Board of Supervisors Regular Second Meeting   5/17/2023

Good afternoon everyone and welcome.

I'm pleased to call to order this May 17, 2023 meeting of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors at 3 o'clock p.m.

in Lane Auditorium.

The supervisors who are present are Supervisor Ned Galloway of the Rio District, Supervisor Ann Mallek of the White Hall District, Supervisor Diantha McKeel of the Jack Jouett District, Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley of the Rivanna District,

Supervisor Jim Andrews of the Samuel Miller District and myself, Supervisor Donna Price of the Scottsville District, a quorum is present.

I would also like to mention that we have our Acting County Executive, Mr. Trevor Henry, our County Attorney, Mr. Steve Rosenberg, and the Clerk for the Board, Ms.

Claudette Borgerson, present for the meeting.

Let me also welcome and thank our Albemarle County police officers who are here, both in particular Officer Matt Riley and Officer Jordan Delang, who are here providing security for us, but also all the other officers who are here as we have a proclamation recognizing your service, but also those who are not here, who are out on the beat, on the road, day and night, protecting us.

Moving on to item number three, if you will please join us in a moment of silence.

Board, at this time, we're prepared to move to item number four, the adoption of the final agenda.

Before opening the floor for a motion, I do need to point out that I will be adding an item to the consent agenda to appoint an interim director of the Economic Development Office.

Supervisor McKeel has asked to pull item number 8.3 from the consent agenda the scheduling of a public hearing for an ordinance to amend the county code chapter 2 to provide sign-on incentives and with that are there any other amendments or changes to the agenda?

No?

Hold on just a second, 8.3.

I apologize.

8.3 is to schedule a public hearing to consider compensation for Planning Commission and other boards, not the sign-on bonus.

to schedule a public hearing to consider compensation for Planning Commission and other boards, not 8.4, the sign-on bonuses.

Any other amendments?

So moved.

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

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Yes.

All right.

We'll move to item number five, brief announcements by Board members.

And we're keeping the same order as we had at our extra meeting last week because we didn't really follow that order.

I'm fine.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Supervisor Andrews?

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I try to be that one whenever possible.

We announced it was going to happen and it has happened now.

On May 10th, here in this Lane Auditorium, the county held a really important

Public Service awards recognition.

And it is amazing to me the longevity of our staff across the board.

employees were recognized from five years of service up to 40 years of service.

There are 50 employees of the county who have been here for more than 25 years.

55 for 20 years, 50 for 15 years, 69 for 10 years, and 148 for more than five years.

That continuity, that corporate knowledge,

is what brings the great level of service that our employees do.

I recognize some of those individuals whose names were in here today.

Graduations start next week, so the next few weeks we're going to be seeing a lot of celebrations here in the county.

And just very briefly on June 4th, the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity will hold an event at Mount Zion First African Baptist Church with regards to some essays that they'll be making presentations on.

So a lot of good things coming up over the next few weeks in the county.

If not, we'll move on to item number six, Proclamations and Recognitions.

And for those in our audience, we do have several today.

So what we would ask is that you show courtesy to other individuals or groups who may be recognized and not lead the auditorium after your particular proclamation is read so that everyone can have the same honor and respect given to them.

So our first one is a proclamation declaring the first Friday in June as National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

Thank you.

Yes, we'll be doing this a little differently.

We all are taking part in this so the motion will actually be made after we have read the resolution and I will start.

Whereas every day more than 120 Americans are killed by gun violence alongside more than 200 who are shot and wounded and on average there are nearly 17,000 gun homicides every year

Whereas Virginia has 1,121 gun deaths every year with a rate of 12.8 deaths per 100,000 people and has the 36th highest rate of gun deaths in the U.S.

Whereas protecting public safety in the communities they serve is a local government's highest responsibility and support for the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens goes hand in hand with keeping guns away from people with dangerous histories.

Whereas gun violence prevention is more important than ever as the pandemic aftermath and economic stress continues to exacerbate gun violence after more than three years of increased gun sales, increased calls to suicide and domestic violence hotlines, and an increase in gun violence.

Whereas anyone can join this campaign by pledging to wear orange on June 2nd, the first Friday in June in 2023.

that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby declare the first Friday in June to be National Gun Violence Awareness Day and encourage all citizens to support their local community's efforts to prevent the tragic effects of gun violence and to honor and value human lives.

I'm glad to second it.

Then I move the proclamation.

Thank you.

All right.

We have a motion from Supervisor Malek and a second from Supervisor McKeel.

Ms.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Yes.

All right.

Thank you, board.

And Mike Fox is here, I understand, to accept the proclamation.

Mr. Fox, good afternoon.

When you come up to the podium, if there are some remarks you'd like to make, we're happy to hear them.

And just try to make sure the microphone is pointed directly at your mouth.

Good afternoon.

Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.

I'm Mike Fox.

I'm the state legislative lead for the Virginia Chapter of Moms to Man Action for Gun Sense in America and I live in Crozet.

I want to thank the board for their support.

I do want to take this opportunity to thank Chief Reeves and our law enforcement officers for their service and for helping to keep us safe.

Gun violence and gun violence prevention often isn't about who's right but who's left.

We hope that small acts like this both locally and nationwide will help provide some solace to those who are grieving

as we turn pain into purpose and help to build a stronger community and country together.

Thank you, and I know the supervisors will have some comments to make as well.

We thank you for bringing this forward and accepting it on our behalf and I think the numbers in this proclamation are shocking.

They really are shocking, and we certainly are experiencing gun violence within our own community.

Tragically, we've had deaths this year.

I think in the many years that I've lived in this community, I have never seen violence to the extent that we're experiencing it right now.

And it's very, very sad and frustrating.

So thank you very much for coming and for helping us with this proclamation.

Again, thank you for bringing this forward and allowing us this time.

There are some pretty grim statistics in this and you know I'm a numbers person so when I look at 120 Americans killed by gun violence every day but then I see 17,000 gun homicides every year I have to quickly do the math

And I recognize that that really comes out to closer to 44,000 gun deaths per year, which means that the problem of guns is not just a homicide problem, it's obviously a suicide problem and other accidental injury problems, so it's a major factor, and in fact, a leading cause of injury-related deaths for people under the age of 24, is my understanding.

Thank you, sir.

I share in the comments of the previous what has previously been said thank you all for being here today.

It just continually astounds and frustrates me that this issue gets mired up in politics rather than just action and the politicians can't figure out how to get themselves out of their own way to help fix this issue because it is one that could be fixed with meaningful

Thank you.

I agree with what my colleagues have said and common sense laws that keep guns away from those who should not have them and hold people responsible.

We have children being killed, killing each other because they've gotten hold of a gun that hasn't been properly secured.

So I do hope that common sense gun laws will be passed at some point in time sooner than later, frankly.

Thank you.

Well I just wanted to thank you and your organization for the long time years of work and Crozet Library meetings and other places to help us developing the ordinance and also for days like this because that constant awareness and also all the bridges that you have built in the legislature and here has really helped to move this issue forward and thank you very much.

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you.

You know, thoughts and prayers just aren't getting it done.

And I'm tired of thoughts and prayers.

As a local government, we're very limited in what we can do.

I respect the Second Amendment.

But when you look at the statistics, and gun death is the number one cause of death of children in America.

Six times higher than the second ranked country, and 20 times higher than the average around the world.

We have a problem in America and we need to do something about it.

And while we at this county level are very limited in what we can do, we as citizens can vote every election, every time, and we will be able to get some changes made.

I want to thank you and your other members of the organization you all represent for being here today.

And I also want to thank, I believe it was Supervisor McKeel who suggested that we read this by paragraph as a way of our, as a board, demonstrating our collective support for the actions that people are taking to reduce gun violence in America.

And I do have the original proclamation for you if you'd like to come up.

And how appropriate to be reading this one following the previous one because they are tied.

Not enough to absolve one section, but they're definitely tied together.

So I'll read this as a motion.

Proclamation recognizing Mental Health Awareness Month.

Whereas Mental Health Awareness Month was founded in the United States in 1949 to educate the public about mental illness and highlight the importance of mental health and wellness for all Americans.

And whereas the World Health Organization defines mental health as a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well, and work well,

and many others.

about one in four adults suffers from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.

And whereas the county is committed to supporting mental health resources for our citizens and employees through our community partners, ongoing work with area nonprofit agencies

and our Department of Social Human Services, now therefore be it resolved that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize May as Mental Health Awareness Month and confirm our commitment educating the community about mental well-being.

Alright, so we have a motion from Supervisor Mallek.

Second.

Second from Supervisor Andrews.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Yes.

All right, thank you board and I understand that we have Vanessa Stangle here to accept the proclamation.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for being here.

Again, you can pull the microphone down or to your mouth.

Yes, thank you so much for accepting this proclamation.

I think this is a really big step in bringing greater visibility and understanding and gravity to the importance of mental health, especially as it pertains to overall well-being.

It is well accepted that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the mental health of millions of people worldwide.

But prior to that, mental health was already at epidemic levels.

In our culture, if someone is physically ill, they're encouraged to take the day off, to visit a doctor, to take time to heal.

But we don't do this with mental health.

If someone is struggling mentally with their wellbeing, we need to support them to tend to their wellness the way that we do for their physical wellness.

Our mental wellbeing impacts every single facet of our life.

It impacts our ability to work well, to care for our families, to care for ourselves.

It is my sincere hope that through the acceptance of this proclamation, when either we ourselves or our colleagues are struggling mentally, that the response is one of greater compassion, of empathy, and the willingness to share resources that are available for support.

It is our basic human right to be mentally well and sound, and each of us can help foster that culture through our actions, and I hope that

That's the direction we will move in the near future.

Thank you.

And I know that members of the board will also want to make comments.

Thank you for being here.

Yes.

Thank you for bringing this proclamation forward.

I really appreciate the ability to speak to mental health in this community.

We certainly have examples

throughout the community of challenges that our citizens are experiencing.

We just finished budget cycle and there was a thread that ran through our budget cycle of supporting services for mental health and for

for our residents who have somehow or another not had the right support from various reasons, whether it's food or mental health services or, I mean, numerous areas.

and supporting our social services certainly is a major way that we have got it in this, but there are other threads and certainly lots of other pots of money that we have put in place to help this.

