Coraggio Consulting
Prince William Board of County Supervisors Meeting — Work Session, Tuesday, June 10, 2025

Date: Tuesday, June 10, 2025
Place: Prince William County Board of County Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 3h 41m (video)
Official meeting video (Prince William County, Granicus): https://pwcgov.granicus.com/player/clip/3652
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 2026-10-29. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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

[00:00:08] All right. Welcome, everyone. Today is Tuesday, June 10th. We are going to begin with a moment of silence.

[00:00:26] Thank you. All rise, if you are able, for the Pledge of Allegiance.

[00:00:37] All right, everyone. We are going to go right into agenda item number three, and that's public comment time.

[00:00:56] I'm going to call folks up in groups of five. When you are called, please state your name clearly for the record, as well as where you generally reside. You do not have to put on your full address unless you want me to show up. And I hope you have good food. So I'm going to start with Mr. Rob Pixley, Kathy Kulik, Bill Wright, Dale Brown, and Kevin Coyle.

[00:01:27] Are we ready? We're ready. Have an overhead? Maybe we're not ready. We'll give you the overhead.

[00:01:43] So this is an image of the Great Oak neighborhood, and the previous iteration of this had 13 data centers.

[00:02:03] Bring the microphone a little closer. This is an image of the Great Oak neighborhood with the surrounding data centers and substations. I've commented previously, the previous version of this had 13 data centers, and that seemed kind of excessive. We've now gone to 14.

[00:02:20] I didn't think you could find more space for more data centers. The presentation that's going to be made that says we can't do anything about the noise because it's just too tough seems like a cop-out.

[00:02:38] When we were freshly told with Jefferson that you failed us last time, I don't see how we're going to go forward. And it doesn't seem like, you know, there's over $100 million in new revenue this year from data centers, and yet we're going to let them do what they want.

[00:03:02] That says who's buying this. I don't see how we can compete with that when our representatives are taking donations from the very same people to the tune of six figures and claiming it doesn't have any effect.

[00:03:19] Anyone who sees that will laugh at that assertion, especially given the history of this. And it is disappointing. And, you know, who butters the bread?

[00:03:36] I think we're getting a picture. And it's very disappointing. We live with this day in, day out. We don't even have the full effect yet. There's only a few of these that are operational. 14 data centers within a half a mile. I'm sorry.

[00:03:51] That's all I got. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. Catherine Kulik, Vice Chair, HOA Roundtable, member of the Data Center Ordinance Advisory Group.

[00:04:11] Data Center noise is not just a Great Oak or Amazon problem, despite what the industry has piled into your offices to lament. Noise is a problem from Stacks Facility on Hornbaker Road next to low-income apartment complexes. It's emanating loudly from a core-scale facility at Gainesville Crossing.

[00:04:28] It's been heard and felt four miles away during a test of the NTT data center at the Route 29 and 66 interchange and from load tests at the Nova Mango Farm Google campus inundating the homes of Bristow area residents. And when all the data centers under construction and sitting idle waiting for power in the Brentsville, Gainesville, and Coles districts actually get it, 24-7 industrial noise will be everyone's problem.

[00:04:55] Great Oak is simply the best documented with consistent and credible noise readings over a three-year period. Yet item 6C on your agenda, the noise ordinance update's demoralizing conclusion is data center noise is embedded in traffic noise and not sufficiently distinguishable to isolate its contribution.

[00:05:15] What? That's interesting. Great Oak residents have had no trouble distinguishing low-frequency data center noise from the traffic noise they've lived with for decades. Traffic noise doesn't shake our walls, rattle our windows, cause our pets to go off their food, or frighten our children. The board directive that led to the DCOAG three years ago and a million dollars committed to the consultant assistance was on the verge of proposing a cutting-edge noise ordinance.

[00:05:40] Yet staff leadership determined only a few days ago that any hope of a new ordinance is essentially doomed. Relying on the advice of a new consultant whose experience is based on the law in New Jersey, not Virginia, has never been to a Prince William County or consultant on a data center project.

[00:05:57] What a disservice to the county and, most importantly, its residents. Members of the DCOAG are prevented regularly from attending key meetings where discussions are held behind closed doors with consultants. Our well-documented research on the health effects of low-frequency noise have been ignored and the years of noise readings taken in the Great Oak community dismissed as things imagined that residents are somehow looking for noise.

[00:06:19] Let me just tell you, when you experience this low-frequency noise, you will do anything not to hear it. The board long ago decided to venture into the unknown of impacting homeschools, parks, and people with massive industrial sprawl to incentivize the data center industry. What's the plan now?

[00:06:34] Tell your citizens, too bad, it's their problem? The DCOAG needs fully transparent leadership that once and for all will take the impacts of residents' quality of life, health, and well-being seriously and make that the central focus. We are on track to become the largest industrial landscape in the world. I ask you, will Prince William be known as the leader in how to address this industry responsibly, or will it be known as the leader in how to fail at it? The county's

[00:07:01] watching you. What will you do? Thank you. Next speaker, please. My name is Bill Wright. I live in Gainesville. I'm a member of the county's data center ordinance advisory group. The need for a revised ordinance to address the effects posed by data centers was acknowledged almost three years ago by BOCS Directive 22-28 on July 12, 2022. The data center ordinance advisory group

[00:07:41] did not hold its first meeting until July 7, 2023. What progress county staff made in the intervening year is unclear. I joined the group in July 2024 after the death of Dr. John Liver. Before my first meeting, I observed the following for the group. I remarked how the protected timeline rivaled that of the Manhattan Project, and that it was inconceivable that developing a noise ordinance could take as long as building the atomic bomb. I noted how significant data center approvals and development continued unabated while the DCOAG dithered, despite the county's acknowledgement of the ignorance of their detrimental effects. I likened data centers to

[00:08:21] the tobacco industry, in that they pose a health hazard that warrants regulation and reduced consumption. I lamented the lack of official county inventory of data centers operating under construction, approved, and in the planning process. That was almost a year ago, and I could write the same things today. DCOAG deliberations will now surpass the Manhattan Project. Our next yardstick is Project Mercury, under which our country developed manned spaceflight. Given the snail's pace, anyone would be justified in questioning the county's commitment to protecting its citizens. It's not like the DCOAG has not been busy. We have held numerous meetings, hired

[00:08:58] several consultants and collected voluminous data. But activity is not accomplishment, and our citizens are less safe today than when we recognized the threat three years ago. Supervisors should ask some very basic questions today. Why has so much time and money yielded no recommendation? Who is accountable for this failure? Is the county's goal to safeguard public health or to placate the data center industry? Does the county's fear of legal challenges transcend its responsibility to protect its citizens does the county staff why does the county staff continue to recommend approval of

[00:09:34] data center projects despite admitted ignorance of how to limit their effects and finally what will this board do to restore the faith with communities that have been ravaged by its uninformed decisions thank you all right next speaker and let's be careful of that photo back

[00:09:50] there of leaning back against it so no worries i'll forgive you this time thank you and while we're waiting, I'll call up the final two in-person speakers. We have Raymond Kowalski

[00:10:27] and Ryan Bartroff. So you guys can go stand on the back as well. Are we ready? Yeah, you may start.

[00:10:49] Okay. Thank you, Chair Jefferson and fellow supervisors. I have to tell you, oh, I'm from Great Oak. I got to make sure, yeah. My name is Dale Brown. I'm from Great Oak. I represent the Great Oak HOA. I've been here before many times, so I'm sure you all know me. Thank you again for haven't for allowing this this time i have to tell you i come here today upset let down and and feel that my community is being abandoned you just heard from rob and you heard the same thing i understand the county charter to be that you you protect the health and safety of our residents in that i believe you're failing in great oak you're going to hear a uh get a presentation

[00:11:28] today and you're going to there's two items in there that i want you to be really aware of one is the plan to get the noise charter to you for approval is moving from july 8th to the fall the fall is just untenable. We've been doing this for three years, so more than three years. I've been at this since April of 2022. The DCOAG, of which I'm a member, has been meeting or has been was formed because of the issues in Great Oak. I've invested countless hours and so much sweat you wouldn't believe, and all I have to show for it is a single HVAC exemption. It has to be renewed every year, so it's a temporary renewal. The next thing you're going to hear, so this is just

[00:12:07] unbelievable. This is just kicking the can down the road, and I have to ask, do you have the courage to do what's right for the residents of Prince William County, or is this industry money too important to you? What you're going to do, and the second thing you're going to hear is that, and Kathy mentioned this, it's not sufficiently, the noise is not sufficiently distinguishable to isolate its contribution, whether by listening to or by a single measurement, and it's mid and mid and high frequency noise appears to be traffic noise. Not distinguishable by listening to is incorrect. It is distinguishable. I would add that Supervisor Gordy, Supervisor Weir, Supervisor

[00:12:45] Vega have all visited, Chair Jefferson has all visited, and you've all in Great Oak heard the noise. You can tell what the noise is, and you can tell where it's coming from. So that is just an incorrect statement. This also used staff measurements, not professional measurements. This chart here is what I call a frequency spectrum.

[00:13:04] The red line is what DBA, when you hear about DBA, filters out. So it's all the high frequency noise, which is not bothering us. It's the mountain, the purple mountain on the left-hand side, the low frequency noise that is bothering us. And that's what we have to address. And it can be addressed by demanding frequency signatures from the data center industry, along with strict noise level limits covering all frequencies.

[00:13:28] And you can do it by either way. and then augmented by perimeter monitoring. I would like to last say that if anybody from Four Seasons is listening, I would love to talk to you because you've got to stop drinking the Kool-Aid and not take the kitchen and the pickleball because you're going to be miserable once you have those data centers so close to your homes.

[00:13:47] Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. My name is Kevin Coyle. I'm also on the Prince William County Data Center Ordinance Group, And I'm going to read my comments.

[00:14:07] Prince William County has a unique opportunity to develop and adopt a cutting-edge noise ordinance. It's needed. The Board of Supervisors has approved or is in considering close to 90 million square feet of data centers or about twice as many as Loudoun County.

[00:14:26] The bulk of these data centers will have rooftop cooling equipment, regular testing of backup diesel generators. Data centers often generate 60 to 75 decibels as they are currently being built. The World Health Organization and other health experts have determined that community noise levels above 53 decibels daytime and 45 decibels nighttime cause sleep disruptions, cardiac and hypertension issues, and more.

[00:14:57] Research also shows that low-frequency noise, such as is generated by data centers, is visceral and has a particularly negative effect on health. And note that children and the elderly are the most at risk from elevated noise levels, especially at night.

[00:15:15] So the question is, how do we move forward? I have some recommendations. First, the county should adopt noise-level standards that are in line with the World Health Organization. Second, the county should adopt the noise level measurement approach suggested by Rutgers University acoustics experts that uses the noise shadowing method to separate facility noise from ambient noise, and Wade will be able to tell you more about that.

[00:15:44] Third, the county should staff its noise enforcement efforts with a team of highly trained professionals to give any readings solid standing in the courts. Fourth, the county should be proactive. Benchmark ambient noise levels in neighborhoods that are near future data centers before they're built and operating.

[00:16:07] Many of these neighborhoods see decibel levels in the 30s and 40s at night. Fifth, the county should call for building design standards that make data centers less noisy, such as equipment insulation, sound barriers, equipment modifications, enclosures, new and innovative methods that will reduce noise to acceptable levels.

[00:16:28] Finally, the county should impose more highly protective noise standards to data centers that are in proximity, to schools, neighborhoods, children, senior communities, and places where health issues are likely, and other places where reasonable noise levels are expected, such as parks. Your actions now could keep Prince William County from becoming the noise capital of Virginia.

[00:16:51] Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. My name is Raymond Kowalski. I am one of two members representing Heritage Hunt on the Data Center Ordinance Advisory Group. I will be addressing item 6C on your agenda. Approximately seven years ago, this board approved a plan to target data centers for attraction to Prince William County. This was in furtherance of a goal

[00:17:27] to increase the commercial tax base, reduce school enrollment pressure, and reduce reliance on the residential tax base to fund public services. It sounded so good. Capital investment, tax revenues, jobs. As the first data centers arrived, so did citizen complaints about their incessant noise.

[00:17:51] It seemed reasonable then to create an advisory group to develop modifications to the noise and zoning ordinances to address this problem. After two years, we may be on the verge of a workable noise level enforcement methodology that would be applicable to a lone data center. But this ordinance will be ineffective when a project like the Prince William Digital Gateway comes online with its 37 data centers clustered into 2,100 acres. The late Dr. John Liver was an original

[00:18:25] member of the DCOAG. His briefing to the DCOAG on June 5th, 2024, contains the best science available on noise both existing and projected in Prince William County. I do not know why this information has been memory hold. John warned at the very outset that what he called pen and ink changes to the noise ordinance would not solve the problem. He argued that a comprehensive approach starting with changes to state law would be necessary. John warned also that the noise levels

[00:19:00] are additive and require a holistic approach to noise ordinance, to noise analysis. He strongly warned about the adverse health effects of noise. So far, the D.C. O.A.G.'s efforts have been an academic auditory exercise with no regard for health effects. John argued that the burden should be on data center operators to control noise, not on the citizens of Prince William County to seek remedies from the government. The very last sentence in John's briefing is, quote, noise modeling and facility noise signatures will be needed for enforcement to separate and identify

[00:19:38] noise sources, unquote. If you really want to address the noise problem, you've had the blueprint for a year. Thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon. My name is Ryan Bartroff and I live in the Gainesville district. I'm here today to ask this board to take real proactive steps to address the property tax crisis that's unfolding on Pageland Lane. While the digital gateway winds through the

[00:20:18] courts, the residents of Pageland are stuck in limbo and facing the real possibility of losing our homes. We can't yet sell our properties, but we are the ones paying the taxes for a rezoning that was requested by a multi-billion dollar company. Ordinary residents, teachers, tradespeople, retirees, and small business owners, families who have lived here for generations, they're the ones that we'll lose everything if this continues much longer.

[00:20:48] Everyone acknowledges that this isn't fair. It's destructive. It's never happened like this before. It shouldn't be happening now. And no one wants it to happen to anybody else. But nothing is being done. This isn't about the digital gateway anymore.

[00:21:06] I'm not asking you to relitigate that decision. It's about doing what's right. I'm here to ask for a path forward that acknowledges the unique and uncertain position residents are in and find solutions before the damage becomes permanent.

[00:21:23] Convene a working session with staff and residents to identify concrete, immediate responses. Revisit how the assessments were calculated for individual properties, especially the assumption of highest and best use. Consider temporary protections while the lawsuits are still unresolved and implement relief for properties still being used as homes and farms.

[00:21:46] Since the impact on families gets worse the longer this process takes, then speed it up. Request the courts for an expedited review or emergency relief. Show the court that any additional delay is causing real and immediate harm.

[00:22:04] There must be something you can do, something you should do, to stand up for your residents. Please don't let us become collateral damage in a broader vision for the future. We're grateful for your sympathy, but now we need your urgency. Thank you.

[00:22:20] All right, thank you. That concludes the in-person comment time, Supervisor Bailey. Do we have anyone online? Yes, we do.

[00:22:40] Hello? Yes, we have one speaker. That's Steve Amato. We have one speaker. You may begin.

[00:23:01] Amato, Amato district. Mr. Amato, could you turn your speaker up? We can barely hear you. Sure. Is that any better? That's better. Thank you. Okay, no problem. From the Acaquan district, my discussion this afternoon will be from the June 3rd board meeting at 2 p.m. regarding the Affordable Dwelling Unit Ordinance. That was number 8Q. I know the board has already passed the ordinance, but there's some particular areas I'd like to address one more time

[00:23:37] as we go forward in this development with the ordinance. I don't have a problem with how the densities and looking at all those things have been flushed out, but my concern is in this housing trust fund and the reason i have concern about that is the money the funding we're talking about more taxes we're talking about the growth of the county i recall in one of the board meetings last

[00:24:11] year in 2024 that there was a growth that showed ftes for that particular office that will be managing all of this initiative to almost 16 more ftes growing government growing more costs for taxpayers our taxes are going to go up because of this yes 31 35 million dollars is a drop in the bucket to the overall budget but our taxes are going to go up there's no ifs ands buts around so you're you're taking what we have earned and and now redistributing it to invest in companies

[00:24:50] to build and have offsets for affordable housing so how is this trust fund going to be enforced What is the compliance of this? How are you going to get back the loans from these particular developers that are using this funding?

[00:25:06] And lastly, I brought to the attention of the board several times. What action has the board done to engage with our state legislators, our congressional legislators, to start getting costs for taxes down, the personal property taxes, and the cost for energy, mortgage interest rates, energy costs?

[00:25:28] These are all contributing to having unaffordable housing. What have you done to engage with these other specific legislators and congressional representatives to start to bring those costs down? I have not heard of anything.

[00:25:44] And if there is, I think it would be who the citizens to let us know. So those are my issues with this housing trust fund. We should not be a financial institution. I have a very grave concern about that, to have these funds be pushed over to the developers.

[00:26:00] Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Amada. Are there any additional speakers? There are no more speakers at this time. Okay, thank you. Back to you, Madam Chair. All right, thank you so very much. We are now moving on to agenda item number four, and that is county executive time. Mr. Shorter, the floor is yours.

[00:26:17] All right, thank you very much, Madam Chair, members of the board. Good afternoon. A few updates I wanted to go over this afternoon. As usual, there were three directors issued during our last meeting. One, staff was directed to pursue an ordinance to change, moving forward, the dog licensure option, so three-year dog license.

[00:26:41] This directive was assigned to our finance department. Staff was also directed to review Dominion Energy's proposed map for the Morrisville Wishing Star Project and identify any impacts and concerns with the proposed line.

[00:26:57] In addition, the county attorney's office was directed to begin reviewing the viability of the county filing as a responding party. This directive has been issued to my office, to the county attorney's office, and to the Department of Public Works.

[00:27:14] And then finally, staff was directed to explore options for establishing two community gardens on county-owned property, and this was assigned to Parks and Recreation. Madam Chair, you may recall last week we established the board, established the board's legislative committee.

[00:27:33] Due to the timing and the goal of having the board's 2026 legislative agenda adopted by October of this year, I would like to suggest that we first meet or the board meet for this committee, legislative committee, on July 15th.

[00:27:52] And what that would mean is that there currently is a finance and budget committee meeting on July 15th scheduled. So we would be essentially meeting, the committee would be meeting at 10 finance and budget. This committee would then meet at 1230 if the board decides to go in this direction.

[00:28:12] And we are also contemplating, I think, Madam Chair, some adjustment to the work session. I'd also like to just acknowledge our Communications and Engagement Office for winning two tele-video awards this year.

[00:28:31] Yes. One for the Trashy the Raccoon video. Yes. And the other for How I Serve, which is a longstanding campaign here in Prince William County, which I'm very, very proud of. So there were 13,000 entries this year from six continents, all 50 states, and previous winners include major networks and organizations like ESPN, HBO, CBS, the National Geographic, and others, just to name a few.

[00:29:02] And according to Telly's website, the winners represent the most innovative stories being told across all screens. And as the Telly winner, you are truly a standard bearer for excellence in the industry.

[00:29:19] So I just want to appreciate and thank Communications and Engagement for all the work that they did for those two series. And then finally, Madam Chair, since we launched 3-1-1 just a few weeks ago, I mentioned it here at the board meeting, we've had over 2,600 service requests come into 3-1-1, really representing all of the magisterial districts.

[00:29:42] I'm certainly looking forward to, in the future, coming to this board meeting and presenting out what we are hearing from residents in terms of service requests here in the county. So very excited that this is catching on and that this was obviously an opportunity and a need from our residents.

