Board of Supervisors Adjourned Meeting and Meeting w/ State Legislators   9/29/2016

Terry, our Deputy County Executive, and Tom Foley, our County Executive.

And he's saying no, don't say that.

No, I'm good.

Now that the copyright has worn out on happy birthday, finally we can legitimately sing it.

My gift to you is that I will not sing.

Thank you.

All right, and this is our work session on strategic priorities, so whoever is going to start us off, please do.

So I'd just like to open it up to any comments anybody might have and we'd be looking for guidance of the board if there are any changes we should be making with the tiering at this point.

But as she said, there was a comment I think Brad made about sprinting versus marathons and things like that.

Can we sprint on the proactive rezoning?

But what we wanted to do is just kind of to move through and make sure that we've got things to your satisfaction at this point in time assigned to tier one versus tier two and tier three.

So there's a lot of administrative attention as well as board attention to it.

our recommendation for the broadband one is that you do reconsider that following the completion of the work because there is some fluidity to something that may emerge from that or the economic development strategic plan some of those other things so we certainly have allowed for that possibility and would anticipate that you would have that kind of discussion and then you would have your established tier ones and you could have that kind of how does this

and number three.

I think the underlying theme that Rick is bringing is that a lot of the things that were resulting in tier two are things that many of them don't have a lot of tangible actionable items and I think as they become more actionable they will start to challenge the other tier one priorities.

So I think it will create that opportunity as we move forward.

and our water resources program is another sleeper.

I mean I can talk about, but that's okay.

The important part of that of course is going to be resource allocation and how we prioritize some of those things.

That's exactly right.

So if we understand that concept, and I do like the ripening word, the idea that we've got some that may ripen and go from tier two to tier three to consideration for tier one, are you generally okay with how they're laid out at this moment in time?

the specific budget issues that we're looking at that you can see that there's relatively less attention played to environmental issues.

So I agree that we need to certainly pursue and continue to pursue all the things we're doing now and emphasize those as we go, such as the water protection ordinance that we talked about last week.

Are there any of these that strike you as being not the right thing or not expressing what you were intending to have happen?

No, not at this point.

This is, if we were to tell you at the end of two years, these are the things we're going to get done, would you think we were working on the right things towards the right objectives?

Just in terms of the wording, what Brad was talking about of rezoning, proactive rezoning, form-based planning, I think there's a mushiness of what are we trying to do with that general realm of discussion.

That's what we've been talking about.

So in number two, the ones that have to do with proactive rezoning desired urban landform use, you would want to perhaps tighten that up and put some language in there that would be about revenue producing.

I think that overall economic development and improving the balance between the amount of our revenue that's generated by business as opposed to residential is what we're going for.

That's exactly what we're doing.

I think we're going to limit ourselves and we're going to poke people in the eye for no reason if we're going to talk more about increasing revenues than there is any reason for it.

I think everybody has voiced that before.

That's what we're trying to get at.

We can take the notes on that and as we move forward to more fully when we put a document together say for the public that would talk about some of the things we're trying to achieve with these these goals and objectives it clearly is going to talk about revenue generation and so forth

what we're looking for because just saying a larger percentage from commercial or from non-residential tax revenue doesn't totally get at the you know at what we've been talking about and I just want to make sure I don't know if somebody else has a better way of saying it.

It's a different conversation you're having than other people are having because the other counties all have I mean that's information this is sort of 60-40 split 70-30 split is readily available for every jurisdiction whereas this other

So anyway, I think this is fine.

And so a whole subset of strategies as we go forward, we just need to think about those and figure out how to balance the two that are constantly gonna be facing us as we move forward.

We love children, we love people coming here, but at the same time, we have to look at our bottom line, so anyway.

I do think we covered those bases pretty well.

Otherwise, we're going to be here in 10 years again.

This component will be done that does feed into that goal.

Tom would you would you characterize the reason that the economic development plan number four is in tier two because it's so far along that it doesn't require priority attention by staff?

Yeah I was the person on staff that said maybe we should move that to tier one but I'm convinced that this is again I think that the challenge of this is to say that tier two and three are really not high priorities they really are it's more a matter of

and given that economic development plan.

I think we need to take that comment back and figure out how maybe, particularly for the public, that we do this in a way that makes it more clear.

