Board of Supervisors Work Session: Priority Driven Budgeting Process   10/11/2016

Work Session: Review/Endorse Revised FY 17 - 19 Strategic Plan.

• • Liz PalmerSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Chair, Board of Supervisors
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    I want to make a couple of introductions for anybody that is here in the public that doesn't know these folks, and I think there isn't anybody, but anybody that's watching online.
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    Our officer for today is Officer Vandevere.
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    Thank you very much, Officer, for joining us today.
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    On the dais with the Board of Supervisors to my far right is
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    Greg Kamptner, our county attorney.
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    To my far left is Tom Foley, our county executive.
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    Behind the dais is our clerk, Claudette Borgersen, and
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    We have Lee Catlin who is our assistant county executive who is going to start our discussion on strategic priorities.
• • Lee CatlinAssistant County Executive
  • 00:00:46
    Thank you very much Chair Palmer.
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    I appreciate it and appreciate again the opportunity to be back in front of you to talk about the FY 1719 strategic plan as a part of the priority driven budgeting process that we've been underway on.
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    Our main outcome today, hopefully, is to have you all as a board
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    endorsed the objectives of the FY 1719 strategic plan, making sure that they clearly reflect the most important things that you want us to focus on for the next two years.
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    We also want to have an opportunity for Laurie to follow up briefly on comments that were made at the last work session on the program and service inventory.
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    and we're also hoping that we'll have a little time at the end to allow you to reflect a little bit on the process that we have been under.
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    We embarked on this in May having not ever done priority driven budgeting or approached your strategic plan in this way.
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    We want to have a learning opportunity with you all on how it's worked for you because if all goes well this would be something that we would anticipate being a part of business going forward so we want to make sure we're
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    getting your thoughts and feedback on how it's working for you all as a board.
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    So with that, again, we have spent the last several months using the principles of priority-driven budgeting to get us to this point.
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    Started with identifying and ranking priorities.
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    Staff did some work.
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    We brought it back.
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    You gave us direction, we've done some work, we're bringing it back again.
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    Emphasizes the very iterative nature of this process that will continue through the two year strategic plan.
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    But we are at a moment now where we are hoping that we can review the plan as it stands now, make any adjustments that you have today.
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    and hopefully be in a position for endorsement.
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    This will allow us to be, it's still a living document, still adaptable over time as we've talked about, some things may emerge, but we want to at least have a solid enough foundation that it can provide guidance for the two year plan and the annual budget.
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    So that would be certainly our hope here today.
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    So what you have before you, and we have been dating these, I apologize, I know you've gotten these documents a lot, but this is, as of 10-11-16, this is the most recent version of the FY 17-19 strategic plan.
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    and it reflects the feedback that we got during the September 29th work session.
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    So I'd like to talk you through a little bit of what we thought we heard and how we tried to reflect it in the document you see and if we didn't get it right or if there's some additional comment or discussion we need to have, then we certainly would love that opportunity to do that.
• • Liz PalmerSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Chair, Board of Supervisors
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    Lee, can you put any documents up on the screen so that the folks watching from home can see them?
• • Lee CatlinAssistant County Executive
  • 00:03:54
    You know, I don't have it right in front of me, but I can get somebody to get that on Jump Drive and we will do that.
• • Liz PalmerSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:04:01
    Thank you very, very much.
• • Lee CatlinAssistant County Executive
  • 00:04:02
    I appreciate that.
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    All right.
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    So those documents will be coming on the screen in a minute.
• • Brad SheffieldSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:04:07
    But in the meantime, first of all, I think one of the— It's like we need to get one of those for, I guess, everybody in this room, that projector thing where you say, you know, when you were in school, that they had the overhead light.
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    The overhead light.
• • Rick RandolphSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:04:22
    Yes, to have one of those.
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    That's right.
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    The overhead projector?
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    Mm-hmm.
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    Looking around.
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
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    It's back there with the mimeograph machine.
• • Diantha McKeelSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Vice Chair, Board of Supervisors
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    Maybe a chalkboard?
• • Lee CatlinAssistant County Executive
  • 00:04:35
    All right.
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    First of all, I think the most overriding thing that we heard or certainly one of the most overriding thing was concern about titling things Tier 1 and Tier 2 and Tier 3.
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    And did that make it seem that things were
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    that were obviously very critical issues, were not as important as maybe they should have been.
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    So when we heard you all talking through really the distinction between what was the more immediate work and what were the things that were also important but maybe not cued up as ready or as ripe or whatever the kind of language that we use, it seemed to us that there were two of the objective areas that were
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    highest priority ready for immediate resource investment and action.
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    So there was a sense of urgency, immediacy, and readiness that really put them towards the front.
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    And those were the ones that had to do with the redeveloping the Rio and Route 29 intersection area.
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    and Revitalizing Aging Urban Neighborhoods.
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    So tier one, tier two and tier three has been taken away and so how we have categorized these hopefully to be a little more accurate to the public about exactly how these stand because I think as Mr. Randolph said the tiering was helpful for when we were doing the preliminary work but now we want to be accurate in how we title.
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    So we called the Rio 29 and the Revitalizing Aging
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    Urban Neighborhoods as the highest priority strategic objectives ready for immediate resource investment and action.
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    Then there are a group of other ones that were artists formerly known as Tier 1 that are now other strategic objectives that are ready for immediate resource investment and action.
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    And then what we had been calling Tier 2 and 3, which did seem to imply
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    not as important whereas I think what we talked about was they really were not as ready or did not have as definitive a direction as the others.
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    So these have been titled strategic objectives requiring further development and direction and we try to identify very specifically in the action underway slash next steps column the fact that
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    There were, in many cases, an already established kind of triggering event, if you will, that would give you all the opportunity to move them into that more immediate category if you desired.
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    So for example.
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    Broadband, we talked about that before.
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    We all know that's a very critical item.
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    But there's a path underway for that.
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    You've approved a study grant that's being done.
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    It's going to come forward to you.
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    So the action underway slash next steps for that one says that you will provide additional direction following completion of the study anticipated in February 2017.
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    It may very well be.
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    that a more defined immediate objective that will need resources put to it will emerge from that and you'll have the opportunity to do that at that time.
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    Another one in that category, same kind of thing, is the Economic Development Action Plan.
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    We know economic development, we talked about it last time, is a hugely important priority for this county.
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    Right now you've got a plan that's going to come forward to you very soon.
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    And as you see in the action underway slash next steps, the draft strategic plan comes before you.
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    and then implementing specific strategies following adoption of the plan may very well bring some specific steps into that more immediate category.
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    So hopefully that titling and that a little more clarity to the former tier two and tier three that allows people to understand that these are not unimportant objectives, these are not things that are not
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    of great critical importance to you all, but they're in a path where they don't have an immediate thing for us to grab, put resources to, and get done.
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    So that's one of the major things that's different between this one and the second one.
• • Lori AllshouseAssistant Chief Financial Officer for Policy & Partnerships
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    I'm gonna pause for a moment.
• • Lee CatlinAssistant County Executive
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    I'm gonna actually ask Louise if she will run this and get this up on the screen.
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    So the next thing that we did, again to do with economic development, several of you mentioned concern that it may not be as apparent as it should be
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    that a number of these objectives are related to focusing on economic development.
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    So a couple of ways that we would want to address that.
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    First of all, these objectives, the work you see here will be part of a public document that will have an introduction and explanation and background to it.
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    So we would certainly envision in that document giving great voice to the fact that economic development is an underlying thread and certainly a very much a part of a number of these objectives, although it may not be specifically called out.
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    Really, pretty much the entire redeveloped Rio Route 29 intersection area,
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    along with a number of the other objectives have either a direct or indirect influence on economic development, place making, all those kinds of things.
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    So the introductory and background on the strategic plan, we'll call that out very clearly.
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    We also, on page one, the second
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    Item there under redevelop Rio Route 29 intersection area.
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    In the first yellow highlighted item, we added something that we thought captured a little bit about what we heard.
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    We added, and improves the balance between residential, commercial, and industrial tax base.
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    so that there's a clear sense that that is really focused on increasing the percentage of tax base that we are getting from industrial and commercial versus residential.
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    Other changes that you'll notice in yellow on that item and if you flip the page over, you'll see another item, yellow item at the top.
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    We heard very loudly and clearly that
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    You want those two actions to happen as quickly as they possibly can.
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    October 2017 for the proactive rezoning.
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    and the May 2018 for the broader recodification.
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    So we put in there the note or the direction that we will accelerate this timeline and work in sequence with related efforts to the greatest extent possible.
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    We didn't have an adjusted date to give to you on this yet because we're still working through exactly how that
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    can be, that timeline can be compressed.
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    But what we certainly would imagine would be the opportunity to come back to you as we're looking at how those processes, once we get a little further along and we look at, for example, how the public engagement may play out or how some of the other parts of it might happen and give you options for if we were to do this
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    We could compress the timeline by X months and make sure that everybody was clear on that and get your direction about whether that was what you wanted to do.
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    So just as an example, not saying we would do this, but when we've talked about compressing processes in the past along these lines, we might say to you, if you did a joint work session with the Planning Commission
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    as opposed to two separate ones, you could save some time or if you did this instead of that, you could save time and then you all can then talk about it and if the majority of you all feels that there's an advantage to that, that will help us understand how we can move the timeline.
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    Okay, another highlighted item that you will note on page three
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    We talked about item number seven.
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    There was concern that we wanted to make sure we weren't limiting ourselves to aesthetic appearance when it came to the work in our aging urban neighborhoods.
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    So we added the highlighted.
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    Item that states, by January 2019, improved deteriorating physical conditions in the county's urban core neighborhoods.
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    Again, so there was not just the sense that this was about how did things look and what were the aesthetics, but that it addressed some of the really significant deterioration issues that we might be facing.
• • Rick RandolphSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
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    Can I just raise a point that when I look at that freshly today I'm a little concerned that we are establishing a very high goal here setting the bar at 18 feet and that we're going to be able to get over it by January 29.
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    As written, it suggests that we will have improved deteriorating physical conditions, meaning
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    all of the conditions as far as I would read it.
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    It doesn't say some.
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    It says deteriorating physical condition in the county's urban core neighborhoods.
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    And I'm just a little bit concerned that we've set a bar so high that is it realistic for us to be able to expect?
