Board of Supervisors Regular Second Meeting   3/15/2023

Good afternoon everybody and welcome.

I'm pleased to be able to call to order this March 15, 2023 meeting of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and Lane Auditorium.

The supervisors who are present today are Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley of the Rivanna District, Supervisor Diantha McKeel of the Jack Jouett District, Supervisor Jim Andrews of the Samuel Miller District,

Supervisor Ned Gallaway of the Rio District, Supervisor Ann Mallek of the White Hall District, and myself, Supervisor Donna Price of the Scottsville District, we do have a quorum.

I would also like to mention that our County Executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson, our County Attorney, Mr. Steve Rosenberg, and our Clerk, Ms.

Claudette Borgerson, are also present for the meeting.

Let me also introduce, welcome, and thank our Albemarle County police officers who are present today, Senior Officer Joshua Wright and Officer Paul Quillen.

Thank you very much for your service and what you do every day to help protect us.

Thank you for being here today.

I also want to mention that we have at least earlier today been having a technical issue with Granicus.

We believe that the broadcast itself is coming through okay, but the links within Granicus are not working.

If you will now stand as you are able and join in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

I would ask that you now join in a moment of silence.

All right board, we're now at the point for the adoption of the final agenda.

I do have a couple of items to briefly mention.

Item 8.4 on the consent agenda, the Albemarle County Emergency Operations Plan was updated on the website on March 14th.

The updated plan corrected some administrative errors that were in the previous version.

That's more for clarification and information than anything else

We've also added item number 18 on the agenda from the board.

Committee reports and matters not listed on the agenda.

This would be an item to propose, sending a letter to the Department of Environmental Quality signed by the chair of the board opposing the repeal of the regional greenhouse gas initiative.

So moved.

All right, so we have a motion from Supervisor Mallek and a second from Supervisor McKeel.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Yes.

Moving on to item number five on the agenda, brief announcements by board members.

Just one quick announcement, that is the e-waste signups for electronic waste are up today on the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority website.

The collection date is April 15th, so there's a month there, but you need a time slot if you want to do it.

All right.

Thank you, Supervisor Andrews.

Thank you very much.

There may or may not be slides to go with this so don't worry about it if they're not.

The Crozet Tunnel has been open for business for walking and hiking

and bicycling for 18 months.

And as of January 1st, they had had 243,000 visitors from all around the world.

And it was the longest tunnel for a long time during its history.

So I just wanted to throw that out there.

And on a freezing cold day, it's 50 degrees inside.

Within about 30 feet of the entrance, you can start taking off your hats and mittens.

And also when it's 90 degrees outside, it's also beautifully cool in there.

So a fun visit.

On the workforce front,

Piedmont Workforce Development Board and the elected officials group held their first joint meeting last week and this will be a standard process going forward in order to improve the quality of our leadership for job training and the group is becoming an independent C3.

in New York.

and PVCC here locally and then all around the region as well for people to go in and also for businesses to go and sign up.

I forwarded to the board an update from the Veterans and Military Services Committee at NACo about the CVSOs Act.

in support of funding for that in Congress.

That's the county veteran services officers who provide benefits, provide caseworker help for veterans and also then greatly improve the return of veterans' dollars to the jurisdiction for the benefit of those service members.

So please, at your leisure on the next little while, have a look at that and we can talk about it again when everybody's had a chance to read it.

from the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority Report.

We've seen a lot in the news lately about PFAS and as of yesterday there was a whole new standard that's been proposed from EPA.

But our Rivanna Water is already using the highest level of testing, MCL-5, for

and already using one of the 50 certified labs in the country who was able to test for the 29 different compounds.

So I'm very appreciative of the investment of time and effort that our local water system is making to have the very best information we can about our drinking water.

And sadly, there are many communities who are way, way, way behind on that.

And as I mentioned,

there's now a public comment period for the new drinking water rules and there are several different webinars and ways for people to become involved in that and if anybody has questions about that please get back to me.

Alright, thank you.

Supervisor Galloway?

Nothing today, thank you.

Thank you.

Yes, just one item.

I just want to thank staff and Dan Rosenzweig.

My CAC took a tour on Monday evening of the Southwood development, and it was really fun to have a 101 from Dan on the project for the CAC members, and then we actually

got in a bus and drove down and walked around the development and went in a couple of the model homes.

It was amazing to see how those homes are popping up and as you drive by sold, sold, sold.

Of course those are the market rate houses, but they're all obviously starting to fill up the community.

To be able to see a really true mixed use community is really just

outstanding.

I mean it just warms your cockles.

So that was a great and I would encourage any of the CACs that would like to do that.

Dan was very receptive and it was great.

Alright, thank you.

Thanks.

Yes, thank you very much and just to piggyback upon what Supervisor McKeel said, I also visited an earlier stage and what was really nice is Dan listened to the residents and so they're actually making some adjustments on some of the models as they build other homes to better suit what they want exactly so I thought that was really

Good also that was input from the community from the community there.

The only thing I have to report on is I had a police community advisory committee meeting and that the big takeaway for me there was that all three chiefs from our area chief Reeves chief coaches from Charlottesville and chief Longo and

from UVA.

They're all working together.

This is something that has not been done in recent years.

They're all working together.

I think they even meet monthly to coordinate and make sure that our communities are safe.

Thank you.

Thank you, Supervisor Andrews, for the e-waste notice.

I signed up at 10 o'clock this morning.

You know, kind of in humor, operators are standing by, not really have to do it online, but do sign up quickly because those slots will fill up.

So take advantage of that.

The other thing is just sort of a general request to our community.

We have not received a lot of communications with regard to the budget, but we have received a few.

And one of the things I've been asking people is be specific.

Don't just send a generalization comment that says lower the tax rate.

But be specific.

Let us know what is important to you because we have a lot of economic challenges and a simple

Lower the tax rate doesn't really address the realities of what we have to deal with.

So if anyone is planning on either speaking today or at any of our upcoming additional work sessions or at the public hearing on April 26th, I would personally just very much appreciate if you would be specific.

Thank you.

I would just add in my communications, where do you want to save $3 million for every penny?

There is that limited area of discretion that we have, first of all.

Right.

Thank you.

Yep.

And we will be together down in Esmont.

All right.

At this time, board, we will move to item number six, proclamations and recognitions.

And for those in the audience, I do have a request.

We have four that we will be reading today.

So I would ask if anyone is here for a proclamation that you

show courtesy to others who are here and not depart during the reading of the proclamations for other individuals.

It'll just take a few moments of time and that way we can be respectful for all of the groups that are being recognized today.

I am happy to read this proclamation and I am reading it in the form of a motion.

Proclamation recognizing March 2023 as the 21st annual March for Meals Month.

Whereas on March 22, 1972, President Richard Nixon signed into law a measure that amended the Older Americans Act of 1965 and established a national nutrition program for seniors 60 years and older.

and whereas Meals on Wheels America established the March for Meals campaign in March of 2002 to recognize the historic month the importance of Older Americans Act nutrition programs, both congregate and home delivered,

and raise awareness about the escalating problem of senior hunger in America.

And whereas the 2023 observance of March for Meals celebrates the 21st year in the county of providing an opportunity to support Meals on Wheels programs that deliver vital and critical services by donating, volunteering and raising awareness

about hunger and isolation.

And whereas the Meals on Wheels program has served the Charlottesville-Albemarle community, Abramoli, sorry, for 45 years, serving 325 homebound citizens and delivering 70,620 home-delivered meals in 2022 with the help of its volunteers who are the backbone of the program.

And whereas Meals on Wheels of Charlottesville-Albemarle

provides nutritious meals to homebound citizens throughout the city and county that help them maintain their health and independence, thereby preventing unnecessary falls, hospitalizations, and or premature institutionalizations and providing a powerful opportunity for social connections for homebound residents to help combat the negative health effects and economic consequences of loneliness and isolation.

Now therefore, be it proclaimed that we, the Almar County Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize March 2023 as the 21st annual March for Meals Month in the county and urge every resident to take this month to honor Meals on Wheels, the neighbors they serve, and the volunteers who care for them.

Thank you.

And a second from Supervisor Mallek.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley.

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek.

Yes.

Ms.

Ms.

Yes.

All right.

Thank you.

And I think Ms.

Goldstein, are you here?

Yes.

It's good to see you.

I saw you earlier.

Please come up if there are any comments you'd like to make.

Sure.

I just wanted to take a moment and say thank you so much for recognizing Meals on Wheels.

We deliver 285 meals every single day with about 40 volunteers every day.

So it's a wonderful service that

That I appreciate your support.

Thank you.

Thank you.

and Echo Wing also that the companionship that people look forward to every single day at their door is really valuable to their success.

Thank you.

Yeah, I appreciate that comment that Supervisor Malek made.

You know, a lot of times we get asked to go to a meeting, a coffee meeting, a lunch, things like that for various things.

I have to commend our school board member, John O. Alcaro.

He is an avid volunteer for me at the local Meals on Wheels.

And there's been many a times when we've had to meet, he said, why don't you come with me on my Meals on Wheels route.

And the companionship, the relationships he had built with folks, not just to deliver the meal, but for them to have that 10, 15 minute conversation every day, it was really impactful.

Thank you.

Yes.

To echo what my fellow supervisors have said, it really is about nutrition, but it's also about companionship.

I will say that my dad delivered, for years, instead, meals.

I think he received as much joy

from the delivery of

It's very easy for them to be isolated and in need of food when you look at, I think in this country we have somewhere about around 7.4 million seniors that live below the poverty line.

Thank you.

I think this is a wonderful program and I really want to commend the volunteers that deliver those meals on a daily basis.

So thank you very much for having this and helping our seniors.

And I will just simply echo those comments.

I think all of us up here recognize not just the nutritional aspect, but especially as so many supervisors have mentioned, that personal connection.

Loneliness is one of the greatest health concerns of our aging population.

So it really is tremendous, and I look forward to being there Monday and doing a little bit to help what y'all do.

So thank you for giving me that opportunity to share in the service that y'all provide.

All right board, we'll move to our next proclamation, recognizing March 23rd through 26th as the 29th annual Festival of the Book.

Yes, I'm reading this in the form of a motion.