I think that's probably a lingering question out there is that we don't value economic development.

As long as at the dais you all understand that's the intent, what we'll do is work from these comments to kind of make that so it doesn't seem confused to the public that this is way down the list.

No matter how you rank it, it's going to sound like we think this is much more important than that.

It's not necessarily a top priority.

So all of this I think will play out as we do that and maybe the tiers don't have to be there in the same kind of way once we get time frames and resources set up and approved.

I think there's a way that we can get that all moving and congealing at the same time.

And even as you look at your sheet at the very first item on that list of tier ones under resources, you're seeing that the economic development office is saying it would be helpful to have $25,000 right now for any of the kind of analysis that might need to be done to be sure we're able to move to some of the other items on tier one.

and that's all where we're trying to get to just very simply.

We are asking for some help with some year-end funds to help move some of these things forward but as we continue through this that will come out some more.

These aren't in silos.

I'm sure you've already done that, but I'm just curious how that works.

I think you mean in the economic development planning part of what we're doing?

What we're doing with economic development is so closely tied with planning.

Absolutely.

Is this a regular structure in any way?

So it's basically built into the way we're developing the plan.

and they meet routinely, regularly, specifically to work, collaborate with each other on the preparation of the draft economic development strategic plan.

And formalized.

Before we do that, and that will be the timing discussion, also seeing if any of these dates can be accelerated or moved in any way, but before we do that, are there any other objectives in this tier one list that anybody feels like we need to talk about to make sure we're all in agreement that it is what we are trying to achieve in the next two years?

Something like that just to remind people that it ties to a tier two objective.

So, Doug, I think it's you to start.

So let me stop and see if I've helped to clarify or there's need for some more clarification.

What's the timeline for that recodification of the ordinance?

would take approximately 12 to 16 months to bring back to the Board of Supervisors for its consideration.

So that's the second line, that by October 2017, number two?

and then there are the draft ordinance that actually accomplishes both of the form-based zoning for example opportunity in that for comprehensive rezoning and the improvements to the zoning ordinance that is generally characterized as recodification.

So for me that, I hate to say it's in a negative way, but it's unacceptable to have to wait another year just before we start talking about being prepared.

I'm just trying to understand exactly how specific these substantive changes are.

but it also may mean that we can expedite more quickly implementation of form-based zoning or other comprehensive zoning intentions by the board.

Those substantive changes if it, I mean I start to get scared when I think if it's going to involve you know the whole county but if it's very specifically to these zones that were you know to form-based zoning and what we're trying to do in specific areas I'm a little more comfortable with it and so I just want to

I thought that we were using the Rio small area plan as a separate mini form-based code section just like the DCD was done in 2010 because that way it's something you can bite the elephant a little bit at a time and get it done as opposed to just

A special district covers that.

So this is all using Rio as the area.

We've been jumping up and down about this for three years.

I think potential areas for economic development activity.

putting pen to paper to actually what exists in the growth area right now to kind of put people like Liz's fears at ease that we're not looking to expand the growth area as much as it defined what's in the growth area that's acceptable for economic development because again right now we're going to continue to pass up opportunities

Well there may be places where corrections need to be made where it's appropriate and so following up on that is really important to do as well.

I just want to make that clear that that's, I believe, well at least my intent at that time when I said well we need to take a step back was to take a step back and quickly define what opportunities existed in the development area.

but it also suggests that before you made any changes that you might want to consider that you do a comprehensive look at the entire county for the growth boundaries not just particular areas so that may be something you all want to clarify going forward.

Well that work was done with the comp plan too which you just mentioned the looking at the boundaries I'd rather just focus on well the work has already been done.

It has not been done to the level it needs to.

And so if there's any clarification needed that, I think that maybe looking at that motion would be important.

So just an idea and a different way of looking at it.

That is something we said last year but now we're working on prioritizing and I don't really quite know what, I personally don't know what kind of FTEs we'll take for staff to do those simultaneously.

We will still look at whether there's a possibility to accelerate under this plan.

So to make it fair to landowners as well.

you'll bring forward that that may be short of the comprehensive look there are probably some opportunity areas and say you know if you want to pursue them give us direction to pursue them but but we'll bring your motion forward too so you can take a look at that and figure out if it's consistent with your strategic plan and where you want to go at this point.