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    that the county would be in fact able to accomplish that when we're a year and two months away from it and it doesn't look like it's going to be that difficult when you look over at the board intention dealing with entrance corridors and high visibility public spaces in the urban areas.
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    I haven't seen a list of all of the high visibility public spaces nor the physical conditions at all of the entrance corridors and cost estimates associated with that but it could be considerable so I'm not trying to backslide in raising this point in any stretch of the imagination I'm just raising the question
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    as phrased.
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    Is this realistic to expect that we're going to be able to do that in the time frame attributed to it here?
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    I don't see it saying being finished.
• • SPEAKER_10
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    It says improving, you know, that's an ongoing thing or we could read it that way if we want to do it.
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    I mean obviously we're not going to complete it.
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
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    The wording in the paragraph above, to increase efforts to improve deteriorating physical means, we're going to, we need to start and keep trudging along, little by little, that's what it means to me.
• • Diantha McKeelSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Vice Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:16:13
    And when we talk about aging urban neighborhoods and improvements, I think what we're going to find and what's needed is, for example, sidewalk projects,
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    in some of the neighborhoods to improve those neighborhoods.
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    Infrastructure that you might find in our new development areas that the 50-year-old neighborhoods don't have but infrastructure that would go a long ways.
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    to making them non-aesthetically nice while it would do that, make them look nicer.
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    But it also makes them functional, makes them places that people want to live so that they actually have places where they can walk.
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    So I guess for me this is getting at more than just the little area that we designate entrance corridors.
• • Liz PalmerSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Chair, Board of Supervisors
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    It also goes with what we appropriate as a board.
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    Exactly.
• • Diantha McKeelSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Vice Chair, Board of Supervisors
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    And it goes into what is in the CIP and how we prioritize it.
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    So I get what you're saying, Rick.
• • Rick RandolphSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
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    What I'd actually like to suggest is parallel language between the paragraph above and below to just say, by January 2019, we will increase our efforts to improve.
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    Then I think it's clear.
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    Then we're consistent between both of them.
• • Diantha McKeelSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Vice Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:17:42
    Right, and I do, this is kind of, I guess it wasn't very clear last time when I talked about just the aesthetics and making it pretty.
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    While the entrance corridors are accurate, because we do have work on several of our, or maybe more than several of our entrance corridors,
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    When we're talking about aging urban neighborhoods, neighborhoods where people live, have homes that are 50, 60-year-old neighborhoods that don't have HOAs, don't have sidewalks, are deteriorating, or deteriorating sidewalks.
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    In one case, they have them and they're in terrible shape.
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 00:18:27
    I'm not sure how we get at this, but.
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    And part of this is we want to get a statement that defines an outcome, what we're shooting for.
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    So there'll be a whole bunch of steps to get there, including figuring out which of those neighborhoods are the most urgent to get at.
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    Exactly, and prioritize a list.
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    We haven't put the action plan in here, but the question is whether the statement drives us to the right place.
• • Brad SheffieldSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:18:49
    There's a difference between saying improved, the deteriorating physical nature, and then like completing
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    the physical conditions so I mean there's work to be done to complete the physical conditions of the the urban core but there are deteriorating aspects so those are two different things which require two different sets of resources well in my mind actually it's the same set of resources of new public works department but anyways that that's a whole nother conversation.
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:19:17
    Some clarity about how seven and eight distinguish from one another I think one of them is more public works
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    Point, directed for maintenance it sounds like and the other eight is more construction and I don't know how to define it better but I think some clarity would be helpful.
• • Diantha McKeelSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Vice Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:19:33
    And I think there's a disconnect and I think you're right and I think there's a disconnect on seven between board intention and action objective.
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    Maybe you all because when it says an approach maintain an attractive aesthetic appearance in the entrance corridors and public spaces, that's a different area than the urban core neighborhoods.
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 00:19:56
    So we tried to make sure that it's clear that there's two things going on here.
• • Diantha McKeelSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Vice Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:20:01
    yeah I guess and trying to make sure that it's clear right that we're really not just talking about an entrance corridor we're actually talking about aging urban neighborhoods why don't we put the word aging in front of urban core neighborhoods if that helps I think Rick's language that says we'll
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 00:20:21
    increased efforts to improve deteriorating physical conditions in the county's aging urban core neighborhoods.
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    Is there an improvement to that to make it more clear?
• • Diantha McKeelSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Vice Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:20:32
    Well, it looks like the board's intention doesn't quite match with the proposed two-year action.
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 00:20:40
    with the statement above it that was there originally matches it good.
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    So we're saying there's two things here now.
• • Lee CatlinAssistant County Executive
  • 00:20:46
    Yes.
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    And we were expanding because your intention was not when we had the first discussion.
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    That's helpful.
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 00:20:53
    Okay.
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    Entrance quarters, we all know, is a particular thing.
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    And then you're saying these aging urban neighborhoods need attention too.
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    So we've got a completely separate
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:21:02
    It might be easier, you know, different areas just to add another number and put the thing in yellow as a separate item.
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    We can do that.
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    Give it number eight and push eight into nine and then we have a better, because the assignment of tasks may be different for those different boxes and we'll lump them together.
• • Rick RandolphSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:21:21
    For the Europeans which is, I think it's seven BIS.
• • Lee CatlinAssistant County Executive
  • 00:21:26
    OK, so what I'm hearing is that we will make that its own objective, take it away from, separate it from the one dealing with aesthetic appearance, and we would word it to say by January 2019, increase efforts to improve deteriorating physical conditions in the county's aging urban core neighborhoods.
  • 00:21:49
    OK. That was what we added or changed substantially based on what you all talked about last time.
  • 00:22:01
    Was there anything before we're going to talk about the resource piece in a minute.
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    But before we did that, was there anything that anybody was thinking that they had wanted or asked for or was concerned about that you don't see that we've addressed?
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:22:17
    not that but I should have thought of this before but it just occurred to me now is if we can lump the new 8, 10 and 12 sort of together because they're all not lumping them in the same box but sort of grouping these 12 things by use category in the same way that we did something else that Rick suggested I just what made me think of it is if we that'll give us three different items that all are dealing with different aspects of the same thing it's not changing the content at all but just to try to
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    lump the transportation together and the water together and the urban aging infrastructure together and then it will be a little more substantial.
• • Norman DillSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:23:00
    okay well real quick one of the things that struck me is are we really going to try to do the rezoning and all the things related to that seems like such a big project and then at the same time the evaluating potential use of urban service districts just seems like
  • 00:23:22
    I haven't heard us talk about that a whole lot.
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    It seems like we're all talking about the zoning changes.
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    I don't know, they seem to be similar kind of things, but it's really a whole different project that would require a whole lot of planning effort and research and all.
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 00:23:43
    The proactive rezoning is defining what we want to accomplish.
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    A service district is sort of a way to accomplish it.
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    So we sort of see it in that kind of a way, set the direction and the vision.
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    The other one is evaluate how we might use service districts to actually carry out that vision.
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    And we are actually, if you look at the date on that, we're actually planning to bring that forward in the next month.
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:24:08
    for your consideration.
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 00:24:10
    So we do see them as being able to exist separately.
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    In fact, the proactive rezoning that occurs around Rio, which is what we focused on, there may be service districts in other areas that are ways to focus in on what we want to accomplish in an enhanced level of service through the establishment of a service district.
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    So it doesn't just apply to the Rio area.
• • Brad SheffieldSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:24:36
    And I just want to give a quick example of that proactive rezoning.
  • 00:24:40
    I don't know if y'all took note of our board packet for tomorrow, but Better Living has got to get a setback, special exception.
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    And then to the Planning Commission is coming a rezoning of the parcel next to it that's requiring it to get a setback because it's residential and they want to switch it to highway commercial.
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    And that's a corridor that we actually want to be, you know, where we focus business development.
  • 00:25:01
    Both those applicants have to go through a longer process to get to where we want them to be anyways.
  • 00:25:08
    But most everybody here is shaking their heads.
  • 00:25:10
    That's more for the public to understand what we're talking about here is that that's just wasted time, wasted effort of staff and even of the applicants.
• • Diantha McKeelSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Vice Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:25:18
    Yeah, and time for the applicant and frustration.
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 00:25:22
    One of the challenges with this whole effort and some of the feedback from staff about the timeline on the proactive rezoning is
  • 00:25:31
    that's a pretty involved process with a lot of property owners that won't agree with their neighbors necessarily about what they want to see and so how we go through that process we're working with staff to say how do we do this as quickly as possible and they're saying we're on board but we went out to Crozet and we thought it was going to take this long and it took that long and other examples but just because there are going to be affected property owners that will
  • 00:26:00
    want to make sure we have a really good public process.
  • 00:26:04
    Obviously, though, if we assume we're going to have to have 100 roundtables to do it,
  • 00:26:09
    we might need to cut it back to 50.
  • 00:26:12
    So that's the trick in there.
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:26:14
    I know that's hyperbole, but until we start we won't know.
  • 00:26:18
    And my main concern is when we think of things and we have this idea that it's gonna be a really big process and all of a sudden because we think it's gonna be a really big process it goes to the end of the list.
  • 00:26:27
    And then we never get it done.
  • 00:26:28
    I mean we've literally been talking about what you and Greg have been talking about since 2008 and probably long before that.
  • 00:26:35
    so I really hope we will keep that toe in the door to say we've got to start and yes maybe it'll take longer than we hope but when we start at least we'll be started and we can then it's going to take months to get people interested and involved it always does even though they're the ones most seriously impacted it takes a while to get through to people and have them see the thing on TV or read the article in the newspaper so I hope we start as soon as we can.
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 00:27:01
    And that'll be without question how long it takes us to finish.
  • 00:27:05
    We're going to do our best estimating of that and even give you some options on how we might accelerate it.
  • 00:27:10
    But you'll have to make some choices between, you know, 100 roundtables and 50 just hyperbole, like you said.
  • 00:27:18
    Five or ten, you know, that kind of thing.
  • 00:27:21
    But anyways, that's the challenge with this.
  • 00:27:24
    And there's no question, and I'll say it right now, that between now and the time that that gets done, there'll be some other thing that comes along that we'll feel this way about it and it'll be frustrating.
  • 00:27:37
    But with the public process, it just will take some time.
  • 00:27:41
    And we'll give you some options on how we might accelerate as we go forward.
• • Lee CatlinAssistant County Executive
  • 00:27:47
    All right, if we could shift a little bit then into the resources discussion.