[00:30:00] So with that, Madam Chair, that is all for me unless there are any questions. Well, thank you. Before I go to anyone else in the queue, I want to congratulate our communications department because they've done an excellent job. And I was remiss after Memorial Day about congratulating them because Nikki Brown, who leads the department, has done an excellent job.

[00:30:20] And I think that our Memorial Day celebration with the poppies and the poppy wall, you know, that was really, it was a lovely touch. In regards to the legislative committee meeting, on the same day as the finance and budget committee, we've discussed possibly pulling down that work session to accommodate both meetings.

[00:30:39] So I definitely want to hear from people so that we can get that scheduled. You know, I don't know if anyone has any strong feelings, but if anyone has any thoughts on that, please put yourself in queue so we can discuss. With that, I'm going to go over to Supervisor Franklin. Yeah, thank you for that, and congratulations to our communications department for their award.

[00:30:59] They do a great job, particularly over the past several years. In terms of the suggestion for the committee meeting on the same day as finance, which is on the same day as the work session, You know, one of the reasons why I always oppose committees is because, you know, I kind of made the prediction that this is going to add to the workload.

[00:31:23] And we already see, particularly with the finance committee, that we can easily go three, four hours. I mean, we try to keep it to two when we can. But we really do have to figure out a way, if we're going to keep adding committees, how to make the timing more efficient unless we're going to really look at the role of a supervisor and is this really a part-time position versus not.

[00:31:50] Obviously, I'll do whatever the majority suggests, but it feels like a long day to have two committee meetings. And now we're getting into bumping our official schedule to do it.

[00:32:07] So that's just my opinion. It's kind of what I predicted was going to happen, and we just have to figure out a way to be as efficient and effective as possible. And I'm not sure punting a work session, you know, how many times are we going to have to do that moving forward to accommodate a committee meeting?

[00:32:28] Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. And to Nikki and her team, a big congratulations. Of course, you absolutely rock. You keep us looking good, and you keep our community in form, and we really appreciate the great work.

[00:32:45] And we like Trashy, too. Trashy's a cool dude. I wanted to say that, and I also, in terms of the scheduling for the finance committee and the legislative committee, two things. Number one, this is indeed not a part-time job at all.

[00:33:00] It's a 24 by 7, whatever, Monday through Sunday job of which we love to do to serve the community, but it is not a part-time job. I just wanted to say that. But I think in terms of the planning for the legislative piece, it's so critical.

[00:33:19] And as for my one-eighth, I always feel like I'm really rushed to get specific items to our legislative aide, our liaison, to make sure that we are represented in the General Assembly.

[00:33:36] And I think this gives us an opportunity, in reference to something that the gentleman said on the screen, to have more impact with the legislative committee, and the sooner the better. I certainly respect what my colleague said about, you know, our calendars and our agendas.

[00:33:58] It's just a testament to how Prince William County is moving and how much work we have to get done. And so I can go either way with the scheduling, but I think it's imperative that we start and we start soon. Thank you. Supervisor Brody.

[00:34:15] Thank you, Madam Chair. And I appreciate the conversation around the committees and the thought around having both committees on the same day, since we're already scheduled to be here in the morning. I will say that since we are in a transition period, there's always going to be a little bit of give and take and a little bit of adjustment to us and how we do things.

[00:34:35] What we've seen so far with the few budget and finance committee meetings that we have had is there's been a lot of sort of pent-up desire for discussion around issues that we can't really usually have time to dig into during our regular board meetings. And I think there have been very fruitful conversations that have come about with some very good information, action items for staff, and what have you. That said, I am sensitive to my colleagues' concerns around very long days.

[00:34:59] I know even when we have our audit committee meetings, we start at maybe 10 o'clock in the morning, we go all the way through having an afternoon and evening session. It becomes a lot, and we've said so before, but we're not always at our best when we have to be at this dais for sometimes 12 hours, what have you. That said, though, I've said this before, and I'll say Again, I see the committees, once we get a good cadence in place, to be a place where we can really have some really good discussions and conversations that we'll not take away from, but actually enhance some of the work and make the work more efficient over time, especially as it pertains to issues like the legislative agenda.

[00:35:37] I feel like, as a board, we really only have one-pointed or maybe two-pointed discussions around it when we're getting ready to adopt it. And to me, especially given some of the concerns folks have aired even recently around taxes, local authority over things like housing, transportation, what have you, consolidating that into just one meeting every year, I think is a disservice not only to our legislative liaison, like my colleague just said, but also to the constituents who want us to be a more active and proactive presence in the General Assembly.

[00:36:09] So understanding that folks still have sort of resonance about having so many meetings back-to-back-to-back. I'm in favor of us pushing off the work session, knowing, again, this is a point of transition, and understanding that once we get into a better cadence and rhythm with all our committees, that likely won't be the case.

[00:36:27] Thank you, Madam Chair. Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair. I obviously have concerns about pushing our regular work session because does that mean that we're going to bog down that next agenda with the official duties and discussions that we're not going to have because the work session is being canceled?

[00:36:48] You know, I don't like doing that, and so I'm not sure what that agenda is going to look like. But again, you know, the problem remains. It is a long day already, as is. the last finance and budget committee meeting that I attended, it's filled right almost into our 2 p.m. session. Then we have an evening session, and now we're talking about having two committee meetings on the same day. I don't think that's an efficient way to conduct business, and I'm certainly not in support of canceling our official work sessions and or modifying agendas, dates that we've already set at the beginning of the year for planning purposes. And so, I'd be interested

[00:37:27] to hear your thoughts honestly for me we haven't set what the work session would be and because these are work sessions it's not going to necessarily spill over until our regular meetings where we have where we take votes so our work sessions again like today tend to be informative they tend to be updates to be updates and I certainly think that we can accommodate it where things do get tricky is that this is technically a part-time job but everyone up here knows that this is not a part-time job I mean it really is not a part-time role I do think it'll be efficient i think that our first legislative committee meeting there probably won't be much

[00:38:06] we're going to have to go into closed session and vote on who's going to be chair and vice chair and then after that that's when we have that decided there's going to be more discussion on when they're actually going to meet so i at least think with the legislative committee it's not going to be a large lift it's mostly going to be deciding on who is going to lead that and then we're going to have further discussions about calendaring that so then why cancel the work session if it's going to be quick i mean because for some people again it might be a long day i mean i am not you know i'd love to hear from everyone and we don't have to necessarily make the decision now because

[00:38:42] if we do cancel the work session it's going to have to be an agenda item and we're going to have to make the update on the calendar so folks can let me know um whether they okay we're just going to jump in and I can do kind of an informal poll to see where people are at. So I will put you down on, so I'm clear, you want to keep the work session. Do you want to do both committee meetings or?

[00:39:06] I mean, if the first initial meeting is just to select leadership and to discuss other dates that we're going to put officially on the books, I don't see the purpose of canceling the work session. Okay. That works for me. All right. Supervisor Angry? Madam Chair, if I can. Just in terms of agenda for that first meeting you're absolutely right it will likely be administrative but we will take that opportunity to also review some of the carry over legislative recommendations from this past season so there it might be a little more content than just the administrative administrative work of the committee. Gotcha I mean technically we can hold that for another time

[00:39:45] But for, I guess, for efficiency and expediency, you recommend that we? Only because we are dealing with a very tight timeline to get to October, where we have agreement and we brief the entire board with the 2026 legislative, I should say 2027 legislative season and agenda.

[00:40:07] It may be difficult if we don't cover it at all in July. And we don't have anything lined up just yet, because I know we obviously haven't spoken about a meeting that far in advance. Have you thought about what we would have? As it currently stands, there are no agenda items for the work session on the 15th.

[00:40:24] So no pressing. No pressing issues that I would be concerned about. Because the board is on recess in August, we wouldn't be able to bring back an agenda, a committee meeting, until September, which is, it really is cutting it close in terms of us just getting feedback from the board on what we believe are collectively items that you all want to see carried over from the last legislative season.

[00:40:55] Gotcha. And I will say, because we haven't had a chance, we are going to be meeting with Supervisor Bodie on the next financing committee meeting and making sure that, you know, we have clear guidelines. We're going to have to do the same also with the legislative committee, making sure that we have clear guidelines between each of the committees.

[00:41:15] We don't have anything processing, nothing is scheduled for work session. I am comfortable pulling down the work session. Again, it's going to have to be a vote, but I want to hear from everyone else. Supervisor Angry, you're up. Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. That was actually my question, because if we don't have items on the work session agenda, then why not just cancel the work session and fill it with something else?

[00:41:36] So if there was never anything put on that work session, then it seems like if we're not going to have anything on it, then we don't need the work session. And the way I see it, honestly, I mean, it's still official business. The communities are still official business.

[00:41:52] But let's see, I have Angry. Did you have anything else? Franklin? Yeah, I mean, even if we don't have the agenda for that particular work session, I mean, there are plenty of things I would love to submit for us to discuss for work session.

[00:42:11] So there, I mean, there's plenty of work to be done for a work session. My question is, do we have to have the finance and budget meeting? So we decided that at the last finance and budget committee meeting. I will defer to Supervisor Bode because he's shaking his head yes.

[00:42:31] Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. And I appreciate the question, Surazer Franklin. I know there were some items that we had left off of that finance and budget committee meeting because Surazer Angry wasn't there as an example. We want to talk about fire and rescue. I know we've been having ongoing discussions about C&I tax and funding the transit system.

[00:42:51] I think there's just some outstanding things that we still need to talk about. I know there's still an ongoing discussion about the schools and some other things. But post-budget, are those priorities leading up to the budget? I can see how that would have made sense, but it sounds like we have a little bit more time to have those discussions.

[00:43:09] so i would say that the fire and rescue one is one that we had already decided we want to talk about last and we shoved that off so i think we should still at least have that conversation in terms of funding transit maybe you're right i know that we may have some some priorities here in the next few months but not necessarily as emergent as july so i'll say that the so in addition to fire and rescue if the if the committee wants to still take that up we did want to bring back if the committee meeting happens. We wanted to bring back proffers. And the staff have done

[00:43:46] just considerable work to make sure that they are accounting for funding within all of the proffer accounts. And so on July 15th, we'll be prepared if the committee meeting happens to talk about proffer accounts and what is in those accounts. We will not necessarily be prepared on the 15th to talk about where the funding is allocated. We'll talk timeline, sequencing, and then what's in those accounts.

[00:44:10] Supervisor Brody, do you have anything else? Yeah, I appreciate that. And thank you for reminding me about that, County Exec. And that was the other thing, because I know that we've had a lot of discussions both in budget and outside of budget on a lot of our priorities, right, and how we have sometimes a lot of proffer funds, either unrestricted or restricted to certain things, that we don't tap immediately.

[00:44:28] And I know that with all the directives that we've given over the last few years, there are things that we could fund, at least with some of those proffers. So I knew that that was a discussion that folks wanted to have. But, again, I'm not sure how urgent it is for the rest of the board. For me, it's a pretty big priority, but I don't know for everyone else. Yeah, we just need to think about all this as we – because I don't think the legislative – didn't we vote on something else in addition to the legislative committee?

[00:44:50] Inter-jurisdictional, but we haven't gotten dates yet from City of Manassas of what their availability is. So I'm just saying keep that in mind as we think about how we're scheduling Tuesdays. And I'd also say inter-jurisdictional is going to be myself and Supervisor Vega. That was the one where we had to go into closed session.

[00:45:06] What I'm going to do quickly, I think, if this is feasible, Mr. County Executive, is kind of take a pulse, ask people what their preferences are, because if we're going to amend the calendar, we're going to have to do a vote, and that would be at the June 24th meeting. So, Supervisor Gordy, what say you?

[00:45:24] Two committee meetings, one committee meeting, work session, all of the above? Well, it's 40, 45 minutes for me to get here, so once I'm here, I'm here. So I'm not traveling back and forth across the county, So whatever we're doing that day, I will be here to do, and we'll be an active participant in all of it.

[00:45:43] Franklin? So you're everything, all of the above. All right, Franklin? Vega? I'm okay with doing away with our work session so long as you don't come back, Madam Chair, asking to amend the calendar again to add another work session to the calendar.

[00:46:05] So if we're certain that that work session is not needed, I'm okay with sticking to the two committee meetings with the agreement that you're not going to come back and put another one on the calendar. Again, for planning purposes. All of us have children, and we plan ahead. Really? Really?

[00:46:21] Okay. I have a kid, too. All right. Angry? Yeah, I agree with Supervisor Vega. My question is this. So we're canceling the work session because we don't need it. Is there one committee meeting there already, or are we going to turn that into a committee meeting?

[00:46:36] There's one committee meeting already. It's a finance and budget. We're going to add a second committee meeting. Okay. So we can do that as long as that work session is not there and it don't come back. right okay all right booty um i'm going to dovetail and agree with surazer vega you know i'm good i'm good again with getting rid of the work session especially if there's nothing planned for and having the two committee meetings we are all of the above it's what we're paid to do so all of

[00:47:07] just anything goes i all three all three are in bailey all three so i have to decide to vote let's see now all right you know what i'll be kind we can do both committee meetings and know work session okay all right that sounds good to be that's what i was thinking that's what we'll do so you know staff will come back and with the resolution next time to amend the calendar thank you madam chair all right anything else anyone else we still have speakers in the queue

[00:47:47] anyone else have a question for mr shorter all right seeing none let's go on to agenda item number five and that is county attorney time madam roble it's yours thank you madam chair members of the board we have no items for closed session this afternoon yes it's lovely guys let's keep knocking on wood all right then we are going to go Mr. Shorter if you can tee up our work sessions all right thank you Madam Chair so last week you all took action on the comprehensive traffic safety plan wanted to have transportation I think Paolo's you're going to stand up and

[00:48:26] introduce the discussion so we're going to pull up PWC works the platform and as usual speak from that platform. This is, again, one of the reasons I so appreciate that PWC Works has taken off in the way that it has for talks and updates just like this. And so with that, I'm going to turn it over. Paolo, you take it on. Thank you, Mr. Schroeder. Madam Chair, members of the board, Paolo Belita with the Department of Transportation. We want to take a couple minutes of this work session and talk about really PWC Works as a platform. It's been a great tool for us to really

[00:49:01] We get input from the public, especially as part of our comprehensive traffic safety action plan. While the plan is approved, we still have a lot of work to do. A lot of the input and information we receive in the public has been memorialized as part of our plan. I'll be requesting Richard Wyman, our traffic safety engineering section manager, to talk about and go through the page, talk about the documents and some of the survey results that we received.

[00:49:26] So, Richard, I'll hand it over to you. Great. Thank you, Paolo. Good afternoon, members of the board, county executive, members of the public. My name is Richard Wyman. I'm the traffic safety engineering branch manager here at Prince William County Department of Transportation. As has been said, last week you approved the comprehensive traffic safety action plan.

[00:49:45] As part of that plan, we use PwC Works to engage with the public. This is the second time we've used the platform since it became available to us last year. The first one was part of the Port Potomac neighborhood traffic calming study.

[00:50:00] And it was very effective. So one of the challenges we have in our department and our section of traffic safety is engaging with the public. Whenever we have a big project which has some right-of-way impacts or one of those kind of things, people come out to tell us why they're upset.

[00:50:17] One of the things that we really struggle is to go to the public and say, what would you like to see? What can we do for you better? And PwC Works has given us an avenue to further engage. So I'm just going to walk through casually the PwC Works platform and how we've used it for the Comprehensive Traffic Safety Action Plan.

[00:50:40] What you see up on the screen is the PwC Works website, which is set up by communication, and we work very closely with them. Inside here, we have a whole range of different projects that we're trying to engage with. And right here, you can see the Comprehensive Traffic Safety Action Plan.

[00:50:59] For the public engagement component of this, we had a series of meetings in February, two meetings, one at Falaza and one at Unity Reed High School to try to solicit public comment. We then had a couple of pop-up events. For example, the chair had an event here with middle schoolers about government.

[00:51:17] We came to that, got some additional input, and then we had a series of three follow-up meetings. During those meetings, we engaged with about 60 people. We had weather, snow at one of our events, so there was not a lot of people coming out. And then some of the ones later on, it was a nice hot day, so people, I guess, were at home having barbecues rather than coming out to tell us.

[00:51:38] PwC Works managed to give us a way to engage with the public when they couldn't be there. So this is what the PwC Works website or project page looks like. You basically got a basic description here on the left of what the project is about.

[00:51:57] you know, what the process is. Then on the right here, you have a timeline of what is going on, and we're all the way down now here at project completion. At the bottom of it, we had two surveys.

[00:52:13] The first survey was just a survey asking general questions. What is important to you? How would you like to see us improve safety across the county on roads? And the second one was a map where people could drop a pin and say, this intersection is a problem.

[00:52:29] i think it's dangerous we need whatever we opened up those surveys for a period and then we also got news and updates so through this platform we had about 1500 people engage with us so compared to the the series of in-person meetings much much higher penetration and there were several reasons for that for the public meetings we put up flyers and postcards around the county we had a qr code that's pointed to this website, and then what I want to do is down here at the bottom,

[00:53:02] you can see the actual plan was published on this to close out, and I'm going to jump into that. So here you can see the entire plan is available for people to review. As we close out this project, we're going to be moving this to the Prince William County Department of Transportation website out of the engagement platform, PwC Works, but what we can do is, And the beauty that, or the things that PwC Works gave us is we, inside here in Appendix A, we actually have the community engagement.

[00:53:37] Now, the beauty about this was this was all done automatically through PwC Works as it captured people's comments. So, I didn't have a staff member or consultant have to go in and capture all this information. It was all recorded based on the views. So, what you can see here is we had about 1,700 visits.

[00:53:53] You can see when those visits happened. can see here in February this was when we had our first public meetings we had very low engagement then the communications team blasted out or next door and whatnot saying you know we're closing the survey and you can see we had this huge spike of input which we would not have got if we didn't have it down here you can see we had you know one thousand five four hundred and sixty people engage 500 were informed and we had 243 people actually respond to the surveys so we can go down here and you again this is all given to us so we're

[00:54:31] not touching this data at all it is is just what what was provided so you can see we had 366 68 people look at the map putting and 755 people respond to the survey and if we go further down you can see all these comments are actually captured so for example we can just choose a random one here we go need bike connection on Euclid and Yorkshire public comment when it was captured and we cannot click on that and it takes us to the map tool that PwC works had so we

[00:55:09] can actually view the map and we can go in and we can actually see you know where these events were logged and again these are not transcribed these are not recaptured it's all done by whoever book reader two was three months ago put in this comment saying this is this is a problem and and the location so it's really really useful not only for capturing and and cataloging that data but also making this as to make it available for mom so we can memorialize

[00:55:42] it and capture it if we carry on down to our survey results which was on page 152 I believe put in the wrong place thank you here is the survey questions that we had out so that was the map tool where people could pin whatever they wanted wherever they wanted we had how many visitors how many contributions and we asked some questions what themes of traffic safety plan action plan are most important to you safety is proactive identify key factors contributing to practices all the way down to you know multimodal safety is for and we had them

[00:56:22] ranked similarly you know you know is poor or lacking infrastructure an issue how how how high of priorities and immediately you can see down here you know when you resume out and look at that you know reckless and and driver behavior as engineers this is very important to us because we know that we need to look at it comprehensively work with our colleagues and first responders and education outreach to do that and again like I say this is all captured by the tool there's no none of us having to go through and do it and it's all there

[00:56:57] for anyone to view now back in pwc works ironically and and as part of our report so pwc works gave us a really good way to engage with the public in a way that we haven't engaged before now this does not replace the one-on-one engagement uh we feel that not everyone has access to computers or necessarily um is comfortable with technology not everyone wants to necessarily log onto a computer and do it. They want to come out and engage with us. So I think the one-on-one engagement is very important, but this definitely gives people another avenue

[00:57:36] to engage with us, share their comments, respond to our projects, and share what is important to them so we can meet those needs. I believe that PwC Works completely changed the way we engage with the public on this project.