Whereas the County of Albemarle believes that literacy is critical to active and engaged citizenship and is committed to promoting reading, writing, and storytelling for all both within and outside its borders.

Whereas reading stimulates the creative and intellectual growth of individuals while also building community through shared experiences, discourse, and understanding.

whereas the 2023 Virginia Festival of the Book with events presented locally and live streamed draws attendees and attention to Albemarle County from around the globe while providing most programs free of charge to attendees and offering greater accessibility through closed captions, recap videos, and transcripts and whereas the 2023 Virginia Festival of the Book brings diverse authors from across the state and around the nation to convene in Albemarle County, Virginia sharing their stories and inspiring our county citizens to share theirs

and whereas Virginia's Humanities, the Virginia Center for the Book, the University of Virginia, local businesses and schools, and cultural and civic organizations collaborate with the Virginia Festival of the Book to connect with one another through reading, foster empathy for the stories of others, and promote literacy for all.

And now, therefore be it proclaimed that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize Thursday, March 23rd through Sunday, March 26th, 2023 as the 29th annual Virginia Festival of the Book and encourage community members to participate fully in the wide range of available programs and activities.

Signed this 15th day of March.

Alright, thank you.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Yes.

All right.

Thank you.

And Kevin.

Oh, there you are.

Sorry.

Thank you.

I'm here in a spirit of gratitude today.

I'm the chief operating officer of Virginia Humanities.

My name is Kevin McFadden.

I've had the unique pleasure of being affiliated with the festival since I came as a graduate student and volunteered in 1998.

I went on to be ground floor work for the festival as the assistant director of the festival in 2000.

And now as of 2009, I've been in my current capacity as chief operating officer.

But I have been with the festival all those years.

and I'm uniquely positioned to say you have been with us all those years.

We're so grateful for the support of the county.

We've had a few hard years.

Obviously, we came up in March of 2020 into the pandemic and we made a brave decision to cancel the festival in looking out for the public safety and well-being of the residents of the Charlottesville Albemarle area.

That was hard to do.

And in 2021, we came back with a virtual festival, gained a new audience.

In 2022, we created a hybrid festival.

So we kept some of what we were doing well and moved back into the fit school realm.

And this year, we have come as fully back as we can to be here in Charlottesville Albemarle to bring this festival to another great height.

Thank you for your support over the years making

This is a signature event for the community, helping inspire with reading and literacy, both adults and youth, and as well, stimulating the local economy through the book sales, the restaurants, and all the good things that happen with the festival.

Thank you, Mr. McFadden.

Supervisor Andrews does have the proclamation for you.

and we'll also give supervisors an opportunity to make any remarks.

Thank you.

Yes, again, I look forward, my wife and I both look forward to this festival every year.

I appreciate all that goes into it and the preparation over the course of the year we've sometimes been involved in, so I really appreciated that.

And I'll add that in addition to the festival being the 23rd through 26th, there are also preview events that are starting, I think, tomorrow across the central Virginia and elsewhere, so there's a lot to do.

Thank you.

Thank you, and I also especially want to call out the visits that your authors and illustrators make to classrooms throughout.

I've seen interactions from kindergartners all the way through middle school.

Very, very successful and really opening the eyes of students to what great possibilities there are for themselves.

Thank you.

Yeah, good luck as you are as full back as you said as you can be.

I appreciate the efforts over the last few years, but I know this is one that our community really enjoys year in and year out.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you very much for this.

It's a wonderful organization and just a wonderful opportunity for our community.

And I will say that in a time when books are being challenged,

across the country, which is really pretty scary.

It's really wonderful that we can celebrate a variety of reading and a variety of books and celebrate different opportunities to read different authors.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

As a non-native transplant, some might call me an invasive, one of the things that drew me to Albemarle County and the Charlottesville area was exactly things like the Festival of the Book.

The benefits that we have from having the university here

a highly educated and interested community that's able to support organizations and the products and services that y'all provide really is instrumental to making this the desirable location that it is.

So Mr. McMahon, thank you and all of your volunteers and the patrons and supporters for helping bring this back to where it was pre-pandemic.

All right, Board, we'll move to our next proclamation, Celebrating Women's History Month.

Mr. Brookins, will you be teeing this off?

Is Jessie in here?

I thought I'd see her.

There you are.

Oh, okay.

Thank you.

Proclamation Celebrating Women's History Month.

Whereas Women's History Month originated in the United States in 1911,

in conjunction with the first International Women's Day to recognize the heritage and achievements of women.

And whereas the recognition of women's history was officially proclaimed as a national week in 1980 by the President of the United States.

Whereas Albemarle County recognizes and honors all women for their stories, challenges, and triumphs, and leadership throughout our nation and in our lives every day.

Therefore, be it proclaimed that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby acknowledge and commemorate the month of March, 2023, as Women's History Month, with special recognition to highlight the women who diligently lead our county to a brighter future for all.

All right.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Yes.

All right.

Thank you.

Ms.

I am.

Thank you.

I am accompanied.

Thank you very much for this proclamation.

I'm Kaki Dimick, Director of Social Services.

I'm pleased to accept this proclamation on behalf of Women in Leadership in Albemarle County.

We come from, I'll just name us, Kaki Dimick, Emily Kilroy, Christy Shifflett, Jody Filardo,

Nancy Burch, and Mia Coltrane.

We come from different backgrounds, we have different histories, we have different educations, we have different identities and stories, skills and expertise.

What we have in common is that we're smart, we're competent, we're strategic, and we're relational.

The big thing we have in common, something that we have in common with all of you, is that we choose public service.

It's an honor to do this work with you.

Did somebody get a picture of that?

It speaks to our dependence here too on women's history.

I'll note that I looked at this and saw that originally it was Women's History Week.

I'm glad to see it's Women's History Month.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I will channel my 13th century Irish pirate ancestor with long red hair who was

incarcerated in the Tower of London, but skip a few generations forward to my grandmother, who was one of Robert Rodale's, I think, first convicts, not convicts, converts in the 1940s, very concerned about chemicals and their impact on people.

And my mother and her generation, who with the League of Women Voters, worked on water protection here in the county from the 60s, 70s, 80s, and really worked very hard to get

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair Price.

I always, these proclamations as I said last month when it was African American History Month often will trigger some sort of reflection on something in the past.

I look forward to this each year not just because of the profound power that just had in the women that we have in leadership

but the fact that we get to share this dais with Supervisor Malek, Supervisor Price, Supervisor McKeel, and Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley and if any of you think that they are not strong, powerful women leaders then you have not really spent any time with them.

So it is a pleasure to serve on this board with you.

I grew up and the main influence in my life were all women.

It was more of a

influence of my mother and my grandmother more so than any male influences, and I treasure that.

This year, the reflection, though, was to revisit, I had the opportunity in earning my degree in education to do a paper on the relationship between John Dewey and Jane Addams.

And if you don't know who Jane Addams is, she founded Hall House in 1889 in Chicago.

It was the first settlement house that was founded in this country.

And I don't need to go into her long list of achievements, but she touched things on peace initiatives.

This is all in the early part of the 20th century.

Peace initiative, labor laws, child labor laws, women's suffrage, the founding of the School of Social Work at the University of Chicago.

And this is, you know, the 30s.

Hall House, and it was fun just kind of reminding myself of this, but under Adam's direction, I'm quoting a biographical sketch of her, the Hall House team provided an array of vital services to thousands of people each week.

Now listen to some of these services.

They may sound familiar to us.

They established a kindergarten, a daycare for working mothers, provided job training, English language, cooking, and acculturation classes for immigrants.

established a job placement bureau, community center, gymnasium, and art gallery.

These are all the things that we still talk about when we talk about the services that people look to us to provide.

The relationship between Jane Addams and John Dewey, who had a big influence on my philosophy of education, was how I found Jane Addams, but I found that

You know, both John Dewey and Jane Addams were powerful idea people, but in many ways, Jane Addams took it a step further and made those ideas into actions, which have had huge impacts that we all enjoy, positive impacts today.

So I would encourage folks, as it's also recognizing Festival of the Book, that if you haven't checked out 20 Years at Hall House, it's an autobiographical

account of the work that Jane Addams did at Hall House that I think you would find it a very worthwhile read.

Thank you.

Yes.

It's always hard at the mic to follow any of these impressive women that we ... Thank you, Kaki.

That was beautifully said, and I really appreciate the words.

I just want to thank all of the women.

that work in Albemarle County for their hard work and dedication and public service.

They say it takes a community to do anything really, whether it's raise children or lead a community.

It's really nice now that we are recognizing that our community is made up of women and men.

Thank you.

It's interesting that the Women's History Month established in 1911 how far we've come since then because I remember my mom saying well you know I should stay at home and learn how to cook and take care of the house well none of that happened and still hasn't happened but I really commend the strong women we have here and I use that word because they are strong they're strong they're powerful

and extremely intelligent and smart.

So it's nice to be surrounded by women like that and men too, but just to be for equal opportunity.

Thank you.

So Women's History Month was founded in 1911.

The first woman was elected to Congress in 1917.

It took 60 years

before there were 20 women in the US Congress.

60 years to go from one to 20 and of course 1917 was the first one.

Pat Schroeder died this week.

Pat Schroeder has nothing to do with Virginia, but when I was in the Navy working with Congress, Pat Schroeder and Ron Dellums were two members of Congress who I really, really respected and admired.

She was elected in 1973.

At the time, she was one of 14 women in Congress.

She was the first woman to sit on the House Armed Services Committee.

When she was assigned to the House Armed Services Committee, there was not another woman working with that committee, not on staff, no other members.

And she and Mr. Dellums were required to share a chair.

The chair of the committee didn't want either one of them there and required the first black member on the committee and the first woman on the committee to share a chair.

In the last 50 years, we've gone from 20 women in Congress to today, the highest percentage of women in Congress, 25 senators, 125 representatives plus 5 non-voting delegates, so approximately 29% of our U.S.

Congress now.

is made up of women.

So progress is being made and it's being made rapidly.

If you also look, you'll see that the increase in the number of other minorities representing our population are very diverse populations.

is becoming much more representative.

So it is a pleasure and an honor today to help celebrate Women's History Month, and I concur your remarks were exceptional.

