Board of Supervisors Regular Second Meeting   10/20/2021

Hi, good afternoon everyone.

I call the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors to order for this Wednesday, October 20th, 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 Bea LaPisto-Kirtley of the Rivanna District, 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 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.

We have with us today our Deputy County Executive, Mr. Beth Walker.

Our County Attorney, Mr. Greg Campner, our Board Clerk, Ms.

Alright, very good.

If everyone would please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

And that board will bring us to the adoption of the final agenda.

I'm not aware of any changes that need to be made, but do we have any changes to the agenda or items that need to be pulled from consent?

All right, we've got our first and second.

Mr. Keel.

Yes.

Ms.

Palmer.

Yes.

Ms.

Price.

Aye.

Mr. Dalloway.

Yes.

Ms.

Ms.

Very good.

And that'll take us to number five, brief announcements by board members.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley, you are up first.

No announcements today.

Supervisor Palma?

I do not have any announcements today.

I think I have one, but I didn't get the date, so I guess I'm stuck.

Supervisor McKeel?

None today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I will be sharing information with the board and public about news from the NACo Arts and Culture Commission and possible ways that we can use our local energy to build community through the arts.

Nothing today.

I have two brief ones to make comments on.

This past Tuesday, I had the pleasure of joining Councilor Lloyd Snook at an event for the International Rescue Committee.

And it was an announcement, basically a gathering of a program about the

Resettlement of hundreds of Afghans who are coming to the country and how many are coming here in a quick amount of time.

This may be the first time the IRC has had to deal with this many in such a quick time frame.

And that day was Russ Linden had basically called it together to

talk about what the community can do and to be ready to assist those who are resettling.

Things like if you're a landlord or somebody that has housing space available to contact the IRC or the International Rescue Committee to help.

Things like donation of cars as a way to get a full tax value or incentive out of the vehicle to allow

cars can be directly donated to the IRC, employers in the area helping these folks find employment, and then obviously just assisting with the transition.

Just navigating simple things like how to get around the community can be daunting, especially coming out of a very stressful and traumatic experience for these folks.

So that was the days of the event.

They do have a website up if you're interested in any of these ways of assisting or others that

haven't been thought of or just want to talk to the internationalist committee about other ways to help that website is wgcville.org and then it's forward slash afghans but if you do wgcville.org forward slash afghans that'll take you right to the website and all of the things they're calling out to help

and I believe the county has pushed that information out since last Tuesday.

And then the other was several of us, the handful of board members had the pleasure of welcoming the governor to the county this past, let's see, I think that was Thursday, right?

And being able to help a local business stay here in the county, Bonimos, and it was a great, it was a wonderful day for it, beautiful outside, but it was a pleasure having the governor here and it was a pleasure to recognize our employee

I'm sorry, our economic development team and the great work they're doing to help keep Albemarle County businesses here in the county and helping them grow and expand and do well here locally.

So that was a great day as well.

Ned, can I throw out one because I looked up the date really quick.

I apologize for not being prepared, better prepared.

The Apple Festival, the Apple Harvest Festival is back.

It's hosted by the Cove Garden Ruritans.

at Albemarle Ciderworks, and it's on November 6th, All Outdoors.

And if you haven't started eating Albemarle apples yet this year, they're wonderful.

So I just wanted to mention that that festival is back on.

Thank you.

And just to clarify, that web address that I was speaking to is for welcoming Greater Charlottesville and wgcville.org will take you to their homepage and the specific program for the relocating Afghans is part of the banner there, but then if you do forward slash Afghan, you'll get right to their program.

Very good.

And we will move right 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.

And do we have some folks signed up today?

I'm being told we do not, just to confirm.

We do not.

And we did not have anything moved, so is there a motion to approve the consent agenda?

Second.

It has been made and seconded.

Any further discussion?

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Paulmar?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Ms.

Ms.

Mallek?

Very good.

And we are now about 30 minutes ahead of schedule.

I don't know.

We need to check and see if they are in the waiting area available to participate.

We do not.

Thank you.

I knew Emily was good.

No, not that, well, you know, we'll stop talking about it.

Very good.

OK, well, thank you, Chair Galloway, members of the board, Doug Walker, Deputy County Executive.

Very privileged today to stand in for County Executive Richardson and stay on schedule with the County Executive's monthly report.

Next slide, please.

In your packet today, you have on the consent agenda, which you just approved, the Facilities and Environmental Services Quarterly Report.

And I wanted to draw your attention specifically tonight, today, to the Energy Management Program update, which includes a report on very real and meaningful savings the county has been able to realize in building operation through this program, which tracks and optimizes energy consumption in our buildings.

This chart shows three buildings, the Scottsville Community Center in green, Crozet Library in yellow, and Northside Library in blue.

And as you can see, each of these buildings has had a significant drop-off in energy consumption since fiscal year 2017, all due to this program.

At Crozet Library, the issue had been a missing sensor in the building.

In Scottsville, there were relatively minor repairs needed and operational adjustments made.

and at Northside, programming adjustments help to realize those savings.

These efforts not only save us money, but they also advance our climate action goals.

Next slide, please.

So I do not have notes on this particular... We can skip over this one.

It's okay.

I can talk about it.

I can certainly acknowledge that many of our staff who routinely respond to weather emergencies that include downed trees that block roads are dispatched in teams with chainsaws to go out and help VDOT with the road clearing efforts.

It's part of our ability to be a force multiplier for VDOT.

It also obviously helps our public safety crews better respond to emergencies that occur during these events.

The one that still I think readily comes to mind is the derecho.

which was devastating but also hurricane events or ice storms have similar impacts and our crews then are going to go out in teams to try to clear roads and so this what happened recently was a chainsaw safety class for staff in a number of departments

to help us as staff better prepare to operate safely in these teams in the event that we're going to have additional severe weather.

So these photographs just illustrate the participation by FES, Parks and Recreation, Police Department, and Fire Rescue Department to help prepare for inclement weather, downed trees, and road clearing.

Thank you.

As was reported previously in advance of this event, the Day in the Park did occur down in Simpson Park and I'm glad to report that 250 community members joined the Albemarle County Police Department, Parks and Recreation, and other staff at this community day at Simpson Park in Esmont.

This was the last Saturday of September and it was an amazing day of fun and fellowship.

Next slide, please.

One of the participants at that event was the Facilities Environmental Services Division.

And they shared information about the Southern Convenience Center.

And you remember that in March, the board appropriated 1.1 million to fund the design and construction of a convenience center in Southern Albemarle.

A convenience center is similar to the operation out at the Ivy Materials Utilization Center, the IVMUC as it's known.

It is a place to take back household waste, compostable food waste, and recyclables.

This convenience center will have set hours of operation and will be staffed when open.

Household trash is intended to be affordable at $2 per 32 gallon bag.

The site is planned on land the county already owns near the intersection of US 20, Plank Road, and Esmont Road, and Coles Rolling Road, about six miles north of Scottsville.

The project is being designed, and last night the Planning Commission did find the location, character, and extent of the Southern Albemarle Convenience Center, public facility, and public use thereof as proposed to be in substantial accord with the comprehensive plan.

Next, please.

On October 6th, we celebrated a milestone for Albemarle County Fire Rescue, the final piece of an 18-month staffing initiative to address staffing needs across the system.

In addition to this fire engine at Pantops Station 16, there's also a new ambulance at East Rivanna.

Ambulance service runs from Ivy and Pantops now 24 hours a day.

Of course, these service expansions require personnel to run those calls.

Through a $1.9 million FEMA grant and the approved fiscal year 2021 and fiscal 2022 budgets,

Albemarle County Fire Rescue has been hiring, training, and placing into service a total of 22 new positions over the span of 18 months and three recruit schools to staff the expanded services.

The final recruit school class was placed into service in September of 2021, this past year of 2021.

Chair Galloway mentioned the Afghan Refugee Resettlement event and this gives me a great opportunity to amplify this endeavor.

The last week, Chair Galloway, on behalf of Albemarle County, was invited to the event to ask for our community support of Afghan refugee resettlement.

The International Rescue Committee is partnering with the State Department to support approximately 250 refugees that fled Afghanistan in late summer.

IRC, welcoming Greater Charlottesville, international neighbors, and several student groups at the university are working together to find housing, employment, and basic supplies to support our new neighbors, many of whom arrived in the U.S.

with only what they were able to carry.

The community is encouraged to view the resources on, here's the website again that Chair Gallaway mentioned, www.wgcville.org to see all the ways that they can help welcome refugees to their new home.

Next slide, please.

and again as mentioned by Chair Galloway, last Thursday a great event with the governor in town and many of our staff and elected officials there present with him for his announcement that Albemarle County-based Bonamose Incorporated will partner with Hershey to research and develop reduced or zero-sugar chocolate products.

The company will invest $27.7 million to expand in Albemarle County.

Bonamose will move into 36,000 square feet of the State Farm Building to expand production capabilities and relocate its existing research and development lab, which will create 64 new jobs.

Yesterday, the board approved funding for a match for two state grants in support of this project.

This is an exciting economic development opportunity that will grow a local business right here in Albemarle County at a prime development area location in Pantops.

Next.

And finally, with a call to action, this is the finale in the fall Love Albemarle Community Cleanup Series and will take place on Saturday, October 30th, beginning at 830 a.m.

Participants will meet at the Yancey Community Center and then depart in teams to various locations around Esmont, Keene, Scottsville, and North Garden.

The cleanup will focus on small roadside litter,

and Gloves, Safety Vests and Pickers will be provided.

If you have an opportunity, it should be a lovely day, please come out, join your neighbors and help with this cleanup effort.

That's all that I have on my presentation today.

Chair Galloway, members of the board, glad to answer any questions or take any comments.

Thank you, Doug.

Questions here?

I don't have any questions, but I did want to say that this past weekend, the community of Prophet Road and Polar Grounds Road, that community, we spent the whole weekend cleaning up, or they spent the whole weekend, I only helped for one day, cleaning up litter alongside the road.

And they do that twice a year, and it's very, very beneficial for our community.

So I applaud all those communities who are doing everything they can

to help keep our county clean and free of litter.

I do.

Thank you Doug for the presentation.

On the chainsaw portion of it,

About a while back I think I contacted you about, and I certainly contacted the fire department, about dispatching a fire engine with full crew to cut

to cut a log off the road on a private road that was very difficult to access.

And I was told, well, they have to send the whole group out because they want to keep the whole group together.

Can these folks be utilized in that way so that the fire department doesn't have to send

fire trucks and whole crews onto private roads that can't handle fire trucks very well anyway, but it seems like a terrible use of public funds to do that.

Better to more fully answer the question, take it back and discuss with ACFR leadership.

But what I can say generally is that when crews are dispatched, they do try to keep them intact as crews so that they are able then to respond.

They're in service and able to respond in service with all of their equipment if need be.

I can also say that in anticipation of major weather events where you expect that you're going to be having this type of response, then they will develop response plans to try to keep their apparatus and ambulances available to respond to

and other emergencies while they dispatch crews to go out and help clear the roads.

And so there is the opportunity for overstaffing in that respect.

And frankly, that's part of why you see not just fire rescue, but also the police department, Parks and Recreation, and FES participate in these efforts so that you're not just tying up all of your limited public safety services to go out and help to clear roads.

It will depend on how much lead time there is and how much preparation can occur.

So it's kind of a blended answer.

Well, there's also a challenge.

Without pulling in the county attorney to this conversation, there's a dilemma of doing public work on private property.

Although in the response to an actual emergency,

You know, the responder is going to access private property to get to where the emergency is.

Right, and I'm not trying to get into the specifics of this or whether it's a private road or a public road.

Yeah, let me take that back.

Having more trained chainsaw teams absolutely puts us in a better position to respond, I think, with the right resource.

But I'll follow up on that.

Thank you.

Was that it, Supervisor Palmer?

Any other questions?

No, that's it.

Thank you.

I don't have any questions, just a comment and Doug or someone can correct me if my memory is wrong, but I remember Chief Adams saying to us, excuse me, several years ago, I thought that he placed a chainsaw in the trunk of every patrol car, police patrol car for the

The reason that often they came up on something that they could easily take care of if they had a chainsaw to clear a road so that the traffic could move rather than calling fire and rescue or whatever and waiting all of that time and he had been thrilled with the result and how much more efficient we were with that action and it's just a comment and I saw Ann nodding her head she must remember the same thing

So, and I thought at the time it was a great idea.

Obviously, they're trained in using a chainsaw.

I wouldn't have a clue.

Anyway, just a comment.

Just a couple of comments.

I really enjoyed reading the FES update, read it cover to cover, because it is so great to see and learn some of the details about what we've really been accomplishing here.

But I did have a couple of things that I thought were interesting.

Following up on the tree clearing, I would hope that ACFR or the executive's office or someone would reach out to VDOT because there are many rural roads which do not have the 10 by 14

opening that we require for private roads, and these are public VDOT-accepted roads.

They're just way behind on their tree trimming, and those are going to take off the lights of our fire engines on the top just as much as it happens on our driveway.

So I don't know who would do that.

We can do it from the board level if others want to, but maybe others would want to do it instead.

In the climate change section, talking about forestry and how we can't really count our current forests for sequestration, but I certainly look forward to when we have more forest planted increasing our tree cover because then we will be able to count those things going forward.

I'm also really glad to see the waste stream discussed because it was something neglected totally in 2008 and 10 when we did the earlier inventory.

And I think that's really going to be a place

where we make a lot of progress.