[00:57:52] The response rate we had was huge compared to what we had engagement. And again, when we have other things like rescheduling or weather or those kind of things this gives someone who is maybe sitting at home gets it on next door or something like they can just go ahead and log whatever they want without having to come to the meeting necessarily so we will definitely be using pwc works moving forward on on additional projects uh we encourage our other colleagues in the county to do it. And like I say, it's a very simple way to very quickly and efficiently engage with the

[00:58:29] public in a way that we haven't been able to until we had PwC Works. Yep, that's pretty much all I have for you today. Madam Chair, if I can, I'll just want to emphasize, so when I saw the presentation, Rich came to one of the leadership team meetings and had a slide deck and gave a presentation, And I actually saw the numbers in terms of the number of residents that were engaged because of the platform and by the team.

[00:58:57] I was blown away and just appreciate that we're able to hear from the team today that we went after a series of in-person community meetings. We went from 50-60 to over 1,500, and the ability to interact with the platform and the way that we were able to interact with the platform as residents, where they're actually using maps, displaying what the concern is, and then not having their comments filtered.

[00:59:29] so it's not made pretty exactly what they say is what we see is pretty powerful so just want to acknowledge that thank the team for the work and this is what engagement looks like in in terms of using technology to better inform us of the work that we do so thank you again for the presentation all right supervisor bode thank you madam chair thank you richard and to the team for again all your work on this. I know I said so last week, but this is a game changer in many ways. And I wanted

[01:00:06] to just highlight and dovetail what the county exec said, that I've gotten a lot of good feedback from the community on just how much they felt like they were bought into the process, and how they see this, and I've expressed this to folks, that this is not a one-and-done conversation. It's not a one-and-done, we adopted it, yay, we're going to fund some priorities and, you know, sort of proclaim mission accomplished, right? You know, I know that all of our offices receive all the time complaints concerns about traffic safety especially when there's unfortunately a headline making tragedy on any of the number of roadways in our in our districts um i see this

[01:00:43] as an opportunity for us to be more interactive with our constituents as well when they bring up uh things that happen or they're on their on their hearts and their minds um i know that this comes as no uh surprises who has a vega but i get now a lot of complaints about purcell road um i've had a constituent just last week email me talking about concerns along Purcell Road and they also included the the intersection of Purcell and 234. Well thankfully because of what you just said we actually have already had documented as part of the process not only identified folks that have

[01:01:18] aired concerns about but we actually have some plans in motion that we'll have to fund at some point but to address at least some part of that that corridor. So to me it's not only a way to have more buy-in for folks but to so for us to be more proactively responsive if that makes sense to the concerns of folks now obvious expectation i think we're not going to be able to fix every corridor overnight or even the next two or three years but it shows that it's truly community driven and community responsive approach to this issue which i think is the best way we can do it so as much as we can continue getting the word out through prince william uh pwc works through

[01:01:56] continuous updates as this rolls out that we can then push out to the constituents on just how interactive and how responsive this is to them, I think the better off will all be. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. I agree with my colleague. I think that this is a game changer for us, for Prince William County. My constituent services coordinator used it last week, and she was surprised at the response rate for concern that she had, but the answer that she got so immediately. And so this is a game changer for us as we serve

[01:02:34] the citizens of Prince William County in a more distinct but more emphatic way with data. That's something that Supervisor Vega talks about quite frequently is the data. And so the data is so essential rather than taking long hours and researching and getting back to them, if not later on in the day or the next day. So thank you for all your hard work. We appreciate the details.

[01:03:00] We appreciate the user-friendly way also for our citizens, because some of our citizens are technically challenged, like me, but it works. It works, and so we appreciate it. All right. I don't see anyone else in queue. Thank you so very much for this presentation.

[01:03:22] Thank you very much. So, Madam Chair, next presentation, we're going to have Kay Wallace come down. As you all know, the board adopted our strategic plan back in February of this year. We committed to coming back to the board and to the community with our plan, our approach for implementation, and an update on key performance indicators.

[01:03:47] I just want to acknowledge all the work that Kay Wallace has done over this last few months to get us to this point, and you will see in this presentation all the work that the team has done, the staff and others, to get to this point as well.

[01:04:04] So with that, I will turn it over to Kay. Thank you, Mr. Shorter. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the board, Ms. Robel, Mr. Shorter. My name is Kay Wallace, and I am the County Strategic Plan Coordinator. I'm here this afternoon to give you all a brief update on the 2025 through 2028 strategic plan.

[01:04:26] So in this presentation today, what I will do is provide an update on how we're going to implement and execute our strategic plan over the next four years. I will also present the KPIs selected to measure progress on the plan, and then I'll share accountability in the reporting process.

[01:04:44] Excuse me, wrong direction. So as a learning organization, Prince William County government prioritizes continuous improvement and constantly looks for ways to enhance our processes and services. To improve implementation and execution of our recently adopted strategic plan, we have formed strategic goal teams.

[01:05:10] The purpose of these strategic goal teams is to collaboratively work to achieve the goals and objectives included in the strategic plan. And we're going to do that by ensuring alignment across the different departments and levels of the organization. The benefits of alignment in this process are, one, alignment ensures we are working in the same direction toward the same objectives.

[01:05:36] Two, alignment helps to break down silos and competing priorities because we are ultimately all in the same boat. And three, alignment makes sure that we are not duplicating our efforts. As you know, our county strategic plan has eight goal areas, but we've formed six goal teams.

[01:05:56] Team one is focused on the goals of education and quality of life. Team two will focus on the goal of the environment. Team three will focus on the goals of government and service delivery. Team four, the goal will be mobility. Team five focuses on the goal of safe and secure community.

[01:06:15] And team six focuses on the goal of smart growth. In line with Prince William County Government's philosophy of leadership at all levels, each GOAL team leverages the diversity of perspectives across departments and includes staff with tenure diversity, subject matter diversity, and leadership level diversity.

[01:06:39] This slide here shows the team roles and definition. Each team has a GOAL sponsor and a GOAL champion. The GOAL sponsor is an agency director, and a GOAL champion is either a deputy or assistant director or some other senior manager of a department.

[01:06:59] These two serve as the co-leaders of the teams. Each team has between 10 and 15 members from various departments that are responsible for accomplishing the objectives and working on the strategies under their respective goal area. All the teams at some point will have to reach out to other departments and other staff to work and accomplish the objectives and strategies in the plan, and they may even have to reach out to community partners to work on projects and activities.

[01:07:26] And finally, the stakeholders are any key persons who need to stay informed or have a vested interest in the successful completion of the goal. After we formed the six strategic goal teams, the members attended a four-hour training with our strategic planning consultants to learn how to break our large four-year plan into manageable work or action plans.

[01:07:54] The training demonstrated a process that can and will be replicated to readjust as progress is made on this plan. As of a couple of months ago when we formed these teams, we had 66 people assigned to the various teams, and of those 66 staff that were assigned to the teams, 52 of them attended the training, so we had a good high participation rate that day with about 79% of those assigned to the teams actually attending that training.

[01:08:25] So the strategic goal teams, they left that training on April the 29th with instructions and a framework for creating work plans. So now each team is responsible for creating work plans for each objective under their respective goal area.

[01:08:43] Beginning later this month, those teams will present the draft work plans to the executive cabinet for review and feedback before those work plans are finalized. Then going forward, those goal teams will regularly report to the executive cabinet and to the board and community regarding execution activities and accomplishments.

[01:09:08] So next, I will review the key performance indicators that were selected by leadership and staff to measure our progress on the strategic plan over the next four years. We selected a total of 36 KPIs to report on annually or biannually to track progress towards the goals and objectives in the plan.

[01:09:30] Each measure identifies a baseline, sets a target, and notes a strategic plan success area. The measure also includes a description and an impact statement. So before I actually start reviewing the KPIs, I just wanted to remind everyone of what the vision statement is for our strategic plan.

[01:09:53] The vision statement reads, Prince William County is a diverse community striving to be healthy, safe, and caring with a thriving economy and a protected natural environment. The values in our strategic plan include accountability and transparency, communication and engagement, equity and inclusion, innovation, efficiency and effectiveness, and integrity and trust.

[01:10:21] This slide here, again, just shows you all a reminder of what the eight goal areas are in our strategic plan. They are listed in alphabetical order. Again, that is just to show that we don't have a certain goal area that's any more important than any of the others.

[01:10:36] They are all equally important. That's why they're listed alphabetically. So now what I'll do is, what I intend to do is to actually first cover the goal area and highlight what the objectives are in that goal area.

[01:10:52] And then I will go and talk a little bit about the KPIs under each of these goal areas. So for goal one, the objective underneath this area, the highlights of them are lifelong learning opportunities for all ages, creating partnerships to provide targeted workforce training, elevating awareness, and access to educational and career opportunities, fostering a more collaborative relationship with the schools, and supporting county businesses to provide more workforce options.

[01:11:21] Before I review each of these KPI slides, I wanted to explain the layout of them so that you'll know what you're looking at. Each of the KPI slides will show a measure, a baseline, a target, the strategic plan success area, and it will provide a definition and an impact statement.

[01:11:45] Please note that the baseline for a lot of these, most of them show FY24 because we are, of course, still in FY25, but we will be tracking and capturing that data as well. So we'll have FY24 and FY25 data, and we've set targets for FY26.

[01:12:03] If you look at the strategic plan success area on each of these slides, you'll see that for most of them, they do tie directly to an objective in the strategic plan. The description informs the reader what the measure is about, and the impact statement explains the benefit or importance of the activity and or the reason that we're tracking it.

[01:12:25] So for the sake of time, because we do have 36 KPIs and this slide presentation looks scary because it's 65 slides, I'm not going to cover all of the information on this slide because I think Mr. Weir looks a little sleepy already. So what I'm going to do is I'm just going to merely highlight and point out the KPI on the slide and just go right on over to the next slide, just for the sake of time.

[01:12:51] So you all look happy about that? That's great. So the first KPI tracks the number of participants in county-sponsored lifelong learning opportunities. And as you can see, that ties directly to objective number one in the strategic plan.

[01:13:07] KPI number two, under education, tracks the number of Prince William County residents enrolled in courses at the Northern Virginia Workforce Center. And this KPI, this goal area, my apologies for not mentioning that at first, has five KPIs.

[01:13:27] So I'll tell you how many KPIs are under each goal section before I start. But this is the second one for the education goal area. KPI number three tracks the number of meetings held annually between Prince William County government leadership and Prince William County schools leadership with the objective of working on trying to improve and have a better collaborative relationship with the schools.

[01:13:57] KPI number four tracks the number of individuals attending job and career fairs in Prince William County. And tied to KPI number four, KPI number five tracks the number of attendees at the job fairs who actually obtain employment with Prince William County government through the fairs.

[01:14:20] I believe at the May 20th board meeting, Supervisor Franklin, you mentioned that a constituent said that her son attended the recent job fair in April of 2025 and that subsequently he actually obtained employment with Prince William County government. So we'll be tracking those numbers.

[01:14:43] For goal number two, which is the environment, highlights of the objectives in this goal area are safeguarding the quality of the county's natural resources, enhancing and expanding our parks, trails, and green spaces, utilizing the CESMP to achieve the county's climate and resiliency goals, supporting the development and use of renewable energy sources across the county, and mitigating the impacts of flooding in our communities.

[01:15:09] The environment goal area, we selected four KPIs to track progress here. The first measure tracks pollutant reductions achieved through the county's water quality improvement projects.

[01:15:26] The second KPI tracks the number of miles of trails in Prince William County. The third KPI seeks to reduce Prince William County Government Operations Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 10%, I'm sorry, from the 2024 levels, once the 2024 levels have been determined.

[01:15:52] Please note on this slide that the first asterisk states that the county is currently in the process of developing 2024 GHG emissions inventory as a baseline, and that data is expected to be available sometime next year.

[01:16:12] The fourth KPI for the environmental goal area is an outcome measure about resident satisfaction with the county's environmental and sustainability efforts. This measure is in the county's biennial community survey. Moving right along, goal number three, the objectives in this area focus on positioning Prince William County as an employer of choice.

[01:16:40] We want to provide training and development of staff and leadership. We want to be fiscally responsible, accountable, and transparent to foster trust. Use technology to improve service delivery and enhance employees' understanding of county operations so that we can deliver tailored solutions to residents.

[01:16:58] The government goal area has five KPIs. KPI number one measures the government employee engagement score. KPI number two tracks the retention rate of full-time county employees with more than five years of continuous service.

[01:17:23] Please note that this is a new measure for human resources, and baseline data will be provided sometime soon in FY2026. KPI number three tracks the countywide variance in actual and projected budget expenditures.

[01:17:46] KPI number four measures the first year accuracy of the five-year general fund estimate. This is from finance. And KPI number five tracks the number of strategic plan KPIs that are meeting or exceeding their targets.

[01:18:06] For goal number four, mobility, the objectives focus on enhancing connectivity through improved pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, improving the expanding and use of our public transportation network, increasing awareness of transportation options, developing mobility projects to ensure access to multiple transportation options, and working with stakeholders to improve access, safety, and connectivity.

[01:18:37] The mobility goal area has five KPIs. The first KPI tracks the average daily ridership on OmniRide. The second KPI tracks the number, the average daily number of cars that use commuter garages and park and ride lots.

[01:19:02] The third KPI tracks the number of transportation safety improvement projects that were completed. The fourth KPI is an outcome measure from the Biennial Community Survey that measures resident satisfaction on whether the transportation network supports the needs of the commuters.

[01:19:26] And the fifth one is also an outcome measure about the percentage of residents who rate it satisfied that the transportation network supports community growth and safety. The fifth goal area is quality of life.

[01:19:43] The objectives in this area focus on developing affordable housing options, advocating for a variety of businesses in Prince William County to offer various workplace options, heightening the county's amenities and recreation experiences, supporting residents' aspirations to age and place, attracting residents and visitors to our parks, trails, and green spaces, and highlighting the county's cultural uniqueness to strengthen our brand and identity.

[01:20:11] The Quality of Life Goal Area has four KPIs. KPI number one tracks the number of families assisted in becoming first-time homebuyers with assistance through federal and state programs.

[01:20:29] KPI number two tracks the number of individuals who exit emergency shelters or street outreach programs that move into permanent housing. KPI number three measures at-place employment in Prince William County.

[01:20:46] KPI number four is an outcome measure gauging resident satisfaction on the quality of life in Prince William County. Goal number six is safe and secure community.

[01:21:05] The objectives in this goal area focus on developing coordinated community responses that improve constituent access to services, expanding data capabilities to improve community awareness and decision making, promoting fair administration of the justice system, improving collaboration between stakeholders and residents, and using a government-wide approach to plan preparedness.

[01:21:29] The Safe and Secure Community Goal Area has five KPIs. KPI number one tracks the number of individuals who receive assistance with connecting with mental health or other resources in our community.

[01:21:48] KPI number two measures Prince William County Police's emergency response time. KPI number three measures Fire and Rescue's emergency incident response time. KPI number four measures the adult local probation reconviction rate.

[01:22:14] And KPI number five is an outcome measure looking at resident satisfaction as to whether or not they actually feel safe in their neighborhood. Goal number seven is service delivery.

[01:22:30] The objectives in this goal area focus on providing timely and accessible services to our residents, forecasting county growth to maintain quality delivery of services, reducing barriers to services, and enhancing opportunities for engagement and communication between the public and county government. The service delivery goal area has three KPIs. The first KPI tracks the number of 3-1-1 service requests closed within the allotted time period per the respective agency's service

[01:23:07] level agreement. KPI number two measures the percentage of capital project phases completed on schedule. And KPI number three is an outcome measure regarding resident satisfaction with the quality of county services. The final goal area is smart growth. The objectives in this area focus on balancing development with our climate mitigation goals, diversifying the commercial

[01:23:42] tax base, preserving and expanding agribusiness, agritourism, and maritime industries in the county, and strengthening our local entrepreneurial ecosystems. The Smart Growth Goal Area has five KPIs.

[01:23:58] The first KPI measures the percentage of capital improvement projects that implement needs or goals identified in our 2040 Comprehensive Plan. The second KPI tracks the amount of public and private investment in redevelopment corridors, small area plans, and activity centers in the county.

[01:24:20] The third KPI measures the growth of business investment of the commercial tax base throughout the county. The fourth KPI is a new measure that will track the number of businesses designated as agribusiness or agritourism in the county.

[01:24:41] Please note that the asterisks state that the Board directed Economic Development and Tourism to conduct a study to determine if it is feasible to measure the impact that agribusiness and or agritourism will have on the county. The study results will be available in 2026, and baseline data and targets will be established at that time.

[01:25:06] And the fifth KPI for the smart growth area tracks the number of net new business license accounts open annually in Prince William County. So that provides a very quick overview of the 36 key performance indicators that we will use to track our progress on the strategic plan.

[01:25:27] And so to wrap up this presentation, and I appreciate your attention thus far, I just want to share a little bit of information about our reporting progress as we move forward. First, as you all know, you as a board, you adopt the strategic plan by calendar year.

[01:25:49] However, for strategic plan execution and reporting, we're going to do it by fiscal year because that's how we as a county operates. So if you look at the table at the top of the screen, you will see that the first row shows the calendar year for the adopted strategic plan.

[01:26:05] And then the second row shows the fiscal year of how we will operate and report for the strategic plan. So beginning July 1st, 2025, in less than a month, is when we start executing and tracking progress for our strategic plan. And this will actually line up perfectly because the next board, you all will take your seats beginning of calendar year 2028.

[01:26:29] And then in that first year is when we'll develop the next four-year plan. And by the time that plan is adopted, that will be for calendar year 2029 through 2032. And then we'll start implementation in the middle of that year. So it does actually line up. Next, as far as accountability and reporting, as I mentioned earlier, we're forming these strategic goal teams.

[01:26:53] And the teams will report regularly and provide updates to the executive cabinet through what we are calling Strategic Teams Accountability and Reporting, or STAR meetings. So initially, the teams will develop their draft work plans, present them to the cabinet, get feedback and direction from the cabinet before they finalize the plans.

[01:27:14] And then once the plans are finalized, they will return periodically back to the executive cabinet to report on activities and accomplishments. The teams, the GOAL teams will also report progress to you all, to the board, and to the community during future board work sessions.

[01:27:37] And in addition, as far as accountability and reporting is concerned, I will work with the gold teams, the departments, and executive management to start creating an annual report that will provide summary information on progress in a written format. And finally, this last slide here just shows a nice graphic of the iterative process that we will be using to execute the strategic plan over the next four years. That's the conveyor belt. And I covered

[01:28:13] 65 slides in less than 30 minutes thank you very much for your time and i'd be happy to answer any questions you may have thank you i have supervisor bailey i wasn't sure are you for this or you were a holdover from earlier i just hit my button i was just happy if i can madam chair um before we take questions i just want to again express appreciation for the work that's been done And you may recall that last year this time there was real concern about KPIs in particular and the need for us to make sure that we have measurable goals associated with the strategic plan.

[01:28:53] Not only do we see here clear goals, but we see a workforce staff who are going to be actively involved in this process. And so I just, again, want to appreciate where we are now as compared to where we were and how seriously we are taking this strategic plan to lead us over the next four years or three years.

