Coraggio Consulting
Prince William Board of County Supervisors Meeting, Tuesday, January 20, 2026

Date: Tuesday, January 20, 2026
Place: Prince William County Board of County Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 3h 7m (video)
Official meeting video (Prince William County, Granicus): https://pwcgov.granicus.com/player/clip/3771
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 2026-10-28. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:08] All right, it is two o'clock on Tuesday, January 20th. Let us begin with a moment of silence.

[00:00:28] All right, thank you. All rise if you are able for the Pledge of Allegiance. To the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[00:00:48] All right, I'm going to let people still take some time to find a seat. Rabbi, if you want to come up front. so before we actually get into the approval of the minutes um the seven o'clock meeting we had the vent hill substation scheduled dominion has decided to defer that um so with that we the board has spoken um about canceling the seven o'clock meeting that's something we're going to take a formal action on so i would like to entertain a motion to cancel the seven o'clock

[00:01:23] meeting so moved second it's been properly moved and seconded it's been moved twice and seconded um so you know gordy bailey um and so with that let's go ahead and take a vote all right thank you so very much now we are going to move on to agenda item number three and that is approval of the minutes can i get a motion for 3a so moved Second.

[00:02:01] It's been properly moved and seconded. All right, let's go ahead and take that vote. Vote unanimous.

[00:02:19] All right, we are now moving on to agenda item number four, and that's accommodations and proclamations. Can I get a motion for 4A to 4C? So move, Madam Chair. Second. That has also been properly moved and seconded. Let's go ahead and take our vote. Vote unanimous.

[00:02:43] Thank you so very much. Those associated with 4A, and that's Human Tracking Awareness Month, if you can meet me down at the podium. Thank you.

[00:03:01] All right, this is for 4A, a resolution to proclaim January 2026 as Human Trafficking Awareness Month.

[00:03:34] The Prince William Board of County Supervisors is committed to promoting public safety, protecting vulnerable populations, and supporting coordinated efforts to prevent and respond to trafficking in all its forms. The Greater Prince William County Human Trafficking Task Force, comprised of local government agencies, law enforcement, community organizations, service providers, and advocates, Works collaboratively to identify victims, coordinate crisis response, expand education and outreach, and strengthen community-wide prevention strategies.

[00:04:06] The Office of Community Safety Chairs and Supports the Ongoing Coordinated Community Efforts of the Task Force and its partners is part of Prince William County's broader commitment to public safety, survivor-centered practices, and multidisciplinary collaboration.

[00:04:22] The Prince William Board of County Supervisors encourages all residents, community partners, and local organizations to increase awareness, promote safety, support survivors, and advance efforts to eradicate human traffic in Prince William County. Therefore, today, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby recognizes January 2026 as Human Trafficking Awareness Month in Prince William County and commends the Greater Prince William County Human Trafficking Task Force for its dedicated work in prevention, intervention, and community engagement.

[00:04:56] Would you like to offer us a few words? Madam Chair and members of the board, my name is Jennifer Kuyumjian. I am the Gang Response Intervention Team Coordinator, and I work with the Office of Community Safety and I'm here on behalf of my co-worker Rachel Taylor today who could not be here. Thank you for taking the time to honor the work being done here in Prince William County in honor of Human Trafficking Awareness Month. The Office of Community Safety would like to honor our partners with the Greater Prince William Human Trafficking Task Force and the multidisciplinary team to include our local government agencies, Prince William County Public Schools, law

[00:05:32] enforcement, community organizations, service providers, and advocates who have worked to strengthen our community collaboration and support for survivor-centered practices here in Prince William County. We do have all of our team members or some of our team members here today as you can see and Prince William County also has a multi-disciplinary team through an interagency agreement here which is comprised of more than 10 agencies which works collaboratively to identify our survivors to provide victim-centered crisis response. The team has also been very collaborative with the Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Collaborative and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Task Force.

[00:06:10] And even as recently as this week, they were able to mobilize these networks to help provide services for survivors that were recently identified. So lastly, on January 29th, we will be hosting a human trafficking symposium here in Prince William County.

[00:06:26] Thank you for honoring the work being done and the continued support to combat human trafficking in our county and region. Thank you. So, we're going to take a picture.

[00:06:45] You know if you're tall, okay? You know if you're tall, so we're going to need a couple of robes. Come on over here. You know you're not tall.

[00:06:59] I forgot.

[00:07:44] Biggest one of proclamations. That would be so good if we forget. Thank you. You're welcome. We're going to move on to Form B, that's Proclaim, I'm sorry, February 6th, School Crossing Guard Appreciation Day.

[00:08:02] With everyone associated with that proclamation, please come on down. Prince William County has professional school crossing guards, a highly qualified men and women who, by temperament and training, are fully prepared to meet the challenges of protecting our school children

[00:08:39] and training them in pedestrian safety. During the school year, ensuring student pedestrian safety is the primary mission of our 68 school crossing guards working 71 crossings at 47 schools in prince william county every day prince william county residents are encouraged to make a special effort to let the school crossing guards know that they are appreciated these are the people who are in the street protecting our children every school day therefore today the prince william board of county supervisor hereby proclaims

[00:09:14] february 6 2026 a school crossing guard appreciation day in prince william county and i will say Speaking as a mom who's, you know, now 18-year-old, was once a school safety patrol. I really love the work that you guys have done with bringing kids in and teaching them safety.

[00:09:31] So thank you. Who wants to speak on your behalf? Madam Chair, members of the board, thank you for taking this opportunity to show appreciation for our school crossing guards. Many may not have realized our crossing guard even has a lean-through history in the police department itself, being founded back under the Sheriff's Department in 1964, at that time with just four guards.

[00:09:53] Those numbers have grown significantly since then, and we've heard from the proclamation the number of schools, crossings, and students these guards are responsible for. These guards place themselves in danger every school day to protect our county's children in all types of weather and with all types of driver and pedestrian behaviors. It's a sign of their dedication and professionalism when they keep showing up every day, and we hear that not a single death or serious injury of a child has occurred in their entire 61-year history.

[00:10:17] That's truly amazing, and again, thank you for taking the time to show your appreciation.

[00:10:53] Rabbi Shmuley and everyone associated with Holocaust Remembrance Day, if you can come to the front,

[00:11:32] foresees a resolution to proclaim January 27, 2026 as Holocaust Remembrance Day. Tuesday, January 27, 2026 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking the 81st anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

[00:11:52] This is a day of remembrance for the 60 million Jews and millions of others who were murdered by Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945. We should always remember the millions of men, William, and children who were killed simply because of their ethnicity, heritage, and beliefs.

[00:12:09] On this anniversary, Prince William County, as a diverse and welcoming community, recommits itself to combating the global rise in anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitic attacks are hate crimes, and we must do all we can to ensure that the atrocities of the Holocaust are never repeated therefore today the prince william board of county supervisors hereby proclaims tuesday january 27 2026 is holocaust remembrance day in prince william county and commits to honoring the memories of those killed during the holocaust and rejecting and condemning acts of anti-semitism rabbi schmule would you like to say a few words

[00:12:48] so first of all thank you chair and i know um supervisor vega was very instrumental in this getting this done last year and everyone on the board. This January, January 3rd, Eva Schluss, one of the more well-known Holocaust survivors, passed away. For those who are unfamiliar, Eva Schluss was, after the war, her mother married Otto Frank and was, after death, the stepsister to Anne Frank. And she dedicated her life to share her story, the story of Anne

[00:13:23] Frank and as well as of her siblings. I had the great honor to participate twice in having Eva Schloss speak to the communities when I was in Tennessee and Knoxville and also here in Northern Virginia. She came to Fairfax a couple years back and she spoke. And one of the many things that she spoke about, or shall I just say her passing, reminds me first of a song which I always grew up with as a child, written by A.B. Rottenberg, called Memories, which is lamenting on what will be with the memory of the holocaust when the last survivor of the holocaust passes on and it doesn't

[00:13:58] end on a very positive note recently he's written another song dedicated to honoring holocaust survivors which is called rising from the ashes and it speaks about the generation that survived the holocaust and how they built families and they built communities and how the memory of the holocaust will live in our collective conscious and eva schluss when she spoke she spoke a lot also she mentioned about her brother who wrote her and her father while they were in hiding they made many drawings and artwork and I think there's books you can see it on display or find it online

[00:14:34] but what's noticeable about the art you see it go from colorful bright artwork from before the war to the dark and almost all the pictures have this little black around it because they didn't see any sunlight for years. And as a Jewish community over these, unfortunately, over these past few years, I've met people which, because of the rise in the conversation event and things that are being said in society today, unfortunately, we've had the Bandit massacre that happened just

[00:15:08] recently. There are Jews that are feeling a little bit of that box again, which they're part of society, but feel that their Jewish identity or their connection or the Jewish historical connection to the land of Israel, something we have to be quiet about for some odd reason. And it's scary to think that those paintings may not be vividly what's going on, but it's what people are experiencing. So on Holocaust Remembrance Day, I think it's important for us to focus not on the memories that are being lost, but on the collective conscious that we carry and the building that we do for it. And this week, in the Torah portion these past few weeks,

[00:15:46] We're in the book of Exodus, and it starts with the first known case of anti-Semitism, of global anti-Semitism to an extent, which Pharaoh begins with fear. He says there's a minority amongst us that's going to come for our jobs, that's going to come for our lives, and we've got to get rid of them. And we see that, unfortunately, today in so many different areas.

[00:16:05] Fear is something which gets the masses going and could easily sway people. It unfortunately calls to not the positive attributes that we have. And it can cause us to react very quickly in ways which we don't even realize.

[00:16:23] So on Holocaust Remembrance, aside for anti-Semitism, but I think for everyone on our board, in our county, and everyone in this room, what I would say is the best thing we could do to remember the Holocaust is first and foremost, don't allow fear to dictate how we react. While fear is going to be something which sells newspapers and sometimes is great for campaigns, it shouldn't be what dictates our decision-making.

[00:16:47] And it shouldn't be the way we look at each other. So the first thing is don't allow fear to create and also don't allow fear to allow us to react. And I know myself and our community, we're dedicated and we're committed to continue being proudly, strongly who we are. And for judging on what our society is like based off comments on social media, go out there, meet with people, talk with people.

[00:17:10] Let's be engaged. Let's find that human connection and humanity. I say all the time, the Jewish people didn't survive thousands of years because we ostracized opinions and we didn't allow debate. We thrived because every book you open a Jewish scholarship, there's at least two Jews, three opinions.

[00:17:26] There's an unbelievable amount of diversity. So let's embrace the diversity, whether it's political diversity that we have or opinions, and realize our common humanity as Americans, as people, as humans, that we have for a better future tomorrow, and ask ourselves, are we part of those tearing down society or part of those building things up?

[00:17:45] And when we do that, I saw that with my grandmother was a holocaust survivor which was able to carry a lot of trauma but she knew what she was building forward and she wanted that for her kids let's be a positive added a positive influence on ourselves and those around us and i think that's the best thing we can do to remember the holocaust so thank you for doing this and the opportunity and uh we should only have be able to be back here to

[00:18:06] remember positive things in the future so thank you all right we are now moving on to the consent

[00:18:55] agenda before i ask for a motion in a second is there anything that anyone would like to pull off supervisor vega thank you madam chair 5j 5j anything else all right i would like to entertain a motion for 5a through 5i and 5k through 5o so moved madam chair second all right it's been properly moved a second is there any discussion all right seeing none let's go ahead and take

[00:19:32] our votes vote unanimous all right thank you and 5j supervisor vega do you have any questions i do madam chair not sure who's here to answer questions here they come calvary is here i thought it would be tamadri which is one of the reasons why i didn't have these questions answered prior to this meeting but again congratulations to her appointment and um thank you to both of you for being here my question um is involving the the the testing that will be done where will these screens be the sole testing method, or will there be additional forms of testing?

[00:20:13] Do you want to turn your mic on? Thank you, Madam Chair and Board, and thank you for that question. So this grant includes urine screening testing. So the whole part of this grant is to bring OA funds to Prince William County in order for our specialty dockets to adhere to Standard 5, which is produced by an agency called All Rise.

[00:20:37] And All Rise is a body that researches treatment dockets and gives the evidence-based practices that create the best outcomes. So in this grant, to answer your question directly, there will be two methods.

[00:20:53] The primary method that the company that we're going with will use is urine because urine is always the best method. It just is. However, they will also, at times, utilize oral testing.

[00:21:09] And that's often part of what probation officers will use for surveillance of different types of drugs and how our bodies produce enzymes and we can test. So an oral test will create a situation where we have a different type of response so we can see closer to use.

[00:21:32] However, in urine, you're looking at a different time period. So both methods will be used, but the primary use will be lab testing of urine. Thank you. And then the second and last question that I have involves the funding.

[00:21:48] If this is not funded, again, the second go-around, we'll see JS continue to administer these testings. What happens to the funding mechanism? Yes, so if this funding no longer comes about through our grant process with the Office of the Executive Secretary, CJS and probation and parole will go back to what they have done before.

[00:22:13] We already have funding in place to use Redwood, a different company. However, it doesn't meet the standards that are produced, meaning we need to have rapid results from a lab. We also built in with this the ability to produce equity between our residents that live in Triangle and live in Manassas, whereas most testing is done in Manassas with probation and parole.

[00:22:42] So we wanted to build out our capability to provide urine screening to all of Prince William County. So in the future, we will always be doing this continuous grant. And if it looks like it's a very viable thing, I imagine one day we'll come before this body and ask for more money.

[00:23:01] But currently, we will always ask for this grant through the Office of the Executive Secretary. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right. If there are no more questions, is there any further discussion? No. If there are no further questions, I'll move for approval.

[00:23:18] All right. Second. It's been properly moved and seconded. Thank you for answering my question. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Any additional discussion? All right. I don't see any, so let's take our votes. Vote unanimous.

[00:23:36] All right, we are now moving on to public comment time. Right now I have two people who are signed up. When I call your name, please go to the back. Start by stating your name, where you generally reside. You will have up to three minutes to speak.

[00:23:53] First I have Charlie Grimes, and then Melvin Broward. Melvin, am I saying it right? All right. Whoever else signed up for public comment time, please go to the back.

[00:24:11] So thank you. I'm Charlie Grimes. I'm in the Gainesville Magisterial District. Good to have a new supervisor. Thank you for the discussion this morning in your Finance and Budget Committee meeting regarding trails. Let me encourage you, when you talk about trails, to realize that there are an arbitrary distinction between recreation and active mobility trails.

[00:24:36] Almost all our trails involve mobility. If you have a path for a kid to get to school, if you have an access route for someone to bicycle to splash down water park, it is not just a recreation trail, it is a mobility trail.

[00:24:51] It enables people to get around without getting in a car and clogging our highway. So you'll find a few recreational trails scattered in the woods in some of our parks. You're going to find almost every trail in your trails master plan simultaneously provides mobility and would qualify for the discussion you were having this morning.

[00:25:10] I want to encourage you to incorporate in your planning for fiscal year 27, implementing what you scheduled in the comprehensive plan back in 2022 when you adopted the mobility chapter, what you incorporated in your strategic plan when you identified you wanted to have live, work, play, walkable communities.