I am looking forward to the implementation of, I think we call it our HART group.

HART has an S on it, HART's group.

and that is our group that will be responding to the mental health calls that come in through ECC and it takes it away from the response by a uniformed police officer and puts it more into the human services arena and I am very hopeful and anxious for that specific service to begin in our community but we certainly have

talked all through our budget cycle about how we could support our community in this regard.

So thank you for coming.

Thank you.

Yes, I echo those comments and thank you and I'm happy to say I think the HEARTS team is together now and that will hopefully help coordinate services in those needs and of course remind everybody of 988 I believe is the number that often gets forgotten when people are thinking about 911.

That's an important number to keep in mind.

And my understanding is along with the Mental Health Awareness Month is a theme this year of more than enough is to recognize that everyone is worthy of more than enough of life, love, and health.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair Price.

Well, thank you for being here.

I would simply comment, I do believe that the mental health proclamation following the gun violence one, there is some connections there.

But I did learn in 2015, maybe challenged or educated, there was a gentleman that I remember when I was running for State Senate and that particular gentleman who was at a campaign event struggled from serious mental health disorder.

and reminded me in some of my comments linking solutions to gun violence to mental health to not look at me as the problem for your gun violence.

And I think that's just something that we always have to remain cognizant of.

Stresses and things that can can hit mental health that can lead to violent acts It shouldn't be it's not on those folks There are other things that can be done to both support those who are struggling with serious mental health disorders and also those who are not who need to be restricted from having access to guns

Now that being said, aside from those who we say have actual mental health disorders that are a medical diagnosis, all of us have mental health stresses and at times struggle with our own mental health.

So right there in the proclamation it says a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well.

We all need help from time to time.

We all need access to those who can help us when we have those moments of stress to help us cope.

And we all have to recognize that those who have diagnosed disorders need additional extra care, patience, and help as well.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for coming today and having this declared as Mental Health Awareness Month.

The recognition of that, it's very important and as my colleagues have stated, this is something that I think everybody from time to time has stresses, have mental health problems.

Some are more severe than others.

but the fact that we're recognizing it, we're talking about it, we're going to have the, what was it, 988, the hearts program and such.

That says we're moving forward as a county and trying to help everyone.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

988.

988.

988.

988.

Thank you and thank you for being the person who helps to tie so many threads together to help us make progress.

We all face the challenge as members of our community to help strengthen people's resilience both our own and people of all ages from little children in school to seniors who often are lonely and have challenges handling and analyzing

and

prepare that to happen has really helped to set the stage to provide better access to treatment rather than jail to help people to strengthen the relationships with Region 10, our local service providers and

increased that host of crisis beds which are always full right now and have a great need to do more.

And regarding the guns, I think that people who are suffering from some mental illness put themselves at risk even more if a gun is available because that resilience is just not there and they're not able to get through whatever it is that their challenges are right then.

I'm going to tie a couple of comments with the previous proclamation.

My best friend's sister in high school was shot in the face and killed by her husband.

He did not have a mental health issue.

He was an angry man with the gun.

My family lived in a fortress for years because an angry man with the gun threatened to kill us.

They did not have mental health issues, but they did have access to guns.

Fifteen years ago I came very close to committing suicide with the gun, not because I have a mental disorder, but because I'm a transgender person living in a society that does not believe I have a right to exist.

In 2023, there have been 543 anti-trans bills proposed in state legislatures.

In 49 states, 70 have passed, 372 are active.

18 states have blocked healthcare for transgender individuals, including Missouri and Oklahoma, where they're proposing under age 26 not be permitted to get healthcare.

Ignoring science will not solve the problem.

And there's a huge difference between having a mental illness and having a mental health issue.

And we need to recognize that and we need to differentiate between the two.

We cannot blame gun violence on mental disorders.

What we can do is recognize that the easy access to weapons by people who are struggling, as supervisors have mentioned, is what is leading to the United States basically being at the top of the world in gun deaths and gun violence.

So it's working together on both sides of this equation is the only way that we have any hope of addressing and resolving these problems.

For me, once I was able to transition, all of those concerns went away.

I can't imagine today what would cause me to feel suicidal after decades of daily feeling suicidal because the society refused to acknowledge that I have a right to even exist.

So I want to thank you and all of those you work with who are helping to show the difference between a mental health and a mental illness and a mental disorder.

and bringing a bit of normalcy to mental health as we bring to our physical health.

I spent 25 years in the Navy on active duty where individuals were afraid to seek any sort of mental health assistance because their careers would be brought to an end.

And unfortunately, too many of them ended up losing their lives when simply by acknowledging that mental health

needs to be treated the same way physical health is.

Without demeaning or diminishing someone who seeks that health, our society will never overcome these problems.

So thank you.

All right, board, we'll now turn

to our third, and I would say very closely related proclamation.

And that is a proclamation recognizing May 14th through 20th.

2023 is National Police Week.

Thank you, Chair Price.

Whereas in 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed the first proclamation recognizing May 15th as Peace Officers Memorial Day and the week in which it falls as National Police Week, to pay tribute to the law enforcement officers who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country and to voice our appreciation for all those who currently serve

on the front lines of the battle against crime.

And whereas the safety and well-being of Albemarle County residents being of the utmost importance to the prosperity and livelihood of Virginia's families and communities.

And for 40 years, police officers of the Albemarle County Police Department have been dedicated to protecting and serving Albemarle County communities, our neighborhoods, schools, and families.

whereas police officers risk their lives each and every day in order to ensure public safety and enforce the laws of the land and whereas Albemarle County values the courage and devotion of our police officers as our collective prosperity depends on the integrity with which our law enforcement officers maintain peace and security and whereas Police Week

and Peace Officers Memorial Day are opportunities to honor officers who have fallen in the line of duty and recognize the sacrifices made by the families of those officers and the families of those who continue to protect and serve our communities, now therefore be it proclaimed

that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize May 14th through May 20th, 2023 as Police Week and May 15th, 2023 as Peace Officers Memorial Day in Albemarle County and call these observances to the attention of all residents.

Signed, the 17th day of May 2023, Donna Chair

Second.

Thank you.

All right, so we have a motion by Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley, a second by Supervisor Andrews.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Yes.

All right.

Thank you, Board and Colonel Sean Reeves.

Good afternoon, Chair Price, members of the board.

I'm Sean Reeves, Chief of Police, and on behalf of the men and women of the Almar County Police Department, many of you who have joined me this afternoon, I thank you all for your continued support.

With your support, along with support from our community and our county executive's office, our police department has been able to overcome numerous significant challenges over the past year.

From workforce stabilization,

and enhancing ACPD staffing levels to ensure our services keep paced with demand, to committing resources to the Joint Public Safety and Department of Social Services Mental Health and Crisis Response Initiative, as you all pointed out hearts, are just a few examples of this board's commitment to supporting ACPD's mission of safeguarding our community.

While this week is a time of recognition and appreciation for law enforcement professionals across the country,

It is also a time of remembrance for those in the profession who have lost their lives.

According to the Officer Down Memorial page, 246 law enforcement officers gave their lives in 2022.

Tragically, included in those numbers are seven law enforcement officers from Virginia who lost their lives last year in the line of duty.

Today, I also ask that we remember the following.

Chief of Police Joe Carey, Broadnax,

Police Department, End of Watch December 16, 2022.

Police Officer Trey Marshall Sutton, Henrico County Police Department, End of Watch Thursday, March 31, 2022.

Police Officer Caleb Ogilvy, Covington Division, Police Department, End of Watch Monday, March 14, 2022.

Sergeant John Joseph Donahue,

Fairfax County Police Department, end of watch, February 23, 2022 Police Officer John Painter, Bridgewater College Police Department, end of watch, Tuesday, February 1, 2022 Master Police Officer David Nieves, Virginia Beach Police Department, end of watch, Tuesday, February 1, 2022 And Sergeant Malek Mazoby, Portsmouth Sheriff's Office,

and to watch Saturday, January 15, 2022.

While these are sobering statistics and serve as a grim reminder of the real dangers associated with our profession, our wonderful community is fortunate to have dedicated women and men of the Albemarle County Police Department who are willing to continue to answer the call to serve and protect.

Thank you, Colonel Reeves.

I know our board does have comments we'd like to make as well.

Thank you, Police Chief Reeves.

That was really wonderful that you read those names of the law enforcement officers that died in the line of duty.

In listening to the list, it did strike me that those events happened in small rural areas and in cities throughout the state.

And so it behooves all Virginians

to take seriously our issues.

Again we're tying together these proclamations.

that really send a message about guns, mental health, and safety of police officers and a celebration, I think, of our police force is really warranted because we really do have a wonderful police force and we just really so much appreciate your all's work every day while recognizing that just yesterday we had gunfire

taking place on Preston down here.

I mean it is just in the county and in the city and our community.

It's very scary for everybody.

And I do want to just take a minute to thank your families because I can only imagine how hard it is for your families to send you out the door every day.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Again, thank you.

I echo the same comments I had looked at this resolution and said what was missing were the names of the people we're remembering and I'm glad that you provided them for us.

Thank you.

Thanks for being here, Chief.

I just remain in awe and deeply appreciative of everything you and all the men and women that you lead in our department and their service to the citizens of Albemarle and all those who visit here every day.

As I was thinking or reading this proclamation, it occurred to me, I had a memory.

I had recently shared that my grandfather had served in the Air Force.

When he returned home from service, he was a police officer.

and the one photo, my grandmother kept a lot of photos of him in her bedroom, which was private photos that she wanted to share, but the one photo that she kept in the main living area was his patrolman photo with his hat and his uniform on.

So of course, seeing that all the time, when I think of him, I didn't know him.

But when I hear him talked about and I think about him, I think of a police officer.

That was my grandfather.

So this proclamation just kind of stirred that memory up.

And I thought that was something that was a nice thing to share today, that not just because of my grandfather, but because of everything that you guys do.

Thank you.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley?

This is very heartfelt.

You stand on the forefront between chaos and democracy and it's very much appreciated in the sacrifice the families go through and all your officers here.

We wouldn't be what we are without you and without your fine.