[01:29:16] And so with that, I just wanted to, again, express appreciation to Kay Wallace and to all the staff who had a role to play in the process up to this point. All right. Supervisor Bailey? Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Kay, you did. You did good. 65 slides.

[01:29:32] Thank you. That's pretty cool. You know, it is wonderful to see a strategic plan work. I know when we first started, we were in the old strategic plan, but this is the new, vibrant strategic plan that's bringing us along with it.

[01:29:48] And so that's very important, just to see the fruit of our labor as we go forward. The question that I have is, oh, I have several, but I'm just going to ask one right now. Under the quality of life piece, as it relates to aging, I didn't see, and maybe I missed it, the KPIs for aging.

[01:30:11] I didn't see any metrics or anything like that. Is there a reason for that, or is it all encompassing? There is no particular reason as to why we don't have a public-facing KPI on aging. However, part of the process with the goal teams is they develop work plans. They're going to be encouraged to create some lower-level KPIs, so it is very possible that in the quality of life goal area, the team will decide to create one on aging.

[01:30:37] But there's no particular reason why we didn't. Because we couldn't track everyone. Yes. I mean, everything. Yeah, but I'm always sensitive to that piece because they're so integrally active in our community. So, and then the other question that I had was under mobility, and it may be the same answer.

[01:31:03] Writership is great, but what about the mode shift or like the VRE writership? Is that the same kind of thought process you had with that as well? I would have to get some clarification from transportation on that because I believe we are tracking ridership for OmniRide and VRE, but we'll clarify, and Mr. Sorda can follow up with you all on that.

[01:31:26] That would be great. I'll also say that one of the measures here is a tracking of the number of motorists who use our public garages and parking lots, and that will give us some intelligence about how...

[01:31:43] The ridership. Yes, and how actively our residents are using those sort of garages and parking lots as a way to get in and out of Prince William County on public transportation. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Kay.

[01:31:59] Thank you. All right, before I continue, I just have a quick question on slide 23. I'm saying it's bad. It's great because I want to be aggressive with targeting our pollution reduction. But they are quite aggressive, you know, more so, seemingly more so than many of our other goals.

[01:32:17] Do we have the necessary resources to achieve that? That's page 23. Thank you. Environment KPIs? Yes. Or maybe it's 26? We're going to find the slide so we can put it up for you.

[01:32:37] Is this the slide you're referring to, Chair Jefferson? It is. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Would you repeat the question, ma'am? I think this is great. I think we should be aggressive. I just want to know if we have the necessary resources to. Well, I hope so.

[01:32:54] This, the baseline and the target did come from Public Works who can provide more information about why they set the target. For some of our targets, they're obviously stretch targets, and this definitely is a stretch target that they have. But I feel comfortable that they would not have set it as a target if they didn't feel like that we had the resources or the capability to be able to do it.

[01:33:17] That's fair. Y'all needing something else, you know, I'm just saying. I mean, I think this is a great goal, but I just want to make sure that we are realistic in achieving it. But I will definitely follow up with them to make sure that they feel comfortable with this in case we may end up needing to adjust the target for FY26.

[01:33:34] All right. Supervisor Gordy. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Kay, for all the hard work on this and for the presentation. Very well done getting through all this. On slide 41, when we're talking about homelessness and it talks about the number of individuals who exit emergency shelters, Um, I'm just wondering if our, if the number that we're trying to target should be a percentage rather than a hard number, given the fact that if we're trying to reduce the number of folks who are, if we're preventing homeless, you know, that if we're successful at that, then we may not be able to target the, uh, eight, get the 80 number because we've reduced the number of homeless folks.

[01:34:13] So I'm just wondering if, if giving us a percentage actually gives us a better indicator of our success right as opposed to just a hard number I get like your thoughts on that that's an excellent suggestion and I will take that back to social services to Ms. Jennings so that we can adjust it accordingly so thank you for that we'll do that and then the only other question is on slide 21 I believe it was I'm sorry no it goes back to actually 24 when we talked about with the

[01:34:46] The goal area being to expand parks, trails, enhance and expand public parks, trails, and green spaces to improve accessibility. We're only focusing on trails as the KPI measure, but we're not really focusing on, like, more open space.

[01:35:05] And I think if I remember going back to our, you know, community input, it was more open space. So can you speak to that a little bit in terms of why open space and why it's just trails and not necessarily other open space?

[01:35:22] Yes, sir. As previously mentioned, what we did was we tried to select some KPIs that would be meaningful to the community, knowing that we weren't going to be able to track and post everything. So with regard to the environment goal team, they very well may end up tracking the amount of green space and open space that we have in the county.

[01:35:40] It's just not one that we put here to share for today. But if it is one that you would like for us to start tracking, then, of course, we can going forward. Yeah, I certainly would, because I know that was a very important and, like, the highest returning answer we received from the public was, you know, protection and enhancement of our open spaces.

[01:36:05] Yes, sir. And we've got some great opportunities, and so I think it certainly is a great opportunity for us to measure how well we're doing on that. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for that. Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair. Hello, Kay.

[01:36:20] How are you? Hi, how are you? I want to start with the 36 public-facing KPIs that were mentioned in the presentation early on that were selected. Just wanted to ask if you could elaborate a little bit as to the process and criteria that was used to select those.

[01:36:37] That's a great question, Supervisor Baker. This was not an easy process for us as a county because, as I mentioned earlier, Prince William County, as a learning organization, we're trying to continuously strive to improve. And we did learn from the last set of measurements in our strategic plan that we didn't necessarily set the best measurable types.

[01:36:56] So the process for this was long and arduous. We first had our consultants provide us basically a very large spreadsheet that had some suggestions of KPIs. We also did, I did a lot of research on KPIs from other jurisdictions, other localities.

[01:37:16] We as a staff had our executive cabinet as well as other SMEs that throughout the county suggest KPIs that we could measure or use to report on progress on this plan. So it was a combination. It was a combination of different activities that got us to this point.

[01:37:35] What our intentions were was to make sure that we chose KPIs that we could actually measure. And some of them, of course, were new KPIs that we don't yet have the measurements for them, but in an effort to improve and get better, like for the agribism and agritourism KPI, for example, we want to keep improving and moving forward.

[01:37:55] So we set some new metrics that right now at this point we don't have a way to measure, but we will find a way to measure going forward. Is there anything else you might want to add, Mr. Shorter? No. Well, I'll say that it's always a process of figuring out what is best, kind of finding a balance, I think, in every jurisdiction.

[01:38:19] There are probably different numbers of KPIs, some more comprehensive than others. This, with 36 KPIs, I think represents a really wide range of government operations, policy, intent, and vision.

[01:38:36] And so, you know, what I will say is that there's no right number or wrong number. This is not so much that it becomes too much for our government or for the public. So we did not go into this, Supervisor Vega, thinking that we are going to get to 36.

[01:38:56] we are going to get to 40, but we landed on this number by synthesizing all of the feedback we received from the various parties that Kay talked about. And the advice from the consultants was that we don't want to, this was a great phrase that I heard in a meeting, boil the ocean. There are some jurisdictions that have entirely too many KPIs, so it's best to be strategic about the ones that you track. And again, we tried to track ones or put ones out there that we felt like would be meaningful to the community or that we can meaningfully use the information going forward

[01:39:30] to make adjustments as necessary. Thank you. The next question that I have is in terms of the selecting of the strategic goal team. And I want to know what the process for selecting those members is going to be because based on the presentation, there's a recommendation of no more than 10 team members. Yes. And so how will we ensure that all necessary departments and agencies are adequately represented, and again, what is that selection process going to look like?

[01:40:00] So the gold teams have already been formed, and the way the process worked was that we first decided... Sorry, Kate, was this the photos that you showed? Mm-hmm. And that working? Yes, ma'am. Okay. So the gold teams have already been formed. We formed those gold teams back in March and April.

[01:40:18] Shortly after the strategic plan was adopted by you all, we kept moving right ahead, and we formed the gold teams. The process was that we first decided what the structure would be and then the executive cabinet or leadership decided that we would ask certain, based upon the goal area, we would reach out to certain department directors or leaders across the county to ask them would they be willing to be a sponsor and champion or co-lead of the team.

[01:40:46] Once those co-leads were selected, what we did was I did a presentation in front of the leadership team to let them know that these goal leaders would be reaching out to them to say, okay, for the environment goal, for example, a lot of our objectives and strategies in the strategic plan are like cross different departments. And so we ask them to, I ask them to look at your particular goal area and see what departments would have a hand or could benefit or help assist with achieving that particular objective or work on some of the strategies under that goal area and use that as a guide to who you invite to be a member of the team.

[01:41:24] And then those goal leaders reached out to the various departments and said, based upon your staff, your staff's knowledge, your staff's work capacity, can you recommend or can you assign somebody to be a part of this team? The reason why we have 10 to 15 members on the team is because large teams can get unwieldy, and so we want to keep the core team small, but the work is going to be spread out across all the departments and all the agencies.

[01:41:50] That's why we have contributors. We have people who are not part of the team, but we'll be attending some of those team meetings to provide information or make suggestions or help to work on strategies. So this will truly be a cross-collaborative effort over the next four years.

[01:42:06] Thank you for that. And I know my time has expired, Madam Chair, but I'll just end with this. More so of an ask-slash-suggestion that for the areas such as the environment, smart growth and the agritourism component of it that have the TBD or any really that we really try to get those baselines as soon as possible because we're in the early phases of these conversations and I want to make sure that we have something measurable straight out the gate if possible and that we not wait too long.

[01:42:37] I would think that when we're talking about vacancy reports and stuff, HR should be able to produce those numbers fairly quickly and we still have that area also to be decided. So just a recommendation, Mr. Shorter, that the sooner we can set those baseline numbers, the better. Thank you.

[01:42:55] Supervisor Ingrid. Thank you, Madam Chair. So, Kay, this has come a very long way. I like now, you know, it's all about measuring data and having that. So I guess my kind of first statement is like the baseline of where we get that data from that we're measuring so we'll know where we're going with the new data.

[01:43:16] But more specifically for me, I'm in the mobility, quality of life, and safe and secure communities. And I know you had a lot of slides. I don't know if we caught it, but there's a now new technology piece that we have for the county, which is our speed zone cameras, red light cameras.

[01:43:33] As you're collecting data, when you start getting into some of these realms, I didn't notice a KPI for anything. I get public safety, but are you drilling down into like pedestrian accidents? You know, we just, we had a couple more here, unfortunately.

[01:43:50] You know, the speeding through the neighborhoods. Like, are you, are you, is that in here anywhere? Are you drilling down in there? That isn't in the presentation, Supervisor Angry, but as previously mentioned, each of these teams, so the mobility team, which is led by, I guess, Mr. Conazales, they will be, as a team, establishing some lower-level KPIs.

[01:44:11] So, based upon your suggestion just now, I can ask Mr. Conazales for his team to create some KPIs around that particular subject. That would be great because I've continually said, you know, technology. We're starting to use more of it to help out our police department, hopefully help out our fire departments.

[01:44:30] Because it can, you know, people are just, I made a comment the other week, nobody uses their blinker anymore. And people are running red lights with a 15-second delay in it. And somewhere there's a lot of good data there that when we start talking about our strategic plan and really our community and what information they want to know, I think, to me, that's really a deep one.

[01:44:50] So I'll be speaking with Ms. Canazales just to make sure we kind of stay there. And you too, Ms. Schroeder. I love that. I want to see that data. So thank you. Supervisor Franklin. Actually, that was a great segue into, I think it's more of a discussion, less for the strategic plan, But I think particularly our transportation department should work with whoever appropriate when we're expanding trails, particularly trails close to major roads.

[01:45:23] So, for instance, there is a big trail on Cardinal, but we've seen a lot of pedestrian accidents also on Cardinal. So making sure that while we're expanding our capacity for trails, that we're also making sure that we're making them safe and that we're working hand in hand with transportation.

[01:45:41] to make sure that we have some type of campaign. I think that we probably need to do similarly to our trash campaign where we're encouraging residents to just slow down. We're still having a lot of accidents in this county comparatively, and some of them still are on the pedestrian side.

[01:46:01] So obviously I support expanding trails. I think we just need to make sure that we marry that conversation with our transportation conversation. And thank you for that, Supervisor Franklin. and I can't off the top of my head say exactly everybody that's on a mobility team, but every single one of these goal teams has a variety of departments on them.

[01:46:22] So if I'm not mistaken, somebody from parks is on the mobility team. Now, I may be wrong on that particular one, but a lot of them have, for example, quality of life, has someone from housing, I mean not housing, has someone from parks, has someone from planning. So all the teams are cross-collaborative teams.

[01:46:40] So it is very possible. And if we don't have someone from parks on that team, then we can ask Mr. Connizales if he will add someone from park to make sure that they're having those conversations going forward. Supervisor Bailey, then Bodie.

[01:46:58] Thank you so much, Madam Chair. Okay, I wanted to ask on slide 57, I was looking for my question earlier, slide 57 when you talked about the smart growth and the KPIs for the commercial tax base, is this an opportunity overall for us to dive a little bit deeper when it relates to our new industry, the data center industry, to really understand where we are with that, what that looks like in compatibility with the other tax initiatives that we have.

[01:47:36] So you know what, Supervisor Bailey, as intelligent as I am, I am not qualified to answer that question, I don't think. You are intelligent. Thank you. I could lob it to our acting deputy county executive, who's also the director of finance, for that.

[01:47:52] And as she's coming forth, because I think it is an opportunity, and I want to... You're right, it is an opportunity, because you'll see the description. We're not only gathering the real estate component, we're gathering the investment in personal property, which is a large business tangible personal property specifically. So that's from businesses, and we know a large section of that is computer equipment and peripheral.

[01:48:11] So that will be captured. We also will be having very soon our second annual data center report. If you remember, we created one last year. We have improved upon it. There's another one coming out. I just reviewed it today. So that will be coming out again, and that will have lots of information on the impact of data centers in Prince William County.

[01:48:28] then I'll scratch my second question thank you thank you so much if it's okay I um have acquired some additional information that I can share with you all right now thanks to Miss Dominique Ward here um first is that there is someone from parks and recreation on the mobility team already which is good and the second thing is that with regard to slide number I believe it was 23 talking about the pollutants um under the environment goal those targets are regulatory and they are required so

[01:49:01] that's why we've set them for the amounts that they are. So I'm going to have to go back to slide 23. They are regulatory. They set the goals. Are we, do we need any further resources? And that might be something to come back with since it's regulatory, since we didn't set it. Yeah. I don't want to put Dominique on the spot for that. So that is something that Mr. Shorter will follow up with Public Works. I appreciate that. Thank you. Supervisor Bode. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I appreciate that. This is a good segue to one of my questions, the two questions I had. So answer the first one, which is, you know, this regulatory, what have you. But we also know that

[01:49:39] we as Prince William County have a unique water source in the Occoquan Reservoir. And I've talked to a lot of folks that say, hey, regulatory is good. But to your point earlier on stretch goals, maybe in the future of going beyond what's regulatory, because we have unique water features, you know, the watershed, what have you, that's a little bit different than other parts of the state, even in comparison to our regional labor. So just wanted to leave that with you, appreciate that this is regulatory so we have to do it anyway but are there opportunities once we get closer to these goals to stretch further knowing that we do have a unique water source that most other parts of the commonwealth don't have so that's number one number two to go back

[01:50:14] to some of my colleagues were talking in terms of transportation uh you know handshaking other mobility like trails what have you um i see all these plans that we adopt as not in silos it sounds like based on the star approach that you're doing this time that you all largely agree with that so i would love at some point for as all these teams that have worked on all these plans in sort of silos on those individual plans come back together to see where they handshake on different things and frankly build off of work that we're already beginning to sort of reorient some part of the government you know we uh know the county exec is working towards sort of consolidating and

[01:50:52] streamlining capital, you know, expenditures, capital costs into one house, which will hopefully alleviate some of what Supervisor Franklin brought up, which is, hey, you know, we have trails that are being handled, sometimes by transportation, sometimes by parks, sometimes by other entities and organizations, but being able to consolidate that under mobility, under transportation, I think will help.

[01:51:12] But that also feeds into the conversation we just had around the traffic safety action plan, and those feed into, obviously, KPIs that we have here. So as much as we can to synergize and have those goals and those initiatives handshake each other, I think will only help us in the long run.

[01:51:28] And to the point on all of this, as you said at the outset, and as the county exec mentioned, far too often have boards adopted these. And we said it before, you know, county staffs are referencing them and staff reports and other things they're trying to get and trying to get done.

[01:51:43] But other than as reference documents, it's not a living document that we're actually trying to pursue in a means and ends of itself. This I see as a way for us to change that dynamic. So to me, the only way for that to also work is for us to be pursuing all these in tandem in synergy as much as we can.

[01:52:01] I hope that makes sense. Yes, sir, it does. Thank you for that. Thank you. I actually have one more question. It is slide 48, perhaps. Safe and secure community. Maybe slide 45. I don't know why.

[01:52:18] Yeah. Different on mine. Mine says 48. All right. The baseline is 4, I'm sorry, 640. The target, our referable capacity is 625. I just want to understand, you know, if our capacity is 625, you know, how is the 640 possible?

[01:52:38] You know, and what if capacity stops us from, you know, setting targets? I mean, is this actually a good metric? So I just had questions about that. So this metric we chose because of you, Chair Jefferson, because of a question that you asked at a previous board meeting about wanting to make sure that residents who may need services that do not actually get them at our crisis receiving center don't fall through the cracks so part of the staff there are three staff members actually make referrals and work with people who may not be in crisis at the moment but could benefit from some additional services in the community so they make those referrals but based upon the three

[01:53:14] staff members their capacity is at 625 however for fiscal year 24 they made 640 referrals So the reason why we feel like this is a good metric is because, one, it will allow us to keep track of the amount of people that need services so that it could help to inform if we need additional resources in the future.

[01:53:38] So that's why we feel like it's a good metric. And the reason why we did not set a target for it is because a target isn't appropriate here. Yeah, a target isn't appropriate. I just was wondering because it said referral capacity is 625. I was like, you know, are we sending a message?

[01:53:54] We can't help you. So, I mean, it doesn't, you know, perhaps, and I'm not trying to be nitpicky, next time put the referral capacity over, you know, under the baseline. Yes, okay. And that way we know that this is something we don't have a target for. Whomever we help, we help.

[01:54:11] We can change that very easily, yes, we can change that, so that it will not show in the target section. It will do exactly what you said. I appreciate that. I don't. Well, Supervisor Brody, do you have any additional questions? Well, I appreciate this, and thank you so much again. You're welcome. You know, 65 slides, 30 minutes, that's a lot.

[01:54:28] That's a lot. Thank you all. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Thank you, Kay, for the great presentation. I was concerned about the number of slides, but yes, you pushed right through. You pushed right through. Thank you. All right, Madam Chair. I want to introduce and have our Deputy County Executive, Wade Hugh, to come up and talk about the noise ordinance.

[01:54:51] I'll say that there have been now many, many partners who have played a role up to this point. And this was really an opportunity not just to give the board an update, but to also get some direction where direction is needed. I just want to give a big just acknowledgement to Wade for doing yeoman's work in terms of leading up to this point and continuing the momentum around action to this point.

[01:55:20] And so with that, Madam Chair, I'll turn it over to Wade. Thank you, Mr. Shorter. Madam Chair, members of the board, Wade Hugh, Deputy County Executive for Mobility, Economic Growth, and Resiliency. And it's my pleasure today to be able to give you an update on bringing you a draft noise ordinance for your consideration.

[01:55:37] When I was here back in March at the work session, we had a more technical discussion. We had our noise consultants with us. Today, what I'd like to do is give you, starting with some background on what's transpired over the last two years, the amount of work and effort that's gone into bringing us to this point, and we'll talk a little bit about what this point is.