  • 00:27:52
    Obviously, there's a big connection between the what we want to do and the how we're going to get it done.
  • 00:27:57
    Doug and Bill talked you through some of the resource piece of this during the September 29 session.
  • 00:28:05
    I think that the resources for FY17 are the most immediate and they're laid out pretty clearly for you but we're going to talk through those in just a minute.
  • 00:28:16
    I think the expectation is that if you endorse the plan today that we would be coming back to you very quickly with a reappropriation that would be about making the FY17 things start to happen very immediately to meet the timelines.
  • 00:28:34
    We've identified generally where we think the work impacts will be and where the resource needs will be so that you can have that in your mind.
  • 00:28:48
    The idea is that when we come to you with the balanced two year plan next month,
  • 00:28:53
    That will be much more specifically defined so you'll know what that means.
  • 00:28:59
    Also the realization that because we're two years out talking about projects that we haven't scoped out entirely exactly how they're going to play, we're going to have to keep that dialogue going.
  • 00:29:10
    We'll be able to get it to a certain set of
  • 00:29:12
    definition, and then maybe by next year's two-year plan we might have FY19 even more clearly laid out.
  • 00:29:19
    But we did want to emphasize that FY17 is upon us and that would be something that we would take as an action from your endorsement of the plan.
  • 00:29:29
    FY18 and 19 will be a detailed discussion during your two-year balanced plan.
  • 00:29:35
    So having said that, I'm going to just quickly, there are some personnel related costs here and some non-personnel related costs.
  • 00:29:46
    And I'm just going to point out to you the two non-personnel related items and then Doug Walker's going to talk about the personnel issues.
  • 00:29:55
    If you look at number one, the
  • 00:29:59
    April 2017, board adopts desired vision as an early outcome of the small area plan process.
  • 00:30:05
    We have identified the need of $25,000 for contractual services to engage data analysis, real estate, redevelopment expertise to support faith in the economic development office as the small area plan process is moving forward.
  • 00:30:22
    So that would be a one-time cost for a contracted service.
  • 00:30:28
    Then if you look on page 4, item 10, you'll see again a funding need of $50,000 for a blight remediation
  • 00:30:44
    slash Spot Improvement Fund.
  • 00:30:46
    That would allow us to get going in the current fiscal year for some things that we can identify, whether it's signage, you know, whatever that might be, with the idea that in out years we would continue to add to that effort.
  • 00:31:01
    So those are the two money only kind of things that are outlined here and then.
  • 00:31:06
    As I said, Doug's going to talk to you about the personnel resources.
• • Doug WalkerDeputy County Executive
  • 00:31:10
    Thank you, Lee, Madam Chair, members of the board, Doug Walker, deputy county executive.
  • 00:31:14
    And we did discuss this when we last addressed you on the strategic objectives and the resources in particular for FY 17.
  • 00:31:23
    And you can see this iteration, the previous iteration actually identified some
  • 00:31:29
    some full-time equivalencies as a way to identify resources that we had anticipated would be needed to drive this work.
  • 00:31:36
    This is related to the proactive rezoning and the recodification work specifically.
  • 00:31:41
    Those representations included planner positions and assistant county attorney positions or a portion of a position as a way to reflect a volume of work.
  • 00:31:56
    In discussions with staff, there is obviously a lot of interest in how best, how effectively, how efficiently can we actually accomplish this within the time frames that we in here have committed to.
  • 00:32:10
    Recognizing that the current staff is, if we're using staff, is in the best position to actually accomplish it because of what they know already about our zoning ordinance, right?
  • 00:32:21
    So there's not that learning curve.
  • 00:32:23
    Dedicating those resources to this effort creates a need to then backfill from the work that they're currently doing.
  • 00:32:30
    And so the thought was then that the resources being identified would be to backfill from a capacity standpoint.
  • 00:32:38
    In this iteration, it's been rolled up into a single amount, but I wanted to kind of show you, break it apart a little bit, to kind of show you how we got there.
  • 00:32:46
    As we come forward and have this plan to you in, I believe in November, with the how we're going to accomplish it, we're still kind of weighing the best method, using some combination of some contracted services
  • 00:33:07
    perhaps some additional staff positions as a way to kind of expedite this work.
  • 00:33:14
    One of the challenges is we're treating this as a project.
  • 00:33:17
    It has a start, it has a finish.
  • 00:33:19
    And so what do we do with those resources in the context of having a project?
  • 00:33:25
    And so we want to be thoughtful about how it is that we construct our plan, our resource plan, in order to accomplish the project.
  • 00:33:34
    without just coming to you with the proposal to add staff.
  • 00:33:38
    It may be, in fact, that we think that addressing this through staff positions or portions of staff positions, part-time, temporary, may be the best way, but we wanted to, we'll come back to you and talk to you about that more specifically.
  • 00:33:51
    So I just wanted to reference the 165 rolled up number, but also kind of just remind you that when we showed this to you last week, it actually had, it was just broken out differently.
  • 00:34:03
    That's what I had planned to say.
  • 00:34:08
    I'm glad to answer any questions that you might have about that.
  • 00:34:12
    Again, a lot of this was constructed based on the assumptions by the Community Development Department and the County Attorney's Department on what actual work is necessary to make this happen.
• • Liz PalmerSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:34:23
    Okay, thank you.
  • 00:34:24
    Questions for Doug?
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:34:26
    Yes, so did I understand correctly when you're concerned about hiring staff when it's a project based because then what happens when the project is done?
  • 00:34:35
    However, these pages are full of 15 different things that that person could, or whichever person, if you hire a backfill person or two, then whoever they're replacing can move on to other things on pages two and three.
• • Doug WalkerDeputy County Executive
  • 00:34:49
    That's correct.
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:34:50
    And with our experience of having to redo the work that consultants do with county staff after we've already spent a whole lot of money, I really prefer the hometown guys to do the work.
• • Doug WalkerDeputy County Executive
  • 00:35:00
    I understand that.
  • 00:35:01
    There are also, there are workload capacity issues that we're addressing in community development right now that we'll be talking more about in the not too distant future.
  • 00:35:11
    There is the
  • 00:35:13
    The reality of the reduction in our overall staffing community development coming out of the FY 9, FY 10 process through the austerity measures.
  • 00:35:24
    There's the demonstration that in those instances where workloads change that we certainly have demonstrated in the past our ability to reduce positions and so there's some comfort there.
  • 00:35:36
    there is that conversation also with what is the best way to kind of bring this forward but in addition to recognizing that after this project that there are other aspects with implementation or other initiatives that we might also want to achieve.
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 00:35:51
    What you're likely to see in the next month or so is some positions that we feel are necessary to keep up with an increased workload which has revenues associated with it that are going up as well.
  • 00:36:07
    and at the same time trying to move your strategic issues forward.
  • 00:36:11
    So one is operational, exists now, workloads up.
  • 00:36:14
    And the other is to move this stuff forward.
  • 00:36:17
    So that's what we're trying to balance out in terms of bringing you a balance to your fiscal plan.
  • 00:36:22
    And even the decision between what could be contracted out to deliver a specific result and what might be continuing responsibilities that are strategic that would require a position to continue instead of a contract.
  • 00:36:37
    those are the very things that we're struggling with and working through right now and so you're gonna see all this come together soon in fact next next month before you see the two-year fiscal plan we'll probably have in front of you a request for workload challenges that community developments faced faced with so again all of this is coming together so that we've got a pretty realistic two-year picture of what we got to get done to get this done
  • 00:37:04
    and also to address things that are just changing right now.
  • 00:37:08
    So we're in the midst of that.
  • 00:37:10
    That's why some of this, we'd love to give you these exact numbers right now, but it's a work in progress.
  • 00:37:16
    But getting your general sense of what you see here and whether you think that looks like some good direction is really what we're trying to accomplish today.
• • Doug WalkerDeputy County Executive
  • 00:37:23
    Part of that communication is differentiating between the workload pressure that is real and does have associated revenues because activity levels are up and strategic objectives that don't want to get consumed by workload pressure.
  • 00:37:39
    And so it is intentional to try to keep them separate, but they do obviously have some similar implications to them.
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:37:47
    And the skilled people that you hire will be able to bridge that gap also.
  • 00:37:51
    And the all hands on deck happens when the deadlines are there and work has to happen.
  • 00:37:57
    So I know that you'll have a lot has been learned in the last decade about refined scopes and keeping better control of things on contract as well.
  • 00:38:06
    And so that's another way to put me at ease to make sure people don't go off the reservation again.
• • Rick RandolphSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:38:12
    Doug, within the scope of discussion by staff, was there any mention of utilization TJPDC?
  • 00:38:18
    One of the things I'll be announcing tomorrow is the TJPDC policy, where they're going to be providing so many hours annually back to each county based on the level of financial contribution.
  • 00:38:31
    So we're not going to get money per se, but we're going to get hours of dedicated time by TJPDC.
  • 00:38:40
    I would certainly encourage us to factor that into the equation because they have transportation expertise in Will Cockrell.
  • 00:38:48
    They have other expertise on staff that could lend itself to some of this work.
  • 00:38:54
    So I hope that's something also that you've put into the equation here.
• • Doug WalkerDeputy County Executive
  • 00:38:58
    I'll take that back to community development.
  • 00:39:00
    We have talked about the TJPDC resource specifically with regard to transportation and how we might then better leverage our resources and their resources to accomplish goals.
  • 00:39:11
    Obviously there are strategic initiatives in here related to transportation.
  • 00:39:16
    We have not had a direct conversation about how that relates to the proactive rezoning and the recodification work, but certainly to the extent that they are partners, then we would want to take advantage of what they're able to do.
  • 00:39:29
    And I'll take that back to community development to see how that fits in.
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:39:36
    All right.
  • 00:39:39
    I didn't want to monopolize the conversation again, but number 18 is also a place where the PDC could be helping us.
  • 00:39:48
    I know at our meetings with the city and in several different meetings here with our board alone, people have mentioned the river corridor and that is something that for our
  • 00:39:59
    The county share or tithe for the River Basin Commission of $5,000 could, when combined with all the other counties in the RBC funding, would be able through the PBC to start carrying out the project in number 18.
  • 00:40:16
    and I think that would be a pretty good leveraging of dollars so hopefully you will consider that when you're preparing the budget.