Officers, all of them, and I just salute you.

Thank you, Bea.

You know better than everybody, so thank you very much.

And thank you, Colonel Reeves, for your leadership because that absolutely makes others possible, other things possible.

I am so proud of our department and of all of its members.

You show courage and compassion.

Quick response to danger and then turn on a dime and help citizens on the beat.

Attending neighborhood meetings to help people understand ways that they can keep themselves safe and help their neighbors.

Our citizens should be proud of the dedication of budget resources over the years to increase the staff capacity and training.

To never again send an officer into a middle of the night domestic without backup.

That is an experience I have never gotten over.

For those who may not know, Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley's deceased husband was a retired law enforcement officer.

So this is very dear and near to her heart.

and I echo the sentiments of our other supervisors.

There's no group of, no group of county employees with whom I hold a closer affinity than those who wear the uniform and the badge of a police officer in Albemarle County.

When you think about institutions around the country and some are respected and some are not, it's all based upon how those individuals perform their duties.

An Albemarle County Police Department

has held an extremely high regard in our community because, officers, it's the way you perform your duties.

Those in positions of trust are held to a high degree of accountability.

In the Navy, we said responsibility commensurate with one's authority.

And every moment of every day of the year, you carry that authority and you do it honorably.

Just the other day in this auditorium we recognized those high school graduates who were joining the military and in my comments I talked about honorably serving and the emphasis on honorable.

Because officers you serve honorably our public respects you and we trust you and we thank you for your service as well as your families.

Thank you.

So, Colonel Reeves, we do have a proclamation up here that Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley would be pleased to pass to you.

Yes, ma'am.

I'm really happy to read this, and I'm going to read this as a motion.

Proclamations celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month.

Whereas Jewish American Heritage Month is a time for commemorating the history, contributions, and cultures of the diverse population of Jewish Americans.

And whereas the Jewish community has played an important role in shaping

advancing and enriching the fabric of Albemarle County ever since the first Jewish family settled in Albemarle County in 1757.

And whereas Jewish Americans, due to their own long history of persecution, have often found common cause with movements working to expand civil rights, liberty, and human dignity for all.

And whereas the Jewish American experience

has always been held together by the forces of hope, resilience, and striving for a better tomorrow.

Now therefore be it resolved that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize and celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month and renew our dedication to the work of building a fully inclusive tomorrow, one where a great diversity of origins is not only accepted, but is also celebrated

here at home and around the world.

Signed the 17th day of May 2023, Donna Price, Chair.

Thank you.

We have a motion from Supervisor McKeel, a second from Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

All right, thank you.

And for those in attendance or watching, due to a change in our schedule and an illness, a couple of individuals were not able to attend today to receive the proclamation.

So Mr. Jesse Brookings, the director of office and equity and inclusion here in the county will accept this and the following proclamation on their behalf.

Good afternoon, everyone.

And first and foremost, I want to thank you all for receiving this proclamation and the one that follows.

Consistent with the theme of everyone sharing, the important theme is that we all matter.

Our safety matters, our mental health matters, and the sense of belonging matters as a community.

And recognizing the way that we show up within our culture, our belief systems, and our standards is extremely important.

I do accept this on behalf of the original recipient, who is

Rabbi Vanessa Oaks

Rabbi Vanessa Oaks is a professor for religious studies at the University of Richmond and the acting director of the Jewish studies program.

She is an author to seven books.

She and her husband live in Charlottesville and have been members of the Congregation of Beth Israel for nearly 25 years.

So honoring people who continue to do the work of educating the significance and importance of culture and diversity within culture, given the recent years of

Unfair Persecution that is tied to a larger history of misinformation rooted in hate.

Thank you.

And board will go around our order for any comments.

Thank you for those lovely words.

I appreciate your thoughts.

I'm going to bring this home, my comments, just home a little bit.

I recently had the opportunity to watch a documentary called The Levies of Monticello.

And it is the story, the true story, of the Levy family, a Jewish family, who literally saved Monticello

after the period of time when Thomas Jefferson left and it fell into Iraq and ruin and the Levy family bought Monticello and spent

An enormous amount of money, an enormous amount of time and love in restoring Monticello and maintaining it.

And you can watch, I think, on Netflix.

Is somebody going to sue me if I mention that?

I think it might play on Netflix.

But anyway, the documentary, The Levees of Monticello, it is truly a gem of a film.

And it's wonderful, especially for our locality where we have Monticello right in our midst.

and also I just want to mention as well that the Levy family, we are all familiar with the Levy Opera House, the same Levy family is the family that swept in when what we think of as the Levy Opera House downtown around Court Square was falling again into rack and ruin and they purchased it and according to what I was able to read

Levy remodeled the building into an opera house to make it more suitable for public functions.

In doing so, the seating capacity was reduced to roughly 500 people, and the newly converted and renamed Levy Opera House opened in 1888 and hosted traveling

theatrical companies as well as local performers.

So just to point out a local Jewish family whose roots go way back into our community and have done some wonderful things for our community.

And bringing it home even further, I took the opportunity to wear my Star of David today.

I wish I could tell you the exact history of this Star of David but when my father passed away I found it in his jewelry box and it's engraved with a name and a date and his initials on the back and boy would I love to have the history of this Star of David which goes back to 1917.

So just as a piece of advice to everybody, make sure you look through your parents' jewelry box and figure out what's in there that you may wish as an adult you knew about.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mike.

Comments are... I really appreciate the comments and the connection to the Levy Opera House and your own personal connection there.

I just appreciate that this is a celebration.

We've had some pretty somber motions up to this point, and this is one of two that we're doing to celebrate today, but also recognize the fully inclusive tomorrow and the diversity of our origins.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jesse, for being here for this proclamation.

I'm going to share something a little bit longer at the end of the next proclamation that I think will tie both together.

All right.

Thank you.

Well, I love the date 1757.

that the first Jewish family settled here, which is wonderful.

And I also appreciate the comments from Supervisor McKeel because I'm on the visitor's bureau and I'm going to mention that and I think that should be part of the visitor's bureau website because that's part of our history right there.

and also Mr. Levy was a Commodore, I believe, in the Navy.

So I knew Donna was going to mention that, so I thought I'd beat her to the punch, which I can rarely do, but this time, but yeah, he was a Commodore.

So it's a real tribute to the Levy family for what they did for all of Albemarle.

Thank you.

Thank you very much and I'm sorry that our congregation representatives can't be here.

This brings back childhood memories for me.

When I was five, the schools in the city were closed and it fell to moms mostly in the city and the county of all religions and races to work together to organize experiences for school for kids in garages and basements all over the region and the same individuals of

I remember from my childhood, I just really worked to strengthen the community.

and the experiences for everybody.

And today their descendants and others are working with marginalized communities to strengthen them today and to help local government make good decisions to benefit them.

Thank you.

And yes, following up on Supervisor McKeel and Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley, Uriah P. Levy was the first Jewish Commodore in the United States Navy

while not currently used as a designation of a flag rank, it is an admiral basically in the Navy.

And in addition to saving Monticello and serving in the Navy, he was instrumental in bringing the end of flogging as a punishment in the Navy.

So we have a lot.

We have a lot to be thankful for.

I have had the great privilege over the course of my life to attend a number of services at synagogues, and in fact my old church in Virginia Beach, Eastern Shore Chapel, which is not on the eastern shore of Virginia, but on the eastern shore of the Lynnhaven River,

I don't know if they still do, but when the local rabbi that that congregation in my church had an association with, he became a rabbi in residence at the Episcopal Church, which was an interesting thing.

But to the greater point,

I don't know of a group, a demographic in the world that has been more subject to persecution than those of the Jewish faith.

And if ever there was a group that could have turned to nothing but anger, it would have been that group.

And every single service I've been at, all they talk about is love.

So I have to commend this persecuted people for what they have done to try and work towards peace.

I also want to share with you in the chat

Rabbi Vanessa Oakes sent this note.

So as she's not able to be here, I would like to read it to us.

It is moving that the Albemarle Board of Supervisors recognizes that when any particular segment of our community flourishes, we all flourish.

At a time when there is an increase in acts of anti-Semitism in the United States, we recognize that our county is a place where it feels safe to be Jewish Americans.

On behalf of the Charlottesville Albemarle Jewish community, I am honored to accept this proclamation.

And I want to also express appreciation for those in the audience for your patience.

We don't usually have this many, but we do today.

Proclamation celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Whereas May 2023 marks the 46th anniversary of the first submitted resolution to recognize the contributions and achievements of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

And whereas May 2023 marks the 31st anniversary of the federal recognition of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

and whereas present-day inequities faced by Asian American and Pacific Islander communities are rooted in our nation's history of exclusion, discrimination, racism, and xenophobia.

And whereas Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are a vital part of our community's history, making important contributions to the cultural, civic, and economic life of the county.

Now therefore be it resolved that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize and celebrate May 2023 as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and encourage our community to observe this month by learning more about our collective history

to create a more inclusive and equitable future for us all.

Signed this 17th day of May, 2023, Donna Price, Chair, Albemarle County Board of Supervisors.

Is there a second?

Second.

Alright, so the motion by myself, Supervisor Price, is seconded by Supervisor Mallek.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Thank you all again, and I'll be brief, but ultimately what you hear in that proclamation is the many stories of America and understanding the values of which we contribute to this story to make this a great nation.

and how can we recognize that, but also recognize the challenges that each community, particularly the Asian American and Pacific Islander community have faced to get to this point.

And it still persists.

We've seen it in recent years with the misinformation surrounding COVID and the attacks against the Asian community.

So how can we continue to educate ourselves about that history, what it's rooted in, but also come together as a community and build a better future.

Thank you.

We'll go through our order.

Thank you again for accepting this proclamation.

What I discovered, and I really was wondering why so many of the, I was curious about the proclamations and the month of May, and so I specifically found that the significance of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in May is that May honors two historical events

May 7, 1943, which marked the arrival of the first Japanese-American immigrant who was a 14-year-old sailor

and May 10, 1896, which saw the completion of the first transcontinental railroad.

And I think we are all aware from our history lessons that over 12,000 Chinese labored over that intercontinental railroad.

