Board of Supervisors Regular First Meeting   11/3/2021

Good afternoon everyone.

I call the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors to order for our November 3rd, 2021 1 p.m.

meeting.

This meeting is being held pursuant to and in compliance with ordinance number 20-A16, an ordinance to ensure the continuity of government during the COVID-19 disaster.

The supervisors who are electronically present at this meeting are Supervisor Liz Palmer of the Samuel Miller District,

Supervisor, Diantha McKeel of the Jack Jouett District Supervisor, Ann Mallek of the White Hall District Supervisor, Donna Price of the Scottsville District Supervisor, Bea LaPisto-Kirtley of the Rivanna District and myself Supervisor, Ned Gallaway of the Rio District

The opportunities for the public to access and participate in the electronic meeting are posted on the Albemarle County website, on the Board of Supervisors homepage, and on the Albemarle County calendar.

Participation will include the opportunity to comment on those matters for which comments from the public will be received.

Also with us today are County Executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson, our County Attorney, Mr. Greg Campner, our Board Clerk, Ms.

Claudette Borgeson, and our Senior Deputy Clerk, Mr. Travis Morris.

We will have other staff members participate throughout the day and they will introduce themselves and their title as when appropriate.

And board, if everyone would please take a moment and, or I'm sorry, please join in a moment of silence.

And that'll take us to number four, adoption of our final agenda.

We do have two changes before I call for any others.

Under item six, there will be a resolution of appreciation

added for George Ray, and discussion under item number 20 from the board about the board's adopted meeting schedule in January 22.

So we'll add those two items.

Are there any other changes?

Let me one second, I'll go find it.

I've never given dates before, but anyway, let me go find the reading list.

Very good.

Any other changes or items to pull from consent?

All right.

If there is a motion to adopt the agenda as amended.

So moved.

Second.

All right, we've had motions and seconds.

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Very good, thank you.

Supervisor Palmer, you're up first.

Yes, I just want to let everybody know that this Saturday is the annual Apple Harvest Festival at the

Almar Ciderworks, and it's a really lovely event that's going to be happening that afternoon.

And there are an amazing number of different kinds of apples to pick up.

My favorite, the Albemarle Pippin, which I'll live off of for the next few months, is supposed to be out.

But it's a real fun event and just wanted to let everybody know it was happening.

Also this weekend was a wonderful event of Love Albemarle down in Esmont to pick up trash and we had our supervisor Donna Price come and the new supervisor from Samuel Miller District for next year Jim Andrews and our planning commissioner Karen Firehawk and some people from the SWAC committee and a whole lot of citizens and they picked up a lot of bags of trash so that's a really great

that was, that big county is doing and very glad for all that participation.

And I think that's it for me.

I don't have any real announcements.

Just to add to what Liz said, Liz, there was some really good press about the pickup, which was nice.

I saw it on the news and it was excellent.

Thank you.

My announcement is that the 27th annual Artisan Studio Tour will be November 13th and 14th, so not this weekend, but the following weekend.

All around Charlottesville, Albemarle, Green, Madison, and Nelson.

Hundreds of artisans, handmade things in galleries and studios for us to visit, and I hope people will check that out online and make themselves a map and have a tour.

and I also wanted to commend multitudes of citizens who were out picking up trash along Early Spool Road this weekend.

I don't know who organized them because I did not but I'm grateful for their efforts and things momentarily look quite beautiful and I hope it lasts.

Thank you, Trey Galloway.

I'm going to follow up a little bit with the other supervisors, and I also want to commend all of those who both organized, planned, and participated in the beautiful Albemarle pick-up.

Also down with the group I was working with was County Councilor Stuart Munson from Scottsville, and also the principal of the Scottsville Elementary School

Stacey England, and that's real leadership in their activities.

I also want to mention something that actually happened a couple of weeks ago, and that was an opportunity to appear at the SEVAC Firefly 10,000 Connections event.

And the president of SEVAC, Gary Wood, in his comments, he said something that just really resonated with me, and I believe also exemplifies the motto, the attitude, the ethos of Albemarle County

and then it was leave no one behind.

And those words just mean so much.

I mean, that's what county government, that's what local government is about, taking care of people, leaving no one behind.

So for those who participated, Ed Brooks was my primary point of contact from the Yancey Community Center and all the other citizens who participated, thank you for helping make Albemarle a little prettier for a little longer.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

Yes, I just want to give a shout out to Fred Durkee from the Prophet Road and Polar Grounds Road area and all the other citizens who helped beautify those two roads.

They did it a couple weeks ago and it really, really makes a difference.

They do it twice a year and it's just the local people.

out there cleaning up and keeping their roads clean and everything.

Other than that, I really don't have anything, but I'm glad for we had a nice safe elections.

And I just want to call out or thank all of the election volunteers that run our elections in Albemarle County.

It was great yesterday.

I got to observe in the new north side polling place.

I had not been in that one yet, so it was nice to go in there and observe.

But it always reminds me, even in my place of vote, of all the volunteers who go out to check voters in, make sure the process runs.

Well, and then seized people off with their I Voted sticker at the end.

So thank you to all the volunteers and all the election officials who were working the polls yesterday in Albemarle County.

The first is a resolution celebrating Veterans Day.

Thank you.

Chair Galloway, there appears to be, OK, the static has gone away.

There was some sort of buzzing going on.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

It's my privilege to offer a resolution.

It's a motion, a resolution of appreciation.

Whereas the United States of America, founded on the principles of liberty and justice for all, has called upon her men and women in uniform to protect our national security.

And whereas the preservation of our national interests, our rights, and our freedom has been ensured by the service of these individuals.

and whereas on Veterans Day, we remember and pay tribute to the millions of patriots whose courage and sacrifice have secured our freedom and defended our values both at home and abroad and whereas over 100 veterans continue to serve their county, their country and public schools and government as teachers and other professionals providing services to the students and residents of Albemarle County.

and whereas these veterans employed by Albemarle County Public Schools and local government deserve recognition for their continued service, now therefore be it resolved

That the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors hereby recognizes all veterans and the men and women that are currently serving in our armed forces around the world.

And be it further resolved that the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors hereby appreciates and honors the continued contributions and sacrifices of the armed forces veterans employed by local government

Public Schools, and further resolve that this resolution celebrating Veterans Day be adopted on this third day of November 2021, signed the third day of November 2021 by Ned Galloway, Chair of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors.

Ms.

Yes.

Ms.

Aye.

Mr. Galloway?

Thanks Chair Galloway, members of the board, Trevor Henry, assistant county executive, also a former naval officer, served on submarines for eight years.

It's an honor to be in this role and to be asked to accept this resolution on behalf of the county veterans and the county.

First, thanking the board for this resolution of appreciation.

And additionally, for the holiday for most administrative staff on the 11th.

That's important.

staff that serve for local government and schools, and then in our partner agencies, probably even more veterans that have gone on and continue to serve in different ways for our community.

Just a note before I introduce Jamie Gauner from schools, we started an Albemarle County Veterans Affinity Group several years ago, and this is a chartered group that allows veterans that are employed within Albemarle County to connect

both internally, but also connect to resources and other veterans in our community.

We supported a very successful Seize the Day event at Walnut Creek in August.

And it's just an example of the things that we try to do to raise awareness within our employment group.

So again, thank you.

The schools have, we believe, over almost 450 students

that have an affiliation with military families in our area.

You know, you don't think of Albemarle County as a, you know, certainly as a military base, but we have a, we're a van station, an army station in the northern part of the county that has a significant employer to our region.

And between that location and the JAG school, we have quite a few military families and students in our schools.

With that, a partner in the Veterans Affinity Group and just a friend, Jamie Gellner, is on the call.

Jamie is a former Army Captain.

She's been with the schools for over six years, coming from Fairfax, and serves currently as a division program evaluator.

And so, I'll turn it over to Jamie.

Thanks for those remarks, Trevor.

I would just like to echo what Trevor said and thank the board for that recognition of veterans that serve in Albemarle County Public Schools, but also I know continue to serve this community.

We have, I've just seen out in the field myself, former service members and current service members working as coaches, volunteering as election officials, as you just mentioned.

and just continuing to serve in the local government and the public schools.

So I very humbly accept on behalf of all of us that continue to work and I'm happy that the local government gets the day off, but we just got a few days off here in the schools, so I won't complain too much.

Supervisors, I invite you to make some comments if you wish.

I have nothing specific other than

Just to say thank you, as Liz said, we appreciate all the service and help to our community and all the good work, both past and present.

Yes, thank you.

I would also add, as we are remembering and supporting the people today, of the families who support the veteran who is serving or the active duty person who is serving.

Because without the family support, we would never succeed in this effort.

So I think instead of one, it's probably four or so that are gathered around that one who is serving that we really need to remember.

Thank you, Chair Galloway, and obviously I concur and Supervisor Mallek, I was also going to mention the families.

As a retired Navy captain myself, as our clerk, as a former Army captain, my son is a Marine captain, with many other family members who have served, it is a family affair.

Because if you did not have the family support, you were not going to stay in the military, and I was very fortunate.

as many are to have families who not only support but encourage our service and it's so important and significant, I believe, to see that service continue in the local government and local public school systems.

Thank you for being here, both of you, for accepting this resolution on behalf of the county.

Yes, thank you very much, Captain Gellner.

Hua, hua.

Thank you.

I just wanted that to be known.

But I did come from the military family.

My dad, my brothers were all Army, except for one brother was Navy, so there's a nod to Mr. Henry and Supervisor Price.

but I just wanted to say thank you I think I very much believe in with the families do I think when you're raised in the military that gives you a unique perspective and appreciation for

Thank you very much, Chair.

Proclamation honoring Native American Heritage Month.

Whereas the Monica Indian Nation are known to be the indigenous stewards of present-day Albemarle County,

and whereas by the 1740s, most Monacan people were pushed westward away from Albemarle by advancing colonial settlers and were instead forced to relocate in Amherst County.

But the Monacans maintained connections to their ancestral landscape and visited their burial mounds in Albemarle County with one such visit recorded by Thomas Jefferson in 1755.

and whereas the state of Virginia passed a racial integrity law in 1924 prohibiting intermarriage and requiring birth certificates to assign race with white or colored as the only option, thus disrupting the continuity of Monacan history in our region and throughout the Commonwealth.

And whereas the Monacan people built and maintained their traditions on Bear Mountain for centuries, ensuring the continuity of their long history within their citizens,

and whereas the Monacan Indian Nation was recognized by the state of Virginia in 1989 and finally by the federal government in 2018.

Now therefore be it resolved that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, celebrate Native American Heritage Month by honoring the Monacan Indian Nation, the indigenous stewards of this land, for their perseverance and commitment to their community in the face of centuries of systemic oppression.

and for their generosity in educating us about their long and memorable history so we all know a more comprehensive history of our county.

Call the vote, please.

Ms.

Palmer?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley.

Aye.

Ms.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

All right.

Thank you.

That proclamation carries.

And Dr. Irtsefa Binte-Farid is with us today.

Good afternoon.

Yes.

Good afternoon, supervisors.

This is Irtsefa, Coordinator for Equity and Accountability.

Firstly, thank you all so much for taking the time to restate

your commitment to remembering a more inclusive history of our community.

One of my favorite things about my job is getting to know different parts of our community and connecting them to you through this proclamation process.

These proclamations are an incredible opportunity for us to make these relationships part of the public record and to hold ourselves to higher accountability as community partners going forward.

So today I am thrilled to introduce you to a couple of these community partners, two citizens of the Monacan Indian Nation who will accept the proclamation.

So Lou Branham-Parish is the daughter of Eleanor and Ronnie Branham, who was the first elected chief of the Monacan Indian Nation.

Lou is a former council member and assistant chief and now is the director of the Monacan Nation Ancestral Museum.

She has been an advocate of the Monacan Nation for all of her adult life.

We also have with us today Teresa Pollock, who is the daughter of Diane Johns Shields, who is the chair of the Monacan Nation Cultural Foundation and the co-author of the Our History booklet that some of you may have read during our first community read.