  • 00:40:22
    It didn't get funded last year but I sure would like to see it funded this year because they lost out on the other counties because we did not do ours.
  • 00:40:28
    They didn't collect anybody's because Charlottesville didn't do theirs because we didn't do ours and so we need to both have a united front so that we can get that going.
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 00:40:38
    Well, they did some preliminary work, I know, on that, but moving it to the next level, I think Chip just mentioned the other day at the joint meeting, so that is an item we'll make sure gets carried into this plan.
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:40:48
    Oh, and 15 is the other one.
  • 00:40:50
    That is something where we certainly know that there is
  • 00:40:56
    a monstrous staff shortage and I don't know whether Phyllis can give us something sooner than 2019 as far as other state leverage dollars that she can bring in.
  • 00:41:06
    Just because I hate to wait three more years.
  • 00:41:09
    That's all.
• • Lee CatlinAssistant County Executive
  • 00:41:10
    I will say that the date doesn't mean that if we can't do it sooner we won't.
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:41:15
    Right, as long as the people outside know that they need to be coming to us and saying don't be inhibited by the date on this box.
  • 00:41:24
    If we have a problem we need to address it sooner.
• • Rick RandolphSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:41:26
    I wanted to say that I was on the RRBC board when they put together the funding formula.
  • 00:41:34
    It was specifically designed not to penalize larger counties and especially the city of Charlottesville to ensure participation in last year, fiscal year 17.
  • 00:41:49
    Ironically, the two smallest counties in Greene and Fluvanna stepped up and they supported the RRBC and both the county and the city of Charlottesville did not.
  • 00:42:00
    So we have egg on our face and I hope we get it off this year.
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 00:42:04
    Was that through the budget process or through a separate?
  • 00:42:07
    It was the budget process.
• • Lee CatlinAssistant County Executive
  • 00:42:11
    All right, now we would like to let Lori Allshouse have a chance to respond back to some comments that she heard about the program and service inventory.
  • 00:42:21
    After Lori and you all have a chance to do that, then we're going to ask for endorsement of the plan as we've talked about it today, and then, as I said, give you all a little chance to reflect back to us how this process has worked for you.
• • Lori AllshouseAssistant Chief Financial Officer for Policy & Partnerships
  • 00:42:38
    Madam Chair, members of the board, I'm going to just take a couple minutes and pull up a slide for the people who are watching.
  • 00:43:10
    Thank you for the opportunity to talk with you some more about the program and service inventory.
  • 00:43:14
    When we were before you last week, we talked about a couple changes that you would like to have in the inventory and I just wanted to share with you the changes we made on behalf of your suggestions.
  • 00:43:25
    The slide that I have on the screen just gives you the overview again of the program and service inventory.
  • 00:43:31
    It notes that there's 246 program and services.
  • 00:43:35
    It talks about the different categories that we have them organized by.
  • 00:43:39
    We had a category that was called discretionary, a board-directed discretionary, and we talked a little about that word and we thought there might be a better word that we could use for that.
  • 00:43:49
    The staff looked at several options and thought that the word elective
  • 00:43:53
    might be a better option for that so that we did use that word instead of discretionary.
  • 00:43:58
    We changed it in the descriptions and we changed it throughout the program and service inventory that's before you.
  • 00:44:05
    The other change we did, there was thoughts about wouldn't it be good to know what agencies receive regional funding support and that we note that.
  • 00:44:15
    And so we added a column to the program and service inventory and we put an X by those that receive a regional funding support.
  • 00:44:23
    Now you're not going to see them.
  • 00:44:25
    You have this new inventory in front of you.
  • 00:44:27
    They start on page, one starts on page 17 which is the Darden Towel Park.
  • 00:44:35
    Then it moves on to the regional firing range and those types of things.
  • 00:44:38
    And then the agency section which starts on page 27 is where you'll find most of the regional funding check boxes by many of those regional agencies.
  • 00:44:48
    You'll note that
  • 00:44:50
    59 programs and services receive regional funding support, which is 24% of all of our programs and services.
  • 00:44:58
    So it's a great deal.
  • 00:44:59
    Now we also do regional collaboration in many areas.
  • 00:45:03
    We did not note those specifically.
  • 00:45:05
    That would have taken a little more time than we've had between this meeting and your prior meeting.
  • 00:45:10
    But there's a lot of regional collaboration we do as well.
  • 00:45:13
    For example, transportation planning and those types of things.
  • 00:45:16
    So we just really wanted to note the ones that actually there's funding coming in from another source so that it provided more information for you.
  • 00:45:25
    So those are the changes we made to the program and service inventory.
  • 00:45:32
    Are there any questions on those?
  • 00:45:33
    And I had some other, another quick item I'd like to follow up on.
• • Norman DillSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:45:38
    Sir, what did you say about the Dardantow Park?
  • 00:45:40
    I don't see it on here in the page you said.
• • Lori AllshouseAssistant Chief Financial Officer for Policy & Partnerships
  • 00:45:42
    It starts on page
  • 00:45:45
    Dardantale Park is on page 17.
  • 00:45:47
    I was just noting that was the first time, you know, you're going down the columns, you're going, where is this regional support?
  • 00:45:53
    It's alphabetical.
  • 00:45:55
    That's where the first one is noted.
  • 00:45:56
    So you'll see the X starting on Dardantale Park.
  • 00:45:59
    That is a regional operation.
  • 00:46:02
    That was just the first point, you'll see it.
• • Norman DillSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:46:04
    Was that an update from the previous list?
• • Lori AllshouseAssistant Chief Financial Officer for Policy & Partnerships
  • 00:46:07
    Yes, I updated that based on your suggestions at our last board meeting.
  • 00:46:11
    I made the mistake of keeping my packet and not getting the new one as somebody said it hadn't changed.
  • 00:46:18
    Yeah, today I just passed it out at the dais right before your meeting today.
• • Norman DillSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:46:23
    I gave mine back because my understanding with it hadn't changed, so thank you.
  • 00:46:27
    Okay, thank you.
• • Lori AllshouseAssistant Chief Financial Officer for Policy & Partnerships
  • 00:46:29
    So the other questions that were asked during the program and service inventory part of our conversation had to do with the fire marshal's office and some specific questions about the building code and those types of things.
  • 00:46:43
    So I have some notes I'm going to basically read from my notes and we have some experts here in the room if you have any follow-up questions because I'll know about three sentences and then there'll be others that can probably help out if you have more questions.
  • 00:46:55
    So the first question was what specific services does the Office of the Fire Marshal provide and what are the fees related to the services and how do we compare with others?
  • 00:47:05
    So basically the Office of the Fire Marshal provides guidance and education to assist citizens, businesses, and visitors in the county to reduce the risk of fires.
  • 00:47:14
    These activities include education programs such as media blitzes, permits, inspections, investigations, community meetings, hazardous material safety programs, school safety education programs, citizen safety events, smoke alarm installation programs, and others that provide safety education for local businesses and investigations to identify reasons for emergencies.
  • 00:47:38
    The fire marshal's office has 5.5 FTEs.
  • 00:47:40
    They're divided in three sections in your program and service inventory.
  • 00:47:45
    I believe it begins on page 11, is the first one at the bottom of 11, and then there's two on the top of 12.
  • 00:47:53
    So there's three parts to it.
  • 00:47:55
    We broke it down very deliberately into specific program and services.
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:47:59
    Okay, mine goes 12 to 13, so that was the idea.
  • 00:48:01
    Mine goes to 12 to 13.
  • 00:48:02
    You have the old packet, I think.
• • Lori AllshouseAssistant Chief Financial Officer for Policy & Partnerships
  • 00:48:06
    Okay, sorry.
  • 00:48:06
    You guys are ahead of me on that.
  • 00:48:08
    As far as fees, the Virginia Code allows for recovery of some of the costs associated with these programs.
  • 00:48:15
    And just recently as March 2015, you updated your fees.
  • 00:48:20
    There's a great fee study that was undertaken and it was compared to many of our other jurisdictions to see that we're in the same ballpark for fees.
  • 00:48:27
    I actually have a copy.
  • 00:48:29
    of all the fees we could pass out if you'd like to take it with you to see all the details of the different fees for the different types of inspections.
  • 00:48:37
    So I have that here if someone would like to see more details on the fees.
  • 00:48:40
    But you're going to give us the total received.
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:48:42
    Yes, I will.
  • 00:48:43
    Compared to the total personnel.
  • 00:48:44
    That's really what I'm talking about.
• • Lori AllshouseAssistant Chief Financial Officer for Policy & Partnerships
  • 00:48:45
    I sure will.
  • 00:48:45
    So the total cost for implementing the fire prevention programs, and again those are those three programs in your service inventory, is $596,000.
  • 00:48:53
    Approximately $125,000 in fees are anticipated to receive this year to offset the costs.
  • 00:49:00
    So that's a net cost to the county of $471,000.
  • 00:49:05
    Other benefits we wanted to point out of these programs include mitigation of potential loss of tax revenue by reducing the community's risk with emergencies.
  • 00:49:14
    Again, we adopted those fees in March 2015 and we can't update those fees.
  • 00:49:19
    I mean, those fees could be looked at again.
  • 00:49:21
    We have the ability to increase them if we think we should increase them.
  • 00:49:25
    For a comparison, if you compare the county with Hanover, they collect 146,400 in fees and they have 8 FTEs and we collect 125,000 in fees and we have 5.5
  • 00:49:44
    Our workload per FTE is higher than it is for the Hanover.
  • 00:49:49
    When you take the tasks that are done by our jurisdiction in Hanover, our FTEs do more actual tasks as compared to that comparison in Hanover.
  • 00:50:00
    Another question was, please provide additional information about the state fire code.
  • 00:50:06
    Are there some sections on the code that we can un-adopt?
  • 00:50:10
    So the Virginia Statewide Prevention Code Act is a statewide body of law that applies uniformly through Virginia.
  • 00:50:17
    And it's kind of similar to the Uniform Statewide Building Code.
  • 00:50:20
    If we don't adopt it, the state fire marshal is responsible to do it.
  • 00:50:27
    So it applies to us whether we adopt it or not, but it depends on the, it's about the enforcement.
  • 00:50:32
    It's about who enforces it is the question.
  • 00:50:40
    So basically, with limited modifications, Albemarle County has fully adopted the state's fire prevention code.
  • 00:50:47
    Now, the county may enforce it if they choose to.
