Coraggio Consulting Prince William Board of County Supervisors Meeting, Tuesday, February 17, 2026 Date: Tuesday, February 17, 2026 Place: Prince William County Board of County Supervisors, Virginia Length: 3h 34m (video) Official meeting video (Prince William County, Granicus): https://pwcgov.granicus.com/player/clip/3787 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [00:00:07] It is 2 o'clock on Tuesday, February 17th. Let us begin with a moment of silence. [00:00:25] 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. [00:00:46] All right. We are going to move on to the third item. That is approval of the minutes. Can I get a motion? So moved, Madam Chair. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? All right. Let's go ahead and take our votes. vote unanimous supervisor angry absent from vote all right thank you so very much we're now moving on to agenda item number four accommodations and proclamations i had a request to pull out 4a we'll do that first and separately can i get a motion for 4a move for approval madam chair second all [00:01:22] right it's been probably moved in a second let's take our vote motion passes four to one supervisor angry absent from vote supervisor vega voting nay and supervisor gordy abstaining all right and i I just want to let everyone know we are actually going to give that one at our 7 o'clock meeting to accommodate the secretary's schedule. [00:01:52] I'd like to now get a motion for 4B through 4E. So move, Madam Chair. Second. We're probably moving to second. Any discussion? All right. I'd like to call for the vote. I can't hit yet. [00:02:08] Okay, I got it. All right. Thank you so very much. We are going to move down to the podium with everyone who's associated with the 60th anniversary of the Prince William County Department of Fire and Rescue. Please join me. [00:02:25] Wait, where's your crew today? I mean, normally we got to, whenever fire does something, I was expecting an entourage. I'm coming down. And thank you so much, LaBelle, Chief LaBelle, for your great sense of humor. [00:02:59] All right. In 1996, the Prince William County Department of Fire and Rescue was established as the county's first career fire and rescue department, forming the foundation of what would become one of the most capable, innovative, and respected fire and rescue systems in the nation. [00:03:15] Throughout its 60-year history, the department's members have worked side-by-side with volunteers to build a unified, high-performing fire and rescue system dedicated to the protection of the community, demonstrating unwavering professionalism, courage, and compassion. [00:03:31] The Prince William County Fire and Rescue System now operates as a premier combination all hazards emergency services agency, providing advanced life support, emergency medical care, technical rescue, hazardous materials response, swift water rescue, emergency management coordination, and community safety programs to safeguard its residents, visitors, and businesses in Prince William County. [00:03:59] As the department celebrates its 60th anniversary, it stands as a trusted and essential part of the county's identity, built by generations of firefighters and civilian professionals, whose commitment has made Prince William County a safer place to live, work, and thrive. [00:04:16] Therefore, today, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby proclaims 2026 as the 60th anniversary of the Prince William County Department of Fire and Rescue. Chief LaBelle, would you like to offer some remarks? Thank you, Chair, members of the board, Mr. Shorter. [00:04:35] I know I often say I'll try this time to be brief. I simply want to say that there's no human endeavor that doesn't rest on the shoulders of other people, sometimes of blood, sometimes simply of like mind. I am so very blessed to have been able to get to know the past chiefs and acting chiefs. [00:04:58] Unfortunately, Tom Hyduke couldn't be with us today, but Jimmy Forgo is. I consider them all friends, and I know that any benefit I have today exists because they fought for it and they worked for it. This is the best combination fire department in America, period, end of sentence, and I'll arm wrestle anyone who disagrees with me. [00:05:22] But I appreciate the recognition, but mostly I appreciate the effort of your predecessors to make sure that this was all possible as well. Thank you very much. [00:05:31] All right, we are on to 4C, and that is to proclaim February 2026 as Benefit Program [00:06:42] Specialist Month. Phyllis Jennings-Holt and your team, if y'all can come on down. [00:06:58] All right, Prince William County recognizes the importance of providing a level of economic stability by administrating federal and state benefit programs to over 130 residents, including supplemental nutrition assistance, temporary assistance for needy families, medical, I'm sorry, Medicaid assistance, employment service programs, and energy assistance, among many other programs. [00:07:26] The benefit program specialists who administer these programs continue to experience unprecedented implementation of rapidly changing complex policies and procedures in all major benefit programs, as well as continuing changes in service delivery and technology. [00:07:44] Prince William County's 219 benefit programs staff provide ethical and public service adhering to Prince William County's visions and values to ensure that those qualified for federal and state benefit services receive and continue to receive them. [00:08:00] Today, therefore, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby proclaims February 2026 as Benefit Program Specialist Appreciation Month. Would you like to offer us some remarks? Good afternoon, Madam Chair Jefferson, members of the board, County Executive Mr. Shorter, Phyllis Jennings Hope, Director of Social Services. [00:08:26] Today I have with me my Deputy Director, Holly Handy, Assistant Directors Maran Gabor-Medin and Lucia DeToni, and Program Managers Michelle Henson, Diana Cumia, Norma Sanchez, and Acting Program Director to Boris Miller. [00:08:44] On behalf of the department, I am honored to accept this proclamation, recognizing the benefit program specialist. We pride ourselves on operational excellence, fiscal responsibility, and customer service with compassion. We have been able to achieve a zero snap error rate for 11 out of 12 months. Timely processing of applications at 98 percent of the time and staff continue to receive recognition from VDSS for the quality assurance and internal policies and practices developed by staff. We not only meet the standards, but we're helping to [00:09:21] shape them. I want to extend my sincere gratitude to our benefits program specialists, supervisors, and managers. And to the board, we thank you for your ongoing support and recognition for the work that we do. Thank you. [00:09:40] Can you join me in the front for a photo? [00:10:22] All right. Irish American Heritage Month. I forgot to wear my green. I promise to make up for it next month. I am well. Thank you guys for coming. [00:10:47] All right. This is 4D to proclaim March 2026 is Irish American Heritage Month. More than 30 million Americans traced their roots to island shores. From the 1600s to the early 1900s, Irish immigrants endured several hardships to build new lives, transformed our largest cities into centers of commerce and industry, and have made great cultural, spiritual, and economic contributions to the diversity of our nation. [00:11:16] Irish Americans have played an important part in creating the fabric of our history through their service in government and military, and also through their faith and family values. They continue to play a vital role in shaping our history and culture, enriching all aspects of our lives. [00:11:32] The men and women of the ancient order of Hiberians are pillars in our community as representatives of their fellow Irish-Americans. Therefore, today, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby proclaims the month of March 2026 as Irish-American Heritage Month. [00:11:50] Would you like to offer us a few remarks? Thank you. Thank you, Chair Jefferson, and the remainder of the county board. I'm Vince Fitzpatrick, president of Innisfail, Inc., the holding corporation for the parade. [00:12:07] You've seen me up here, I don't know how many years. disputes get more gray as we go though so this is our 26th year producing the parade let me say we have enjoyed every minute of it from the pipe bands the irish dancers the ancient order of hibernians irish cultural groups the fire and rescue departments the sheriff and police departments the politicians from the state down to the local level jurisdictions and yours truly saint patrick [00:12:39] We have had grand marshals from politicians, clergy, police, fire rescue chiefs, local business owners and representatives from the ancient order of Hibernians from the state level down to the local divisions. [00:13:02] We appreciate participation of all who have participated in the many residents from local jurisdictions to Prince William County and beyond who have enjoyed our parade. Prince William County Board of Supervisors has supported our efforts each year with a proclamation declaring March's Irish History Month in Prince William County. [00:13:26] We appreciate the support of our parade and the Irish community in Prince William County. Thank you very much. [00:14:01] All right, in 4E, if there is anyone for Invasive Species Awareness Week, [00:14:48] invasive plants undermine community investments in native landscaping, where they out-compete and replace native plants and lead to higher community maintenance costs, increased storm water runoff, and disrupt natural water cycles, which contribute to erosion, flooding, and diminish soil stability, as well as air and water quality. [00:15:09] The Prince William County's strategic goal for the environment includes a key objective to safeguard the quality of the county's air, water, and other natural resources to ensure they are not compromised for current and future residents. National Invasive Species Awareness Week, or NASAW, is an international event dedicated to raising awareness about invasive species, the threats they pose, and the actions that can be taken to prevent their spread. [00:15:37] National Invasive Species Awareness Week is supported by agencies such as the National Park Service and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and is consistent with the Prince William County Strategic Plan and the prince william county zoning sanction 32-504 chesapeake bay preservation area overlay district therefore today the prince william board of county supervisors hereby proclaims a week of february 23rd to february 27th 2026 as invasive species awareness month would anyone [00:16:07] like to offer a few remarks thank you madam chair members of the board my name is ashley Studholm executive director with the Prince William Conservation Alliance and really this honor is shared with Diane Nelson who really spearheaded this effort in recognition and I'm also here with Nancy Veers who wears many hats but is representing the Prince William Wildflower Society today and I am just honored and grateful for this recognition. We were standing here [00:16:46] several years ago to to advocate for using working with native plant species in our landscape which this board did support and now we're moving forward with focusing on invasive species that are undermining some of those efforts at prince william conservation alliance we of course want to focus on protecting what we have and the tree canopy that it currently exists and having that as the utmost priority but part of that is also being good stewards to what we have and that [00:17:24] includes in managing for invasive removals because we know that all of our landscapes are facing immense pressure from, you know, fragmentation in how we build and develop, but then that therefore creates a lot of pressure and opportunity for these invasive species to come in and out-compete our native species. [00:17:49] And that diminishes the quality ecosystems that we have here and that protects our air quality, our water quality, and just the overall feel of quality of life for all of our residents. So thank you very much. [00:18:06] Hi, I am wearing several hats. I'm also the president of the Virginia Native Plant Society, so the overall area, plus I'm on the Soil and Water Conservation District Board. But I just wanted to say that if you look out in our landscape right now and you see green, you see green vines going up a tree or green on the ground, it's generally not native. [00:18:27] It would be an invasive plant. And that's how they out-compete our native plants by, you know, they green up faster, they stay green longer. You know, your Japanese honeysuckle, your English ivy, those kinds of things. So if we can put some oomph behind it, some money, some effort, we could make a dent in that. [00:18:47] Thank you. [00:18:50] All right. [00:20:02] We are now going to move on to agenda item number five, and that is the consent agenda. Before I begin, does anyone have anything they would like to pull off the consent agenda? I see Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair. [00:20:17] item 5c and 5i all right anyone else i don't see anything so i am going to go ahead and ask for motion for 5a through 5a 5b 5d through 5h and 5j so moved madam chair second it's been properly moved and second any discussion on those items all right seeing none i would like us to go ahead [00:20:50] take our vote vote unanimous supervisor angry absent from vote all right we are now going to move on to agenda item 5c did you have any questions supervisor vega i do madam chair i saw that rick came in so rick if you could come forward please um as rick makes his way up i understand that this request involves this the not the city but ococon district and this is for portions of old bridge and gordon boulevard but it also involves the coals district and that is the Clover Hill intersection. Rick, this does require a 30% match, yes? [00:21:29] 20%, ma'am. 20%. Okay, and does any of this involve the city of Manassas? And I'm sorry, I failed to introduce myself. Madam Chair, members of the board, Rick Cannazales, your Director of Transportation. Thank you for the questions, Supervisor Vega. [00:21:45] It does involve the city of Manassas. We are going to talk to the city of Manassas actually this evening uh to discuss the project with them uh and then they will be taking action and and and putting out a resolution with some commitments on uh the 23rd next week on monday at their council meeting okay is there a an urgency in terms of the timing that we have to take action on this today and the reason why i ask um for my colleagues is um as you all know we're also considering the airport expansion and opening that up for commercial flights um there have been no conversations as of yet with the airport and the conversations with the city of Manassas are going to take place today it would be my preference that those [00:22:23] conversations happen before we approve this here tonight because I did request on what percentage of this project impacts the city because we just had our first inter-jurisdictional committee meeting with Madam Chair last Wednesday where we're talking about you know the contributions that the city make on for all of these projects and we just want to make sure that that that everything is being done in a fair manner and so what is the urgency or can we wait until those conversations happen in regards to approving this item uh supervisor vega there is urgency in this item [00:22:56] uh the grant is due on the 24th of this month yes ma'am and i apologize i would like to note supervisor vega and nvta or northern virginia transportation authority we actually took a vote last week to move ahead with the endorsement and there was a carve out it was pending um the meeting, Rick Gonzalez and his team being able to brief the city of Manassas, which again will happen tonight, and Mr. Gonzalez will report out to NVTA. Well, I did not know that. That gives me a little bit of reassurance, but doesn't satisfy me fully. I don't want to hold this up, but I do [00:23:34] want to reiterate making sure that we protect the county's interests and assets while also making sure that those other partners come to the board and that they also contribute whatever it is that that the percent of this project is going to be in their jurisdiction. [00:23:50] We will work with them with that, ma'am. Thank you. I won't hold this up because I know, Supervisor Bodie, that this also impacts your district, but it's my preference that we have all this sorted out before this board is asked to make a decision on any given item, but I understand the position that we're in. Thank you, Rick. Thank you, ma'am. And just for a little further explanation, this is a federal grant. [00:24:08] We get a NOFA. We only get 90 days notice from the grant, and that's why we have the urgency. So my apologies. We usually do not do this with a grant. And I know that this area, the Cloverleaf improvements, this has been an area that we've been talking about for a very long time, right? [00:24:26] And we have new developments, again, with the airport and whatnot. And I think that it's in our best interest to have those conversations sooner rather than later. But thank you. Thank you for your comments. Yeah. I did pull another item. Do you want me to address that one? No, we're going to do it separately. So go ahead for 5C. I'll make a motion to move 5C forward. [00:24:43] Second. Is there any further discussion on this item? All right. I would like to call for the vote. Unanimous. Supervisor Ingrid absent from vote. All right. Then we're going to move on to 5i. [00:24:59] Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess, County Executive, do you want me to direct my questions to you or to who's listed on here? You can start with me. Okay. So my understanding is this grant will create two limited-term positions. [00:25:19] Correct. Yes, and then can you talk a little bit about the funding mechanism for these two positions? Two grant-funded positions. Let me ask if CJ. Yep, please. Okay. Madam Chair, members of the board, Dr. Tahiri Yassine, Director of Office of Community Safety. [00:25:46] So my question is in terms of the funding mechanism for these two limited-term positions. So would you like to know more about the positions themselves? No, I just want to know about the funding. So it is partially funded or funded by the state, yes. [00:26:03] And my question, as with any of these positions, is if that expires, is it then the position that the county will assume responsibility for funding these positions? It is not automatic. And so once the funding expires, I will say that this grant is one, and maybe, Dr., you could probably talk to the grant itself, but this is one that the team will continue to apply for. [00:26:24] But if the grant ends and the grant funding ends, then we will be in a position where we have to make a decision on whether we want to roll this over into local funding. I will not make that decision independently. It will come back to the board for your consideration. That's all I needed to know. Okay. [00:26:39] Thank you. Thank you. Madam Chair, I want to go ahead and move item 5I forward. Second. All right. Any further discussion on this? I have one question, Madam Chair. All right. Supervisor, and please make sure we're using our iPad. Supervisor Stewart. What are the positions? [00:26:56] What specifically are the positions? Yes. So one of the positions is a data analyst, and the second is a community navigator. [00:27:13] And specifically, what does a community navigator do? So a community navigator helps support all of our agencies who are supporting residents through any of the response efforts that we currently have. Thank you. All right, any other discussion? [00:27:32] All right, let's take our votes. Vote unanimous. Supervisor Ingrid absent from... All right, thank you so very much. We're now moving on to agenda item number six, and that is public comment time. [00:27:52] Right now, I have one person signed up online and one person in person. um so michael slater if you can come up again state your name your magisterial district you have three minutes i'm doing i already have it good afternoon my name is michael slater i live in four seasons approximately 10 years ago while living in florida our house was broken into our [00:28:30] house was broken into my wife and i were out running errands and we came home to find our neighbors standing in the driveway saying don't go in your house yet you can't go in the sheriff deputies are on their way. When we were finally allowed to go inside, we saw all of our belongings strewn on the floor, dresser drawers ripped open, jewelry boxes scattered about, flat screen TV ripped off the wall. And it was such a surreal feeling. It gave us a feeling of being violated, invaded, desecrated, defiled. And we felt like out of control, vulnerable victims with no way [00:29:09] to defend ourselves. We went to bed that night feeling exposed, unsafe, and wondering what would happen next. It's a terrible feeling, folks. It really is. Well, that was a long time ago, and we haven't felt that way since until we hear of some money-hungry land developers planning to put data centers in our backyard and invading the treasured sanctity of our home. It's the same old feeling [00:29:43] all over again. Law enforcement did their job 10 years ago. The thieves were caught. Our belongings were recovered. Now, the threat today is different, but the effect is the same. And I ask you, who in this room is there to protect us now? Who? Why