Thank you, Ms.

Stemmich.

And thank you all, women, ladies, for being up there.

It was a great sight to see.

and for hiring them.

Yeah.

Yeah.

and this is in a form of emotion.

Whereas the emergency management team of Albemarle County and the Commonwealth of Virginia worked tirelessly behind the scenes to create a safer, stronger and more resilient county in the midst of natural disasters, pandemics, civil unrest, terrorism and other man-made and natural threats and hazards.

and whereas every emergency begins and ends locally and emergency managers are considered a vital public service to and between essential services that assist Albemarle County to prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies and whereas emergency managers develop emergency plans and procedures, organize training for first responders,

and community partners manage, lead and provide skills and resources to minimize the impact of disasters, work with state and federal agencies to find the most effective methods of disaster recovery, to increase safety and security, as well as build business continuity.

And whereas the role of emergency managers in creating a safer, more resilient community is more important than ever.

Now therefore be it proclaimed that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize March 19-23, 2023 as Emergency Management Professionals Week in Albemarle County and encourage all citizens to honor

Thank you.

And a second from Supervisor Malek.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Yes.

Thank you.

And I understand Chief Oprandi, you will accept the proclamation and make some remarks.

Yes.

Good afternoon.

I'm John Oprandi, Deputy Chief of Emergency Management.

And thank you for the recognition.

I certainly appreciate that.

And I appreciate you all.

I appreciate the vision.

the direction and the support that you've provided in the past through a pandemic and a number of different emergencies that have certainly challenged the preparedness and resilience of our community.

But then also into the future as I know you've provided some leadership in the form of a strategic plan and I'm excited that emergency management will play a role in that as we help to nurture the safety, well-being and the resilience of our community.

At the same time, I know that my role is only one of many roles that are supporting all of this.

Therefore, I accept this recognition on behalf of all the county staff that's involved in this work, which includes probably most notably the power group of women that were up here just a minute ago, which I really appreciate.

But then also the many businesses, community groups, faith-based organizations, and individual residents.

who make preparedness a priority, which is not easy to do.

It's going to take the whole community to respond to and recover from a disaster right down to the individual.

And I commend those who are out there making plans and building emergency kits on a daily basis to help with that.

Thank you, Chief.

And Board, I know we'll have some comments.

I'll just, of course, express my profound gratitude to our emergency management personnel and emergency services generally.

You are crucial to resilience, which is, I think, one of the most important tasks we face is to make sure that we are resilient.

That means we prevent things, but are prepared when they happen, mitigate disasters, and provide the response and recovery.

And I really appreciate everything you do.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

A little reminiscence because I'm so appreciative of the 159 pages of homework for today, but also the fact that it shows such organization and care to bring together collective action from all these individuals and community partners because there are only three that pop into my mind.

The derecho in 2012, 10 days without power or water for a huge number of people in the county and it was 90 degrees.

the ice storms about five years later that shut off all the pumps to pump the sewage from the low end there into the station and all the volunteers and career staff have had to get out there with chainsaws and shovels to get the gas truck down to refill the pumps there and then the 11 inches of rain on May 29th in 2018 all sorts of different kinds of impacts that impacted different people in different topography throughout the county but

Each one caused a horrendous mess and a lot of it we're still cleaning up.

So I thank you for all your organization and getting behind this and making sure that all the communities, especially the vulnerable communities, when we have snow and power and things that they're on the first list to contact to make sure that they have what they need.

Thank you so much, John.

I share with the appreciation that others have voiced the fact, I mean we have seen, I think all of us have seen and can cite different opportunities where we've seen the emergency management team in action as they deal with whatever issue is in front of them or crisis is in front of them and then put their management plan or procedures into place and run through them.

But then the debrief after to say, okay, where did the planning fail or where can we tighten up the planning?

and that's incredible.

That's from resource allocation to releasing the resources as you need to the collaboration among all the different departments and I have to say that witnessing it while there's always opportunities for improvement and that what we learn from it and I think everybody involved on the management team really approaches it that way but I've yet to see a management plan put into place where it looks like we don't know what what we're doing.

So for that I'm very appreciative.

None of us wants a crisis event to happen.

But I'm confident that as they will come up, that we've got the people and the planning in place to respond accordingly.

Thank you.

I, too, want to send my thanks and echo and agree with everything that's been said so far.

In just a little different perspective, perhaps, from what's been said is we're watching

emergency events and weather events all over the United States right now.

Terrible situations, evacuating, in some cases, the population of Charlottesville and Albemarle County.

So being quick on your feet and adapt, and I thank you for all of the hard work and the planning that it takes.

And I also want to commend you all for the work that you do with Charlottesville and the University of Virginia.

Because when we have one of these events or situations, it really does whether it's

you know if you look at just to go back to the event where we had in this country several train derailments.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you very much and once again this is an example of how Albemarle County hires the best and the brightest, not only the women, but also for management services.

I think under Chief Eggleston's leadership, along with Deputy Chief Oprandi and your others, you've established a fantastic team that really is protecting Albemarle County

makes and you're ready for anything that might happen.

So I commend you for that, for keeping our community safe because of your leadership and your vision.

Thank you.

And I echo those remarks from, you know, very shortly after I moved here, a contractor falling comatose in the crawl space of my house.

Fire and Rescue responding and saving his life up to all of the events we've gone through.

The January 4th storm last year where VDOT removed over 900,000 cubic yards of debris from the VDOT roadways, not to mention all of the private roads and everything, those damages.

You know, sometimes we think that these things happen in other areas and we forget.

You know, 53 years ago, Hurricane Camille came through and 27 inches of rain fell in Nelson County.

destroying over 900 buildings and 100 bridges.

We see out west, as Supervisor McKeel mentioned, they're now going through their 11th atmospheric river.

In some areas, they've had over 35 feet of snow.

Just a few years ago, Gatlinburg burned from a forest fire.

So we've been very fortunate in large measure here locally, but we know it can happen here.

and knowing that you and your teams have prepared for it is what helps us be comfortable knowing that you will be there when we need you.

I believe we just have

All right, thank you.

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address comments directly to the board as a whole.

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and we have three speakers, I believe, coming.

The first speaker is J. Dirk Nies.

Pronounce that correctly.

Nies.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Sir, would you pull the microphone up more to your mouth?

My name is Dirk Neese, and I'm a longtime resident and property owner in the White Hall district of the Albemarle County.

I'm here today to suggest a process, a process to help us set the real estate tax rate by creation of what I call a baseline budget, a budget that adheres to the tax relief and affordable housing mandate of Virginia tax code.

This budget will serve as a baseline against which to compare the current budget.

Virginia Tax Code 58-1-3321 limits year-over-year increases in real property taxes collected by the county to no more than 1%.

Under the present levy, taxes collected on my home this year will increase by 29.6%.

and I understand countywide by 13.5%.

The Board of Supervisors has scheduled a special public hearing on April 26, I understand, to set the rate of the levy.

I request at this public meeting that you highlight all proposed expenditures funded by levies garnered in excess of the 1% limit.

In doing so, we will have public discussion and comment on those items deemed to be necessary.

And any items after we talk about them that aren't deemed necessary would then be removed from the budget.

And that would allow us to reduce the rate of levy accordingly.

Unlike graduated income taxes, as you know, real estate taxes are a regressive flat tax.

and the looming large increases in our tax bills hit hardest on low-income property owners such as myself and the widows and self-employed working women who have joined us here today.

I speak on their behalf as well.

The process that I'm suggesting I hope will help us reach a consensus and improve trust

that the proposed budget expenditures funded by real estate taxes truly are necessary.

Good afternoon.

If you would pull the microphone down a little bit.

Good afternoon.

My name is Carmen Alicia Morales Perez-Niz and I live in the White Hall district of Albemarle County.

I have a century ago I came to the mainland from native Puerto Rico with many dreams.

One of those dreams was to live on a mountain farm property on my own, as my hibaro ancestors did in the island of Porinque.

After much hard work and very good fortune, this dream came true for me here in Albemarle County 20 years ago.

Now in my old age, this dream of living out my days in my affordable one bedroom farm home is being threatened by the high and ever increasing real estate taxes.

Like many low income elderly property owners in Albemarle County, my husband and I do not qualify for real estate tax relief because our net worth is deemed to be too high.

I urge you to expand eligibility for elderly citizens in dire need of real estate tax relief.

My remedy, which I offer for your consideration, is this, simplify eligibility and compliance by eliminating the total net worth restrictions.

Under Virginia law, eligibility for tax relief can be established either upon net financial worth

or upon annual income.

It needs not be both.

Elimination of total net worth would simplify participation of this program and most applicants prepare federal and state income tax returns to combine total income is readily available

to provide to the county.

So in contrast, gathering information about total net worth as an extra burden can be difficult to be accurate, as an added benefit elimination of the total net worth eligibility requirement would reduce the workload on county staff responsible for the administration of this program.

To prevent overly generous tax benefits going to low income but high asset elderly landowners, establish a cap on the maximum annual tax relief that any applicant can receive.

I suggest a cap of $6,000.

Please help me age in place in the home and upon the land that I love.

Gracias.

Thank you for serving the county and for allowing me this opportunity to speak with you today.

Thank you.

I'm Sally James.

I'm in the White Hall district and I just want to add my voice to what the nieces have said to you.

As a landowner in Albemarle County, as a single mom that built her own home, raised my son there and live there now, I'm watching more and more of my friends move out of Albemarle County specifically because the real estate taxes have become a disproportionate amount of

what our income is and as I'm looking forward to retirement, my Social Security is not proportionate to what the income tax, the real estate tax has jumped to.

So I think both Dirk and Carmen have offered some excellent specific ideas.

Supervisor Price, I will look at the budget also and see if there are things that I can see that might help.

I think Dirk's idea about looking at the point of presentation is a good one.

But I would just ask that, thinking about Ms.

McKeel, when you were talking about Meals on Wheels, I thought how so many of those volunteers

our retired people in the county.

You're going to remove a body of volunteer labor from our county when you force us to move out of the county.

There is expertise, experience, compassion, there's a whole list of things that older people can bring to our community that when we feel that we've got to move to Augusta or some other county we're not going to be here anymore to help Albemarle County be better than what

All right, thank you.

