Board of Supervisors Regular First Meeting   3/2/2022

1. This meeting is being held pursuant to and in compliance with Ordinance No. 20-A(16), An Ordinance to Ensure the Continuity of Government During the COVID-19 Disaster. 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’ home page 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.

2. Call to Order.

• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:00:00
    of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors to order.
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    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.
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    The supervisors who are electronically present at this meeting are Supervisor Andrews of the Samuel Miller District, Supervisor McKeel of the Jack Jouett District, Supervisor Malek of the White Hall District,
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    LaPisto-Kirtley of the Rivanna District, Supervisor Galloway of the Rio District, and myself, Supervisor Price of the Scottsville District.
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    The opportunities for the public to access and participate in the meeting are posted on the Albemarle County website, on the Board of Supervisors homepage, and on the Albemarle County calendar.
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    Participation will include the opportunity to comment on those matters for which comments from the public will be received.
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    I would also like to mention that our County Executive, Mr. Richardson, our County Attorney, Mr. Campner,
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    Our Clerk Ms.
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    Borgerson and our Senior Deputy Clerk Mr. Morris are also present for the meeting.

3. Pledge of Allegiance.

• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:01:12
    At this time I would ask that we all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.
• • SPEAKER_16
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    I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one Nation under God indivisible
• • SPEAKER_29
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    and liberty and justice for all.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:01:44
    Thank you.

4. Moment of Silence.

• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:01:44
    I would invite you all now to participate in a moment of silence.
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    Thank you.

5. Adoption of Final Agenda.

• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:02:09
    Board, at this time, it's time for the adoption of the final agenda.
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    I do have two items to add to the agenda under item number 23.
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    One will be a request that Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley has regarding the letter of support for the La Forche Historic Registry inclusion.
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    and the other is from Supervisor Mallek with regard to a letter to Senator Warner in support of honoring our PACT Act.
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    That's the promise to address comprehensive toxic acts of 2021.
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    Both of these are late adjustions because of the timing of the information and when it is necessary to be supported.
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    So I would ask if there is a motion to adopt the final agenda with the proposed amendment.
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    All right, Mr. Campner, was there something you were going to add?
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    No, thank you.
  • 00:03:08
    All right.
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    All right, Board, we have a motion and a second.
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    We have the Clerk will call the roll.
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    Mr. Bea LaPisto-Kirtley?
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    Aye.
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    Ms.
  • 00:03:17
    Mallek?
  • 00:03:18
    Yes.
  • 00:03:19
    Ms.
  • 00:03:19
    McKeel?
  • 00:03:20
    Yes.
  • 00:03:21
    Ms.
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    Price?
  • 00:03:23
    Aye.
  • 00:03:23
    Ms.
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    Andrews?
  • 00:03:25
    Yes.
  • 00:03:26
    Ms.
  • 00:03:26
    Mallek?
  • 00:03:27
    Yes.
  • 00:03:28
    All right, thank you, Board.

6. Brief Announcements by Board Members.

• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:03:30
    At this time we'll move to item number five, brief announcements by board members.
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    Supervisor Andrews?
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 00:03:38
    I think there's going to be a lot on today's meeting and I want to somewhat be brief.
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    I'm very cognizant of the fact, as I know all of you are,
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    what's been going on in the world and my heart goes out to those who are suffering right now.
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    I would add to that that we should take note that the IPCC released its sixth report assessment on climate this past week as well and again something that the world needs to take note of.
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    But there are also some good things going on at the county.
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    I'm going to leave it to others to put those in their announcements.
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    Thank you.
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    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:04:20
    Supervisor McKeel.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 00:04:25
    Thank you, Jim.
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    I certainly appreciate Jim's recognition of terrible things that are happening in the world as well as the environmental report that just came out this week.
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    On the good side, on the positive side, we had a wonderful event yesterday in the county office building.
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    Sean Reeves was pinned as our new police chief, which was wonderful.
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    And along with his promotion, we had promotion from any of the other Albemarle County police officers.
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    And it was just a lovely event.
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    And so that's on the good side, Jim, of one of the things that happened.
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    Thank you.
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    Thank you.
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    Supervisor Mallek.
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 00:05:13
    Thank you.
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    People may have heard it already on the radio, but Old Rag Mountain trails will now be by walking day pass only, so people who are interested in going to Old Rag to hike should contact recreation.gov slash ticket and get that $1 ticket ahead of time.
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    It does not include parking, so please plan ahead on that.
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    Also the Journey Through Hall and Ground is offering summer camps and I've sent the link on that to Matt Haas in case he can circulate it to the students, usually juniors and seniors who do a summer camp in Middleburg.
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    And I will echo what Jim and Diantha said and stop.
• • SPEAKER_28
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    Thank you.
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    Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 00:05:58
    Yes, along with everybody else, my heart goes out to the people of Ukraine who are fighting for their lives regarding this invasion.
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    I did want to also on a more positive note, I attended my first meeting of the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention Visitors Bureau.
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    went very well.
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    I think we're off to a really good start and I'm looking for all kinds of really good things, positive things to bring tourism into Charlottesville and Albemarle.
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    So I'm very frankly pumped up about it.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:06:32
    Thank you.
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    Supervisor Galloway.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 00:06:37
    I'm going to hit one real close to home, echoing a comment I made last Wednesday about speeding.
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    This continues to be an issue, basically bringing it up today to those who are driving their cars to slow down.
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    As the weather warms up and as kids and everyone gets excited to be outside, it just ups the risk factor for the pedestrians, especially after a couple of years of everybody being pent up.
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    just calling attention to it and obviously the county will do what it can within its confines.
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    to help with enforcement, but I've been working with other communities on other efforts that they can take on their own associations and whatnot.
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    And as we've made some comments on some political items happening, I would just like to call out my disappointment with the House and the General Assembly for failing to pass the ban, to get rid of the ban on gay marriage in the state.
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    Thank you echoing the sentiments and the concerns that the other supervisors have expressed
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:07:57
    It's simply outrageous.
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    In the interest of purely brevity, I will not further address that.
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    I do have a couple of good things to point out.
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    The Thomas Jefferson Soil and Water District recently announced the winners of the 2021 Clean Water Farm Awards.
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    And these awards recognize local farmers and landowners who progressively manage their operations and have adopted and implemented innovative conservation tools, technologies, and practices.
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    And Albemarle County's own High Lawn Farm owned by Rosalind Kudts and David Herd were the recipients this year.
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    And I am a proud supporter and happy customer of High Lawn Farm, which I purchased my beef from them down at the Scottsville Farmers Market.
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    So it's always great when the local folks show that they not only produce great products, but they do it in an environmentally conscious manner.
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    I also want to express one more time the appreciation to our broadband office, Michael Culp and Jason Inafuentes.
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    We recently were able to have our testimony before the SCC and Albemarle County due to their efforts under the leadership of our Assistant County Executive, Mr. Trevor Henry.
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    We're instrumental in unifying a number of regional counties to provide very significant testimony, which is going to bring relief to our consumers.
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    And finally, it's important as we go into budget season for our community to appreciate the value of our county's triple AAA bond rate.
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    and our consent agenda item number 8.2, we were able to reflect $2 million of savings by being able to refinance loans because we do have such good credit.
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    And for that, I think everyone in the county will work so hard to ensure that we can provide the best services at the lowest expense to our community.
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    Thank you, board.
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    This time, we'll move to item number six, proclamations and recognitions.
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    We have three today.

7. Proclamation Proclaiming March as Red Cross Month.

Proclamation (Red Cross Month)
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:10:02
    And the first one is a proclamation proclaiming March as Red Cross Month.
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    And Supervisor McKeel, I believe you have this one.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 00:10:14
    I do.
  • 00:10:14
    I am very appreciative to be able to read this proclamation.
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    And this is in the form of a motion.
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    Proclamation for claiming March as Red Cross Month.
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    Whereas in times of crisis, people from across Albemarle County come together to take care of each other.
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    This humanitarian spirit is part of our community and exemplified by Red Cross volunteers and donors.
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    And whereas in 1881,
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    Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross, turning her dedication to helping others into a bold mission to prevent and alleviate people's suffering.
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    More than 140 years later, we honor the kindness and generosity of the Red Cross volunteers here in Albemarle County
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    who continue to carry on Clara's legacy of saving lives.
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    They join millions of people across the United States who volunteer, donate blood, make monetary donations, or learn vital life-preserving skills through the Red Cross.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:11:19
    And whereas in Albemarle County, you seem to have lost Supervisor McKeel there.
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    Supervisor McKeel, you're back.
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    You disappeared briefly.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 00:11:35
    I'm sorry to start.
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    Whereas in Albemarle County, the contributions of local Red Cross volunteers give hope to the most vulnerable in their darkest hours, whether providing emergency shelter, food, and comfort to families devastated by local disasters such as home fires, winter storms, flooding,
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    donating essential blood for victims of accidents and burns, cardiac surgery, and organ transplant patients, and those being treated for leukemia, cancer, or sickle cell anemia, supporting military service members and veterans, along with their families and caregivers through the challenges of life, helping to save the lives of others with first aid, CPR, and other skills, or delivering international humanitarian aid.
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    and whereas their work to prevent and alleviate human suffering is vital to bolstering the resilience of our community.
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    We dedicate the month of March to all those who continue to drive the noble legacy of the founder of the American Red Cross, Clara Barton, who lived, in her words, you should never think about anything but need and how to meet it.
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    We ask others to join this commitment to give back to our community.
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    Now, therefore, be it resolved, be it proclaimed, that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, now proclaim the month of March 2022 as Red Cross Month and encourage all residents of Albemarle County to get in touch and support their humanitarian mission.
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    Signed the second day of March 2022.
  • 00:13:18
    All right, thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:13:18
    We have a motion and a second.
  • 00:13:21
    If the clerk will call the roll.
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    Ms.
  • 00:13:23
    LaPisto-Kirtley.
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    Aye.
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    Ms.
  • 00:13:26
    Mallek.
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    Yes.
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    Ms.
  • 00:13:28
    McKeel.
  • 00:13:29
    Yes.
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    Ms.
  • 00:13:30
    Kras.
  • 00:13:31
    Aye.
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    Ms.
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    Andrews.
  • 00:13:34
    Yes.
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    Mr. Gallaway.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 00:13:36
    Yes.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:13:36
    All right, thank you board and I see we have Mr. Brent with the American Red Cross here today to accept the resolution.
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    And Mr. Brent, the floor is yours for any comments you would like to make.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 00:13:48
    Well, first and foremost, thank you.
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    The American Red Cross is your American Red Cross.
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    And we're only here and made possible because of the support that we get from the communities that we serve.
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    Our mission is to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies.
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    And we do that by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.
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    And we are so fortunate and grateful for that support.
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    And I would be remiss today if we didn't acknowledge our Red Cross brothers and sisters serving around the world and parts of the world that are in conflict today.
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    And while I'm willing to do a lot for my American Red Cross, including for any of you that I may have met before, my hair is not naturally red.
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    I did this for American Red Cross, March is Red Cross Month.
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    I do an annual something.
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    This was my annual something this year.
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    But I never once, and forgive me, I can't say this without being emotional.
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    I never once have to question that I'm going to be killed for going to work.
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    And we have colleagues in countries today
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    that are taking that risk.
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    They're serving in bomb shelters.
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    They're risking their lives to protect their communities in Hungary and Poland and the Ukraine and in Russia.
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    And our neutrality, our impartiality and our universality requires us as an organization to embrace that.
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    And I am so grateful that we are an organization that embraces those fundamental principles, those values,
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    and that we have a community that supports us in that.
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    So thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:15:43
    Thank you, Mr. Brent.
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    Supervisors, I know each of you may desire also to make some comments.
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    Supervisor Andrews.
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 00:15:52
    just to express my gratitude to the American Red Cross for helping create a better world and for the resilience that I think we all need to dedicate ourselves to as we go.
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    So thank you.
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    I hope people will continue to support the Red Cross and donations of all kinds, not necessarily red hair, but red blood and the rest.
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    So thank you.
  • 00:16:21
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 00:16:22
    Supervisor McKeel.
  • 00:16:24
    Bill, thank you very much.
  • 00:16:26
    Those were moving words and I think it's really good for all of us to remember that what at times we can take for granted in this country other people really struggle whether it's going to work or going to school
  • 00:16:42
    And we really appreciate the Red Cross and your efforts through all of the disasters that we've seen in many, many countries and continue still today.
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    So thank you very much.
• • SPEAKER_29
  • 00:16:56
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 00:16:57
    Supervisor Mallek.
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 00:16:59
    Good afternoon and thank you to the organization.
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    I took swimming lessons back in the 50s and my grandchildren are, my grandson participated in your classes for his senior life savings so he could get a job just before, just before COVID.
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    So during this last couple of years, everything being shut down has really emphasized how much you provide because we didn't have it.
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    So I look forward to a more normal year and thank you for all you're doing.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:17:29
    Thank you.
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    Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 00:17:32
    Yes, thank you very much, Mr. Brant.
  • 00:17:34
    And please tell all people that work so every day for the Red Cross, especially those that are overseas working perilously, that we support them, we salute them.
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    And all the brave, very, very brave women and men that are doing the job, we salute them.
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    Thank you.
  • 00:17:59
    Supervisor Galloway.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 00:18:02
    Thank you for being with us today, Mr. Brent.
  • 00:18:04
    I regret that we were not able to coordinate.
  • 00:18:06
    I would have gladly dyed my beard red to join you on that.
  • 00:18:10
    But I too want to express or echo the sentiments expressed by my fellow supervisors and offer my sincere appreciation to all those who volunteer for your organization.
  • 00:18:21
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:18:23
    Thank you.
  • 00:18:24
    Mr. Brown, I can simply add to the effusive praise.
  • 00:18:27
    My family has all benefited directly.
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    All four of my children received their CPR, Advanced Life Saving, and their swim instructor certificates, which then allowed them to be lifeguards as they were growing up.
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    Skills that will continue to help both save them and others throughout their lives.
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    I've also had the experience of living both in the United States and overseas in places where the Red Cross has responded to hurricanes, typhoons, floods, earthquakes, even volcanoes.
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    And so the work that your organization does is simply invaluable.
  • 00:19:10
    Thank you very much.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 00:19:13
    Thank you very much.
  • 00:19:14
    We're grateful.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:19:15
    Thank you.

8. Proclamation Celebrating Women's History Month.

Proclamation (Women's History Month)
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:19:15
    All right board, we'll move on to our next proclamation, which is Women's History Month.
  • 00:19:22
    And this is one that I requested the opportunity to read.
  • 00:19:27
    So board, I move that we adopt a proclamation celebrating Women's History Month.
  • 00:19:33
    Whereas Women's History Month celebrated during the month of March,
  • 00:19:38
    originated in 1987 to recognize the heritage and achievements of women.
  • 00:19:44
    And whereas throughout our nation's history,
  • 00:19:47
    The United States has welcomed women, immigrants, and refugees from around the world who have contributed to all areas of society in whose knowledge, skills, and abilities have laid the foundation for a more robust workforce and a more prosperous economy.
  • 00:20:05
    And whereas almost 50% of the 26.6 million refugees worldwide
  • 00:20:13
    are women and girls who face unique challenges during the displacement and resettlement process because of their gender identity, including the threat of sexual violence.
  • 00:20:25
    And whereas if fully harnessed the economic power of refugee women could contribute 1.4 trillion to the annual global GDP.
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    And whereas Albemarle County continues to welcome and support refugee members in our community
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    Not only because their contributions improve the quality of life for all of us, but because we strive to live up to our ideal of creating an inclusive community for all, regardless of what they can do for us in return.
  • 00:20:58
    Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby acknowledge and celebrate Women's History Month 2022.
  • 00:21:10
    with a special recognition of the challenges that the women and girl refugee members in our community face and overcome.
  • 00:21:18
    And we recommit to building an equitable and inclusive society where even our most vulnerable members can thrive.
  • 00:21:27
    Signed this second day of March, 2022.
  • 00:21:30
    And I so move.
  • 00:21:32
    Is there a second?
  • 00:21:33
    Second.
  • 00:21:34
    We have a motion and a second.
  • 00:21:36
    The clerk will call the roll.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 00:21:41
    Maro, Ms.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:21:43
    Mallek, Ms.
  • 00:21:46
    McKeel, Ms.
  • 00:21:48
    Price, Mr. Andrews, Mr. Hallaway.
  • 00:21:57
    Thank you board and I see that we have with us today Ms.
  • 00:22:00
    Palwasha Mohammed-Asif to accept the resolution and I turn the floor over to you ma'am for any comments that you may have.
• • SPEAKER_00
  • 00:22:11
    Thank you, everyone.
  • 00:22:12
    Good afternoon.
  • 00:22:14
    Thanks for having me in this meeting.
  • 00:22:17
    This is a big opportunity for me to share my story and my background.
  • 00:22:23
    My name is Polwasha Mohammed Asif.
  • 00:22:25
    I'm from Afghanistan.
  • 00:22:27
    I'm living in United States since 2015.
  • 00:22:31
    I graduated from high school from Afghanistan, from Kabul, and I went to college as well.
  • 00:22:39
    It was my second semester to college since we came back, we moved to United States.
  • 00:22:46
    I'm a full-time employee working with IRC and part-time college student.
  • 00:22:52
    At the first time, it was a hard time for me to adjust everything that we left in Afghanistan.
  • 00:22:59
    We came to the United States.
  • 00:23:00
    I was starting from school when I came here I was turning 18 so school didn't accept me to the school because it was only two months left to be 18 so they were like it's not gonna be benefit for you to be for two months in school so after that
  • 00:23:20
    They provided me some English classes.
  • 00:23:22
    I took a lot of classes and I had a lot of struggles, problems to improve my English, to find jobs, to help and support my family.
  • 00:23:32
    As you know, Afghan families are big families.
  • 00:23:36
    We are the same.
  • 00:23:36
    We are like 10 people in the house and it's a big responsibility on me and my brothers as well.
  • 00:23:43
    So I took classes and I got a chance to apply for college and I got my certificate as a pharmacy technician.
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    I worked for two years as a pharmacy technician back in CVS.
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    After that, in 2017, I was a volunteer in IRC.
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    After some years, I decided to apply for the IRC to work with them and help the refugees.
  • 00:24:10
    As you know, Afghan refugees are making more than a third part of the people in the Charlottesville right now and it has been 40% of the resettlement are Afghan.
  • 00:24:20
    refugees since 1998, plus the 331 people passed in five months.
  • 00:24:27
    So that's why we're trying to help them and give them the support and love we receive from IRC and from the community.
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    And some other thing that I want to mention then.
  • 00:24:39
    We came through the IRC, so that's why I can feel like how kind of help they need and how to help them out.
  • 00:24:45
    So I'm trying my best to help them and support them as a community did with us.
  • 00:24:51
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:24:52
    Thank you, Ms.
  • 00:24:54
    Asif.
  • 00:24:54
    And to be clear for those who may not recognize, the IRC is the International Rescue Committee.
  • 00:25:00
    And so I would like to turn it over to the board for any comments that you may have.
  • 00:25:05
    Supervisor Andrews?
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 00:25:08
    Yes, thank you, and thank you, Pawasha.
  • 00:25:11
    Pawasha, welcome to all of the refugees to Charlottesville and Albemarle County.
  • 00:25:17
    I think it's very appropriate that when we are celebrating women's history, we are talking about empowering women, refugees, and immigrants.
  • 00:25:26
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 00:25:27
    Thank you.
  • 00:25:28
    Supervisor McKeel.
  • 00:25:30
    Thank you, Pawasha, for helping us understand your situation.
  • 00:25:36
    and I just really appreciate hearing the stories and I want to just thank Harriet too from the IRC and for all the work that the IRC does.
  • 00:25:45
    I've been involved off and on as I can with the IRC over many years and you all are very much a part of this community and we appreciate your work very much so thank you again.
• • SPEAKER_29
  • 00:25:57
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 00:25:59
    Supervisor Mallek.
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 00:26:01
    Thank you and glad you are here and helping others to understand all the work that you do.
  • 00:26:07
    And as someone who is descended from six different countries of refugees, not refugees, but of transplants to our country, I'm very glad that you are here.
  • 00:26:18
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:26:20
    Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 00:26:22
    Thank you very much, Palawasha.
  • 00:26:25
    And it's good to have you here.
  • 00:26:26
    I'm glad you're here.
  • 00:26:28
    And I have with our friends, I think we all know someone in the community that are helping our Afghan refugees that are coming here.
  • 00:26:38
    And we want to welcome them and we're doing everything we can to support them.
  • 00:26:43
    And just glad you're here.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:26:44
    Thank you.
  • 00:26:46
    Thank you.
  • 00:26:47
    Supervisor Galloway.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 00:26:49
    Thank you for joining us.
  • 00:26:50
    And I echo the other comments.
  • 00:26:53
    I always appreciate this proclamation coming forward, just as my grandmother was the strongest woman in my life and profound influence on me.
  • 00:27:01
    So it's always happy to do that.
  • 00:27:02
    But I think of my girls often.
  • 00:27:04
    And Delicate Hudson recently tweeted and reminded us that UVA didn't go co-ed until 1970.
  • 00:27:13
    And her point bringing that up was that a lot of men have never sat in a classroom next to women who are still in
  • 00:27:19
    leadership positions and boardrooms, et cetera.
  • 00:27:23
    So I, for one, am proud to be serving on a board with four very strong women.
  • 00:27:27
    It used to be five until Supervisor Andrews spoiled the number.
  • 00:27:32
    But the fact is that I'm always grateful when I talk to my children, especially my daughters, to say about the strong women that I serve with who are leading Albemarle County.
  • 00:27:43
    So thank you all.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:27:43
    Thank you.
  • 00:27:46
    And Ms.
  • 00:27:46
    Haas, if I share the sentiment of the other supervisors, I thank you for making it real, for sharing your story, which helps all of us in our community to remember what it's like, because basically, unless you're Native American, we were all coming from immigrants who came to this country at some point in time.
  • 00:28:06
    I also want to thank you personally for paying it forward, for taking your experience and using that to help others in our community.
  • 00:28:13
    I get goosebumps just by saying that.
  • 00:28:17
    And I appreciate also the fact that this proclamation this year was really tailored.
  • 00:28:22
    And what we don't do is simply repeat year after year with rote language what may have been used in previous years, because it is an ever-changing world.
  • 00:28:32
    and we are very touched and honored that you joined us here today and I thank you for being here.
• • SPEAKER_00
  • 00:28:38
    Thank you so much for everyone and thanks for the comments and the feedback you guys gave to me.
  • 00:28:42
    I really appreciate it and that was a great time for me as well to join this meeting.
  • 00:28:46
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:28:47
    Thank you so much.
  • 00:28:48
    Thank you.