does it have to feel this way? Don't make us victims. [00:30:11] Don't make us lay awake at night wondering what scheme is being concocted to meet the goals of uncaring perpetrators, filling the pockets of aloof co-conspirators. Why does quality of life have to take a back seat to campaign contributions? When we first moved here, we were told what a wonderful place this was. Tell me, is it still? This board of supervisors is making national news now with names and pictures. If you don't believe me, go to politico.com and I ask you, why would [00:30:48] anybody in their right mind want to move here now? Why does it have to feel this way? I still got 30 seconds left i'm going to stand here and hope that somebody decides they're going to tell me why it has to feel this way thank you thank you so much we have we're going to move on to remote public comment time i'm sorry i had it was how to give it the sheet over to um [00:31:24] the chair pro tem supervisor gordy if you would lead us thank you madam chair um do we have anyone online for speech all right madam chair there's no one online thank you all right thank you so much all right we had one person in um in chambers and no one online so we are going to move on to agenda item number seven that's public hearings i should have said this earlier but i just want to let everyone in the 7c has been pulled so we will not have a public hearing today on agenda item 7c [00:31:56] and that is an resolution to authorize common and come commendation condemnation i can't talk today And exercise quick-take powers, that will not be a public hearing for that. So I'm going to go ahead and open the public hearings for 7A and 7B. [00:32:15] So do we have anyone? I don't believe we have anyone in line for 7A and 7B, correct? So I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearings for 7A and 7B. Can I get a motion to move these items forward? So move, Madam Chair. Second. [00:32:30] It's been properly moved and seconded in any discussion on either item. All right, let's go ahead and take our votes. [00:32:46] Unanimous, Supervisor Ingrid absent from vote. All right, we're going to move on to agenda item number eight, and that is county executive time. Mr. Shorter, the floor is now yours. All right, thank you very much, Madam Chair, members of the board. Just a few quick updates for me. You may recall that there was one directive issued at our last meeting. [00:33:05] Staff was directed to explore and make recommendations around the deployment of parking canopy solar at various parking lots and facilities throughout the county. That directive was assigned to transportation. There were no directives closed since our last meeting. However, I did send an update earlier today to the board in response to the directive requesting that staff compile a clear and complete breakdown of all county funds, services, and resources that support Prince William County schools and other public education programs. [00:33:37] While there are still some items that need to be added to finalize that response, we wanted to make sure that we provided the information in advance of this evening's budget presentation. We anticipate that that will finalize and we'll send out a final memo next week. [00:33:55] Last week, I sent the board an FY2026 second quarter revenue and expenditure report, which is in accordance with the requirements of our principles of sound financial management, as well as information about the number of private properties that are in the federal legislative boundary of Prince William Forest Park. [00:34:15] In terms of kudos for staff, I wanted to take a moment just to recognize our fire and rescue system, who is going to be recognized tomorrow at the Governor's Fire Service Award Ceremony. The county's Fire and Rescue Department, along with other fire and rescue services, were selected for the Outstanding Fire Department Response Award for their coordinated response to the plane crash on the Potomac River last year. [00:34:45] We know that our teams here in Prince William County played a role in the response and just wanted to take this opportunity to thank them always for their effort and their support, not just this community, but really of the region. [00:35:01] So congratulations to Chief LaBelle and the entire fire and rescue team, and thank you for all that you do. And with that, Madam Chair, that is all for me. All right. Thank you so very much. Mr. Shorter. We are going to move on to agenda item number nine, and that is county attorney time. [00:35:17] Madam County Attorney, the floor is yours. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. This afternoon in closed session, there will be consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members pertaining to discussions concerning an economic development item regarding an expansion of an existing business or industry where no previous announcement has been made of the business or industry's interest in expanding their facilities in the county. [00:35:38] Along with the related discussion or consideration of the investment of public funds for an economic development matter where competition or bargaining is involved, where if made public initially, the financial interest of the county would be adversely affected. Along with the discussion or consideration of the disposition of publicly held real property, all where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the litigating posture, bargaining position, or negotiating strategy of the public body. [00:36:03] And a personnel discussion relating to the performance of the members of the Board of County Supervisors. These items are appropriate for closed session pursuant to 2.2-3711A 1, 3, 5, and 6 of the Code of Virginia. Move for approval, Madam Chair. Second. [00:36:20] All right, I'd like for us to take our votes. Vote unanimous, Supervisor Angry absent from vote. All right, thank you very much. Mr. Shorter, I will let you queue up our agency time. [00:36:36] Very good. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So for item 10A, we are following up on a directive provided to staff to prepare for the board's consideration a resolution to initiate a Fettler Park small area plan to guide the strategic revitalization and redevelopment of this key area in the Potomac District. [00:36:57] At this time, I'd like to turn it over to Director Tanya Washington to introduce the presentation. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the board, Tanya Washington, Director of the Planning Office. We are here today to request that the board initiate a comprehensive plan amendment for the creation of the Fetler Park Small Area Plan in the Potomac District. [00:37:17] Keisha Hall, who is the Assistant Planning Director for our Community Planning and Revitalization Division, which is the team that will be leading this effort, will walk us through the presentation, and then we're happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Director Washington. [00:37:36] Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the board, County Executive Shorter. As Director Washington stated, my name is Keisha Hall, I'm the Assistant Director for the Planning Office, and I lead the Community Planning and Revitalization Team. Pleased to appear before you to request the initiation of the long-awaited Fettler Park Small Area Plan. [00:37:59] The Fettler Park Small Area Plan was a directive given on February 18th. It's Directive 25-03, requesting that the Planning Office initiate and begin crafting the Fettler Park Small Area Plan. [00:38:19] The following components include a high-level summary of that directive. We were asked to guide strategic revitalization and redevelopment in the area, provide a comprehensive vision, including, but not limited to, land use, mobility, parks and open space, economic development, infrastructure, and as well as exploring redevelopment opportunities within the study area. [00:38:44] Additionally, we are asked to incorporate the Fettler Park Market Study into our analysis and our future action strategies. For public consumption, this slide details what a small area plan is, And essentially, small area plans are small, geographically defined areas where we come up with action strategies and policies guided by the community's feedback and provide a comprehensive analysis of that specific area. [00:39:19] The small area plans are unique to their communities as well as the citizens that participate in that process. Depicted here is the proposed study area. The entire study area is encapsulated in the yellow. [00:39:35] The red is, it marks where the actual Fettler Park market study outlined. This map demonstrates the land use designations within the proposed study area. [00:39:54] And this map depicts the zoning districts within the proposed study area. This chart breaks down the acreage by zoning category as well as land use designation. And all of these items will be analyzed in the existing conditions process and will inform whether or not these designations are currently appropriate and should continue to stay that way, or if we want to discuss future visioning for the land use in the study area. [00:40:27] The scope of the small area plan at a high level will include land use and economic development, placemaking and site activation, parks and open space, mobility and public facilities and levels of service. [00:40:46] As Director Washington stated, I will be the project manager for the Fettler Park small area plan, and I'll be supported by my teammates, Jesenia Castaneda and Danica Blunt, who are seated in the audience. In closing, staff requests that the board consider initiating the Fettler Park Small Area Plan, and I am happy to take any questions that you might have. [00:41:10] Thank you. Supervisor Bailey? I assumed you were in there. Thank you. You surprised me, Madam Chair. Keisha, thank you for your presentation. Thank you for our planning department that has done such an impeccable job in leading us to this point. [00:41:31] And so my questions are very short. I just want to start by saying this is a process that has taken place since 2022. And now we're at the second phase of this process. And just for the audience and for the camera to know, this is the area on 234 that encapsulates where my office is. [00:41:51] Everybody knows where Popeye's Chicken is and everybody knows where Montclair, the historic Montclair restaurant is, as well as the historic Giorgio's restaurant, including our Four Seasons community. But I say all that to say this is the start of revitalizing that area. [00:42:11] And so could you enlighten us as we go forward in trying to establish a more lift in the Potomac District? What's the vision as we go to the next phase? Big picture. [00:42:29] Thank you, Supervisor Bailey. Well, we look forward to engaging with the citizens and community members as well as civic groups that are interested in this particular area. And through that process, we'll have collaborative discussions in addition to evaluating the existing conditions to come up with a vision and a strategy for the area. [00:42:50] So more to come, but we definitely want to start having those conversations so that we can begin kind of dreaming big and going through that ideation process. Thank you. My second question, Madam Chair, and I'll be brief, one of the things that we have learned over the years since 2022 or even before is making sure that what the intent is in terms of land use, that it is specific and it pairs with the comprehensive plan, correct? [00:43:20] So I want to ask specifically, are there any, have we encompassed everything that we're trying to look at in this study and creating the small area plan? Because I know we did that with the triangle small area plan, but are there any other opportunities that we could have missed that we can go back and look at? [00:43:44] The area is primarily built out. There are some opportunities for some green development, but most of the redevelopment efforts would be either reinvesting into existing sites or some form of brownfield development. We did add Ferlazo as an anchor to the study areas so that we could incorporate some of those health and human services as we were evaluating within the study area. [00:44:10] We'll be looking at co-location opportunities, how we can, this is a very active part of the county, so ensuring that we're celebrating the parks in open space and looking for any opportunities where there are some historically significant elements within the study area, we'll be examining those as well. [00:44:28] Okay, so my last question, Madam Chair, and I'll be brief with this one, one of the things that we've talked about is the sensuality of incorporating the community in the decisions that are made. Could you give us some kind of time frame, not to put you on the spot, because you have other things you're working on. [00:44:46] Maybe not. Other than Potomac District, of course you do. But give us some idea in terms of just making sure that we include the community in the decisions. Absolutely. So I just want to quickly plug the PwC Works website, which outlines the milestones and some of the goals that we hope to accomplish over the next two years. [00:45:09] We update that if there's any type of activity or as we kind of hit those milestones. We anticipate selecting and onboarding our consultants this summer before the end of this fiscal year and then kicking off with the community in the fall time frame of 2026. [00:45:29] And we will continuously have either virtual, in-person, as well as pop-ups and attending different events, whether they're hosted by the school or various existing HOA programming or even any civic organizations within the study area or near the study area will participate along with those as well to get the word out and to get feedback from the community. [00:45:55] I do have one other question. Can I have my? Thank you so much. My question is, how will we use the small area plan going forward? Great question. The small area plan, essentially once adopted by the board, amends the comprehensive plan. It will inform future development, as well as potentially agency work plans, depending on what the action strategies are. [00:46:18] So if a new development, whether it's brownfield or greenfield, comes before the board for an entitlement rezoning SUP, we will look to the Fettler Park small area plan once adopted as guidance for recommendations, whether it pertains to land use, public service, or public facilities rather, mobility. [00:46:44] All of those strategies will be within this small area plan and guide recommendations for land use. Supervisor Boating. Thank you, Madam Chair. First, congrats to Supervisor Bailey for getting us to this point. [00:46:59] It's always exciting to be on the cusp of initiating a small area plan and knowing all the work, whether it's the community, whether it's stakeholders, whether it's you and your team, that really is able to dig deep and creating a real vision for an important area of the county. So I wanted to say that first. A couple of questions to piggyback off of some of the questions that Rosa Bailey had. [00:47:17] In terms of stakeholders, will you also be engaging faith institutions? There's a very prolific church that's just in this part of the Potomac District, as well as in the other direction, OmniRide, because there are a couple of park and ride lots here. One is that secret one that not a lot of people realize is there, But there's a lot of connectivity that could happen that right now, frankly, is not happening because there's not a lot of transit in this part, but there could be. [00:47:42] So what kind of stakeholders will be engaging as part of this process? Absolutely. We most certainly will engage with our faith-based communities. We'll engage with the business community, hospitality specifically as a large node within the study area. [00:47:59] Obviously, our health and human services will also engage with internal stakeholders, obviously our citizen groups, and as we mentioned, I guess the last board meeting, definitely we'll engage with Quantico as well as the neighboring town. [00:48:17] Regarding mobility, there have been some preliminary discussions about bus rapid transit, so mobility will definitely be a high important item. There's also new investment at the edge of the small area plan where Route 1 meets 234. [00:48:32] So a lot of great activity and investment already occurring, and it's going to be an adventurous process to kind of understand where those projects are in relation to this project and customizing our vision to make sure that we're not impeding those. Absolutely. I appreciate that. [00:48:48] Second question, right now, if I remember correctly, there are only two comp plans designated redevelopment areas in the county, the Sudley Corridor and Route 1. As part of your analysis, is there going to be consideration of maybe designate a part of this small area plan or at least a major corridor like sort of that southeastern portion of 234 as a redevelopment corridor? [00:49:13] because we know that once we do that, there's some other strategies and other things that we begin to engage, as it was Christina Wynn's team, to bring more investment there. Absolutely. As we collectively, planning economic development, transportation, as we collectively start to evaluate what areas of the county make sense in terms of redevelopment, we're kind of creating a program, if you will. So we have redevelopment corridors, and that may not necessarily it may or may not necessarily make sense for this particular area it may be a node a redevelopment node versus a corridor and so some of those recommendations already exist in [00:49:49] the Fettler Park market study so we'll be evaluating that and coming up with some action strategies to encourage reinvestment in some of these sites appreciate that my last question madam chair it goes back to a question I asked last week but I just want to ask it again you know when you really get into those action strategies that those appendices that will go at the end of this small area plan once we adopt it. [00:50:10] How are you going to sort of right size to make sure they're actually action strategies that we'll be able to move and have actual KPIs and trackable benchmarks as opposed to just being a nice appendix at the end of the small area plan that no one really touches later on? Another great question. So as you know, our division is one year old, I think. [00:50:28] We're a new division, team of five, and hopefully if the board approves the upcoming budget, the proposed budget, we'll grow. But it is our goal to take a look at the, well, actually, let me pause there. [00:50:45] For new, since we're a new team, fresh ideas, fresh perspective. It is important that action strategies moving forward are measurable, are actionable, and so that we can properly report out on those. [00:51:01] currently we're evaluating we thought we could kind of easily not easily but quickly go through all the small area plans and go through those action strategies and we quickly realized that is more of an undertaking than one would imagine so we started with triangle um i would say we're probably about 75 percent done with that and we'll come before you with an update and a report out but to the earlier question on implementing uh while for some these plans may collect us for us we use them every day. So whenever a developer comes before you and asks for some rezoning special use permit entitlement, these are the action strategies and the policies that we look at [00:51:40] and lean to to guide our staff recommendation. Thank you so much. Absolutely. All right. Thank you. Before I go to Supervisor Vega, I have a couple of questions. Well, first, I think it is exciting to hear about the potential for bus rapid transit along 234, but we do actually have just, pretty good bus service. We have the OmniRide, the Montclair that goes to the Pentagon and to L'Enfant Plaza, I know, because I used to take that one. We also have Route 51, which is the Dumfries Triangle to Montclair. I want to talk about the private land or the inholdings in Prince William Forest Park. I see that you have the land for Labennison. Did you include other inholdings [00:52:19] along 234? It doesn't look like, you know, there is the area, there's the Washington Reed area, which also has a Montclair Tabernacle in that parcel, but are there any other parcels along 234 in holdings that are included? Could you clarify in holdings? [00:52:35] Of the private lands within the legislative boundaries. I'm learning a lot myself too. My understanding is most of the properties, whether developed or not, are within that boundary, the federal boundary. We do have an area to the far south that is vastly undeveloped. [00:52:57] I am not sure of the status of whether or not that's within the federal boundary or not. Dave McGettigan might be able to confirm. But my understanding is most of the land along 234 does reside within that boundary. Did you want to clarify on that one for me? Yes. [00:53:13] Anything that's in parks and open space around the border of the park is in the legislative boundary. Well, what I'm asking, too, is there's other land that I don't see in here? Is there a reason? Like, again, Montclair Tabernacle's already spoken for, but, you know, should that be worth considering as a part of this? [00:53:34] And are there other smaller lands and holdings within the legislative boundaries that should be considered as part of this? My apologies. I've misunderstood the question. So on the western side of the study area, this line is drawn by the federal line. [00:53:51] So the properties, there may be some small parcels that we can take a look at, and we can definitely come back before you to amend the proposed study area. But largely, this is the line of Prince William Forest Park. All right. [00:54:07] Thank you so very much. And another perhaps controversial question, but I know we have people here from Four Seasons because they're concerned about data. And I know there are other people across Potomac who are concerned about that. Where does that kind of commercial development fit into a small area plan? [00:54:23] It's certainly a part of the discussion when we discuss land use as well as economic vitality and investment goals. But ultimately, what's great about a small area plan is regardless of what the private market decides to do with the land, because that's outside of this process, we can speak to what we want the built environment to look like, how wide the buffers should be, what uses are recommended, what uses are not recommended in that particular area. [00:54:55] So if land use and use type is the primary concern, definitely pay attention to those discussions, in addition to everything, of course. All right, thank you very much. Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for your line-up questioning. You went in the direction that I was going to go in. [00:55:13] But while some of my colleagues were mentioning community stakeholders and meeting with them because of the sensitive nature of that portion that the chair was just referencing you know I just want to continue to emphasize ensuring that we also bring in our federal partners and everybody that plays a role in ensuring that we hear from them. I understand the workload that your office and the team is under but you know my position has always been that the people that know about this county should be driving the conversations and not consultants. [00:55:45] They're merely an arm, I would say, or a shoulder to lean on, if you will. But I want to make sure that the interests of Prince William County are protected in those conversations and that those conversations are mainly driven by you, the experts, the representatives of Prince William County. [00:56:04] And, you know, in the Yorkshire area, we have our, you know, challenges with transportation. I know, Supervisor Bailey, that you're going to be on top of that. but with such a high focus on high-density development around the Route 1 and 234 area, I just want us to be mindful of that. [00:56:21] If development is going to come, what does the investment in an already lagging infrastructure look like? Because it's already a challenge. I have relatives that live right off of Route 1, the Potomac Shores area, and I think twice or even three times about going, just because that is how long it takes me from mid-county to get to that side of the county. [00:56:44] And then just when I think I'm about to get on Route 1, I'm stuck, you know, because traffic is just so bad. And so these are things that I really want the team to have at the forefront of these conversations is we have problems, but how are these small area plan conversations going to improve those problems with the investment that we want to attract? [00:57:05] I know Tonya's been wanting to say something. Just wanted to add that with every small area plan, you know, Keisha went back earlier in a presentation, noted a number of the different topics that we will be looking at. A small area plan has a land use focus, but it is not focused solely on land use. It also very much includes transportation, transportation infrastructure, evaluating existing infrastructure, what are opportunities for potential improvements based on a future vision for that area and so our transportation department among other agencies [00:57:43] will are will very much be a part of the team have already been a part of the team um in looking at those issues and you know as you noted supervisor vega we can't look at potential land use changes in terms of a broader vision without also having that consideration of the transportation and other infrastructure to support it thank you just a gentle reminder if you will um because i feel that when it's said from the dais. I know you all are looking at it holistically and you got it, but for the folks here in chambers and those watching at home, they oftentimes don't know. [00:58:13] And then that's when the questions come in. So just for reassurance purposes, but thank you and look forward to, you know, the findings and the recommendations. I did have one last question, Madam Chair, and it has to do with the Office of Department of Economic Development and Tourism. [00:58:30] Is there, do we have a specific mix of uses proposed in the small area plan for them, or is that something that we're going to find out as we go through the process? Within the existing market study, there are. [00:58:49] Yeah, how will the findings of the Department of Economic Development and Tourism specifically dictate the mix of uses proposed in the small area plan? I definitely wouldn't say that it would dictate it. However, it would give us a good starting point to start to kind of initiate some conversations and find out, like, where are the pain points. [00:59:09] I think the great thing about having a small area plan that has a market study attached to it is that we have real evidence and data from the market conditions so that when we're, as planners, looking at the area, we don't make a recommendation for a use type that isn't in line with current conditions. [00:59:30] So it's essentially a conversation starter, and it's got some great ideas in there that we can kind of highlight and talk to the community and explore. If, you know, scenario A were to happen, how would that work, or what do you think might go best here? So we'll have some kind of really good conversations. [00:59:48] That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you both for your questions. I really appreciate it, and for those that are interested in the audience, I think that just bridges the gap and opens the door for discussion. One of the things, Supervisor Vegas, what you were saying about the area being so tight and small, that's the grand opportunity in the Potomac District because our area is very much landlocked. [01:00:16] And so it is important that we do strategically put things that complements the area. And that's something, as we went forward with the study, to make sure that that happens as we segue into the small area plan. [01:00:32] The other great thing is in reference to the fact that there has never been a small area plan to dictate how we gravitate or navigate with land in that area. So I'm very proud of the fact that the Potomac was always not looked upon in that way, but now we are. [01:00:55] So I'm very proud of that. And to that, I want to say that one of the things, and I just want to name this, as Madam Chair always says, I want to name this. One of the things in the market study are the data centers in my area. And so one of the things that we, which is why I can't ask you, Keisha, about the discussions with the community. [01:01:17] That's very essential that we do have those discussions and when you pinpoint it, when those are going to start. Because that's important as we go forward. But the question that I want, with all of that that I said, the question that I want to ask, not only are we looking at commercial entities, not looking at land and housing, whatever that looks like, we're also building, are we not building partnerships with different agencies to assure that the final presentations that come back to the board are cohesive? [01:01:58] Absolutely, and actually one partnership that we haven't mentioned, it's in the realm of parks and open space, is our federal neighbor, the Prince William Forest Park, and really utilizing that site as a potential tourism opportunity, figuring out if there's any mechanism or area that we can open up access so one doesn't have to get onto 95 or drive up the back roads to get to the visitor center. [01:02:24] A lot of residents or visitors park along 234, or they park in the shopping center across the street and walk the fire roads to get into that area of the park. And so anecdotally, we have started to have discussions with our federal partners to explore what opportunities are out there to grant more access so everyone can enjoy this amenity. [01:02:49] I'm sorry. Other question I have in the past, there has not been a lot of community engagement in terms of educating. and what we're doing. What's in your toolbox to help our communities be educated on what we're doing? Well, of course, we always attend the Potomac District Town Halls to make sure that we have a presence in the community. As most of you know, I do live in the community, so I'm active with the HOA, so I get to kind of reach out internally that way. There's information that may not be publicly available that we can kind of use our own creative resources. [01:03:28] But in addition to that, we're going to have numerous pop-ups. We're going to work with the business community, the hospitality community. We have a new fire station. So definitely want to start kind of working with the agencies and their subnetwork to understand, to build those relationships very similar to the existing fire station has those relationships. [01:03:49] They have events and pancake breakfasts and things like that. So there's a lot of activity that already goes on within the study area. So we'll have our traditional outreach, our town halls, our charrettes, but this is such an active community, and one of our highlighted areas is placemaking. [01:04:07] So what better opportunity than to go to the fire station and piggyback on their pancake breakfast or the elementary school 5K? So we'll be kind of using some of these existing elements. [01:04:24] There's many civic groups that meet at the Montclair Library. I could go on and on and on. So I would say that those are kind of our out-of-the-box ways that we're going to reach out to the community in addition to the traditional methods. Yes, actually, thank you, Director Washington. [01:04:43] Of the three consultants, one of the consultants is a community engagement consultant. While we will be leading the conversation, they definitely give us a little bit more muscle, And they definitely give us more guidance on best practices, as well as making sure that our communication strategies are equitable in reaching a diverse audience. [01:05:03] Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Keisha. All right. I also want us to think and stop, you know, I know what you mean by the word educate, but I want us to think about listening, making sure that we're listening and that we hear voices from the communities. Residents make up the county. [01:05:19] They choose to invest here. They choose to be here. They choose to live here. And that's my only concern, is making sure that we're really listening and hearing community members. So with that, thank you so very much for this wonderful presentation. I believe that we are going to need to take a vote. [01:05:35] Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. I agree with you about the listening part. That's the whole purpose of the market study, and we're going to keep working at it until we get it right. So thank you so much for that input. With that, thank you for my colleagues. I really appreciate your input and your insight on the small area plan. [01:05:55] It's something new and improved and strategically focused on. With that, I move for approval of the Fetler Park small area plan. Second. All right. It's been properly moved and seconded on any discussion. Supervisor Bode. Just very quickly. Thank you, Supervisor Bailey, for those words. [01:06:12] All I will say is, in addition to what everything my colleagues have said and all of us have touched upon in different ways, there's an opportunity here Because this small area plan that's being initiated right now also has the uniqueness that there's a couple of activity centers that are already built in the small area plan. We very rarely get that with these. [01:06:29] But as we talk about transportation and transit, all my colleagues have very well said it, is how can we continue to partner with OmniRide and other folks to connect folks around what already exists, right, that built environment? Because it's one thing to say, hey, yes, there's bus thrusts that will take you out to the Beltway, out to employment centers outside the county. [01:06:47] But what does it also look like to connect to people from where they live to bring those jobs closer? Because the only way we'll be able to build real economic vitality, especially in an area like this that's already sort of built out, as Wes said, is connecting what's already there together better. [01:07:03] And that also brings more investment. If folks start to see there's a really robust transportation and transit network that can take you from those areas from Ashland to Montclair down to Route 1 and Route 234 down to the town of Dumfries, employers take note of that. There's actually a vibrancy that allow their employees to get around without jumping into their car to get anywhere. [01:07:23] So there's a real opportunity there. So I just want to make sure that as we continue to have those conversations, that really zero in on the fact that, as Supervisor Vega said, traffic there right now is not great. And that is not only a quality of life issue, which is not understate, but it's also an economic issue because employers will not locate in a place where their employees can't get around and their patrons can't get around. [01:07:44] So just really wanted to lean into that. And, of course, we'll be supporting this. Thank you, Madam Chair. Supervisor Stewart. Madam Chair, thank you very much for what you said about making sure we listen to the community, especially people that live there. Let's make sure we are not moving people to different communities without having them call a U-Haul truck. Let's make sure that when we listen, we also heed. You know, our species has a great history of listening to nature and then [01:08:17] burning it all down. So let's make sure that we do hear the voice of the community, and it's the most important voice, and there should be none louder and none greater. That's all I got. Thank you. All right. I don't see anyone else, so let's go ahead and take our vote. [01:08:46] Unanimous. Supervisor Ingrid, absent from vote. All right. Thank you so much. We are going to agenda item number 11 and that is supervisors time um we have a few couple nominations um and notice you know voting on some notices of attend to a point i was going to do everything in one swoop i don't know if anyone has anything they want to discuss like 11d if you want to have a separate discussion on that or 11e if so speak now all right i just have to check so all right i'd like to get a nominee i'm sorry a motion um for 11a through 11e so moved second all right It's been properly moved and seconded. [01:09:26] Any further discussion on any of those items? All right. Seeing none, let's go ahead and take our vote. Vote unanimous. Supervisor Angry absent from vote. All right. I am going to go around. [01:09:42] I'm going to start with Supervisor Bailey. Yeah, I'm going to always mix it up. There you go. Oh, okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. On February 17th, oh, that says good afternoon. [01:09:58] I'm sorry. I don't have my glasses on. On the 14th, I had the honor of being the guest speaker at the Women in Community Actions Mother and Daughter Tea, celebrating the 2026 debutante class of 12 remarkable and beautiful young ladies. [01:10:14] It was a wonderful event. High tea in the afternoon. Haven't done that in quite a while with 12 wonderful teenagers. I also had the opportunity of attending the You for Tomorrow two heart-to-heart gala, and I truly had a great time. [01:10:32] It was just a lot of fun with my colleagues, just having good dinner and good conversations with our spouses. So thank you to You for Tomorrow for always inviting us. On the 16th of February, I attended the General Assembly with my organization's, the old dominion chapter of the links incorporated and we had an opportunity to effectively advocate for specific initiatives specifically priorities that really uh collaborate with the priorities that we have here on the board and we were grateful for the opportunity to have an exchange with our [01:11:10] new governor uh governor abigail spanberger and then on uh the 18th which is uh that's tomorrow Happy birthday, Kenny. I'm looking forward to the preliminary meeting to discuss the project ahead of the March 4th stakeholders meeting at Piles Creek. [01:11:31] On the 19th, I'll be participating and enjoying the ever exciting Black History Month program that our county always puts on, and I'm so excited about that. Then on the 21st, I've been invited to share my remarks with the National Association of Counties for their legislative conference to discuss the county's experience as it relates to our newly erected crisis receiving center. [01:12:02] And I want to thank Director Elijah Cummings and his group for preparing me for that. I really appreciate it. I'll be participating in the Dar el Noor Ramadan dinner also on the 21st. And then on the 26th, my team and I look forward to attending the annual event for Black History Month with Senator Warner downtown at the Capitol. [01:12:28] And then lastly, I look forward to attending the Business Awards celebrating the best of our outstanding achievements with our business owners, with our chamber. And so I'm just looking forward to that because it's an opportunity for us to celebrate them. [01:12:45] Lastly, I'd like to thank my wonderful planning commissioner, Mr. Juan McPhail. Juan, I know you're watching, for your impeccable job for the last six years and helping me to put Potomac back on the map and to make sure that the essentialities of that community, 74,000 members of that community is always at the table to discuss moving forward and what that means to tweak the Potomac District. [01:13:15] And so, Juan, I appreciate you. I appreciate your impeccable skill set that you brought to the table for me, and I will miss you. But with that, I'd like to give my notice of intent for Mr. Michael Sherman to be the next Potomac District Planning Commissioner going forward. [01:13:32] And, Andrea, I will have that resume to you tonight. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right. I'm going to go to Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to start off by giving my notice of intent to reappoint Ben Baldwin to the Human Rights Commission. His resume is already on file. [01:13:49] Next, just in the spirit of listening to the voices of our constituents, I want to remind everyone that the county executive will be presenting the budget tonight. This opens up the process, formal process, if you will. So this is your budget after tonight. it becomes the people's budget. And I encourage everyone to reach out to their corresponding supervisors so that we can have conversations and ensure that the final budget reflects your priorities and that of your families. A little birdie told me that Supervisor Tom Gordy celebrated his 25th birthday on Sunday. So happy birthday, Tom. And also, it's a very special time for our [01:14:28] colleague because his son was actually also born on the same day that he was. So father and son celebrated their birthday so i hope you all had a great time and as supervisor bailey stated kenny's birthday is tomorrow we're not going to talk about his young age because i believe you're the baby up here yeah and lastly i just want to give a shout out to prince william water county executive and the rest of the team as you all may have probably read you knew that there was a water advisory in the coals district and in parts of the neabsco district folks were very transparent with what the issues were and our office along with supervisor angry's office was [01:15:08] able to act and so just want to thank folks for playing a vital role in ensuring that we provided clean water to those that needed it and that all questions and concerns were answered in a timely manner that's all i have madam chair thank you all right thank you i'm going to go to mr stewart and mr bode thank you madam chair um you know first things first i i want to um i want us to remember the Reverend Jesse Jackson who died today at 84. I think it's important to remember that [01:15:43] we all stand on the shoulders of giants. And this individual was an icon in the continuing and ongoing story of American history. And I hope he found peace with the Lord and that his family has peace and solace and can um stay proud in all of the things that this individual was able to accomplish and i i know i i will be um so i just wanted to mention that um continuing on i also [01:16:19] um attended the uh the youth for tomorrow dance i got to to to or or gala i call i call it how old am i how old am i there was a dance floor it was very small but i was supposed i never i didn't dance i don't dance uh so um but but no it was um it was my first time there it was a interesting event and um and i was happy i went and was able to break bread with uh with great company and um i want to give a a shout out to a young man from gainesville um uh mr david gill who attends high [01:16:56] school at uh at battlefield um he's been selected to the 2026 united states national taekwondo team And he's going to compete at the both Pan-American Championships and the World Taekwondo Championship this year. [01:17:14] And so, you know, I want everybody in Prince William County to lean in and, you know, send this kid some good vibes. You know, obviously, he's good. And let's, yeah, let's lift him up to do the best that he can. [01:17:31] Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Supervisor Brody. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Supervisor Stewart, for mentioning the unfortunate and untimely passing of Reverend Jackson. Appreciate you mentioning that. As was just said, he was a legendary figure, not just for black folks in the United States, but the civil rights movement as a whole. [01:17:50] The Rainbow Coalition, not going through the entire history, but, you know, there are few folks that can fill the shoes of folks like that, that really broaden the conversation around how we think about equality and what it means to be an American, and who is actually included in all men are created equal, all the things that our Constitution and our laws are supposed to protect, uphold, and uplift. So I know he and his family sacrificed a lot over the decades, and he comes from a very interesting and challenging background, [01:18:29] But to know that where he started and where he ended up is just a testament to what's possible in our country, especially for folks that fight for so many others along the way. That said, we'll move on to some of the events coming up and those that have passed. Back on the 11th, I mentioned before, we had our Occoquan District Appointee Dinner. [01:18:49] Thank you so much to all my appointees that were able to come out. I see one in the audience. Latanya Thomas, who's my social services board chair, appointee, thank you for coming out. really great conversations we talk about bringing those barriers and the silos between agencies what have you i think it's important to have that with your appointees as well because there's so many great conversations can be had when your appointees get in one room and of course my mistake was having it a week before budget sinks and of course everyone had their budget asks for me as well um but i really appreciate all my appointees i too back on valentine's day went to the yft heart to heart gala had a great time really appreciate everything that yft and [01:19:28] their folks continue to uplift, protect, and change the trajectories of children in our community. The story of the young woman that spoke during that event, I don't think there was a single dry eye in the house by the time she was done, but it's just a powerful testament to the ability to change the trajectory of not only a child, but all those lives that that child touches as they move on through their lives. Looking ahead, I've said this last week, but on the 25th of this month at Ikea will be kicking off our next-gen Prince William County. It's shaping it to be a really great program, looking to really engage your late teens and 20-somethings. Those folks are folks [01:20:08] that aren't often in rooms that we talk about. They're not usually at the table because of various other reasons. I think that since we make decisions that affect them a lot longer than a lot of other folks, they should be definitely part of the conversation. We talk about capturing and retaining that certain demographic, and we can't really make decisions that will attract and retain them unless they are part of the process. So definitely looking forward to that conversation. If anyone has any young people who are interested, be there on the 25th at IKEA in the evening. We would definitely like to hear from you. With that, Madam Chair, I have a directive that I sent to the board [01:20:45] earlier. I just want to preface this by saying there's been coverage of this directive ahead of me giving it. But I just want to say that as I say this, it is not my intention or my vision to have a data center put in anywhere in the landing small area plan. This board actually acted last year to remove the data center overlay from the landing area. So just wanted to put that out there and put the flag down. So Madam Chair, without objection, I'd like to direct the county executive to have county staff engage with Prince William County Schools staff to evaluate and recommend options for the county to, with the school board's agreement, obtain ownership of the former plan site for the 14th high school in the Occoquan District, including but not limited to purchase, [01:21:24] long-term ground lease, land swap, or joint use arrangement. The evaluation should include mechanisms to reserve sufficient area for a potential future school site, even if on a smaller footprint than the previously planned school, should the school board determine in the future that a school is still needed on that site as necessary. [01:21:43] Such evaluation and recommendations should, where applicable, include proposed timelines, potential fiscal impacts, other pertinent information for board consideration. The county attorney's office is directed to review the information and recommendations or any legal issues. When the evaluation and work is complete, the county executive should report back to the board with the evaluation and recommendations during a board meeting or by memorandum as appropriate. [01:22:09] Madam Chair. Supervisor Vega. I have a few questions. Supervisor Bodie, did you speak about your intentions with the chair of the school board? Not yet. Okay. And the reason why I ask is because I reached out, you know, and try to have conversations with school board members and the chair. [01:22:27] And I would feel much more comfortable supporting this initiative if you actually had those conversations with the chair so that he can then talk to his school board. And this is why. You know, this board has taken a very hard stance as to not get involved in pretty much anything other than giving the school division money. [01:22:49] I think that you're opening a door without perhaps fully thinking about the unintended consequences. I don't think that it's prudent to direct county staff to take on such an endeavor without ensuring that this is something that the school board is interested in. The second question that I had was, who purchased this property? [01:23:09] The school division. The school division did. I think that, respectfully, we're overstepping. If we agree to your directive, I think that the prudent thing would be to have the conversation with the chairman of the school board so that then he can talk to his board and to see if this is something that they want to do. [01:23:25] It's already incredibly difficult for the school division to acquire land. I don't think it's our position to then come without having discussed it with them to try to market it for something else. And so I will be objecting for those reasons and, you know, happy to hear any additional thoughts or feedback that you have. [01:23:42] Again, I would feel much more comfortable if these conversations were already had with the chairman of the school board and his board. Thank you for that, Super Azavega. I guess it just sort of comes to a difference and sort of thought on who should be engaging who first. [01:24:00] I hear what you're saying. While I haven't talked to the chair of the school board, I have talked to some of the school board members, and I wouldn't say there was open, like, hey, let's do it, but there was, like, hey, let's have staff talk to staff and see where this goes. I hear you on that. And I'm not against waiting to have those conversations. [01:24:17] I just don't want too much time to go by because there's already speculators that are trying to look to do something here. I just want to make sure that the school division and the school board knew that we at least had an interest, and I didn't want to put that out there until we had some kind of board action taken. [01:24:33] Madam Chair, if I may. And that's fair. And, again, if you want to, you know, maybe pull your directive and then go have those conversations because we don't know what the priorities of the school board are, of the school division in regards to this land. and i think that um they should have that opportunity to make the call and if they are interested in going in the direction that you're going and they signal support for your directive then by all means let's do it um but i don't feel comfortable supporting this without them having a say on their land that they purchased i think that our chair would feel incredibly um not disrespected but blindsided if let's say the school division did the same and didn't extend [01:25:11] the same courtesy to her and so that's fair i'll draw my directive thank you all right thank you so very much supervisor airy did you catch a breath are you ready i can i can also say i can give you some time but you you go no no we'll get this on uh well so everyone's sorry about my tardiness um we'll discuss that later uh so first of all i just want to congratulate dale city neighborhood library on 40 years so they're 40 years old so here's a fun fact for you dale Dale City Neighborhood Library first opened on February 11th, 1986, the same year I graduated [01:25:48] high school. It was the fourth of six original neighborhood libraries to be built in Prince William County, and we only have five neighborhood libraries left. The three flagpoles that you see off the corner of Dale Boulevard and Minerville were donated by the VFW Post 1503, another fun in fact. Also, Thursday, February 12th, I attended the annual Boxes of Basics Community Leaders Roundtable Luncheon. Great discussion about how they can advance in the community, and so looking forward to their gala coming up here next month as well. Also, on Valentine's Day, we did a ribbon [01:26:27] cutting ceremony for Casa Masala, which is in the Maple Dale Plaza. Now, this is a very unique restaurant i want you all to stop by they uh they blended fusion of a few of pakistani and mexican cuisine which is excellent by the way so if you get the chance to stop by order up a meal say hi welcome in the neighborhood they also have a community center as well so if you got any events you want to do you're welcome to uh rent out that space as well uh as you know we're going to be talking about the fy 27 budget here coming up uh and so i encourage all the napsco residents to [01:27:06] Take a few moments to share your concerns and feedback as we begin these discussions. Your input will help me better understand what matters most. And so if you visit neapsconews.org, you'll see a survey there that you're more than welcome to take that survey. [01:27:22] It'll help us better get a feel for what the citizens are looking for, constituents are looking for. And I'm also excited to share a few other updates. So courts district update, as you heard me mention last week. We're going to have that on Saturday, March 21st at 11 a.m. [01:27:39] That's going to be at DeSanto Community Hall. That's Fire Station 13 off of Hillendale and Dell Boulevard. More information we'll follow on that, so stay tuned. Our spring dumpster day will be May 30th at 10 o'clock, and that's going to be, once again, at the Gemini Way commuter lot, basically where we host our farmer's market. [01:28:00] So we'll put more information out on that and just check the website, check back for updates. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right, thank you so very much. I want to start by wishing a happy birthday to my fellow Aquarius that's Bordy. [01:28:16] I think we've lost a couple of Aquarius because we're a pretty strong Aquarius board. I would also like to do a notice of attend to Madri Thomas to the Regional Jail Board. I know I'm a little overdue on that. My apologies. And I wanted to talk about the State of the County event, which is coming up on Monday, March 3rd. [01:28:35] I'm sorry, March 2nd. Unfortunately, we had to reschedule that because of the bad weather, but I'm really looking forward to it. The theme this year is going to be reimagining Prince William County. So we're going to talk about reimagining community safety, reimagining workforce development and career pathways, and reimagining living and playing in the county. [01:28:55] As it was during our inaugural event last year, we're going to have panel discussions with county staff, really diving into some of the things that are changing around our county. So I'm very excited for that. um please take a look it's on the county website it's going to be on my website i'm sorry and on my facebook as well and certainly sign up for my newsletter i put all the information about my events in there and lastly i did want to touch on something that a couple of my colleagues said about the reverend jesse jackson our elders are leaving us they are and there are certain [01:29:33] milestones when people you've grown up seeing or learning about when they leave but it reminds me that we need to step up you know and we as a board need to remember why we chose public service the hours are long the pay isn't great but we chose to serve and we have to stay anchored in that and all the decisions that we make so thank you everyone we are going to take a short break 10 minutes sorry supervisor get an opportunity oh i missed you gordon [01:30:08] oh my god i am so sorry you know i'm way down here also no i was going to get to you and then to vega but then vega wanted to go first so i apologize my fellow aquarius you did i told your secret supervisor gordy all right thank you and then 10 minutes all right um all right so uh last thursday i had the opportunity to meet with the new western district um police uh captain captain Neil Miller. It's great to meet him and get to know what motivates him and encourages him in his [01:30:45] day-to-day job and talk about some of the challenges of safety in western Prince William County. And I would just remind, based upon that conversation, folks, lock your cars. Lock your cars. That still seems to be a major crime and problem in Prince William County is car theft, particularly amongst Hyundais and Kias. So just remember, lock your cars. When you're not in them, lock them up. So also on Friday, I had the opportunity to meet with Cub Scout Pack 1194 [01:31:24] from the Noakesville School and took all the questions that these fourth graders could throw at me for about an hour and a half to help them earn their citizenship badge. And I really appreciate them coming out and spending some time talking about our county and how we are governed. [01:31:46] And so thank the Cub Scout PAC for doing that. On Saturday, I was joined by Chair Jefferson for the groundbreaking of Adams Gainesville. It was a great afternoon of ceremony and I just also want to recognize our Muslim community in Prince William County and tomorrow is the start of Ramadan and want to wish everyone in our Muslim community an easy fast and as they go over go through this next season um on saturday also uh joined my colleagues for the youth for tomorrow heart to [01:32:25] heart gala uh to celebrate uh the work that they do to help troubled teens in our community and uh i mean the story that the stories that were told the testimony that was brought that evening i mean you i don't think there was a dry eye in the place of how transformative uh youth for youth for tomorrow is in the life of our young lives of our young people and um so really appreciate the work glad that Prince William County is their home. Also over the weekend I had never I didn't know what the skeleton was but had a chance to watch Mystique Row from Brentsville District High School [01:33:02] and compete in the Olympics in Milan. She didn't medal but wow going downhill head first on a sled at 50 miles per hour. Seventh in the pairs, in the pairs on Saturday. [01:33:19] Yeah, that's it. Yeah, and so, but wow, what a sport. And it's definitely not for the faint of heart. So congratulations to Mystique on making it to the Olympics and her continued career in that. And then to our Christian community. [01:33:35] Tomorrow is also the beginning of Lent, and it is Ash Wednesday, which where I grew up today is Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday, which I won't talk about that. But I do want to wish everyone who will be observing Lent much peace as you all so fast over these next 40 days as we come to Easter. [01:34:02] And with that, Madam Chair, I will turn it back to you. Thank you. All right, thank you. That 10-minute break now became five minutes. So, all right, we're going to go ahead into closed session. Thank you, everyone. See you shortly. [01:34:28] We are back from closed session. [01:34:45] I would like to get a motion to certify. So moved. Second. All right, let's go ahead and take that vote. [01:35:05] All right, thank you, everyone. We are in recess until 7 o'clock. Thank you. [01:35:09] All right, we are back from recess. [01:35:55] Before we begin, I want to acknowledge Sheriff Glenn Hill is joining us. He's in. Hello, Sheriff Hill. Rebecca. Alright, also to just know that Secretary of the Commonwealth, Candy Mundane King, will be in for a, what was it, proclamation, commendation? [01:36:19] Proclamation. Proclamation. So we are going to, when she gets here, to accommodate her busy schedule, we may, you know, have to interrupt her presentation just to acknowledge her. And anyone who wants to come down for the photo is welcome to. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Shorter, our County Executive, wait, Supervisor Bailey, did you have something? [01:36:38] Yeah, I just want to, Madam Chair, I just found something out tonight that when I was in your office, I did not know that I'd like to share. Okay. Today is the sheriff's 44th year with the county. So we just want to, since he's here tonight, give you your flowers. [01:36:58] Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Mr. Shorter, you may begin. All right. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. All right. I am Chris Shorter, your county executive, and pleased to present the FY27 proposed budget and financial plan for Prince William County. I'm joined by Dave Sinclair. [01:37:23] Dave, come on up. And our chief financial officer and director of finance, Leslie Weldon. I'm also joined by our executive cabinet and here in the chamber and the leadership team, all of the directors for our agencies and departments in the atrium. [01:37:49] They have played an enormous part in getting us to this point in the process, so just want to really appreciate all that they have done and certainly will do over the next few weeks and months to get us to hopefully an adopted budget. [01:38:06] We believe that this document is more than just a financial document. It really is a statement of our values and one that we are proud to say directly invest where our strategic plan and our community says that they want us to. [01:38:24] So very proud of where we are and really want to thank each of you in your offices for all of the questions, all of the support, and all of the back and forth that we've done up to this point. All right, this first slide just really goes over an outline of what we'll be talking about tonight as part of this presentation. [01:38:44] We will start, in terms of budget overview, with really a discussion about the process, the budget development process itself. Then we'll talk generally about FY26 and the adopted budget and the decisions the board made as part of the adopted budget last year. [01:39:05] We'll talk briefly about some of the economic indicators that ultimately undergird some of the assumptions we made about the FY27 budget. We'll talk revenue and expenditures. We'll do some pie charts and graphs that break out into various categories, how we plan to look at our revenue, assuming a flat tax rate. [01:39:28] We will spend the most time tonight on the strategic investments and initiatives section of this budget. presentation. This is where we'll talk about all of the programs, services, and investments that we propose as part of this budget. We'll talk debt and really compare ourselves against some of the other AAA, AAA communities. And then we will talk about and touch on the proposed tax rates for FY27. And we will end the presentation with a multi-year overview or the five-year, [01:40:07] the actual five-year plan, and they will talk next steps, really how the budget process, the calendar will look for the next few weeks, and how the community could be involved in this process, the various ways that they could be involved. All right, so budget overview. So I like to say, and I know I've said it to the board before, this process is a year-round process. [01:40:31] The budget, the adopted budget becomes effective in July, and by August, we are training for the next budget. And so the OMB team is really working with, at that point, all of our, not just the agency directors, but all of the staff who are involved in the budget development process in August, training on the process for the next budget. In September, we are holding our first agency meetings, generally with OMB, in providing budget guidance to our agency directors at that [01:41:10] time. In October, you may recall that the Budget and Finance Committee heard from our team. We provided a general revenue outlook as well as a budget outlook kicking off, if you will, the FY27 season. We also accepted budget requests from agencies in October. So that's when agencies submitted their first round, if you will, of budget proposals. In November, I began to meet [01:41:42] with agencies quadrant by quadrant to hear the budget proposals directly from our agency leaders. You may recall that you heard from our constitutional officers in November, both the sheriff and our clerk to the court in November. [01:42:06] And on the Finance and Budget Committee, we heard about proffers. We provided an update on proffers, and we also provided an update on potential federal impacts during the month of November. In December, we also heard from a constitutional officer who was not available in November, our Commonwealth attorney. [01:42:26] And then in the