[01:55:59] So, as was previously mentioned, I think, by one of the speakers at Citizens Time, we've been at this almost two years, almost to the day. We formed the Data Center Ordinance Advisory Group. And so, throughout the presentation, I'll refer to it as DCOAG as the acronym.

[01:56:17] Formed and had our first meeting July 7, 2023. And the mission of this group, this is a group of stakeholders, The mission of the group was to advise the county on regulatory changes needed to address negative impacts associated with data center development.

[01:56:34] So it's much more than just the noise ordinance that this group is working on. They're working on the noise ordinance. They're looking at the zoning ordinance. They're looking at design construction standards manual as well. Obviously, today we're just talking noise, but just wanted to let you know it's a very broad and very big workload that this team is working on.

[01:56:51] So the team spent about the first, I'll say, four to five months really identifying what are the impacts. When we say, quote, negative impacts, what are they? Let's list them. Next, we recognized that we would need to bring noise consultants onto the team to help us. So the DCOAG actually wrote the scope of work.

[01:57:08] We went out to bid. The DCOAG was part of the interview process with the consultants, and we brought two consultants on board. Mosley Architects is working with us on the zoning ordinance and design construction standards manual update. So a different conversation for another day.

[01:57:25] We brought in JMT for the noise ordinance. So we signed a task order at JMT at the end of February 2024. Their first meeting with the DCOAG was March 13th, 2024. So it took us about nine months, but a lot of work went into getting us to that point in time.

[01:57:44] When JMT joined the team, we had tasked them with doing a lot of research. We wanted them to look at other jurisdictions throughout the United States, but also internationally. What else has been done? What other ordinances have been crafted for addressing noise? And so they embarked on that starting in March.

[01:58:02] They also researched, when we're talking noise levels, when you're setting a noise level, it has to be based on something. And so the basis is on health and well-being. That's what human health and well-being and what impacts that noise has on folks. So they came out in June, June 26th, almost a year, took about a year to get to that point, to come out with a, and I'll say a very rough draft framework of the ordinance.

[01:58:29] And at that point in time, we hadn't done testing yet because Great Oak community had already had at least a year or so under their belt of testing. So we roughly knew where the numbers were in Great Oak. This, again, was more research-based. But when they presented the DCOAG, felt like those numbers weren't low enough.

[01:58:45] We needed to drive down the noise scale lower than what was presented. At that point in time, the county executive and I had talked, you know, the one area where we're lacking expertise is in noise as far as staff. And when we're building buildings, we're building roads.

[01:59:01] We have engineers, structural engineers, architects, et cetera, that when we're getting plans and conversing with industry experts, we can have very technical conversations. When we're dealing with noise, we don't have anyone on staff. And so JMT is a wonderful consultant group. But without having somebody that can QC the work, we just felt like we need to bring somebody else onto the team.

[01:59:21] So very quickly, we reached out with David Nelson, with Nelson Acoustics. So we went from June 26th to September 3rd, about six weeks. We're able to get funding in place, get David on board with the task order. JMT's expertise is really writing ordinances.

[01:59:39] That's their expertise. David's expertise is acoustics. He really understands the numbers. He understands industrial noise. That's where his expertise lies. So it was fitting that we brought him in as a technical expert. So then we spent from September 3rd to November 20th, and we actually did field testing to give David some additional information.

[01:59:59] David then on November 20th, 2024, presented his noise scale, not the ordinance. At this point, we're not even worrying about definitions and so forth because the heart of the ordinance is what are the numbers you're chasing? what's going to be the standards he presented that on november 20th the dcoag still felt still wasn't low enough and david actually introduced octave bands which is something we'll talk about here in a bit gets a little more technical with respect to the ordinance they also suggested the dcoag wanted david to come and visit prince william to actually hear industrial noise firsthand industrial noise we're experiencing a little bit different than a lot of his work is down in texas

[02:00:37] and I believe Arkansas. So we tried to, we actually had the plane flight scheduled. We had the date scheduled for testing in mid-December. We just had a real bad weather day. High winds, 30, 40 mile an hour winds. We had to cancel the trip. And then with the holidays, we had to push it to early January. As you recall, we had two significant snowstorms in January. You can't take noise readings with snow on the ground because it almost acts like an insulating blanket and will skew the results. So we were able to get David here on January 30th for a day of testing. JMT showed up as well. Great day of testing. At that point, we felt like we had, again, the framework

[02:01:12] to bring forward to you for a noise ordinance. And just to get some general direction, we hadn't finalized the scale or the numbers, but just wanted to let you know where we were and get some general direction. We did that on March 18th at the work session. Now, just as a quick reminder, the scales that we showed you at that time, again, weren't solidified. We're still working the numbers, but to give you a general idea of what we were looking at, we talked about an impulse scale, something new. Impulse scale would be just a single loud sound. If you think of maybe somebody that's going to be banging on something and they're hitting it every five, 10 minutes, it's just an extreme loud sound. We wanted to have a limit on what that sound would be. That's

[02:01:52] your impulse. We talked about intermittent levels. Best way to describe intermittent is if you go out and do a test for, let's say an hour, 50% of the time or more, this single source would be the source of the noise. So it's not the full hour. It may only be 30 minutes of the time, but it's at least 50% of the time. That's considered intermittent, and we had developed a scale for that. And then I'm sure you'll remember when we talked octobands and we showed the piano keys, we have a scale, and that's continuous noise. So again, going back, you test for an hour,

[02:02:27] literally for that hour, it's a constant hum or a constant noise. That's how you would define continuous, very simplistically. I'll pause here for a couple of things. So one, I know there's been some comments as we've worked through this that we're getting too technical. Because when you start getting into octobands, you are getting very technical. But there was a reason that we went there. And that's because when you take a noise meter and you do an A-weighted reading or C-weighted reading, something typical, you walk outside, you hold the noise meter, and it says, right now I'm reading 70 decibels. That reading is taking in all the noise around you. It's taking

[02:03:02] in the cars, the lawnmower, people talking, birds, wind, everything. And so it's very difficult to take that reading and say, I've got to parse this out now and single out the source of the noise. When you get to octave bands, what you're doing is you're kind of dividing that noise into octave levels. So with this, we can look at this, say the 2,000, 4,000, 8,000 levels and say, that's high frequency. That's going to, honestly, that's going to be crickets. That will be wind.

[02:03:31] that will be car tires on the highway. Don't need to worry so much about that. We're going to focus more on the low frequency because that's where the industrial noise, that's what's creating the vibration, the complaints that we get from residents. You're down at the lower end. So down there, true, you'll have the industrial noise.

[02:03:47] You may also have a locomotive engine. You may have a car engine that creates a lot. But as you can see, it gets a little easier. You've already kind of parsed the noise out. So that was the rationale why we went this direction. Not many noise ordinances throughout the U.S. have octave bands. The other thing I will point out is that we do have a daytime nighttime level here. Nighttime being lower, go back to the health and well-being, people sleeping. We got to make sure the levels are low enough that it's not permeating inside homes and that people are able to get the rest that they need. And that's traditional. Even the ordinance that we have today

[02:04:22] is a DBA, A-weighted scale. It's 60 decibels at a residential daytime, 55 nighttime. That's kind standard. The last thing I'll point out here is when we talk about levels, and we had shared before back in March, this is a low scale. When you look around the country, when you look at these numbers, and again, we haven't locked in on this. This isn't a recommendation that I'm taking to the county executive, but the working numbers we have, this is about as low as you're going to see. And as a point of reference, again, I mentioned 60 decibels today, daytime, 55 nighttime.

[02:04:57] If you filled all those octave band buckets to the limit, you could say that would equate to a 48-decibel day, 43 nights. So you're dropping 12 decibels day, and you're dropping 12 decibels night. That's significant, and I just point that out because that's going to be important as I go through some additional slides.

[02:05:18] So that gets us up to when we did the work session March 18th. So what have we done since March 18th to the present? Done a lot. One, the DCOAG, and I will pause just to also recognize the group members. I mean, a lot of folks on this are volunteers, and they're putting in a lot of time and energy.

[02:05:34] This is two years, a ton of meetings. Just in the last, from March 19th, we met the day after the board work session to debrief, and what's the plan going forward, all the way up through May 20th. They've met nine times. We almost have a meeting weekly. Second, we went out to Great Oak.

[02:05:51] I appreciate we had four homeowners there. Dale Brown, one of the folks that's kind of coordinating for all of Great Oak, coordinated with four homeowners to do testing. We did 48 hours to 60 hours at four different homes, getting good nighttime readings. Did that.

[02:06:06] I met with Les Bloomberg virtually three times. Now, Les was with National Pollution Clearinghouse, nonprofit. But his expertise, 30, almost 40 years, is writing noise ordinances. So this was another set of, I'll say, quote, free review because I sent the ordinance to him, and he spent a lot of time marking up, giving me suggestions, definitions that he felt should be in there, definitions that weren't clear, should be changed, tweaked. So it's just another set of eyes on our document. We also reached out to Eric Zwirling, who's with Rutgers University.

[02:06:43] He also has his own consultant business on the side. His expertise is on enforcement. And if If you remember when we met on March 18th, as kind of the guidance, as a takeaway from the board was, definitely make sure we focus on the enforcement piece. So we finally signed a task order, brought Eric to the team on May 12th.

[02:07:02] And so, again, I'll pause here for a second because two things. So Eric's been at Rutgers, I think, since 91. So he's been at this for 30-plus years. And I'll just say, when he's gotten his arms around what we're trying to do here, his comment back is, this is the most complex situation that he's seen in 30-plus years, that this is not something simple.

[02:07:23] And I share that only to say, for folks that would say, two years, this is ridiculous. You ought to be able to come on. How hard is it to put an ordinance together? Well, if you want one that's going to stick and that you can enforce, it takes time. And I'll share a little bit with what his thoughts are there.

[02:07:39] So that was one thing. We met with the Commonwealth Attorney's Office, as we've discussed before. The ordinance today is enforced through the criminal code. Today, that's a class two misdemeanor. I think it catches a lot of business owners by surprise because if you look at most of the issues that we have, if it's loud parties in residential neighborhoods, if it's maybe a business that's having a special party, a band or something that's after hours, even if it's a loading dock situation and a mixed use where somebody is getting a delivery at 2 a.m. in the morning, and they're banging stuff. In those individual situations, it's easy to

[02:08:17] address the noise. You turn the radio down, you cut the band off, you stop banging at the loading dock. So if the officer shows up, it's immediately addressed. So a lot of times, it just probably ends in a warning. I don't know the numbers or if they even have to go to court there. So again, the majority of business owners aren't really dealing with this. So it doesn't surprise me that they were shocked to hear what we're looking to recommend to the county executive coming forward would be we continue with criminal. But I'll also stress that, unfortunately, with the state code as it's written today for industrial uses, so an industrial use on an industrial zone property,

[02:08:52] it actually states in the code we cannot prosecute civil. So your only choice in that situation is criminal. Now, data centers, we have data centers on industrial property. We have data centers, I believe, plan business. It's probably a 50-50 last time I looked at the numbers. But to be uniform and consistent, we would want to do criminal. So just giving a little background on that. But obviously, then that's why we're meeting with the Commonwealth Attorney's Office to make sure we understand in terms of, you know, enforcement, evidence that we're bringing forward, what are they looking for from us so that we make sure that we set our enforcement program to mirror

[02:09:28] that. We also had a presentation from Dale Brown. As I mentioned, he's been working with the Great Oak community for many years. And we've kind of gotten to a point when we're talking about the standards, the numbers, that we've kind of just let the numbers sitting there while we're trying to work through some of the specifics. And Dale had said, you know, it's time to really start honing in on the numbers. I'll go ahead and let you know what I think the numbers should be.

[02:09:51] And so he gave us a presentation at that time. We also had a presentation from David Nelson. I mentioned we did the noise testing at the end of April. David then came in, gave us a presentation and walked through what his findings were, which I'll talk in more detail here in a minute. We completed testing at some additional ancillary sites.

[02:10:09] I know the board had suggested, and I know specifically Supervisor Bodie had commented, you know, let's make sure we're not pulling in construction noises, things like that. So we went to some pump stations from Prince William Water. They, you know, pump stations near residential want to make sure they're going to be compliant. We've looked at schools. We've looked at hospitals.

[02:10:26] We also went to another neighborhood off of Cardinal Drive residential and did a 12-hour nighttime test. Again, we just wanted as much data as we can get. We found another subdivision away from any data center project to just say, let's get a reading there and see what those noise levels are.

[02:10:44] And then we had five, or I've held five, coordination meetings with our three consultants all together. And when you really think about it, when you're putting a team like this together, you truly have the expertise in writing an ordinance, the expertise in the acoustics with David, and now the expertise in enforcement and how you actually take the readings.

[02:11:03] So let's go back to the readings that we did most recently at Great Oak. You know, we're moving along. We'd already come to the board in March. We felt we had a great framework. Let's move forward with this. We did those nighttime testings, and then David came back on May 14th and presented to the group and said, I'm having trouble distinguishing between traffic noise and data center noise.

[02:11:26] And that's based on the readings I'm taking. It's based on we sent him sound files so he can literally put the headsets on and listen to the sound. He doesn't listen to the whole 24 hours, but he'll pick periods of time. And as an expert, he's saying, I'm not able to discern the two. So clearly that caused myself pause because when we just got done talking about for criminal prosecution for enforcement, we've got to be able to say, I took a reading and without a shadow of a doubt, it was that source right there.

[02:11:58] And if you can't say that, and if an expert can't say that, then we need to. Now, we're not saying we've hit a wall and we're done. We can't get there. So I want to be very clear with that. We've absolutely not said that. We've just said we need to pause. Where do we go from here?

[02:12:13] What's the next step? And so in terms of the next step, so what we're doing today, again, I mentioned we brought Eric Zwerling on board. His expertise is how you actually take the measurements. That's not David's expertise. So when David is setting up, he's saying, well, put your tripod here, take your reading here.

[02:12:30] And that's what he does in his world of getting just the noise. What Eric's expertise is, is to say, wait a minute, there's different ways you set up. There's ways that we can isolate the noise where we can, and that's what he teaches officers all across the United States, go to his, and get his certification from Rutgers to do this.

[02:12:48] So just today, so you can see how quickly we're moving on this. Just this morning at 1 a.m., we had staff out testing from 1 o'clock, and I think we finished around 5 a.m. They finished. I wasn't with them. And we used the techniques that Eric taught us. So we uploaded the information, David Nelson's going to review it.

[02:13:07] So where we're at now, I feel like, okay, so we're at a crossroads. If this information comes back and it works as we hope and we are able to isolate the noise, then I feel like, okay, we're back on track. What I would suggest to the consultants and to the DCOAG is let's go out and do one more round of testing.

[02:13:26] This is round one. If it comes back, great. It looks like it's going to work. Let's hit some different areas. Let's go out and do one more round. Just make sure that we're ready to move this forward. we can do that in the next week or two. Get that done. Then we'll know, okay, now we can hone in on the scales that I showed you before. If the data comes back and it's inconclusive, and Eric looks, as he said before, this is a very complex situation. If it comes back and he said, yeah, unfortunately, it didn't work in these cases. Okay, now we're at that crossroads. We're at that decision point. And again, I wouldn't want to say after two years of hard work, I mean,

[02:14:02] we've done a lot. I wouldn't want to just throw the hands up and say, we can't get there. Then the discussion becomes, okay, maybe we don't do the octave bands. Maybe that's why other jurisdictions haven't done it. Honestly, I think when this is said and done, wherever we land, we will have done more research on this, in my opinion, than anyone around. So the fact that others haven't done the octaves, I wouldn't chalk that up to they figured it out already. I don't believe that's the case. But maybe we need to just look at sea weighting. And again, we got three of the brightest minds working on this from consultants. So it's going to take a little

[02:14:39] bit of time. We're going to need a couple more weeks. We've got to get this testing day to see where this is at. Like I said, maybe do additional testing to be able to then say, what is the work plan? Either we're going forward with where we are, we feel like we're in the right spot, or we've got to change directions. How do we do it? What's the next step? Lay a plan out, and then come back can share that with the DCO AG. So that was a lot of information. I'm happy to answer any questions.

[02:15:07] All right. Well, everyone's loading up the queue. I would like to get started. Let's go back to slide eight. The current situation. You passed it. It's the one with the two. Go on. Yeah, right there. I just want to make sure that I'm understanding that when it says not sufficiently distinguishable to isolate its contribution, the biggest problem that we've heard with data center noise is that it's continuous low frequency noise and that was different than previously where we're told with traffic was more of a higher frequency so can you walk me through that help me

[02:15:43] understand why it's not distinguishable yeah because again so the traffic noise you'll get you'll get two patterns and they'll talk about it as a kind of a double wave or a double curve and the curve on the if i can go back maybe this will help go back yep so the the double wave the first wave at the bottom the low frequency that's the engines that's the car engines the engines have that whether it's a car or a truck will have that low rumble that's the low frequency so you'll see a car drives by you'll see a spike in that range and then you'll also see it in high frequency that's the tires the hum on the the highway that you hear so that's what the vehicles are producing

[02:16:19] and if you think about where great oak is i mean you have route 28 and you have the princeway and Parkway, all relatively close as far as noise go, and even late at night. So the other challenge becomes with respect to the residents, and I truly believe that they absolutely hear the noise. No one is doubting they hear the noise. But I think what ends up happening is, for David or any of us that are out there that aren't living it, it's just overall noise in the area. And the best way the consultants described it to me is they said, think about this. If you were in a crowded room of people all talking and you were in there with your significant other and I'm standing next to

[02:16:59] you, you could probably say, I can hear my wife or my husband. I can hear their voice. I may not hear every word they're saying, but I can pick up. I'm used to the sound of their voice. But if you ask me, can you hear my wife or my husband? I would probably say, no, I can't hear anything.

[02:17:15] I'm just hearing a lot of murmuring in the room. And that's a little bit what you deal with here. And again, when you're doing enforcement and if you do have to go to court, you're going to have to be able to look at the standards that we're setting and saying, here's the meter and here's the numbers. And we're not going to be able to go in and say, I know the numbers don't line up, but I know what I heard. This is what I heard. That's the challenge. So I want to go back to that slide, because again, when you're talking about false positives, you mentioned like, you know, a car engine, that low rumble, what other levels can create those false, what other things, whether it's sounds, what other noise can create that low frequency.

[02:17:54] Well, like the VRE, one of the things that we checked on, which isn't prevalent, but I think at least happens one time a day out there. And surprisingly, it doesn't happen more because there are trains Monday through Friday. And if you think, well, Broad Run and the airport's very close, again, to Grado, relatively speaking. Well, they fired the diesel engines up.

[02:18:12] We called VRE and they said, yep, just depending on the time of year, but we'll start the diesel engines around 3.30 because that first run starts at 5 a.m. at Broad Run. So, again, something like that. What else is in the area? Are there any other type of industrial uses in the area that also could have that low-frequency noise?

[02:18:29] Another question I have, because I went back, and I didn't get a chance to finish listening to everything on March 18th, but I did pull the presentation. I got the presentation we have on page 16. It talks about additive noise. And it gave them examples of how the more data centers, you know, you have your ambient noise levels.

[02:18:49] And when you add more data centers, there becomes a new ambient sound. So I'm just trying to get a sense of, you know, if we're saying these things aren't distinguishable, but yet we also do, the noise expert has said things that, like, yes, this is ambient, but then when you add a data center, the ambient goes up.