The only thing I would leave as a think about is when we have so many of our employees either out of the building on the weekends or nighttime or telecommuting, are their machines unplugged?

Because if we're measuring electricity, the vampire draw on computers is huge.

And so I just want to leave that thought for others to think about.

All right, very good.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

I'll mostly just echo what Supervisor Mallek just said.

Thank you.

I'll just use the opportunity because the FBS reports come up a few times.

Trevor, the facilities master plan study, I think that's slated, it said it was slated for completion in November.

and then I believe there's another phase to it.

Supervisor Galloway, Trevor Henry, Assistant County Executive, I'll need to circle back with Fez on that.

Awesome, thank you.

Yes, sir.

Let's see, Emily, do we have any update on the school board votes?

I do, Chair Galloway.

I move that the Board go into a closed meeting pursuant to section 2.2-3711A of the Code of Virginia under subsection 6 to discuss and consider the investment of public funds in the Rio Magisterial District

related to the acquisition of real property where bargaining is involved and where, if made publicly initially, the financial interests of the county would be adversely affected.

All right, call the vote.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Ms.

Yes.

Mr. Bea LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek.

I do.

I move that the Board of Supervisors certify by a recorded vote that, to the best of each supervisor's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and identified in the motion authorizing the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered in the closed meeting.

Very good.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Palma?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Maslow?

All right.

Very good.

Thank you very much and welcome.

We have a lot of rectangles just popped up on the screen here.

So good afternoon Chairman Page and to the members of the school board joining us for our next item on the agenda, which is number 11, our work session joint work session with the school board on the fiscal year 23 to fiscal year 27 capital improvement plan.

And Andy, I believe I'm turning things over to you to start.

We've actually, Deputy County Executive Doug Walker will kick us off and I'll take it from there.

Call to order.

Good call, Vice Chair Price.

Yes, Chair Galloway.

I call this special meeting, joint meeting of the Albemarle County School Board to order.

without taking anything away from the quality of the presentation that is in your discussion that's to follow.

I just wanted to acknowledge the quality of the ongoing continued collaboration between our respective staffs.

You've heard this before and it's just worth mentioning repeatedly to the extent that it is in fact a really, really highly collaborative environment that we work in with our finance and budget team.

and your team and that is greatly appreciated and certainly makes for better products at the staff level and we expect better products for you to consider at the elected legislative level.

So thank you for that.

Acknowledging that much of today will focus on the CIP process that is to follow and the steps that we will undertake separately and together that will lead to positive outcomes as we approach the upcoming budget process.

and to the Board of Supervisors acknowledging that much of today, although there will be some characterization of projects that will be familiar to you from discussions last spring, a lot of this is about receiving from the school board the work that was done by them, through them, for them, by their long-range planning advisory committee.

And so this will be a first look at some of that work, again, for further consideration throughout the process.

And as always, staff does very much appreciate the opportunity to hear from you.

And so there will be ample opportunity through this presentation for us to stop and listen to what the electants have to say.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Walker.

I really appreciate it.

And since I don't get to do this too often, I just wanted to thank the Albemarle County

Board of Supervisors for your leadership.

In particularly, over this last year and a half, the decisions you have been making, in my opinion, have been good decisions for the betterment of our community, the safety of our community.

And in many ways, you have, in addition to the usual ways that you provide resources for the school system and provide

Collaborative leadership with the school system.

The decisions and actions you've taken have helped us to stay open, to continue to be a place for children and for our employees and families.

And you have made a huge difference, a tangible difference in the lives of our families in the community.

And I just want to tell you that and how much I appreciate it.

I want to echo what Doug said about the collaborative work that goes on all across our two organizations, especially at the senior management level and at the executive level within the finance department and the planning departments.

I feel that there's a level of trust that's on an all-time high, and it allows for true collaboration across the organization, and I want to thank

all of you for that.

And I know Mr. Richardson is not here right now, but I want to thank him for his leadership in that.

Certainly speaking for myself and I dare say for the school board, I want to express my appreciation for this opportunity today to bring together the wisdom and the experiences of both of our boards to talk about

recommendations from our Long Range Planning Advisory Committee, our board's priorities and prioritization of those recommendations.

And I'm interested to hear what you have to say, the ideas you have, and your thoughts on how we continue to move forward to improve our capital program.

Thank you very much, Doug, and I will step back.

Thank you.

I'll take it from there and Kim Gardner and our team will be pulling up a presentation in just one moment.

And while it is getting pulled up, I'm Andy Bowman, I am the chief of the budget division in the Department of Finance and Budget.

And I'm joined today with Maya Kumazala, who's the school's director of budget and planning, has already been said, we collaborate a lot through joint budget issues and the CIP is probably one of the strongest example of that.

Maya and I will be doing the presentation today.

I'll actually be doing most of the talking between the two of us, but I want to thank Maya for all of her input into this process and crafting this message.

So we'll go ahead to the next slide and take a look at just our desired outcomes for today.

Just starting at a basic level, it's just really, it's already been alluded to by Mr. Walker and Mr. Haas, is to continue our efforts for the two boards to work together.

We'll be reviewing some financial information from the past and the present.

We'll look into the future for the 23 to 27 CIP process and what our approach may look like going forward.

We'll share some preliminary project information and then kind of set the next steps for what the 23 budget and development process looks like.

So going ahead to the next slide, this is an agenda and we're a little behind.

I'll do what I can in my comments to make up for this.

I will start by

You've provided an overview of the county's financial positions and how we've fared since the start of the pandemic.

I'll speak to where we currently are as an organization with the CalPERS program and how that informs our thinking about the upcoming process.

Beyond those broader concepts, I'll then kind of move to a more nuts and bolts discussion about that process looking at the calendar, the role of the CIP advisory committee, and some initial assumptions on staff's approach to prepare for that committee's work.

Then, Mai and I will share some preliminary project information.

And our goal is to get through this as concisely as we can because we would allow as much time for the board discussions as possible.

So going ahead to the next slide, to preview that discussion, we provided a couple of questions on the front end so the boards may be considered them as we work through our comments.

Those two questions are first, how does your awareness of the county's past, present, and future inform your thinking about the overall capital program?

particularly the process and some of the initial revenue and project assumptions that we'll be beginning to lay out at a high level today.

And then second, as we begin to prepare for the work of the Advisory Committee, what additional information will you be looking for in the coming months as that committee prepares a recommendation and ultimately the Board of Supervisors adopt a 23 to 27 CIP at the end of our budget process in May?

So with that, I'll try and make up time and go ahead and dive right into content.

Starting first with an overview of where were we, where are we now, and where are we going.

So headed into the next slide, I'll start with the past.

19 months ago, as the pandemic began, the county was nearing the end of the fiscal year 21 budget development process.

And as everyone on this call knows, that budget was scrapped and redone in a matter of weeks.

And as a plan was put together to navigate that unprecedented uncertainty, not only in the county's revenues, but what does the basic delivery of services look like in a pandemic?

So the approach was called 366, and that refers to the last three months of fiscal year 20, the first six months of fiscal year 21, and the last six months of fiscal year 21.

The idea being that we would continue to watch things very closely, even just our planning along the way, however conditions have changed.

Some high-level results of that time period here on the slide, but I'm not going to read through them in the interest of time.

Instead, I will summarize that kind of the main takeaways for me that I'd like to share are that the pandemic is ongoing, and at the same time, our economy is stabilizing and recovering.

We've been fortunate that every kind of milestone as we've been able to check off through this 366, the data in our revenues has continued to improve.

The boards, both boards, have taken actions during the pandemic to ensure the county's financial foundation is intact.

We have met our financial policies.

We went through a process in the summer to reaffirm our three AAA bond ratings.

And we've been able to move initiatives forward and the revenue picture has improved to become more certain.

Now, I don't want to paint a picture that all needs have been met, and certainly they have not.

Much was put on pause at the part of the pandemic.

But what we have done is position ourselves as we perhaps begin to turn the corner in some of our financial pictures, position the boards for flexibility in what our future looks like.

And again, not only that, but having maintained our solid, strong financial foundation.

Just to look ahead a little bit for where we are, in November we'll be sharing with the Board of Supervisors through their regular meetings information on preliminarily how fiscal year 21 ended prior to the audit.

and also how the first quarter of fiscal year 22 is performing.

We're in the middle of preparing those reports now, but we are seeing just as thematically as a continuing strengthening and stabilization of our local economy.

So moving to the next slide, I'm now going to talk about the present and the future.

And I'm actually going to talk about these two items together because I'm going to draw clear connections of how current circumstances are informing staff's thinking about the 23 to 27 process.

So the first factor in terms of where we are now is that it's very common, as we all have been used, to see some worries about the impacts of the global supply chain disruptions and increased raw material cost.

Now, the county is not immune to that either.

We've had some experience where our current projects have received higher bids than when those budgets were first crafted in a different environment.

We've also seen some projects have experienced scheduled delays, whether it be to deliver materials or availability or bidding climate, whatever that may be.

So that present situation is influencing where we're going in 23 to 27 because we're under a process right now working with the schools and our facilities folks to really scrub our current budgets to update our project costs for items that had not yet gone out to bid under contract.

To really try and foresee where may they be an issue just in what we've already appropriated that we may need to adjust to reflect this new reality.

We're also going back into scrubbing numbers because the state has passed new legislation in the past year regarding energy-efficient requirements.

Of course, we want to be compliant with those standards.

That's also aligned with the county's climate action goals.

So this update will be factored into the 23 to 27 CIP.

But I should note, while we manage in the interim, we do have some flexibility due to a one-time capital budget stabilization reserve that the Board of Supervisors created in the summer a few months ago.

I am aware that something had been approved and based on our current market conditions we needed to add some funding to keep things moving forward as was recently contemplated.

That does provide that flexibility in the interim.

So moving on to the next comment about where we are right now.

It is really about the current CIP that's already approved that is currently underway.

And at the end of fiscal year 21, we're projecting that we'll have a CIP program, I say projected because we're in the process of closing fiscal year, totaling $147 million for 65 projects.

And without any additional context, 147 is not a very meaningful number by itself.

So I'm going to highlight a few data points to provide some more context to that.

The first point I would highlight is that there's been 91 million capital projects that have been appropriated in the past 10 months between what was unpaused in January and then what was appropriated in fiscal year 22 at the start of this fiscal year in the summer.

So much of that 147 is relatively new in appropriated funding.

It is just getting underway.

And to give maybe a better sense of what that looks like is the next data point in that slide, really to show where are projects in those different phases.

And I should note this data is just a snapshot in time.

It's always in flux.

Bills are being paid.

Projects are moving through the process from one phase to another.

But just kind of with that caveat, just for a moment in time snapshot, the key takeaway for me is that much of that $147 million is not yet under construction.

And just recognizing as well some of that construction projects, just given the nature of them, does extend beyond one year.

So we can reasonably expect

So thinking about how this influences next year, this is really about timing.

As there are current significant commitments that are still underway,

And there will be capacity in the 23 and 27 for additional projects, as I've alluded to that additional flexibility that is being created.

But the one thing that we'll be aware of when it should be mindful of is those current efforts underway.

And for perspective, I'm sorry, Kim, if you could go to the next point.

Again, just to emphasize that the timing of projects in the future will be consideration underway.

For one more data point on the perspective and the magnitude of that 147 million,

We've gone back as staff and have been studying some data over the last eight years.

Though the nature of capital changes quite a bit year to year in terms of the projects that are in it and there's fluctuation, the total implementation between county government and public schools is around $35 million a year.

Now there's some variance there from the upper 40s to the mid-20s, but in the mid-30s is a pretty reasonable ballpark.

So as we consider this, we're having a lot of discussions internally as we consider this plan of

What might be possible to improve our organizational throughput on capital projects?

That will need to be a comprehensive look.

That's not just about resources to implement them.

That's about looking from our business processes end to end, looking at the systems we use to what is it that we can do, even with our current capacity and structure, to be able to move forward those projects to help meet community expectations and how we think about things differently.

So two other considerations on the next slide about where we are now and where we are going.

First of which is we are entering kind of a unique time period where we know that we'll be in a transition at some point in 23 to 27.

County government will have an updated comprehensive plan.

That work is already underway led by the Department of Community Development.

And we'll also have an updated strategic plan.

Last week, the Board of Supervisors provided direction to extend the current strategic plan into fiscal year 23.

And beyond that, there will be future processes to update the next plan.

And I should acknowledge that our two boards are in different places right now.

The school board this summer has adopted an updated strategic plan, which guides a lot of the projects that we'll be hearing about later.

So this transitionary period affects staff thinking about what the CIP in the future may look like in two ways.

First, the intent of the CIP would not be to develop something before the strategic plan is updated.

where all financial and operational capacity is committed.

So we're not in a plan where we arrive at a new updated strategic plan in the future and then there's not the ability to implement or change direction on that because of how things are structured.

So I think to offer the uncertainty of lead times and those other things we're working through.

So we can certainly plan for that financial capacity.

For example, there may be a portion of year five that we reserve as almost to be determined for priority strategic community projects.

We don't need to identify those in fiscal year 23 process, but we have a process to go forward and identify those in the future.

A very real example of that is there are community conversations ongoing right now, including this afternoon's board agenda, where there will be an update on the regional facility assessment for the regional jail.

That may impact out-year capital planning, but we can't get ahead of our partners regionally or those assessments in the work with the state to happen.

We just need to be mindful of that flexibility we need to maintain in the out-years of the plan.

So one consideration that may be in the board's minds of if we were to have a placeholder in the out-years, well, when would that update happen?