Board will move to item number eight.

I have two comments first.

The first is that Supervisor Malek is pulling item 8.1, board minutes from December 2nd, 2020, February 17th, 2021, and May 5th, 2021.

Also, as I mentioned earlier, there is an updated version of item 8.4, the Albemarle County Emergency Operations Plan that is online.

So moved.

All right, a motion from Supervisor Mallek, a second from Supervisor McKeel.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Yes.

All right.

At this time, we'll move to item number nine, a work session on the FY24 operating and capital budget.

We'll have an update from some prior work sessions.

Good afternoon to the chair and the board.

Thank you for the introduction.

I believe that under State Stephen Hannon's support I receive to the right.

And also for all of those on the far side of the auditorium.

One second while I pull this presentation up.

Today is the third work session we are holding on the fiscal year 24 budget.

Here we are on March 15th.

Today's action is an important milestone because the board will be asked to propose a budget and tax rates for advertisement.

Though this is an action, the budget process is very far from over.

The Board will still be able to make different decisions on tax rates at the advertised level or downwards.

The budget may continue to be revised.

The Board has continued to ask questions of staff.

We've prioritized our answers for those that are focused on primarily setting the tax rate.

However, additional questions are underway and we have time scheduled on the 22nd and 29th and April 12th as needed for those work sessions.

and we have not fully allotted that time.

There may be items today that come up from the board or at future discussions where we need to dive in deeper than we would in a work session where we're covering lots of topics at once.

The agenda for today is going to pick up and finish where we left off on Wednesday, March 8th, reviewing the five areas of the general fund that we did not yet get to.

There are then just a few county executive recommended updates that we'll share with the board that have a no net budget impact in total and we'll explain what those are and then for the board to take those two actions at the end of this work session.

So with that, we'll move into the general fund expenditures, picking up where we left off at the public works function.

And because it's been a week and we've covered a lot of information, just to reorient the board and the public to this slide, the donut on the left in gray is the entire general fund of the county.

What I've highlighted in blue is just that piece that is the Public Works functional area, which is 3% of the fiscal year 24 budget for the general fund.

Public Works is a state reporting category.

It includes in there the entire Department of Facilities and Environmental Services that serves a wide variety of functions.

the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority and some other functional areas.

As I did last week on the other functional areas, I just want to hit the highlights of what is included in terms of the notable changes or the work plans and how they align with the strategic plan.

Beginning in public works, that includes the work already underway in this year for the Public Safety Operations Center.

The rent and associated cost of that for the public safety facility are in the Department of Facilities and Environmental Services.

That is included in the budget.

The other item that I'll note for climate action is really about the work plan and the status plan in the coming year or years, I should say, in the strategic plan.

Currently, for climate action, in the Environmental Services Division, there are a total of eight employees, roughly half of which are focused on stormwater, roughly half of which were more on the environmental program side.

We do have a climate program manager and a climate project manager, two FDEs who are 100% towards those initiatives, although it would certainly be an understatement if I didn't acknowledge many other staff in that department to contribute significantly to those efforts.

We have also in climate action, there's about $100,000 of operational funding that goes to move forward climate action initiatives.

That's not really brought out in the budget as a change, because it's there every year.

We also have noted that we have a climate action pool that is reappropriated year to year and spent down on one-time climate initiatives.

The current balance of that is around $450,000.

And as that gets spent down, or until that is spent down, we'll continue to recommend that for reappropriation from one year to the next.

For the rest of public works, I'll highlight the $210,000 increase.

This speaks to really some of the discussions we had a year ago about enhancing some public works functions in facilities and environmental services.

For the street sweeper, the vegetation management, those were budgeted to be half a year, both for the personnel and the related operations.

So the full year impact of those will be occurring in fiscal year 24.

We also have as part of the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority an increase for those services for the county share and that includes the full year of operations for the Southern Convenience Center.

Last year's or the current year budget fiscal year 23 anticipated a partial year of operations.

Finally, we spoke about on Monday, as part of the capital plan, the county facility upgrades that are planned.

For those who may have missed that discussion, we have moved from an environment where, a few years ago, the county was leasing space for economic development and financial functions downtown.

considering moving other services out such as the registrar and early voting impacts.

Those leases have been discontinued and all those facilities are now, so this is part to better position our work in the coming years as it was related to one of the strategic objectives.

All right.

Thank you, Mr. Bowman.

We will go through our order here.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Andy.

You mentioned the term state reporting category.

Oh sure, so at the end of the year after the county and all the localities are complete, we will submit reports to the state and the state has the challenge of taking 130 some localities and trying to make them as apples to apples as they can.

So they'll give guidance so that public expenditures or public safety expenditures as an example look close to comparable here as they would in another part of the state or in this case public works.

Where all the counties department to department.

Thank you, I had forgotten that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair Price.

I know our first work session asking about the FTEs related to housing Albemarle, economic development, project enable, and the climate plan.

So this one I know is where

lead the county on page 136 under goals, it has lead the county's climate action planning.

I will start and if Mr. Lance Stewart, our Director of Facilities and Environmental Services wants to jump in and elaborate, please do.

We do have two employees within Facilities and Environmental Services who we'd say would be 100% dedicated to those efforts.

Certainly there's management and leadership and other capacity of partial FTEs that would support those efforts.

And beyond that, you would have more indirect support from other organizational staff since

Yes, certainly.

And then some percentage of their task is focused on that effort.

This was explained at the last work session, but I need reminded.

On page 138, the reallocation of the operating positions from Capital to, I get the rationale, but remind me what those positions are again.

Yes, there would be project managers, project inspectors, the

I'm forgetting his title, Blake Albemarle.

Yes.

There it is.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Yes, Andy.

I guess I would just like, if you could, to take a couple of minutes to speak to, when we talk about facilities renovation to modernize office environment,

Could you just talk a little bit about what that actually means?

Sure.

Thank you for the opportunity, Lance Stewart, Director of Facilities and Environmental Services.

So we have a couple of different requests in for funding that you'll be considering throughout this budget process.

We have some capital dollars for implementation of facility space allocation improvements and space condition improvements.

In an attempt to really optimize the space that we have that is a bit underutilized to meet the needs of departments that have space needs and also more efficiently provide services.

So this piece is part of a programming effort.

I think a month or six weeks ago, I stood up and sort of described to you what we are looking to do at the Department of Social Services to do some programming to help determine their needed footprint that works for them just in terms of total space and adjacencies and customer service, which we think will shrink.

And that is a first step of what will inform design and construction in the upcoming fiscal year if the capital budget is approved as proposed.

So this $150,000 is a similar programming effort for other departments.

and in some instances that will be departments that have acute space needs that we may choose to backfill into whatever space may be vacated by social services or there are other departments that have not throughout the whole department but in elements of the department may have some space that's underutilized.

And so we won't just be considering that social services space, we'll be considering the needs and the opportunities that we have through both county office buildings.

And this is focused on the departments within county office buildings, not on courts or sheriffs or other functions.

Just to add a couple of things.

Mr. Stewart did a good job.

Thank you, Lance.

Several months ago, this board, when we were talking about workforce stability,

The board said it wouldn't be a bad idea to survey our county employees and ask about benefits and programs, things that we have that mean a lot to our staff, things that employees don't have here that they've had in other places, things that mean a lot, but it's really just surveying our team to see

what their thoughts are.

And that survey was done out of Christy Shifflet's office, the Office of Performance and Strategic Planning.

We had almost 500 employees respond.

And it was a long survey.

It was not something you're going to finish in two, three minutes.

And modernization of space

technology that is more modern and speaks to efficient practices that people can train off of and you can bring new people on board and show people and have learning to where we can cross train.

And so all of that matters and we're trying to connect in a meaningful way in our budget.

And then to go two steps further back than that, Mr. Stewart took us back in the winter, in the dead of the winter, he took us on a tour

of a newer building in downtown that has LEED certified climate reduction sustainability just to show us because this building is approaching 100 years old and it used to be a high school.

back in the 1940s.

And we've done a good job with this building but Lance's team says it's complicated in this building.

Anything you want to do is complicated because of the age of the building.

And so it's not as much that way at Fifth Cobb, but it's a more flexible situation over there.

So all that being said is that we're trying to be frugal and not overspend and build something to have to tear it down.

But we are trying to move and send our workforce a positive message that we are paying attention, that workspace does matter.

And it's different in 2024 than it was even in 2004.

I mean it has drastically changed in the last 20 years and it will continue to change and we want to take small but meaningful steps forward and I think that's what we're trying to do with the help of Lance and his team and all the departments being involved and treat our space differently than we did in years past, recognizing that it's different now.

Thank you, and thank you, Lance.

Just a couple of thoughts that are running around in my head.

As we're doing this work, we will be saving money when we're looking at through the lead and buildings.

Of course, it's long-term savings, and I understand that.

Some of what Jeff was addressing with our workforce is about recruitment and retention of a workforce in challenging times when we're having trouble stabilizing our workforce.

You mentioned Social Security.

Are you saying that the Social Security office where we have that, is that moving to a different location or are we modernizing that location?

The social services department has 88% of employees telework from homes a significant amount and there are units that they expect to continue to telework 100% and other offices that have a mix of how many days a week they're in.

Four years ago that was one of the departments that was really bulging at the seams that was causing us to look very

Closely considering the possibility of expansion of one or both buildings or potentially long-term relocating our office buildings downtown and what we seem to have is a stable situation there now.

among the blend of people who work partially within the office or fully within the office or not at all within the office.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Stewart.

I don't have any questions, Mr. Bowman, at this time.

I do have two comments, though.

And then Supervisor Mallek, I'll come back to you.

Last year we replaced the windows on this building.

That was an expensive project, but it pays off.

Just like when I replaced the windows at my house and it reduced drafts, noise, dust, and my utility bills went down about 20-25% by doing that.

This is an old building.

It needs to be upgraded.

When I was in the Navy and reported to the Pentagon, I was so excited.

You know, working in the Pentagon, fifth floor, C ring, there are five rings, A through E, outside, and I looked out my window at broken windows in the interior of the D ring next to me.

You couldn't drink water out of the water fountains because they were so old and contaminated.

