Old Bridge Road by the Chick-fil-A, And we will be picking up litter and stress diversity in all these actions. [00:52:05] And the artists that Director Fleschman commissioned sketched what we were looking for. We envisioned the beauty of the environment. So once all that project is completed and we have a dedication ceremony, we want to invite everybody here to come. [00:52:27] It's, you know, it's on a phase two, so don't know exactly when, but it will happen shortly. We take pride in the impact that we have in our community. We are proud to be a valued and recognized organization of the Prince William County, and it is an honor to serve. [00:52:48] Before I close, I would like to thank the following board members for taking time to join us in our recent 60th anniversary celebration. Chairwoman DeSondra Jefferson, Supervisor Franklin, who is our champion supporter, and Supervisor Victor Angry, and Supervisor Kenny Vody. [00:53:14] It was truly an honor to have each and every one of you with us for our celebration. We thank you again for recognizing the Woodbridge Women's Club, and have a great day. Do you put it in here or out? [00:53:37] I think if I get three rows, I can do it. All right. We all know who we are. I come from a very tall family. I am not tall. I wear heels. If you are more of a team than me, let's step forward. [00:53:55] I'm not going to call anyone out. That would be good. We're going to have you, yes. And you can go to the bathroom, ma'am. And I'm going to have you guys step over, too. [00:54:13] One step over. One step over. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. All right. I'm going to be kind of standing right here to the one block. Okay, everybody look to see. Make sure you can see the camera. Make sure you can see the window. Can you see everybody? [00:54:31] There's somebody hiding. She's hiding right there. Okay. [00:54:46] Thank you. I think you said that we had to redo something. Oh, we're going to work on it. Oh, you're going to work on it later? All right. [00:55:02] All right. Which one of you guys wants to do the honors of reading? All right. You just, he's got the tie. Come on up. Tom's got a nice tie, so he's going to read the next one. Before we read this, I want to thank Supervisor Vega for joining me up here, as well as Supervisor Jefferson. [00:55:26] Supervisor Vega has submitted this accommodation in the past. We're also joined by Travis Haddock from our Building and Grounds Department. He's been with the county now for three years and helps with our operations and maintenance. [00:55:42] So this is a proclamation to proclaim April 2025, Scottish American Heritage Month. Millions of Americans traced their roots to the Scottish Highlands, the Midland Valley, and the Southern Uplands. Through the Scottish immigrants who endured several hardships to build new lives, 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. [00:56:10] Scottish Americans played an important part in creating the fabric of our history through their service in the government and military, also through their faith and family values. Today, many Americans of Scottish descent continue to play a vital role in shaping our history and culture, enriching all aspects of our lives. [00:56:27] Today, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors proclaims April 2025 as Scottish American Heritage Month. All right. Thank you. [00:56:43] All right. [00:57:09] Those associated with item 4C, please come up. This is us. Come on. All right. Item 4C proclaim April 2025 as Financial Literacy Month. [00:57:28] Financial awareness and financial literacy are essential for our financial stability, our peace of mind, and gives us and our families the best chance of achieving our financial goals and dreams. Managing personal finances today is more complicated and more important than ever because we are living longer, saving less, and feeling less secure in our jobs and homes than we did in the past. [00:57:49] Financial education has been linked with positive knowledge, attitude, and behavior changes that result in lower delinquency rate for borrowers, higher participation and contribution rates in retirement plans, and improved spending and saving habits, creating higher net worth that allows individuals and families to establish financial security and even build wealth. [00:58:14] The Prince William County Board of Supervisors proclaims April 2025 as Financial Literacy Month in Prince William County, and we encourage residents of all ages to learn the essential principles of smart money management. Do you have any words for us? [00:58:30] Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the Board. As a financial professional, I want to thank you for really recognizing the importance of financial literacy. Fun fact, I started my financial journey at Prince William County Schools a very long time ago, senior year in elective class accounting, and it led to my career path. [00:58:48] My youngest son is currently a senior at Virginia Tech, and I recommended to him he take a personal finance class as an elective. And he actually said to me, Mom, thanks for having me take this. This is the best class I've taken. And it's not often that your kids tell you that you gave them good advice, so I take that as a win. [00:59:05] So this really is important, and I'd be remiss if I didn't give a shout-out to our own Virginia Cooperative Extension office. They offer financial education. Paige Thacker and her team offer first-time homebuyer classes, financial empowerment, and help for small businesses. So thank you. All right, 4D, all of our wonderful volunteer organizations that are here today, please come to the side. [01:00:02] All right. Some of my papers are a little out of order, all right. In the United States, April is National Volunteer Month, a month dedicated to recognizing the importance of volunteering, honoring the significant contributions volunteers make, and to encourage volunteerism. [01:00:20] Volunteering, which is one of the cornerstones of a strong community and the bedrock of American civic life, enables people to lend their time, talent, voice, and resources to help others in our community and to improve our collective well-being. Prince William County has an outstanding group of volunteers who give willingly of their time to meet the needs of their community, residents, employees, partners, businesses, and organizations. [01:00:44] And we thank all of you for your dedicated service. The Prince William, well, actually, I'm going to, before that, before I get to our hereby, I just want to make a big plug. Volunteer Prince William will be hosting a community volunteerism summit on Thursday, April 10, 2025, here at the McCourt Building. [01:01:04] This event is designed to support local volunteer organizations working to recruit volunteers in Prince William County. How did I get that out of the way? And now the Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby proclaims April 2025 is National Volunteer Month and encourages our residents to volunteer in our community because through strong volunteering and recognizing those who serve, we can come together to make a real difference. [01:01:29] Who wants to speak? Anyone? I'm Kathy Schuster. I am the outreach coordinator for HUGS, Help Us Grow Strong. I want to thank Chairman Jefferson, all the board members for having me here today. [01:01:45] We are an all-volunteer organization helping the unsheltered in the community. We provide a hot meal every Saturday. We are donation-based, and I can tell you we have the best volunteers of any organization out there because they are out there every week with me, helping me any way I can do it. [01:02:05] And we are hoping someday to get everybody housed. Thank you. You want to speak? Okay. Thanks so much. [01:02:20] I want to thank Chairwoman Jefferson and the amazing board here. I'm the board member, Marcus St. Julian from Prince William County Community Foundation. And I'm just grateful to be here instead of president. We want to just make sure that everyone in our county knows how important it is to volunteer, Not just when the moment hits your home, but volunteering for our county before the need even makes it to national news. [01:02:45] I believe if we take care of the items before they become major, we'll never see them express any bigger than minor. So thank you guys so much for coming out. God bless. [01:02:53] So now we are on to item 4E. [01:03:42] So can we have our public safety telecommunicators come up? [01:03:46] We don't want to see y'all go because you're like most of our audience today. [01:04:28] Item 4E, that's to proclaim April 13th through April 19th, 2025. Public Telecommunications Week. Public safety telecommunicators exhibit compassion, understanding, and professionalism during the performance of their duties. [01:04:44] They are the first first responders, the first and most critical contact our citizens have with emergency services by answering 911 and being on the scene virtually, providing emergency instructions and moral support to callers in distress while dispatching field responders and equipment on the scene. [01:05:02] This year marks the 57th anniversary of 9-1-1 service in the United States in 1968, the same year that Prince William County became the first community to offer 9-1-1 service on the East Coast. Over the past 57 years, the public safety telecommunicators at Prince William County Public Safety Communication Center have contributed substantially to the apprehension of criminals, the suppression of fires, and the treatment of patients. [01:05:30] Today, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors proclaims the week of April 13th through April 19th, 2025, as Public Safety Telecommunications Week, and joins in honoring the men and women whose diligent and professionalism keeps our county and our citizens safe. [01:05:47] would you like to say a few words thank you chair jefferson and esteemed members of the board i'm michelle sardam i'm the director of the department of public safety communications and i want to say thank you very much for this annual recognition of the call takers and dispatchers those are the first of the first responders and i want to say thank you very much to the team here that they were able to come out and be recognized by everyone so thank you so much i'll give you guys on the It's a five-minute break because we're going to have to go outside for this. [01:06:24] I mean, this is an entourage. Madam Chair, did we leave anybody in the call center? [01:06:37] Yeah, and that was a joke, you know. I've had the fortune. I was going to say it's April Fool's. I don't know. [01:07:10] Did anyone else leave anything? [01:08:31] That was a fun group. [01:09:48] My gosh. Again, I appreciate you. they did leave some folks behind you know all right and again we will do 4f um later and our we'll do that ahead of our seven o'clock meeting so we are now on to agenda item number five consent agenda is there any items that anyone wants to pull off okay though all right so i [01:10:18] would like a motion i do madam chair just kidding oh lord all right that's cute i'm just gonna let everyone know for jokes today when it's time to adjourn if anybody votes against that i'm just saying all right so thank you we're not even fooling with that according to supervisor angry so for i would like to get a motion for consent agenda items 5a through 5j so move second all right any discussion let's see supervisor franklin yeah just a couple of uh questions very [01:10:54] quick it's my understanding for um item 5f i know we're expanding space for economic development um i was just reading about the escalation clause and it's my understanding that's pretty standard okay look i just want to make sure and then for 5g if somebody can just explain exactly i read through it but i still wasn't sure what the is the one thousand dollar allocation for the awards i don't know who's here page is here i'm supportive i'm just curious hi um ms chairman [01:11:34] members of the board, Paige Thacker, Virginia Cooperative Extension. The $1,000 was an additional prize for our Smart Start small business project, our class, and the FEC United Way donated the $1,000, but we had to budget and appropriate it. [01:11:53] Oh, God, okay. It was a really complicated way to get the money. Thank you for that. Thank you for that. Yeah, and then lastly, for 5J, can someone just explain exactly what data is being shared? Because when I read through the description, it's called data sharing, but I didn't see where any data was actually. [01:12:12] I think it's just a separate program, right? Yes, this is less about data sharing and more about training. Okay, that's what I figured. Our police department is being trained in this case. Okay, interesting title, but thank you. Sure. all right we're going to go to the b and the boardy supervisor bode thank you madam chair just wanted to highlight uh item 5e to authorize a public hearing for installation of a speed hump on montega drive um really excited about that once once we hit the public hearing hopefully get that one installed it's going to be sort of a new concept for us um having sort of a raised table [01:12:49] on a t intersection i'm so really looking forward for that also see one of my constituents peggy Liuzo in the audience, who has definitely been on top of my office in the transportation about getting some speed calming in her neighborhood. So I wanted to say we're working on all that, and I appreciate everyone's willingness and their patience. [01:13:06] Thank you, Madam Chair. All right, the Gordy part of Ordy. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to, on 5G and 5H, I just want to recognize Virginia Cooperative Extension and the role that they play in our community from everything from helping our farmers to helping uh help people with uh buying their first home they are a tremendous resource um and so i just want to thank them for for the hard and good great work that they do in our community [01:13:36] and uh in such a wide portfolio of issues so thank you page all right thank you i don't see anyone else so let's go ahead and take a vote on 5a through 5j all right thank you so very much we are now moving on to public comment time we have two whole speakers signed up to be here in person for those of you who haven't spoken before when you speak you're going to go to the mic you have three minutes state your name and where you generally reside so that it's your magisterial [01:14:15] district um so i'm going to have martin jeter and peggy luzzo if you can ma'am come to the back and did you need the projector yes i do please okay uh good afternoon chair jefferson members of the board my name is martin jeter and i live in the icon district can you adjust the mic just a little bit because i can hear you all right there is that good yeah okay i um wanted to talk to you a little bit about bacon race church i mentioned this briefly the last time i talked to [01:14:54] you about the hoadley uh historical marker and so i just want to go a little more detail this church this is the picture of where it is it's at the intersection of uh davis ward road and and bacon race road and the red square is where the church was the building no longer exists But this is about three-quarters of a mile from where you're sitting right now. [01:15:16] And the Bacon Race area right here had a school right across Davis Ward Road. It had a dance hall, and it also had a horse racetrack right in this area. It was a little village. The church stood empty after 1938, but I'll talk about more of that in a second. [01:15:36] That's when the last pastor, William Smoot, died. You can see just south of the church area, in this area right here, is a historic graveyard that still exists there. So this is, on your left, is the map of the early 1800s showing the location of Bacon Race Church. [01:15:58] And it also shows Old Occoquan Road. And that is a road from Bacon Race to the town of Occoquan, which I'm going to talk about in the future in another presentation. But on your right there is the last Bacon Race Church of three different churches that existed on the site. [01:16:13] And this church was in existence from about early 1700s to 1938, as I said. William Smoot was the last pastor. And there's an old tale that says that the pastor, Smoot, was on his deathbed. And he told his congregation that I'm coming back, and I don't want anybody preaching to my church until I do. [01:16:35] Well, the pastor never came back, and the church stood empty from 1938 until it collapsed in 1987. Bacon Race Church is one of the first Baptist churches in the country and the first Baptist church in Prince William County. [01:16:53] It was affiliated with the town of Occoquan Baptist Church. And the importance of this is that the Occoquan Baptist Church in May 11, 1776 issued this petition to the Committee of Religion and the Convention of Virginia. [01:17:15] and this is the petition as it was submitted the the swelling errors are accurate and the grammar and so forth but the important parts to see in this petition is that the three things that they wanted was that they wanted to be allowed to worship God in their own way without interruption they wanted to be allowed to maintain their own ministers and no other and they want our friend who desire it to be married buried and the like without paying the parsons of any other denominations. So at that time in early America, the Church of England was the main church and [01:17:51] the Baptists were being persecuted along with some other denominations that were trying to get a hold here in the New World. And so they just wanted to basically be left alone and able to practice their religion. So this is very important, obviously, for the start of our country. Real quick here, if you'll allow me. The passing in Virginia of Thomas Jefferson's Establishing Religious Freedom Bill of 1785 that placed Virginia at the forefront of religious freedom was in part likely a result of this petition of the Occoquan Baptist Church. [01:18:25] I am so sorry. It is time. Thank you. Okay, thank you. All right, next speaker. Hello, Peggy Luzzo. I'm here with Woodridge Women's Club, but I saw I could also do a comment, so I thought, why not? But yeah, as Kenny Bode mentioned, I live right off of Occoquan District and I live right off of Bracknell and that road it's just there's just one little 25 mile an hour sign at the top of the road and I'm constantly out there with my husband [01:18:59] we're walking dogs and people fly up and down the road and it's just aggravates me to no end so I'm like I'm yelling 25 sometimes I'm going like this I'm like so I just thought as long as I'm here why not you know squeaky wheel gets the grease so here I am and I just think it's so cool to be part of the community where we can get up and do things like this and so I guess what I really want is like you know on Smoketown Road how they have one of those 25 mile an hour flashing like you're going too fast or I just want one of those even to kind of because I was talking to one of my neighbors she didn't even realize that it is 25 miles an hour they just don't because they just fly and you know [01:19:39] there's so many kids and dogs around I just don't want to see anyone get hurt and yeah so alright thank you for your time thank you. Thank you I'm going to turn it over to Supervisor Bailey for remote public comment time. Thank you, Madam Chair. Shall we begin? [01:20:02] All forlorn. Thank you so much. Have a good afternoon. Back to you, Madam Chair. All right. Thank you for the people who came in person to speak. We are moving on to the public hearings portion of our agenda. As a note, as you see on the agenda, item 7A is withdrawn. [01:20:19] So I am, I see them going back to get the list. is there a presentation associated with this no there's no I'm sorry did you have a comment there is no presentation I don't think is there okay and it's just a minor thing for its withdrawal it's the typo in in the in the document so we'll bring it back later yes okay thank you so much oh there's okay so I am opening the public hearing for 7b we do not have anyone signed up to [01:20:53] speak in person. I'm going to turn it to supervisor. Is there anyone remotely? So then I am going to go ahead, because we have no one in person or remote, I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing for 7B. I would like to get a motion to move 7B forward. Madam Chair, I move that we approve 7B. Second. All right. Any discussion on this item? Supervisor Gordy? Thank you, Madam Chair. [01:21:21] Yeah, as we discussed in our budget meeting, this is land that's being donated to the county as part of the Stack Data Center development off of Hornbaker Road. And with this development or with this donation, it will extend the Broad Run Linear Park from where it currently ends near the Saybrook neighborhood all the way to essentially to Route 28. [01:21:49] So this will continue the expansion of the Broad Run Linear Park, and we appreciate this donation to the county and look forward to the park's service expanding the trail and continuing to expand that mobility option through our community. [01:22:07] Thank you, Madam Chair. All right. I don't see anyone else in queue, so let's go ahead and take a vote. Vote unanimous. All right. Thank you so very much. We're now moving on to agenda item number eight. [01:22:24] That is county executive time. Mr. Shorter, the floor is yours. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. There were just a few quick updates. There were no directives issued last week, but two directives closed. The MOU associated with the Charlie Boone Foundation and the information regarding revisiting the board's actions related to the trap, neuter, vaccinate, and release program, both closed last week. [01:22:53] In terms of the Finance and Budget Committee, Just wanted to remind everyone that the schedule for the Board's Budget and Finance Committee, all of the information, including audio recordings and minutes, are all available on the Board of County Supervisors' information page on our website. [01:23:11] Also wanted to remind residents that while we are in the budget season, the budget Q&A portal on our website is still open and will be open until next Monday, the 7th of April. So we are still very much answering questions and responding and posting those responses on the portal. [01:23:31] And then finally, Madam Chair, members of the board, just a reminder that we are having the Career Expo on April 12th. We have just over 20 county departments and agencies signed up to interview on site, to hire for jobs. [01:23:47] We will also have a federal workers, a resource room for federal workers impacted by actions in D.C. So I just wanted to make sure that I said it out loud, and for anyone watching, bless you. On April 12th at the Hilton Performing Arts Center, starting at 9 a.m., come out, come one, come all. [01:24:07] And with that, Madam Chair, first thing we wanted to cover as part of the update was the last time we were all together, there was an item that came up related to parking and parking enforcement, and want to have Dan Alexander, Deputy County Executive, stand up to provide. [01:24:25] As I stated last week, this is an initiative on our PWC Works page and a real focus inside the county on this, given Supervisor Angry and Supervisor Gordy's questions. Wanted to make sure that we took advantage of the fact that it's right here for us and want to have the Deputy County Executive lead us through the discussion. [01:24:46] Thank you, Dan. Thank you, Mr. Schroeder. Good afternoon, members of the board. Dan Alexander, Deputy County Executive for the Safe and Secure Community Quadrant. I want to take a few minutes to provide some context, additional explanation around our recently launched commercial and residential parking initiative. [01:25:01] We'll be using the PWC worksite as the source content for hopefully what is a brief presentation to you today. Thank you, Nikki, for driving us as we move along here through the presentation. From a high-level perspective, we all know that things have changed in the county in terms of complexity and volume. [01:25:21] increased residential, commercial, and industrial activity has intensified parking challenges in some areas of our county. Parking complaints are growing across certain neighborhoods and business districts, and community expectations highlight the need for reasonable and sustainable parking solutions. Under the current system, parking enforcement on public roadways is largely handled by Prince William County Police Parking Enforcement Unit and their officers. Neighborhood services and forces zoning codes related to residential and commercial properties we've made some advancements in terms of the customer experience to include the creation of a parking [01:26:01] monitor a more seamless flow of complaints coming in and through public safety communications out to the street and better tracking of complaints as they've come through as we work through this process as you all know priority calls are dispatched immediately others are logged for follow-up, I want to remind everyone that it's important to call our public safety non-emergency line when you see matters that need to be addressed immediately. [01:26:31] Just real quickly in terms of data, and I talked a little bit about how things have shifted. Complaints have increased from 2023 to 2024 from about 5,800 to about 5,900. Interestingly, citations have increased over the last five years pretty steadily. I think we had a little bit of a lag when we had COVID and things have picked up just from 2023 to 24. We had 13,215 citations issued out of the police system that jumped to [01:27:05] about 14,430 in 2024. So just some quick data around what we've seen in terms of incremental growth in that area. So the overall purpose of the initiative is to deliver a proactive collaborative and long-term approach to parking, enhance accessibility, safety, efficiency, and public trust, provide an integrated framework across the areas of data, enforcement, education, planning, and infrastructure. Some of the key goals of the initiative is to look at our code [01:27:38] and legal framework, tailor regulations that meet diverse needs across our county. Areas of focus will include both residential and commercial challenges. We want to certainly enhance our enforcement and education, which will involve strengthening our interagency coordination and then launching engagement initiatives and further improving the customer experience. [01:28:02] With the understanding, the engagement is going to run throughout this process to ensure we're meeting the very specific needs of not only the county, but different areas within the county. There's a need to address fiscal accountability, not only ensuring that we are being efficient and the management of our resources, and implementing reporting that is cost effective, but also looking at how we're collecting fines, which is a pretty significant amount of fines that are outstanding at this point. [01:28:30] So that is an area of definite improvement for us. We look to improve capacity by exploring infrastructure options to support commercial vehicle parking and identifying ways to reduce neighborhood impact and support local business. [01:28:46] And that's something that's ongoing now. We've already started to look at what we can do in the short term with VDOT and others to address the capacity issue. From the perspective of community engagement and data use, we're looking to systematically engage residents, businesses, and stakeholders, analyze complaints and patterns to guide decisions, and certainly promote transparency and accountability in the process. [01:29:12] Simply put, success means reducing complaints, expanding capacity, improving data from reporting to public-facing information, and then maximizing operational efficiency and interagency cooperation. There's some great regional examples, and even really, quite frankly, across the country in terms of what folks have done with parking. [01:29:33] Appreciate some of the information that you've passed along to us. Fairfax took this on in 2021. They're still implementing some aspects of that today, which demonstrates this is a marathon, not a sprint, as it relates to this challenge. There's some other examples throughout the country, again, for us to anchor to and to compare to. [01:29:55] So this will definitely be a team effort, has been, and will continue to be across departments and obviously in community. I see that Kathy Holtzlander is here with us today. She'll be our team lead on this and also representing public works, planning, the police department, development services, county attorney, transportation, economic development. [01:30:16] And then we'll bring others in as we need to, thinking of finance, communications, and others that will assist in the process. I'll reinforce, again, engagement, and that engagement will be specific to different areas of the counties to make sure that we're getting that diverse perspective. [01:30:33] monitoring progress, adjusting our strategy based on data, and then coming back to you regularly to report to you on our progress as time goes on. We want this to be a right-size, correct-fit type of project as we look at this challenge, understanding, again, people have varying opinions and reactions to parking, capacity enforcement, and so we certainly want this to be very much a good fit for our county. [01:31:04] That's it in a nutshell. There's a lot more that's going on and will happen in the future, but we would be happy to answer any media questions that we have, or you may have. All right. Thank you so very much. Supervisor Ingrid. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Dan. Okay, I'm just going to try to be quick, go through my questions. [01:31:20] First is our parking enforcement. How large is our parking enforcement? So you have parking enforcement in two different areas. You have it in police and neighborhood services. In police, it's primarily been a part-time function, and there are about six folks that are committed to doing that now across the districts. [01:31:37] It's not centralized. This is all part of our evaluation as time goes on in terms of how we're approaching it. It's amazing what they're actually producing, 14,000 citations in a year, but that certainly is an area that we're going to look at for potential. Okay, and that was my next question, the citations, because I know that, and I'm not picking on our 18 relatives because I'm not helping them in the end, But I know that they would rather get a parking ticket because it's so small in the amount that that doesn't actually hurt them. [01:32:06] And so that's why we're seeing them do this kind of dance where they go from this area to that area. So I just think for the board, that may be something. I don't know how we can address that. And, again, my goal is not to ticket them just because I want to take money from them. Because I will just simply make this statement now. [01:32:23] We must work on a place where we can park 18 Willow Trucks in Princeton County. Because I can't keep sending them somewhere else, and they're just bouncing around because they've got no place to park. And that's all they're doing. And the people are frustrated, but that's what they're literally doing. So we've got to solve that piece and all the rest of this. [01:32:40] I'm hoping we'll fall in place because at least we can send them to a parking that's designed in Prince William County for trucks. Thank you. Okay, and so then just a few more. Because now my biggest place, my biggest problem now is at Neopsco Common. And the Ascot Common is an interesting build-out because it is mixed-use, residential, and commercial. [01:33:01] And we have two hotels, you know, some kind of condo, townhouse, and then we have two apartment buildings. And now, because the hotels can do this, if an 18-wheeler truck comes in there and they're standing in a hotel, well, of course, they're parking their truck right along Smoke Court Road. [01:33:17] The problem is the community is creating a hazard where they can't see it. The trucks are just coming too far out. they're almost coming up to Neopska Mills Road. So, of course, they can't do that. And, again, I know they don't have any place to park. So I'm curious if, because we had the same issue over on Apollo, if there's something we need to look into our zoning, because this is so new with the mixed use and having residential and commercial, that it's literally creating a new problem that I think we're going to have to solve in our, you know, guidance or ordinance or zoning. [01:33:51] I think that we may have to help with that. Would you agree with that? I would, and you all just initiated updates to the zoning ordinance, so this is a perfect opportunity for us to travel down this path. Yeah, and again, I just want to stress, I want to find parking for these trucks. Every time they find a new place to park, I'm definitely going to hear about it. [01:34:09] I'm pretty sure other districts are hearing about this too. And just let me tell you this last piece. I don't know if this is okay. It doesn't look so bad, but maybe it's not right. So they're not parking the entire truck with the trailer. Now they're just parking the rigs in the neighborhood. So it's a smaller piece, but it's still a big 18-wheeler truck without the trailer. [01:34:27] I don't even know if that's as authorized. It doesn't look like it's a problem for me, but I'm pretty sure residents are probably going to start calling about that. So before I say it's not a problem, I'd like to get some clarification if them just parking the truck and not the trailer is acceptable. [01:34:44] I think the other piece of this is defining what is a commercial vehicle as it relates to our regulations, right? And so, you know, you may have a van parked in the neighborhood with Tony's painting, and I apologize if there's a Tony's painting. But the reality is that it's not commercial as it relates to violations. [01:35:01] It is commercial in nature, but not that way. So we need to make sure we're engaging community to make that folks can answer that question easily. And, you know, that information is accessible, and that whole process for you and others is simple. And just a statement, until we figure this out, all the trucks are going to keep doing this, moving around to different areas to park. [01:35:22] So that's it for me. I really want us to find a place to park these 18-wheeler trucks, maybe make that a targeted industry thing for economic development to get, you know, a developer in here who wants to invest in that, find some land, you know, outfitted for 18-wheelers. I see Richard and Vac, I know you guys like that. [01:35:41] But I want to just end by saying that. we got to figure that out so thank you madam chair all right supervisor franklin yeah just uh i guess kind of to supervisor angry's um point you know the challenge is you got residential um vehicles that are parked permanently and then you also have um your commercial vehicles it doesn't have to be tractor trailers but at least in my district we have a lot of just regular commercial trucks that are parked here and there, you know, after hours, which is when most people [01:36:19] are looking for parking because they're back at home. So those are some of the challenges. And I guess, you know, my question is, or maybe even a suggestion is, if we can look into certain parts of the county where these individuals can rent parking spots, essentially, to get them out of the neighborhoods obviously you know we can talk about whether having our residents rent spots is a good idea or not but I think my goal is to get them just out of the neighborhoods because to supervisor angry's point we do get a lot of calls and thank you to parking enforcement I know you guys were very closely and intimately with my office on a number of different communities and [01:36:59] I think it's only a few of you all you know out there doing those 10-day ticketing and then towing if necessary but I think that's one of the things we need to really look into and then I know when I was reading through some of the information you know there was the idea about time limited parking not opposed to that if it doesn't come with meters and things of that nature that's something I am going to oppose because one of the one of the benefits of living in Prince William County and kind of this far south outside of DC and even Arlington is the fact that a lot of times we'd have to worry about parking at retail and commercial spaces. So that's something I won't [01:37:38] be in support of, but could be in support of time-limited parking in certain areas without a cost associated with it, i.e. being metered. But going to my question, this is very helpful information. Where are you all in terms of kind of having some type of concrete, this is what we're going to do to kind of address this issue? [01:38:01] Yeah, I mean, our next steps are kind of laid out. I mentioned what we've done in the short-term on the complaint piece. I think there is some preliminary work being done now on looking at capacity and asking questions and looking at those pieces. Zoning code we just talked about and the fact that we've initiated that process and we will be moving forward with looking what options exist there. I'm going to ask PD to start looking at the data piece because there's some significant gaps right now on how we're collecting data from a field reporting, how complaints come in how folks know you know where's their complaint in the process and so all of these things are [01:38:37] concurrently occurring as as we speak so you know and we'll bring certainly as you you know i want to be sensitive to what you said earlier which is the potential solutions right you know not everything is a nail or needs a hammer right and so we certainly want to engage and then bring back to you potential solution potential solutions that fit the needs of the county and the neighborhoods Yeah, and I appreciate you all working on this. [01:39:01] You know, we've been talking about this for several years now, so I would encourage you all to almost make this a priority because as we get more and more calls about these tractor trailers parked on some of the major roadways overnight, and then during the day or towards the end of the evening, we're getting calls about the commercial trucks within the neighborhoods. [01:39:23] Yeah, let's be clear that I think there's some short-term things that you're going to see, you know, in the immediate, and we certainly, as we even get past this process and look at capacity into next year, we'll see some very concrete ask potentially and proposals to you. [01:39:39] So we will deal with the low-hanging fruit for sure. We know things do take time. I mentioned the Fairfax example, but we're not going to wait three years for things to change. All right. I don't know what happened to my queue. It cleared out. [01:39:55] So I have – it's going to be Gordy, Weir, Bodie, and Bailey, but I do have one quick question because it's not just the 18-wheelers. You know, we have the plumbing vans. We have some larger trailers. And so how are we defining commercial vehicle? Are we going to have different classes for smaller vehicles, again, like those plumbing vans or those HVAC trucks? [01:40:15] We have certain regulations now that apply in terms of weight in certain areas, and that has changed from time to time. Certainly as a bill and rule state, we have some limitations on what we can and can't do around that. But that is going to be a part of the process is to re-examine how we're looking at commercial vehicles and the different types of vehicles and where they may go. [01:40:39] One of the things we've talked about, too, just to expand upon the comment that Supervisor Franklin made, was looking at resident preferred and whether there's some options there that make sense for us in certain areas as we have this potential conflict between commercial and residential vehicles. [01:40:56] So, you know, those are all the things that I think go into, you know, looking at our current code, looking at our current zoning and making the changes that are necessary to meet our immediate needs. All right. Thank you. We're going to go on to Gordy next. [01:41:09] Thank you, Chair. I agree with everything that all my colleagues have said so far, and, you know, for me, I mean, it really, what really sort of reprioritized this for me was driving in Noakesville the other day, and about 8 o'clock at night, and there's an 18-wheeler sitting in front of the post office with three no parking signs and blocking the entrance into the parking, into the, I mean, it's literally just a blatant disregard for the law. [01:41:40] And part of the challenge is you get one truck parking. Two days later, there's three trucks. And then, you know, four days later, it's just like once one person does it, it's just all of a sudden it starts to grow. And so it becomes this manifesting challenge that we continue to have to figure out. [01:42:04] We had initially sort of talked about some of the park and ride locations and looking at that. But with return to office, I'm assuming that's pretty much now no longer an option, given how full those parking rides are these days. Yeah, we had some anecdotal feedback that they're full. [01:42:19] Even Long Dumfries, we were driving by there the other day. But we're going to keep exploring. Yeah. And then, you know, the idea of, you know, on the enforcement side, you know, it's about trying to address, you know, directing people to the right places, away from certain places. [01:42:38] And so while we might be able to find a location for them to go, I still think we've got to find ways to discourage them parking in areas that they shouldn't. And so, you know, some of the creative things that were discussed, like time-limited parking, you know, I certainly would be supportive at considering. [01:42:59] But, yeah, this is, as we continue to see more and more of the distribution centers coming online, particularly along 66 and then along the Parkway in 28, I just think this is going to become even, it's going to continue to be a growing problem. [01:43:19] So, yeah, I look forward to the solutions that you offer and looking forward to the immediate opportunities. But I do agree that, you know, you've got the teams are out there. They're writing the tickets. And they don't have to be just part of parking enforcement to write tickets. [01:43:35] I've got other officers have told me, hey, you know, I live in X neighborhood and I'm writing tickets because these people are parking where they shouldn't be parking. So it's not just our six parking enforcement that are writing these tickets. But it's clear that it's not enough to discourage them. [01:43:54] So we've definitely got to find something that's got some teeth, but at the same time, we've got to give them a place to go. So I appreciate all the hard work you guys are doing on this. So thank you. Thank you. All right, Supervisor Weir. Thank you, Madam Chair. Let's go back to park and ride lots, particularly the commuter lots in the Gainesville District and specifically the Route 29 I-66 commuter lot. [01:44:18] Because of its proximity, i.e. across the street from the Gainesville Crossing construction site, the contractors and employees are creating hell over there. Using up all the spots, parking on the median strips, parking on the dividers, parking in the travelways. [01:44:40] I mean, we went through there the other day, and this was prior to, well, we've gone through there a number of times in recent weeks, but prior to the back-to-work order, it wasn't that big a deal because there were lots of spaces. You go by that lot now, if you're not there by 7, you're out of luck. [01:45:00] But they are creating all sorts of safety and maintenance issues, so if we could make sure that they get off of the divider strips, get off of the median strips, stop parking in the travel way, I'd like some increased attention to that, see if we can break them of that behavior. [01:45:18] Yes, sir. Thank you. All right, next is going to be Supervisor Bode. Thank you, Madam Chair. Appreciate the discussion so far. And Nikki, since I see you there, I don't want to put you on the spot too much. But I know that in this past General Assembly session, which just adjourned, Delegate Hinson had a resolution, H.J. 462, that wanted to look at a tractor-trailer study for the need for expense for parking lot, both 95 and 66. [01:45:47] And it looks like it was just left in rules in February and just died a silent death. Do we know why? Do we have any elaboration from our delegation? What happened there? What its prospects are for future sessions? I don't know. I'll have to go back and look. I'm sorry, Supervisor Bodie, I don't remember off the top of my head. [01:46:04] I do know that we had somebody who was willing to, one of our delegations, thankfully, was willing to do it in the House and the Senate. Both did not go anywhere, so we will look into that. I'm happy to bring that back up at a future for the next session, if you'd like. But unfortunately, it got left. [01:46:22] I appreciate that. And I wasn't completely expecting you to know, because, again, when it gets killed like that, that early on, there's usually not a lot of elaboration. But I wanted to socialize that, because I'm going to pull a page from Supervisor Franklin's book, but the state needs to be involved in this conversation, too. [01:46:40] They're the ones that manage the lots. They're the ones that build these lots out. They help provide, especially those rest stops and other things. I know one of the only ones we have in the county is in the APSCO. And what I've heard from folks for years is that that's just frankly not enough. [01:46:55] And so you have these situations where people are going anywhere they can find it. I mean, I every so often see folks at the exit 160, the notorious 160 exit where everyone bottlenecks in at an Occoquan, track trailers parked over there too. [01:47:13] So it's just a very expansive problem, and it seems to move around every so often. Um, so I'll just say that, um, I guess my question is, is when it comes to the education sort of collaboration and stakeholder engagement that we're doing around this, um, are we engaging some of the shopping centers and are we also engaging some of the national sort of trucker associations that have at least some, uh, um, communication to their folks that are, are doing these things? [01:47:44] Yeah, I think, um, you hit on something and I know that I think Supervisor Gordy provided information before to us on how this is a national problem, exacerbated by, you know, the fact that we have a 66 and 95 corridor in our county that's a little bit unique for us. I think in terms of engagement, what we've talked about recently is even doing this more by region, but certainly bringing in all the stakeholders that we can as we do that, anchoring potentially to our police districts and then doing some very specific not only through pwc works by the way there is an [01:48:20] opportunity for folks to provide feedback directly through pwc works but we need to have some very specific communication in each area of the county around this and certainly pull in additional stakeholders as part of that discussion it's a great idea for the thinking at the national level for the industry but they're very much in the same boat looking for solutions and turning to federal state and local governments to do that i appreciate because i'll i'll tell you it's been an interesting um journey with this because i'll go to galson courts i see captains castilla here [01:48:55] and richard wyman some of these shopping centers with these sort of adjacent cul-de-sacs and things like that you get some really unique situations where folks are parked there long term you have literally very low density residential development like literally right across the street so it creates this sort of conflict as it were and i know that in that situation where we'll get some really good sort of handshake between enforcement and restriping with vdot and prince william dot it actually largely alleviated the issue um but i know it's a unique area and not every area will be served that way so as we continue to talk about this region by region sort of on the global level [01:49:31] i think that sort of as we start looking at these shopping centers these areas of conflict between residential and non-residential we'll have to start looking at what works in some areas and start to see what can we talk to beat out about what needs to be talked about at the at the pd level and really see that um because i also see that as we continue to start talking about the zoning side of it and building out even more of these sort of mixed use centers i think that needs to be built into our environmental design and our build out of that so we're not inadvertently creating these areas where it's hey look you're a tractor trailer that's way far away from either [01:50:07] one of the corridors there's this nice cul-de-sac here right next to this grocery store we're going to drop off anyway here's a great place to park without any kind of regulation there or any any other recourse they may have so i think that needs to be part of our thinking as we grow as well thank you all right supervisor bailey thank you madam chair uh dan thanks for your presentation and for our police department that's doing all the great work in the neighborhood. [01:50:33] We appreciate you. The thing that – there was two pieces that I wanted to ask about. One is the strip on 234 when they are avoiding the weigh stations by cutting it off for 66 and coming over 234 to get them to 95. [01:50:53] And in that little section, I don't know, but as they're coming through, they're speeding and they're running red lights and so just making you aware of that or is there something in place that we are monitoring or that do we have data of any sorts uh and they're running red lights fast and we've had some fatalities so that's why i'm bringing that to your attention yeah if it's if it's an area of high need it's certainly getting addressed through transportation and through the police department so we're data informed in terms of how we're addressing that from an enforcement standpoint and certainly will pay attention to it. If there's an area in particular [01:51:31] that you see, let us know. I know we've been made aware of it. Thanks for highlighting our partners and stakeholders in the audience today. They'll be taking notes on it. But, you know, we're going to address those things as data suggests. I'd like to revisit that. I'm just putting it out there. I'd like to revisit that because we've had fatalities on 234 in that area where they're running red lights and it it hasn't been in the forefront so i'd like to make that a priority the other thing is um when we going back to something that one of my colleagues said about [01:52:06] the fines can we um are there diversity in fines can we change that depending upon the area where they're parking you know what i mean because if they get accustomed to a certain amount Like Supervisor Angry is saying, it may not matter, but is there diversity in terms of where you park, like illegally, that kind of thing? [01:52:31] Can we look at that? We're going to be looking at accountability in a number of different ways. Ultimately, what we're looking for is compliance at the end of this, right? I think you all have said it, but that's our goal, is we look at anything related to fines and penalties, towing, or anything of that nature. [01:52:49] So we certainly want to be at a place where we're maximizing, creating accessibility, creating capacity, but also making sure accountability is an element of this from the standpoint of the right fines, again, within code, whatever we're allowed to do. [01:53:07] And ensuring that we're collecting, ensuring that when, frankly, there needs to be a deterrent and effective accountability, that we're doing it the right way. We have to make some improvements there. Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right. Before we go to Supervisor Vega, Nikki, did you have a comment? [01:53:25] Chair, I used my phone or text a friend to ask the question, Supervisor Brody. Basically, we were told it was a capacity issue. Too many bills sent to the House Rules Committee. It was endorsed by the Virginia Trucking Association, so I do think there's support for it. [01:53:42] And one of the things we've talked about as a legislative group is just how we can bring awareness to it. So bringing this to NVTC, NVTA, the Commonwealth Transportation Board. So we'll continue to work on it as well. All right. Thank you so very much. [01:53:57] Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair. Dan, can you talk to me a little bit about the attention that we're giving in terms of gathering data? Obviously, we know that there are hot spots for these truckers that they have, you know, by choice. And so some of my colleagues on the day have mentioned specific locations. [01:54:14] What are we doing in order to track those areas? Great question. The real one of the gaps right now is not being able to apply GIS to where we're seeing violations. And so that's an immediate concern in terms of where we're seeing not only complaints, but also where the enforcement's occurring. [01:54:33] So, you know, we've not developed that. And that's certainly an immediate goal. Really, if you think about it, it's from field reporting, which is, you know, actually when the complaints were received from kind of a CAD perspective, right, all the way through, you know, what activity, field reporting from the police, citations written, records management, to then being able to do some hotspot analysis of what we're seeing and where. [01:54:57] A lot is very anecdotal right now, and this is certainly an area where we have to have better systems to support exactly what you're talking about. I would suggest that that's probably priority number one. We have to identify, right, what the areas are so that we can implement immediate solutions, Because one of the things is that the reality, when we get these emails, when we get these complaints, when the calls come in, it's after hours, right? [01:55:22] It's late. I know that parking enforcement is not out after a certain time frame. And we understand the challenges that our police department has when it comes to staffing. And they have other emergency calls for services that take priority over a parking complaint. But that doesn't mean that our constituency is not frustrated because we're not being responsive to their needs. [01:55:42] understanding where these hotspots are enables us to implement immediate solutions. I would suggest signage, right? You know, that's something simple. I understand the urgency of trying to get folks down in Richmond involved, but there are things, simple things that we can do here at this level to find real solutions because, again, we hear about this all the time. I would also suggest that when we're talking about looking at our zoning we use incentives oftentimes we can expedite the permit permit process if we have a developer that wants to you know add parking for trucks of the [01:56:20] like warehouse space i mean we have a lot of vacant space in this county that i think that we can utilize to our advantage i'm not sure what that looks like in terms of identifying these warehouses or office space but i'm i'm sure that there's something that we can do with these property owners and or developers that we can incentivize them to again find a quick solution to a problem that's aggravating everybody right and so um the last thing that i want to touch on is talk to me a little bit about the reporting um you know of complaints because me personally [01:56:54] i'd like to see something more proactive where you know if it's after hours folks can go online can they submit a complaint um and i understand again the staffing challenges but this is another thing that we're going to have to look at, right? Do we need somebody, right? I don't know what that looks like, but I want to hear from you in terms of, you know, reporting, because we always tell folks, call an unemergency number, but that's not a good enough answer for our constituents, right? [01:57:23] And so I'd like to see something a little more interactive. Yeah, we do to an extent. I just don't think it's where it needs to be. Certainly you can go online, I think, to the website and and submit a complaint i'm looking at my captain to make sure that can you um because in looking here yes so we certainly certainly can do that um i'm sorry dan where can they go they can actually go to our website uh to the police department website for parking enforcement and i'm certainly can click on a link and then make a complaint you can actually you can actually write captain can see if you can come up to the microphone thank you we get tons of those through our [01:57:58] general email account okay so this our community members can write in and tell us and that's passed over to our folks in parking or if they're working during the evening hours like I get phone calls and emails and texts we kind of dispatch our midnight officers to go out there and do that too. To your point, we are busy as you know in the evening hours but if my rule in the center and the other districts too is to ensure that if that complaint comes in, let's go check on it. I think we towed a truck this weekend because he was blocking part of the intersection. Thank you. [01:58:28] Great. And just a suggestion this is the last point I want to make. Maybe put that um on this website also so that folks can know how to file a complaint um and certainly appreciate all the work that you guys are doing and and trying to address this issue thank you madam chair all right did you have um i will entertain you and then angry just to supervisor vegas point i mean i've got a recurring problem in the eastern part of the gainesville district commercial trucks parking out-of-state tags no tags expired inspection parking for days on end blocking driveways and the complaint i most get is nobody ever comes and does anything they won't [01:59:08] move them ticket them tow them whatever and i'm having a hell of a time getting in and out of my house just food for thought yeah thank you all right supervisor angry thank you madam chair and then i'll i guess we can move on because i do want to thank katika and richard in the back because you know i do personally like text them call them because this is like an ongoing thing and i again want to say I think we really need to have a conversation about a targeted industry of getting someone that wants to build a and I'm going to be specific 18-wheeler parking lot secure because I [01:59:47] know why these folks don't want to park it out on the interstate you know because people are still in those whatever under the bottom of the rigs and they're just yeah the catalytic converter so there's a lot of uncertainties when someone leaves their truck not near where they can kind of have eyes on or lights on it like in a secure area so i so i just think we need to really have a conversation about finding someone to come into princelium county and want to build to supervisor vega's point i want to also say you know it's it's not right that communities have would have to go out and put no parking signs up on their street just to stop an 18-wheeler truck when cars can't park there and i want to be specific when we start talking about service [02:00:25] trucks and like you know we'll say the roto root or whatever those trucks now per virginia you know richmond general assembly they can park in neighborhoods there is a weight restricting to the truck and it's some pretty big trucks you'd be surprised at that but 18 wheelers cannot park there so that's what i just want to make sure we focus on that because if we're talking service vehicles hey let's find out what that weight you're talking about because there's a certain weight and it's a very high weight so you'd be surprised at what can park in your neighborhoods but we just know that 18 wheelers cannot so for that discussion i want we need to figure out where we can park these trucks because all they're doing is bouncing around so i just wanted to [02:01:04] really talk about that and if there was a way uh then you all could track like i know that um the shopping center over where harris teeter is which galveston that was an area i know apollo across the street was an area now the new area is in the asco common there are certain areas where They're just the same areas, and they're just kind of bouncing around. [02:01:26] And, again, not trying to pick on the trucking industry, but I've got to get them an official place to park and not in these neighborhoods because we're going to keep doing this. So I think we've got to really invest the conversation in that. Thank you, Madam Chair. No, and I appreciate that, you know, for the clarification, but I just want to say that we have had complaints about the service vehicles because there are some streets like in Montclair on Cliffview Drive. [02:01:50] You know, it is a VDOT road, and people can park there, But it does cause problems, and sometimes it almost functions like a one-way street. Or people have, you know, it creates problems with line of sight. So I just wanted to, but I appreciate that, provide that clarification. [02:02:06] It doesn't look like we have anyone else in the queue. Mr. Alexander, I greatly appreciate this presentation. Thank you so very much. Thank you very much, Dan, Madam Chair. We next have a presentation from our circuit court clerk, Ms. Jackie Smith, if you'll come on up, and we'll pull up the presentation. [02:02:31] There is a request for you to raise your right hand, Jackie. We got jokes up in here. We got jokes. I will marry you if you want. [02:02:56] I can do that. I've done that never, and I'm good. Well, thank you all for taking the time and allowing me to come talk to you today, and also for the support that the board and the county executive's office shows to our office, not just in budget, but also when we come to your districts to provide services. [02:03:20] You all really do a heavy lift trying to help us get the word out. It's hard to communicate to all of the different magisterial districts and the two cities, and we really lean heavily on you to help us with that, and I appreciate it. Today, I'm going to share with you an update on our operations and initiatives at the clerk's office, as well as the impact to our shared constituents. [02:03:43] I'm going to request your support on a future revenue opportunity in the legislature in the upcoming session and also update you on the operational status of our land records management system. So first I'd like to share with you our guiding principles in the clerk's office. [02:04:04] We use these principles whenever we're making decisions for policy or for providing services in our office. We provide the best court customer service in the Commonwealth always. We are professional, we inspire confidence, and our customers' needs are met completely. [02:04:23] We value our customers, the taxpayer dollar, our people, integrity, and teamwork. And we serve Prince William County and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park. The circuit court clerk has more than 800 duties prescribed by the Constitution, statutes, regulations, and various agreements with the county. [02:04:47] Some of the most visible things we do are collecting recordation taxes, creating and maintaining the official court record for the circuit court, which is the court of record for our jurisdiction, issuing concealed handgun permits, which we do faster than any other jurisdiction in the Commonwealth, and operating our public lie library, our resident self-help center, and also our Seals on Wheels remote services program. [02:05:14] As a part of our mission, we collaborate with and serve many other organizations, including local, state, and federal agencies, including the Board of County Supervisors, the County Executive's Office, all of our police departments, all of our fire departments, all of our departments of elections, our sheriff, our courts, and our U.S. [02:05:41] armed forces and their veterans. So as a part of our mission, we are dedicated to access to justice. We run the county law library and also have created a litigant self-help center. We're seeing a rise nationally in self-represented litigants. In our self-help center, we have a comprehensive set of forms and guides for litigants who either can't afford an attorney or choose not to engage one. [02:06:15] We've also invested in self-service kiosks, which provides access to court service, not just court services, but also allows residents to pay their local taxes, to perform certain DMV processes, to register to vote, and several different other governmental functions. We also run Seals on Wheels, which is a one-of-a-kind service. It's a full-service mobile clerk's office that we take to each of your districts at least once a year and provide everything that we provide in the [02:06:48] courthouse but on a Saturday closer to home. As a result of these efforts, we were recognized this year by Virginia Lawyers Weekly as leaders in the legal community for promoting access to justice by making services available and accessible to everyone in our jurisdiction. [02:07:11] This year, we have implemented a property alert system. Deed fraud is a topic of growing conversation, not just in the Commonwealth, but nationwide. There are services you can engage as an individual. You can purchase a subscription. [02:07:28] They can be pretty pricey, where the service will alert you if someone has taken some kind of action on your deed or tried to do something with your real property. Rather than require our constituents to engage these services, we obtained a state grant to create a free system, which we launched this spring. [02:07:51] This system won't prevent deed fraud, but it creates an alert system to allow the property owner to be proactive if something should happen. It's much easier to remedy deed fraud immediately, rather than several years down the road, which can often be the case. [02:08:15] As a part of our mission, we also issue gun permits, as I mentioned. We issue between 6,000 and 10,000 a year. Many years we are the leader in the number of gun permits that we issue here in Prince William County, which is pretty impressive when you consider that we are only a third of the size in population compared to our neighbor in Fairfax. 46% of all new civil cases filed in Prince William County every year are concealed handgun permits that are processed 100% [02:08:52] by my office without intervention from a judge or the bench. This helps to keep down costs. As a part of our concealed handgun permit issuing program, we've also partnered with a number of organizations that provides us with free gun locks, which we can provide to residents without restriction. We always offer these gun locks to anyone coming to get a concealed handgun permit or pick up a concealed handgun permit, but we also provide them for free to any constituent that [02:09:26] asks. We have so far distributed over 3,000 gun locks, and we were featured in a national advertising campaign called real leaders real solutions for safer communities as a result of this program and that picture there is from times square and it's our video playing on a on a jumbotron there it was pretty cool it's also very strange to see your face that big but i'm you may already know that it was a first for me we're also dedicated to the preservation of our [02:10:03] shared history. We have several restoration programs for our historic artifacts here in the county. We have, as one of the public speakers talked about earlier, we have a very rich and long history for Americans here in Prince William County. Our systems of preservation have been featured on Fox 5, the Library of Virginia, WUSA 9, to name a few. We share our artifacts throughout the community bringing them to community events typically bringing an artifact [02:10:37] that relates to the event in question we've brought voter rolls to voter registration drives we have a lot of artifacts that we bring to black history month education programs we also share these artifacts in the courthouse in our historic documents center with schools scouts troops and and the Justice Like Me program. [02:11:03] As a part of our values, that we value the taxpayer dollar, we always look for ways to shift the cost of operations away from the local taxpayer. We send a lot of our clerk's fees to Richmond and we endeavor to get back as much as possible. [02:11:24] We have so far secured $1.46 million in grants over the last five years. We've used these dollars to fund all of our historic restoration, all of our kiosks, our property alert system. [02:11:40] We've completely funded seals on wheels through these programs, and we've also received gun locks above and beyond these grant monies. So now for our budget initiatives. [02:11:55] My first request is simply for your legislative support. The clerks, of course, collect fees in their localities, and we send those fees to the county, to the two cities, and to Richmond. Richmond, when they receive our fees that are allotted to them, are supposed to look at the amount of those fees, subtract the amount of money they give us as a budget to run our office, and anything above and beyond that is considered what's called excess fees. [02:12:26] By statute, two-thirds of those excess fees are required to come back to the locality. They don't come back to the clerk. They come back to the locality itself. They're unrestricted revenues to be used as the board sees fit. In the 2008 budget crisis, Governor Cain amended his budget to cut that amount in half. [02:12:49] That year, we received only one-third of our excess fees back to the locality. And ever since then, every governor has amended their budget in line. So we have essentially had our excess fees returned cut in half. I'm asking for your legislative support to get that to change. [02:13:09] We want to get the full amount back as required by statute. And the way we're looking at this is parallel tracking through the legislature. asked the legislature to amend the statute to make it impossible for the governor to amend their budget to change the amount coming back to the locality, and also to work with the governor's mansion to see if we can possibly make some headway on that end. In this past session, the clerks association did lobby the legislature and the governor's mansion. We didn't expect to [02:13:45] get much footing because it was a short session. This is sort of a niche issue, but we are very hopeful for the next session. The Clerks Association has asked that Prince William County and Virginia Beach take the lead in this, and I would like your support in allowing us to do that. And before I move on to the next slide, I'd like to see if there are any questions about that. I actually would like to hold all our questions to the end, but thank you. We're going to go back. We're going to hold all questions to the end. Thank you. Okay. Okay. And then the final [02:14:21] slide is about our land records management system. We have a land records management system in the county that is within my office. It is the sole system that collects recordation taxes and records deeds in the county. We all know that we have reminders in our daily life about fraud. Not a day goes by that I don't get some kind of fraudulent text message, pop-up, email, something, and I don't think my experience is unique. But as our technology has improved, the scammers have [02:14:56] kept up with technology, and we need to not just keep up with technology. We need to be on the cutting edge of technology if we're going to be able to prevent fraud and protect our constituents' investments. You can see what our ask is. I currently have a commitment from the state for a $70,000 grant annually. That commitment by the state is made based on the locality making the rest of the lift to get this system off the ground. Supervisor Vega had asked me if [02:15:34] we have the opportunity down the road to increase this amount, which we do. We re-evaluate our requests for grants year to year in May every year. So once the investment is made, that's when we would be looking at saying to the state, we need to look at a greater investment from the state. But it is a possibility. And that's everything. All right. Now, okay, Supervisor Bob, go for us. Let's start off with the excessive revenue. You don't have to change the slide. [02:16:09] Given that the legislature and the governor are dealing with the biennium budget as we sit here, do we have any sense of where this year's budget amendment does or doesn't exist? Is he listening? [02:16:24] Do we have any indication from the governor's mansion? The expectation is that the amendment will still exist in this year's budget. But he has not submitted it or it's not in the General Assembly budget yet, I'm assuming? Correct. [02:16:40] Or have we had a chance to look and see what amendments he's made and if that's included in the amendments that he made to the budget bill? So we met with the governor's office, and they have indicated that they will not be making a change to that amendment. I have not seen an actual text showing that they are sticking to that commitment, but I'm confident they are. [02:17:03] Maybe I'm a little confused. Do they have to proactively make the amendment in the budget, or is it just automatic? It doesn't seem to me it has to, it seems to me they would have to be proactive if there's a statutory requirement. They would have to actually file an amendment to the budget to recover that funding or to claw back that funding for themselves. [02:17:25] They do need to proactively make that amendment. I'm saying, has anybody checked to see if that's in his package of amendments to the budget? No, but we did meet with him, with his staff, and they indicated it would be included in his budget. Madam Chair, members of the board, Ms. Smith is correct. [02:17:44] Going back to 2009, budget amendments have been superseding what is actually in the Code of Virginia. And in the General Assembly's action, the House adopted budget bill states that, you know, notwithstanding the Code, the Commonwealth shall be entitled to two-thirds of the excess fees. [02:18:04] Okay, so the General Assembly did it this time. The General continues to do it. Okay, so it's not the Governor, it's the General Assembly. That's correct. The General Assembly continues to put a budget amendment in to basically supersede the code. Okay. Well, that's a different story. [02:18:20] Thank you. And then simply on the LRMS, I'm sold. Thank you. All right, Supervisor Bode. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I was going to point that out. [02:18:37] He was your biggest champion at this morning's budget and finance committee meeting about that one. I just want to say that since you're here. So my question actually is just for my colleagues and for the county exec. What do you need from us in terms of direction to support both of her asks? [02:18:58] Right. So I know that the one is in your recap already. And in terms of the legislative agenda, that's already been sort of understood that we're going to support legislative agenda for the budget piece too? Just wanted to, for that clarity. [02:19:17] So you had to understand where we sit. For my 1-8th, I'm good too. Obviously, as was said, your budget ask for your land records management is already baked into the county executive's recap budget, so we're good there. And for my 1-8th for the legislative agenda, I'm all for supporting your ask in terms of getting that extra third back because, frankly, you should come back to localities. [02:19:39] It's not 2008 anymore, so they should stop putting that amendment in there. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right. Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. Hi, my supervisor. I want to congratulate you. [02:19:56] The seals on wheels is phenomenal for utilizing your funding in a great way for the community. I think it's great. That's the first thing. Second thing, I think I agree with my colleague. We do need to add that to our legislative agenda and have those kinds of conversations because I think it just makes sense. [02:20:16] You know, it just makes sense. And then I'm all for the last item as well, the recordations system. It's needed for you to keep up the pace with whatever else is going on. So thank you for your work. Thank you. All right, Supervisor Vega. [02:20:33] Thank you, Madam Chair. Jackie, for starters, I want to thank you for your professionalism and for your visibility in the community. I always say that when you run a tight ship and you do a heck of a job, we very rarely hear from you. So when you reach out, we know it's serious. [02:20:49] Um, but you don't have to brag about your department, um, your office, because we see you guys everywhere, whether it's you or the team, um, it's to be commended. So thank you for all of the services that you provide to the community and for bringing the services in the courthouse into the community, because that really means a lot for folks. [02:21:08] Um, I don't know if my colleagues on the days have seen people getting married, um, in their neighborhoods. I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's pretty incredible. And I had a girlfriend actually that mentioned that and said, you know, here in Fairfax, they don't provide that. and i was like that's right you gotta get married in prince william county um and so thank you for that i do want to talk a little bit about on the request that's being made here uh thanks for meeting with me we had a great conversation about this and i obviously understand uh the courthouse more than anybody on this day is and i dare anybody to challenge me on that um but with that being said um you know i understand that you also serve the cities of manassas and manassas park and I did ask this question. [02:21:45] This is more so for our staff here in the county. They're making an ask of us, but I know that there is an agreement in place as to their share. I'm all for fairness, and I do think that we need to look at that agreement. So if an ask is being made of us, what is their portion? [02:22:01] Do we need to up that portion in order to fully fund this request? And so I know that we briefly talked about it, and I think that, you know, you were kind of not sure what that looked like. But, Mr. Shorter, if we can make a note of that as we have a conversation about, you know, fulfilling the request that's being made. [02:22:18] Thank you. And then the last thing that I wanted to ask you was there was a lot of conversation around these budget amendments. If you had to put a dollar figure next to that, would you be able to? Yes. So looking back five years, land records recordings are down right now. [02:22:37] They're lower than they have been since I was elected. So this past year, it's a question of about a $350,000 difference. But if you look five years back to when we were at a more steady recordation level, so recordation includes sales of homes but also refinances of homes, it's more like a $1.2 million difference. [02:23:02] So I believe we're really kind of in the sweet spot to make this move right now because it looks like a smaller ask when you're looking at the number than it could okay i see i thought maybe it'd be higher than what you know you had originally shared with us um okay and um i think i had one more thing here that i wanted to ask you it escaped my mind but it'll come back to me and i know where to find you again thank you thank you madam chair all right thank you supervisor gordy thank you madam chair and i i just want to echo uh what supervisor vega just said you know we can we we get compliments of the work and support that you provide to our community. [02:23:42] So thank you for all that you're doing. On the budget initiative, the excess fees, you know, as we think, you know, we're in the process, this morning we had our budget, finance and budget committee. One of the things we're looking at is a legislative affairs committee. [02:24:02] I don't know if that's what we're going to call it, but certainly, you know, hopefully that we can take this up and it's good to have it now rather than waiting until December you know especially when we can try to work this with a head of the legislature submitting their bills and their amendments so thank you for bringing it to us now so that we can already have this in the works going forward and and I'm also all in favor of the LRMS to to me this is just an absolute critical system that we need and and being able to bring that [02:24:36] into the 21st century is is absolutely essential and and then I also want to thank you for the work you're doing to protect our deeds and because and I think you told me when we met we're the only county so far that has not had this as a problem in northern Virginia in northern Virginia okay and so so yeah I mean it is a growing problem deed theft and so thank you for the work that you're doing on that to be proactive and providing a free option to our community so So, yeah, thanks for coming today and for keeping us posted on this. [02:25:11] And as Supervisor Vega says, if you come to us, we know it's a real ask. Thank you. Thank you. All right, Supervisor Bailey, did you have another one? I do, Madam Chair. Thank you so much. The deed fraud piece is very important, particularly also to our seniors. [02:25:30] So that, yeah, thank you for that. But I want to ask, how many concealed licenses are you processing per year? That was on page seven. Can you give us some idea? Has it increased or is it still stable? The concealed handgun permit numbers are an interesting creature because a permit is good for five years. [02:25:51] And the most influential factor in how many we're going to process in a given year is who's up for election and what is the primary issue. So we will have some standout years where we're approaching 11,000. [02:26:09] we will have some more typical years where we're at more like 6,500. So I would say our solid standard number is between 6,000 and 7,000, and then we have the outliers that are way higher. [02:26:26] And then we have to wait five years to see, do all those people come back to renew? Okay, that makes sense. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right, thank you so very much, Jackie, for coming here today and giving this presentation and giving us this update. [02:26:43] Thank you so very much. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. I don't know. Mr. Shore, did you have anything else for county executive time? That is all for me, Madam Chair. Thank you. All right. Thank you so very much. We are going to move over to the county attorney. [02:26:58] Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. This afternoon in closed session, we will have personnel discussions relating to the members to the joint Prince William County, City of Manassas, City of Manassas Park, Interjurisdictional Ad Hoc Committee. This item is appropriate for closed session pursuant to 2.2-3711A1 of the Code of Virginia. [02:27:16] Move for approval, Madam Chair. Second. All right. Let's go ahead and take a vote on this. Vote unanimous. All right. We are going to move on. [02:27:32] Oh, yes, sorry. All right. We are going to move on to our budget work session. I'm going to turn this over to Mr. Shorter again. All right. Thank you very, very much, Madam Chair, members of the board. All right, so consistent with your email last night, we want to do this based on quadrant. [02:27:50] And so if you and the board don't mind, what I want to do is take quadrants in this order, starting with health, wellness, environmental sustainability, then safe and secure community, then mobility, economic growth and resiliency, and then finally government operations, performance and innovation. [02:28:09] As we did last year, Madam Chair, this is going to be free-wielding. And so as questions come up, I want to ask the director for that particular quadrant and department to come up to answer any questions. And so with that, starting with health, wellness, and environmental sustainability, I would ask the chair and members of the board if there are any specific questions for agencies that report in through that quadrant. [02:28:36] All right, thank you. I'm going to my questions. I'm waiting for anyone to jump in. Supervisor Bode. Thank you, Madam Chair. My question is for Seth, if Seth is here. [02:28:54] I assume that's another quadrant, right? It is. It is. Maybe we can come back to Seth. I don't know where he is. You can go back to me. [02:29:21] All right. All right, so I am going to ask a few questions since we're going to come back. Community services, this is my first question. The Marcus Alert System is a tenant to divert behavioral health from police-based to health-based response. [02:29:38] But we receive reports of cases that still fall through the cracks. I just want to know what has been done to reproduce those instances. All right. Community services. Is Georgia here? Outside. Okay. [02:29:56] Yep. Thanks. All right. All right. If you can just stop my time, we'll go back to Supervisor Bodie. Can we have the people, the relevant folks, come into the atrium so that we don't have to wait and bounce back and forth? [02:30:14] That would be greatly appreciated. Absolutely. So I'm going to go back to Supervisor Bodie. Okay, Seth, I believe the question's for you if you want to start making your way down. Supervisor Bode? Sure, thank you, Madam Chair. Seth, good afternoon. Thanks for being here. My question actually is a follow-up from a conversation we had at the Budget and Finance Committee. [02:30:32] It's about the therapeutic recreation programmer. My question back then, and I just wanted to ask it to you here, is was there a needs assessment done? I know that it was a request that I know you originally had in the budget that didn't quite make it. now we'll be talking about it but i know there's an interest from the community about it i know we only have one is my understanding um and there's a there's a request for an initial one and i know that some of our neighbors to the north have several more so could you talk about the needs there and how your office assessed our needs for more sure thank you supervisor uh madam chair members of the board seth hendler voss your director of parks and recreation we currently [02:31:12] have one full-time accessibility coordinator, therapeutic recreation manager. We have numerous part-time positions. A lot of our help comes during the summer months for our camp programs. [02:31:27] We bring in seasonal positions, many of which come from the school system. We've been looking for this position for a few budget cycles now because our requests for inclusion aids, accommodations, and the demand for overall therapeutic recreation has grown multifold over the years. [02:31:51] I think it's about 700% to 900% growth since I've been here. I've been here about eight years, and we've done very well with the staff that we have. We'll continue doing very well with the staff that we have. We have been benchmarking our full-time positions against other jurisdictions, and we do have less than other jurisdictions of our size, but we still continue to deliver the quality programs, and we've not turned anyone away. [02:32:18] So that's important to note, that despite having a lack of full-time staff, we've been able to accommodate all inclusion requests for all of our programs, not just the stormy camps. And we've also been able to stand up new therapeutic recreation, adaptive recreation programs. [02:32:36] We just started one for soccer. We recently started one for boating. So we're very much trying to accommodate the growth in demand. And hopefully as the demand continues to grow, we'll have some full-time, additional full-time positions. [02:32:52] And really the advantage of a full-time position is that consistency, the institutional knowledge. It's hard to keep that when you have a lot of part-time staff coming in and out of the organization. But again, I want to emphasize that we've been doing okay, and we appreciate the board's support to date. [02:33:11] If I could, Madam Chair, just a slight follow-up. I appreciate that, Seth. Thank you. And do you foresee, obviously this, we're just talking about FY26, but looking ahead in the future, maybe a staffing plan around this piece, knowing that we continue to grow, and frankly, to your point, are this segment of the population that has those needs all continue to grow? [02:33:31] And also knowing that we have more parks in the system that have those facilities. I mean, the Harbor Drive Wellness Park is a perfect example of that. And so can you talk about that a little bit? Sure. Thank you, Supervisor. So we just wrapped up our needs assessment. The last needs assessment was conducted in 2020. [02:33:49] And so we'll have that information available for the county executive and the board here in short order. And we go through that process to determine what the recreation needs are across the county. So we'll look and see where accessibility, excuse me, adaptive recreation and therapeutic recreation programs fall. [02:34:10] But I think we, to your point, we could do a little bit more. If we're looking at trying to grow this program, we should conduct more outreach to the community and especially families with children with special needs to try to ascertain what level of interest they have in growing our adaptive recreation and therapeutic recreation programs. [02:34:35] And we'll let that sort of guide our staffing plan. If there is a need for more programs, and especially programs that are cost recovery, bringing on new positions is something that won't have an impact on, you know, on unlimited funds across other general fund programs. [02:34:57] So we look at that as well. Thank you. All right, I'm going to go to Supervisor and then I'll go back to myself. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll start with Seth. Seth, it's been bandied about purchasing properties with public funds, private properties, either through conglomeration or securing easements, TDR, whatever, on private parcels. [02:35:24] For instance, putting a trail in the back of Bull Run Mountain. I'm assuming that would be almost impossible for you guys to maintain and police, given that it would still be private property. Thank you, Supervisor. where you're referring to Bull Run Preserve in particular? [02:35:41] Yeah, on the backside of the Bull Run Mountain Conservancy. On private property? On private property. I don't recall being asked that or being presented with that opportunity, but when we do develop trails on private property, they usually come with easements. [02:35:58] And whenever possible, we try to require maintenance of those trails be conducted by the property owner, HOAs, for instance. But you usually do that at the front end when you're doing a rezoning. I can't think of a circumstance where we've gone back after the fact and sought access or secured them in some sort of easement or conservation easement that may or may not restrict the use of their property. [02:36:30] The conversation I'm hearing seems unprecedented, and I'm just wondering if that's the case. Well, if you're speaking about actually us pursuing new trail development on private property outside of an entitlement process, that does happen for sure, especially when we're trying to complete trail corridors where we have gaps. [02:36:56] But not generally on residential lots, I'm assuming? It varies, but asking for trail easements through heavily populated and dense residential areas is usually not preferable and very challenging. Okay. Good enough. Public health. I'm trying to understand part of this quadrant. Okay. I don't know who's here to answer this. And while he's walking up, I think I'll make this more of a statement than a question. But, you know, in looking at the budget shift, it occurs to me, [02:37:35] this is the danger of CARES Act and ARPA funding, where you create positions that weren't initially, and maybe I'm misunderstanding this, but creating positions for an agency that never developed and then moving it back, and the initial creation and the initial funding was largely through CARES Act and Affordable, and now we're going to pay for it, I'm assuming, out of general fund monies and not state or federal funding. [02:38:01] If I'm wrong, that's great. I'm going to ask Dave to jump in on this one, given that these are our FTEs and not yet the health departments, to answer the question about the transfer over. Okay, Supervisor Weir, if I understand your question correctly, These four positions in question were added to the public health department in fiscal year 23 or fiscal year 24 in the hopes of a transition from a state-operated public health agency to a county-operated public health department. [02:38:38] Naturally, that transition has never occurred, and it doesn't look like it will occur. So the recommendation in the proposed budget is to shift these positions that already exist within public health and to use them for services that were provided by public health during the pandemic that was funded from ARPA or CARES Act funding. [02:39:07] But now that that funding is running out, these positions may be repurposed to continue those services, such as community outreach. So we're going from a federally funded set of four positions to a general fund set of four positions. [02:39:25] It's to sustain those services. At the most elementary of levels. But for a program, it was created, four FTEs that were created for a program that never developed. That's correct. Okay. I just wanted confirmation. All right. [02:39:42] Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. Dave, I have a question for you, and then I have one for Seth. the question for you just for clarity be only because i forgot how about that but the uh on the um when we're in the finance committee meeting last week there was a request for one fte for a child psychiatrist am i can you tell me again what where that comes from yeah because i don't [02:40:15] want to conflate the four county and um crc during during my vacancy analysis presentation to the finance and budget committee there was a long-term vacancy in community services for a child psychiatrist that position already exists um it is vacant and the the message last week and it still stands today is that there's a shortage of child psychiatrists statewide and it's an [02:40:49] extraordinarily difficult position to fill. Compensation reasons, there's just not enough of them, period. The position is funded in the proposed budget, and we're not suggesting that it be eliminated. Okay, okay. Thank you. I just need a clarity on that. Thank you. And Seth, for your funding requests, my question is something we talked about this morning. [02:41:21] We were very fortunate when we received ARPRA and care funding in terms of maintenance for old stuff that we had in the county that we wanted to provide for the community and make it restored and new. Is the maintenance piece a part of what your request is? [02:41:41] Thank you, Supervisor Bailey. The proposed budget does include some additional deferred maintenance funding for the department through the CIP portion of the budget, which will enable us to continue the progress that we've made most recently, particularly with the infusion of $17 million of ARPA funds, which we appreciate. [02:42:05] So we're really looking forward to executing more projects across all districts with this new funding. I believe it's $2.5 million proposed for fiscal year 26 and $5 million proposed in the out years. yeah that's unprecedented yeah it is and we'll put it to good use supervisor if approved absolutely and i just want to make sure one of the things that we were we were missing was the maintenance piece and that's important as we go forward so yeah and just to clarify that money uh we'll be using it for upgrading amenities um and which is something we've not been able to do before [02:42:43] there might be some smaller maintenance items involved with that too we also have the bfp program uh which is exclusively for maintenance and we have the the additional 1.4 million dollars that you all approved this budget year for deferred maintenance as well okay and that's going to continue that's that was a permanent uh budget increase for the department so we have now a lot of sources to pull from not just the additional two and a half for 26 okay all right thank you very much thanks madam chair all right thank you so very much i want to go back to community services, the question I was starting on regarding Marcus Alerts. [02:43:21] Again, it's supposed to divert behavioral health from police-based to health-based response, but we're still receiving reports of cases that fall through the cracks. What is being done to reduce those instances and, you know, the increase in emergency services and assessment investment and the FTEs, is that going to be able to... [02:43:40] How is that going to plug in, or is that going to be able to help us with this? Sorry. Your mic. Turn on mic. Thank you. And members of the board, I'm Georgia Bachman. I'm the acting executive director for community services. In regards to Marcus Alert, we have a very robust system of care in Prince William, in addition to our emergency services clinicians who respond 24-7, 365 days a year to any emergency call that comes into our facility. [02:44:21] We also have, in addition, a co-responder team that works alongside our police to go out to acute behavioral health calls. And we also have something that's quite unique in the region. [02:44:39] We used our Marcus Alert money in part to fund an outreach team. And this team is pretty essential in helping meet some of those gaps in services. Because when individuals are either in our emergency services or even if the behavioral health staff go out on calls, often people are not interested or willing to follow up with our traditional services. [02:45:13] So that's where kind of the gap often comes, and it's something that we strive really hard to plug those gaps. And one of the ways that we do that is that we have an outreach team who goes out into the community, actually follows up with the individual, and that can be accessed by anyone. [02:45:38] We get calls from your office. We get calls from the police department. We get calls from family members. Those calls come in a multitude of ways, and that is a team that's basically there to respond and to try to engage individuals in then the more formal treatment. [02:46:01] So we do our best to plug those gaps. And then the crisis receiving center is going to be another huge piece that's going to help with that because the crisis now model that we're working hard to implement here in Virginia with the crisis transformation is about having a place to call. [02:46:24] So that's the 988 system that was put in place last summer, someone to respond, which is our regional crisis lines and outreach teams. And then we have someplace to go, and that's the Crisis Receiving Center. So we'll have those beds as well. [02:46:42] And then we also have a 16-bed regional crisis state unit. All right. Thank you so very much. My other question is for social services. [02:47:14] All right. Thank you. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the board, Phyllis Jennings-Holt, Director for Social Services. All right. Thank you so very much. We have a sizable chunk of your revenue. I think 22% around $19 million comes from the federal government. is that money directly tied to services like, you know, WIC, TANF, et cetera, or do we use any of it for administrative costs like staffing or reporting? [02:47:38] And the way I'm asking, like in other words, you know, if we lose that funding or are part of that funding, is it going to be, are we going to have to cut individual programs or are we going to be able to restructure the budget, you know, like in terms of some, you know, salaries or leases in order to make that up? [02:47:53] Some of the, excuse me, federal money is used for programming, SNAP, TANF, VIEW, Medicaid. But we are concerned that based on what the federal cuts would look like, we may need to look at cutting positions. [02:48:12] And so right now we're just kind of watching and waiting. We have not gotten any direction from the Virginia Department of Social Services yet. So right now, we're just kind of maintaining, but that is a possibility. All right. [02:48:29] Thank you so very much. Supervisor Bodie, then Bailey. So, Ms. Jennings-Holt, you don't have to walk very far. You are actually one of the other folks that I was going to ask a question to. So on that same note that Madam Chair started to uptail off of that, as we have concerns about forthcoming folks, and we talked about this at the Finance and Budget Committee, folks on the horizon that may start to lose their benefits. [02:48:56] Again, Social Security, TANF, Medicaid, we mentioned some other ones as well. Can you talk a little bit about the outflows of costs to that and also what could be done to start proactively reach out to folks to sort of not only ground truth what's happening, but also speak with our service providers, our partner agencies, our community partners, and the churches that help that? [02:49:25] Can you talk a little bit about that continuum and those outflows? Yes, I think previously I have shared that we serve 28% of the population, which is about 140,000 constituents in the county. Many of them get one or two of the benefits, which is TAN, SNAP, Medicaid. [02:49:47] And so when you're looking at that, there is a dollar amount that is attached to those benefits being eliminated. And what I mean by that, there is about 16,000 households within Prince William County that receive SNAP. [02:50:06] And so when you equate that to a dollar amount, you're looking at about $8 million that will impact grocery stores, farmers markets, and so you're looking at impacting our businesses. [02:50:23] When you're looking at Medicaid, there's about 56,000 households that receive Medicaid. So when you equate that to a dollar amount and the impact that it has to providers that are providing medical services, you're talking about at least $223 million that would impact this provider community. [02:50:44] And so, you know, as we are watching this and these services may intentionally be impacted, I think working with our community partners, we may be heavily relying on our food pantries, our churches to make up this gap. [02:51:04] i appreciate that that then that leads me to my follow-up question so you mentioned the community partners the food pantries what have you one of the concerns that's been brought to me especially in the recent past is that you know your folks and miss bachman supposed to do a great job outreaching someone getting the brochure whatever it is to community services whether that's churches other folks that are providing these services and they call and there's not there's no capacity or They call, and no one answers the phone. [02:51:33] Is there a way we can get at ground-truthing that piece more so when folks, so we have a better accounting of who actually has capacity for services and who's actually out there in any given moment? I think it's going to be a community-wide effort. I know that we receive a lot of calls through our 7,500, but we're going to need to do more community outreach as a department, which we're doing currently. [02:52:01] I think that as a department and as a community, and also probably working with the Office of Community Safety, that it probably would be helpful to have some type of community-wide forum to get our community partners together, our churches together, to let them know what our needs are as a department, what the community needs are, as well as hearing from the providers and the churches what they can actually offer. [02:52:28] What I do know is that there is a lot of churches in the community and community partners that want to help. They don't necessarily know how to help. And so we need to have that dialogue and that connection so that we can start coming up with a plan and working together. [02:52:48] Appreciate that. And with my last 45 seconds, Ms. Jennings-Holt, thank you for that. I want to bring Seth up for one quick question that goes back to trails that Suresa Bailey said, um i know it's one of the community uh asks of us has been five million dollars in terms of trails um depending on where those trails go and what have you what kind of level of support would you need from a maintenance standpoint to sort of support five million dollars of more trails i know it's a very big nebulous question but i wanted to ask that with my last couple seconds thank you supervisor madam chair members of the board seth and their boss department of parks [02:53:26] recreation director so it depends uh on the on the trail segment itself you're referring to actually brand new trail construction so that those will require maintenance we'd have to look at those on a on a case-by-case basis depends on how many linear feet miles of trail we're getting for for that amount but all i can say is that long there will be long-term maintenance implications we'll have to estimate those for you based on the the project itself supervisor bailey thank you madam [02:53:58] Chair. Seth, I'm good. Bye. Phyllis, please. One question that I have for you is I noticed in the budget cycle this time, well, there was no request or maybe it's a different, it was worded different for the homeless population and provisions thereof. Depending on how things occur federally, [02:54:33] How will that impact Department of Social Services and the programs that we have now? It could impact with being able to provide services as well as positions, because we have some positions in homeless services like IHEMS specialists that are provided. [02:54:50] Their funding is federal. But there are some positions that are in the proposed budget. we have two street outreach positions that we've asked for and that we have two positions for our coordinated entry. [02:55:08] Okay, so that's for the homeless. Yes. Okay, got you, got you. Thank you. And the other question I had, you mentioned about co-responders. How many co-responders do we have now? [02:55:24] Back to you. I don't want to give you the wrong number. I don't have it on the top of my head. Okay. okay okay huh 16 maybe oh I thought it was more okay if you would yeah okay I'd have to check I'll definitely get that back to you okay if I'm a supervisor Bailey going back to homeless services social service is absolutely correct there's a total of four new positions in the proposed budget I would also add that there is also hypothermia services in the western portion of the county [02:56:04] as well. No new positions associated with that, but that's to provide consistency of services for the homeless in the western portion of the county and have those same service hours as we already do in the east. Okay. Alright. Thank you. [02:56:20] Alright. I don't think we have anyone else for this quadrant. Alright. Thank you. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and to the Health, Wellbeing, Environmental Sustainability Quadrant, thank you very much. As they leave out, I want to ask the Safe and Secure Community Quadrant to come on in and give them just a few minutes to get in. It's on. [02:56:57] It's on. Turn it off. [02:57:10] All right, Madam Chair. [02:57:38] All right, guys. Get into the queue if anyone has questions. All right. Looks like we don't have... Does anyone have questions? Because you need to jump in the queue because I'm about to end this. All right. You know what? [02:57:55] Nope. Nope. We ain't going to do the April Fools. Of course. Okay, Supervisor Weir. Unexpectedly quick. Just asked the CXO, and since she's part of the Safe and Secure Community, Commonwealth's attorney is apparently not requested to come in. [02:58:16] I want us to request her to come in. I got some questions that I need some answers to. So I guess that's not going to happen today in this quadrant discussion, but it needs to happen before markup. [02:58:33] I'm happy to reach out to her and hopefully within the next two weeks get her to come. All right, again, we will work on that. Supervisor Bode. Am I right to assume that community safety is in this quadrant? [02:58:50] Okay. I know office is in OEM and this one, so I just wanted to make sure I was. So Tahita, if I could, for a second, ask you a couple questions. Similar to the questions that I asked of Director Gillings-Holtz, just want to pick your brain a little bit about what we're seeing in terms of especially your office being left of bang and looking at that and really being that sort of that forward looking horizon looking office um based on the discussion that we just had and knowing what we also had as a discussion piece last week at the finance and budget committee um this sort of fits in budget [02:59:29] but sort of looking ahead what do you see in terms of the needs coming coming on the horizon And so it's really getting out there in the community and seeing what we need that we don't know yet. Thank you, Supervisor Bodie. So as Director Phyllis mentioned, we're going to work closely together around just making sure that we have a really great understanding of the resources that are available in the county and where we need to create more, I should say, investments in terms of outreach to our community partners so that we are aware of whether they are able to provide the services that they say that they've indicated. [03:00:07] So we've been working to develop a resource map, around 600 resources, across various different domains from housing and food and whatnot to really start to figure out where the gaps might be. [03:00:23] So that's where we're working with the Department of Social Services. Thank you for that. And I see with the FY26 proposed budget, you're going from, it looks like, four FTs to six FTs. Can you talk a little bit about what those two extra FTs are going to be doing? [03:00:40] So right now we have two grant-funded positions. One of them is our community violence interventionist, who's working a lot on some of the issues at the neighborhood level. And we have another community violence interventionist who's doing work on the domestic violence, mostly the formation of our council and the fatality review, the systems work. [03:01:03] Thank you for that, Madam Chair. Supervisor Cordy. Thank you, Madam Chair. Question for Chief Newsham. Doing, Chief? Sir, how are you? Doing all right. So you've got in the budget here looking at 35 police vehicles with everything that we, I mean, we're all hearing about the impact of tariffs potentially. [03:01:30] Are you starting to get any sense that what the impact that that may have on this procurement in the next fiscal year? The answer to your question is no. Chair Jefferson, members of the board, I'm Pete Neuschman, the chief of police for Prince William County. [03:01:46] But I do think and that's one of the struggles we have when we purchase vehicles, because we have to cost them in the prior fiscal year. And it seems like every single year we the cost of the vehicles goes up. And this is another thing we're going to have to consider, particularly with the models that we looked at. [03:02:02] We primarily look at the Ford Explorer as our vehicle, which is most suited for what we do. So we will have to evaluate any additional costs in the tariffs. Now, is this cost, is this fully outfitted or is this just for the vehicle? [03:02:20] The cost that you see is totally outfitted at a point in time, which is right now. So as we roll forward into the new fiscal year, those costs have a tendency in the past to go up. Now that we have this new Finance and Budget Committee, this may be a topic as we get into 26 and start to look at the procurement cycle of these and start to see what the price fluctuations look like because of the tariffs. [03:02:51] this may be a conversation piece for us to look at how we might better manage this going forward. Excellent point. As you know, this is something that just materialized within the last several weeks. And when we do this budget piece, we obviously do it months ahead of time. [03:03:09] So that's a good point. Supervisor Gordy, if I can, I'm sure that procurement, once we get to the procurement office, they'll probably have something to say around some of the sort of materials, at least, that we depend on in terms of procurement. I also see Dave's light here. I want to give him an opportunity. [03:03:26] So the full cost of an upfitted police vehicle, the Ford Explorer, is currently $73,000. And I'll just add what I said to the Finance and Budget Committee last week. the last meaningful increase in the county's fleet replacement budget was back when the police vehicle cost $50,000 fiscal 21 or 22. So there is something that we're going to have to do in the future, not just for police vehicle replacements, but countywide replacements as well. I just read [03:04:05] an article earlier today that some Ford vehicles, yes, they are made in Mexico. I don't know if That's the case with Ford Explorers, but it's going to even hit domestic car manufacturers as well. Yeah, it's hard to find a pure American-made vehicle. [03:04:25] And, you know, I deal with, in my civilian job, the whole buy American thing. And when it comes to automobiles, that is not an easy thing to be able to look at as just pure American. And vehicles with a foreign label on it actually could have been made in America. [03:04:47] But, you know, when you think about the, I mean, I was pricing out a pickup truck, just a pickup truck is now over $80,000. I mean, and it's just so this is just, and that's before the tariffs. So, I mean, it is amazing what the price of vehicles have done just in the last couple of years. [03:05:08] Now this could literally make those prices skyrocket. So, yeah, it's going to be a game-changer for us as we think about procurement going forward. So, thank you. I just had one question, and it might be a Dave Sinclair question. [03:05:24] You know, and I apologize. This is actually under fleets and facilities and fleet management, but since we've already addressed this with Chief Newsham, you know, it has in here that the expenditures for the police vehicle replacement and insurance repairs, But the fire department, their equipment, does that come directly from the fire budget? [03:05:43] If so, why is it treated differently? I'm just curious. The fire and rescue apparatus replacements is located in the fire and rescue budget because those, for the most part, are funded through the fire levy or fire levy fund balance. [03:06:01] Also, a lot of those apparatus, there's not a dealer lot, so to speak, of fire and rescue or medic units that we go to. And as Chief LaBelle mentioned during the work session on March 11th, there's a three- or four-year lead time to manufacture. [03:06:23] And as we said, there's a lot of steel rolling down the road responding to calls. No, I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Just getting the clarification that's coming from fire levy versus this is coming from facilities and fleet management. [03:06:39] Thank you. Supervisor Brody. To that end, Madam Chair, that dovetails well to my question, and it's for Chief LaBelle. Knowing that there's a lead time and knowing that there are likely probably apparatuses that we're looking to purchase or get finalized this coming year, is there the chances it says yes, but what is the effect of tariffs on your fleet as well? [03:07:03] So we don't know at this point in time, but not unlike everything else in manufacturing, It's not all located within the United States where equipment is coming from. And then additionally, we have a fairly limited number of vendors when it comes to the actual engine, the power plant, and where those pieces are coming from. [03:07:26] There's really only a handful of manufacturers, and depending on demand, we ran into it this fall, we couldn't get Goodyear tires because they were all going to military vehicles. Same thing for our engines. And so as the demand switches around the country due to tariffs, it can have a pretty big impact on us. [03:07:45] Appreciate that. And sort of combine those two conversations. And one, my question then goes to Dave and the finance folks as well. Do we have the ability to help offset some of these increased costs through proffers since these are capital costs? [03:08:03] And that's Madam County Attorney as well. Madam Chair, members of the board, I can follow up with you with regards to this. But cash proffers cannot be used for maintenance and only for capital. And based upon the current language in the Code of Virginia, we would have to have further discussions as to whether or not the vehicles would be qualified for cash proffers. [03:08:27] Appreciate that. Thank you. It doesn't look like we have anyone else in queue. So thank you very much. Mr. Scherner, we can go on to the next. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the Board, and thank you to the Safe and Secure Quadrant. [03:08:44] We will next have Mobility, Economic Growth, and Opportunity Directors come in, and we'll wait just a few minutes to have them all come into the chamber. And while they're coming down, do people want to jump in queue for questions? [03:09:24] All right, Madam Chair. All right. [03:09:40] We only have one person in queue, so I don't know. This might be easy. Supervisor Franklin. Yeah, just had a quick question for Rick and or our county attorney. I know we sent some information kind of clarifying how the C&I tax can be used, and I just wanted to make sure that I understand it fully. [03:10:02] Can't use it for operational costs, correct, C&I tax? You know, I'd have to go back and check on that. Okay. For transportation operations, let me check on that. I think let me check on that. [03:10:17] Okay, okay. Because really my question was going to really be, if we wanted to do some route expansions, does that count for that, for OmniRide? Again, that would be for operations. [03:10:34] Obviously the capital is for sure. Let me check on the operations. I'll have an answer before we get out of here on that. What can happen, though, is we can substitute the money. So the CNI tax can be used for our capital infrastructure program, and then you can turn over and use the 30% NVTA money, which that, I am sure, can be used for transit operations, as well as the continued use of the grant towards tax and the TOT tax. [03:10:58] So even if you're not able to use the CNI tax, which I'll find out for you here in a second, we can still be able to transfer money. That money could then be used for the capital program and count as part of the capital program for all the other stuff we do and to get to our MOE with NVTA. [03:11:14] But, and you can transfer all the cost of the operations and payments to those other three funds that I'm sure, those I'm sure I can answer you right now that can be used for operations. Okay, thank you. Yes, ma'am. All right, Supervisor Gordy, then Bailey. I'm sorry, I didn't realize I hit the button. [03:11:34] I must have hit it when I was grabbing my cup and coffee. Sorry. Supervisor Bailey. Thank you. April Fools, that's what that was. Christina, I have a quick question for you. This morning in the Finance Committee meeting we we talked about the redevelopment and assemblage study funding And I need for you to just kind if you would please just kind of expand on that How would you use that tool and why is it it's important? Okay, sure [03:12:11] Good afternoon everyone Kristina when economic development and tourism So I think, you know, working with the finance department, we really have come up with an overall redevelopment strategy where we need to build a toolbox of different tools to help us assemble land, attract private investment, and help to incentivize new developments where we need to. [03:12:42] And as you've all heard me say before, redevelopment is really hard, it's a lot more risky, it costs more, there's a lot more that goes into it. So a study would really help us figure out, you know, what, how we could leverage a redevelopment fund to assemble land, and how we can use that to where the target area is within the redevelopment zones, as well as, like, looking at Profex has a redevelopment zone ordinance. [03:13:16] So it would also look at, you know, how can we go and implement that or a technology zone, anything to help encourage new investment in all of our redevelopment areas. And I know that y'all, meaning the agencies, Y'all been working on collaboration with an interpartementally. [03:13:36] So I'm going to go to Tanya with the assemblage piece. How does that work in your when we give you these new planners? What does that do? In terms of supporting that redevelopment. And assemblage, yes. And assemblage. So again, Tanya Washington, planning director. [03:13:55] With the staff, with the planning department, specifically with our community development division, that is a division that is tasked with focusing on new small area plans as well as implementation of adopted small area plans and as miss one noted our departments definitely work in collaboration across multiple fronts we actually meet monthly on a regular basis to discuss a variety of projects so any additional both additional ftes as well as our current staff would would be working with economic development as they pursue these specific opportunities that the county can take the lead on in terms of [03:14:32] purchasing or assembling sites for redevelopment we also have our small area plans as tools both our existing small area plans that can help identify sites for these types of opportunities which is something that was certainly the case with the landing opportunity that the county is going to be pursuing next as well as with future small area plans when we do that analysis do that work that's also another opportunity that working with economic development we could identify potential parts to the county that may serve as future opportunities for assemblages to support [03:15:08] redevelopment. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right. Supervisor Gorey. Sorry, my coffee hadn't kicked in yet. So there was a question for Ms. Washington. And talking about your planners, clearly there's, this board recognizes that within the current planning team, there needs to be some relief. And right now, I think we're looking at the potential for one add um you know coming from the board um but from a uh you know when we think about our current [03:15:43] planning cases and we think about um the workload that your team currently has what would you see as um and you know and especially given um there's some potential likely of of uh you know i'm hearing that someone may retire at some point in the near future um maybe i've misheard something but But given the current workload of our planners, if we add one planner, would it also be beneficial to either provide some additional funding for some contracted out work on some special projects that are within that current planning ring? [03:16:21] or, you know, what do you think the right approach is to ensure that we're able to maintain the steady flow of workload given the high demand coming from the development community? Certainly. Thank you. So with regards to the current planning division, our particular focus over the last few months has been filling the vacancies because we've had existing vacancies within current planning, and we've been making great progress with that. [03:16:46] We've hired two principal planners, and we actually just last Friday, the team did interviews for two planner positions on that team and have made some selections. So hopefully we'll be filling those positions soon. Additionally, with regards to new FTEs, we certainly appreciate any additional staff for that team. [03:17:09] What we've been thinking is certainly having particularly another principal planner will be a huge help because that is the person who would really be the case planner who would be leading the review of applications. And as you all know, and I've shared a lot of data, there's a high volume of caseload that current planning helps to lead the county's review of. [03:17:32] So definitely having an additional FTE in that respect would certainly be very helpful. with regards to your question about additional funding to support contract work we would certainly welcome that you know it's certainly up to up to the board if you'd like to move in that direction i would note that as part of the on-call consulting contracts that we recently came to the board and requested your authorization to award those contracts one of the categories is related to development review. So we do have the ability to bring on board a consultant who can assist [03:18:09] with development review in different capacities. And so certainly if there is interest in providing some funding to support that work, we already have a mechanism in place to bring consulting assistance on board. Okay, perfect. All right. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right. Supervisor Weir. I guess I'll start with planning. I wasn't going to, but I will. I've been pretty blunt about this in our budget work sessions and I'm going to be just as blunt with you last year we [03:18:46] gave you two new community planners and two long-range planners and we didn't address current planning and in this year's budget you want two small area planners which to my mind should be part of community planning and long-range planning and yet again despite the end I quote high caseload we still haven't addressed current planning for my one-eighths you don't get any more community planners, small area planners, or long-range planners until we up the number of current case planners because they're drowning. It is unconscionable the workload that they have. It is [03:19:23] unconscionable that they are working on the weekends, and I know they are because they're texting and emailing and calling me and my staff. So we need to fix the immediate problem. We have enough small area plans, hamlet plans, town center plans. We can hold off on doing any more before we start drowning in small area plans that never come to fruition. I mean, a lot of the ones we've tried to do over the last couple of years have failed miserably as an effort. Carver Road, gone by the boards, that's just one of many. So I think we need to focus on what should be the [03:20:00] principal task, which is the current caseload, because I fear that in the very near future, we are going to be running up against a circumstance where everybody's one year time limit is up, and they're going to be demanding their hearings, and we're going to be here for many a long night on cases that, quite frankly, are not ready for prime time, not fully vetted, and all the questions haven't been addressed. We've been there before. I don't want to go back. [03:20:24] And judging by the calendar from January 1 to the present, it seems like that's what we're getting set up for. So, I mean, my priority is current planning cases. Everything else can wait. We've got enough in long-range and small area and community planning. [03:20:42] Let's fix the part of the department that really needs fixing. Madam Chair, may I address those comments? So I'm going to walk through several things that you noted, but the first, it sounds like a clarification needs to be made. We are not requesting additional FTEs for the Community Development Division, which is the division that is responsible for producing small area plans. [03:21:05] In our budget requests, we are requesting a new small area plans program, which is funding to do new small area plans. We are not asking for new staff for that division. We are requesting funding to actually complete small area plans. [03:21:21] And as you all know, we have several small area plan directives that are already in the queue. So that $500,000 request is to do the actual projects themselves to create new small area plans. With regards to the FTE, as that is a part of the proposed budget, that is for countywide planning, or actually it's now called long-wage planning division. [03:21:41] As noted in our budget request, we are planning to rename three of our divisions. Long-wage planning will become countywide planning. Community development will become community planning and revitalization. [03:21:58] current planning will be what become land use review so the FTE request that is in the county executives proposed budget is two new FTEs for a long-range planning division and I before I get into why we made that request we definitely concur with a supervisor of years you know comments with regards to making sure that we have the resources to manage our high volume of caseload And as as noted, you know, we've been making some efforts again to fill vacancies Which I know is the first thing that the board looks to to make sure if we're making ask for new FTEs You know, what are you doing to fill your vacancies? [03:22:36] So we've been focusing on that along with other efforts to better manage our caseload I will say having said that that the current planning division is not the only division that needs additional staff capacity long-range playing division very much needs additional staff capacity and And I would be hesitant to say, yes, we would like more resources for current planning, but not to provide more resources for long-range planning. [03:23:04] The long-range planning division is responsible for several projects, major projects that are currently in our work program right now. The zoning ordinance update, the sustainability and resilience comprehensive plan amendment, the thoroughfare historic district initiative, and this team also reviews comprehensive plan amendments public facility reviews other sort of cultural resources related activities that volume of work has grown not just the rezonings and special use permits applications that go to current planning but the other types of applications that we get go to long-range planning and they're also [03:23:43] responsible for several of these major projects i also want to note that we have some other board Directives that we've received that also We will be focusing on that will impact that division the data center overlay district battery study There's also a study to look at how we could support more accessible I think affordable housing that came for Supervisor Franklin This is a division that will be focusing on that But what we're dealing with right now is as we have these other projects already teed up as well as the application caseload that they deal with and other potential directives that may come up, [03:24:23] that is a division that's being really heavily impacted, and we're having to decide, okay, this person is already handling the sustainability CPA and reviewing innovation ARB cases and also working on this and also working on that. So we're already having to figure out how do we divide up this work amongst the staff that already has a significant caseload. So with that, I would very much advocate for the fact that we definitely do need additional staff capacity for long-range planning. I see my five minutes is up, but my position is unchanged, Madam Chair. All right. [03:24:59] I am going to, before I go to Supervisor Bailey and Gordon for their second tranche, I am just going to quickly say, for me, for planning, it's not either or, it's and. I mean, it's and. And I appreciate your restraint with this budget request, but I have said in the past, planning is an area where we need additional staff. [03:25:21] It's an area where we need additional staff and I know that you are rebuilding the department because the department has suffered several losses, including directors at one point in time. So for me, you know, and we can get through this on markup and do our arm wrestling, whatever it is we need to do. I mean, I do Pilates, I ain't ready, but you know, give me two hands and I can, you know. [03:25:45] I say and. I would like to give you the two FTEs that you requested because you're running the department you know better the needs but i i do think that more help and i appreciate filling the vacancies in current planning but i would like to also give additional staff to that department and for us you have to understand that's the department we see that's who we're probably most interacting with you know we've had um some you know meetings early in january we didn't have an evening session because we had nothing you know and then there was one meeting we would have had two conditions land use cases but one got deferred so you know it's i think in the best interest of all of us to make sure that we have a steady stream of cases coming to the board, [03:26:25] making sure that, you know, no one department is feeling overloaded or lopsided. I mean, certainly, you know, we can give you the positions in the budget, and if the need is not there, if it really, truly isn't there, you just don't feel it. But I'd like to give you that flexibility for my one-eighth. [03:26:43] I want to make sure that the department has flexibility, and I want to help you continue to rebuild with that. I have Bailey and Gordy. Thanks, Madam Chair. I echo Madam Chair's, the FTA portion that she said. [03:26:58] I mean, we can't say that we can't do our land use cases and not give you the resources to get your job done. So I echo that. And I appreciate you having a broader vision and how you're going to get it done. Because for my 1-8th, which has not had a lot of activity in my district, I'm just beginning, thank you, Christina, to move forward with something. [03:27:28] And so I just want to say that we can chew gum and walk at the same time. And with the historical cases that have been there for a very long time, and now they have the supervisors to oversee them with their commissioners and with you, I can appreciate that. [03:27:46] But I can also ask that as you secure these two new planners, that you also focus on those districts that has not had a lot of activities for over 20 years. And so I'll keep advocating for that as we make sure that you are shored up in your department to serve the community. [03:28:08] Because it's not just one-sided of community that's asking for something in its totality. And so as we broaden our scope and how we think about things, and we are not planners and help you support you, I think that's very important. [03:28:23] So I support you asking for the two planners and for your vision and changing the department's names and the responsibilities because as we've grown, I'm sure that that's the reason why you did that. That is definitely a part of it. [03:28:40] And actually, before I get to that, I definitely want to say we very much would appreciate the board's interest in providing any additional FTEs. So I just want to make that clear. We would be happy to take any additional FTEs. With regards to the division names, we're pursuing this rebranding for multiple purposes. [03:28:59] With regards to community development, that was the first one that we focused on, again, because the board approved additional FTEs for that division as part of FY25, including a new assistant planning director, which that division didn't have a manager before. [03:29:16] We went through an internal staff retreat to think about the future of that division, how do we prepare for these additional staff what do we really want this division to focus on and what came out of that was the focus on small area plans both new ones and implementation and working with the board and and other stakeholders development industry community members to implement the small area plans that we already have so as part of that we shifted some functions to another division but as part of that rethinking we thought about the mission of that division and what came out of that was a discussion of you know maybe we should reconsider the name [03:29:53] of that division to better clarify what their focus will be which is community planning the longer range you know tailored planning for particular communities and the revitalization piece so that was the reason for that but once we did that we started to think internally is there an opportunity to think about the the names of the other two programmatic divisions and what What came out of that was the effort in working with the staff to identify these new names, but another factor is the fact that I would sometimes get questions about what does this division do this, or does that division do that, I'm still not entirely clear. [03:30:30] The other piece is that planning departments over the last number of years have been modernizing their organizations, looking at the names of their divisions, changing the names of divisions, And so those are all different factors that came into play. With regards to long-range planning, we shifted to countywide planning because their focus is on the county. [03:30:51] All of the things that they do, both comprehensive plan, public facility reviews, cultural resources, GIS, focusing on the zoning ordinance, they all have countywide applicability. Community planning and revitalization is community focused, focusing on different parts of the county. [03:31:09] And then with current planning, we shifted to land use review. And, again, that was a name that the staff helped to identify. That's just to better clarify what the function of that division is. And I apologize because I know we're also getting kind of – I just want to say if anyone has any questions. [03:31:29] So we have comments. We do have markup. That's when we arm wrestle, bring in the lucky rabbit's foot, dress comfortably, whatever. Does anyone – because I have, I guess – yes. Well, then you're going to, have you done your, I think you've gone twice. [03:31:48] So what I'm going to do, and I'm going to get us back on track, if you have questions, you know, and I did make a comment because that's also I want to remind people that we are going to do this on markup. So I'm going to go to Gordy, Weir, and Bodie, please, for questions. [03:32:05] Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. O'Connor, you're next. Thought you were going to escape, didn't you? I don't know how you can remember that now. This isn't my job. You were hiding. [03:32:22] I was. I was behind the record. I thought I was good. Well, part of the reason, and I'm sorry, this is a comment. First of all, I just want to thank you. All right. I'll take that. Every single person that reaches out to us and we send to you comes back singing your praises for how you've helped them through their problem. [03:32:43] And I cannot thank you enough for the customer service and the commitment to our community that you provide every single day. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart. Thank you. Well, it's not me. That's the team. I don't do much or anything. Believe that. [03:33:01] Nonetheless, I have people calling me. I have people calling me. And so I have to send them to you. And, you know, you guys have one FTE to help you in terms of managing caseload. [03:33:18] And in terms of, you know, kind of around the complaints that I give is the length of time it takes to get through the permitting process and things like that. Is that a function of just needing additional capacity for managing caseload, or is that only just part of the problem? [03:33:38] All right. Afternoon is Ricky with Development Services. I'm the Acting Deputy Director. Mandy's out, so I'm filling in. Which position are you talking about, the senior inspector position or? It says zoning administration. For the senior planner. [03:33:55] So the senior planner is on the back end when we do all of our SUPs and our rezonings. It kind of comes down through zoning administration, and that's kind of the enforcement part of making sure that we're doing kind of what we were doing, we said we were going to do. So this position kind of, right now we have two. [03:34:14] We have an entry level and then the senior planner, which is Alex. They're responsible for all the NCUs. They're responsible for all the SUPs and rezoning determinations and all that kind of stuff. So this allows growth within that, gives us a backup. It doesn't duplicate efforts. [03:34:31] And now with the state code change, those kind of things, we need to be more proactive in this department. So this allows us to get a little more proactive. It provides a little bit of relief for the two positions that are there, as well as a little bit of growth within the department. [03:34:48] I don't know if that answers the question, but I can get you more. The specifics related to this FTE and, you know, from my position in terms of, you know, just trying to help when we're dealing with constituents related to the length of time it takes to get a permit. [03:35:06] I literally had a conversation yesterday, so it was taking about 18 months. But they got it today. So that one's taken care of. So this would be more like if they needed a determination based on what their zoning was before they filed their site plan. [03:35:22] They would submit for a zoning determination. It would go to this group or this function. So it would help speed up that front process so they could get the determination. Yes, my barbershop can go here. It's a by-right use. Or no, it can't go there. [03:35:40] Well, and that's key. And I think even our economic development would really appreciate that, you know, getting after and expediting those determinations to help people get to them. Because sometimes time is money on a real estate transaction. And so that's absolutely key. [03:35:58] Again, thank you for everything that you're doing, your team. And I know even with PwC Works, we've got some things that are working there. But, you know, thank you for your leadership. We're trying. And like I said, it's the team. [03:36:14] It's not me. I'm just a mouthpiece. And, Madam Chair, let me just say my chief of staff, Pamela, loves you a lot. All right. Thank you. He does. You know what? [03:36:30] He does. All right. You know, there's some departments I feel get a little extra, you know, attention and maybe some are lacking. But, you know, anyway, Supervisor Weir, what you got? Thank you, Madam Chair. [03:36:46] Ms. Wynn, approach the stand. Oh, your hand up to be sworn in. Actually, I've got very short. I'll be honest, the new position gives me heartburn, but I'm not going to sit here and harp on it. [03:37:03] I'll arm wrestle over that later. But I do have a why, the WMATA membership. WMATA has never been a friend of this county's. So why would we give them $25,000 not to be our friend? [03:37:19] I know it's a piddling amount of money, but I take issue with joining an organization whose interests are wrapped around their specific site location, their interest, and Loudoun County's interest. [03:37:34] And they've tried to shove a number of things down our throat through other state agencies, and I don't see the sense in it. I mean, give me something of value from it other than, you know, over here to network and yada, yada, yada. [03:37:51] So you're talking about the Washington Airport Task Force, not WMATA. But the membership is almost identical. Yeah, I'm not familiar with the membership costs for WMATA. With the airport task force, I think where this is going is in terms of the foreign trade zone and the subzones. [03:38:16] and how we can build more partnerships. A lot of our companies, ATCC, Serpent Pharma, FedEx, so forth, they're all using that. And so how can we build those better connections with Dulles Airport to help our companies grow and expand? [03:38:35] So I'm not a networking person, so it's more literally about how do we engage this to grow our companies. You just confirmed my fear because I actually misspoke. I didn't mean WMATA. I meant the tax force. I just gave them a name. [03:38:50] The task force has not been our friend in the past, and their response will be, if you want that to happen and we want that to happen, then build us a road from Dulles to Gainesville. Bend down that pass. Bend down that fight. Don't want to go back. And they were particularly mean, nasty, and vociferous about it, and they didn't care about our interests. [03:39:12] i i i understand that that was the past in my interactions and my um workings with them it has never come up all right scouts honor girl scout honor so um and um madam chair may i address the the position problem the position real quick because i'm not gonna let that one go i don't want that one torpedoed um the uh so our events um programming person my time as you stop the clock [03:39:47] as you um i think the whole entire board knows in terms of all the events that we put on um all of those whether it's the calibrate conference make your mark two governor's announcements uh workforce job fairs all of those things takes a lot of logistics we're working on We're helping with a roundtable right now, and so forth. [03:40:12] And so this position, all of that takes a lot of time. Overall, we were never an organization who put on a lot of events. Now we're actually doing that, and so we definitely need assistance. Facilities and fleet management is part of this quadrant, all right? [03:40:33] Next quadrant. All right. That's all I'm good. All right. Bodie? Thank you, Madam Chair. Rick, I'm going to just ask you to pop up. I know there's sort of pending responses around CNI and operational things, but could you talk at least a little bit about CNI as it pertains to the maintenance of effort and NVTA? [03:40:55] Yes, sir. Madam Chair, members of the board, Rick Kennizaw is your Director of Transportation. I got a response for the CNI question. Can I just go back to that question, Madam Chair? Yeah. Speak to Kenny's point and yes. [03:41:12] It's kind of all interrelated, as you know. But the CNI tax will, no matter what it can be used for, whatever we spend on that is an eligible transportation cost, will count towards the MOE the county has to deal with. So the maintenance of effort, which is what an MOE stands for, maintenance of effort that we have to do according to the NVTA receiving of their 30% funds, we have to collect what we were doing in transportation back in, I believe it was 2014. [03:41:44] And in that year, we spent $26 million on transportation. Now, the costs that can go to that currently are local dollars that we put into transportation. Most of that is recordation tax that Dave helps me out a lot with, and the gas tax cost that goes to PRTC. [03:42:05] And the costs that we have in between all the projects that we do countywide with county dollars into transportation. And it has to add up to $26 million every year. That's been very hard lately because of our own success. We get a lot of grants now. [03:42:20] We get a lot of other people's money that we use towards our transportation system, and we get that 30%. That 30% grant towards tax and TOT that are delivered by NVTA cannot be used towards that formula. So that's the money that we use a lot to match these grants to do these projects that we do now. [03:42:36] So we don't have a lot of dollars, regular dollars, that we use on transportation anymore, And that's what makes us have a difficulty in reaching that maintenance of effort on a yearly basis. The C&I tax would help. All the money that is generated here and all the money that is spent, every cent that is spent, counts towards that MOE. [03:42:54] So if we receive the, I'm not sure what Dave is saying the calculation is, $30 million a year, we use $15 million of those dollars plus what we get in gas tax funds. That right there covers the MOE. [03:43:11] So we're trying to get that to that MOE of the year. the CNI will tremendously help us because right now we're using money for transportation that doesn't count towards that. Back to the question Supervisor Franklin had, ma'am? Yes. The CNI tax cannot be used for current operations. There's a gray line there that I read the law. There's a gray line there that says for new services, what it can pay for, it looks like mostly capital and what it takes to get to that new service and operations, but not for the operation of that service there's like a little like i said a gray line that you can say that may be new service that [03:43:46] adds capacity maybe but i would rather stay away from that like i mentioned to you earlier what we could do is a transfer of funds where the funds that we use for capital improvements right now they're the 30 funds can be used to see in that tax and those funds will pay for operations thank you ma'am all right that rick and i just had one for actually rick before you sit down You're Deputy Director of Transportation Capital. [03:44:13] Could you talk about that position just very briefly? Sure, sir. As you know, I am a very high-performing organization, and I believe in working that system through my organization. At this time, I don't have a succession plan for the director. I'm the only director in our quadrant that doesn't have that type of succession plan within the organization and would like to have that. [03:44:33] That deputy director would not only take care of some of my needs on the construction and capital side that you know we desperately need some help on there on that side, but it would also help on the planning side as well because this person would be a multitask person that would learn the system that I have learned to be able to also have a succession plan in place in case, you know, anything ever happens. [03:44:57] We know that's never going to happen, Rick, but thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, sir. All right. Thank you so much. I don't think there are any other questions. Mr. Shorter? All right. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and to the Mobility, Economic Growth, and Resiliency Quadrant, thank you very much. And finally, we'll have Government Operations, Performance, and Innovation, if you all would come on down, just a few minutes to have them come in for those in. [03:45:24] Mr. Schurter, why does everyone look so happy to leave Board Chamber? Because they are like, ooh! All right. All right. Okay. Looks like we have mostly everyone. Madam Chair. [03:45:53] All right. Supervisor Rear. one simple question for facilities and fleet management fleet replacement vehicles why from general fund and not capital reserve um that's Matt Villareal director of facilities and fleet management I'm actually not the right person to answer that question he knew I was going to ask this question um replacing vehicles is is really an annual cost I understand your idea supervisor [03:46:27] aware, but this goes beyond just replacing. You're right. Vehicles in and of themselves do meet a capital threshold for accounting. I agree with that. But there is an annualized cost of replacing not just police vehicles, but also the county fleet, whether they be inspector vehicles or name your line of business services to the community. That's why it's built into the base. [03:46:56] i will tell the board as i mentioned moments earlier uh to mr gordy's question we do have a budget structural issue with vehicle replacements and that uh that problem will compound itself not compound but um it will get worse with uh the pending tariffs and um i just want to get ahead of this curve madame chair all right i'm not going to belabor this aren't jumping in i guess that's it for everyone do you have anything else bob let's no all right [03:47:32] i'm gonna lift my weights i feel like you guys have gotten off early or easy run oh god no body supervisor body i know that was asked about mike mike i thought i did that but the county exec that procurement height have something to say around some of these issues so i didn't want that to get lost as everyone runs out of the room quickly good evening shana terry director of office of procurement services sure so the global [03:48:10] conversation has been around the issues of tariffs, especially as pertains to vehicles. So we talked about it in regards to the police force, fire rescue, now fleets and facilities. So I just wanted to see if you had anything to add to that conversation around what our posture is, what we're doing is trying to combat or get ahead of some of those issues around the inflating costs around tariffs. There's been no particular guidance within the industry around this other than [03:48:36] Maintaining those strong partnerships with our vendors, taking advantage of any advanced purchasing that we can do now to get ahead of the tariffs that may be coming, and also looking at contract language that we can put in our contracts to protect us against those cost increases, and also some flexible pricing arrangements where we only allow an increase on a one-year term to be able to take advantage of of some of the cost savings, we may want to make our increases maybe on a six-month basis for some [03:49:13] of those more volatile markets. Thank you, Ms. Harry. Again, I just want to make sure that didn't get lost with everyone running out of the room. Appreciate it. You're welcome. All right. Ron, we are going to go on to agenda, and thank you, Mr. Shorter. Thank you, everyone, for the Q&A portion. We are going to go to item 11, and that is supervisor's time. We are going to start um with our appointments so i'd like to get a resolution for 11a through 11h second all right [03:49:49] let's go ahead and take a vote unanimous all right thank you guys so very much we are going to go around the horn and i am going to start today with supervisor angry you first keep it [03:50:21] he's gonna he's ready he's got it um i'll just simply say first of all let me give a public health announcement so wash your hands and watch out for these viruses i miss a lot of events because i got something and it shut me down for like seven days so watch your wash your hands and [03:50:59] take care of yourself i'll say that now i want to thank um uh area agency on agent uh the woodbridge Senior Center for their Big Wheels Delivery Meals Program, so I had the opportunity to go ride. Many of us did in the county. I was with the fire chief and a couple of his deputy chiefs. [03:51:18] And even though CXO got to experience it too. My announcement for folks is this. If you have some time and you don't mind being a part of a really great experience, you can sign up to be a driver and actually deliver meals to our seniors who are, you know, just home balance. They really enjoy it. There's great conversation. It's probably the best part of your day that you'll do. And we have about, I don't know, I'd say 20 folks that do this. I want to thank them all because some of them have been doing it for a very long time and it is a really good thing to do. I want to congratulate OWL, Volunteer Fire Department, for the installation [03:51:56] of their newest officers. I was joined by many of my colleagues here from the board. I want to I want to thank Congressman Conley, I mean, excuse me, Vendman, for being there because that was a first for them, and they truly enjoyed him being there. So I want to really thank him for doing that. [03:52:14] Also, April 10th, we have a community volunteerism summit here at McCourt Chambers. I'm going to be here a part of that. So if you're in the area, please stop by and enjoy that. Also, April 10th, I'm going to have a town hall at the Dale City Station 13 back in the Baker Hall. [03:52:31] We're going to have a town hall to discuss the proposed budget and fire and rescue services. So more information coming out. Please join us on that. And also on May 10th, that's the next month, Saturday, May 10th, is our dumpster day. So remember, the Shredding event is a really great event. [03:52:49] If you've got anything you want to get rid of, please come on out. It's going to be back at the commuter lot where we have our farmer's market. So same place. Come on out and enjoy that. And then, so I just want to say that April 11th will be 35 years of marriage. [03:53:05] So don't call me because I'm going to take my bride and we're getting away for a few days. Just want to congratulate her on that. So, all right. Thank you, Madam Chair. That's it. All right, Supervisor Bodie. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a few quick things for me. Wanted to first congratulate GMU Life Science Campus again on the opening of their Life Sciences Engineering Building Grand Opening. [03:53:26] I know a number of us were there last week. it's going to be a great new pinnacle in what's already a quickly growing uh quickly evolving asset for the county and for the greater community um also wanted to thank you madam chair for that same day co-hosting that budget town hall and listening session with me um we had a small but mighty crowd that asked a lot of good questions and and i know that uh the press was there so they were able to report out on it which spurred even more discussion um also wanted to uh uh congratulate OWL unfortunately because of daddy duties I was not able to attend that night but I hear it was [03:54:03] really great events so really appreciate them and everything they continue to do there um and also just wanted quickly to uh to thank the my colleagues um we've had some two really great finance and budget committee meetings um I I think we've had really good discussions I hope that speaks more for good discussions to come. So I wanted to highlight that. Um, and before I go into a directive, also just wanted to highlight that it's my youngest second birthday today. So happy birthday, Jemison. Too, too bad. I can't be with you tonight, but you know, we all love you, [03:54:37] Jemison and really appreciate all the liveliness you bring to our household as a youngest. Um, finally with that, Madam chair, I will be giving a directive and it comes in response to something thing that we've been talking about i know that supervisor and angry and i've been working on this so this is sort of a joint direct but i know we don't actually do that but wanted to highlight his work um madam chair without objection i would like to direct the county executive to work with staff to review the animal advisory committee's policy resolution number 240820 which is pat which was passed on august 18th 2024 regarding pet store regulations county executive is directed [03:55:13] to analyze the committee's request, review any applicable legal provisions, including but not limited to licensure requirements and the zoning ordinance, and bring back any appropriate recommendations for the board's consideration. Such recommendations should, where applicable, include timelines, fiscal impacts, and other pertinent impacts for board consideration. [03:55:33] The county attorney's office is direct to review the information and recommendations for any legal issues. When the research and work is complete, the county exec should report back to the board with his analysis and recommendations during a board meeting or by memorandum as he determines appropriate. [03:55:50] I sent this all to you on Friday. I hope this isn't a surprise. And again, I appreciate Suarez and Angry, his work, Kelly Easterly, his chief of staff, everything we've been able to do together on that. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right. Thank you. Supervisor Rear. Pass. Supervisor Bailey. Wow. [03:56:06] Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon, everyone. On the 22nd, I was very honored to participate in the Tablet of Distinctions History Month program entitled Her Story, Her Impact, Women and Youth Leading with Purpose. [03:56:23] And thank you, Madam Chair, for your support in attending. On the 24th, I had a podcast with Ms. Jarrett Connery. Ms. Connery is currently one of our residents, but she is the first Obama appointee to the nuclear commission that he had when he was in office. [03:56:42] And so I appreciate her work in the community and her invaluable insights on women professionally in a male-dominated field. Sorry, guys. On the 25th, also, Supervisor Franklin and I had our fourth annual program for our community leaders here. [03:57:04] Our fire women, if that's the proper way of saying it, our fire ladies who have, we honored them for their incredible work in the public service entity and the police work, Fire and Rescue and Sheriff's Department, and special thanks to Chief Newsham, Chief LaBelle, and Sheriff Hill for their participation in honoring their women in their departments. [03:57:28] On the 26th, thank you to Rick Conosales and his team for just doing their town hall to enlighten and educate my community on the Van Buren Road extension. On the 27th, I had the opportunity of attending and being the guest speaker for the Montclair Lions Club, where we talked about the budget cycle, the homeless community here in Prince William County, and in the Potomac District. [03:57:56] And then on the 29th, my staff attended the Fire and Rescue 9th Annual Medal Day Ceremony. Thank you for their attendance, and congratulations to all. On the 25th, Centennial Celebration was held in Quantico Town with the John A. Lejeune Centennial celebration honoring 100 years of Masonic Brotherhood, Sergeant Major Harold Gene Overstreet, 12th Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, was their guest speaker, and it was a blast. [03:58:27] And thank you for my colleague, Supervisor Angry, for sharing that with me. On the 29th, I also attended the Virginia Baptist Association Golden Jubilee, where We honored pastors here in our community that have served in this community for over 40 years. [03:58:46] So congratulations to them. And that evening I attended the OWL installation of officers with my colleagues here, and it was a great time had by all. It was a beautiful event. On the 4th, the Jail Basic, coming up on the 4th, the Jail Basic Academy 41. [03:59:06] Looking forward to the PwC Adult Detention Center Jail Basic Academy Graduation. The fifth, we'll have Dumpster Day in the Potomac District. And I want to offer heartfelt condolences and prayers for one of our guards here in the atrium, Harold Perrin, who passed away last week, and his services was last Saturday. [03:59:30] And Harold just loves his job, county exec, and he loves serving with everybody. And so our prayers go with him and his family. That's all I have, Madam Chair. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Sarah. Oh, wait. I have one more thing. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I want to... [03:59:46] Real quick. I may have... Go. Okay. I want to give a directive to direct staff to transfer budget and appropriate... Appropriate, excuse me, $325,000 to the Potomac District Proffer Fund to a new capital project fund to start the process of planning, designing, and constructing improvements to extend the grill room for the Forest Greens Golf Club Clubhouse. [04:00:13] And I passed that out to you two weeks ago. All right. Thank you. Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to start with my notice of intent to appoint Phyllis Rimmers to the Lake Jackson Sanitary Advisory Committee. I also want to reappoint Robert Boyt to the Solid Waste Advisory Committee. [04:00:32] Exciting times happening here in the Coles District. I hope to see you all on Saturday as we hang out with the Easter Bunny for our annual Coles District Easter Egg Hunt. That's going to be starting at 10 a.m. over at Kyle Wilson Elementary School. Also want to congratulate Chief Deem on his retirement. [04:00:51] Chief Deem has been a great asset to the people of Prince William County, in particular to the folks over in the Yorkshire Corridor. We are going to be celebrating him on Saturday at the Yorkshire Annual Banquet. So, Chief Deem, I doubt that you're watching this meeting, but nevertheless, I want to thank you for your service to our community and for your years of dedicated service to everyone in this county. [04:01:15] And lastly, Madam Chair, just want to send my sincerest condolences to the Phipps family for those that haven't heard or probably have heard Mike Phipps. he was a deputy commonwealth attorney here in prince william county and he unexpectedly passed away um you know being in and out of the courthouse you see people left and right and he was always a gentleman a true statesman and so to mike's family um our prayers and our thoughts are with you and to mike's friends um who he touched deeply as well we are praying for you all that's all i have madam chair thank you all right supervisor franklin yeah and thank you supervisor bailey for mentioning about mr harold um he absolutely loved his job so thank you for [04:01:55] that. A few things. March 25th, as Supervisor Bailey mentioned, we did host our fourth annual 22 Trailblazing Women for Women's History Month. In one note, we had the privilege and the honor of honoring our first female fire chief here in Prince William County, Mary Beth Mikos. So we had a wonderful, wonderful event, fellowshipping with our women in public safety and again Chief LaBelle, Chief Newsham and Sheriff Hill were all there to do the honors themselves [04:02:31] which is something that we've never done before and we just had a grand time and just thank you to all of our public safety counterparts for the work that they do particularly our women. Some upcoming events, housing roundtable April 23rd at 7 p.m. at the Fralazzo building we'll be discussing the county's proposed affordable housing ordinance as well as other housing issues more information can be found on our website bike to work day will be held thursday may 15th i will be at the woodbridge vre station dumpster day may 31st at fredlin middle school from 10 a.m until 2 p.m and as supervisor angry [04:03:10] mentioned we will have a shred truck as well just a few things just a few announcements to highlight i want to thank the prince william county trails and streams coalition for volunteering at the Neabsco BoardWall cleanup on March 1st. [04:03:25] Volunteers collected about 75 bags of trash and 25 to 30 tires. In the Neabsco Eagles Park area, about 30 volunteers were able to collect 36 bags of trash, 11 tires, a shopping cart, and several miscellaneous items. [04:03:42] And the Veterans Park Memorial cleanup was held on March 22nd. And so thank you to all the volunteers who helped keep the Woodbridge District clean and healthy. Also, kayak launch, historical marker ribbon cutting, will be scheduled for Wednesday, April 16th at 1 p.m. at the Neabsco Regional Park. [04:04:00] The new motorized small boat launch will allow visitors to take their kayaks out through Neabsco Creek, which connects to the Potomac River. And there will be four new accessible parking spaces off of Blackburn Road that have also been added to the regional park to allow easier access for people with disabilities. [04:04:19] The ribbon cutting, again, will take place on the North Landing side of the boardwalk. So please come out for that. And then also I just want to flag that an eagle's nest was found at the Featherstone Wildlife Refuge. So please go over and visit that as we have some wonderful wildlife also in the Woodbridge District. [04:04:37] And then just one other note, shelter replacements are planned for, the shelter replacements that were planned for Veterans Park have been completed. Lastly, I just want to thank the police department for sending out their annual report. [04:04:53] Just a few highlights, including violent crimes fell by 7.4%, including a 12% drop in the murder rate, a 31% drop in forcible rate, 2.9% drop in aggravated assault, an 11.9% drop in robberies. [04:05:09] Firearm-related cases decreased by 12.8%, and firearms used in robberies fell 60%. Burglary offenses continued to decline, dropping 7.3%. And one thing that we have to keep our eye on are the motor vehicle thefts, which rose slightly at about 3%. [04:05:30] So thank you to our law enforcement officers for the work that they do, and let's continue to make sure that we work with them as well as our social service agencies and departments to make sure that we keep the county clean, healthy, and safe. Thank you. Sir Isaac Hardy. [04:05:46] Thank you, Madam Chair. Starting off with some events we've had in the Brentsville District, very exciting. First of all, on March 22nd, attended the Noakesville Volunteer Fire Department's annual banquet. We celebrated those who've gone above and beyond over this past year in support of our volunteer fire team, and it was great to be with them again this year, and then joining a couple of our fellow board members here on last Wednesday at the George Mason Life Sciences and Engineering [04:06:21] building ribbon cutting, and that is a, if you have not had a tour of the facility, I highly encourage you to get a tour it is a fantastic facility um and you know the the great part about this is is it's starting to migrate some of those functions out of the fairfax campus to the prince william campus um which means you know we we've we've got to start looking at student housing the university village uh that's over there that was the intent of that project and [04:06:54] We're working right now with the developer at University Village to start working towards accomplishing the intent of University Village and providing student housing. On the 29th, we attended the Prince William Fires 9th Annual Medal Day Ceremony. [04:07:16] And congratulations to all those that were recognized. You know, to hear the stories of heroism of our fire folks, you know, sometimes it just sends chills up and down your spine to hear how they put themselves in harm's way for the good of our community. [04:07:36] And then on Sunday, attended the Blue Bell Festival at Merrimack Farm. Wish the Blue Bells were a little bit more out. They're running a little late this year, but nonetheless, we had a great time, and it was great to see a lot of the folks out on such a beautiful Sunday afternoon. [04:07:53] Yesterday, I appreciate Rick Canizales and his team for hosting the University Boulevard Extension Community Meeting at Gainesville High School. This is the final piece of connecting University Boulevard from Bristow to Gainesville, and we had quite a few folks that came out to learn more about the project and appreciate them coming out. [04:08:13] to support that one announcement that i want to make the community aware of is tomorrow evening at 7 p.m at patriot high school stanley martin will be hosting a public meeting related to the the developments along vent hill road that they have proposed so invite the public to come out and learn more about those projects and that's all i have madam chair thank you all right thank you so very much um i ain't got nothing so we are going to take a 10 minute break [04:08:49] and then we are going to go into closed session yeah you heard me i ain't got nothing i don't know i'm just letting you know guys sometimes brevity is beautiful sometimes brevity is beautiful let's [04:09:02] go guys 10 minutes and i'm everyone we are back and so for 12a i would like to certify the closed meeting can i get a motion so moved second all right let's take a vote are we ready [04:09:37] Oh, the substitute's doing it. The junior part. No, you didn't. I would say co-clic. All right, thank you, and then... [04:09:55] Wait, who did we lose? I didn't get a chance to vote. It didn't come up. Coffee time, coffee time. All right, so what we're going to do next is... The purpose is we decided for the Interjudicial Committee with... [04:10:10] That's a committee that we're going to have, and jointly with Manassas, City of Manassas and Manassas Park. We have selected it a... I will be serving on the committee. We have selected another member. Can I get a motion to name Supervisor Yesli Vega to that committee? [04:10:25] So moved, Madam Chair. Second. All right. Any discussion? All right. Let's go ahead and take a vote. The B and B. [04:10:45] It's not popping. Anybody else? None of them. Oh, here we go. I had to put me unanimous. [04:11:01] All right. The next thing is a motion for the, I would like a motion for the alternate to name Supervisor Tom Gordy as the alternate for that committee. Madam Chair, I'd make that motion. Second. All right. Any discussion? All right. let's go ahead and vote vote unanimous supervisor gordy abstaining from vote all right thank you so very much with that we are um i will see everyone at seven o'clock and i mean seven o'clock not [04:11:38] seven o'clock not seven o'clock two seven o'clock thank you people want some coffee requests we should have done a starbuck run but before we get started um with the school board budget presentation we are going to go back to accommodations and proclamations because we have the osborne park or we have the coach do we have the students here raise your hands coaches right here students so we are going to um commend and this is really awesome what your team has done [04:12:14] so um supervisor vega if you would join me at the podium i think we have everything set up and all the girls anyone from osborne park if you can stand at the side all right this is item 4f [04:12:52] which we voted on earlier today and this is uh accommodation honoring the osborne park high school girls basketball team and their Class 6 state champions. The Osborne Park High School girls basketball team has demonstrated exceptional skill, determination, and teamwork throughout the 2025 season. Through their hard work and perseverance, they won the first ever Class 6 state championship title in the history of Osborne Park High School. Their historic victory also marks the first time a prince william county public school high school girls basketball team [04:13:29] has won a state championship since whitbridge high high school's triumph in 2019 the team's outstanding performance guided by their dedicated coaches and supported by their school community serves as an inspiration to young athletes and a source of immense pride for the osborne park high school family in prince william county today the prince william county board of the prince william Board of County Supervisors commends the Osborne Park High School girls basketball team for their historic achievement in winning the 2025 Class 6 state championship. Supervisor Vega if you have [04:14:04] a few words. Sure thank you Madam Chair and thank you to the athletic director over at Osborne Park for being here present tonight. I understand that the girls had a prior commitment so that's why they're not here today but certainly at one point in time believe it or not Supervisor Vega was an athlete. I played sports in high school, and I know that the chair just read a summary of what the proclamation actually states, and we thank supporters and a whole bunch of other people that played a vital role in the success of this team, but I do not want to leave out a very key important component of the success of these athletes and students, and that is the parents. I am a soccer [04:14:40] mom, and just this weekend we spent the entire weekend over in Richmond for soccer, so I know the sacrifices that parents make to ensure that their children are active and excelling in a sport that they're already talented in. So parents, if you're watching at home and for those that couldn't make it, we thank you for being in vital support in your children's life. And once again, congratulations on this historic achievement, a very first one for the school, yes? So congratulations, thank you for being here and give our best regards to the girls and to the coach. And if you would like to give some remarks, you're welcome to do so. Thank you so much. So thank you all for this great honor um it's been an amazing run an amazing ride um i apologize i did not come with [04:15:19] scripted uh thank yous but um our girls have had an amazing season we've had an amazing community outpouring of support um we had over 150 students go down on on spirit buses we had an entire section of the um seagull center um showing up with our community parents and other community supporters and former players and former coaches, and it was just an amazing run. [04:15:45] Our girls compete. They compete every single day. They compete in practice. They compete in games, and they're actually competing right now. Part of the reason they're not here is many of them are in AAU, and this is their craft. This is what they do. This is their almost full-time job. Many of them have aspirations of going on to play at college, and in order to do that and get scholarships and those kinds of things like they want, they have to put in that dedication. [04:16:08] They have to put in those hours. So I apologize for them not being available tonight, but they do really, really appreciate this honor, this recognition. And we really do appreciate all of the support from the community, the parents, as Supervisor Vega just mentioned, the school community support, and our administrative support. [04:16:27] Ms. Kane, our principal, was amazing. She calls this team her girls. Those are my girls. She really loves this basketball team. And we're hoping to – we're very young. we're hoping to be back here again next year and like every athlete they always want to win that last game of the postseason because if you win that last game of the postseason you know what happens it's what we've done right now so thank you all so much appreciate it again [04:16:50] all right before we turn it over to our guests of honors at school boards let's go [04:17:39] oh you're koya you always go first okay i'll go so madam chair before the school board budget presentation 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 this matter because I'm able to do so fairly objectively in the public interest. Thank you Madam Chair. Madam Chair before the school board budget presentation I need to declare a personal interest in this matter. My wife is a special education instructional [04:18:18] 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 this matter because I am able to do so fairly, objectively, and in the public interest. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right. Thank you so very much. And I'm going to, Mr. Schurter, if you want to cue up our special guest today. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, members of the board. I really want to welcome the chair of the school board and the superintendent and all of the school board members who are here with us this evening. This we do annually, and really it's a wonderful opportunity to hear from the schools about all of the phenomenal work that they do and [04:18:56] also obviously about the budget for the year ahead. And so with that, Madam Chair, I will turn it over to our school board chair, Dr. Lateef. Your microphone, please, Dr. Lateef. Yeah, just turn up. Thank you. Got it. Great. Thank you. Sorry about that. Greetings and good evening, Prince William County Board of County Supervisors. I bring greetings from the Prince William County School Board. I am Dr. Barbara Lateef, chairman of this Prince William County School Board and have been so for the last seven years it's an honor to present to you again our fiscal year 2026 [04:19:35] school board advertised budget and on behalf of the prince william county school board i want to express you know my deepest gratitude to the work you all have done and you all have committed to our school division we have made incredible strides over the last four years over the last seven years because of you all and your commitment to our schools and you will see some of that return on investment tonight in our presentation. Together, we are building a brighter future for the children in our community. I would like to recognize my colleagues from the school board this evening. I'd ask them to stand as I call on them. Vice Chair Tracy Blake of the Neabsco District is here this evening. We have Lori Williams of the Woodbridge District, Richard Jesse, Occoquan District, [04:20:14] Justin Wilk, Potomac District, Erica Trudenik, Brentsville District. And then we have Ms. Zargarpur of the Coles District wasn't able to make it due to death in the family and Ms. Jen Wall of Gainesville District had another competing event. So thank you guys for having us. [04:20:35] Let me get started and I think I'll just move forward like this. You've all heard this before every student will graduate on time with the knowledge skills habits of mind necessary to create a thriving future for themselves and their community. That is our singular and unified vision for the school division that you all helped us create four years ago for our launching thriving futures vision 2025 strategic plan we will talk about the current progress on that strategic plan and we'll talk about what we're going to do about our next strategic plan because believe it or not folks we are up for the next one before i go on i do also want to congratulate the osborne park [04:21:13] girls basketball team i'm sorry i should have said that at the beginning that was fantastic we are very proud of them. Dr. McDade was there at the game watching. I didn't go this year because last year I went and Patriot lost, so I thought we'll just send Dr. McDade this year and did a better job. And then I would add to Supervisor Vega's comments about her being a former athlete. I will tell you a quick story. I was on the fields at Helwig watching my daughter play soccer one day, and I heard this loud, strident, animated voice screaming at kids on the field next to me, And that voice sounded very familiar, and I turned around, and there was Supervisor Vega coaching this team to an incredible victory. [04:21:53] And boy, was she animated, that work. And so we appreciate her commitment and her volunteering in the Hellwig and the NVSC Soccer League over the years. And I can vouch for her that she does care deeply about our students and our student-athletes. [04:22:09] Moving on. This is, you know, our comment, our slide here on launching thriving futures. It describes our four key commitments. And this is what we budget. We prioritize all our budgeting around these four commitments. And we are very disciplined and have been very disciplined over this. [04:22:27] The first one, learning and achievement for all is our most critical commitment. It provides academic excellence for all. And it's designed to make sure we have investments for all students' success in the classroom. Second, positive climate and culture promise to provide welcoming and supporting safe environment for teaching and learning family and community engagement represents our commitment to build a collaborative and meaningful partnerships and trusting relationships to foster the success of all our students and last organizational coherence which represents our commitment to align the entire school division as one team united in the singular commitment to support all schools and students and here we continue to invest in retaining and recruiting our best teaching talent [04:23:06] innovative staff and establishing a pipeline for our homegrown talent parents william county school demographics we continue to be the second largest school division in the commonwealth the 32nd largest school division in the entire nation uh we have um over 90 000 students students today and uh we have our student population just like our county represents the 10th most diverse school division in the nation. Having children from 159 countries with 170 languages spoken. This information is crucial because it shows a significant diversity in our student population [04:23:43] and this diversity also affects our funding needs and our investments. Specifically we have 23,600 students who are English learners. They are our fastest growing population in Prince William County schools. That's an increase of over 3,500 since 2020. Our students with disabilities have an increase of to 13,000 with an increase of 1,300 from December of 2020. More than 29,000 students are identified as economically disadvantaged based on federal criteria. We have an estimated 13,000 full-time employees including 7,200 teachers. A total dedicated workforce of 16,700 employees [04:24:21] making us again the largest employer in the county and these facts underscore the strength diversity the strength diversity and our school division's commitment to excellence uh wildly important goals we talk a lot about these and our number one wildly important goal is a 95 percent on time graduation rate and i'm proud to say that as of last june we hit uh where's my number here it should say it up here 94 point where's my number here it's oh okay 94 we're at 94.3 percent or something like that. Our vision to make our goal, part of getting our goal and achieving this [04:25:00] goal is an investment in making sure that we reduce chronic absenteeism, reduce our English learner dropout rate, and improve our SOL proficiencies across all contact areas. And our goals are a 5% decrease in chronic absenteeism, 10% decrease in English learning dropout, And our goal is to get 85% proficiency across all SOL content areas. [04:25:25] As you can see now, on graduation rate, 94.3% last year. Our goal is 95, and we hope to hit that this year. And we'll see where we're at. But I want you to point out and take a look at – I don't have a pointer here today, I don't think. Do we? Is it on here? [04:25:41] This one? It's pointed at the computer screen. That one? Oh, that's working as well. It works here. Okay. Okay, but this is pretty cool. Okay, how about if I do that? So, like, you know, I really want you all to focus because I think this is really, really important because this is directly tied to the investments each of you have voted on on all four years, you know, the prior years on our budget. [04:26:08] Because the investments we take to fund our strategic plan directly go to this wildly important goal for us. English learner graduation rate has increased almost 10% over the last year. our, and we increased our graduation rate across all groups over the last couple of years. And we're very excited about that. You know, we were able to do that because we focused on chronic absenteeism. Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10% of the school days. It's about 18 days for the school year. We reduced that rate from 21% in the academic year of 22, 23, which [04:26:47] was coming right out of the pandemic to 23, 24. Last year, we went from 21.7% of students being chronically absent to 16.2. In 55 of 95 schools, we had a decrease by five percentage points or more and seven schools had a decrease of more than 10 percent. And I'm going to read you those seven schools. Mullen Elementary, Gainesville District, Ellis Elementary, Brentsville District, Leesylvania Elementary, Woodbridge, McAuliffe, Coles District, Triangle, Potomac District, Dumfries, Potomac District, and Potomac High School in the Potomac District. We have focused [04:27:22] our work on making sure you know many will say like you know what have you done uh what what what are the results here's our academic results over the last few years we have seen uh sol pass rates in our division beat state averages in every category in science we are just tied with the state average but we were way behind we made some really significant improvements there but we are beating in reading in writing social studies math uh we are beating the state we're at 76 percent in reading 3% ahead of the state, 79% in writing, 3% ahead, 71%, 6% ahead in history and social science, [04:27:58] and 2% ahead in math. And we still have a ways to go, folks. We still have a ways to go. We're very excited. And this is what we mean by strategic funding. Identifying where support is needed and delivering the resources necessary for student success. Just a quick list. This is a small snapshot of how many awards our school division and our students get recognized for. [04:28:20] And these are rewards at the state, regional, national, global levels. The investments from the Prince William County Board of Supervisors have allowed us to deliver on the promise of a thriving future for our children. Simply put, Prince William County students achieve because Prince William County families, businesses, and communities continue to invest in them. [04:28:39] Career and tech ed, important to many of you, very important to our school division. We set five major goals here. Goal one, 100% of the schools we wanted to have a formal business partnership to advance the improvement goals. We have hit that goal. We are over 100%. [04:28:54] 60%, the goal was 60% of graduates will earn at least one college or career credential. We are at 65%. 3,500 students was the goal for summer employment opportunities for high school rising juniors and seniors over the next four years. And this was, you know, obviously three years ago we set that goal. [04:29:10] We are at 3,367. We should be there this summer. 500 was the goal for current formal business apprenticeships and internships. We are at 763. That is really great. That's a really testament to the businesses in our community who are really standing up to support our school divisions. [04:29:27] We wanted to have, we had 120 CT, the goal was 120 CT registered partnerships and we are at 347 plus. Further stats on our career tech ed. Over the last three years, we have 87 students who got state licenses earned, 5,400 workplace ready skills assessments passed, over 13,000 with industry certifications achieved, 16,000 students earning one or more credentials, 19,000 total credentials achieved, and currently we have 1,300 active enrollments and CTE dual enrollment courses as well. [04:30:01] Moving on to really another award-winning program that you should all take a lot of pride in and we're very excited about. We have really committed as a school division in our students with disabilities. We have two programs, Project Search and Explore. Project Search is a transition to work program. It is a unique business-led one-year employment preparation program that takes place entirely at the workplace for our students with disabilities. [04:30:29] Our Explore program, where PWCS partners with community businesses to provide opportunities for our students to discover their interests preferences and potential for successful post secondary employment independent living outcomes helps develop the soft skills required of the 21st century workplace in three years we've grown this program six times its original cap size we received the chamber of commerce award for explore totos neighborhood market 2025 chamber of commerce award for our west our search program at westminster and lake ridge our project search program, which we're very proud of at the UVA Health System, where we have 74% of the graduates [04:31:05] have received a competitive employment offer upon completion of their program. And you all should, you know, if you ever have a chance, we should make sure we get you invited to the graduation ceremonies at Project SEARCH, especially at the UVA. It is remarkable. And I think some of you have been there. It truly is heartwarming and incredible. So we want to thank all of those agencies, and we want to continue to find new partners with this program. Moving on to Prince William County students and enrollment trends. So as you know, we've talked about this over the last few years. We are seeing, you know, statewide, certainly and certainly in Northern Virginia, [04:31:43] a decrease in projected enrollment. We're sitting at about 90,709 right now. We expect the fall to have 89,442. We continue to drop until about 2029. We'll see a slight uptick. Although student enrollments dropping over the last five years, which you've seen that we've had a drop in enrollment over the last three or four years, our student membership in categories of students with special needs has increased 11.3 percent. Students who are economically disadvantaged by federal criteria has increased 15 percent, and English learners 23.3 percent. And these students are among [04:32:19] the ones that have the highest needs for educational investment and resources. And so we continue to see this as a challenge for the school division moving forward and in in in much of our you know much of the funding increases that we're seeing goes in our budget goes to these students specifically and our rising population these students with special needs and english language challenges regional comparison we put this up every year you know we've always tried to improve this number our number has improved thanks to all of you over the years um we but our our neighbors [04:32:59] are also competing with us and they are also moving up um we sit um uh among the nine districts in in northern virginia uh second to last but um but we we continue to move up and we are grateful and we've been able to with that increase in pupil spending per pupil spending been able to do a lot of good things. But the challenges are there. This is another example, a graph. You know, in 2009, prior to the recession, on adjusted inflation numbers, we're really just a couple thousand dollars per pupil spending more than we were in 2009. On the unadjusted, we certainly have made [04:33:37] progress, and that's really due to you and the state committing more monies to education. But we continue to, you know, one of the things that I am proud of, and that you should all be very proud of is next year in the fall, I think our teachers, first year teachers will make the same amount of money as first year teacher at Fairfax. This is the first time maybe in history or a long time that that's done that. And what does that do? That helps us recruit and retain top talent, keep our teachers from leaving and make sure we have a high quality teacher in the classroom. Having a high quality teacher in the classroom is the number one driving factor for [04:34:13] improve student performance um did i go too far um okay budget priorities okay so we're going to talk about the 26 total operating uh and debt budget amounts to about 1.89 billion reflecting an increase of 111 million from the approved 2025 budget of 178 every cent of our fiscal 26 budget is tied directly to top to the priorities outlined in our strategic plan which is designed again for student achievement in our classrooms and beyond graduation. Investing in our schools is an investment in our children and an investment in our collective future. This budget is laser-focused [04:34:51] on improving student achievement for every single student across the county. Strategic plan funding for the 26 budget is dedicating $36 million to learning and achievement for all initiatives. These include hiring more educators to reduce English learner student-teacher ratios, ensuring students receive the individualized attention they need to succeed. [04:35:11] Special education and instructional positions will help support our teachers and students in the classroom, and the five new school psychologists will also be added to strengthen student mental health services. We will prioritize climate and student behavior support by funding $10.7 million for a dean of students in every middle and high school. [04:35:27] Additionally, investments including expanding social worker support, increasing security personnel, and funding initiatives to improve student engagement. We're investing $8.3 million in organizational coherence. And in addition to our investments in competitive wages include, you know, on top of all of this, we're, you know, adding $83.2 million to our current and future workforce and salary and benefits. [04:35:49] Let's talk about those compensation highlights. We are in a competitive market for retaining and recruiting the best teaching talent. To compete, we must invest in our own. A significant highlight of the 26 budget is implementing the first year of a historic two-year wage agreement totaling more than $160 million. [04:36:05] This includes back-to-back average pay raises of 7% in the first year and 6.4% in the second year, as well as adjustments to the certified pay scale and supplements at or above regional median. Adjustments to certified pay scale and supplements will ensure compensation remains competitive across the regions. [04:36:24] And I can't thank you all enough for the efforts you have all made to help us get there. Here's a snapshot of the last five years of raises. 