  • 00:50:52
    The county must require compliance with the fire prevention code in its entirety.
  • 00:50:57
    Or you could require compliance with provisions of the fire code related to open burning, fire lanes, fireworks, and hazardous materials.
  • 00:51:05
    So it's not that you can adopt or un-adopt the whole thing, but you can choose to not enforce the whole thing.
  • 00:51:10
    So that's really the difference there.
  • 00:51:13
    So the county may elect to enforce less than all four of these areas if you choose to.
  • 00:51:18
    On another note, we wanted to point out that risk reduction and application of the code is a major factor in establishing the ISO rating for homeowners.
  • 00:51:29
    The fire prevention efforts in the county has been instrumental in reducing ISO risk ratings for the county, which provides the ability of citizens and businesses to reduce their insurance liability.
  • 00:51:40
    And then I'll go into the final question and then if you have questions on any of this we can go back to them.
  • 00:51:45
    The final question were are street sizes affected by the state code?
  • 00:51:49
    If so, should the county keep older smaller fire engines to serve those areas with smaller sized streets?
  • 00:51:55
    So you know this is a real complex issue.
  • 00:51:58
    The statewide fire code does call for fire apparatus access road.
  • 00:52:03
    That means getting to a fire has to be a minimum of 20 feet wide, unobstructed with a height clearance of 13 feet 6 inches, and one that provides access to all portions within 150 feet.
  • 00:52:15
    So this access road is a path from the fire station to the building and includes public and private roads.
  • 00:52:22
    The width can be reduced to 18 feet, and you could change your distance if there's a sprinkler system in the building.
  • 00:52:29
    These restrictions are not different than the VDOT standards, and parking usually is the issue when some discrepancies arise, and the VDOT standards allow for parking lanes in addition to the travelway.
  • 00:52:43
    And then as far as the trucks, the newer trucks have a better turning radius than our older versions, so the size of the fire trucks is not that much of an issue.
  • 00:52:51
    The requirements are around the scene operations, so when they sit down to fight the fire, it's really about the width of the scene you have to have around you to do your work, and firefighter safety rather than the size of the trucks.
  • 00:53:04
    So that's the information I've obtained in answering those questions.
  • 00:53:08
    And we do have folks here in the audience that are the experts that could answer any further questions you might have.
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:53:15
    Could you say again the four categories that we have a choice about enforcement?
  • 00:53:18
    I got open, burning, fire lanes, hazmat, and something.
  • 00:53:21
    Fireworks.
  • 00:53:22
    Oh, goody.
  • 00:53:23
    OK, we're already doing that one.
  • 00:53:24
    Yes.
• • Lori AllshouseAssistant Chief Financial Officer for Policy & Partnerships
  • 00:53:25
    And basically, my understanding is that if we don't adopt it and the state enforces it, the enforcement level is very, very minimal.
  • 00:53:34
    on all categories, so you don't get a lot of enforcement.
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:53:37
    But we're doing these important ones already, and those are the ones where it is sort of life and limb involved.
  • 00:53:45
    And we can have an option not to enforce one of those, but we do enforce them.
  • 00:53:48
    But the other ones are things we can choose not to do.
  • 00:53:52
    So, I mean, 20 feet wide of a street would be no problem.
  • 00:53:56
    We have 26 foot wide streets in our
  • 00:54:03
    What am I trying to say?
  • 00:54:05
    Mixed use approved neighborhoods, coded developments, where people have lived for five years and then were told that they couldn't park in their thing anymore because all of a sudden we have to have 28 foot wide streets, which is obviously way above what you just reported for 20 feet wide.
  • 00:54:19
    This is the kind of enforcement which seems to be overturning our development process that we have that's a separate parallel silo and so that's a separate discussion from today but it is different than what she said.
• • Liz PalmerSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:54:35
    I just want to get some clarity to find out exactly what's going on.
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:54:38
    That could be in everybody's neighborhood, it could be Rivanna Village, it could be anywhere.
• • Dan EgglestonChief of Fire Rescue
  • 00:54:44
    I just wanted to point out that- Name and who you are.
  • 00:54:47
    Oh, I'm sorry.
  • 00:54:47
    Dan Eggleston, Fire Rescue Chief, Albemarle County.
  • 00:54:50
    Thank you, Dan.
  • 00:54:51
    Street widths are at 20 feet.
  • 00:54:53
    There's been a lot of negotiation during development so that we can eliminate or reduce parking on both sides or one side to try to compromise and work with the developers on that.
  • 00:55:05
    That hadn't changed and that's a big role of the fire marshals is to work with the developers in the community development
  • 00:55:12
    as we start looking at some of these things.
  • 00:55:26
    I think we've done a lot of good work in that case.
  • 00:55:30
    I don't think it's inconsistent with our plans and our model, especially the model that you see in the development areas.
  • 00:55:39
    So I think it requires good knowledge of the code and working with the developer and the community development.
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:55:44
    Can you know what happened in neighborhoods?
  • 00:55:48
    It's not working.
• • Dan EgglestonChief of Fire Rescue
  • 00:55:49
    Well, I don't know.
  • 00:55:50
    I would beg to differ on that.
  • 00:55:52
    I think it is.
  • 00:55:52
    It requires some compromise, certainly.
  • 00:55:54
    You know, when you start eliminating parking, that really upsets citizens.
  • 00:55:58
    But we've had a pretty good community engagement process to make sure that people understand.
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:56:02
    after it happened.
  • 00:56:05
    They're very dissatisfied about having their guests not be able to park within three blocks of their house and it's not the way their property was purchased and so that has been a real problem.
  • 00:56:15
    Well it's one of the whole bunch of different ones in Crozet and so when they've had bigger projects that have the potential of a thousand units and they're having
  • 00:56:24
    So it changes after the fact.
  • 00:56:27
    It's very painful for people who have moved into little houses and have found that they come home one day and there's no parking all over the curbs.
  • 00:56:38
    That is a big surprise.
  • 00:56:42
    and those are 26 foot wide streets.
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 00:56:44
    To get at this issue, I think it's come up a number of times and I think it's probably important for the board to get some kind of a report on this so that you have some information, work with community development staff, work with fire staff, work with the community and the neighborhoods and let's assess this issue and figure out if it leads us to doing something different.
  • 00:57:10
    Because we have to at one point we have to we have to get at this and see if we need to change policy and whether the board wants to change policy or something so The issues have come up their concerns, and I think I'd like to dig into that as a separate item It is a separate item absolutely and assess it and then bring it back and give you a report and let's see where we are so that we can figure out if a policy change is needed and
  • 00:57:33
    just because it has surfaced a number of times and I think it's important to get at it and give you all an objective report on it, including the community's input.
• • Rick RandolphSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 00:57:45
    I think that's a good suggestion.
  • 00:57:47
    I know when I met with members of the Scottsville Volunteer Fire Company and their discussion about the expansion of their firehouse part of the problem is with one of the tankers that they had in there they barely get the tanker into the existing space.
  • 00:58:06
    and the real problem it's easy to say fire and rescue why are you changing the code here or why are you creating a situation where the code that we agreed to now is inoperable but the real problem here lies with the engines that are coming down the pipe
  • 00:58:22
    Folks, they ain't getting any smaller.
  • 00:58:25
    They keep getting larger and larger and larger.
  • 00:58:27
    So I would urge us to start a campaign called shrinktheengines.com because everything else is getting smaller out there.
  • 00:58:37
    The cars are smaller with electricity and hybrid technology coming online.
  • 00:58:43
    But for some reason, the carrying capacity of fire engines
  • 00:58:47
    gets just bigger and bigger and bigger.
  • 00:58:50
    They are truly the brontosauri and the tyrannosaurus rex now on the highway and I understand the reason in terms of carrying capacity of equipment and also in terms of water but it is creating problems in older neighborhoods that have thought that there was an agreement that the engine would be this configuration and then we find after the fact we need to change the terms.
• • Dan EgglestonChief of Fire Rescue
  • 00:59:15
    But they're still eight feet wide.
  • 00:59:17
    And the turning radius are much better than what we're buying.
  • 00:59:19
    So what we're buying today is a little more maneuverable than what we had prior to years ago.
  • 00:59:25
    So still, the issue is mainly related to parking and access.
  • 00:59:31
    Ladder trucks are big in their nature.
  • 00:59:34
    So we've got to have ability to have an upper hand, or we generate a risk that no one wants.
  • 00:59:40
    So I think it's a great idea to come back
  • 00:59:44
    with a report on that and so that people really understand what areas we can compromise on because there's a lot of areas that we can do that and really try to clarify some of the mistruths that are out there as well.
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 00:59:56
    We'll go ahead and work on that report and get some back to you.
• • Norman DillSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:00:00
    I think it's a high priority kind of thing because it's constant complaints and the parking, not being able to park in front of your house or having your guest park there, it just like goes to the heart of having a neighborhood model, you know, if you can't have some friends over and have to park, you know, a quarter of a mile away, it just, you know, that's not a neighborhood kind of feeling to it.
• • Liz PalmerSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:00:24
    It's like living in the big city though.
  • 01:00:26
    but we're not building big cities.
  • 01:00:28
    I know, I understand that.
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:00:29
    One other question just for future discussion.
  • 01:00:32
    I heard wonderful discussion yesterday on the radio.
  • 01:00:34
    Howard was on talking about the prevention program.
  • 01:00:36
    So I know that there has been over time in the past because a lot of the things you do are on the weekends and so is there any effort to have auxiliary folks or whatever doing some of these home visits that would take some of the cost away from having paid staff out there on the weekends and that kind of thing to try to reduce that big gap between service and cost?
  • 01:00:55
    I remember there was just Howard in 2008 and now there are five and a half of him so that's a lot.
  • 01:01:01
    A big expansion in that short period of time.
• • Dan EgglestonChief of Fire Rescue
  • 01:01:03
    That's another thing I wanted to address.
  • 01:01:05
    In 2006 we actually cut the fire marshal's office by one position and we never have added a full-time position back since then so it's been that way since 2006.
  • 01:01:14
    We did add part-time staff to help address some of the capacity issues but probably utilizing the volunteer departments in our smoke alarm program has been the best utilization of
  • 01:01:25
    of volunteers to get out in their community, meet their neighbors and install smoke alarms.
  • 01:01:29
    That's been one of our more successful programs, especially in those target hazard areas that we've talked about in the past.