[00:25:33] You don't get those for free. They require money. There are $7 billion worth of road projects in the mobility chapter. When you get your trails master plan from Parks and Recreation sometime in the next couple of months, you're going to find there's a price tag for trails as well.

[00:25:49] If you want to build live, work, play communities, if you want to implement your comprehensive plan policies, if you want to achieve the vision and the strategic plan, you've got to put your money where your mouth is. You've got to budget for trails. Let me encourage you again in your discussion to put more money for regular annual funding for trails.

[00:26:10] There's low-hanging fruit out there for low-cost trails. Rick says he can build them in one or two years. So can the Department of Parks and Recreation. Also, put some money aside for the big projects. The trails team, the folks that have been harassing you for the last year, refreshing your memory that we need more trails to get more people to get around without cars, We'll tell you that there are large projects that involve bridges, land acquisition, major expenses.

[00:26:40] We're going to need a bond issue, or maybe you'll find another mechanism by which we can fund them. If it's the C&I tax, if it's computer and peripherals tax, agnostic about the mechanism, you're the adults in the room that make that decision. But you're going to have to put money into trails if we're going to turn the talk into reality.

[00:27:00] Thank you. All right. I just wanted to quickly say, so we voted, we're not going to have the 7 o'clock meeting. So if people want to speak to something on that, please quickly sign up. If not, do we have anyone else who signed up, Laura?

[00:27:18] No, ma'am. All right, so we're going to move on. Wait, are you going to come up? So go back there, quickly sign your name, Magisterial District. What I'm going to do is, to give you a little bit of time, we'll go to virtual, and then I'll come back to anyone who wants to speak in person. So, Supervisor Angry. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[00:27:34] We did have seven, but four for this afternoon and three for tonight. So if you want to get them all out of the way, we can do it as well. Go ahead. Good afternoon, Vice Chair and the Board. Our first speaker is Victoria Nguyen. Oh, should I just go?

[00:28:00] Yes, ma'am, you're on. You can go ahead. Okay, thank you. My name is Victoria Nguyen, and I'm a Braemar resident. My address is on file. I'm here today to express my opposition to the Blue Line and the GIS Vint Hill Expansion Project.

[00:28:17] I have been a resident of Bristow for almost 20 years. We moved to Braemar because we wanted access to nature trails, beautiful countryside, great schools, and a slower pace of life. We were told the green spaces were protected wetland and nothing would ever be built there.

[00:28:33] Never did we expect that 25 years later, our neighborhood would be under the threat of full-out industrialization. The proposed blue line, which will run dangerously close to homes and schools, and a supercharged GIS substation within a residential rural space right next to three schools, are the newest unfortunate plans in our town.

[00:28:53] Why does Dominion come back to Bramar over and over? When will the board finally say no? What is a board doing to protect us? Fauquier County voted down a GIS substation at Morrisville in October. Why doesn't our board of county supervisors do the same? We have done research and found many of you sitting on this board have taken very large campaign donations from data center developers, some $40,000 in December alone, and it isn't even an election year.

[00:29:20] Won't this make it difficult for many of you to be impartial when voting on matters pertaining to data centers, substations, and transmission lines. These megalists scar the landscape of the county because bodies of governance like yourself allow it to be so. Dystopian monoliths, one after another, popping up everywhere, mar our landscape, pollute our environment, and encroach upon our communities. It is nothing short of scandalous and a venue that protects money, not people. You are selling out our community and a Juneteenth party with fireworks? Do you feel a party with fireworks makes up for what is being done? That

[00:29:57] it's some kind of compensation the community finds acceptable? Do you think we are also blind and easy to appease that we'll say, oh, that was a nice party with fireworks. Those data centers are really giving back to the community. This is a ridiculous notion and an insult to our values, integrity, and intelligence. We see what's happening. You are serving self-interest, not the interests of the people you swore to serve, and it is scandalous. We implore you to remember that you were elected to represent the best interests of your constituents and not data centers in Dominion Energy.

[00:30:29] Please vote no on the GIS substation and say no to the blue line. Uphold your oath to your constituents who gave you the privilege of serving because you convinced them you were trustworthy. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Our next speaker is Edward Nguyen.

[00:30:50] Go ahead, Edward. My name is Edward Nguyen. Yes. I'm a resident of Brentsville District. I want to begin by saying that I've never spoken publicly in protest of any issue in my 60 years before today.

[00:31:06] I don't do hearings lightly, and I'm not someone that seeks public attention. Instead, I'd prefer to be in the background, making my impact known there. But the Route 5 blue line and the GIS FinTel proposals rise to the level that I feel that I must stand up and speak out, supporting my fellow residents because of the long-term irreversible impacts on Prince William County residents.

[00:31:31] Every member of the board is elected directly by the residents of Prince William County, either county-wide or by district. and i would ask you to pause for a moment and reflect on this question that i asked respectfully why are you sitting in that chair why did voters elect you it was not for business for its own sake but to serve residents and protect the public interest especially when your decisions permanently affect our communities with that authority comes accountability not just to us residents today but to future voters and those who live in these

[00:32:10] communities these projects are being described as infrastructure or economic development initiatives but in practice they are enablers for expanded data center development the distinctions matter because while companies will benefit the long-term costs are going to be felt by residents The environmental and quality of life impacts are significant and well-documented.

[00:32:35] Increased air and noise pollution, massive energy demand, water consumption, storm runoff are not abstract things. We get to feel those things in these communities. The claimed economic benefits do not justify the costs. Data centers generate relatively few permanent local jobs and limited community integration while causing long-term environmental and infrastructure problems on our neighborhoods.

[00:33:02] We can have prosperity without all of that. So again, I ask you to consider, respectfully, why were you elected? Who were you elected to serve? As supervisors, you have both the authority and responsibility to say no when a proposal is not in the public interest.

[00:33:22] Making good on your purpose sometimes means rejecting proposals and projects that benefit private industry but cause lasting damage on the environment and the people who live here. I urge you to uphold the trust placed in you by the Prince William County voters, reject the Route 5 blue line and the GIS Vint Hill proposals, and choose long-term environmental responsibility and the well-being of the families and residents like us.

[00:33:50] Thank you. Thank you, sir. Next speaker. Our next speaker is Brandy Eng. Hello. Good afternoon, Chair and members of the board.

[00:34:08] My name is Brandy Ang, and I'm a member of the Braemar community and of the Save Braemar Coalition. Next month, I will have lived in Braemar for 11 years. My husband and I chose to move here when we were expecting our son 11 years ago.

[00:34:28] We made the conscious choice to live here because of the green space, the walking trails, the nature in our backyard. This is where we wanted our son to grow up and live his life. So today I'm here to strongly oppose both the Route 5 Blue Line project and Dominion Energy's special use permit for the Virginia Hill substation.

[00:34:54] Dominion says that this is an upgrade and it's needed for reliable service, but the reality is that our power grid is being overwhelmed and unchecked by unchecked data center growth. The project is not for the residents, it's for the data centers, and yet its residents are the ones who will have to pay.

[00:35:15] Dominion and Novak customers will see higher and higher monthly bills while the companies creating this massive demand are going to be able to avoid paying their fair share. The Vinhill substation does not belong in the rural residential area.

[00:35:32] It's outside the data center overlay and incompatible with A1 agricultural zoning and threatens the health, safety, and character of our community. This is now the fourth major infrastructure project imposed upon the trademark community.

[00:35:49] Our neighborhood is being industrialized piece by piece, and we deserve better. Dominion is not simply upgrading the existing substation. They plan to tear it down and replace it with a much larger gas-insulated facility on protected land, while asking to reduce the required safety buffer to just 30 feet from Venn Hill Road.

[00:36:13] The facility would use potentially very potent greenhouse gases with well-documented health risks if the leak would occur. I also urge the board to make a firm public statement that the county will not grant easements across protected open space or conservation land for the Route 5 blue line.

[00:36:41] These lines belong in industrial corridors, not in our neighborhoods. When the special use permit returns to the docket, I ask that you choose people and families over data centers and power grids.

[00:36:59] But please vote no on the Vinhill substation and put your constituents first. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Next speaker. Our next speaker is Lisa Collin. Go ahead, Lisa. Okay, thank you so much.

[00:37:16] You're welcome. My name is Lisa Collin, and my address is on file. I'm a resident of Braemar, excuse me, in the Brentsville District, and I'm here to speak with you today about Dominion Energy's special use permit for upgrading the Vint Hill substation.

[00:37:31] Nearly 10 years ago, I moved to Bristow with my child to be closer to family and to be surrounded by the many green spaces in our community. And none of that has been threatened until the fall of last year. Why? To play off a children's book, if you give Dominion Energy a cookie, they're going to ask the SEC to raise our rates, and then they're going to pit the Planning Commission against the Board of County Supervisors, against the school board, against communities, until there is so much confusion, misinformation, lack of transparency, and mistrust that it begs the question, is it time

[00:38:08] to move? Dominion's special use permit seeks to upgrade the Vint Hill substation when what they intend to do is a complete rebuild. Specifically, they cite in their SUP, they're building a new larger gas insulated facility and tearing down the old one after. Therefore, it should be treated as a new construction project on protected A1 ag zone land, triggering stricter zoning rules and public oversight. Additionally, their SUP is incomplete and the project is incompatible with

[00:38:45] the county's comprehensive plan and rural identity, not to mention the potential public health and safety concerns due to the location near three schools. My questions for the SUP include, what are their transmission, right-of-way, connection lines, and towers not subject to these SUP conditions? Is the underdeveloped land area the 30% open land required by the A1 classification?

[00:39:12] how much will this cost the ratepayers? What are alternative energy substations, or sorry, why were alternative energy substations not presented? What current and future Dominion projects will connect to the new substation? What data centers are connecting to the new substation? In regards to the planning office report that was part of the SUP, why do they only have one reference to the gas insulated technology? How will there be any legal oversight to enforce regulations and safety if there's no wording or reference to it.

[00:39:52] Therefore, I respectfully ask the board to not wait and deny Dominion's special use permit requests. Falkirk County, specifically the Planning Commission, did this last October for similar reasons cited above. Denying will send a message to Dominion that they have to adhere to our county's laws codes and policies and most importantly seek out industrial areas to place new or existing substations lastly i would be remiss if i did not mention the nooks valdebrusso transmission project please consider burying in industrial corridors thank you thank you ma'am

[00:40:31] uh there was our last week we have no more speakers thank you all right thanks chris all right i have one more person who signed up on john bianchi again start by when i just said state your name where you generally reside yeah three minutes thank you ma'am uh john bianchi and i do live in uh braemar um and pretty much everybody that was just uh on our virtual call there has said just about everything that needs to be said and what i want to say today is i don't

[00:41:07] have a speech i just have some talking points i want to thank chair dashandra for being involved tom gordy for being involved um you know i've seen both of you at several several of the coalition events. And it's a very, very big deal. So I've been living in Braemar for 25 years. We are the original owners of our home. We pretty much bought our home because of our backyard. It is very, very difficult, as I'm sure many people know, to find a piece of property in our area that doesn't have a house right behind it or railroad behind it or something that makes it not a great place

[00:41:42] to live. Look out my back window right now. We have a beautiful backyard. We have trees. It goes down. There's a nice creek down behind it. And when we moved in, we were assured there would never be anything built back there. So after 25 years, this is finally something's actually happening. It doesn't make sense. There are many, many reasons why, well, obviously I oppose it. Everybody in Braemar that does oppose it. There are over 8,000 people that live in Braemar. I live on a street

[00:42:17] that the blue line is literally going to go through my backyard almost on my property. So you can kiss everything goodbye as far as the beautiful backyard that I currently have. There are 22 other people right on my street. I don't know how many more are directly affected, but this is literally running right along the backyards of our property lines. It's also on a steep embankment.

[00:42:42] I don't know how they're going to engineer it. I'm sure if they have to, they'll figure it out. But it is so steep that if they start digging and clearing back there, there are homes that are literally going to be compromised because there's a steep embankment. The house sits above it. I don't know how that's going to work out.

[00:43:00] And as I mentioned, there's many, many other reasons to not do this. There are other routes besides the blue line. But in that area that I talked about behind my home is that creek. That is a Chesapeake Bay resource protection area.

[00:43:17] So if we can't protect something called a resource protection area, that's a problem. And then as far as animals that are back there, I am not a conservationist. This is just from what I know and what I've read and been able to dig out very easily.

[00:43:32] There is an endangered species back there, the bog turtle. And there's two threatened species back there of different bats. So, and I can go on and go on and on, but the obvious visual impact of towers back there and the simple saying of not in my backyard.

[00:43:51] So please use the power of the board, use your voice. Let's not let this go through and destroy our neighborhood. Thank you. Thank you so very much. We are going to now move on to agenda item number seven, and that is public hearings.

[00:44:06] Unless I hear from anyone on the board, I'm going to open all the public hearings, close them, and then if someone wants to pull something for consideration for votes, we can do that. So I am now going to open the public hearings for, no one?

[00:44:22] I'm going to open and close. I'm going to now open the public hearings for 7A through 7K. I was told we do not have anyone in person. Do we have anyone online? Nope. All right, so I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearings for 7A through 7K.

[00:44:42] Does anyone on the dais have anything they want to question or they want to pull off? Looking around. Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want some answers on the record on item 7E. That's in the Coles District, and it is involving the North Carter's Grove Project.

[00:45:02] Not sure who's here to answer any questions. I saw Cobra earlier. Okay. Mr. Simmons, if you can come on. Alex, if you are.

[00:45:18] Thank you. How are you? Hi. Is there anybody here from Prince William Water? Someone here from Virginia water. Okay. Well that helps unless you can answer the questions, but I'll defer My office received some concerns Surrounding water and just wanted a clarification if these were new issues or existing issues

[00:45:45] And if you could provide any further clarification on concerns regarding water hi, my name is Ron Cook I'm with Virginia American Water Company the operations manager for the Prince William district this is alan starks the operations distribution supervisor for prince william

[00:46:13] and so we were asked to come here for this carter's grove uh water quality issue and as i was speaking with the applicant's attorney um this is not uh essentially a project that's in our district we do supply water to prince william water for this subdivision we have a meter vault and basically beyond that meter vault that meter vault it's prince william prince william's

[00:46:50] water's responsibility beyond some of the notes that i've seen were chlorine issues and we have data that confirms that we provide adequate chlorine to that vault and we're we're just here to offer any assistance we can with Prince William Water to help resolve any issues that we can for the issue at that community.

[00:47:16] Thank you for that. Cobra, can you elaborate a little bit on the HOA concerns that were raised and the solutions that were offered? Supervisor Vega, Alex Vanegas from the planning office.

[00:47:35] We'll let the applicants speak to what they heard from the HOA because we did not attend that meeting. But when it does come to water quality issues, a lot of times in this case, I think it's more of a dead end issue where when you have dead end water, the water quality becomes a significant issue.

[00:47:54] Sometimes you get dirty water and you have to send out crews to flush it. There are ways to resolve that. And the reason I know this, I was a director of utilities, and we had these common issues, especially in areas where you had dead ends, that you could flush that on a frequency.