Teresa has held many positions of leadership within the tribe over the last 20 years as council member and secretary.

She currently sits on many committees with UVA as a Monacan representative and is a board member of the Virginia Tribal Education Consortium.

The consortium works with state and local educational agencies to promote the history of Virginia's tribal nations within the school curriculum.

Thank you for having us.

Thank you.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Lou Brand.

I'm with the Monacan Nation.

And I just want to take this opportunity to say thank you guys on behalf of the Monacan people.

I accept this proclamation from the county of Albemarle.

And I thank you for recognizing that the strength of our democracy is our diversity.

And I thank you for honoring my people and bringing awareness to your community by acknowledging our community.

All right.

And I'll invite supervisors to make comments as they were.

Well, thank you both for being here and I recognize that I guess I would say that I'm hoping that you feel like you are part of the entire community.

That's very important.

You know, it's funny, I think back about 20 years ago when I moved here, one of the very first events I went to was Monacan.

Tribe event out in Crozet.

And it was marvelous fun, but I didn't know that, you know, that there were Monacan tribe members locally.

So it was, I got my first, I got my first education at that, at that meeting.

It was quite, it was a lot of fun, I would say.

But I like to think that, that we're all one community, I guess.

So thank you very much for being here.

I too just want to thank both of you for joining us.

I do think our proclamation process is really important to recognize many folks and cultures.

And I know I have learned a lot through our proclamation process over the last few years.

and just found the history of the Monacan Indians fascinating.

I know I just barely touched on it with the Monacan Indians, our story, our community read.

I have lots more to learn, but

My education, even at my age, is continuing.

And I really also want to take the opportunity to thank Teresa, who came with her mom, Dian, to my book club and talked about the book that they wrote, that her mom wrote.

So that was a real special occasion for us.

at the time.

And we had the ability to ask questions and even learned more during that discussion.

So just thank you both.

And I appreciate the opportunity to chat with you.

And I do just want to thank staff and everyone that has been part of this proclamation process that we have now.

Thank you both very much for being here, and this has been a learning journey, helped, I'm fortunate, by some neighbors in Earliesville who are part of the Monica Nation and have always been very forthright with information.

I'm also looking forward to more information being found about the Lickitmole Basin settlement, because even though it was protected by a flood, there are so many things that are

still there to be shared and working with the nation to have the proper descriptions for our trail markers to share but also respect.

Don't go too close, but learn about these situations and these settlements.

I've been up to see the archaeology up at Morven and certainly learned about the polar grounds situation back 30 years ago with my science campers.

And so I look forward to learning more.

And the recent interview on NPR with both of you was absolutely fabulous.

So keep on with all that information sharing, and thank you.

Thank you, Chair Galloway, Dr. Bentofari, Ms.

Brando, and Ms.

Pollack, thank you all for being here today.

Echoing again what many of the other supervisors have already said, Supervisor McKeel asked with you, I've learned so much through this process.

As I read through the resolution,

That middle whereas really jumped out at me Virginia passed a racial integrity law in 1924 prohibiting intermarriage requiring birth certificates to assign race with white or colored

and we all know the history of even one drop of blood as it applied to our citizens.

As I read through that and I thought about the proclamation, I was reminded of the 12 Steps of Forgiveness, in particular Steps 8 and 9.

We must make amends.

We have an obligation, we have a responsibility to acknowledge the things that we have done wrong in our past.

That is part of our history and it must be understood.

We still face a lot of these challenges today.

with regards to marriages and identity.

And it's important to learn from the past and take steps to ensure that we don't fall into the same pitfalls in the future as we respect the dignity and worth of all people.

So thank you for being here today.

Thank you for allowing us, the local government, to try and make amends for things that have happened in the past.

Yes, thank you very much for the information that we've received.

And one of the things that is very important about Virginia, very wonderful about Virginia, is that we have these markers, placards, all over the place, on the roads.

So anyone coming in can read about what happened or what that particular house was or that location was, what historic event happened there.

and I, in my opinion, the proclamations that we have, that is our local way of saying, look what's happened here before, look what's happened in this area, this is an educational process, so I completely agree with Supervisor McKeel and that this is an education, this is who we are, we need to recognize where we've come from, what has happened before,

and that's all part of educating our children so that they grow up and they understand the history, the wonderful history that we've had here in the county and in the state of Virginia.

So I really thank you very much because you all have been here a lot longer than some of us.

I'm talking about centuries, thousands of years even.

So it's important to know your history because your history is our history.

Well, I join it with the other supervisors and thanking you both to being here.

Double up on supervisors Price's point of acknowledging what role we've played in the past so that it doesn't turn around and happen again.

But thank you both for being here to accept the proclamation.

Dr. Biddicher Reed, good to see you.

Thank you for joining us as well.

Just could you share the link to the NPR interview?

I'd love to listen to that.

I missed that, that Supervisor Malek mentioned.

I very much appreciate that if you could do that.

I know a lot of us are adding on here and I appreciate the time, but I think that Bea made a point about the historic markers

And just to point out that there is an app now you can put on your phone that is you're driving by one of the historic markers in Virginia.

If you use the app, it explains what the marker says so that you don't have to pull off of the road.

You take your life in your hands to actually read that marker.

And I would suggest it would really be great if we could somehow or another put that

Link or that app or something on our website or somehow or another make it available to the public because a lot of people don't even know it exists and it is really a great tool for being able to access what those markers say in a safe way.

The only add-on I have is that on Ryan Mills Road, just 50

Peter So from Route 29 is the marker for Montecipa Canal, which is a wonderful summation of the settlement and the trade post that was across 29 on the polar grounds in the lowland there, which is thousands of years old and about the same age as Newgrange in Ireland.

So that's how far back these settlements have been recorded.

And we are definitely the latecomers here.

There's no question about that.

Thank you all very much.

I've seen Mr. Ray, who should be familiar to all of us, certainly familiar to me, joining with us here.

And Supervisor Mallek will read this resolution.

Oh, yeah.

George was trying to get in.

OK, I don't see him on my screen, so that's why I was asking.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Well, it is a great, great pleasure and treat for me to be able to read this recognition as a motion, recognizing George Ray.

Whereas George Ray created the concept, built the coalition of supporters to carry out the project, and has now welcomed the veteran community to the Oakley Veterans Memorial on Nichols Court.

Whereas the Amarillo County residents now have a new memorial park.

which is accessible to veterans and their families of all abilities, a memorial wall of honor with ADA access, a peaceful fountain, and a children's playground.

And whereas the Oakley Veterans Park is a memorial dedicated to the honor of all American military and civilian support personnel who served in the United States in the wars in the Middle East and associated regions, it is a place of contemplation and respect for the sacrifice of so many.

Whereas a prominent part of this memorial is a special recognition for Gold Star mothers and fathers and their lost loved ones.

Whereas the memorial also features a special recognition of the 391st Engineering Battalion of the U.S.

Army Reserve, headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina, and to the four battalion soldiers killed in combat near Islamabad, Afghanistan, on March 12, 2006.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that we, the Amarillo County Board of Supervisors, do hereby honor and recognize George Ray for his initiative and final accomplishment of the Oakley Veterans Memorial on this third day of November 2021.

Is there a second?

Yes.

Ms.

Aye.

Mr. Gallaway.

Yes.

Mr. Bea LaPisto-Kirtley.

Aye.

Ms.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

That carries.

Good afternoon, Mr. Ray.

It's a pleasure having you here today.

We want to give you a few moments to say a few words, if you would like.

You are muted.

I'd like to express my genuine appreciation to the supervisors and to the county staff for all of your support and to the supervisors who were able to attend the dedication on September 26.

I think we had a great crowd.

The main speaker was a retired Marine Corps colonel from this area.

And Mr. Galloway was also a featured speaker.

He was very eloquent in his support for veterans.

and I am very, very, very appreciative.

And please, anybody can come to the park anytime they want to and pay their respects.

And once you've gotten through that solemn part, you can go right behind the main part of the memorial and play on the playground.

Thank you very much.

And Mr. Gallaway, congratulations to you and Diantha on your reelection last night.

Well, thank you very much, sir.

I appreciate your time.

I invite supervisors to make remarks as you wish.

Well, I just want to say thank you to George for this absolutely wonderful idea that has provided another opportunity for our community to thank veterans and their families.

I drive by George Royal Road fairly often because it's in my hood, and it's amazing how often I see folks up there.

often with children, but sometimes just adults by themselves.

And so it is being greatly appreciated, I know, by our community.

I also want to just add that if you look at George on our Zoom screen, he's giving you a little tease of what the memorial looks like behind him.

So hopefully that will encourage people to go by and really take a close look.

I also just want to add, and we could go on for a long time about this,

But George has given so much to this community.

And lots of people don't realize how much time and effort he has put into making our community a better place.

The Paramount Theater restoration would be just one of those items.

Thank you again and thank you for being here.

I want to emphasize that this is a place where people who are wheelchair-bound or walker difficulties have very easy access to achieve.

And I wish that Jim Shisler had lived long enough to see it because he worked for decades to try to improve the access to the Dogwood Memorial.

So I hope that people will take an opportunity to benefit from what George has planned to make sure that they can get up close and personal.

and with ease with their family and their grandchildren there.

Thank you.

Thank you Chair Galloway and Mr. Wright.

Thank you both for being here today and the work that you've done.

Just a little bit ago we did a resolution for Veterans Day which honored

the veterans who work with the county of Albemarle and our public school system.

But it's also important that we recognize those who are interested in and supportive of the military who do not work for the county.

And your work and your leadership has been at the very top of that.

And we thank you and honor you for your service.

Yes, thank you very much, Mr. Ray.

I concur with all my fellow colleagues.

Thank you for doing this, for serving, and for making all of this happen.

I think it's all too easy to just be negative and complain about everything.

It's much harder and it proves the worth of a person when you actually do something good for the community.

which is what you're doing.

It's all ready for you.

Thank you.

I thought I saw Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley going down the slide once already when I looked.

You know the day when we had the event I was very um you know your vision for this for this space

So to honor, I mean, you said it's a solemn place to honor the memory of those who have sacrificed for greater good.

And I mean, when we think of the residents that are served by the Blake, the surrounding residents who can come together, a playground where children can play, I can't think of a better way to honor their memory than to have a place where to do what they were fighting for, which is to live free and pursue happiness.

George, I really appreciate the effort and seeing that vision through.

And you had a wonderful turnout that day.

It was a gorgeous day for it.

And I know that there will be plenty of folks taking advantage of that space because there aren't many to be able to come together in that way in the urban ring.

So we're very grateful for that.

And then as Supervisor McKeel mentioned, your service continues.

You've done quite a bit for this area.

But as the Rio District Representative on the Economic Development Authority, we appreciate your continued service to the county in that manner as well.

So thank you again, George, for being with us today.

Mr. Chair, thank you very much.

The board has so eloquently talked in generalities from different areas and different perspectives of what this great community leader has meant to our wonderful community and how he's given back.

It's ironic, Mr. Chair, that you mentioned his service on the Economic Development Authority.

usually community leaders they do so many things that the community sees because they make the community a better place but at the same time they quietly behind the scenes help people in ways that they just quietly help and I remember about four years ago Mr. Ray pulled me aside and he said let's go drive and let's go look at this community and he took me in his car and he did a windshield tour of this community and he shared

over 30 years of experience and telling me stories and telling me how things evolved and what things, how things worked and he was very kind and very gracious.

He gave back to a new manager who really didn't know a whole lot about what was going on in the community and so it was, you know, his experience as a teacher and Mr. Ray certainly has a lot of experience and a lot of great

May I just add one more thing, Chairman?

I was up at the memorial the day before yesterday and you mentioned the Blake.

Former supervisor Lindsey Dorrier is a resident of the Blake and his daughter was bringing him down in his wheelchair to visit the memorial.

And it brought tears to my eyes and it's what it's all about.

and I was very pleased to see him mobile enough to be able to visit and I'm honored that he came to see the memorial and participate in honoring veterans.

That's wonderful.

That's exactly why you placed it where you did.

Yep.

George, thank you again for being with us today.