Budget and Finance Committee, we talked about capital projects, which you heard about last week during the CIP presentation. And then in January, you heard preliminary general revenue estimates. We will come back to that in March with an actual revenue, general revenue estimate that I'll use as part of the recap. [01:42:50] And we also talked about some of the decisions that the board has already made last month. So this month, you heard from us on the CIP, tonight the proposed budget, and we will hopefully be in a position where we're able to advertise rates either after tonight or sometime soon, and we will have a community meeting, as we always do, where the OMB team will talk to this community and hear questions directly on Saturday. [01:43:22] All right. In terms of the FY27 budget, three key areas of focus for this budget, and that was sustaining and improving our core government services really for a dynamic and growing community and we certainly, you will see significant investments there. Another core focus area was investing strategically in our workforce to ensure competitiveness and in our overall infrastructure, quality of life, information technology, etc. Those strategic [01:44:01] investments were really grounded in our strategic plan and in what we heard from you. And then finally protecting our affordability for our residents as well as dealing with some of the what we believe could be mitigating some risk associated with local impacts based on federal and state decisions. In terms of the FY27 priorities, so in October when agencies submitted [01:44:36] their overall budget request, each of those initiatives were connected to our strategic plan. Part of the budget guidance was that there was a direct connection to all of our, essentially all of our budget initiatives, a direct connection to our strategic plan. [01:44:55] This was critically important as we did the work of engaging community and engaging your offices to develop the strategic plan. We also focused on making sure that we adhere to the county school revenue share agreement. [01:45:10] And so that was very important and clearly a large investment in this budget. You will see, certainly you saw last week in the CIP, a significant investment in our parks and recreation system. We believe that was important and we believe we heard that from you all very consistently and certainly from this community, as well as other infrastructure investments, both from an IT perspective as well as some of the quality of life infrastructure. There were also, in terms of priority in this budget, a need for us to deal with capacity within our agencies to [01:45:48] get the job done. And we believe that we've met the call there in terms of some of the FTEs and other capacity issues that we know we were dealing with. And then finally, our constitutional officers. Wanted to make sure that we were responsive to what we heard, what the board heard very directly from our constitutional officers, and so they were a priority in this budget as well. All right, so the next few slides will review essentially what was done last year as part of the FY26 budget. You will recall that the board adopted a budget that reduced the overall [01:46:26] real estate tax rate from $0.92 to $0.90.6, which was essentially an effective 5.6% increase over the prior year. The board also reduced for the first time in 35 years, reduced the personal property tax rate on vehicles from $370 to $350. Again, a very big deal for this community as we had not done that in a very long time. The board also reduced our food and beverage [01:47:00] tax rate from 4% to 3% last year and increased the personal property on computers and peripheral from 370 to 315. What you see on the right of this slide, we heard last month a few board members ask for us to be very explicit in where the data center revenue was showing impact, and we wanted to make sure that in a few of these slides we pulled out data centers for that reason. [01:47:31] And so what you see here in terms of tax rate, we also heard, I think Supervisor of ODU specifically asked us to lay out how the tax rate had been impacted over the last several years, and this graph does it. [01:47:46] So the bars, the blue bars on this chart essentially show what has happened in terms of appreciation to home values from FY20 through FY26, and so you see a constant increase. The lines on this chart show the tax, the effective tax rate. [01:48:06] The orange line shows the tax rate with levies. The blue line shows the tax rate without levies. And so you see, starting in FY22, a consistent downward trend in terms of tax rates. The board also invested in our public education system, $991 million invested in Prince William County Public Schools, consistent with the revenue share agreement last year, or in FY26. [01:48:40] There were significant technology investments as part of the FY26 approved or adopted budget. You may recall that the board also approved one-time funding to support the operations at the CRC while we awaited IMD exclusion waiver from the federal government. [01:49:04] There was also significant support for staffing plans as part of last year's budget, so we wanted to make sure we captured that as well. Okay, so quickly go over some of the economic assumptions that are made as part of the FY27 budget. [01:49:22] I'll remind the board that a lot of this information, we didn't touch on it too much here because we're going to, in March, hear from our finance team. And in the general revenue estimate or general revenue update, as I prepare for the recap, we'll get more into detail in terms of some of the financial assumptions. [01:49:43] That said, as you can see from this chart, our unemployment rate is slightly lower than the national average. We believe while the labor market is still fragile that we are going to see a stabilization of the unemployment rate in 26. [01:50:01] In terms of inflation, you will see in the subsequent slides that while we are down significantly from our COVID peak, there will still be some inflationary impacts on contracts and services as part of the FY27 budget. [01:50:17] And in terms of consumer spending, we are seeing spending highest at the highest income earner level. So those households that make over $251,000 a year, we are seeing the largest consumer spending. [01:50:35] In terms of key assumptions or budget drivers for the FY27 budget, you know, I said it to each of you in your offices, we knew that the FY27 budget would be a budget that dealt with, it was almost a perfect storm that dealt with some of the competitiveness in our compensation. [01:50:57] And so we were dealing with two CBAs as part of the FY27 budget, as well as three compensation and classification studies for our general government employees, our general service employees, our sheriff, and our ADC. [01:51:13] So all of that was certainly a driver as part of the FY27 budget. There are, as previously said on the slide before this one, impacts, inflationary impacts on our contracts and services, and we'll talk about those in subsequent slides. [01:51:30] And we are dealing with some service demand and population growth or capacity issues within our agencies, and so that was certainly a driver as part of this budget. And then finally, state and federal government uncertainty, and that is you will see some investments we are asking the board to make in this budget to help mitigate some of that uncertainty. [01:51:55] Okay, in terms of revenue overview, so what we're going to do in the next few slides is talk about what our revenue picture looks like, assuming a flat tax rate. So a flat tax rate of 90.6 cents. [01:52:12] What we do here is split out into four categories what our real estate tax base looks like. And so we have residential, public service, commercial, and data centers. And you see over time, while these numbers are preliminary estimates, FY27 through FY31, Again, we'll talk more about this in March. [01:52:36] What you see here is that our data center tax base is growing in terms of its proportion to our overall real estate tax base. All right. [01:52:51] So with this slide, this shows our real estate tax revenue estimates, again, based on a flat tax rate. And so here you see that residential real estate still is the great majority. [01:53:07] in terms of this pie chart, with 64% of our overall revenue coming from real estate tax. On the right of this slide, what you see is essentially our estimates in terms of real estate drivers, and so appreciation for residential at 3.5%, appreciation for commercial at 6.4%, and appreciation for data centers at 23.1%. [01:53:38] A big note on this slide is the $13.9 billion growth in our land book value. Happy to come back to this slide if there are questions. In terms of our personal property tax revenue estimate, you see that business tangible associated with data centers is the majority, with 51% of the revenue associated with personal property. [01:54:06] And our vehicles comes in at number two with 42%. Also, on this slide, you'll notice that vehicle units, that means the number of vehicles themselves, have increased in the county, which you expect year over year. [01:54:22] The value of those vehicles has slightly decreased, which you would also expect year over year. In terms of computer equipment and peripheral, furniture and fixture, heavy equipment, we'll talk about on the next slide. [01:54:39] But an overall increase, very important on this slide, of business tangible of $877 million year over year. And so a summary of what we see, again, this is to answer the question that we got a few weeks ago in terms of being very specific about the data center, the impact of data centers. [01:55:04] revenue. We pulled out real estate, computer equipment and peripheral, and furniture and fixture, and you see here an estimate of $549.7 million in data center revenue estimated based on current rates. So we assumed $415 on computer and peripheral, $370 on furniture and fixture. [01:55:34] Those three categories in this slide presented again, you really see here very clearly what happens to real estate in the out years in terms of the data center revenue forecast. [01:55:50] All right, in terms of general revenue, again, based on a flat tax rate, here you see real estate tax at 58.1% of our total pie for general revenue with personal property coming in at 27.7%. [01:56:12] That is all the things we just talked about in the previous slides. In the overall picture, so this is those sources of revenue, again, based on a flat tax rate at 90.6 cents. [01:56:31] These are our revenue estimates for FY27. You also see at the bottom of this slide what we are estimating in terms of revenue share, so the school's portion of the revenue, and then where we end up. [01:56:50] And then you'll see that sort of played out in the out years as well. Again, happy to come back to this slide if there are any questions at the end of the presentation. All right. Some of the revenue that we will be watching over the next few weeks, and certainly as we come up to the presentation, the sort of revenue estimate in a few weeks in March, Our real estate property taxes, those assessments, the assessment notices go out in March. [01:57:28] The personal property taxes on vehicles, the returns start to come back in in April. And with food and beverage, the change was made as part of last year's adopted budget. It became effective on January 1 of this year. [01:57:45] So we will be monitoring the food and beverage taxes as they come in. And then with sales, the disbursement from the state, the estimates will happen next month. [01:58:00] So, again, we'll be able to report out as part of the revenue estimate the general revenue update in March. All right. I'm sorry. We're going to take a brief break. Okay. Secretary of the Commonwealth, Candy Bundan King, has joined us. [01:58:18] So for those of you who weren't following earlier, we did a proclamation for the Secretary of State, and out of respect for her time, she just got here from Richmond, we are going to go ahead and give that to her, and we'll take a short photo. [01:58:34] So Supervisor Bailey, if you want to join me down at the podium. And after that, if there's anyone who wants to be a part of the picture, please come down with us. Thank you. [01:59:17] Good evening, everyone. It gives me great honor to tell you a little bit about a special person in our community. This is for Secretary Candy Mundun-King, who has demonstrated exemplary leadership and an unwavering commitment to public service, earning the respect and confidence of the community with a passion for equity and opportunity for all. [01:59:49] Through her distinguished career, Secretary Mundun King has advanced the principles of integrity, accountability, and excellence in government, earning the respect of colleagues, stakeholders, and the citizens she serves. [02:00:07] In January 2021, she was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates, where she represented the people of the 23rd District, serving Prince William and Stafford counties with integrity, compassion, and commitment, before assuming the Office of Secretary of the Commonwealth of Virginia on January 17, 2026. [02:00:30] Throughout her career and personal life, Candy Mundun-King has been sustained by the support of her loving family, including her wonderful husband, Josh King, and their children, whose encouragement has strengthened her service to the Commonwealth. [02:00:49] Therefore, today, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby recognizes and commends Secretary Candy Mundun King for exemplary service, her steadfast dedication to public service, and enduring contributions to the citizens of Prince William County and the Commonwealth of Virginia. [02:01:14] Secretary King, would you like to have a few words? Thank you so much, Supervisor Bailey and Chair Jefferson and members of the board. I am deeply honored to be recognized by you, but more than that, I'm deeply grateful for your friendship, your support, your trust, and your service to Prince William County. [02:01:40] Many of you know that I was born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia, but what you don't know is that when I moved to D.C., it never felt quite right. And then I moved to Maryland and it still didn't feel quite right. And then I moved to Prince William County and it felt like home. [02:02:02] And Prince William County has become our home and we are so grateful for our Prince William County family. And serving the 23rd District has been one of the greatest honors of my life. And I continue to serve Prince William County as Her Excellency's Secretary of the Commonwealth where we serve nearly nine million Virginians every day to provide them with the support and service that they deserve. So I'm truly honored and thank you to my husband for being here with me and all of [02:02:36] our Prince William County family including my sorors of Delta Sigma Theta sorority and my babies over at freedom high school many of you know i spent nearly a decade volunteering at freedom high school and those children have changed my life life and they are part of what makes prince william county such a special place so thank you for honoring them for honoring them by honoring me and thank you for everything that you do and anyone who wants to come down to take the photo [02:03:12] with us please make your way down to the podium sure I'll continue all right okay so this is a [02:04:52] slide that is common to this community one that I think we've put in our budgets for the last several several years this breaks down by quadrant area what the FY 27 budget in terms of expenditure looks like so you see certainly difficult to see the agencies but not so difficult to see the overall allocated budget and the number of FTEs per quadrant. [02:05:27] All right. It was important, and we just did one slide on this, to distinguish what you heard last week from us in terms of the CIP and the great presentation Dave did introducing our CIP for the year versus what we are doing tonight in terms of the overall proposed budget. [02:05:47] So many of the projects that you heard presented last week, ultimately the impact that the debt service associated with those projects will have will impact the operating budget. So obviously the school transfer, the investments we are making in our employees, some of the, again, the debt service and maintenance and operations of our facilities, all proposed budget, all operating budget. [02:06:16] The presentation that was made last week in terms of land, the design, construction of projects, all of that capital. In the table on the right of this slide, what you see essentially is the debt service, and in the case of this year, one-time costs associated with the CIP. [02:06:42] So $40.2 million in FY27. That number grows significantly by FY21. I'm sorry, FY31. And so that was one of the points of this slide to show that it is important for us to keep in mind that as we go year over year, that the proportion of our debt service for capital projects will start to take up more and more of our overall operating budget. [02:07:13] Happy to come back to this slide if there are questions. Okay, so our strategic investments, this is where the rubber meets the road in terms of the sections of this budget. [02:07:30] So decisions that the board has already made. We have talked about the CBA, both for police and for fire. There are two FTEs associated with the noise ordinance that the board has already made a decision on that will be baked into this budget and we'll come to in a few slides. [02:07:47] In terms of items of board interest, I've talked about the fact that we understood from each of you that parks and recreation projects and the system was very important in this budget. And you will recall that last week a number of projects were presented, even projects that were one-time cost that are of board interest. [02:08:11] We heard from a number of you about the desire to see some additional capacity built in the planning office and around the enterprise in other ways. And we have also included a coordinated response piece in a number of ways in the budget that we'll talk about, and we've talked about federal impacts and the need to make sure that we are mitigating against what might be some uncertainty associated with the state and federal budgets. [02:08:39] Okay, so in terms of the FY27 allocation to schools, based on the current revenue share agreement at 57.23 percent. What we would be transferring to schools this year is record setting. $1.1 billion to schools associated with the revenue share agreement. This represents an increase of 12.8 percent over last year's transfer. This is, in addition to the school [02:09:15] transfer uh what you see in terms of additional uh transfers are on top of the uh the actual transfer to school so you see this in the budget and have seen it in the budget for the last several years class size reduction the debt service associated with gainesville high school our school security program and to be clear this is the elementary school community um uh i guess what is it? Dave, remind me, the community school resource officers, not the security officers [02:09:52] in the middle and high school level. We could talk about that a bit more, and then the cable grant revenue. In the table on the right of this slide is this shown essentially in graph form. The increases in our overall transfer year over year is what is displayed here in that graph. So from FY23 to 24, what the increased amount was above what we provided by way of transfer of the prior year, you see depicted in this slide. Wanted to make sure that we were clear. [02:10:25] Again, happy to come back. In terms of employee compensation, so with the CBAs both for police and fire, what you see here effectively for police is the increase in starting pay from $62,000 to 74,000 for our police officers. And what you see reflected out for fire and rescue does not include the 30 FTEs. And this is the final year of the 30 FTE staffing plan associated with the fire and [02:10:58] rescue CBA. What you do see in the 3 million are a number of market adjustments for primarily for the first four steps in the fire service from 3% to 4%, with some stipend and other specialty pay included to make up that $3 million. In terms of the general services classification and compensation study, we're going to talk a bit more about that in the next slide, but with [02:11:30] Sheriff and ADC, we included an 8.2% market adjustment based, again, on the compensation and classification studies for both the sheriff and ADC. We are also proposing a 3% step merit increase across the board with some support for the increase in health and fringe benefits for our workforce. [02:11:56] We're also seeing this year a decrease in the amount that we are paying to VRS due to some savings on the VRS side. for a total of 49, for total investment in FY27 of 49 million. [02:12:18] In terms of the general government or general services classification and compensation study, what you see here is essentially what the study told us. It told us that our Band A or Group A employees, these are our frontline employees, Our employees with sometimes the lowest salaries are the furthest from market. [02:12:46] And so we have the largest to go in terms of getting them back to market and competitive. And so what we are proposing, and with Band B, you see the number of examples here with fleet, code inspectors, paralegal staff. [02:13:06] We are proposing a 6% total increase. What you will see in this slide is that we are recommending that that increase be provided over two years versus over one year. And so with the A ban, our frontline employees would receive a 12% increase broken