I interpreted it the same way Ann did from the outside watching the process on the Planning Commission that I saw that resolution as a pause as a comma not as a period.

What the takeaway we're hearing, obviously, is relook at this.

I don't know how you want to go about doing that, but I think this board needs to weigh in on what that means to a couple of these priorities that are put out here.

I think based on what you've said here it's good to look at that motion and to evaluate what it says and if there's some some tweak to it that you think makes sense to be consistent with this yeah and that's this board's decision but we can bring that forward again we come back in on the 11th because it does have something to do with how we proceed with with the strategic plan okay October 11th is your next session on

Well, let's take notice of Lester's warning and move on.

And I think that's a strong message.

clarity around the staff portion and the process pieces.

but establishing that as a model and then looking to where else we could replicate that in the county I think will be a huge step forward and I think there will be a greater degree of confidence in the overall process as a result and I think that's going to be important for the entire community.

And those boundaries have been defined in the small area plan work, which are

Anything you might do individually through partnerships and things like that would be different, but within the context of a much broader area.

It does not include the annexation to Greene County, however.

Not that far north.

Yeah, the four quadrants.

And so it starts it right there near Albemarle High School and goes all the way around to Cochran's Mill.

You're only one of six people in the county that know that, though, so you need to be a little more specific.

So that's coming forward so the public and beyond just the board here can have an opportunity to see that.

So Doug, if you could maybe talk us through those and some of the resource issues related to those strategies.

I'm glad to answer any questions that you have about any of the objectives that are in there and how that then may relate to resources needed in the future.

In 17 we said these are the things we've already assessed we think we're going to need to move this forward so.

money that's able to pull down that significant match from the state in order to better leverage that opportunity.

We're leaving nine million dollars a year on the table.

We're leaving a lot of money on the table.

I think of that every time I drive 29 South into Lynchburg.

That's great.

How we might move that forward.

Some specific potential projects and then some just ideas about how to crowdsource and partners.

We just need to push it along.

We're talking about revitalization of deteriorating urban areas that we need in this county or we're going to be forcing everything, which is what we're doing now, out into the other areas.

I agree with that.

Part of it.

So I need to know what the other part is and Greg's going to have to help us understand what our rights are about but we're not going to be doing a vinegar hill out here so I just we need to know exactly this is about affordable it can be about affordable housing it's about economic but there's a lot that goes into this but it's just not about aesthetics

The duck wall.

We are.

The grass coming up amongst the sidewalk.

The wall that is right along the exit off of the 250 bypass onto Barracks Road.

That's what we're working on.

He has a picture of a duck on it on a big concrete cracked mess of a wall that has weeds growing up in front of it and it looks like it might fall down but they put a duck on it.

But so you feel like you're driving into an area that nobody cares about.

Tom, do you foresee or does your staff foresee being able to achieve some of these aging urban issues with or without forming a public works department?

We have had a lot of discussion about it.

I mean we are an urbanizing county and every urban area has a public works division that handles these things.

We don't wanna set off an alarm that suddenly we gotta go to the city extent, but it is evolving.

If you look at number seven, for example, under FY18, there was a thought that contractual services to consider phasing in of public works functions was something.

I think that's a reality we have to think about.

That might be a good discussion for future with the city.

Well even our work at Rio and what the Rio intersection is going to be requiring more thought in these areas so it's happening as Brad said it's part of our urbanization.

Okay, thank you.

One just requires more management of contracts versus management of staff.

and yes we don't want to take it all on and couldn't turn it all on at one time but some kind of a phased approach to that I think would be very appealing.

and Contracting Out.

You just have to procure it in a different way.

have that conversation at a level that is actually meaningful and not just, oh yeah, we're gonna all cooperate together and it's gonna be great, but actually getting it done.

Which is a formal agreement.

It's a valuable third option.

Yeah, and there are some other boundaries in the south, so there are opportunities if we could just figure out how to make that happen.

Well, as we'll talk about certainly further on the fourth, there's a great deal of partnership that happens around environmental issues and solid waste in those areas with the city, so that we have been talking and discussing the idea that there may be other opportunities in the public works.