We really appreciate all that you do.

Okay board, we're going to move to number seven from the public.

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

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

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

Individuals are allowed three minutes to speak and a sign-up sheet is managed by the clerk's office.

Timekeeping is conducted through a timer.

The timer will commence when you begin speaking and this begins your allotted time.

You will be notified when the three minutes are up and you are requested to bring your comments to a close as your microphone will be muted after about five more seconds.

In order to give all speakers equal treatment and courtesy, the board requests that speakers adhere to the following guidelines.

When called to address the board, please state your name and if you live in Albemarle County, your magisterial district.

address your comments directly to the board as a whole.

If you have written statements and other supporting material, you may email them to the clerk to be included in the record.

If you represent a group or organization, you may identify the group to be recognized.

If you exceed your allotted time, as mentioned, you will be asked to enter comments and the microphone will then be muted.

If the speaker does not use all allocated time, the unused time may not be shared with another speaker and speakers are permitted one opportunity to comment during the public comment periods.

Back and forth debate is not permitted.

You're reminded that all comments are live streamed, recorded, and published on the Albemarle County website.

If participating by phone, please press star 9 to let us know you want to speak.

If by Zoom, please remain muted until you are called to speak.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

All right.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

I'm Peter Krebs from the Piedmont Environmental Council.

Albemarle County is an extraordinary place to live.

It is a community rich with history and culture in which clearly defined neighborhoods are surrounded by a distinct rural area dotted with forests and farms, all bounded by a marquee national park, America's founding river, and neighboring rural counties.

The fact that it is such a great place to live creates enormous challenges for managing growth and preserving the qualities that make Albemarle so wonderful.

For the past 50 years, PEC has played a central role in encouraging that balance by participating and engaging residents in the county's periodic reviews and renewals of its comprehensive plan.

We often say that none of this happens by accident.

It requires planning, sober analysis, a commitment to execution, both of which are driven by the wisdom and energy of a fully engaged citizenry.

Today, you will officially launch the next chapter through a resolution to update this living document.

This iteration will include new challenges, new tools, and new opportunities.

Albemarle's climate action plan and ongoing risk and vulnerability assessment provide key insights that

along with equity ought to be organizing principles, not chapters or subsections.

The county has a remarkable and longstanding commitment to land conservation and habitat protection.

There are many useful tools such as the ACE program, but arguably the county's most important conservation tool is the comprehensive plan itself and the clear distinction it makes between what is rural and what is urban.

The last several years have included an excellent new commitment to connectivity and parks in those areas where most people live.

The new affordable housing strategy provides an important framework for keeping families local and communities intact.

You have several recent victories with an approach to economic development that rewards homegrown enterprises and prioritizes quality of life, healthy communities, and a ready workforce.

I can continue, but I fear my enthusiasm might exceed my allotted time.

Suffice to say that the Piedmont Environmental Council is excited to take part in this periodic renewal that builds upon the good and very intentional work that many of you have done and will continue with the support of county staff, residents, and organizations like PEC.

Thank you.

And we will move to number eight, our consent agenda.

And this item, we did fill the minutes of 6-3-2020.

I would move that we adopt the consent agenda as amended.

All right.

Ms.

Palmer?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Gallaway?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

All right.

Thank you very much.

The consent agenda is passed.

Good afternoon.

I was muted.

I am Rebecca Bragsdale, and I will share my screen to get us started with the presentation for this item, which is a couple of homestay special exceptions.

Thank you.

So this is a special exception request that the Square LLC has submitted.

and we usually start these homestay presentations with the zoning context, ordinance regulatory context if you will.

This is a half acre parcel zoned residential and our residential districts allow up to two guest rooms for homestay lodging, no use of accessory structures and no whole house rental.

And whole house rental, again, is when the owner or manager is not present.

There's a limited number of days that we allow that in the rural area, larger parcels.

All home stays are required to obtain a zoning clearance.

And during that process, that's our final check of owner or tenant manager occupancy, parking, a couple other steps.

But we know that.

Owner occupancy is one of those possible special exceptions.

There are four areas that residential parcels can ask for special exceptions.

or excuse me, three, because the 125-foot setback doesn't apply.

That's only for rural area parcels.

But in this case, the request is to increase the number of guest rooms to three, so only one additional guest room, and then waive the owner occupancy requirement to allow a tenant to service that resident on the property on the lower level.

When we analyze these requests, we're looking at the context of the neighborhood and surrounding properties and making sure that there's no detriment to the abutting properties or harm to public health safety or welfare in our analysis of these types of special exception requests.

Jumping to the parcel itself, this is an aerial of the downtown Crozet area.

And the homestay is located along Carter Street.

You can see with the green asterisk there.

The property is facing Carter Street and oriented towards the downtown area with the post office and some commercial uses across the street.

And there are some surrounding residences that were notified.

We did not hear from any of the property owners or residents in the immediate neighborhood of Blue Ridge Carter following that notice.

This is the zoning map.

All of the purple is the downtown Crozet district, which this property is on the border of.

The retro green color, if you will, is R2 residential.

So it is an area that's still zoned residential, but it's on the edge of the

downtown area.

It is designated for mixed use.

It's been designated this block, I think, since the first master plans.

And that didn't change with the recent update.

So the information of the staff report is current based on adoption of the new master plan.

The red is the area shown for the downtown core.

And then that sort of pink color is the area shown between

the neighborhoods in downtown as a transition area.

So it is recommended for mixed use, but uses that are of a size and scale that provide that transition from downtown.

So it's an area where we would expect it to transition over time and commercial uses be located.

This is a view of the property, a closer look, and shows you

how it is set back a ways from Carter Street and there is substantial vegetation in between the homestay and the abutting properties where residences are currently the closest residents.

A summary, if you will, we have recommended approval of this request.

The increase, again, is from two guest rooms to one guest room, so that's only one additional guest room.

There's also the request to waive the owner occupancy requirement.

The owner's office is a block away on the Crozet Square.

This is a property, again, that is designated for mixed use in the master plan.

and small scale commercial uses compatible with the residential uses are encouraged throughout the master plan.

We also talk about the need to support tourism.

We heard from two community members.

Like I said, we didn't hear from immediate residents, but we heard from one farm winery owner who said that he enthusiastically supported the request.

and that there is a need for lodging in the Crozet area.

We also received an email, I think it was, I would characterize it as no objection but.

So the buts were

that the house would remain or the concern with that email was that approving the homestay on this property might remove existing housing stock around the downtown area.

Now, there are other neighborhoods that are specifically designated for neighborhood and residential as the primary uses.

a little bit further around the downtown area.

In this case, this is an existing residence that will remain.

There is still that unit that would be contributing to the housing stock where the tenant will be living.

I think that covers what we heard in terms of public feedback.

and our analysis of the request that led us to recommendation of approval.

Except I am remembering also there was mention of the need for hotels in downtown Crozet and we've passed those comments along to economic development.

I think they also have some, they may have some private interests that they're aware of for hotels in downtown.

So that led us to our recommendation of approval with the typical conditions that you see that would limit the activity to the areas on that exhibit in terms of parking and guest rooms, limit the number of guest rooms to three, and maintain that screening that's closest to the residences there.

Thank you, Rebecca.

My first question is, how did you find out about this particular request?

This isn't one that is in violation.

They've been listing this property for 30 days at a time.

But we've been in touch with the owner off and on throughout the home stay process.

Yes, a long-term tenant, transient occupancy is for less than 30 days at a time.

Anything over 30 days at a time is still considered a residential use.

Well, I understand why Homestay is more profitable.

I'm concerned about this one because we've had a lot of discussions about affordable rentals.

Jose certainly has had an incredible run-up on housing prices like much of the community has.

And my understanding is that this individual owns several properties that are rental properties in the area.

There is a mix of properties under the same ownership with different zoning.

We have very few homestays that are not, we actually have very few homestays in the Crozet development area.

The other lodging that's offered

is on properties that is zoned downtown Crozet district.

So I think that it's been brought up.

We have a lot of things we want to balance in terms of the master plan recommendations.

And we have specific areas where we are encouraging commercial uses as primary versus residential.

And then we also have the neighborhoods where we want to maintain that naturally occurring affordable housing.

And I think there's more work to be done in that area.

And this tenant is, I guess,

Probably staying in other houses or I mean this is their permanent residence.

I'm a little confused on how that is responding to the care of the other properties.

The requirement, we've talked about this with a few of the other special exceptions regarding owner occupancy that was approved.

There will be a full-time resident on the property.

That's a requirement of the ordinance.

All right, well, I'd like to hear what other supervisors have to say.

I'm a little dubious of this, seeing that it appears to be a reasonable, affordable housing for longer-term rental.

So anyway, that'll do it for me for now.

I guess I am

I just want to make sure if we approve this, and I guess I'm hesitating here because I guess I know the answer to my question, but I'm a little concerned about the change from the owner occupancy.

We're not setting a precedent here.

I mean, there's no way, and I guess this is for Rebecca,

Talk to us a little bit more about what Liz and I are concerned about with this change, if you don't mind.

Well, you mentioned precedents, and the ones that we have approved related to owner occupancy have been in areas where we have areas that are more commercial in nature, we have specific recommendations.

in our plans about supporting tourism.

But the property would still be zoned residential.

It's not rezoning the property.

And I guess as we're approving more and more of these, Rebecca, we're not locking ourselves in to something.

I guess, in general, I am concerned about waiving the owner occupancy, I guess is where I'm going with this.

And I guess I'm expressing some of the same concerns that Liz has, although I recognize the location seems to make it more appropriate.

I guess I really don't have any other questions right now.

I'm interested in whatever other folks have to say.

Thank you.

Following the same vein, I really appreciate when owners spend time and money fixing up old houses and there's another property just at the back lot of this one that may or may not be following the same footsteps.

So my question I guess for Rebecca is how many properties does a resident manager get to take care of?

because the extension is, if there are three or four units all with the same owner, the resident manager needs to be resident on one of those.

And then we don't automatically approve three or four down the street with the same resident manager.

Well, we don't have a limit in the ordinance.

And I think it's something, if we see more of these requests to keep an eye on,

We don't have a limit to how many.

Like I said, when it's in the commercial areas, we've been in an area that's shown to transition to commercial uses.

And some of the others that are owned by this owner are on commercial properties.

But I don't have any more requests like this for owner occupancy.

And we know Prose in the downtown area is unique from any other.

part of the county.

Ms.

Malek, if I could just clarify or maybe add to Rebecca's answer.

I'm not sure if you're asking about if we're giving permission for the LLC for kind of a blanket resident manager.

This is really about this specific parcel.

and that this has to be owner occupied.

OK.

So if there is a resident manager here, that person will be identified by name and all that, so that if the one on Taber Street or on the Square or Blue Ridge Avenue comes up, then they will all have to have their own resident managers.

Right.

And while I understand the boundary of the DCD being Carter Street, this is Blue Ridge Avenue, which is the backside of this property, is the oldest street in the community and part of the historic district.

So there is no way that that should be encouraged to be commercial.

So while a homestay may be a commercial side of residential to support the commercial uses across the street, the new rescue squad across the street, et cetera, I want no one to think that this was an expansion of commercial uses westward into those really old neighborhoods that are under tremendous pressure on north, south, and east, and west as well.

All right, Supervisor Price.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

Thank you, Ms.

Ragsdale, Mr. Sloboda.

Ms.

Ragsdale, I have a question.

What is the unit downstairs consisting?

Pardon?

So with regard to the county staff determination that a resident manager in a single bedroom downstairs does not impact the availability of housing stock in a four bedroom house,

I have to say I disagree with that assessment.

I see a big difference between a family being able to move into a residence as opposed to a resident manager who could be opposed but clearly no more than two people.

So I have some questions as to that determination.

I also note from the applicant that the applicant, they run a vacation rental business which has three units registered already in the homestay program.

And they also rent two units that are offered for 30 days or longer.

So if this is approved, this would be a fourth homestay.

which strikes me as being more of an Airbnb business rather than what I understand the home stay in Albemarle County to be which is a collateral use that produces income to a primary residence.

I would say that I share some of those concerns.