So that is the connection with the month of May, which I found fascinating.

And you're right that certainly the COVID experience really brought about, unfortunately, put targets on their backs.

regarding the cause of COVID and all that.

And it just has continued even to this day that Asian American and Pacific Islanders are targeted individuals, which is really, really very sad.

So instead of thinking about those

World issues.

We really need to remember that these folks helped build our nation, our country, whether it was the railroad or the sugar cane plantations in Hawaii to the military experiences in the military bases and veterans from the Civil War.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It's always tough to find a new angle on these different things.

I did look up and saw that the first Pacific Islanders came to California in 1587, so that goes back as far as that goes, and that there were people from India and Jamestown in 1635.

Just a couple pieces of information I didn't know in looking this up, but I very much appreciate that.

Again, a celebration of heritage.

Thank you.

First, I'd like to celebrate the author Celeste Ng.

Celeste, as I'm sure Supervisor Andrews will appreciate as a former resident of Shaker Heights, is from Shaker Heights, Ohio.

and I was graced to have her as a student in my playwriting class one semester when I used to teach there.

The book Little Fires Everywhere and Our Missing Hearts but I always remember her saying that when she writes and through high school and there's been interviews where she said she always thought writing was just something she did on the side and now that she makes her living as an author but she talks about how

She approaches her work not from plots or stories, but from human relationships.

And I'm always struck by those who, you know, it's easy as somebody who is white to put somebody else in a category.

And when they write, they write from the experience of humanity, not from, and flavor it with their own experience, but don't approach it from a standpoint of just trying to be an Asian American author.

Boy, I was scared of that to have her.

You knew immediately.

She was.

You want to talk about.

I don't know if I'm the right teacher here.

The second one I'd like to recognize is the book The Accidental Asian by Eric Liu.

Eric Liu is a former speechwriter for President Clinton.

Clinton is the former CEO of Citizen University.

And it's a book of memoirs about growing up in America as a Chinese American with whose parents were immigrants from China.

but there was a section I recall in there that I had to go back and reread about how 50, at the time the book was written he would have said 30 years ago but pre the 60s the category Asian American didn't exist.

There was Chinese Americans and Korean Americans and Japanese Americans and Indian Americans and he talks about how that category Asian American and Pacific Islanders comes to be

in some fashion of those groups trying to shed off the nomenclature orientals that white America put on them, but also the census cleverly trying to categorize a whole vast population of folks.

So I remember that and these proclamations are oftentimes a tour down memory lane of reading lists that wonderful professors have brought to me.

and so I share that one, The Accidental Asian by Eric Liu for those who would appreciate a good read if you haven't read it already.

And then the final thing I'd like to share is a book that I think is a wonderful history of all

Race, Ethnicities, Cultures in America by Ronald Takagi.

It's called A Different Mirror, A History of Multicultural America.

Again, a professor at John Carroll University is the one that introduced this book to me.

But at the end, I would just, if I can, if you will indulge me, I'll share a little bit from the last two paragraphs of his book.

America's dilemma has been our resistance to ourselves, our denial of our immensely varied selves.

But we have nothing to fear but our fear of our own diversity.

His final paragraph goes on, as Americans we originally came from many different shores and our diversity has been at the center of the making of America.

While our stories contain the memories of different communities, together they inscribe a larger narrative.

Filled with what Walt Whitman celebrated as the very carols of America, our history generously gives all of us our mystic chords of memory.

Throughout our past of oppressions and struggles for equality, Americans of different races and ethnicities have been singing with open mouths their strong, loadiest songs in the cotton fields of Mississippi, on the Indian reservations of South Dakota, the railroad tracks high in the Sierra of California, in the garment factories of the Lower East Side, the cane fields of Hawaii, and a thousand other places across the country.

Our denied history bursts with telling.

As we hear America singing, we find ourselves invited to bring our rich cultural diversity on deck to accept ourselves.

If every hue and caste am I sang Whitman, I resist anything better than my own diversity.

Thank you, Supervisor Galloway.

I think our diversity, I know our diversity is our strength.

We all come from different places.

We have

six board members here who have all been teachers and have all taught at one time or another.

We had a responsibility and have a responsibility to educate our children and even adults, probably more so adults, that are less accepting.

I do believe that the more you are

the more diverse your world is, at least for me, my world is through traveling, through visiting different places, living in different states and such that enriches your life and the different cultures enrich your life so I'm this is something I mean my my best girlfriend in high school was Asian and my best girlfriend in college was Asian and

I just never really thought anything about it because they were fantastic, you know, fantastic friends.

So I do believe traveling and seeing different people in their different cultures and living with that.

I mean we'd all be, I'm going to, this may sound superficial, but imagine the food we eat if we didn't have diversity.

Well, just think about that.

And we need that.

We need all cultures.

We need all cultures that enriches our lives and it makes us better people.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Well, I have two small personal stories because there are others who have already talked about the overall history things.

From 1924 to 1929, my mother lived in New York City in a big apartment building.

She was a very small child, born in 1922, and her very best friend across the hall was Miss Ow, a young, that was a Japanese-American family who had been living there.

When the Depression came in

1929.

My grandmother and her family had to move in with uncles and aunts up in the country in Southbury, Connecticut, and they lost track of each other.

But this young woman was part of my mother's stories forever about her different approaches to things and what she learned.

I did not know here in Albemarle any

Japanese Americans or Asian Americans when I was growing up.

But when I went to work in Boston in 1971, one of the faculty members at Harvard Medical School was Susumu Ito.

And I did not know about his dramatic history because he never talked about it as an adult.

And it wasn't until 2010 when George Will in the Washington Post wrote an article about him on the memory of his 91st birthday.

and a little bit of story of, that was how I learned more about it and my newspaper article got so decrepit that I wrote to George Will and he sent it to me digitally which I thought was really very gracious.

But the, Seuss's parents came to this country to get farm labor jobs and

They thought very highly of education and pushed their children to study, study, study, do the very best they can, but also recognized that they didn't think that he would be able to achieve his best outcome due to his ancestry.

So they didn't want to send him to some fancy university even though he got into Berkeley at age 16.

So he went to community college and then went into the army in 1940.

and his unit, the Japanese American unit, was the unit that liberated Dachau and the reason of the article and the reason that Seuss met Mr. Will was the Holocaust Memorial Museum, they had a gathering of the 119 Japanese American comrades who had liberated this concentration camp and they were able to

greet the survivors and get to know them.

But at the same time that he was fighting in World War II, his own parents and two sisters were interned because of so many people from that community who were shipped off to Arkansas, lost all of their generation of

books and everything from their house.

And when he came back, he started all over again and ended up teaching at Harvard and becoming a very famous cell biologist and taught hundreds and hundreds of medical school students with great good cheer.

and always bought octopus or something wonderful to the department picnics because he said we all needed to learn to eat all that stuff, which was really great.

But such a personal experience that I never would have had if I hadn't bumped into him.

So I'm always so appreciative.

Thank you.

In criminal law, we frequently say that the first step towards rehabilitation is to acknowledge and accept responsibility for wrongdoing.

So in this proclamation, the third whereas where it addresses rooted in our nation's history of exclusion, discrimination, racism, and xenophobia really jumped out at me, particularly as we live now in an area where acknowledgement of past wrongs is considered to be woke.

Earlier in my life, we'd call it PC, political correctness.

I call it being honest and treating people with dignity and respect.

From 1863 to 1869, following up, I believe, on Supervisor McKeel, 20,000 Chinese immigrants built the Transcontinental Railroad.

And how were they rewarded?

In 1882, with the Chinese Exclusion Act, which put a 10-year ban on any immigrants from China.

My family has a pretty close connection with the Asia and the Pacific ring.

Four times, family members have lived overseas.

I've lived twice in the Philippines.

Family members have lived in Japan and Hawaii.

I have a nephew who's half Japanese, half Argentinian, a son who lived in Peru, where there's a substantial Japanese influence.

Who'd have thought, you know?

So once again what we face is a situation where our country has historically not fulfilled its promises.

What happened with the Japanese in internment during World War II, what happened with

soldiers and sailors who fought with the United States from the Philippines in World War II and then were denied the benefits they have been promised.

So what we do today is our small step effort to try and help show that we are better than that and I appreciate you being here Mr. Brookings to receive this proclamation on behalf of the Asian American Pacific Islander communities.

I'd be happy to pass this on to you.

At this time we'll move to item number seven from the public.

Matters on the agenda but not listed for public hearing or matters previously considered by the board or matters that are pending before the board.

Let me check with the clerk.

That being the case, we can move on to item number eight, as previously mentioned when dealing with the consent agenda today.

Under the adoption of the final agenda, I have added a resolution to the consent agenda to appoint an interim director of the Economic Development Office.

Supervisor McKeel has pulled out of 8.3 to schedule a public hearing.

to consider compensation for Planning Commission and other boards.

I'm not aware of any other changes that were made, so the floor is open for a motion to adopt the consent agenda as amended.

So moved to second.

All right, so I heard Supervisor Mallek make the motion and Supervisor Andrews make the second.

Ms.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

All right.

Thank you, board.

At this time, we'll move to item number nine from the county executive.

Madam Chair.

Yep, that's what I was going to ask.

I don't think this will be very long, just a comment and a request.

In reviewing the ordinance that we have in front of you for compensation appointment terms for our planning commission as well as

and other appointed boards, I noticed that the Planning Commission language left off compensation for travel.

I talked to Andy this morning and he said that our original ordinance, unlike

The other eligible boards that we're dealing with, the Planning Commission Ordinance originally did not have compensation for travel.

It's the reimbursement, not compensation, it's the reimbursement, that's right.

Better word, you're right.

Andy, do you want to speak to this or any reason?

Yes, ma'am, that's correct.

Andy Herrick, Deputy County Attorney.

As Supervisor McKeel and I discussed this morning, there has not been in the past travel reimbursements for planning commissioners, but

Alright, well let me just poll the board to get a consensus.

All right.

All right.

So we'll just go to I don't think we have to actually do a motion just to get the consensus of the board.

Supervisor McKeel.

Yes.

Supervisor Galloway.

Yes.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

Aye.

And I also agree.

So I believe you have your consensus there.

Thank you.