[00:48:12] We sometimes set our maintenance crews out monthly. You can put automatic flushing. The chlorine could be fine, but the issue is more when it comes towards a dead end. But I'll let Olin talk about what the HOA presented as the issue.

[00:48:28] Madam Chair, members of the board, we went with the HOA last week prior to this meeting, and we had a really good discussion with them. We had about 15 people on the call, it's a Zoom call, and what I wanted to make clear to them during the meeting was that there is North Carter's Grove and then there's Carter's Grove, which is across the street from us.

[00:48:49] There was some confusion at the outset about who we were, who the owners were, who the developers were for North Carter's Grove. So I had to start the presentation with sort of explaining the background, is that North Carter's Grove has its own ownership. They're a small business.

[00:49:06] They own five acres, and they're developing the property. The property's initially a daycare facility, which has now been closed. But North Carter's Grove has nothing at all to do with Carter's Grove. The HOAs are different. The developers will be different.

[00:49:23] The land is obviously not adjacent across the street, off across Spriggs Road, so there's no connection between the two. But what I wanted to let them know was that we understand what they're dealing with and we want to make sure we're doing our part to make sure we're dealing with the water on our site because that's the right thing to do, number one, but also because the law requires us to do that.

[00:49:46] So I let them know that we put into our proffers that we're going to comply with the DCSM regarding stormwater management to make sure our water is taken care of. And we also said that we would continue to work with Virginia Water to do whatever we can do because we want good water as well.

[00:50:05] So we want to make sure they have what they need and we have what we need. So I think in terms of working together regarding the water issues, we'll continue to do what we can. But I think we had a really good discussion with them, and I'm looking forward to having Virginia Water get involved and Prince William Water get involved to resolve their issues, which, by the way, have been going on since 2001, so this is preexisting.

[00:50:31] So we don't want to add to their issues. We certainly want to do what we can to be responsible on our site. Thank you for that, Alex. You touched a little bit on what it is that I was looking for. Those concerns have been addressed, and a schedule of warm weather flushing of hydrants was shared with the HOA community, so I just wanted that to be publicly stated for those that did not attend the meeting so that they can have accurate and factual information.

[00:50:57] Thank you to everyone who stepped forward to answer my questions. Thank you, Supervisor Vega. Okay, so that will be for 7A through 7K. So I'd like to entertain a motion. Supervisor Reagan?

[00:51:13] So moved. Second. All right. It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? I see Supervisor Bodie. Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to run through a few of these since there are so many of them in this motion. I will start with 7A, which is the amendments to the county code as it pertains to the PDR program.

[00:51:30] I want to thank Katab and his team for their work on that. We have a working version now that will align with the comp plan and some of the other priorities that we've identified as a board. since we first adopted the PDR program a number of years ago. I would just sort of say that as we continue to have conversations around PDRs, TDRs, and other conservation tools, we've already adopted the PDR program.

[00:51:53] We have yet to fund it. So as we continue to talk this year about the budget, I would, for discussion here, really urge my colleagues to figure out what we can do to actually fund that program this year so we can begin availing ourselves of it. There is so much great pristine property in the mid-county area, the west part of the county, that we could really conserve and cut away from other pressures that we know we talk about all the time.

[00:52:18] But we really need to fund that program so we can begin to do that. So that was 7A. 7F, which is Chin Landing, I want to thank the applicants for their work on that. I'm not going to ask any questions, but I just am going to sort of retread ground that I've already talked to them about.

[00:52:38] I know there's a courtesy review with LOCA that's part of that. Also, we've been in constant conversation with the Toll Brothers on their side of the fence in terms of that after Glenn project. As of whatever we need to do, call upon me and my office to the applicant to make sure that they're doing everything they need to do to do that inter-parcel connection, the shared amenities, all that stuff.

[00:52:57] Because although they are two separate projects, they are basically linked. So we need to do whatever we can to make that a cohesive community. And finally, 7G, which is Cabin Bratchett Quantico Creek. I don't want to step on my colleague, Supervisor Bailey, too much, but I wanted to thank the applicant for that project.

[00:53:15] When we talk about mixed use, we have very few opportunities in this county right now to provide true mixed use. That's an area of the county that's predominantly, overwhelmingly commercial, non-residential. You're bringing the residential to that piece, and I really appreciate you all doing that and make sure that we continue to have iterative development like that.

[00:53:34] We're bringing residential to previously 100% commercial spaces. Talk about tools that we implement to make those things pencil better. Because I know there were some considerations there on going vertical, but right now the market isn't there. You know, we have a lot of great conversations around redevelopment, but if we don't have the tools in place to make that pencil, we're just sort of spinning our wheels.

[00:53:53] So I wanted to say thank you to the applicant on that. And last but not least, 7K, I know we're going to be doing some CPA changes there around removing Route 28 from the comprehensive plan. You know, we've talked about as a board over the years, just really want to lean in and continue to want to work with our transportation department that this isn't just to get rid of, you know, the bypass and we're done, right?

[00:54:15] Folks out there still have concerns. There's still traffic congestion in that corridor. So as we can begin to continue to see what's next for 28, we need to keep our eye on the ball. And if that's Olsenville Road parallel, you know, doing some things around that, if that's the widening that we've already the comprehensive plan with this, we need to talk about that.

[00:54:34] But we can't lose sight of this just because we've taken the bypass of the equation. With that, I'm done. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. And Supervisor Gordy. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Supervisor Bode, on your comments on Item 7A. I completely agree and appreciate all the work that staff has done to get the purchase development rights update to the ordinance.

[00:54:56] But as you said, we need to fund it. That needs to be a priority. And along with looking at other opportunities for conservation and protection of critical, historical, environmentally sensitive areas in Prince William County. And then lastly, I just want to point out on 7H, Carver Road Subdivision.

[00:55:19] We worked on this one with the applicant for quite some time. And I'll tell you, they've done a tremendous job of reaching out to the community, working with the community, taking community concerns into consideration and mitigating against those. The Carver Road community, especially historic community, historical African-American community in Prince William County, and appreciate your sensitivity to their history, to their surrounding important and historical areas there.

[00:55:53] but just, again, want to commend the applicant for all the hard work that they did to get this one right, and I think it speaks volumes that no one's here to speak against it, but rather the people that I have spoke to have given it a thumbs up. So thank you, Madam Chair.

[00:56:11] And to Professor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. Let me just start off ditto to what my colleagues have said already about the funding for PDR. That is essential. 7G, it's been five long years. more and we are moving forward with the rezoning of that so I want to thank the applicant for our hearing here in the community here in my office and and working diligently to make sure that this is a really good project and there were some wetlands concerns there and you work through that very well with with

[00:56:47] the county and and with the community so we really really appreciate that again And to what Supervisor Tom Gordy is saying about Carver Road, that's a special community to all of us across this county. And so to the applicant, thank you for continually keeping that in your toolbox and understanding the essentiality of history in that whole process.

[00:57:08] Then for 7i, the rezoning for the Navy Federal kiosk there, that is very important too. Walmart, that's a part of Walmart, and Walmart has been a part of our community for a long time, serving this community very diligently and understanding the community needs.

[00:57:28] And so Navy Federal will not only help the community, but our veterans community. And so just thank you so much for the due diligence there. Madam Chair, that's all I have. All right, thank you so very much. I don't see anyone else in queue, so I'd like to call for the vote.

[00:57:45] So moved? I'm sorry, you're right. So moved? We got three. We did that already. We just need to vote. Yeah, that's what I'm saying, yeah, because you said to me, but you confused me. Vote unanimous.

[00:58:04] All right, thank you. I think we're a little bit rusty, that vacation. All right, so I'm going to let people exit. Madam Chair, if I could. Supervisor Bode. Just as the folks from the planning department leave, we're supposed to say thank you for all the work that you've done. We have almost double digits planning cases that we just cleared without controversy, without anything.

[00:58:22] So I didn't want to let you all leave without saying thank you for your efforts as well.

[00:58:44] And there goes more than half of the boardroom right there. All right. All right, moving on to agenda item number eight. Mr. Shorter, the floor is yours. All right, thank you very much, Madam Chair.

[00:59:01] Good afternoon, board members. I'll go through this relatively... Sir, I'm sorry. You dropped your hat, sir. Sir, in the blue, your hat. I'm going to need that.

[00:59:17] Yeah, you'll notice it real quick. I think... Sorry, county. No, I think everyone at home will appreciate that you did that. Someone had. Yes. I was very unprotected, I appreciate it. All right. So I'll continue on. So we, as you may recall, there was one directive issued during our last meeting, and that was to prepare a resolution for the board's consideration that would dissolve the Racial and Social Justice Commission as a separate advisory body to the board and establish a new temporary racial and social justice task force under the Human Rights Commission.

[00:59:54] This directive was assigned to the Human Rights Office and Office of Executive Management. There were no directives closed since our last meeting. You also may recall that during our last meeting, Supervisor Vega asked for an update on her directive regarding an inventory of boards, commissions, and advisory working groups.

[01:00:14] The Clerk's Office has received the information from our BCC liaisons and is currently in the process of reviewing that data. we anticipate providing the board a response to that directive before your next meeting. In terms of memos, last week I forwarded you the letter we received from the State Corporation Commission acknowledging the letter I sent regarding the Dominion Energy Transmission Line Project in the county.

[01:00:41] As you will recall, the board directed me to send a letter to SEC and Dominion Energy regarding the Noakesville to Bristow Transmission Line Project, And that was sent on December 22nd. I also shared with you the good news that the Metropolitan Washington Council of Government selected the joint Prince William County and City of Manassas Park's Yorkshire Manassas Park Housing Affordability Planning Program grant application.

[01:01:12] The grant will provide $75,000 for the development of the Yorkshire Manassas Park Affordable Housing Feasibility Study and Implementation Plan. This is absolutely great news and really a great example of interagency collaboration and interjurisdictional partnership. And with that, Madam Chair, that is, oh, yes, and to that end, the planning office will bring an item for board action in February, requesting ratification for the grant and awarding of the funds or appropriating the funds for that grant initiative.

[01:01:47] And with that, Madam Chair, that is all for me. I have Supervisor Bailey, Vega, then Bodie. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to congratulate the county exec on that, on the Yorkshire, and Supervisor Vega on the Yorkshire project. That was announced, Madam Chair and I were there for the COG meeting, and that was announced, and that's our first time, if I'm correct.

[01:02:10] In recent history. In recent history that we've received a grant like that. It was announced last year, and then we got the grant this year. So that's exciting news, Supervisor Vega, for your district. Congratulations, congratulations. That's all I wanted. Supervisor Vega.

[01:02:26] Yes and no. Okay. Will the item that will be brought to us talk about or highlight the district supervisor's office involvement moving forward in this? I will make sure that it does. Because that was my concern in regards to our offices not being involved in such a meaningful discussion while you know the award is something to be excited about nobody knows the district better than us sitting supervisors and we have a lot of challenges in the yorkshire corridor if we want to call it that we're working i saw tanya here but i don't know if she's gone we were talking about

[01:03:05] the yorkshire small area plan and i just want to be very clear that i do not want my office to be excluded and i want to be a part of these conversations to make sure that we put forth the best vision possible for an area that has quite a bit of challenges.

[01:03:22] Workable, an opportunity to, you know, come to the table and bring forth solutions. But we just talked about the CPA amendment to remove the 28 bypass. We have some transportation challenges. And while this is good news, we have to look at this holistically. And in a nutshell, I just want to make sure that I'm involved and consulted moving forward.

[01:03:42] So the item that will come before the board is, yes, awarding the grant for $75,000, but it's going to start the feasibility study and implementation planning process. So, yes, your office will absolutely be engaged.

[01:03:57] We wouldn't bring that back to the board without your green lighting. Sure. And Supervisor Barody. Thank you, Madam Chair. It just reminded me, because we had folks earlier for one of the proclamations brought up the symposium, the human trafficking symposium um i've gotten uh quite a few different constituents have asked um if that event will be streamed or at least recorded i've heard that it's not going to be streamed or recorded i was hoping to make a request to at least make sure that event was

[01:04:31] recorded unless there's issues doing that i don't know uh right now so i'll i'll follow up with the with the entire board after the meeting it'll depend on location and the it's just a feasibility for us more than anything else, so I'll follow up. Appreciate that. Yeah, I'll just say, in the age where we can at least record things with our phones, I would hope that if it's in a county building, we would have the available technology to do it. Thank you. Absolutely.

[01:04:58] All right, and again, nothing else, Mr. Shorter? You're good? I am good. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right. Mrs. Robel, the floor is yours. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. This afternoon, in closed session, there will be consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel pertaining to local government law and special election law, where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position, litigating posture, and negotiating strategy of the public body.

[01:05:28] And this item is appropriate for closed session pursuant to 2.2-3711A8 of the Code of Virginia. So moved, Madam Chair. Second. Let's go ahead and take our vote.

[01:05:54] Unanimous. All right. Thank you. And Mr. Shorter, if you can lead us with agency time. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So for agency time, as we get the presentation up, item 10A, a presentation from our Director of Finance and, I guess, Deputy Director, or Leslie, are you going to?

[01:06:20] Okay. She's going to kick us off with a review of the FY25 Fund Balance and Reserves and General Revenue Update. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the Board.

[01:06:39] In the December meeting, we brought the auditors in to close out the financial statements for fiscal year 25. We also submitted the ACFER and the PAFER in December. And so this is really the last item that's left, as in previous years we're coming forward to present the final results of fiscal year 25 revenue, the impact that has to fund balance and reserves, and then take a quick look at the current outlook for fiscal year 26 revenues.

[01:07:09] um okay and we're going to walk you through those topics in that order i'm going to kick us off with the fy25 results and then deputy director tim leclaire is going to take us through the uh fund balance and reserves and then deputy director rocio lamb is going to take us through the fy26 estimates all right so just to get us started um this graph is showing you this pie chart is is showing you the adopted budget for FY25. We had a budget of approximately $1.6 billion in

[01:07:47] revenues. That was up about $183 million from fiscal year 24. Like in previous years, the real estate tax is the highest percentage at about 58% with property tax at about 26%. You see a little bit of shift in those percentages if you go back and compare to prior year. I think real estate was a couple of percentage points lower. Property tax was a couple higher. That's primarily driven by the increased rates we had on computer and peripheral, shifting some of that funding around. Sales tax remains the third largest revenue source, followed by food and beverage, which has moved up from

[01:08:26] fifth place in the prior year to fourth place for 2025. All right, looking at the actual results for the year. If we drop to the bottom right corner of the slide, you will see we are about $11.5 million favorable to what the revenue budget was. Overall, if you look at that in totality for budgeting and forecasting perspective, we're pretty much right there with 99% of what we were looking for. That's great from a budgeting and forecasting. You'll see when we get to the reserves how that impacts us for the availability to fund the reserves.

[01:09:06] So for purposes of this slide, you'll see in the last column the change that goes from what we budgeted to what the actuals were. Unfavorable is, of course, in the brackets. And so just to break those down, I'll focus on the ones that had a variance greater than a million dollars.