We cannot allow our facilities to reach anywhere near that stage.

So this upgrade, that to me, that strikes me as a very modest amount of money for some substantial upgrades.

Also, just to report, what other feature which is now offered at COB5 as the evolution of space is that we now have a fully accredited workforce

Thank you.

Any other questions at this point?

No?

All right.

Thank you, Mr. Bowman.

Thank you.

With that, we'll move on to the next functional area, which is health and welfare.

This functional area comprises six percent of the general fund.

On the right we see that it's primarily made up of the Department of Human and Social Services with the remainder to be the community agency partners who provide kind of our total health and welfare picture in the county.

A few highlights I will touch on is we include in the area of social services

During this fiscal year, the board has supported adding staffing to eligibility for what we call the great unwinding of federal benefits to support that situation as well as some additional staffing into the foster care.

Total impact of that would be a $600,000 increase.

New and fiscal year 24, and I should add those are continued into fiscal year 24.

New and fiscal year 24 are two positions totaling $227,000 to really focus the broader the effort from a social services department to a human services and social services department, focusing on services with a broader community well-being.

Third on this slide, we have been funded in recent years with federal CARES and ARPA funding, the American Rescue Plan Act, emergency assistance funding in this community.

This locally provides $260,000 in fiscal year 24 that would address urgent one-time financial needs.

Next in the area of health and welfare, I'll touch you on housing.

There's an additional housing position that would be planned to start in January of 2024.

The logic of that mid-year start is for some policy work to take place prior and then that position to follow as we work with the staff to look at what does that plan look like in fiscal year 23, fiscal year 24, and beyond.

I mentioned at the first work session, but to reiterate in the housing fund, there is a recommended investment of 3.9 and one-time funding to fiscal year 23 into that housing fund.

That would provide a total available balance of $4.7 million for one-time housing initiatives.

And finally, there are health and welfare agencies, which I will not discuss in detail because that was the very last portion of work session number one, where we discussed those reviewed through the ABRT process and other partners.

All right.

Okay.

I just want to make sure I understood.

I appreciate your comment about the great unwinding of federal benefits and the significance that has.

You mean the mental health team?

Good afternoon again Ms.

Good afternoon.

Yes, so the HEARTS team is nearly ready to respond to calls and so it's been a slow start for the team.

We have identified the social services staff person and the fire rescue staff person, so the paramedic and the social worker person.

We're interviewing right now for police.

They've had a deficit in the number of folks who are in patrol and so it's been hard for them to identify somebody that they would want to take off of patrol and into this position until just now.

and so we've just completed a first round of interviews and hope to have a fully functioning team soon and then they'll do some training, some trust building, team building activities together, trust being really critical for three folks who have very specific kinds of mandates and protocols for the way they do things.

They're gonna have to relearn how this team will do things together and then start responding to calls.

Thank you, I really appreciate the effort on this.

Thank you.

So just to close the door on that one, that program is funded out of the police department bucket?

Yeah, the personnel would appear in the specific departments for police, social services, and fire rescue.

OK, DSS lead.

And the human services positions, the new ones,

That's correct.

Very good, thank you.

All right, thank you.

Yes, thank you, Chair Price.

This is the

The other day I had asked for the FTEs and housing policy, but DSS is the one I'm just struggling getting my head wrapped around in terms of, well, last year when we did positions and we moved them forward, and I believe I've asked for the breakout of who are currently filled in the positions as we speak, not before we move to this budget,

But as I continue to think about it and then my request for the FTEs devoted to housing Albemarle because the housing plan is now a functional area under DSS or Department of Human and Social Services.

So I see on page 144 the breakout of the five categories.

I'm looking for a deeper dive on

whether it's even just a visual, maybe an org chart gets it done for me, of trying to understand who's where and how many are where.

When you look at just the financial data, there's plenty of salary, there's a lot of salary under this department, but sometimes I have difficulty going, well how many FTEs are there, where are they parked, and what I'm going after ultimately is just understanding the strategy as it relates to

We'll provide that as a follow-up, and I apologize for not having off the top of my head that same breakdown I gave for climate, but I'll say generally there are really kind of two branches of the housing office right now.

One is primarily reimbursing what we call the Housing Assistance Fund, where we receive roughly $3 million of federal funding to implement housing choice vouchers and programs.

That shows up as a special revenue fund because we have to account for those separately.

Part of those funds also reimburse those staff.

Separate from the management of federal programs, there's more what I would call the policy arm, which is the work of Dr. Stacey Pethea, and this position would work to that as well, rather than to complement the federal funding rather than be an addition to that service.

Sorry.

You know, that's part of my interest in understanding for those three policies housing Albemarle.

I mean, I certainly am up here spouting off about that policy every chance I get, it seems like.

But when I step back and go, well, wait a minute, what resources are we putting in to get that policy done?

And I think the answer is 1FT.

I mean, there's other areas that touch it.

But the policy work, you're adding the program manager

position and we're going to add that.

This would be mid-year and I should, I'm sorry, I'll finish your question.

So when I pull back from all my, you know, grandstanding and say, well, wait a minute, I'm only allocating 1.5 to Housing Albemarle and that's just, and that's waiting six months to get at it.

So, you know, of course our incentive program's not put to bed yet.

So I'm trying to share the logic or the rationale of how I'm thinking about this because this is the time to do something about it or I'd have to bring it up to do something about it if I wanted to garner support with the board of going, is that enough to accomplish what we said we wanted to do with this policy?

I would think that would be a likewise discussion point for the climate plan.

Many of you, all of us support that.

Some of us speak to it more than others.

And the same with economic development.

So that's all to say that I'm just trying to get my head wrapped around in DSS or in the Department of Health.

You know, to just hear, well, we've got 80 percent staff, or whatever the number is, like, I'm sure Khaki knows that, but that doesn't get it done.

I'm curious, where are the holes at for this department?

I'm always interested in that, so that then I can understand, okay, well, the strategy moving forward with what you're doing, so I can say, okay, I agree or not.

and then the extra layer with housing because it falls under this department so that I can get at that.

So at the end of the day, the information would be nice to see in those five categories, how many staff are in there, how many are currently filled, what the ad is for this budget, because I think that information is going to be helpful to me as I continue to work through the budget and what we ultimately end up doing.

That does.

And I offer three thoughts in response to that.

One, it's certainly understood what's asked for the diagram.

We can put that together and I think that can be responsive to what you're looking for.

The second, I neglected to admit that about a year ago, the Board of Supervisors approved an additional FD for a two-year commitment.

funded out of the housing fund to help support that office with all of the grant funding and the other financial coordination that's required of that.

That is a position that's been filled and is working now.

I think the third thing that is going to be more of a longer-term follow-up really tells the story of what we're trying to build through the strategic planning process, where we started from a very high level with a vision statement.

The board has adopted goals and objectives.

We're now working to identify initiatives and work plans in response to that for the board's endorsement and budget process.

The next step of that as we build those are what are the measurements that we are seeing of those resources?

So as we are investing different strategies, how are we tracking how is that performing to that?

That's not something we have today.

That is part of the next evolution as we work with the Office of Performance and Strategic Planning, certainly the rest of OMB and the organization to begin to map out what are those things?

How much of it is resources?

How much of it may be other strategies?

I appreciate it.

I would imagine if others have that kind of get-into-the-weeds detail for other departments, I would understand trying to understand it or requesting it.

I think it's a legitimate question when the

When we're collecting more revenue, I've said this at the other work session, and folks are going, what are you doing with that?

So a lot of times, Chair Price said, well, where would you move money if we cut a tax rate?

But I think the alternative is, well, what do you do if you've got extra money?

What's the purpose behind it?

And for folks that are in my district that have started to communicate and have some dialogue about it, it hasn't just been so much like, don't

I don't know if they've arrived at a decision to say don't take the extra revenue yet, but they're going, what are you going to use it for?

That's an important part of this conversation is what does that extra revenue go to.

I think this is information I'm trying to get at for this department in particular to explain why we would need that extra revenue.

Chair Peis, with permission Doug Walker, Deputy County Executive.

I just wanted to emphasize, and perhaps it's been a little subtle and it's not intended to be,

but the shift from a Department of Social Services to a Department of Human and Social Services is intentional and I think it reflects a part of what Supervisor Galloway and others have referenced here where it broadens out our overall focus from what used to be mandated programs and services and with a greater emphasis on that and on

other programs and services that are much more locally oriented, like the mental health response model, like our housing Albemarle and the policies and implementation of those programs going forward, like self-sufficiency and our workforce support services.

And so the investment that you see in the human services

staff being requested here is to help with that broadening of that connection between the county and the larger community in those human services areas.

I think there's much to be seen about how that's going to play itself out as we work to implement your plan and your vision as articulate in your strategic plan over this year and in the coming years.

But I just wanted to call that out for emphasis.

Thank you, Mr. Walker.

Supervisor McKeel?

Yeah, I really appreciate Doug clarifying that.

That's really important for us to think about.

I just want to get back a minute because I'm trying to, in my head, and I hate to khaki, I'm looking back at you again, but please help me and perhaps the folks that are listening.

The acronyms that we're talking about, so we have in the works

a new team that will be responding to mental health calls.

And help me with the acronym.

So we're talking about now we call it H.A.R.T.S.

I just want to acknowledge that it doesn't quite work, H.A.R.T.S.

as an acronym, but it works if you think about it as a H.A.R.T.

and we're really insisting on that.

Human Services Alternative Response Team.

is what HEARTS stands for.

Yes, and our intention is to respond to provide an alternative response to mental health calls and substance abuse calls to 911 so that we show up with the skills and expertise of police, fire rescue, and social services all at the same time and that team works to assess who should be at the lead, who should be at the front in each one of those circumstances with the goal of de-escalating, decreasing the intensity of the situation,

Right.

And I know all of us up here have been very anxious for that team to get started, which is why Jim was getting that with his questions too.

But I just wanted to make sure we had some clarity around the discussion today because

even I was a little confused about.

And I'm thrilled to know that we're making the progress because that team will provide huge benefits for our community members and our staff and it's just I'm really looking forward to getting that off the ground.