out over two years, so 6% in FY27 and 6% in FY28. [02:13:31] B ban, 3% this year, 3% next. And with C, D, E, and medical, our highest paid employees have the least furthest to go in terms of being at market. And so we are already very competitive when it comes to the C, D, and E bands of our workforce. [02:13:57] This is an important, I thought this was a very important piece of the compensation and classification study. And I think will be received very well by our workforce, being very clear that those in our workforce that are usually hourly and the lowest paid are going to be receiving the biggest benefit from this compensation and classification study for your consideration. [02:14:21] Okay, so with the next few slides, we're going to cover quadrant by quadrant what our proposals are in terms of budget initiatives. And so the first quadrant up, government operations, performance, and innovation, that quadrant is made up by five agencies. [02:14:41] What we are proposing as part of the FY27 budget is eight additional FTEs and an overall local investment of $4.7 million. And by local, I should say general fund investment. In terms of the budget initiatives, and this is going to be consistent throughout the slide deck, I really appreciate that the team laid out the budget initiatives in this way. [02:15:09] You can actually see on the far right of the slide a description of each initiative, and then what the local cost, what revenue we might receive from either outside or other source, and the total cost of the initiative. [02:15:25] And then if the initiative is, if there's an FTE associated with the initiative. So very clearly laid out, hopefully for the public and for the board and others to understand. And so what you see here with DOIT, the first set of investments with hardware replacements, we are proposing that we take the $4.1 million needed for hardware replacements from DOIT's fund balance. [02:15:52] So this would not hit the overall budget in the way that some of the other investments would. For managed security operations in Splunk, these are cybersecurity initiatives and would be asking for the board support there. [02:16:10] With ServiceNow, this is a platform, enterprise-wide platform, to help with IT services and portfolio management across our organization. For facilities and fleet management, we are asking the board's consideration for two FTEs to provide security for the Crisis Receiving Center, our pharmaceuticals program, which we moved into local operation, and the Neabsco Garage. [02:16:39] We're also asking for two mandated compliance trainers associated with OSHA to support FFM in this budget as well. Also, in our government operations quadrant, we are asking the board's consideration for county attorney paralegal. [02:16:59] This will be supported via revenue from our self-insurance and not our general fund, although it is general fund dollars. We are also asking for the board's support and investment with PwC Works. [02:17:16] You heard earlier this month during work session how very impactful PwC Works has been for us in terms of overall engagement. The funding associated with PwC Works was one-time funding, and we are asking to build it now into the budget so that we can continue that program and continue the great engagement around within that platform. [02:17:39] We are asking the board's consideration for an additional FTE to provide volunteer support. This is enterprise-wide. We're also asking for support with finance to help with spanner control issues as we grow capacity within finance. [02:18:01] The Dexter program within finance is a telephone system for our tax administration division. It would go a long way with helping with customer service there. And finally, with government operations, you see here additional investments in current technology. [02:18:23] This is primarily what we talked about a few slides ago, and that is just increases to contract costs and licenses. We're going to see this throughout the budget where a number of agencies are asking for additional support to help with some of the increased contract costs. [02:18:42] What you also see here from facilities and fleet management are increases to existing leases. Again, escalations have been built in in some cases, and we need to make sure that we cover those costs. [02:18:59] Overall, again, eight FTEs associated with government operations. This is a total cost of $9.5 million with $4.8 million coming in the way of other sources. Not always revenue, some of it is just coming from other sources, and an overall cost of, again, $4.7 million for government operations. [02:19:23] For health, well-being, and environmental sustainability, we are, as you know, seven agencies within the health and well-being quadrant. We are asking for 24 FTEs within this budget for this quadrant in a local cost of $5.3 million. [02:19:42] You see here some of the very important investments in our health and well-being quadrant with aging, support for our Seniors Without Walls program. This is fulfilling the staffing plan that we started last year with the Seniors Without Walls program. [02:20:04] Additional capacity for PWC beds at Birmingham Green is included in this budget, and additional support for the Bluebird Tour program, which I understand is a very popular program amongst our seniors. We are also in this budget including additional mandated support given the increase in youth participating in the program for the CSA program. [02:20:28] As you can see here, there is some support coming from the state. We've actually talked quite a bit about this and the fact that there is a statewide conversation about the CSA program and how the state will support the program, but this is a mandated program for us, and this is the county portion of cost along with the state cost. [02:20:53] We have also included funding for DSS, for hypothermia services, and a case management system. For public health, we've included an emergency management tech along with a code enforcement inspector to help with food inspections, and for youth services. [02:21:13] We've included funding for the Right Step Diversion Program, which I know some of you have heard about, but I'm happy to kind of answer any questions about that program as we go throughout the budget season, as well as a child nutrition management system that, again, is mandated, and we've taken over responsibility locally for that program. [02:21:36] It was a state program. All right, also for health and well-being, you see here investments in our community services, staffing. This is all increased capacity, increased support, primarily for adults in youth with developmental disabilities. [02:21:58] You see here also one FTE associated with state credentialing. This is, I'm sure you all can imagine, the high level of credentialing and licensure needed to maintain this, that staff have to maintain in order to provide support the way that they do. [02:22:16] This FTE will help to make sure that we stay compliant and on top of those various credentialing requirements. You see also here behavioral health contracts increase, again, back to what we talked about just a few slides ago in terms of just year-over-year increases in contracting costs. [02:22:33] I think this is primarily related to the contract associated with the CRC. Also, health and well-being with environmental sustainability. You see here two FTEs that are consistent with the staffing plan we presented. [02:22:52] I guess it was two budget cycles ago now. This is the last of the staffing plan associated with environmental sustainability. But I imagine that we will re-up with another staffing plan. With Parks and Recreation, the first initiative under the Parks and Recreation category, the Occoquan Greenway, we are providing three FTEs to assist with trail maintenance, hitting the local general fund budget. [02:23:21] All of the other investments are investments that are being dealt with being cost-recovered or funding coming from revenue generated by the program. One example of that is the Science in the Park program, a very popular program. [02:23:38] As soon as, I believe, Seth puts out notice about the program, the seats are filled. And so the revenue from that program will support the FTEs associated with this budget. You heard last week from Dave about the stormwater management fee and the need for us to meet our MS4 permit requirements. [02:24:02] So those requirements include mandated reductions in nitrogen, phosphorus, and other sediments. And we are required to meet those reductions by June 30, 2028, which is a year ahead of schedule. [02:24:21] And so the increase in stormwater management fee that you see here of 13, on average $13.45 for a single-family home, we believe are mandated, I would say. We need to meet our MS4 permit requirements in order to stay compliant with the Clean Water Act. [02:24:41] And so the cost, the revenue generated from this increase will all go to that mandate. In terms of solid waste fee, we are recommending an increase in the solid waste fee on average for a single-family home, $9 increase. [02:25:02] This we are requesting to assist with the Phase 4 infrastructure work happening at the landfill. While not mandated, this is certainly consistent with our strategic plan for the landfill and development plan needed. [02:25:22] We are not recommending this year a tipping fee increase as part of the FY27 budget. Okay. So in terms of mitigating risk, there are a number of things happening at the state and the federal level that may impact our local government. [02:25:47] You see here listed some of the programs that have already been impacted and we will talk about in the coming slides. But we are asking the board to consider increasing the contingency to $5 million to help with the uncertainty going into FY27. [02:26:08] In addition to some of the things that you see listed here, we have not gotten final word on the waiver for IMD at our CRC. So we will still be looking to work with the federal government. [02:26:24] Hopefully that waiver application is dealt with during FY, well, even before FY27. But if it is not, we need to be in a position where we can continue to fund the operation of the CRC until that waiver is approved foreverly. [02:26:42] All right, and then what you also see here in terms of contingency, we do not spend funding out of contingency without coming back to the board via resolution to make sure that the board approves that funding going to some alternative purpose. [02:27:01] So the funding is not sitting, it is not up to the CXO to spend the funding without coming back to the board. I wanted to make sure that point was clear. In terms of mitigating risk, our partners, the very important point here is that the nonprofits and community-based organizations that support many and much in the way of our vulnerable population here in Prince William County are also dealing with the uncertainty in the current environment. [02:27:35] We are asking that the board consider increasing the community partners program to $1 million. This would be an increase of $425,000. This funding would go directly to the community-based organizations and nonprofits that are supported by, that apply every year now to the community partners program. [02:27:55] I am very proud of what we have done with the community partners program in the short time that I've been here, really excited about what the OMB team has done in terms of making sure that that program is one that is fair and very transparent. And so I'm very confident that increasing the amount to $1 million now will go directly to the smaller, larger, medium-sized nonprofits that do great work here in this community. We're also asking the board to consider a $1 million increase in our workers' compensation insurance, workers' compensation casualty [02:28:33] and property insurance, due mostly to increases in the claims for the program. Okay, mobility, economic growth and resiliency, five agencies made up, we are asking for the board to approve 11 FTEs associated with this budget at a local cost, general fund cost of $3.1 million. I'll say one of the differences with this quadrant is that they are largely supported by building and development fees, and we'll talk a bit more about the fees that [02:29:12] have been socialized with our development community. But you will see in this particular quadrant a lot of support for FTEs via fee. With mobility, economic growth, and resiliency, we are starting off with the planning office. Again, four FTEs recommended to support the planning office, three for land use review, one for small area plans. We're also including additional support built into our base budget for advertising, postage, and increased licensure [02:29:51] for software systems. We're also asking for one-time funding to support the zoning ordinance, the vendor who is supporting the zoning ordinance update. For economic development, we're asking for support with the Placer software system. [02:30:12] Now, I will say economic development is not the only agency that uses this system. It is a very popular system, but they brought it forward, and we want to recommend support of the Placer system for economic development and tourism and for the enterprise. [02:30:29] For Public Works, we're asking for two FTEs, essentially a decision that the board has already made to support the noise ordinance enforcement and funding to support vacant property cleanup. These are properties that the county owns. Oftentimes throughout the year, Public Works is asked to go out to provide cleanup services and support without a budget to do it. And so We're asking to add funding so that they can do this within a specific line item. [02:31:02] We talked about, the team came to you during work session to talk about the merger of the new Department of Transportation and Capital Construction. What you see here is space, funding for space to bring a segment of those employees that will be a part of the new department together. [02:31:23] For transportation, these are positions that would have been requested regardless of the merger and will be supported via revenue and charged back to capital projects and to NVTA 30% for a land acquisition agent and a grant tech for transportation. [02:31:48] Also for mobility, we're looking at FTEs all supported by development fees for development services, and we are also looking to provide some additional funding for support to make some changes within the office space and increasing some operational funding to support technology within development services. [02:32:13] Overall, again, an FTE increase of 11 positions and a local cost of $3.1 million. Now, we have talked quite a bit about OmniRide as part of last week's budget presentation and certainly individual sessions with you and your staff. [02:32:37] We are supporting the $29.9 million request that came from OmniRide, fully supporting that subsidy as part of this budget. That represents an increase of $1 million or 3.6%. [02:32:53] As you know, and was discussed last week, we are now at a point where we are fully utilizing our grantor's tax at 100% to support the OmniRide local subsidy, fully using TOT to support OmniRide local subsidy, and now for the first time this year have dipped into NVTA 30% funding. [02:33:13] I think each of you know that we use that NVTA 30% funding to match state grants, to match federal grants, very important for our local transportation network. And so we are asking the board, and I'm thankful that there has been an active conversation around other sources of revenue to support transportation locally here in Prince William County. [02:33:34] That said, we are using NVTA dollars to support the VRE subsidy, sustaining that subsidy at $5.8 million, and again, fully supporting OmniRides local subsidy. [02:33:50] What you see in the table below is essentially what happens based on OmniRide's projection over five years to end, let me point to it. So while we are at, in FY27, $1.2 million, that increases to $8.8 million in FY31. [02:34:14] So again, an absolute opportunity for us to think through what comes next in terms of local support for our transportation system. And finally, safe and secure community made up of nine local agencies, but I will tell you a lot of partnership in this quadrant because this quadrant is generally the primary liaison to all of our constitutional officers, courts, etc. [02:34:44] We are asking for 87 new FTEs associated with this quadrant and a local cost of $17.4 million. In terms of the collective bargaining agreement, we talked about this at the start of the presentation, 30 FTEs. [02:35:06] This is the final year of the staffing plan associated with the CBA for fire and rescue at a total cost of $6.9 million. We're also asking the board's consideration with 14 additional FTEs to support station 27 engine unit. [02:35:26] We are including, we've included five additional FTEs, non-uniform staff to support some of the administrative operations within fire and rescue. We've included a cadet instructor for the EMT program with our schools. [02:35:43] With fire marshal, this will be cost recovered using development fee revenue. We're asking for an additional code compliance, staff person, and coordinated care. I know I've talked to your office individually about coordinated care and what this means. [02:36:00] I believe this is the start to a phenomenal partnership between fire and rescue, public safety communications, and community services, where we're essentially taking some of our highest users of 911 and making sure that we are going essentially on the offense and reaching out to them to make sure that they're not using 911 because they really need support with medication management or support with transportation to their doctor's appointments or help scheduling doctor's appointments. [02:36:35] And so we believe that in addition to saving significant costs, that this will actually be a big opportunity to provide better support to our residents here in Prince William County who need us most. We're also asking the board's consideration to transfer funding to support a medical director from contract services into a full-time FTE with no budget impact. [02:37:02] In terms of police staffing, we are asking the board's consideration for 11 additional FTEs in PD. This is eight sworn, one administrative staff person. We're asking for a deputy within ADC, and ADC will also be using fund balance to support some of the capital improvements within the facility, [02:37:35] elevator modernization, and some kitchen replacements and security upgrades, all, again, fund balance for ADC. Community safety navigation specialist for our Office of Community Safety is included in this budget. [02:37:54] We're also including a deputy for public safety communications, long overdue. They've come to us a few years in a row now for this position, and I'm happy to include it for the board's consideration. We've also included funding for FTEs to support the veterans docket and adult recovery docket at our courts. [02:38:15] very important programs. I've heard from a number of you. You all have visited the graduations and so happy to support these programs as they are very effective. And then with INVERSE or the Northern Virginia Emergency Response System and UASI with COG, through COG, these are both regional emergency management support systems where we work with our neighbors in the case of UASI across the DMV, and in the case of Inverse, across Northern Virginia, to deal with crisis communications, [02:38:52] et cetera. In both cases, due to cutbacks in federal funding to both programs, there are increases to, they represent increases to the local budget. In terms of our constitutional officers, we have included the initiatives that the circuit court clerk included in her budget request to the board. In the fall, our Commonwealth attorney, we are including 11 FTEs, that is seven administrative paralegal staff with four attorneys for the Commonwealth attorney, [02:39:32] understanding that the Commonwealth attorney may be coming back to the board once the compensation board makes its decisions about local FTEs, or yes, local FTEs that they plan to invest here in Prince William County. So we may be coming back with the Commonwealth Attorney after the budget is adopted with an additional request for appropriation if additional FTEs are awarded by the Compensation Board. We're also asking the board to consider five additional sheriff [02:40:06] deputies to increase capacity at our courts. We're also asking the board's consideration to increase the salary supplement for the state employees within our public defender's office. [02:40:22] This was originally at 15 percent, moved up to 25 percent, and now we are asking the board's consideration to move up to 30 percent and increasing the language interpretation services budget that we've sent to the public defender. We did the 106, I believe, in FY25, and now we're asking to increase that by $14,000. So you see for our safe and secure community quadrant, [02:40:55] a total of, again, 87 FTEs and local cost at $17.4 million. Okay. I wanted to touch on reserves in our financial policy. Really, this is just two slides in this section really to make sure that I said out loud to the board that when we compare ourselves to other AAA, triple-triple-A communities, we pair well, we compete well. You see in the orange section that there is a need for us [02:41:34] to an opportunity, I should say, for us to establish a rainy day fund that is typical for a jurisdiction our size with triple AAA rating. This is an example of where we sit just in this particular category. I'll go back and say that all of the other categories, our principles of sound financial management, the way we manage our