[01:09:25] For real property taxes, we are about $4 million below what the budget was. That is primarily due to about $16 million more than expected in tax relief and tax exonerations for the year.

[01:09:42] Of course, with us being only at four under, we have some offsets there, particularly with our gross revenue, and that's primarily coming from more than expected supplemental bills, primarily around the data center bills. And then we also had about $2.4 million favorable for public service corporations based on the Commonwealth's assessment of those properties.

[01:10:06] For personal property tax, we're about $7 million below budget, and the majority of that is coming from uncollected vehicle receipts for the year. And also business tangible property was a little bit lower than we have projected.

[01:10:24] So we do have some offsets in there, but that's where the majority of that's coming from. We jump to local sales tax and, let's see, local sales tax, food and beverage tax, and the B-POL tax.

[01:10:41] Most of those are associated with how consumer spend is. And while, you know, consumers are being conscientious, we did see that we trended pretty steadily for the year. So we did remain favorable to budget for those. And then investment income, about $12 million favorable.

[01:11:01] That's a combination of timing and availability of funds to invest in cash and cash equivalents. So that was favorable for this year as well. And the last item, other, is a collection of all of the other smaller taxes.

[01:11:18] The primary driver to not being on track to budget there was interest paid on refunds and on interest paid to vendors. And then we were a little short of budget on the transient occupancy tax and the cigarette tax.

[01:11:33] We did have some favorable items offsetting those. They were individually small, but got us to about $2 million there. So that kind of summarizes where we came out for actuals. Now, Tim is going to take us through how that impacts the fund balance and reserves.

[01:11:54] Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the board, Mr. Shorter, Tim LeClaire from Finance. It's good to see you all again. So the board's principles of sound financial management provide guidance for how the general revenue surpluses flow after the fiscal year-end audit is complete and to maintain required reserve levels.

[01:12:23] I'm going to be a little bit wordy in this section here. So we've flipped the presentation on this slide from previous years. We used to show you the bedrock at the bottom, the general fund unassigned. We moved that to the top this year, and we're building more on the waterfall, if you will, as things flow down.

[01:12:43] So first, to maintain the general fund unassigned fund balance at 7.5% of total general fund revenues to address any local and or regional emergencies without borrowing. If anything is appropriated from the general fund unassigned, the board does that.

[01:13:05] A plan has to be put in place and highlighted in the county's adopted five-year plan to restore the unassigned general fund balance within two years of the appropriation. So not that that happened, but we have some new members this year, And so kind of going through the principles, it's not a real exciting read.

[01:13:28] And so I'm sure no one has opened it up and looked at it recently. Second, provided there's additional surplus revenue, it's split with the schools per the revenue sharing agreement, which everyone is very familiar with, I'm sure.

[01:13:45] Next, provided funding is available, the revenue stabilization reserve is funded. also at 2% of total general fund revenues to offset local and regional economic shocks, or unexpected declines in total general fund revenues greater than 3% when compared to the current adopted budget.

[01:14:06] If anything in this area is appropriated due to some sort of economic shock, then replenishment to the minimum must be achieved within five years. And so our unassigned is a two-year payback to get back up to that.

[01:14:23] and this is five years, and it also must be highlighted in the county's adopted five-year plan. Next, if funding is available, the capital reserve committed fund balance shall be adjusted to a minimum of 2 percent, but of the current capital projects fund's appropriations included in the adopted six-year CIP to provide sufficient working capital and a margin of safety to withstand unexpected but necessary project cost overruns without borrowing. If something were to happen and we would have to appropriate those funds for some of those capital projects.

[01:15:00] The board would have to restore that also within five years, and we would have to put something into the adopted five-year plan in order to get to that point. Next, provided funds are available, replenish the Economic Development Opportunity Fund to $3 million annually to incentivize key targeted industries.

[01:15:21] Then, finally, we maintain the data center revenue stabilization reserve annually at 10% of the prior fiscal year audited tax revenue generated by data center computer equipment and peripherals.

[01:15:39] And that's helped us provide a margin of safety to withstand any kind of shocks or unexpected declines in data center revenue without borrowing. The principles are silent on this one as to how either of these reserves should be funded if we need to use those and so there's no two year or five year or anything and so hopefully later on this year when we bring our compliance information back to the board of how we performed in accordance with the principles we're going to have some suggestions on how to improve some of

[01:16:11] the language in these that you guys can adopt or or not adopt so this slide slide eight is the fiscal year 25 surplus revenue split calculation with schools the 11 and a half million from the slide five that leslie presented results in roughly 10.6 million dollar contribution to the county's unassigned general fund 947 10.6 million contributed to the unassigned general fund balance

[01:16:44] after that 947 000 remained for splitting with schools that resulted in roughly 542 000 go to schools and $405,000 to the county. This was a really, really tight year. We did a great job estimating. Unfortunately, we did a great job estimating. About two years ago, the board pushed us to tighten up our estimates. We did that this year. We missed by 0.7%, which is almost unheard

[01:17:16] of. And so after we funded undassigned and we split the funds with the school, there really was nothing left at that point to fund our other reserves. And so we rolled into using agency savings, which were offset slightly. And I'll show you that on the next slide, which were offset slightly by agency revenues, which were a little bit short. This gives a picture of all of it.

[01:17:52] So the total available resources of $21 million, including the 11.5 total general fund revenue surplus that we talked about on the previous slide, in which this year funded unassigned and was split with Prince William County Schools, also includes $12.5 million in agency savings offset by the $3 million shortfall in unrestricted agency revenue.

[01:18:14] So we use that going forward to continue funding the waterfall. Often surplus general fund revenues are sufficient to fund the entire waterfall. This was not one of those years. Prior year was, 25 was not.

[01:18:31] I suspect 26 will be when we get to that point. So major uses of the remaining resources included 2.8 million, or 2 percent, to the Revenue Stabilization Reserve, 2.8 million to the Economic Development Opportunity Fund as the actual available balance, ending balance, was roughly .2 million dollars, and finally 4.4 million to the Data Center Reserve.

[01:18:55] Now I would be remiss if I didn't tell you that the Data Center Reserve, the actual calculation yielded $4.75 million that needed to be put in there, but we didn't have the funds. So we didn't put it in there, and it's silent as to how we make that up. And so we didn't have any guidance so far.

[01:19:13] However, we also had $2 million that was put in, was budgeted and put into the data center reserve. And so we're higher than just that plain calculation straight out by itself.

[01:19:34] So this shows unassigned fund balance from fiscal year 2009 through fiscal year 2025. The unassigned fund balance now stands at $134.7 million, which meets the 7.5% requirement, providing a margin of safety for emergencies without borrowing.

[01:19:59] You can see the growth over time as the county revenues have continued to grow. The 2% revenue stabilization reserve increased by $2.8 million, as I mentioned, to $35.9 million, which meets the two percent requirement what stands out to me on this chart is really the early years where we had a lot of excess revenues and our reserves in the revenue stabilization and that occurred through 2015 at which point the board made a conscious decision to take the

[01:20:33] excesses from the revenue stabilization reserve and move them into the capital reserve very prudent move because this reserve is for economic shocks and revenue declines, and we were constantly explaining to the rating agencies of how we were spending this, and they kept throwing back at us that, well, this is for economic shocks and revenue declines. This is really not to build up a savings account to spend on capital projects, and so we moved it over to the capital reserve at

[01:21:09] that point in time. So as I mentioned earlier, this is the data center revenue stabilization. It grew to $12.1 million, an increase of $6.4 million, even though, as I mentioned earlier, there weren't sufficient excess resources to fully fund the principal's calculated amount.

[01:21:30] $317,000 short, so a rounding error of a rounding error. But we did have, as I mentioned, the two million dollar entries that were budgeted in addition to the calculation. One of them was made and was supposed to be made in 24. Unfortunately it was made to a liability account instead of a fund balance account and so we had to move it in 2025. So that's why you see the big

[01:22:01] variance year to year. So this slide provides a snapshot of the audited capital reserve balance as of June 30th, 2025. I'll begin by noting that the balance at June 30th, 2024 was $87.7 million.

[01:22:21] During fiscal year 25, we had inflows of roughly $12.3 million, primarily from interest earnings, as you saw on Leslie's chart of the revenues, mark-to-market accounting estimates, closed projects, and other minor adjustments. We had two major outflows totaling $3.8 million, which included $1.3 million for historic preservation land purchase agreements and $2.5 million for police vehicle replacements.

[01:22:51] After accounting for these, the audited balance at June 30, 2025 was $96.2 million. Once you subtract out the $4.8 million for mark-to-market, which is a non-cash type entry, it presupposes per accounting standards that the county goes out of business at the last day of the year and we sell all our investments and that's that would is what the impact would be of those investments this slide outlines planned uses of the capital reserve for fiscal year 26 of course prior to today's board actions we start with previously mentioned

[01:23:30] available balance of 91.4 million then subtract planned outflows for fiscal year 26 totally 9.4 million that includes the judicial center renovation capital project of 3.8 million and the Real Estate Assessment Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal Database, affectionately known as CAMA, $3.6 million, plus $2.4 million for voting equipment.

[01:23:55] After these planned uses, the projected balance at the end of the current year is expected to be $81.6 million. There were no off-cycle uses of the capital reserve approved to date. These planned uses align with the adopted fiscal year 26 budget and support critical infrastructure and operational needs.

[01:24:12] The Capital Reserve History Chart depicts the historical trend of the Capital Reserve end-of-year balances from fiscal year 2008 through fiscal year 2025, and it should include 2026. Apologies for the error, the $86.1 million, because it does say end projection. That's the one year of the projection.

[01:24:35] It's important to note the gross trajectory, especially considering the most recent rating agency comments regarding the growth of debt versus the economic growth of the county revenues, as well as the size of county reserves. In earlier years, balances were significantly lower, coinciding with the movement of reserves from the Revenue Stabilization Fund after fiscal year 2015, as I mentioned earlier in the presentation.

[01:24:57] Recent years show substantial increases from fiscal year 2022, up to and including the projection of $86.1 million for fiscal year 26. This growth reflects strong fiscal discipline, adherence to the principles, strategic use of surpluses and investment earnings, maintaining a robust capital reserve ensures funding for major projects without additional borrowing, preservation of the county's triple-triple-A bond rating, compliance with the 10 percent cash-to-capital requirement, and protection from inflationary pressures.

[01:25:33] We're still waiting for them to hit us really hard, but it's entirely possible because it seems like tariffs never end. In conclusion, while the reserve is strong, future balances will depend on revenue performance and capital project demands. In closing out this section of the presentation, I'd like to once again mention that staff will be bringing back suggestions for improving the principles, including a plan to strengthen reserves based on comments received from the board during previous Finance and Budget Committee meetings and work sessions.

[01:26:05] Please welcome Deputy Finance Director Rocio Lam to talk about fiscal year 26. Revenue estimates. I was going to say to four members, if we can hold so we can get through the entire presentation. Thank you. Good afternoon, members of the board, county attorney's office, and county executive.

[01:26:28] My name is Rocio Lam, the pre-director of finance, and I am here to talk about FY26. Basically, we're going to see how we're doing this year. This slide provides a high-level snapshot of where the county general fund revenue comes from in FY26 and highlights the county's reliance of a few major revenue streams.

[01:26:56] The chart shows the composition of our FY26 adopted general revenue fund totaling approximately $1.73 billion. So as expected, the revenue structure remains stable and highly predictable, with real estate taxes remaining the county's primary revenue source, accounting for 59.2% of total general revenue.

[01:27:22] Personal property taxes account for another 25.2%, bringing property-based revenues to over 84% of the general fund and reflecting the continued importance of vehicles, business equipment, and other taxable personal property.

[01:27:40] Together, real estate and personal property taxes make up over 84% of general fund revenues, which underscores how sensitive our budget is to changes in property values, assessments, and collections.

[01:27:57] Other notable sources include sales tax at 5.9% and food and beverage tax at 2.3%, which together make up just over 8%, and these are more directly tied to economic activity and consumer behavior, providing some economic diversification by remaining secondary to property taxes. And all remaining revenue sources, such as BPOL, investment income, communication sales tax, and vehicle license fee, each represent relatively small portions

[01:28:32] individually, but collectively provide important diversification. The key takeaway here is that the county's revenue structure remains stable and predictable, but highly concentrated in property-based taxes.

[01:28:49] The next slide breaks down this further down further by showing the five-year revenue forecast and highlights key policy assumptions behind these projections. So this slide explains how major revenue sources are projected to perform over the FY26 to FY2030 forecast period and identifies adopted tax policy changes.

[01:29:18] Overall, the first quarter results indicate revenues are tracking in line with expectations supported by continued job and income growth in Northern Virginia and stable housing fundamentals. However, emerging risk, including the ongoing impact from federal government for loss effects, potential moderation in the state revenue growth, and softening consumer sentiment will require close monitoring through the second quarter.

[01:29:48] Starting with real estate taxes, the adopted rate for FY26 is 0.906, and the same rate is assumed throughout the forecast period. Real property values have remained stable, and no material deviations have been observed in the collection trend.

[01:30:11] Programs that affect net proceeds, including real estate tax relief, exonerations, and lawsuit reserves, are being closely tracked. Recent data from the Welton Cooper Center indicate that Virginia's housing market remains relatively balanced, despite higher mortgage rates and with home prices growth moderating rather than declining.

[01:30:34] Personal property taxes are projected to grow modestly from $436 million in FY26 to about $467 million in FY2030. That growth reflects two policy changes adopted by the board. The first one is an increase in the personal property tax rate on computer and equipment and peripherals.

[01:30:56] And the second one is a reduction in the vehicle personal property tax rate from 3.7 per hundred of assessed value to 3.5, which moderates the revenue growth. Personal property collections are studied but warrant attention given recent shifts in regional labor conditions.

[01:31:19] The county's unemployment rate has increased from 3.1% in April to 3.7% by August of 2025, mirroring a statewide peak in joblessness. Federal forlows may temporarily delay payments, however underlying assessed values remain stable.

[01:31:41] Staff will continue to monitor delinquency and federal trends for any signs of fiscal distress. Self-tax revenues show conservative growth, increasing from $1.25 million in FY26 to $1.13.1 million by FY2030.

[01:32:02] Despite inflationary pressure and a slower statewide job growth, consumer demand across Northern Virginia remains more resilient than anticipated. Investment income reflects improved earnings but remains intentionally conservative given interest rate uncertainty.

[01:32:21] Food and beverage tax show a decrease in FY27, and that is due to the rate change, but then stabilizes in the out years. Food and beverage reflects broad consumer dining behavior, making it particularly sensitive to disposable income and consumer confidence levels.

[01:32:40] The Virginia Consumer Sentiment Index compiled by Roanoke College rebounded modestly in the summer of 2025, but remains near historic lows. Federal forlows and inflation could briefly temper dining out frequency.

[01:33:00] However, first quarter receipts show good participation in local dining and hospitality venues. Overall, total revenue grows from $1.73 billion to just over $2.06 billion by FY2030, with the school portion continuing to represent the majority of general fund revenues.

[01:33:26] So this forecast prioritizes sustainability and predictability, not aggressive revenue assumptions. Revenue projections for FY27 will be evaluated after the second quarter results are finalized, and forecast amounts for future years are being updated as part of the FY27 budget process.

