Board of Supervisors Regular Second Meeting   8/21/2024

Good afternoon.

If you please take your seats as quickly as you can.

We'll start in tonight.

I'm pleased to call to order this regular meeting of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors.

It's the 21st day of August, 1 p.m.

in Lane Auditorium.

I'll note at the deus we have Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley at the Rivanna District, Supervisor Diantha McKeel at the Jack Jewett District, Supervisor Ned Gallaway of the Rio District, Supervisor Ann Mallek of the Whitehall District, and myself Jim Andrews representing the Samuel Miller District.

A quorum is present and Supervisor Mike Pruitt of the Scottsville District is standing by with a request to participate remotely in accordance with the applicable

Board Rules of Procedure Rule Number 8B1D, connected pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act.

Mr. Pruitt, are you there?

Yes, I am here.

Thank you.

So moved.

Second.

We have a motion from Supervisor McKeel, second from Supervisor Mallek.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley.

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Yes.

Welcome, Mr. Pruitt.

To paraphrase Jerry McGuire, you complete us.

We're also joined today by our county executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson and our county attorney, Mr. Steve Rosenberg and our clerk, Ms.

Claudette Borgerson and senior deputy clerk, Mr. Travis Morris.

Also, let me please welcome Albemarle County police officers present.

Master police officers Eric Ketchum, Dana Reeves.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would just call out today as the first day of school in Albemarle County.

And taking my son to school today, everybody was in motion and moving and directing traffic and whatnot.

So I wish the best to all the students and families who are participating in school, as well as knowing that UVA students will be on the return.

And we know what that means for traffic and moving around town, especially on move-in weekend and all of that.

So I'm just

calling out as I have before asking for patience as we have a lot of folks that will be visiting over the next several days as everybody's returning to their education.

And then later this afternoon, I just want to inform the board that I will need to step away for about 45 minutes for a family matter and I will be returning to the meeting.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

Yes, thank you very much.

I wanted to announce the St.

John Family and Life at the St.

John Family and Life Fitness Center on Saturday, September 28th.

You can all get free screenings, health screenings for

various things, and all of this is free.

So once again at the St.

John family, Life and Fitness Center on St.

John Road on Saturday, September 28.

Also, VDOT, there is a meeting by, from VDOT, the intersection of Pentops Corridor and Improvements in Albemarle County.

It's a design public hearing

So if you are located in the Pantops area, or if you work there, you may want to attend at Saturday, excuse me, Tuesday, September 10th, 4.30 to 6.30 at the Hilton Garden Inn.

This will affect the road, the redoing the road from Rolken Road, where Giant is, all the way to Route 20.

So they'll be presenting their designs.

This won't be implemented until 20

27, but VDOT is giving the public the opportunity to see what they'll be doing and to give input.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Most important thing first as far as VA benefits, I will be placing with the clerk a link for va.gov resources about the PACT Act.

In the last two years, after congressional passage of the PACT Act, the VA has added over 325,000 new enrollees, screened over 5.6 million veterans for toxic exposure, and processed nearly 1.5 million cars.

In addition, they have funded 31 new VA facilities across the country to ensure that veterans have more convenient access to high-quality care.

As you may know, our veterans here have to go to McGuire to get their teeth cleaned, which is 75 miles, so we have a long way of work to do there.

For those who serve in Vietnam or since, or who face toxic exposure at any time, it is not too late to get care.

If you think you might be eligible for PACT Act benefits, I encourage you to apply

There's a Find More Information link that we will have at the clerk's office.

There is no deadline to apply for the support you deserve.

Please share this with your friends and neighbors and relatives so that this information can be shared broadly.

A couple of meetings recently, yesterday, the quarterly meeting for the Rivanna River Basin Commission, and one of the things on the agenda was talking about the 2024 annual conference, which is coming up September 27th, 9.30 to 1.00 at the Carver Center.

The topic will be bridging the gaps, conservation, connectivity, and the future of the urban Rivanna River, and getting updates from county staff and others about the planning which has already happened and what is coming next.

Lunch will be available and registration emails and publicity are hitting the press in this week.

There will also be a river trail walk on the following Saturday in conjunction with the Looptiville hiking event.

Rivannariverbasin.org is the place to find all that information.

The other meeting this week on Monday was the VACO Virginia Association of Counties Region 5

virtual meeting and that is Albemarle and four other counties to the south in our region and then 9 and 11 are in the far west corner.

Chandler Vaughan and Caroline Lux George from DHCD gave updates and review of the eight years of broadband experience and deployment in Virginia and some exciting news about new grant opportunities that are coming forward which I will share with our experts in the broadband field.

Emily Kilroy ably presented the Albemarle County priorities at the legislative roundtable.

Localities in all three regions, and there were 21 counties included, were in agreement that keeping local decision-making for utility-scale solar facilities is really, really important to all of them, whether they were urban or rural, farmers or business localities, all of us the same.

Other shared issues were about photospeak cameras,

the prescription drug box changes which are being put forth by the federal government and lacking state and federal support for EMS services all across the Commonwealth.

Dollars to carry out JLARC improvements were also mentioned over and over again as well as focus on workforce and career technical training dollars from the state for our local schools and our workforce centers.

Thank you.

I do.

I have a couple of items that I would like to point out.

Java, and I think everyone is familiar with Java in our community, is offering a one-day free life planning event.

If you need a will, a simple will, durable power of attorney, and or advance medical directive, you can make an appointment to go over to Java October the 9th

from 9 to 3, Spaces Are Limited, and they will help you create that document.

So this is a great opportunity for some folks to take advantage of Java's skill set and create some paperwork that really is important for all of us, to be honest with you, regardless of your age.

So that's October the 9th from 9 to 3 at Java, and you register through Java.

You can go onto Java's website and register.

Great opportunity.

The only other item that I want to point out to folks is, please be aware that there is a traffic pattern change at Hydraulic Road in US 29 beginning Monday morning.

And I'm sure many of you are familiar with the traffic circle, the roundabout, that has now been completed and opened early at Whole Foods.

Traffic Circle works in conjunction with closing the left-hand turns off of hydraulic road up 29 North.

So just to say simply the reconfiguration, that traffic pattern is going to be reconfigured, and it will happen Monday morning, so people just need to be very thoughtful and careful, especially with school starting.

So just wanted to point out, and I see Jim has the same thing, so I believe, no, it's different, okay.

Anyway, just to let you know, we're thrilled to have that roundabout, people have accepted it, it seems to be working beautifully, so it's time now to

Thank you.

Thank you.

Does this work?

Yes.

I had two things I wanted to talk about.

So first, we, of course, just dealt with kind of the ramifications of Tropical Storm Debbie, which had very broad impacts.

It's shut down significant amounts of roads in the southern parts of Albemarle.

and also created a blackout that affected almost the entire township of Scottsville.

And these are significant inconveniences and they can be very dangerous.

But we also need to make sure that as a community we're keeping in mind that this really gestures toward deeply existential concerns that a changing climate, changing weather patterns that come along with it might pretend to our locality.

I think this is really

Well illustrated, every time we have significant flooding, every time we have significant rains, we have to think about the status of the Scottsville Webby.

The Scottsville Webby portends the possibility of a truly existential threat to the community of Scottsville.

And as we vision cast further in the future, we have to recognize that a changing environment, a changing climate is going to pretend

and other existential threats for a much broader community as we look at, you know, changing stresses on our utility and energy grids, changing stresses on individual communities.

And also this makes us think about what our role as a local government and a community needs to be in dealing with this.

When we look at the Scottsville Levy as a solution to a major existential environmental threat,

That is a whole of government effort.

That involves state dollars, that involves federal dollars, and that involves the local government.

articulating the need to those communities.

So as we think about our role as the board and also our role as Albemarle County in how we're going to deal with these kinds of threats moving into the future, I just want to take this moment to really key in based on the really traumatic issues that we just saw with Tropical Storm Debbie.

as to what our role needs to be.

This needs to be moving forward as we engage with climate concerns in our community.

It needs to be a whole-of-government effort.

We cannot modernize a utility grid on our own to deal with rising temperatures.

And so our role as the board, our role as this auditory model, is Albemarle needs to be story-keeping and storytelling to be able to really articulate that need as we continue to see firsthand what kind of impacts are going to be.

So

That's my old stump about that.

And then also, of course, every, every day we come here, I have to talk about the next upcoming election.

And we are getting very close to the beginning of early voting for elections, which is going to begin on September 20th and run through November 2nd on every weekday at the Albemarle County offices at History Station.

Previously I've talked about what we are looking at as far as the congressional races and the congressional primaries.

Today I do want to take a moment because we do know from the registrar who has actually gotten registered for the local election in the town of Scottsville.

So there are four

Four elections happening in the town of Scottsville.

There is one race for the mayor's office.

The two candidates who have registered and will appear on the ballot are going to be the incumbent mayor, Ron Smith, as well as current council member, Eddie Payne, who is going to be running for me.

Additionally, there are three seats on town council that are set to expire and be elected.

Those are the seats currently held by counselors, Alex Bassette, Eileen Morse, and Eddie Payne.

Only Alex Bassett has actually fully registered his candidacy, so only he will appear on the ballot and voters will have to write in other responses.

I also do just want to clarify for anyone who is thinking about this, yes, you did just see Alex Bassett and Ironly Morris on your ballot last year, but they were basically being elected to the term they had already been appointed to.

and so those terms have come to an end and they would need to be re-elected if you're satisfied with their service.

So those are the races that people who live inside the relatively small bounds of the town of Scouseville will also see on their ballot and I want to make sure we bring that up because

You know, that's important, and it does not get nearly the amount of media attention that some of the other races that we're going to see.

And that is all I have.

Thank you.

Thank you for that.

A reminder about the election and the comment about our weather and resilience needs.

Simple announcements, just that the IV solid waste and recycling center, which previously called the IV Materials Utilization Center,

is already started the sign-ups at revanna.org for eWaste, which is September 14th, but the sign-ups are already beginning and they do fill up.

September 21st is household hazardous waste.

September 28th furniture, October 5th appliances, October 12th

Tyres, also in the vein of announcements that may seem a little early.

The Apple Butter Weekend is coming in Batesville in October, but a sign-up sheet for stirring and preparing the Apple Butter begins September 1st, so.

We have to get in there.

Yes, and I wanted to make a point or addition to what Supervisor Mallek said regarding veterans and veterans care.

I've been helping my disabled brother, who's a veteran, a Vietnam veteran, and there is a service and it's called community care through Richmond.

Now that may depend upon your level of disability, I'm not sure, but Optum Community Care will schedule, if you're more than 40 miles away from a hospital, Richmond, which we are, then they will schedule, you can actually go to some place in Charlottesville.

and they will schedule that.

That's eye care, that's dental, whatever you need, those services you need and I will leave those phone numbers with our clerk, Claude Burgesson.

I will leave that information with her so that anyone can just call up and if they want access to those numbers for community care, optimum community care if you're a veteran.

The last thing is

Rockfish Wildlife Sanctuary, which we hopefully all know and love, and they take in all kinds of animals.

In fact, I once delivered a injured goose that was injured.

Unfortunately, the goose did not make it, but at least they were able to treat it and humanely put it down, I guess.

They are having their 20th year anniversary gala Friday, September 13th at Potter's Craft Cider.

So if you want a really good time and you want to really support the Rockfish

Sanctuary, please, this is a good opportunity to do so.

So, thank you very much.

Yes, and I may have heard incorrectly in my brain, but regarding early voting, what I heard was Fifth Street Station, and I want to clarify that the voting, early voting, September 20th through to November 2nd,

is at this county office building Fifth Street, which is where the voting will happen in the big room there, near where the police department and social services are.

Thank you.