Those who have been on the board pre-pandemic may recall the process where typically there would be a full five-year review and kind of update to the plan and then there would be a kind of an amendment in your plan.

where there would typically be more minor adjustments intended.

But given the uncertainty in the approach that we're discussing, it feels appropriate as we go to 24 to 28 to do a full update of the plan in back-to-back years as we continue to get more information as we learn from the uncertainty in the pandemic.

It's amazing compared to the presentation I was doing.

I'm sorry, again, if you could advance that.

Thank you.

And it was amazing, I think, of the presentation we gave to the joint boards this week a year ago, how much we've learned in that time.

We'll continue to learn more as we get ahead into the coming months going into next year's process.

So the final consideration of where we are now and where we're going is that today we're talking about the CIP and our boards are very well educated.

This is only one piece of the operating of the total county budget.

There are pressures in the budget related to change in service demand for both public schools and county government.

both organizations will consider the recruitment and retention of staff who provided services that so many community members rely on on a day-to-day basis and also considering the operating impacts of capital projects and just the changing nature of technology expenses as we've heard.

We've come to learn in recent years of things that move from fiscal on-premise servers to technology costs.

How does our split between capital and operating really accommodate that?

Now, those are not discussions we have today, but this is really part of our regular process where we'll have long-range planning discussions in the fall with the Board of Supervisors in November and December to also inform long-range financial planning beyond just looking at the capital budget.

So I've presented a lot of concepts in these two slides, so I'm going to recap them before we move on and change gears.

Just to think about how the present informs the future, just kind of four kind of high-level concepts is that we're working right now to update project costs and current market conditions.

We are going to need to consider the start dates for future projects reflecting the current efforts underway and what we might be able to do differently to improve our execution on those projects underway as well as going into the future.

Thinking about this, we are in a less uncertain environment than we were a year ago, but knowing that we still have uncertainty, how do we emphasize that flexibility, particularly in the out years of the plan?

And then considering, as we do every year, how do our capital decisions fit in the context of total operations and the total financial picture?

So with that, I'm going to transition now and shift gears to look at more of a nuts and bolts approach at the fiscal year 23 budget development timeline and the capital process.

If we could advance the slide.

And just transition slide, we'll go to the next one.

So this is the calendar that we've outlined, and this process is already underway.

As Dr. Haas alluded, the school board has already been having discussions around the Long Beach space planning that started in September, and those are continuing.

Today in October, we're at the joint work session on the capital improvements program.

The next step in this process will be in November, December, will be two meetings of parallel tracks.

One is the work of the CIP Advisory Committee, which I'll talk about in a moment.

And then the other are board supervisors' work sessions on the five-year financial plan in November and December as well.

We'll pick up this work in February when the school's draft funding request and the county executive's recommended budget are released.

That work continues through March and spring, including work sessions with the school board as well, not just their operating budget, but the CIP as well, all leading to an adoption in May.

And of course, there are work sessions, public hearings, and public process that go through that as well.

So I've talked about the CIP Advisory Committee on the next slide, because this is really kind of the next step from today where we are headed.

And what does that work look like?

And the CIP Advisory Committee is a committee that consists of two board members, two school board members, one planning commissioner, and one community representative.

And they're charged, as they have been in the past years, to do a few things.

They will receive a recommended CIP proposal from staff as a starting point.

and they're charged to review and evaluate that to ensure that it is aligned with the county's financial policies, the established priorities of the organization, and those guiding principles that the boards have set forth.

They will take that starting point and then prepare a recommendation to the county executive for consideration and preparation of the fiscal year 23 capital budget and then the 23 to 27 capital improvements program.

Once that recommendation is made in December, it will also include a report out to the Board of Supervisors, the School Board, the Superintendent, Planning Commission, and the County Executive.

So let's move next into what the work of that committee will begin to look like on the next slide.

Just for where we'll start, we're going to start with staff with an initial plan using a similar framework for last year's process, where the CIP Advisory Committee process will then take that and then apply their own recommendations to the County Executive.

And like last year, we will start that list of projects beginning with obligations, maintenance and replacement programs before considering additional projects.

And I should note that maintenance and replacement funding is not automatic.

Staff will still perform due diligence to scrub those numbers to make sure that we are aligned with kind of our ability to execute and just the other kind of maintenance standards that we look at.

Beyond that, the additional projects are going to be reviewed and prioritized with four criteria.

These are very similar criteria to what was looked at last year by the CIP advisory committee.

First, the connection to the strategic plan and the new reality due to the pandemic.

Second, looking at our ability to execute on projects.

That's the lens that considers the current capital budget, other barriers we may have an implementation of proposed projects and how and when they might proceed.

Third, we will look at the ongoing operating tax of projects, such as some capital investments will bring a range of day-to-day operating costs once they are complete.

Again, this is the point I made a couple slides ago about looking at our total financial picture, not just the capital budget.

And finally, we're going to include for the projects an equity statement for those projects.

We have been working in over the last couple of months in staff in the Department of Finance and Budget, partnering with the Office of Equity and Inclusion to assist county departments better incorporate a prospective equity lens when we're considering service changes at the start of the budget process.

We're really talking about capital projects first, but this is really going to kind of extend as we consider other service changes as we go into the operating budget.

And this is not a criteria that is about kind of a high, medium, or low or math medical score.

Rather, we're seeking to really articulate answers to questions such as, how do services reduce existing disparities or enhance the quality of life and well-being or access and engagement in our community members?

Are there particular groups with projects who are more impacted by the programs, whether that be positive or negative?

And are there ways that the county can help offset the impacts of that project should that be implemented?

I really want to thank the Office of Equity and Inclusion.

This is a process we've been talking with them about months about how do we best incorporate our recently new value of community into that process.

They have been with us as we started having these conversations with departments to just better ingrain this in terms of a lens that we had not prior before.

So that really speaks to some initial assumptions and a framework on the expenditure side.

I'm going to turn on the next slide to the revenue slide.

And as part of our evaluation, kind of the capital as well as the operating process, there's going to be some revenue sources that we're going to explore in the total context of our financial plan.

There are a few options that are available that were not the last time a five-year plan was put together prior to the pandemic.

First of which, the state has recently enabled expanded local authority, such as the plastic bag test.

The board of supervisors heard about last week and expressed more interest in learning about.

There are other revenue authority options that could be available to the board.

The second item is the impact of the recent bond issuance that occurred this summer.

The county was able to complete, I think for the first time in four years, a relatively large bond issuance that included some refinancing.

that has historical low rates that's going to create consumer capacity compared to where you were in the last multi-year plan where we did not have that restructured debt, we did not have those lower interest rates.

Currently, staff has updated revenue assumptions, our debt amortization schedules, and all the other factors that go into calculating the county's debt cost and our future capacity.

So those are not a number that I have for today, but that will be part of the framework for the CIP Advisory Committee.

We are continuing to monitor ARPA funding to determine how that can be leveraged to meet county priorities, whether that be funding received directly by the county or indirectly through other buckets of funding that the state is beginning to announce that we're able to leverage.

Another couple options is that fiscal year 21 will finish with a positive variance, meaning that we'll have a general fund balance above our policy obligated uses.

That will be on the Board's discussion in November as the audit is completed.

That can be another option should the Board decide to move in that direction.

And finally, continuing to monitor the capital bond market environment and our existing ability to use bonds to find that right balance between cash and debt services funding our capital program.

The third assumption on revenues is for planning purposes, as a starting point, to assume no changes to the real estate tax rate for operating or capital for fiscal year 23 to 27, and then to pursue those strategic funding options listed above that would provide available capacity to the operating budget into the capital budget.

So this does not mean, number three, that additional capacity wouldn't be provided to the capital budget.

That's certainly available through some of number two.

and as general revenues improve overall, the Catholic receives the benefit of a portion of that as well.

But I want to take a moment just to talk through this because some board members who've been on the board for a while will recall what the pre-pandemic CIP looked like in the work of that advisory committee.

So the question I expect maybe on some board members' minds is how does this approach compare to where we were prior to the pre-pandemic with a tax rate assumption?

And I'm going to head to the next slide.

This is just kind of a flashback to a moment in time

Prior to the pandemic in March of 2020, this is what the recommended CIP looked like, $211 million, and it included, based on the advisory committee's recommendation that winter, an additional $0.01 real estate tax rate from fiscal year 21 through 25.

Next, the green line in the middle of that slide is to show, I'm sorry, that's the advisory committee.

The bottom lines show what was recommended in the pre-pandemic budget, which was to delay that first penny given the financial picture at a year, and then those other pennies would be revisited in the future years.

As we all know, that budget was significantly revised, and with all the uncertainty, a five-year CIP was not adopted at that time.

So, going into the next slides to highlight several things that have changed since March of 2020.

One, obviously, as we all know, the pandemic has changed, which has impacted our project schedules, some lead times are impacting our ability to execute.

The second thing we are looking at right now and changes as we are working in the Office of Management and Budget with our partners, really to increase our scrutiny of our planned capital budgets and figure out what might be possible through execution and delivery through what's already currently being funded as part of that $147 billion.

For example, we had some compelling needs around the courts project just a few months ago about positioning the Clerk of the Circuit Court to scan documents to help that overall capital process.

We were able to address that by reprioritizing some existing funding in the CIP rather than a subsequent additional request.

As I mentioned, the third major factor is that summer 2021 bond issuance was at record low interest rates.

That creates capacity in two ways.

We have interest savings compared to prior assumptions, and we have what we call just-in-time borrowing.

This means that we are borrowing closer to the time of spending actually taking place so that we're not borrowing too early and unnecessarily carrying some interest costs, even if it's just for a matter of a partial year.

The second other notable point about the bond issuance is not only was about future projects, the county reimbursed itself for some past expenses made in prior years.

So that reimbursement will grow the capital fund balance that will then be available for 23 to 20 cents.

And then finally, it's more kind of financial strategy that was discussed, that really started about last year with our CFO, Nelson Bursch, where in that 21 to 25 CIP, there was a targeted annual ongoing cash funding of $9 million of cash equity into the CIP.

really began to modify that in the last year, recognizing that we're able to leverage the current interest rate environment to utilize the county's available cash balances and other sources such example as leveraging ARPA funding.

Those options can be explored as well as the options on the previous slide before looking at the adjustment to the real estate tax rate for the purposes of the initial plan going to the advisory committee.

So that was a trip back in time.

I just wanted to walk through something the board's discussed

It feels like very long ago, but in a way it wasn't because this was the last time we really had a five-year CIP.

So in summary of all the discussions I've been providing before we move into projects, on the next slide, is first, where have we been?

We've been in a 3-6-6 budget management approach in the development of the 22 budget.

We have fared well that we've maintained our financial foundation

adjusted our plans accordingly as revenue performance has improved.

As was noted by leadership at the beginning of this meeting, we do have a strong foundation of the staff and the boards from county government and public schools working together.

As we think about where we're going as we continue to implement $147 million of capital program in an uncertain environment of project costs and supply chains,

We'll be bringing information for the advisory committee to recommend a plan to the county executives that the board will ultimately adopt in the end of this budget process to have a five-year plan for the CIP for the first time since fiscal year 20.

That plan would reflect the current efforts underway considering start dates of projects, considering that flexibility for the future as strategic directions will be set and updated in those five years, and finally considering capital decisions as we're doing every year in the context of our operational budget as well.

So with that, I'm going to change gears, and I will give a one-side portion of local government projects and where we are.

And this is another flashback slide to March 29th of this year, when we were first announced for the American Rescue Plan Act funding.

The board had some visual discussions about what are some of those priority local government projects they would be looking to see for general government, or schools, I should say.

There are school impacts on this list as well.

And some of these, I should note, are not necessarily CIP projects, for example, broadband infrastructure.

We have done work with the board and the Albemarle Broadband Authority in the meantime to leverage ARPA funding, American Rescue Plan Act, that stands for a national grant from the state to seek to address that.

I should note that this is not an exhaustive list of what will be considered in the 23 budget process.

Clearly, this doesn't influence the work of the school long-range planning committee and the school board.

This also does not include projects that may be brought forth by county departments to support our theme of quality government operations.

The Board of Supervisors may recognize that term from the update from last week of the strategic plan as that is sort of the

Aerographics, the horizontal line that underpins the nine strategic priorities that the board has set.

So my intent today, as was mentioned by Mr. Walker at the start, is not to go through these local government projects in detail at this time, really to set the stage for what will be coming in the advisory committee, and also to allow as much time to go into a little more detail about the work that the school division has been doing with their long-range planning committee.

Thank you, Andy.

Next slide, please.

Before we jump into the list of recommended projects for the school division, I want to provide an overview of how this fits within our strategic vision.

After a rigorous community and stakeholder engagement process, the school board adopted a strategic plan this past summer, which has helped guide our process and our priorities when thinking about the CIP.

This strategic plan, titled Learning for All, includes a vision that our learners are engaged in authentic, challenging, and relevant learning experiences

becoming lifelong contributors and leaders in our dynamic and diverse society.

Our mission is to work together as a team to end the predictive value of race, class, gender, and special capacities for our children's success through high quality teaching and learning for all.

We seek to build relationships with families and communities to ensure that every student succeeds.

We will know every student.

The specific goal and objective related to capital priorities are listed on the slide.

Getting the right resources to educators and students for their teaching and learning is key to our success.

We believe that the project criteria as developed by the Long-Range Planning Advisory Committee are in close alignment with our vision and mission.

Next slide.