[01:33:49] While the forecast is solid, we actively monitor several revenue areas throughout the year, which brings us to the last final slide. and this one highlights the revenue sources that require ongoing monitoring during the fiscal year due to economic policy or collection-related factors.

[01:34:12] First, the real property taxes are currently on track to meet the adopted forecast of $1.026 billion. However, we continue to monitor tax relief programs, exonerations, and lawsuit reserves, as this can affect collections.

[01:34:31] For personal property taxes, the adopted forecast is $436 million, and collections are currently at 82%, which is consistent with historical patterns at this point in the year. Sales tax collections over the first four months indicate revenues are on track to meet the $102 million forecast.

[01:34:56] While the pace of goods consumption has gradually declined, Consumer demand has so far remained stronger than expected, and we have not seen signs of a significant slowdown. Finally, food and beverage tax revenues are on course to meet the $40.2 million forecast, even with the rate reduction to 3% effective January 1 of 2026.

[01:35:22] Staff will continue to monitor trends closely, and we'll report back to the board if any material variances emerge. Overall, FY2026 revenues are performing in line with the expectations, and at this time, we do not see indicators suggesting the need for forecast adjustments.

[01:35:48] That concludes the presentation. All right, thank you so very much. Do we have any questions? Supervisor Bodie, then Gordie. That's Bordie. It is Bordie. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the presentation.

[01:36:05] Appreciate these recaps and seeing where we stand and sort of where the trends are. It was less a question. Well, actually, it is a question. um so last month uh we had christina went in here we had a great presentation on redevelopment and tim you talked about the different uh funding streams and funds that we've set up over the years and i know that we kicked around as a board over the last few years a uh redevelopment opportunity fund and i know that christina wins shop is working on sort of uh recommendations around that and what have you is that going to come with the updated uh proposal for the up uh

[01:36:39] the principles or is that going to be a sort of a separate process if you guys would prefer that um it'd be a great idea to put it in and to talk about it as we talk about improvements to the principles i appreciate that i tell you it would be helpful if we have not received a formal directive on this uh to receive a directive first now remind me have we received the directive i I recall there being some action from the board on this two years ago.

[01:37:10] So I will follow up. It's possible economic development might have one. I don't want to speak for them. We will follow up. Thank you for the question. Thank you. Supervisor Gordy. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[01:37:25] On the personal property taxes, you got everything kind of consolidated into one number. And just kind of looking out in the out-year forecast, it seems to be pretty flat growth.

[01:37:40] But as more and more data centers come online, and, you know, we're at about 10 million square feet operational now, are you getting any indications of what that impact will be as more and more of them come online? Is this number just based on what we have operational today, or is this more inclusive of anticipated growth of the data center industry in the county?

[01:38:06] It includes some growth of the data centers. We've been growing the computer equipment and peripherals, for instance, by between 15% and 25%, which is reflective of kind of the growth that we have seen over the last five years or so.

[01:38:26] But we've been reducing some of the other revenue sources, too, in personal property, like for vehicles. Right. Okay. And, yeah, I mean, to some extent, I think trying to understand, you know, and kind of keeping our eye on that specifically what's happening with that in terms of personal property taxes by breaking it out from cars to that to try to help us understand what that's looking like.

[01:38:54] And I'll just say, you know, the biggest question that I get, probably in the rest of my colleagues as well, is where's the data center money going?

[01:39:06] And so just trying to be able to track it so that we can get an answer back to our citizens because they don't believe we're spending the money to help buy down the taxes that they're paying, even though the promise was that, you know, by doing this, this was going to diversify our tax base, you know, become less reliant upon on real estate and, you know, on taxes on our civilians.

[01:39:35] So just helping us understand, you know, again, as we look at from 2025 to 2026, we see real estate kind of bumping up as a percentage. And so we're not seeing kind of the promise being delivered that these taxes on data centers are actually resulting in tax relief and reduced reliance upon the civilians that had been promised over time.

[01:40:04] So any more fidelity that we can have to kind of explain that and what's happening, I look forward to that in future presentations. Absolutely. And remember, real estate isn't just residential real estate, right? The reason real estate is growing like it's growing is data centers.

[01:40:23] Even though we're reducing the tax rate, and you guys have reduced the tax rate in multiple years now, that is happening. You've also reduced the vehicle tax rate, and so maybe we need to put together different presentations in order to show that a little bit better.

[01:40:44] We have done in the past, and I assume we're going to be doing in the very near future, some presentations on the economy, which would also include our tax rate profile and where stuff has come from data centers and where stuff has come from residential.

[01:41:00] So, you know, that and thanks for pointing that out, because, you know, that's also a part that we have to, you know, just trying to help differentiate between these big, broad numbers that we have to try to understand, again, how we're really attack tackling that that that that promise that had been made that, you know, we're going to try to reduce our reliance and take the tax burden off the citizens.

[01:41:25] So appreciate the clarification and the continued work that you guys are doing to keep us solvent. So thank you. And part of what's happened, too, is the vacant land that has been zoned for data centers has grown tremendously.

[01:41:42] Data centers seem to be battling each other. You know, it was a million dollars, then it was two million an acre and three million an acre. We're somewhere between four and five million an acre now. Senator Reiser, I agree. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for that last explanation because that's literally what I ran on one of these data centers trying to figure out how we can help the residents and lower some taxes.

[01:42:06] But I knew that the residential piece was bigger than what I thought the computer and peripheral tax would be. And so those two do make up that big battle of that. So thank you for that clarification. And as far as presentations going forward, you just explained it very well because that is the difference in what we viewed from just being about data centers and how that taxes come in.

[01:42:31] So first I want to say, love the new slide format. There's a lot of good data here. And so when I look at the – when you go to that – we were talking data center reserve and you said it was short a few million dollars and working on how to make that up.

[01:42:46] This is a question really for the board because while we created that fund, it didn't have an end state to raise like $40 million to do something with. It's sitting there in case something goes bad in the data center. So I'm not so sure if that's a shortfall, if we need to make that up.

[01:43:02] I feel like whatever goes in there in a year is what goes in there in a year because clearly something happened last year that all of that money wasn't able to go in there. So I don't know if you – because you mentioned something about looking for guidance from this board about how we would go about making it up. I don't know when you want that discussion, but I don't view that account as something that we're really trying to say every year we need to dump $4 million in or something horrible is going to go wrong.

[01:43:26] So I don't know if that's a shortfall that we need to make up. I want to put that out there for this board to kind of see what that looks like because we clearly have other places that we can be spending this money. So I just wanted to make that point. Well, and it's a straight calculation, if you remember from our principles, is straight 10% from the last audited amount of revenues for computer equipment and peripherals.

[01:43:49] And if you remember, I want to say four years ago now, it was reported that Loudoun had an $80 million budget shortfall. And it was because of predictability of computer equipment and peripherals. And they kept going out there and just kept raising it, and then they missed.

[01:44:08] and so we put that together the board approved it um and per the straight calculation i was worried this year i was going to have to before levesley arrived i was going to have to tell mr shorter that we're going to have to go back and talk to schools because i don't know that we have enough to to split with the schools um the surplus revenues because we we have to fund our unassigned fund balance um and so we got through that and then we had just a little bit left and so we got to the school's piece, and then we were lucky enough to have agency savings, mostly because of the salary lapse that we budget.

[01:44:46] And so we had $12.5 million there, and we made it all the way to the $317,000. So it was very close. But I'm glad I didn't have to stand up here and say we missed by $5 million or $10 million or some crazy number. Senior advisor Bailey.

[01:45:05] We're glad you didn't have to do that, too. The last thing I want to do is come to you guys and say, oh, things are really bad. Yeah, yeah, and you've not had to do that. So, you know, I think y'all are doing an impeccable job. I love the presentation, too.

[01:45:21] And I just want to reiterate to what Supervisor Bordy said. You know, I think when Christina Wynn came and did her presentation on the redevelopment piece and also the data center piece.

[01:45:40] It was excellent, but we still need for it to be broken down a little bit more so that we can make sure that our communities understand, you know, because they need to see it. You know, we understand it, but they need to see it in a more reduced way. So, you know, just reiterating that.

[01:45:57] But the question that I have is concerning the capital reserve runway and upcoming pressure. So it says our capital reserve available balance is shown at 91.4 with a 9.4 million plan for FY26 that's going to be used towards our judicial center and CAMA and the voting equipment.

[01:46:18] So my question is, what other predictable capital pressures do you see that could be coming forward in the next two or three years that we might not be looking at? I don't think there are any that you're not looking at, but there are a lot that you are looking at, like the countywide space initiative.

[01:46:41] And really, it's more a budget question for the spending and as part of the budget process this year. Okay, okay. I will also say, just to help chime in, if you would allow me, I can remember Michelle Atreid standing up here and saying that we have so much residential real estate that we will never, even if somebody decided to pave over the rural crescent, there is no way we're going to make that up.

[01:47:14] Of course, that was way before data centers existed and started growing. We were roughly 70% residential, even more, even higher number. And we're getting that back down now because of the commercial piece that this board has been focused on.

[01:47:34] Commercial has grown by leaps and bounds and probably will be even more with the new NVIDIA chips that are coming out because they're a lot more expensive. And they use less power, which is probably a good thing. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[01:47:52] All right. I don't see any other questions. Thank you so very much for this presentation. All right. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, board members, and really thank you to the finance team. It is no small feat to be this exacting in the forecast, so just want to thank the entire team for all of the work that they do and for the presentation today.

[01:48:18] So, Madam Chair, the next presentation, item 10B, we're going to have Director Shana Terry, our Director of the Office of Procurement Services, come up and talk through the disparity study. As you may recall, the disparity study is done really, and they've done a great job working with our vendor community and business community to really understand barriers to doing business with the county government.

[01:48:44] So I will turn it over to Director Terry. Thank you, County Executive, Madam Chair, members of the board. excited to go over this presentation today. I will give a brief overview of all that the Office of Procurement Services has done to reach out and engage the vendor community prior to bringing up our consultant to go over the disparity study results. Since 2024, we've really been taking a

[01:49:17] deep dive into challenges or opportunities where we can enhance engagement and make our procurement process is more accessible, easy to navigate for the vendor community. So some of those opportunities you see here listed on the screen, strengthening outreach and providing assistance to SWAM businesses to make sure that the bidding process is easy to navigate. We also have increased awareness of contracting opportunities, not only advertising in our e-procurement portal, but also advertising in EVA's Virginia portal.

[01:49:57] We've also invested in hiring staff to humanize the procurement process to establish personalized outreach parties, not just sitting behind our desks but actually going out into the community, having a person that a vendor can call if they have questions about navigating the procurement process.

[01:50:18] We also have been investing in efforts to really look at our total procurement system to try to see if there's any opportunities to increase our technology so that we have an end-to-end process from solicitation to award to post-award contracting.

[01:50:39] Here, this screen outlines our objectives. Again, our primary objectives are increasing access and understanding of our procurement processes, reducing administrative burdens for our vendors, making sure that we don't have any unnecessary steps that the vendor has to go through to bid on a solicitation or to be considered for award, procurement staff dedicated for outreach and training efforts, And then our outcomes, again, we want to provide equitable outcomes in procurement.

[01:51:16] We want to make sure that we are identifying, again, any challenges that impede vendors from participating in our procurement process. We also, since 2024, has taken a look at our procurement policies and procedures and made updates to remove some of those challenges for our vendors.

[01:51:36] And ultimately, these efforts will result in cost and time savings by investing in these resources to build capacity and staff, and our leadership to examine our programs and policies that impact the vendor community, and also increasing our supplier pool, which allows for more competition so that we can make sure that we are having, we have competition when we procure our goods and services to get the best price.

[01:52:06] Success criteria, these are a few of the key performance indicators that we are looking at as we're going through this process of examining our processes for doing business with the vendor community. We want to increase vendor participation in our procurement process, increase forecasted and planned procurement, so taking a look at from six months to 12 months in advance, looking at what do we have coming up so that we can get those opportunities out and in front of the vendor community so that they can prepare to compete on those.

[01:52:44] Also, increasing the number of new vendors and increasing our local minority business enterprises, women business enterprises, and veteran participation. And also increasing the number of contracts that achieve equitable outcomes, making sure that we have clear metrics within our contracts to make sure that we are serving the clients that our contracts aim to serve, and tracking the total diverse contract spend.

[01:53:14] Here is the highlight of some of the progress that we've made so far since 2024. We've hired a vendor relations coordinator. We've hired a procurement training specialist to provide training to our vendor community as well.

[01:53:29] We've held annual procurement expos. We've updated our policies to include outreach to SWAM businesses. We've hosted workshops on how to do business with the county, and we partner with our chambers and other departments in outreach efforts.

[01:53:46] We've increased our vendor registration, and a part of this major effort is launching our disparity study. This slide just shows a little of the comparables from 2024 to fiscal year 25, how our vendor registration numbers have increased.

[01:54:05] And here is a highlight of our outreach and engagement. So since 2024, we've participated in 30-plus vendor outreach and engagement events. On the screen, you see a lot of our partners who invite us out to go and talk to the business community about how to do business with the county, how to navigate our processes, understanding the different procurement methods and thresholds.

[01:54:35] I'd like to acknowledge our vendor relations coordinator, Marcus Crew, who goes out to those events to represent Prince William County. We have a good partnership with Economic Development. They invite us out to their major events as well to engage the community as well.

[01:54:57] And here, one of our key signature events is our annual procurement expo. We're going on our third year. Last year we had over 200 vendors to attend this expo from the photos there. You can see there's great interest from the vendor community in doing business with Prince William County.

[01:55:16] Our overall efforts for supporting the vendor community align with Prince William Procurement Services strategic objectives, developing a robust marketplace that connects our partner agencies to vendors that meet their business needs, increasing the county agency supplier network through vendor outreach to local and SWAM enterprises, and modernizing the acquisition process to improve the overall buyer and vendor experience.

[01:55:49] Our efforts also are aligned with the county strategic plan, goal seven, service delivery, and goal eight, smart growth. And at this time, I will bring up Ms. Mitchell, our consultant MGT, to go over the results of our disparity study.

[01:56:12] Thank you, Ms. Terry. Good afternoon. My name is Vernetta Mitchell. I am the director with MGT and the project director for Prince William County's disparity study. Madam Chair, County Exec, Board, and I specifically want to give a thank you to Ms. Terry and Mr. Crew. A disparity study is very complex. There are always a lot of moving parts and so I thank them for their patience and their dedication to getting this work done. We're very excited to present not only the findings of the study, but also some

[01:56:51] potential remedies that could continue to enhance all of the work that the procurement department has done thus far in making sure that all vendors have an opportunity to bid on Prince William County work. I heard a lot about data centers. That has been the conversation across the country.

[01:57:10] I live in North Carolina, and we're having those conversations, and so it's really exciting to hear all of the work to make sure that all firms have an opportunity to compete for the contracts that you have available. The presentation today will cover three things and then have an opportunity for a Q&A, but I want to spend a few minutes talking about the overview of the study, want to spend a few minutes talking about the objective of the study, and then present to you the results of the study.