It is my pleasure

to read this resolution of appreciation for Stephen L. Rosenberg in the form of a motion.

Whereas, following nearly seven years in private legal practice, Stephen L. Rosenberg has served the city of Alexandria, Augusta County,

University of Virginia, the City of Stanton, and Albemarle County with distinction over a combined 27 years and, whereas during his tenure as the Albemarle County Attorney, Steve's legal expertise and leadership have advanced many important county priorities, including the Rivanna Futures Project to acquire 462 acres for the proposed Intelligence and National Security Innovation Acceleration Campus

and whereas as an exceptional attorney who has consistently provided the highest level of dedicated, ethical, and valuable service, Steve has been a true public servant and integral to the county's success.

Now therefore be it resolved that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby honor and commend Stephen L. Rosenberg for his many years of exceptional service to the public sector,

the County Attorney's Office, Albemarle County, and the entire Commonwealth of Virginia with knowledge that Albemarle County is strengthened and distinguished by Steve's dedication, commitment, and professionalism in meeting county government needs.

be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be spread upon the minutes of this meeting of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors as a lasting testament to the esteem in which Steve is held by this board for his legacy of government service and the work he has done to make Albemarle County better for future generations.

Second.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Yes.

Great.

With that, Mr. Rosenberg, you may want to come forward, but we're going to first give some comments and then proceed from there.

Well, thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Rosenberg, thank you very much for your service.

It was a pleasure in the process of getting to know you when we went through the interview process to hire you.

And what I learned then and then have appreciated and you approved, solidified in your service over the last few years is that you don't only care about your work, you take care in the work that you do.

Your expertise and your knowledge of county governments, your legal knowledge in general is really quite impressive.

And the breadth of experience that you brought to the table was also quite impressive.

The fact that you have not only been an attorney and the different variations of how you've been an attorney, but you've also been a city manager and have a knowledge and an experience in local government that not a lot of, I think, county of attorneys necessarily would be expected to have.

That allowed you to really hit the ground running.

I know that the board at the time of your hire was really interested in having somebody that could match what we felt the pace of speed was with our county executive team.

And the fact that you had that experience in addition to your legal knowledge allowed you to do so.

I've always been incredibly appreciative of that.

So again, my sincere appreciation for not just your service and your legal experience, but for the care you have shown in the work you've done for Albemarle County and for the work you've done for this board.

Thank you, Steve, if I can get through this.

Anyway, your legal knowledge being meticulous about everything, even when I push back

You push back at me saying, yes, we can do that.

No, we can't do that.

But you're very meticulous.

You're very effective.

And you're always responsive.

Always responsive to anything that the board asks.

Extremely helpful.

I've enjoyed, just on a personal level, I've enjoyed getting to know you and your wonderful wife, Katharine, also.

It's been very nice.

Too short.

We're going to miss you.

You have done also an excellent job in training your staff.

So they'll be ready to take, from day one, they're going to be ready to go forward because of the work that you've done in preparing everybody, which is not everybody does.

So I commend you for that.

But I will say I'm going to miss you.

But you have set everything up for success.

thank the team that you have built and thank you also for everything that you've done for our county.

Thank you.

Supervisor Mallek.

So I started my role on the Board of Supervisors sitting where Mike sits next to several times predecessor of Steve, from whom the first answer to every question was always no.

and I've teased him in public about that so it's no surprise but he was famous all across the Commonwealth for having that attitude and I kept asking questions over and over again because that's what I have to do and the first one always has been do we have the authority to do anything about this question and that's something that I've asked Attorney Rosenberg many many times since he has come

You take the time to get it right, to get the answer right.

I so appreciate that.

And the way that you have developed the, encouraged the development of the staff in the whole office has really left a long lasting legacy for us and we really appreciate that.

Thank you.

Steve, I certainly agree with what my colleagues have said.

I would add that

Well, I certainly enjoyed working with you both professionally and personally.

You have been just a wonderful team member and I really have valued your advice.

and found you were always spot on.

You also had some great advice about staying in restaurants, which I also appreciate it.

But you will, you know, we really want to, we think about ourselves as a family in Elmar County and we really want you to think about that you are part of our family and you want, we want you to remain part of our family.

As demonstrated by Catherine sitting beside Donna Price,

in the audience because we consider former supervisors part of our family as well.

I will say, Catherine, don't pay any attention to anything she whispers in your ear.

Just take it with a grain of salt.

But regardless, Steve, we really do.

We appreciate the time.

You picked up your roots in Stanton and moved over here to be a part of our community and you have blended in beautifully and you will be missed.

Thank you.

And thank you so much, Steve.

I expressed to you last Wednesday that I think perhaps the thing that I am most frustrated with having to be remote today is not being able to be there in person for this moment to share with you and really congratulate you on your service.

of the Board.

and all of

New or very soon to be attorney, I've significantly valued just being able to learn from you as a mentor and seeing how you conduct your work and lead your team and your staff.

So you will be greatly missed.

Thank you.

And try to be brief but first of all to second and ditto the comments that I've heard from the other supervisors regarding your care and diligence, expertise, excellence at what you do.

I have a special privilege as chair to rely on you probably a little more heavily than everybody else and anytime that we've gotten through some thorny things without a hitch it's to your credit and if we haven't it's probably something I

didn't listen well enough, so I very much appreciate your wise counsel many times along the way.

And on a personal note, some of you may know that Steve is a runner and has been running for a long time, but when he came here to work at the county, he started to run with a group of people that I also tend to run with, and he had the misfortune of being not the first, not the second, but the third.

Steve in the group on the text listserv, so he had to go through the process of being Steve number three for time, but you're now Steve number one, I believe, and I always thought of you as Steve number one, so I appreciate that.

Chairman Andrews, thank you very much for the opportunity to speak just for a couple of minutes about Steve's service to Albemarle County.

The county attorney's position is very unique position in local government.

The county attorney is hired by our governing board and as a result under state law that position reports to the board.

as our highest ranking legal attorney, in this case in Albemarle County.

In addition to that, he is expected to, in his role, to step in and lead a significant group of legal professionals on any of a number of legal issues that they work with on a day-to-day basis, and we stretch foreign-wide in local government.

With that,

I would say that Steve was a fantastic fit for this organization at the time that he came to work for us.

First of all, I'd like to publicly thank the board because the board invited members of the county executive's office to serve as an interview panel and to participate in evaluating candidates when Ms.

Rosenberg was hired for the position.

The board did not have to do that.

The Board knew that their responsibilities were laid out in law.

They were responsible for hiring the attorney, but they invited the county executive's office to be a part of the hiring process, and we did provide feedback.

And again, met Mr. Rosenberg in the process.

Mr. Gallaway read the resolution and highlighted Mr. Rosenberg's career in local government.

and his career in local government is expansive.

I believe that experience is a teacher and I would lean hard into suggesting that Steve was a fantastic selection and a fantastic fit for this organization.

In addition to being a well-recognized attorney across the Commonwealth, Steve is also managed organizations.

So as an attorney he's also been a manager, a local government manager.

and our organizational leadership team welcomed him into the organization and with his responsibilities as county attorney, he again reports to the board, leads the department, but we welcomed him and asked him, would you like to be a part of our organizational leadership team?

And Steve responded and said, I sure would.

and later this afternoon we will present our first strategic plan annual report.

This report really is a diagnostic of how are we doing as an organization?

Are we meeting metrics?

Are we meeting the organization's goals?

How are we doing?

How are we performing?

Steve's been a big part of that.

He's a legal attorney.

He's a legal mind.

He's served the board well.

He's done a great job, in my opinion, in leading the department.

But he's also been a valued team member.

on our organizational leadership team.

He will be missed.

He comes every day with a commitment to good government.

He comes every day to work with an open mind.

And he comes to work every day with a public service heart.

And he's made quite a difference with our organizational leadership team.

He's been a mentor to many of us.

He will be missed.

There's a partnership in local government between the board, the county attorney, the county executive, the clerk's office, the organization, all pointed toward the community that we serve.

and Steve has exemplified what it means to be a true public servant every day.

It's been an honor to work with him.

Thank you.

And I believe our deputy county attorney, Mr. Herrick, seemed to be our interim county attorney.

Mr. Chair, members of the Board, I'm Andy Herrick here on behalf of the County Attorney's Office today.

I've been asked to say a few words about Steve Rosenberg.

I've had the pleasure of knowing Steve for almost 25 years now, longer than almost anybody in the room.

And as many of you know, Steve began his legal career with a private law firm almost 34 years ago.

After seeing the light, in 1997 he transitioned over to public service and over the next 25 years, Steve served the city of Alexandria, Augusta County, the University of Virginia, and the city of Stanton with great distinction.

but then he saved his best for last.

Two years ago, through a series of unexpected events, the county was very fortunate to have landed Steve.

Following in a long line of talented county attorneys, Steve has had a tremendous impact on the county in a relatively short period of time.

Now, we could debate who's been the biggest beneficiary of his time here, whether it be the board, whether it be senior staff, whether it be departmental clients, whether it be our office,

But out of all the many people who have benefited from Steve's time with the county, I can confidently say that I have benefited the most.

I truly and deeply appreciate how Steve has brought out our talents and positioned each of us for success going forward.

And even though our time in the office is growing short, we will forever be grateful for Steve's lasting impact on us.

Unfortunately, unlike the Board, our office has no ability to issue formal public proclamations.

However, we would like to present Steve with both a plaque

and the flag that has flown over the county office building to honor his service.

We also have this opportunity on this occasion to heartily concur with the board in its public recognition of Steve's contributions.

If the board's proclamation were illegal pleading, I'm sure that all of our attorneys would heartily endorse it with a scene and agree to.

So on behalf of our entire team, Nick, Lauren, Amanda, Richie, Jill, Anthony, Iona and James who could not be here today.

I'd like to thank Steve for all that he's meant to each of us and wish him all the best for a long, happy and healthy retirement.

Thank you.

And Mr. Rosenberg, after that, we'd like to invite you to

Sure.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

And thank you to the public for sitting through this.

I know this is not what you came to hear or to experience, but this is an important part of the cycle, I think, in local government, which attracts so many dedicated individuals to serve all of you.

I will confess that I was worried whether the Board's vote on the resolution would be unanimous, but I'm pleased with the outcome.

I do want to thank you all so much for your kind remarks.

I am almost at a loss for words to express how fortunate I've been to land here and spend my last two years with this organization.

Who wouldn't want to work

with such smart, dedicated people serving the community in which we live.

It has been an honor.

I'd like to take just a moment to express my thanks to those with whom I've shared this experience.

First, thank you to the Board of Supervisors, including former Supervisor Donna Price, who offered me this opportunity in the first instance.

It has been so rewarding and refreshing in this day to work with such a highly functioning governing body, the members of which care so genuinely and deeply about the county and its residents.

My thanks also to my colleagues on the organizational leadership team, including Jeff Richardson, Trevor Henry, and Anne Wall, and I mentioned Doug Walker too.

and all the department and office directors who are all consummate professionals.

There is no finer collection of public servants.

I offer my greatest admiration and appreciation to my colleagues in the county attorney's office.

I'd match them toe to toe with any law firm in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Whatever success I have achieved during my brief time here, I owe to them.

I leave you in their highly capable hands.

And finally, thanks to my wife, Catherine, she is with us here today and has been by my side for every step of my professional journey, beginning all the way back in 1990 when I was a fresh out of law school graduate.

who knew absolutely nothing, though you certainly couldn't tell me that at the time, Mr. Pruitt.

Her support has been steadfast in good times and in bad.

It's been quite a ride and one that I am proud to conclude here in Albemarle County.

What we're talking about, Steve, is we all want a picture, but maybe we can capture it a little bit later.

That'd be great.

Thank you.

I was hoping to get Catherine in it.