5%, 7%, 5.25 is 5.2 to 6.1, and 6.8 and 7.4. [04:36:39] These are historic raises, which I believe, if you go back even two more years, a historic raise relative to any other division in the nation. We were far behind, as you saw in our per-pupil spending. While we continue to be behind, we've made incredible improvements here, and this is due to Madam Chair, all of you, and to this Board of County Supervisors for their commitment to education. [04:37:02] I mean, I can't not thank you enough. And by the way, I'll say it 100 times tonight, but this is directly tied to student achievement. You know, paying your teachers more, having good teachers, being able to recruit and retain talent has been a driver of our graduation rate, our reduced chronic absenteeism, and our improvements in SOL scores. [04:37:25] The total revenue for the fiscal 20, I'm going backwards. The total revenue for Fiscal 26 is projected at $1.89 billion, reflecting an increase of $111 million or 6.2% compared to Fiscal 25. The budget reflects steady growth and an investment in education. [04:37:44] County and state contributions continue to be the largest funding sources. Increased operating fund allocation ensures resources for students, staff, and schools. And debt service adjustments align with our long-term financial planning. Total budget across all funds amounts to $2.4 billion. [04:38:04] These funds are allocated across various operational, instructional, and support services to ensure the efficient functioning of the school system. General fund and debt service funds, $1.89 billion. The largest portion is the general fund, which supports core instructional programs, salaries, and school operations. [04:38:22] The construction funds, $242.6 million, support school infrastructure projects, renovations, and expansions. this is a significant increase from last year, which is consistent with our discussion with you when we were discussing the 25 budget. As you may recall, we reprogrammed 24 CIP, and as a result, we used significant amount of the 24 appropriation to support the 25 requirements. 26 funding is back to more typical levels. These projects represent expenditures that will be made over several years. [04:38:50] The budget prioritizes instruction, infrastructure, student services, and employee benefits. Strategic investments ensure schools are well equipped to support our student success. Maintaining financial sustainability while addressing growth and operational needs remains our top priority. [04:39:08] Capital Improvement Program. On this slide, you will see a number of projects in each district. I won't read them all, but it's important to know that safety encompasses the physical aspects of facilities as well as the security of the facilities. Research shows that school maintenance has a measurable impact on student safety and learning. [04:39:25] The capital improvement planning for 2630 reflects current enrollment trends and includes several new construction and renovation projects to address our evolving needs for student safety, security, and education. New construction projects include school replacements, facility upgrades, cost-saving installations, and security upgrades. [04:39:42] We have some innovative projects like the Garfield High School Greenhouse, which will transform our school buildings from places of learning to learning places. For the first time, we're including proffer funds in the CIP, requesting them from the BOCS as part of the budget action. A total of $25 million in proffer funds identified for school projects is included in our CIP. [04:40:02] We continue, Prince William County Schools and PwC, the county, to work together on the Joint Audit Committee. There have been no material findings in the school system in the past six years. We have high-quality financial management, and we continue to contribute to the triple A bond rating that the Prince William County enjoys. [04:40:21] We have been recognized for excellence in financial services and reporting and management, continuing to win national awards for that great work we do. Folks, it's important to know, and I want to make sure we emphasize this, that when the Prince William County School Board presents our budget, We always base it on the five-year revenue forecast adopted by the BOCS, and when we present our budget and the superintendent presents the proposed budget, it is always based on the five-year revenue forecast. [04:40:55] We do not budget for excesses beyond that because we just haven't done that, and it's important to allow you all to have the flexibility to do what you need to do as a county. The superintendent has built, and we continue to build, a priority-based budget. [04:41:11] We released it in February prior to the release of the county executive's proposed budget. We have several unfunded, though, instructional priorities that will deliver on our promise that each student will be given the best instruction and the most opportunities and individualized attention that they need to succeed. [04:41:28] So if there are more monies that are allocated to schools, we have outlined on this slide, and take a look at it you have it in your materials what we will do with that if the total comes to about 50 million dollars our highest priorities are reduce and optimize bond sales using cash we will share in the cost of implementing which has been desperately needed over a number of years police radio frequencies with the county to work better within our school system that dramatically improves safety and the other top priority is increased funding for students with special needs and enhancement of educational support and resources. And then [04:42:03] there are further investments there that we would be looking at provided the school board is awarded more monies in the upcoming budget vote. We do have, we continue our budget needs and we have challenges. There are federal funding uncertainty. If you've been reading the paper, you'll know, you know, we are concerned about direct federal aid to Head Start programs, food and nutrition and community eligibility programs our head start pre-k program just so you know is about a four [04:42:34] and a half million dollar grant every year and so that is a program that I believe the school board would continue to stand up if we saw cuts federal cuts and so these are some of the things that keeps us up at night and we continue to monitor on a daily basis food insecurity social mental emotional and academic supports that help our children thrive are all at risk of funding cuts um you know for the fiscal 25 budget the bocs approved additional funding for pwcs as part of [04:43:08] the true up all of the fiscal 2024 true up funds was allocated to capital projects um and it's important to know when we get true up monies when we get extra monies it depends you have to look at if it's a one-time money the true up monies are typically one-time monies we we have to use them on one-time projects they are not baseline adjustments to the school division's budget additional approved revenue for 25 helped accelerate capital projects and supported much needed transportation requirements considerations for 2027 and beyond we are [04:43:43] developing our 26 to 2030 strategic plan a process that will take place starting in january of 25 and go through February of 26. This plan builds on the current commitments that drive student success. We will identify new objectives, goals, and strategies to enhance student outcomes. [04:44:03] We will incorporate public feedback, including all of yours, to ensure the plan reflects the needs of our schools and communities. The school board will review and adopt the new strategic plan guiding our work through 2030. Strategic investments in the 27 budget will align with our long-term priorities. Fiscal 27 marks the start of the next state biennium and that will impact funding allocations. A recalculation of the local composite index will determine local and state funding contributions. We anticipate declining enrollment and increasing student diversification requiring thoughtful resource allocation. Continued focus on economically disadvantaged students, [04:44:43] English learners, and students with special needs ensures equitable access to support and services. To summarize, Prince William County Public Schools is committed to strategic investment through Vision 25 Launching Thriving Future Strategic Plan, ensuring that all students have the resources they need to succeed. [04:45:02] Despite increasing resources for 26, Prince William County Schools remains behind regional peers in per-pupil funding, even as student needs continue to grow. With rapidly diversifying student population and critical unfunded and underfunded needs, securing equitable funding remains essential. [04:45:18] We will continue to operate within the revenue sharing agreement, but additional investment is crucial to bridge the funding gap and meet demands of our students. From technology to nutrition, recruitment to retainment, and safety to well-being, every dollar invested in Prince William County Schools is another opportunity for a child to thrive from their first steps of kindergarten to their last steps across the stage at graduation and beyond. [04:45:43] as we move forward collaboration and strategic decision making will be key to maintaining excellence and equity in education our strategic plan and this budget set the foundation for our schools to adapt innovate and thrive in the years ahead thank you and we are happy to take questions all right while everyone is kind of jumping into queue i just have a couple clarifications how do we define economically disadvantaged students is it free lunch eligibility yes so that changed recently i'll have shaquille answer that question shaquille yousef is our cfo so we [04:46:15] We use a process that the state VDOE has, which is direct certification now, which measures we get the data directly from the federal government, and we use that. [04:46:31] In the past, we used to have those eligibility forms. We don't do that. We just go through direct certification. All right. Thank you. And, you know, you talked about this on slide 26. I think you answered on the next one, but I just want a clarification because federal funding um it's listed as a challenge and according to the budget you're expecting what nearly 50 million in federal funds what is your contingency plan if that funding doesn't come through right so we have um a contingency plan in case they cut federal funding we have talked about this in the school division um dr mcdade or shaquille would you like to address that i didn't [04:47:08] introduce and my apologies we have superintendent dr latonya mcdade with us this evening uh shaquille Yusuf CFO, Carol Flanard, our Deputy Superintendent, and a number of our finance staff with us tonight. So a bulk of those federal funding is also received as passed through the state. [04:47:27] We will look. There's a lot of uncertainty. Now, in terms of a contingency plan, we would probably have to come back to the school board to see if we can use some of our reserves and have those appropriated that is unappropriated. At this point, we do not have an indication of what the amount of it is going to be and where the cuts are going to be, if any. [04:47:52] So when we built this budget, we built it on us having the funds as we have normally had it year over year. But we do have a lot of uncertainty over that. We currently receive about $48 million in federal funding, and much of that goes to fund pre-K nutrition support services. [04:48:15] And so some of the $50 million here that you see that are additional critical PWCS-funded items, we may have to forego some of those things and use any additional funding that we receive from the BLCS to cover the cost that we would lose from the federal funding. [04:48:32] So these are things that certainly, you know, we need to do, but they're not currently in our budget. These are things that if we got additional money, we could fund them, but we may not be able to do that. So that extra money would go to helping with the federal uncertainty. And then also the state hasn't voted on their budget yet, so it's unclear. [04:48:50] If the confree budget goes through, we'll see some extra dollars. If it doesn't, it's still unclear, but there might be some monies from the state. All right, transportation costs are jumping over $6 million with 37 new FTEs in this budget. That's more than any other line item. [04:49:07] You know, what's the driver behind that? So coming out of the pandemic, we were significantly understaffed in terms of bus drivers. And so we had to kind of continue to add to FTE to get back to pre-pandemic levels, which was why we had to do a complete overhaul of our transportation, because we were doing double and triple runs. [04:49:27] And in order to eliminate double and triple runs, which lead to students arriving to school late, getting home late, we had to increase the number of FTE staff for bus drivers. So we've gone up now to date. We're close to pre-pandemic levels in terms of our bus driver staffing. [04:49:44] And we don't have all of the double runs that we once had. Last question. I'm looking at time. Average class sizes. We have the average sizes in the region almost across the board. What is in the budget? that we're doing to address or fix that you repeat that question class sizes what are we doing to reduce class sizes what specifically is in the budget for us to really meaningfully address that so just i'll start with you know our capital improvement plan continues to have school construction where we would be adding classrooms and reduce generally overcrowding in schools [04:50:22] especially on the east side we you know we're looking forward to the elementary school in and Supervisor Franklin's district, will dramatically improve overcrowding on the east side. And we have the Potomac Shores Elementary School coming, and we have the new high school coming. [04:50:39] But we would specifically need to increase our per-pupil dollar amount to be able to do that, because we would have to have more teachers. The per-pupil dollar amount allows us, that's how we staff more FTE in the building. And in order to have more teachers, we would have to have a higher per-pupil dollar amount. [04:50:58] All right, thank you so much. I'm going to turn it over to Supervisor Vega next. Thank you, Madam Chair. On that note, school budgets are often tied, right, to student numbers. So we have a decrease in enrollment for several reasons. You know, parents are choosing different methods to educate their children, you know, versus sending them to public schools. [04:51:17] Is there anything that you guys are doing to track the why enrollments are down? We did have the presentation to the BOCS during the joint meeting where we had our demographer kind of explain that. What we're seeing in PWCS is not necessarily a decline based on parents choosing to go to maybe homeschool or other options. [04:51:37] We're seeing the decline due to outward migration into the exurbs because the cost of living is cheaper. And so we see people going outside of the county for that. Birth rates are also low across the country, not just in PWCS. [04:51:52] So we're seeing more double-income, no-children families in our community. So between the birth rate as well as ex-SERV migration, we're seeing a lower. And that's across the entire region, not just in Prince William County schools. [04:52:08] I'm more so asking in terms of students that are dropping out, right? Do we have specifics in terms of whether it's age or grade level? Yes, we do. The larger percent of students that are dropping out, those are our students that are typically coming into us as what we call newcomers that are coming through our Global Welcome Center from another country, and they're typically overage and under-credited, meaning that you might have a student that is coming into the school system who might be 17 and we may not have transcripts, or they have formal education that's been interrupted where they haven't consistently been in school. [04:52:45] And so those are students that we define as overage and under-credited. They may be 17 and classified as a freshman, right, or coming in as a sophomore and they're 19. So the data that we have shows the larger percentage of students that are dropping out are those students that are overage and undercredited. [04:53:04] And for those students, it doesn't make sense coming in at that age as a sophomore in terms of credits. That's typically going to be hard for them to be able to make that up. So right now we're working to try to find alternative options for them. [04:53:20] Sometimes, depending on their age, they can go into a GED program. um and or other or night school and things like that but it's it's a case-by-case situation because every student that comes in is different based on their transcript and how they're classified but that's that's the larger population our highest dropout rate is in our english learners and most of those students that we're seeing are those that that group of students that i just described uh thank you for that i'm just trying to um you know better understand we keep talking about overcrowded classrooms and granted i understand that it's different for different areas different parts of the of the county but enrollment is down you know we talked about the [04:53:55] potential of the 14th high school with enrollment being down is that school still needed based on based on current projections it is because if you look at the whole east side of the county we do have like colgan is really overcrowded we have some overcrowding issues which is a relatively new school colgan it is it is and so we so we continue to have pressure on that i will continue to monitor that you know we have changed our CIP from a 10-year program to a five-year program to be more nimble and to monitor all of these changes we continue to be very committed to making sure [04:54:32] that we you know strategically use our resources in the best way so we are constantly monitoring those and that's why I bring it up because I do think that it's important to consider you know the need for this new school versus using those funds to fix other schools that are in dire need of attention that we probably perhaps don't have the funding currently right now. [04:54:52] And so just, you know, thinking ahead of how to, you know, better use our resources, if that makes sense. Also wanted to talk a little bit about, you know, the per-pupil spending, right? I'm not interested in keeping up with the Joneses just because Fairfax or Loudoun or Arlington is doing something. I will always say, Chair, you have a son that's in, you know, our school system. I have two kids that are, you know, a product of Prince William County Public Schools. And, you know, I always want to make an emphasis on the quality of education. So if we're being asked for more money, right, for per pupil, how does that improve outcomes or quality of education for our students [04:55:29] here in Prince William County? Well, one of the things that you asked earlier about the per pupil funding, the higher the per pupil funding, when we talk about reducing class size, it's not just space, right? Even if we had all of the space that we needed, you have to have the staff to reduce to the ratio of student to teacher, right? [04:55:48] And the only way to do that is to raise the per pupil funding. And so when you look at other jurisdictions... Meaning we have to hire more people. I mean, yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, I know. So... I think I want to be important. That's to be emphasized. Okay. So where you see other localities that have a higher per pupil, they can have a lower ratio of student to teacher. [04:56:10] Another thing that we've tried to do where the per pupil... increases per pupil will help us significantly is we've changed the formula so that more students can have the additional staffing for least restrictive environments. So those are students that may have individual education plans that are classified as students with disabilities. [04:56:31] For them to be able to access education in the least restrictive environment with their general education peers, that requires staffing more teachers who are special education teachers to support within the classroom. So those are some of the ways that the per pupil funding does help when it is increased because you can secure more FTE. [04:56:52] I see. Madam Chair, can I take my second five minutes? Yes, you may. Thank you. We talked about historic raises, which is great. Are these raises based on merit or is it just across the board? They're not based on merit, but they're also not, what you'll see this year, they're not just across the board. [04:57:08] So a couple of things. One, we've redone our scale for certifies for our teachers. so that their number of years of service is commiserate with the steps that they're on on the scale. And that was important because the scale was compressed, so we decompressed the scale, right? [04:57:25] During times of recession where teachers remained flat and you had that compression, now we've changed that so that it matches year of service to the step, which was huge, and that was something that teachers really wanted and were asking for. And so with that, some of the mid-career teachers, which is the teachers where we were seeing, based on our data, that's where you'd get a loss of staffing, right, where they can go to other districts that are paying more. [04:57:54] And so we've done more where you'll see, just to make it a level playing field, our teachers that have been with us longer, so our veteran teachers, if you look at how they're paid compared to the surrounding jurisdictions, we're outpacing those school divisions the longer a teacher is with us. [04:58:13] So our most senior teachers have a competitive salary. That is outpacing, like, let's say, a Fairfax. Probably not allowed it, but they're outpacing. Actually, both. They're outpacing others. But our entry level and our mid-career teachers is where we're seeing the biggest gap in being competitive. [04:58:31] So we didn't just do across the board. We made it equitable where the teachers that had the largest gap in being competitive and have the highest risk of leaving us, they may see a larger increase in their percent increase year over year as opposed to someone who's at the top who's already highly competitive in the scale. [04:58:52] And then we also, the entry level, we raise the bar on the entry level as well. So it's not just a flat across the board because that wouldn't necessarily be equitable because we're looking at making sure that every layer is competitive in the salary scale. And when we talk about historic raises, this also includes administration, yes? [04:59:13] Yes? Yes, administration is included. Okay, thank you. And then on a slide, I can't remember the slide number, but we talk about, you know, projections for an uptick in enrollment by 2029. What metrics are we utilizing to come up with that conclusion? [04:59:33] Yeah, right here. Right. So what we do is we work with, I believe, the University of Virginia, and we also work with the county demographer. For that particular year, the county demographer projected an optic. [04:59:53] Gotcha. Okay, and I'm running out of time here. The last question I have is, what's currently your surplus total? How much do you have right now today in your reserves? In terms of budget reserves or in terms of actual? [05:00:11] Actual. Actual. I'd have to run that calculation as of today. Is there any way we can get that before the meeting ends today? I'd have to provide that through, I'd have to do the analysis. Okay. Because it'll take some time to understand the categories. Roughly how much time do you need? We'll probably be able to get you something by the end of this week. [05:00:29] Perfect. That's all I have, Madam Chair. Thank you. All right. Supervisor Weir. Thank you, Madam Chair. Dr. McDade, thank you. Got it days early and it's the right year this year. With respect to this budget. [05:00:47] I'm assuming that this is crafted within the framework of 22.1 stroke 92 of the state code where you're giving us a budget request for all the needs that you deem necessary to fulfill the mission of the school division. [05:01:07] Yeah. Yes. Okay. Yes. And I'm assuming that your ask is a combination of this book with the additional budget markup. Okay. So that. Yes. You're fully funded. So this is where I get a little wrapped around the axle. [05:01:28] You're claiming that you're submitting a budget right now that meets all of your needs, but then you're telling me you're not budgeting your excesses and you're allowing us flexibility. We have no flexibility. I don't think at any point I said we're budgeting for all of our needs. [05:01:45] I made it crystal clear that I'm presenting a budget that's within the revenue sharing agreement on the five-year forecast. if there are more dollars that will come to us over and above that we have the needs that i i saw that yeah but that's why i asked the question you are tasked with us providing us with a budget that meets all your needs you are not tasked with providing us a budget that meets your needs within the revenue sharing agreement i i don't understand the question ask that again mr weir there is nothing in the statute that caps what you determine is your need there's no restriction [05:02:23] So respectfully, Supervisor, we've always stuck to the revenue-sharing agreement. Other jurisdictions, what the superintendent is required to do is propose a budget of needs, based on needs. We do not do, when we do a needs-based budget, we don't do a full needs-based budget because we restrict ourselves to the revenue-sharing agreement. [05:02:46] And thus my question, that's not what the code requires you to do. We should get your needs-based budget, whether we like it or not, whether it's under or over the revenue cap. Okay, that is... We can't fully fund your needs unless we know what those needs are, and we're... [05:03:03] I understand what you're saying. We propose a budget based on the revenue that we expect to receive. That's the budget that we put forward. And I understand... We don't put forward a budget based on... If the BLCS votes on a forecasted revenue, that's what we go by. We have to have something that shows, you know, how much revenue will be coming in. [05:03:21] I understand that you're saying that we should propose a budget that covers everything that we need, but then that is somewhat fiscally irresponsible because we already saw how much revenue was coming in. So how do we propose a budget that goes beyond the revenue that we actually will receive? [05:03:38] That's the fine line that you have to walk, giving us what your needs are. We're not, you know, this is that philosophical argument I get. well we're both constrained by a revenue sharing agreement and this is why i'm saying we need to address it because the five-year forecast didn't pan out this year for you guys and now we're now we're sort of in a quandary and you've got this wish list that you're tacking on saying now it's a need but it wasn't a need when this stuff was presented and when you do it that's not accurate no it absolutely is accurate the the accurate aspect is that we we we budget within the revenue [05:04:13] sharing forecast, which is what we do always, and that's fiscally responsible, we always have more needs than we put forward. And so if there are more needs, I can come up with another 50 million of needs if you want me to. Oh, I'm sure you can, but I'm saying I'm a 22.1. So you're responsible to provide us with a budget to meet the needs, whether we like it or not. And I want a budget that actually meets the needs. So Supervisor Weir, long before you got on this board, we have been spending our time budgeting within this revenue sharing agreement. [05:04:43] it has worked in a way that has been responsible for the county it's been responsible for us we've maintained a triple a bond rating we continue to be responsible in that we do not tie your hands we we are all working on the revenue sharing agreement if you you know it that that's how we've done this if there's some desire to do something different we can we can talk about that but i'm not at this point we will continue to work within the revenue sharing agreement we will provide a responsible budget that this school board has voted on each year we bring to you but we do have more needs we have excess needs we continue to be beyond below and per pupil [05:05:22] spending there are a lot of things the other districts get to do that we don't do you're making we would like to do that what's that you're making my i'm actually agreeing with you hold on hold on hold on hold on first of all would you like your section second tranche of [05:05:38] minutes. Right now, yes or no? Sure, but I want to move off of this subject. We're just going to sit here and continue to beat this horse. I'll just say this. The revenue sharing agreement does not work for either one of us anymore and that we're cheating the students, in my view, because we're not supporting a budget that actually meets all of your needs. If you're telling me you've left needs on the table because you're trying to stay under the revenue cap established by the revenue sharing agreement, that's not good for us, it's not good for you, and it's not good for the students. [05:06:10] And I'll leave it at that, and I think it's time that we as a board and you as a board get together and we knock out this revenue-sharing agreement and get to some sort of agreement on it because we still don't have an MOU regarding the structure of that, what you're supposed to give us, what we're supposed to give you after 27 years. [05:06:27] And I think we need to address that before the next budget, and I'll leave it at that. I am happy, however, to hear that for the first time you're factoring in proffer funds. I'm kind of curious why that hasn't been done before, and I hope certain divisions within the county note this, that you're using profit funds for CIP. [05:06:45] I'm just curious why the sudden change. I'm happy about it, but why the sudden change? So in the past, we would request profits when and as we needed them. So we'd come to the BOCS and ask for certain profits. [05:07:03] In terms of our CIP planning this year, We felt it was necessary, put it up front, and be transparent about what profit monies we're using. So it's just a change in- To be clear, I like that approach a whole lot better. I think it's easier for us and easier for you. [05:07:20] I don't know if you have it in front of you, but on page 34 of the proposed budget and elsewhere in the document, there's a line item loaded as beginning balance $40 million. What does that $40 million consist of? So each year, in addition to state and county revenue and federal revenue, we've used a portion of our fund balance to balance our budget. [05:07:57] If you look in 2025, it is $33 million. In 2026, it is $40 million. And typically we use this for one-time type of spend. But there is some over the years we've built some recurring items in this number. [05:08:14] But what constitutes, where does that $40 million come from? And what is the surplus from the previous year, savings on operating expenses? Yes, yes. Again, we're going to get to this when we talk about the revenue sharing agreement, because that's what I kind of suspected. Per people spending, there's two parts to that equation. [05:08:34] There's the allocation part, and then there's the number of students. So if your student population is dropping and your revenue is increasing, you are necessarily, without any artificial stimulation, going to increase the per-people spending simply as a result of the declining enrollment, the declining number of students versus the amount allocated to you. [05:08:58] I just did a quick calculation here based on your total budget and your student number generation, and it looks like you're jumping all the way up to $21,000 per student just based on the drop in students versus what your total budget ask is on simple math. [05:09:18] But that's not how we calculate it. What number are you using to calculate it? If you look at page 23 of the FY26 proposed budget, you'll see how the per pupil amount is allocated from kindergarten to high school, with kindergarten being about $8,217 per pupil. [05:09:36] And if you flip the page, you'll notice on page 24 for a student with a disability, students with special needs, the per pupil cost to educate them is $21,917. So depending on the grade level, whether the student is general education, a student with special needs, or economically disadvantaged or English learner, the per pupil amount varies because of the type of service that we have to provide and the type of staffing levels that we have to provide. So if you look at page 24 for a student with a [05:10:10] disability, why is 21,917? Look at the teacher ratio for a level two program. It's eight to one in comparison to looking at a kindergarten that's 24 to one or grades four through five that's 25 to one. So that's why, you know, you can't necessarily do just the basic math. What you're saying is correct if you did it that way. But how we fund students is based on how we support the needs that they come to school with. And that per pupil dollar amount, as you can see on those two charts where it breaks down the current per pupil calculation it's different to paste on depending [05:10:46] on the students um educational needs i think that needs to be explained a little more and not to to us in terms because what you've got is a simple number which is your ratio and you're presenting it as x number of dollars per student and you're asking for more we need to know where yeah there needs to be more detail because the way it's presented it's you know you're agglomerating all of the student numbers together regardless of what the spending per pupil and per division is but you come out with an average at the end if that's not the real average across across the [05:11:22] board for all pupils then i then i'd kind of like to know what that real average is because i'm assuming that's what that number means yeah that's an average but it wasn't just taking all the students and doing a division problem right you have to remember you have to weight the students So depending on the change in the population, you know, we might have a decreased enrollment, but we might continue to increase our English learners. [05:11:44] And so there's an offset. So it's not a pure, you know, if we're doing it just by student numbers and the math, yes. And then you also have to include inflation moving forward each year. Well, we're going to have to end up paying, you know, faculty, staff, teachers, all of that stuff. Yeah, but that's also included in the allocation. [05:12:00] But it's also the weighting of the student is the issue. We're going to have to move on from that. supervisor gordy thank you i would like to keep on it because i was going right to where you were talking about it's that allocation that gets because this is what funds the school each and every single school um and in looking you know in in terms of the enrollments uh within our school looking at at the the um particularly elementary i mean there's some significant fluctuations between enrollments and in some of the elementary schools um and so you know in terms of how when [05:12:38] you've got a a school that's uh let's call it two-thirds of capacity or lower you know i mean there's a lot of fixed cost that has to be covered by fewer students so do those numbers change as it deal as you deal with a school that may have a lower enrollment um as compared to a school that has a higher enrollment? The short answer is yes. You also have to look at it in two contexts and it's kind of the way we budget. There are certain schools that will get a principal. I mean every [05:13:12] school gets a principal. They'll have custodians. Some of that is based on your counts. There's still, as you said, a certain fixed cost or we call fixed allocation that goes to a school because regardless of the number of students now you may get more assistant principals but there There's certain costs that we put into what we call fixed allocation. [05:13:33] Then we look at enrollment by grade, right? We look at our average salaries, and we look at our class size ratios, right? So, for example, at the kindergarten level, we calculate per pupil. [05:13:50] At the grades 1 to 3, we calculate per pupil. Then on top of that, we calculate per student what custodial materials they need, what equipment they need, extracurricular materials, field trips, to name a few, textbooks, and that comes into an addition over the per pupil. [05:14:12] So, not to take, sorry, I'm taking too much of your time, but in essence what happens is there are certain costs that are fixed. You still have to heat the building. You still have to have a principal. You still have to have your security officers. [05:14:30] And then there are certain things that are classroom dependent. That's the number of students and the number of types of teachers you need. And they do, so to your point about if I'm at a school and I have less students this year than last year, that means I'm going to also experience a decrease in teaching staff, right? [05:14:48] I think that's what you were getting at. So they don't keep those same staffing levels. Those staffing levels will go down as the population decreases. And so it sort of gets to one of my concerns, is if we're looking at decreased enrollments, and if some of these schools are being impacted more than others, at some point we get to a place where a school becomes very inefficient, because now you're spending a lot more of your percentage on the fixed cost, as opposed to you're having to reduce the number of staff in order to support that school, because your fixed costs are, well, they're fixed, right? [05:15:26] So as we're thinking about kind of where we're going there, I'd like to know also kind of where we came from. So in terms of the increase or the amount you're allocating to the schools per pupil, what was the increase this year over last year, just on a percentage basis, generally speaking? [05:15:55] Overall, our budget increased by 6%. 6%. Six percent, and I would use that as a rule of thumb, but specifically I'd have to go by the type of school, the number of classes, to get something very specific. Yeah, and that was what I was trying to understand. Is it a balance across the board, but for what's happening inside the school in terms of the increase, in terms of the six percent increase? [05:16:21] Okay, thank you for that. Going to – oh, shoot, I'm almost at the end of my time here. So speaking of enrollment and looking at just going back to the 14th high school, and I'm looking at the amount of money that you guys are having to – I mean, $200 million that you're carrying over, and now we're looking at the potential for tariffs. [05:16:48] What concerns you about those costs and the limitations it has on other CIP programs that are going to be competing for those dollars? So, you know, if you look at what we would do if you allocated the $50 million extra, right, it would be cash and capital construction, right? [05:17:10] So that's our biggest line item where we would do that. We've been very responsible over the years of paying down debt, if we could, with extra cash, again, for these exact reasons. During the pandemic, we saw supply chains increase in cost of construction dramatically. So we've been through this cycle now once, if not before that even. [05:17:30] We are closely monitoring this. I mean, I can tell you that we are very worried about this. We're worried about it. We are concerned about it. We are watching it closely, which is why we continue to budget in a fiscally responsible, conservative fashion. And we come to you each year with that in mind. [05:17:49] and the uncertainties that we listed whether it's federal funding cuts we didn't add the but i'm glad you brought up inflation all of those concerns are very worrisome to the school board i mean we are monitoring these things very closely and and i think you can count on us to make sure that we're going to commit to making sure that we're not going to do it irresponsibly one of the things school divisions are facing across country is they are closing schools right it's not something we have ever had to think about here in the last 25 years and it's something that if these enrollment drops continue it might be something that the school division has to look at and we're not afraid to have those conversations they're not happening yet but we are monitoring that as a [05:18:27] strategic risk as an enterprise risk madam chair can i go ahead and before you do i'm sorry i just have to interrupt um i support using um you know having um service animals however we do have to Keep the center aisle clear. [05:18:45] I don't know if someone on this side or either side is willing to switch with you or if Doggo can get in the middle, but I do appreciate that. So thank you very much. All right, Supervisor Gordy, you want your second tranche? Yes, thank you. Go ahead. Now I've lost my train of thought. Sorry. [05:19:03] Well, all right, so CIP. So first of all, thank you for making adjustments with Marsteller, Given what we're dealing with with potential development in the area, I want to thank you guys for helping us proactively get ahead of that challenge. [05:19:23] At the same time, I also want to thank you for the redistricting effort around some of the other areas to get away from Noakesville School, to get in both the elementary and the middle school. So thank you all for that. We look forward to that getting resolved to relieve that pressure. [05:19:42] But it also brings kind of the general point, as I'm looking through, and we've talked, we've got overcrowded schools and we have under-capacity schools. And, again, you know, the conversation of closing, you know, when we've got schools that are over-capacity, but, you know, just down the road there are schools that are well under-capacity. [05:20:02] are you potentially looking at a broader redistricting in order to balance out enrollments to keep these schools um moving forward i mean i think the short answer would be yes we have updated our redistricting policy to address some of these issues and we're closely monitoring that okay yeah i mean i i think the answer is yes but i mean do we have anything on the plans right now right now no we're we're continuing to monitor yeah i'm i'm given what we're seeing um in the Brentsville District and even crossing over into Gainesville, you know, we definitely, this is something that we're probably going to have to look at in a few other areas other than [05:20:40] just the Noakesville School. But that 29 corridor is also going to be a pressure point for us. And we're going to have to try to figure out between Haymarket and 29. So look forward to having those future conversations with you guys on that. And in terms of your going back to the kind of the tariffs and everything and following up on Supervisor Vega. [05:21:02] And I'm not looking for a, you know, kind of where you are today on your reserves, but kind of generally speaking, you know, what's your cushion? What reserve capacity do you have just in case something, our revenues start to go down, the revenue sharing funds go down, and then we see escalating costs at the same time? [05:21:21] I mean, do you feel comfortable that you can get through this? In terms of tariffs, is your question specific to tariffs? Well, just the reserves and your ability to work through whatever these uncertainties that we may be facing in the next 18 months. [05:21:39] So we've always got our big board BOCS to help us out. No, the way I would best say it is we have to dip into reserves. Yes, our budget has reserves in it. We do have contingencies. [05:21:57] And those may take us over a year. There may be a bridge over a year or two years. Long-term sustainability can only happen if we get additional revenue from either the state or the county. Okay, thank you. [05:22:15] All right, Supervisor Bodie. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Superintendent McDade, Chairman Lateef, and the rest of our colleagues on the school board and the division staff for being here. Always appreciate the time to spend with you all. I actually appreciate that you have that slide up because it actually hits on the question I was going to ask first. [05:22:36] We also know, and Chairman Lateef, you mentioned it, that a lot of this is sort of driven by, and Dr. McDade, you said it as well, outward migration and folks leaving the area, cost of living, other issues. We also know, though, frankly, anecdotally, a lot of people moved out to the exurbs when they were able to work remotely while still being members of the federal workforce. [05:22:57] Now, yes, we are still experiencing uncertainty around the workforce itself. We also know that many agencies that were largely telework and work from home are now returned to work. So have you all seen any data yet on that piece of it? Has that been something that you've been able to get a grapple on yet? [05:23:13] No, I think it's too soon for us to see what the actual impact will be for Prince William County, remembering that a lot of the federal workers we're sharing with Maryland and D.C. as well. so we we don't have a handle on it just yet we we had a big um job fair last week and i will say we did have a lot of federal workers um hundreds of federal workers that did come to that it was it was actually packed so we'll probably be able to start collecting some baseline data of what the impact will be for us but definitely i do believe that um this has been a shift that of course no one could have projected when we were projecting our enrollment and it could actually change [05:23:52] But we just don't know yet. Appreciate that. So I think that that trend is subject to change based on that. So I wanted to leave that as we continue to talk about that. Secondly, in terms of the student membership and how, Dr. Lateef, you've done a really good job highlighting that. [05:24:08] Yes, enrollment may be down, but the costs associated with educating and making that student population thriving is in increasing costs. Do we have, I know you had a graph of comparing that to our regional peers. Do we have a similar graph to see the student populations and how they may have fallen in our regional peers? [05:24:31] We don't have that as a visual. We do have it in the WayMe guide that we could provide. There is a Washington Area Board of Education guide that compares our jurisdictions, so we may be able to get that from there. I appreciate it, because that also gets at something that I think folks have been talking around, which is the per-people spending. [05:24:51] I've seen a lot of demographic data that shows that, yes, we are having more outward migration, but the core counties, especially Fairfax, Arlington, Alexandria, has seen it in a much steeper way. So I would imagine that's probably affecting their student population more. [05:25:07] So if we're going after the Joneses, as it were, we're looking at numbers from that perspective, If they're declining even more, their per-people spending is going to increase as well for that very reason from what I've seen. Absolutely. Okay, appreciate that. Number two, I saw that you guys are doing a lot this year around investing in people. [05:25:27] I know we're doing the same thing on our side, and it was asked earlier about student ratios. Can you talk a little bit about what you're doing around student special needs and IEP? I saw there was a specific sort of benefit for IEP caseloads. Can you talk about that a little bit more? Yeah, we've done quite a bit, actually. [05:25:45] And I said this earlier when I was responding to Supervisor Vega. We've added a minimum of three FTE to address instructional needs for students to be able to be in the general education classroom, accessing education with their general education peers. [05:26:03] And that was we reformulated that. So we've added about 17 FTEs to increase our baseline funding, and that's at the elementary school level. that has smaller populations. So even when Supervisor Gordy was talking about some of these smaller schools, what happens is before we structured it this way, you could have a situation where a student, based on the number of students in the school, only qualifies for like a 1.2 or a 2.1, which is not a whole position. [05:26:32] But the way that we have it structured now, they'll get the three full FTE so that students can access the least restrictive environment. So that's one thing that we did. And our overall projection for our level two programs, and those are our programs that are autism, intellectual disability, emotional disability, severe intellectual disability, those numbers are continuing to increase, to your point. [05:26:57] And the cost for funding that we have to date, about 420 for level two programs, right? And so that's one of our highest numbers that we've ever seen. And the cost per pupil, as I mentioned, when I talked about looking at the $21,000 per pupil for a student with special needs in comparison to a kindergarten or in a general education program at $8,000, and you can see the breakdown of what that covers because the student ratio is much lower, 8 to 1, that cost is just significantly higher. [05:27:29] And I read off those numbers just to show you that we're increasing in our level 2 programs, and that's not just for K-12. Our early childhood education, special education classes are increases. We have currently 167 class-based because we have to provide students with special needs in early childhood education as well. [05:27:52] And those numbers have significantly increased also. So I'll wait to take my second trance later. Thank you, Dr. McDade. Thank you, Madam Chair. Wait, you want it later? I do want it later. All right, then. We are going to go to Franklin. Well, thank you all for the presentation. [05:28:07] Thank you, Dr. Lateef, and to our school board members for being here. Also, I just want to apologize to my colleagues because some of this they've already heard. You know, part of the challenge that we have nowadays is kind of what we've been seeing nationally. [05:28:24] And one of my questions was going to be what Supervisor Bodie and Chair Jefferson have already asked. What are the impacts of some of the discussions around Department of Education? if the Department of Education has moved to a different agency, if the responsibilities are shifted elsewhere, I believe that if those discussions become very serious, which I think they will for the first time in a long time, we, the localities, and certainly the state as well, is going to have to take a greater responsibility in terms of funding for our school system. [05:28:58] Now, Prince William County, we've done a pretty good job over the past several years of supporting our schools, But with the discussion that we hear nationally, I think we're going to have to take an even greater role. So what does that mean for today's discussion? You know, we've had, you know, discussions around the revenue-sharing agreement. [05:29:17] Does it continue to work for both sides? I think now more than ever we have to have our commitment to the revenue-sharing agreement because of the instability and the uncertainty of what's going to happen nationally. Also, when we talk about per-pupil spending, it's absolutely about how much capacity can we add in terms of human resources, our teachers, and making sure that our students have the resources they need from a programming standpoint as well as an academic standpoint. [05:29:48] And then lastly, I'll just say, and I mentioned this earlier about the JLARC study that discusses how, because of the way we do funding formula in the Commonwealth, how we are well below most of the 50 states with regards to education funding. So I say all that to say now more than ever we have to be committed to this agreement in making sure that Prince William Schools, whether we see a decrease in enrollment or not we have to make sure that we have the financial resources [05:30:24] to make sure that our students can still receive the best education possible second largest school district in the commonwealth is that right and certainly the second largest jurisdiction in the commonwealth period and so i think we have an obligation and certainly while i respect the discussion around the revenue sharing agreement it doesn't seem like now is the appropriate time for that discussion i don't know if you has to respond because if not I'm going to go on to the next yeah yeah I was [05:31:01] gonna go ahead dr. McDade I think dr. McDade had a quick response I was in the queue no I see you but I'm finishing maybe it wasn't showing up no showing up it's showing I'm sorry hold on I was given the school board a chance to respond to what supervisor Franklin I'm just wondering if it was showing all right please proceed dr. McDade well she didn't ask the question as Supervisor I don't know if you've got a response. [05:31:26] I did want to point out that the revenue sharing agreement, when we talk about uncertainty, the revenue sharing agreement allows us to propose a budget and balance a budget. So we know with certainty what we're going to receive to be able to propose a balanced budget. [05:31:42] Whereas we see some jurisdictions, they never know. The schools are in flux. They don't know how many positions they're going to get. They don't know if they need to make cuts because there's no certainty in the funding. And the revenue sharing agreement allows us that so that we can bring forward a balanced budget. Just to add on the revenue sharing agreement as well, I've heard often Madam Chair and even Margaret say that revenue sharing agreement can be the floor. [05:32:07] There is no reason we can't have a discussion moving forward about, okay, the revenue sharing agreement is the floor, and then you provide a budget next year for needs that you might need over and above the revenue sharing agreement. I don't think anyone on the school board would be opposed to doing that, provided there's a floor on the revenue sharing agreement. [05:32:23] And I think that is one way to move forward as well. All right, thank you. And so just so everyone on the dais is aware, sometimes my screen today has been clearing, so I've been writing people down. So Franklin was ahead of you, but now it's your chance. [05:32:38] First of all, let me start by saying what an amazing job you've done and the growth that you've made with your strategic plan. [05:32:56] I remember when you came and you presented the strategic plan and to the county board Chair and to our representatives, thank you for partnering with our superintendent to make it work. Because I see the examples of how it has worked. So I want to get us out of the lower level and bring us up on the elevator in that regard. I also want to say that when you look at the numbers, like the career and technical education, that was one of your strategic plans. And I know that's one of the tools that you use as it relates to the truancy rate [05:33:35] that you have and putting those students, the older students in those programs so that they will have a future. So we appreciate that. But the question that I have, cost per student, and it relates to the revenue share agreement, I'm going to get there, but the cost per student is based upon their needs and the breakdown of that. And so quite frankly, we need to see the breakdown of that and if it's in here just point it out to us but we need to see the breakdown of that because i think it's essential uh that we understand that and how that change how it has [05:34:08] changed from 9900 up to 12 000 cross per student and we're still the second in the state so that that says we've got work to do so if you could provide that's one of my requests one sheater that's okay you can definitely provide that okay now back to the to the revenue share agreement and And again, I want to thank my colleague, Ms. Franklin, for bringing that information today. [05:34:32] It would be, for me personally, a travesty for the two, when my colleague brought up about Potomac Elementary School, the two that created the revenue share agreement, Covington-Harper. If we cancel it out, what a slap in the face, God forbid, if we do that. [05:34:50] Because what they were trying to do was create something for students across the county to assure that everyone had equity in getting an education. So what I'd like to ask, in terms of the revenue share agreement, I think you've done a great job, Chairman Lateef, in explaining how that's allocated across the board. [05:35:14] But what do you foresee? Because I know you have things like food insecurity and, you know, ESL and special needs, which is, as the superintendent has said, it's increasing. What do you see as the one thing that will affect your budget going forward with an unpredictable forecast? [05:35:34] What is the main thing do you think will affect your budget going forward based upon the list that you've given us? And I know it's unpredictable. Yeah, but the number one thing that would affect our budget would be federal funding. And Supervisor Franklin talked about, you know, shifting the Department of Education responsibilities to different departments. [05:35:56] We receive, and I have some of our representatives here from finance and grants, we receive a large number of grants, federal grants, that would be in jeopardy. And I talked a little bit earlier about some of the funding that would be impacted, and even down to the meals that we provide for students, breakfast and lunch. [05:36:16] So that right now is the biggest level of uncertainty. We have Title I dollars that are federally funded in all of our grant fundings, And those funds do cover positions as well, teaching positions as well. So that is a big uncertainty for us because there hasn't been any real clear directive on what is going to happen. [05:36:37] We do know, though, it's not just talk anymore. Things are being moved out of the Department of Education into other respective departments. And so we do know that there will be some impact. We're just not sure of the gravity of it. And can you, at this juncture, with that ambiguity, with this juncture, can you project a one-sheeter for your strategic plan funding commitment, how that will skew that? [05:37:03] Is that possible? Yes, we can do that. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right. Supervisor Bode, then angry. Thank you, Madam Chair. A couple final questions from me, and I think I'm going to dovetail off of what was just asked. [05:37:19] We've been talking about as a board how we overall don't think we'll see the shoe fully drop probably until the late summer, early fall in terms of job losses, people who got ripped, people who took a fork in the road and then hit that September timeline of being sort of having to find another part of employment, what have you. [05:37:43] My question for you all is, you seem to track really well the number of students that fall into that socially, you know, socioeconomically challenged, those especially those folks. I know you also, because of all the work you've done around chronic absenteeism, have been also tracking children that fall into challenging home issues where things may happen. [05:38:07] They become food insecure, home insecure, all that. How closely are you monitoring that now? Are you changing your methodology around that, knowing that there's a certain amount of folks that, frankly, like I said, the next six to eight months will probably fall into in some very precarious situations? [05:38:23] Yeah. So, I mean, we do track that. And it's going to be it'll be hard in real time to figure that out because they don't families don't fill out the app, the applications anymore for free and reduced lunch. So over time, we'll be able to figure it out, but it'll be a lagging indicator because we won't be able to do it in real time now. [05:38:44] It'll be looking at right now with direct certification. If you look at the number of families that may getting temporary assistance for needy families or SNAP benefits, we can get that kind of data. But then that's also a process of people applying for that or not applying for that because we also have families who are families in need but do not apply for benefits. [05:39:03] And so then it's no way to know, absent of them filling out the application, it's no way to know. That was one of the downsides of moving to direct certification, because it doesn't actually capture the full number of families that are in need. There's families that do need the support, but aren't captured in that number if they don't go for benefits. [05:39:24] I appreciate that. And my last question before I make a comment, and then I'll be done. But either Dr. Lateef or Dr. McDade, can you go back to that slide that has your sort of lists of that, if you get that extra $50 million? So you've been pretty clear that that's, if you do get that money, but then there's uncertainty and there's economic downturn and whatnot, that's obviously the list that will be sort of taken to task immediately. [05:39:53] My question is, looking down to sort of that middle pack there, the improved counselor services to reducing student-to-counselor ratio from 250 to 200 in high schools. [05:40:10] I know that there are state guidelines around it. I also know that it's part of your plan. My question is that I know that it sits on that level of your priority order, but anecdotally, I have high schools, and especially Woodbridge High School, they share with me that that's a priority for them. [05:40:28] So how is that calculus going to move based on sort of how things go as we have a better picture of the year? Well, it probably won't move if we don't get some significant, but to do that, you know, that's a significant number of FTE that have to be hired, right? [05:40:46] The state ratio right now for counseling is 1 to 325. Right. And so we are either within that range or below. So, for example, in elementary schools, we're 1 to 325, middle school is 1 to 278, and then high school is 1 to 300. So as you can see, we're pretty far away from that goal. [05:41:04] And that 250 goal is what the American School Counseling Association recommends. So we're still far away from that. So that's a significant dollar amount. And I would say, with the level of uncertainty in funding, we probably would not be able to meet that goal. [05:41:20] And so I say all this to say, and I'll use the last bit of my time on this, is I'm going to echo a lot of what Supervisor Franklin said and Supervisor Bailey, that at a moment where we're not sure what the future looks like in terms of federal and state, I said it earlier at a committee meeting that we know that the General Assembly and the governor aren't in agreement on what the budget looks like or even how much they're going to alleviate the support cap. [05:41:43] so we don't know what we don't know but we have control over what we do and we're looked at as that first line of defense and the last line of defense on making sure that you all have the funding you need and at a moment like this we don't know yet how this is going to pan out we have a lot of families that are probably struggling that they're not already doing so we have an obligation that's to stand up with you and lock arms to make sure that we're doing everything in our power to make sure that you guys are whole um so my request is as we move along you guys can come back with touch points either to the finance and budget committee or in some other way so we can continue to have this conversation thank you madam chair all right i don't know if you guys want to react to the comment but if not i'm going to go to supervisor [05:42:22] angry did you want to react just a quick comment on state and i think margaret franklin supervisor franklin mentioned this as well the state contribution to k-12 is i think we're ranked 42nd in the nation somewhere between mississippi and missouri and they haven't lifted the support kept since 2008. That was in the conferee budget. That would be a significant increase in funding for schools. The funding for schools is on your backs, the localities, on our backs as taxpayers. We are doing the most of it. Our state tax dollars are not coming back like they should. We have and we [05:42:57] appreciate when you lobby on our behalf to the state to say, look, you know, you have to reduce, you have to increase your contribution to state so we can do some of the things we need in our counties as well and it is our tax dollars going down there and we should demand it back especially when the state runs one to two billion dollar surpluses every year I think you know when you don't fully fund the schools and we're sitting at 42 43 puts us at a competitive disadvantage not only with other states in the nation but with the rest of the world and we have a lot of needs here and we have a lot of desires of things that we need to accomplish we have a high quality school division I pointed the slide we're winning awards we're winning state competitions whether it's [05:43:34] athletic whether it's academic but we can be doing more and there's more that we need to do for these students and for our communities and families to make this um to make prince william county continue to thrive and so i appreciate that that the commitment by you supervisor bode to um to defend um um our our needs and and commit to that and and that's the work we do and we continue to do that responsibly and and with an eye on on making sure we're not overstepping our bounds all right thank you we're going to go to angry than bailey thank you madam [05:44:08] chair so dr mcdade dr latif school board staff thank you um we've been here before so we know in covid uh we've had pretty much a similar conversation um i heard a gentleman put it he said this is covid minus the mask right now um but um so now i'm gonna i'm gonna quote uh one of my colleagues here, Supervisor Ware, because hope is not a strategy. Got it. And we've heard a lot about all the uncertainties, everything that's going through. I don't have any questions for you [05:44:45] because I would truly say this to everyone here. It's my hope that all of these predictions don't affect us as we move into what's going to happen in the federal workforce and government, and that everything we're predicting that you've put out here is what we're going to be moving forward with, similar to what we're going through with our budget. [05:45:07] But I do understand that we have to wait and see how this all plays out. So it is my, you know, hope that we don't have to do this. But I know if we have to go down this road, we're going to find ourselves back in this board chamber discussing how we move forward again. [05:45:24] So at that time, I'm pretty sure I have some more questions and we'll have some discussions to talk about. But I want to thank you for what you put forward. We're not new to this. We've done this every year for the last six years. COVID was a rough one. So just thank you for where we are now, and it's my hopes that what you have here and what we're putting forward in our board, we can move forward with in the later months. [05:45:45] So thank you. Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. It is my hope. I like that, Vic. I like that. But the thing about it, we've been here before in COVID, and we survived, and we locked arms together to get it done in the name of our children. [05:46:02] And so I know that we can get it done in what's going on right now because we have the subject matter experts, the professionals, and the representatives to have the hard conversations with the board to get us through it, whatever it looks like. [05:46:17] So I'm good with that. I'm really pleased at the progress that we have made collectively together and gotten us from number 49, Mr. Chairman, to 42. [05:46:33] I remember when we were 49, and so we're 42 now. This still ain't good enough, so we're going to be hired in 42. But the question also that if you would please, sir, highlight for us is when you talked about the board audit, the joint audit that you do with us, know and you've gotten some good reports wouldn't anything that was skewed on the board and the school board or anything inappropriate it wouldn't it show up there as well sure yeah yes I mean and we've had clean audits every year I've been on the school board with no material findings or [05:47:11] significant deficiencies in the school division and so I've been on that audit committee I think almost all seven years with the joint audit committee and we've done really good work with you all we I think the both staffs on the county and the school continue to collaborate in a cooperative fashion that really benefits all the students in the county I mean I I think you all have done a great job in making sure that we are funding what we need to do and and being able to get you know this school division far more competitive than it ever was yeah and and the audit also shows any opportunities that are there that that's kind of what I was and we had had those discussions. So thank you, Madam Chair. [05:47:51] I appreciate it. Alright, Supervisor Vega, she wants to say something real quick. Real quick, Madam Chair, thank you just because of the conversation that we've been having. I'm looking right now at the division's website where you guys have this amazing chart that says where the funding comes from. There's a lot of speculation about federal funding, but I think it's important as we navigate our budget markup and as we continue to talk about priorities that the federal funding that the school division gets only equates to 2.7%. [05:48:18] If my math is correct, that equals to $51 million. I also want to remind my colleagues on the day is that last year we gave the school division $23.9 million above the ask, which is why, sir, I will be anxiously waiting for that number at the end of the week in regards to the surplus that you all have in your reserves, because it's important for the board to have those numbers as, again, we continue to navigate this budget process. [05:48:41] But, Madam Chair, I want to reassure parents in chambers and parents watching at home, the sky is not falling. And I don't want to give that impression to parents watching here and at home. We're going to take care of our students. We're going to take care of our educators. But numbers matter. [05:48:57] And I believe that this governing body has gone above and beyond every time that the school division has made an ask. But we have to be fiscally responsible, Madam Chair, and we have to ensure that we're looking at this holistically. Thank you, Dr. Lateef. Thank you, Dr. McDade. And thank you, all members of the school board, for being here tonight. [05:49:12] All right, quickly. The sky isn't falling, but there's a lot of uncertainty. And hold on. i'm one of those people give me a yes give me a no but not a maybe so because we need a plan we need to be able to plan um and before i close this out i do want to say that you know i'm interested in having discussions around revenue sharing and maybe we need to increase it okay maybe we actually need to increase it we had a our finance and budget committee earlier and i mentioned you know we're talking about declining enrollment i don't think declining enrollment is [05:49:49] a good indicator. I don't. And I don't think it should be a sole indicator. You have outlined the needs that we have. We know we need to repair and renovate older schools. We know that we have a problem with overcrowding classrooms. We know that we have harder to educate populations, English language learners, and students with special needs. For what I've always said, and I truly believe this, schools are my priority because what you do, you are making our communities [05:50:23] livable. You're making people want to come to Prince William County and live here. You are what is making businesses want to relocate here. And I am very competitive. I am tired of hearing about some of the neighboring jurisdictions and people talking about how great their schools are. I am really like, you know, I, we are the most diverse county in the Commonwealth. And I think that's a beautiful thing. I think there's a lot to learn from people who don't look like you, who come from different cultures and i am very um the way for us to succeed really is education really is our [05:51:01] schools and an investment in our future is an investment that we should make so i just wanted to say that i appreciate the presentation i appreciate you coming out here and thank you to our school board members who are taking time because you also have a lot put upon you but thank you for coming here today and being a part of this you know i don't know how i don't know if you sleep to be quite honest with you dr latif but i just want to say to wrap this up i appreciate this presentation i appreciate you coming here and answering all of our questions thank you [05:51:35] thank you have a great night everyone all right and we're going to give them a few moments to transition out as we are the next we're going to let them clear out but i'm going to have the [05:51:51] applicant and people associated um with agenda item 14 and if those associated um with a proper [05:52:37] amendment for wellington glenn um and i'm just going to say um to the person with the dot we have additional seating now if you want to maybe move over because you also still have your bag in the aisle it is my job to try to keep things clear if it is more comfortable for you i would run and try to get one of those end seats um i don't want you to think i'm discriminating because i'm a cat person but we do have rules and regulations outlined by the fire marshal so i have to be [05:53:10] mindful of that okay take a minute just take it i'm waiting for people to come in you're like ready I try to be. [05:53:39] You're ready. Okay, I'll just stay here instead of the mask. Okay, very good. All right, first time at this one. All right, everyone, as you come in, I see a lot of new faces. Please, everyone has to take a seat. [05:53:56] That is order of the fire marshal. And for those of you who are new, how this is going to work is the applicant is going to present. Then we're going to have county staff present. Well, actually, we're going to have the applicant present. Any questions for the applicant? County staff, any questions for county staff? [05:54:14] Then we open the public hearing, and once that is closed, we are going to go back to the applicant and county staff to address any questions that have come up during this time. So it looks like everyone is seated. People kind of, the little staff milling around. [05:54:30] All right, Mr. Meyer, you may get started. Sounds good. Madam Chair, county supervisors, I'm Ron Meyer. I serve as the local developer for the property owner and data center operator, SDC Capital Partners. [05:54:46] Joining me is Janelle Cameron and Jessica Pfeiffer from Walsh Kalushi, Dave Fiedler from SDC, and other members of the SDC project team and our broader development team. When we began this project more than two years ago, we knew that we needed to do something differently in Prince William County than Prince William had seen before from this industry. [05:55:04] With that in mind, SDC is bringing the best practices from their projects in Europe and Northern Virginia, and even new innovative upgrades that have not been seen anywhere else in the world. I'm excited to share these with you, but first, here's some background on the project. You all know where this is. This is at the corner of Wellington Drive and Sudley Manor Drive. [05:55:23] The campus is situated between Iron Mountain to the east, the AWS-owned land to the west, and Arcadia Run to the north on the other side of the resource protection area. The parcel is split in two with the parcel letters from the old Wellington Glen development proffers. [05:55:39] Parcels D&E is to the north, and that's the primary focus of today's application. And then also parcels H&I are included, and they are to the south. The current zoning and proffers allow for more than 400,000 square feet of data center campus today by right. The comprehensive plan calls for industrial development, including data centers. [05:55:58] And this parcel is landlocked in the data center Opportunity Zone Overlay District. If the previous proffers did not limit square footage due to traffic concerns, the overlay would have allowed for 2 million square feet to be permitted on both of these parcels. As I mentioned, and hopefully to clear up some information for the public, data centers are allowed today on both parcels D&E and H&I with a maximum height of 70 feet on D&E with no limits for mechanical equipment height. Under these approvals, enough land would also remain for a substation on site. But we knew that plan wasn't best for us, and we knew that plan [05:56:34] wasn't best for the community. So we reached out to the community before we even filed the application to see if we could amend the old proffers to craft a plan that could be a win-win for the community and for the company as you'll see in these slides we've implemented community feedback and took their considerations into this proposal including trails traffic improvements and even unconventional ideas like bat boxes in the resource protection area to reduce bugs that arcadia run that's why as we resolved issues incorporated feedback and informed the public about our plans fewer and people fewer and fewer people attended the public meetings that we had over time our last meetings were emailed out by both hoas and the property manager and only one [05:57:13] person attended from Arcadia Run who sent an email afterwards I think many of you have seen supportive of the changes that we've implemented and five from independents who also left with appreciation for our approach. All were pleased with the latest changes and just to summarize where we've been since the planning commission we've dropped the building height from 90 feet to 65 feet and to lower than what is actually allowed today by right. We've capped the mechanical rooftop equipment to 10 feet and with density despite the overlay calling for 1.0 FAR and the OM district that we're in calling for 0.65 FAR, we've lowered our square footage to 475,000 square [05:57:48] feet, which is around a 0.35 FAR. Lastly, and I think most interestingly, we've committed to 50 decibels at the residential property lines, which no other approved proffers have done in county history. With these changes, along with our previous commitments, we believe this is an overwhelming improvement over what is allowed by right. Compared to what is by right, we have lower building heights, quieter buildings, no on-site substations or overhead power lines serving the site, four-sided architecture with high-end material commitments, and 30 percent glass fenestration on principal facade frontages, catalytic reduction systems that reduce major [05:58:25] pollutants by more than 90 percent from our generators. We've increased by hundreds of feet the building separation from the residential developments adjacent to us. We've added construction traffic requirements that keep trucks off the residential roads and added traffic safety improvements that benefit our neighbors. For all these commitments, the applicant is asking to consolidate the previously approved square footage, which was only previously capped to reduce office traffic and lift the limit for an additional 70,000 square feet. So with these commitments, and I know I just went through a lot of information, what does this plan actually look like? You can see here that we're proposing two buildings on D&E. Parcels H&I, which had [05:59:05] previously approved data center square footage and obviously an adjacent data center campus, we proffered out at the request of Supervisor Gordy, so there's no data center square footage on H&I. Focusing on D&E, you can see that we've added substantial landscaping and proffered to two additional acres of tree save and reforestation areas above what is required along our boundaries with Arcadia Run and Independence. These are major improvements over what is by right in the Wellington Glen proffers, which had numerous buffer modifications, and the RPA was the only buffer between this development and Arcadia Run. Here's a zoom in to highlight that. We are adding [05:59:42] these two acres of tree conservation reforestation and these along with our mzp meaningfully increase the building separation from our neighbors over what was previously approved the building envelope is more than 300 feet further than the building to building separation from independence that was previously allowed and more than 200 feet larger building to building from arcadia run we've also proffered to nature trail into closing all the missing links in the sidewalk and trail network including an off-site gap on the Arcadia Run property. [06:00:15] Additionally, at the residence request, we're doing traffic improvements to make it easier to turn left in and right out out of stone crop for Arcadia Run residents. This alignment also moves the building envelopes further away than the buy right. Also, due to a request from the Independence HOA recently, we added specific proffer language to ensure that construction trucks are not routed through either Independence or Arcadia Run. [06:00:41] As previously mentioned, we have no on-site substation in the viewshed of our neighbors. Instead, and in part of Supervisor Gordy's guidance, we are developing the old junkyard site at the corner of Sudley Manor and Bethlehem. And you guys can see that over here. [06:00:57] If you've driven by there recently, you'll notice it's a lot cleaner than it was. All the junk's been removed. And so rather than being powered on-site with overhead transmission lines, we are powered from that substation using underground distribution lines. Last month, our PFR application was approved by the Planning Commission and the community has expressed gratitude at the removal of the junk on site. [06:01:20] To speak to the noise attenuation, I think this is really key in the upcoming discussions regarding the noise ordinance. We know that's a big point of concern at Prince William and we've made two commitments that are unprecedented in proffers. First, we're actually specifically committing to equipment upgrades to ensure that there are no complaints. [06:01:40] Secondly, we believe in these upgrades and have therefore committed to the lowest decibel commitment in approved proper history. We pulled the suggestion actually from the presentation that the Great Oak community gave to the DCOAG for the 50 decibel limit. Another element that people care about, obviously, is how will all this look? [06:02:00] From the beginning, our project has gone above and beyond what the overlay district requires. The overlay district only requires that you choose two out of five design elements. Whereas we're doing all five, and then we're going on top of that, including a 30% fenestration requirement along our principal facade frontages that make our buildings look, as you can see in this image, like a Class A office building. [06:02:21] I'm going to show you our old proposal compared to our new proposal and from all the most prominent angles. Okay, so first, this is from Wellington Road. This is before the changes from the last meeting. This is at 90 feet tall. You can see that old height highlighted and then our new height, clean. [06:02:40] That's from Wellington Road, driving southbound. Next angle you have is the east building at Arcadia Run. This is from the tip-top fourth floor. This is our old building design at 90 feet. This is with it overlaid with the dotted line in our new buildings, and this is clean. [06:02:56] This is the bridge driving across on Wellington Glen Drive. This is the old, before, 90 feet, after, at 65 feet with the outline, and clean. This is the western building at Arcadia Run at 90 feet, after, with the highlight of where the buildings were. [06:03:16] and clean. This is the Sudley Manor Drive and Wellington Road intersection. This is the old proposal at 90 feet. You can see the old highlighted with the new buildings there falling into the tree line. Going down, Sudley Manor Drive. This is the old proposal, new proposal. And again, these are below what is by right from a height perspective. [06:03:41] If you can see through the trees, this is the view from before. This was 90 feet tall, the southwest corner of the site. This is after. So what does the view look like from the homes over at independence we modeled this using view shed analyses at our old height which is 90 feet and you can see that on the right that's the middle of winter and you have to really really try to to squint if you want to try to find a building back there and again that's a 90 feet this is the next street over same situation buildings remain largely obstructed same situation [06:04:18] here with the next street over if you could see through the trees what you would see is a principal building facade frontage that includes the glass a fenestration as i mentioned previously and so I think what you can see with these renderings and the commitments on this screen here is that we've endeavored to be responsive to both this board and to the community. We've committed to setting a new higher standard for data centers in Prince William County on power, on noise, on pollution, and on building architecture. We've worked to try to earn your support and the support of the community. Janelle and I and our team will be glad to answer any questions and we appreciate [06:04:57] your time and consideration today. Supervisor Gordy. Thank you, Madam Chair. Are we going to go to questions now or are we going to just allow uh staff to make their presentation sorry i went through this earlier i was going to allow you to ask the applicant questions and then staff and then ask staff questions okay um based on that guidance and that's what i understood i just want to confirm um i just want to begin by kind of um once again we're dealing with a by right data [06:05:30] center development here um we sought to end by right last year it didn't work we have a by right data center that we're looking at. The choice tonight is not whether or not a data center will go here. The choice is what type of data center will go here, whether it's the by-right one or it's the one that's proffered. Understanding the realities that a data center can go here by-right, we have worked with the applicant to try to make this as least impactful on the community as we possibly can make it. I appreciate the applicant and the work that they've done to take our [06:06:09] concerns into consideration, the community's concerns, the ones the community has conveyed to us, as well as to my fellow board members to try to address the concerns of the community. And so as we think about this parcel, I used to drive by this parcel three, four times a day, and I remember when it was a field. Today, it's covered in pine trees. When Arcadia Run was built, They piled a bunch of dirt on this site. [06:06:42] It was just a mound of dirt, and pine trees have now grown up around it. So I'll start with this question. What is the topo here and the level of work that will be done in terms of groundwork and dirt and dirt movement? What's the plan on that? [06:07:03] Supervisor Gordy, that's a very good question, in part because of the mound that was left there. We actually had a very detailed grading analysis done, and the site balances, meaning that we won't need significant fill or removal of fill, which obviously should be of great relief to folks who have been complaining about construction traffic. [06:07:23] Primarily what drives those concerns are those fill or removal. And so the fact that the site balances, partially because of the previous grading that was done, I think is an advantage for the site for those reasons. Okay. And then one of the things that we talked about, I mean, because there are pine trees, and I grew up in an area where pine trees were grown for paper mills, the taller a pine tree gets, the lower limbs die and fall off. [06:07:51] What is your plan to mitigate as those trees continue to get taller, which at some point they will probably be taller than this building, knowing that pine trees can get 70, 80 feet tall? However, it's the understory that clears out. [06:08:06] What is your plan to mitigate the understory? Yeah, that's a great question. So what our strategy was when we heard that feedback from you and from others was to essentially make sure we have a very thick, deciduous plantings on our side to make sure that if there ever was sort of a low gap there, that then there would be a deciduous buffer after that. [06:08:27] And so that's why, again, we have the two acres of additional tree conservation and reforestation area. Those tree conservation areas are largely deciduous over in these particular areas that you see highlighted. it's basically these areas here and these areas here and then we also added some additional landscaping that sort of serves as like a you know basically a line a line of deciduous trees and bushes that will serve as an additional buffer for that for those reasons if this application were not to pass and you were to put a data center on this site where would your [06:09:04] substation be supervisor gordy i believe that if we built to our by right square footage we'd have enough room for a substation on site. I understand that Dominion is looking at putting power lines down this corridor. It would be really financially unwise to not consider putting a substation on site. Okay. And so speaking of Dominion, they have a routing of transmission. In your discussions, what is the routing along in this area based upon the conversations and the proposal that Dominion is planning to submit to the State Corporation Commission for the Devlin to Hornbaker [06:09:40] line i'll speak to my best understanding we've we've had pretty continual conversations with them especially because of our conversations my understanding is that they have a route down wellington road that's sort of on the the iron mountain side of things and then they have a alternative route not their preferred route that would go between arcadia run and independence and serve a sub state a proposed substation to the south of our site we have expressed to dominion in the most explicit terms that if the alternative if they support the alternative route if that our turn of route gets traction well frankly we're going to oppose it no matter what we are going to write to them and say we oppose it we've told them vocally we oppose it putting our our [06:10:16] buffer with uh with the neighboring community is totally unacceptable and it's not a good way for the industry and for the community to work and so we will be vocal about this we have been vocal about it with dominion the preferred route is not that route the preferred route is not that route and again we are not driving the transmission need in this corridor that's why we didn't put a substation there and so if they could find a way not to build this route we wouldn't be upset about it, right? We would think that that's probably a wise thing to try to keep transmission as far away from residential as possible. And that's part of why we located our substation on existing transmission lines. All right. Supervisor Weir from Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair. [06:10:55] Have you got a projected load demand for the facility? Supervisor Weir, we have filed load letters with Dominion, yes. 300 megawatts, 1,000. So our load for our, again, we've updated our buildings because of the request to lower height. [06:11:16] And so our approximate load, and again, we have our team who's actually here that can speak more to it, but it's around 200 megawatts. 200 megawatts. So that's one full substation, essentially. Well, two-thirds of one. Yeah, we will need a substation regardless of the buy-write or with the approvals. [06:11:34] Okay. So if I just heard you correctly, you're not creating the need for additional transmission, thus you don't need a substation, but you've got a substation somewhere else. We aren't creating a need for a substation on site in the viewshed of the residential communities. We are putting our substation in an industrial area along existing transmission lines. [06:11:54] So you are creating a need for more demand? We are creating, we are utilizing a substation, yes. But the substation is for you, you applied for the PFR, so you are creating more demand, correct? Otherwise you would need a substation. [06:12:11] Data center buildings do create additional electrical demand. I mean, you said you were creating no demand a couple of minutes ago. No demand for additional transmission lines in this corridor. Possibly. Is there a PFR on file for a substation on the adjoining parcel? [06:12:29] I'm not aware. I am. That's it for the moment, Madam Chair. Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to be, you know, clear. We keep hearing it's by right, it's by right. [06:12:46] The applicant wouldn't be here if it's by right because the applicant is seeking changes. It's not a question. It's just a statement that I'm making. I do have a question, though. I would like to know, what is the distance to the closest residents? So in our plan, in our proposed plan, it's 540 feet to Independence and 520 feet to the closest residents in Arcadia Run. [06:13:13] So 540 feet and 520. That's correct. Under buy-right, again, they are 200 feet less for Arcadia Run and 300 feet less for Independence. Yeah, thank you. I'm just, you know, asking for the sake of consistency. And then just, you know, I read and also saw what happened during the Planning Commission hearing, and there were some questions in regards to dirt. [06:13:34] What is the dirt plan for this project? The dirt plan is that the site balances. The site balances, so everything will pretty much almost stayed on site? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Thank you. And then the last question that I have is, actually, that's all for you. [06:13:53] The rest is for staff. Thank you. Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. My question is in terms of community involvement and how you've orchestrated that and getting feedback from the community because we focused on data centers being close to houses, being close to schools. [06:14:16] Could you give me some feedback on that, please? Yeah, absolutely. So we reached out to Arcadia Run, which is the apartment building that is closest to us. Actually, the first time that I've actually reached out to an apartment building prior to a submission. [06:14:32] So we reached out to them. We had a meeting with them in their clubhouse. We received feedback from the community on things that we heard specifically pertaining to adding a trail within the RPA area. They also asked for us to include bat boxes to look at a construction management plan. [06:14:52] all of those things that we were able to incorporate into our application. After we submitted that application, we incorporated that. Separately, we reached out to independents. We invited the independents community, sent postcards to everybody within the independents community, had a meeting at Sweeney Barn. [06:15:13] We then held another meeting with the Arcadia-run apartment building, again, at Sweeney Barn. We then last week sent out postcards to everybody within Independence and had a meeting with them at the Hilton Performing Arts Center and also had a meeting with Arcadia Run last week at the Hilton Performing Arts Center. [06:15:35] Thank you. All right, I'm going to go before Supervisor Vega. I just want to make sure I understand, what is the rationale for realigning Stonecrop Drive? So realigning Stonecrop Drive serves more than one purpose. It helps move that intersection further back. [06:15:54] So currently, it's about here, so it's closer to the Wellington-Sudley Manor intersection. And by moving that back, we were actually also able to create a right-turn slip lane. What we heard from the Arcadia-run residents is that during the morning, it's really hard for them to make a right out. [06:16:14] So what we were able to do is if you're coming out by moving it further from the intersection, elongate or make this right turn lane longer so it would be a continuous right turn lane being able to come out of the site and my other question um it's about um you know the planning commission meeting you know i believe correct me if i'm wrong but they you guys said at planning commission that the junkyard um was going to power this even if by right um so i just want to be clear that's what you're saying now because you mentioned you could build a substation on your property but i just want [06:16:51] to be clear so i so obviously if this application is approved well there will be we all buildings on this campus and so that's our intended plan is to have buildings on this campus and to be served by the junkyard substation the question is if that you if you had to build by right would you still use the junkyard are you going to put it on on site well so i think that we had there's a data center is by right on that pfr approved site for a significant amount of square footage and it does fit a building. And so I think there would have to be real analysis as to does it make more sense [06:17:28] to build a building there by right, a building here by right, and a substation on this site by right, which is permitted, or to do this, you know, I think that would be the analysis. And I think, frankly, it would probably tend towards wanting to do the on-site substation here in that by right scenario. Thank you. I have Supervisor Vega, the lawyer. Thank you, Madam Chair. [06:17:51] Jonelle, along the lines of community outreach, do you have a general number of how many people attended? And did you guys keep track specifically of these folks that attended were residents of the community? Yes. Can you give me a ballpark? Let me pull that up. We actually have that on one of the slides, Supervisor Vega. [06:18:07] I'm sorry, I missed it. No, it's okay. I missed it too, which is why I'm going all the way back. So when we met with Arcadia Run, it was about 40 people. When we did the open house with Independence, it was about 20 attendees. [06:18:24] And then we did the open house again with Arcadia Run, it was 10. And then last week with Arcadia Run, it was one person that attended. And then when we had it with Independence last week, it was five people. Thank you for that. [06:18:39] I know that the board received via attachment a letter from the president of the Arcadia Run ownership, basically, in support of the project. But I just want to make sure that, you know, we highlight the difference, right? [06:18:54] It's not a letter of support from members of the community that live in these apartments, but rather a letter of support from the president that has, obviously, an invested interest in these apartments. Can I respond to that really quick? I know it was a statement, but we also understood the importance of making sure that the residents were involved, which is why we had those community meetings. [06:19:16] And before we were supposed to come to the hearing last month in March, we did send all of the residents um a list of the changes so they were aware of those as well to both the arcadia run apartments as well as independence yeah and and and i'm not in any way dinging the applicant or you um for a community outreach that's extremely important for me and i appreciate that but i just want to be clear that there is a difference in terms of the letter that members of the board um you know got in terms of where the support came from and via via an official statement, if you will. Because oftentimes we get HOAs speaking on behalf of the community [06:19:54] and then the community shows up and says, you know, those four board members don't speak for us. So that's why I brought it up. I understand. Yeah. And then the other question that I had is water is obviously a concern when we talk about data centers. Can you talk to us a little bit about your cooling infrastructure? Sure. So we are planning to use air-cooled chillers or a closed looped cooling system to not pull potable water from the water system. And so we've committed to do that. Okay. And then can you talk a little bit also about your generators and what you guys are doing in regards to that? Yeah, we're actually really excited about that. I didn't really get [06:20:33] a chance to highlight that during the presentation. We're doing an unprecedented commitment to use catalytic reduction systems, and that's what gets the 10x improvement on the pollution over what otherwise would be required by DEQ. So we think that that should be a new standard going forward. Again, that's one of the multiple things that we're sort of trumpeting and saying, hey, if the industry had been doing this all along, there'd be a lot fewer complaints. [06:20:52] So, again, it's one of those things that, again, my colleague Dave learned in Europe, and we're bringing over. Thank you. And specifically on your water question, Supervisor Vega, it is Proffer 14 that specifically says water cool chiller system shall be prohibited for any data center building constructed on the property. [06:21:21] Great. Thank you. You're welcome. Those are all the questions I have, Madam Chair. All right. How we are then Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. Janelle? Yes, sir. Are you aware of any SEC cases having been filed yet for the potential routes crossing the applicant's property? [06:21:39] No. So anything regarding requiring an easement across the property is speculative at best at this point? Yes. Okay. Based on conversations that we've had with Dominion on their preferred routes. [06:21:58] Okay. But those preferred routes haven't been submitted yet? Correct. As we all know, Dominion submits more than one preferred route or more than one route and frequently changes up the map significantly even after the case is filed. I'm hearing some differing stories here, and I'm kind of having trouble putting this together with respect to the PFR hearing for the substation of the junkyard. [06:22:19] When the PFR was heard, it was asserted that all of the power from that substation was going to the site. now i'm hearing that if we don't give the sup we're talking about a by right complex with potentially a substation on site what becomes of the stranded novek substation if that's the case supervisor where i believe i was uh i think that was in response to the chair's question on you know if we went by right what would we do is that correct yes so again there's a by right [06:22:59] there's by right and room for a data center at that pfr location so i think in a by right scenario where we can only build one building on Wellington Glen, I think we would have to seriously consider if we decided to go data center there and then on-site here. [06:23:14] So we would have a PFR that's already approved for a Novex substation at the junkyard, and then he would come in for another PFR for another Novex substation, leaving a stranded asset across the street? I mean, it seems like you're threatening us. [06:23:31] I don't think that that is... That's the way it's coming off to me. If you don't, we will. And you've got a stranded piece of infrastructure there. All right, allow them to. No, I understand what your question is. So right now, there is an approved public facilities review for a substation. [06:23:50] If this is not approved, I think what the applicant is saying is they would have to look at all of their options for development. One of those options could include, instead of having that substation at the junkyard, moving that substation here. [06:24:08] But it wouldn't necessarily be a stranded asset because the substation of the junkyard would not be constructed yet. Isn't that NOVIC's issue at this point in time? But in any event, it would require yet another PFR? Correct. [06:24:23] Okay. And another approval. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. All right. Before I go to Supervisor Baylor, I just want to let everyone know that decorum. You know, I know this is a touchy topic for some folks, but I do request that we have decorum. [06:24:41] And that if you do want to speak, we will have a public hearing portion where we will hear from the public. So with that, Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to go back to the, as you were making your presentation, you said that for the project it would be 50 decibels. [06:24:59] Did I? Correct. Did I hear that correctly? And did you, one of the concerns we have with residents when we talk about data centers and helping them to understand what that sounds like, no pun intended. but did was that discussion held with the residents so we made that change between the planning commission and the board and that was included in the list of changes that were sent out to the community members that live in both arcadia run and also that live within independence [06:25:32] and then that was also included in our boards that we had at the community meeting so for those that attended that was communicated and that is also included in the board package and staff report and what's the requirement janelle 55 okay okay thank you thank you all right it doesn't look like we have any other questions so the county county staff if you would come up mr venegas [06:25:58] uh good evening chair jefferson uh board members my name is alex venegas from the planning office and i'm the case planner for this proffer amendment so primarily this is a request to [06:26:37] amend the proffers associated with PLN 2012-00105, which is the old Wellington Glen. They would like to allow a data center development, so they made certain changes to the existing proffers associated with that previous application. [06:26:57] Specifically, they seek to increase the permitted FAR modified development standards that align with data centers, and they also included associated waivers and modifications. For clarification, the previous approved proffers did have similar associated development waivers and modifications. [06:27:21] The proffer amendment request involves two parcels, these two parcels, one on the north side of Southern Manor Drive and the other on the south side. this this uh north portion consists of parcels d and e uh i'm sorry land-based d and e uh which uh e was a smaller section here uh that went here and e went all around it uh and then h and i down here on the south side of sudley manor staff is recommending approval the long-range land use [06:27:58] classification is i3 which does allow for data centers but i need to point out that it does have proximity to residential neighborhood arcadia run which is multi-family development to the north and then over here we have independence subdivision which is adjacent to i3 right here at this corner. And then on the south side, there is a mixed-use 3 classification that consists of [06:28:33] the university village apartments, condos in this area right here. There is some environmental resources that go through a portion of both sides of the land base D&E, and then a small portion that runs on the south side of H&I. [06:28:58] The zoning districts is PMD with the sub-districts underlined. As you can see, our office mid-rise for all the current land bays. [06:29:16] And to the north, this was originally part of, all this was part of the original rezoning, approved rezoning. But this is all urban development residential. [06:29:34] And it is within the data center opportunity overlay district. And this is the recent application, the master zoning plan that we received. And on the master zoning plan, this is the area's D and E where they're proposing a data center usage. [06:29:58] H and I, originally they had that as data centers at the Planning Commission when we took it to the Planning Commission. The Planning Commission asked that they remove that opportunity for data centers in here so the applicant actually proffered out data center use on land-based H and I. [06:30:17] Okay. And this is what the proper amendment they're proposing on D&E to be office mid-rise, office high-rise, with up to 470,000 square feet, gross floor area. [06:30:34] And then for the other two parcels, approximately 72,900 square feet, and on parcel I, 125,000 square feet. This is a close-up of Land Bay D&E. [06:30:57] And as you can see, the nearest building is approximately 520 feet from the Arcadia Run complex. And then this portion is, I think it's 540 to the Independence subdivision. [06:31:20] As you can see, there's significant RPAs that exist. And the applicant, originally they had an emergency access road that came out here. They removed that right at the Planning Commission. [06:31:35] And then they're also proposing that the stone crop drive be realigned to put it a little closer to the Arcadia Run, but also give people the opportunity to go through here and get better access to Wellington Road without having to deal with traffic issues to the north. [06:32:08] And this is the land bays H&I. Again, there's significant RPA, and then there's also a gas line easement, a 50-foot gas line easement that runs between this uh parcel land bay h and land bay k and j which are aren't included in this application and this is an overview of the um project with all the land bays this is uh the improvements that they're [06:32:44] making the previous uh approved uh application while they did have sidewalks and trails they didn't show where they would occur and they were four foot sidewalks uh this what they're proposing is bringing up the standards, and they're showing us where the trails and sidewalks will occur. [06:33:02] So from staff's position, that is one of the improvements. So this is the realignment of stone crop. The applicant is moving it a little closer to the property line. It is now closer to the RPA, so that's one concern staff had, but they're not entering the RPA area, so there is still a slight buffer between where the road is being proposed in the RPA they did provide proposed elevation so in this application we at least get to see [06:33:41] what what the end product would look like whereas with the by right unit we didn't we wouldn't be able to see what type of development they were proposing until it got to site plan and this is another one this is the proposed There's elevations from east to west, and this is a west elevation with the principal facade. [06:34:08] They are including 30% facade fenestration. They're providing a lot of architectural elements that we had requested. The previous application only had to address two of the data center architectural elements in here. [06:34:32] they're proposing they offer proffered to do all five as well as provide these illustratives of what the actual end product would look like so the applicant did hold community means we did ask the applicant to provide us what those meetings were and when they occurred this is a breakdown the one with the arcadia run was approximately 40 attendees the one at independence in march of 2024 was 20 attendees and then they did additional meetings in September where they had 10 folks come out and then two open house meetings that they were that they recently held on the 24th [06:35:12] and the 25th staff received approximately actually that number is 164 emails in opposition to this application as of 4 30 p.m today so the concerns were related to the height and far increases noise impacts and electrical power demand and we did receive one letter of support for this project so going over what some of the the analysis of the submission that they recently provided and what's allowed in the zone district [06:35:47] and by right conditions so they've removed they prohibited data centers in parcel H and I that was one of the recommendations made by the Planning commission the floor area ratio they did reduce it to 0.35 but that does exceed the limits that they were previously allowed in the by right of 0.18 but it's still a reduction from what's allowed in the office mid-rise district so they also proffered proper nine the square footage they [06:36:27] did provide a reduction from the previous submission but it's substantially higher than the by right limit of what was previously approved on those two land bays this doesn't account the additional land bays just wanted to clarify that on the two land bays that they're proposing a data center it is a slight increase or actually it is a significant increase but that doesn't account for the other areas where they could put data centers, um, par for 10, they did, uh, limit the height. Um, so previously it was 90 feet. Um, and based on the feedback that they got from [06:37:06] the planning commission, board members, as well as the community, they lowered that down to 65 with an additional 10 foot allowance for rooftop equipment. Um, and then the noise attenuation, they did put that limit of 50 dB, which is stricter than our current standard, the standard ordinance requirements. And so with that, staff is recommending approval of this application proffer amendment 2024-0018. The proffers are dated March 17th, which you should have received [06:37:42] a copy, not the February 28th. That's what we did our original analysis on. They did add language for the construction element, which they heard from the Arcadia run folks. So they wanted to include that as part of their submission. [06:38:01] So that's how the proffers are now dated March 17th. It's consistent and compatible with both the I-3 designation and the existing zoning designation. It's in the data center opportunity overlay district. It is an increase in gross floor area, but it's being mitigated. [06:38:19] uh by these design strategies and buffering and um again it's in a line with our strategic uh plan the goals to increase our economic development in non-residential tax base and with that i'll gladly take any questions all right supervisor weir all right alex can you delineate the changes [06:38:52] made from pc to the submission before us all of them yes um so let me go back here so um The big one was the prohibiting parcels H&I. [06:39:08] The floor area ratio, they did reconsider that and brought that back. Square footage was also reduced. In the proffers, originally they had FAR, and the Planning Commission wanted to see how that aligned with the square footage, so they did provide square footage with it. [06:39:31] And then the noise concern, the noise attenuation, they did add that element as well. And I believe that's the majority of them. Yeah, I think that that's the majority that the Planning Commission had asked in the approved resolution. [06:40:01] Do you know the approximate height of the Arcadia Run apartments? I do not know that, Supervisor Weir. I apologize. Okay. I can find out. and then last but not least isn't there a pfr for the pegasus substation immediately adjacent one of the subject parcels so i know that there's three pfrs in the area this one's at 88 70 horn baker okay so that's the horn baker one uh yes there is an active pfr for that i don't know [06:40:37] exactly where the exact location but there's that one the junkyard and then determination all in that general area. Thank you. Gordy, then Vega. To answer Supervisor's question, yeah, further down on Hornbaker is Pegasus, and that's tied to TA Realty, the data center that they, when they purchase the industrial condos off Mike Garcia Drive, [06:41:13] that substation is intended to support those data centers, as I understand it. So that's where that substation is located next to that parcel. And there is a transmission that comes from Wellington across to there, but that's all part of the Devlin to Hornbaker routing that's been proposed. [06:41:38] So, Alex, in the by-right, what are the buffers and what are the buffer between the residential and these things? what was the change in the buffers between the buy-write and the application that we had before us? [06:41:56] So there were some changes made. The waivers remain more or less the same for the buffers, but they are including this area and this area expanding. [06:42:13] By right, they could, I think it was, all right, so I believe it was like 60 feet and then they went up to 90, I'm sorry, 100 feet over on this side. [06:42:30] And then, with respect, let me see if I've got a slide for that. Maybe. Okay, maybe this shows it a little better. So this is additional plannings, reforestation here and here. [06:42:48] But mind you, they did move the road over a little. But that wasn't all – this portion here was all buffer associated with the RPA. They're increasing it slightly with their open space. [06:43:04] I think we're getting an additional two acres of open space buffering between this area here and this. And the rest remain the same because they're requesting. [06:43:21] The only other area where they're seeking a reduction is this area right here. It's adjacent to Amazon's property right here. Yeah, and along the buffers back on the other side. [06:43:41] So my understanding that there was a 300-foot buffer, it went from 200 to 300. And where was that buffer expanded? So I don't know if that was expanded to 300. [06:43:59] I think that's a distance for the setback. Okay. Yes, I think that's regarding the setback, right? Yeah. Because originally they could go closer with the building, and right now they're at 500 feet, I think, before they could go up to 300 and something feet. [06:44:18] So they're at 520 here, so they gained an extra 200 feet of setback, not buffering, but setback. And then on this side, it's, I believe, 540. And they technically could have gone a lot closer to independence if they wanted to. [06:44:39] That's all the questions I have now. Thank you. All right. Vega and Weir. Thank you, Madam Chair. I had the same question that Supervisor Weir did in terms of the height of the apartment complex. I believe it's four stories, Alex. I believe it is. [06:44:56] And so it's between 10, 15 feet. Would a guesstimate, a good guesstimate, be not taller than 60 feet? Yeah, 60 feet. For commercial and multifamily, usually the first floor is a little higher. [06:45:11] It's 12 to 15, and then it's 10 feet above for each additional floor. Gotcha. Thank you. Supervisor Weir. Thank you, Alex. technical question I guess what would the manner of 24/7 measurement be for the 50 decibels and what would be the consequences or penalties for violating it a proper condition so this is our current zoning ordinance I know that [06:45:50] we're working towards you know amending that but right now we have to analyze things based on the current zoning ordinance for the noise ordinance and for residential mixed-use properties adjacent that are residential mixed-use for daytime at 60 nighttime 55 they're proposing 50 for daytime for both those zoning districts and then 50 for night as well so there is an improvement a Delta of five in the evening and ten in the [06:46:29] daytime the rest of the Properties that are either commercial office or industrial it remains the same what the penalty is I guess that that would be you know based on our zoning ordinance and how we Sorry about that it would be a zoning violation So I don't I don't know if there's any And the penalty would be? [06:47:06] I don't know if there's fees associated with that. I apologize. Madam County Attorney, I'll understand if you want to go into close, but can you opine as to what the penalty is? I honestly don't know for once. [06:47:22] Madam Chair, members of the board, if there is a zoning violation, if there's an alleged violation of a proffer, our property code enforcement would go out and we try to strive for compliance first. And if they don't comply, then a notice of violation would be filed. [06:47:40] The VINCO, we would go to court, et cetera. And I apologize. I don't know the specific violations. I can get that for you. But it would go to court for maybe Janelle knows the specific violations of a zoning violation. This would be separate from the noise ordinance, though. [06:47:57] It would be separate from the noise ordinance if we're below the 50. It's a zoning violation. So they, as Michelle said, they come out, they would give you a chance to comply. You would get a zoning ordinance violation. You have 30 days to comply, and then you would go to court. [06:48:15] It's a misdemeanor, and for every day that you do not comply, there's a monetary violation amount that's assessed to that that the judge could then order. Thank you, Janelle. You're welcome. I knew somebody would know the answer. Sorry about that. [06:48:32] All right, Supervisor Bodie. Thank you, Madam Chair. So, Alex, thank you for the presentation. Thank you to the applicant for your presentation as well. Just a couple questions for me. Alex, by right, without any proffers or conditions, are there any prohibitions on the type of water systems or water consumption that this facility would need? [06:48:55] No, there are not. They would have to work that out with Prince William Water, but there are no restrictions based on, you know, the rezoning this property or buy right. What we do is we look at the previous proffers, and there's no language in the previous proffers that limits them. [06:49:16] Sure. So buy right or under the previous proffers, they could use a water-cooled chiller system or anything that is actually more water draw, potable water, that type of stuff. That is correct. Sure. Thank you for that. Number two, I know that this is getting pretty technical and pretty nerdy really fast, but the applicant will know where I'm going with this. [06:49:36] Do we have anything right now in our land use documents around PUE or the energy efficiency utilization of the building? So not in our zoning ordinance, but the applicant did proffer some sustainability measures which weren't in the approved proffers for the previous rezoning. I can go through those really if you could i would appreciate it for the public's benefit so it's under i'm sorry [06:50:10] proffer number 22 so they shall include but not limited to eight of the following sustainability measures permeable paving water quality swales bioretention facilities rain gardens sheet flow vegetative buffers permeable pavement for parking spaces installation of water efficient landscape materials, use of recycled aggregate materials for private roadways, aeration ponds, utilizing solar recycling of construction material waste, and accepted by recycling markets, [06:50:45] use of higher recycled content construction materials, LED site and interior lighting, heat reflective roofing, design and data center building to operate below an annualized 1.5 power utilization effectiveness standard and i think that's that last one alex i wanted to zero in on by right there's no sort of standard or or or requirement that they operate at a poe level right that is correct appreciate that uh let's go to noise for a second under the current guidelines that we have around data centers not talking about towards the noise ordinance but right now [06:51:23] or our current data center standards, do we require any kind of sound testing or noise testing? So the answer to the buy-write question for this property is no. But for several data centers that we've recently approved, we've included a sound study as one of the proffers with recently approved data centers. [06:51:50] Appreciate that. But again, to be clear, if they went buy-write and they weren't seeking this approval, they would not need to submit any kind of noise. That is correct, Supervisor Brody. Appreciate that. Final question, and that goes to the question of exhaust and particulate matter in the air. [06:52:11] What are our standards or requirements around buy right and the kinds of particulate matter and emissions into the air? So there are no proffers in the previous, well, in the approved rezoning for this property. [06:52:26] So by right, there would not be the standards that we have other than whatever DEQ allows. Thank you so much, Alex. No further questions, Madam Chair. All right. Thank you so very much, Mr. Venegas. We don't have any more questions. [06:52:42] So I'm going to have, Andrea's going to come up and give me the names for the public, I'm sorry, the public hearing. I believe that there are some people who are signed up for both. I want to clarify that I am going to be opening the public hearing associated with the proper amendment for Wellington Glen. [06:53:01] These are two separate things, so I just want to clarify. So with the public hearing, it is open. I'm going to call people up in groups of five. I would like for you to please state your name and where you reside. That is your magisterial district. If you're with an organization, a verified 501-363, whatever, I'm tired, y'all. [06:53:25] I don't drink coffee. I had a little cup. Then you will get five minutes, but it can't just be a group that you've decided right on the spot. Again, I'll call you up in groups of five. After we do in person, we are going to go to remote. [06:53:43] So I'm going to start with Carla Silas, Rachel Ellis, Nick Robby, Gerson Portofilio, and Giovanni Soto. [06:54:00] If the five of you can go to the back. And I ask that when you are done speaking, please have a seat. Thank you. So, all right, Carla, you may begin. All right, thank you. [06:54:18] Excuse me. My name is Carla Silas. I've been a resident of the Potomac District since January of 1994. Mr. Weir, I will agree with you. That did sound like a threat. While change is inevitable, change is not always for the good. [06:54:36] Take a drive down Prince William Parkway and see for yourself. Nothing but data centers. I'm sure residents who live farther off of Prince William Parkway in the western side of the county can give worse horror stories than I'm telling. [06:54:52] I'm asking you guys to please vote no for the expansion request. The fact that electricity is an issue is no secret to this county. Please quit ignoring that fact, or Prince William County will soon have an issue with more power. [06:55:11] You're putting transmission lines literally in people's backyards. We, your constituents, can beg, plead, show up, and vote, But you guys are the only ones who can stop the data center of madness. It is never too late to correct your past mistakes. [06:55:30] Thank you. We're not the ones voting. You are. And we are remembering your votes. And I would just like to add one question. According to the data to planning commission, so no matter how big a data center wants to be, as long as they fits up the outside, that's okay. [06:55:50] I'm trying to I'm really trying to understand if you make it look nice no matter how much area it's taking up you're going to approve it thank you I am not but I do have props um good evening Rachel Ellis Gainesville District I am here asking you to say no to this application [06:56:28] even with a no vote a data center still can be built here by right but we're here because the applicant wants more you the board had the JLARC study regarding the impacts of data centers this application brings more impacts more noise more power more light pollution more construction more impacts to residents this is adjacent to two communities where people live arcadia run and an independence community arcadia run is affordable housing a lot of it i believe all of it is rentals it's very hard to find rentals in prince william county they already have data [06:57:05] centers across the street at iron mountain and they will have it on both sides here's my visual this is what they can build by right one of these they showed up to the planning commission went in four times four times what is by right and with the community pushback what they ended up coming to is two so we're here with two of these as opposed to just one and what we heard [06:57:38] tonight was scare tactics if by right we will build a substation we'll use more water you name and this this is manageable this is manageable the proffers that are being offered are one either as a direct result of more that they're requesting or two it's already required because of the overlay zone guidelines if this application was not in the overlay zone there would be four no votes as of because as sorry as four of you sitting here tonight ran on campaign promises of no data centers besides homes and schools. [06:58:19] This is directly beside two communities of housing. Actually, I'm sorry, not this, this. And so the other four of you are well aware of the impacts of data centers because of the JLARC study. [06:58:35] My reminder to you is Possum Point and Quantico. The power for all this more needs to come from somewhere. Again, a no vote tonight does not stop a data center from being built on this property. But a no vote does signal to the data center industry and to residents that there is a different conversation here in Prince William County. [06:58:53] If this board is going to continue to have the data center overlay, then start saying no to more. No matter what happens, the community is going to be impacted. So even if it is just by right, the data center industry, this applicant could actually do the right thing and still do the better noise or the water. [06:59:17] It's time for Prince William County to say no to more. Thank you. All right, next speaker, please. [06:59:35] Good evening. My name is Nick Roby. I am a current resident for- Oh, I'm going to need you to speak up. You can adjust. You can move it up because you're tall. There you go. Thank you. Currently, my name is Nick Roby. I have lived in this community, actually, Prince William County for, I want to show my age a little bit, 40 years. [06:59:56] Of the 40 years, 16 of them were in the Gainesville District. I am for this POSPR. I currently am a COO of Dyna Electric. We currently employ 2,000 employees. [07:00:13] Of the 2,000 employees, 30% of them are Prince William County residents. They currently are working in the county doing data center work. So theoretically, I've heard a lot of people talk about the last meeting about taxes, schools. [07:00:32] What are we going to do? Data centers are going to hopefully pay for some of our taxes. Our taxes are going up. Employment right now is down. Throughout the data centers, this whole community, the majority of the construction would be out of work. [07:00:51] The residential development is not happening for big construction. The government stopped funding the construction of office buildings. D.C. is not producing any construction work down there. [07:01:07] The area is building data centers. Without those, the county would re-law some taxes. A lot of housing, not being able to afford the bills. Local residents, I mean the local community, businesses wouldn't have the income. [07:01:28] So I'm here for it. Thank you for your time. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, everyone. [07:01:45] My name is Harrison Bertillo. I've had the privilege of being a resident of Prince William for the past 20 years. I graduated from Unity Reed, formerly known as Stonewall Jackson. Later, I went into George Mason to get my degree in computer science. [07:02:02] For the past 10 years, I've worked at Patriot Development, where I've been involved in several projects, including collaboration with SDC, which is an excellent client of ours. Currently, we're collaborating with them for new data centers in Laudan County. [07:02:21] My experience working with SDC, I've witnessed firsthand their commitment to improving the impact of data centers on surrounding communities. They've made significant efforts to ensure their projects are not only efficient, but also considerate of local environments and residents. Some of the ways they've done this includes designing buildings with reduced height, like we talked here, minimizing their visual impact on the community, implementing measures to lower noise levels from data centers, creating quieter and more peaceful environments for residents, and also, last but not least, collaborating [07:02:57] with the community to enhance transportation infrastructure and improve local trails for everyone's benefit these are a few examples of how sdc has approved proactive in ensuring their project projects align with community interests and concerns it's been rewarding experience to be part of this collaboration and i'm proud to continue working with alongside sdc to build data centers that contribute positively to our region thank you all right before i go to the other speaker who's standing and i apologize to people because i do i have an unusual name [07:03:36] i try my best but sometimes the writing you know um so i have a christian um dandy and then i have a mark um i'm sorry can i put um a mark what's your last name agent bro we're gonna talk about the handwriting later okay oh i i thought wasn't sure if that was an o or a d all right next speaker [07:04:06] please. Good night everyone. My name is Giovanni Soto. I work for Patriot Development also too. So I'm a father of three kids and one of them is already started working for one of the diet centers. So she's just 18 years old and those ones are giving a good opportunity to grow to my little girls and also it's an opening window for a lot of the small companies and [07:04:41] big companies trying to grow also too so it's it's open a pretty good chance for a lot of people to grow thanks next speaker hi my name is mark agen um i've actually lived in prince human county for 46 years pretty much my whole life except for when i went to college in north carolina for a first four years and uh was a stock burger down there for about five years so you know i had a nine year stint where i wasn't here but i'm currently a resident at virginia oaks um and i own a [07:05:18] business that's about a mile and a half from this data center site um one thing that um you know is very uh prominent and what has changed the construction industry is these data centers um construction is not uh glorified it's it's it's messy it's uh you know it's very tough and they've they've kind of cultivated technology with construction and have made it a little bit more promising and a little bit safer. So they really have allowed for work smart, work hard, [07:05:54] and work safe. And they've put their money there and have built the construction industry back over the last 12 years. We pretty much lost 60% of the construction workforce when we went into a recession. And if these data centers did not come back, residential started it. But if these data centers weren't here, we would have 50 percent of the workforce in construction that would not be here. The stuff you talked about with the schools and having a decreased enrollment would be tremendously higher if we didn't have the small businesses to support the construction, the small [07:06:31] businesses that have started because of these data centers. And I am truly a huge proponent the data centers they have leveled the playing field with other trades construction used to not be able to make the kind of money that you make now and that's attributed to to these data centers for them to you know to put that with what they're doing with this proffer agreement to me seems like a win-win for everybody so I know it's bigger but they're putting resources together to to make sure that is not detrimental to the community they're putting in resources of trees and buffer zones and i mean you're going to drive by there and relatively not even see that [07:07:11] it's there so i think for for everybody what what data centers have done for this community what they've done for this area uh is a is pretty much a win-win for everybody so i'm a big proponent of of this this development here all right thank you i am going to turn it over to supervisor bailey for remote thank you madam chair shall we begin our speaker is alan gloss thank you mr mr gloss [07:07:48] if you'll state your name and where you live we appreciate it i'm sorry okay okay next speaker please your next speaker is jessica groff good evening chair jefferson and supervisors um i have spent my day listening to cory booker speak from the heart about many issues that our nation is dealing with right now and i can't help but to think of the night that many of us stayed up all [07:08:26] night into the morning only to watch a vote where money and influence won over community and citizen outcry. I wonder if Cory Booker feels as dismissed as the constituents of Prince William County. I don't know if you know this, but many times on social media when items such as this come up, people reply in the comments, what's the point? The board doesn't listen, or they've already made up their minds, or even worse, they don't care about us. [07:08:55] But I'm going to try to keep the faith tonight because I know that four of you ran on a promise to keep constituents to not place data centers near homes or schools. I'm going to hope that those of you on the dais who made those promises have been listening to your constituents, listening to the news articles about consequences of data centers, and listening to the information that came from the JLARC study, and hopefully listening to your conscience. [07:09:25] And I hope that you will vote no to the proffer amendments for Wellington Glen. Since I know my friends from Prince William County residents are going to tell you all the reasons not to vote no on giving more to Wellington Glen that they can build by right. I would like to remind you of some information that is public and hopefully will help you understand how concerning unconstrained data center development is to the public. I hope you use this information to weigh your options carefully because there is zero reason to agree to these proffers. Today, Dominion announced increases in their rates for residents beginning [07:10:01] July 1st, 2025. In a time when over 35,000 residents in Prince William County are looking at the possibility of layoffs, Dominion is letting us know that it'll be even harder to keep the lights on. Dominion is telling us rates will go up $10.92 a month. The average electric bill in Prince William County is 184 a month. That makes our new average close to 200 a month. And unfortunately, this is not an April Fool's joke. Adding more square footage for no good reason is unnecessary but if approved will require more transmission and more energy generation. Northern [07:10:38] Virginia is already looking at 40 gigawatts of new generation needed. According to the JLARC study if Virginia decides to ignore the VCEA new 1500 megawatt gas plants will be needed every two years for 15 consecutive years. Are you considering that? Where will those go? Are you hoping to slide them to every corner of Prince William, or are you hoping that other localities will take one for the team? And have you considered the water that's needed? Already, the Occoquan is at its tipping point, and every extra square foot that you approve is more cooling and more water used. [07:11:18] It's also more land disturbed and more runoff into our drinking water. When will that play a part in your decisions? When we have to buy our drinking water? Last but not least, the multifamily community of Arcadia Run, which is already... Thank you very much, Ms. Grove. Next speaker, please. Your next speaker is Vida Carroll. Thank you. Ms. Carroll. Hey, good evening. [07:11:48] I don't even know why we're hearing this. Four of you up there ran on the promise of no more data near homes and schools. And this is near homes. I reject the view shed study by the applicant, which showed the view from the ground level of the independence community when the living level of the independence community is on the second floor. So, I mean, for starters off the bat, that was a dishonest view shut. And what is the applicant? The applicant showed their old [07:12:24] application at 90 feet. I think they're getting their old application confused with what's by right. How misleading for them to show their old application and then their current application, like it's some amazing improvement. No, your old application was denied by the planning commission and rejected by this board on the basis of the deferral. [07:12:46] The number of lies the applicant has said tonight is astounding. Dealing with the substation, the transmission lines, community outreach, the applicant failed to mention that they bought this land from the apartment complex. They bought this land from the Arcadia runholders, landholders who clearly do not have the best interests of their residents at heart either. [07:13:10] Supervisor Vega was absolutely right when she said that this application, We would not be here tonight if this application was doing what was by right. Every single proffer that they are offering is a solution to a problem that they are creating by asking for more than what's by right. If they just built what was by right, none of these problems would exist. [07:13:30] They are threatening us with a substation, with power lines, with noise. If they cared about the community as much as they say, as much as they pretend, as much as they pander to us, then they would put in all the measures that they want. And the noise ordinance that y'all are going to pass, they'll have to abide by it under what they can build by right. [07:13:51] The data center design guidelines, they have to abide by that, by what was built by right. I mean, I'm astounded. 500 feet from homes. There's an RPA in that area. So they say, oh, we can go up to 200 feet. They're not going up to 200 feet. Denying this is still a yes to the data industry. It's still yes to the union workers. It's still yes to this business. Denying this is still yes. And the community has accepted that yes. The community does not accept more than that yes. And four of you should remember that. Four of you campaigned on that. And four of you [07:14:31] will be held to that. That's my timer. Do the right thing. Do better. Vote no. Deny this. And And Ron Meyer, go back to Loudoun County, honestly. Thank you, Ms. Carroll. Next speaker, please. [07:14:48] Your next speaker is Chris Carroll. Mr. Carroll. Hey, good evening. This is Chris Carroll from the Brentsville District. And I wasn't going to speak tonight, but based on some of the comments, I just want to clarify a few things, especially in regards to the PFR. [07:15:12] You know, I was there the night you heard the PFR and my thought process on that PFR was that we should not be hearing that PFR for the junkyard substation to power this project until the board decided what to do with this site and with this data center application. [07:15:31] We were told at the Planning Commission by the applicant that, no, no, no, that's not necessary. Whether we have the proper amendment or we build by right, the junkyard substation is going to power this site, whether by right, whether or not this application is approved. [07:15:53] And tonight, we heard a completely different story. And, you know, I do agree that this is a threat to put a substation here that if this application is denied, we will put a substation here. That is entirely a threat to the county. And I do not think that that is especially someone that we should be dealing business with as a county. [07:16:18] Now, along those lines, just to clarify a couple other things, it's important to note, and it wasn't discussed tonight, the Amazon parcels to the south, those applications for more, more, more have been pulled. [07:16:35] They are now, by right, 45 feet. So when this applicant is saying that adjacent data centers are higher, not similar, they aren't similar, they're going to be shorter than this application. [07:16:54] It's important to note that the stone crop drive realignment, that is going to be moved essentially adjacent to what is right next door to the RPA. And that RPA is what's providing more or less the buffer. [07:17:12] So we are moving the road right adjacent to the RPA, right adjacent to what is going to put traffic right next to that community. In terms of the square footage, 235K by right, maybe they could build to 70 feet, maybe not. [07:17:37] But, you know, like prior speakers said, all design elements of the DCOZOD are in place. The noise ordinance that we are working at is already 47 to 52 DBAs. They would have to abide by that. That's already in there. [07:17:53] Some of the things like trails already covered, reforestation, they're actually be removing tree cover to realign the road. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Carroll. Next speaker, please. There are no more speakers. [07:18:09] Thank you so much for your assistance this evening. Madam Chair. All right, thank you. Before I close out, is there anyone else who wants to speak on this agenda item, the public hearing? If so, please go to the back. State your name, the Magisterial District where you reside. [07:18:40] Hi, my name is JJ French. I live in Braymar in the Brentsville District. About a 15-minute walk for me to the planned location. I'm a proponent of data centers. To be transparent, I'm a contractor. I work for a large company. [07:18:58] general contractor who's actually currently doing a project for SDC. You've heard the proffers, you all know better than me, about the tax base and the revenues generated to help out schools. My two kids went to school, Cedar Point, Marsteller, Patriot. [07:19:20] I've watched Bristol grow over the last 25 years. Ada centers have been wonderful for the construction industry, high-paying jobs. And then on top of that is the fact that these are run 24-7, so they will be employing people plus maintenance workers to maintain these high-end systems 24-7. [07:19:47] So for me, it's a win for Prince William County, a win for all of us. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. My name is Christian Camilo Valencia. [07:20:02] I live about 10 minutes from where this proposed data center is going to be. I live in the Gainesville District. I work in construction, and I've built data centers. I've seen how these are made and how many people are employed. [07:20:21] They can get to hundreds to hundreds of hundreds of people at a time. The ideas of also lowering elevation in the building, adding trails, adding that green buffer, bringing that back are good ideas, I think, as well. [07:20:46] thank you next speaker please my name is Electra Sherlock I'm a resident of the Brentsville district and the Arcadia Run community please move up the mic because we can't hear you very well is this better yes my name is Electra Sherlock I'm a resident of the Brentsville district and the Arcadia Run community that neighbors the data center under discussion here I'm I guess I believe that these developers come to this earnestly I don't wish to sway the board in one direction or [07:21:25] another, but I do, we'd prefer the dirt mound nearby, but it was going to be an office or a data center. I think this data center is going to most closely resemble an office which would have been there anyway. While I don't take issue with these developers and I trust in the board to make the decision suitable for the county, I don't feel well informed enough to make a decision go or no go on this. I turn to you guys for that. If this does go forward and Amazon comes forward to do something similar i'll be back and seeking your support and holding amazon's feet to the fire as [07:22:04] well um that's all i i have unless there's any questions from the board thank you all right if we have anyone else i don't see anyone jumping up so i am going to go ahead and close the public hearing um for this agenda item i do have you know i don't know if anyone else has any questions anyone on the dais has any questions additional questions they want clarity from from the applicant or the um county i see that you're in the queue supervisor bailey i don't know if that's intentional [07:22:41] or does anyone have anything that they supervise according madam chair could the applicant uh address the concerns that were mentioned yes speakers thank you you may come back up i just wanted to hit on some of the um comments that we heard in the back so first um the amazon project is south of this project and as jessica is showing on the screen not sure how clear if it can be [07:23:17] zoomed in any but the maximum i'm happy to pass this around to the board members as well but the maximum height that is permitted on the parcel to the south is 60 feet and that does not have a limit on the maximum height for rooftop or mechanical equipment what you see on the screen is that approved mzp next i wanted to talk about the relocation of stone crop drive so the approved mzp so what applies on the site today that master zoning plan on the other side of stone crop drive [07:23:54] there is about two acres that is developable on the other side of stone crop drive that is close to that RPA area. So the only area that is not developable as you see is that area that's the darker color that goes through and that was that RPA area. As far as the reforestation on the site that is not required today. So as we talked about earlier in the presentation the applicant is only required to keep the RPA that is on site and if you can go to my presentation sorry that would be [07:24:33] helpful sorry my son graduated I'm done so on our slide this RPA area is what you see in blue [07:25:13] in these areas in here that's the only buffer that is required under the existing proffers today so what the applicant is doing is adding reforestation areas in these areas here and then additional plantings in the area in here as well and then talking about the design elements so the data center overlay district is currently designed specifically says that you have to do two of a list of items. The applicant as part of this proposal has not only committed to building [07:25:49] elevations, but has provided all of those items with a greater commitment to both fenestration of 30% as well as having a main office looking building on the primary facades, which are three facades of this building. So the applicant is going above and beyond what is required in the data center overlay district. And then as far as the square footage, one thing that we said that I just wanted to emphasize is we're essentially taking the data center square footage on H&I [07:26:22] and reallocating that to D&E. So yes, it's an increase over the 235,000 square feet that's permitted on D&E. It's a little over, so here it's a little less than 70,000 square feet if we take that cumulative. But what we have done is tried to provide an upgraded and updated design standard and elements to address noise, fenestration, adding additional landscaping, and incorporating [07:26:55] items that the community told us that they wanted. Thank you. Don't go too far. I just had one quick question. H&I, what are they going to be used for? Are you going to do anything with those parcels? So currently H&I is designated as M2, OF, or B1, and the idea potentially is to find a user that is a flex office or flex industrial type user, office flex, to help with some of the office flex users that are being displaced adjacent or that need space in the county. [07:27:35] All right. Anyone else have any other additional questions? Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. The reforestation that you did, was that something that was requested or just something in addition to? In addition to. Thank you. [07:27:51] Thank you, Madam Chair. All right. Anyone else going, going once? Thank you so very much. Since we don't have any questions, we're going to move this forward. Is there a motion? Madam Chair, as I started this, I would prefer there not be a data center here, but that's not the option that we had before us. [07:28:18] The question that we have before us is, what type of data center are we going to get? Is it going to be one that we've established proffers and can hold the applicant accountable to, or an application where we have very little to no control over what we get? [07:28:35] Yes, this one is slightly bigger than what can be done by right. But with this, we get eight of the sustainability measures. We get noise studies. We get noise mitigation. [07:28:50] We get bigger buffers. We get traffic control and a host of other things that we don't get with by right. My concern is for the families that do live in Arcadia Run and Independence. [07:29:12] I walked the Independence neighborhood. I made them aware of this case, particularly for those that live along the back edge. And so the challenge is, again, it's not a matter of whether or not we're going to get a data center here. [07:29:33] It's a matter of what kind. And for me, knowing that it is my responsibility to try to look out for the citizens of this county and to make sure that whatever happens on this site, they're provided with the greatest means of mitigation against what is going here. [07:29:54] And so I've gone back and forth with the applicant. We've worked on this to get to a place that I feel a lot more comfortable with. [07:30:10] I did not like the height. I did not like the square footage that has significantly come down. We've taken out H&I. Now, H&I could have been sold to Amazon and an additional building by Amazon put on that site. By proffering that out, we take away a data center building and expansion for Amazon on that other side of Sudley Manor. [07:30:37] I am currently working with this applicant with the excess capacity at Junkyard to see if there's the potential that we don't even need a substation on the other side of Sudley Manor that abuts next to the Independence Neighborhood. [07:30:57] That's something that I'm continuing to work on to see if there's a way that we can further mitigate against the encroachment of the substation against independence. And I've been in conversation with Amazon and I've been in conversation with the applicant to see if we can do that. [07:31:16] We're trying to manage this down because, again, everything in this area is already zoned for data or it has the zoning and it's in the overlay. so trying to get after the power issues and trying to pull this down and try to mitigate this in the best way that I can the hand that I've been dealt I've inherited all of this and I'm trying to do this in a way that creates the least amount of impact on our community and there's more coming [07:31:50] there's more buy right data center applications that are coming in with proper amendments and if I have the ability to get a better product for the good of our community I'm going to work to get that done rather than just getting whatever the cheapest thing that we put on site um without any mitigations um that takes it's long and hard work um and and so it's it's frustrating work but [07:32:21] it's necessary work um there's some rezonings coming up that's a different story but what we have right now is not a rezoning it's a proffer amendment and the proffers that we've been given here help to mitigate these facilities um and so with that said madam chair i move approval of item 14b second i'm sorry 14a it has been moved and properly seconded i'm going to go to [07:32:55] supervisor rare thank you madam chair i'm going to start with the i told you so portion of the of the meeting was mentioned earlier uh dominion proposed two rate increases today and the rationale for it was, and I quote, rising costs as the result of inflation-driven increases in labor materials, essentially created by the demand for electricity from the data centers, forcing up new wholesale power costs and transmission lines and upgrades to feed the facilities. We are doing [07:33:30] nothing but exacerbating the problem and continuing to increase the ratepayers' bills. You were told this years ago, and it's come to pass this morning. I've been pretty clear on this. SEP, rezoning, I don't care, proper amendment. Because of what's happening to the grid, because of what residents, particularly in the Gainesville and the Brentsville districts, are going to see in terms of additional power lines to support every new data center we do, and I'm still not clear as to whether there's a commitment for the substation at the junkyard from the line above or some other [07:34:06] line because that was never made clear during the meeting uh i'm not i'm not inclined to grant one additional square foot above and beyond by right um you know the point was raised about the the view shed analysis from ground level when you're talking about a 60 foot building with four stories on it and you're looking out of the top floor you're not looking at that ground level view shed you're looking above most of the trees or at least through the tops of them um i think what what everybody needs to keep in mind is the original buffers weren't even for a data center because I think the original rezoning was for a mixed-use complex office and apartment rental. [07:34:43] So let's not conflate the buffers that existed for a mixed-use development with the buffers required for a data center. They're two entirely different things. I just can't, you know, staff says it, it says right there in the report, you know, the facility is incompatible with the existing residential uses surrounding it on two sides. You know, we cannot continue to put data centers next to residential or, as some people have suggested, residential next to data centers. We're just repeating the Great Oak failure. [07:35:20] Great Oak right now is probably the best example we have, but I would suggest that within two or three years, we're going to start hearing about it from other developments who currently aren't having the great oak problem because the because the facilities have not powered up yet i can think of village place where they're not operational as soon as village place gets operational since they're significantly closer than even great oak is and with very little buffer um we're going to have a recurring problem and an increasing outcry from the public and every time we add a data center [07:35:54] to an area that already is rife with them because of the compounded noise issue we're just going to make the problem worse for anybody who lives there so i'm just a flat out no on this thank you madam chair all right i had um you in the queue bailey but i don't know if you want to speak or i did anyone else because if not i'm gonna say my piece um first of all i i do appreciate what [07:36:26] you said supervisor gordy about managing it down i'm really trying to work with the applicant and i and then i will say this i appreciate the responsiveness from the applicant and that you were willing to defer this um you have been dealt a bad hand supervisor gordy you know there was discussion about eliminating the data center overlay district and i you know i am concerned still about any unintended consequences but maybe that is a conversation that we need to have you know and i want to speak to what people were saying the data centers benefit our county [07:37:03] um part of the reason they benefit our county is because we tax tax them we're starting to tax them more appropriately. There's a reason why I haven't been open to doing incremental tax increases. I feel that we should have been in line with neighboring jurisdictions a long time ago. [07:37:23] I also want to, you know, some of the opposition was saying, I think what we have 875 million dollar, 875 million square feet of data centers already in development, built, planned. I think this shows actually that figure shows that we do need a comprehensive list of data centers that are you know already built in development and our plan to be built because i'm not sure how accurate that number is you know both sides have bandied about a lot of figures and sometimes the facts get lost i also do want to say that with the um you know proposed amadon data center that's going [07:38:01] to be near this parcel i do not believe it is by right i do not believe that they're going in that direction. But again, I do appreciate the responsiveness from the applicant. I appreciate that you were willing to defer. You know, for me, I really am running out of patience just with data centers. You know, something happened over the weekend that made me wonder, you know, why am I trying to have good faith conversations with people? You know, why am I trying to, again, manage down? And, you know, you're right, constituents deserve better. You know, they [07:38:35] deserve us putting our our best foot forward um but i just don't see myself supporting this project i know you have the votes let's just go ahead and take them motion passes five to three supervisor vega we're no decorum decorum we're not doing that decorum decorum i know that people have emotions and they get upset but one of the things that we're not going to do is try this [07:39:14] listen to a circus so with that we are going into item agenda item number 15 and that is public comment time so as a reminder when you get up for and i'm assuming i guess a lot of you are for public comment time because i thought you were be speaking about wellington glenn um so i guess a lot of people are here for public comment time i'm going to call you up in groups of five you're going to state your name and the magisterial district in which you reside you've got three [07:39:46] minutes um hold on hold on andrea matt we had so the last vote we was moved by gore that's what i thought thank you all right i apologize again if i do not say your name correctly melinda [07:40:13] dillinger hannah mccomer kevin willis suzanne gomo and aaron um coin all right so if y'all can move to the back and to the mic? No. All right. Make sure you just make sure you speak directly because I feel like you keep saying that. All right go on. Melinda Dollinger, Occoquan District. [07:40:47] Speak a little louder. Melinda Dollinger, Occoquan District. Yes. Good evening supervisors. First and foremost I want to extend a huge thank you to Supervisors Bodie and Angry. You pushed this directive through when it mattered most and because of your leadership we are finally seeing action on an issue that has been ignored for far too long. [07:41:08] Your dedication to doing what's right for the animals and for our community has not gone unnoticed. To say this was overdue is an understatement. This directive is a major victory, and I want to acknowledge the effort it took to make it happen. But as we all know, getting the directive passed is just the first step. [07:41:28] We know the damage that comes from allowing puppy mill sales in our county. Public safety risk, poor breeding, and lack of socialization contribute to higher rates of aggression, dog bites, putting residents at risk. Strain on shelters. Families unknowingly buy sick or unstable puppies only to surrender them later when they become too much to handle. [07:41:50] This leads to even more overcrowding in our shelters. Businesses profiting off of suffering, and as all of this happens, someone still makes money off of it. One of the biggest reasons our new county shelter was such a success is because the Animal Advisory Committee was involved. [07:42:09] They fought to ensure the animals had adequate natural light, something so basic yet so essential to their well-being. That level of care and attention made a tangible difference in the lives of the animals in our shelter. If the AAC is not part of this process, we risk changes being made behind closed doors with no accountability and no guarantee that the best decisions are made. [07:42:32] Again, I want to sincerely thank Supervisors Bodie and ANGRY for your leadership in moving this forward, but we cannot let this directive become just another unchecked policy. Now the citizens ask that the AAC be directly involved in shaping these regulations. [07:42:48] They have already proven they bring expertise and integrity to the table. It's time to let them do it again. Because when policies are weak, we all know who benefits, and we won't stand by and let that happen. Let's make sure we see this through to the finish line. As well, the petition is currently at 1,968 signatures and growing. [07:43:09] Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hannah McCumber, Gainesville District. Good evening, members of the board. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak today. I want to start by expressing my sincere gratitude to Supervisors Bodie and Angry for their leadership in pushing this important directive forward. [07:43:31] Their dedication to strengthening protections for animals in our county is deeply appreciated by me and by the many community members who have been advocating for these changes. Now that the directive is moving forward, I ask that we take the next critical step by ensuring that the Animal Advisory Committee is directly involved in the process. [07:43:49] The AAC was instrumental in the development of our new animal shelter, providing valuable expertise and guidance. Their involvement in this directive would be just as beneficial, helping to ensure that the amendments were well-informed, practical, and effective in addressing the issues at hand. [07:44:07] Including the AAC will allow us to draw on the knowledge of those who have already demonstrated their commitment to animal welfare in our community. Their insights will help shape policies that not only close loopholes for unethical breeders, but also give animal control officers the authority they need to enforce humane standards proactively. [07:44:27] With over 1,900 community members signing a petition in support of these changes, it is clear that this is an issue our residents care deeply about. We have an opportunity to create real lasting change in ensuring that the AAC is part of this process and will help us do just that. [07:44:43] Thank you again for your time and for your continued commitment to making our county a place where animals are treated with the care and dignity they deserve. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. My name is Kevin Willis. [07:45:00] I'm a pet parent, and I'm also a resident of the county, and I live in the Coles District. I urge the board to ban the sale of puppies, kittens, and rabbits in retail outlets. Many cities and counties across the United States have enacted bans on the sale of these animals in pet stores to combat unethical breeding practices and promote animal welfare. [07:45:29] In California, cities like Los Angeles and San Diego have implemented bans. Over 80 communities in Florida have similar restrictions. In Illinois, Chicago, and some of the surrounding communities have adopted humane laws. The state of Maryland bans the retail sale of animals sourced from puppy mills. [07:45:50] On January 1st, 2024, New York City banned the sale of puppies, kittens, and rabbits in pet stores. This law will go into effect in July of this year. Pet stores are now encouraged to collaborate with shelters and rescue organizations to help animals find homes. [07:46:09] New York State is also joining this movement. These bans can have a positive impact, first by combating puppy mills. In the United States alone, there are an estimated 10,000 puppy mills, both licensed and unlicensed. [07:46:30] Shockingly, around 2 million puppies are sold each year from these mills. They can encourage adoption. By banning the sale of commercially bred animals, pet stores are encouraged to partner with shelters, rescue organizations, and promoting the adoption of homeless animals. [07:46:50] Protecting consumers. Animals from puppy mills often suffer from genetic disorders and diseases due to poor breeding practices. This leads to heartbreak and financial strain for families who purchase these animals. [07:47:06] And reducing overpopulation, the bands aim to address the issue of pet overpopulation by discouraging the breeding of animals in large-scale facilities. When people purchase puppies from these mills, they unknowingly support an industry that perpetuates suffering. [07:47:27] Meanwhile, shelters and rescues organizations across the country are overflowing with homeless animals, desperate for love and care. Every dog bought from a puppy mill is one less dog adopted from a shelter. [07:47:44] It's an unnecessary cycle of recycling, of suffering. Thank you. Next speaker. And I do have a few extra people. You can come up. But if I didn't call you up, if you could have a seat again. Fire marshal, no standing. [07:48:01] So if you have not been called, if you can take a seat until I call you, that'd be great. Thank you. All right, next speaker. You would like to use a projector? Hello, my name is Suzanne Gomo. I've been a resident of Prince William County. I moved here in 1979, and except for a short stint up in Linden, Virginia, before I-66 was even completed, I moved back here in 1986 and have resided in Prince William County since then. [07:48:29] I'm a member of the Occoquan District, and I love my county. I love my friends and family here. I did not know any of these people until I saw what one of them had written on Facebook about a puppy shop in Manassas, Virginia, that I was shocked that they had live puppies supposedly from breeders. We don't know where these breeders come from, but they're probably not local because most breeders that I have had contact with over the years, they have their puppies with their mom and dad at a house, not in a wire cage. [07:49:06] So I'm sure everybody has heard about puppy mills. Well, some of the facts about the puppy mills will just leave you in tears a very good friend of mine rescues puppies from puppy mills she is one of the people that goes to the auctions and purchases these dogs that would be euthanized she purchased one dog that had been bred so many times in her short four years that when she got finally got her hands on her they had to do an immediate hysterectomy on her to prevent her from dying they have no idea how many litters of puppies this puppy herself had been putting out [07:49:41] she had never left a wire cage in her entire life she had never walked on grass she had never been on stairs she had never been held in somebody's arms she did not know love but with this girl that finally rescued her and decided to keep her and did not even bother to turn her over to a foster because she knew her life was going to be too short to be able to have a forever home fostered herself and kept her until this dog finally passed away and was a result from overbreeding in puppy [07:50:16] mills. They live on wire cages. They don't have anything to stand on. It just disfigures their feet. These wire cages provide a way for these puppy mill people. They use hoses to clean them out with. They never leave that cage. They get fed by this automatic feeder. They go in there maybe once a week and put pellets in there for the dog to eat that's it they don't get combed they don't get groomed they don't get held they don't get loved they don't get bonded with other pets such an important part about having a dog is it has to be with its mother for so many weeks [07:50:54] and its litter mates that is the socialization of the dog world and then once you receive that puppy while it's growing it has to have the socialization with its new family with its neighbors it has to be taken on walks. It has to have experience as it's maturing and as it's growing. And have you ever asked yourself when you go into one of these places, what happens to those puppies that never get purchased? They get euthanized. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Before I have the next speaker, [07:51:26] we have Asteria, Stella Grimes, Laura Becker, Steve Amato, and Rachel Ellis. You may go up and speak. Thank you. Hello, my name is Erin Coyne and I am a Manassas resident. I wanted to thank you to the chair members for still being awake at this time. I truly appreciate your attention. I know that it's very late and I also wanted to mention I tried to find the owner earlier but [07:52:02] there are two dogs outside in a car. They seem to be really upset and barking so if you need to go check on your dog, please do. Like I said, I am a Manassas resident and I am an avid supporter of local businesses. I'm a regular at Hog Shack Barbecue. I get all my baked goods from Honey and Ivy and I take my rescue dog Marcy to the Old Town Veterinary Clinic despite her protests every visit. I say this because when I want to, when I really get into the meat of this, I want you to [07:52:38] know that I am a huge supporter of local businesses and local business operators, but I am not a supporter of the puppy mill industry. It is a fact that over three million dogs get surrendered each year to shelters and rescues. Puppy mills create over two million dogs a year, and there are just not enough people not enough rescues to take them in someone recently posed the question to me well if I were to buy a dog from a puppy mill aren't I saving the dog from that fate and in a small way [07:53:16] yes you are you are saving that one individual dog but you are telling those puppy mills that what I'm doing is creating income and money and money speaks louder than anything you could buy out the entire puppy mill and all you will teach them is that if they sell enough dogs they'll make more money and the cycle continues so we have to stop it here we have to stop it here in prince william county we have the ability we have the opportunity to enable change here in our hometowns [07:53:49] here in our county here in our cities we have a responsibility to these animals that we help bring into the world to make sure that they are cared for with love and consideration because that is the very least that they deserve it breaks my heart it truly does to think of these dogs without these opportunities because we are responsible for it we as human beings are the reason they are here if you have thousands of dollars eight hundred dollars two thousand dollars to spend on a puppy i strongly encourage you to take that money and put it towards a shelter the ones who [07:54:27] are saving these creatures from this fate puppy stores may say that they source from reputable breeders but they don't because the fact is that reputable breeders do not sell to puppy stores first of all the breeders losing the income second of all they can't be there's no accountability i will leave you with this to consider can you imagine being brought into this world only to be put to death because you were not bought thank you next speaker please i am a [07:55:06] from Manassas. Hello, county board members. I would like you to meet Estrella. Estrella was rescued from a breeder who supplies pet stores with puppies. Due to the conditions these dogs are bred in by puppy mills, backyard breeders, or any responsible breeders, dogs are stressed as they are routinely raped to first breed them, have their babies constantly stolen from them, and are denied basic care. [07:55:33] This stress, as has been shown in many studies done on both humans and animals, passes from the mother to her babies in the womb. The hormonal imbalance from stress and trauma from mother to child creates babies who suffer from anxiety disorders, higher rates of depression, and other mental health issues. [07:55:52] This is the same reason why eating meat and dairy products makes you more depressed and stressed because you're taking those hormones from the animals that have been taught to enslave their entire existence. Estrella suffers from an anxiety disorder because of generational trauma. She destroys everything in the house, panics if she doesn't see me, and has difficulty socializing with other dogs. [07:56:12] I was only able to adopt her because I have experience with lost dogs and dogs with mental health issues. But breeders of every kind would sell a dog to just about anyone for money. They, unlike a rescue, do not sell you have the knowledge or experience for a certain type of dog. [07:56:28] They want money. So breeders like these puppy mills will give their dogs to families who've never had a dog be fed, who are inexperienced dog parents, and these inexperienced dog parents will either dump the dogs in shelters who are already struggling or seek out a trainer. [07:56:44] And since America does not require dog trainers to be licensed, many fakes exist and incurs the use of torture devices like shotcars and prong cars, which are banned in most countries because they make dogs aggressive. These desperate families would only create more problems with their dogs leading to an increase of dog bites, children being mauled, and dogs being mauled for crimes that they never understood. [07:57:09] If I hadn't gotten Estrella, the likelihood of her mental health developing to the point of her biting someone would be high. She is able to stand here today somewhat calm because of my knowledge, knowledge that dog breeders do not care about. Imagine Estrella in the wrong hands right now. [07:57:27] Someone could be hurt. Even if you do not care about dogs, solely you care about the safety of your community. Ban selfish, cruel, vile dog breeders and save dogs and children from unnecessary death and suffering. And please have the Animal Advisory Committee work with the staff on this new pet shop directive. [07:57:50] Also, you still haven't gone back to me about the rodeo and circus ban petition I gave you last year. So you'll hear from me for that, too. Thank you so very much. All right, next speaker. Good evening, board members. [07:58:11] My name is Stella. I am from Manassas. I want to emphasize how disturbing puppy mills are and how they make living beings into mere products and how they work. Puppy mills are large-scale operations focused on the production and industrialization of sentient beings, dogs in this case, as a product to be bought. [07:58:32] It's normal to adopt dogs into forever homes where they become beloved members of the household. However, it is not normal to commodify dogs into a mere product meant to be sold like they're a new car or phone. This is what puppy mills are. They are not adoption centers like one might find across the country. [07:58:52] They're not rescue centers. They are places where female dogs are forced to breed over and over again to produce puppies again to be sold as products. That is not normal, and that is not what a normal adoption or rescue center does. These are living creatures that should not be bred into existence on a large scale for money. [07:59:14] Purebreds are the largest victims of these operations, and it can cause a ton of issues because they are, again, bred to simply be sold. The genetic issues they often end up with causes them to die at very young ages, sometimes as early as just a few months. [07:59:32] This is why they should be banned, not just in Virginia, but across the entire country. I want to conclude by saying, please include the Animal Advisory Committee to work with the staff on the new Pet Ship Directive. Thank you. This is my first time speaking like this. [07:59:48] Thank you for listening to me. Thank you. Next speaker, please. [08:00:00] Good evening, ma'am, chair, members of the board. My name is Laura, and I'm here in my constituent capacity. I want to first thank Supervisor Angry and Supervisor Bodie for issuing the directive regarding pit stores in our county. [08:00:17] Very needed. Your care and attention to this matter brings folks together from all political aisles, and thanks to the entire board for unanimously approving this directive. I would like to talk a little bit about puppies today. [08:00:33] I know it's late, but we all like puppies. I would like to talk a little bit about their needs, because puppies need a lot of things when they're little. You may have heard that puppies need to fill their mom's fur nearby. Puppies need the warmth of their litter nearby to stay warm. [08:00:50] They struggle to regulate their body temperature otherwise. Puppies need to play with their siblings and to be corrected by mom on bite inhibition. If they do not, they will have more likelihood of getting mouthy and becoming difficult to be around children. This contact is necessary during the primary socialization stage and into fear periods up to 24 weeks of age, way beyond the eight weeks at which puppies are sold. [08:01:18] So why is this all important? Because puppies are exchanging critical chemicals that are essential for their development. The interactions with the litter and mom triggers the release of serotonin, the feel-good hormone. This hormone is also responsible for mood regulation. In both puppies and humans, low levels of serotonin are associated with depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders. It also plays a vital role in regulating sleep, digestion, as well as learning. [08:01:49] Serotonin, which is released in all these important processes, also affects memory. So if the puppy needs to learn, it's also affecting the memory and the ability to learn. It helps facilitate the formation of new neural connections and strengthen existing ones in the puppy. It is no surprise that a dog deprived of his mom, his litter, members of his own species during critical developmental periods has a higher chance of developing behavioral issues. A dog without other dogs in a box during puppyhood has a higher chance of developing a variety of issues. We can see them sitting in a cage without movements, their ligaments, bones, and entire body is not [08:02:27] developing properly they often suffer from weakness from the chronic lack of movement these things which will not affect only the adopting family with enormous heartbreak but also vet bills and um all these things that i've just stated how do i know this i know this because i'm a canine behavior consultant one of 13 certified in the state of virginia i know this because i have been rescuing and rehabilitating these dogs in prince william county for the last eight years my colleagues at the animal advisory committee have a wealth of expertise and are eager to also provide insights to the staff regarding the directive that you have issued in regards to [08:03:04] pet stores and animal welfare so i ask politely to um have the aac collaborate with your staff thank you so very much to ensure humane and world-class ordinances in prince william county thank you next speaker please good evening board of supervisors madam chair i'm steve amato from the Occoquan District. As you all continue to work through the fiscal year 2026 budget process, [08:03:41] I'm providing some feedback and a few recommendations from fellow Prince William County citizens to you for immediate support. First of all, for county residents and attendants, 52% of the revenue which the fiscal year budget is generated from real estate taxes, not data center taxes, real estate taxes. Through various Freedom of Information and Privacy Act [08:04:15] requests, I've been provided the following data. My issue is high real estate taxes. Over the past seven fiscal years, Prince William County real estate taxes paid by property owners has significantly increased. The past six fiscal years, Prince William County budgets have generated large amounts of surplus revenue. For example, in fiscal year 19, 17% million was generated. [08:04:50] Fiscal year 20, 21.7 million was generated. Fiscal year 21, 28.2 million was generated. Fiscal year 22, 77.2 million was generated. Fiscal year 23, 42.3 million was generated. [08:05:09] Fiscal year 24, $68.7 million was generated. As a result of these past consecutive fiscal years, a grand total of $255.7 million in surplus revenue was generated. [08:05:30] $255.7 million. None of the funding from this surplus was refunded to any taxpayers in Prince William County. majority of this revenue coming from real estate taxes. The only personnel in Prince William County who benefited from this revenue were county and Prince William County school personnel who received salary raises to include our board members and the chair. So as recommendations, I recommend the [08:06:10] board really considered to lower that tax base rate the real estate tax base rate to 0.88 and tax tax the data centers we need to change that 52 percent of real estate taxes and flip it more to the data centers thank you very much all right rachel before you speak i'm going to count up the next group angela drab giovanni soto i don't know if that's if he's still here um jordan musselman [08:06:43] and Sam Musselman. So if you can make your way to the back, I appreciate it. All right. Rachel? Rachel Ellis, Gainesville District. I want to thank Chair Jefferson. I want to thank Supervisor Vega, and I want to thank Supervisor Weir. Your word means something to the public, and that is something that when everybody on social media is saying the board doesn't care, the board doesn't care, I can say these three supervisors, their word means something. Apparently, based upon the vote of Wellington Glen tonight, which by the way, this was pre-written, so I knew exactly how [08:07:19] tonight was going to go. Prince William County is still open for business to the data center industry. So my public comments tonight are to the data center industry directly. To the lawyers and all the developers attempting to put together assemblages across the county, here are the neighborhoods you need to focus on. Potomac Shores, Possum Point, Potomac Tech Park, Mid-County, Telegraph Road. That one's actually my favorite because the county already owns a large tract of land that could easily be flipped for a profit to the residents. All of these areas are in the [08:07:54] overlay district. This board has yet to say no to any proffer for more in the overlay. It is a data center developer's dream. Show up to the planning commission, ask for big and obscene square footage and height. Then when the community becomes aware and pushes back, you can reduce your plans but still ask for more. The board will lodge your efforts to try to work with the community and how thoughtful you are. You will be a hero. The board will be blinded by the donations you give and no longer see the hundreds of emails of resident opposition or residents showing up to [08:08:32] speak. The data center industry runs this county and nothing has changed. My passion for this, the reason I come and I speak over and over again, is because I've lived here my whole life. And a lot of these projects do not directly impact me, but they are impacting residents. [08:08:52] They're going to impact, as Supervisor Weir said, everybody is going to feel it when they get their electric bills. Everybody is going to feel it when we don't have any more oxygen because we are continuing to cut down trees on any parcel of land that still has them. [08:09:08] This is not my comfort zone. This is totally not me. I don't like speaking in public, but I think it's important for you guys to know that there are people like me that want change in this county and i will continue to show up because one day you guys are actually going to say no and tonight three of you guys said no and i appreciate it thank you all right next speaker had called other people up i guess they're not here so this will be you'll be our last speaker before we go to remote hi my name is angela drop i actually own the puppy [08:09:47] shop in manassas that everyone is referring to um to start off with i want to give you a little bit of background of myself i was a police officer in manassas city for 13 years i owned a security company for 10 years and provided security for the salty embassy and i decided to retire and hang up my gun belt which i've protected 23 years of protecting people and do puppies because puppies make people happy and i wanted to be around puppies that were happy my puppies are happy [08:10:19] But what a couple people, Melinda Dillinger and Mocumber, have said tonight, talked about puppy mills in front of you. But what they have said about me online is that all my puppies are unwell and sick, and they're mistreated in sick living conditions, that they're subject to mistreatment by me, that I'm abusive and neglectful. [08:10:53] the conditions that they live in at my puppy store are absolutely terrible and the mistreatment of of my animals are overlooked totally untrue now they've they continue to speak this way about me online and it's just out of control now what is true is that i that after their all their complaints and their complaints to you to get this started that i was visited by usda two police officers the chief deputy animal control officer benjamin lambert and the animal service bureau [08:11:32] director anthony cleveland all of which found nothing wrong the day after less than 24 hours that that mcumber that just said talked about puppy mills said that all my puppies were sick and unwell and lived in unwell conditions now i have the right to i i went to prince william county and asked for a change of change of use where i wanted to go which was above the brewery in [08:12:09] the yorkshire area they approved that change of use and i have the right to operate a business peacefully not have my customers harassed in the parking lot and called names and they're going to stand a parent act all innocent in front of you, but they have harassed me to no end for the past two weeks. They have done everything that I've told you just now. They've encouraged people to break into my business and steal the puppies to get them away from me. They have also encouraged that people visit my home. Now, something has to be done. I don't believe in puppy mills either, [08:12:47] and I don't want puppies from puppy mills okay I buy my puppies from USDA breeders that are licensed and I I give the I I expect USDA to do their job I appreciate it but you're out of time thank you um if you want you can you know some of the supervisors may you know stay around if you would like to talk I'm going to go to Supervisor Bailey do we have anyone online do we still have someone online? We do? Okay. Shall we begin? Yes, we have to speak. Thank you very much. Mr. Gloss, [08:13:27] proceed, please. I'll start with a word about Carlton County building for many years. My wife and I have been chatting with him during our long board meetings. He's going to be sorely missed. [08:13:46] Rest in peace, my friend. Madam Chair, I'd like to congratulate you in the county for making national news last week. For those who don't know, an MS-13 gang leader who officials say was the head of all East Coast gang operations was arrested right here in Dale City. I'd love for this board, which sets the policy for our public safety, to speak to why the feds had to come into our county and remove this dangerous individual for us. It seems that should have been a job for our police department, which are supposed to keep our community safe, but was only brought in to provide [08:14:22] scene control and local presence during the federal raid because members of this board have handcuffed our police's ability to cooperate with federal authorities to remove illegal criminal aliens from our community. In a press conference, the governor said this raid was able to be carried out only because of collaboration between state and federal law enforcement officials via a 287G memorandum that the governor established. That's crazy because Prince William County used to have a 287g memorandum as well but you all removed it so now the feds had to come into our county and [08:14:57] remove this criminal partisan hacks who are still on this board did that now our police are sidelined and the feds have to come police our trash for us i'm shocked at not only how dangerous these policies are but i find it simply embarrassing that this board has more cops protecting themselves than are working to remove criminal aliens from our streets this gangster was running his operations in our own backyard freely without a care in the world for an extended period of time because you've made it a welcoming and inviting area for every criminal immigrant because you severed the [08:15:34] police and sheriff's ability to work directly with federal officials do you regret your decision on 287g i certainly do i regret your decision for you this guy has two interactions with the police that would have given them the opportunity to report his whereabouts to ice but in 2020 you all stopped that. Which of you will be held accountable when something bad happens at Prince William County because of your actions? It doesn't matter what the national political leaders want. You are obligated to enact policies that protect citizens of Prince William County. You can't say you are for public safety when you support [08:16:10] policies that put the very public you're supposed to protect at risk by providing a safe haven for criminals to come into the community and carry out their operations freely like this guy did. Do better. I'd like to address the people talking about banning locally licensed pet sales my dog came from a breeder these do-gooders send pet sales underground when they try to ban legitimate sales regulate them don't ban them thank you thank you mr gloss are there any additional um the other speaker actually dropped off so there are no more speakers okay thank you so much and have a good evening madam chair all right thank you for everyone who [08:16:49] has stayed to speak in person or online with that let's move your second i just want to say i know it's april fool's day but if someone decides to if we if this fails i'm gonna sing for y'all i'll do something no you don't want to hear it really you made the motion yeah so oh come on seriously really weird really okay you can stay here you can stay here you know what yeah supervisor weir will be staying on the rest of us get to go home have a good night we will see you all next week tuesday thank you so very much i knew there was no chance it was going to fail ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Coraggio Consulting · aguyonx.com