[01:57:40] One slide, two slides really, about MGT. We're a national management and research consulting firm. Since our inception, since disparity studies started becoming a need in the 90s, MGT has been conducting studies, and we have been successful in completing more than 250 studies across the U.S.

[01:58:02] Not me, I'm not that old, but I've done quite a few. But we have been doing quite a few studies across the United States, and so we're excited to bring our experience and expertise to Prince William County. This is our team that conducted the study. Andreas Bernal is our executive in charge, and he really is the methodology guru behind MGT's study and as well as the quantitative statistical guru.

[01:58:30] I introduced myself as the project director, really focusing on the project management and the qualitative and report writing in our subcontractor management. The rest of our team here as well. I also want to highlight our consultants that worked with us on this study.

[01:58:49] We utilized firms Skybase 7, which conducted our custom census as well as our vendor survey analysis. We also utilized Small Planet Works, which is a SWAM firm. Both firms are SWAM firms that worked with us on the qualitative data collection.

[01:59:07] And then Create a Heart Marketing created the website that we use for information for the study. Just a quick overview of disparity studies. Studies are designed to determine whether or not there is evidence of discrimination in a marketplace.

[01:59:25] And it's really important to understand that we look at this study as a marketplace analysis in which Prince William County is a part of that overall marketplace. So that is the approach in which we look at this study. We also want to determine whether or not the public entity, depending on the findings of the marketplace analysis, right, the disparity study, whether the Prince William County would be allowed or permitted to utilize any type of efforts to eliminate any discrimination that was identified.

[02:00:03] We also, in this study, involved a collection of both quantitative and qualitative data to make our determination of the study. And then we also provided actionable results that you can then take and implement into some of the continuing processes that Ms. Terry talked about earlier.

[02:00:23] For the county, we determined if disparity exists in awarding contracts for African-American, Asian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Native-Americans, and non-minority women that are willing and available to perform construction, architectural and engineering services, professional services other than professional services or goods.

[02:00:47] So everything from soup to nuts to what you procure, we look to see if there was disparity in those particular categories. This is an important slide because often, you know, there's a lot that goes into conducting a disparity study.

[02:01:06] There's a lot of research, a lot of statistics, et cetera. This is MDT's approach as we look at it as a three-prong approach in determining whether or not disparity exists. Your quantitative is extremely important. That's all of your data. We pulled data from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2024, to analyze how much of that money was spent with minority and women-owned businesses.

[02:01:33] Availability. What firms are available in your marketplace that sell the types of goods and services that you procure is really important. And then whether or not there is disparity. There's a calculation there. The qualitative is equally important.

[02:01:50] It consists of the surveys, the interviews, and the focus groups that we held with businesses to hear specifically from them, is doing business, does their race, ethnicity, or gender impact their ability to do business in the marketplace?

[02:02:08] And part of that marketplace, again, is Prince William County as well. And in the private sector analysis, we really look at, but for discrimination, are minority and women-owned businesses able to open businesses, earn revenue, and also create wages.

[02:02:26] All right, so let's jump into the results. How much did you spend with minority and women-owned businesses from fiscal year 22 to 24? The total expenditures that we analyzed equated to $722 million.

[02:02:43] So that is our pot of money that we analyzed. In total, the county spent 17.25% with minority and women-owned businesses. Asian American-owned firms held the highest level of utilization at 6.88%, followed by Hispanic firms at 5.23% out of that $722 million.

[02:03:09] Notice this isn't broken down yet by the various categories. This is overall. This slide provides or this table provides the breakdown not only by the business owner classification but also by the various industries that we analyze as well.

[02:03:27] And further within the report and the appendices, you'll see it broken down even further by the NAICS code. So instead of the broad category of construction, you'll see further in the report it will have highway, commercial, industrial, subcontractors, and electrical, etc. in the report so you can further define what's going on there.

[02:03:51] Asian-American-owned firms held the highest utilization in professional services at 28.2%. Asian-American-owned firms also held the highest utilization rate in architecture and engineering at 22.85%.

[02:04:07] Hispanic-American firms held the highest utilization in construction at 12.3%. Non-minority women had the highest utilization other than professional services or other than goods, other than services, other than professional services at 6.6.

[02:04:26] And non-minority women held the highest rate of utilization in other than professional services at 5.47. We also, with the data that we were able to obtain through the research of the study, were able to identify what was the expenditures with veteran-owned small businesses as well within Prince William County of the $722 million.

[02:04:53] Veteran-owned services or veteran-owned programs, small business programs, are all considered race and gender neutral types of initiatives, While studies are not required for race and gender-neutral components, it was important to the county for us to identify that, so we did.

[02:05:13] There we go. So during the study period of that spend, $1.6 million, $1.7 million was spent with identified veteran-owned businesses during the study period. And I also want to note that if those veteran-owned businesses were minority or women-owned businesses, their numbers are calculated in the MWBE pool as well.

[02:05:43] In considering what to do moving forward and what type of program, it's very important to identify your relevant geographic market area. That is defined as the firms that you currently do business with, where are they located, and where is the majority of that spend or what is the majority of that spend of those firms.

[02:06:04] So identifying the relevant geographic market area, there are 21 independent cities and counties that make up Prince William's relevant geographic market area. So as Ms. Terry and Mr. Cruz think about what a new program may look like or what type of business initiative they want to have moving forward, these would be the independent cities and counties that they would consider.

[02:06:32] Availability. Firms that are available in that marketplace, those 21 independent cities and counties that provide the types of goods and services that you procure, The estimates are African American owned firms make up 6.8%, Asian American owned firms make up 3.03%, Hispanic American firms make up 6.28%, Native American firms at 1.31%, and non-minority women at 6.48%.

[02:07:01] So disparity is calculated in terms of a ratio. That ratio is calculated, the percentage of utilization, which we reviewed, divided by the percentage of availability, which we just saw, times 100, and you get a ratio.

[02:07:21] At the bottom, you'll see the scale of that ratio. If that ratio is 80 and below, it's substantial disparity, meaning that there is a problem. There's not enough firms being utilized that are available in your marketplace. If that ratio is between 80, 81, and 99, then there's disparity, but there could be causes.

[02:07:44] And sometimes what we've been seeing is that agencies, there's one or two or maybe four or five MWBE firms that have been extremely successful, and they consistently win contracts, so the utilization's really high, but it doesn't really impact availability. If it's 100, it's parity, meaning that you're utilizing MWBE firms at the same rate of availability in the marketplace.

[02:08:08] And if it's over 100, there's no disparity. So what you're looking at here is that there is, and this is overall, the report breaks it down by each category and industry as well. But overall, what you're looking at here is there is no disparity for Asian American-owned firms.

[02:08:27] We saw the utilization at 6.8, but the availability at 3. And then Hispanic firms, there's disparity, but it's in that 81 to 99 ratio. If you look at the groups overall, when you're looking at the program overall, there is substantial disparity.

[02:08:49] The bold also means that we went through statistical significance testing. So the bold means that it's statistically significant that it's not by chance that there is disparity in the marketplace for MWBE firms as a whole. Okay, so that gives you the qualitative results that I talked about in that three-pronged approach that we utilize.

[02:09:15] Now I want to spend a few minutes talking about the marketplace or the private sector analysis, the second of the three-pronged approach. Using data from the U.S. Census, we look to see what are the business earnings of minority women-owned businesses compared to their non-minority and women-owned counterparts in the marketplace.

[02:09:36] And what we found is that there's disparities to exist in the marketplace for MWBE firms controlling for all variables. And the variables, the types of variables that we control for our age of company, education, number of years in business, et cetera.

[02:09:53] MWBE firms overall earn less than their non-MWBE or non-minority male counterparts. In the business formation, how likely is it that a minority women-owned business or minority or woman, non-minority woman, would actually start a business and become an entrepreneur?

[02:10:15] The formation rates are statistically significantly less than their non-minority counterparts as well. Again, holding all things constant, age, education, location, and industry. And the third and final piece of the three-pronged approach that MGT utilizes is the qualitative.

[02:10:39] What are businesses saying about doing business in the marketplace? And while we did find that firms in the marketplace think that their race, ethnicity, and gender does impact their ability to do business, want to be very clear to say that none of the specific anecdotes and comments that we receive from businesses stated specifically that Prince William discriminated against them. But they did create some barriers. They did discuss some barriers, how to do business. Ms. Terry talked about that and what they're doing to do that. But that's not discriminatory. That's doing business

[02:11:16] if you don't know where to go and what to do about how to do business with an agency. But here are some of the issues that were identified by businesses. Communication gaps, firms cited limited communication and feedback on their bids and challenges, navigating requirements.

[02:11:36] Prime contractor behavior also was an issue where a lot of firms felt that a lot of the primes, and MDTs are prime as well as construction primes and other firms that hold contracts with the county, just seemed to check a box and not really interested in working with MWBE firms in the marketplace.

[02:11:58] Informal industry networks, there was a lot of comment around, if you're not part of the clique, you are not going to do business or you're not going to find out what's going on in the marketplace. And like with most businesses, accessing but also acquiring capital was a barrier for firms as well.

[02:12:18] and firms felt that their race, ethnicity, and gender was a barrier to them actually acquiring capital. So in summary, availability of MWBE firms in total, 24%. Highest estimates of availability were African-American-owned firms at 6.8, non-minority women-owned firms at 6.48. MWBE utilization at 17.25% of the total expenditures, the $722 million during the study period.

[02:12:52] Veteran-owned business utilization at $1.69 million. Disparities, substantial disparities were found for MWBE firms except for Asian Americans. Private sector disparities of wages as well as self-employment was significantly less than non-MWBE firms.

[02:13:14] And then the majority of the instances reported in the qualitative results of discrimination was for the broader marketplace and challenges associated with doing business and operating as a small business. So what were some of our recommendations of addressing the concerns and the data that we found?

[02:13:35] One is increasing the procurement data collection. I think one of the major delays that we had with the study is collecting data for subcontractors. They are part of the marketplace.

[02:13:51] The county does not currently collect that data, and it's very important to collect that data to understand what is happening in the marketplace in the long run, and especially as you continue to look at milestones of accomplishments over time. Establishing a business inclusion program, and we say a business inclusion program because not only would it include MWBEs, but it would also include your veteran businesses as well as your small businesses in the marketplace.

[02:14:21] Establish a Program Sunset Clause. If there is a program established as a result of the study that includes MWBE or race and gender-based initiatives, there always has to be a period of time in which you come back and reevaluate whether or not a program is still needed.

[02:14:38] So that is what the Sunset Clause is designed to do. We recommend seven years from now, maybe five to seven years from now. Most disparity studies are conducted between five and seven years because the data needs to be current and relevant.

[02:14:56] You're just starting, so I'll probably give yourself another grace of a year before you come back and reevaluate. But it's very important to evaluate year over year how you're doing, and that's why that data collection becomes very important. And then adopt aspirational goals, which are very different from project-specific goals.

[02:15:15] So the goals that we recommended are achievements that you're trying to achieve over time, but not to be applied for every contract that comes out. You need to evaluate the goals for contracts as they come out. I think I said that one.

[02:15:34] Establish a business inclusion office, and then also promoting procurement transparency and inclusivity, and that is a procurement forecast, and I think that's already in the works of 6 to 12 months so that firms can prepare and potentially partner with other firms to bid on county work or propose on county contracts. All right, so in summary, $722 million was the amount of funds or dollars, contracts that we analyzed. The construction was the highest rate of utilization

[02:16:13] at 91% out of that $722 million, availability 21% in the marketplace of those firms, in the relevant geographic marketplace, let me be more specific, of those firms that provide the goods and services that you procure, utilization at 17.25%, thereby there's a disparity in the utilization of MWBE firms in the marketplace.

[02:16:41] And so our recommendations outlined are designed to strengthen those opportunities for not only minority women-owned business, but also veteran-owned businesses and small businesses in your marketplace. Oops, I went too far.

[02:17:01] Thank you, Ms. Mitchell. Next steps. So the Office of Procurement Services plans to use the study recommendations to develop a strategic supplier diversity program, same as the business inclusion program mentioned by Ms. Mitchell, in accordance with the Code of Virginia and other applicable law.

[02:17:29] So what I'll do is walk through those recommendations and what the plan is for the Office of Procurement Services. So the recommendation on improving procurement data collection, we will continue to explore reporting and data analysis functionality with the current procurement system that we have until funding is available for a new e-procurement system.

[02:17:52] Recommendation B, establishing a business inclusion program. As stated, we will, consistent with applicable law, develop a strategic supplier diversity program that may include race and gender-based paths for minority and/or women-owned businesses, as well as race and gender neutral paths for disabled, veteran, and small businesses.

[02:18:15] And the strategic supplier diversity program will be managed by the Office of Procurement Services. Recommendation on promoting transparency and inclusivity. We will develop a procurement forecast of planned procurements and contracting opportunities and post that publicly on our website and distribute it to the vendor community.

[02:18:41] Recommendation E, establish a program sunset clause. For our sunset clause period, we will go with seven years because this is the first program that the county will establish and it will take time to implement the program, so we will, within seven years, we will have to conduct another disparity study to determine if we have remedied the barriers that have been proposed or if there are new barriers that exist.

[02:19:12] And recommendation F, we will adopt the aspirational goals that were included within the disparity study report. And I will take questions as well as Ms. Mitchell.

[02:19:28] all right thank you so very much for the report i'm going to start with supervisor vega thank you madam chair uh first off uh thank you miss terry and thank you miss mitchell uh for the presentation today uh i want to follow up by saying congratulations to prince william county once again the data proves what i think most of us have suspected for a very long time from this county prior to mrs terry's arrival in 2023 and prior to mr shorter becoming the county executive I had asked a few questions, and I got those responses not too long ago,

[02:20:03] and so I want to thank Ms. Terry for the answers to my questions. The purpose of my questions was to confirm that our practices here in Prince William County have been fair, impartial, competitive, and protective of taxpayer dollars or taxpayers in general.

[02:20:22] One of the questions that I asked was in reference to the mission of the Procurement Services Office, And the response I got was, it is to obtain high-quality goods at a reasonable cost, avoid impropriety, and ensure no qualified vendor is arbitrarily excluded.

[02:20:40] And that is exactly the standard that we have and the one that we should continue to hold, and one that, in my opinion, states it is indicative of what we have here in regards to this study. I want to thank Ms. Mitchell for making the distinction that some of the barriers that have been identified are not a direct indication of anything that we're doing here in Prince William County.

[02:21:05] And again, based on the questions that I asked, the answers that I got, and what I think the most important conclusion is to study is that there was no quantitative or qualitative evidence of discrimination by the county. Not that that was ever implied, but when we as a governing body ask of our county executive and of staff to come to this board with data, it is for the very sole purpose to ensure that whatever policy we put forward is substantiated and backed by said data.

[02:21:32] And so I appreciate that. And I do think that this is good practice. Some would argue and say that spending almost $400,000 on this disparity study is a lot of money. But in my opinion, if that is to verify the procedural aspects of this office and to provide accountability, then I would argue that those almost $400,000 were well spent.