And now the board will the floor is open for a motion.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Yes.

We'll now move to item number nine from the County Executive.

Mr. Henry, do you have a report today?

Chair Price, I do.

Ms.

Kerouac is going to help me.

I'll just note, it must be the lighting, but it's a little warmer in this seat than the seat that I'm normally in.

Luckily, the facility guys are here.

Maybe, yes ma'am.

Thanks for the opportunity to present the exec's report for the month of May.

So we made a move a few months ago to tie the report to our strategic plan.

This first bit of information is announcing work at Chris Green Lake.

It ties to our strategic goal number one, which is to encourage a vibrant community with economic and recreational opportunities that serve all community members.

Proud to announce that we have a new 18-hole disc golf course at Chris Green that's open for free play for the public.

The development of this new amenity in the northern part of the county was a successful partnership between Parks and Recreation by providing the space and in-kind services of Blue Ridge Disc Golf Club, whose members devoted 1,100 volunteer hours to construct the course.

This addition is along with the off-leash dog park that has been there since 2008 that is very popular.

Strategic goal number three, invest in infrastructure and amenities that create connection, opportunity, and well-being.

Student researchers from UVA's Graduate School of Architecture contributed to the regional digital equity plan currently in development by our Broadband Accessibility and Affordability Office.

This work is led by Jason Afuentes.

This is in partnership with community organizations, the City of Charlottesville, and UVA.

Their analysis resulted in several key recommendations that the coalition will incorporate into their final plan as that work continues.

During the summer, the coalition will conduct additional outreach for the plan through focus groups at the CACs for the board, along with Albemarle County public school families and surveys on digital fluency and device access.

It's a great picture here.

This supports goal number four, encourage a vibrant community with economic and recreational opportunities that serve all community members.

Albemarle County's economic development team partnered with the City of Charlottesville Office of Economic Development and Central Virginia's Small Business Development Center to offer educational programming to prepare entrepreneurs

and small business owners for a pitch competition.

Of the 70 initial participants, 22 completed in the preliminary pitch and six finalists were selected to pitch to a panel of judges on May 11th.

Two Albemarle County entrepreneurs, Phillip Rich of Black Roses Landscaping and Christopher Chain, Season Report, competed in the final round at the Salvage Brewery at the Wool Factory

with Philip Rich taking home second place and $5,000.

This team you saw at I think the last board meeting falls under recruit and retain engaged public servants who provide quality government services to advance our mission.

A team of employees from several departments planned and implemented a week-long internal campaign.

to celebrate our staff during last week's Public Service Recognition Week.

I appreciate the board's recognition of that week and the participation in that week.

This week included an award ceremony to recognize staff for their years of service and for individual and team outstanding contributions to our values.

The week concluded at Darden Tile Park.

with a day of celebration with over 200 employees engaging with one another, enjoying great food, pickleball, bingo, and other fun activities.

Thanks to the board members that were able to come out for those festivities.

And kudos to the planning committee.

This was a lot of moving parts to make happen.

Next slide.

I'm in this picture, so I was able to witness this event, which was great.

Supports our goal number one, which is nurturing a safe and healthy community.

The Central Virginia chapter of our American Red Cross held their Celebration of Heroes Awards.

In their celebration, it included awarding senior firefighter Titus Castans

who was recognized as a 2023 First Responder Hero Award for his ongoing work in supporting our community's most vulnerable members.

This award was given to him for his tireless efforts to help people overcome challenges that contribute to poor health such as housing and food insecurity.

Not pictured, but also worth noting, Colonel Letty Bien received the 2023 Military Hero Award.

This designation is to individuals, veterans, and civilians whose body of work to support active duty military members or families and veterans in our community has made a significant impact.

Letty serves as our Defense Affairs Committee Program Manager.

which has funded primary funder from Almora County and was in front of our board just last board meeting to talk about the work that the DAC has been doing.

So congrats to those two staff.

Next slide is acknowledging the Nurturing a Safe and Healthy Community.

We've talked a few times about this today during the Proclamations, but this is just to affirm or announce that after an open process, our Police Department's Representative for Hearts team has been selected.

The three members of the team are Senior Firefighter Titus Castins, who

who was just noted at the Heroes Award from ACFR, Steven Hitchcock from DSS, and Master Officer Brian Miller from ACPD.

The team has been formed and will be adjusting the responses based on each situation to ensure the safety and best outcomes for individuals involved and the team members responding.

As they are beginning training and developing protocols to implement the co-responder model, that work will continue with procedures and training as they become operational and start responding to mental health calls for service.

Just a few more slides.

This one ties to a capital project, the courts renovation project.

It's to invest in infrastructure and amenities that create connection and opportunity and well-being.

Supports our goal number three.

Albemarle County recently completed an archaeological study that was part of the Albemarle County Courts renovation and expansion project in the vicinity of Court Square.

This location was chosen for the archeological survey due to its extensive history in Almore County, as in 1773 was a former location of the Swan Tavern, an inn and pub owned by John Jouett, Sr.

Earlier this month, Elmar County and Rivanna Archaeological Services shared information about the unearthed samples of the materials that were discovered, some of the next steps in documenting the artifacts collected.

These artifacts included Moravian press pipe bowls and antique glass bottles and more.

The project is a good reminder for the importance of preserving our county's history.

The items that were uncovered during this dig period are being cleaned and catalogued

and we expect a final report by the end of this calendar year.

The How To Festival, this is an annual fast-paced festival, offers short presentations and demos on a variety of topics for people to learn about.

The Let's Talk Albemarle van attended the regional event to teach people, quote, how to get involved with local government.

Several board members attended this event.

It was to celebrate the announcement of AgroSpheres, a company that develops next-generation environmentally friendly crop protection products.

They will invest 25 million dollars to expand in Almore County.

Our EEO assisted with coordinating the special announcement with Governor Youngkin.

AgroSpheres will increase its production space and build R&D and demo facilities for new products at their operational space off Seminole Trail.

This project will create 15 new jobs.

The event speakers included the Governor, Chair Price, our own Mr. Jeff Richardson was the MC, and Supervisor McKeel attended the event along with staff.

And then finally, last slide, is that earlier this month, the Virginia Department of Transportation hosted an open house at the 5th Street County Office Building for community members to learn about the plans for the 5th Street Station Trails Hub.

Our Facilities Department and Parks and Recreation staff

Ron Hand to give updates on the planning and development of our future park at Biscuit Run.

And then the last thing, which I do not have slides for, but wanted to just note that on Monday I attended a meeting along with

Deputy Chief Terry Walls and our animal patrol officer Mason Walsh along with city deputy city manager Sam Sanders and a representative from CPD at the SPCA.

We met with senior staff and several board members to review the corrective action plan from earlier this month, reviewed what that status was.

We walked the facility to see the implementation of that and

and then also at the same time we received the FY22 audit results which is one of the requirements of the MOU so we're current with all required reporting and suggested to that group that we schedule a formal presentation to this board sometime in the first quarter of the next fiscal year.

And then last thing of note, I attended the ECC board yesterday and heard from Chief Longo that we expect on average 22,000 to 25,000 people

Thank you, Mr. Henry, for that excellent report.

We will go through our order.

That's a reminder to stay home this weekend or go north or something.

Thank you very much.

Although I will say I do appreciate the way the university has divided up the graduations.

That has helped our community a lot.

with the two days.

It really has significantly helped.

Quick question about the hearts.

I'm getting it right now.

Team, when do we think that they will be ready?

Thank you.

And that's okay, Doug.

I was just curious.

Of course, and we would want to be specific with the board and the public to manage expectations when they can start to see them actually out in the field.

Yeah, okay.

Thank you.

And that's all I had.

It was a great report.

Lots happening and lots of celebrations.

You know, we're going into graduation and we're having celebrations for staff and community members, so it's a good time.

All right, thank you.

Yes, thank you.

That's a lot of good information and a lot of celebrations.

I also noted that starting from the 1100 volunteer hours, there's a lot of community involvement represented in this presentation, and I really appreciate that.

All right, thank you.

Supervisor Galloway?

Yeah, no questions, but thank you.

Great stuff in here.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you again for the

update and that's really appreciated.

Thank you.

Thank you everyone and I wanted to add thanks to FES, Facilities and Environmental Services, Lance Stewart particularly, and the county historic preservation staff because they were really helpful to make it possible to get absolutely as many of the artifacts from Court Square over an extended period of time

very smooth to really make our best use of that time and it was very, very helpful to have that happen.

Thank you and I'm going to piggyback on that.

The FES quarterly report was great.

I mean it was really a good read and your report was excellent as well.

It was really nice to look back in that report at the Northfield Drainage Control Project and how that is kind of the first step or one of the first steps towards expanding our public works

activities here and our community needs to be aware of the work we do.

The other thing that was really neat though was reading the bios, little paragraphs of our new employees.

Some really impressive new employees that are coming to the county.

Makes me feel really good about our future.

Thank you Mr. Henry.

Donna, I'll just add to that.

I pulled that section out because I thought I would share this with my CAC at the next meeting, these new employees, because we are hiring new employees, and I know some people would say, well, you're just hiring more government employees.

But having said that, these employees tie into our strategic plan, our climate action.

We have a climate protection project manager.

which is great to see.

A new water resource program manager which is great to see.

Of course we have my favorite, the street sweeper, which we're going to have a little bit of a naming celebration at some point.

But a roadway maintenance coordinator.

All of these positions, a senior projects manager, are positions that we have really needed.

And I just want to thank

administration staff, all the hard work on getting these positions going for us.

Yeah, they really will.

And I'm gonna, I forgot, I was really excited to see my daughter listed as the classified employee of the year at the elementary school where she works.

That was a really nice thing to see.

So a lot of great information just because it's for information or on the consent agenda.

doesn't mean it's not significant.

Really, really good.

Yes, I just wanted to also say, like Supervisor McKeel, that my hero, all of them are wonderful, but my hero, Nick Kirby, who's a street sweeper.

That guy's going to be so well loved.

And I was really excited about, we're purchasing two new Chevy Bolt EUVs.

I think that's fantastic also.