Thank you.

And we have, I believe, a number of sign-ups.

We are limited to 10.

If you didn't get a chance to sign up, you can provide written comments to the clerk at any point.

Vice-Chair McKeel will read the rules for in-person speakers.

That's right.

There are no online speakers this afternoon, and we have non-speakers who signed up.

So with that, I will read the guidelines.

During the time set aside 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 listed on the agenda for public hearing.

Individuals are allowed one opportunity of up to three minutes to speak at each Board meeting during matters from the public.

A sign-up sheet is managed by the clerk's office.

Timekeeping is conducted through a timer and a 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 will be asked to end your comments.

Any written statements or other supporting material may be given 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 and do not speak from your seat or out of turn.

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

And with that,

Welcome, Ms.

Price.

How does this work?

Good afternoon.

Chair Andrews, Vice-Chair McKeel Supervisors, my name is Donna Price.

I'm a resident of the Scottsville Magisterial District.

This will be on court number one.

I appear before you today to honor County Attorney Steve Rosenberg on the recognition of his civic service, not only to Albemarle County, but for a life of public service to our community, our county, our region, and the Commonwealth.

It is an impossible challenge in three short minutes to express all that he deserves to hear and praise of his public service, but I shall try.

An attorney-at-law is the highest professional qualification of one in the legal field.

Beyond and above these qualifications, however, and as in all career fields, there are those individual characteristics of the specific practitioner which separates the weak from the chaff.

As the immediate past chair of the Board of Supervisors of Albemarle County, I had the distinct pleasure to experience a special, time-limited relationship with the three individuals that this board hires, the clerk for the board, the county executive, and the county attorney.

This time limited relationship only exists while serving as chair.

It does not exist as a supervisor, and it does not exist as the vice chair, although in that last position one is exposed to and more fully made aware of its existence.

When serving as a chair, however, a supervisor is most intimately involved in the inner workings of those responsibilities under the authority of those three hires.

The chair, acting as an intermediary and liaison for the board, has the unique opportunity to work closest with the county attorney to truly get to know that person.

Over the course of my now completed 45-year professional career as an attorney, I have had the occasion and opportunity to work with the very best at the national, state, local government levels, as well as in the corporate world.

There is none better than Mr. Rosenberg.

Steve Rosenberg is an attorney of the highest order.

As an attorney moves up in an organization, their technical skills become more in the area of subject matter expertise, and that is expected.

But from the organizational standpoint, what is equally, if not more important, is working to promote the culture of the organization, taking an excellent office, and making it exceptional, as you have done.

It was such an honor for me to have that special time-limited relationship with you from July 27th, 2022, a date easy for me to remember, through 31 December 2023.

In perfect naval tradition, we would say that you have stood the watch, that your time for being piped ashore is coming.

All the honors and respect a person could ever achieve.

The next speaker is Nancy Mature

Thank you, Supervisor McKeel.

Thank you, Supervisors.

Good afternoon.

I wanted to share my concerns about ranked choice voting today.

Our current ballot system is simple and straightforward.

It's one person, it's one vote.

Ranked choice voting

is anything but simple and straightforward.

In fact, municipalities spend hundreds of thousands of dollars just to keep voters aware or to help them understand what ranked choice voting is.

We know that public trust in elections matters.

Why should a new system of voting even be considered

if the current system that's widely used is understood and is working, whereas rank choice voting confuses voters, it creates distrust, and has caused decreased voter participation in a great many of the localities where it has been used.

Rank choice voting is approved at the statewide level only in Maine and Alaska

and yet a statewide repeal effort has the ranked choice voting as a repeal on the ballot this November in Alaska, so they're trying to take it off.

Ranked choice voting is currently banned in the state of Montana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Idaho, South Dakota and Florida.

As a former electoral board member and a citizen, I've heard many viewpoints on ranked choice voting, and I'm still left with some concerns.

And in the interest of time, I'm going to just list those.

Number one, ranked choice voting requires that voters must research multiple candidates.

This gives more power to elite voters who have more time

and greater access to information and it makes it harder for voters who don't have that time or those resources for information.

Number two, the foundation of government accountability states that ranked choice voting leads to a decrease in voter confidence in election.

Number three, ranked choice voting disconnects voting from important political debates and issues.

and number four, ranked choice voting does not afford the transparency of a traceable ballot.

These are all my concerns.

Election integrity is non-negotiable.

It is the very foundation of the Democrat process.

Ranked choice voting undermines this Democrat process and

Thank you, Ms.

Mayor.

If you have comments that you weren't able to read, please provide them to the clerk and we'll have them for a record.

Our next speaker is Karen June Nielsen.

Here she comes.

Hello?

Can you hear me?

Hello.

Good afternoon.

My name is Karen Yul Nielsen.

I'm a resident of Whitehall here in Albemarle County.

Thank you for the opportunity to share with you a few of my thoughts this afternoon on why I believe ranked choice voting is not a good idea for Albemarle County.

And when it comes time for all of you to cast your vote on whether or not we implement this process, I urge you to vote no.

There are many reasons why RCV is not appropriate for our area.

But with the brevity of time we have this afternoon, I'm going to just focus on three.

General Distrust of the election process and the lack of need for it as there are very few candidates that actually run in Albemarle County.

Over the last few years, Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike have

worked very hard to improve and increase voter participation in Albemarle County.

We have canvassed our neighborhoods, we have registered voters, we have talked person to person about their misunderstanding of the process and how we can further encourage voter participation here in Albemarle.

And what has become clear from their answers is there is a general mistrust of the whole process and there is confusion about

and others.

rank choice voting.

And what does that do for the voter?

How does that encourage them?

It requires them to look into a lot of information about all the different candidates, I'm sorry, so that they are able to evaluate and rank their preferences.

And in doing so, it adds confusion for them as a voter.

And also,

They have the idea that who's going to tell you these votes and how long is that going to take and how much is it going to cost and how do we verify it?

There are just lots of unanswered questions.

Also, if you look at the ballot in Albemarle, there are hardly ever, I mean many times there's only one person on the ballot running for an office, hardly ever more than two or three.

So why would we implement a system that basically

Confuses the voter.

Really there isn't a need for it and also adds layers of distrust to the electoral process.

So I say it doesn't make any sense.

John Linder, I live in Rivanna District.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Board and fellow citizens, I also want to speak against the adoption of frank choice voting.

You know, when there's a coming election, I review the candidates, I find out who they are, and I make up my mind who I want in each office.

And then when I enter the voting booth, I vote for one person for each office.

But now with ranked voting, it looks like you're going to have to make me vote for everybody.

And I have to decide which is up and down this line.

And that, to me, not only adds confusion, but it's going to make everybody take longer to vote.

It's going to take longer to calibrate the results and announce them, and possibly bring confusion to the whole

Affair.

So please, there's a saying, I speak colloquially, if I ain't broke, don't fix it.

I think we have a very simple and good voting system.

Let's keep it the way it is.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Thanks for having me.

I usually come more prepared.

I came to talk about rank choice voting.

I thought it was a no-brainer.

I thought it was about pro-democracy.

And I'm shocked to see that anyone be against it.

So I certainly apologize.

People know that I usually am more prepared.

Even though it doesn't necessarily apply right now, but maybe someday you'll have lots of people who are fighting to get positions on the board, but I think it's an important thing for us to stand by and to expand, not only for the state but nationally.

What ranked choice voting does, it opens up our democracy.

It allows for people to feel that they have a chance.

that they're not going to muddy up the system by participating and running.

That they can start participating, letting their voice be heard, and having a place to start.

As more importantly, it is unacceptable for anyone.

And I am shocked that anyone finds it acceptable that people in office who don't have a majority rule

How that is not something that we all want is completely baffled with me.

This is a way to get that.

I don't believe that it's necessarily a good excuse to say that we can't do it.

I think that if we care enough that we can have the

have the populace understand what it is and that they actually have more choice and they have more freedom and they have a democracy that is actually more vibrant and fulfills the promise of what a democracy can be.

So I urge you, I know there's a lot of people coming up who are against it, but I urge you, I plead for you, I am, you know, I don't even know what to say, I'm shaking.

Please, please vote for it.

It is better for our democracy.

Our next speaker.

Excuse me, I'm sorry.

Good afternoon to the board.

Thank you so much for having me.

My name is Eli Winder.

I'm a resident of the Jack Jewett District.

And I'm also president of SERV, Students for Equity and Reform in Virginia, a student group dedicated to making sure young people's voices are heard.

And that's part of the reason I'm here today.

As a young person engaged in politics and public policy, one of the most difficult tasks that I have is convincing other young people to become engaged in politics.

Some other folks have mentioned that we don't have a lot of people running for positions in Albemarle County, and that sounds like a problem to me.

We want more people to be engaged in our democracy, not less.

And that is all the more of a problem amongst young people who feel disenfranchised right now.

They feel, when they look at government, when they look at public life, when they look at politics, they don't see their voice and their views being articulated.

How do we get them involved?

Easy.

We provide an electoral system that encourages competition, encourages involvement, and ensures that everyone's voice is heard.

So, RCV brings more diverse voices into the conversation to ensure that everyone sees a role for them in our political process.

Put simply, RCV ensures that there are more voices and more choices.

I'd like to take my remaining time to dispel some of the common misconceptions surrounding RCV.

So many people claim that RCV is too complicated, but exit polls from RCV elections around the country have shown otherwise.

In 2021, in New York City, 95% of voters found that their ballot was simple to complete.

In 2021, 88% of voters in Minneapolis thought that RCV was simple.

In 2023, 86% of voters in Boulder, Colorado, said RCV was easy.

And in 2024, right up in Arlington, 88% of voters said that RCV was easy.

Another concern people often have about rank choice voting is how long it will take to tabulate the results.

Well, the good news is, RCV tabulation is quick and easy.

In both of Arlington's ranked-choice voting elections, the RCB tabulation process was completed in a matter of minutes on the Friday after the election.

That is not an unreasonable amount of time to wait to make sure that all voices are heard and to avoid the spoiler effect.

Anyone who's taken an econ class knows that when there's less competition in the market, when there's less competition for votes,

Good afternoon.

My name is Chris Seaman, and I'm a resident of the Whitehall District.

I am also the Robert E. R. Huntley Professor of Law at Washington League University School of Law, where I teach and engage in scholarship on election law and voting rights.

The views I express in my comments today are solely my own and do not necessarily represent my employer.

I'm here to speak today in support of ranked choice voting, which is an important electoral reform that can increase voter choice and help reduce the toxic levels

of polarization that currently exists in our political system.

Our CV achieves these goals by allowing voters to rank candidates in order of preference.

All first choice votes are counted.

If no candidate receives a majority, the candidate that received the fewest first choice votes is eliminated, and the second choice votes from voters who supported the eliminated candidate are transferred to the remaining candidates.

This process is repeated until one candidate receives a majority.

Notably, RCV does not have an inherent partisan bias in favor of any political party.

Instead, because second and even third place choices can determine who ultimately wins, RCV encourages candidates to reach beyond a narrow base and instead seek support from the broader electorate.

Our CV has a rich history, haven't been created in the mid-1800s, and since used throughout the world by millions of voters, including former British colonies like Australia, India, Ireland, and New Zealand.

Here in the United States, RCV has been adopted by dozens of municipalities for local elections covering millions of voters, as well as congressional elections in both Alaska and Maine.

And notably here in Virginia, the Republican Party used RCV in 2021 to select Glenn Yonkin as its nominee for governor.

I also want to address some of the concerns that have been raised.

One of the most common objections made to RCV is it confuses voters.

But the data simply doesn't back up that claim.

For instance, as a previous speaker noted in Arlington, 88% of Arlington voters in an exit poll agreed that making marking the ranked choice ballot was easy.