9. Proclamation Recognizing March 16 through March 22, 2022 as the 28th Annual Festival of the Book.

Proclamation (Festival of Book)
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:28:49
    Board, we have one more proclamation in recognition today and that would be recognizing the Festival of the Book and Supervisor Galloway.
  • 00:28:58
    You are up with this one.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 00:29:03
    Let me pull the proclamation out.
  • 00:29:06
    I thought I lost in the request order for the proclamation.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:29:12
    That was an error on my part, having misplaced your original request.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 00:29:17
    I did win in the request order.
  • 00:29:21
    Very good.
  • 00:29:22
    I'm pulling that out.
  • 00:29:22
    Thank you.
  • 00:29:25
    And welcome, Jane.
  • 00:29:26
    Good to see you.
  • 00:29:29
    So this is a proclamation that I will make in the form of a motion for the Virginia Festival of the Book.
  • 00:29:34
    Whereas the County of Albemarle believes that literacy is critical to active and engaged citizenship and is committed to promoting reading, writing, and storytelling for all, both within and outside its borders.
  • 00:29:46
    And whereas reading stimulates the creative and intellectual growth of individuals while also building community through shared experiences, discourse, and understanding.
  • 00:29:56
    and whereas the 2022 Virginia Festival of the Book as a hybrid event with events presented locally and through online platforms draws attendees and attention to Albemarle County from around the globe while providing all programs but one free of charge to attendees and offering greater accessibility through closed captions, recap videos and transcripts and whereas
  • 00:30:19
    Virginia Humanities, the Virginia Center for the Book, the University of Virginia, local businesses and schools, and cultural and civic organizations collaborate with the Virginia Festival of the Book to explore the world through reading, foster empathy for the stories of others, and promote literacy for all, and now therefore be it proclaimed that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize Wednesday, March 16th, through Sunday, March 20th, 2022, as the 28th annual Virginia Festival of the Book,
  • 00:30:50
    and encourage community members to participate fully in the wide range of available programs and activities.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:30:58
    We have a motion, is there a second?
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 00:31:00
    Second.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:31:02
    Alright Board, we have a motion and a second if the Clerk will call the roll.
  • 00:31:06
    Ms.
  • 00:31:06
    McKeel?
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 00:31:07
    Aye.
  • 00:31:08
    Ms.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:31:08
    Mallek?
  • 00:31:10
    Yes.
  • 00:31:11
    Ms.
  • 00:31:11
    McKeel?
  • 00:31:12
    Yes.
  • 00:31:13
    Ms.
  • 00:31:13
    Price?
  • 00:31:14
    Aye.
  • 00:31:14
    Ms.
  • 00:31:14
    Andrews?
  • 00:31:16
    Yes.
  • 00:31:19
    Yes.
  • 00:31:19
    All right.
  • 00:31:21
    Thank you.
  • 00:31:22
    Ms.
  • 00:31:22
    Culo, welcome.
  • 00:31:24
    We would like to turn the floor over to you for any remarks that you may have.
• • SPEAKER_38
  • 00:31:29
    Thank you.
  • 00:31:30
    Thank you for that proclamation.
  • 00:31:32
    We are thrilled to present our first ever hybrid 2022 Virginia Festival of the Book and our 28th annual festival.
  • 00:31:40
    We greatly appreciate the support of Albemarle County, and we invite everyone to participate this March.
  • 00:31:46
    In order to provide safe access for all, we've listed COVID policies according to each in-person venue, so we encourage everyone to check the precautions listed for each event at vabook.org.
  • 00:32:00
    Meeting people where they are, the 2022 Festival presents 75 events, 74 of which are free, offering access to books in all genres for all ages.
  • 00:32:14
    Each of these events allows you to hear directly from the author, however anyone wishes to participate, and we are thrilled to once again welcome attendees from elsewhere to visit our community for this festival.
  • 00:32:28
    Again, we appreciate your support.
  • 00:32:31
    I'm happy to answer any questions you may have, and I hope to see you at the festival.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:32:35
    Thank you, Ms.
  • 00:32:36
    Couleau.
  • 00:32:37
    Board, I know we all have comments to make.
  • 00:32:39
    Supervisor Andrews?
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 00:32:41
    Oh, hi, hi, Jane.
  • 00:32:44
    The records show that even though it seems like we all are very agreeable, that I was one of the ones who wanted to read this resolution as well.
  • 00:32:53
    So there was a fight over this one.
  • 00:32:54
    So I very much appreciate it.
  • 00:32:57
    You know that we're big personal supporters of the festival, have loved reading for it in the past and wish you well this year.
  • 00:33:07
    And I think this new format is going to be great.
  • 00:33:09
    So thank you.
  • 00:33:10
    Thank you very much for doing it.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 00:33:19
    Jane, it's lovely to see you.
  • 00:33:22
    And after all we've gone through over the last two years with the pandemic and the shutdowns, one of the good things that came out of it was the ability to have this hybrid model
  • 00:33:35
    where we can invite people from all over the world to enjoy the festival with us.
  • 00:33:42
    So that's a real something that in this day, when we have a lot that is not so happy going on, this is at least one happy piece that we can celebrate with you.
  • 00:33:53
    And I look forward to seeing the schedule and the list and everything.
  • 00:33:56
    So thank you very much.
  • 00:33:57
    And your backdrop is great.
  • 00:34:03
    Thank you, Supervisor Mallek.
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 00:34:06
    Thank you very much.
  • 00:34:07
    As another loser to the reading contest to be able to read the festival, I greet you, Jane, and look forward to perhaps another year when you get your advisory group together again, because that was always something that I found very meaningful to do.
  • 00:34:20
    Our community has been a bookish community forever, and some of the statistics that surprised me were we had the highest ratio of bookstores to population anywhere in the country a few years ago, and I hope it's still the case.
  • 00:34:35
    We have book programs like the Dolly Parton Book Program that gets books into the hands of children throughout the Commonwealth and is very heavily supported here in the community.
  • 00:34:45
    But this festival has been something that just rocks our world every year and I'm also very grateful for the hybrid because I could never get to the things that I wanted to go to in the past.
  • 00:34:58
    Except for maybe one of the ten.
  • 00:35:00
    So to have the ability to listen to a recording later or to be in two places at once is really, really wonderful.
  • 00:35:07
    The author visits to schools have been so spectacular over the years and hopefully
  • 00:35:14
    those will be able to continue as things evolve but just the people the children have met and being able to engage with them crowded around on the floor listening to someone tell about the process of writing their book or how they did their their artwork in the book and that kind of thing has been really meaningful for the children and the teachers who happen to be able to be there at the same time so thank you and good luck and hopefully the attendance will knock your socks off
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:35:42
    Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 00:35:47
    Thank you very much, Ms.
  • 00:35:49
    Culo.
  • 00:35:49
    And once again, I think the hybrid approach is really, really good.
  • 00:35:54
    I echo what the other supervisors had said.
  • 00:35:57
    Best of luck to you.
  • 00:35:58
    And I really enjoyed it when it was only in person, but that's OK.
  • 00:36:03
    The hybrid approach means we're moving forward and more people can participate.
  • 00:36:09
    So I like that.
  • 00:36:10
    Thank you very much.
  • 00:36:11
    Good luck to you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:36:12
    Thank you, Supervisor Galloway, the winner of the lottery for the resolution.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 00:36:18
    I won't brag about it.
  • 00:36:21
    Always good to see you, Jane, and I think we all agree that the Virginia Festival of the Book is in great hands with you at the helm.
  • 00:36:29
    But I too want to commend everybody for taking this to the hybrid version.
  • 00:36:34
    The last couple of years, I think a lot of us have
  • 00:36:37
    I think
  • 00:36:51
    But turn it into an advantage to expand the participation is phenomenal.
  • 00:36:55
    So I know that that'll be a piece that will just live on as on an annual basis.
  • 00:37:00
    There's no going back to the norm.
  • 00:37:01
    This will be your new norm, I suspect.
  • 00:37:03
    So that's wonderful.
  • 00:37:05
    So congratulations on that and look forward to Echo Supervisor Malek's comments.
  • 00:37:10
    The ability to go back and listen to some recording ones really helps when you can't attend things in person.
  • 00:37:16
    So I'm grateful for that.
  • 00:37:17
    Thank you very much.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:37:29
    Unstrating the Interest by this board in the Festival of the Book.
  • 00:37:34
    I was also going to comment on your background, how appropriate it was, and it's actual and not virtual, which of course is very important.
  • 00:37:40
    You know, we have a bounty of blessings in Albemarle County, and the Festival of the Book is one of those many blessings that we have.
  • 00:37:49
    I think we all recognize the importance of reading over the last couple of years as we have had closed schools and virtual learning, and particularly for those young learners,
  • 00:37:58
    The challenges that they faced in improving their reading skills.
  • 00:38:02
    So what the work you do is so important to encourage reading at all levels.
  • 00:38:07
    And we all thank you for being here today.
• • SPEAKER_38
  • 00:38:10
    I thank you all.
  • 00:38:13
    I will tell you this is the toughest time in our preparations for the festival as we're two weeks out and your words, your support, your enthusiasm are all wonderful to hear.
  • 00:38:27
    So I thank you and I look forward to seeing you all soon.
  • 00:38:31
    Thanks.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:38:32
    Bye bye.
  • 00:38:32
    Thank you.
  • 00:38:34
    And I didn't have an opportunity earlier while she was on the screen, but I want to thank Dr. Bentifrede for the work that she does continually in her office to ensure that we actually put into practice equity, inclusion, and diversity in these proclamations.
  • 00:38:50
    So Dr. Bentifrede, I apologize for not catching you before you signed off.
  • 00:38:55
    All right board, we'll move to item number seven from the public.

10. 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.

• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:38:59
    And I understand we do have two signups.
  • 00:39:02
    So I'll turn it over to Vice Chair LaPisto-Kirtley to read the procedural rules.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 00:39:10
    During the time set aside for matters not listed for public hearing on the agenda, individuals may address the Board of Supervisors concerning matters previously considered by the Board or matters that are pending before the Board, other than items listed on the agenda for public hearing.
  • 00:39:28
    Individuals are allowed three minutes to speak.
  • 00:39:30
    A sign-up sheet is managed by the Clerk's Office.
  • 00:39:34
    Timekeeping is conducted through a timer.
  • 00:39:37
    The timer will commence when you begin speaking and this begins your allotted time.
  • 00:39:41
    You will be notified when the three minutes are up and you are requested to bring your comments to a close as your microphone will be muted after about five more seconds.
  • 00:39:51
    In order to give all speakers equal treatment and courtesy, the board requests that speakers adhere to the following guidelines.
  • 00:39:59
    When called to address the board, please state your name and if you live in Albemarle County, your magisterial district.
  • 00:40:06
    Address comments directly to the board as a whole.
  • 00:40:09
    If you have written statements and other supporting material, you may email them to the clerk to be included in the record.
  • 00:40:16
    If you represent a group or organization, you may identify the group to be recognized.
  • 00:40:22
    If you exceed your allotted time, you will be asked to end your comments and the microphone will be muted.
  • 00:40:28
    If a speaker does not use all allocated time, the unused time may not be shared with another speaker.
  • 00:40:34
    Speakers are permitted one opportunity to comment during each of the public comment periods permitting.
  • 00:40:41
    Back and forth debate is not permitted.
  • 00:40:44
    You are reminded that all comments are live streamed, recorded, and published on the Albemarle County website.
  • 00:40:52
    If participating by phone, please press star 9 to let us know you want to speak.
  • 00:40:58
    Then star 6 if from a landline to unmute.
  • 00:41:02
    If by Zoom, please remain muted until you are called to speak.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:41:08
    Thank you.
  • 00:41:08
    The clerk will identify our first speaker.
• • SPEAKER_14
  • 00:41:12
    Our first speaker is Patricia Cochran.
• • SPEAKER_29
  • 00:41:15
    Thank you.
  • 00:41:18
    Go ahead, please.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:41:21
    Thank you, Board of Supervisors.
  • 00:41:23
    My name is Patricia Cochran.
  • 00:41:24
    I am the current president of the League of Women Voters of the Greater Charlottesville area, and I presently reside in the Samuel, I just blank, Miller District.
  • 00:41:36
    Thank you.
  • 00:41:38
    After a year of review of the Albemarle County 2015 Comprehensive Plan, the League of Women Voters of the Charlottesville area would like to offer a suggestion for the upcoming update to the County Comprehensive Plan.
  • 00:41:55
    In order to be viewed through the lens of climate action, the growth management section of the comprehensive plan first needs to indicate which aspects of land use contribute to climate change.
  • 00:42:09
    Chapters of the plan that relate to increasing greenhouse gas emissions should be identified as having growth that must be managed.
  • 00:42:19
    The policy should say how that should be done.
  • 00:42:23
    It was reported on page five of the summary for policymakers in the IPCC
  • 00:42:32
    2014 report that globally, economic and population growth continue to be the most important drivers of increases in CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion.
  • 00:42:45
    And the contribution of population growth between 2000 and 2010 remain roughly identical to the previous three decades, while the contribution of economic growth has risen sharply.
  • 00:42:59
    So locally,
  • 00:43:01
    We should be aware of economic growth as a driver of the growth of fossil fuel use.
  • 00:43:09
    As they relate to climate action, the chapters in the comprehensive plan can be divided into two categories.
  • 00:43:16
    Those that generate greenhouse gases and those that are carbon sinks.
  • 00:43:22
    Those that generate greenhouse gases are all related to economic growth.
  • 00:43:27
    They are economic development, the development areas, housing, transportation, and community facilities.
  • 00:43:35
    The four other chapters are carbon sinks.
  • 00:43:39
    They are natural resources, historic, cultural, and scenic resources, the rural area, parks and recreation, greenways, blue ways, and green systems.
  • 00:43:53
    Land uses that act as carbon sinks must be preserved and protected to mitigate global warming and therefore climate change.
  • 00:44:05
    The greenhouse gas emitters should at the very least be developed so that they are carbon neutral.
  • 00:44:12
    Their growth must be managed so that if they grow, they will not contribute to an increase in greenhouse gases Conversely, the land uses that act as carbon sinks must be preserved and protected We suggest that accurate data be available that shows the effect of various activities on greenhouse gas emissions and on supporting resilience
  • 00:44:42
    These data should be used to achieve carbon neutrality in plans and designs that are submitted to the county supervisors for permitting.
  • 00:44:53
    And I thank you for allowing me to share this suggestion.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:44:59
    Thank you.
  • 00:45:00
    Our next speaker.
• • SPEAKER_14
  • 00:45:04
    Next speaker is Kent Schnuschel.
• • SPEAKER_27
  • 00:45:09
    Good afternoon.
• • SPEAKER_19
  • 00:45:12
    Thank you.
  • 00:45:13
    My name is Kent Slush and I live in the Raleigh District.
  • 00:45:16
    I've been a resident of Albemarle County since 1977.
  • 00:45:19
    I've paid taxes to this county every year.
  • 00:45:21
    I've served in the United States Air Force for 29 years, both on active duty and a very active reserve organization.
  • 00:45:29
    I've taught both undergraduate classes and graduate classes.
  • 00:45:32
    I've sat on dissertation committee examinations, master's degrees, and advised many students.
  • 00:45:38
    I've never asked a question like the county staff asked me this morning.
  • 00:45:42
    I'm currently teaching a master level course for Rowan University called Engineering Ethics and Law.
  • 00:45:49
    I have supervised and hired hundreds of people.
  • 00:45:53
    In my last full time job before retirement, I supervised about 300 people.
  • 00:45:57
    I accepted people for who they are.
  • 00:46:00
    I encourage all to use their talents.
  • 00:46:03
    I've always based my personal, my personnel decisions on character or qualifications.
  • 00:46:09
    Never, I do mean never,
  • 00:46:12
    Have I been asked a question like I was asked by the county staff this morning?
  • 00:46:15
    Nor have I ever asked an employee a question like the county staff asked.
  • 00:46:21
    I was awarded the Equal Employment Opportunity Award about the Intelligence and Security Command of the U.S.
  • 00:46:27
    Army for my actions in 1999.
  • 00:46:29
    The command had over 26,000 employees at the time.
  • 00:46:34
    There was only one EEO award.
  • 00:46:37
    I'm quite sure I must have treated everyone fairly.
  • 00:46:41
    I applied to be on the AC44 working group to help the county develop its comprehensive plan.
  • 00:46:47
    I filled out the application and submitted it.
  • 00:46:49
    This morning, I received an email from the county staff asking me what my sexual orientation is and if I had disability.
  • 00:46:58
    I could opt out and not answer those questions and I'm fairly sure that my application would not
  • 00:47:03
    Be considered.
  • 00:47:04
    First, is no one business what my sexual orientation might be?
  • 00:47:09
    Especially the county government has no business asking.
  • 00:47:12
    Second, I believe this is a discriminatory action.
  • 00:47:16
    Third, is the county saying that if I do not have the correct sexual orientation, I should not apply?
  • 00:47:22
    All humans have some type of disability.
  • 00:47:25
    I've never looked at a person and said, you are disabled.
  • 00:47:28
    I've always looked at another person and asked myself, what abilities does this person have?
  • 00:47:34
    How can this person contribute to the mission?
  • 00:47:37
    I happen to actually have a disability going to the Veterans Administration, and that has never stopped me from using my abilities, as I've never used that as a factor if I could do the job or not.
  • 00:47:48
    Has the county gone so far out that they need to know everyone's sexual orientation and disability status?
  • 00:47:55
    This is nothing more than Big Brother watching you.
  • 00:47:58
    And based on my ethics training and responses from my graduate students on similar discussion questions, this would be considered unethical.
  • 00:48:07
    According to the federal law, just asking the question is illegal.
  • 00:48:12
    Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
  • 00:48:14
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_14
  • 00:48:23
    All right, thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:48:26
    Board, we will close this item and move to item number eight, the consent agenda.

11. Consent Agenda (on next sheet)

• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:48:35
    I've not heard from any supervisor a desire to pull anything from the consent agenda, so in the absence of such a request, we'd ask that there's a motion to adopt the consent agenda as presented.
• • SPEAKER_14
  • 00:48:48
    So moved.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:48:55
    Mr. Bea LaPisto-Kirtley?
  • 00:48:57
    Aye.
  • 00:48:58
    Ms.
  • 00:48:58
    Mallek?
  • 00:48:59
    Yes.
  • 00:49:00
    Ms.
  • 00:49:00
    McKeel?
  • 00:49:01
    Yes.
  • 00:49:02
    Ms.
  • 00:49:02
    Price?
  • 00:49:04
    Aye.
  • 00:49:04
    Mr. Andrews?
  • 00:49:06
    Yes.
  • 00:49:07
    Mr. Mallek?
  • 00:49:08
    Yes.