Do you have a response Ms.

He wasn't exactly characterizing it technically correct under the zoning ordinance.

So this is the only homestay under the homestay regs on a residentially zoned parcel.

And it would only be approval for that one property.

We know he owns others around that block, but this is specifically for that property.

The other types of lodging that we're seeing in Crozet are zoned downtown Crozet district.

They're not approved as homestays.

They're approved as commercial lodging.

because that district allows commercial uses.

So I think he got a different type of zoning clearance for those properties.

I appreciate that.

And so they're using them as short-term rental.

There's a single-family detached unit that's close to the square, and then there's two apartments or two one-room units above the square.

So the ones above the square aren't

There were like one bedroom kind of efficiency style apartments.

So those are the three that I think he's referring to, but they're not technically homestays.

So this, like I said, in terms of what's technically a homestay in transition areas or residential areas, we only have about three, including this one.

We have one over on St.

George and there's another one in another part of Crozet.

and the limit is two guest rooms by right for the rest of Crozet, which usually we haven't seen any other activity as far as, like I said, what application activity we've seen or pre-application activity.

Yeah, that was an important clarification, yet it still leaves unanswered to me the question of an LLC, which

From our previous discussions, I have seen where there appears, and not to speak for other members of the board, there appears to be support if a family forms an LLC to keep the family armed, for example, which appears to be different than a general business operation.

I think you said every day, but I think Supervisor Price froze there.

Is anyone else here?

So my question, Ms.

Ragsdale, then is there's no

numerical days of the year limitation on the rental of this unit were approved, correct?

No, there's no limit.

Thank you.

I have no further questions.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

Thank you, Ms.

Yeah, there's a request.

Rebecca, if you could repeat, Supervisor Palmer asked why the others are not technically homestays.

because they are approved under the hotels, motels, inns, land use category in the downtown Crozet district.

Home stays are specific to residential or rural area zone parcels.

So the district allows a house by right to convert.

to short-term lodging in the downtown core area, all of the purple on the map.

And I can go back to any of the maps if that would be helpful for folks.

But it's because all of the others that I mentioned are zoned downtown Crozet district.

It's a different use.

Yeah, as Ms.

Ragsdale mentioned earlier, it's similar to the hotel that was brought up during the staff report.

So a hotel which is considered short term lodging is allowed in that district.

Our commercial districts, any of our districts that allow hotels, highly commercial, C1, I'd have to look up what we allow in commercial office, CO.

There might be some planned developments.

Well, you know planned developments are always unique, so we won't even bring those up with the different codes of developments or application plans.

But that's, generally speaking, across

Okay, thank you.

Yes, I just have one question because all the other supervisors have answered a lot of the questions I had.

I just wanted to make sure I am concerned about the resident manager full time.

Have you visited the downstairs?

Is that a complete apartment or is that a complete apartment with all the amenities that someone could live there full time?

Yes.

That answers my question.

I don't think I have any questions.

I understand what's going on.

I mean, I do appreciate the email we received about the housing stock and the affordable housing.

Email was more like you said, an objection, not an objection, but just something we need to keep in mind.

But I do know that we've approved

similar things because of the tourism district and disapprove a few items, I think, because they weren't in tourism zones, or at least some who voted that way.

So the fact that this is in the tourism zone seems appropriate, or at least in some ways consistent with some other decisions we've made or been against, I suppose.

So I don't have a problem with these, and we'll be obvious efforts.

Do we need to go around another time again?

I have one more question.

So all of downtown Crozet is in the tourism, I mean all the development area of Crozet is a tourism district, is that correct?

That's correct.

Supervisor McKeel, any other thoughts or questions here?

No, I think I'm OK, Ned.

Thanks.

Supervisor Mallek, anything in addition?

No, I have no more questions or comments.

Thank you.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley?

No more questions.

Thank you.

All right.

I will.

Thank you.

I move to adopt the attached resolution, attachment F, to approve the Homestay special exception, SE 2021-32.

Second.

Was that Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley?

Is there any further discussion?

All right, if we can call the vote.

Ms.

And now.

Ms.

Price.

Mr. Galloway.

Yes.

Ms.

Zepeso-Kirtley.

Yes.

Ayes.

Aye.

Ms.

Mallory.

Ms.

All right, the vote is three to three, so that will mean the motion will not carry.

And then that means the special exception is not approved.

All right.

All right.

All right.

The next item here, number 10, resolution of intent to update the comprehensive plan.

Rachel, good afternoon.

and Company.

Am I going to someone other than Rachel first?

It seems like when I go to Rachel, she's like, no, you're supposed to go there.

Yes, good afternoon, supervisors.

Yes, I'm actually going to start.

All right, good afternoon, supervisors.

My name is Tori Kennelopoulos, and I am joined today by my colleagues Rachel Falkenstein and Michaela Carty.

Today, we will be providing an overview of the proposed phase one engagement plan for the comprehensive plan update.

And this will be an opportunity for the board to provide feedback and or affirmation of this phase one engagement plan.

There is also a resolution of intent for the comprehensive plan update as included in attachment C for the Board of Supervisors to act on.

So we will start with a summary of the board and planning commission meetings and discussions to date and a brief review of the overall project phasing plan.

Then we will provide an overview of the phase one engagement plan, including engagement goals and the structure of different groups and engagement methods.

And then we will turn it over to the board for discussion questions and action.

And while the board is very familiar with the Conference of Plan, we wanted to provide an overview for attendees listening in.

The Conference of Plan is a guiding document for the county and is a 20-year plan, which includes housing, transportation, land use, economic development, natural and historic resources, and public utilities and infrastructure.

It is created through collaboration between county staff, community members, the Planning Commission, and the Board of Supervisors.

The plan establishes a vision for the county, which is implemented through policies and recommended action steps.

Recommendations are used to inform decisions on funding, including the capital improvement program, the creation of additional plans, review of applications, including rezonings and special use permits, and updates to the zoning ordinance.

And the plan also includes master plans for each development area and small area plans.

And this is a recap of why a conference of plan update is needed now, as was discussed during the board's October 6th meeting.

Since the current conference of plan was adopted in 2015, there have been a variety of new policies, plans, and plans adopted by the board, including the climate action plan, an updated housing policy, project enable, and an updated strategic plan.

Additionally, the Office of Equity and Inclusion was created at the county, and the board adopted the new organizational value of community.

These updated values and policies will be integrated into the updated comprehensive plan.

The county continues to grow with approximately 4,000 new dwelling units built since the 2015 comprehensive plan update.

And the county's population will continue to grow.

And there is an increasing demand for urban services and infrastructure, such as schools, roads, parks, and broadband.

The plan update will include prioritization of recommended action steps and more clear criteria for tracking progress.

There have also been several updates to Virginia state codes since the 2015 plan update, including consideration of transit-oriented development to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through coordinated planning of transportation, housing, and land use.

And the plan update will also use best practices, including examples from recent comprehensive plan updates in other localities, including localities in Virginia.

This is also a reminder of the phasing plan for the overall project that was presented at the October 6th board meeting.

We are currently in phase one, growth management policy and framework, which includes a capacity analysis for housing and economic development and an updated growth management policy.

Phase two will identify the main topics of the comprehensive plan, evaluate existing conditions for each, and provide updated frameworks using the lenses of equity and climate action.

Phase three will identify recommended action steps to implement the plan and metrics to track progress.

And phase four will finalize the document for adoption.

There were two board discussions of the Community Development Department work program on March 4, 2020, and May 5, 2021.

The work program and priorities were adjusted after the March 4 meeting due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the current work program, the board has expressed support for concurrent comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance updates, and work on both of those projects has started.

At the February 3 and March 17 board work sessions earlier this year,

Staff presented a draft phasing plan and budget estimate.

The board provided feedback that there was a desire for a more streamlined process to allow for concurrent work on the comprehensive plan and other high priority CDD projects.

The Planning Commission provided feedback on the draft phasing plan at their April 13th meeting and also supported concurrent comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance updates.

Hey, Tori.

So before we get into the details of our engagement plan for phase one, I wanted to talk a little bit about how we developed this engagement plan.

As we've shared in the past, we intend to scope our engagement plans for each phase of work as our process evolves.

And so that means we'll take time before the start of each of the four phases to share our engagement plans for the subsequent phase for your review.

We hope this allows us to be reflective and responsive to community feedback on effective methodologies.

This will also allow us to be mindful of the content for each of the phases as we design engagement methods and activities.

Next slide, please.

So keeping in mind the updated organizational value of community, we have drafted some engagement goals for this project.

The first goal is to conduct outreach and collaborate with community members.

These perspectives have not historically been well represented in county processes.

This means different demographic qualities such as age, race, but also place of residence and income.

We hope to also develop and implement a transparent community engagement process and decision making process so that people have a clear understanding of what feedback we're receiving and then how we're using that feedback to inform recommendations.

And then lastly, to provide a consistent and variety of opportunities for community input throughout the whole update process.

Next slide, please.

So to help inform our engagement approach, we've looked at examples of processes from other localities who have done recent comprehensive planning efforts, and especially those that have aligned with our stated goals.

And we've also looked at some researching guidance.

So I'll share three examples that informed our engagement approach.

The first is Minneapolis 2040.

The city of Minneapolis completed a comprehensive plan in 2019.

And at the beginning of their process, they developed engagement goals.

This allowed them to take an intentional approach toward the design of their engagement methods, and they were able to then evaluate their methods throughout their process, both as they were designing their activities and then retroactively after they completed engagement activities to check in on and see if they were achieving those goals.

And we like this approach and felt it would help us to do the same to create a responsive engagement process.

And as you saw in the previous slide, we've drafted some goals to inform our process.

Another planning effort that we've researched from Virginia is Richmond 300.

Richmond created an advisory council to help assist in shaping and reviewing the content of their comprehensive plan and also to help build awareness of the project and to encourage community participation.

So they developed an application process to allow people to serve on this advisory council and received a large amount of interest from community members who wanted to participate.

So they selected members to try and achieve a diversity of perspectives on their advisory committee based on age, ethnicity, and race in place of residence.

And they were also seeking out a diverse range of professional expertise including people with backgrounds in planning fields, such as architecture or real estate, and community members who didn't have expertise in these typical planning fields.

Then lastly, I want to cite some research that was compiled by the American Planning Association, which is a professional association for urban planners.

And they have adopted also a code of ethics for planners.

And APA has compiled some research and guidance about engagement and suggest that planners try and serve the diverse public.

So not just people who are the most active in the community, but try and serve all

all members of the community.

They also recommend planning activities that integrate topics of historic context, equity, and social justice.

Next slide, please.

So our engagement approach for phase one is summarized in attachment B of your materials.

And this image is also included in that attachment.

This shows a four-prong process that

would be how we would use engagement and feedback to develop content for the comprehensive planning process.

And it focuses on four different streams of engagement.

We'll conduct engagement with internal staff across various departments within the organization.

We plan to convene a working group made up of community members.

We'll also conduct broad outreach and with an open invitation to all community members to participate.

and then lastly is the legislative review piece which includes engagement with the Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission with the ultimate decision-making line with the Board of Supervisors.

Our engagement methods will also be supported with a mix of online and in-person outreach and communications to try and spread the word about the project.

So this four-pronged approach to engagement is gonna be discussed in more detail in the subsequent slides of the presentation.

Next slide, please.

But before we get into that, I want to spend just a few moments talking about our rationale for this approach.

Three things I want to point out.

First is the intentionality, which we tried to integrate the new organizational community value, which states that we expect diversity, equity, and inclusion to be integrated into how we live our mission.

Secondly, the engagement plan aligns with existing staff capacity and resources that the board has agreed to allocate to this project with the community development work program and the budget.

And then lastly, as the board has stated, a desire for a strategic update to the comp plan through a phased approach.

Based on that feedback, we've designed an engagement plan that offers the appropriate level of engagement to support the stated goals of the project.

And it also focuses resource and staff efforts on achieving those goals.

Thank you, Rachel.

And good afternoon, supervisors.

As Rachel mentioned, I'm going to talk through each aspect of the phase one engagement plan that's detailed in attachment B on the staff report.