Similarly in Alaska, 85% of survey voters says RCB was easy to use.

And with respect to voter turnout, a recent article published just this year in electoral studies found a 17% increase in turnout in municipalities that use ranked choice voting.

In short, RCV is an important reform at a time when deep party polarization has infected the body politic.

As researchers at the University of Chicago found in a recent report, replacing existing plurality vote systems with RCV can have a transformative effect, leading to more candidates, less polarization, and less incentive to vote strategically.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

I'm Karen Yates from the Whitehall District and a former president of the League of Women Voters.

I'm speaking today on behalf of Lisa Kilgartner, current president who could not attend.

The League of Women Voters position on election systems and election integrity

calls for fair and free elections that maximize participation and are critical to representative government.

Adhering to that position, we do support the use in local elections of the method or system known as ranked choice voting that allows for all candidates in a race to be ranked.

It is the fairest way we have found for every voter's choice of candidates to be considered in the final tallies.

In recent years, ranked choice voting has gained momentum in states and localities across the country, including right here in Virginia.

Ranked Choice Voting, as was said, was used by the Republican Party of Virginia in its statewide nominating elections in 2021.

And Arlington just became the first locality to adopt Ranked Choice Voting for their county board primaries.

If implemented in Albemarle County, the League of Women Voters stands ready to assist with educating the community about the system.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and board members for this opportunity.

I am the chair of the Albemarle County Democratic Party and I'm here to speak on their behalf.

As you probably already know, last year we sent a letter endorsing ranked tourist voting and this year we reaffirmed that position unanimously.

So that is our position.

We understand that it's new and it's different, like a lot of things we've tried here, same day registration, early voting, things like that, and anytime you change things, there's going to be some concerns that are naturally raised.

So we're here to advocate that you do what I suspect you will do, and take your time, study this fully, and come up with an informed plan, and some of the things that I know you will be looking at, let's address costs first of all.

You're going to be hearing positions taken that it costs too much.

I will submit over a period of time that there will probably be changes in hardware and certainly changes in software.

When those opportunities present themselves, I would encourage you to make sure that we incorporate ranked choice voting.

into whatever you're going to purchase.

So also we know that it's going to take time to educate and we heard yesterday from our very fine registrar that it would probably require another person.

But we also know from research that we've done that the first six months of this year almost over 1,100 people have registered newly to vote in Albemarle County.

that at the end of the year, if you extrapolate that, you're probably 2,000 or 3,000 more.

And there's going to be a need for additional personnel that will register our office no matter what.

We're suggesting that when you do hire someone and education is a factor that one of the prerequisites is that they have skills and the ability to go out and tell people what ranked choice voting is because there's going to be that component to it.

You're also going to hear that why change?

Well, in one sense, if you implement ranked choice voting, my influence will be greatly diminished.

So you would suspect that I would be up here saying it's a bad idea.

But it's a good idea for democracy, because if we can have a second, a third, or a fourth person in the ballot, that

encourage his dialogue and encourage his discussion and encourage us to perhaps even be more civil because if you're in first place but you think you're not going to get 51%, you better start understanding the issues at number three and number four brought up.

Because if you make those people mad, you're not going to get their votes.

You're not going to be taken over the top.

So we think that it is certainly worth doing, and I'm sure you'll study it, put a good faith effort into it.

Thank you.

That's all our speakers.

We have a motion from Supervisor Mallek, a second from Supervisor McKeel.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Mr. Pruitt?

Aye.

Yes.

Thank you.

Board, this brings us to the meat of the meeting, but we have a very, very full agenda today.

Several presentations this afternoon, a number of topics in our closed meeting, and five public hearings this evening.

So it's imperative that I try to keep things on a schedule as much as possible.

Lauren Eddy and electoral board through its members, the chair, vice chair, I'm not sure who's presenting at this point, but we want to hear about the capabilities in Albemarle County regarding ranked choice voting including costs,

timing requirements to implement personnel requirements as well as other resources, information required from the county or the state legislature, voter education efforts relating to any future decision.

The allotted time should include ample time for questions by the board.

As the board is aware, we've heard from the registrar previously in November of 2022 on this topic and we're hoping for an update and concerns raised at that time.

No motion is anticipated coming out of today's meeting.

This is a meeting for information for the Board to help us better understand what the issues are.

So with that, I understand we'll hear from Registrar Eddie first.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for inviting me.

I said I'm going to ask you just to turn the mic a little bit toward your self.

That's better.

Okay.

Thank you.

So what you're going to see today is not a whole lot different from what I presented to you all in November of 2022.

So we are going to go through the requirements and cost if my office was to implement ranked choice voting at this time.

The technical and logistical requirements in the election system, which is our ballot scanners or tabulators,

that would, one, scan and record the ranked choices on a ballot up to the number of choices permitted.

Number two, it would need to export the ballot data to a cast vote record.

And number three, it would need to tabulate the results of multiple rounds and reallocate those votes to the remaining candidates until one gets a majority.

So our current election system still meets only the first requirement.

We have plans and the budget, thank you guys, to purchase new ballot scanners in January of 2025.

This new equipment will still only meet the first requirement though.

So going through our technical and logistical requirements, now we're going to look at the two requirements that we currently would not meet.

Exporting the ballot data to a cast vote record.

There is an available upgrade from the vendor that we currently use that would enable current and new equipment to produce the cast vote record.

There is an initial purchase and recurring fee that we will incur.

And this is only sufficient for the first round of ranked choice voting.

We would have to get an additional tabulator software to go with a second round or further than that.

The third requirement that we are currently not meeting is to tabulate the results of multiple rounds and reallocate votes to the remaining candidates until we get a majority.

This is where the additional software comes in that we would have to use to get to those rounds after that first round.

And we'll get to the budget part at the end.

I'm saving the best for last.

What we feel is the biggest requirement of ranked choice voting will be voter education.

Voter education is the key to the success of ranked choice voting elections.

The law currently requires that we would start a voter education campaign at least 60 days prior to an election that we're going to use ranked choice voting in.

We believe that this would be the minimum time required to

and educate the voters of Albemarle County.

The cost of a voter education campaign depends largely on how much we can leverage internal county communication resources and use some of the education materials that have already been developed by other jurisdictions.

And so now we get to the budget piece.

We would need an election wear upgrade to our current voting system and the new voting system that we plan to purchase, which would include the software and a dedicated laptop that can't just go on one of our desktop computers.

The initial cost for that would be $13,626 and then an annual fee of $7,200.

So the tabulation software that we would need for those additional rounds is now provided by the Department of Elections.

That is different from the last time I presented to you guys.

We weren't sure if we would have to do a service contract with

that vendor, but we don't elect, has purchased that software.

But we would have to buy the equipment, another dedicated laptop for only that software, and right now that would be about $3,000.

The integration, testing, and validation would cost us about $6,000, and that would be per election that we would use ranked choice voting.

Training.

That's a big thing for us and it's really not something I can put a price tag on right now.

I think an election staff member would be needed whose primary job function would be to create and conduct training of voters, election officials, and fellow staff members.

I mean right now we are a staff of five full-time people who are stretched to their limits.

with the number of elections and the number of voters that we have in the county.

So we would definitely need to add some manpower to help us educate the voters and educate ourselves.

There will be an increased cost for longer ballots.

I'm not sure of that cost.

I just know that the ballot will be larger than what we use now.

a voter education program which would include public service announcements, mailing to every registered voter, demos at various sites, 40,000 minimum,

When we checked just a postcard mailing to every registered voter from my office would cost us about $34,000.

So that's really the bare minimum for us to start a voter education program.

Thank you very much.

We will go through our order with questions if that's okay.

Thank you, Ms.

Eddie.

I appreciate the information.

So what's that?

So we haven't added a staff member in quite a few years, I would say since about 2013.

And so in that time, I can't say exactly how many registered voters we've incurred since then, but right now we're at about 87,000 registered voters.

I would say that has gone up probably

So I guess what I'm getting at or trying to understand, and if we have to follow up, it would be good.

It's understood that if we haven't given you enough positions, that's one thing for the current system.

But there's probably some sort of formula that says, look, we get another 20,000 voters on the roll.

Maybe it's 5,000.

I don't know what the number is.

So that's something I guess I'll leave as an outstanding question that may be able to come back.

The software, for requirement two and three, that's in this whole initial cost?

Yes, so that's for the software to our current or new election equipment or voting scanners or tabulators, if you call them.

The second is a software that is provided by the Department of Elections.

So we wouldn't be paying for that software.

But this would be new cost, everything that's listed here.

Yes.

And that's ongoing.

Yes.

All the time.

All right.

Yes.

Nice to see you.

Thank you.

Looking at all this, we did a quick tabulation that looks like it would be approximately under just under $70,000 to implement this, but that's not including if we had an additional staff person, which you said we would need.

Correct.

And then the longer balance.

Yes.

So that cost we don't know yet, but so

Yeah, easily.

Okay, so that's a large amount of money.

Your budget is based on dollars today.

Correct.

Okay, because you know, we're not making any kind of a decision today.

Right.

So I'm wondering what, in fact, this is just a information gathering session here.

Right, from my vendors.

The election wear upgrade, that's from our current election systems vendor.

If we were to do this today, that's what it would cost us.

That's my questions for right now.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

This is a good start and good building on what we heard a year or so ago.

If I'm asking questions that you're not prepared to answer or does not fall within your bailiwick, then I understand.

But would a person be required to vote for more than one candidate in a particular election if we were to adopt our CV?

They would not be required to.

So their ballot, if it came with just one person per race, would be completely acceptable at this and be scanned in as normal?

To my knowledge, yes.

Right.

So one thing that's been out there is that people would have to vote for all these other people that they don't know or don't want.

So I just wanted to get that clarified right away.

I understand about the software.

I do know that a year or more ago there was discussion about how we were finally coming up to the time when we could buy new machines.

and as someone who worked on trying to get a paper ballot for 25 years, I'm very grateful that we did.

There's a lot of empty space on that ballot, so I don't know quite what that means when you talk about a longer ballot.

Perhaps for a county who has at large elections and they have 10 candidates for five spaces, that may be a whole different thing from what we would have where our ballots are by district and so there's so much partition that already happens before it gets out to the

to the voting polling places.

Is there any connection with, actually no it's not because the only authority that the Board of Supervisors has at this time is for local elections.

So there is not really a connection between party primaries of any sort and this process.

Correct.

Okay, so there's no diminishment or taking over of a primary process having to use this.

I was interested in what some speakers have said about how it's already been in use by parties in Virginia.

And I guess we'll have to do research on around to find out if there truly has been a decrease in photo participation.

What I have heard from

Well, I'll stop there because I have mostly questions.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Just to piggyback on what Ann's questions were, and you may not be able to just do this right off the cuff, but I would really like to have

The regulations are exactly what, for example, not primaries.

I know you presented that to us with the last presentation, but I would like to have that again.

Okay.

And I don't think it's changed in state code or anything like that.

Yeah, that would be lovely.

I have to say that I

I was a little surprised when I saw the longer ballot just because our ballots right now.

Well, there are certain ballot standards set by the Department of Elections.

Okay, interesting.

So when you say longer, though, you're physically talking about longer, like the difference in a larger ballot, right?

Literally.

Yes.

All right, because I could see in the city where they don't have Magisterial Districts and they have one.

Right.

So we're very different entities in the way we vote or how many people we have to vote for.

And another thing I was a little confused about

Software needed for each round of voting.

I'm just trying to explain that to me better.

What we would get with the upgrade to our current voting equipment or the new equipment

would only be sufficient for one round of ranked choice voting.

So if we had to do further rounds, then we need the software that is provided by the Department of Elections.

I see.

So that's it.

It's the difference between what we currently have.