12. COVID-19 Update and Reconstitution.

• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:49:10
    Thank you, Board.
  • 00:49:12
    We will now move to item number nine, a work session.
  • 00:49:19
    And this will be a COVID-19 update and reconstitution.
  • 00:49:22
    And I believe Mr. Henry, our Assistant County Executive, you have the lead on this.
• • SPEAKER_22
  • 00:49:30
    Yes, thanks, Chair Price.
  • 00:49:31
    I'm members of the board, Trevor Henry, Assistant County Executive.
  • 00:49:34
    We're going to tag team this work session, myself along with Emily Kilroy, who's, I believe, pulling up PowerPoint now, along with Doug Walker.
  • 00:49:45
    We're going to provide a bit of a just update on COVID numbers in our region, you know, kind of common practice in our reporting throughout the pandemic.
  • 00:49:57
    And it also helps tee up the conversation for recommendations around our return to in-person hybrid meetings.
  • 00:50:04
    So Emily Kilroy actually will lead us through that here in a minute or two.
  • 00:50:10
    She also will brief the board.
  • 00:50:11
    CDC made a change in how they're assessing areas related to recommendations on masking and that change came out late Friday, Friday afternoon.
  • 00:50:23
    She'll walk us through that at a high level kind of what that guidance is and then how we're interpreting that as a locality and an employer.
  • 00:50:33
    Mr. Walker will walk through some policy change recommendations as it relates to ending the local emergency, and along with that, a return to in-person public hybrid meetings for three meetings.
  • 00:50:50
    One will be the Board of Supervisors, one Planning Commission, and a third will be the School Board, initially.
  • 00:50:57
    This ties back to our work session we had in the beginning of February.
  • 00:51:00
    And then finally, I'll talk through some of the logistics around the auditorium for the execution of those meetings.
  • 00:51:08
    And then we'll open up for board discussion and board questions on any of the above.
  • 00:51:16
    And so if you can bear with us, we have just a handful of slides.
  • 00:51:19
    I think we'll move through this at a pace.
  • 00:51:21
    And we'll leave plenty of time for word of discussion, questions, interaction at the end.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:51:28
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_22
  • 00:51:29
    Ms.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 00:51:29
    Kilroy.
  • 00:51:30
    And I see Ms.
  • 00:51:31
    Kilroy has the slide presentation up.
• • SPEAKER_35
  • 00:51:34
    Thank you.
  • 00:51:34
    Thank you all for having us here this afternoon.
  • 00:51:37
    I'm going to go through some of the COVID metrics and some of the changes that have happened that were published by the CDC on Friday afternoon.
  • 00:51:47
    This chart here is a look at the data statewide.
  • 00:51:53
    So this is a summation of all of the weekly cases over the past 13 weeks.
  • 00:52:00
    And you can see as of the week of February 17th, we are back below where we were at the end of November when you look at the statewide daily case data.
  • 00:52:09
    This is zooming into the Blue Ridge Health District, and you can see again here after a very significant spike in cases due to the Omicron surge, we are now at the end of February back to where we were in late November.
  • 00:52:22
    And our new daily cases reported for several weeks have been in the triple digits, and we're back down to two digits, which is also good news.
  • 00:52:34
    And then this is just a zoom into Albemarle.
  • 00:52:36
    And you can see while there is still some daily fluctuation, there is a definite downward trend, a rapid downward trend in cases as we come off that surge that we experienced in the beginning of the winter.
  • 00:52:49
    The UVA model is a model that we look at to look forward.
  • 00:52:57
    So it helps us understand the direction of new daily cases as well as the magnitude.
  • 00:53:03
    and you can see they continue to project out of the Biocomplexity Institute that we are past the surge from Omicron that they believe that we peaked the week of January 30th with about 2100 cases.
  • 00:53:16
    And that downward trend is expected to sustain through the end of April.
  • 00:53:23
    This is a snapshot of, zoomed into Virginia, of a national chart or national map that the CDC has been putting out for several months.
  • 00:53:32
    And it's been called the CDC Community Transmission Map.
  • 00:53:37
    And red, you know, green, down through yellow or up to red for severity of community transmission.
  • 00:53:46
    And as the CDC has learned more about
  • 00:53:51
    How to predict the transmission of the disease.
  • 00:53:54
    They've come to understand that this map is more reflective of where we've been in recent times and not so much about where we're headed.
  • 00:54:01
    And so last week on Friday afternoon, they released a new community levels map, which I'll talk about in just a minute here.
  • 00:54:10
    But most counties across the country have been red on this transmission map for the past several months.
  • 00:54:17
    And the shift with this new approach with the community levels has done something different.
  • 00:54:27
    And we'll look at that in just a minute.
  • 00:54:30
    First, a little bit about how this new community levels guidance works.
  • 00:54:36
    There's three things that go into the
  • 00:54:42
    which color you are low, medium, or high, green, yellow, or red.
  • 00:54:45
    The first is how many cases over the past seven days has your community had per 100,000 population?
  • 00:54:51
    and so the answer to that question higher or lower than 200 sets you into a lane here on this chart for how those other indicators are rated, what the benchmarks for those are.
  • 00:55:03
    So it's new cases per 100,000 over the past seven days and then new COVID admissions to hospitals per 100,000 population and the percent of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients.
  • 00:55:18
    This data is updated weekly by the CDC, so we have the first set of data and we expect at the end of the week to get the next look at the data.
  • 00:55:29
    This is what Virginia looks like right now.
  • 00:55:32
    Again, this is just the first week of this new map approach.
  • 00:55:37
    70% of the United States population lives in a county where the shading is yellow or green.
  • 00:55:44
    And I'll talk about what that means in a second.
  • 00:55:46
    But please note that Albemarle is red in this map as well.
  • 00:55:55
    What the colors mean has to do with individual household behaviors and also community-level prevention strategies that the CDC is recommending.
  • 00:56:03
    And so it's a much larger table if you look that up on their website, but just a couple of examples that we pulled into this chart here just to sort of highlight what the difference between those three low, medium, and high levels looks like.
  • 00:56:18
    If you're in a red county,
  • 00:56:22
    sort of the number one individual household behavior is to wear a mask in public when you're in indoor settings and also to really a high emphasis on vaccine and boosters.
  • 00:56:35
    The data for Albemarle that's sort of driving the red designation that we presently find the community in is really from that first gate, the cases over the past seven days per 100,000 population.
  • 00:56:46
    At the time that the map was published, the county had 292.5 cases per 100,000, and that puts us sort of in that lower lane.
  • 00:56:57
    And then when they also added in where we are with COVID-19 admissions,
  • 00:57:02
    and staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID patients that kept us in the red.
  • 00:57:09
    And so we'll be looking at this community levels data moving forward to help inform some of the building postures and operating postures of the county.
  • 00:57:19
    And I'll turn it over to Doug Walker and then Trevor Henry to talk a little bit more about what that looks like.
• • SPEAKER_18
  • 00:57:26
    Thank you, Emily, Chair Price, members of the board, Doug Walker, Deputy County Executive.
  • 00:57:31
    I have two slides here to work through related to the policy and the work of the board.
  • 00:57:36
    Next slide, please.
  • 00:57:38
    So just first acknowledging where we are now two years later, where the local emergency declaration was made in March of 2020.
  • 00:57:45
    And it is that local emergency which set in motion a lot of the policy work and executive work that has occurred over the last two years.
  • 00:57:56
    And so where we are currently is a position to recommend ending that local emergency now two years later,
  • 00:58:05
    with a resolution that the board would be asked to consider and if adopted on March the 16th, which is your next regular board meeting, would be effective on April the 4th.
  • 00:58:17
    The local emergency has allowed the county a number of advantages in addressing timely issues related to mitigating the spread of the COVID virus during the emergency.
  • 00:58:31
    We now believe that those advantages no longer are needed.
  • 00:58:36
    and that we are in the process of returning to a more normal operation.
  • 00:58:41
    So again, the effective April 4th means that this puts the board in position to have its return to in-person meetings at your first meeting in April, which is April the 6th.
  • 00:58:53
    I do want to point out that the continuity of government operations ordinance, which is also in effect, would stay in effect.
  • 00:59:01
    This is the ability for the county
  • 00:59:05
    to have a deceleration lane in transition with respect to allowing some board committees to remain in a virtual position as we can roll this out over as much as a 12 month period.
  • 00:59:23
    Next slide, please.
  • 00:59:28
    So not to get into the tiers, but so much today, but acknowledging that we do have them
  • 00:59:33
    and that they are intended to kind of help staff and these boards make that transition back to in-person meetings.
  • 00:59:39
    Tier one is what I've just referenced, which would be effective April 4th.
  • 00:59:46
    With the first meeting being April 6th of the Board of Supervisors, the Planning Commission meets the following week and a school board, their first meeting would be on April the 14th as currently scheduled.
  • 00:59:58
    These will be the only
  • 00:59:59
    Public bodies in Tier 1 who would be affected by this return to in-person meetings.
  • 01:00:05
    These are hybrid, and we've had a lot of conversations around what hybrid means in the context of this return to in-person meetings.
  • 01:00:14
    Just reflecting the Tier 2 and the Tier 3, not for discussion today, but again, just recognizing that there will be future work about the best time for
  • 01:00:27
    for bringing those public bodies back into the required in-person status.
  • 01:00:33
    That's what I have and I believe now back to Trevor Henry.
  • 01:00:37
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_22
  • 01:00:39
    Thanks Doug, appreciate that.
  • 01:00:41
    Just a couple more slides, really moving on to the logistics and operations side.
  • 01:00:46
    This is a reminder to the board and the public on what our auditorium looks like.
  • 01:00:52
    This would reflect, you know, upgrades that we've made through the pandemic to enhance our audio-visual capability and as it relates to our ability to manage
  • 01:01:07
    this what we're calling a hybrid in-person meeting.
  • 01:01:11
    It's worth noting that we both invested in the technology and worked through kind of the tiering process of which we had a work session on a month ago that the three meetings that were identified as part of the top tier really are the highest production level meetings.
  • 01:01:31
    And we've designed this in a way that provides
  • 01:01:37
    Really an equity of experience between a person that is in a seat physically or at a podium physically or the same level of experience and quality that a person would have presenting virtually or attending virtually.
  • 01:01:53
    And so that has been the effort of staff.
  • 01:01:56
    And I think when the board does come back in for a dry run and practice and then experiences in real time,
  • 01:02:04
    I'll be pleased with those technology upgrades.
  • 01:02:07
    Next slide.
  • 01:02:10
    This is a bird's eye view of the auditorium.
  • 01:02:17
    Emily mentioned this at the beginning, and I just wanted to touch on it here.
  • 01:02:23
    As of today, we still have a masking policy in place as part of our building posture, and this recommendation
  • 01:02:32
    is built such that, you know, it's assuming that it'll be masking in place currently, but we will continue to monitor the CDC guidance on a weekly basis as our, you know, if and when our areas change, you know, what we're looking at is really a two-week to be in steady state of either a yellow or green before we would make any recommendation the county executive would change our building posture related to masking.
  • 01:02:59
    And we're also watching
  • 01:03:02
    at the state level, the Department of Labor and Industry is making some, providing some guidance of, we believe, mid-March around masking recommendations for employers.
  • 01:03:13
    So really, we're looking at both of those.
  • 01:03:17
    So kind of with that as a backdrop, what we're proposing is, you know, kind of splitting the auditorium until, we'll start with the auditorium.
  • 01:03:26
    kind of splitting that into two sections.
  • 01:03:28
    Right now we have seat covers in and we have distance on both sides, approximately six feet between open seats.
  • 01:03:38
    What we're proposing for the return to in-person is really to lift that restriction on one side of the aisle, one side of the auditorium would create a capacity
  • 01:03:55
    of nearly 170 seats on the one side.
  • 01:03:59
    The other side we intend to keep in a distance seating arrangement, which gives some options and flexibilities to both staff and to the personnel, to the public that will be coming in.
  • 01:04:15
    It gives them some ability to decide where they want to sit.
  • 01:04:18
    It also helps with families that want to sit together, et cetera.
  • 01:04:23
    This is the recommendation to really try to split the difference in folks' comfort level as it relates to being in proximity to others.
  • 01:04:36
    So total capacity in this model for the auditorium would get us to 200.
  • 01:04:43
    That does not include the upper deck, which would be another 180 with no sea restrictions.
  • 01:04:49
    But we really reserve that and have only actually used that
  • 01:04:53
    a handful of times in over a decade of my experience of in-person meetings.
  • 01:05:01
    Talk a little bit about security.
  • 01:05:03
    We will continue to have our security slash ambassador
  • 01:05:09
    at the front visitor's entrance.
  • 01:05:12
    That position will be staffed through the evenings when there are public meetings in the building.
  • 01:05:18
    We started that work in 2019.
  • 01:05:21
    Before the pandemic, that work continues.
  • 01:05:24
    So that will help with directing, traffic control, masking if still required.
  • 01:05:30
    That's the first checkpoint.
  • 01:05:33
    And then on this diagram to the right, you'll notice in the middle entrance we have
  • 01:05:38
    figures in green, that really is suggesting we have one or two staff, either county staff or contracted through a vendor to help support the logistics of the room.
  • 01:05:53
    And then we will also have ACPD supporting our board meeting as we had prior to the pandemic for just overall security support.
  • 01:06:07
    and we'll have two or three officers to be part of that process.
  • 01:06:11
    So those are the kind of the logistics side.
  • 01:06:15
    I'm ending with the very top of the screen, which is the dais and then the supporting stations that
  • 01:06:22
    that are traditionally the clerks' desks and then where Doug, the deputy county executive and I have sat and security officer have sat previously.
  • 01:06:33
    What we're suggesting is that we adjust the seating at least from the beginning as we implement this and then we can keep an eye on how it goes and
  • 01:06:46
    what our masking requirements will be, but that we would just position the six board members around the dais to optimize the ability to spread out and provide distancing at the dais.
  • 01:06:59
    Upper left we're suggesting that's the location of the county executive and the county attorney.
  • 01:07:07
    It's a three-station desk.
  • 01:07:08
    We would spread that apart for just two.
  • 01:07:11
    And then upper right, it would be creating a little bit of distance in that desk arrangement for the two board clerks that support the meeting.
  • 01:07:20
    And last thing, which I think will be very important for the board, that I probably didn't mention, is assuming that we're still in a mass state for the building, again, that may change, but assuming that that's how we would enter the fourth,
  • 01:07:35
    We are suggesting that when a board member would speak or someone from the public coming to the podium, they would remove their mask to be able to best be heard by the audience in the room, by the colleagues around the dais, by those that are on the Zoom technology.
  • 01:07:58
    And so we are suggesting that as part of the recommendation.
  • 01:08:02
    again, with an assumption that we're still in a mass state based on CDC and DALI guidance.
  • 01:08:10
    We can come back to the slide.
  • 01:08:12
    I imagine the board will want to walk through some of these logistics, but I believe there's one more slide I wanted to just hit on.
  • 01:08:18
    Next slide, please.
  • 01:08:22
    In addition to audio visual upgrades, we've made improvements
  • 01:08:28
    through multiple county buildings for our HVAC systems for our air handlers and specific to improving air quality.
  • 01:08:38
    This is just some engineering data, but the auditorium is one of the best spaces we have for circulation of air through our HVAC system and with the improved ionization process of our air handlers to remove
  • 01:08:55
    Bad Particles.
  • 01:08:57
    And I think we have stories on the call, as is Roderick Burton, to answer any technical questions as it relates to AV or the technical side of the logistics.
  • 01:09:09
    I want to just note that we have made these improvements, not just in the auditorium, but throughout our buildings.
  • 01:09:16
    But I wanted to highlight it here for an additional sense of assurance.
  • 01:09:22
    Next slide.
  • 01:09:23
    And this is our last, which is a kind of a recap, continuing the local emergency where a recommendation would be made through consent action next next board meeting for an effective date to end it on April the 4th.
  • 01:09:40
    And then the first in-person meeting would be April the 6th.
  • 01:09:44
    We would
  • 01:09:45
    continue the continuity of government operation in place for 12 months.
  • 01:09:49
    That allows us to really kind of pace this first step back into the buildings.
  • 01:09:57
    It would give us time to learn, to assess, to get ready for the next year of in-person meetings, which we're suggesting would not be earlier than June.
  • 01:10:07
    And then finally, it would give us time to then transition the remaining set of meetings back to in-person.
  • 01:10:16
    The dates are below.
  • 01:10:18
    From a building posture perspective, we will continue to monitor weekly the updates out of the CDC and the state, and when we are in an appropriate category at a stable state, we'll likely be recommending the County Exec a change in posture related to masking, going to a more optional
  • 01:10:40
    That is the last slide, and I'm going to mute myself and give time for the board to ask questions of the county exec office on board here for the call, as well as Roderick Burton and Lance Stewart.
  • 01:10:53
    Thanks for your time and interest in this today.
  • 01:10:56
    Appreciate it.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 01:10:57
    Thank you, Mr. Henry.
  • 01:10:59
    Supervisors will go around.
  • 01:11:01
    Supervisor Andrews?
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 01:11:04
    Yes, thank you for this.
  • 01:11:07
    It's disappointing to hear we're still in the red here, but I do appreciate the effort to get us back in person.
  • 01:11:15
    I think it's an important step.
  • 01:11:18
    I want to ask just to clarify whether the
  • 01:11:25
    Operations in the building what status they will be on status are they currently I should I should just to clarify how the decision to have the boards come back in a hybrid setting compared to the operations generally I understand where we are with masks I think it's good that we can accommodate having the speakers not
  • 01:11:50
    have to wear a mask while speaking and that goes a long way to my earlier concern about being up there and having to speak through a mask the entire time though I know that that's been part of what people have had to go through so it's complicated and I really appreciate work on this.
  • 01:12:08
    might be awkward in places, but I'm happy to be going back to look forward to going back in person.
  • 01:12:16
    So with that question, I have no other comments at this point.
• • SPEAKER_22
  • 01:12:21
    Chair Price, I can answer that.
  • 01:12:23
    If I understand the question, Mr. Andrews, it's our current operating state.
  • 01:12:28
    We still have a masking requirement for all employees and public to come into our building
  • 01:12:35
    We have a playbook that has been part of our, it's our term of kind of the rules of the road of how we're managing our operations as relates to COVID, you know, two years now.
  • 01:12:47
    And that defines all of the requirements.
  • 01:12:50
    But as it relates to masking, that is a current requirement for both public and for staff.
  • 01:12:55
    There are some adjustments to that.
  • 01:12:57
    Obviously, I'm sitting in my own office, my door's locked.
  • 01:13:02
    The policy allows us to remove our masks in that setting, as you are in a conference room.
  • 01:13:09
    But for public in common space, staff in common space, where you can't maintain separation
  • 01:13:16
    masks are required.
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 01:13:19
    I guess my question was, I understand the mask policy.
  • 01:13:22
    I just wanted to clarify whether there were any other current restrictions on the public access to the building due to pendant.
• • SPEAKER_22
  • 01:13:32
    I will go off the top of my head.
  • 01:13:34
    I will say no other restrictions, and I would ask Doug and Emily to chime in if I'm misstating it.
  • 01:13:42
    We still have our community development intake office scheduled on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday routine, so there still is
  • 01:13:52
    you know, some restrictions around that.
  • 01:13:55
    That has as much to do with staffing as anything, I believe.
  • 01:13:58
    But beyond that, no, sir, not that I'm aware of.
  • 01:14:02
    I'll also say, Doug, one more thing.
  • 01:14:06
    We still have not allowed any in-person outside entities to come in for meetings or training.
  • 01:14:13
    So that is a continued restriction.
  • 01:14:15
    That's something that we'll look at, you know, if the board
  • 01:14:19
    That's fine.
  • 01:14:23
    That's obviously directly relevant.
• • SPEAKER_18
  • 01:14:32
    Just to add that we do not have any restrictions to our operating posture in terms of delivering programs and services out of any of our public buildings.
  • 01:14:40
    And so we are effectively full service.
  • 01:14:44
    Trevor mentioned the Monday, Wednesday, Friday posture and community development.
  • 01:14:50
    We have limited capacity in our conference rooms.
  • 01:14:54
    Again, not for outside groups.
  • 01:14:55
    Trevor mentioned, you know, we're not hosting at this point, but for staff meetings, that would be the other thing that we're trying to maintain six feet of physical separation, even with the masking.
  • 01:15:08
    Those would be the other thing that I would add in terms of, you know, how we affected posture in the building.
  • 01:15:15
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 01:15:17
    Supervisor McKeel.
  • 01:15:20
    Thank you.
  • 01:15:20
    I really appreciate the thoughtfulness that you all are working through a process of coming back in person and trying to maintain safety for everybody with options.
  • 01:15:34
    I guess I have a couple of questions.
  • 01:15:37
    The first one is just that I've noticed over the last few months that in order to come in our back door, and I'm not really sure what has happened at the front door, the public door, the temperature monitor went back up.
  • 01:15:55
    And I'm just questioning, maybe Trevor, if you can address that.
  • 01:16:00
    Is that going to go away or will the public need to check their temperature as they're coming in?
  • 01:16:04
    Just because it is there right now, unless it disappeared today.
• • SPEAKER_22
  • 01:16:10
    Supervisor McKeel, I can answer that directly.
  • 01:16:13
    When the Omicron variant started ramping up, we brought those back out of storage, put them in entrances throughout our county office buildings, and it was purely for an optional temperature check for both staff and the public.
  • 01:16:30
    We haven't specifically talked about that, but it certainly doesn't hurt to have those in place.
  • 01:16:35
    But again, it has been more of an optional tool for those that may want to check their temperature coming in.
  • 01:16:45
    And it really was driven by the surge in December and January.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 01:16:51
    Okay, thank you.
  • 01:16:52
    And assuming that the mask mandate stays in place as we're opening up, we would be providing masks for folks if they happen to show up without a mask.
  • 01:17:04
    How would that work?
• • SPEAKER_22
  • 01:17:08
    Yes, ma'am, we do that currently and we have inventory that would be provided.
  • 01:17:13
    Again, assuming we're still in that state, we would have that as an available resource at the front desk and then likely we would have extras up in the auditorium area.
  • 01:17:25
    And even if between now and April 6th we change our building posture, we would still have
  • 01:17:31
    inventory available in the event that a person from the public or staff forgot their mask and they chose to.
  • 01:17:39
    So we'll have inventory regardless of what is required.
  • 01:17:42
    Great.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 01:17:46
    And I just have one more question.
  • 01:17:47
    I'm trying to figure out, and maybe the public would be interested, I really like the Zoom option, the being able to Zoom because we found how that is really very helpful.
  • 01:18:03
    So the screen with the folks and I'm assuming the zooming would be the public or perhaps a presenter.
  • 01:18:12
    And help me understand if we're at the dais, we're going to be able to see the person that is zooming in without having to turn around in our seats.
  • 01:18:22
    Just walk us through maybe that the public might be interested in that as well.
• • SPEAKER_22
  • 01:18:27
    Great question Supervisor McKeel and I should have talked about that.
  • 01:18:31
    An outcome of today, based on feedback, will be working with the clerk's office to schedule a time for the board to come in and do a dry run of the technology to experience that in person, as well as have a walkthrough of security and emergency evacuation.
  • 01:18:50
    We haven't done that in a couple years, so we have new board members or some that have not experienced that walkthrough, so we'll coordinate both those.
  • 01:18:59
    Yes, what will be in front of the board is a screen that will be projecting what is being presented, whether it is a speaker talking or it is the PowerPoint or combination.
  • 01:19:13
    Roderick Burton is on here.
  • 01:19:15
    Roderick, if there's something else that we need to add to kind of what the user experience would be, I welcome you to chime in real quick if that's okay.
• • SPEAKER_01
  • 01:19:25
    Certainly.
  • 01:19:26
    Thanks, Trevor.
  • 01:19:26
    And good afternoon, board members.
  • 01:19:29
    So Trevor really has kind of described the approach correctly.
  • 01:19:33
    It's going to be somewhat similar to the experience that you had prior to COVID-19.
  • 01:19:38
    It's that the monitor will give you the view, the same one that will be shown on the larger screen.
  • 01:19:44
    And then it'll be synchronized so you'll have the same feeling as those of what everybody sees in the audience so that you'll get the same experience.
  • 01:19:54
    from what your viewing position will be for the meeting.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 01:19:58
    Okay, so the public will be able to zoom in and we'll be able to see them and that would be an option also for presenters as well?
  • 01:20:11
    Okay, right.
• • SPEAKER_01
  • 01:20:12
    The same function they'll have is the same function you'll have in Viewpoint.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 01:20:15
    Great, and I just have one more quick question and it may be that this is
  • 01:20:22
    has to be a General Assembly decision.
  • 01:20:24
    But where do we stand on the ability of a sitting planning commissioner or supervisor or school board member on being able to zoom in if they're not able to attend, if they're ill, if they're out of town?
  • 01:20:40
    Are we still in the place where that needs General Assembly changes or
• • SPEAKER_22
  • 01:20:48
    I would ask Mr. Kamner if he'd be able to respond to that.
  • 01:20:51
    I believe I know the answer to it, but I would defer to our legal counsel.
• • SPEAKER_24
  • 01:20:55
    The law with respect to medical or personal reasons is still, as it has been for the last several years, there have been some amendments to it, but that remains.
  • 01:21:06
    There's also in 2020 the General Assembly, really not directly in response to your question, but the General Assembly did expand the authority
  • 01:21:17
    It was the issue that we had to deal with was that we had to physically assemble in order to adopt our continuity of government ordinance.
  • 01:21:24
    So there's been an exception for that.
  • 01:21:27
    And also during what FOIA says during catastrophes, and it's unfortunate they use different term in different parts of the code, but I would equate the catastrophe as equivalent to the disaster, which
  • 01:21:44
    COVID-19 pandemic has been.
  • 01:21:47
    There was a bill that would have expanded the ability for public bodies to meet virtually that died in general assembly this year.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 01:21:57
    Okay, so let me just make sure I understand and that the public understands, Greg.
  • 01:22:02
    So a board member, whether it's planning commission, school board, or board of supervisors, could zoom in if they were unavailable
  • 01:22:13
    and that would be for health reasons or just the need to be out of town for some reason, is that correct?
• • SPEAKER_24
  • 01:22:21
    I'll have to part the code, it's for very specific reasons and the public body has to adopt the policy that allows it, the board has.
  • 01:22:31
    I think the EDA was in the process, I think it was the EDA that was in the process of adopting a similar policy as well.
  • 01:22:41
    and there's a limitation on the number of times that a particular member of the public body can do it in a year.
  • 01:22:48
    So it's still fairly, it's fairly limited.
  • 01:22:53
    The General Assembly wants public bodies to physically assemble.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 01:22:58
    Okay, and I'll stop.
  • 01:23:00
    It would be helpful at least for me to understand what those rules are for the School Board Board of Supervisors and
  • 01:23:13
    You know, that would be very helpful.
  • 01:23:16
    And just one more quick question to add to that.
  • 01:23:19
    Is there anything pending in the General Assembly right now that could change this, what we're doing right now, the policy?
• • SPEAKER_24
  • 01:23:28
    I think the only bill I'm aware of failed.
  • 01:23:34
    And that's partially why we adopted the continuity of government ordinance because
  • 01:23:42
    That gives us broad authority to continue our governmental operations.
  • 01:23:47
    And during a pandemic, that included being able to meet virtually.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 01:23:55
    Okay.
  • 01:23:56
    Thank you very much.
  • 01:23:56
    I appreciate the time and the answers to the questions.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 01:24:00
    Thank you.
  • 01:24:01
    And just to be clear, in case it wasn't fully mentioned, the previous speaker was Mr. Roderick Burton, the county's Director of Information Technology.
  • 01:24:09
    Supervisor Mallek?
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 01:24:12
    Thank you very much.
  • 01:24:13
    And Chair Price, your sound is very small all of a sudden.
  • 01:24:16
    I just wanted to pass that on.
  • 01:24:19
    So I have missed the public a lot for the last two years.
  • 01:24:23
    And so I'm excited about the possibilities, but also very appreciative of the careful step by step approach.
  • 01:24:29
    And I really support the plan that's been laid out by staff as far as how we would use Lane and the way we're going to try it out with these sort of tier one
  • 01:24:39
    organizations.
  • 01:24:40
    I also think I want the general public to understand how important it is for them to call ahead when they're coming to community development and get an appointment because each person who comes there has a different need.
  • 01:24:53
    I mean for the building permits that I've got to get, each one has been different and it's important to make sure that the staff person you need is going to be available when you come.
  • 01:25:02
    So you haven't driven 30 miles and get there and the person you need can't help you.
  • 01:25:07
    so I don't think it's a negative that we have had those Monday, Wednesday, Friday appointments for that department and I hope that people will continue to support it even when the building is opened up.
  • 01:25:18
    And I am assuming by all of this that all four of our five of our main budget work sessions will be the virtual from anywhere as opposed to hybrid and that may be the one on the 23rd the 5th of April
  • 01:25:34
    may be the one that we can do in person.
  • 01:25:39
    And I thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 01:25:41
    Thank you.
  • 01:25:42
    And thank you, Supervisor Mallek, for letting me know my volume here in a minute.
  • 01:25:46
    Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley?
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 01:25:50
    Yes, thank you very much.
  • 01:25:51
    And I needed to ask if we're going back in the public
  • 01:26:00
    which I fully support.
  • 01:26:03
    I'm just worried, my concern is that if everyone's still wearing masks in the building, that if we, that might not, because of the direction that the state has taken regarding not wearing masks, if we're setting ourselves up for perhaps some kind of confrontation.
  • 01:26:26
    people wanting to come in, but not wear a mask.
  • 01:26:30
    And I'm wondering if we have any guidance on when we won't even have to be wearing masks, which to me would be the perfect time then to resume public meetings.
• • SPEAKER_22
  • 01:26:48
    I'll take a crack at this.
  • 01:26:51
    Okay, that's fine.
  • 01:26:51
    The rise of LaPisto-Kirtley and then Doug Shirley-Kahn as well.
  • 01:26:55
    We as an employer have the ability and the authority to maintain our building posture that we believe is the safest state for our employees and the community members that come into the building.
  • 01:27:11
    We followed a guiding, kind of guiding intentions throughout the whole pandemic around safety and health.
  • 01:27:22
    and so we believe we have the ability to do that.
  • 01:27:25
    Secondly, we are monitoring the CDC and the new guidance that came out on Friday that Ms.
  • 01:27:32
    Kilroy walked us through.
  • 01:27:33
    And if and when that red for Albemarle County turns to a yellow and stays at yellow for a couple of weeks, we will then be talking about a change in recommendation for masking
  • 01:27:49
    for day-to-day operations and board public meetings for the Tier 1.
• • SPEAKER_18
  • 01:27:57
    Dr. Walker, anything to add to that?
  • 01:27:59
    I would just add that in the description that you saw from Mr. Henry around how the Lane Auditorium and the lobby
  • 01:28:09
    would be managed from a staffing standpoint.
  • 01:28:11
    There is the typical security personnel that you are accustomed to, plus the ambassadors that we would add to that to kind of help them kind of manage the public's expectations as they come in.
  • 01:28:26
    And I think that managing expectations is one of the best things that we can do just to help to overcome any concerns they might have, just to a lack of familiarity with what we're doing and why we're doing it.
  • 01:28:37
    We have found that, for example, if we use the experienced folks at our AMC, how effective they have been at helping folks kind of understand why it is that we're doing it.
  • 01:28:49
    So we think that that will be effective.
  • 01:28:52
    At the end of the day, I mean, we will, working in that public environment, as we are, we'll deal with
  • 01:29:02
    I guess the state of play as we encounter it on those board meeting days.
  • 01:29:06
    But we're optimistic, frankly, that there are options for people to participate remotely, and we know that they'll take advantage of that.
  • 01:29:14
    and their options were people to come in person.
  • 01:29:16
    And we're obviously hoping that they will also take advantage of that.
  • 01:29:19
    And so we're very excited for folks to want to come in with enthusiasm to participate in person and abide by the safety rules that we think are reasonable at that time, which now we can only say right now that that includes masking.
  • 01:29:33
    We're all hopeful that the things will change and we'll be able to tell you something different.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 01:29:38
    And I understand even if we no longer wear the mask that we will continue with the hybrid option, correct?
  • 01:29:44
    For people to be able to zoom in?
  • 01:29:46
    That's correct.
  • 01:29:47
    Which I think is a great advantage.
  • 01:29:50
    I'm just wondering whether or not we shouldn't wait until masks are no longer required just to avoid any kind of concern.
  • 01:30:01
    If we think it's coming, you know, I mean, we're still in the red state.
  • 01:30:07
    That's my only concern, frankly.
  • 01:30:12
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 01:30:14
    Thank you, Supervisor Galloway.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 01:30:18
    Yeah, thank you everyone.
  • 01:30:19
    I mean, no objections to the plan.
  • 01:30:21
    I appreciate all the effort and planning going into it.
  • 01:30:24
    I would echo what came up during Supervisor McKeel's comment period about the
  • 01:30:30
    written policy of who can participate electronically.
  • 01:30:33
    It would be nice to have that out in writing just so we can read through it.
  • 01:30:36
    It doesn't sound like a lot has changed from what existed pre-pandemic, but I think reading through would help you with the understanding of it.
  • 01:30:47
    And then I would just acknowledge that or advise perhaps that
  • 01:30:51
    You know, when we get back in, as this goes forward, as we've had to do since the pandemic began, we'll just have to remain flexible and obviously be ready to change on the fly anything that is or is not working or circumstances change.
  • 01:31:05
    But I expect you guys have already had those chats as well.
  • 01:31:09
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 01:31:10
    Alright, thank you.
  • 01:31:12
    I too want to express my great appreciation for the thoughtfulness that has gone into this by county staff as you have looked at all the different components and aspects that need to be taken into consideration.
  • 01:31:24
    The timing and the tiers to me all make perfect sense.
  • 01:31:26
    I look forward to if things continue as they have with the pandemic to be back live in
  • 01:31:33
    Lane Auditorium in April and virtual capacity.
  • 01:31:37
    Of course, remote access only works for those in our community who have reliable broadband, which we know is one of the major issues.
  • 01:31:45
    So the ability to go back live for those who are able to is extremely important.
  • 01:31:52
    As Supervisor Galloway just mentioned all of this is pandemic driven and we have to remain flexible as long as things get better we can make things more accessible for live but if things go downhill again as we went through the Delta or the Omicron variant then our community and we need to appreciate that we
  • 01:32:11
    We'll have to tighten things back up a little bit.
  • 01:32:14
    Even after what we hope will happen where the pandemic is no longer the primary health risk, we've learned a lot over the last couple of years with regard to the use of masks.
  • 01:32:27
    Last winter, for example, there were no major flu outbreaks in the United States.
  • 01:32:32
    In that large part, that was because so many people were wearing masks.
  • 01:32:36
    So even if we reach a point where masks are no longer required for the pandemic, our county staff continue to keep available an area of the lane auditorium for consideration of those who may be at risk for other factors.
  • 01:32:57
    And the only change that I would ask is I would really like to see the county executive and the county attorney sitting at the bias.
  • 01:33:11
    The ability to visually see reactions is very helpful and to have them sitting behind the supervisors, particularly those that would be on the left side of the
  • 01:33:23
    The dais somewhat restricts their ability to be able to have that kind of a quick interaction.
  • 01:33:30
    So I would ask that consideration be made to putting the county executive and county attorney back on the dais in the same locations that they have been pre-pandemic.
  • 01:33:40
    But again, I commend county staff for your thoughtfulness, your deliberateness, and everything that you've done throughout the facility.
  • 01:33:47
    The air, the technology, all of that is greatly appreciated.
  • 01:33:51
    Supervisor McKeel,
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 01:33:54
    I would just chime in, Donna, that I agree with you about the dais.
  • 01:33:58
    And I personally thought about that and meant to mention it and then forgot.
  • 01:34:04
    But I would like to see us at the dais because it is important, at least for me as a supervisor, to be able to see the attorney and the county executive.
  • 01:34:16
    I think that's a great idea.
  • 01:34:17
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 01:34:18
    Thank you.
  • 01:34:19
    Supervisor Mallek.
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 01:34:24
    This may already be the plan, but if we were to adopt the change ordinance on the 16th, can it be contingent upon the metrics?
  • 01:34:39
    Therefore, we won't have to come back and make a change in another ordinance later if the metrics don't turn out to do what we expect.
  • 01:34:46
    So it's sort of flexible and enabled to be adopted based on how we do on our cases.
• • SPEAKER_18
  • 01:34:54
    My expectation would be, and Greg will weigh in here, is that he would suggest that the board adopt a new emergency ordinance, if that's the case.
  • 01:35:06
    So I think that once the emergency is ended, then what would happen then would be a new emergency.
  • 01:35:13
    based on circumstances, right, based on increasing case counts or whatever.
  • 01:35:17
    So I think it would accomplish the same thing, but it would be a new emergency.
  • 01:35:22
    And then Greg can correct me if he thinks otherwise.
• • SPEAKER_24
  • 01:35:25
    I agree with what Doug said because the circumstances may be different and we want to be acting under the current information.
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 01:35:39
    I was merely specifically asking about between now and April 6th, but that's fine.
  • 01:35:44
    If it's better to just leave it and scramble at the last minute, then we'll have to do that.
  • 01:35:48
    I understand that.
  • 01:35:50
    I understand the benefits of having the latest amount of information.
  • 01:35:54
    The only thing I would add is that I'm in favor of as much space as possible.
  • 01:35:58
    And I don't know how, I know there were good reasons why staff proposed shifting seats.
  • 01:36:04
    And if the visibility is better, perhaps the desks facing
  • 01:36:09
    The board in the front might help us.
  • 01:36:15
    I don't know.
  • 01:36:16
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 01:36:19
    Any other comments from any supervisors, county staff before we close this item?
  • 01:36:25
    Seeing none, again I want to thank everyone for the incredible work you've done to prepare this and board at this point we can move on to item number 10.