[02:21:54] I want to move forward to talk a little bit about the specifics of the data and progress report. One of the things that really stood out to me was the significant existing success. The county's progress update in 2024 to current shows that our current race-neutral efforts are already highly successful.

[02:22:14] And I just want to talk a little bit about what those numbers said and the story they tell. And if I'm incorrect in some of these numbers or data points that I'm bringing up, please let me know. In regards to vendor registration, the total registrations increased by 12%.

[02:22:31] SWAM, a lot of people don't know what that means. SWAM. SWAM I'm sorry and we've been using that it's small women owned and minority owned businesses. Registrations increased from 104 in FY24 to 308 in FY25. That is a massive 196 percent increase. Veteran participation increased from 3 to 12 and the study also highlights that the county has already held over 30 outreach events which I think have been very successful and when I'm out in the community and talking to folks I do get questions in regards to how do we sign up

[02:23:09] what is the process to become a vendor a partner with the county and so you know it is a good indication that these outreach efforts are producing results because as stated oftentimes what some may proceed as barriers are in my opinion more so procedural challenges that we need to fix from the day as we've talked about those procedural challenges not just with the office of procurement but whether it's the office of planning the office you know of permits and whatnot we always hear from folks that want to do business in Prince William County but compare us to let's say you know Fairfax or Loudoun and that opening up a business in

[02:23:46] those localities is much easier than doing that in Prince William County so So I'd argue that, you know, we still have quite a bit of work to do in regards to the procedural aspects of how we do things. I did want to ask if there is somebody that would like to file a complaint or has an allegation of discrimination today, what does that process look like?

[02:24:08] We have a process for, I can speak from the procurement process, of bid protests. So if a vendor participates in the bid process, they submit a bid or proposal, they are not happy with that process, they think that they were evaluated arbitrarily and capriciously, they can file a protest.

[02:24:32] And that is outlined in the Virginia Public Procurement Act. Thank you for that, Ms. Terry. I am looking at the screen and I ran out of time. Madam Chair, I'll hold off for now and I'll come back for further. Thank you. Supervisor Barody. Thank you, Madam Chair. Ms. Mitchell, Ms. Terry, thank you for the presentation.

[02:24:49] Appreciate all the work that's been done on this so far. I also appreciate that, like Supervisor Vegas said, the amount of work that was done and really identifying where gaps and barriers that actually exist and where they're perceived, right, just based on misinformation, lack of information, what have you. But I did still want to highlight the fact that, you know, your study did find that there are gaps and that, you know, folks, for whatever better reason or others, feel like there's still a gap between where they sit and their ability to access and be part of these processes and the utilization rate, right? As the largest non-white county majority in the

[02:25:27] Commonwealth, there's still some digging we need to do and some work around that, and the study sees that, right? And so part of the reason why I really appreciate sort of the findings and the ultimate next steps and conclusion is that you talk about how, again, this isn't getting at discrimination per se it's not really uh setting up a system and an office that really program that really looks at how can we break down some of those gaps how can we bring folks together how can we make sure that folks as they exist in the community that want to do business with us and want to do business as and what have you are able to do that and really while we know that getting to parity in all these things is a really high bar that we set that aspiration that we have

[02:26:06] goals to set and then start to pursue those goals so really wanted to commend you on that piece as well um also wanted to uh tell us just highlight sort of why this is important work and i appreciate suezer vega's sort of comments on this but you know it makes the county more accessible and fair to everyone um you know that's to be a basic goal we have as a county right especially as a county as diverse as us um it would look for barriers gaps what have you and i appreciate that but this also is a vehicle to boost competition, expand our local vendor pool, right? I know that, Mr.

[02:26:40] Crew, you do a lot of networking and a lot of work on that out in the community, so I wanted to say that, but having an actual program that really brings that into a systemic clearinghouse and ability to move that forward is important as well. It also supports community growth. As many of these SWAM business owners are locally owned and run, right? You talked about that geographic reason, that market region, and yeah, we want to sort of highlight and really uplift the Prince William County folks, but we also know that we're part of a regional ecosystem.

[02:27:08] If we're able to help get more folks in the region working on these projects, that may incentivize them to then relocate or bring a new satellite office to Prince William County. They find they're doing a lot of work here. It's actually in their best interest, an economic perspective, to actually bring more folks actually work here as it pertains to an office or what have you.

[02:27:29] And frankly, the more work we're able to have people do in the county and with the county that means more local tax dollars will be generated by the economic activity but also consumed because if those people are doing more work in producing county that means they're shopping at our stores they're buying lunch at our restaurants they're doing all these things that we talk about we're talking about a really robust economic system and frankly helps us diversify our economics because it's less just sort of this uh washington dc bubble of where everyone goes to work and they lay their heads down here when they come back home um so the last thing i'll say it helps promote transparency um as sures vega said you know a lot of these things

[02:28:07] sort of boil down to people's perception their initial experience what have you but actually having tracked metrics and actually doing a study and actually doing the anecdotes and compared to how folks can actually navigate the system then remedying those perspective those perceived uh gaps and barriers actually helps promote diversity uh transparency because then people realize hey you know some of these issues aren't what i thought they were and really the county is really leaning in on trying to make this as accessible as fair as possible um so i just wanted to commend you all for that work um i'm really excited for this initiative and i'm really happy to hear that you folks are going to be uh leaning in and actually adopting the recommendations of the

[02:28:46] study thank you madam chair all right supervisor bailey thank you madam chair um well let me just highlight uh to uh miss miss terry and miss mitchell welcome and to mr crew uh y'all tag team really good really well i wanted to uh just highlight a couple things and then i have one question one is the outreach and engagement thank you for including the dumfries business expo that made me feel really proud so i you know but there are there's diversity here as well so i think um

[02:29:25] That was excellent growing potential for us, for Prince William County. I wanted to compliment you also on the fact that as you were going through your presentation earlier, Shana, I looked at it and I said, this sounds like the strategic plan.

[02:29:41] So the partnership there, the synergy there, is essential as we bring the community along as well. As we're introducing this level of change to the community, It shows synergy between what you do and a strategic plan and offering the services to the community.

[02:30:01] So I wanted to compliment you on that. The two questions that I have was, one is, do we currently have a data system to track this end-to-end across a contract full life cycle? And if not, what's the plan to get us there?

[02:30:18] Because you mentioned in your presentation the new e-procurement system. Is that the plan? Over time, we hope that we will be able to get a procurement system that functions specifically for procurement. Right now, we use an Oracle-based system, which is part of the financial system, but there are procurement systems built specifically for procurement that help track these type of efforts that we hope, as funding allows, whenever it does, that we would be able to pursue that.

[02:30:54] Yeah, and thank you for that. I wanted to circle back on something else. You know, diversity is not automatically what we think it is. This is diversity in business operations. And so this is growing pains, but this is good because we are at a great level and you're taking us to the next level.

[02:31:14] So just wanted to highlight that. The other thing is what, this may be a little premature, but I just, in the gap that we found, the opportunity that we found, What's the decisions or the resources that you need from us, the board, as we go into the FY27 timeline?

[02:31:38] Ooh, a wish list. Just put some stuff. I mean, just so that we can start thinking along those lines. Because we're coming into the budget season. We're growing together. But just, you know, highlight some things for us. I'm sensitive to the budget needs of the county.

[02:31:56] Yeah, of course you are. Good answer. I'm not looking at the county exec because I'm asking this question. I will say e-procurement system is number one on my goal. And, you know, even if it's not approved, I will continue to advocate for that.

[02:32:15] As we stand up, go through the process to adopt the strategic supplier diversity program, we're dealing with a lean staff right now. We don't know what those needs would be until we do stand up the program.

[02:32:34] So I can't say that there will be any staffing needs right away over time there may be. Okay. And then lastly, I haven't got a minute. I just want to close out by saying this also offers diversity when we talk about the conversations and the partnerships that we have with industry.

[02:32:52] It really opens the door for industry to start thinking a different way as well. And so when we talk about the diversity of having women-owned businesses and minority-owned businesses and veteran-owned businesses, it really helps us dig a little bit deeper in the greater services that we give to our community.

[02:33:14] So this, I was very impressed by the results of this. And thank you, Ms. Terry. Every time you promise us something, you bring it back. So thank you. Thank you. All right, Supervisor Ingrid and Vega.

[02:33:31] Thank you, Madam Chair. So, Ms. Terry, I just want to say, I remember in 2020, we had all these visions of what we wanted to do with our economic development, with procurement, with growing the county, and then the drastic COVID hit, and everything shifted from bringing in business to saving businesses.

[02:33:52] So, we were spending more money on businesses than we were bringing in on new businesses. So, we put everything in the visions that we had on hold, on the shelf, and it took literally, what, three years? to 2022, 2023, really, before we started trying to see traction.

[02:34:09] And today, here you go, bringing in all the visions that we talked about or had in our head in 2020, down to the disparity study. So thank you for that presentation. I'm just really happy that we're at this point now, and where we are in the county, it's really growing.

[02:34:26] I want to say a couple of things. First, that young man you got behind you does validate all of the expos that you ever have because he represents that very well. I run into people all the time that says, do you know Mr. Crew? Because he's doing the business thing that we've all talked about doing.

[02:34:43] I send so many people to the portal to sign up to be a part of doing business with Prince William County. And my question to you is, you talked a little bit about the veteran side of this. When government contracts shut down, we have so many people in Northern Virginia that we probably didn't realize as we talked about federal employees losing their jobs.

[02:35:03] these veterans who are contractors, who have these contracts with the government. Some success stories here in the county that we actually are doing business with a few of the contractors. I'm curious in that veteran role, I don't know if you have that number now, I want to follow that group to see how much of the veteran contract world we end up doing business with here in Preston County.

[02:35:24] I know that they're signing up across all of the counties to really get into all those portals, because I think it's a great opportunity for what we have to offer, which will then only diversify us even more as far as our groups of folks that really we work with the county.

[02:35:41] So really happy to see where we are. Why don't they just give you one big giant kudos? That expo we do over at Hilton Performing Arts, that thing is massive. That is a really cool thing. I'm always looking forward to going there. So thank you guys. And I think that relationship, I think every department in Prince William County, you all touch for one thing.

[02:36:01] Procurement definitely touches. When we look at economic development and what you guys are doing in there and really growing this county with businesses and really tracking the flow of who's coming in and the money that's coming in now, I'm very happy. Just want to congratulate you and thank you for the job well done.

[02:36:17] Thank you. And I will say we have made progress in efforts from when our vendor relations coordinator, Mr. Croup, goes out to these events, has a one-on-one with the vendor. We're tracking them. Did you register?

[02:36:32] Did you participate? in a bid? Did you pursue an upcoming opportunity? So we're trying to track these vendors throughout the process to find out like what their success is or what the barriers were. If they registered, they competed, what challenges did you run into? So, and we welcome you all to the procurement expo. And Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair. Ms. Terry, I want to ask, is there any indication or data to support that the procurement process is not fair or accessible? So there is

[02:37:08] qualitative analysis talking to vendors challenges in terms of you know navigating our processes sometimes like a new vendor use some assistance you know once you get registered this is where you go this is how you sign in all of that technical assistance so a lot of times just looking at a job aid is not enough for some vendors especially if you're new to the county You haven't competed before.

[02:37:39] You don't know all the steps of the process. So we're trying to break that process down and make it more accessible and user-friendly for the vendors. But those are some of the challenges. What is the collaboration and or partnership with your office and that of economic development?

[02:37:55] We partner with economic development. When they have their events, we have a presence there to speak to the vendor community. If they get questions about how to do business with the county or procurement opportunities, They pass those businesses on to procurement, and then we walk them through the process of procurement.

[02:38:14] I know that when Economic Development opens up their business hub, we do plan to have a presence there. Our vendor relations coordinator will be there a couple of days out of the week. We will also host some of our workshops on how to do business with the county from that space as well.

[02:38:30] So we have a great relationship with Economic Development, and we partner all the time. Thank you for that. I think that there's an opportunity here to figure out a way to work better, to try to bridge said gaps without the need of having to implement an entire new office.

[02:38:49] But that is my personal opinion. I did want to make sure that I heard your response to Supervisor Bailey correctly when she asked about the funding. You said that initially there would not be a cost, but that at some point there would be? Related to staffing, like would we need additional staffing?

[02:39:06] We wouldn't know that until we got the program up. Okay, so we have no idea what that price tag is going to look like until this board gives further direction. Until we implement the program and see if we're able to manage it with our own resources that we have now.

[02:39:24] Right, which needs the board to direct you to do that. That's all I have for now, Madam Chair. Supervisor Bailey? Yeah, great question, Supervisor Vega, because I was going to ask. It's a great question. Anyway, I wanted to also say that going back to something about the partnership as well with economic development, I think that we're seeing a lot when you all come and do your presentations from the agencies that there are a lot of partnerships,

[02:39:55] which in our strategic plan, that was one of the things that was absolutely necessary so that the end result is holistic. So I really, really do appreciate that. And then the other thing that I really wanted to say was the level of service that we are, because, well, you know, it's been said, it's hard doing business in Prince William County.

[02:40:24] So I think that this opens the door and it bridges the gap in doing healthier, holistic business in Prince William County and sharpens the tools that we need to do business in Prince William County.

[02:40:41] It's a facade, but I think this helps us go to the next level and not make some of the regional mistakes, if you will, avoid some of the regional mistakes as we go forward. So I just wanted to point that out because, you know, as we grow, you know, it could be denoted as it's hard, but it may not be hard.

[02:41:01] It just might be an opportunity to grow and be more strategic in how we do it. So I just wanted to say that. Thanks, Madam Chair. All right. Thank you so very much. I know that you guys are looking for direction. So I would say a good portion of this board, you know, I don't know if anyone wants to say yes or no to directional approval, but it does sound like we have a majority of people.

[02:41:25] I just want to say this. I do think that this is incredibly important, and having the data helps. It gives us guidance. It allows us to know which way to move forward. When we have discussions like this, people also talk about merit, and I don't think merit is a good conversation to have because merit is also shaped by access, access to capital, access to certain networks.

[02:41:48] It's also shaped by how people, unfortunately, view us. Sometimes people look at someone and make judgments on what their capability is without truly understanding what that person brings to the table. That's not something we can correct for. But that's something that we have to acknowledge.

[02:42:05] And if there are ways to work around that, if there are ways to make sure that we are giving that access that merit is often based upon, I think that that's something we should do. So I do think that we should move forward. That is my opinion. I would like to, I know there will be costs associated, but I have a feeling that we need to move forward in order to understand what costs may be associated with this.

[02:42:29] Supervisor Vega. For the county attorney, this requires a vote? No, we're not asking the board to take any. I'm sorry. But for clarity, the chair has signaled that there is a majority in support, and I just want to make sure that procedurally we're doing this correctly.

[02:43:02] I would refer to the county executive as to what he needs in order to come back to follow up with the board's direction. Yep. Thank you very much, County Attorney and Supervisor Vega. So the way I see this, we are going to design a program based on the next steps and recommendations outlined to the board that will come back to the board.