I'm running with you now and what we would need.

Well, the software is provided by the Department of Elections.

That's what I was going to.

That's great.

That helped me a lot.

I appreciate that.

Just one more question, and I really thank you for coming today, by the way.

This is great.

A refresher is always good.

So do you have, I thought you gave us some...

Financial, some numbers data at that point.

How much is that?

This has gone up in each bullet point probably about a thousand dollars or so.

The final one, the voter education program, has gone up

20,000.

Just trying to figure out, according, you know, Ned was asking about, darling, just trying to figure out if we were going to extrapolate what we have now and looking towards the future.

I thought maybe that might be a little helpful, although I'm not sure.

Well, thank you very much.

I think this is really the meat of what we need to be able to proceed in a decision, this kind of thoughtful outlining of the costs.

I just have a few clarifying questions that I think would help me and also anyone in the audience kind of get a better grip on kind of how these costs might sequence out.

So first, going back to the question actually that I believe Supervisor McKeel just had, there's the cost delineation over what our new software is going to be able to handle versus what we would need the software from the Department of Elections and the additional laptop for.

And you said that's going to be based on whether or not there's one or more rounds of voting.

I just want to make sure I'm thinking through this correctly.

Okay, that is a great TN to the next question I was going to ask, which is, you know, a critique we've heard from folks in the audience and also quite a lot of folks by email, is that we aren't actively experiencing elections that have a need, per se, for ranked choice voting because there's not enough people

running for them.

So I'm curious how we can even think about and sequence these in the immediacy of these needs.

If we were to hypothetically look at an election for next cycle's local elections in 2025, and suppose we had no situation in which there's primaries that are cropping up, but then in 2027, we were going to have five people running for the Democratic primary.

Are there any costs here that you would identify as thing that we would not need to provide for in time for 2025 if we were to decide to magically approve RCB in this calendar year?

Is there anything that you would look at and say, oh, that needs to be done this year and ready in time for 2025?

My preference would be if the Board was going to adopt ranked choice voting and implement it, that my office was set up with everything that we would need to move forward with it.

We have no way of knowing.

That's fair.

I guess I was trying to get more if you thought there was room for kind of spooling up additional capacity later on.

But it sounds like your professional assessment is that you would need that grace given to be able to be more prepared.

I appreciate that.

Yes.

We do have the need.

That's not something we have asked for or I'm prepared to ask for right now.

I guess I apologize.

I want to clarify a bit more what I'm asking with

There is an existing need for an additional staff member just based on the current workload.

Do you see that as being something that can be dual-hatted instead of two FTEs, one who is a RCD specialist and one who is helping with the existing burden of work in the department?

Okay, thank you.

That's helpful.

That's all I have.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you for a very efficient and helpful presentation.

Thank you.

Types of things that I was definitely looking for and we were looking for.

I did have one thing to follow up on the sort of list that I had, which was that at one point there were questions about whether there needed to be any legislative clarity, because we will be going into over the next few months and beyond looking at our legislative priorities and different policies.

Okay.

Thank you.

And following up on the comment about the position and the efficiencies there, I also just wanted to touch base on the mass mailings.

We are required to when there's a change made.

Okay, thank you.

Then we have heard some comments about timeliness, which is also an important part.

This is the last minor question in terms of longer ballots.

Currently, my understanding is that you have the candidates listed vertically.

Yes.

So the biggest change here just to be specific would be since you'd still have candidates listed vertically that they would be additional need perhaps for one column because of the ranking aspect of this.

Correct.

Okay.

So I just want to make sure I got a handle on what it is about this that makes it longer, which makes sense to me.

So I had written down to ask about the cost today of our current process for the annual mailings and it sounds like only in an emergency

and so on.

Now, you also mentioned the testing, integration testing and validation.

You have to test out all the machines today, and you would still have to do that, because those are the machines in the polling places.

This additional amount is for the testing on the laptop and the current software, the new software.

Yes.

Okay.

So that's specifically new.

I just wanted to make sure I knew I had that answer.

And considering that we have had, in the last 10 years, 15,000 more people moved to town, and your last new staff person was in 2013, we're already way behind as far as keeping up.

Thank you very much.

I'm just going to go down the order of Supervisor Gallaway.

I'd like to add... No, I'm good.

Just a quick question about education.

It's fair for you to say I'm not expecting you to have done the work, but have you thought about what a public education process would look like?

Have you penciled out anything?

We have not.

Bare bones, just.

Yeah.

My other question would be though, are there any other localities?

Well, you could identify localities that have gone through this process and I'm sure they try not to invent the wheel.

Right.

So currently in Virginia, there's only one, and that's Arlington.

Right.

So, but we will, I guess, Charlottesville is debating right now.

Right, they are.

So with the education process, it would be helpful to be able to contact some other localities, recognizing that they're not a lot, just trying not to reinvent the wheel.

Right.

And I'm sure you have contacts in

All these areas that you could reach out to.

Okay.

Just curious about the process.

Thank you.

Are they in districts or at large?

They're definitely at large.

They're at large.

So you have multiple people there.

Okay.

And I just have a couple of clarification points.

According to this, the laptop, dedicated laptop, would that be sufficient for

No, that would be two separate laptops, that software.

Okay, so then the price I quoted is an additional $13,000 or so.

Okay.

Also, write-ins, and I bring that up because write-ins will actually be

they won't be part of the ranking process unless that one person writes someone's name in and then puts them in the ranking order.

OK.

All right.

And in Albemarle, we have a Democratic primary.

We have a Republican primary.

So usually we only get two people or perhaps an independent.

So, unless there's a ride-in, I mean, the most you could probably, I won't say the most you can get, because you could have several ride-ins.

But chances are, I don't know how far they would get.

But usually, in Albemarle, there's just going to have usually two people on the ballot, maybe three if there's an independent.

Typically, yes.

Okay.

All right, well, you have really done

and a great job in answering the questions I have.

And I know, like I said, this is just for informational purposes.

And I appreciate that very much.

And I appreciate what you and your team, everything you do.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Look to Supervisor Pruitt just to check in to make sure you have no additional questions.

Sorry if that didn't catch.

No additional questions.

Okay, thank you.

Board, I believe there is a second presentation.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It's my first time before this board in this county.

Appreciate it.

My name is Sylvia Flood.

I am in the Samuel Miller District, formerly of Whitehall.

I got redistricted, okay?

Having said that, I am on the electoral board and the current position I'm on is I chair.

We are a unique group in the fact that we are appointed by a circuit judge and we have three-year terms.

and we report to the state election people.

We work in collaboration of course with the county and it's important that our job by oath and by definition is apolitical.

We are the keepers of the process and that's the voting, the process of voting.

We do nothing that's not legally approved and as you well know by reading law,

Any Law, my apologies to the lawyers in the group here, is that they are great at telling us what needs to be done is not always clear how it gets done.

So we not only have to walk that fine line of the law, but of the how-to's.

My reporting structure with our registrar, the board is the reporting author, is who Lauren reports to.

which makes it fun if any of you guys have worked on a committee who supervises.

The things that Lauren handles is the operational side.

We are administrative.

We get our nose into things like education, training, requirement.

We approve all election officials, all chiefs and assistant chiefs.

We have currently over 500 election officials, plus it grows.

This year we've added 140 some election officials.

We are responsible for training all of those folks.

This is another training.

We're not only required to train them on the come on, but we are required to train every election.

30 days before an election, we put all those folks through training.

Partly because they only do their job once or twice a year.

Because in this very unusual year, we're having multiple elections.

Two primaries, March and June, with two elections in each of those primaries.

Of course, the biggie in November, our presidential, which for some reason is always fun.

We have been especially honored this year to have a recount.

which is basically going through what we just did two weeks earlier, three weeks earlier.

I am proud to report for Albemarle.

We had no issues on every count.

Makes those of us who spend 14 hours days in this process feel very comfortable.

We have an overview and I want to make something perfectly clear because in the last 24 hours and about 10 emails I've seen in that time, I've been told what my job is.

So I want to make sure you know what I know what job is.

My job is administrative.

My job is apolitical.

I cannot personally or in my position as chair and electoral board cite a position from that podium.

What I can do is say, holy heck, implementing a process is going to take a lot of work, a lot of training, and I can agonize over that.

And I don't want some of the comments where we have pushback

Will we have questions?

Be read as anything other than as operational concern for excellence.

I still, I'll point back to our recount.

We have a record.

I intend to keep that record.

Hopefully, no one knew about recounts.

Having said that, I'd like to ask my colleague, Dr. Clairville Wheeler, to take about 10 minutes, 15 minutes of your time, if I can, to walk you through some of the issues that we see as we implement this.

We appreciate you, Chair.

Thank you.

Members of the Board of Supervisors, I have a brief, abbreviated, oh, I'm sorry, it's this one.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

I was afraid you'd left.

This is a report that is required in code, as you will see, 24.2-637.1.

that quote, a decision to conduct an election by ranked choice voting shall be made in consultation with the local electoral board and general registrar.

So I commend you for, that's what the law says.

I'm so sorry.

I've never used this machine.

Oh, on the computer.

Thank you so much.

You were asking a lot of questions about what a ballot looks like.

So let me try to give you some information on what a ranked choice ballot looks like.

This is for a ballot for roughly five people.

I'm not sure how to move this guide to where you can see it, but you list the candidates down one side and the voter will vote for their first choice, their second choice, their third choice, etc., for the number of candidates on the ballot.

So this is what it will look like on your ballot when you see it.

The use of right-choice voting in Virginia, as you have heard partially, the only election in municipality in Virginia using right-choice voting was the 2023 Democratic primary in Arlington County.

So to answer your question, you can do primary, party primary elections using right choice.

As many of you know, there are no right ends in a primary.

So it doesn't matter whether it's right choice or regular ballot.

The code says you can't do a right end in a primary.

The exit polling that was done by one completely independent

organization showed that 41% of those who took the exit poll after that Democratic primary.

Thank you, Jim.

said that 41% of them did not like ranked choice and they didn't want to do it again.

It was a simple four-question and it was done by a totally independent organization.

There's another organization that basically did the same thing and their results said 61% of the voters didn't like ranked choice.

I can send you the links to those polling.

The question was asked whether they liked the tabulation and the voters did not seem to understand how the ballots were tabulated or counted.

The Richmond City Council voted in 2022 that they would do no ranked choice voting through their city council elections in November 2024.

They, to my knowledge, have not done a revote on that.

The following example is going to be done very quickly, but it will help you understand what the tabulation that our registrar explained, our software has to be purchased, but this is what the tabulation will do.

You've got the same

a ballot that we saw early in the first round of votes and I tell you that this is a contrived, made-up election of a thousand voters and by some miracle all thousand of them voted.

We've never had a hundred percent turnout but we can always hope.

So we have a thousand ballots and this is the result of the first round

So this is what, when you talk about the software that will tabulate first round, it merely counts all of these ballots.

And you will see that from the distribution, that the highest vote getter got 31% of the 1,000 ballots.

Under the rules of rank choice,

in order to be declared the winner in a right-choice election, you must get 50% plus one vote, not 51%, but 50% plus one.

So it's just barely over 50%.

And no one got it.

So now the tabulator will go to the second round.

And in the second round, after the first round was counted, let's go back.

Sorry.

Can we go back?

Nope.

Oh, can we go back?

How do we go back?

Hold on, wait a minute.

Thank you.

You had a thousand votes, and you will see that Wilkie only got 40 votes.

He came in last.

So he is out of the race.

And you take the people who voted for Wilkie first, it's their first choice,

and you take the second, their second person, the person that they voted in the second round and you add those to the people that they marked.

So in this case, 30 votes went to Altman, 10 votes went to Sharp that were from the Wilkie who is no longer in the race.