[02:19:10] When you add another one, it goes up this high. So I'm just trying to understand, if he's saying that's the case, how are we also now saying that we can't distinguish data center noise? Well, because if you take a base, a known noise, so if we had a data center, let's say there's two already in operation and a third data center is coming in.

[02:19:28] And if we knew, if they modeled their noise and said, this is the noise we're going to generate, then the acoustics engineers, mathematically, can take that noise, add it together, and say, this is the additive number. So when we shared that chart, we were saying, if the ambient noise is 46, and you continue to add new sources of noise, even though it's at a 46.

[02:19:50] So they would say, I'm not making the situation worse. It's already 46, but you are. Because as you keep adding it, it's logarithmic, and it's going to increase those levels. And then I understand. I'm sorry. I'm just really stuck on this, that this noise is not distinguishable.

[02:20:09] That's where I am really getting caught up, because most people are familiar with traffic noise. I mean, certainly. And I'm not going to be a hypocrite. I know I'm running out of time. I'm going to get back to this. In fact, I think we should probably suspend the rules of procedure because I know a lot of people have a lot of questions on this.

[02:20:28] I'm not saying. Thank you. Second. Thank you. I think everyone, I don't know if anyone disagrees about suspending the rules of procedure. Do you want to do an official vote on it? We're just basically going to be able to ask more than two questions for five minutes each.

[02:20:51] Are there any objections? Supervisor Franklin. Yeah. Microphone. i think we can have a regular discussion about this we've had several presentations on this um very important topic but i we're gonna have two rounds of questioning to me that that's more than enough i for some of us it may not be a supervisor angry did you have any objections to that yourself all right let's go ahead and take a roll call i'll do it supervisor bailey

[02:21:26] madam chair can you specify what we're voting on rules of procedure so normally and we've waved these before that we all have two minutes I'm sorry two times five minutes each to speak so some of us because there are a lot of questions and I know in your district you know I'm sure you might have a lot of questions that may exceed your 10 minutes but this would give us additional time to discuss this topic I want to oppose it madam chair but I do think that we need to go back and check that because it was something that was established by the previous chair and this is a work session that is when we have land use items that that policy or gentleman's agreement was

[02:22:04] established and so if we want to revisit that we can but that's a conversation for another day I want to pose to us having further conversation I just want to let you know that that is actually in our it's something that we looked at when we first started as a board I mean with work sessions you know in order to keep it down and we've had a number of times that we've suspended this because this is such a tough topic and I know a lot of people all right so everyone go ahead and take

[02:22:29] the vote no let's go ahead all right so this means that we can have more fruitful we can speak longer i'm not going to necessarily let us go five hours with this but i just think that in

[02:23:07] really order for us to get at this and have this discussion um we should be able to speak more freely now again we're still going to have the five minutes up there and if you want to take additional time you get yourself back in queue or let me know in the moment but i want to make that we're going through this topic thoroughly um yeah i want to make sure it's going through it thoroughly so hold on a second i'm not going to take my next i want to let other people go before i have additional comments supervisor bode thank you madam chair thank you wade for all your work the dcoag for their work and all these staff all the consultants everyone else that's gotten us to this point i just had a few sort of foundational questions and i appreciate that i think it was

[02:23:45] It was Madam Chair who passed out the draft ordinance before we set her our seat. So first and foremost, is or is the new proposed ordinance getting rid of the current exemptions for construction? It would not.

[02:24:00] We would add impulse as a scale in there, but my recommendation back to the county executive would be to keep, if you have construction permits, then you're exempt. That would be my recommendation. Appreciate that. Number two, right now to sort of deal with the tonal noise that's been talked about quite a bit, the continuous noise, and I appreciate Madam Chair trying to sort of defray us getting into that a little bit more.

[02:24:23] Other than the octave bands, were there other alternatives looked at to try to get at regulating the tonal noise? Well, we started with the initial, when JMT initially came out, they came out with a C weighting, which does get you a little closer to picking up lower frequencies.

[02:24:40] still doesn't get you as close as you do with the octaves. And as I mentioned before, we need the experts here to give you their opinion. What I've learned is that when you're looking at whether it's a C weight or an A weight, as I mentioned with the monitor, you're picking up the cumulative, which I think makes the situation even more challenging because now you've got everything embedded versus, and maybe to get to Chair Jefferson's question and somewhat along the lines with yours, the challenge is you may look into that, let's just say the 63 octave band.

[02:25:10] Within that band, let's say there's car engines and there's data center noise that's embedded in that. So at least you've narrowed it down. But the challenge is it is just a number. All that meter is giving you is a number. So to be able to say, all right, this number I'm going to attribute to data center versus the vehicles, that's where the noise consultant is saying we don't have enough.

[02:25:33] He's not comfortable making that call. Now, again, technically, and I would look to them to say this, But I understand you can almost do like forensics, if you will, in terms of could you go in and do additional testing, get more details to be able to say, yes, we can zero in on something.

[02:25:51] It's going to cost you a tremendous amount of money. You'd probably need more information on the type of fans, the fan blades to get very specifics. But you're just at a whole other level trying to zero in on that. I appreciate that. That was my follow-up question because, you know, we've sort of talked about data center noise as sort of a monolith when we know that's not the case.

[02:26:09] We know that some of them have hums. Other ones have other low growls when it comes to the fans and other things. We know that the cooling systems are all different. In some cases, some of them are on the roof, so they make other distant noises versus the ones that are adjacent to the buildings versus the generators. So when we sort of talk about the fact that we can't exactly discern the data center noise from everything else, are we talking about sort of all data center noise?

[02:26:31] Are we talking about specific types of data center noise? Can you peel back on that a little bit more? Well, there's some that can be more prevalent. Like, again, today we went and tested on Hornbaker Road, and you're next to a data center that's right next to an apartment complex. And that is, it's more prevalent there.

[02:26:47] And you're a little further away. You have Route 28 that's relatively close. The parkway's far enough away, so you're kind of limiting the traffic noise. But one thing that you did say in terms of where the fans are located on the building, one of the things that we've talked about at Great Oak, for example, is you've got the houses close to the data center.

[02:27:07] What was interesting is one of the tests that we did back in January, one of the higher readings with respect to low frequency, one of the higher, was almost more in the middle of the community, but it sat up a little higher. So part of the discussion is how do the sound waves travel, one, two, are we now maybe picking up another source?

[02:27:25] You're a little bit further. Was there something going on at the airport? So you just, again, but great questions, and that's why it gets complex when you're really digging into this. Appreciate it. If I could, a couple more questions, Madam Chair. As you were all looking at different ways to look at how this is going to affect whether it's businesses, data centers, what have you, was a consideration of a good-faith effort of remediation or a phase-in clause, knowing that in some cases we're talking about replacing equipment, renovations, things like that, to allow folks time to come into compliance if they're out of compliance?

[02:27:58] Well, we've talked about and had a good conversation in terms of grandfathering, and I'll certainly let the county attorney get specific on that, of my understanding here with the noise ordinance because of the underlying authority to set the ordinance is there is no grandfathering. So we talked a little bit about when we put the ordinance in place, we're definitely going to need ramp up time because we're going to need to send our inspectors or officers to Rutgers to get trained, to get certified, to purchase equipment. The question becomes, and the recommendation that we would have back to the county executive, is that a three-month? Is that a six-month period? What period of time? And in essence,

[02:28:33] That would be to the business community to be able to say, hey, the board adopted this ordinance, so here's the numbers, you're all aware, and here's the effective date. And so some, to your point, is what is that lead time? Now, there's going to be some, again, you look at the sources of the noise, you know, some, take a restaurant, for example.

[02:28:52] There's probably fans that are somewhat uniform when you're exhausting fans from a grill cooking in the kitchen that you might be able to go and order those and get them fairly quickly. But when you're talking the data center or other industrial sources, those things more or less have to be fabricated, may have to be specially fabricated.

[02:29:08] So they're going to have to engineer it, fabricate it, submit for plans. That could be a year and a half. So how are we going to, how do we work through that? We've got an ordinance. Do we just say, well, we gave you six months and, you know, but again, that's, those are the pieces we got to work through before we take the recommendation to the county executive.

[02:29:26] Thank you. I see how I'm out of time. So Madam Chair, I'll come back for my second round later. All right, what I'm going to try to do is everyone who has their first round of questions to jump in, and then for us who have our next round of questions. So, Supervisor Weir. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[02:29:41] Wade, I suspect you can understand why I'm a bit frustrated. We had a presentation in March. The outcomes have changed, and now, if I understand correctly, they're changing since yesterday. And I've got folks on both sides of the issue who are upset and equally upset.

[02:30:03] You know, now I'm hearing it's going to be difficult to enforce, you can't distinguish the noise, but we had an expert come in here a bit ago and said he could distinguish it to the point where he could go to trial and testify on our behalf. Are we going to be in a position to deal with this scientifically?

[02:30:26] And by that I mean are you prepared to take measurements at more than one place or one point in time so that you can establish what a baseline is? Are we going to record it, or are we going to filter out the background noise? I mean, you can't tell me that you can't distinguish background traffic noise from a, you know, pick your hertz on the octave scale and separate out where that noise is.

[02:30:57] You know, where do we stand on that? I mean, how are we going to deal with this? Not only, well, we know what's going to happen with things like loud parties, you know, people making noise out in residential areas, but with data centers, are you going to respond to this the same way?

[02:31:14] Are you going to respond to it on a one-time basis, or are you going to look at this as a chronic, ongoing issue? How are we going to deal with that? And when you say respond, with respect to once the ordinance is adopted, how we're going to respond on an enforcement side?

[02:31:30] Yeah. Then we would respond, and like we currently do now, we would send the inspector and the officer out, take the reading. If it's in violation, we would write the summons. I mean, I'll be curious where we stand when you get the results back from the latest round of testing.

[02:31:48] But, you know, it almost seems like we just keep adding consultants until we get to the position where we can't do anything. paralysis by analysis. Do we know when this last draft that we were handed out today was created?

[02:32:04] I believe it was around the end of April. And what has happened is, so we've been working back and forth and to make sure we had version control with floating around. When we met with, or I met with Les Blomberg, he made some changes. I had the consultants. I said, just keep, let's not, because we're going to, if we keep uploading these things, they're floating around. Everyone has a different version. So the version you're looking at is not the one, the current that they have today. The only thing that's changed in there, the scale hasn't changed. Some of the definitions have changed. We've worded them a little bit different. The other thing that's probably different in the version you're looking at is the recommendation I had from Les was that

[02:32:40] we shouldn't include our procedures. We actually have, if you look in there, it'll say when you go out and do a test, here's how you test. You want the wind speed below a certain mile per hour, et cetera. That's more procedures document. You don't want that in your actual ordinance. So Little things like that have changed. But the heart of the ordinance, which is the scale, which is the criminal, the class 2, that has not changed.

[02:33:02] How widely dispersed has the April draft been? Because there are some issues. There are some things in it that would allay some of the concerns. I'm curious. Has the industry seen it? Has DCOAG seen it? Well, DCOAG has. It's uploaded on our webpage. But I have not sent it out, cast it out to industry.

[02:33:22] Because, you know, one of the things that they had a concern about was, you know, the limits on construction noise. It looks like a lot of those have been removed. However, if you're going to reinsert the impulse noise, that's going to be an issue.

[02:33:39] And I think I said this two years ago when this all started, I think we're wrong to be doing this as a criminal violation. If you've got somebody who's going to get nailed for an impulse noise on a construction site, a one-off or somebody running a backhoe, somebody running a bulldozer, somebody running a hammer, you know, and then they get a criminal citation for it, you can kiss their CDL goodbye.

[02:34:05] If they're a pilot, you can kiss their pilot's license goodbye, you know, especially if they get repeated criminal violations. and there's still the issue of who do you criminally violate if it's an operating amazon data signer and i've said this before are you going to cite the manager are you going to cite the security guard are you going to drive down to georgetown and pin pin the citation to jeff bezos's nose um i think we need to look at this holistically and i think we need to figure out where we need to go whether it's all criminal parts part civil or part civil part criminal or

[02:34:42] all civil. I mean, because we've got a couple of options, but until we take care of that baseline question, I think we're going to be spinning our wheels a little bit, and Chair, I'll come back for more. Yeah, if you don't mind. So, Supervisor, with the construction noise, very brief, the DCOAG, some of the members had a concern with the data center construction, that it was just, you know, constant weekends, etc., and so that's how initially we even started looking at construction noise. As time has gone on, and I've shared with the DCOAG, my concern is that construction noise is the same. So whether you're putting a data center in or housing, if you have to ho-ram and

[02:35:21] blast, you're going to have to do it for both. So to me, I think as we started talking more, and I don't want to get ahead of the DCOAG because I've just kind of left it and said I've got concern with construction noise, but their focus has been, and they've been pretty clear with me, it's the 24-7 noise. And so if that's the case and we're in agreement, then my recommendation back to the county executive would be let's leave the exemption if you have a permit impulse does not apply none of those apply to you as it does today none of that applies they're exempt um so we just haven't gotten far that far along in the conversation for a recommendation

[02:35:54] all right supervisor gordy thank you madam chair um wait thank you thank you for the dcoag um i mean it's been three years and one month since i stood on a deck at great oak and was dumbfounded at the level of noise coming from Tanner Way.

[02:36:16] I literally could not hear the HVAC system for the house that was below the deck over the noise coming from the data center. So that's just to put it into context of where we started on this three years and one month ago.

[02:36:34] I just have to say, in my view, we're trying to deal with a symptom. The problem is that we're building data centers in your homes. That's the problem. And we're not doing anything to solve that problem.

[02:36:51] And while we can sit here and talk about noise ordinances all we want, we're literally creating the problem for our community but not addressing the problem. The problem is bad planning and bad zoning, which stems from allowing by-right development and approval of rezonings near homes and schools.

[02:37:13] And until we get that right, until we fix that, we're going to have to have this. And we're going to have to have more problems and more important, because I guarantee you, as you deal with the Hunter property around Amberley Station, you deal with Devlin Tech Park, those are different environments than Great Oak is, which is near the parkway.

[02:37:34] Well, these areas aren't anywhere near a parkway. So you don't have the level of ambient noise that's coming from high traffic, fast traffic, and a lot of truck traffic that's out on the parkway. You don't have that on Linton Hall Road. You don't have that on Devlin Road. These are neighborhood communities that are going to be dealing with this, and they're literally surrounded by data centers that were approved three years ago and yet have yet to be built.

[02:38:01] But they're coming. Eventually, they're going to be there. And right now in my district, we have 14 data center cases in application right now. And eight of them, eight of them are near homes and schools.

[02:38:17] And over half of those are actually by right development. They could go build today without any permission from this board. So in my mind and in my view, we need to deal with that in tandem with this and bring that forward sooner rather than later.

[02:38:39] And I would love to see that by September. Something that we can bring up to protect our homes and schools, to protect our communities from this by right development and set a standard that we're not going to build industrial. we're not going to violate basic zoning principles of allowing industrial next to residential.

[02:39:01] And so my view is we're basically rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic by just simply focusing on the noise ordinance without addressing the real problem. And so I hope that the DCOG and planning staff will get us that soon, that we can prevent further excursions that's going to exacerbate this problem in additional areas of our county. So speaking of schools, I know the schools sent a letter explaining that

[02:39:36] they had concerns about this. Do you have concerns that the schools would be in violation of this noise ordinance for their HVAC systems on their facilities? Not at this time, and we've done significant testing. I think we've been to four, maybe five schools that we've tested. We've picked some older ones thinking maybe they haven't switched out some of their HVACs, so we maybe are picking up some of the older systems. But of the testing we've done to date, no, I don't have a concern with that. As a matter of fact, we just did this morning, just for you, but we were at Marsteller Middle School, because I know we'd gotten a complaint about construction generators.

[02:40:14] Clearly, they weren't running at 2 a.m. in the morning, but we just thought there's the school and then they have a small pump station right next to some homes. So we had them set up right there so you're kind of picking up both to see what the levels are. So that will give us a good read as well. Okay, very good.

[02:40:29] And then I completely concur with Supervisor Weir, the construction, ensuring that – and I don't – we're here because of what data centers have done to our community. We did not have these complaints prior to that.

[02:40:46] And I am not interested in penalizing current existing businesses who've been following the law, been doing the right things, simply because we got a few bad actors in our community. And so, you know, how we go forward in ensuring that we provide an ordinance that does not take someone who's never done anything wrong and then all of a sudden put them as criminals, class two misdemeanor, is something that I want us to completely avoid.

[02:41:16] Um, and, and so, uh, you know, you asked for, you know, sort of guidance that would be for me, uh, particularly another piece of guidance is, is making sure that we're not penalizing the people who've never done anything wrong, uh, up to this point, uh, through this ordinance.

[02:41:33] And so making sure that we, that we are protecting them, um, and, and while we're trying to solve this other problem. So thank you. And I'll, I'll turn it over for now. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right. Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[02:41:51] I agree with my colleagues about the penalties that are incurred when people are not or don't know that they're not being compliant with the old ordinance.

[02:42:06] How do we fix that? Because we don't want to run away any kind of business to our county. And I'm not saying specific businesses, but the aim right now, the overall strategic aim right now is to protect our citizens but also grow our economic development platform so that the county is not resting on the citizens to sustain it and i think i think if when we look over the years and where we are and how we've grown to where we are now that's been a problem

[02:42:43] i don't i don't think it's by right i think it's how we've done county business and where we're going to now to improve that. And so we can't make decisions based upon, in a vacuum, based upon what we, only what we don't like. But I think the DCO, AG, their presence and their input is critical because that's one of the things that we had to learn from. We didn't have citizen input.

[02:43:14] But I also think that it's important in that collaboration that we do have industry input. And, Wade, I know you've worked on that as well. And subject matter experts input, you know. And that's how we make the educated vote on how we're going to go forward.

[02:43:32] So I don't think it's buy right, land use, all of that. I think it's how we're trying to grow out of how we've done business in the past and how we collectively as a board come together and make that better. The other thing is we have to do it sensibly, Wade.

[02:43:49] And so I appreciate you bringing this forward and giving us, again, the history of how you've partnered with the community and with the experts. And now you're saying to us, in order for us to make a good, solid decision, let's make sure that we're doing it right.

[02:44:09] And so I think that's a starting point for us, and we need to start there. And that's not a political decision. That's a community decision. That's a business decision. All collective.

[02:44:26] And so, you know, I think that's a real important, Wade, and I certainly depend on you and your collective body to help us with that, but to give us the sensible answers also. Because when I think about this old ordinance that we've had for years, and it's simple, we need to renew it.

[02:44:46] It's very simple. We just need to renew it. And we need to renew it not from old standards, Because that's not where we're living right now, in old standards. But when I think about this, I think about you and I working through a problem with a grocery store that had a whole lot of noise that was disturbing my senior citizens in my community, the same place where I have a buy-right opportunity.

[02:45:14] No secret. And we worked through that. So the question for me, Wade, and I'm asking you, how do we work through that with the same kind of principles with the citizens that we that we collaborated with what's the common sense approach that we use with everyone's input because we can talk about what's wrong and what's right but it's not just a certain sector it's for everybody because we got a lot of different businesses and as i'm sitting here

[02:45:51] i'm listening to the air conditioner right now y'all hear the noise you hear the noise and so things like that needs need to be fixed but it's it's a collective approach it's not a political approach so help me understand the same principle that we use for that noise that in my how do we do that without being political well a couple things i think that the path that we're on right now i think is the right path i think the folks that we have brought on board now we can go back and look at history and say well we should have done this quicker or move this piece here quicker but where

[02:46:28] we're sitting today, we've got the right players in the room as far as the technical side of the ordinance. We've got the experts in there who can get us where we need to be. Now, to your point in terms of businesses, I've been very clear with, and I've had numerous meetings offline with the business community, giving them updates as we'd shared with the board, just letting them know where we're at. And I've repeatedly said, and with Christina Wynn in the room, because obviously economic development, the aim here isn't the restaurant and the business owners. We're looking at 24-7 noise, which really takes a lot of you off the table now.