[02:43:21] And it may come back to the board by way of memo from me for the board to be aware. But before we spend any new money or ask for any new FTEs, we will come around either individually to board members were collectively in a board meeting. I do not plan to, as part of the FY27 budget, bring forward any new spending because we are just now in a place where we have received the recommendations and been able to publicly discuss them with the board. But we will work together as staff, design a program, and then come back to the board for your consideration.

[02:43:59] Madam Chair, if I may follow up. When you come back to us, at any point will that require a vote by this board an actual vote if new spending is required i.e. if we are designing a program it requires additional compliance investigators outreach staff of any kind then yes we would be coming back to the board if ultimately we're asking the board we are asking for additional funding we're asking for additional funding for materials or spending for outreach we would come

[02:44:35] back to the board. So yes, there may be a need for us to come back. What is the timeline? I don't know if, Director, you wanted to? Timeline, I would say six months or more. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[02:44:53] So to be clear again, we're giving functional approval to move forward that this is something that the majority of the board agrees on. And you're saying six months. So if you need additional funding, would that be for the next fiscal year or would you be making a request for an off cycle?

[02:45:09] It would be I wouldn't do it off cycle. It would be for the next fiscal year. Gotcha. Gotcha. All right. Doesn't seem like there's anything else. Again, thank you very much for, you know, such a strong and informative presentation. Thank you. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, members of the board. And thank you to Director Terry, to Marcus Crew and to Miss Mitchell. Appreciate all the work.

[02:45:34] I know more than just the presentation, this required really a lot of engagement with our community, vendor, and business. So just want to appreciate you all for the great work. Madam Chair, I wanted to follow up on a question that Supervisor Bodie asked earlier in the afternoon.

[02:45:50] So the symposium that Supervisor Bodie asked about was a human trafficking symposium. So generally, there are survivors at that symposium and law enforcement. We don't generally record when that's the case. We are also, we've invited the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to be a main presenter at that symposium.

[02:46:12] Generally, they don't allow for recording when they are the main presenter. So we will, however, be sending an invitation through the clerk's office to each of your offices. So I would welcome your attendance, but we will likely not be recording.

[02:46:29] If I could, Madam Chair. Thank you for that. And that's a good understanding. I assume some of that had to do with it, but again, constituents were asking me, and they were just sort of told no, and I think having that broader explanation as to why helps the public understand.

[02:46:45] Appreciate it. All right. Thank you so very much. We are now moving on to agenda item number four, and that is supervisor's time. We do not have any votes scheduled for this week, so I'm just going to start going around the horn first.

[02:47:01] Supervisor Angry. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll just start by congratulating Ms. Jessica Francis, being the new NVBIA president. Thank you, St. Ronan, for your year of success as we build homes throughout the county.

[02:47:17] So looking forward to a great year with you, Mrs. Francis. And then really, just congratulations to our new Governor Spanberger, Lieutenant Governor Hashmi, and Attorney General Jones.

[02:47:32] Looking forward to working with you this year in many roles and capacities and moving Virginia forward. So thank you for that. Let's see, the 28th. So we have right now, I'm hoping this all works, it's tentative that there's going to be a ribbon-cutting for the groundbreaking for the Homeless Navigation Center East, finally getting to that mark.

[02:47:55] So that's on the 28th. It's 9 a.m., so still some details coming. I hope those get confirmed and locked in. So we'll just go at what we have there. And then I believe that is all, Madam Chair. Thank you. Thank you.

[02:48:11] Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to give my notice of intent to reappoint Ron Krieger to the Animal Advisory Committee. His resume is on file. That is all I have. All right, then, Supervisor Bodie. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[02:48:26] I just wanted to highlight the great, as always, MLK War Toggle Competition and program that quite a few of us went to yesterday. I'm going to sound like a broken record, but whenever we and I have gone to that event, it always gives me more and renewed hope for the future.

[02:48:47] It makes me jealous of what all those kids are doing when they're 13, 14, 15, 16 years old versus what I was able to do at that age. But frankly, they not only sort of sharpened their oratorical skills for that competition, they also challenged us. You know, most of us there were adults in that room, in that massive packed church yesterday.

[02:49:08] But they challenged us to think about the status quo and how we can do better by them. And frankly, how they are already, in the words of Mayor Derek Wood, who are they becoming, right? Who they want to become as they take the stage in our local community.

[02:49:23] So really wanted to thank the ladies of Delta Sigma Theta for, as always, organizing that event, Mount Zion Baptist Church down in Suarez of Bailey District for hosting that, and, of course, all the great students who participated, whether they were finalists or not.

[02:49:40] The last thing I'll sort of talk about here is I like to find anecdotes and stories about how things that we've done on this board and things that county staff has done has really been a deliverable for folks. So I'm going to be very high level here to protect people's identities and what have you.

[02:49:58] But one of my kids who's in middle school, one of his classmates had a mental health crisis two weeks ago, was hospitalized for a very short time, but then was relocated to the crisis receiving center within about 20, about 18 hours was then released with connected to services and was on a good path.

[02:50:23] Now, is that that young person already completely healed? Absolutely not. We know that mental health, trauma, things like that take time, but I highlight that to say that if not for the crisis receiving center, that would not have happened. That young person would have had to probably be transported to some other part of the region or some other part of the state.

[02:50:42] That person probably would have been in a very long line at legacy pre-existing facilities and probably would have taken much longer to get connected to the resources that they needed in order to at least get on the path to healing. And what's actually the most interesting thing about that story is that as my teenager was relying this to me, one of the classmates, which was sort of in the same group chat as when this started spiraling out, knew to call 988 along that process.

[02:51:11] So these are middle schoolers, right? And they actually informed the parents they needed to call 988 as well. So there is good, at least some kind of socializing of these resources that, again, would not exist if not for the work of this board, the folks out in the community, our county staff, of course, Supervisor Bailey, who shepherded that project through from birth to completion.

[02:51:36] But I just say that to say is we talk about the mental health crisis, we talk about acutely among children, and this is an example, really living example of that work and why that delivers. So I just wanted to highlight that and wanted to, again, thank everyone that made that a reality because, again, outcomes and lives are changed because of that work.

[02:51:56] Thank you, Madam Chair. All right, Supervisor Gordy. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just, you know, given our conversation related to the disparity study, it was interesting because I spoke at the Prince William Chamber of Commerce's Military Veterans and Public Safety Council, along with Don L. Johns, one of our veterans commissioners, who has a fantastic business of helping veterans start and grow their businesses.

[02:52:29] And I just had a great conversation with them last Thursday. Appreciate the invite and the opportunity to share the priorities, some issues that we're confronting as a community, but also the opportunities that are there. But within that group of people, I mean, it was a diverse crowd.

[02:52:49] And so I think, you know, I want to make sure that as we understand kind of the previous conversation, there are people in the private sector that are working to help grow businesses. And those businesses and give them those tools, give them those opportunities, point them to financing, point them to the types of resources they need to be successful.

[02:53:17] And Donnell Johns is one of those individuals. um that's doing that within our community and i and i it's very impressed with the program that he has um and we're we're blessed to have him um but other than that madam chair that's that's really all i have um and uh appreciate but again appreciate the work that that's happening may not you know at at personal expense uh and the and the commitments and sacrifices that are being made every day within the public sector of Prince William County. Thank you very much.

[02:53:52] Supervisor Stewart. Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to mention the inauguration in Richmond, which was absolutely outstanding. Along with the ball, it was great to see so many people from the community and make connections with people even outside of Prince William County while I was there. I was also at the church yesterday with the MLK oratory that was

[02:54:26] hosted by Delta Sigma Theta. And all I can say about that is, you know, my hope in humanity for our future has been restored. You know, so many concerns that we have about our next generation and the pressures that they're facing while some of those pressures were definitely um spoken about during this oratory competition i really felt you know as a you know as an old guy my age you know

[02:55:01] my feet being held to the fire um as far as you know like what are we doing and why after 250 years of our nation's existence we're still dealing with a lot of the very same issues that we were facing on day one um so i i wanted to speak to that i also want to thank um my staff um along with supervisor angry staff um for compiling the human trafficking uh awareness day board of county

[02:55:34] supervisors video and i want to thank everybody who um who participated um while it was fun doing that it raises concern about a very, very serious issue that I think it's incumbent upon all of us to keep an eye on and remember that we are our brothers and sisters keepers. Yeah, so I want to thank them for that. I also want to appoint James Cummings and George Parker to the Heritage Hunt

[02:56:11] Commercial Community Development Authority. Their resumes were emailed to the county clerk today or to our clerk, to the board clerk today, and reappoint Margarita Woods Moylan to the Board of Equalization, and her resume is already on file. Thank you. Thank you, and Supervisor Bailey.

[02:56:35] Thank you, Madam Chair. Let me start off by reappointing, give the notice of intent for Eric Fagerholm to be reappointed to the Admiral Advisory Committee. His resume is on file. And on the 15th, I was very much thankful for Chief Newsham and the police department for helping in the federal investigation and decisive actions as it relates to human trafficking, as it relates to the practice of drug trafficking and all that.

[02:57:12] in my district. They were impeccable. Investigation is still pending, but they were impeccable in protecting the community and making sure that the work got done. So to your staff and Victor's staff, you're on point. We're there, whatever you need. Then on the 15th, I had a wonderful time at the Potomac Shores, 100th basketball game. Congratulations to Principal Dorsey, Coach Mark Marshall, and the JV and varsity teams on an exceptional job. Well done. They have not lost a game in five years, so I'm excited about them.

[02:57:52] And then on the 16th, I was confirmed this past Friday as the chair of VRE. We've got a lot of work to do here in this region, and so I'm very excited to take the gavel from, but share continually because she was an impeccable chair. Sarah Bagley from Alexandria, our past chair, as we lead and dedicate the work and getting done for people traveling on the VRE. And to my staff, thank you for participating in the ribbon cutting for Donnell John's Veterans Growing America. He

[02:58:27] rocks. He knows the veterans inside and out, and he advocates for them. So thank you, Donnell, for moving just up the street, and congratulations and much honor to our new state delegation, Virginia's first woman governor, Abigail Spanberger, our first Muslim woman to hold statewide office in the United States as a lieutenant governor, Ghazala Hashmi, and to our first African-American attorney general, congratulations to Mr. Gerald J. Jones. In my absence, I sincerely congratulate the Human Rights Commission for their awards that were bestowed this past Saturday.

[02:59:07] And then I joined my colleagues yesterday at Mount Zion. Pastor Jones, thank you for allowing us to be in your edifice for the 41st MLK Youth Oratorical Competition. And they were outstanding.

[02:59:24] There is hope in our youth coming forward. So I'm excited about that. They talked to us about education, uplift, and igniting change, and they told us, don't be scared. Don't be scared. On the 21st, upcoming events, I will be attending the basic law enforcement session, number 62, for their graduation.

[02:59:45] On the 21st, also, I'll be hosting an HOA management appreciation meeting with my HOA leaders in my community. And then on the 24th, I'm honored to be the guest speaker of Women in Community Action, their annual mother and daughter, T, here in Prince William County.

[03:00:04] And then on the 29th, I'll be having my community town hall in the Potomac District. All are welcome. Thank you, Madam Chair. Oh, wait, Madam Chair, I got a minute and 25. Congratulations to our wonderful colleague, Delegate Margaret Franklin.

[03:00:20] Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Kind of almost gave me a heart attack. You okay now? All right. We stopped the presses. So I actually wanted to pick up, because I have this in my notes to mention, the raid, the FBI and police raid at the red carpet. And that business has been a real sore spot among other hoteliers.

[03:00:44] I'll get it right. I've had many conversations with other businesses in that area, and they've been very much concerned what's been happening at that hotel. We knew that there was an investigation. And to see that there have been arrests made, hopefully, and I say hopefully, that will put an end to it.

[03:01:03] The problem is that when you have activities like that, they tend to go other places. And so that's something that we're going to have to watch out for as well. You know, it was disturbing to read all the reports and the depth of what was happening there. But trafficking and, you know, drug distribution, that's not something anyone wants in their community.

[03:01:26] And I'm really proud that the FBI and, you know, Prince William County police were at least able to prevent it at that location. So I also want to quickly name on Monday, January 26th, you know, Lord willing and the snow don't come, that I have the state of the county at 6 o'clock.

[03:01:48] Again, snow. I come from the Midwest. I'm used to snow. I can drive in snow. But this ain't Chicago. We don't have the salt trucks or the salt. So, you know, that's all I'm going to say about that.

[03:02:04] I love the weather here, but, you know, it's a particular thing for me that we have snow every year. But still, you know, when the white stuff falls from the sky, it's, you know, cause for concern in Virginia. So I just have to say that.

[03:02:20] But I would also like to make notice of attend to reappoint Laura Hafler to the Animal Advisory Committee. And I also would like to congratulate Travis Nembhardt, who has been named as a Deputy Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

[03:02:38] Travis was my appointee to the Manassas Regional Airport Commission, and he did an excellent job. They're going to miss him. They've already told me that like 19 times. They're going to miss him. He's going to miss them. But in his place, I would like to appoint Kevin Willis to the Manassas Regional Airport Commission.

[03:02:56] He is someone who has FAA experience and extensive knowledge of the aviation industry. So with that, I've got a couple minutes left. I ain't going to use it all. We are going to go into closed session. Ten minutes, y'all.

[03:03:11] Okay. You know who the repeat offenders are? I wasn't looking. I was just looking around. Okay. I will name names next time. Thank you.

[03:03:53] All right.

[03:04:14] We are back from closed session. Everyone rolling. So, first, I would like a motion to certify our closed meeting. So moved. Second. Second. Vega angry. Vega angry. Okay. And then angry to second.

[03:04:32] Is that vangry? Vangry? Sir, no, sir.

[03:04:52] Okay, I voted for you. Vote unanimous. Holding us up. All right. We have one thing to certify. Supervisor Bailey, if you can make the motion. Madam Chair, I move to the acceptance of the resignation of Margaret A. Franklin from the office of woodbridge magisterial district supervisor on the board of county supervisors of prince wheaton county effective 6 p.m on january 19 2026 and authorize and direct the county attorney to notify and petition the circuit court to issue a writ for special election to fill

[03:05:32] the vacancy in the membership of the board of county supervisors with regard to the office of Woodbridge District Supervisor. Second. All right, I'll give it to Stewart. Everything is like in unison today. All right. I don't believe there's any discussion, so let's go ahead and take our vote.

[03:05:51] Supervisor Stewart, are you back up? I'm up. Okay, good. No. Vote unanimous. Motion to adjourn. Second. I'm sorry, I won't. Can I clean up my – I have to clean up.

[03:06:09] No, we are not – because – no, no, no, no, no, no. Supervisor Angry had something he wanted to say. I'm sorry. All right, go Supervisor Angry. I just want to clear up, so the groundbreaking for the homeless navigation at the East End Center is not going to happen on the 20th.

[03:06:27] So I'll get back with you on a date as we determine that. So there will be no groundbreaking on the 28th. Thank you. Hold on. I did not ask for a motion to adjourn. Therefore, I would like to, hmm.

[03:06:48] Motion's made. You must vote. Unabatable. Ooh. I don't have a second. All right, let's vote. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much.

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