Well still we don't have 50 plus one.

So we go to the third round and in the third round

We have people voting who did not vote a third round choice or a fourth round vote choice.

So they don't have any votes to offer.

They have no place to put their first round choice or their second round choice because they did not vote a third round choice.

So we have a problem.

Those people are no longer legally allowed to transfer their votes because their candidate has already been dispatched or their ballots are being exhausted because the person they voted for first round is gone, second round is gone.

And now we've dropped the total number of ballots being considered to 680.

We get to the final result.

This is the winning.

And you see that Hobes got 370 votes in the final round, which is 54% not of 1,000 votes, but of 680 votes.

So if you were going by strict, you must have 50% plus one.

Nobody would have won because you've eliminated, exhausted, the difference between a thousand and six hundred and eighty.

I needed to go through that with y'all so that you would understand exactly how you mark and tabulate and that's why, to your questions, why we have to buy extra software to get through all the rounds.

The New York City Mayoral election, you may remember, took over three weeks.

Now, New York, big city.

Three weeks to tabulate the votes.

In the first round, the ultimate winner, but the winner of the first round won by ten points.

It took them nine rounds of votes because, again, there were a lot of candidates.

He only won by two points because of redistribution of votes.

The disadvantages, you will note, are that, as Mazzetti has already explained, there's a cost.

Ballot software has got to be purchased and it's got to be maintained and it has to be updated on a regular basis.

If you do not vote all of the choices, your ballot will be eliminated and no longer part of the election.

In the second and third choices in a right choice voting, those second and third round choices

become first place votes for the candidate.

So someone who marks the first round choice candidate A and votes somebody for their second choice and their third choice, when that first round gets eliminated, those second and third round choices become primary choice, the first person that gets the ballot.

And this may be a deal breaker for some people, or maybe not.

In rank's choice voting, you must vote for everybody on the ballot.

And it may be somebody you don't like.

But in order to keep your ballot alive, you've got to vote for all the choices.

Problems for voters, the less well-informed

or less well-educated voter will have a great deal of difficulty understanding how to mark a right choice ballot.

They have in every community and there are local and national organizing committees and communities that have spoken out against right choice simply because they feel that the people they represent might not be able to understand or

Mark a right choice vote.

You must vote for all the people on the ballot.

The delayed results.

This is a biggie.

And this is factual.

This is law.

The election night results only will report the first round of voting.

And as you've seen from our other examples, the person who wins the first round may or may not be the ultimate winner.

All the results in Virginia, according to the code, must be reported by precincts.

It's how each of you knows how the voting took place in each of the precincts in your Magisterial District.

So you know where to put your efforts the next time.

All the ballots in a ranked choice must be tabulated and counted together because it's the accumulation of all the ballots, not just in one precinct or in one Magisterial District.

Mailed in and provisional ballots may be delayed well over a week, well over.

because mailed out absentee ballots do not have to come back to the registrar's office until noon on Friday.

If Friday is a federal holiday and there's no mail distribution, then that deadline by Virginia law goes to Monday, which means the ballots are still coming back.

You'll know what their first round vote is, but there will be no way of tabulating all rounds.

The provisional ballots will not be adjudicated by the electoral board until all the ballots are back and the provisional ballots are back.

So we're looking at more than a week for results.

And this is a big report that came from the Department of Elections

The short term is elect because Department of Elections, if it were DOE, it would be the Department of Education, which was already taken, so it's elect.

And they did a study that shows that under current election law, using report by precinct, we can't use ranked choice voting.

I'm sure they'll have more to say about that in the future, but that's what the 23 report showed.

The problems of understanding the ballots, and this was brought to me by actually an officer of election, chief officer of election, and it's very true.

We have numerous elderly voters, and they will have, they may know a lot about the one candidate they like, but they will have trouble voting a ranked choice ballot.

The less well-informed,

and the Leswell educated will have the same problem and they conceivably could be disenfranchised, a word we all dislike, but it's true, if you can't figure out how to mark the ballot, your ballot isn't going to count.

Polling places.

This was alluded to earlier, trying to mark a brand new, you've never seen it before, and even after three or four maybe elections of using ranked choice, you've got to go into the ballot place, the polling place, and mark your ballot.

This may require more attention to the ballot than just circling in, filling in one little bubble.

Many ballots will be spoiled, and the registrar and the electoral board have to figure out how many ballots to get because you sure don't want to run out of ballots.

This is going to be a really interesting question.

The other problem is with mailed-out ballots.

The purpose of a mailed-out ballot is so you can vote in the privacy of your home, either put it in the drop box at the registrar's office or put it in the mail.

But what do you do if you make a mistake?

Which may happen.

You have to either mail that ballot back to the registrar and get that ballot spoiled and the registrar mails you a new ballot or you have to come into the registrar's office and get a replacement ballot or you can go into the in-person absentee voting and surrender your mailed out ballot and get another new ballot.

The problem is there's nobody at home to help you and if you make a mistake on the ballot you don't have anything to mail in.

It could be confusing.

The consensus opinion from the electoral board, and as you've heard from others, is that, and as you know, many of you have run unopposed.

You don't need a ranked choice voting for your Magisterial District.

Albemarle County routinely has no more than two at the most three candidates.

And you can declare a clear winner with the three candidates in a race.

There's only one candidate.

Having a right-to-choice voting will be expensive, confusing, and there's no real need for it.

I'm happy to entertain any questions.

Thank you.

I don't have any questions.

Today was for informational.

I appreciate the information.

I would imagine if we have a future discussion about

whether or not we want to or don't, we'll get into the whys and why nots and the rationale behind if we should or we shouldn't do it.

So as it relates to the logistics of it, I appreciate the conversation.

I will make one comment.

I appreciate Ms.

Flood, but I've not had the pleasure of meeting you.

I appreciate the work that all the members of the Electoral Board do.

And this is not meant to be counterpoint or argumentative.

I just want to be clear about how you all are appointed to the board.

You are appointed by a judge.

That's correct.

And one of you is Democrat because the governor isn't a Democrat.

If we had a governor that was not of a political party, then the appointment would be based on who the majority and minority parties in the General Assembly are.

So if we had an independent governor and the majority was Republican and the minority was Democrat, we'd have the current situation.

To go to the judge, it is my understanding that the local political parties make recommendations to the judge

so that the members are affiliated with the proper party to adhere to state code and then the judge makes the ultimate decision.

But I also don't want to make it sound like the way you get to your position is apolitical.

It's very political.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley?

Yeah, I have no comments I'll wait till after we can discuss it a much less.

No questions.

Thank you.

On the Now We Have a Problem slide, how is this different than someone who just votes today for one person if their person doesn't win?

They're out.

That's correct.

So it seems I just didn't understand how you get to phase two, three, or four when you're out, you're out.

Secondly, I remember clearly that there was a

Well, I guess that's not really useful.

Hold on, I've got to get another page.

Supervisor Mallek, may I make one try to clarify your question?

Clarify, please.

Other ballots, if a voter comes in and marks a first, a second, a third, a fourth, a fifth, how many ever choices there are, and their candidate is eliminated, then the

Second, third, fourth, fifth choices keep rolling on.

They keep being given to another candidate.

So the ballot that that person voted is still active.

Yes, I understand that.

But that's not, yep, okay.

Election is not official, even today, until the campus on Friday or maybe Monday or maybe three weeks later, if that's how long it takes, when there was a Lieutenant Governor-Canvas that I was involved with many, many years ago.

So, I just don't know what change, if there is a change, that you perceive

The delayed results will come because you have to wait until all of the votes, all the ballots, the in-person absentee, the mailed out, and the precinct first round, you'll all get an election night.

Any ballot that comes in up until the deadline, you won't be able to add those.

Traditionally, there are fewer ballots that come in after election day.

They're mail-down ballots and they have to be in either by Friday noon or Monday noon.

And you have provisional ballots.

But you can still give the voters the results from election night

because the preponderance of the numbers of ballots and votes are cast either in person absentee or mailed out absentee or on election day.

So you've got the big numbers.

You've only got a small number to add.

And so you can kind of get a feel for how the election is going to turn out.

But with ranked choice,

All you've got is that, and you cannot add any of the second round.

And as you saw, first round suddenly becomes second round, and they become third round.

And you don't have a winner.

But you're right, it may take a week or two weeks.

Right now we're usually through by Tuesday.

Supervisor McKeel.

I'm going to pass on questions and an effort to keep us back on time.

And I already see staff here that are here for the next presentation.

I do want to thank everybody for coming today.

It was a great discussion.

Interesting.

And I'm sure there are more to come.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I do want to just briefly provide two comments.

First is just on the

kind of speaking to the selection and the exclusion of information given in the electoral board's presentation just now.

And just to be very illustrative of this, we heard a data point thrown out about the disapproval in Arlington over their own electoral process, which claimed to be from exit polls.

And I know that the electoral board has offered to provide us that survey data.

But from the best I can tell from my own research, the only thing

The only survey that I can find that speaks to that seems to be potentially a patch survey that claims to be an exit poll but was done online with an end size of 250.

In contrast, a non-profit fair vote did a scientific quality exit poll study that was in person conducted across 54 different precincts and early voting with an end size in the thousands that had a much higher favorability of over 65%.

and the County of Arlington's official survey that they conducted through their Office of Public Engagement, which had an end size of 780, had a 75% approval.

That wasn't the data that was just given to us and nor was the kind of decision over whether or not this patch survey or this fair vote survey or the County of Arlington's own survey.

The discussion of how that was chosen, which would be presented, was also not touched on.

which gets into my second point, which is how I'm frankly quite disappointed in this presentation from the electoral board.

As was discussed, this is a body that while

directed duty to behave in a nonpartisan manner, and it was also presented pursuant to an invitation from this body, from this board, to present requested input on the concrete demands of ranked choice voting, and expressly not on the normative policy or political considerations that went into ranked choice voting.

Now the Board of Supervisors and the Board of Elections are both independent bodies, and I nor any of my peers have any control over how the electoral board chooses to execute their role.

So I can only really express my regret and my disappointment.

that instead of bringing what could have been a thoughtful and neutral presentation, what was instead opted for was what is frankly from my view a negatively partisan screed that discreetly selected arguments that made normative arguments that discerned between helpful and harmful data and hurtful and helpful arguments.

So I find that sincerely disappointing, that is how this opportunity was used, and if I were to be quite candid, somewhat embarrassing.

If I may respond, since I have just been attacked, I would tell you that the polling data, as we all know, polling data varies all over the board for all polls, no matter what.

Another poll had already been reported.

I didn't report that same poll because it had already been reported.

I was trying to give you other polling.

And I had nothing to do with any of the polls.

So that was merely a, it's a poll and whatever polls are worth.

But I take great exception.

to your accusation that I am acting in a partisan way.

I am not.

I presented data to you.

I presented pictures of ballots so that you would know how the counting takes place.

I presented the law, as it's written, the study from the Department of Elections, and the disadvantages

of Ranked Choice Voting for various segments of our community.

I can assure you with every bit of my being that I was not speaking in a partisan way.

So you will have to take that on my word.

Thank you.

Board, I have only one thing to add sort of to the discussion about some points that have been brought up about election night reporting versus later reporting when provisionals and mail-in ballots are received.

There was also a comment made about you don't have to vote for all choices.

You have to vote for all choices.

and in fact, if you vote for all but one, it's mathematically no different than if you voted for all.

So it doesn't really require even in any case that you mark the least favorite choice.

There is no mathematical difference between leaving that one blank and putting in a number.

That said, I would invite Mr. Heilman as the third electoral board member to speak because we have heard from the other two.

I'm Jim Heilman, the Secretary of the Electoral Board.

As you know, part of this meeting is because the code says, as Dr. Wheeler's slide showed, that you're to make your decision in consultation with the Electoral Board and the registrar.