[02:47:01] Even if you're a restaurant, you're not running all night long at 2 in the morning for the most part. So, and that's why we're doing all the testing that we're doing to make sure that whenever we hone in, even when we craft this the way it is now, the reason I'm saying I still want to go out and do additional testing, even if the results from today come back positive, just to make sure we're fine, because I don't want to recommend something to the county executive that you all adopt, and then all of a sudden we're getting violations left and right. But I think the path we're on is right. I clearly understand two years, the frustration, but you feel like you're right on the goal line. You're right there. It's just be patient and let

[02:47:39] us get across and do it the right way. So that's how I think we get it there. All right, before I go to Supervisor Bodie or anyone else for a second around a question, I want to get the people who haven't spoken yet. So that's Supervisor Franklin, then Angry. Yeah, thank you. I mean, part of this, I do have a couple of questions, but also just want to state we have to be careful what we're asking Wade to do, right?

[02:48:02] Like, he did bring to us an ordinance that essentially members of this board asked for and what the DCOAG pushed for. I have a lot of complaints about this, and Wade knows that we've met plenty of times.

[02:48:20] But so when we say this has gone too far, you need to make sure that you put forth something that we can basically get at a certain industry but not others. That's not going to work very seamlessly.

[02:48:37] Wade has brought back what members of this board and the community have asked for. I just have complaints with how we've gone about it. So, my first question is, on the DCOA membership, what type of entities are on this membership? Let's start there.

[02:48:55] Residents. Okay. From the community. Is that it? Yes. Okay, so. Well, and I'm sorry if I could. So, residents, and we do have one individual that's from the National Park Service. It's not the Park Service. It's the, I'll get you the exact title that he's with.

[02:49:13] Okay. And the draft. What was the basis for this draft? when you say that how did you come up with the draft input from who mainly the consultants consultants the dcoag which is all residents did you talk to the housing community did you talk to jiffy lube did you talk to other entertainment venues did you talk to it looks like you did some readings at some of the hospitals but the point i'm trying to make is it does go further

[02:49:48] than i think what a lot of individuals expected it to do but to the point where now we're telling you to go bring us an ordinance at least from what i've heard from some of my colleagues that doesn't punish everyone but you can't do that because if we're talking about one entity that gets us into legal trouble but the reality is we've only had and maybe i should just ask you this just to be you know uh completely accurate how many complaints about data center noise have

[02:50:25] we had officially and i don't have i mean we're not because we're not tracking it i don't have that number i know the great oak community has been very clear we've been working closely with them yeah um that's one so the one um and then can you just walk through we've identified that there was a real noise issue at the great oak community no one disputes that can you talk about how i guess what has been done to mitigate the noise so far when amazon has done a couple of things they replaced all the fans that were on the top of the buildings and i think they had

[02:51:01] several buildings that were out there replaced i think it was 140 different exhaust fans on the top of the buildings they also changed out i believe some of the louvers and the fans on the side of the building don't know specifically what they did in terms of the noise it was creating when they draw the air into the building so i know those are the two main projects that they had worked on. And have they done readings since changing the equipment? They have. Great Oak's done readings, and they've done some of their readings as well. Has the noise level gone down?

[02:51:28] Well, what I tend to see is I think the numbers have gone down, but I think then what I'll see from time to time when I see the readings that Great Oak will send out is a lot of it may depend on the heat, the humidity. There'll be times that they can't quite understand why it ramped back up.

[02:51:44] Right, right. But they've taken steps. So we've had one complaint from a community. I'm sure we'll come with other complaints now that, you know, now that I've made the statement. I wonder how many emails we'll get. And you brought back an ordinance based on what this board has asked for and also resident feedback in the consultants.

[02:52:06] Look, I've been clear about my concerns about this draft noise ordinance, but I'm not going to blame Wade for it because he did exactly what members of this board asked him to do. So we're essentially putting him in a very difficult position because what some people are saying is go punish the data center industry or go draft some type of legislation to punish the data center industry.

[02:52:29] where we've gotten one particular complaint. And, again, I'm sure we'll get more emails now that I've made that statement. But we're asking him now to do the impossible because there is no way to separate out all of these different entities from updating the noise ordinance.

[02:52:50] Get in queue. I'm going to go to Angry, and then, Vega, get in queue. I'll go to you since you haven't gone. And then I'll go to the people for their second round. So, Supervisor Angry. Three quick questions, Wade, because that's what these five minutes before. You said that you have the next, I guess, expert that's going to come in and do some deep diving, a little bit more deeper testing.

[02:53:15] My only question, I think I asked you this last time in the Neampson District, is will you be or have you tested grocery stores? Have you tested, like, my service authority water, you know, Virginia water? And I won't name the other buildings that have chillers on top of them that are going to be running 24 hours a day, to your point.

[02:53:35] Have y'all tested, though, to see where that sound falls in the decibels that we're trying to get down to? We've tested a number. So, for example, we've done hospitals, very large buildings with large systems. We've done hospitals. We've done schools.

[02:53:51] We've done a number of restaurants. A lot of the restaurants are either Mexican or steakhouses where there's a lot of exhausting of the smoke and so forth. Figuring that would be a little bit louder. We did do the Wegmans at Stonebridge because we have some residential around there, so I was asked to do some testing there as well.

[02:54:12] So we've done a number, and a lot of what the testing has been up to this date is just spot checks throughout the county. If I had to guess now, we're probably up to 30 or 40 different locations that we've checked. As I've met with industry, I've shared with industry, if there are specific places you want me to go. I know Ross Snare reached out and asked about Novant, so I don't want to take up too much of your time.

[02:54:31] Because my only point, as we start getting to the criminal side of this, and the one-offs, because we can say that this won't affect, you know, everyone, but it's going to affect someone outside of what the target clearly is, which is data science, which I got this just a problem with that itself, because we're basically trying to carve out.

[02:54:52] Anyway, I got questions. That's a statement. So let me get on my questions. The second one is, what was wrong with the noise ordinance prior to this? Like, did we really have a problem with the noise ordinance? I'm sorry? Yes. Okay, so we probably should have went at this for HVAC systems if that was it.

[02:55:10] Well, no, we're literally on our next level of this noise ordinance because those levels are so low that I'm pretty sure that's an issue. But, you know, I wish we would have just, if we're going to address something up. Anyway, go ahead, you can answer that.

[02:55:26] Well, I'm sorry, I was just going to say, the problem with the existing noise ordinance being an A-weighted scale, again, one, it doesn't, and I wish I had the previous chart that we showed the difference between A, C, and A-weighted doesn't really pick up at all. When you get low frequencies, you're really narrowing what you're picking up.

[02:55:42] And two, again, you're getting that collective noise. And until you can start parsing this out, like what we're showing with octaves, we weren't getting at the low frequency. That was the problem. So just even to that point, though, I mean, like, were we going to bring this up prior to even the data center piece?

[02:55:59] Like, if the noise chapter, the ordinance, was always an issue, We're hearing now about data centers with it, but I feel like if that was a case with it, then we probably should have been addressing that then, you know, been on this board a long time, and it seems like it just came up because of data centers.

[02:56:20] So just my comment. No, you don't have to respond to that. All right, then we'll go on to Supervisor Vega, who hasn't spoken. Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to start off by thanking the folks that came out to speak and all of the work that has been done up until this point.

[02:56:37] Obviously, it is to nobody's surprise that Great Oak is in my district. And, Wade, I also appreciate your efforts. I know that it hasn't been an easy task. You know, Supervisor Gordy addressed the elephant in the room, but Supervisor Margaret, in some of her comments, is not wrong either. You know, we're trying to find a solution for one community while, again, continuing to do the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, which we all know is a definition of insanity.

[02:57:05] And so there is nothing wrong with trying to learn from past mistakes and make things better. There's nothing wrong with that. We clearly have a problem here because of Great Oak. And I want to thank Dale. Dale, you're not here anymore, but I'm pretty sure you're watching at home. You know, Dale is amazing.

[02:57:22] Everything that he's done and the countless of hours that he's put in. And, you know, my colleague asked, you know, well, have the levels gone down? I've given praises to Amazon because of the efforts when they were moving along and trying to improve because I believe in giving credit where credit is due.

[02:57:38] However, we cannot ignore the fact that people that live in this community continue to hear noise. And I understand the challenges, you know, that the sound expert has presented. I understand the concerns that you have raised. But again, we cannot ignore the fact that the problem continues.

[02:57:56] I will counter and I will argue that I've been in this seat now for over five years. I had never once heard complaints from the Great Oak community until that data center was built. It wasn't the trains. It wasn't the truck traffic. It wasn't anything else because I had never heard from them in terms of noise complaints.

[02:58:14] And they started to complain because this building was built and it was built in a way that it creates an environment that impacts, negatively impacts the quality of life of people. With that being said, I do have concerns with what has been proposed because a blanket approach doesn't fix the issue. I understand the legal constraints that we have because we cannot single out an industry, but I do think that this governing body can collectively come together to try to find some type of agreeable solution where we hold who we know is a perpetrator of

[02:58:50] the conversation accountable but at the same time not penalize the mom and pop businesses in this county because we cannot exclude them we we cannot ignore the fact that i had a conversation you know with folks on the school board and they shared with me concerns that the superintendent raised about this and so i know that supervisor gorety mentioned it but i want to be more specific wait if if if thinking here um you know hypothetically if this this as it stands were to be approved would this exclude schools that's currently not a recommendation and and the

[02:59:27] reasoning behind that the same with a recommendation with me for county facilities is again if we're going to argue the health and well-being whatever's generating the noise is going to impact the health and well-being so again but that that adds to the complexity because to your point then we got to make sure we don't set those levels too low that's going to start impacting right right and so not doing anything it's not an option right and and you kind of led with those comments at the beginning of the presentation that we've been going at this for two plus years if you will um and that you know we're not going to abandon this at this point and not not do anything um you know what that

[03:00:06] doing something is going to look like it's going to come you know um from this dais but i do agree wholeheartedly with you that we have to look at this holistically we have to think about the unintended consequences because we're trying to solve a problem but not thinking that we're going to make and create other problems that are going to be you know bigger to resolve and so i say all of this just to wrap it up and to say madam chair that um i appreciate the work that has been done it seemed like it would be an easy fix we obviously have some you know restraints that prohibit us from going you know full throttle if you will but that i really do hope that what we're

[03:00:46] discussing and what's being said from this day is doesn't just stay here today and that we actually put forth of an effort to really do something meaningful and those supervisors who perhaps don't feel that it's that big of an issue because it's just one community it's one community right now but as that's been stated there are others that are coming and the the main goal of of what i think we're trying to do is to prevent other great oaks from happening in the future thank you Madam Chair. All right. Thank you so very much. I kind of ask this tongue-in-cheek, but I'm just wondering, if I file a noise complaint against my neighbor who's having a party, can the cops pick

[03:01:24] out what's the party and what's the noise? And I keep going back to that because I'm really struggling with that. But I do want to get on to being responsive to the needs of communities. I wholeheartedly agree. I don't want another great oak. And I said what I meant. We need to think about the people who choose to make Prince William County their home. We've got to center our residents. And centering our residents doesn't mean that we're ignoring the needs of others or ignoring the needs of the business community. I know many of us have met with Amazon or Microsoft

[03:02:01] or both. You know, I had a roundtable in my office the other day talking to business leaders and trying to understand from their perspective, you know, what their fears are, what their concerns are what they need to see and i do think that there is work on this ordinance and i am hopeful that we can get there i think that one of the things that we should do i gave everyone a copy of the noise ordinance i think all of us should really read it and have conversations with folks i think we're going to need to at this point the board's going to need to mark this document up we're going to need to based on our own conversations continue to talk to others

[03:02:40] continue to talk to the noise of the business community as well as the dcoeg who have been living this who have been putting so much into this they are volunteers we have to keep in mind that these are volunteers and they're doing an incredible job of trying to keep us focused on trying to bring the concerns that they have to bring in front of us i would like to see again for us to do a markup i don't know what that looks like it might be something that we all do individually or we have conversations and we come back but we're going to need to put more into this

[03:03:16] if we're going to keep this on track if we're looking at the fall i think that we are going to as a board need to become more involved in this process and help make sure that it is moving forward but again making sure that we take that we take other industries into consideration and by that i'm not saying we're letting anyone off the hook but what i've heard from people in the business community what i've heard on this day is i've heard concerns about unintended consequences And I've also heard some things from some businesses that didn't seem quite right.

[03:03:48] I think there's a lot of misinformation out there. And we have to be honest, you know, we have an ordinance in place today. It is broken because it's not up to date. 30 years is a very long time. We have new things that we have to look at.

[03:04:05] Data center noise is a real issue. It may not impact everyone in their individual communities, but it's an issue. And it's going to continue to be an issue. As my colleague, Supervisor Gordy, said, as long as we keep building data centers next to residents, next to schools, this is going to be an issue.

[03:04:25] We have a lot of things under construction right now that haven't gone online. They're not fully operational. So we've got to be mindful of that. Every time we take a vote to approve a data center next to a home, a school, or another place where they just don't belong, we're going to have this problem.

[03:04:43] I don't want another Great Oak. I really don't. So, yes, we're taking care of a symptom. We're not addressing the cure. Not everyone wants to really address the cure. Not everyone wants to address that issue. I do believe that if we don't want to sit up here and continue to have this conversation, we're going to have to think about how we vote on some of these projects that are coming before us.

[03:05:04] That's the real test. Getting this noise ordinance right, this is the least that we can do. This is the very least that we can do. Supervisor Bode. Thank you, Madam Chair. I hate to veer off into a detour for a second, but I was looking through the draft.

[03:05:24] Wade, can you talk a little bit about vehicle noise as it pertains to the changes in the draft? We haven't done anything with vehicle noise. I was just looking because it's marked red in the draft that we're given, so I just wanted to make sure that there's no changes there. No change. Okay. That said, just to put a bow on a couple of my final questions.

[03:05:44] So we're looking to upgrade, or I don't know the exact terminology, but to change the penalty from Class 2 to Class 1 or from Class 1 to Class 2. Well, and again, that's been some of the challenge with the ordinances we've kind of worked through and some of the misinformation in industry is because it's such a working document.

[03:06:07] We haven't all agreed on the levels or on, in the case to what you're just asking, right now it's Class 2. The DCOAG had recommended class one because they really want these penalties to mean something. Now, from staff, we've not recommended anything to the county execs, so we're just taking information in.

[03:06:23] But then that just kind of lingers out there and industry hears and there's nothing firm because we just haven't gotten to that final point. So the DCOAG had recommended a class one, and as staff, we're not at a point yet to recommend. Appreciate that. And two, to piggyback off of that, talk to me a little bit.

[03:06:42] and I know we talked about this before, but I just wanted to have this be a holistic conversation, staff capacity and who's going to be the enforcing agency around that particular issue in terms of enforcement. As we've worked on it up to this point, and we do have a representative from the police department that's been a part of this team the whole time, is the police, because it's criminal, they will have to be there when we actually take that final reading.

[03:07:05] The thinking is workload-wise, when a call comes in, since we don't know if it's a violation, public works and their inspectors will be trained up, be certified. They would go out and do the initial reading. So if it's a non-violation, police won't even get involved. They'll just let the constituent know whoever called, it's not a complaint. If it is a violation, because it's continuous, you could show up the very next day and you should get the same reading. They'll coordinate with the police officer to have them there with them when they take the reading. So they're standing side by side and then the police can issue the summons. Sure. But to go to something you said earlier there have been times where same spot same place depending on humidity heat what

[03:07:43] have you there has been a different reading right so if initially that public works uh employee goes out has a reading that is a violation let's say next day or a couple days later whenever they're finally able to come out with the police officer for whatever reason it's not a violation anymore then it doesn't go anywhere right right and our thinking is if we're on the margins because again as tight as we're driving this down, my thought is, and for a recommendation to the county exec is, if we're on the margins like that, then that would be fine. So if we go out the next time and it's, you know, it was right on the bubble, it's 60.1 at night, and next time it's 59 and a

[03:08:19] half, then I think rightfully we hold off. We wouldn't do anything if we're that close. Because again, we want to be certain when we walk in on the enforcement side. Okay. I appreciate it. Then I'll just close, Madam Chair. This is all my questions, just comments very quickly. I just want to highlight and echo a lot of what my colleagues have said on a lot of the sides of this argument. Ultimately, we are here right now because there's concerns around a particular industry and the noise that's come out of that. However, to a point that was raised earlier, I mean, I've been talking for years about vehicle noise and how we've gone back and forth the General Assembly on our ability to enforce that. So there are other noise concerns out in the

[03:08:56] community beyond data centers that, frankly, we just haven't had the ability to regulate too much more than we already have but right now what's in vogue with a lot of people who are looking at this is the data center noise so I would just say that one like was said by one of my colleagues before we have to be very careful about what we're asking for you all to do because ultimately we cannot target a single industry out of this even though it's a single industry that caused a lot of the community concern around this um number two I just want us to be very careful about again as was said before unintended consequences we have a wide variety different types of facilities in this

[03:09:31] this county public private non-profit what have you and while i appreciate all the testing you've done thus far uh weighed and all the things all the deliberation you've had on this with folks we're a big county and what i don't want to have happen as my colleagues have said we institute some that sometime down the road we hit someone that was collateral damage and us trying to protect the safety of our residents when that wasn't the intended effect so i just want us to be very careful i agree with madam chair there's more work that needs to be done um and i think that we still have a lot of work to do even though i know it's frustrating with folks that want to see

[03:10:07] uh results that has to be done carefully in close consideration with all the stakeholders that have been involved that need to be involved uh moving forward thank you madam chair supervisor we're thank you madam chair wade madam chair rest of the board i think i've gone from frustrated to quite frankly offended the ordinance may go further than some of your expectations well let me tell you something it goes just far enough and maybe not far enough for others of us particularly those of us who represent the districts largely saddled with a vast majority

[03:10:43] of the problem makers noise is not a political issue or it shouldn't be unless it's going to impact your campaign contributions this is a real issue a quality of life issue a health issue and one that's going to grow in this county great oaks is the outlier right now they are the best example we have, but I got a newsflash for you. Great Oaks will be the least of our concerns when some of these other projects come online. Village Place is built, not energized. It's much closer.

[03:11:24] Four buildings in the rocks distance of a condo complex. Talk to the people on Linton Hall and Devlin dealing with the Hunter property and the Devlin applications. 15, 20 data centers right on their property line cumulative noise i wish my i mean i'll give all the luck to the four or wish my best to the four seasons people it's coming your way it's our fault and by that i mean the

[03:12:01] board this board the past board the one before that this is a problem created by the board this is what happens when you put and rezone a one or residential property to industrial right next to residential lot. Wade, if these were PMD or PBD or OF, all of which are eligible for data center usage, the noise violation as a civil penalty would be applicable, correct? But because we couldn't do that, we had to give them industrial zoning so they could get their extra feet.