Using our defined project criteria, the following projects are recommended.

Those needs-based requests addresses key themes of equity,

investment in existing facilities as well as new investments needed to support the long-term capacity needs of our growing county.

The price tag may seem large, however it is built upon the accumulating capital needs of the school division over many years.

Adequate capacity continues to be a need for the school division.

This is supported by the 10-year enrollment projections and reinforced by both the recently completed

Development and student yield analysis, and 30-year population forecasts.

For over 15 years, the school division has been in a practice of expanding existing facilities and, when necessary, deploying mobile classrooms in the interim.

As these schools reach a point where expansion is no longer practical, we recommend a strategy for land acquisition and the construction of new facilities.

We also recommend investments into school renovations at all levels to bring incremental updates division-wide.

And in alignment with the strategic plan, ensuring that each student has access to high-quality learning environments means that there should be reliable elevator service to ensure safety and access at all times.

In addition, the importance of a healthy environment and having reliable technology infrastructure

have risen as urgent and necessary investments as highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thus, we recommend new investment into indoor air quality systems and again recommend the construction of a data center.

The detailed justification for each of these projects is included in the 2021 Long Range Planning Advisory Committee report, which is also available for the public.

Okay, at this point I'll briefly take things back over as we'll now pivot to the time for board and school board discussion.

So I will turn it over to Chair Galloway to facilitate discussion as traditionally the board's working procedures working through the list, but I will ask to go to the next slide so that we have up the questions that were brought at the beginning of this presentation.

I will not read them again, but I'll suggest if we can leave those up for a moment as the discussion begins, then take them down for the remainder of the presentation just to make sure that everyone has a chance to read through those.

Good, thank you, Andy.

So typically what we do, Chair Page, if it's all right with you, we go through our speaking order that we have for the supervisors, and I'll just go through that order.

We'll have the school board member, the opportunity to speak first, then the supervisor, and we'll work through our rotation, knowing we've got to get Mr. Alcaro in there, which we will do.

Any objection there?

So first speaker today, the Rivanna School Board member, Judy Lee.

Any comments, questions, answers to the questions on the screen?

I'm still sort of processing all that.

Yep, and we'll loop back.

Yes, I like, I very much appreciated the presentation by Mr. Boatman and by Maya.

There's a lot to consider.

I like the idea that we're being flexible.

We're still in the midst of a pandemic.

I do like the idea of being flexible.

And I like the priorities, the ranking of the priorities that we have.

And I'm hoping that the monies that we do have will be able to cover what we do need.

And I am looking forward to finding out whether or not

Anything changes, which includes, that's why I said about flexibility because I'm not sure what the future is bringing us, what's going to be happening.

So I move cautiously to be able to give the school board what they need as far as capacity retainment.

retention of excellent teachers and such.

And I'm assuming my question is I didn't see a lot of professional development, but I think that's probably embedded somewhere in what you all are doing because I think that is a paramount to retaining and keeping qualified instructors.

So that said, I'll probably have more questions later.

And Andy, it might be helpful to keep the discussion questions you had on the screen, unless I've got rid of them myself.

Just to help folks there.

And then if somebody is asking or making a comment or question and someone would like to piggyback on or do a follow up to that question, just do give the raise hand icon and we'll loop you into the conversation.

Up next we've got the Samuel Miller District Chairman Page.

I'm processing all of this also and right now maybe I don't have a question related or any comments related to the discussion questions but I'll loop back in later on too.

Very good.

I think one of the things that, of course, clearly the space needs of the school are paramount.

We have a growing population, which really makes me on that first question, how does your awareness of county past, present, future inform the thinking about the overall capital program?

I'd like to see a capital needs assessment

again, which would typically be our tenure.

We used to get that a long time ago.

And given the amount of space needs of the school, I think that might be good for us to see.

You know the initial revenue assumptions and projects it's a shame that we have rising prices now but there's not much we can do about it and of course we need to upgrade those so update those.

The one thing that I was hoping to hear today which it doesn't sound like I'm going to

And that was, I guess, my bad assumption.

But in our strategic planning discussion last week, I asked about the school's interest and how they are looking at that Berkmoor-Profford land.

and I was told at the time that we would probably be hearing more about that this week, which I assumed was during this meeting.

So if there's anything to be said about that, I would love to hear it.

Of course, in our thought process, that links into the Lambs Lane campus discussion about what you all are planning to do there, which I know is in process.

but if you have had discussions about that I would love to hear about it and what additional information that you'd be looking for in the months of the CIP yeah that's that's the additional information I would be looking for and and I think that it sounds like Trevor Henry connects can talk about that for local government but I'd like to hear what the schools are are feeling and

and of course we'll all be looking forward to the CIP Advisory Committee and hopefully other school board and school board and board supervisor members will be listening to those committee's discussions because they are quite important.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

I have served on the CIP, I guess it's called the Capital Advisory Committee now, for most of my eight years on the school board.

And I am

And when I came on, we were still not in recovery from the Great Recession and now it's the pandemic.

But the bottom line is our schools have continued to grow.

We have four schools that are over capacity right now.

Bronzeville, fortunately, is going to be alleviated once the 17,000 square foot addition to Crozet Elementary School.

is completed next year.

But Baker Butler, Mountain View, and Albemarle High School, which are significantly over capacity.

And by 2025, we've got four more schools that will fall into that category.

I think, and we have, and I know I've told some of my colleagues that we have almost 100 trailers being used as classrooms.

So the capacity issue is real.

and it needs to be addressed.

Secondly, in terms of my perspective, you all, most of you remember that in 2016 we had a school bond referendum, $35 million in an attempt to catch up to what had been several years of maintenance only spending in terms of capital.

That was supported by 76% of the voters and every single voting precinct approved it.

I think the lowest percentage we had was 66%, which is nothing to sneeze at these days.

So there's great support in the community for funding designated for schools.

At that time we at least I had hoped we would get into a cycle where we did every other year or every whatever the frequency bundle projects and do bond referenda to finance them.

It has been 20 years since we built a new school almost I think 2002 was Baker Butler

which is one of those that is over capacity.

Unfortunately, from my perspective, we're always playing catch up with capacity and we rarely get to the other things like addressing the needs for renovation and modernization of our facilities.

Our facilities, the core facility, average core facility is over 50 years and

That needs to be addressed to have learning spaces that are designed for the way that we teach now.

The other thing is that when we were talking about the

Referenda now five years ago.

We had delayed, because we had a consultant, we had delayed real discussion about high school and high school of the future and shall we build a new high school.

And we went through the school board.

I know that some of our members weren't there at the time, but we had gone through

A process where we decided, rather than asking the Board of Supervisors $460 million for a new high school, that we would be very innovative in thinking and adopted the concept of building high school centers

and additionally improving the infrastructure and modernization of all of our high schools.

So we didn't have one gleaming new high school and then other high school that's 60 years old.

Unfortunately, our first step toward that last year when we had the first $30 million, $35 million for that high school center has been delayed and that you'll see that it's

on our list this year too.

And I guess I would just urge my colleagues on the school board, on the CIP, on the board of supervisors, to be bold in thinking about how we're going to improve our schools.

Because I don't think having 100 classrooms makes sense other than as a stopgap measure.

and I don't see how you can look at 100 classrooms when we have only 25 schools as being a temporary measure.

Yes, thank you.

The report was excellent and I really appreciate the presentation.

I do really appreciate as well the priority rankings.

And I guess I made a few notes.

I'm just going to go through them.

I'm not sure whether they answer the question one and two, but you can get back to me if they don't.

I do certainly agree with Kate and several of the other comments about capacity.

We really hear a lot from our citizens and families whenever we're

entertaining a land use proposal about school capacity.

And we know that many of the schools are challenged.

And I do think that it would behoove our two boards to think about using our AAA bond rating to float bonds more often than every 40 years.

to support school capacity and infrastructure.

How we go about that, I don't know, but I know other communities do that and do it successfully.

So that's one thought I have.

I also am very interested in understanding more about what the school board and school administration is seeing

as we come out of the, hopefully come out of the pandemic, what changes you see, because I think perhaps that those changes could affect capacity and other changes as well, maybe around connectivity for families and students with education.

I'm interested in some of that sort of information,

I also would really appreciate when the school board receives a final report, let's say from just as an example, the Long Range Planning Committee, your final report.

I think it would really be helpful if we received copies of those, some of the critical reports that you all produce.

Just for us to have those reports in the back of our head as background information would be great.

Another item that I'm very interested in discussing at some point or getting more information about is how the school board plans to use the two elementary proffered sites that you have along 29 North, which is where our population center is, at Brookhill and North Point.

And I know

It may be, you may not have anything definite, but you do have schools over capacity and you have two elementary sites that are proffered in those two communities.

Just looking at my notes again.

Have I answered the questions or at least given you more information to answer?

A, one of the top priorities was a school in the northern feeder pattern and you'll be getting, John Orell will be giving you a copy of the long range planning report tomorrow when we meet.

I saw that note, but it didn't specifically say on the Profford site, right?

In the body of the document, it does.

Yes.

Okay.

I just want to make sure that we utilize the Profford sites that we have because land is so expensive in Albemarle.

and they are right along our population center.

So that's great.

And I guess with that for right now, I'm good.

You are muted.

Sorry about that.

The big blow up blocked my new time.

After that, I really have nothing to share.

I appreciate the fact that we're able to work collaboratively.

I wish we had a lot more money and a lot more ability because the reality is we have a lot of need in this community.

I have faith that the smart people on the two boards can figure this out.

We have to do something because the reality is we've been kicking the can down the road for years and years and years.

You know, we built a beautiful, wonderful community.

People want to move here.

And because people want to move here, we need to have the infrastructure to take care of them.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

I have a couple of questions.

I can leave as we go along.

I certainly appreciate Andy's presentation as well.

I learned a lot and took a lot of notes.

Sorry.

For question number one, awareness of thinking, what popped into my mind on that question was when we were looking at slide 16, the fourth bullet, $147 million of the $180 million cap, which I think is the adopted cap for our capacity with appropriate headroom, et cetera.

Has that cap changed or is that something that would be evolving over time?

I can speak to that briefly.

I think there's a few financial policies that we use as our kind of guidelines of 10% of our general fund revenues and 2% of our total assessed values.

So as we get to the advisory committee, we'll take a fresh look at those assumptions, look at the impact of our bond refinancing, all of that, and we'll bring that forward as part of the advisory committee.

As we went through with the rating agencies this summer, we had headroom and capacity there.

And the most recent financing did nothing to change that for the worse.

But we can provide that and more information to the advisory committee.

The only other piece I would add.

Hi, everybody.

Nelsie Burch, the chief financial officer.

And it's speaking a little bit to what Ms.

Acoff had talked about with the referendum.

And I do want to clarify something.

Referendums in and of themselves don't give us additional capacity.

We have opportunities to do lease revenue bonds, which is what we did this last year.

And our plan, consistent with the question that Ms.

McKeel had asked, is to issue bonds every other year.

And so we will be issuing additional bonds in two years.

And so we will be on an every two year pattern.

And so that is part of the change that we're doing here that we want to incorporate into the numbers.

as both the Capital Advisory Committee needs and then also as we put together our budget.

So I do want to clarify that.

That's very helpful.

Thank you very much.

No worries.

We all have the same questions, I expect.

Revenue assumptions, that's something that I guess I'm OK.

And my other question that I jumped over was on slide 12, does a project in the pipeline

and like in 1A, if it's in process, if state applications have been made, if there's been county investment already made, does it stay there or is everything up for grabs for a new look when the CIP committee gets going?

So as we build the capital budget, kind of the bottom of that, we've kind of used a pyramid graph in the past, and the bottom of that pyramid is the current capital program.

Certainly at any time the board has the right to change appropriations for current projects.

Yeah, generally, Supervisor Mallek, the way that we should approach this, I'm not sure what has happened historically, is if there are hurdles that are unforeseen when a project is approved and appropriated by the board, we should bring that back to the board and say we're unable to complete this project because of X, or if we do go far with this project, we will need additional funding because of Y.

and so those would be the conversations that we would want to tee back up.

But typically what happens is when the board appropriates and we're sitting on about $145 million worth of these outstanding projects that are being worked by staff.

and so any future projects are going to bump up against the current ones that we're trying to get through the process.

I would caution that we would be re-engaging on those projects until and unless there is something that is preventing us from being successfully completing those projects.

Thank you very much.

I find that very reassuring.

I may add just kind of a real-life example.

Last year, the advisory committee considered a project for Moores Creek Trailhead located kind of the southern city-county border.

At that time, there was state funding for other parts of that project.

The advisory committee said, well, you know, we want to move forward with this.

But if that state funding were to fall through, we really would need the board to get back together and figure out it's still the right direction.

Hi, good afternoon.

I want to thank Mr. Bowman for the little walkthrough history.

In COVID time, everything is sort of mixed up, so it was interesting to see how everything going on in the last 19 months kind of helped straighten it out in my mind.

As far as ranking of priorities, space issue,

As Dr. Acuff said, we can't really get around that at every level.

I know we euphemistically call the trailers learning cottages, but they are trailers, and our kids deserve better.

And in some places, there isn't even any more room for another trailer.

So the space issue really does have to be addressed.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

Thank you, Mr. Bowman and Ms.

Kumazawa for your presentations.

I only have two comments, one about capacity, one about revenue.

As School Board Member Osborne and I heard frequently over the course of the summer with regard to capacity issues, specifically at Mountain View and the potential of it being

the graders to Walton and then on to other middle schools after that.