We have a bit of a difference of opinion among the Electoral Board as to what in consultation means.

and in my way of thinking, it does not mean that we should tell you or advise you that it is a good idea or a bad idea.

And I just wanted to make that clear.

Thank you very much.

Board, before we move on to the next item of just looking, not for questions, but any additional comments, and we will go through our order very quickly.

And Supervisor Callaway, any additional comments?

Yes, I do.

I was, frankly, very pleased with what

and the nonpartisan manner when Ms.

Flood addressed the board and also when Ms.

Eddie addressed the board.

I was not so impressed with what we received the latest thing because that's not what we asked for.

In fact, I found a couple things in there.

I'm just going to say it.

I found a couple things in there.

The way it was stated was insulting.

regarding the less well-educated, regarding the elderly.

I have a lot of elderly people in my district, and believe me, they are super smart.

And I just found this, frankly.

The way it was presented, I feel that it was partisan, and that's not what we asked for.

And frankly, the way it was explained was also very

It was not explained in a good factual way so that people would easily understand it.

Maybe that was the purpose of it.

To make it look like it's not going to be easy.

It's not going to be factual.

It's going to be something so difficult.

And remember, we're still looking at whether or not we're going to do this.

We just want information.

But we don't want.

skewed information and we don't want a particular side telling us what to think, what not to think.

So, like I said, I just wanted to go on record of saying that I was very disappointed with their last presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

No, as I said, more to come.

Yes, I know we will spend so much more time talking about the substantive merits and our respective opinions on ranked choice voting, so I'll save any comments on that.

Thank you.

And my only final comment will be again to appreciate how well the recent elections have been run, how well the recount went, which I'm sure was arduous to hear that story, that there were no changes in Albemarle County.

It was impressive.

and thank you very much for your service and for being here today to speak on these matters.

Leah Brumfield, Senior Planner 2.

Welcome, Ms.

Brumfield.

Thank you, members of the board.

Let me go ahead and get my presentation loaded up.

Hi, there we go.

So as noted, my name is Leah Brumfield.

I am in the Zoning Department of Community Development.

I'm joined by Frances McCall, Deputy Zoning Administrator.

And we also have with us in the audience Rebecca Cobb of the Berkeley Group, who may be jumping in to answer questions as needed.

and this presentation will be reviewing articles drafted in phase one of the Zoning Modernization Project.

All of these drafted articles have been reviewed by the Planning Commission and they are here now for the Board.

So we're starting with an overview of project goals and going over the work that we have done in this phase to date

I'll be describing some of the more important changes that we are proposing to each of the different articles and we'll be reviewing stakeholder input.

We'll also talk about the next steps, briefly discussing phase two and then we will answer any questions the board has.

So at our last presentation to the board in October of last year, we discussed the overall project progress, kind of a midway point in this phase.

and we went in depth on some of the strategies we've used in approaching this zoning modernization project.

The strategies were enacted to meet the overall goals of the project, providing streamlined and user-friendly regulations and incorporating best practices and addressing the goals and strategies of the comprehensive plan, which look at the community's needs and the feedback that the community provides in the comprehensive plan process.

So this graphic is an updated process graphic for phase one.

We're showing the kickoff in August 2022, investigation and interviews with stakeholders, including staff, members of various development groups, and also the planning commissioners, and three planning commission work sessions going in depth on the individual articles.

Phase 1 also included a general open house for the public in January 2023, where we covered the overall approach to the project, we answered questions about the relationship between the comprehensive plan and the zoning ordinance, and we painted the overall direction of the work that we're doing.

Additionally, we met twice with the Charlottesville area Roundtable, sorry, Development Roundtable, and the Blue Ridge Home Builders Association.

on questions of application process and overall clarity of the administrative ordinance drafts.

So after presenting all four articles in June to the Planning Commission in a wrap-up session, we now have the wrap-up session for the board.

Our goals today are for the board to provide feedback

on whether the framework or the articles is logical and comprehensible, and are there any particular regulations that are unclear that we need to address?

So with those two questions in mind, I will go over the articles included in phase one of the project in a little more depth.

The overall general edits that we have covered for these four articles look at the foundational and procedural ordinance sections.

These four articles have included work sessions that have incorporated the specific feedback we received and the overall general guidelines that we have developed for this project.

The guidelines are, there's a 13-point guideline section that we presented to the board previously, but in very, very brief, avoid jargon, make it more brief, remove unnecessary state code.

So we have talked with staff subject matter experts and the county attorney's office on all of these drafts.

So we have tried to ensure accuracy, user-friendliness, and Virginia Code compliance, and I believe that we have succeeded in those.

So a note that we are using the new article numbers, not the old article numbers.

For example, Article 2 in our current zoning ordinance is the basic regulations article, but Article 2 of the proposed ordinance is the administration.

Section.

So when we're using an article number, it's going to be the new ones, not the old ones.

And all of the four proposed or draft articles are included in Attachments 2 through 5.

So additionally, a crosswalk has been provided in Attachment 6.

This crosswalk outlines each section of the existing ordinance with the new proposed location.

and as illustrated here, different sections of the current ordinance are being pulled into the new ordinance in a more logical orderly manner.

As you can see, the regulations are currently organized a little bit haphazard as they were added as the need for the regulations arose.

So now we're pulling these sections out and putting them all into a article or a section that is more comprehensible and logical.

So that crosswalk is all available in Attachment 6 of the Board's packet.

So Article 1 is the legal foundation for the ordinance.

It includes references to enabling legislation for both creating the ordinance and the zoning map and providing for additional authority to enforce the ordinance.

We describe the overall goals of the zoning ordinance, what we're trying to achieve by having a zoning ordinance,

and this content was previously also in section one of our current ordinance.

There's no change there.

Oh, sorry.

The majority of the changes here that we're looking at are old language that was a little bit too opaque, a little bit too legalistic

clarifying that, shortening it, and then replacing quotations from Virginia Code with references to the Virginia Code so that we're not repeating state code.

Those will all be linked the same way that they are right now, so that if someone wants to reference the actual state code, they can immediately go there.

As an example, this slide currently shows

the zoning ordinance's purpose statement.

The purposes of the chapter are, as annealed by state legislation, to promote public health, safety, convenience, and welfare, and then a long list of objectives that are pulled almost verbatim from the Virginia Code.

The county does not have the authority to change state law, so there's really no purpose to put this in here.

So we are changing the section to list only the purpose

in a very brief summary, which is public health safety, convenience, and welfare of the community, and then it references state law.

As you can see, it's a lot shorter.

Article 2 is also foundational.

It covers instructions for interpreting the ordinance, the enabling legislation for the zoning administrator, the Board of Zoning Appeals, a reference to Chapter 2 of the County Code, which covers the Planning Commission,

and the Creation Authority of Architecture Review Board.

So again, the majority of these changes are removing quoted state code and instead providing direct links to the state code for easy reference, but we are also clarifying the agent's powers and duties and we went a little bit in depth on the architectural review board's powers and duties with staff.

Illustrating this,

The current text for the powers and duties of the ARB includes language about promulgating design guidelines, which is a little confusing and not completely accurate.

As the role the ARB takes in the creation of design guidelines in plain English is recommending design guidelines to the board, so the board may adopt them and then they are effective upon adoption.

that's clearer, it's more understandable and it's very direct as opposed to the role that the ARB takes in promulgating of design guidelines.

So we have worked closely with ARB staff on these descriptions and we have also

developed the language describing a role that the ARB takes and has taken for many, many years, which was not in the ordinance, which was to review and make recommendations on proposals or applications in addition to the ones in the entrance corridor.

So things for site plans and legislative applications within the entrance corridor, regardless of whether the certificate of appropriateness is actually required.

Additionally, we have clarified that as is standard and as is enabled by state legislature, the zoning administrator's role is to administer and enforce zoning ordinance.

Simplifying this language, we're clarifying that anywhere we say agent, it means the zoning administrator unless we explicitly denote otherwise in the ordinance.

This removes some of the confusion right now where there are different agents for different sections.

and that is not explicitly spelled out at the beginning of each section who that agent is.

So here we say, unless otherwise, the zoning administrator is the agent.

Moving on to Article 3, we go to a little bit beyond the foundational.

We are talking about process of applications and the types of applications that we are accepting and processing.

We're creating a much more user-friendly, descriptive picture of applications and process that are processed by staff.

And currently the ordinance language for these different processes and these different types of applications and permits is scattered throughout the ordinance, sometimes wherever the regulations are listed instead of having a clear list of what can be applied for and what is required.

So this pulls all of those application types in one list so that it is much more easy to reference.

A few notable changes are renaming zoning clearances.

Currently we call zoning clearances a use application.

Something that you are applying to do a use is a clearance.

and we have the term zoning permits for building applications that don't require a building permit like farm buildings or sheds, large sheds, large accessory structures.

So they don't require a building permit, but we want to make sure they're in the right place.

They need setbacks, so that's a zoning permit.

Under the new ordinance, we are proposing that all zoning permits are just called zoning permits and then we describe the different types of zoning permits based on what they actually permit.

So if they are permitting setbacks, that would be that type of application.

If they're permitting a use zoning clearance, that would be that type of application.

The commercial zoning clearances, home occupations, homestays would all fall under this type.

So we are also

removing unnecessary language regarding certificates of appropriateness.

One of the things that we were a little bit surprised to discover in delving deeply into this as it has never been used to staff's current knowledge was a default approval of certificates of appropriateness after a set period of inaction.

So the standard procedure for a certificate of appropriateness is that either staff or the architectural review board does a full review of the application within 30 to 60 days after submission, and they will send the applicant either an approval or a request for changes to meet the regulations that are or to meet the standards that are required.

Currently in the ordinance, if the application does not follow that process, if it is not reviewed and an action not sent to the applicant,

The applicant can request a final decision on their application.

If no action is taken within 21 days, that certificate of appropriateness is automatically approved.

In discussions with Airbnb staff, we did discover that this has not been used and it is not required by Virginia Code.

and at the County Attorney's Office's advice, we are not imposing unnecessary constraints on county bodies or staff, so we are recommending you're moving that provision.

In another section for a similar procedural change, we're codifying the practice of declaring inactive applications withdrawn.

Currently, there's no provision in there.

It's kind of an ad hoc administrative basis.

This would remove stale applications from review timelines and keep applications moving.

So the proposed auto withdrawal of applications or voluntary withdrawal of applications would be after six months of complete inactivity.

which would be staff would reach out to an applicant for additional clarifications or request a outside agency approval, for example, a ABC permit or VDACs or VDOT approval, and if they hear nothing within six months, then that would automatically withdraw that application.

If the applicant reaches out and says they're working on it, if they are continually applying for things and working towards compliance, it would not be withdrawn.

but this stale application process

holds up applications that are just submitted as placeholders because the applications are not actually ready to move forward.

So this bogs down review processes.

It eats staff time on applications that are not ready to be reviewed.

And we believe that removing it would be overall a positive change both for staff, frustration levels, and also for keeping the process faster in our review times more responsive.

So as we have described, the current ordinance does have this complicated table of requirements for legislative applications.

This screen shows only a small fraction of the requirements on this slide.

And as we have noted previously, for items that are not mandatory for each and every application or which are likely to change over time, it is best practice for these lists to live outside of the ordinance.

We would have these application lists on the county website, within application forms, and also within our application process software, so that the information would be easily accessible to any applicants who are pursuing these.

But since these requirements are on a case by case basis, for example, a site plan landscaping update would not require a new traffic study, but a new site plan for an entirely new site would require a new traffic study, or

A requirement that may change as technology progresses, like requiring location of EV charging stations in a parking lot.