Recognizing that

Absolutely, and I think it's really critical for us to be able to have a robust

and meaningful community-based behavioral health system to which we can refer folks.

Otherwise, we will be stuck in somewhat of a churn around responding to emergency situations as opposed to being able to hand off someone's needs to be well received and treated by a community-based behavioral health system.

And I think the data shows that

the team will need to interact with, now this is not obviously cut and stone, but to react with the same person four to five times to actually make a difference.

and our desire is not just to respond to the emergency situation but actually to stabilize somebody over time to do follow-up connections with folks and the co-responder teams are sort of relatively new to the United States and they're popping up in many different kinds of constellations throughout the U.S.

And it addresses the some of these

concerns and some of the issues that all of the supervisors here have received from residents.

It's getting at, trying to get at that.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

I just have one question for Mr. Bowman.

On page

The next slide would be slide 10.

The housing fund, you have the housing position and then the housing fund.

No, the housing position is included in the general fund.

Yes, ma'am.

It would be related to housing Albemarle.

And I think housing Albemarle is a broad construct, and then the many sort of discrete practices or policies that will subsequently follow.

So I'm not sure what they would be specifically working on, but it would be specific to implementation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Back to the previous slide, number nine, Mr. Bowman.

I believe it's phrased very well, so my comment is not about that, but the middle block there, it's clear that the $227,000 does not fund two FTEs.

It funds the increase, the broadened services, and it will be supported by the two FTEs.

And I only mention that because

We had a previous question about the cost of an SRO and needed to explain to the constituent that those costs include not just compensation to the officer, but training, benefits, and all those sorts of things.

And I believe on slide 10, I think it's important to note that on the bottom right, the $4.3 million, those are services that need to be provided and if we weren't partnering with our agencies,

our partner agencies, then those would be costs that would be incurred by the county which also would require a broadening of our expertise into a number of areas as well as additional administrative costs on top of that.

And then Ms.

Demick, I have an idea I'll talk to you later about on your heart.

where the S is silent.

If you bold and block the H-A-R-T and shade the S, then people will know what it stands for.

So don't need to thank me for that.

All right, thank you, Mr. Bowman.

Any other comments or questions, board?

No?

OK, we'll then move next to the functional area called Parks, Recreation, and Culture.

That total is just over $11 million in fiscal year 24.

It makes up about 3% of the general fund.

On the right, we can see that it's primarily made up of the Parks and Recreation Department as well as the regional library system and some other agency partners.

I'll focus my comments first on the Parks and Recreation Department.

We have included for the opening of Biscuit Run, the park and the related trails, a total of $518,000 in related park opening into the board's point.

That is two FTEs, but there's also a lot of one-time equipment that we are funding with one-time money that goes with mowers, all of the other equipment you would need to maintain a park.

and I'll say this is really about the creation for those not familiar with, well, most people are not familiar with probably our parks maintenance strategy, but they operate in districts.

And so this with the Biscuit Run and the Rivanna Village Park coming online, this will create essentially an eastern maintenance district to complement the existing northern, southern, and western ones based on where the work is located.

That's a structure they do to cut down what's called windshield time and try to make sure those employees are working in more confined areas.

So those operations for Biscuit Run I've talked about and we also have for a partial year expected when Rivanna Village Park would be conveyed to the county and the county would then assume maintenance responsibility for that.

Finally on the third item I spoke on Monday about the this is not a dollar item at this time it's more of the work plan.

The staff in the Parks and Recreation Department would be working to identify the location and scope for a small urban park which would then be identified to come forward in a future CIP process.

Moving on next to the largest community agencies in this category, the Jefferson Madison Regional Library increases about 5%.

That is primarily a reflection of the county's share of existing services, though there are some relatively smaller increases to shore up staffing at the Scottsville Library from a part-time to a full-time position.

This is part of the library's strategy to make sure that they have a minimum level of staffing to match the workload to have adequate coverage for buildings.

So in the case of absences, staff aren't having to be pulled from other libraries to have adjustments.

Also, the county share of the Gordon Avenue Library.

This is a position that is joint or some part-time wages that are jointly funded with the City of Charlottesville related to the drive-through change that they're making there that to mirror what has taken place at Northside in terms of how people are changing and preferring differently to use the library system.

Next on the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau, there is a sizable increase here that is based on the regional agreement.

The way this agreement works is that is based on the prior year transit and occupancy tax revenues.

There's a certain percentage that goes to the CACBB, which is the acronym for that agency.

Because of the reopening of the economy and the very strong interest in surge in tourism activity, that is really reflective of that trend that took place in the last fiscal year.

And that is funded by those related revenues.

So I have two final slides on this functional area, and I want to take a moment to talk about the cultural and festival agency review process.

I wanted to spend a little more time on this one, because just to kind of explain how this process works, because it is separate from the Human Services Agency Budget Review Team.

And also we had the hiccup that we are working to make right in both the fiscal year and the future that I want to explain, which I'll get to in just a second.

We received 17 program applications for arts and cultural agencies.

When those applications come in, separate from the human services process, we have a team of five county staff reflecting a range of departments shown on the screen to provide different perspectives to go through and evaluate each of these agencies.

They have 13 criteria.

Those have not changed since 2020 when they were developed with the Office of Equity and Inclusion.

And as the staff get together and discuss those agencies, they prepare ratings to evaluate them based on their scoring system.

Based on that scoring system, that results in a request to fully fund, level fund, or provide funding.

So to get to the actual outcome of this year's review process, there is a total of $78,500 for these agencies.

We have $50,500.

There are eight agencies who were funded in fiscal year 23 and continue to be.

There are two agencies who total $23,000.

They received county funding prior.

They did not in fiscal year 23.

But they are now back requesting funding, and they are included in the recommendation for this year.

This final item is a update on March 15, which is not in the budget document that we shared with the board, other than a email heads up that this was coming.

We discovered this year there was really a technological breakdown, whereas agencies were, as some agencies requested their funding,

Despite they had the documentation of them submitting their request on time, it was not actually received in our email inbox.

So we have got down to the root cause.

We've determined who's missing from who's contacted us.

And we know what we need to do differently in our process next year.

to remedy this.

So we'll be in good shape for fiscal year 25.

However, we still had this issue in 24, where we had a few agencies who did exactly as they were told and followed the process, yet we did not receive those requests.

And so what we had done is, because we've been able to determine this was not through any fault of their own, that review team has gone back.

And for the Lighthouse Studio, who is an existing agency, reviewed their application and would recommend funding for them at the $2,500 amount level.

the Virginia Theater Festival, a new agency.

Again, going through that same process, they've been identified.

I will say, currently under review, there are two more requests for the Hatton Ferry and the Albemarle, Charlottesville Historical Society.

We are reviewing those, and we will bring back a recommendation to the board at a later meeting on those.

This is one that as much time as we spent to go through and make sure we understood the root cause, we didn't want to rush the review of these agencies just as if they came through in November.

So this will be an update I'll touch on again to talk the proposed budget.

I was just given the prior questions we received around this, the technology update that we intend to be a one-time situation due to process change in 25 for how those are submitted.

And I do want to also just apologize to those agencies who were impacted by this slate, as I know this created confusion and uncertainty for them.

Also just apologize to the board as well, because you all set out processes that you assumed to run very smoothly.

and, unfortunately, this is one we had to hiccup.

And the last thing we want to do in budget is create questions about trust in process or transparency.

So we appreciate those in the team who worked to make this right.

So this is the revised recommendation for these agencies.

Thank you, Mr. Bowman.

I appreciate that clarification and update on that process.

I appreciate the flexibility being able to respond in a timely manner because it was very unfortunate.

Thank you.

Thank you.

If I may clarify, theirs was a transcription error where they did submit on time.

We received it.

It was reviewed and not recommended for funding.

The issue was in the reviews teamwork, we did not pick that up in the recommended document.

All right, and if someone could share the scoring criteria with us, that would be very helpful just to go forward because I think a question that has been asked is how are the decisions made?

Are things that are in the county given different standard than those that are not?

Absolutely.

Emily Kilroy, Assistant to the County Executive.

I'd prefer it in writing rather than now.

Yes, thank you.

That would be good.

Just because we're not voting today, so I would like to have time to analyze all of that better.

and I guess other suggestions or ideas would be best to share.

If it's a zero sum, then you know if there are suggestions that which people have, we would share those with you.

All right.

Thank you.

Can you clarify on just on slide 12?

So the Biscuit Run Park and Trails in the Rivanna Village Park.

In the book, the 518 was the total for the both.

Here it's 518 plus 35.

Or is Rivanna Village lumped into the 518?

The only reason I caught it is because I was going to ask the two ground, so the 482 has equipment related stuff and then the two ground facility maintenance workers.

So obviously whatever, what's going on at Biscuit Run requires the two additional ground facility workers.

The crew is a three-person crew.

We started in this current year budget to start one of those partial year, knowing that there was still some work that could be done related to the trail network and the other aspects of that.

Got it.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I just want to start by saying thank you very much to staff, to Nelsie and to Andy and to all of you all for being so thoughtful and so careful and to address hiccups and to just have real transparency and clarity on what's happening because we all know everybody, goodness me, I make mistakes every day and speak

Thank you for your hard work and for trying to be as transparent and open as you can.

Thank you for those apologies.

I do remember, Andy, I had in my hand, you sent out a revised

Well, we have had so many emails lately, it would have been easy to have missed these.

For once, I actually caught them.

Anyway, I do appreciate the clarity and you're trying to keep us up to date in a timely fashion.

All right, on this section, I don't think I have any questions at this point.

Thank you very much, Mr. Bowman.

Would you go to slide 15, please?

It would be a one-year decision just because the board when they adopt their appropriation resolution is only for one year at a time.

So to understand that if an agency or cultural event is highly rated and gets the funding, then maybe the following year there may be a couple others that are even more highly rated.

Yes.

Okay.

That's what I was wondering.

That's what I thought.

But thank you very much.

No other questions.

Thank you.

Mr. Bowman, if you go to slide number 11, just a comment.

There are many places in our budget where I wish we had more money.

If we can ever come up with any extra money,

Slide 11 shows that parks, recreation, and culture is only 3% of our budget, and I really think this is an area if we can come up with more money.