13. Board-to-Board, A Quarterly Report from the Albemarle County School Board to the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors.

Board-to-Board (February)
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 01:36:36
    Board to Board presentation.
  • 01:36:38
    And I understand that we have the chair of the school board, Mr. Page, in the waiting room, ready to come in.
  • 01:36:46
    There he is.
  • 01:36:48
    Good afternoon, Chair Page and welcome to our board meeting.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:36:54
    Thank you, Chair Price, and good evening to, or good afternoon rather, to our Board of Supervisors members.
  • 01:37:03
    So are you ready for me to proceed with the report?
• • SPEAKER_29
  • 01:37:06
    Please do.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:37:07
    Okay.
  • 01:37:08
    All right, I have several items to present to you this afternoon.
  • 01:37:13
    First, this past Saturday marked the eighth annual Winter Songs Concert to benefit the Shelter for Help and Emergency.
  • 01:37:21
    The concert was performed live on stage at Monticello High School for the first time since 2020.
  • 01:37:28
    and though close to the public, was live streamed for all to watch.
  • 01:37:32
    The concert is still on our website, on our YouTube site and available to watch.
  • 01:37:38
    The concert brought together six women's choruses, including the Burleigh Barrett's treble chorus, the Advanced Woman's Ensemble and No Fella acapella group from Albemarle High,
  • 01:37:51
    Monticello High's Women's Chorus, Charlottesville High's The Nightingale's Beld with a KN, and the Lakeside Middle School Chorus.
  • 01:38:00
    Since its debut in 2015, Winter Songs has raised almost $30,000 to assist women in crisis in Charlottesville and Albemarle County.
  • 01:38:11
    Early on Saturday, the shelter conducted a series of workshops for the participating vocalists on healthy relationships and how to reduce incidents of domestic violence.
  • 01:38:24
    In other news, last Wednesday, Crozet Elementary School held a topping out ceremony to celebrate the structural frame reaching its highest point for the addition currently under construction at the school.
  • 01:38:37
    Albemarle County Public Schools, Nielsen, and VMDO held a ceremony to thank the workers who have brought the project to fruition thus far amid such challenging circumstances.
  • 01:38:49
    As you will recall, Crozier Elementary was undergoing two separate additions totaling approximately 35,000 square feet and expanding capacity from 330 to 680 students.
  • 01:39:02
    The addition includes 17 new classrooms, three smaller resource classrooms, two offices, faculty work rooms, and various support spaces.
  • 01:39:13
    Expansions to the cafeteria, library, and kitchen support larger student enrollment.
  • 01:39:19
    Additional parking, an expanded plaza, a dedicated bus loop, a new landscaped courtyard, an expanded outdoor playground, rain garden, and walking tracks are also included in the renovation.
  • 01:39:33
    The project is on track to be completed this summer for a fall 2022 opening.
  • 01:39:39
    When completed, all classrooms will be conditioned by a water source heat pump system.
  • 01:39:45
    with an underground field of closed loop geothermal wells, which will be the first of its kind for the county schools.
  • 01:39:54
    In other school division updates, Dr. Haas presented the board with his recommendation for the 2022-23 academic school year at our February 17th budget meeting.
  • 01:40:05
    He requested a $30.8 million increase, which would increase the budget to $242 million.
  • 01:40:12
    A main priority of the budget is recruiting and retaining quality teachers and staff.
  • 01:40:18
    This is reflected in the proposed 6% increase in our teacher starting salary.
  • 01:40:24
    The proposed starting salary will be $53,000 after including a 4% increase that goes into effect in March.
  • 01:40:32
    Increasing pay should help us to hire more special education and substitute teachers.
  • 01:40:38
    Substitute teachers currently make $140 per day.
  • 01:40:42
    Another priority in Dr. Haas's request is investing in new learning facilities.
  • 01:40:48
    He has said that reducing classroom sizes will be beneficial for teachers and students.
  • 01:40:53
    Students will have more one-on-one time in the classroom.
  • 01:40:57
    Dr. Haas's plan will keep online learning for high school students next year.
  • 01:41:04
    The next main update that I'll tell you about is one that we've talked about or you've been informed about it before.
  • 01:41:10
    In the written report that you received at the end of February, I informed you that in our February 10th meeting, Dr. Haas recommended that Broadus Wood Elementary School retain its name.
  • 01:41:21
    The matter was discussed and will be on our consent agenda for final approval.
  • 01:41:28
    Continuing with updates, on Tuesday, February the 15th, Albemarle County Public Schools held a community forum to discuss long-term planning related
  • 01:41:37
    to its facilities located at Lambs Lane, including Albemarle High, Jouett Middle, Greer Elementary, and Ivy Creek schools, as well as transportation and building services departments and the future Boys and Girls Club site.
  • 01:41:53
    The forum is an opportunity for members of the community to assist the school division in its development of a Lambs Lane Master Plan.
  • 01:42:01
    The schools at Lambs Lane represent approximately a quarter of our division's total population, and this planning is focused on its potential to become a flagship campus, serving the county's population in practical, innovative, and sustainable ways.
  • 01:42:20
    And finally, Albemarle County Schools conducted its 16th Division Wide Spelling Bee last month in Albemarle High's auditorium.
  • 01:42:29
    The competition comprising scholars who won the spelling bees at their respective schools included 15 elementary school champions and six middle school champions.
  • 01:42:41
    More than a thousand students in grades three through eight competed in their school-wide spelling bees, beginning in classrooms last month.
  • 01:42:51
    Lala Thadi, a fifth grader at Mountain View Elementary, placed first.
  • 01:42:56
    Claire Ming from Hollomied, also a fifth grader, placed second.
  • 01:43:01
    Madeline Rasmussen, a fourth grader at Red Hill, placed third.
  • 01:43:06
    The winning word was strudel.
  • 01:43:09
    Among the middle schools, there were eight competitors.
  • 01:43:12
    Henry Matthews, an eighth grader at Henley, placed first, and was joined by Katriana Ashuv, a Burleigh seventh grader, at second place.
  • 01:43:21
    Riley Gray of Lakeside, also a seventh grader, came in at third place.
  • 01:43:26
    The winning word was delirious, and I hope that we'd all be able to sort of master those two words, strudel and delirious.
  • 01:43:34
    These six students have qualified for the next stage of the competition, which will take place on March 12th, beginning at nine o'clock at Albemarle High School.
  • 01:43:43
    One winner will move on to the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which will be held on June 2nd at Maryland's National Harbor.
  • 01:43:51
    That ends my report, and I'm ready for questions if there are any.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 01:43:56
    Thank you very much, Chair Page.
  • 01:43:58
    Supervisor Andrews?
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 01:44:02
    I don't have questions at the moment.
  • 01:44:05
    I might come back though, please.
  • 01:44:07
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 01:44:13
    Thank you, Graham Page, for the great update.
  • 01:44:18
    I really appreciate it.
  • 01:44:19
    And I am thrilled.
  • 01:44:21
    It is excellent that we're moving our teacher salaries forward.
  • 01:44:25
    Whether you're a substitute teacher or whatever kind of teacher you are, we have struggled, as you know, for years to get our teacher salaries up.
  • 01:44:33
    So this is outstanding.
  • 01:44:37
    I couldn't be happier.
  • 01:44:40
    Yes, and I wanted to just make a comment about the Landsland Master Plan, the Landsland Campus Master Plan, which is making my heart sing.
  • 01:44:55
    That campus is certainly overdue for a relook and some changes and I did participate in the community forum and the discussion was wonderful.
  • 01:45:08
    It was a very engaged community and I really appreciated the discussions that we had.
  • 01:45:14
    So that is just, again,
  • 01:45:19
    Like I said, it makes my heart sing.
  • 01:45:22
    It has always been at the top of your docket, so... Well, you know, both my children went to that, were educated on that campus, and I understand very well the challenges.
  • 01:45:34
    And those challenges have only gotten worse over the years, whether they're environmental or space.
  • 01:45:40
    So I'm just thrilled to death.
  • 01:45:42
    And I do want to congratulate the winners of the Stony Bee.
  • 01:45:47
    And because I know how competitive and how important the spelling bee is for families in our community, not all families, but some families, and it's a great event.
  • 01:45:58
    And so I'm assuming the Albemarle High School spelling bee, the next level will be in person.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:46:06
    Yes, it will be.
  • 01:46:07
    Okay.
  • 01:46:07
    All right.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 01:46:08
    Because it'd be fun to go.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:46:09
    Because that would be, that'll be the regional one.
  • 01:46:12
    So it'll be on students from the surrounding counties too.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 01:46:15
    Yeah.
  • 01:46:15
    Yeah.
  • 01:46:16
    So that'll be fun.
  • 01:46:16
    Thank you very much, Graham.
  • 01:46:18
    I really appreciate the report.
  • 01:46:20
    Thank you.
  • 01:46:21
    Supervisor Mallek.
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 01:46:24
    Thank you very much.
  • 01:46:25
    I was just trying to dig up the email I received yesterday from, I think, Mr. Fitzgerald about the jazz band concert.
  • 01:46:31
    And so once I find it, I'll share it.
  • 01:46:34
    I don't know, Graham, if you have anything that you can make a general announcement.
  • 01:46:39
    Otherwise, we'll catch up with it later.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:46:41
    I know it's going on, but right off the bat, I don't have the information at hand.
  • 01:46:48
    But I know it's going on.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 01:46:49
    I have that.
  • 01:46:52
    It's on Sunday, March 13th at 7 o'clock at the Jefferson Theater on East Main Street.
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 01:47:01
    Right.
  • 01:47:02
    That was so much fun to go to in 2019 and so I'm really grateful to be able to do that again.
  • 01:47:09
    And I'm also excited, as many others are, that Lambs Lane is evolving slowly and so is there a timetable for
  • 01:47:19
    What the next stages are in that master plan development?
  • 01:47:22
    I mean, having graduated from there in 1967, it's been a really long time without a whole lot of change.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:47:29
    Right offhand, I can't give you a deadline or any timelines related to that, but the work is continuing.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 01:47:37
    Thank you.
  • 01:47:38
    Thank you.
  • 01:47:39
    Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley?
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 01:47:41
    Yes.
  • 01:47:42
    Thank you very much, Mr. Page, for the announcements.
  • 01:47:45
    I really enjoyed being there at the elementary spelling bee.
  • 01:47:50
    And fortunately, I was asked by Supervisor Galloway to take his place.
  • 01:47:56
    He wasn't able to be there that night, but he did go for the middle school.
  • 01:48:00
    So I was really very, very honored to be there for the elementary school that was
  • 01:48:06
    Really wonderful event.
  • 01:48:08
    Also, I'm extremely pleased regarding the increase for our teachers.
  • 01:48:13
    And I'm just going to throw out one thing that I would like to see.
  • 01:48:16
    I would like to see more preschool classes in every single elementary school.
  • 01:48:25
    So that's where I'm going.
  • 01:48:27
    Okay, thank you.
• • SPEAKER_18
  • 01:48:28
    All right, thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 01:48:29
    Supervisor Galloway.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 01:48:34
    Good afternoon, Chair Page.
  • 01:48:35
    Thank you for the update.
  • 01:48:36
    I'll start with the spelling bee.
  • 01:48:39
    So I appreciated the names.
  • 01:48:41
    I couldn't recall the names of the winners, so I'm glad that the winners were included in the board report.
  • 01:48:47
    I don't think Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley had her credentials questioned, as Dr. Haas questioned my credentials to be a judge at the spelling bee.
  • 01:48:56
    I'm just lodging that official complaint with you as the chair.
  • 01:49:03
    The Lands Lane campus, I got to participate and listen in to the town hall that they did or public meeting that they've had.
  • 01:49:10
    Both, I think I brought up teachers and I believe Supervisor McKeel brought up students to make sure that they're included in providing input as they do focus groups and whatnot.
  • 01:49:21
    One of the things that the consultant said is I think they were planning to hear from some high school students which makes sense but you know it's it's amazing what you can learn from a six-year-old when they're like well why don't you just do this so when we're talking about placement of things and how that space is being used I would just encourage that they also
  • 01:49:41
    Well, maybe changing how they receive the input, but there could be valuable input not just from the older students, but the younger students as well.
  • 01:49:50
    And teachers who are there day in and day out, as you know, really have a good perspective on how a campus should be laid out and functional.
  • 01:49:59
    So I know they had to talk to some administrators and principals and whatnot.
  • 01:50:07
    It sounded like they were going to get to the classroom teachers as well.
  • 01:50:11
    I'm just hopeful that their perspectives will all be included because I think you could glean a lot of helpful information as we continue to look at what can be done at the Lambsland campus.
  • 01:50:22
    I commend you for the focus on compensation and look forward to talking about the school division's budget as we work through the budget process.
  • 01:50:33
    I will just throw this out as it's a budget item for our budget team.
  • 01:50:37
    I know that there were some competing views in the House and Senate's version of SOQ positions and how they were going to be funded.
  • 01:50:46
    I believe the Senate's included like a full-time principal for all elementary schools and other support positions.
  • 01:50:53
    I don't know where we're currently at.
  • 01:50:55
    I'm pulling from an update we received from David over at TJPDC, but it would be helpful maybe as we get into the budget to know, as I'm sure we'll find out, that that's highlighted.
  • 01:51:08
    If some ground can be made up on positions being funded, whether it's raises or other positions beyond just the standard SOQs, plus putting a principal in every elementary school, that would be, I mean Albemarle has done that.
  • 01:51:20
    But to include it in the state metrics for state funding is a good step forward.
  • 01:51:26
    So looking forward to learning more about that.
  • 01:51:28
    Thank you for being with us today.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:51:31
    And we are going to include it in this year's budget is having full-time assistant principals at all of our elementary schools.
  • 01:51:39
    So that goes beyond what the state is mandating.
  • 01:51:42
    So we're working on that.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 01:51:43
    Yeah, the Senate version, I think, was going to include an assistant principal for the metric, or one of the versions was the metric was 500.
  • 01:51:51
    So, of course, if you have a school with less than 500, you don't get an AP, so I'm glad that we're going to have an AP in there to assist the principal.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:51:59
    Right, and I've also made a note about including our students at Greer and at Jouett, probably, on the Lambs Lane Forum.
  • 01:52:09
    All right, thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 01:52:11
    Thank you, thank you.
  • 01:52:13
    Chair Page, thank you for being here.
  • 01:52:15
    I'm really excited of what we see coming forward with the CIP for school construction and renovation.
  • 01:52:22
    I'm also pleased to announce publicly that you and I have worked together and are going to be restarting
  • 01:52:28
    The quarterly meeting with the chair of the school board and the superintendent with the chair of the board of supervisors and our county executive, which I think will go a long way to helping ensure that our two organizations are up to date and informed on things that are happening in the community, which will help us ensure that we do have the school capacity where we need it to be based upon development things that happen.
  • 01:52:52
    I'm really excited
  • 01:53:14
    Well, maybe that plus 34 years in education as a principal and director in charge, 24 elementary schools might have had a little bit to do with it too.
  • 01:53:22
    I was playing on Women's History Month and you go to your office.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 01:53:26
    Oh, and being a woman, and being a woman, yes.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 01:53:47
    that you and your school board do to take care of our families through education.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:53:53
    Okay.
  • 01:53:53
    Thank you, Chair Price.
  • 01:53:55
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 01:53:56
    Supervisor Andrews, before you go, Chair Page, I think Supervisor Andrews may have another comment.
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 01:54:01
    Okay.
  • 01:54:02
    I really have been remiss in thanking you a little bit more for the presentation and congratulating you on all the work.
  • 01:54:08
    worked well done.
  • 01:54:09
    One of the reasons why I hesitated at first and it may come up later is that I just want to point out you mentioned the budget and budget increase over the previous year and I just had to grab the materials from our consent agenda where there's a financial report school fund summary and it actually indicates that you know the current appropriations for the school year are very different from what was originally appropriated
  • 01:54:35
    and that the increase requested is not nearly as great as the report would suggest.
  • 01:54:42
    It's in the teens, not 30.
  • 01:54:45
    So just want to make that clarification that's come up before.
  • 01:54:48
    Okay.
  • 01:54:48
    Thank you again for the presentation.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 01:54:50
    Thank you.
  • 01:54:51
    Thank you again, Chair Page.

14. Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail (ACRJ) Renovation Project.