Nothing to report, but I wanted to take this as a moment to bring attention to the fact that I've received a number of letters, and I think some of us have emails, relating to ranked choice voting, and I know that we are not currently planning to take action on this.

for this election, but Arlington County put up a website to inform the public and solicit opinions from the public about ranked choice voting so that people would become better educated about what it means, because I think there's still a lot of misunderstanding and lack of information about it.

and I would encourage us to consider having that kind of an informational forum for the website or otherwise soliciting community input.

That's something people share.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley?

Nothing here, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next week, Monday, Tuesday,

is the second year for me of the Local Government Advisory Committee meeting for the EPA in DC.

And one of the things featured in this particular

meeting will be a roundtable to which public information officers from around the country can participate virtually.

And this is a tabletop exercise to work through some of the issues involved in risk communications.

And the topic of this committee, particularly, is about PFAS and chemical contamination.

But I think the processes, the gaps that are discovered in things will be

appropriate to know about for any issue across local government.

I have shared that invitation with Emily and Greg Harper and somebody else.

They can choose if anybody is available and they can log on and let me know.

That's all I have.

All right, thank you.

And just to follow on with Supervisor Andrews' comments, the fact that the board did not vote to approve rank choice voting for the elections in calendar year 2023 does not mean that that's the end of the process, that the county is still looking to do both more information and education before a decision would be made.

Anything else by any other supervisor?

Mr. Rosenberg, do we have anything for a closed meeting today?

We do not.

Okay, that devastates me.

That means I have nothing to say.

Sorry, Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

Why don't you take a vacation?

So we can move on to call a recess and we will be back in here at six o'clock.

Thank you all.

All right, good evening everyone and welcome to this evening's session.

We'll call the board back to order.

So board at this time we're prepared to move to item number 13 from the public.

Matters on the agenda but not listed for public hearing or all matters previously considered by the board or matters that are pending before the board.

Check with the clerk.

Alright, thank you.

A.B.C.

Thank you.

During the time set aside now for matters on the agenda but not listed for public hearing, individuals may address the Board of Supervisors concerning matters previously considered by the Board or matters that are pending before the Board other than items on the agenda for public hearing.

Individuals are allowed three minutes to speak per public hearing item.

A sign-up sheet is managed by the Clerk's Office.

Community members physically present for the meeting will speak first, then those who are attending the meeting electronically will speak.

For those attending in person, the Chair will announce the speaker.

For those participating electronically, the Clerk will announce each speaker before it is their turn to speak.

For in-person speakers, timekeeping is conducted through a timer and light system at the podium.

The green light will go on when you begin speaking, which begins your allotted time.

The yellow light indicates you have one minute to finish speaking.

The red light indicates your time has expired, and you'll be asked to end your comments.

To give all speakers equal treatment and courtesy, the Board requests that speakers adhere to the following guidelines.

Please, when addressing the Board, state your name, and if you live in Albemarle County, your Magisterial District.

Please address comments directly to the board as a whole.

Any written statements or other supporting material may be given to the clerk.

If making comments through Zoom, you may upload written comments through the e-comment portal or email your comments to the clerk.

If representing a group or organization, you may ask others present to raise their hands in recognition.

Speakers may not share any unused time with another speaker.

Back and forth debate is not permitted.

Please do not speak from your seat or out of turn.

All comments are live streamed, recorded, and published on the Albemarle County website.

If participating by phone, press star nine to let us know we want to speak.

Then press star six if from a landline to unmute.

If by Zoom, please remain muted until you're called on.

Thank you.

And our first speaker.

Good evening members of the board.

Good evening members of the board.

My name is John Davison.

This is Isaac Bigler.

This is Ian Miller and this is Nathan Branch.

We're all seniors at Monticello High School.

And we are here today to bring to light a traffic issue at our school.

We have two student parking lots at Monticello, but only one exit.

You can probably imagine the backup at the end of the day.

The end of day traffic can pile up so much that on some days it takes anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes to exit the parking lot.

After realizing this was an issue, we decided to take this on as our government class's community action project.

We made a presentation with all our data, sources, and a better description of our proposed plan.

We printed it out and brought it here today so we could give it to you so you can take a look at it whenever you have time.

Thank you for having us.

We hope this issue can be discussed further so we can get an exit put in.

Alright, thank you.

And so, where is your... Okay.

If you'll hand it to the lady there, she will take it from you.

Good evening, I'm Heather Rowland from the Samuel Miller District and I want to revisit a topic I spoke about twice in February, namely the still ongoing controversy surrounding allocations by CASPA concerns that the Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA has a toxic work environment and has mistreated animals in its care.

Eventually the CASPA board engaged McGuire-Woods to investigate these allegations and on April the 21st a one-page executive summary of this investigation was released.

Summarizing the summary, the study's findings were one, CASPA concerns was correct.

Two, the CASPA board failed.

Three, CASPA management failed.

The CASPA board is required to undertake five actions to resolve the issues identified by the investigation.

Action number one is underway.

The board has been more reticent about the others and notably silent about action four, the restructuring of and government's training for the CASPA board, i.e.

itself, and its need to be more involved in shelter operations.

You, the Board of Supervisors, rightly, has been very careful not to take on roles that it has no authority to pursue.

But that does not leave you powerless in this issue that has become so important to the community.

You have the power of the purse and of your good name, and that allows you to have influence if you wish.

That influence could be wielded both with respect to the actions required of the CASPA board by the McGuire-Woods investigation and also with respect to the elephant in the room, the CASPA CEO Angie Gunter who has yet to be dismissed.

In an ongoing failure of the CASPA board's fiduciary responsibilities,

Gunter is still reportedly receiving her $190,000 a year compensation despite presiding over what the McGuire-Woods report deemed an unsustainable, that's a quote, operation and causing Casco's reputation to be debased.

My understanding is that when Albemarle County buys in services it expects certain standards to be met by its suppliers regarding both the service itself and at some level

The McGuire-Woods report is unequivocal that Casper has been failing on both fronts.

If Gunter is retained, that failure will be repeated.

Is that who you want to be doing business with when you have options?

Does the Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA, as currently headed, deserve your seal of approval?

That concludes our in-person speakers.

Peter Krebs is online.

Correct.

Good evening.

All right, could you speak up a little bit?

Yes, I will speak as loud as I can.

Hopefully this is loud enough.

That's better.

Okay, I'm going to fix my settings.

I was just calling in to say that Charlottesville has a great tradition of celebrating bike to work every year this time in May.

But this year, a larger coalition has come together to put on a bike to work week, all week long.

Organizations including Albemarle County, the City of Charlottesville, the Community Climate Collaborative, Livable Seaville,

My organization, the Piedmont Environmental Council, Rideshare at TJPDC, UVA Sustainability, and some of our largest commuters in the area have come together and really upped the game on Bike to Work Week.

Today alone, we had two separate snack and encouragement stations where one was at the UVA hospital with more than 50 people stopping by and on West Main Street,

We celebrated more than 100 cyclists biking to work.

So that was so great.

I wanted to call your attention to three events that are happening tomorrow, all of them in Albemarle County, technically Albemarle County.

First of all, from 730 to 930 a.m.

at UVA's Aquatic and Fitness Center, there'll be an appreciation and snack station for cyclists.

Secondly, right here at the county office building at the corner of Preston and McIntyre, there will also be a snack and encouragement station, 7.30 AM to 9.30 AM.

And then tomorrow afternoon, perhaps most intriguingly, in the parking lot of the county office building, from 4 to 6 PM, there will be an e-bike demonstration where people can

Check out e-bikes, take it for a quick spin.

One of the things that's so interesting about our area is actually most of our development area is cyclable.

It's not that big.

And having an e-bike helps out with the hills and the heat and the cargo and the sweaty and all that stuff.

So I encourage people to come out and check out Bike to Work Week.

You can learn more at biketoworkcbill.org.

All right.

Confirming with the clerk, that is our last speaker.

Item number 14, an action item with public comment.

and so I'm going to turn it over I think to Dr. Pethia to kick things off.

There you are.

Good evening.

I'm Stacey Pethe, a housing policy manager.

Sorry about that.

I had to get situated.

We are here tonight to talk about an ordinance that would authorize the county to provide grants or loans for affordable housing.

We will go over a little bit of background.

The overall picture of where we are today and what we talked about during a work session last month.

And then look at the state enabling legislation itself and the proposed ordinance.

So again, just a really short timeline that all of you have seen before, really starting in July 2021 when the board adopted the Housing Albemarle, the new housing policy.

We've had work sessions since then on an affordable housing overlay and unaffordable dwelling unit programs.

And in February we had a work session on an affordable rental housing grant program which was presented to the board during a public hearing last month.

If the board remembers, we did not move forward with that at the moment.

There were some changes that we were going to make to that.

Thinking about housing Albemarle, the policy itself really focuses on that 60 to 80 percent area median income households.

So that's really the affordable rental to the affordable home ownership categories.

When the board adopted the policy in July 2021, it was done so with a delayed implementation of three primary categories or actions.

One was to increase the percentage of affordable unit set-asides from 15% to 20% in rezoning applications.

changing the maximum sales prices and the affordable rental pricing for the affordable dwelling units.

So to make them more in line with the area median income categories and also changing the affordability periods from 10 years for rental housing to 30 years and from the first sale for affordable rental affordable for sale homes to a 40-year period.

And those are really delayed until staff was able to come up with developer incentives to help developers to meet these guidelines.

And so we were here last month during a public hearing to look at the proposed affordable housing grant program.

Again, this is just some background information.

We will not be looking at this tonight.

I just wanted to refresh everyone's memory and put it in context for the public who may be listening.

The grant program that we talked about then really focused in on the affordable rental housing category So that's households with incomes at 60% AMI I do want to mention as a complete aside The Department of Housing and Urban Development has released its most recent income limits and area median incomes for across counties and metropolitan areas across the state and

It has increased in the Charlottesville metro area, which includes Albemarle County.

It is now $123,300 per year is the new area median income.

And that's an 11% increase over last year.

And so the Affordable Housing Grant program is really focused on helping developers reach the maximum affordable rents of 60% AMI level, providing that 20% affordable units in their new residential developments and really providing those rental units as affordable units for a 30-year period.

Again, the board chose not to act on that at that time, but did ask staff to come back with just looking at the ordinance itself.