Thank you.

So the board will have that opportunity also.

are already doing so much with social services and education and everything else going on there that access to the new park, everything else.

And I know Tom's working on that.

We will be pursuing that for sure.

I'm just saying there are other opportunities besides just Southwood that we need to be jumping on.

So I do think we're going to need another, a larger focus on affordable housing and I agree with you, Diantha, about urban housing.

and formed that committee, so that discussion actually took place and it was a very good discussion and there was a lot on the, the planning commissioners were very interested in moving that forward, so just comment.

Redevelopment there would probably reduce service impacts and Doug has done a bunch of work so you'll see that at your next meeting in terms of how significant we think this project could be in terms of making a difference in this area.

And their partnership is already in action there that we need to make sure continue.

We need to work very closely with the city on this because our affordable housing future is tied to what the city is doing and we need to look at the policies and the codes and where they mesh and they don't mesh in ways that we work together for the best interest of citizenry.

And they were present, the director of the housing authority was present in that meeting and was very good.

Bill, I think you had some of the next few ones that were other tier one objectives.

So as those discussions emerge and we understand exactly how that's going to play out, we'll be in a position to update those cost numbers for you.

Item 13.

It again will depend upon the actual partnerships that emerge from our discussions with these agencies.

Got it, thank you.

Those are underway as we speak.

It's very, yeah, it really is.

I have been involved in here recently, and I just say that there's a lot of energy and good work going on at both committee levels to try to address this issue.

That's scary.

The effort through the United Way is really focused on that.

Good quality programs is what

Those will be coming back to you in this coming fiscal planning cycle where we're looking at the next two years and we'll be introducing some of these ideas to you.

like diabetes and other kinds of diseases that need at home care and they get a bonus if they can keep them out of the hospital for a month so I know Dan has talked about that.

My understanding is that that's a part of what's being discussed as we look at the Pantops facility and so there's some discussions ongoing about how that might be

I know that there's an alliance, the Elder Care Alliance, including Java and others are also looking at that issue as well.

But we can follow up if that's not being looked as broadly as what you're talking about.

Yeah, it just seems like that's one narrow thing we're looking at, just great for Pantops, but it seems like it might have broader application if you're already looking at things like the EMS.

That's great.

It's great work.

It may involve incredible, I mean, some increase in staff again, so just keep that in mind.

It doesn't have to be through EMS.

But before we shift to the program and service inventory, was there anything else that anybody did not have an opportunity to say that occurs to them at this moment?

It's exciting to be thinking in a different way in hopes of getting a different result.

All right, so we'll circle back to this at the end, but now we'd like to turn it over to Lori and let her take you through some discussion about the program and service inventory.

We would just like to ask you if you had any reflections or reactions to the program and service inventory and any initial feedback you'd like to provide to us as we start putting forward all this information into your two-year balance fiscal plan.

So that's a little bit off the topic, but it's in the same.

I agree though, I've heard that quite a bit too, so I think it's a real issue if this isn't the best time to talk about it.

It's the fact that they're implementing a code that we blindly, I mean, I blindly adopted thinking, oh, that's a good idea, not knowing that this was going to be the consequence of it.

And I guess the question on top of that is, are our fire engines now too big?

Well, that's a yes for sure, because they can't.

Because if they can't even get down the road, then the problem becomes more complicated.

So holding onto the old engines is definitely good, because then you can get up the narrow roads.

On the category list, most of them are self-explanatory, but I didn't understand, one, I didn't understand what local ordinance written directive meant, and then how is that different from a central function of local government?

So that's how we thought through it when we were at categorizing them but there easily is some overlap and it's just one way to look at it and some of them do a little bit of both.

So when you say local ordinance you just said that there so there would be an ordinance related to that?

Larry Davis actually studied each one of these and helped us categorize them.

The same directive would be a policy that didn't get formalized with public hearing and stuff, but it's a real directive from the board.

But then I came across a couple like that water protection ordinance that was like...

Which number was that one?

It's just halfway down the page.

Yeah, our reserve for contingencies is too.

That might have been a mis-categorization because if you look at this description...

I can email you some of the other ones.

Okay.

but has a high value in this community.

So yeah.

And it's a big budget.

Let's eliminate it.