ACRJ October 2021 Presentation to BOS
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 01:54:53
    All right, Board, I think we're ready to move on to our next item, item number 11.
  • 01:54:56
    And I have a couple of comments that I want to just make before this gets started.
  • 01:55:00
    This is the Albemarle, Charlottesville Regional Jail
  • 01:55:03
    renovation project.
  • 01:55:05
    We have Superintendent Coomer here who will take the lead.
  • 01:55:08
    I am going to ask if board members will hold off on questions until the very end.
  • 01:55:15
    And Supervisor McKeel, as chair of the Regional Jail Authority, will make some closing comments after Superintendent Coomer.
  • 01:55:23
    So with that, I see that we do have Superintendent Coomer joining us.
  • 01:55:29
    And I will turn the floor over to you, sir.
• • SPEAKER_18
  • 01:55:32
    If I could, Chair Price, make a few introductory comments, I would appreciate it.
  • 01:55:38
    That's okay, no worries.
  • 01:55:41
    No worries, just want to set the stage a little bit here, recognizing that the board heard a presentation by these same folks back in October as a part of the work at that time in developing the facility needs assessment and the planning study.
  • 01:56:01
    and the engagement work that was going on at the time in the larger community.
  • 01:56:06
    That work is completed.
  • 01:56:07
    You'll see that as part of this presentation today.
  • 01:56:11
    But just acknowledging that what we're heading towards is a decision by the jail authority to in fact support a renovation project and formally request the state to support 25% payment of eligible cost and then support from the three member jurisdictions
  • 01:56:32
    to ultimately pay their share of the local portion of those costs as this moves forward.
  • 01:56:37
    And so this is timely in that the jail authority is set to consider this month that resolution to move it forward.
  • 01:56:48
    and did not want to get too far out in front of the Board of Supervisors.
  • 01:56:52
    I know that the City of Charlottesville and Nelson County have similar interests because this will be coming back to you in a few months and asking you to consider your support for the project going forward.
  • 01:57:04
    So with that, thank you, Chair Price, for the opportunity to lay some groundwork there.
  • 01:57:11
    As the board knows, as was mentioned, Diantha is chair of the jail authority.
  • 01:57:16
    I also serve on the jail authority, and so we are wearing kind of multiple hats here.
  • 01:57:21
    The team today is Superintendent Coomer, representing the jail, and Tony Bell and Chris Roman, representing Moseley Architects.
  • 01:57:28
    And so, Colonel Coomer, I believe then that you're going to start it off.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 01:57:33
    Thank you, Mr. Walker.
• • SPEAKER_18
  • 01:57:34
    I apologize again for... No worries, Chair Price.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 01:57:38
    Thank you.
  • 01:57:39
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_39
  • 01:57:41
    Thank you, Madam Chair.
  • 01:57:43
    Thank you, fellow Supervisors.
  • 01:57:44
    We are here today to present to you Kevin Kumher.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 01:57:53
    We seem to have lost the seed.
  • 01:57:59
    Superintendent Kumher, are you still there?
• • SPEAKER_39
  • 01:58:03
    Okay, can you speak up please?
  • 01:58:06
    There we go.
  • 01:58:06
    Can everybody hear me now?
  • 01:58:08
    Yes.
  • 01:58:08
    Very good.
  • 01:58:09
    Okay.
  • 01:58:09
    Can everybody see the presentation here on the screen?
  • 01:58:13
    Yes.
  • 01:58:14
    Very good.
  • 01:58:14
    This is the Albemarle-Shawlson Regional Jail Renovation and Expansion.
  • 01:58:20
    Again, my name is Martin Kummer.
  • 01:58:21
    I'm the superintendent of the jail.
  • 01:58:22
    On the left here is Tony Bell with Mosley Architects.
  • 01:58:26
    I want to give you a brief history of the jail.
  • 01:58:34
    The current facility opened in 1975.
  • 01:58:37
    It was designed to combine both the Albemarle County and Charlottesville City jails.
  • 01:58:42
    The facility's rate of capacity increased to 209 after two additions in the 1990s.
  • 01:58:47
    Nelson County became the third jail member in 1997, and the final expansion was in 2000, bringing the capacity to 329.
  • 01:58:55
    That is our current rate of capacity.
  • 01:58:58
    Our average daily population has ranged over the years.
  • 01:59:01
    The ADP has been as high as 600 in 2008 and as low as 265 in January of 2022.
  • 01:59:09
    That ADP and 265, the average daily population, was the lowest it has been in over 20 years, and I've been here for 25 years, so I can attest to that.
  • 01:59:20
    Our current authorized staffing level is 161 employees.
  • 01:59:24
    The renovation and expansion we'll discuss here today is approximate.
  • 01:59:30
    and the current facility is 152,900 square feet.
  • 01:59:35
    How did we get here?
  • 01:59:36
    It's important that everyone knows that we didn't just decide one day to start a renovation or expansion of the jail.
  • 01:59:42
    So back in September of 2019, I submitted some renovation projects, an HVAC replacement and a flooring project.
  • 01:59:51
    Both together told about $1.25 million.
  • 01:59:54
    It was at that time the board directed me to contract a facility condition assessment
  • 02:00:00
    We wanted to identify and prioritize and guide future projects.
  • 02:00:05
    The board then hired Mosley Architects to conduct a community-based corrections plan, a CBCP.
  • 02:00:12
    As part of that community-based corrections plan, public engagements were held to collect feedback from the community and stakeholders, our Commonwealth Attorneys, local police departments, and so forth.
  • 02:00:22
    Mosley presented the community-based corrections plan results to the board at the December 2021 meeting.
  • 02:00:28
    The board indicated it would seek reimbursement from the state for 25% of all eligible renovation costs.
  • 02:00:35
    The board adopted a resolution directing mostly architects to submit the community-based corrections plan to the Department of Corrections.
  • 02:00:42
    And on December 31, 2021, the community-based corrections plan was submitted to the state.
  • 02:00:50
    These are the findings of two of those studies.
  • 02:00:53
    Again, a facility condition assessment and a community-based corrections plan.
  • 02:00:58
    Facility Condition Assessment stately requires significant upgrades and replacement to HVAC, electrical systems, other major mechanical systems over the next 10 years, in addition to interior fixtures, lighting, and security devices.
  • 02:01:11
    The Facility Condition Assessment does not determine housing or footage per inmates, number of bathrooms, and so forth, or staff needs or community needs.
  • 02:01:20
    That's where the Community-Based Corrections Plan came in.
  • 02:01:23
    There are two components to the CBCP, the Community-Based Corrections Plan.
• • 02:01:26
    One is a need study.
  • 02:01:28
    And that's what we'll discuss here.
• • SPEAKER_39
  • 02:01:29
    That determines the number of beds that they determine that we are going to need 15 years into the future.
  • 02:01:36
    After the need study was completed, there are no indications and historical data suggests the inmate population will increase substantially in the future.
  • 02:01:44
    After reviewing various alternative forecast models, no models indicated an increasing inmate population.
  • 02:01:50
    Therefore, the rate of capacity will not be increased with this renovation.
  • 02:02:04
    Board of Corrections Jail standards include, but not limited to, additional toilets and showers to comply with ADA and new building codes, redesigned inmate housing areas that create an environment that encourages mental and physical well-being, a dedicated mental health and segregation unit that is conducive to improving an inmate's mental health, and the destruction of an outdoor recreation area.
  • 02:02:29
    Also, replace major mechanical systems serving the original facility to improve climate control and air quality,
  • 02:02:35
    Additional inmate classroom and programming space, additional administrative space, a larger public visitation area that will meet the needs of the public and professional visitors, additional security measures for staff and inmates.
  • 02:02:49
    The renovation expansion meets the identified goals and objectives in the community-based corrections planning study.
  • 02:02:56
    Creative space conducive to inmate rehabilitation that reduces the
  • 02:03:00
    Use trauma-informed design, salivating materials, stress-producing colors, natural sunlight throughout the renovation and expansion.
  • 02:03:08
    Add classrooms and programming space.
  • 02:03:10
    Integrate technology into the classrooms and housing areas.
  • 02:03:14
    Replace existing HVAC units and all the housing areas and throughout the building with effective and efficient units.
  • 02:03:21
    Install air filtration system effective against virus and bacteria.
  • 02:03:25
    Increase fresh air ventilation.
  • 02:03:27
    Conservation of natural resources.
  • 02:03:29
    use efficient water-conserving toilets, showerheads, and faucets, use natural daylight throughout the facility.
  • 02:03:38
    Renovation improves the quality experience for all consumers.
  • 02:03:41
    We looked at three groups of the public that we serve.
  • 02:03:44
    Our inmates who reside here, the community stakeholders who use this facility, and our employees who work here.
  • 02:03:51
    For our inmates, we'll increase the square footage per inmate in housing areas.
  • 02:03:55
    The tribe applied trauma-informed design in all of our housing areas.
  • 02:03:58
    Innovate inmate housing areas to create more privacy and security, create an additional outdoor recreation area, improve quality of social interaction with family using technology-based and in-person visitation.
  • 02:04:11
    For the community or stakeholders, new customer service area for family and professional visitors to improve service quality, professional visitation area with integrated technology.
  • 02:04:20
    Our employees incorporate improved safety and security measures, provide efficient workflow, apply trauma-informed design to staff work areas,
  • 02:04:28
    and creative work environments for staff morale, mental, and physical well-being.
  • 02:04:35
    At this point, I'm going to turn it over to Tony Bell from Mosley Architects.
  • 02:04:38
    He can discuss with you the next few slides.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 02:04:42
    So we're talking a little bit about things for the schedule.
  • 02:04:46
    So the first portion is with regard to the approvals that follow the submission of the community-based corrections plan to the Department of Corrections.
  • 02:04:56
    So that occurred in December of 2021,
  • 02:04:59
    They are currently reviewing the document, the needs assessment, and the planning study.
  • 02:05:04
    And prior to their final approval, the jail authority will approve and submit a resolution seeking that 25% reimbursement.
  • 02:05:14
    As Mr. Walker stated earlier, that's to happen at the authority board meeting that will occur later this month.
  • 02:05:20
    Over the next three months, March and April, we will be meeting with the different member jurisdictions to review the renovation
  • 02:05:29
    Make sure everyone has a complete understanding of the goals of the renovations and what they hope to accomplish.
  • 02:05:37
    Following the submittal of the resolution to the Board of Local and Regional Jails, the Board of Local and Regional Jails will approve the CBCP needs assessment.
  • 02:05:45
    Again, as the superintendent said, there is no anticipated increase to the rated capacity of the facility.
  • 02:05:52
    In the June-August window, the Board of Local and Regional Jails will approve the CBCP planning
  • 02:05:59
    And what that includes is the renovations and the demolition and expansion of some areas of the jail to better serve the staff, to better serve the detainees.
  • 02:06:10
    Again, the primary objective is the detainees and the reduction of recidivism to get these citizens back out on the streets as productive citizens of Albemarle, Charlottesville, and Nelson County.
  • 02:06:23
    In the August to September timeframe, as Mr. Walker stated, we'll be looking for a resolution from the different member jurisdictions
  • 02:06:29
    Again, this is laying the groundwork for the project to move forward at which time we get approval from the governor and from the General Assembly that the funding is available.
  • 02:06:39
    And you see the different milestones moving forward in September, October, and December of 2022.
  • 02:06:43
    And then finally, in June of 2023 is when the project will be included in the General Assembly's budget and approved and moved forward.
  • 02:06:55
    All right.
  • 02:06:56
    So after we've received that approval,
  • 02:07:01
    The board authority will then be ready to move forward with the actual project.
  • 02:07:06
    This is the design and construction of the proposed improvements.
  • 02:07:11
    So step one is submitting an advertising RFP, request proposals, selecting an architect or engineer, and awarding a design contract for those services.
  • 02:07:23
    We will then move forward into the full design services
  • 02:07:29
    November timeframe, November 2023, will be the time when the Department of Corrections conducts its value engineering on the design process.
  • 02:07:38
    March of 2024 will be when the completion of the construction documents occur and will secure the authority design approvals from all member jurisdictions.
  • 02:07:48
    And then lastly, on the design side, we'll be advertising for construction bids following the completion of those documents
  • 02:07:55
    That'll happen in the May time frame of 2024, at which point we will also receive bids and negotiate a contract with that low bidder.
  • 02:08:05
    At this point, construction is anticipated to take roughly 14 months.
  • 02:08:10
    So the final completion of the project will occur roughly in the November 2025 time frame.
  • 02:08:15
    Go to the next slide.
  • 02:08:18
    So what is all this going to cost?
  • 02:08:21
    The cost which was submitted as part of the community-based corrections plan planning study
  • 02:08:26
    included basically three items.
  • 02:08:29
    And these were broken down by line items, which added to these totals.
  • 02:08:35
    But the demolition and renovation cost is roughly $21 million.
  • 02:08:39
    The new construction cost is roughly $17 million.
  • 02:08:42
    So there's roughly 60 beds that are going to be demolished as part of the renovation and expansion project.
  • 02:08:54
    mainly as the superintendent was saying earlier, providing space which meets the current jail standards.
  • 02:09:02
    And then there's other costs.
  • 02:09:03
    These are soft costs, such as the furniture for the facility, the AV, the IT for the facility.
  • 02:09:12
    That totals around $7 million.
  • 02:09:14
    So the total project cost is roughly $49 million, of which roughly 25% of that is reimbursable from the Commonwealth of Virginia
  • 02:09:23
    and the total estimated cost to localities is roughly $36.7 million.
• • SPEAKER_39
  • 02:09:30
    This is how it will actually impact Albemarle County.
  • 02:09:37
    We have two more slides after this too.
  • 02:09:38
    But if you look here, the following funding summaries based on these
  • 02:09:49
    It's not exceed $49 billion.
  • 02:09:50
    The state actually does improve the 25% reimbursement.
  • 02:09:54
    Debt service is allocated based on locality share of inmate days.
  • 02:09:57
    It's how we currently spread out the operational side of the budget.
  • 02:10:01
    Debt is based on a 20-year bond, and locality share remains constant.
  • 02:10:05
    Noticeability effect current share.
  • 02:10:09
    So as you can see here in FY 23, there's no impact as far as debt or funding goes.
  • 02:10:13
    FY 24 is when we start to see some impact from the expansion of innovation project.
  • 02:10:19
    FY25, same, we start to see some more impact.
  • 02:10:23
    Same with FY26.
  • 02:10:23
    It's FY27 that you'll see that we start to see the full impact of fully funded renovation project and then on from there.
• • 02:10:33
    We use the 1% growth in operational funds just as a placeholder.
  • 02:10:38
    And again, that can vary by year.
• • SPEAKER_39
  • 02:10:40
    And also the shares, the inmate population dates can also vary by year, but this is the best estimate.
  • 02:10:49
    Here you also see the City of Charlottesville again the same assumptions and this would be their operation budget and this is all their debt as well.
  • 02:10:57
    Just to give you some perspective of how it plays out with the three jurisdictions and we'll look at Nelson.
  • 02:11:02
    And here's the County of Nelson as well with their same debt projections.
  • 02:11:11
    At this point we're happy to take any questions.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 02:11:15
    Thank you both very much for your presentation.
  • 02:11:17
    We'll go through our order.
  • 02:11:19
    Supervisor Andrews?
• • SPEAKER_18
  • 02:11:23
    Can we get the presentation down?
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 02:11:29
    Thank you.
  • 02:11:30
    Just to clarify, you had said something about Supervisor McKeel speaking before?
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 02:11:37
    Oh, that's right.
  • 02:11:37
    I apologize.
  • 02:11:38
    Yep.
  • 02:11:38
    Okay.
  • 02:11:38
    Yeah.
  • 02:11:39
    Diantha, Supervisor McKeel?
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 02:11:41
    Now, I'll just wrap up at the end.
  • 02:11:44
    And I have a couple of questions that I'll ask as well.
  • 02:11:47
    Remember, my wrap up was at the end.
  • 02:11:48
    So let Jim go right ahead and follow our order of questions.
  • 02:11:53
    All right.
  • 02:11:53
    Thank you, Supervisor Andrews.
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 02:11:56
    Just so I understand, I'm going to try to get a handle on some of the numbers a little bit as we as we go forward.
  • 02:12:05
    This is a 20-year bond and I think it is also part of our AC44 plan then in the sense that it will carry out to that and the expectation as a life of the project would be the renovations would last well beyond that I hope.
  • 02:12:22
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 02:12:39
    Doug needs to respond I think to Jim's because we need to clarify who's holding the bond.
• • SPEAKER_18
  • 02:12:46
    I just want to clarify that the debt would be issued by the jail authority itself and so I mean the money is the money but we would see it coming or being addressed as a part of our operating budget or five-year financial plan not our capital improvement plan.
  • 02:13:01
    So that financing process would occur after all three jurisdictions have agreed to pay their share.
  • 02:13:10
    But because they're an authority, they have the ability to issue debt.
  • 02:13:14
    And that's how we would see it playing out for us.
  • 02:13:17
    We would pay our share through the operating budget.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 02:13:20
    Thank you.
  • 02:13:21
    Now surprisingly, McKeel, did you want to go ahead and do yours now or do you want to wait?
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 02:13:25
    Sure, sure.
  • 02:13:26
    I just want to be clear for everyone that it's, as Doug said, the jail authority would take on the bond and it would be in the, under the jail authority would not go into Albemarle County's capital improvement program, right?
  • 02:13:42
    I mean, just so everybody understands that.
  • 02:13:48
    Tony, could you address maybe for the board the Department of Corrections requirements because we do have to operate under specific, the localities just can't go out and upgrade to jail or build a jail.
  • 02:14:09
    just to, if you could, address that a little bit.
  • 02:14:12
    And the other thing is I think it's slightly confusing because it was for me at first.
  • 02:14:17
    You are an architect from an architectural firm, and yet we haven't even started the real design, specific design of the jail.
  • 02:14:27
    Would you address that a little bit, if you don't mind?
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 02:14:29
    So I am an architect.
  • 02:14:32
    I've been with Moseley Architects for roughly 30 years.
  • 02:14:36
    and we specialize in these type of local detention facilities.
  • 02:14:40
    Whether it be local jails or local regional jails, we do a lot of this type of work for these different localities.
  • 02:14:48
    Chris Roman is our project manager on this project.
  • 02:14:51
    Chris is very familiar also with local detention facilities.
  • 02:14:54
    Now, to Ms.
  • 02:14:57
    McKeel's question, the Board of Corrections has a jail standards.
  • 02:15:02
    It was recently passed in 2018.
  • 02:15:05
    And it requires that if a locality would increase the capacity of its jail facility or make improvements to its jail facility, for which it would seek reimbursement or additional staff, you are required to submit this community-based corrections plan.
  • 02:15:23
    And it's got those two parts.
  • 02:15:25
    One is the needs assessment, and one is the planning study.
  • 02:15:29
    The needs assessment comes into play when you're increasing the rated capacity of your facility.
  • 02:15:34
    We are not doing that in this case.
  • 02:15:36
    But for example, if you were to increase your rate of capacity from the 329 to, say, 359, you would have to provide substantiation to the Board of Corrections on why you believe that is needed.
  • 02:15:52
    And it can be based on population, what's being seen going on in the community.
  • 02:15:58
    It can be based on caseloads, what's being seen in the courts.
  • 02:16:02
    All those are part of the support
  • 02:16:04
    for that increased capacity.
  • 02:16:06
    Again, we are not doing that here.
  • 02:16:09
    Based on the work being done in the community and by your Commonwealth's attorneys, all of the pretrial programs, all of the post-trial programs are doing a great job in terms of curtailing any population growth in your facilities.
  • 02:16:25
    The second piece of that is the planning stuff.
  • 02:16:29
    And that is required whenever you make substantial improvements to the facility
  • 02:16:33
    and or expansion or renovation.
  • 02:16:37
    So what do I mean by improvements?
  • 02:16:39
    If you replace the roof of the existing jail, you have a metal roof or a rubber roof and replace that in kind with the same rubber roof or metal roof because it's worn out.
  • 02:16:50
    The facility has got some age on it.
  • 02:16:53
    The DOC, the Department of Corrections and the Commonwealth of Virginia do not reimburse 25% for that.
  • 02:16:59
    That is not considered that as an improvement.
  • 02:17:01
    That is considered as
  • 02:17:03
    care and maintenance of your facility.
  • 02:17:06
    What they do consider an improvement is if you would change a camera from a black and white static camera to a plan tilt zoom color IP addressable camera.
  • 02:17:17
    They see that as an improvement, better for the facility, better for the detainee, and better for the staff.
  • 02:17:24
    And the DOC and the state will reimburse 25% of that improvement.
  • 02:17:29
    Similarly, if you make changes to your facility, which
  • 02:17:33
    bring it more in line with the standards.
  • 02:17:35
    So the standards dictate how large a detainee cell needs to be, how large the day room needs to be, how large programming spaces need to be, whether they be indoor recreation or outdoor recreation.