Before the county is able to do any type of program, such as the one we talked about last month, we would need to adopt an ordinance that allows us to do that.

And that is really based on Virginia Code Section 15.2-958.

which states that the governing body of any locality may provide by ordinance that such locality may make grants or loans to one, owners of residential rental properties that are occupied or to be occupied by low and moderate income persons.

and two, individual homeowners for the rehabilitation of their housing or to assist in the purchase of a home in a designated conservation or rehabilitation district.

So that is really the only two things that a future grant program could possibly do.

So the proposed ordinance that is attachment one in your packet is written to really align closely to the state enabling legislation.

The staff has proposed that we include this in the zoning ordinance as Appendix A-2, titled Grants or Loans for Affordable Housing.

And as drafted, it will allow future use of the full state enabling authority if desired.

One thing that the board has asked staff to do

from the last meeting was really look at the, as it was originally proposed, it had included references to an affordable housing grant program, so those references have been removed.

And we had also talked

about the affordability periods included in the proposed ordinance.

As proposed last month, it was 30 years.

The state enabling legislation really lists this as a minimum of 10 years.

If you remember, the board had talked at some length about which was better, the 10-year portability period or 30.

and I do believe we had all agreed towards the end of our discussion to really focus in on that 10-year period.

That provides the county a great deal of flexibility in any type of program that comes out in the future.

Since the state enabling legislation says a minimum of and we

However, the ordinance that was included in your agenda packet still has that 30-year period on it and I believe Andy Herrick had emailed an alternative ordinance to all of you that has changed that 30-year period to the 10-year period.

All right.

Thank you, Dr. Pethio.

We will go through our order for questions.

Thank you, Stacey.

Excuse me.

You and I discussed this this week and chatted about it.

My takeaway from our discussion was that the 30-year period of time would probably not be, the average homeowner would not be able to handle a 30-year.

Hence the recommendation for using the language a minimum of 10.

Yeah, so because the enabling legislation and the proposed ordinance includes references to the county's ability to provide grants or loans to individual homeowners for housing rehab projects.

It's one thing if you have a homeowner who is a new buyer who comes in and purchases a home that the county has already placed a restriction on.

So they walk into that sale knowing

that they will not be able to sell their house at market price for 30 to 40 years.

A homeowner who's been living in their home for 20 years purchased that home with the knowledge that they could sell it for whatever they could get on the market in the future.

So it would be really difficult for us to place that restriction on it for a 40-year period.

So I understand our frustration at the board level about not being able to keep affordability, houses on the market that are affordable because they're constantly going to market.

Correct.

Yeah, because I think, well, I know I've been frustrated and certainly I've heard other board members' frustration about the, we're always thinking about trying to get the affordability to last as long as it possibly can.

Absolutely.

So if you remember thinking back to the proposed grant program that we talked about last month, it did have a 30-year affordability period for rental housing.

And that is because that's in line with the low-income housing tax credit compliance periods.

They are also 15 to 30 years, generally 30 at this point in time.

And we could do this

This piece of legislation only allows the county to provide grants for new construction of rental housing.

So we would need to find a different program to address affordable for sale housing.

But through whatever program that came out to look like, we would be able to attach whatever affordabilities we want to do.

So they may vary depending on?

We can vary them program by program.

I think you've answered my questions.

Correct.

It simply states that the units need to be affordable for a minimum of 10 years.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Right.

And so you can create a program, and the more robust the incentive could follow a longer time frame, for instance.

Yes.

Thank you.

My questions have been answered also, especially the last one that was asked by Supervisor Galloway.

Would grants affect that at all?

Or would it be our incentives for the developers that would allow them to go beyond the 10-year period?

It would be our incentive program.

our incentive program.

Okay.

All right.

So like Supervisor Galloway said, depending on how robust that is for that year, then we could do more.

Okay.

Thank you very much, Stacy.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I guess I'm having a hard time

saying that we're using taxpayer money for something that's really in the short term not going to stick.

That's something I will need to be persuaded about.

Having something where there's lots of flexibility, I guess this question would be perhaps for the attorneys.

What could be perceived as unequal opportunity, then that sounds like lawsuit city to me.

To have one person deciding that you're going to get 20 years and you're going to get 10 years or something like that.

Is it to our advantage to have something that's pretty clear?

The checklist, this is the way it goes.

Meeting of Supervisor Mallek, Andy Herrick, Deputy County Attorney.

I don't think that the scenario that you're painting is that the guidelines will still be uniform.

It's just a matter of what the minimum time period in those guidelines will be.

So I don't think that shortening it to the 10 years that's allowed by statute would necessarily invite arbitrary or capricious decisions by the program administrator.

Okay.

If we had a higher number now, would that protect us as it has for home stays, for example, from further changes in the legislature?

It's hard to say what changes there might be in the enabling legislation going forward.

Again, localities at this point have the discretion to set it as little as 10 years.

Okay, and if there are concerns, as Dr. Pathier mentioned, about people who have already been in their houses making purchases under a certain set of assumptions, and I think that's sort of a criteria that applies all across zoning decisions that we've heard a lot about for many different issues.

So that isn't an issue anymore.

That was raised as an obstacle to doing this tonight, so I'm glad to get that clarified.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Herrick.

Dr. Pethia, so this, as the topic, the title says, it's Grants or Loans for Affordable Housing, which I interpret as being differentiated from what we see as a typical application coming in where we're looking at affordable housing under basically a different situation.

And as it appears clear, I just want to make sure I understand it correctly, it applies to rehabilitation or producing, and I would take it rehabilitation is an existing house that's basically a fixer-upper, whereas producing would be a new structure.

Yeah, correct.

We currently do not, to the best of my knowledge, provide loans for housing projects.

That is certainly something that could be looked into in the future.

But that's not typically what we do.

We generally provide any funds to developers as grants.

And the project would really, the rehabilitation

The new construction applies to rental housing only and that could also be rehabilitating a rental housing project so it could be a building that's been around an apartment building that's 30 years old and so they come and ask for some assistance to renovate the units to bring them back up to code and make them look better

and then the renovations, rehabilitation is definitely for homeowners as well.

Thank you.

And you mentioned apartment building, but if someone was doing rehabilitation, if they had a number of detached single family all considered to be sort of the same project,

That's a tricky one.

We'll have to check into that.

I'm not sure.

We'll have to look at how that is defined.

All right.

Thank you.

That's all the questions I have right now.

I'm sorry I neglected one.

A2-204, at the very last of Section C,

in the proposed ordinance it says grants or loans may be provided, XYZ.

One of the criteria to enhance the neighborhood and to reduce displacement of low and moderate income residents from the property is reduce

State code or because I mean I'm always looking for better performance than average and so I would rather say prevent or something rather than just have to be satisfied with a few.

So that is language that's in the state code.

And what that's really referring to, because that's really focused on the home ownership loans, so loans to individual homeowners, is helping them to improve their properties so that they would not have to move due to, say,

too many complaints and so they would lose their house but not being able to upkeep it.

Or building a ramp perhaps so that someone could stay there and keep it livable.

Okay.

Thank you.

That's a huge distinction.

Alright.

Any other questions of staff at this time?

No.

Let me check with the clerk.

Alright.

That being the case, we can go past that.

And the matter is back before the board for any comments.

I don't have any comments at this point.

asking of whether or not we're supporting this or just any comments in general.

Okay.

Yeah.

Well, we don't have anyone from the public, so we don't have that.

I mean, if anyone had any additional comments back to the staff, we could do it.

This is, for the public, this is a little different.

This is a deferred item.

Right, so I will say Stacey's answered my questions.

I feel comfortable with the language of

Thank you, Supervisor Andrews.

I am also supportive because of the reflection of this in the statute and the flexibility it gives, but expect a longer period in actual application.

Yeah, I mean this is basically we have to do this in order to allow us to have a loan and grant program.

So this in no way defines what those programs are other than to say it has to be a minimum of 20% of units or a minimum for a minimum of 10 years.

So our programs are still within our ability to

create and define.

Thank you.

Thank you.

No further questions, thank you.

Any comments?

Alright, thank you.

Thank you.

I think all of my questions have been answered, and I will make myself be satisfied that the real debate will be when the program is set up, and I'll be coming back then for a longer time.

Thank you.

Thank you, and I'm also supportive.

I concur with the comments of Supervisor Galloway and

and also Dr. Petey, I appreciate your comments, which have helped us to better understand this.

So Board, at this time, the floor is open for a motion if the Supervisor desires to make it with regard to the proposed alternate ordinance as amended.

So moved.

Oh wait, there's a conference going on over here.

Mr. Rosenberg, okay we're good?

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Yes.

All right, thank you.

All right, board, we can now move to item number 15, public hearing, the 2023 community development block grant CDBG application approval.

Thank you.

All right, so again, Stacey Pethia, housing policy manager.

And we are talking tonight about the 2023 Community Development Block Grant, or CDBG program, competitive grant application.

If you remember, two weeks ago, we had a public hearing.

The CDBG program does require two public hearings.

And so we had the first one on April 19, two weeks ago.

or sorry a month ago and then we are holding the second one today.

So it was during the first public hearing that we really went over the general program requirements of the CDBG program and several of those are the funding for projects.

The CDBG program provides funding for projects that meet one of three national objectives.

and those objectives are a program must benefit low and moderate income persons or households and so those are households with incomes at 80% of area median income or below or the project must aid in the prevention or elimination of slums or blight

or the project must meet community needs having a particular urgency.

So we saw a lot of that during the pandemic with communities needing access to food.

So this would have fit within that category of particular urgency.

Also during the public hearing, the first public hearing, we reached out to the community and asked for proposals for CDBG applications to be submitted this year.

because the Department of Housing and Community Development who we applied to for CDBG funds has approximately 13.9 million dollars available for the competitive application process and Albemarle County is eligible to apply for up to 1.25 million dollars this year.

We did hear from two potential project partners.

One is really more appropriate for a planning grant at this time and so those are accepted on a rolling basis, do not require

A public hearing be held.

Staff has not yet really gone through that proposal and spoken at length with the potential project partner.

Should that look like it is an application we can move forward with, staff would come back with that application in the future.