The first aspect of the engagement plan is internal engagement with county staff across various departments and divisions.

This engagement plan includes creating a team of interdepartmental leaders.

The purpose of this team is to coordinate planning efforts across Amarillo County local government and gather input on the existing comprehensive plan and

Craft Content.

Coordination with external partners such as the City of Charlottesville, University of Virginia, Virginia Department of Transportation, Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority, Albemarle County Service Authority, and others would also support this team's work.

Additionally, neighborhood planning staff will prepare several work products as part of this first phase of work.

The work products include a background report that has a summary of existing conditions and history of the comprehensive plan

This background report will be used to inform the comprehensive plan update process and serve as the foundation for educational materials.

We'll also produce a case study and precedent research on growth management best practices and ultimately draft a growth management policy for the board's consideration.

Next slide, please.

This engagement plan also includes a project working group.

which would be an approximately 8 to 12 person group of community members whose role it is to advise county staff on plan recommendations, community engagement methods, and support staff's community outreach efforts by sharing information within the networks, neighborhoods, and or communities.

Working group meetings would occur monthly and include staff-led trainings on fundamentals of urban planning and community development before discussing potential recommendations or policy options.

The goal of integrating these trainings is to ensure that all members have shared understanding and background information to inform their discussions.

Next slide.

In alignment with the engagement goals for this process, county staff in planning the Office of Equity and Inclusion and Communications and Public Engagement will use Albemarle County demographic data and the equity profile to design selection criteria and a selection process that is representative and inclusive of the county.

Staff has access to working group resources from several award-winning planning and design efforts that have used a similar approach.

We're grateful to learn from the lessons of other localities and excited to design a context-specific approach for Albemarle County.

Next slide.

County staff will provide a variety of opportunities for community members to actively participate in the planning process through community workshops.

Community workshops will provide opportunities for members

to learn about existing conditions in Amarillo County and planning practices, provide input on potential policies and conceptual plans, and review draft policies and plans as well.

Next slide.

And while this approach to the work is called community workshops, there's a variety of formats and methods that will be used, including virtual and in-person events,

that reflect what we might typically envision when we hear the word workshop with presentations, videos, and activities.

We would also pursue pop-ups or a roadshow style approach at various locations throughout Albemarle County, have online and paper questionnaires, work with community partners on events, and host in-person or virtual meetings geared towards specific populations, depending on the content or topic at hand for phase one.

Next slide.

Finally, county staff will facilitate work sessions with the Planning Commission to review policy and planning options, existing conditions, community engagement summaries, and draft planning concepts and policies.

Work sessions will be held with the Board of Supervisors at the start and end or the transition point of each phase to review draft comprehensive plan content and the scope of work for the upcoming phase.

Planning staff will compile summary reports for the board's consent agendas as well.

Next slide.

Both these different aspects of the internal and external engagement will be supported by a robust communications and outreach plan.

This includes an online website hub that is consistently updated with plan progress, upcoming engagement opportunities, summaries of past events, and educational materials.

County staff will also utilize existing county outreach and communications tools, including Admiral County News, the email newsletter, social media accounts, and leverage the networks of working members as well.

Materials and engagement opportunities will be provided in both English and Spanish with translation services for other languages made available as is possible and needed based on attendees.

Additionally, county staff will be regularly available for one-on-one discussions and community outreach at recurring pop-ups in various locations throughout the county.

Next slide.

Again, as Rachel mentioned previously, we're excited to share this phase one engagement plan with you as it reflects the new organizational value of community by building equity into the structure of the process and reflects an intentional approach that's aligned with existing staff

Before transitioning to board discussion, I have a few project next steps to share.

County staff will be facilitating a work session with the Planning Commission on this content on Tuesday, November 16th.

We will be refining the working group selection criteria and process as I mentioned earlier in the presentation.

Capacity analysis and background research that is already underway will continue.

And we will work to host the first interdepartmental leaders meeting in December.

We anticipate a public kickoff in January 2022.

And this concludes our presentation.

We have motions available for the resolution of intent when the board is ready for them.

All right, thank you.

And we'll go through and see what questions we have here for staff.

Thank you.

And I certainly appreciate all the work.

I recognize there's a huge amount of organization and work involved in this.

My biggest concern right now is the working group and the criteria and choosing the folks and what the board and the planning commission will

Hear about that through the process.

Will the Board of Supervisors know what the criteria is before you choose or go out and look for people to fill that?

You're muted, Michaela.

Thank you.

Thanks for your question.

So we can bring the criteria to the board if they wish to review it.

We would want to be mindful of our project timeline, since we would like to have a kickoff for this at the start of the new year.

It would be a staff advised group, so it would not be an adopted

Does that answer your question?

It does.

I'm one board member, and I won't be here next year, so I'm not sure when these decisions are being made, but I would certainly like to see the criteria, whether it be on the consent agenda or whatever.

I think that would be a good idea for the board just to understand going forward what the criteria looks like and then

You know, I also think we should see what the, I'd like to see the number of people on the working group, the criteria, and just a little bit more about how that develops as you go through your process.

Yes, thank you, and I too appreciate the work.

This looks very thoughtfully done.

I guess I have a question again also about the working group.

And because we really need a diverse group of folks at the table for the working group, give me your thoughts about how

How you might accommodate their ability to meet, certainly this working group can't necessarily just meet in the daytime or during the week when people have jobs and other commitments.

I'm just trying to get a sense of how the accommodating the folks that, you know, we always have a group of folks who are

willing to volunteer and it's great and they have time during the day.

They can come Monday through Friday, you know, nine to five.

We would like to include a question or maybe it looks like a couple questions for community members on an application about what they would need to support their participation in this type of group.

And that could be things like the time of the meeting, transportation, location generally, childcare.

We like to be open and flexible to members that are willing to participate because

We would like them to be engaged throughout this process and recognize that it's a significant time commitment and their perspectives valued.

OK, that sounds good.

And I will say that it's going to be critical that

We're as efficient with those meetings as possible to have as, it sounds awkward to say, but to have as few of them, but to have them really get to the meat of the issue because folks, when they're trying to take care of families and jobs and they're not retired like I am, it's really important that when you come to a meeting that those, the meetings are structured so that you get the most out of every meeting and folks don't have to take a lot of time.

from their lives to get the work done.

And you get what I'm saying, I think.

Yeah.

I guess for now, those are all the questions that I have.

Thank you.

I have a couple of probably short things.

So I'll just go down the list and ask you to answer them as we go along.

And now I've lost my list.

Just one second.

OK.

And I know that you all have put a tremendous amount of thought into this.

And so I'm not trying to throw cold water on anything, but I do see some gaps.

And I just want to make sure we don't fall into holes that have been falling into in the past.

So can you talk about, I guess I'll come to the working group next.

You mentioned case studies.

What is a case study?

What does that mean?

Thanks for that question.

I inserted some architecture school jargon there, so sorry about that.

A case study would be an example from another locality or in that context I was talking about growth management practices.

We often find that it's helpful to look at work that other localities are doing and research what has worked and what hasn't worked well so that we're not starting from scratch.

We are able to leverage the work

of other localities recognizing that Albemarle County, we need to design approaches that are context specific.

I see, but always keeping in mind that it's going to be different here, likely, because of the long history of people who have been involved in comprehensive planning here.

for a long, long time.

Okay, so let's move on to the working group.

OK, so it sounds like both, the process as well.

And just in the very small, tiny comparison of a smaller group of people, 5,000 as opposed to 50,000, and a very small geography in the Crozet Master Plan,

There was a real challenge to help people to sort of catch and get enough background to be able to understand what they were being asked.

And I think that getting that knowledge base

will prevent a lot of frustration that happens when people are asked to respond to a survey about which they're given no information.

And they just get mad.

And it's just not, we need to try to keep everybody feeling positive and engaged.

And so it is a real chicken and egg thing about

boring them to tears because process wonks like me can go on and on about comprehensive planning, but it may not be high on the priority list for other people, especially if they have little children jumping around who want to have dinner.

But it is really hard to get so that people feel comfortable to be able to ask questions and really engage.

because they feel like they have enough background.

So that's just a concern I will ask you to consider.

I know that with the Rio group, the Rio corridor plan that was supposed to be an advisory group and that was abandoned.

And so whatever lessons we'll learn from that, we need to make sure that we're doing things differently for this to be able to succeed with it.

I would hope you will consider for the benefit of the entire board, who may not have been involved before 2015 in this or 2016, and also for the community members who could benefit from either hearing live or the archive of sort of more thorough presentations to the board.

as was done in the past.

So that the whole community participated basically through public hearings and public work sessions that were frequent, but it really made a tremendous engagement level for a large number of people.

They may not have all come to the meetings, but at least it was in the press and really available to be understood by people.

And I guess in trying to reach people who have not participated before,

using the same methods we have so far and expecting a different result is perhaps not the best way to go.

So I think that I would encourage people to think about meetings in church parish halls with large groups of people who know each other and are comfortable with their neighborhood as opposed to standing in front of the library and getting people to walk up and somehow have to give you meaningful input when they're on the way to somewhere else.

So I look forward to learning more about your next sort of round of conclusions and steps before this hits the street.

And you all may have sort of feedback immediately about what my concerns are.

All right, Supervisor Bryce.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

Thank you, Ms.

Falkenstein, Tonolopulos, and Ms.

Bea.

I just asked if there were any things that people could answer now.

I mean, I rattled off four or five things that were of concern.

And if there are things that have already been dealt with, then let's take those off the table now.

And if not, then we'll get back, do this all again another time.

Sorry to interrupt, Supervisor Price.

But if we want to get answers, let's put a question out, and then let's get the answer.

Putting four or five out, frankly for me, is confusing to know if this is down the road, want it now.

I did want to highlight that we plan to integrate trainings into the working group meetings so that folks are aware of the content and the background that they need to participate.

And we intend to be creative with this engagement approach with the community workshops and are definitely open to feedback that board members have throughout this process.

All right, Supervisor Price.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

Again, thank you, ladies, for your presentation.

I think what you've articulated is a lot of thoughtful work into a plan and a process, which I support or recognize as some of the other supervisors do that you have challenges.

Principally, it sounds like with regard to

effectively gathering information from a productive working group.

Yes, thank you very much also ladies for your presentation.

You don't have an easy job.

You have a very daunting, difficult job in front of you.

I wasn't around for the last comprehensive plan that was put together.

This is not going to be overnight.

It's going to take time.

There's also a learning curve for some of us.

I will say I like your idea of the community workshop.

And I also like what Ms.

O'Connor said, that

If you, as we go along, you are being flexible enough, I hope I understood that, you're being flexible enough to change what you do to meet the needs of the community.

And if something isn't working, then let's go to something else.

But not just to go ahead and do something that is not giving you productive results.

Like I said, the community workshops were set

You're going to get input.

I like that idea.

You don't want to do a fly by night type thing.

I think you do have a good plan forward.

But the only thing I would say is keep your flexibility there to be able to switch and get information as needed, not only from the community, but also from the staff and from the supervisors and the planning commission.

I think my questions about the working group would be supportive of a selection criteria coming back before our eyes just on consent or whatever.

I think my questions would be answered seeing that criteria.

It would help me understand what this working group is going to do for you and how it will help.

And then, so I don't want to ask a lot of questions if that criteria is yet to be established.

But I think a lot would be answered by seeing what it is.

I think the engagement process, having a group advise on the engagement process would be wise based on, I forget who mentioned, maybe Supervisor Malek mentioned what we can learn from the Rio Road corridor study.

I think there were good ideas there that maybe didn't come to fruition.

But having an advisement group on how best to maybe engage in some of these places would be a good idea.

I also think that it can be frustrating, I would imagine, for everybody involved where community members may become late to the game.

We do our best effort to put things out there that this is going to be worked on.

These ways to participate are there.

And then if they are missed, then we get well, where's this coming from?

This is coming in at the 11th hour or things like that.

So whatever we need to do PR wise to assist your work to engage the community will have to do.

If the information's been put out and people don't see it or don't participate in it, I hate to say it, but that's on them.