  • 02:17:50
    So any time the jail makes improvements to the facility in terms of meeting those standards, the state and the Department of Corrections will approve that.
  • 02:18:02
    and we'll back it with 25%, but you've got to meet the standards.
  • 02:18:06
    So demolishing an existing wing which has undersized day rooms and undersized sleeping areas and building it back in time doesn't meet the standard.
  • 02:18:19
    And there's some areas in the current facility that are like that.
  • 02:18:22
    So our goal is to demolish some areas of the 1975 facility to a rate of,
  • 02:18:30
    Basically, rated capacity of 65 beds.
  • 02:18:33
    And we construct those beds to meet the full standard of the Department of Corrections, and seek reimbursement for that.
  • 02:18:43
    Additionally, to build some mental health and segregation beds, again, to meet the standards.
  • 02:18:50
    The requirements of the DOC dictate that if you have a 329 bed rated facility, you need 10%.
  • 02:19:01
    of what's called special purpose housing beds.
  • 02:19:05
    Those could be medical suite, those could be segregation, or those could be mental health suite.
  • 02:19:10
    What does special purpose mean?
  • 02:19:12
    Special purpose does not count as rated capacity because the intent of those beds is that an inmate who may be fallen ill would go to the medical suite, recover, and then move back into general purpose housing.
  • 02:19:27
    The existing Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail does not meet that standard.
  • 02:19:31
    We do not have 33 beds.
  • 02:19:33
    The rate of capacity is 329.
  • 02:19:35
    10% of that is 33.
  • 02:19:37
    Does not have 33 beds that meet the special purpose housing criteria.
  • 02:19:44
    As part of this renovation, we're going to construct those beds, for since we're going to be segregated and identified as mental health.
  • 02:19:54
    And we're going to have an additional second day room that could be a mental health or it could be a segregation unit.
  • 02:20:00
    Again,
  • 02:20:00
    We're providing flexibility for the jail moving forward.
  • 02:20:04
    So all of these improvements have been explained in the planning study.
  • 02:20:08
    The DOC is now reviewing that to make sure that they meet the criteria.
  • 02:20:12
    And they will ask questions of us if they have any things that are not crystal clear to them.
  • 02:20:18
    And then they will move forward in their process in terms of their review, approval, and backing with the dollars.
  • 02:20:26
    Supervisor McKeel, does that answer the question you asked?
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 02:20:29
    It does, I think that helps clarify for the board members a little bit and I just have one more point of clarification and then I'll stop.
  • 02:20:38
    But I think it's important for the board to understand maybe from Martin Coomer.
  • 02:20:42
    Martin, would you explain that we
  • 02:20:46
    We don't want to ship off the inmates, you know, our detainees in order to do this construction because we don't want to send them away from their homes and their families and we don't want to have to pay for them elsewhere.
  • 02:21:00
    Would you explain a little bit about how that's going to work?
• • SPEAKER_39
  • 02:21:02
    Yes, ma'am.
  • 02:21:04
    One of the things that makes us a prime opportunity to do this renovation and expansion is the fact that our jail population is historically at its lowest point since the late 90s.
  • 02:21:14
    One of the major issues that other jails run into when they do an expansion or renovation like this is that the individuals living in those areas that have been renovated, they have to go someplace.
  • 02:21:23
    If they can't go other places inside of your facility, they have to conserve their sentence or await trial in other jails around the state of Virginia.
  • 02:21:30
    And it's not, you can't necessarily send them all to local jails since Virginia will be a river.
  • 02:21:34
    You have to send them wherever there is space.
  • 02:21:38
    Not only that, to get to Supervisor McKeel's point, is that you can send them away from their families and social networks.
  • 02:21:44
    You also have to pay to have them sent there.
  • 02:21:47
    Back in the late 90s when we did the last renovation, we had to send 35 to 40 of our inmates who were women to a facility over on the eastern side of the state.
  • 02:21:58
    And I think they were paying $35 per day per person.
  • 02:22:01
    So it was very expensive.
  • 02:22:03
    We moved those women away from their families.
  • 02:22:06
    And in addition, all transports for court fell back on the jail.
  • 02:22:09
    So we were constantly transporting almost on a daily basis.
  • 02:22:12
    And it was to and from that facility.
  • 02:22:15
    So now is an opportune time to do something like this.
  • 02:22:18
    We can literally, we have enough space inside the facility.
  • 02:22:20
    Everyone who would be impacted by the renovation could be moved to another part of the renovation that would not be impacted as far as they're concerned.
  • 02:22:26
    Then we'd know renovation was happening.
  • 02:22:28
    And then we'd move to other parts of the facility.
  • 02:22:30
    We could then move them over here and here.
  • 02:22:33
    It's the best way to do renovations.
  • 02:22:35
    You have to do one with people occupying space for sure.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 02:22:40
    Thank you.
  • 02:22:41
    I appreciate it.
  • 02:22:42
    And I'll stop, Don.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 02:22:45
    Thank you.
  • 02:22:46
    Supervisor Andrews, you were just making a comment as I called on Supervisor McKeel.
  • 02:22:50
    I did not mean to inadvertently cut you off.
  • 02:22:53
    Did you have something else?
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 02:22:54
    No, no.
  • 02:22:55
    This has been very helpful.
  • 02:22:56
    I'm glad we had this discussion.
  • 02:22:58
    Thank you.
  • 02:22:59
    Thank you.
  • 02:23:00
    Supervisor Mallek?
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 02:23:03
    Thank you very much and thank you for the presentation and the thoroughness of it.
  • 02:23:07
    I certainly am glad to see the new focus on more rehabilitative spaces and programming and trauma-informed design.
  • 02:23:18
    I may have missed it, but does this renovation or the reimbursement also include improvements to the systems where you're improving your electrical and wiring and all that kind of support behind the walls system so that it's not just making new boxes?
• • SPEAKER_39
  • 02:23:38
    Yes ma'am, but I will turn to Tony here to really dig into that for you.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 02:23:42
    Yes ma'am, so the improvements to the HVAC system, obviously it's going to be more efficient
  • 02:23:48
    It's going to require less maintenance, so it won't have the age that it has on it.
  • 02:23:51
    And it's going to provide better circulation and better ventilation.
  • 02:23:55
    What do I mean by that?
  • 02:23:56
    So filtration is we're taking bad things out of the air.
  • 02:24:00
    I was listening to Mr. Trevor Henry's presentation a little bit earlier about improvements the county has made countywide at many of its facilities.
  • 02:24:09
    No different here at the jail, OK?
  • 02:24:11
    Same sort of thing.
  • 02:24:11
    We need fresh air for the staff.
  • 02:24:13
    We need fresh air for the detainees to keep them healthy.
  • 02:24:18
    and FIT as they serve their time here.
  • 02:24:21
    The second part is the ventilation.
  • 02:24:24
    So we're bringing in more fresh air.
  • 02:24:26
    The systems as they were designed back in 1975 met the standard.
  • 02:24:30
    But obviously, the standard has changed over the past 50 years.
  • 02:24:35
    And the systems as they currently exist do not meet the current jail standards nor the current building code.
  • 02:24:40
    So the DOC acknowledges that.
  • 02:24:44
    And these improvements that are going to be made will be 25% reimbursable.
  • 02:24:48
    Same thing with lighting.
  • 02:24:49
    You've got some old incandescent lighting.
  • 02:24:52
    You also have some old fluorescent tube lighting.
  • 02:24:55
    Those will all be replaced with new LED lighting.
  • 02:24:58
    Again, more efficient.
  • 02:24:59
    It will save you money as far as operational costs.
  • 02:25:03
    But it will also be safe and more secure for the facility.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 02:25:10
    Thank you very much.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 02:25:11
    Thank you.
  • 02:25:12
    Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley?
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 02:25:14
    Thank you very much.
  • 02:25:16
    During your presentation, Mr. Kumher, you mentioned something about 60 beds.
  • 02:25:21
    Is that, are you taking away 60 beds for the renovation and then putting up, is that 60 at a time and then putting them back?
  • 02:25:32
    And I mean, that was the beginning of your presentation, so I'm not even sure, but I heard something about 60 beds being displaced or something.
• • SPEAKER_39
  • 02:25:43
    Yes, ma'am, good question.
  • 02:25:44
    Thank you for allowing us to clarify that.
  • 02:25:46
    The section we're talking about demolishing has 60 beds in it.
  • 02:25:50
    So we'll be taking those away and we'll be adding them back.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 02:25:54
    Okay.
  • 02:25:55
    All right.
  • 02:25:56
    That's what I thought, but I wasn't sure I wanted clarification on that.
  • 02:25:59
    Thank you very much.
  • 02:26:00
    And I think this is a great project and it shows that we're going to have a better jail facility once this is all completed.
  • 02:26:09
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 02:26:10
    Thank you.
  • 02:26:12
    Supervisor Galloway.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 02:26:14
    Thank you, Superintendent Kuma.
  • 02:26:16
    Is it generally, I mean, is it generally in terms of a capacity for a jail like this that the need or the capacity follows the expected trend in the population growth?
  • 02:26:29
    Setting aside the programs that are maybe offsetting who's going into the facility, but is that the general?
  • 02:26:36
    Is there like a percentage of the population growth you would be?
  • 02:26:39
    Is that how you track or predict what your capacity needs would be?
• • SPEAKER_39
  • 02:26:44
    You don't mind, I'll answer part of it, and I'll turn it over to Tony too.
  • 02:26:46
    He specializes in this for sure.
  • 02:26:48
    But I can say, while we're not in typical, yes, to answer your question, that is one of the key factors in determining vet space needs, certainly.
  • 02:26:55
    But we're not in typical community.
  • 02:26:56
    We haven't been for probably the last 10 years, especially more so than the last four or five years.
  • 02:27:01
    We have many more programs that diversify our population, to divert our population to community programs.
  • 02:27:08
    We would take a holistic approach, every individual, to determine what's best for them.
  • 02:27:20
    The facility is projected to be at 900.
  • 02:27:24
    As you can tell, in 2022, we're at 290 when I left to come to this meeting.
  • 02:27:28
    So that's a testament to this community.
  • 02:27:31
    But with regard to your specific questions, I won't turn it over to Tony here.
  • 02:27:33
    All right.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 02:27:35
    Supervisor Gallaway, I won't compare you to other localities throughout the Commonwealth, but I will give your community kudos for everything you're doing on the pretrial and post-trial side, and especially your Commonwealth's attorneys.
  • 02:27:49
    You are anticipating, say you, together your three jurisdictions, Nelson, Charlottesville, Albemarle, are anticipating general population growth of the citizenship.
  • 02:28:02
    Typically that would come with it, an expected and anticipated increase in jail population.
  • 02:28:08
    But you have seen historically growing population over the past 10 years, over the past five years, and as
  • 02:28:18
    the superintendent indicated, your jail population today is the lowest that it's been in 20 years.
  • 02:28:25
    That is mainly attributable to all of the programs that are being offered and all the alternatives to incarceration that are being provided to the citizens that find themselves in court and on a path to the jail.
  • 02:28:40
    There is another path that is being placed before them
  • 02:28:45
    that is saving the localities money and providing a better long-term outcome for these citizens.
  • 02:28:51
    So to answer back to your questions, yes, typically you would anticipate growth in general population, growth in geo population, but not here.
  • 02:29:00
    You have done a yeoman's job in terms of creating these programs.
  • 02:29:05
    Now, the challenge will be, and this is in the needs assessment, the challenge will be sustaining that and continuing those programs and even growing them, perhaps,
  • 02:29:15
    One component that is not currently being offered that both the Commonwealth Attorney for the City of Charlottesville and the Commonwealth Attorney for Albemarle County are proponents of is a reporting center.
  • 02:29:30
    That is another thing that could do great results in terms of continuing to lower that jail population and provide better outcomes to keep folks out of jail and productive in the community.
  • 02:29:44
    You said a what kind of center, I'm sorry?
  • 02:29:47
    A day reporting center, D-A-I-R-E-P-O-R-T-I-N-G.
  • 02:29:52
    So what would happen there is that the citizens who are sentenced to be part of the day reporting center, it would be almost the opposite of what we refer to as a work release center.
  • 02:30:06
    So I'm assuming you know what a work release center is.
  • 02:30:09
    Work release center, you just spend the night in jail,
  • 02:30:11
    and during the day you go out into the community and work a job that has been obtained for you and at night you come back to the jail and sleep at the jail again.
  • 02:30:18
    A day reporting center works exactly the opposite.
  • 02:30:21
    You sleep at home with your family and support them and during the day you come to the day reporting center almost like school, almost like community college where you would have rehabilitation programs, say if you have a dependency, you would have education for that
  • 02:30:40
    You may have job skills training, and you also may provide opportunities to seek employment.
  • 02:30:48
    So that once your sentence is completed, you then have a clear pathway to bettering yourself.
  • 02:30:56
    So that's something that the community does not have right now, but it's something that both Commonwealth's attorneys are in favor of, and I believe the superintendent is in favor of as well.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 02:31:06
    Is that taken into account in your
  • 02:31:09
    in your designs, or at least are you planning?
  • 02:31:12
    I know that the designs may not be flushed out yet, but are they?
  • 02:31:18
    Let me think out loud for a minute, because I think this question will get at a couple of my other comments here.
  • 02:31:25
    Any time we do a renovation, whether it's capacity related or whatnot, you want to make sure you get the most bang for your buck.
  • 02:31:32
    It sounds to me like let's pretend for a minute that the actual beds, the population doesn't change.
  • 02:31:39
    and it sounds like we don't have the special purpose capacity right now in current to serve that population.
  • 02:31:47
    So the expansion will provide that special purpose.
  • 02:31:51
    So my mind goes to, well, let's make sure we're providing enough special purpose space because the standard or the expectation for mental health treatment, this day reporting center, I suspect could grow beyond what we may think of it as now.
  • 02:32:06
    So don't undercut it, and since we're doing the renovation, let's make sure we get in there and maximize what we think may occur as more programs come into play.
  • 02:32:16
    I was thinking mental health, but you'll obviously need room and classrooms or whatever the term is for the Dave Reporting Center, but I can't imagine the mental health
  • 02:32:28
    support that's going to be provided because I mean in my view I'm guessing the folks that remain at the jail who do not qualify for these other programs need a very specialized or enhanced version of support.
  • 02:32:41
    We want to make sure we're providing enough space for that.
  • 02:32:43
    And I would think the demand on that space could grow and it not just be based on 10% of your current population.
  • 02:32:49
    So I am not expert on this.
  • 02:32:53
    This is me thinking out loud, trying to comprehend and understand it with my end goal being that, all right, we're going to spend X amount of dollars.
  • 02:33:00
    on a facility, and it's not a small number, let's make sure that we're maximizing and keeping the flexibility in place that it is modern to our purpose 30 years down the road versus just five, if that makes sense what I'm driving at.
  • 02:33:18
    And that's not really a question.
  • 02:33:20
    That's just some food for thought or thinking out loud, if you will.
  • 02:33:24
    But that's all I have to say.
  • 02:33:25
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 02:33:29
    I have four little areas to cover.
  • 02:33:30
    First off, this presentation demonstrates the complexities not only of our budget system in terms of physical improvements, but also operational costs as things go forward.
  • 02:33:42
    It also demonstrates the complexity in particular
  • 02:33:46
    with renovations of jails because there are so many different entities that are involved in the process and I want to thank Supervisor McKeel for her long-standing and continued efforts to keep all of this on track and also to help keep us informed about how the process works.
  • 02:34:03
    When I listened to the presentation it reminded me of sort of as a parallel
  • 02:34:07
    In technology, the hardware software aspect, you have to have the right hardware and you have to have the right software.
  • 02:34:13
    In here in our correctional system, we have to have the right facility and we have to have the right programs.
  • 02:34:19
    In here, talking about the facility, if we want to have a correctional system, then it's imperative that we upgrade this physical plan.
  • 02:34:27
    Otherwise, we're just into a punitive system.
  • 02:34:30
    and if it's nothing but punitive then we will have that high rate of recidivism that was mentioned which means more expense and it also means lost lives for people who are not able to return successfully into society and we've been dealing with an over criminalization and over incarceration in our society for many years and once someone is incarcerated then they lose their jobs, lose the income, they lose their housing, their families are affected by
  • 02:34:57
    And so while recognizing that there are some individuals that that's appropriate, not everyone who's facing some sort of a charge should face that.
  • 02:35:04
    And Superintendent Coomer fully appreciating that jails do not invite people in.
  • 02:35:09
    You know, I think we never again find ourselves in a situation where our actual number of average daily confinise is basically double the capacity of the facility.
  • 02:35:23
    And I think we all in this community have a great deal of thanks to those like yourself, Supervisor McKeel, our Commonwealth's Attorney for the county, as well as for the city who have been working on these alternative methods to
  • 02:35:36
    to actually achieve correction and return people to society rather than simply locking them up and throwing the key away.
  • 02:35:43
    I'm extremely impressed with this presentation and very supportive of what you have taught to us, so I thank you.
  • 02:35:50
    Any questions or comments from any other supervisors?
  • 02:35:54
    If not, Supervisor Mallon?
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 02:35:56
    Thank you.
  • 02:35:57
    One I forgot.
  • 02:35:58
    Are there connections in the ongoing programs at the jail for
  • 02:36:04
    We're partnering with the CareerWorks Center and job training, job skill development, that kind of thing.
  • 02:36:12
    Virginia CareerWorks, PBOP.
• • SPEAKER_39
  • 02:36:15
    Well, I guess, man, there is.
  • 02:36:17
    Well, there was.
  • 02:36:18
    Around the pandemic, there was lots of things.
  • 02:36:21
    But yes, we're going to re-engage with PBOP once the pandemic is over.
  • 02:36:24
    They've been a great partner with us for, gosh, over 10 years, I believe.
  • 02:36:28
    So we'll certainly be re-engaging with them as soon as possible.
  • 02:36:33
    And we've also started engaging with the University of Virginia as well.
  • 02:36:36
    So we've been very fortunate there in our backyard.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 02:36:40
    Thank you.
  • 02:36:43
    Anything further, Mr. Walker?
  • 02:36:44
    Have you received everything that you need from the board on this presentation?
• • SPEAKER_18
  • 02:36:49
    Supervisor McKeel will close us out here.
  • 02:36:53
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 02:36:54
    Just a quick wrap up if no one else has any more questions.
  • 02:36:59
    I just want to
  • 02:37:01
    remind folks that we have a 50-year-old jail that is not up to standards.
  • 02:37:07
    We have been putting band-aids on it now for a long time, and we just need to take the bull by the horn and spend what is a considerable amount of money.
  • 02:37:19
    I will agree with you, but we need to position ourselves in the best place possible to serve our staff and our inmates and our community.
  • 02:37:30
    Compared to the expenses for a school, I know it seems like, you know, really, it's hard to compare the two because the jail is, you have to have safety concerns with the jail.
  • 02:37:41
    You have folks that are spending 24-7
  • 02:37:46
    365 days a year there.
  • 02:37:49
    So I just would like you to just remember that the expense, we will be able to tap into the Department of Corrections 25%, hopefully.
  • 02:38:03
    and we do have three jurisdictions that will be dividing the cost in some way or another.
  • 02:38:10
    I also want to just point out that I'm going to start tapping or calling folks on the phone and saying please come by for a tour.
  • 02:38:20
    because I think nothing will help you better to understand the situation than to take a tour of the jail.
  • 02:38:28
    Jim is joining me on Friday for a tour with Superintendent Coomer, and I'll be contacting the rest of you all as well.
  • 02:38:37
    Matter of fact, for the public, Superintendent Coomer has always said, anyone that wants a tour of our jail, contact me.
  • 02:38:46
    He is more than happy to provide a tour, whether it's the, you know, the press or the public.
  • 02:38:53
    But I do think it's incumbent upon the supervisors as well as the city council members, right?
  • 02:38:59
    And the supervisors from Nelson, if at all possible, to get into the jail before the fall.
  • 02:39:06
    And we really have to make some decisions.
  • 02:39:08
    So with that, I thank you.
  • 02:39:10
    Doug, do you want to add anything else?
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 02:39:12
    I'm good.
  • 02:39:13
    All right.
  • 02:39:14
    Thank you.
  • 02:39:15
    All right, thank you all.
  • 02:39:16
    And again, thank you for your presentation and the information you provided.
  • 02:39:21
    At this time, board will move to item number 12.
  • 02:39:22
    Do we have a—oh, that was a wave goodbye.
  • 02:39:26
    Sorry, Anna.
  • 02:39:26
    I wasn't sure if you were raising your hand to speak.