I believe we all recognize the incredible demand to increase capacity.

Today's secondary headline above the fold of the daily progress school board faces hard choices.

As Albemarle schools face overcrowding, parents want solutions, not short-term fixes.

So we all, I believe, recognize that we must increase the capacity.

Members need to appreciate that that means that there are expenses.

With regard to the initial revenue assumptions and projections, I am concerned.

Slide 13 of Mr. Bowman's presentation said for planning purposes assume no tax rate increase based upon some savings that have been

achieved through other means.

However, we are also seeing a dramatic increase in the price of materials, labor, contract costs, and inflation.

So my concern would be that the savings or other ways that we have been able to find funds will very easily, very likely be offset by these increased costs as we face this.

And while no one wants to talk about or

or is anxious to approve the tax rate increase, it's very difficult for me to see that we're going to be able to afford all that we need to do based solely upon those savings, based upon the increased cost projections.

At this point, that's what we'll take as we move forward.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

I don't have much to add.

I really appreciate Kate's advocacy and the experience that she brings having been on the CIP committee for a long time.

And I'm sure Mr. Alcaro will have some great comments as well.

I agree with everything that Kate had to say.

And just to reiterate the main points, which is that the capacity is on people's minds.

CIP is a long process.

I think when I first got elected, someone said to get something done.

and years from now you've got to start talking about it today and I think we're reaching kind of the pinnacle on some of these issues like the Mountain View capacity issues.

Another thing is I think I really enjoyed or appreciated that Kate had brought up some of the work we've done in the past to be efficient with taxpayer money, to spend our resources wisely, kind of tying into the points that Andy had said about looking at

looking at the best ways to use our money and then taking account maintenance and stuff.

The high school center model, for example, is a really interesting way for us to address capacity needs while being very efficient with resources.

So that's all I wanted to add.

I don't have any questions at this point.

Thank you, Dr. Chair.

My notes are all over the place here and I first want to thank Mr. Bowman for his presentation and Ms.

Kumazawa for hers and Ms.

Birch's clarifications.

I wholeheartedly applaud the refinancing of the debt because I know that's always an important item.

A school board member who retired a couple of years ago told me for about a period of about three or four years that part of the strategy for the school board was to make sure that we had 15 years worth of capacity to work for growth,

and other issues.

And so I keep that in mind as we're looking at all of this.

In terms of the first question about how does the awareness of the county's past, present and future inform me, my numbers are just a little bit different.

We're looking off a sheet of capital budget numbers for schools going back to fiscal year 11.

but it anyway I think you look at it it the numbers have not been high on an annual basis and we continue to fall behind just in the same way that the county I mean is is is falling behind on some visits I'm gonna be just talking about us the the note a tax increase

I appreciate your comments, Supervisor Price.

I've always found that cost becomes an issue in the absence of value.

and one of the reasons we were successful with the referendum in 2016 was that we were talking to constituents around the county about projects that were of value and that all 26 of the schools at that point were touched by that referendum.

People saw value in that.

If it's just a tax increase for the heck of it, people don't necessarily see a value in it.

If it's a tax increase going back, and Supervisor Mallek may remember the point at which there was a three cent increase in the property tax that went strictly to CIP.

Maybe that's something that needs to be

There are just so many things that I think we have to talk about over the next month or so.

And then on the CIP Advisory Committee,

One thing that I would, and I don't mean to overstep my bounds, Mr. Page, but in my role as at-large where I work with all of the members of the Board of Supervisors, I would like to invite the members of the Board of Supervisors to sit in and listen to our next meeting, which would be next Thursday, the 28th,

When we have a gentleman whose last name I'm forgetting, his name is Isaac.

He's from Fielding-Mayer, who was the consultant group that helped us put together our proposal for the center project and the renovations to the existing high schools and other moving pieces.

He's going to come back

and update us because the four of us who were on the board at that point are a little rusty on all the ins and outs.

And for the three members of our board who weren't here at that point, this would give them a better understanding than we're able to communicate with them.

And I do invite all of you to listen in on that evening.

I'm leaving probably a half a dozen things out.

But the things I guess that I'm looking for as we go through the process and Supervisor Malek was asking about this too, is we don't have a target number yet.

And maybe this is gonna come in another part of the presentation or on another day.

How much are we looking at

for the target of CIP projects for this year for the county and for the schools because it's tough to make recommendations without knowing what the parameters are.

So I have an interest in knowing what the cap is on the debt that the county can incur

And where is the amount of the debt currently?

In other words, what's the space in between?

We're not going to spend it all.

But I mean, just what are we looking at?

All right.

Thank you, John.

I'll take some things from the second question first.

So in terms of additional information,

One, I think in the Long Range Planning Advisory Committee report, pages 14, 15, and 51, you've got your capacity is 14 where the data collection is.

15 is an analysis of that, which has under historical things like high neighborhood growth, stable neighborhoods, et cetera, based on the schools that they feed.

Very helpful document.

The page 51 appendix gets into the projected housing units, I believe, that are out there.

I think it may be worthwhile to have some level of discussion to remind us all how that's being projected out.

I know that when I was on the school board, I don't believe that level of, while there were things factoring in, I don't recall those type of things being in the reports.

And I think that's useful, but I also think it's important to know that if future things that we've approved are included in there, of course they wouldn't in this current report because some things have just

just happened over the last few months.

Belvedere continues to build out single-family detached houses, and I suspect that's in there as well as Laughlin Hills.

But, you know, as we just saw in the newspaper, another apartment complex being proposed along West Rio Road.

Apartment complexes don't typically hit the school system in the same way that single detached homes do.

We all know that.

but it's worth with the our future now that we have a small area plan at route 29 approved and the form-based code approved that we're hoping for the redevelopment of that area and all of the residential that could be coming with it to have some conversations about capacity in the urban ring and 29 north and that's even before we get up to Holly Mead and Baker Butler and the issues you guys are dealing with up there.

So that would be additional information I think would be worth having some conversation about

I think earlier today I'd ask Trevor Henry about our facility needs assessment that we're doing that could be wrapping up and could be coming back to us during budget time.

But there could be information out of that that certainly impacts not just all government operations and facilities, but some school-related items as well.

Supervisor McKeel has obviously been at the forefront of talking about the Lamb's Lane campus.

and how those items relate to the other side of 29 up Berkmar with some proper property and that facility needs study could help inform what could happen and that impacts capacity issues along with your center plan at Albemarle High School in my opinion because that could open up a new approach to that whole Lambs Lane campus and to help solving student capacity there.

The school size policy discussion you all had last week.

I haven't had a chance to go back and listen into the meeting, but if there's some new policy or new direction about the sizing of schools coming forward, that's going to be important for the supervisors to understand.

And if I'm off on what that is, then somebody could educate me on that.

But that has to play into these capacity conversations and what we're going to bring online down the road.

So that's something that I think that might just be a passover, send some information our way on.

I don't think you guys made decisions last week, but I think the conversation is just getting started.

Yeah, that's true.

We tabled the school size discussion until the beginning of the year.

So that's something that down the road, if it doesn't fall into this CIP, that's definitely going to have to be part of the conversation because it might presume that's, well, how big is a school going to be and kind of direct some of these conversations.

And then, I mean, we do have to have conversations about proffered land and what we're going to do with it.

And that's got to be a joint local government schools conversation, because it just can't remain proffered and unused.

So what's our game plan for that?

I know with the North Point, and then they've got the Brookhill, then the other side of the road.

When I hear folks say, as several have mentioned, that they don't want short-term solutions to capacity issues, which is what we hear during land use discussions, you guys certainly hear,

But the shortest term solution is always redistricting, which nobody enjoys.

The next near term solution is additions because they're easy and cost effective.

We own the property, we can add on.

But at some point you get tapped out, as I'm sure you're seeing in Mountain View, and at least the current setup at Albemarle High School.

So new schools, new buildings have to be in play, in my opinion, as others have stated.

But where are they going to go and what size are they going to be plays into this.

Holly Mead, when you think of that capacity and what's surrounded was really a mis-sized school from the start.

You know, back in the day, Woodbrooke folks got redistricted up there.

and then they got redistricted out to Baker Butler and now Baker Butler is over capacity and Woodbrooke's got capacity now.

So the stronger long-term solution is going, well, okay, what are the right size for the placement of these buildings and where are they going to go?

And while I see the Northern Feeder Elementary School placeholder in there, but is the size of proffered land appropriate to the size needed for the neighborhood that it's going to go into?

So those are all conversations I think would be worth coming back in additional information.

Just looking through my notes.

In regards to past, present, and future, I probably talked a little bit about that process I'm happy with.

I mean, I think our CIP process and the fact that we're working jointly together is the best it's been.

I don't think it's, I think we've all had a chance to rehash the past.

We don't need to do that over and over again.

but moving future we certainly can learn that in the past we've made decisions based on cutting projects to save money and it's not gotten us anywhere over the last 10 years so we're still trying to work out of that so moving forward I hope we can make the decisions that when we put the capital projects in place they're going to have longer term staying power for us to solve the capacity issues around the county.

and revenue assumptions.

Obviously, I think not only just for the capital, the cost of the capital projects, but all the operational costs that come along with it.

We're gonna have to have strong conversations about where does that revenue come from to cover all of that as the county continues to grow.

Andy, let me do a check in with you.

How did we do answering or giving you, giving everybody the information you need?

I think there have been several questions we've answered in the spot.

There are some other follow-ups that we can certainly provide in the context of the advisory committee and the work ahead of the coming months.

I'll just kind of pause for a moment if there's any questions.

Staff will address on the spot to resolve just in case that did not happen in the original run-through.

Thank you.

Awesome.

So what I'll do is I'll go back through each district here and see if there are any final comments or questions, food for thought, that sort of thing.

And then if Mr. Walker and Dr. Haas are all right with it, we'll ask them to give some comments here as well towards the end.

So the Rivanna district was up first.

I didn't have any additional comments.

I did really appreciate what my fellow board members had to say about our playing catch up and thinking boldly, but I didn't have anything further.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley?

Yes, thank you very much, Chair Galloway.

I want to reiterate what board member Acuff said because I do believe that this is the time, if we need to, I mean as we look at all of our revenues and everything and what we can do, I do believe that this is the time to stop playing catch up and frankly invest in our schools and what we need.

And if that means bonds, if that means a referendum that goes out to the public, then they vote on it.

if we tell them specifically what we're going to do, where we're going to let's say build a new school and make sure that in that plan maybe there are some renovations for each of the other schools especially the elementary schools but all of the schools then everybody gets something and we're able to finally stop playing catch up and maybe

make sure that we have what we need for our students and our school system to be able to go into the next, you know, 20, 30 years.

So I'm a big believer in letting the public vote on and, you know, accept

have a referendum, let's get some more money for the schools.

People went through the pandemic, they saw how schools, how important schools were because parents had to homeschool a lot of their children along with using internet if they have access to that.

So I think we're in a good position to be able to tell people exactly what we need and if this is what you want for your children, this is what we need to do.

So that's my comment.

Thank you, and we'll go to Samuel Miller.

Yeah, first I would like to thank Mr. Bowman and Ms.

Kumazawa for the presentation.

It really was enlightening.

and in relationship to what Mr. Elcaro said, I too would like to invite the supervisors to listen in on our work session, not this coming Thursday, but the week after that because when this was first talked about probably about four years ago,

The school board members had one understanding, I think.

And somehow along the way, what we had heard from the people who were planning and working with us on the center concept, that idea was never quite translated or moved over to the supervisors in the beginning.

So I think if you do listen in on that session, it might be pretty enlightening to hear more about the center idea.

and then maybe a question related to what Ms.

Birch said.

I'd like to know what criteria the supervisors use or what criteria would be used to decide whether a bond would be used or whether a referendum would be used to decide as to how we are going to finance projects because I agree completely with what Dr. Acuff was saying and also in a way with what Mr. Alcaro was saying.

We haven't been able to catch up for quite some time with our schools and the capacity.

Sure, I can address that now, Mr. Page.

So a referendum is really the authorization from the voters to issue bonds that are general obligation.

The only difference between that and the lease revenue bonds that we use to the EDA, which is actually what we use to finance back this spring,

is it doesn't go through referendum.

It's the same thing.

There's a little bit of a difference in the interest rate, but in this environment, it is not material.

And so when you speak of a referendum and bonds, they're the same thing.

It's just the process in which you have to go forward.

So what we do and what we're going to do over the next five years based on the work of the advisory committee, as well as all the things that Mr. Bowman had mentioned,

is look to see how much in bonding can we afford in terms of our capacity as well as our ability to repay that debt service.

And then it is a discussion of should it be a referendum of the voters or do we do what we have done for the last several years which is we issue lease revenue bonds.

So the criteria is really, from a staff perspective, we can do it either way.

The outcome is the same.

Referendum, you know, there's pros and cons to that.

If you want to hear from the voters, obviously that would be

One reason to go out and seek a referendum.

But I did want to clarify because I've heard it a few times.

A referendum, we have the ability to issue bonds now, and it's part of our planning.

And so we issue bonds based on our ability to afford either cash or the bond funding.

But the referendum in and of itself doesn't do that for us.

We have the ability to do that within our plan.

So hopefully as the Capital Advisory Committee does its work and we work through this, I'll make sure to clarify that as we go along just to make sure people really understand where our capacity is.

with respect to our accessing the capital markets, which is done through a bonding, either a referendum, which is a general obligation bond, or a lease revenue bonds, which is, we have done that for years.