They can't just say, well, I didn't know anything about this when we've done our effort to try to put it out.

So if that's email or press releases or what have you to try to endorse or support participation, obviously, I would be in favor of doing that.

Otherwise, I appreciate the work here and the schedule and the phase and what your structure,

outlines of the approach seems to be one that I get and understand and follow along.

Ned, do you want me to make a motion?

Yeah, the second one I know I was seeing is the first one, the review and affirm, the phase one engagement fund.

We don't need a motion on that, but we would have to do this.

Yeah.

There we go.

It just says on the screen.

But any other questions or comments that are needed before we go to this stuff?

And I think the only motion that I need to make is the first one.

I move to adopt the Resolution of Intent and Attachment C to update the Albemarle County Comprehensive Plan.

Any further discussion?

All right, we can call the vote.

Ms.

Aye.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Ms.

Bea LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Very good.

The motion carries.

And then I would hope that if there are questions or comments that have come up that maybe didn't get directly addressed, that that can come back to us even if it's in form of an email summary as we consider things throughout.

And I only offer that to staff so that next time this comes before us, we're not having to go back and rehash things that were mentioned here today.

That can come out to us in another form.

So I'd appreciate any responses on that.

We are at our, oh, we got ahead of time here a little bit.

So we are at our recess.

We have a 15 minute recess built in.

So we will be back at 3.10.

And Travis will give the all clear when the mic.

And you're live.

Right, thank you.

We'll move on to item number 11, which is our draft 2022 Thomas Jefferson Planning District legislative program.

And we welcome David Blunt, Director of the Legislative Services at TJPVC with us.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.

Thank you for the opportunity to be on with you this afternoon.

As you said, I am here to present the Regional Legislative Program for 2022 for your approval.

And as I had noted in the memo that is included in your packet, the draft program lists three top legislative priorities.

They are number one, support for recovering communities, number two, budgets and funding, and number three, broadband.

And yes, these are the same priorities from 2021.

You'll recall last year we did some scaling back and streamlining the program.

There are some language changes to these priorities that I would just like to briefly point out.

In the first one, there are some amendments that really just add some language to speak to maximizing the use of federal and state support for the benefit of Virginia residents.

I guess when we were doing this program last year, we didn't have as much knowledge about what pockets of federal money and state assistance that may be out there for COVID relief.

Under number two, budgets and funding, there is some language to urge the inclusion of school bus drivers in the SOQ funding formula and also for providing funding for mental health positions and services in school.

This is an issue that came up in other parts of the region.

And finally in the broadband position, there's some language that's been added to emphasize cooperative work among providers and the stress affordability of broadband.

The next section is the legislative position section.

It focuses on the most critical recommendations and positions in other areas of current interest and concern in the region.

and again in your packet there was a summary of the items that have been proposed to be amended.

I wanted to highlight a few of those for you.

Noting one, the position on environmental and water quality.

These previously were separate position statements that have combined into one.

and just simply for the reason that the water quality statement was very short.

It had, I think, only three or four different positions.

And so those have been maintained to the word in this combined position.

There's also some language that's been added really more in the environmental part to stress local authority on solar wind and energy storage facilities.

That's way down in the ninth bullet.

So some new language there.

Just to highlight a couple others, we've strengthened the position on internet business regulation to put more emphasis on local authority.

That's in the first bullet under the general government section.

We also added in the same position in the six bullets some support for expanding the allowable uses of electronic meetings outside of emergency declarations.

And then finally, there is also a strengthened position on state funding for elections due to the possibility of some extra elections due to the delay in census numbers coming down and redistricting.

So those are just a few of the highlights.

I'm glad to discuss any of these items with you today, answer any questions you may have.

And again, I'm looking for you to adopt the program with a vote this afternoon.

Questions here?

No, I don't think so.

Thank you.

Looks all good to me.

Thank you, David.

It looks good.

Thank you.

OK.

Now I'm ready.

Finally.

Good.

Thank you.

It'll be fascinating to see how this all plays out.

And I certainly appreciate all the changes that you've added.

And very glad to see the biosolids thing back in there.

And I would love to have it even stronger, but I wasn't there to work on that.

The dam safety is something I'm very glad you included, because more and more constituents in our county and neighborhoods

are now being sent to the cleaners by getting these letters from from DCR saying oh by the way hire an engineer for ten thousand or twenty thousand or thirty thousand dollars and send us a piece of paper saying that your dam is fine so and farmers are getting these rural landowners are getting these as well so I hope that there will be some serious

Modifications in this process or at least more state help to have people be able to navigate something which is incredibly challenging and fairly scary if you have any kind of body of water on your property.

So I really appreciate that.

That's been a position that's been in the program for

a number of years.

And I think that it's just, that was one I remember having to really kind of walk a tightrope on that one between some of the localities who don't want to see a mandated expansion, but still trying to preserve the option to do, as you all have done, to do things voluntarily.

OK, very good.

I understand a tightrope, you're walking.

So that's fine.

Thank you.

No, thank you very much, Mr. Bont, for your presentation.

I don't have any questions.

I've got a couple of other thoughts on some legislative things for maybe in the future that I'll just first start off with some board members in the county attorney.

Yes, thank you very much, Mr. Brown.

I just have one question regarding the use of electronics, I assume Zoom, continuing for maybe other like CAC meetings and things like that.

Yeah, I was really trying to keep a broad statement in there.

The discussions that are going on right now at the state level in terms of

some kind of a compromise piece of legislation.

It really kind of focusing on the type of meeting rather than the type of body.

So not that you would make a distinction between a board of supervisors versus an advisory committee that may be a mixture of elected and appointed officials.

So I think that's a good thing.

I've been talking to folks at VML in Vaco and others that are involved, and they've had some good discussions with the Press Association and Coalition for Open Government.

Haven't seen a final

I hope so too, because I can see a lot more participation from the public and from the members of the different organizations vis-a-vis the Zoom meetings.

Yes, certainly.

Yeah, and I know that those other groups recognize that, and they've seen a lot of that, I think, from the past 18 months from the very beginning.

Thanks, David.

and how many answers it will be for us.

The funding piece of it, obviously this will require, the election would be at the same time as a normal election, but it will just be an additional race or the House would be up potentially at a different time than they normally would.

But I mean, you go based on historical turnout in terms of ballots, like we saw yesterday.

what you can have ready for you.

I guess I'm trying to look into the future a little bit and go, okay, when might this hit?

When might this funding be needed?

Is this realistic that they could best potentially get us funding and time?

Yeah, I think what we're trying to do is, you know, the election administration at the local level has been historically underfunded by the states and there were a number of years where those, you know, minuscule dollars were being cut even more or more requirements, you know, were being put on

you know the local offices of election for printing and other costs and so I think we're just trying to highlight what could potentially be some additional cost to the localities and just to give us a little bit more firm ground to stand on and advocating for additional state support.

I know they did put some additional dollars in this past year after having passed the early voting provisions and also some supplemental compensation for registrars.

I think it was in that vein

Don't know any really specifics to address your question in terms of how it might all play out.

to say that I would imagine this is one that other planning commissions would be advocating for as well.

I mean, this is not a partisan or even a local specific request.

Like Albemarle, when we do our own legislation priorities, we've got some very specific things to Albemarle.

But these are six counties that it's not an issue that's disjointed among them.

This will cover everybody.

So I would think that this would be a better plan.

You're exactly right.

I think it would seem similar for Children's Services Act and the piece in there.

Not that I have necessarily any questions about it, but do you have any reading the crystal ball of what kind of state, and this seems to be a nonpartisan, affects all localities as well.

If there's any opportunity there, it may be just in the area of the administrative cost.

There is a study going on right now I don't believe is going to be ready until next year related to how that program might be structured a little bit different in terms of how the state funding flows.

The administrative cost the state typically has put forward is, again, just a very small fraction of what you spend locally.

I think there's probably going to be, you know, particularly what we've been through in the mental health arena.

And I know I've been hearing a lot lately about, you know, of course, the capacity at state hospitals and the time spent that local law enforcement is spending in transferring folks to facilities where they don't have room for them.

Great, thank you.

That's all the questions I had.

Were there any other comments or questions here for David?

Well, this one we do need to, it's an action item, so we would have to approve the draft.

I'd be happy to make that motion that we approve the draft legislative program from the Thomas Jefferson Planning District motion.

Ms.

Palomar?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Yes.

Ms.

Aye.

Ms.

Malle?

Yes.

Ms.

Yes.

Very good.

That motion carries.

David, thank you again.

All right.

We will move to our next item, number 12.

We moved from the county executive

into the afternoon today for a report on matters not listed on the agenda, as we head into the time of this agenda here.

Yes sir, Mr. Chair.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to be here this afternoon.

And as you noted, this is the county executive's report, typically offered at the 6 o'clock hour, but in an effort to try to manage the board's afternoon and evening schedule.

We worked to put this at a time that might be mutually beneficial to our community, to our board, so that you will have adequate time to get through your afternoon and evening scheduled agenda.

I have with me today a number of folks that I'd like to recognize on the call that will help me to go through the information that we have for the board today.

First, I have Nelsie Burch.

Nelsie's our chief finance officer.

Nelsie has been with our organization since around the beginning of the pandemic, so she came on board at a time where we were

basically working from home.

And as we have evolved through the pandemic and moved through the changes that we have made as the pandemic has changed, NLC has evolved with us.

Also, we have Andy Bowman, our budget director.

He'll be with us today, and he'll be actually going through some of the slides and helping us to answer questions that our board may have.

Also, I have Nia Coltrane.

Nia is our Human Resources Director for Albemarle County Government, and she's in her second month.

Hit the ground running, that's an understatement.

And so Nia, thank you very much for rolling your sleeves up and being such a wonderful addition to this organization.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

I also have Emily Kilroy with us today, who's always important in helping us with our messaging and our communications, and also the connectivity back to the organization and community we serve.

Of course, Trevor and Doug are here in the County Executive's office.

What's important today is that we say things that are correct.

And so any of these folks that are on the call may raise their hand and add to the comments that I have.

They may answer your questions for.

And again, what matters is that we get this right, not who's right.

So for the County Executive's report today, we are talking about

three budgets.

You have three budgets in front of you, and that is the connection between FY20, FY21, and FY22.

Underneath that, you see the 36612 model.

And so today is much more than just a brief check-in with how fiscal year 21.

That's the middle circle, and it's connected to the budget year that we're in, and it's connected to fiscal year 20, which I'll talk about in just a second.

But today is much more than just a brief check-in.

because about how we are wrapping up Physical 21.

It's much more than that because the last 20 months have been unlike any in my professional working career.

And I probably speak for staff when they say that our challenges and the kinds of issues and problems that we faced are like any that we faced in our career.

So Mr. Chair, what I'm going to do is we're going to walk you through some financials and talk to the board and try to connect where we've been recently with our strategic plan update, where we've been recently with the joint fiscal planning discussion with the Albemarle County School Board,

and also where you've been recently with your joint meeting with EDA.

So all of this connects together and it connects together in a meaningful way.

But I would respectfully remind the board that 601 days ago,

Albemarle County began immediate steps to adjust the final quarter of the FY20 budget while simultaneously at the same time totally redoing the FY21 budget.

And if I recall correctly, the staff did that in about 17 days.

They took the fiscal year 21 budget, which had been presented to the community three weeks earlier.

on February the 19th and the board had completed five budget work sessions, the fifth being March the 11th in room 241.

The room was packed and the board, the staff, key community agencies, your primary topic was transportation.

And one day later Albemarle County issued a state of emergency and 601 days later we continued to work through our global pandemic.

So let's go ahead and forward the slide, please.

I want to talk for a few minutes.

As I mentioned, March 11 was the fifth budget work session.

We worked three weeks into the FY21 budget process.

And we went back.

And mainly, we first looked at the fourth quarter of 2020.

and we were looking primarily at managing expenditures over the final quarter.

So we immediately hit the brakes in a very direct way with all spending.

We were in a mandatory stay-at-home situation beginning March the 12th and we judiciously worked our way through the final three months of the budget and we did land fiscal year 20.