15. 4:15 p.m. - Closed Meeting.

• • SPEAKER_28
  • 02:39:30
    Do we have a closed motion?
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 02:39:35
    Yes, we do.
  • 02:39:36
    I move that the board go into a closed meeting pursuant to section 2.2-3711A of the Code of Virginia under subsection 1.1 to discuss and consider appointments of community members to the Architectural Review Board, the Board of Equalization, the Jefferson Area Community Criminal Justice Board, the Jefferson Area Board of Aging, Advisory Council, and seven advisory committees.
  • 02:39:59
    and number two to discuss and consider the performance of a supervisor regarding interactions with other entities and persons and number three to discuss and consider the appointment of the county attorney's successor upon his pending retirement and under subsection 6 to discuss and consider the investment of public funds in a volunteer fire company where bargaining and negotiation is involved and where if made public initially the financial interest of the county would be adversely affected
  • 02:40:27
    and under subsection 7, take consult with legal counsel and briefings by staff members pertaining to actual litigation of the board against Scottsville volunteer rescues clerk.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 02:40:37
    Thank you.
  • 02:40:37
    Second.
  • 02:40:37
    All right.
  • 02:40:38
    We have a motion and a second.
  • 02:40:40
    The clerk will call the roll.
  • 02:40:42
    Ms.
  • 02:40:42
    LaPisto-Kirtley.
  • 02:40:43
    Aye.
  • 02:40:44
    Ms.
  • 02:40:44
    Mallek.
  • 02:40:45
    Yes.
  • 02:40:46
    Ms.
  • 02:40:47
    McKeel.
  • 02:40:48
    Yes.
  • 02:40:49
    Ms.
  • 02:40:49
    Price.
  • 02:40:50
    Aye.
  • 02:40:51
    Ms.
  • 02:40:51
    Andrews.
  • 02:40:53
    Yes.
  • 02:40:54
    Ms.
  • 02:40:54
    Mallek.
  • 02:41:00
    Thank you.
  • 02:41:16
    Good evening, everyone.