I hope that clarifies it.

Okay, it does.

And maybe one other comment, too, that I sort of left out.

Either Supervisor McKeel or Mallek mentioned about the

Youth Day, Prophet sites.

And we are looking at those.

We're going to be making sure that we prioritize the use of that.

So that's really being considered and will be an important part of our decisions.

OK, that's it, I think, for now.

Okay, I just want to say thank you, Nelsie.

I think the real issue is if you have to increase the tax rate, it's easier to do that if you have the voter's blessing, so to speak, on that.

School Board member Acoff explained was pretty extraordinary in over 70% of the population was in favor.

So it made it much more comfortable, I think, for everybody to increase the tax rate.

And so there was a lot of discussions at that time.

I appreciate, Ned, your follow-up list.

on the proffer sites.

I want one clarification.

I would love it because I'm just really curious right now.

When I asked early on about the proffered site off of Berkmar,

from Brookhill.

Later in the discussion, school board member Akoff said that that proffered site was used for an elementary school.

And I'm thinking there were two proffered sites for the Brookhill.

And I think the elementary was the one on Polar Grounds Road.

and the other one was being considered possibly for a high school.

That's my memory.

I may be wrong.

But could I just get a little clarity on that subject just so that and hopefully when we hear more about the proffered sites, if I'm correct, we'll hear more about that Berkmarsh site.

Thank you, Ms.

Palmer.

I was waiting to see if Mr. Henry, there he is.

You go ahead.

Thanks, Dr. Hawes, Supervisor Palmer, member of the board.

It's good to see you this afternoon.

Try to keep this at a high level, but yes, our county executive office has met with the superintendent on both Lambs Lane campus as well as the Brookhill proffer site, the one that was

you know, potentially a school, 50 plus acres, buildable was around 35.

And so we have been coordinating the effort of doing some initial programming.

We have proposals, one in hand, one that is about to be in hand, that is going to look at schools' BMF and building services functions, and really try to get programming numbers around that to help them look at that Brookhill site

and see some test fit options around that type of function, along with five or six or seven different what I would call more local government related functions.

All that work is going to happen over the next several months and then that information will be able to be presented in a way to get some input on highest and best use of that site.

I believe schools separately will be

then looking at more of a study around Lamb's Lane on assuming that function would move, what that might look like that Dr. Haas can certainly talk to.

Mr. Henry, can I just ask you a clarifying question?

When you were talking about the Brookhill, weren't there two Brookhill proffers, one was where the buildings and the homes were going, and one was on Berkmar Road, where the homes were

I would like to thank supervisor Palmer for clarifying why sometimes a referendum is necessary.

I understand, Ms.

Birch, that money is money, but it sometimes is easier to allocate it when you have popular support.

and so on.

.

It was too small when it was proffered.

It's on the small side of an elementary school, but it works for a school up to 500 kids.

And that one right now is looking preferable than going further up from the population needs to going further up 29 to the North Point property.

I would just add while we're talking about the proffered land because everybody's kind of chiming in here but the proffer that is on the west side of 29, Kate was very wise

when they were discussing this proffer and she made sure that the proffer language said a school facility and or government facility.

So that piece of property that we talk about that is on the side was proffered for schools and government, which is what enables all of us to have this discussion right now.

I believe that's right, Kate.

And so it's very, very important with the price of land in Albemarle County and the cost of land that we be able to use these sites for the best need that we have.

I also really appreciated Nelsie's verification, but when I referenced bonds, and I said 40 years, the bond referendum that we

we ask our taxpayers to approve was the first time that we went out for a referendum, a bond referendum in 40 years.

So that was what I was referencing.

And I think that Liz and Kate and other people are exactly right.

It is transparent to our taxpayers.

They understand what the money is going to go for.

And we have a very education centric community

and they understand the need to perhaps have a tax increase to pay for school facilities if necessary.

So there is a difference now, see, and I really appreciate the clarification, but I think that putting out a bond for referendum gives clarity to the community and can get us the support from the community.

So thank you very much.

Oh, I have one more quick thing to add to what Ned said.

Let's remember when we're talking about these projects, because Ned was exactly right, I can remember over the years, we took schools that were

InDesign and getting ready to be built and reduce their size because the the amount of money they were going to cost came in as more than we expect so at the end of the day we ended up with a school that was under capacity from the very beginning when we built it we knew that so we really have to figure out how to avoid that in the future just like with our

Thank you.

This has been a really good discussion.

The only thing I will add for people to continue to think about is over the last 10 years, there have been drastic improvements in the staff's

focus on carrying out the projects as designed, demanded and delivered.

And so that's a capacity issue we always need to keep in mind as well.

And something that I know the last CIP discussion talked about, and I'm sure that FES will make sure to include that ability in the upcoming discussions because back in the early 2000s, we were having failures of projects we were funding because nobody was watching the store.

And so it's really, really important to make sure we're doing that.

doing that right.

That's great.

Hi, I'm

I just want to say how much I appreciate the historical knowledge that is within this group about what's been done before.

I'm finding that really enlightening and I am appreciating hearing about that.

Thank you Chair Galloway, again I totally support the increase in capacity and if my earlier comment muddied the water a little bit when I talked about the revenue, I totally agree with what Mr. Alcaro and others have said that when the community sees a specific project

and the funding is going to that project that we will have the support and it's been very clear in the Scottsville district I know as well as throughout the county that there is support for increasing capacity.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

I don't have additional comments.

I did have a question, which I think might have been erroneous, but at some point someone mentioned some kind of time restraint related to the Brookhill proffers, which I don't think is the case.

I know they've given us like seven acres for an elementary site, and I think it was like 60 for high school, downgraded to 50, but I just want to

double check.

That's obviously there's no time constraints on using that land.

They have to provide it within a year of us putting in an offer or telling them we want it.

It's my understanding that specifically with the Brookhill proffer, and I think perhaps with North Point too, it's 10 years after the first certificate of occupancy.

I'm not sure how that runs with the Berkmar proffered site, since there's not going to be a certificate of occupancy, but

But we have, I think they're moving in over there at Brookhill, right?

So we've got a little bit of time.

We can certainly follow up with some specific answers to those questions for both pieces of property.

That's all.

I don't have any other questions at this point.

I just really have enjoyed this conversation.

I never get tired of listening to intelligent people speak.

And so I learned a lot.

I also want to thank the staffs on both sides of the table for the work they've put in and for the decisions that have been made.

I look forward to this process continuing.

Thank you.

I would just, the reason the bond referendum, Nelson, for those of us that were very supportive of that the last time, is also that if approved and funded, it has to be used for what it was voted on.

And the amount doesn't have to be used, but if

I think our community certainly liked being told this is what this money will go for.

This is what the tax rate increase will be.

Do you support it or not?

And then they know that once they did what it was going to go to.

It wasn't just, oh, we'll use it for other things halfway through.

and then I think it is important just from the local government side to mention you know school capacity comes up during land use conversations but so do roads and so does parks and green space not to mention the board's strategic plan with the climate action plan and housing Albemarle and

So there are certainly that's going to play into this CIP process as well.

And while I think we are all very supportive of the school's needs and what's going to be needed to hit the capacity, we also have other things that need to be addressed in this and get fit in.

and prioritizing and timing when what happens is always a difficult thing to maneuver through, but that's exactly what's in front of us.

And we'll look forward to having that conversation as the process plays out.

I just wanna say that I really appreciated being part of your conversation to just be in the room with all of you.

I definitely learned a lot

by listening to you talk, the questions you're asking, the information you share.

I really want to thank Mr. Bowman, Ms.

Kumazawa, Ms.

Birch, and Mr. Henry for all the expertise you bring to this and the presentations that you made.

I can't help it.

I'm a glass half full person.

No matter what you all talk about, I just see the bright side of it.

And that's for a good reason.

You know, when I'm out and about visiting the schools, I see all these projects that go on in the schools.

I see the other projects in the county too.

But I see the ones in the schools in particular.

You know, I visit Red Hill and Scottsville and Crozet Elementary School.

And what I saw all summer and in the previous year was

local government, county engineers, and working with contractors, working with architects.

And I see the school staff doing that too.

And to me, it's one of the best places where a great deal of collaboration and innovation takes place.

I think I'd go too far to claim it by saying I'm proud of it, but I really am proud of the work that goes on to

make our schools bigger and make them of greater quality.

And for me really, the good news is at least from what I was hearing, everyone recognizes the need for increasing our school's capacity in a way that truly meets our student, family, community employees needs.

And I would just say on behalf of my staff,

We're ready to engage with all of you to figure out how to accomplish that.

Thank you, sir.

Just one quick comment.

Way, way, way back in the beginning with Mr. Bowman's presentation, he had a list of things that they look at with respect to each of the CIP projects.

And on the end of that list was equity and how that relates to the project.

And we have talked about

Climate change being woven into all these things just as equity is and I'd like to make a plug for considering that as a mention as we go through looking at the CIP projects and that's it.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

In constructing and delivering these presentations at the staff level, the intention always is to try to put the elected officials in the best position to do your best work.

It certainly feels to me like that we hit the mark or came close, and there's a lot of really, really good conversation today.

Staff is taking good notes, and this will really help us as we move forward with other stages in the process.

and our intention will always be to try to put you in a position to do your best work.

And so if you have feedback for us about how we might improve as we can develop these presentations and present them to you, then please let us know because we really would like to make sure that we are doing our part and our role to support you in your elected positions.

Thank you, Mr. Walker.

So Mr. Kumazawa, Mr. Bowman, do you have what you need from us today?

No further comments, this has been very helpful.

Thank you to both boards for all your time and the discussion.

Thank you both for everything in the reports and we will be looking forward to the future conversation.

I want to thank on behalf of the board, thank the school board for joining us today in this meeting.

Chairman Page, I'll turn it to you.

Okay, thank you, Chair Galloway.

And I again thank our staff both on the county level and also on the school board level for your preparations today.

And I think that these sessions are always beneficial to both the school board and to the supervisors.

So thank you for allowing us to be in on this one.

Are there any further questions or comments from the school board members?

Hearing none, our school board meeting is adjourned.

Good to see you everybody.

I'm reminded that Supervisor McKeel made a comment a couple weeks ago about when the school division and the local government work together, things, really good things happen.

So I'm thrilled to have you guys here with us today.

Thank you everyone.

and ready to move to number 12 presentation.

This is on the Albemarle, Charlottesville Regional Jail Facility Assessment.

And let's see, Supervisor McKeel is not only our appointed member of that board, but also the chair of that board.

We have an order that we're going for introductions.

But I really want to take this opportunity, and I promise I won't take very long, but I am really pleased today because our board is going to have the opportunity to talk about the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail.

And it's a facility that we often don't talk about.

You know how things go, we all just get involved in our meetings every week and we do what we do.

But I wanted to really

Give a little bit of background because I think it's a great opportunity and it might be helpful to our discussion today, which is about a renovation.

Our ACRJ opened in 1974.

It is a facility that had an occasional renovation and occasional changes, but for the most part, it has been pretty well the same facility for many, many years.

It is old and in desperate need of a renovation.

But let me back up just a little bit and talk about, just so that our Board of Supervisors members know, I want to just run through who's actually on ACRJ.

Who represents the community on the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail?

We have representatives from, and of course the regional jail, as you all do know, is made up of Albemarle County, the city of Charlottesville, and Nelson County.

And the regional jail board authority has representatives from the administration of the city, the county, and Nelson.

And so, as you know, Doug Walker represents Albemarle County on our

Jail Board.

We also have representation from the three sheriffs of those localities.

There are three citizen reps, one citizen rep from the city, one from the county, and one at-large rep from the city and the county.

And then we also have representation

from the elected officials.

There is an elected official from the city and an elected official from the county.

Nelson County has less representation on the board because they joined the jail much later.

and in the negotiations, they didn't ask for representation, don't have it.

And so, and their population is much, much smaller than any of the other two localities.

But I just wanted to frame it a little bit so that you all had a sense of who's on the authority.

And the other thing I just wanted like to do by way of an introduction is

to read the Albemarle, Charlottesville Regional Jail Mission.

We've talked a lot about goals and CIP and missions today and all, but I really want to take the time.

It's not very long.

I'm going to read the Albemarle, Charlottesville Regional Jail Mission.

To detain both pre-sentenced and sentenced inmates from the Albemarle, Charlottesville and Nelson jurisdictions,

who present a physical threat to the community or themselves, sentenced to jail, or at risk of not appearing for court hearings.

The facility will be maintained and operated to safely and securely house individuals lawfully arrested and charged with a criminal offense

by law enforcement agencies supporting the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail.

In addition to housing local inmates, the facility may accept federal and state inmates on a temporary basis.

Now, juxtaposition that, back in February, the Regional Jail Board asked the Charlottesville and city, the Charlottesville and county, I'm sorry,

Citizen Reps to write a mission statement for us around our work with this renovation.

And I'd like to read that mission statement to you.

So this is the mission statement for the upcoming renovation.

To receive, consider, and incorporate meaningful community and stakeholder input regarding the anticipated renovations of the physical facilities

of the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail, and giving particular attention to inmate capacity, physical and mental well-being, gender equality, alternatives to 24-7 incarceration, including home AGI, electronic incarceration, and reentry programming.

while respecting the financial contributions of the taxpayers.

So what we're going to be talking about today, and I'm going to introduce Martin Kumher, the Superintendent of ACRJ, and what we're talking about today is the renovation

and that frames, I think, the mission of the charge that we have going forward with that renovation.