The first three quarters carried us through the fourth quarter and we were able to wrap that budget up with no sustained damage to our budget, to our financial condition.

As I mentioned, we were simultaneously totally redoing the FY21 budget.

We artificially lowered our budget base.

So we had to go in and we had to make drastic cuts for fiscal year 21.

I mentioned fiscal year 20.

We modeled for that final quarter.

We modeled worst case scenario.

And I feel very good that we did, because we made the necessary expenditure cuts.

We manufactured savings, not knowing how bad the damage was going to be with our revenue structure, not just for those first three months, but the final three months of fiscal year 20.

But going into fiscal year 21, we had hardly no time to make decisions on how far to cut.

We had three scenarios that we talked to the board about, most severe, severe, and less severe.

And we took the middle of the road from fiscal year 21.

We took the middle of the road.

We modeled severe budget cuts, which did lower our base.

And we cut without cutting positions and laying people off and without cutting services.

and without substantially redesigning service delivery throughout the organization.

Very proud of our staff and very proud of our team.

I'm very proud of our board that stepped up during the time when we had more questions than answers in trying to work through the early days of fiscal year 21 budget planning.

One of the things that I do want to emphasize to the organization and to the community is that we put an emphasis on preserving staff positions.

We froze vacant positions and we had goals in mind, but we also emphasized our emergency services front line.

employees who were in the field.

We did not cut positions that were forward-facing in the field, but rather we cut positions that we felt would allow us to keep as much of the service delivery to this community that we serve intact over fiscal year 21.

So the first six months of 21, each quarter got better.

We were getting some encouraging

economic news that the stability of our financial condition was okay.

In the middle of that, our staff was also working and looking at our debt, and Ms.

Burch was coming on board.

We were analyzing short-term, long-term debt.

The board worked hand in glove with us on looking at our debt structure and also pausing projects with a clear message from the board.

Don't hit the brakes across the board.

We've got to continue to move the community forward, but do it with a level of caution and a level of conservativeness, because there was an element of our economy that we just didn't know.

Apart from Doug Walker, we've got to buy time to be able to determine, as the fog lifts, is there sustained damage to our economy?

Is there structural damage to our economy?

Pleased to report today that as we work

into fiscal year 22, because we went through the first six months, we went through the second six months, and we're beginning to get economic trend data that suggests that our strategy of 3, 6, 6, and now 12, it has worked for this organization.

We have sustained service delivery intact across the board.

So our financial condition continues to be strong.

Our triple, triple A bond rating continues to be strong.

As we went out for refinancing, we visited with all three bond agencies.

This board is aware of that.

Our finance department took on a significant amount of heavy lift.

to work through that, but they also created financial capacity for this organization in doing so.

I remember bragging across our organization of our finance team taking on additional work during a time when we did not have additional capacity, but they knew they had to get it done in order for the organization to not just maintain financial condition, but to strengthen our financial condition for the future needs of the organization and the community that we serve.

So I'm going to turn it over to Andy Bowman,

And I'm going to let Andy go into some detail with this board about how fiscal year 21 is wrapping up.

I would remind the board this is unaudited.

At this point, this is unaudited.

We'll be back in December.

But Andy's going to share a few slides of information, stop and answer questions from the board.

He'll turn it back over to me.

and then I'll make some observations as we move forward and then I'll also ask Nancy Burch to step in and close out to clarify and answer questions but also clarify to the board what's next between now and the second meeting of December.

Mr. Bowman, thank you for being here.

Thank you Mr. Richardson for the introduction.

Before we look at the unaudited numbers for how the general fund performed compared to budget in fiscal year 21, I want to provide some context for how unusual the end of fiscal year 21 was.

Before I show any data, I want to provide some perspective that the county's revenues across all four quarters of the fiscal year are not equal.

What I mean by that is that over the past five years, about 46% of general fund revenues are consistently received in the fourth quarter.

That has to do with the timing of billions and just other things throughout the year when those are normally received.

So when there's a significant change in the fourth quarter compared to the prior three quarters, that can have a significant impact on how the total year-end picture looks.

So with that concept in mind, I'm going to start sharing some data.

And I'm going to talk through this slowly because there's about to be some numbers on the slide.

I'll bring them in a little bit at a time to begin to watch the comparison of what happens in the first three quarters of the fiscal year to that last quarter.

So I'll begin with data from fiscal year 18 and fiscal year 19.

In the top row, fiscal year 18, revenues grew 4.7% over the same period in fiscal year 17.

The fourth quarter was comparable to that at 4%, a little bit slower, but within one percentage point.

In fiscal year 2019, we see a very similar story, where revenues grew at 5.4% over the same period in fiscal year 2018.

That fourth quarter was comparable again within a percentage point at 6%.

I didn't put data going on the slide, going back further, but going back in history, revenue growth in the first three quarters, more often than not,

That last quarter is usually within 1%, either plus or minus.

It's a pretty good indicator.

However, when we get to fiscal year 20, and as the board may expect, we begin to see a very different picture.

We see in the first three quarters fiscal year 20, as the score has heard before, growth at 4.4% over the prior quarters in the fiscal year.

And that is also within the range of what we've seen in the prior years.

However, at the onset of the pandemic, that changes dramatically where that revenue grows 0.6%.

When we get to fiscal year 21, we again see something different.

We see that the first three quarters were higher than the onset of the pandemic at the end of fiscal year 20.

We've gone from 0.6 up to 2.6.

But that 2.6 is notably a blow and then a stable economy in the years prior to the pandemic.

And once again, we see a very significant swing in the fourth quarter, where those revenues increased 7% over the prior year at the end of fiscal year 21.

Staff rejections, they anticipated an improving local economy.

But the degree of that improvement and how fast it came in fiscal year 21 versus fiscal year 22, that was much greater than what was anticipated.

So I'm going to highlight things, this last point on the slide to bring things full circle, the same point I started with.

is that in the last five years, 46% of general fund revenues collected in the fourth quarter.

So when there's a significant change in that quarter compared to what happens prior to that year, that can significantly shift the county's financial position for the worse as in fiscal year 20 or for the better in fiscal year 21.

So moving to actual fiscal year 21 performance, I promise there's less numbers on this slide than the previous one.

But I'm going to start talking about revenue performance of actuals compared to budget.

Revenues exceeded the budget by 5.3%.

And again, this is primarily due to that major swing and stronger than anticipated performance that took place in the fourth quarter.

For another historical reference point,

Staff, we set a target to have an actual revenue variance compared to budget of 2% or less.

That's a target that is used by many Virginia localities who, like the county, are triple, triple A rated.

Standard used in many government financial organizations to kind of have a target of a good measure of performance.

And I can report from fiscal year 18 through 20 through the last three years heading into pandemic, that 2% target was met.

So we had an aberration from that with the pandemic, and particularly what happened in the fourth quarter, where that was a variance of 5.3%.

Moving to the expenditure side, there's also a budget variance of 4.9%.

This is 4.9% under budget, which is where you would want to be on the expenditure side.

And I should note that that is unusual as well.

I went back.

That is actually the highest variance we've had in expenditures since the onset of the Great Recession, where there was a dramatic decrease in expenditures as the revenue picture began to change quickly.

So I should note, of that $15.4 million, about $10.4 or roughly 2 thirds of that amount are actually savings in fiscal year 21.

They either have been or will be recommended for reappropriation in fiscal year 22.

So to elaborate on what I mean by that is those reappropriations would include things such as purchase orders for items that were planned to be purchased in fiscal year 21, but due to changes in responding to the pandemic or supply chain, they were not going to be able to deliver it on time as expected and those expenditures are now going to be taking place in fiscal year 22.

That also includes substantial funding with reserves the board established, whether that be additional funding for the county's climate action initiatives,

funding to modernize the county's business operations and also the board created in the middle of fiscal year 2021 some local funding dedicated to support the county's pandemic response.

All of that funding is making up about two-thirds of that $15.4 million.

So because I just mentioned the pandemic response, a question that may be on the board's mind or the public's mind is to what extent either CARES funding or ARPA funding from the federal government impacted its financial picture?

and the CARES stands for the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act.

ARPA stands for the American Rescue Plan Act, which has been discussed over the course of the last 18 months or so.

So those revenues and expenditures are accounted for separately from the general fund, which is done for audit purposes, but there are impacts to the general fund of CARES funding.

The first thing is that CARES funding assisted the county financially by providing funding for pandemic-related programs that would have otherwise required support from local sources.

So the efforts that went in to support individuals and businesses through relief programs, the funding for any pandemic response to county facilities, that was able to be funded by CARES program.

The other notable area where care is impacted is the county was able to reimburse a significant portion of its public safety expenditures, which created a one-time savings in the middle of fiscal year 21 that then the Board of Supervisors used to establish a local pandemic reserve.

That was done prior to ARPA funding being made available by the federal government.

And that reserve persists because it's able to fill in some of those gaps that can't be met by either what CARES was designed to do or ARPA was designed to do.

And post-pandemic, that funding would also be available to apply to another area of boards' strategic priority.

The board made a recall at one point that was intended to be used in part to support broadband before federal ARPA funding came along to be a solution for that.

So the pandemic reserve at the end of fiscal year 21 actually total $4.7 billion, which is about 30% of the unexpended budget in fiscal year 21, again, highlighting the significance of those reserves and items that will be reappropriated.

So that covers CARES.

And for the American Rescue Plan Act, that funding was not received until the very end of fiscal year 21 in May.

And based on the framework that we discussed with the board, that funding really would be spent a little more slowly and deliberately

So no funding took place in fiscal year 22, so that did not have an impact in fiscal year 21.

So in summary, fiscal year 21 was an unusual year in many ways, between strong revenue growth in the fourth quarter, the amount of expenditure savings that will be reappropriated the following year, both due to the pandemic and reserves, and also how that CARES funding factored into the county's response to the pandemic.

Those are the primary reasons that we have larger budget variances than we have seen historically.

So the final thing before I turn it back to Mr. Richardson is related to fiscal year 21 performance, but we also need to take a moment and separately talk about the county's general fund fund balance.

So in the county's financial policies, there is a fund balance in the general fund.

And first of all, that I just added to the slide right from our financial policies.

That fund balance is built over the years from savings to provide the county with working capital to enable that it's able to finance unforeseen emergencies without borrowing.

So at the end of each fiscal year, as we're working through the audit, staff will prepare an analysis where we look at our general fund fund balance, and we begin to say, what amount is needed to meet financial policies, to meet the board's established policies and targets?

After that analysis, we then look through and say, what amount of fund balance is already appropriated, whether it be in the initial budget or re-appropriated?

What are those other obligations that may be out there for that fund balance, or those things that may be planned uses?

And after that, there's a remainder of one-time funding that's available to be then programmed by the Board of Supervisors in the county's upcoming financial plans.

And the result of that, going through a lot of math, as we kind of go through that calculation, is that, unaudited, we expect there to be $13.2 million in one-time funding that would then be available to be reprogrammed as the county is heading into the season again of financial planning over the next five years through the operating and the capital budget.

Andy, thank you very much.

Board, I want to talk just for a minute about how we need to look as we, in my mind, put behind us the third, the three and the 3-6-6-12 model.

And that would be the final three months of fiscal year 20 over 600 days ago.

And then how we are, as we begin to wrap up fiscal year 21, we divided that into six and six because we needed to slow down.

We need to buy time.

because time we knew would tell us more about our economic outlook, our financial foundation, and then the top of the triangle is our workforce stabilization.

We needed time, and so we divided the fiscal year 21 into two six-month segments to slow down, to slow the pace, to slow the tempo, to slow the decisions that we had to make, and we did that.

and as we begin to wrap up 21 and we begin to build on the trend data that Mr. Bowman is talking about where we're beginning to see that this economy for our region and for Albemarle County is extremely strong and that there's a resilience in our economy and in our revenue structure that is beginning to show trend data that tells us

that we're back on very stable ground and we need to move forward, continue to move forward.

We need to continue to look at your strategic plan.

We need to ask the question of where our biggest opportunities are now to make a meaningful impact in our community.