Just a couple more examples.

Yeah.

But I think we need a different word than discretionary, quite frankly.

Well, we just need to defend it when people have questions.

It's not a problem.

Discretionary really is a, you know.

So to me.

That's the money we use for emergencies and they need to understand that.

It needs to be a different term.

Lori, were you going to go over this particular, or is this just provided for information?

It was provided for information, and it was something I already shared with you previously, and I thought it just kind of summarized your program and service inventory in a broader way.

So, just interesting percentages.

I don't think there's 32% of the budget going with that 32%.

No, but it's just very interesting when you look at what...

There's a lot more you want to do with the strategic plan

and then you start getting into things that even if it's a local ordinance that's still something that we can affect and then you get into discretionary and all that and it for me it challenges me to understand what how much do I value each of these as we get into the more of the gray areas and I think that again that's what we're doing here with the priority based budgeting is putting numbers to what we value and yeah.

It just seems like an awful lot for libraries.

It is a regional library, but this does show you our costs and our share.

I mean, I think it's a wonderful thing, and I love the libraries, but my first impression is that seems like a lot.

what is our share of the regional library system and how does that compare with other regional library systems in terms of a per capita basis that would give you some perspective to say oh we're not spending that much more than others and how many of our citizens are using it would be another perspective on it so we we I think we actually have that information but we can follow up on that because I'd want you to look at that and go you know I've seen that information extensively apparently that's the bar that Andy's holding me to

It's good information though because I think regional programs like Jaunt and like the library, we need to do a better job in identifying not just what Albemarle is responsible for but how Albemarle plays into a larger picture.

So the whole computer labs that each one now has help people with their job services, and the librarians are all cross-trained with the workforce folks.

It's just very difficult is all I'm saying.

It's apples and oranges and grapes and pears.

As Ann said, the more you coordinate regionally, the bigger bang for the buck you get.

But that doesn't mean there's not more opportunities for that too.

It's very helpful, very thorough, and I think it's going to be very valued when we go into the two-year budget planning process.

and we can just make sure we have it available as an Excel file on our computers during the budget so we can easily find it.

The reason it's not in your current budget book is because we were refining it even more and it just missed the timing and it's always been in the budget book and we have it available on the website.

That was what I found to be so easy and I understand why it's not possible.

I haven't heard anything where there's...

you know per trial if it's pre-K education or the number of people that use the library for all the many services they have you know how many people have library cards or you know it's some indication like that not just per capita for the population as a whole if there's I think that's a complaint like for some of the land use things that are relatively small segment get a disproportionate amount of the benefits I think that's what we should look for too not just a general per capita analysis

And I hope when that contract comes due, which is within the parameters of our fiscal planning here, that we can revisit that and think about whether we can get more neutering at less cost in the future.

I think Doug is about to do it for us.

So we are looking at that.

only a very small, not very small, but it's a portion of that operation.

So I'm very glad you're going over the contract with a fine tooth comb and to try to enhance ways that the county can get more control over the operation is, as you know from me, very, very important.

So we're looking at that also.

Thank you for the update and that information.

Well, any other comments on program and service inventory?

Is this document available for the public?

We have set up a priority driven budgeting website and I can send you all the link and all these documents we have been putting up there to make them available.

and I think many people in the public don't really understand the work of the county because it may not touch them specifically but we are one community and we have to support everybody in the community in one way or another whether it's transportation or whatever service it might be and this is really a great document to show the work of the county.

But that's an important audience that we need to educate about the range of these options.

Where does it go?

So I use that all the time.

What did any other thoughts anybody's had since we talked about any of this load those many two hours ago?

Thank you very, very much.

So I think there's a linguistic issue that some people hear it as priority one, priority two, and other people see it as category one, section one.

Thank you.

We'll look at the whole options of how to make sure it's not confused.

The terminology can change, but it was useful during that process of elimination and prioritization.

So our goal would be come back on October 11th with a revised strategic plan for your adoption and also some more discussion about the resource allocation piece and leading into getting ready for you all to accept the draft two year plan in November for work sessions and discussion and adoption in December, hopefully.

Excellent job.

But we're having our lunch first and then we're calling to order.

I think that's correct.

Yes, we're going to be meeting with our legislators