These requirements would currently, under the current procedure, need to be listed in the ordinance.

that's a little bit confusing there and updates that list would require a full zoning text amendment so we're recommending removing these lists from the ordinance so that they are more accessible to people and not less and clearer in their provision as I believe is generally known but if in case it's not

A checklist of all these requirements is provided after mandatory pre-application meetings.

That's not changing.

The applicant receives that.

So I do want to assure both the public and the board that these types of requirements are not changing.

They're not going away.

The location is just being updated to make them more accessible.

Additionally, something that we are looking forward to is moving to our new community development system, Enterprise Permitting and Licensing, EPNL, where we're streamlining application processes to bring the lists of application requirements into the specific application forms.

So the EPNL system in brief will replace both county view as our applications manager and also provide an applicant portal, which guides the applicant through the process of submitting an application step by step.

Each question must be answered, so the applicant must upload a type of item that is required on each list.

After the application is received, it's reviewed for quality control, and if the items were uploaded incorrectly, or if someone uploaded their grocery list instead of a project narrative, then application review would stop and the application would be rejected.

We do still have humans at the end of this looking at it.

So finally, as part of our review of Article 3, I wanted to highlight the process diagrams we've included in the applications process.

It is guiding the applicant through a very basic, very high-level process of applying for and following the review of each application type.

So here we just have two of them, certificate of appropriateness and special use permits.

It creates a visual language that is very easy to digest and quick.

The different colors indicate different actions taken by different groups.

So the gold colored actions are the applicant's actions.

The navy blue actions are staff.

The maroon in here is architectural review board.

Purple is planning commission and teal is board of supervisor actions.

So this allows, at a glance, basic understanding of the process, and I think it provides a level of understanding beyond just having to wade through a wall of text, which is unfortunately one of the realities of the ordinance.

So finally, our last section that we're looking at is Article 10, which covers nonconformities.

As we have noted again, we're replacing the language that quotes Virginia Code, instead referencing the Virginia Code sections with links out to that.

We have had a few additional changes, including language regarding the expansion of non-performing quarries and cemeteries.

The expansion of nonconforming quarries and cemeteries in the previous ordinance was frozen to the date that that ordinance was adopted, but because this would be adoption of a new ordinance, we are saying that we are freezing it back on the date of the previous ordinance's adoption, June 14, year 2000.

So that just keeps it from rolling forward for additional expansions on that particular type of nonconformity.

So after we had completed all these drafts, we met with the Charlottesville Area Development Roundtable and the Blue Ridge Home Builders Association, here referenced Kadre and BRHBA.

Their feedback has been very positive.

They primarily expressed interest in even more simplification of language if we could.

and they expressed interest in particular regulation-specific topics that we will be considering when we're working through the topics those issues pertain to.

So their feedback has been great and they have pointed us in some directions that we followed to make the ordinance better for the users who are going to be using it the most often.

So finally, circling back to the beginning, we would welcome feedback on the two questions mentioned at the beginning of the presentation.

One is the framework and organization, logical and comprehensible.

And two, are there any ordinance points or requirements?

Are there anything unclear?

I think we should stop and ask questions now since I think it's all fresh.

I think, unless I call it out, this is mainly for you to take and deal with that.

I'm not necessarily looking for a response right now on all of this.

This is both commentary and then there could be some questions.

So most of the, not most of it, all of it's on three.

So to your first, where are your questions?

Your, the framework of the articles seem logical and for the most part I comprehended them.

I don't know what that gives you, but that's where I'm at.

Now the details, some of the comprehension of the details,

probably less so just because I'm not living what you guys live in and out.

But again, these are some commentary.

I don't know where it said minimum submission standards in Article 3, but it seemed to be later after saying, in my view, an application is complete or it's not.

So to say what the minimum submission standards are almost suggests the way that I read it at the time, based on my notes, opening to the door that your application could be incomplete, but at least if you have this.

I don't know if that's what it actually says, but anytime I see minimum submission standards where I think we get into trouble accepting things that are not complete,

that becomes problematic.

So the minimum, what I guess my point would be, make sure the minimum submission standards line up with the complete what is expected for 100% complete application, which it may actually do.

So I'm just calling that out.

Under 317 for application completeness, it sounds like they submit it.

We say we're going to review within 14 days.

If we return on the human touch that you said that it's not complete,

then they have 90 days after the 14 days to resubmit or refix or correct or do whatever.

That's 104 days.

It dawned on me, not to anybody's fault, this is not a criticism, but this is why we think things take so much time.

Because as soon as I hit submit, it's 104 days before anything that may or may not be missing for anybody's fault is actually addressed.

And that's three months in.

So I do call out the philosophy of why 90 days for a complete project, for a complete application.

When I submit things, like, I'll take my taxes.

I guess I can do a correction.

I ordered Bojangles for the family last night.

It was bow time last night for the Gallaways.

Got a big old bow box.

I had to pick the sauces or it wouldn't let me complete my order.

So I think technology allows us to require

Certain things have to be X. Now, if it's a shopping list, maybe our software isn't there because I know we started down this road with software really before the whole chat GPT and AI and stuff got there.

But my guess would be if this company is worth its salt from a software standpoint, we could be able to utilize the technology of AI to scrutinize content.

That if we saw, don't forget to pick up the milk afterwards when we're looking for site plan,

We could probably figure that out without needing human touch and cut down on some of this time frame and workload for both us and the applicant.

So I'm throwing that out there as a suggestion.

Even if that AI piece is maybe we're not there yet, I would think that I just, I mean, I don't know what else to do but to put on the applicant your completeness.

And it's my view

I mean, why to give 90 days that we're going to hold on to your materials?

I matched the 14 days for review.

Here, we've reviewed in 14 days if you return this completed, which it should have been 14 days ago because you missed something or, you know, I'm not trying to say there's, I'm not trying, how I'm sounding is like they're doing it intentionally.

So, but 14 days seems reasonable to allow a complete application to come back in from the folks that are criticizing us for how much time that's taking to get things done.

Otherwise, your application's out the door and it has to be resubmitted.

That's my opinion on the matter.

So, time to act, I think that could help out on the front end, and I can definitely start to see how perception of time versus reality

of Actions is in competition with one another.

And I'd love to figure out how to tidy that up.

Somewhere in here, I think, oh, that's coming.

I'll wait till I get to that section.

3.33 and then 3.53.

You had your, you may want to go to the slide that had the diagram, your diagrams that show the process right there.

So on the right part of this slide,

And you may want to reply to this tonight.

If not, you can punt till later.

Either way is fine.

But this is also kind of a philosophical thing that I'm wondering about.

So my question is, is the community meeting, well, no, not a question.

Most community meetings are happening in our CECs at this point.

And when I hear my community advisory committee and or public who show up to ask questions,

Typically, staff who are there presenting along with the applicant are saying things like, this is currently under review.

I'm suggesting to the board, does it make sense to do community meetings before the staff has done a complete review?

Because what's happening, I'm finding with my own committee

is that information that's coming out that may get bolted or pulled out or corrected by the end of staff review is now out in the public and my committee is reacting to things that may not even make it through review.

And that ends up becoming problematic I've seen sometimes when it gets to the Planning Commission and the Board because there's a sense

that the information that was presented in a community meeting that hasn't even been reviewed yet is now alive out there.

So I wonder if that community meeting piece should be after staff review, staff comp, somewhere further in place where we say to the applicant, you've had a reviewed application, whatever happens, I mean I get what it is, I'm not trying to be flip about it, but then they come to the community and have to do their community meeting and it's a more thorough reckoning or closer

form of what would actually come to the Planning Commission and the Board.

I think that's better for us from a community piece.

And that never occurred to me.

Like, I've sat in these CACs and I'm like, oh, yeah, it's still under review.

But a lot of times the response to questions that citizens are asking are, well, that'll be handled in the review stage.

It's under review right now.

That'll probably be caught in review.

Well, is that probably and it may be caught?

I mean, is that really what we want to be saying?

We've taken their time to come attend a meeting and we've asked for questions and response.

I think all of us could tighten that up.

So I'm throwing that out there as food for thought for both supervisors and for staff.

343, this is a minor point.

and I didn't track it after this, so I don't know if this is the only occurrence or if it happens elsewhere.

But there seems to be, on one piece it said calendar days, but for a whole different thing it said business days.

I think we need to be consistent.

Because I think as soon as, whatever you say first is probably what they think, even though it says something different later.

That's how I do it.

You say calendar days, my brain goes, all right, I got the day thing down for the rest of us.

So I even had to go back and reread it after I hit business days and went, well what is, well business,

Oh, so now it's a different time?

Okay.

To me, that's just a consistency thing.

I think we pick one or the other.

There may be good reason why one's business days and one's calendar days.

I'm not trying to say there's not a good rationale for it.

But I think, even if there is, we should get to a point where it's consistent, because I think it's a little unfair that if a person sees calendar days for one thing, but business days for another, we're setting up problems for the applicant, problems for ourselves, then we've got to answer things and back and forth, etc.

353, it says voided, does this?

Oh.

I think this is the piece where it's talking about runs with the land, 353, and I think it must be under a section that says voided.

I'll just make my point, and that's where it's at.

I didn't cite a page number, I'm sorry.

My question is, does this capture for our purposes the state change to allow certain SUPs to cease with the applicant and not run with the land?

I'm sure it does because you guys are very good about aligning with state code.

But I want to make sure as we're redoing this, like a homestay for example, unless I'm grossly misunderstanding, we can see certain things with the current applicant and not the land.

So I just want to make sure that's

and it may need to be pointed out in here, but maybe it doesn't.

I'll just throw it out there.

All right, page two of the Excel file, which is your cross-reference piece under manufactured homes.

So this one I am looking for a response.

It says anticipated removal of use.

Are we not allowing manufactured homes?

I believe that is, let me just make sure that I'm looking at the right one.

32.3.3 Section 5 currently, but it's being removed.

It says remove, but it didn't, like some of your removes said, oh well it's over here, it's redundant, or it's gonna be in this section.

So, okay.

That was a recommendation.

This would be something that we would want to look at in our uses phases.

Well, maybe I'll call out what's flagging for me, and then that can inform the discussion.

You know, manufactured homes, especially the quality and the materials being used,

and more importantly, or most importantly, the cost reduction using manufactured homes, I think is going to be an important, is an important part of getting at affordable home ownership.

So how subdivision relates to that, I guess I didn't have in my, I didn't catch that.

So my concern would be that we have to make sure what we're doing aligns with what our hopes would be under our affordable housing.

Well, I will say that the proposal here does not recommend in any way removing the use of manufactured homes in the county.

The subdivision regulations for manufactured home subdivisions specifically are different from the regulations for a normal subdivision.

There's certain produced standards and a higher density, smaller lots.

and a difference of treatment for the subdivisions for manufactured homes than there are for any other subdivision.

With this proposal, you could do a normal subdivision and then put a manufactured home on most of those lots.

I think I need more.

I think I need some learning or education.

And I'm not saying now.

I think this is just I need a

I'll have to go back and re-look at, I guess, subdivision.

It doesn't sound like we're preventing manufactured homes.

So then my next question is, but we're preventing subdivisions of manufactured homes?

Or mobile home parks.

And manufactured homes, yeah.

Yeah, I will just note real quick, Bart, that this would be something that we would want to look at when we get into districting, when we get into uses.

The overall crosswalk that we have is not in stone, and this is just suggestions.

Got you, understood.

Bart Spivota, Deputy Director of Community Development.

So just to be clear, we are not getting rid of

that type of housing of manufactured homes that's still going to be allowed.

Part of that is a requirement we have to allow in certain districts.

That being said, I think this is also going to be part of some affordable housing discussions that we'll probably have in the future.

The mobile home subdivision

and I think we sent something out earlier this week.