  • 01:01:37
    So we're doing a lot to try to be as efficient as we can with what we do.
  • 01:01:41
    I think that's why you'll see our numbers compared to our peer localities being very efficient.
  • 01:01:46
    I think we've got a great program considering the amount of resources that we have.
  • 01:01:50
    I still think an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, too.
  • 01:01:53
    That's a Benjamin Franklin quote, so of course I like that.
  • 01:01:56
    But we're pretty busy.
  • 01:01:59
    If you think about what the fire marshal's office does, everything from tent permits to hazmat permits,
  • 01:02:04
    Fire investigations, environmental crime investigations, it's a wide range of things.
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 01:02:10
    Madam Chair, is there a desire by the board to take this review of the fire marshal's office to the next level of scrutiny because there's a high level of concern among the board as a whole?
  • 01:02:26
    Obviously, every program and service is available for your review.
  • 01:02:31
    but if if there's a concern about the level of staffing and activity there and it's an issue that the board really is concerned about then I would want to go to the next level of research on this by checking with our not just Hanover and that's as much as we could really get done in a week's time but go to a higher level if there's really a high level of concern by the board
  • 01:02:57
    I know Ms. Malek is concerned.
  • 01:02:59
    She's raised that, and she has every right to do that.
  • 01:03:01
    I just want to be sure that if this isn't addressed with the board, that we go to the next place.
  • 01:03:06
    If it isn't a high concern, that we then do some other things.
• • Liz PalmerSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:03:11
    Well, let's see.
• • Brad SheffieldSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:03:12
    For the fire marshal... For me, I think we're tripping over ourselves when it comes to this issue with new developments.
  • 01:03:18
    I mean, quite frankly, it's why I was looped into running for office because I sent an email about what was happening in Belvedere on this particular issue.
  • 01:03:27
    and somehow that made me... That'll teach you.
• • Liz PalmerSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:03:32
    Excuse me, Brad, on the fire marshal issue or the truck issue?
  • 01:03:37
    The truck issue.
  • 01:03:38
    Okay, so right now... We're definitely doing the truck issue.
  • 01:03:40
    We're definitely doing the truck issue.
  • 01:03:42
    Tom has asked us about the fire marshal issue.
  • 01:03:44
    Yeah, I know what you're saying.
• • Brad SheffieldSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:03:46
    I'm just saying that it just kind of all encompasses it though.
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 01:03:50
    You see him as related to the whole picture.
• • Norman DillSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:03:53
    So is there another way to analyze it though besides just comparing to similar places because from things that I've read it's that the emphasis on fire and rescue has shifted as things shift and I can't really you know I'm not an expert on it by any means but
  • 01:04:11
    you know the statistics for the number of house fires is down dramatically you know the number of accident rates changes over time cars are a lot safer than they used to be you know not just comparing because it seems you know from what I've heard there's a lot of fire departments are increasing more than they need to their budgets and it's you know so just comparing to Hanover and three other counties if we're all doing it wrong then it's gonna look like we're doing it right when we're not so
  • 01:04:41
    Is there some other alternative rather than comparing to what the standards are that are generated by the fire department for what the standards should be?
  • 01:04:53
    Is there some outside, when we look at our educational system, we're not just
  • 01:04:58
    looking at other schools that are similar we're looking we're getting experts that are looking at what are the trends you know maybe the schools don't need a new high school because there's other alternatives to it rather than just saying you know we should build a high school that's the same as everybody else's high school that they're building that's my concern that if we analyze it we do it carefully.
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 01:05:20
    We should just do whatever Hanover and
• • Brad SheffieldSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:05:23
    Are we talking more about prevention instead of responding kind of thing?
• • Dan EgglestonChief of Fire Rescue
  • 01:05:29
    I think it's the best investment we can have.
• • Brad SheffieldSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:05:33
    I'd rather invest more in prevention than responding and that again ties into a bigger conversation because it's
  • 01:05:42
    Just communication with the community, things like that.
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 01:05:45
    There are national discussions going on on this that aren't about just matching our benchmarks.
  • 01:05:50
    And Dan's actually involved in that.
  • 01:05:53
    The ICMA, which is not the fire guys, but his ICMA, the local government manager guys, are scrutinizing these things.
  • 01:06:01
    and I can tell you that Dan looks at goes to the ICMA classes too to see what scrutinizing so the question is just how we get at this so that the board feels like we're at a place that makes some sense.
• • Norman DillSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:06:13
    I think it'd be great for the community too it's not just the board it's I'm just responding to what I hear from people all the time that they feel like you know we're building a lot of fire stations we're not cooperating with the city so much we don't cooperate with
  • 01:06:25
    cars, for the rescue squad, you know they see fire engines all the time on you know minor issues and I understand you know there's reasons for all this kind of things but you know so to have I think it would help relations with the community to have some kind of independent you know analysis of it
• • Dan EgglestonChief of Fire Rescue
  • 01:06:46
    And I would say that that process is underway now.
  • 01:06:49
    The standards of cover, which is a third party analysis of our system based upon our risk with recommendations of if we have gaps where they should be addressed, whether or not we may be over responding or over invested in certain areas that we expect to come back in January or February.
  • 01:07:06
    That's already started.
  • 01:07:08
    I think what we're talking about here is mainly focused in on our prevention in fire marshal's office.
  • 01:07:13
    Is there a desire to
  • 01:07:15
    have a better look at that.
  • 01:07:16
    And I personally think that Chief Auger Massino has been very creative in terms of the very limited resources he has to do the amount of work that they're doing.
  • 01:07:25
    And I would be very concerned if we looked at reducing any of that.
  • 01:07:29
    I think there's a great idea.
  • 01:07:30
    Obviously, I think we can increase some rates to recover the cost of doing business.
  • 01:07:36
    but I'm not in favor of reducing the amount of what we do now.
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:07:40
    But regarding the neighborhood model discussion I think that's a really important thing that would help all six districts because you mentioned about waivers and things that of course I didn't know any about that never came up during the whole FURO we had last year so having finding out where in really short blocks
  • 01:07:59
    Why the engine can't stage five houses away and run line instead of having to have 30 feet wide right in front of the property, that kind of thing.
  • 01:08:07
    And this will help us understand better and be able to take care of some of these individuals.
• • Liz PalmerSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:08:13
    What I'm hearing now is that the fire marshal is not an issue, that office, I believe.
  • 01:08:19
    And we want to find out about the trucks.
  • 01:08:22
    and I also want to just add a little thing on there about snow because I've been hearing they don't operate very well on snowy streets so just throw that into the thing.
  • 01:08:33
    You're going to come out with the standards of cover which is an independent analysis in January.
  • 01:08:39
    I think we're very interested in that.
  • 01:08:42
    We're also going to want to know who performs that independent analysis, what the background is of that particular group
  • 01:08:50
    so yeah I think you're already doing what we've been asking about for quite a while is that the case should we if we now that's a good place to start you know the standards of cover are a great place to launch a bigger discussion in January
• • Dan EgglestonChief of Fire Rescue
  • 01:09:08
    And I think this analysis of the street widths and vehicle size and so forth hopefully would provide you with some more information so when you engage with your constituents you can explain it to them in a very logical manner too because we all respond to people who are upset for various reasons and I'd love to talk about how we can help you all answer those questions as well.
• • Rick RandolphSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:09:30
    For me to be able to answer Mr. Foley's question, which is on the table, Dan, it would be helpful to know what was the responsibility of the fire marshal that we lost in 09?
  • 01:09:42
    What did he or she do?
  • 01:09:43
    It was 2006.
• • Dan EgglestonChief of Fire Rescue
  • 01:09:47
    2006.
  • 01:09:47
    At the time we were in negotiations with the rescue squads to bill for service.
  • 01:09:54
    and that was creating a lot of workload and a lot of budget workload so we decided at the point when we had a vacancy in the Fire Marshal's office to take that position and turn it into a budget management analyst to help us out with that process.
  • 01:10:06
    We didn't have any other alternative at that point so we realized it was going to be painful but it was a decision we made with the hope that one day we could add that position back.
• • Rick RandolphSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:10:17
    The understanding conveyed to me by some people in Scottsville, they thought that that fire marshal whose position was terminated had some responsibility for southern Albemarle County.
  • 01:10:28
    That's not the case.
  • 01:10:30
    Thank you for clarifying that.
  • 01:10:31
    I appreciate it.
• • Liz PalmerSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:10:34
    All right, thank you.
  • 01:10:34
    I think, are we there?
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 01:10:36
    I think we, it sounds like there's some big questions.
  • 01:10:39
    I think that the standards of cover is a good way to get at the big issues.
• • Liz PalmerSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:10:46
    But in the meantime, we're going to do trucks and street winds and planning.
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 01:10:50
    And its impact on parking in neighborhoods.
  • 01:10:53
    Right.
  • 01:10:53
    OK. Yeah, we'll definitely work that in the meantime.
  • 01:10:57
    OK.
• • Norman DillSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:10:57
    Thank you very much.
  • 01:10:57
    Who's doing the standards of cover study?
• • Dan EgglestonChief of Fire Rescue
  • 01:11:00
    Fitch and Associates, we went through this procurement process and interview panel with both staff and volunteers to select Fitch and Associates.
  • 01:11:08
    They started a little over a month ago with anticipation of completing in January or February.
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 01:11:15
    I also want to be sure that when we bring that to you we tell you the process that was used to look at this so that there's not questions about whether it was as objective or whether it was just focused on Hanover or whatever because I want to get at that broader question here about how fire service is changing and how our system
  • 01:11:35
    looks compared to changes that might be on the horizon because we really have to get at that.
  • 01:11:40
    I think that's one of the bigger questions here.
  • 01:11:43
    So we'll work on it and make sure it comes forward that way so it brings some clarity.
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:11:46
    That's why the smaller rural stations, the volunteer stations hang on to their 30-year-old engines that are so, you know, that right size because they don't want to, even if they're just using them for a blocker most of the time, when they're needed for some little street they can actually do the job.
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 01:12:01
    Lots of issues, dynamic system with city and volunteers and careers.
  • 01:12:05
    It's a complex environment.
  • 01:12:08
    Thank you, Dan.
• • Lee CatlinAssistant County Executive
  • 01:12:09
    Thank you, Dan.
  • 01:12:11
    All right.