I'll give you an example.

John Albandian came to speak to the board last fall in your budget retreat.

He came to speak to staff prior to that.

And one of the things that he said is, he said, in our organization and local government, structures should match the challenges and problems that we face.

Look at your bottom right hand corner with broadband expansion.

I would applaud this board for your leadership and your vision to move forward, not just with the broadband authority, but with the creation of the broadband office.

Structures should match the challenges and problems that we face.

With Mr. Culp's leadership, with the broadband authority, with the Board of Supervisors, with the funding and the matches and the leadership to move broadband

Paul Band is this one example, but there are other blocks of strategic priorities that are there in front of you, and I would suggest that with our wrap up of the 21

year that as we move into the beginning of the budget process I would ask the emergency support to take a look at your strategic priorities to begin to talk and discuss and we'll have opportunities to do that soon about where are our biggest opportunities, where do we need to look to

I put more one-time funding.

The top right-hand corner, our economic development program, that's one I definitely want the board to take a hard look at.

I think that we need to not just replenish the economic development fund, but that you've met recently with your EDA.

I think that we need to consider doing more, and I think now is the time to do more to set ourselves up in the future.

to help business expansion and to be a catalyst in this community to continue to strengthen our economic foundation for this community as we continue to stabilize and actually grow further.

I also want to talk about workforce stabilization more in depth just for a minute.

I went back and looked, and I believe, unless I missed, that with this current Board of Supervisors that you've got 44 years of collective experience serving this board.

That's a very, very seasoned Board of Supervisors, and I'm certainly proud to serve with each and every one of you.

because your experience has never been needed more over the past two years.

Experience as a teacher.

I also have a highly talented and experienced staff.

And there may have been times that we would have disagreed specifically in the last two years on what we should do, when and how.

But there's something that I know that we all agree with, that over the past 20 months, our employees have been asked and challenged to work differently.

Our employees have been asked to continue to do their job and to take on the high risk in some cases with the frontline responsibilities of serving the public and managing the pandemic.

Our employees have been asked to do additional duties, much of which are pandemic related.

We've been a leader in this region.

Our county has the highest vaccination rate of any county in the state as we approach 79%.

Our organization has a full vaccination rate of 87%.

and we are 100% fully COVID compliant as we roll out into the second month of our mandatory testing for the 13% who are not.

So we've asked our employees to implement change, we've asked our employees to make adjustments continually, and our employees, our employee base, which 50% of our employees have children under the age of 18 in their household,

So their personal worlds have been collectively turned upside down, much like the community that we serve.

Our EAP services over the past year have doubled.

Thankfully, we have a strong benefits program and our employees have leaned hard on that.

But board, I will tell you that we've got to look at mid-year adjustments.

And I'm going to be coming back in December.

And I'm going to be recommending with the guidance from our HR director and the guidance from our finance department and with input from our organizational leadership team.

I'm going to be recommending to the board in December that the board consider a mid-year adjustment to the pay plan.

I know the board has fully supported

a pay and classification study under Ms.

Coltrane's direction over the next year.

While I'm satisfied that that's going to be well received and help us greatly, that's probably eight to 12 months away.

And board, I would tell you that just in the short time that Ms.

Coltrane's been with us, she's analyzed and looked.

We have 26 current vacancies in our organization.

We're recruiting for, and she's seen a trend of where we're posting positions and we're receiving on average five to seven applications.

In addition to that, she's also looked at the current fiscal year we're in and she is

in the process of working with human resources to process 12 retirements currently.

Another 21 is planned, and so by the end of this fiscal year, we expect to process 33 retirements within our organization.

That's compared to a year ago, 19.

So in the current year we're in, we may be looking at approximately twice the number of staff retiring.

So we've got to maintain competitiveness.

We've got to maintain

salary, entry-level salary ranges that are competitive in the market.

I'm concerned, I'm increasingly concerned that while the financial foundation under us is stronger, much stronger than it was 20 months ago, the economic vitality in this community, we have trend added to suggest that it's as strong as ever.

The ground we stand on with workforce stabilization is very fragile at this point.

All of you have your stories with your families or with your work about what you see around you.

We see it too.

Local government's not immune to it.

And so board, with your support, we're going to come back in December because not only is our one-time money increased, but also the base has increased.

And if you get nothing else from my comments, I want you to understand that we artificially, artificially lowered our base at the end of FY20, beginning of FY21, because we needed to do that to manage through the uncertainties of this pandemic.

And as we grow back and as we get on solid ground with our economy and our financial base, we've got to be more aggressive and make up for lost ground with our workforce stabilization.

So I really appreciate that you allow me to share those comments.

Thank you for, and I want to publicly thank the workforce of Albemarle County Government.

Thank you for sticking with us over the last 20 months.

Thank you for staying with this organization.

Thank you for the services that you have provided our citizens.

I appreciate it very much and the sacrifices that you've made to our community in order for you to be able to do your work and do it to the level that we needed you to do it at.

With that board, I'm going to hand it over to Nelsie Burch.

Thank you, Mr. Richardson.

Good evening, everybody.

This is Nelsie Burch, the chief financial officer.

What I want to make sure the board and the community

understands, particularly because we've thrown a lot of information out there, is that we've got several items in the next slide.

I'll get to that in just a moment.

And I'll walk you through how we're going to really socialize our thought process and our recommendations that we will be bringing forward to the board for your consideration.

And so tonight, you do not need to make any decisions.

but we did want to start to introduce kind of what opportunities we have because FY21 has presented a fourth quarter revenue enhancement that is allowing us to have $13.2 million of one-time funding that we can use in order to make

to make a transformative movement with the priorities that have been established by the board.

And so we, as part of the FY 23 process, historically, and the board is likely familiar with this.

Whenever we have this positive variance after we've accounted for all of our obligations, we typically build that into the future budget that we're about to go into.

And that is going to continue to be the case here.

And so what we will be working with you on over the next two months is how can we use that $13.2 million to support not only what you see on the right-hand side, to support the one-time needs that we have, not ongoing, but also making sure that we're supporting.

When I reflect on what the pandemic has taught us and some of the words that Jeff was mentioning, Mr. Richardson was mentioning,

is we learned a lot about ourselves, about our community, about our environment, about the needs.

And I think at different points and times we would have as a government done more.

And we did and made decisions at times when we didn't know that, for instance, CARES funding was coming or ARPA funding is coming.

And now there is the reality of our economic base being stabilized.

the knowledge of what this additional funding has done to allow us to offset some of our costs.

And at the same time, knowing that there are things like economic development that we need to continue to support the opportunities in front of us.

And the board has had conversations recently about that.

Affordable housing is another area that we might want to use this funding to support additional funding to advance the priorities that the community and the board

have discussed.

We've already talked a little bit about workforce stabilization, and I'll get to Mr. Richardson's point in the ongoing FY22.

But there's also things that we can do with this one-time funding to help smooth the impact of some of the decisions that we've made already.

For instance, we have received FEMA grants to offset our costs relative to additional firefighters.

That grant does go away in this five-year horizon.

So how can we be strategic there and help to smooth the impact to the general fund as those grants start to retire?

And so we'll be providing a plan to the board as we work through with you the five-year financial plan as well as the FY 23 budget of how we can use this funding to support those initiatives.

So that's discussing the one-time funding

and some of the thoughts that we have there that we will have, like I said, further discussions, which I'll talk about in just a moment.

But Mr. Richardson is correct.

Our revenue base has grown.

So fundamentally, when we look at the fourth quarter and the opportunities it's presenting to us, is we have shifted our base.

And so there will be more revenue in FY22 than we anticipated.

And so there are some decisions that need to be made when that happens so that we don't have this large variance like we had in 21, that we are planning now to help utilize appropriately that funding so that we stay within the variance that we are always striving for, which is within that 2% that Andy had mentioned, Mr. Bowman had mentioned.

and why we are bringing forward for the December 1st conversation with the board some workforce stabilization initiatives is because there really is a sense of urgency.

As we are looking and scanning the environment that's around us and the competitive nature of the workforce and the jobs available, I can tell you that every department head who has tried to hire somebody in the last six months has a story to tell.

about the difficulties in recruiting.

And so there are several pieces to this that are all leading to us needing to do something in this current fiscal year and bringing forward in December that can help offset that and stabilize the workforce that we need.

to really execute all the priorities that the board discusses at every meeting that we have.

And so that is the sense of urgency that we have.

Andy, if you could go to the next slide, I want to make sure that the board and the community understands that there's going to be a few conversations that's going to happen to allow for you all to get comfortable, that we can do this unprecedented thing, which is a mid-year adjustment.

I don't know in the history of Albemarle if this has been done.

It certainly hasn't been done in the last 10 years since the Great Recession.

But we will give you comfort as we continue to provide the financials to suggest that our base has considerably moved.

And it's moved without the knowledge of what the reassessment on the real estate taxes and the real estate property are going to provide for us in FY22.

And so this is before we even consider that additional revenue.

So this is what's next up.

There's an Audit Committee meeting that we will have on November 19th that is open to the public.

So that is the first moment where we will show

the fiscal year end results for fiscal 21.

So it's really much of the same, a little bit more detail of the unaudited information that you have.

That will then be presented to the board next December 15th meeting.

And I believe that we put it on consent agenda, but it'll be part of the formal record.

And then we start to have the conversations about the management of FY22, which is our current budget that we're working in now.

And so on November 17th, which is your next meeting, you're going to see the first quarter financials.

And so that's going to show you that our base is moving.

The performance of fiscal 22 is higher than we budgeted.

And then we will have, we will bring back, as we mentioned in December, on December 1st,

some recommended adjustments to that budget that really focuses on workforce stabilization.

not only mid-year adjustments but also we've talked to the board over the last couple months relative to the strategic plan and kind of building capacity to be able to execute.

There's also some strategic additional positions that we're going to bring forward to the board for consideration that we think will help based on kind of the world that we're currently living in and some of the pressures that we have.

A few of them of note are community development positions we're looking at and I believe DSS and some of the challenges that we have there focusing either positions or some innovative retention and attraction things.

So we're still working through that and we'll bring it back in December.

Now, another question that you and the community might be having is, OK, this is great, but let's make sure that we don't make decisions now that are going to affect us in the future.

And so the really nice thing and the nice opportunity we have is that we will be able to show you the impact of some of these recommendations as we talk about the five-year financial plan.

So this is already teed up for your agenda.

The next meeting, November 17, you will start to see that five-year financial plan.

and some of the considerations in front of the board, some additional taxing authority that you have, some additional expenditures that we know are coming down the pipe over the next five years.

And you'll be able to start to see how this can play into our five-year financial planning, and we can respond accordingly.

And then at the same time, the Capital Improvement Plan Advisory Committee will be meeting to talk about the five-year capital improvement plan,

and the projects that are currently part of the discussion so that they can provide a recommendation to the county executive to incorporate as he and we see fit in the FY23 budget planning.

And then at the bottom there, FY23, the budget process, it really is already underway.

The five-year plan really is the place where we have to already start thinking about FY23 to put that together.

There is going to be a recommended change, something that we did envision.

Normally, the real estate reassessment presentation comes to the board in January.

This year in talking to our county assessor, particularly related to the challenges that we have had with mail delivery services, our fear is that we will not have the reassessment notices in the hands of people in time to be able to meet the appeal process that happens after that if we do it in January as we typically do.

And so this, the board, you'll see this is a change.

So December 15th, we will be bringing the reassessment

of our projected reassessment for the 2022 Land Book.

And what that will not include is some of the new construction and things that will happen as we solidify the Land Book.

in January.

But we will make sure to update you all accordingly.

That we hope will allow for enough time for people to get that assessment and reassessment notice and be able to go through the process and not have the mail challenges delay that.

And then February 23, we will be bringing forward the county executives' recommended budget to the board.

And so Mr. Richardson talked to the front end about how FY20, 21, and 22 kind of are interplaying.

And now I'm ending with how 21, 22 are interplaying with our work for 23.

And so that is what we have there.

That's the end of the formal presentation for us today.

I know we're all happy to take any questions that you all have related to the information we've provided.