[03:12:40] It makes it hard to prosecute because you have to prosecute criminally, correct? Because they're exempt from the criminal. You want to talk unintended circumstances, unintended consequences, you're looking at them and there's nobody out there to blame and wade can't be blamed this is our fault a lot of it's something that we inherited but it's still our fault and it's incumbent on us to fix it we may not like where we're at we may not like how we got there but we've got to fix it

[03:13:18] because if you think the great oak people are the only ones who are going to be complaining you wait till some of these other ones get energized they're building the ones at hunter right now there's an application in for another one across the street from chris young it's going to be surrounded on three and a half sides. I'll get off my soapbox on that. Wade, are we able to, with respect to schools, since we exempt every other bloody thing that we do, I think we can

[03:13:54] exempt public facilities from the fan noise and that sort of thing? Wouldn't look good, but we can do it? Or is that a better question for the county attorney? Madam Chair, members of the board, the board's authority to regulate noise comes from your general police powers. To promote the health, safety, and general welfare of your inhabitants. And currently in your noise ordinance, the declaration says to protect citizens against excessive noise, which is detrimental to life, health, and enjoyment of the property, to promote the public health, safety, and welfare. And just

[03:14:31] by way of explanation of how we got here, almost everyone's noise ordinance used to have a reasonable person standard, saying if it offends a reasonable person. And the Virginia Supreme Court held that that was unconstitutionally vague. So everyone struck that. In 2011, Prince William County updated their ordinance in response to the Tanner case. So Prince William County did look at it in 2011. The Virginia General Assembly, because everyone was now concerned with proper standards proving beyond a reasonable doubt in a criminal case, the General Assembly in 2010, after Tanner,

[03:15:10] gave the authority to say you can do a civil except for businesses being performed on industrial property. Still has to be criminal to do that. So whatever standard the Board of County Supervisors implements by way of noise ordinance, that's not the end of it. You then have to have the law enforcement officer out there. The Code of Virginia gives the law enforcement officer a presumption. If they are the ones taking a reading on equipment that has been approved by the state they have a prima facie case if it's public works doing it you don't have that so you

[03:15:46] then need the commonwealth attorney to prosecute that to accept it move forward not in all process move forward you then need the court to find the violation so whatever standard the board sets you still need the commonwealth attorney to prosecute it and the court to uphold it and if the whole purpose is under the board's police powers to protect the general health safety and welfare if noise is so bad that it is hurting the health safety and welfare it doesn't matter where it's coming from the more exceptions you put in whether you're able to do it or not the more it waters

[03:16:23] down your enforcement ability to do so and either the noise at a certain level is harmful or it's not so the more exceptions you put in the more you've watered down your your ordinance the more that the defendant will be able to probably successfully claim should not be held criminally liable for this. Supervisor Gordy. Thank you, Madam Chair. So just to piggyback on that, so in the draft, we talk about exemptions. It says operation of a public facility or a public use

[03:17:02] including, but not limited to any sound which would not be an exempt sound if it was produced by the operation of a non-public facility or non-public use. How would you see that? We were not provided this latest draft until today by the chair.

[03:17:19] And so I have not read it, have not had a chance to look at it. And I would recommend that staff discuss this, not only with the police department, but with the Commonwealth Attorney's Office. The Commonwealth is going to be the one prosecuting this. And if you have so many exemptions that it waters it down, then the Commonwealth Attorney may not prosecute those charges that are brought.

[03:17:38] So we'll take a look at this. And I know that Wade will work with the police department and talk to the Commonwealth Attorney. take into consideration their concerns on it. So there will need to be education of the Commonwealth's office and then of the courts. But we haven't had a chance to look at it.

[03:17:54] The chair just provided this to us today. Okay. Thank you, Madam County Attorney. You know, I appreciate the comments of my colleagues, and I go back to just reiterate what Supervisor Weir just said. We only have one-tenth of data centers operating that have already been approved.

[03:18:11] We're going to do this nine more times, nine more times, 100 million square feet. And again, those data centers surround residential communities, surround them. So we have to find a way to protect those communities.

[03:18:30] And that's why this is important. Yes, they are the canary in the coal mine. So we've got to make sure that, yes, we've got an issue. And again, I'm not just picking on data centers. I don't want any industrial development near our residential communities.

[03:18:48] I don't want asphalt plants. I don't want cement plants. I don't want, you know, we've got people trying to put rock crushing around residential communities. No, this is not the place for those types of activities.

[03:19:04] And so, but I think, you know, and to go back to the issue of by right, when you have by right, we can't impose any types of requirements like what we've done with some of those that have actually, who can do by right but have actually came in with proffer amendments, we actually get them to adhere to stricter noise standards.

[03:19:26] But if they don't come in, and we have quite a few of those, they're just free to do whatever they want with no protections for the community. So that's why this becomes more important, is to protect when those things are just built, when we can speak into it.

[03:19:43] And that's why I've voted for proffers around neighborhoods, because we were able to get stronger noise ordinance or noise adherence for those communities in the proffers. But now that if we get this, we can protect those communities, give them an opportunity to protect their families and their quality of life and their health and welfare.

[03:20:08] And so while I know this is not part of the ordinance, What I would suggest, given the fact that we still have quite a few applicate or data centers in industrial development that's already been approved before this became an issue, and that will be built around that maybe we do some testing ahead of time.

[03:20:30] Find out what the baseline noise is today before that construction goes on. Because if Great Oak had a baseline testing beforehand, we could have said, okay, we understand what the noise is from the roads. But now this gives us that opportunity to lay out that baseline and know what we've actually done to these communities.

[03:20:51] Again, I appreciate all the work that's been done, Wade, and by the DCOEG. And when we talk about the fall being, do you have a target? Is it September? Is it October? What in your mind is sort of the time frame here that we would be looking at you bringing this back to us?

[03:21:09] October time frame. October time frame. October. Okay. And largely the thinking there is it really depends, as I said, there's crossroads. Is it going to be as simple as this new testing that we're doing works? Or do we got to go to plan B and kind of go down a different path and that's going to take a little bit more time to flush out? Okay. All right. That's all I have. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[03:21:31] Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. Supervisor Gordy. I agree with you what you just said. I think we need to do this kind of thing. That's how we got here. We didn't do this kind of thing before data centers got in our neighborhoods.

[03:21:52] We didn't do this kind of thing. And I think acknowledging that and going forward with something like this is so important. But we have to, as Madam Chair would say, Madam Chair would say earlier, we have to name it.

[03:22:10] And what we're doing right now is we're naming it. That we didn't do this work prior to us putting on in our economic development marketing stream data centers. We didn't do this when they first came in the 90s or whenever it was. So now I just think that this is a good place to be, but I don't want us to make it so complicated that we lose our momentum and how we're moving forward with any industry, not just data centers. I know that's our thought. And I, you know, when you talk about putting them next to schools and next to

[03:22:45] homes, that's what we learned. We learned that, but we didn't have any objections to that because we didn't know to have objections to that when they came to the community we didn't know that because we didn't have the dcoj to to to sit and talk with us we we didn't know to do that so i think this is a good place to be but we just don't need to i just said to bob why we're making it so hard you know but we got to get it done and wait i i certainly and bob the other thing i agree with

[03:23:16] again Bob oh my god you know we got it's on our watch no matter when it started it's on our watch that's why I don't want us to politicize it because it's on our watch we got to work through it but we don't have to work through it in a hard kind of way we got to work through it with the community we got to work through it with UA we apologize for this falling in your lap but you are a soldier for carrying it you really are and I appreciate that I know the board appreciates that So that's all I got, Madam Chair.

[03:23:49] Thank you. All right. I'm going to just close this out. It looks like, you know what, Yesli, I guess we didn't need to waive the procedures almost. So here's what I'm going to say. I don't think that this is going to be that hard. The question we have to ask ourselves, really, as we work through this, is who pays the price?

[03:24:07] If we cannot effectively regulate noise, who's paid the price? It's our communities. What I would hope to happen, I'm looking at the next steps. Obviously, there is going to be more discussions and more work to be done. county attorney suggested staff meeting with the um with our commonwealth attorney i would if that is feasible perhaps we can have a closed session briefing on those or i mean again no with that we'll talk about that um because i want to get additional information about what is enforceable what is non-enforceable you know there's still work to be done i think we can do it and more

[03:24:45] importantly we have to do it i mean that's the end result we have to do it it has to be done So thank you very much, Wayne, and your team. Thank you to the DCOAG and the members in particular who came out today to speak. Did you have anything else? Yeah, just, Madam Chair, a quick comment.

[03:25:04] So I wanted to circle back one of the questions, Supervisor Gordier's statements, just to make sure I'm clear, too, is on siting and how important where data centers go. So I did want to just remind the board that, one, we have under the Stantec report, we'll be coming back with those nine properties to pull out of the overlay.

[03:25:20] Two, we have an item that's coming forward to request some funding to look at the overlay as a whole. That was a directive we had from the board. And in three, we do have mostly architects that's on board looking at zoning. So we've got things working to move forward to where we're actually siting data centers.

[03:25:37] So I just wanted to make sure I made that point that that's moving forward as well. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. We are going on to agenda item number seven. That is supervisor's time. I am going to start with Supervisor Bailey.

[03:25:54] Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon, everyone. It is almost evening. It's evening. On the 5th, on my anniversary, happy anniversary, honey, I spent my afternoon with Mayor Wood for his State of the Town Address.

[03:26:13] It was fantastic, and congratulations to him for all the hard work that he's doing in the Dumfries Township and making it a place to go to but not to go through. Also on the 5th, my staff had the opportunity of representing me for the Virginia Coalition of High-Growth Communities, which is what we always talk about here on the board.

[03:26:34] How do we get to growing the community to serve the community? And so that resource that we have is very, very critical. Then on the 6th, we had a wonderful opportunity as a staff to participate in the Grand Eid All Ad Ha Celebration for Eid Prayer.

[03:26:55] And so to my Muslim brothers and sisters, we are community, and we always honor your faith. On the 6th, there was a wonderful, and I don't want to steal your thunder, but it's Tom. Yeah, wonderful ribbon cutting that Tom allowed me to participate with him, and I thank you for that.

[03:27:15] Congratulations to you for malarkey. So that's all I'm going to say about that. It was wonderful. On the 7th, I had the opportunity to attend the Alpha Kappa Alpha Pearls Chartering here in our community, and that is one of our local non-for-profit sororities that serves our community across the country, of which I'm a wonderful member of, and they establish a chapter in your district, Bob, in the Gainesville area.

[03:27:44] And so thank you for partnering with them. They talked about you, Bob, how you partner with them. And for upcoming events, on the 14th, there will be the Tavern Night at the Williams Ordinary, which we are creating a wonderful environment at the Williams Ordinary with an art museum there.

[03:28:06] And the Williams Ordinary is going to be a part of the growth in the Dumfries Township. And then on the 19th, we will be celebrating Juneteenth, and I am looking forward to participating in the Chris William County Juneteenth and ME Festival, which will honor our African American black history and engage in conversations past and present about the racial inequalities that will happen in the past.

[03:28:35] we're working on to make it a better and brighter future of equality and inclusion. So I'm excited about that. June 14th, of course, is Flag Day. We will be celebrating that. And to all the wonderful daddies that's on the dais, happy Father's Day to you, your great dads.

[03:28:53] I heard from the kids and to my husband, happy Father's Day. And just have a good weekend. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Supervisor Vega. I have nothing, Madam Chair. All right, then, Supervisor Angry. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[03:29:09] I'll be real brief and quick. First of all, I want to thank my colleague here, Supervisor Bodie. We held that sweet spire town hall. I wasn't able to make it. I had an emergency. My staff kind of took that with you. So thank you for leading that on. I want to thank Dara Elnor for, you know, allowing the county to host EAD over at the county comp or the Fitzgerald Stadium.

[03:29:35] Now, I know there were some traffic concerns that day because we were doing some beat-out road paving, and it was a lot going on. But from what I hear, everything went off without a hitch. There were three services. I attended the 730 with my colleague, Supervisor Bailey.

[03:29:51] Who else? I don't know. But anyway, we got to have some conversations. And so it was a great event. I think everything went off without a hitch. Just two quick events. First, again, the Juneteenth. That whole event is going to end with a fireworks display, similar to what we used to do when we had the PNAS here.

[03:30:08] So I would say that if you're around, come on out there and enjoy the fireworks. It's going to be a night and a day to remember. And then lastly, on June 12th, actually, let me back up here. So Flag Day is June 14th. If you have any old flags that are tattered, please either bring them to my office, to somebody's office.

[03:30:27] We're going to be going out to the Public Safety Academy that's right there in Noakesville. They're going to do a flag-burning ceremony. So if you've ever seen that, it's the only way you're supposed to dispose of a flag. So if you have one, bring them by. We can get them out there or just come on out, watch that ceremony.

[03:30:44] So that's going to be hosted by the VFW Post 1503. So I just want to put that out there. Then, lastly, July 12th, actually, we're going to do a Courts District Community Update. I hope that date is right. So it's going to be over here at Development Services Building Conference Room 107-108.

[03:31:03] uh 107 a and 107 b and that'll be at 10 a.m manager that is all thank you supervisor gordy thank you madam chair um uh last week was a great week in brittsville um we started with uh the the opening of the live golf tournament uh at rtj appreciate all the great work and support that was provided by the community you know to a lot of the volunteers uh that support that event come from all over the country and so many people were very complimentary how beautiful our county is

[03:31:41] how much they enjoyed being here so I really want to thank the community for the hospitality and for all the great work thank Jiffy Lube for allowing all the parking to take place over there to keep the the traffic away from the community and the neighborhoods over there and so but everything went very well appreciate everyone's support on that and including our police force and our sheriff's department that supported that uh and then on friday uh we did cut the ribbon at malarkey and i want to congratulate the murray's the larkins and the kelly family uh for um for all the

[03:32:18] just the investment that they've made in prince william county and just look forward to uh their success in seeing um how they're able to just continue to grow uh and and uh in and just be a great community partner um and then on saturday i was joined uh with us by supervisor weir at the opening of the goodwill uh at somerset crossing uh there were over a hundred people standing in line to get in there it was amazed in the rain uh on saturday morning they ran out of shopping carts uh it was amazing um so congratulations to them and then was able to go and tour the urban air

[03:32:57] next door that also just recently opened an entertainment facility for our families. So just a great week last week. On another note, we had a devastating fire on a home in Noakesville this past Thursday night. My wife was saying, what's going on? Sirens going on all day. I thought it was a training evolution over at the training center. So I drove over there and found out, no, it was an actual real fire and it was very devastating. But while I was there, I met firemen

[03:33:34] from Manassas Park and from Clifton who had come out to give our fire department a hand in fighting that fire. So I really want to thank them for being partners and supporting that effort. I also want to just offer our prayers for the police officers that were injured yesterday on 995.

[03:33:55] Just let you know we are thinking about you. Thank you for, just thank all of our policemen for what they do every day to keep us safe, and for those that are out on patrol on the street, so we know that it can always be a very dangerous situation, and we certainly saw that yesterday, so certainly want to keep them lifted up in prayer. I also want to wish all my fellow dads up here a happy father's day as well of all of our dads in the community and happy 250th to the

[03:34:25] army thank you madam chair supervisor franklin sure thank you for that uh supervisor gordy and um to that i think our we have four officers that actually left the hospital today so that's pretty good um so thank you to our police department for the work that they do i just want to announce a couple of things. I toured AWS facility and had a briefing alongside Chair Jefferson. I believe that was Thursday or Friday, on Thursday. And then also I attended that same

[03:35:02] day and leading into Friday, the Virginia Coalition of High Growth Community Summer Conference in Williamsburg, Virginia. And so it was with several other counties that have the same level of growth or heading in the same direction that we are. Talked a lot about a number of different issues including transportation, the impact of federal cuts on our local communities and how state agencies and state government can be of service and help. And then on that Friday I attended a ribbon cutting for Malarkey as mentioned. They are really building up a nice

[03:35:39] site over there with malarkey, got proof, got two silos, black sheep. And then it's my understanding in December, the hotel will be opening. And so we'll be looking forward to all of that coming together. This upcoming Monday on June 16th, I will be hosting a joint open house with Delegate Roja Henson, Senator Jennifer Carroll Foy from 6 to 730 at my office located at 2701 Neabsco commonplace suite 150 and we'll have representatives from several county and state agencies to provide

[03:36:15] information on uh state and local government services uh and with that i believe that is it thank you all right supervisor bodie thank you madam chair um just a few quick things as sures angry mentioned last week uh we had a um a town hall with the folks across the street for the sweet spire application wanted to thank all the residents that came out to continue the conversation about that project um also had a little mini meeting with some folks in the occoquan forest part of my district about one of those random i don't know i don't think the technical term is

[03:36:53] orphan but one of those roads where you have a lot of v-dot controlled roads and maintained roads roads all around it and then you have this little branch of a road that's not maintained by anyone which is a problem um so i know that yeah right so i know that a lot of us sort of deal with that in mid-county in the western part of the of the county where we have you know these sort of streams of v-dot roads and then suddenly there's a little branch off that isn't controlled or maintained by anyone and they they encounter uh wastewater issues stormwater runoff issues erosion potholes things like that when you have a neighborhood of like 12 or 10 houses they don't really are

[03:37:32] generally able to get the funds to sort of deal with those issues so um was happy to have that conversation but still something we need to think about as we continue on um had our dumpster day this past saturday wanted to thank all the folks that came out for that i know that the weather as it's been sort of scared away from some folks from the first half of dumpster day but we had a good showing near the end um brief anecdote there one of the um residents and constituents that we had who came actually I count maybe six or seven times back to the same site um unfortunately her her brother-in-law had passed away earlier that week and so it was an opportunity frankly

[03:38:10] immediately to sort of begin the emotional work of sort of going through all that loved one's uh belongings and sort of working through that so although these dumpster days are sort of something that we always talk about as a good community service there are other ways that people approach that and um you know we shared that story with one of the litter crew folks and it really spoke to him as something that doesn't always get talked about in all the work that you do so on that note want to thank the litter crew for continuing to work with us on dumpster days also be thrifty for coming out um for our dumpster day as well because we have folks that want to donate things alongside throwing things out and we got a pretty good haul for the be thrifty folks there was some yard work

[03:38:48] equipment that got donated um some furniture that got donated um and and some other small appliances as well so looking forward for our next dumpster day which i believe is going to be in october yeah october 4th we're still trying to nail down a date um so we're gonna have the the the the later crew there be thrifty there and hopefully this time the shred truck the shred truck continues to be something that that gets requested quite often so i wanted to talk about that um and we just wanted to thank everyone for the continued support and to all the dads this coming weekend and happy Father's Day.

[03:39:25] Thank you, Madam Chair. Supervisor Weir. Thank you, Madam Chair. Only one thing's gone unmentioned. This is National Bourbon Week, and Saturday the 14th is National Bourbon Day. Salute, Prost, and L'Haim. Dear Lord, I thought we got all the milestones on my social media calendar, but I missed one.

[03:39:50] Or perhaps not. But anyways, I just want to say to everyone, first of all, I appreciate our conversations today, particularly around the noise ordinance. you know, we really didn't take up that much time. But this sits on me. This sits on me. I mean, the question we have to ask is who do we serve? And I know, I mean, who do we serve? Do we serve the entire county? Do we serve only the people who vote for us? Who do we serve? I really want to hammer that home because as we think of some of these more contentious topics where we all don't agree, I want us to think about who do we serve? Do we serve the people who elected us? Do we serve

[03:40:28] all the people who are impacted by our decisions? Because in my mind, we serve all the people who impacted by our decisions and i want to keep that at the forefront as we move forward we serve all the people who are impacted by our decisions and we have a lot of tough choices to make and they're only going to get harder but i do appreciate the discussion i appreciate that we were able to keep it civil i know that there are a few people with strong passionate emotions but who do we serve that's one thing that i always think about before each of these meetings who do i serve with that

[03:41:02] move to return second let's take a vote i'm looking around everyone's screen to make sure the hit yes. Thank you everyone. We are out.

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