  • 01:12:11
    Well, I'm in the very happy position of being able to tell you that I think we're going to wrap up pretty early here today.
  • 01:12:17
    Hopefully everybody feels comfortable with the strategic objectives as we've talked about them.
  • 01:12:24
    And so what we'd be looking for today would be a vote to endorse the strategic objectives as they are with the change, the one change that we made.
  • 01:12:35
    to the item on page three, which was creating a new item for January 2019 increased efforts to improve deteriorating physical conditions in the county's aging urban core neighborhoods.
  • 01:12:48
    And again with the understanding that this is a living document.
  • 01:12:52
    that serves as the foundation for what we will be bringing in the two-year plan, but it also has the built-in possibility of things becoming ready and then being able to be moved to a higher urgent place in the plan.
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 01:13:08
    Maybe we'll just ask the question instead of saying hopefully you're comfortable.
  • 01:13:13
    Are you comfortable with the objectives?
• • Brad SheffieldSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:13:15
    I just had a quick follow up.
  • 01:13:16
    I just remembered from our last meeting on this, didn't we say that we were going to integrate some sort of language because there's not an economic development strategy in here.
  • 01:13:27
    There's actually efforts, initiatives that add up to or complement that economic.
  • 01:13:34
    Didn't we say we're going to have that in the intentions section a little bit, just to clarify for the public that
  • 01:13:42
    There is a tie to the economic development aspect of this.
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 01:13:45
    She addressed it at the front end, but it's not that super-duper clear, so why don't you just kind of talk about that.
• • Brad SheffieldSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:13:52
    I might be wrong.
  • 01:13:53
    I don't want to belabor this.
  • 01:13:54
    I just thought that we were trying to make clear to the public that it was a priority and that there were certain items that actually were trying to address that as a priority.
• • Lee CatlinAssistant County Executive
  • 01:14:01
    what we talked about doing and if it's not sufficient for you all we can approach it another way when this becomes a public document it will have an introduction and background and highlights to it and we would plan on making it very obvious in that introduction and background
  • 01:14:17
    and point out very specifically how economic development is really an underlying or a connective thread between a lot of these objectives where it's not stated so obviously so that people can understand that the recodification work and the proactive rezoning, all those things are really about foundational work that gets us ready for our economic development plan.
• • Liz PalmerSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:14:41
    So, Lee, before we, I'm hearing that we're about to make a decision here, am I correct?
  • 01:14:48
    And so last time we had one of these meetings, we had somebody from the public that wanted to make a statement in this particular session.
  • 01:15:00
    and I was remiss I didn't get it on the agenda which I'm not sure if it's legal to do it if it's not on the agenda do we have any problem with that Greg at all?
• • SPEAKER_00
  • 01:15:11
    Well, the item's on the agenda, so the board's discretion to allow public input.
• • Liz PalmerSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:15:16
    So it would be okay with the board if we gave a few minutes and asked for a public comment before we made a decision?
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:15:23
    We've done this with work sessions in the past with no trouble.
• • Brad SheffieldSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:15:25
    It's fine.
  • 01:15:27
    I just realized that, you know, someone may not have attended to speak because they didn't know that they could.
• • Liz PalmerSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:15:32
    That's why we need to actually start putting it on and I should have gotten that on because I knew that there was a request for it.
• • Norman DillSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:15:43
    Is that person here are you suggesting?
• • Liz PalmerSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:15:45
    Well, I'm going to ask if he would like to speak.
  • 01:15:48
    Would anybody in the audience like to make a comment before we finalize this?
• • Norman DillSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:15:53
    Again, it's a living document so there will be other items too.
• • Liz PalmerSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:15:56
    Okay, John, would you like to come up?
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 01:15:57
    And Madam Chair, while he's coming up too, just so the public understands that maybe listening that there have been other public input opportunities as a part of this online and so forth.
  • 01:16:09
    And you all have received some good comments.
• • Lee CatlinAssistant County Executive
  • 01:16:11
    And I think that we have also planning to build the opportunity for public comment into your two-year
  • 01:16:20
    Financial Plan, fiscal plan, work sessions, so that you can still hear something during that time period that brings you back to this plan and allows you to make adjustments.
  • 01:16:31
    So this is kind of a moment in time where we pause and say.
  • 01:16:35
    At least for right now, are we okay with this so that we can move forward with the next stage of planning?
• • Liz PalmerSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:16:40
    And in addition, on the first Wednesday of the month, we have two opportunities for public comment, and on the second Wednesday of the month, we have another.
  • 01:16:48
    So people, if anybody is listening and they want to come in tomorrow night at six o'clock, they certainly can give public comment then.
  • 01:16:56
    Okay.
  • 01:16:58
    Our public is here.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:17:04
    Thank you, Madam Chair.
  • 01:17:05
    My name is John Martin.
  • 01:17:07
    I live in the White Hall Magisterial District.
  • 01:17:12
    From the start of the discussion of priority-based budgeting, I developed a certain level of discomfort, maybe perhaps unwarranted, and that discomfort was based on the fact that for many years I've been
  • 01:17:28
    coming to the annual budget sessions and the many meetings and watching the budget get developed and watching the complex proceedings and how difficult it is and emotion at times.
  • 01:17:42
    And I'm thinking every single year we do priority-based budgeting.
  • 01:17:46
    What's different here?
  • 01:17:48
    Why are we doing this?
  • 01:17:50
    And think through it.
  • 01:17:53
    Staff is putting together a very detailed, concise list of priorities that need to be considered or probably will be considered in budget sessions down the road.
  • 01:18:06
    And that's good.
  • 01:18:07
    That's thinking in advance, and that's good.
  • 01:18:10
    But my discomfort is in the fact that it looks like decisions are being made two years in advance of actual budgeting decisions.
  • 01:18:24
    It looks like staff is asking the board to make these decisions so far in advance and to set things into stone.
  • 01:18:36
    and it looks like maybe and perhaps this is unwarranted that the board is willing to do that.
  • 01:18:45
    But to me, that is really writing the public out of this whole process, the process that has existed up till right now.
  • 01:18:54
    I mean, as Mr. Foley indicated, there has been an opportunity during the priority-based budgeting process for public input.
  • 01:19:05
    But as I recall, that opportunity was to submit comments to staff.
  • 01:19:12
    That's not acceptable to me as a citizen because you represent me.
  • 01:19:17
    Staff doesn't represent me.
  • 01:19:19
    You do.
  • 01:19:20
    and in every year prior, it's you people that we talk to.
  • 01:19:27
    So, you know, like I say, it's a level of concern, discomfort and maybe it's just me.
  • 01:19:36
    I don't know.
  • 01:19:36
    But I would just request that as this matter proceeds that you make
  • 01:19:42
    very clear as this process proceeds, number one, that citizen input to you still counts and will be considered in the budget in making budget decisions.
  • 01:19:55
    I mean, we're going to go on down the line.
  • 01:19:57
    Things happen, things change, people's attitudes change.
  • 01:20:05
    and the citizens' concerns need to be considered.
  • 01:20:10
    So I would just confirm that nothing here is set in stone.
  • 01:20:16
    The second thing is to make clear that you can change these priorities anytime you want in a flash.
  • 01:20:28
    You're not agreeing to any future budget and that you are going to continue to be open to the public.
  • 01:20:42
    Thank you.
• • Liz PalmerSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:20:43
    Thank you, Mr. Martin.
  • 01:20:44
    Appreciate it.
  • 01:20:47
    So is there anybody else that would like to speak at this time?
  • 01:20:53
    So they'll be ready next time.
  • 01:20:55
    And that's good.
  • 01:20:56
    They'll be ready next time.
  • 01:20:57
    That's good.
  • 01:20:57
    That's a good point.
  • 01:20:58
    Thank you.
  • 01:21:00
    And so I don't know if anybody wants to make a comment.
  • 01:21:02
    I have to admit that I have worried about that a bit, because I know we have an election next fall.
  • 01:21:07
    We'll have different super.
  • 01:21:08
    We may, I don't know if we'll have different supervisors or not.
  • 01:21:11
    But it is a concern sometimes.
• • 01:21:14
    Right.
• • Rick RandolphSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:21:14
    I think John's points are well taken and I think from where he's sitting there's a reason for him to bring that up and I think it's really good for us to think of that point.
  • 01:21:26
    But I certainly look at what we're doing as basically developing a roadmap.
  • 01:21:32
    When you develop a road map and you say you want to go from here to Old Offsiggots, it doesn't mean as you get out on the road that you're necessarily going to follow the route that you thought you were going to take.
  • 01:21:46
    And in point of fact, when you go out on that road, you may find that you want to change the destination because you go along.
  • 01:21:52
    and you do Trip Advisor and you find out that the motel in Old Offshegots is not the best place, you end up staying in Oh My God instead.
  • 01:22:03
    I also think there's a point to be made and John, this is, I would give you just an alternative way to look at this and if I sound professorial, I apologize but my, maybe I'm revealing my bias as a former educator
  • 01:22:20
    but I think as a former educator that I genuinely believe that the more you give the public advanced information, advanced notice about what our intentions are, it's only an intention, it's only a roadmap
  • 01:22:36
    I think it increases the potential level of participation because they have that information theoretically in advance and they can digest it and they're aware of it and they know kind of where we're going or where we think we're going and all of that's based on ceteris paribus, all other things being equal and obviously economic performance being a primary part of that.
  • 01:23:03
    but I think your cautionary point about ensuring as a board that we maintain the robust level of participation is very well taken.
  • 01:23:15
    I'm hopeful that because we're giving the taxpayers a greater awareness of where we intend to go, people will be more informed and hopefully they will participate more as a result of it.
  • 01:23:29
    They have less of an opportunity to argue, I didn't know that.
  • 01:23:34
    Oh, what a surprise.
  • 01:23:35
    Nobody ever told me that.
  • 01:23:37
    Well, it was in the two-year plan.
  • 01:23:40
    It was available to you a year and a half ago if you just cared to look at it.
  • 01:23:45
    But I do think all your points really well taken and food for thought for all of us up here, as well as everyone serving in county government.
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:23:55
    I'm hoping that more people will come because they can take a minute or two to talk to us after they hear something in a work session.
• • Norman DillSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:24:02
    I promise, John, I won't be lulled into complacency by the staff overwhelming us with information and numbers.
  • 01:24:12
    Keep on my toes.