But tonight we are here to talk about a request from Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville for the Southwood project.

They are requesting a $1 million community development block grant to provide infrastructure in Village 3.

of the Southwood project, and that is in phase two.

So the area that is currently the existing Mobile Hope Park and beginning that process.

The actual application amount requested would be $1,075,000.

That extra $75,000 in the application request is really the administrative funds that the county keeps for managing the grant application.

The total project cost for the infrastructure project is about $3.8 million.

Again, they are requesting $1 million in CDBG funds.

Once the infrastructure is done, it will serve a total of 77 households in Village 3, 40 of which will be Habitat affordable homes.

The other 37 homes will be market rate.

houses.

And the 40 homes will include a mixture of condominiums, townhomes, single-family attached and single-family detached houses.

This is the project site so again this is really in the existing mobile home park and I have a better map to sort of orient everybody so what you saw and I'm sorry I don't have a pointer

It's really looking at the bottom of the map where it says Phase 1, so that big section.

That is where Village 1 is currently being built.

So the section you're looking at runs between that bottom Phase 1 section and Hickory Street.

And so it's sort of that top left corner of the site.

That is where they propose to do the infrastructure and the water and sewer lines.

The sewer lines

specifically, sorry, would help replace the failing septic systems that the residents are currently on.

Again, the total project cost is $3.8 million.

Funds would be used for environmental remediation and rough grading.

The environmental remediation is really in case there are old heating oil tanks buried at the site, I know in phase one.

Habitat has run into issues where some of those tanks when they were uncovered and pulled out of the ground they did disintegrate and deposit oil so the remediation would be clearing that toxic oil out of the soil.

The installation of water and sewer lines, storm

Water, sorry, Storm Sewer, Roads, Curbing and Gutter Work, and some other site work to complete.

Again, $3.8 million, $1 million with the CDBG application with the county, and Habitat would provide the additional $2.85 million from their own funding.

All right.

Thank you, Dr. Pethio.

We will go through our order.

Thank you, Stacey.

Thank you.

Yeah, I think I'm okay.

So we currently have a CDBG open grant with Southwood and that

We are waiting for Habitat to submit additional invoices, so we are not quite at that $1.25 million.

We can get a little bit below that.

Thank you.

Supervisor Galloway?

No questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr. Peteya.

Thank you.

No questions for me?

I have no questions.

Thank you, Dr. Pethia.

We'll open the public hearing.

Do we have anyone signed up for this, Ms.

All right.

We will close the public hearing.

The matter is back before the board.

I'll just quickly go through our order if there are any additional comments about the matter.

Thank you.

Supervisor Andrews?

I'm very supportive of this.

Thank you.

Supervisor Galloway?

Likewise, no comments.

Thank you.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley?

Ditto.

Thank you.

As am I. That was quick, thank you board.

Do you want to do it?

You can do it.

Thank you.

Then I move that the board adopt the resolution attachment A. Second.

Motion by myself, second by Supervisor Mallek.

Thank you for that courtesy, Supervisor Mallek.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Yes.

All right, thank you.

All right board, we can now move to item number 16, VDOT Albemarle County FY24-29 Secondary Six Year Plan.

Good evening board, my name is Albert Carina Plun and I'm a transportation planner in community development.

Tonight this public hearing will go over what the secondary six-year plan is, an update on the rural rustic process, and then we will end with a motion to adopt the secondary six-year plan.

This is also the required public hearing to approve the FY2429 secondary six-year plan.

Some background on the plan.

This is stuff that you saw at our previous work session back in early April.

Could you speak up just a little bit?

This is information that I went over last month in the work session.

I just want to go over it again for you all and then anyone else in the audience.

The secondary six-year plan is a document that applies to roads in the secondary system.

These secondary system roads tend to connect local destinations, often labeled with a route number of 600 or higher, and they differ than primary roads, which tend to connect cities and towns with each other.

The purpose of the secondary six-year plan is to identify the funding allocated to Albemarle County for the next fiscal year.

It also estimates available funding for the next five fiscal years.

The funding programs included in the secondary six-year plan are tele-fee and district grant unpaid funds.

Tele-fee funds are funded through fees utility companies pay to have their infrastructure within the VDOT right away.

Tele-fee funds can be used for a broad range of secondary road improvements.

District unpaid funds, this is a much larger funding source and it can only be used for hard servicing of unpaved state secondary roads.

Between these two programs, there's just

over $1.2 million available in the FY24 for Albemarle County projects.

Secondary six-year plan also lists the Albemarle County projects that will receive funding from these sources.

This list is updated and adopted by the board annually, and it was attached in your materials as attachment A.

My background, the secondary six-year plan list is informed from the Albemarle County priority list for secondary road improvements on paved roads.

This is a list which is created by county staff and it lists all the secondary roads which a member of the public, a county department, or the Board of Supervisors have requested be paved.

The process for determining the order on the list is from traffic counts.

Roads with a higher average daily traffic count get prioritized.

This document was updated in May 2022 to now require demonstration of support from two-thirds of the residential property owners along the road segment.

These are the rural rustic updates.

These are the roads that have been recommended to be paved in fiscal year 24.

Roads that have been added to the list since the May 2022 update already have the two-thirds support demonstrated.

This includes Arrowhead Valley Road, Blenheim Road, and Sutherland Road.

Additionally, Beam Road, which was added years back, has already been provided demonstration of support.

Following the work session on April 5th, letters had been sent out to residential property owners on the affected segments.

If the road was added since May 2022, the letter simply informed the residents of the upcoming paving project.

For those roads that were added prior to May 2022, the letter requested responses from a minimum of two-thirds of the residents to show support.

We are still waiting for responses for the residents on Stony Point East, Stony Point West, and Old Dominion Road.

We are giving residents the opportunity to respond until early June and at that time we will return to the board with resolutions recommending PAVEN under the Rural Rustic Program and we will provide them with any additional information we hear from residents at that time.

Depending on the responses, this will likely be a consent agenda item.

I have a motion here.

I'm happy to take any questions before the public hearing and then after the public hearing staff recommends that the board adopt the resolution attachment E approving and authorizing the county executive to sign the FY24-29 secondary six-year plan.

Thank you, Mr. Corina Plun.

We'll go through our order.

Yes, thank you very much.

Go back to slide four, I guess.

Just a quick question.

So, you're still seeking input from the three groups of folks that live on these three roads.

Yes, that is correct.

Actively seeking input.

Yes, that is correct.

It's not silent, just waiting for them.

But you've reached out to them?

Yeah, we reached out to them.

Okay.

All right.

I just want to make sure you were actively reaching out to them so they were aware.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

No real questions.

At some point I would like to see the materials that get mailed to the sample just to see what it is and make sure people are paying attention as they come in.

All right.

Thank you.

The game plan for Berkmar Drive extended the shortfall.

I know it's stated in the packet that, as it was the last time, that ongoing discussions are there to

The tele-fee funds will cover it all.

I will refer to my supervisor here, Kevin McDermott, to answer that more clearly.

I mean, Kevin, what I'm gaining at is just what's the game plan?

Thanks.

I don't want it to be delayed.

The last time the board said this, every board member said it's a significant project.

Absolutely.

So we are still discussing this.

We've held a meeting with the Department of Transportation.

Apologies, I should introduce myself.

Kevin McDermott, the Acting Director of Planning for Albemarle County.

So we are working with VDOT to solidify the final cost estimate

And we are proposing that we would go after a revenue sharing grant to make up that difference in this upcoming revenue sharing application period.

So that would be due, final applications for that are due this fall.

Of course, we don't want to delay the project, so we're going to try and work it out so that we can accelerate that future funding so that it's timed with the funding we've already gotten for the project.

We're also working with

the University Foundation who have a lot of interest in this connection to see if there's any kind of work we can do together to help alleviate or help share the cost on that kind of thing.

Got it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you very much.

Beginning of May, okay.

So I do know I have a number of residents here on Stony Point Pass and one of the questions is, I understand that there's 15 residents on the west side and about 20 on the east side.

and those are two separate items, right?

Yes, that is correct.

There's Stony Point East and Stony Point West and the projects are separate from each other.

will you be reaching out again and can we get a list of those residents I think you and I spoke earlier that we would I could get a list you could email it to me or yes the the list is that's almost complete I was just gonna clean it up one more time over the review and then we are also kind of working to see with this project how to reach out since the Stony Point is

More of a weird paving project since it's segments of the road and not the entire road.

Right, right.

And I think we can, I'm sure the residents on there who, when we're there, they know each other so they can help you.

And I would suggest just to save you a lot of time that when, after this motion, that if you want to wait outside in the

Okay, that's good.

That'll save them time and you time and everyone time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I was actually frankly surprised to see Blenheim Road on here because some number of years ago, Kevin will remember probably eight or more.

Open Warfare down there about the people who did not want to have it paid because of the increase.

They have terrible trouble with speeding I guess already and they were very fearful so that's interesting.

My question, I'm glad Kevin is here, just one other side item that if you would please make note of for the revenue sharing, the revenue

the funding for the Berkmar extension.

A number of years ago, and I think you were here but perhaps no one else was on staff back then, all of the Park and Taber sidewalk which had been in the list for 15 years, all the money for that, it was like number two, got swept to Berkmar.

So is there a list?

of items such as that that were on the list and ready to go.

Are those still live?

Because people are now saying, well, you told us four years ago that this was about to happen and now it's gone.

Sorry, you're referring to what is happening to projects like the Tabor Park.

Some members of the board may know, I'm not sure if everyone is fully aware, I think we did talk about this.

We are in the process of updating our transportation priority list.

We expect to have that back to the board and so that will re-evaluate all those projects including, I know the Park and Taber sidewalks are on there and we will be ranking those and bringing those back to the board so that we're all aware of what are the highest ranked projects and

and then moving forward for future grant opportunities, that's of course where we would want to direct any future funding.

Well, that's really up to the board.

Yes, that's not decided.

Yes, we are shooting for an August meeting with the board.

All right.

That is just what I needed to know.

And thank you.

I'm always getting scolded about the thousands of new houses, which all the construction traffic and all the residential traffic goes up and down the street where there are no sidewalks and people are going a little bit unhappy.