I, as one supervisor, would love to see some increase there because it's so important to the overall health of our community.

Slide number 12, I have a question.

Mr. Walker or possibly Ms.

Falardo, the Rivanna Village Park, I believe that's what we've been emailing about recently.

All right, thank you.

Appreciate that.

Just so the board knows, a community member from that area had been asking specifically about that.

So good to see that included there.

Oh, slide 13, we can add to the support from the county to Scottsville and increase funding down at the library there.

Slide 14, I really want to echo Supervisor McKeel's comments

It is so important to the integrity of our county that if a mistake happens that we acknowledge it and someone is not jeopardized as a result of that.

I really appreciate your approach here in ensuring that those entities will be given the same measure and level of review that they would have gotten at the very beginning of the process.

That's tremendously important.

Thank you for that.

Thank you.

And I have no further questions.

Any other questions, board?

No?

All right, this moves to the community development functional area, which again is a state reporting.

This is not just the department.

We can see this makes up 3% of the general fund of this functional area.

The community development department is the majority of that, but it also includes economic development services, transit, and some other community partners.

Looking at the connections to the strategic plan,

The biggest effort here in community development is not so much about new dollars but the ongoing work plan of staff and the existing dollars currently in their budget for the next development of the comprehensive plan update and the zoning ordinance update.

Outside of community development we have economic development which is again continuing to work through their work plans with their existing staff, existing funding and the economic development funding and we talked about the CIP funding for economic development on Monday.

And also acknowledging that we've talked about this more in the administrative functional area, but core systems modernization is the next phase for community development.

So they are working through right now.

That is a major driver of their services currently.

I don't have any detailed comments about transit because this is going to be a topic of next week's work session on the 22nd.

While we'll acknowledge this budget does include funding for CAT, we have a level funding recommendation for Jaunt at this time with a requested increase held in reserve.

We also have a micro transit reserve for the county's grant match.

That program has been before the board and discussed.

as well as we have the ongoing funding for the regional transit partnership and also the county share of the Afton Express which is a commuter route that runs from over in the valley into the county and back.

Quickly, we'll go through.

Any comments or questions?

Just a comment that is just 3%.

Thank you.

Thank you.

No, I think the things I requested prior

are connected to this area.

Thank you.

I have no real questions, just a comment about economic development and how important economic development is for our community as we are trying to diversify our revenues and move away from such dependence on the property tax.

and that's where we're going with economic development and it is critical for this community so that we can diversify and bring in revenues and not the reliance just on car taxes and property taxes and

Our reliance is way too heavy on those two items.

No comments.

Thank you, and I concur with Supervisor Andrews and Supervisor McKeel.

It's amazing to me that such a small percentage of our budget goes to a department that we see all the time.

Eighty-five percent of our work probably is community development.

and I especially want to echo the economic development part of this.

It's critical that we fund our economic development department sufficiently that we can diversify our revenue stream and rely less upon residential property taxes.

Thank you.

This brings us to the final functional area, non-departmental, which is just a term for everything that doesn't neatly fit into a departmental functional area.

We've actually already talked about most of this already in the prior work sessions, but it's been a little here and there.

We have the transfer to the public schools, the transfer in capital and debt that make up most of this.

There's also programs like tax relief.

We've talked about the salary and benefits reserve and workforce stabilization.

So my only comment here is just to acknowledge the revenue sharing payment based on the formula next year would be $171,000 increase based on the terms of that agreement.

Alright, thank you.

Supervisor Andrews?

No questions, thank you.

Thank you, Supervisor Galloway.

And I have no questions either, the Department of Everything Else.

Much like the Federal Department of the Interior.

All right, well, this brings us to the next phase of what I'll call some county executive updates for the board's consideration in their proposed budget.

These updates are really just about a timing change, where if we knew this information prior to February 2 on the recommended budget, they would have been included as, again, just that timing issue rather than a policy change.

So there are just five of these and I'll talk about them one by one, really in groups of two.

It is common in the annual budget process as regional agencies are working through their budgets to have changes along the way knowing that they are working with sometimes as many as six localities on different budget timelines.

or the state or others.

What we have this year is based on updated information from the regional jail and the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority would be a net decrease in the county's share of those costs.

I'll also point out that in February at the second meeting, the Board of Supervisors had a discussion around decisions in Rivanna Solid Waste around rates.

That has also generated some of those savings.

Again, the timing did not allow that to be included on February 22nd.

So that does create some reduced expenditures that are available for other items.

The next two items are the arts and cultural agencies we talked about, $2,500 each.

If additional arts and cultures recommendations come forward, there's still an opportunity to address those.

What we are proposing at this time to staff is to take those net savings and increase the county's reserve for contingencies by $338,000.

This is really just a placeholder knowing that there may be other things the board desires to do in this budget process.

We don't need to finalize the budget today.

So this is a place that there are other adjustments desired by the board that's available.

Now if the board would like to allocate something today, that's okay too.

But this is really just to ensure that our budget still remains balanced, to put that somewhere, then the board still has an opportunity either today or in a future work session to allocate that by the time that the budget has been adopted.

Alright, thank you.

Questions?

No questions.

I guess the only question is reserved for contingencies.

Of course, this is separate and apart.

Yes.

I should highlight that in the annual budget, we have about $600,000, half of ongoing money, half of one-time money for things that may come up during the year that may be addressed.

All this would do at this time would be to increase that ongoing amount to $638,000 approximately.

Thank you.

No questions right now.

Thank you.

Supervisor Galloway?

No questions.

Thank you.

I don't really have any questions other than just a comment.

So we have, you just said $638,000.

In ongoing dollars, yes.

Yeah, okay.

So in my head, I'm wrapping it around, so we have these changes.

Just for clarity.

OK.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Thank you.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

No questions at this time.

Thank you.

Just for example.

And I have no further questions.

OK.

Well, this brings us to the first item for action in this budget process, which is the tax rate for advertisement.

I have just a few slides for reference, the first of which

Sorry, there we go.

Got my slides out of order for a second.

The real estate property taxes, this is the same slide I shared at work session number one where we discussed revenues.

The current recommended rate is 85.4 cents, the same rate as calendar year 22.

Every penny on the real estate tax rate is 2.7 million dollars, so if there was to be an addition or subtraction of a penny on that recommended rate, that would be the amount of change.

And those funds by policy are split among schools, local government, and the capital and debt program.

In calendar year 23, reassessments had an increase of 13.46% increase.

And the lowered or effective rate, this is part of the legal advertisement, would be a rate of 75.3 cents per $100 of assessed value.

And again, once the board sets this rate, it's the maximum and only a rate of that amount or lower can be adopted.

Similar comments on personal property taxes.

This rate applies to those categories shown on the screen.

Historically, we know that car values, I shouldn't say historically, as recently as over a year ago, car values increased significantly.

The board decreased that rate 86 cents.

In calendar year 23, we are seeing car values fall.

The rate is recommended to be at $3.42 per 100 valuation, which is the current rate in calendar year 22.

Every penny on the personal property tax rate generates just under $100,000.

So if the board would like to make a motion that matches the county executive's recommended budget, this is the motion on the screen.

This would also be an opportunity if the board needed to make a different motion just updating those dollar amounts.

Board, first we'll go through any questions and then we'll come back around for any comments.

Thank you.

I'm trying to formalize my question.

We have heard a question during matters from the public this morning about what we would be choosing to spend for the additional percentages above 1% increase.

And you told us earlier, I think I understood you to say that the federal funding which came in during this current and previous years was kept separate.

So the 1% that we are talking about are the reason why we will have the second public hearing as required by law.

Thank you very much.

Supervisor Galloway?

No questions.

Thank you.

Well, no real questions, just a clarification.

So what we're proposing, the budget right now that we're proposing, the car value is remaining low, the decrease, just as we had last year.

Yes, the rate would remain the same on average with the caveat that everyone's individual experience will vary based on their individual circumstances.

Right, okay.

Just wanted to make sure we were maintaining that decrease.

All right, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Yes, could you go back to slide 24?

and for clarification could you please explain lowered or effective tax rate would be 0.753 per $100 of assessed value.

So really what this is saying is if the county were to bring in the same amount of revenue as they did in the prior year, based only on the change in assessments,

How much would that tax rate need to be lowered to bring into that same amount?

And so in this case, that would be a change of 10.1 cents.

The math could also work the other way if property values declined, where you would actually have an effective rate that would be higher than that.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Thank you.

I have no questions.

I'm sorry.

Go ahead.

That prompted me to question the fact that we have the lowered effective tax rate with respect to the real property, but we don't actually talk about a lowered or effective tax rate with respect to personal property.

In fact, I think that if we did, we would see an increased

We discussed at work session number one that to you know kind of raise the amount of revenue to go up to You know the fiscal year 23 adopted budget.

but Ms.

Burch also commented last work session there are some oddities and complexities with the state funding we receive the fact that full relief is provided by the state if your vehicle is less than $1,000 and relief is only provided up to the first $20,000 that makes some of that not as easily of an apples to apples comparison just due to the while they're both property taxes there are some nuances then that don't make them quite apples to apples but at a very high level 34 cents would get you about to the recommended level

I'm sorry, the level that was adopted in fiscal year 23, the recommendation is level at 342.

All right, no further questions.

Then any comments will go around.

I appreciate the fact that we at this point are setting a maximum rate.

We're not setting the rate.

That will be open to public hearings and further discussion.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I would echo that we have gotten to

a point in the knowledge base and now we have something official for our citizens to talk to us about, to react about with specific amounts that are proposed and I think as a starting place I'm okay with where we are and I'm still yet unwilling, have not identified places where I think the investments that we are proposing are not needed.

to say nothing of wanted.

This is needed.

And I will continue in my brain to remember all the things we did not do 10 years ago.

that we're still catching up for and unfortunately that's an awful situation to be in to having to catch up with a hundred million dollars of capital programs and I think all of our constituents have different priorities and some are concerned about children crowded in schools and others are concerned about holes in the sidewalks and others are concerned about potholes but we're trying really hard to get the best information together with the help of

staff and all the work that they have done.

Thank you.

Just to say that in regards to the personal property tax, so this year not equalizing the rate that was stated in the first work session was 3.3 million dollars.