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 01:24:13
    I have never noticed any board member in that place.
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:24:16
    We're a pretty feisty bunch.
  • 01:24:18
    I don't think they'll get away with that.
  • 01:24:19
    We're not lullable?
• • Rick RandolphSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:24:21
    Well, we look underneath the table every time for voodoo dolls and pins in them.
  • 01:24:27
    They're gone.
• • Liz PalmerSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:24:28
    All right, so how do you like the strategic plan being fungible?
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 01:24:35
    It's a plan, that's all.
  • 01:24:38
    I wish I had this quote down better but I think it was General Eisenhower or somebody who said
  • 01:24:44
    plans are essential and they're worthless because circumstances change but just so you all know you're in control and I hope I don't have to say that the comments that we got were on your behalf and passed on to you directly from the public and I respect everything John said so I don't mean this to sound at all like that as Rick said
  • 01:25:05
    We need to keep these things in front of us to be sure that we're doing all the things that we need to with the public.
  • 01:25:11
    But one of the dynamics here is trying to facilitate the priority setting of the majority of this board so that action and agendas can be accomplished.
  • 01:25:26
    And there's just that reality that year-to-year budgeting doesn't help you get there because most things don't
  • 01:25:33
    take just a year to get done so I think everything he said is right on to keep us pressed on public input your ability to change it it's your plan it's not staff's plan but planning is also essential to accomplish your agendas and that is multi-year if you really want to get something accomplished so that's the principle upon which we've worked on this and strategic planning this is a best practice but public engagement is so essential in this process so
  • 01:26:03
    I certainly respect everything that Mr. Martin has said and please give us some direction on some tweaks you think will help us to get to a better place if you have any concerns.
• • SPEAKER_10
  • 01:26:19
    I guess at this point unless if there are questions or other thoughts I'll make a motion that we go ahead with this accept this plan as amended and
  • 01:26:31
    Go forward with our eyes open.
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:26:34
    That's the next step.
  • 01:26:35
    I second that.
  • 01:26:36
    Eyes wide shut.
  • 01:26:36
    Mr. Howard?
• • Liz PalmerSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:26:38
    Yes.
• • SPEAKER_10
  • 01:26:40
    Mr. Mena?
  • 01:26:41
    Aye.
  • 01:26:42
    Mr. Sheffield?
  • 01:26:42
    Yes.
• • Lee CatlinAssistant County Executive
  • 01:26:44
    Mr. Dill?
  • 01:26:44
    Yes.
• • 01:26:45
    Mr. Powell?
  • 01:26:45
    Yes.
• • Lee CatlinAssistant County Executive
  • 01:26:45
    Mr. McKeel?
  • 01:26:45
    Yes.
  • 01:26:47
    We did.
  • 01:26:47
    I know folks are probably ready to go.
  • 01:26:49
    And we did hear a little bit from John and your conversation about things to keep an eye on and be mindful and lessons learned for next time.
  • 01:26:57
    But we did want to give you all a chance if anybody had any
  • 01:27:01
    Reflection, comment, how did this work for you?
  • 01:27:03
    We've been at it since May.
  • 01:27:05
    We've had a number of sessions.
  • 01:27:06
    We've accomplished some really good work.
  • 01:27:09
    But we want to, while it's still fresh in front of us, if there are some lessons learned or some things that really didn't work for you or worked very well for you, would love to hear any thoughts anybody might have.
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:27:22
    I think that the extra homework that's been done has been really valuable for me to be able to be ready for the kinds of investments that Mr. Foley is going to have to bring forward to carry out the highest priority things we have.
  • 01:27:34
    So anytime we can get some background ahead of time and have more time to roll it around in our brains, the better off we are.
  • 01:27:41
    Rick, do you have anything?
• • Rick RandolphSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:27:43
    I think it's been an excellent process.
  • 01:27:45
    Lee, you deserve a master's in agriculture because you've winnowed a lot of information down over a period of time.
  • 01:27:53
    And it's been a fascinating process.
  • 01:27:55
    And I know there's a lot of strong interests out there in the public about how we did this and how the process was.
  • 01:28:03
    And it's all been very open.
  • 01:28:05
    for people to be aware of what we were doing.
  • 01:28:08
    So I think it's been excellent.
  • 01:28:10
    I appreciate the work you and the staff have put in on this.
• • Lee CatlinAssistant County Executive
  • 01:28:13
    Lots of good staff.
• • Liz PalmerSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:28:17
    I do too.
  • 01:28:17
    I think one of the things I will say is that I think I'm going to be a little more organized mentally for the budget.
  • 01:28:25
    And I think that this has really helped with that.
  • 01:28:28
    So I appreciate it.
  • 01:28:29
    I think you did a wonderful job.
  • 01:28:31
    and I don't know if anybody else has anything else to say.
• • Norman DillSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:28:35
    Just to basically agree that I think it's been a really good process.
  • 01:28:40
    I think we'll probably think of ways to fine-dune it in the future.
  • 01:28:43
    I mean, the first time you do something.
  • 01:28:47
    I can't think of anything right this second, but somehow I feel like we should
  • 01:28:55
    Maybe just personally express our values more in things that maybe we get too quickly to the specifics.
  • 01:29:04
    I still feel a little uncomfortable that we haven't talked about some of the environmental and cultural issues that are changing things from
  • 01:29:17
    everything well you know without getting specific but the you know gig economy the you know that includes Airbnb and those kind of things things are just changing quickly and just what do we want Albemarle County to be in our relationship with the city and some of those kind of big picture things
• • Lee CatlinAssistant County Executive
  • 01:29:39
    I think that's a great point.
  • 01:29:40
    I think because of the timeline, we went very quickly to what became objectives as opposed to having much time on that higher level conversation.
  • 01:29:51
    That's something we should think about.
• • SPEAKER_10
  • 01:29:52
    Maybe having some outside people, somebody
  • 01:29:56
    that's a public you know kind of a TEDx kind of in a few minutes you know having somebody deal with you know four different people deal with you know four different issues that are how cities are changing now or how can you support a agricultural economy that's
  • 01:30:18
    environmentally friendly and economically good.
  • 01:30:22
    You know, just some kind of motivational, just to kind of jar our thinking around a little bit.
• • Diantha McKeelSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Vice Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:30:28
    Yeah, I'd love to have a discussion around the environment and what we're seeing changing climate, how it might affect some of our ordinances or our codes or just from the big picture.
  • 01:30:44
    And we keep watching
  • 01:30:47
    these huge storms now and I know a hurricane is probably not going to bring in for us right now that kind of but our weather's changing and we're not really talking about it at this board about
  • 01:31:04
    Is there anything we can do, and I certainly don't know, getting at what you're saying, Norman, maybe having a discussion with someone, an expert of some sort who might be willing to come in and talk to us about some of these issues.
• • Lee CatlinAssistant County Executive
  • 01:31:23
    Great suggestion.
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:31:24
    Maybe Andy can give us a tutorial on the LCAP process.
  • 01:31:28
    On the what process?
  • 01:31:29
    The LCAP process that was finished and then update where we can go.
• • Diantha McKeelSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Vice Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:31:34
    I'll worry a little bit about our storm, some of our storm water and what we're requiring of developers with, you know, it seems like we have hundred year floods now every two years.
  • 01:31:47
    I mean, maybe we really need to have some of these discussions and
  • 01:31:52
    We have systems designed for the three-year storm.
• • SPEAKER_10
  • 01:31:59
    With the Shenandoah National Park nearby too, it particularly for some reason affected me when I heard the other day that in my adult lifetime, so just
  • 01:32:08
    not my full lifetime, but just the last 40 years, the number of wild animals have decreased more than 50%.
  • 01:32:15
    So we have half the number of wild animals in the world now that we did when I was 20 years old.
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:32:21
    Those are numbers of species, not just individual animals?
  • 01:32:24
    Am I clear?
  • 01:32:25
    No, that's the number of animals.
• • SPEAKER_10
  • 01:32:27
    Because the fish populations have just collapsed, habitat loss, just all of it.
  • 01:32:33
    Not that they've been killed off, but just because of the habitat.
  • 01:32:38
    environmental changes that we've lost half of the animals and while the human population has probably doubled but so you know those kind of things you know we have some small responsibility for addressing and we have seven hundred and thirty square miles of territory alone
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:32:58
    That's why that safer chemical policy that we do have is a really great start.
  • 01:33:03
    Just changing what we do on our own property has made a big impact and that's a good example for what other people can do.
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 01:33:09
    The natural resource plan is coming forward too, which it just helps continue this conversation.
• • Liz PalmerSupervisor, Board of Supervisors / Chair, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:33:15
    It's coming forward in December.
  • 01:33:17
    We have a lot of experts at UVA that can address a lot of these things.
  • 01:33:21
    They're working for us on our committees, which is terrific.
  • 01:33:25
    Well, that's all good ideas for filling up our days.
• • Lee CatlinAssistant County Executive
  • 01:33:28
    We want to thank you all for going along with us on this path.
  • 01:33:32
    We didn't know quite what we were getting into when we put priority-driven budgeting out there.
  • 01:33:36
    And you all have put a lot of energy and focus and effort on it.
  • 01:33:40
    And we really appreciate the partnership.
• • Rick RandolphSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:33:42
    I really do think that.
• • Tom FoleyCounty Executive
  • 01:33:43
    and I really mean that I think this board has provided more clear direction on priorities than we've had for a number of years by the work that's gone in and this focus on urbanization and revitalization is really an energizing and clear path that you set.
  • 01:34:03
    It doesn't mean the other things aren't important but this has been propped up in a way that we haven't had I think in a number of years and there's been reasons for that too that had to do with recession or whatever but
  • 01:34:13
    I really sincerely mean that so it's a real helpful thing for staff to say okay we've set the mark now there's not a question about that staff please deliver on it and so we're pretty focused on that and I can tell you a lot of folks are real energized about how we start to move this thing forward for you so
• • Ann MallekSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:34:33
    and it doesn't it's where we're putting our focus but it doesn't mean the other things are not the daily things we've been doing that have created the quality of life we have here now are going to be ongoing we need to keep saying that because there's another other really important items in here as well any more matters before we so what I need is a motion to adjourn to October 12th 3 p.m. at Lane and Lane auditorium so moved second yes
• • Rick RandolphSupervisor, Board of Supervisors
  • 01:35:03
    Aye Yes Yes Yes Yes