And with that, Martin, I see you on the screen.

Martin Coomer, the best jail superintendent in the state of Virginia.

And I'd like to introduce him and then I think he's going to introduce the other folks that are on the screen that are going to be doing the presentation for us.

So with that, Martin, take it away.

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.

My name is Martin Coomer.

I am the superintendent of the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail.

I would also like to introduce Tony Bell and Chris Roman.

They are both with Mosley Architects and they have been hired by the jail board to conduct a community-based corrections plan.

In layman's terms, that's regarding a renovation and a need study to determine if we have the proper amount of beds

and our facility.

So they are helping us conduct that study as we speak.

But today we'll give you a quick background of the facility, its population, and then I'm going to turn it over to Tony and Chris.

They can talk about the actual process itself with the community-based corrections plan and some of the feedback we've gotten from the community over the last couple of months.

So the jail was built in 1974.

The original structure, we have had some additions over the years.

Every time we've done an addition, it has never been built or designed with the current capacity in mind.

We've always underbuilt each time.

Our current rated capacity is 329.

Our population as of just a few minutes ago was 313 people physically inside of the jail and approximately 51 people in home electronic incarceration.

That is perhaps the lowest

population I have personally seen in 25 years I've been in this jail, and we're the lowest on record.

The reason how we got here today is over the last year or two, we have noticed a lot of major issues inside the facility, both mechanicals, some electricals, some plumbing, flooring, and some other issues that really need attention and have really been stressed beyond their lifespan.

We presented some of those things to the board over the last year, year and a half, and it was decided at that time, instead of piecemealing some of these major renovation projects,

Let's bring somebody in and let's look at this as a holistic response.

Do it all at once.

While our population is low enough, we can move people around to conduct this renovation.

And that's when we reached out to Mosley, and they've been gracious enough to help us out with this process.

And I will say, over the last few months, we've reached out to the community on several occasions, had open forums where they could come in and express some of the things that they want to see in the jail renovation, some things they don't want to see in the renovation.

and they align really closely with some of the things that we've identified to Mosley Architects in the very beginning, the things we wanted to see.

So it appears that for the most part, we're all on the same page with our community from feedback we received so far.

Thank you, Superintendent.

Good afternoon, Chairman and members of the Board of Supervisors.

I'll run through the schedule, and this is not just the schedule for the community-based corrections plan and its approval and review, but also the full schedule for implementation of any project which may result from that.

So starting basically at the end of this year, which is when the community-based corrections plan needs assessment and planning study will be submitted,

that will then be reviewed by the Board of Corrections and the Board of Local and Regional Jails.

That's what the acronym BLRJ stands for.

A resolution from the authority members will go to the Board of Local and Regional Jails by May 1st of 2022.

And shortly thereafter, they will approve the community-based corrections plan needs assessment.

And then following that, they will approve the community-based corrections plan planning study.

And for everyone to benefit, the needs assessment identifies, just as it says, the need.

That's the number of beds that the DOC agrees is the required rated capacity of your local facility.

The planning study then goes about how to meet that need.

So if we're going to increase by two beds, we show how those two beds are going to be located.

and the project which will ensue.

If we show zero bed increase, it shows renovations and how that project will go about being implemented.

Then project then goes to the application for the Treasury Board for the bonds that happened in June of 22.

Then the DOC submitted to the Department of Planning and Budget.

Again, now we're looking for the funding of the project.

And as you are probably already aware, the state will reimburse the localities up to 25%

for any improvement project, whether it adds beds or doesn't add beds, any improvement project to the facility that they review and approve.

So that can be a large number, especially for a large project.

So $0.25 of every dollar that the localities would implement into the improvements of the facility, the state will then come back and reimburse you.

We'll then receive government approval on or about December 1 of 2022.

and then it goes to the General Assembly and gets put into the General Assembly's budget which as we all know gets approved the following spring and by June of 2023 and their legislative session will then see the approval.

And at that point you know the money has been set aside for the improvement project and you then have a green light to move things forward.

So then what happens?

Well prior to that you could move ahead with some confidence

In issuing an RFP and selecting an AE, but not until you know the money's been approved would you maybe want to execute a contract with an AE firm, an architectural engineering firm.

So on about June or earlier, if you wanted to do so at risk, you would award an AE contract and a design notice to proceed.

uh we would then or others would start design and by November of 2023 we'd be ready for what the DOC refers to as the value engineering process we'd be about 35 percent through the design and the Department of Corrections requires this process to make sure that the project is meeting the needs that were originally identified is basically in line with the planning study and is spending the money wisely of the taxpayers

So after we go through that process, we then complete the construction documents, secure the county design approvals because the facility is in the county and you would be the billing official for this facility.

We would then advertise for bids of May of 2024, receive bids at the end of the month, negotiate a construction contract, and then assuming that the construction would last about 14 months, we'd be completed in October of 2025 and a final completion of November.

at which point you'd be ready to use that new space or those new spaces as the case may be.

So Chris is going to talk a little bit about what we've heard through our community meetings that we held with the Miles Agency and members of your different communities in the city and the county and Nelson County.

All these were held both virtually and we have actually one in-person meeting as well.

Yeah, absolutely, Tony.

And even before that, there were specific groups within the community that the Miles Agency met with.

And all of these issues here, we're not going to go through every single one, but all of these are issues that are important to the community, both in Albemarle and Charlottesville and Nelson County.

and, you know, as the superintendent mentioned earlier, is a lot of these things, they coincide with what we saw architecturally that needed to be addressed, things like HVAC, mold and things like that, but also they started to address the bigger issue of what Ms.

McKeel had read earlier in the mission statement of, you know, what kind of spaces are missing from this jail.

So go to the next slide, Tony.

This is a continuation of those.

Let's go to talking about what we plan to do.

Go to the next slide.

We're going to talk about trauma-informed design.

And trauma-informed design, as the slide indicates, it acknowledges and assumes individuals being served are more than likely to not have had trauma in their lives.

And how that applies to this is we need to provide an environment that reflects that.

Well, what do you mean whenever we say that?

Next slide.

Things like differentiating your home from your work.

But to have a continuation of at least some semblance of daily life, you get to go to work, whether it be in a warehouse, commissary.

It just gives somebody who is detained in this jail another place to go.

That way, they're not stuck in the exact same facility 24-7.

Next slide.

And with that, we would also want to provide things like additional program space and recreation space.

And all of this is, the overarching goal of all this is to reduce the stress in the inmates.

And this is important because this not only protects the inmates, but also protects the staff who are in charge of the inmates to make sure that they're not hurting themselves or hurting others.

The increased connection to nature and natural light is extremely important to reduce stress in any environment.

We do this in offices all the time.

Why not do this in jails?

They are still stuck in this environment, but at least that gives them the opportunity to be able to look outside and realize that there still is the rest of the world outside to look forward to.

Next slide.

You know, some of the things that we noticed are the HVAC vibrations and the lack of sufficient HVAC and ventilation in the day rooms and cells themselves.

On the left, you can actually see a picture from one of the day rooms of these circa 1970-something units that just don't quite do the trick anymore.

So next slide.

providing different types of program areas, as discussed before, different sizes, so different types of social interaction.

You want to have the one-on-one conversation as an inmate with another inmate to maybe get something off your chest.

We want to provide those spaces for them to be able to do that.

This ties into the

And this also ties into reducing recidivism.

We don't want them to come back.

And they don't want to be back either.

So next slide.

Providing sufficient space and resources for mental health and segregation.

This is a big portion that is missing currently from the jail.

These spaces exist, but they are very insufficient for today's needs.

This is a recurring theme.

and all building types in all industries right now in a jail where there are detainees that is no different.

People just might have a bad day and need a place to be able to talk about what is going on so we can address the issues instead of letting them stew and become even more of an issue than it originally was.

Next slide.

In spaces where we're not going to be able to do much, but just a simple change in color to one that is a little more appealing, calming, and a little less harsh.

Jim at his current jail, but you can see just the difference that changing the colors would make of the feeling that you get in that space and calms your nerves, calms your, you know, reducing the risk of any potential outbursts or anything like that.

Next slide.

Also the exposure to large format images of nature.

This goes along with that thing.

These are easy things that can be done in a variety of existing spaces.

Simple as a super graphic on the wall completely changes the dynamic of the space.

from the staff.

Keep in mind, these COs are in there just as much as the inmates or the detainees.

And their mental well-being is at stake as well.

So next slide.

And so a few of the, this is just kind of a summary of many of the things we just talked about, replacing the bar and bar grate sliders with

That is, you know, that's going to speak directly to having better visibility to what's going on inside the jail and things like that.

Replacing the mechanical and electrical systems and given the entire jail just an overall upgrade.

Reducing any signs that there used to be of bars.

We really don't build jails with bars anymore.

replacing toilets and showers with more efficient fixtures as well as addressing gender neutral and accessibility issues that will continue throughout the future of this jail.

Also, even just a front door uplift, the visitor experience needs to

It's not just putting lipstick on a thing, as some might say, but improving the lobby and the experience, putting accessibility into the main lobby and making sure that those visitors that are coming to visit their loved ones in your community are also taken care of.

Is this the end of the presentation?

I believe it is.

If I could, Mr. Chair, members of the board, kind of offer some thoughts as a sitting jail board member and frankly have some experience in other communities working through processes like this.

Not as much renovation, but more new construction.

I just wanted to kind of add some context here.

starting with that, and the timing is good because we're actually talking about your CIP.

This is going to be expensive.

The holistic renovation of an institution of this type is expensive.

And it's because of the nature of the construction in a security context and the extent of the renovation that's needed in order to bring this facility up to current standards and anticipate

where the program and service needs are as we move forward expecting that you're not going to do this again for another 20 or 30 years.

So without putting a number on it, whether beds are increasing or not, renovation is going to cost a lot of money.

And this board, being one of three members, obviously will have to make a decision at some point about whether it's going to support that or not, right?

So the jail authority has its own role to play in affecting the move towards this renovation, but it doesn't have its own money.

It has to come from its member jurisdictions.

So I just wanted to kind of just make that clear in this context.

And the city and Nelson County will be facing similar challenges.

I would also say that there is discussion among the jail authority and within the community about expansion or not expansion.

And Tony can talk about this in great detail, but the needs assessment will determine

just based on an expected demographic changes in growth and population about whether in fact we can accommodate what would reasonably be assumed to be the need to accommodate individuals within the jail within the existing footprint, within the existing beds.

And it's just a discussion I think I want to make sure that you're aware of.

that if we build it too small or if we renovate and don't add space that we need and we find ourselves then at some point in the future without the ability to accommodate we have a different type of problem and so there is a legitimate interest in a serious effort to look at alternatives to incarceration

this community in particular really really supportive in your commonwealth's attorneys are supportive um the criminal justice system is supportive we're actually seeing that play out right now with extensive use of hei so there's a lot of energy positive energy around not increasing jail beds and this this this this dynamic will play itself out through the study and it'll be um it will it'll

There'll be a result.

There'll be an answer at the end we'll have to work through.

So those are the two things I wanted to kind of add.

And Tony, I hope that's helpful to the conversation.

And then I'll be quiet and kind of let you then facilitate questions from the board members.

Thank you.

Mr. Bell, did you have a slide there you wanted to show?

No, I was not trying to hurry you up, Chris.

Go ahead.

This is Chris's pride and joy here.

So I think it warrants a little conversation.

I think it plays into what Doug was just saying.

So it is two separate questions, adding beds, not adding beds.

But the real focus of our discussions to date have been about improving what you have.

And you'll see the image on top is the existing dorm layout.

For those of you not familiar with the layout, I have not been in the facility, but each of these dorms has a bar-graded front to it through which correctional officers can walk to view portions of these dormitories.

and this square footage is essentially lost to use except for that correctional officer who walks back and forth on all the tours periodically during the course of the day.

The jail staff agree, the jail occupants agree that that space could be better utilized and removal of that bar grate will improve the aesthetics of the space as well.

Yeah, and this is one of the general layouts that you have throughout the jail, especially in the portion we're talking about being renovated, the original 1975 portion.

And they're all relatively the same, and they all have this tight layout.

As you can see down on the bottom right, we have the improved layouts where your sight lines are dramatically improved just by adding, you know, getting rid of the bar grates and adding glass into the main corridor.

You know, you're able to see almost the entire, the entire day room, whereas currently they're

You have to, as Tony was saying, a CO needs to walk in that unusable space to be even able to see what's going on in there.

And it gets even worse whenever you have actual cells, which is, if you can imagine where the beds are, walls in between them.

It just provides

of course, some really bad sight lines.

So by improving, by opening it up and adding some glass and redoing the windows so you, one, so they're more energy efficient, and two, so you can actually see the natural daylight coming out there.

This will improve the space dramatically.

Not to mention being able to have better access to the plumbing fixtures from a maintenance standpoint.

The staff is going to really like the fact that they won't have to walk into one of the cells to be able to fix a toilet.

They should be able to access them from behind.

You can see the chase that we're opening up in the middle there, the triangular portion.

Doug, do I answer your question sufficiently?

We'll go through and see if supervisors have questions here.

I don't really have any questions, but I am intrigued by what you're all proposing.

It does look like it definitely needs some kind of a renovation and upgrade.

I like the idea that we're looking outside the box, shall we say.

I think Doug, excuse me, Mr. Walker, mentioned that about focusing more on mental health, which may not be the same type of incarceration as

you know, some kind of misdemeanor or even felony that occurs.