So that's 3.3 million in revenue foregone.

Last year the deduction was about seven million dollars if I remember right.

So to drop the rate by 86 cents last year

Basically, we let go of $7 million in taxes.

So this year, we would be letting go of 3.3 if we wanted to try to collect at the same pace last year.

But car values are still, while they may have dropped, they have not dropped as fast as they've climbed for sure.

But I'll be curious to see what happens as we enter the tax return season and the selling season for cars.

We are, unfortunately, we are car-centric still in this community.

We're hoping to move away from that, but we are car-centric.

And just to add to a couple of the, and I agree with what the other supervisors have all said, we are absorbing in our budget this year

Is it a $30 million increase due to 38 million?

Is it 38 million?

And that is because of construction increases?

Cost that all of a sudden we're having to realize.

Those are for projects that our community has asked for.

Those are projects that the six of us up here just decided we needed to do.

Those are projects that the community has been asking for.

Some of them have been in the capital improvement program for a good while.

We all know salaries have gone up, construction costs have gone up.

supply chain issues, so that's 38 million that we are making up for.

I'll add to what you're saying, Supervisor McKeel, the cost of borrowing money has gone up significantly.

And so, again, just for the public's knowledge, 12 months ago, we were planning through our five-year CIP for a number of projects that would carry us through for a five-year period.

When we go back and look from fiscal year 24 through 27 from 12 months ago, the $38.4 million you're referring to

is the increase just to take those projects to completion.

So it is.

It's just exactly what you said.

It's a significant increase in construction costs.

We still have supply chain issues.

The cost of borrowing money has increased.

But what typically would happen is the organization would slow those projects down simply because we've got to generate more money to do what we could do a year ago

And I have lived through in my district numerous projects that

were designed in a particular fashion and because of challenges around money were reduced or cut back and I'm still getting questions about why did we not build this project the way it was supposed to be built or in the long run it cost us more money

A good example would be Greer Elementary School and we cut back the project and didn't build out the addition that we should have and we're paying for that today with lack of seating and space in that particular case it was a school so it really is important to figure out a way to

have these projects go through the way they were designed for the most part.

I mean, it's really important.

Thank you.

Chair, the last point I would make, and I apologize, the last point I would make to build on Ms.

McKeel's comments are several of our board members, once upon a time, you were on the school board.

You were on the Albemarle County School Board.

We've not built a school in Albemarle County in 20 years.

And right now, if we move forward with our CIP, we have plans to build three schools in the next five years after not building a school in 20 years.

And it's driven by overcrowding issues across the county.

This incremental growth, it does not tip the scale to build a school like it does in high-growth counties.

You can look across the southeast, and you can identify high-growth counties.

Wake County, North Carolina,

the Research Triangle area, High Growth County where they're planning to build a new school every year and they have for some time because of high growth.

We have a predictable incremental growth of somewhere between a half to a percent and in some years as much as a percent and a half a year.

But you have tipping points where that growth over a period of time will trigger a tipping point where you have to look as opposed to renovations and expansions at schools.

You've got to go out and procure land and plan for a new school.

So right now in the CIP

New Southern feeder pattern elementary school, new Northern feeder pattern elementary school in the next five years, and a second innovation high school for our public schools.

And the last point I'll make is citizens do ask me as county government, where do my tax dollars go?

57 cents of every dollar coming in the door of local tax money goes to public schools.

So that's right out of the gate.

And sometimes that's just not intuitive to our taxpayers to think about how strong the connection is

Since I still have the mic, I want to just piggyback on that a minute because when we're talking about schools and the need for schools, I would like to send out a request or a challenge for our community to think about.

We built Baker Butler 20 years ago.

The school board, I was on the school board at the time, and I was on a committee searching for property

to where we could build that school because we all know what property is like and what the prices are, even 20 years ago in this community.

We had a couple that stepped up to the plate and said, we have property, we're getting ready to downsize and we will give the county a special deal on our property because we would like it to be used for a school.

and that's how we ended up with Baker Butler, the property for Baker Butler.

So I'm going to put a challenge out to our community.

Thank you, Supervisor McKeel.

I'd like to add one thing on that too just for extra

to think about there has been this past year accomplished an increase in the size of Croce Elementary and an additional 300 students went there.

and that took away some of the overcrowding at Brownsville Elementary where no one expected when Old Trail was approved in 2004 that it would have so many children that they would fill up two school buses going in that one neighborhood.

But there were almost 900 children briefly at Brownsville that absolutely had to be able to be readdressed.

But these $25 million for Crozet Elementary that has just been completed actually gets the facility to take care of the children we have right now.

This was the catch-up building, not the getting-ahead building that I think the local residents are concerned about also needing.

And with the library, I know it is painful right now to think about capital projects, but if the Crozet Library had been put in contract in 2009 instead of 2011, the cost would have been about $3 million less because of the building climate in 2009.

I don't anticipate it's going to be radically different right now.

I think we are, if this is, these

Big chunks of investment that we are considering for capital are postponed.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I just want to commend our staff for the budget that they presented to us and I want to commend the board also because

We're forward thinking.

We're looking into the future.

We're not static.

Our population is increasing all the time.

And the fact that we have 38 million dollars less, 38.4 million dollars less, and yet we are building three new schools, that says a lot about our county.

We're still maintaining our AAA, AAA budget rating.

That says that we can borrow money at a lower rate.

and that says a lot about us as a county.

Also that we are looking to maximize our dollars and I encourage anyone out there that is looking to see where we spend our money to actually look at our budget to look to see where the monies are going because this is what we're relying upon what the community wants and these are the projects that they want.

Thank you.

And I'm going to follow up on some of the school construction issues.

Mountain View Elementary School is in the Scottsville Magisterial District.

It's way overcrowded.

We have a lot of trailers.

And the current expansion will not even address that.

It will simply cover the expected increase in the overcrowding.

And it is essential that we build the southern feeder elementary school, just as it is then essential we build the northern feeder elementary school.

That $38.4 million increase in one year, which is 26% increase.

I cannot get that out of my head as we look at what we need to do for this county.

And I do not believe those costs will go down.

If we could go back to slide number 26, please.

I move that the Board advertise the following rates for public hearing for the 2023 tax year.

85.4 cents per $100 of assessed value for real estate, public service property, and manufactured homes.

$3.42 per $100 of assessed value for tangible personal property.

$3.42 per $100 of assessed value for miscellaneous and incidental tangible personal property employed in a trade or business that is not otherwise classified as machinery and tools.

merchants capital or short-term rental property and that has an original cost of less than $500 and $3.42 per $100 of assessed value for machinery and tools.

Alright, we have a motion from Supervisor Andrews, a second from Supervisor McKeel.

Any additional comments by the Board?

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

Ms.

Yes.

All right, Board, we'll move to our next item, approval of the FY24 proposed budget for advertising.

Thank you.

Just some introductory comments.

If I didn't say it at the start, really to thank the board, this is the third budget work session in eight days, recognizing there is also a regular board meeting this evening on top of the public hearing held the week before and the county executive's budget presentation.

To say nothing of all of the work in the five-year plan, economic development out report, the strategic plan, and all of that.

With that, just to hit some highlights, we started looking at our total all funds budget of $551 million.

This would be the proposed budget without any changes other than the county executive's adjustments.

We then have spent work session number one in the remainder of today, looking at our general fund revenue shown on this slide, showing the makeup of the different sources.

And then on the next slide, looking at our general fund expenditures for where the money is going.

I did not include that slide, but I appreciate the county executive for weighing in with the board's comments to highlight about where that additional revenue is going, really for the increase in the transfer to the public schools, for workforce stabilization efforts, including some of the new positions we've heard about today in parks and recreation and social services and elsewhere.

Also the funding that goes to the capital improvements program, and also funding to our partner agencies, several of which we've talked about today.

On Monday, we heard from the school board and their adopted request.

We also spent time on these projects in the fiscal year 24 capital budget.

We talked about the entire five-year CIP, but these are the projects that would be included in the annual fiscal year 24 budget.

In addition to these projects, there are the amendments that we've talked about today related to those agencies shown on the slide and the reserve contingencies.

And of course, if there are any board-recommended adjustments, they can be incorporated at this time as well.

The motion after board question and discussion would be shown on the screen.

All right, thank you.

Go through our order.

I have no additional questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Supervisor Galloway?

None right now, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And we've had plenty of opportunities to ask questions, but I have none right now, so thank you.

Back to you, Mr. Bowman.

You're looking for a motion?

I think the motion's up on the board.

Board, you're moving along at a nice pace, and I'm hesitant to bring this up at the risk of stalling the board out, but Mr. Galloway did mention on the work session Monday, Mr. McKeel had stepped out just a few minutes earlier, but he mentioned that at some point in time he didn't want to go back and talk about the athletic fields, and so we just need to know on the 15th of March if there's anything that the board's thinking about there that would affect us making any adjustments in the budget.

Just to give us some guidance, you don't have to do it today, but I do want to know if the board is thinking about more money and if we need to do anything differently.

Mr. Richardson, you said on the 15th of March come back to you?

Well, today is the 15th of March, so is there a different date?

I apologize.

We're back together, as Mr. Bowman said, on the 22nd.

We'll be working, I think, in focusing on transit.

The 29th is Workforce Stabilization.

I think we, I'm not trying to get ahead of the staff, but I think on the 29th we have a full afternoon devoted to that.

There could be an opportunity if we need to come back and talk about anything the board needs, we could talk at that time.

Alright, thank you Mr. Richardson.

Board, I would simply propose that if we do have comments in that area, we get them to staff as soon as possible in order to have time to work it and get back to the board.

Supervisor Galloway?

As soon as possible is right now for me.

So my requests for the FTE and the understanding of that for the three policy items, Housing Albemarle, Project Enable, and the Climate Plan, that information is

related to answering this question.

While I had to step out at the last work session, I appreciate you flagging this.

Yes, and I'm very interested in that discussion.

All right.

Second.

All right, motion by Supervisor Andrews, second by Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

Any comments?

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Yes.

All right.

Just one final slide to wrap up.

We'll be back next Wednesday in room 241 to discuss transit.

In addition to county staff, we'll have representatives from those agencies there continue to work for stabilization.