organization certainly puts us with our peers. But in this one area, with our reserves, we are below our peers. And so what you [02:42:13] see in this slide, the red line shows where our peer jurisdictions are, our peer AAA jurisdictions are, and where the median is. And then in the bars, you see where we are year over year. And so we have some work to do, some opportunity in terms of putting more in reserve, what we would call unassigned to help support increasing the percentage of reserve to overall budget. [02:42:47] Okay, so proposed tax rates based on what we have talked about tonight. We are asking the board's consideration for a flat tax rate at 90.6 cents. This would represent a $181 increase or 3.5% increase on average for our homeowners. We are asking the board's consideration to reduce [02:43:18] the fire levy from $0.07 to $0.07. This would still represent an increase of $3 for the fire levy, and we are asking the board's consideration to reduce the mosquito and forest pest management levy by $2 or approximately 17.2%. What you see in the chart are the rates that we did not assume would change, understanding that this is the start of the process and that there will be [02:43:54] discussion amongst you about potential changes in these rates. But we are for personal property vehicle at $3.50, for personal property computer and peripheral at $4.15, and at food and beverage we are at 3%. We heard you last year that you wanted to see what this meant in the budget presentation for the average homeowner, and this is what it looks like for the average [02:44:29] homeowner. So we are at, on average, well, I'll just go here. So in terms of the change from the FY26 adopted to proposed, for real estate tax, we would be at $180.9. For fire levy, we would be increasing $2.57. For mosquito and forest pest levy, we would be decreasing by $2.45, which brings us to 181.05. For the fees associated with solid waste and with stormwater, that adds [02:45:06] $22 to the overall change, and it puts us at $203.50, or a 3.6% change over the FY26 budget. All right. And this is what the five-year, consistent with our principles of sound financial management. This is what the balanced five-year plan looks like. And I'll do the same here and say [02:45:40] that for FY27, again, assuming a flat tax rate, you see overall general revenue at $1.955 billion, less the revenue share agreement to schools at $1.118 or $1.119 billion. And then what that leaves for us in terms of the county's revenue share. And when we bring that forward and we add agency revenue and county resources, it brings us to our overall county revenue and resources [02:46:18] available for expenditures as part of the FY27 budget. We are adding the expenditures we just went over with the overall debt associated with the CIP that Dave and the team went over last week. And that brings us to our overall budget request for FY27. [02:46:41] That leaves us with $545,000 on the bottom line. And we do that in FY28 and beyond for the five-year plan. This is a balanced budget with funding left on the bottom line for the board's consideration. [02:47:04] In terms of, and this is a reminder, use of fund balance, We are consistent with the presentation that was delivered last week, utilizing $41.9 million of NVTA 30% funds to eliminate the need for us to issue debt on two projects. [02:47:23] We are using fund balance to support $4.1 million in technology replacements. ADC is using $4 million of its fund balance to do facility improvements and capital work within the facility. [02:47:42] And then we are using capital reserve dollars, again, back to the presentation last week, to support an infrastructure improvement around technology in our schools to help with communications for our public safety officials. [02:48:04] All right, a summary of what we have gone over this evening. a $49 million investment to retain, recruit the best workforce in the region. This incorporates our CBAs in our compensation and classification studies. [02:48:24] We have built a budget that provides $20 million in investment for existing and new parks and recreation facilities. We are investing in capacity to grow our services as this community is growing and addressing the increased expectations around what our government can and will do to support this community. [02:48:51] We are addressing inflationary impacts on our contracts and services, and we are mitigating some federal and state risk with some of the investments that we are proposing as part of this budget. In terms of what this process looks like moving forward, we have budget work sessions and have already decided to include at least, at the very least, the stormwater management and solid waste management fees as a budget work session discussion topic, but certainly open to others. [02:49:28] And then on March 10th, we will hear the general revenue forecast from our finance team and our Director of Finance, Leslie Weldon. We have public hearings scheduled on March 17th for the proposed FY27 budget, and then the April 7th required public hearing for our budget. This is how the community can get involved. We always really appreciate this slide and certainly appreciate [02:50:04] all the work that the OMB team does to quickly answer questions from our community and even from your offices to push information out during the budget season. So we say if you have questions, this is where to submit them. On Saturday, the OMB team will walk through the budget and CIP with this community at 9 a.m. virtual. So please feel free to sign up those from the community who are listening in, and we will have those budget hearings, budget work sessions, and of course [02:50:39] during our regular budget meetings, during the budget season, we always expect during public comment time to hear from residents in terms of their reactions to the budget. I believe that is a budget calendar. This lays out what the remainder of February, March, and April looks like for us with a proposed budget adoption on the 21st of April. [02:51:07] I believe that is all, and Madam Chair, available for questions. Thank you so very much for this presentation. I have a couple people in queue. First, Supervisor Vega, then Bodie. Thank you, Madam Chair. [02:51:24] Mr. County Executive, thank you to you and to the team for putting this budget together. I know that it's not an easy task and one that takes several months, And so thank you for that. Just kind of want to highlight some of the facts that you already stated on the closing portion of the presentation. [02:51:42] We are keeping the tax rate flat. That doesn't mean that people's taxes don't go up. Once again, the increase in the financial burden to the taxpayers of this county continues to be that, a financial burden. And while I understand that the county has a lot of priorities, it now becomes the board's budget and, as I stated earlier, the people's budget. [02:52:07] This is now a process that is going to entail us going out into the community and listening from the residents. And we can do this, obviously, via town halls, e-mail, whichever way you prefer. I want to ask Dave a question in regards to, and if you know it, if you know the answers, Chris, please go ahead and answer. [02:52:31] But what was the data center of revenue in FY20, roughly? What did the industry generate? I'm afraid I would have to research that. Okay. I did, and I thought we got this information also from you all. [02:52:47] It was $52.2 million. That's right. Right? And it's in this presentation also. And what is that number for FY27? $550 million. It's also in the presentation, but these are very critical numbers that I want for all of us to have at the forefront of this conversation. [02:53:08] And as we hear from members of the community, that is a 953% increase in seven years. That is astronomical. And so when folks come to us as their representatives asking why taxes continue to go up and why is there a burden on them, it becomes incredibly difficult to provide an answer when we see a 953% increase in data center revenue. [02:53:39] Despite the way people may feel about the industry, we constantly hear, well, where is the revenue? The industry is without a doubt providing the revenue. it's going to be up to this board to figure out how to properly fund a budget that reflects the priorities and the interests of the people of Prince William County I'm not going to dive into a whole bunch of questions because tonight is your night to present to us the budget we now have the budget we now have to do our homework and go out to the community and then for the other dates that you already shared with us on the presentation those are going to be crucial dates those are [02:54:15] important dates because those dates are where we have to have an idea of where we're going to go with this budget what um you know the tax rate will be what the revenue share agreement will look like and i appreciate some of my colleagues already reaching out wanting to have a conversation because that's important i think that you know the mere fact that people are interested in having a conversation is is a good um indication of the direction that we're going in uh but i did want to ask in regards to that community meeting virtual meeting that that the county is going to put on I believe you said it was on the 21st correct how are we going to have access to what [02:54:50] the community conveys to you all so certainly we will be the office of management budget will be sending out the information to to your offices in case you want to include that in your respective newsletters to the community you will have that tomorrow morning from the county executive or myself but also we have we have a recording of that that we post online as well in case board members or your office staff would like to review that as well we also i think let me investigate [02:55:28] this we may also be able to provide a transcript thank you um and i ask because sometimes you know we may not have access to that information but it's important as we um discuss where we're going to go with the budget so the more information that we have perhaps those folks that attend this meeting may not attend one of our town halls uh and it's just important to make sure that we have access to all the information whichever form it's coming in and so i'll reserve um my questions for the next time that we meet but um thank you again mr uh shorter thank you dave and thank you team for putting this budget together that's all i have madam chair supervisor bode thank you madam [02:56:03] chair and again thank you to chris uh dave and the rest of the team um as was set the house and i appreciate uh chris how you had the timeline there because basically right after we had after the new budget takes effect july 1 which is a month later you guys are already off to the races planning out the next year so a lot of these conversations can be continue to be as you said year-long processes and i'm glad we have instituted the finance and budget committee to be part of that conversation um to help you know transparency and for folks frankly on the board to see all that we have these conversations moving forward so i wanted to uplift that and thank you all for your efforts [02:56:42] on that um my one question and i know we're going to have a work session on the storm water and solid waste management though just but just to get the question out there so you guys can start thinking about this is how we decide to allocate um between you know your your housing types so your single family versus townhouse versus apartment versus condos and then versus business a non-residential property and also break out the percentages proportionally of how much we get of that entire pie from those because there's obviously the rates but we there's a you know [02:57:17] with how residential development is deploying in this county over time those proportions of the of the amount we're getting from that of those different pies changes over time so i would love to hear to see that trends and also where we stand with fy 27 on that piece okay so trends by housing type yes and and residential versus non-residential very good and that's the only question as sures vegas said this is the beginning of the process but i did want to answer a big question we've all been talking about here and there um so i'm going to be passing something out it's for just digestion right now but i would request that we talk about it at our next financial [02:57:56] budget committee meeting which is on may 3rd i believe yes i'm gonna just hand this out to folks March, sorry, March 8th, March 8th, March, a resolution that I've been sort of working on with staff. I've been talking to various folks about aspects of this over the last few months. [02:58:13] But basically what it does is it looks at adopting tax policy, yeah, that basically what it does is it adopts tax policy that channels certain revenues towards certain specific issues. And what it would do is just two things. [02:58:29] One, it would raise the computer peripherals tax by $0.30, and then it would split that $0.30 between three main issue areas that we've talked about as a board, housing, transportation, and energy and sustainability. Again, just wanted to open the discussion now. [02:58:45] We can obviously have a much more in-depth conversation about it during our financial budget committee meeting on the 3rd of March, but wanted to open that up now because, as you said, Senator Vega, now this is our budget. We can decide where we want to start doing this. And I know we've had great discussions in the Finance and Budget Committee on trying to raise revenues for this without burdening further taxpayers, whether they be residential or businesses. [02:59:08] So obviously we'd love to talk to folks one-on-one about this between now and the Finance and Budget, but definitely we're looking forward to having a very robust discussion during Finance and Budget Committee. All right. Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Supervisor Bode. I assume that the county attorney and county exec have seen this? [02:59:25] They have. Okay, thank you. Thank you. All right, so I just, I'm going to jump in here real quick, because I know we've talked about the C&I tax, and would this be in lieu of the C&I tax, or are you still looking at that as well? Right now, it would be in lieu of. [02:59:42] In lieu of. Okay, so a couple things I just wanted to point out. One of them, just slide 15, quick question. The decline in the vehicle market value, it looks like the assessment is going down a little bit for vehicles, no? [02:59:57] Slide 15? Yep. The assessments are going down, well, I would say mostly because the value of the vehicles are going down. We did have a conversation about that. In fact, Dave, you want to jump in on this? Yes. So there's a couple things going on there. [03:00:14] What you're seeing here is the net. Existing vehicles, for example, if you own the same vehicle compared to a year ago, it is depreciating in value. So existing vehicles, they're depreciating in values. But you're also seeing the churn as new vehicles are being replaced with more expensive vehicles. [03:00:37] You've probably heard throughout the news, the average cost of a new vehicle is close to $50,000 now. Now, the reason I ask, I'm just wondering, and not to have too much speculation, but given that the vehicle market value is slightly declined, We had a rate cut last year. [03:00:58] Do you think that the personal property tax, can people expect to see something that is roughly in line with last year, a little lower? I think it will be completely based on the year make model of your vehicle. [03:01:17] And so for those who are buying brand-new vehicles, they'll see higher rates commensurate with the newer vehicle. But I'm just wondering if some of those would use. But we'll, I guess, get into more of that later because, again, speaking about to the affordability, speaking to the affordability, you know, I always tell people it's not just the rate. [03:01:39] It's also, you know, a stress assessed value that plays a role in that. Slide 45, you don't necessarily have to go there, but it's talking about the NVTA 30% funds. You know, certainly I will look at with Supervisor Bodie what you passed out, because I have deep concerns about using the NVTA 30% funds for OmniRide. [03:02:01] That, for me, is going to be a sticky point, because they already have grantors in TOT. I understand the need for transportation, and, you know, speaking with Supervisor Angry and Dr. Bob Schneider from OmniRide, I mean, I would love to see, like, microtransit around innovation. [03:02:18] But I want to make sure that we're not, you know, starting to dig into a third revenue source. So we need the NVTA 30% funds. Madam Chair, if I can then just I want to make sure that I understand. [03:02:35] So in terms of the Finance and Budget Committee meeting, we will certainly be prepared to talk about, Supervisor Bodie, what you have put forward. are we also bringing the cni presentation that we were prepared to or are we not bringing the cni presentation can you ask that when it's not my time okay now go on sorry about that chair we can let's get to that afterwards um the other thing i want to say is slide 47 the coordinated community care the community outreach pilot i just think that's a great idea and you know we are going to [03:03:08] have a real serious balance this year between not digging too deep, I guess, in taxpayer pockets, but also making sure that we provide quality services. We are in a tough year. [03:03:23] We're not getting as much help from Washington or Richmond as we perhaps would like. And this budget, yeah, we're going to have to make a lot of tough choices. But I think that our residents, you know, have made clear that they appreciate social service programs and certainly we're going to see an increased need and whatever we can do to meet the needs of our growing and diverse county you know i'm all for that but i'll let you in these 40 something seconds go ahead and ask what you were going to say earlier i just want to make sure that we bring the right thing to the committee meeting and so i'm wondering if we're bringing [03:04:00] both i would say at this we've talked about cni enough i think it's been there's a consensus of the board that we're not ready to go there yet which is part of the reason why i proposed this that there is a consensus around C&P versus C&I. All right. [03:04:16] Thank you, Supervisor Gordy. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll keep this very quick. First of all, thank you. I know the amount of work that you guys put into this is absolutely tremendous. So thank you for all the hard work and coordination. With the schedule that you have, do we have a date that the schools are going to come and present their budget? [03:04:36] Yes. Okay. They are coming on the 7th. The 7th as well. Okay. And have you received their budget request at this point? I don't know that we have, but they have presented their budget. They presented their budget, but they still have to vote. [03:04:53] Okay, that's right. All right, so we're still a little ways from being able to get that, but based upon their initial budget that they presented, it looks like they're looking for about, based on my calculations, about $1,052,100,000 if it's 50.1% of their overall budget. [03:05:17] And so, yeah, I look forward to hearing from them on that. And then one other thing I would just ask to kind of start paying attention to, and this kind of gets back to the transit occupancy tax, is the fact that we have a – Oh, okay. I see it there. Thank you. The event center that has opened up and is starting to bring a lot of what I would call event tourism into the county, kind of start paying attention to the impact of those things. I mean, like one event brought in 50,000 people. Now, not all those [03:05:56] were staying in hotels, but a lot of the vendors were staying in the hotels and they're here for three to four days at a time um so uh you know i just think it's something worth paying attention to to see if if there's what the opportunities are in terms of the terms of occupancy tax with that event center that's going to be opened up so very good and i'll say so the placer software that economic development and tourism put forward in in this budget uh request will do a lot of that work for us and uh and so a lot what we are getting by way of visitors where they [03:06:34] are coming from a lot of that data economic development and tourism will certainly be able to use for advertising for marketing etc so i appreciate you mentioning that and in terms of schools we worked very closely with the schools this year we should not see what we saw last year in terms of that gap in what we presented by way of revenue and what they presented by way of budget. [03:06:58] And so we've been working very closely with them. What they are presenting is consistent with what I just presented in terms of the expected revenue. That is absent final revenue numbers that we'll see in March. That's all I have for now. Thank you. Look forward to further discussions. [03:07:14] Thank you. Supervisor Angry. Thank you, Madam Chair. So first, thank you, Supervisor Vega, for the numbers. When speaking to the data center revenue, it has been always my goal, again, to bring that revenue in to help lower some of our citizens' residential property taxes. [03:07:36] I recognize that vehicle taxing went to the personal property was just a horrible thing, a hard thing to do. If the state doesn't get rid of that altogether, it's just going to be hard to manage trying to help everyone out with that because whoever owns the most expensive car is going to win over the one who owns a less expensive car. [03:07:55] So that's just a tough one to manage. I want to talk about the OmniRide, the PRTC budget, because we have been sitting here addressing the fact that that motor fuels tax, that well is dried up, and we need to figure something out. So while I am not interested in putting another tax burden on the people, I do, Supervisor Bode, like your proposal, what we're looking at to try to manage that. [03:08:19] So then maybe we can get away from the MBTA 30% and pull that off. So I think that's just an important piece to do. One thing I am going to be working and talking with this board a lot about is our safe and secure community. I think that budget in there is extremely high, and there's some things that I think we can do better. [03:08:36] But I want to make one point. We have been working on that East End Navigation Center for forever, and I don't know when that thing is going to be groundbreaking or even up, because it seems like we can build a fire station faster than we can get that building done. So I'm curious where we are with that. [03:08:52] Not for discussions tonight, but I think as we look and we continue to grow these budgets, there's some things that we need to finish up is what I want to see before we continue down the road of new. So those are my comments for the board, and we'll be having more. But thank you for this presentation. [03:09:08] I know you all have done a lot of work on it, and I appreciate every bit of it. So thanks a lot. All right. Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. Chris, thank you for your wonderful presentation. thorough and um and um it kind of paints the picture of or gives us a platform and a direction that we need to go uh but i have three questions one is on page um i think it's 48 just for clarity the adult detention center lieutenant colonel that's the deputy that you were referring to [03:09:45] correct okay that'll be a number number two to the colon yes to the colon okay and then the next page 49, you mentioned that you're projecting for the Commonwealth Attorneys FTEs of 11. Yes. [03:10:01] The additional FTEs that you'll bring back to us are the state-funded FTEs. Is that, am I understanding you correctly? That is correct. So I'll say on this, you may recall that what the Commonwealth Attorney presented was essentially 10, I think it was 10 attorney positions. [03:10:19] Six of those positions assumed that the comp board would be allocating funding for six. I did not want to come to the board with the assumption that the comp board would allocate six FTEs. So what we've done is included four at the same, essentially at the same value that those 10 would have cost us. [03:10:39] And what I'm saying is that when the comp board makes its decision, we will then come back to the board for authorization to bring in those additional FTEs. So when I talked to the commonwealth attorney about this, she understood my logic, and we hope that the comp board will do as she is expecting, but we are not sure. [03:11:00] Okay, that makes sense because we had robust discussions about that last year, so that just makes sense. And then on that same page, the public defender's local salary supplement, those two items for them, I know there was a discussion also prior to this year about that. [03:11:20] But that increase is something that we did not provide for them last year. Well, last year we moved it from 15% to 25%. Okay, okay. Actually, that was in 25. So in 24, we moved it from 15% to 25%. [03:11:39] You're right. Last year we didn't make any adjustments to the salary supplement, and now we're recommending we move it up to 30%. Okay. Again, to just help with the competitiveness. Yes, and retention. Retaining, yep. Yeah, okay. And so the other question I have on page 51, where you mentioned about the Rainy Day Fund. [03:12:00] Yes. Could you give us some idea in terms of potentially your projection, not concrete, but projection that what that looks like to bring us up to par to the other, our surrounding regional partners? [03:12:16] Meaning if we put aside. Yes, additional funds. of our overall fund, our general fund, enough in unassigned? Yes. That's a question that maybe we would need to, do we need to come back for that? Okay. Okay, that'd be fine. We'll come back just because it requires a calculation. [03:12:33] Okay, that'd be fine. Thank you so much. And then my last question is, again, going back to the NVTA 30%, we're increasing the OmniRide local subsidy to $1 million. And my question is, what is the county's long-term plan to keep OmniRod stable without crowding out other mobility priorities? [03:13:00] And my answer is, how will this impact at all the support already sustaining the VRE Express? So with VRE, we are maintaining the 5.8 million. And with NBTA and OmniRide, I'm just thankful that the board, it seems you all are about to have a conversation about what this could look like. [03:13:23] And whether it is through what Supervisor Bodie just put forward or revisiting CNI or some other revenue source, it seems that we are at least having the conversation this year. So we'll await the board's direction in terms of how we move forward. [03:13:40] I just want to appreciate that the team has sort of made it clear that we've now, we've opened a door that we had not opened in prior years. And so just appreciate that the board hears us in terms of making sure that we don't, you know, we don't not take advantage of the opportunity to do something before the NVTA 30% funds are completely pulled in the way that TOT and grantors tax are. [03:14:10] Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. Supervisor Stewart. Thank you, Madam Chair. CXO, thank you and the team for putting this budget together. I've got a couple of questions. Number one, as it relates to slide 10, so the unemployment rate that you're looking at typically, so, you know, like what we look at in the finance industry, that number doesn't include government layoffs. [03:14:43] With Prince William County being so heavily, we have a large government workforce here. Does that number also include people who are typically government employees? Well, I'll say, so unemployment is actually, so if you're a federal government employee and you work in D.C., you file for unemployment in D.C. [03:15:09] So you file where you work. And so in terms of the overall, does that answer your question? somewhat. So the overall rate of unemployment, as we see it, us being slightly under the national average, yes, we are seeing impacts in terms of some of the federal layoffs and some of the other, how fragile, if you will, the labor market is right now. But we do believe, based on what the information we have up to this point that the market, the labor market will stabilize in 26. [03:15:49] Now, a lot can be said about that. And I think we'll probably have a much deeper conversation and we'll likely be inviting in someone to have more of an economist eye on what we should expect in the calendar year, but for now, based on the records that we have, the information that we have now, we are estimating that we will remain slightly under the national average. Unemployment [03:16:20] rates, and that's very, you know, sort of technical or practical way of submitting unemployment for unemployment insurance in the location where you are employed, has not affected us in a way probably that D.C. is experiencing. [03:16:38] Okay, because some other economic indicators that I'm seeing is, you know, housing prices, houses that are up for sale, typically year over year, there are more houses for sale, people moving out of the area versus moving in the area. There's a lot of other macroeconomic data that I'm seeing where things like Doge and the shutdowns have actually affected employment in the region. [03:17:04] But moving on from that, so, you know, I also would love to see, like, for instance, as it relates to slide 34, right? You know, we had some frigid cold weather, including some minus 14 wind chills. [03:17:22] And, you know, I see, like, a hypothermia center, like, in the east. You know, we have populations in the west that are equally vulnerable. And, you know, we got a Nor'easter coming in this weekend, right? [03:17:37] And so I just want to know if there's something that's planned for constituents in the west. Yes. So in FY26, we did fund hypothermia services on the western side of the county. So this is, in FY27, we're doing the east, but we did provide for some support on the west side in the last budget. [03:18:02] Got it. Okay. So with my last minute, number three, right? So I just really believe in, you know, promises made, promises kept. And I want to thank Supervisor Vega for bringing out the numbers of revenue. [03:18:19] You know, almost a 1,000 percent revenue increase in seven years, which I think is great. You know, that was the initial promise. [03:18:34] That's one half of the promise. But what that was attached to was a promise to homeowners that their rates would actually go down, I think, especially under our current economic shadow that we live under currently. [03:18:57] i'll just put it that way um a 180 on average ask or really tell of homeowners that of of more property taxes in in the wake of a thousand percent revenue increase i i can't get behind it i mean look we'll we're going to work on it but you know um that that's all i got to say my time's up thanks supervisor body yeah just very quick question um chris during the presentation or either you or Dave mentioned advertising tax rates. [03:19:35] When is the target date that you'd like to advertise the tax rates during the budget cycle this year? So staff does not need an answer tonight, okay? I believe we, first advertisement, we would like to target the newspapers in mid-March, mid-March. [03:19:54] Thank you. And I just say that to say, obviously, again, we have conversations we had, but as we always say, the tax rate that we advertise, the ceiling and not the floor, but we should start talking in that direction, because I hear a lot of my colleagues, again, I wanted to respect what my colleague just said, but we should really start thinking about that, because then when that mid-March date comes, we should probably have an idea as a board where we want to go in terms of that tax rate advertisement. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair, and I certainly have Supervisor Bodie, so I look forward to our one-on-one meeting. Just a point of clarity, Mr. Shorter, in regards to [03:20:32] the county's budget how much of it relies on federal and state funding our budget we would we would need to do the calculation um you could see the various ways in which the federal government and even state appropriations play in our budget by way of ftes and appropriations so we would actually need to go back and we could that's information that we could provide we don't could it be in a form of a pie chart the school division um has one where they have two pie charts and one of them specifically shows how much they get from the feds and how much from the state. [03:21:04] And I think that that would be, is it already in our binder? Oh, he's asking about a charger. Sorry, I got distracted. But if we could do what the school division does, that would be extremely helpful. I want to know, and I don't want to speak for the others, but I think that it would be important to know how much of our budget relies on federal and state funding. [03:21:24] Very good. Sure, we can come up with a number. We're in a slightly different position in the schools because of the nature of their funding, direct funding from the federal. But we'll certainly do our best to. Great. Thank you. Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. [03:21:42] Chris, on page 25, just clarity on this, the noise ordinance enforcement. Two FTEs is what you said? Two FTEs. Okay, just one of them. And then the inline hockey rink insurance, two? [03:22:04] Okay. The inline hockey rink insurance, is that for the new, aren't we getting the new ice skating? That's right. So this is the new inline hockey rink that you all approved last calendar year. Okay. This is primarily for the increase in costs associated with insurance for the rink. [03:22:25] Okay. Yeah. Okay. And then on the next page, 26, the $127 million transfer for 27, Yes. [03:22:40] That's not for this budget. That is the increase in the transfer from last year's budget, from the FY26 budget. So if we take the $991 million that we transferred last year, we are adding $127.4 million to that number to come up with the $1.1 billion that we're transferring over as part of this year's budget. [03:23:08] Okay. So one of the things that, thank you for that clarity, one of the things that as we go into our finance committee meetings that I'm interested in is really digging deeper and exploring, though we have no control over how they operate with their funding, just exploring what this looks like if we decide to break that down, if that makes sense. [03:23:39] Yeah. It does? Okay. So I'm interested, and I'm saying that not just to you, I'm saying that to my colleagues because I would be interested in just, well, well, well, I'm interested. [03:23:55] So I just, you know, but from a policy standpoint, I don't want to be outside of the policy requirements. Absolutely, and we're certainly available to provide whatever information is needed. I appreciate essentially what Supervisor Bodie has now opened the door to talk about, and that is creating new sources of revenue that may not fall within the boundary, which will require that we are resetting the revenue share. [03:24:26] If there is funding that we decide or that you all decide this budget year that you don't want to subject to the revenue share agreement, it will require that we are essentially putting a new agreement in place that excludes those new or additional revenue sources. [03:24:45] Okay. And so, you know, it is something that we would have to take back and to work together to make sure that we're implementing properly. And I'm certainly not saying that's where I am, but I think we're at a place now on this board where we need to have an in-depth and honest discussion about that and kind of clear the air about the direction that we want to go, because I'm 100% in support of supporting our schools. [03:25:16] Of course. But I think we just need to have, for clarity's sake, we need to have that in-depth discussion. My last question for you is, number one, the budget shows that the average homeowner's total taxes and fees rising. [03:25:36] How are we messaging the total household impact and what relief or phasing strategies are on the table to protect affordability? Yes. So part of part of why we dissected the budget in the way that we did on a slide where we talked about the fees along with the tax rates was because we wanted to give a clear picture of what the actual impact would be for the average homeowner. [03:26:05] And so messaging, I think, will be critically important, whereas in some cases in years past, we did not have that kind of slide in the proposed budget. But we were very clear about what the rates would mean in terms of property tax increase, even at a flat rate, what the additional levies would represent by way of fire levy and mosquito, and then what the additional fees would represent by way of stormwater and solid waste. [03:26:35] So that's it. That is essentially the impact on our taxpayer. Now, ultimately, what the board decides over the next few weeks in terms of adjustments to the rates that we are proposing will be up to the board. [03:26:53] Madam Chair, can I just give a quick comment? Okay. It'll be real quick. I just want to thank you and your staff for how, from over the past three years, the budget process has become easier to digest, still challenging, but easier to digest. [03:27:15] And so I just want to let you know that you're certainly on the right track and making sure that you're bringing us along with where we really are in the growth of this county. I appreciate it. Thank you. All right, thank you. There are no other speakers in queue. Thank you for the presentation. [03:27:30] I know we're going to have a lot of spirited and fun, hopefully fun, you know, discussions this budget year. We are going to move on to agenda item number 14, and that is public comment time. Looks like we got a couple folks. [03:27:54] Hopefully, maybe. We'll see. [03:28:08] I'll give you this one from earlier. Thank you. All right. We have one person who has signed up for public comment time. So how this works, this is a name. I don't know if you've been here before, but you'll go to the back of the podium. [03:28:24] i always tell people make sure you adjust the microphone so that we hear you you have three minutes it is going to be on the timer please state your full name and where you generally reside this is on the um what do you call it this looks like it's from people who are not necessarily in the county so if you're not in the county if you're in the city in the park let us know so i have colin turner good evening before my time starts too is there any way i could get the attention of the full board not sure where miss bailey is but would appreciate if i could address [03:29:02] all members of the board so i'm not sure where she is but she if she's in the back we do have monitors so we do here so if you can just go ahead and get started if you don't mind i'd request to wait just because it's a public comment that i'd like to address face to face for the board i showed up to this meeting sat through about an hour and a half and i am not going to argue the point with you would like to chat to the face of the board because there's been lots of up and down throughout [03:29:28] we are going to go into recess for five minutes thank you all right are we rolling andrea all right we are back i would like to note that we have a quorum we might not have everyone but we [03:30:08] have a quorum i am going to resume public comment time so mr colin turner if you would like to speak then you may go so to the back if not then i will consider that you've relinquished your time and we will see if there are any virtual comments could i just get a check to where the timer is You will have three minutes. [03:30:33] Where's the timer? The screen right there. Chair Jefferson, members of the board, my name's Colin Turner, and I'm a resident of the city of Manassas. I grew up in Prince William County. I recently purchased a historic home in Old Town, and through that experience, I've developed a deeper appreciation for local history. [03:30:54] Most days, I walk past the Old Bennett School and the Old Courthouse. These buildings are part of Old Town's civic identity and why I'm here. The Old Bennett School was built in 1909 and has served many uses since constructed. During excavation, remains of Civil War soldiers were found. [03:31:10] County leadership at the time, including Union and Confederate veterans, made the deliberate decision to leave those graves undisturbed and build the school above them as a memorial. This decision reflected reconciliation, its layered civic history. [03:31:28] Last week, I attended the first meeting of the Joint Interjurisdictional Ad Hoc Committee, a committee formed more than a year ago, yet only now holding its first meeting. At that meeting, I heard urgency. A $13 million design contract for this expansion was awarded in November of 2024. [03:31:45] Design work has advanced and demolition of the old Bennett School is included within the current scope. With early planning calling for a five-story parking garage. When demolition is embedded, the priority is clear. We've heard renovation estimates but haven't seen the work behind them. [03:32:01] It's unclear when the building was last inspected. If renovation is costly, the public deserves to know what was documented. The city of Manassas was not formally included in these discussions until last week. A council member even shared with me that they learned about the demolition discussions on Facebook, as much of the public did. [03:32:20] Residents, county, and city have not had an opportunity to share input. If urgency is driving this process, why did contracts move forward and demolition become the assumption before the city and public were brought into the conversation? I also heard references to a potential for graves beneath the building. [03:32:38] Respectfully, that does not reflect the documented history already recognized by the county itself. This campus operates under a unique agreement shaped by litigation between the city and the county that reached the Virginia Supreme Court in the 1990s. [03:32:54] There's a history here and an opportunity to move forward differently. When Prince William County exercises authority over historic land within the city of Manassas, it assumes the responsibility of stewardship. Predetermining demolition is not stewardship. [03:33:12] Chair Jefferson, you have said the county wants to be a good neighbor. Being a good neighbor requires transparency and due diligence. Pause demolition assumptions, direct preservation-first alternatives, and create a space for the public to share input before irreversible decisions are made. [03:33:30] Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Madden, do we have anyone online? All right, so we do not have anyone online. This closes item 14, public comment time. [03:33:47] We're going to move on to agenda item number 15. That's to adjourn the meeting. It's been properly moved and seconded. Let's go ahead and take our votes. [03:34:06] I kind of like that. All right, we're adjourned. Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, March 3rd. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Coraggio Consulting · aguyonx.com