So I'm, yeah, I'm also a little anxious about the price tag, but of course, this is something that is probably hopefully long overdue and anything that helps educate or trains inmates, then I'm all for that also.

I have a couple questions about allocation of funds.

How is that done now?

When we address that, or Martin, you can address that.

Well, currently, the way the funding works is it's based on the percentage of inmates currently that each locality has in the jail.

We do it on a five-year moving average.

However, currently, the last bond or debt payment was based on a slightly different funding scenario where Nelson County paid a smaller fixed percentage, not so much based on their population.

I think that was just negotiated when they joined the jail board.

Okay, and one other question on this same subject.

Will that be a decision?

Do you foresee that to be the same decision for all three entities?

Or could different entities end up having different decisions on how their residents are treated within this system?

That's a good question.

In order for that to happen, all three, the courts and the Commonwealth attorneys have to agree.

and as you know Commonwealth Attorneys are elected and they run on different platforms and each have their own different views on incarceration and crime and punishment.

So it really comes down to the individual Commonwealth Attorneys and then those judges approving individuals for alternative incarceration.

So it could very well be three separate distinct alternatives or no alternatives in some cases possibly.

So it really comes down to localities and their Commonwealth Attorneys.

We are fortunate right now this, um, Albemarle County, City of Charlottesville,

Okay, and I can't resist this question.

There is a long-standing thought in the community that the jail would be very difficult to expand its footprint because it is built on the old city-county landfill, not landfill, but just dump site.

How true is that with respect to expanding the footprint?

Well, I'm going to give that question to Tony.

He's the expert here.

It obviously adds challenges, Supervisor Palmer, but as you already are aware, those challenges have been overcome in the past.

and we anticipate they can be overcome in the future.

It's just determining what the most cost effective solution is and then implementing that solution as best we can at the least cost.

okay so okay thank you that's it for supervisor McKeel any additional thoughts here just a couple of comments um because i really appreciate that the presentation was great um and i just want to let the board of supervisors know that superintendent coomer will happily give anyone that wants a tour of the facility he has been

offering tours to members of the community, and we've had folks take him up on that offer.

So if any of you all would like at any time over the next months or year to come out and take a look at the facility, please just let Superintendent Coomer know.

He can provide you with a tour.

And I will just add that I am hopeful that we can somehow or another find additional

Footprint to offer the residents of our jail, the inmates, more time outside.

They're very limited with the footprint we have on the ability to get outside and have exercise and get fresh air.

And so I'm hopeful that that will be one of the ways.

When we talk about the footprint,

that we'll be able to do that.

And I think that's been reflected in what we've heard from the community as well.

And I don't think I have much other than that to add.

I just really appreciate the interest and it is really, the jail is really in need of upgrades and renovation.

Oh, and let me just add this piece because there is

Just to let you all know, my viewpoint on the jail is that the ACRJ board authority, we're very much like the school board.

We have facilities that, we have a facility and the jail board authority and Superintendent Kumher, we have to accept everyone that the judges

and the defense attorneys and the Commonwealth attorneys, we have to accept everyone that comes to our door.

We don't determine who comes to our door.

Just as the school board doesn't get to determine what students show up, we don't determine what inmates come to our door.

So we want to make sure that everyone that comes is well treated and has a safe environment

and then our staff has a safe environment to work in.

And so that comparison helps me a lot when I think about the population at the jail and how they come to us.

Thank you very much.

I certainly appreciate the takes all comers point because and also the link to the school board because we really appreciate the efforts of the school department to try to help people gain skills and have better ability to survive on the outside when they get out in a new productive way.

So that's great.

From the little that we have seen about the proposed improvements, it looks like a tremendous increase in humanity.

which I think also has a psychological, moral, medical benefit to the individuals in there that will also bring us rewards later.

My question is really, I guess, off the point completely, is there any more detail as far as a formula about what the state generally funds or is it all in the locality?

and the second half of that which is completely off topic because it's operational is there's word circulating today from VACO about

asking the governor to make substantial improvements to the per diems, which used to be three times bigger than they are now and are now even more woefully inadequate than they were $14 when it was costing you $60 six years ago.

Where does that come from?

But that's not something to worry about today, probably.

So I'm really interested in the capital funding, and we'll go after the per diems when we can.

I'm happy to.

I'm not going to touch the per diems of the superintendent's area of expertise.

As far as what the state funds, they fund 25% of any of the improvements that the localities

i.e.

the authority make.

And the best example I can give is a lock and a camera.

So if you have locks in the facility and you replace a lock with exactly the same lock that you took out, the Commonwealth does not reimburse any of that.

If you had a black and white camera and you replace that black and white camera with a color IP addressable camera that the superintendent can then see on every staff computer workstation in the facility, that improves safety and security and the state says we'll pay 25% of that.

So that's how the costs are allocated.

So any improvement that you make, if it

improves the facility and back to what Supervisor McKeel said, you know, larger rec yards, recreation yards, exterior recreation yards, that would be and if it meets the jail standard, that would be considered an improvement and they would bring forth the 25%.

Even if there are no increase in bed capacity, okay, if you are deficient and you are, okay, we've already all addressed those deficiencies,

If you're deficient in terms of program space, i.e.

multi-purpose rooms, education facilities, if you're deficient in terms of recreation facilities, when you move forward and try to meet that standard, the Commonwealth steps forward with their support and says, yes, move forward and we will pay for 25%.

Does that answer your question, Supervisor?

All right, Supervisor Price.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

And thank you, Superintendent Coomer and Mr. Roman and Mr. Bell for your presentations.

I just have a couple of comments because I want our community to understand.

First off, this facility is 47 years old, the original part.

Obviously, there have been some improvements.

There aren't many things that people are using.

that are nearly 50 years old.

And humanity is extremely important when we're talking about this.

This county is working hard to avoid the over criminalization that has been sort of a trend around the country.

Our legislative priorities are to look where we can towards civil rather than criminal infractions.

This is a jail, not a prison.

And the difference is a jail you're dealing with lower level

criminal offenses.

These are not typically what you're going to see as your hardened criminals, the felons who are serving in very lengthy sentences.

So what we're looking at is trying to provide a humane, safe, secure facility that reduces the likelihood of recidivism and provides for a humane place for these people.

These are people to be taken care of.

I fully support this.

I recognize that there is a cost and each community that participates in the regional jail cell provides a prorated share of the cost of that.

And I understand that right now the jail is sort of debt-free, you've paid off your mortgage so to speak, and that the cost of this renovation, while it will not be insignificant, as Mr. Walker pointed out, will largely

Not completely, I presume, but largely be covered already by the amount that the communities are contributing.

And also, we're looking at about a four-year process from today, even if we get started now, which means that these renovations are going to be even more needed four years from now.

I don't have any questions.

I think the expansion question with, I mean, it just sounds like programmatically you need to expand to do what you want from a program standpoint, not just the capacities.

I mean, the capacity doesn't grow.

The facility needs to expand to meet the program requirements.

It's a takeaway here.

But I don't have any other questions.

I certainly appreciate the update.

And Superintendent Kumher, I probably will be reaching out to you to take you up on that.

I have not had it for so I should do that.

Are there any additional things here?

For those board members who were attending VACo, be sure to go to the vendor's place and visit Tony.

Real quick, two quick things.

One, our philosophy for the last 10 to 15 years, especially the last seven years, has been to reduce this population

safely and effectively and also reduce recidivism and we are very fortunate that and I've said before I'm perhaps the most fortunate superintendent of the Commonwealth of Virginia that lives in a community that embraces the same concept of the same mindset and my it makes my job so easy.

This facility being 50 years old in the 70s that's the last thing they were thinking about it was a lock them up throw away the key mentality we had

No recreation space built.

There were no classrooms at that time.

Everything that we have today, we have either begged, borrowed, and stole from other parts of the facility to make classrooms, make recreation space.

So it would be nice to have a facility that meets our goals and our dedication to this community to reduce recidivism, reduce crime, and reduce the jail's population.

Mind you, those same things also reduce the cost of operating this facility back to our localities.

Our budgets have seen very minimal increases over the last couple of years, especially because of the lower population.

So there's impacts all the way around that this will have in this community that will last for generations.

So I appreciate the board's support this morning.

If I can ever help anyone or give any tours, provide any information to you or your constituents, get in touch with me.

I'm happy to talk to them anytime.

Sorry, I forgot one.

Superintendent, are there still significant numbers of state jurisdiction inmates who are kept in your facility for months and months and months instead of being transferred away?

Because that certainly exacerbates the per diem issue as well.

It does, and yes, thank you for bringing it up.

Yes, we have approximately 20, 22% of our inmate population today should technically be serving their sentence in a state responsible prison.

Approximately 50 to 60 people any given day, absolutely.

And we're not alone, most jails are like that.

We're hoping that the law change on July 1, which will increase the amount of good time inmates have, will create space in the Department of Corrections with the new releases, and they'll be able to take their state responsible inmates into the prison.

Well, Mr. Roman, Mr. Bell, Superintendent Coomer, thank you very much for being here today and with the presentation and the fielding our questions.

And I'm sure we'll have continued conversation down the road as we see how this progresses.

Just one more, just one more thought.

I think it's interesting that we talked about education and schools and capacity today, and we're talking about jails and criminal justice.

And the surest way to keep our jail population down is to properly educate our children.

And it's interesting that we had both of these discussions today.

And if something happens, we need to focus on rehabilitation and not retribution.

But I did think it was, there was this interesting that we were talking about education today as well as our jails.

All right, Board, we are moving to number 13, the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority Quarterly Report.

You're running a little behind schedule.

Well, a lot behind schedule.

Do we have Mr.

Is it Tungate, Toongate?

Sorry if I'm mispronouncing it.

Hello, sir.

Hello, how are you guys?

Good.

How do you say your last name?

Tungate, I said that first.

Good afternoon.

So I'm sub subbing today for Bill Moyer, and I wanted to

I asked, first of all, if there are any questions related to the memorandum that he sent you guys.

It was like in early October.

Yeah, if you'd like to go to the presentation, then I'll do a round.

Perfect.

Can you all see my presentation now?

Yes, we can.

Perfect.

So just want to bring you up to date to what we've been doing and what's going on at Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority and the Solid Waste Authority.

As you mostly know, we do have five drinking water reservoirs throughout the county.

South Fork, Off-Off 29, Sugar Hollow,

up off Sugar Hollow Road against the San Diego National Park.

Our largest reservoir is Ragged Mountain, which is at the Ragged Mountain natural area.

And then we have a reservoir, Beaver Creek in Crozet and then we have a reservoir in Scottsville with Totea Creek Reservoir.

So together combined if they're full we have 3.3 billion gallons of water

Currently we have just over 3 billion gallons of raw water stored in our system.

We have two water treatment plants under construction right now.

And what you can see here is a South Rivanna plant.

and the Observatory Plant.

So again, South Rivanna is off 29 North by Walmart and the Observatory Plant is on UVA grounds.

Both projects are scheduled to be completed in 2023, so we are right almost in the exact middle of the projects and the budget is $43 million, 23 of which is at Observatory Treatment Plant and $20 million at South Rivanna.

I'm sure many of you do know we replaced the rubber crest gate at the Sugar Hollow Reservoir at the Sugar Hollow Dam and this is what you're seeing in these pictures.

The original rubber crest was placed in service

in the mid 80s.

And it was replaced this, I guess it was probably last spring, but just last week we actually ran some tests on the rubber gate inflating it and deflating it to run through our final checks, but these are some pictures of the process.

Again, we should be completed in December.

We're on schedule to do that and the budget is $2 million.

We have a Crozet wastewater storage tank going in very close to the intersection of 250 and 240 in Crozet by the licking hole reservoir.

And what this storage tank is going to do is store peak flows of wastewater coming from the Crozet system.

And then typically the wastewater flows are higher in the morning hours and higher in the evening hours.

And so what we'll be able to do to accommodate the growth in the Crozet area is to store that extra flow in the storage tank.

And then when demand is lower, we will pump that tank down and get it ready for use the next time.

And so we should be done with that project in November of 22.

The budget is $5.4 million.

It's a pretty unique process with the building because they actually formed the sides of the tank right there on site, as you can see in these pictures.

On the solid waste side, we did have some amnesty events at the IV material utilization center.

In September, we had an e-waste collection day, which I participated in also.

We had a commercial household hazardous waste collection on

23rd, the fall residential household hazardous waste collection on the 24th and 25th of September and then our fall bulky waste amnesty days on the 2nd for the furniture and on the 9th for the appliances and on the 16th for the tires.

And really that's it for the Rivanna Water and Stew Authority and the Solid Waste Authority.

Thank you, sir.

We'll go through here and see.

No, but thank you, Mr. Tange, for the update.

I really appreciate that, and I'm hoping the balloon

That works out.

It sounds like it's working out well.

So I've been up there and thank you very much.

I got the hike up there with Supervisor Palmer.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Tungate.

I want to make one little comment.

that just to avoid confusion that the licking hole is not, it's a sediment basin not used as a reservoir just for clarity.

And one of the things that I think that the board ought to know, and I apologize, you probably don't have a slide for this, but how much trash MSW were really getting at the,

at the transfer station now.

It continues to go up.

And I know Mr. Tungate is not with the Solid Waste Authority, so this is not a really fair question for him.

But we are having talks about increasing the amount of trash that we can get in there through our DEQ permit.

And so that's something that

The board will probably be hearing about in the future.

In September of 19, we averaged 105 tons per day.

Thank you very much.

That's really an amazing increase.

We continue, we have some days