16. Certify Closed Meeting.

• • SPEAKER_28
  • 02:41:17
    Welcome back.
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 02:41:23
    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.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 02:41:39
    We have a motion.
  • 02:41:40
    Do we have a second?
  • 02:41:46
    Ms.
  • 02:41:46
    LaPisto-Kirtley?
  • 02:41:47
    Aye.
  • 02:41:48
    Ms.
  • 02:41:48
    Mallek?
  • 02:41:49
    Yes.
  • 02:41:50
    Ms.
  • 02:41:51
    McKeel?
  • 02:41:52
    Yes.
  • 02:41:53
    Ms.
  • 02:41:53
    Price?
  • 02:41:54
    Aye.
  • 02:41:55
    Mr. Andrews?
  • 02:41:57
    Yes.
  • 02:41:58
    Mr. Mallek?
  • 02:41:59
    Yes.
  • 02:42:00
    All right, thank you.
  • 02:42:02
    We did not finish our full discussion of boards and commissions, so we will be going back into closing
  • 02:42:13
    We now turn to item number 15 from the county executive, Mr. Richardson.
• • SPEAKER_30
  • 02:42:22
    Nothing this evening, Chair Price.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 02:42:24
    All right, thank you, Mr. Richardson.
  • 02:42:26
    All right, Board, at this time, we'll move to item number 16 from the public.
  • 02:42:30
    I understand that we do have some individuals signed up, so I'll turn it over to Vice Chair LaPisto-Kirtley to read the procedural rules.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 02:42:40
    During the time set aside for matters not listed for the public hearing on the agenda, individuals may address the Board of Supervisors concerning matters previously considered by the Board or matters that are pending before the Board, other than items listed on the agenda for public hearing.
  • 02:42:58
    Individuals are allowed three minutes to speak.
  • 02:43:01
    A sign-up sheet is managed by the Clerk's Office.
  • 02:43:04
    Timekeeping is conducted through a timer.
  • 02:43:07
    The timer will commence when you begin speaking and this begins your allotted time.
  • 02:43:11
    You will be notified when the three minutes are up and you are requested to bring your comments to a close as your microphone will be muted after about five more seconds.
  • 02:43:21
    In order to give all speakers equal treatment and courtesy, the board requests that speakers adhere to the following guidelines.
  • 02:43:28
    When called to address the board, please state your name and if you live in Albemarle County, your magisterial district.
  • 02:43:35
    Address comments directly to the board as a whole.
  • 02:43:38
    If you have written statements,
  • 02:43:40
    and other supporting material, you may email them to the clerk to be included in the record.
  • 02:43:45
    If you represent a group or organization, you may identify the group to be recognized.
  • 02:43:51
    If you exceed your allotted time, you will be asked to end your comments and the microphone will be muted.
  • 02:43:57
    If a speaker does not use all allocated time, the unused time may not be shared with another speaker.
  • 02:44:03
    Speakers are permitted one opportunity to comment during each of the public comments periods permitting.
  • 02:44:10
    Back and forth debate is not permitted.
  • 02:44:13
    You are reminded that all comments are live streamed, recorded, and published on the Albemarle County website.
  • 02:44:20
    If participating by phone, please press star 9 to let us know you want to speak.
  • 02:44:26
    Then, star 6 is from the landline to unmute.
  • 02:44:30
    If by Zoom, please remain muted until you are called to speak.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 02:44:34
    All right, thank you, Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.
  • 02:44:39
    If the clerk will identify our first speaker, please.
• • SPEAKER_14
  • 02:44:44
    Madam Chair, if I may, can I request a brief pause in order to allow the speaker to answer their profile questions?
  • 02:44:52
    Susan Shearin, in the chat message, there are profile questions if you could please answer those.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 02:45:01
    I'm sorry, I was not able to hear what you were saying, Ms.
  • 02:45:04
    Borgerson.
• • SPEAKER_14
  • 02:45:06
    Madam Chair, the speaker is ready and it is Susan Schulman.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 02:45:09
    All right, thank you.
  • 02:45:11
    Please proceed.
• • SPEAKER_31
  • 02:45:16
    Good evening.
  • 02:45:17
    I'm Susan Sherman, and I'm speaking tonight in my position as the executive director of the Charlottesville Free Clinic.
  • 02:45:25
    Thank you very much for your support over the years of the Free Clinic, which this year is celebrating its 30th anniversary.
  • 02:45:32
    I'm just speaking briefly to thank you very much for including us in the proposed fiscal 23 budget and holding the proposed funding steady as you have over the past several years.
  • 02:45:44
    We continue to serve a critical need in this community.
  • 02:45:49
    We serve about 3,000 patients a year within the city and the county and outlying counties that are covered by the Blue Ridge Health District.
  • 02:45:59
    The pandemic has proven quite challenging as you can imagine, but we've risen to the occasion and never closed our doors.
  • 02:46:07
    We continue to see unprecedented demand for our services, most notably mental health and in dental services.
  • 02:46:15
    We are in fact, although we don't, by definition, treat patients that are Medicaid eligible, because there are no dentists in the area that are accepting Medicaid, even though Medicaid did expand to cover adult dental services over the summer, no dentists are accepting Medicaid patients.
  • 02:46:35
    So we continue to treat Medicaid eligible dental patients because there's nowhere else for these individuals to go.
  • 02:46:43
    and we've seen increased demand for our services, as I said, across the board this past year, a 50% increase in requests by new patients.
  • 02:46:53
    So we are a streamlined staff by definition, free clinics are streamlined staff surrounded by robust community providers.
  • 02:47:02
    So we, unlike the federally qualified health centers, we rely entirely
  • 02:47:08
    Philanthropy, and local support.
  • 02:47:10
    So thank you for including us again in the budget and hope that the final version will mirror what the proposed line item supports right now.
  • 02:47:23
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 02:47:25
    Thank you.
  • 02:47:25
    And I understand from the clerks that we have no other signups today, correct?
  • 02:47:30
    All right, thank you.
  • 02:47:33
    We'll move to item number 17, our public hearings.
  • 02:47:37
    The first one this evening is the county's executive recommended budget.
  • 02:47:42
    And Mr. Richardson, I understand that you will be taking this.
• • SPEAKER_30
  • 02:47:47
    Yes, Chair Price, I sure will.
  • 02:47:49
    I believe we'll also be joined this evening.
  • 02:47:52
    Ms.
  • 02:47:52
    Kilroy is going to help me with the slide presentation, but I believe we're also going to be joined this evening by our Chief Finance Officer, Ms.
  • 02:47:59
    Nelsie Burch, and our Chief of Budget, Mr. Andy Bowman.
  • 02:48:04
    They'll be with us this evening, too.
  • 02:48:07
    And so, Chair Price and members of the board, this is
  • 02:48:13
    to be an abbreviated budget presentation on the fiscal year 23 recommended budget, which is ahead of the public hearing.
  • 02:48:20
    And so before we get started, I would first of all like to thank the board for your support and for the hard work that we have ahead of us at the end of this presentation.
  • 02:48:31
    I will outline what happens after the public hearing tonight, because as this board knows, we have a number of public, we have a number of work sessions, budget work sessions,
  • 02:48:39
    They're going to be coming down the pike just in a few days, and then we'll work through the month of March.
  • 02:48:45
    So, but I will, this will be an abbreviated presentation.
  • 02:48:49
    As the board knows, last week we rolled the budget out, and I believe we were at about 40 to 45 minutes.
  • 02:48:55
    We'll just hit just some highlights for tonight, and then I'll step away and let the board go through the public hearing.
  • 02:49:03
    This slide represents our total budget, which is $565.1 million.
  • 02:49:09
    This is a picture of the all funds budget.
  • 02:49:13
    And board, I want to take just a minute to answer some questions that we've received this week regarding the growth in the budget.
  • 02:49:20
    The all funds total budget value incorporates every fund the county maintains.
  • 02:49:27
    Now this includes the county's general fund, which we'll talk about in just a few minutes, because this is the fund that the board has the most authority with as it relates to directing the services, the positions, the priorities.
  • 02:49:40
    And so we'll spend a little bit more time with the general fund in just a few minutes.
  • 02:49:43
    But the all funds total budget also includes the county schools funds, all grant funding, and capital funds.
  • 02:49:53
    These funds can be highly variable year to year.
  • 02:49:56
    As an example, the FY23 recommended budget includes the influx of $12 million in remaining one-time funding through the American Rescue Plan Act.
  • 02:50:08
    Additionally, the nature of capital projects and their related borrowing will vary year to year based on the timing of projects beginning.
  • 02:50:19
    For example, the fiscal year 23 budget recommends including the increase of $31 million in borrowed proceeds to support notable projects such as the public high school innovation capacity project and the final phases of the court's capital project.
  • 02:50:39
    Okay.
  • 02:50:46
    The board, you can see on this slide the fluctuations that happen in the capital budget.
  • 02:50:51
    In different years, the capital budget increases and decreases due to the timing of projects in part and the timing of debt issuance that supports the projects that we're undertaking.
  • 02:51:04
    The board knows that we have a five-year capital plan and any one year, so in fiscal year 23, we're looking at that year's capital budget.
  • 02:51:13
    which should reflect the work that's going on in that particular year.
  • 02:51:17
    But in our CIP, we're talking about five years and across that five years, depending on the timing of the debt borrowing, the timing of how the projects are closed out, that can affect the overall capital budget for that year.
  • 02:51:36
    As I said earlier,
  • 02:51:37
    We were going to take a couple of minutes to talk generally about the general fund.
  • 02:51:42
    The general fund tends to be the more useful year to year comparison point because it's where all tax revenue is received.
  • 02:51:50
    And it is the primary ongoing funding source for the school fund, the capital fund, the debt program.
  • 02:51:57
    It also doesn't include pass through grants that may vary from year to year.
  • 02:52:03
    And that's where the board has the ultimate authority over the investments that we make.
  • 02:52:09
    Okay so the general fund if you want to just go back one second I'm sorry the general fund revenues for fiscal year 23 are estimated at 368.2 million the general fund is built on maintaining the current tax rate at 85.4 cents per 100 assessed value tax rate that's the same as calendar year 21 and as well as some of the other revenue adjustments that I will address in just a moment
  • 02:52:40
    When you look at the general fund revenues in recent history, we see an increasing trend from fiscal year 17 through 20.
  • 02:52:48
    The goal line is a trend line of how we might have expected the revenues to grow over time had the trend continued.
  • 02:52:57
    Of course, board, you can see the past several years and how that's been impacted by COVID-19 and that trend took a fairly sharp downward turn.
  • 02:53:07
    But when we extend that trend from 17 to 20 all across to 23, you can see that we're just slightly behind where we might have been with projected revenues to be at this particular time.
  • 02:53:22
    The fiscal year 21 budget was adopted at the very early stages of the pandemic and a decrease from the FY20 adopted budget.
  • 02:53:31
    You can see that on the slide.
  • 02:53:33
    The county then utilized a cautious approach to manage our financial position as we learned more about long-term impacts that the pandemic would have on our local economy.
  • 02:53:43
    We called this budgeting process the 3-6-6-12 approach, which really took us from the last three months of 2020
  • 02:53:52
    all the way through 21 into where we are today.
  • 02:53:55
    The FY22 budget was adopted in May of 21, and it included revenue projections largely informed by the activity during the first three quarters of fiscal year 21.
  • 02:54:06
    That's shown in the first light blue bar in the graph above.
  • 02:54:10
    Subsequent to the budget adoption, the economic recovery became much more pronounced in the fourth quarter of FY21 through the first two quarters of FY22.
  • 02:54:20
    That's when we began to look at being able to, on very stable economy, to look at some mid-year adjustments.
  • 02:54:27
    The Board of Supervisors approved a budget amendment in December of 2021 as part of the county's financial management strategy to be flexible as we began to move out of the pandemic.
  • 02:54:41
    shown in the second light blue bar, which was an increase of 8.2% of the adopted FY22 budget.
  • 02:54:49
    And that was responding to the growth in revenues above what we had projected when the FY22 budget was adopted.
  • 02:54:55
    The FY23 budget is 8.1% over the revised FY22 budget.
  • 02:55:02
    The FY23 recommended budget continues the decisions and makes further investments in the county's strategic priorities, and it's based on anticipated revenue growth in fiscal year 23.
  • 02:55:13
    The impact of each revenue source on an individual or household's bottom line is different.
  • 02:55:25
    The growth of the share of local revenues from the real property tax shown on the table on this slide and accounting for the new enabling authority from the state to make some changes in different revenue categories led to the recommendation to increase the food and beverage and transit occupancy tax rates, as well as considering the tax rates in those areas relative to other cities and counties in the Commonwealth.
  • 02:55:51
    This has had the effect of diversifying local revenues to reduce the reliance on real estate and broaden the impact to activities related to visitors to our community who stay in our hotels and primarily eat out while they're here.
  • 02:56:10
    How we achieve that in the budget recommendation is spelled out on this slide.
  • 02:56:14
    The real property tax rate is recommended to remain at its current rate
  • 02:56:19
    We have included the recent inactive cigarette tax and the plastic bag tax that the board will be considering over the next few weeks.
  • 02:56:26
    The personal property tax rate is recommended to drop by 86 cents to $3.42 per $100 valuation.
  • 02:56:35
    due to a spike mainly in used car values that we've seen nationwide over the past year.
  • 02:56:43
    The property tax rate also applies to the business personal property tax, which has a positive impact to both residents and businesses.
  • 02:56:56
    The balance of my remarks, we're going to focus on the general fund, which is what funds Albemarle County government.
  • 02:57:02
    Those are the services with the circles that you see that are connected that suggests all of the varying services that we provide the community here in Albemarle County.
  • 02:57:12
    But we also lean on our partnerships with our key partnership agencies, our community partners, our agency partners, which are about 65.
  • 02:57:21
    Thank you.
  • 02:57:27
    In balance with the recommended expenditures, with the transfer to the school division to meet their request of $167.5 million, there is additional $35.8 million in capital and debt, $15.5 million in revenue sharing payment to the city, and the balance to support the work of the services that we provide the community.
  • 02:57:55
    As I discussed last week, this budget reflects that our local economy has recovered from the pandemic and that we're in a financial position to move forward with the community's strategic priorities.
  • 02:58:07
    to address school capacity, recreational needs, to meet our public safety needs and our human service needs, to address critical infrastructure and urban service needs, and to support our organization in our efforts to provide effective services that meets our community needs.
  • 02:58:24
    The four blocks that you see in front of you is a framework that I will show some of the investments that we've recommended for the coming budgets.
  • 02:58:38
    The first area is transformative capital investments.
  • 02:58:42
    When I take a look at our five-year capital plan and then I look at the fiscal year 2023 capital budget, I believe that it's transformational.
  • 02:58:50
    Our investments in financial management have allowed us to be smarter in how we're funding projects.
  • 02:58:55
    and how we're being strong fiscal stewards.
  • 02:58:58
    At the same time, recent recommended investments to increase our throughput of getting the work done will enable us to finish projects more quickly and bring those projects online.
  • 02:59:08
    As you can see on this slide, this budget recommends that over the next five years that we will advance three new school projects to address capacity needs within our school system, two elementary schools and a second high school center.
  • 02:59:21
    This recommended budget supports the second phase of Biscuit Run Park.
  • 02:59:26
    This is a 1,200 acre natural park in the county's development area that will provide a park experience like we have not seen with any of our existing parks.
  • 02:59:35
    This budget also continues to fund our much needed courts expansion and renovation project, which will make our court system more safe and more modernized.
  • 02:59:45
    It also provides funding to continue to advance broadband infrastructure work
  • 02:59:50
    And finally, the budget recommends continued investments in transportation leveraging program, which is critical because it provides local funding to draw down much needed state funding for road, bike, and pedestrian improvements.
  • 03:00:04
    Okay?
  • 03:00:12
    The next category is working differently.
  • 03:00:14
    Our community continues to adapt and to grow.
  • 03:00:17
    And as a government, we must work differently to be able to keep pace with the community that we serve.
  • 03:00:24
    This budget recommendation will launch a community response team led by our Department of Social Services.
  • 03:00:30
    It will also include a police officer, a firefighter EMT, and a social worker.
  • 03:00:35
    These folks will respond to calls for individuals that are in crisis.
  • 03:00:39
    This program responds to a troubling growth in mental health calls for service that have their own unique needs.
  • 03:00:46
    This program allows us to preserve our fire rescue and police resources
  • 03:00:50
    where an urgent medical issue or criminal matter is not a part of the situation and works with the individual during the crisis but also afterwards to get them the support services that they need.
  • 03:01:03
    This program I'm recommending is to be funded with the revenue from our cigarette tax which took effect January 1.
  • 03:01:10
    The budget recommends using a portion of our American Rescue Plan Act money funding in order to fund a sewer connection program for individuals
  • 03:01:19
    that are in the urban area and that are currently on septic but could connect to urban sewer services.
  • 03:01:26
    There are approximately 250 households in our community that we believe that would qualify for this and I'm excited because this has an environmental impact.
  • 03:01:35
    It also strengthens the housing in our urban areas.
  • 03:01:39
    The budget recommends that our Yancey Community Center continues to be a part of our work fostering community and providing a home for supportive services in the southern part of our county.
  • 03:01:52
    Because of the workload with our comprehensive plan, we're recommending two three-year temporary engagement coordinators to help with some of the community advisory committee work and also build relationships with individuals and community organizations in other parts of the county.
  • 03:02:13
    Urban service delivery.
  • 03:02:15
    This budget makes investments in urban levels of service.
  • 03:02:18
    We're recommending that we invest in a street sweeper program, which would be both for staffing and for the capital equipment investment.
  • 03:02:27
    This will strengthen in the urban areas the frequency of street sweeping, which is good for keeping bike lanes clear of debris.
  • 03:02:36
    It keeps contaminants out of our waste streams.
  • 03:02:39
    We're also recommending investments in strengthening our capacity for right-of-way management, vegetation management, to better manage and maintain our existing spaces.
  • 03:02:49
    We also are going to look at an investment through the board's interest in the Albemarle Transit Expansion Study.
  • 03:02:55
    We're going to recommend a pilot program for microtransit that will leverage state and federal funding for an innovative on-demand service model in the 29 North and Pantops area.
  • 03:03:06
    We're also recommending that we invest further in fire service delivery by placing an engine out at pan tops on a 24 hour a day, seven day a week operation.
  • 03:03:18
    And that will further support and strengthen our fire rescue service system.
  • 03:03:23
    Also, two additional police officers for our policing, our squad-based policing model.
  • 03:03:29
    Further investment in our economic development fund to support business retention and expansion, as well as provide additional funding to our Convention and Visitors Bureau for marketing efforts to strengthen our tourism sector.
  • 03:03:51
    Quality government operations is the final area that I'll speak about.
  • 03:03:55
    It underpins our ability to execute in the programs, the services, the projects that our community relies on to stay safe and to keep moving forward.
  • 03:04:03
    Our people are the backbone of the organization and of this community.
  • 03:04:08
    This recommended budget includes a 4% market adjustment for all qualified staff.
  • 03:04:13
    That would be affected July the 1st.
  • 03:04:15
    We will continue in doing that to study the market.
  • 03:04:19
    It also has money set aside for a complete compensation and pay study for the entire organization to get our market rates, to get our compensation and pay plan all up to a recognized market.
  • 03:04:36
    This recommended budget supports our core systems modernization work, and that means continued investment in enterprise solutions that allows our teams to effectively manage resources and to provide a much more streamlined customer service experience.
  • 03:04:52
    It focuses on our financial systems, our HR systems, our asset management systems, and also community development and our broader customer service management.
  • 03:05:08
    or there are over 50 boards and commissions that have seats for community member appointments.
  • 03:05:12
    This budget recommends providing a dedicated administrative support to support the recruitment applications and onboarding for the more than 200 community member positions and to support the 50 boards and commissions that work up through the Board of Supervisors.
  • 03:05:31
    Okay.
  • 03:05:33
    So that is a very brief overview in some of the key areas of county government where we have recommended for there to be additional investment in this fiscal year 23 budget.
  • 03:05:45
    From here, the board will work through March and into the first week of April on reviewing the budget book in depth, as well as special topics as we identify them.
  • 03:05:54
    The budget is expected to have a final public hearing on the board proposed budget on April the 27th.
  • 03:06:01
    We expect the board will approve the fiscal year 23 budget and set the calendar year 2022 tax rate on May the 4th.
  • 03:06:10
    Chair Price and members of the board, again, thank you for your hard work to this point.
  • 03:06:15
    I do have two staff who are with me tonight.
  • 03:06:18
    I believe our finance officer, Nelson Birch, our budget chief, Andy Bowman.
  • 03:06:23
    So if there are questions from the board, I know you do have a public hearing tonight, but we'll be happy to answer any questions that you have.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:06:30
    Mr. Richardson, thank you very much for that presentation.
  • 03:06:33
    Board, we'll go around and ask our questions first, if there are any, before opening the public hearing.
  • 03:06:38
    Supervisor Andrews?
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 03:06:41
    I'm going to have a lot of comments maybe after the public hearing, but I have one question.
  • 03:06:45
    I just want to make sure I understand this better.
  • 03:06:48
    You know, there's been some discussion about trying to compare this budget to last year's adopted budget.
  • 03:06:58
    which understood in the pandemic had significant austerity measures in place and during the course of the year was adjusted upward considerably and we've seen the same thing today in discussion of the school budget and that the proposal was listed as having a certain increase over last year's budget but it's not over the budget last year meaning this year the current year's budget but it's not really reflective of what was adopted
  • 03:07:27
    So tell me a little bit more perhaps about how the budget gets changed during the year and the comparison the adopted budget to budgets as the year goes on.
  • 03:07:41
    I know that this the three six adjustments come in part by seeing what the revenues actually were during the different periods, but I just wonder if you could just clarify that for me a little bit.
• • SPEAKER_30
  • 03:07:57
    Supervisor Andrews, let me ask, I'm looking to see either if Ms.
  • 03:08:02
    Birch or Mr. Bowman would like to answer this question just so that you can hear from someone else who might be able to offer a little broader perspective on this or maybe able to give you more detailed information than maybe I'm able to do.
  • 03:08:19
    So, Andy or Nelsie, would you like to step up and answer this?
• • SPEAKER_37
  • 03:08:22
    Yeah, I will start and then Andy can fill in any gaps that there are.
  • 03:08:27
    Supervisor Andrews, and for those of you who are watching, I'm Nelsie Burch, the Chief Financial Officer for the county.
  • 03:08:34
    What I want you and others to take away from this is it's not normal to amend your budget during the year.
  • 03:08:40
    So typically, focusing on an adopted budget is the budget, because that was your spending plan that goes through a public process.
  • 03:08:51
    And that's what we're doing now for the fiscal 23 budget.
  • 03:08:54
    What makes telling the story about how we got here so difficult is because of how and when you have to recommend your next year's budget.
  • 03:09:06
    And during the pandemic, we were basing the FY22 budget, which is the budget that has the weird anomaly where we're saying, don't look at the adopted budget, look at the revised budget we did in December.
  • 03:09:19
    Because we didn't know the performance of our revenue strain.
  • 03:09:22
    until after that budget was adopted and had gone through the public process.
  • 03:09:27
    And so by the time we knew that our foundational revenues, that the revenues that are ongoing, not one time ongoing, had risen to the levels that we hadn't expected, they would rise to in fiscal 22.
  • 03:09:43
    And because of that 36612 approach,
  • 03:09:46
    That is when we came back to the board last fall to say we need to do something different or we're going to have an extremely large surplus in fiscal 22.
  • 03:09:55
    And when you have those situations, again, it was because our budget was adopted before we knew what we knew about that fourth quarter.
  • 03:10:03
    And the two things that you can control in a budget is you either have to reduce your revenues or increase your expenditures in order to mitigate against any end of the year surplus.
  • 03:10:15
    And so knowing that the 22 budget was more of an anemic budget, we didn't bring back all of the things that we had wanted to pre-pandemic.
  • 03:10:26
    We brought a proposal to the board to really start to kickstart some things that we would have done in July if we would have known things differently.
  • 03:10:33
    And we didn't.
  • 03:10:34
    So we learned, we found out that the revenue structure was stabilized, that we were back to a level that we didn't expect when we put that budget together.
  • 03:10:45
    And that is why you see the December really an amended budget.
  • 03:10:52
    And that is why we want
  • 03:10:54
    We want the community to understand that that's really the budget for fiscal 22 because of the environment we've had to work in as we tried to budget revenues during the pandemic.
  • 03:11:07
    I hope that helps, Supervisor Andrews, at least for today.
  • 03:11:10
    And then obviously, we will talk more about this as we go through over the next few weeks in the work session.
  • 03:11:16
    Andy, is there anything you wanted to add?
• • SPEAKER_10
  • 03:11:19
    I think that's a good summary and I think one of the things that we can hit on in the Brooks Sessions and we talk about in the document some sort of what we learned and when.
  • 03:11:26
    About this time, a year ago, the vaccines were rolling out.
  • 03:11:29
    It was still in the very early stages.
  • 03:11:30
    Many had not been able to access, even though their demand was there.
  • 03:11:34
    The American Rescue Plan Act was only being kind of discussed at the federal revenue, but was not law yet.
  • 03:11:40
    And when we looked at a lot of the trends in our consumer-driven taxes, we had not seen the rebound that we would then later see in the following months from about where we were a year ago.
  • 03:11:49
    But we can walk through some of the data in terms of how that evolved, again, because it wasn't so much just the end of fiscal year 22,
  • 03:11:56
    how that continued all the way through, I'm sorry, I spoke about fiscal years.
  • 03:12:02
    It wasn't just the end of fiscal year 21, it was how we began to see that continued strengthen into fiscal year 22.
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 03:12:09
    One more quick follow up since you're on this slide.
  • 03:12:12
    That trend line, that's not an 8.2 or 8.1 percent trend line.
  • 03:12:19
    Did you have the percentage on that?
  • 03:12:20
    I think it's about like five something, but I don't know if you calculated it.
• • SPEAKER_10
  • 03:12:27
    Off the top of my head, I can certainly look that up and get to you, but that really refers to the trend from fiscal year 17 through 20.
  • 03:12:34
    8.2% compares to the 22 revised to the 22 adopted.
  • 03:12:39
    Then 8.1% is comparing the 23 recommended to the 22 revised.
  • 03:12:44
    Certainly on average, it does look like four or five.
  • 03:12:47
    I can pull it up in just a moment.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:12:49
    Thanks.
  • 03:12:50
    That's fine.
  • 03:12:52
    Thank you.
  • 03:12:54
    Thank you, Supervisor McKeel.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 03:12:58
    I think I'm good at this point, but thank you for the presentation, Jeff and Nelsie.
  • 03:13:03
    And, Andy, I appreciate the explanation from Jim's question.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:13:08
    Thank you.
  • 03:13:09
    Supervisor Mallek?
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 03:13:11
    Thank you.
  • 03:13:12
    On slide eight, I noticed, having seen this several times now, the DSS circle, Department of Social Services, seems smaller than I expected it to be, and I'm wondering if that's because there's so much outside funding that comes from the federal and state government, and what your circle represents is local funding.
  • 03:13:31
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:13:36
    Thank you.
  • 03:13:37
    Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley?
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 03:13:41
    No questions at this time, thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:13:42
    Thank you, Supervisor Galloway.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 03:13:46
    Are they going to do an answer there on Supervisor Malek's question?
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:13:53
    I'm sorry, I wasn't sure if that was a comment or a question, so we'll put it as a question.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 03:13:59
    Number, I think it's slide eight, the DSS.
• • SPEAKER_37
  • 03:14:02
    Yeah, I'm going to ask Mr. Bowman if he knows that off the top of his head, the data that fed that chart,
• • SPEAKER_10
  • 03:14:10
    We will clarify in terms of what that includes.
  • 03:14:13
    Certainly when we think of health and welfare, the Department of Social Services is one component of that and the local funding of the Department of Social Services is even smaller than when we think of the state and federal funding they leverage and also our partners in the community like the health department in Region 10.
  • 03:14:27
    So we can follow up on that and to speak to Mr. Andrews' question before, that average increase from fiscal year 17 to 20 was closer to 6% than 5%.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 03:14:38
    Can you just show that slide when Supervisor Mallek asked that question?
  • 03:14:41
    I visually couldn't remember what.
  • 03:14:47
    Oh, right, because the circles kind of coincide with the size of the... The size of the circle has meaning, right?
  • 03:14:57
    I forgot which slide she was referring to.
  • 03:14:59
    Thank you for that.
• • SPEAKER_10
  • 03:15:00
    We'll get that clarified in future graphics.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 03:15:06
    My only question was on the first slide, the total budget.
  • 03:15:14
    Mr. Richardson made the point that the ARPA, the 12 million funding was in there and I'm presuming if you're looking at that bucket, Mr. Richardson, that's under the federal revenue or is that under other local revenue?
  • 03:15:29
    Like which piece of the pie would that 12 million fall into if I were
  • 03:15:34
    as I understand the chart.
• • SPEAKER_30
  • 03:15:37
    Andy, can you take a look at that and answer that question?
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 03:15:40
    Yes, ARPA has included the American Rescue Plan Act, also known as ARPA, is included as part of federal revenue.
  • 03:15:46
    Right.
  • 03:15:47
    So the 36.2 includes that $12 million that was called out.
• • SPEAKER_10
  • 03:15:51
    Correct.
  • 03:15:51
    When we look at our total federal revenue, we're up in the budget compared to the 22 adopted, about $14.5 million.
  • 03:15:57
    $12 of that is the ARPA funding.
  • 03:15:59
    That's one of the anomalies when we look at the total budget year to year.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 03:16:06
    As we go through work sessions, it'll be interesting.
  • 03:16:08
    We may have to do some asterisks or something that call out in our presentation some of that.
  • 03:16:13
    Not so much, well, one for me to help us keep it straight, but so that the public can see that, because that is a difference than what we've done in prior years.
  • 03:16:24
    But I'll reserve other comments and things to add to the public comment portion.
  • 03:16:28
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:16:29
    Thank you very briefly.
  • 03:16:32
    First off, I really appreciate the explanation of the difference between the all funds and the general fund that really helps in terms of understanding some of these percentage changes that have been
  • 03:16:49
    I want to thank you for that.
  • 03:16:50
    The second thing, there's so many things in your proposed budget alike.
  • 03:16:55
    And Mr. Richardson, I've long been a believer that if you propose a tax where there could be a specific or should be a specific use for that revenue, that that's where the money should go.
  • 03:17:07
    So for example, the cigarette tax being used towards a community response is a very appropriate
  • 03:17:13
    Utilization of that funding rather than it simply disappearing into a general budget.
  • 03:17:19
    And I'm very appreciative of what I see with the sewer connection program that has long been a topic of affordable housing for those who are already in their residences.
  • 03:17:29
    And within our urban rain, that really is a significant thing.
  • 03:17:32
    So I thank you for that.
  • 03:17:34
    I will hold off on any other questions I might have.
  • 03:17:39
    And we'll open for the public hearing.
  • 03:17:44
    I'm sorry.
  • 03:17:46
    Okay, thank you.
  • 03:17:54
    If you would identify the first speaker, please.
  • 03:17:58
    Do I need to?
  • 03:17:59
    Oh, yeah.
  • 03:17:59
    Thank you.
  • 03:18:01
    Vice Chair LaPisto-Kirtley, I'm really having a hard time hearing our clerks and their comments.
  • 03:18:06
    I don't know if our supervisors are.
  • 03:18:09
    Thank you.
  • 03:18:10
    So Vice Chair LaPisto-Kirtley, if you'll read the procedural rules.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 03:18:14
    During public hearings, the board will acknowledge speakers addressing the item listed for public hearing.
  • 03:18:20
    Speakers are limited to one appearance of three minutes per public hearing item.
  • 03:18:25
    The clerk's office will identify each speaker.
  • 03:18:28
    Applicants are limited to a 10-minute presentation of their proposal and are allowed a five-minute rebuttal at the close of the public hearing.
  • 03:18:40
    Timekeeping is conducted for a timer.
  • 03:18:43
    The timer will commence when you begin speaking and this begins your allotted time.
  • 03:18:47
    You will be notified when the three minutes are up and you are requested to bring your comments to a close as your microphone will be muted after about five more seconds.
  • 03:18:57
    In order to give all speakers equal treatment and courtesy, the board requests that speakers adhere to the following guidelines.
  • 03:19:04
    When called to address the board, please state your name and if you live in Albemarle County, your magisterial district.
  • 03:19:10
    Address your comments directly to the board as a whole.
  • 03:19:14
    If you have written statements and other supporting material, you may email them to the clerk to be included in the record.
  • 03:19:21
    If you represent a group or organization, you may identify the group to be recognized.
  • 03:19:27
    If you exceed your allotted time, you will be asked to end your comments and the microphone will be muted.
  • 03:19:33
    If the speaker does not use all allocated time, the unused time may not be shared with another speaker.
  • 03:19:39
    Speakers are permitted one opportunity to comment during each of the public comment periods per meeting.
  • 03:19:46
    Back and forth debate is not permitted.
  • 03:19:48
    You are reminded that all comments are live streamed, recorded, and published on the Albemarle County website.
  • 03:19:56
    If participating by phone, please press star 9 to let us know you want to speak.
  • 03:20:02
    then star six from a landline to unmute.
  • 03:20:06
    If by Zoom, please remain muted until you are called to speak.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:20:11
    Thank you.
  • 03:20:12
    If the clerk will identify the first speaker, please.
• • SPEAKER_14
  • 03:20:15
    Our first speaker is Rex Lindville.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:20:18
    All right.
• • SPEAKER_29
  • 03:20:18
    Thank you.
  • 03:20:20
    Go ahead, please.
• • SPEAKER_11
  • 03:20:23
    Good evening.
  • 03:20:24
    My name is Rex Lindville with the Piedmont Environmental Council and I reside in the Samuel Miller District of Albemarle County.
  • 03:20:29
    I'd like to start by supporting the recommended funding for Biscuit Run Park.
  • 03:20:33
    We're particularly enthusiastic about the proposed investment in Connector Greenway into the park and the work that county staff has re-initiated over the past few months with adjoining neighborhoods to facilitate this connection.
  • 03:20:45
    This work will dovetail nicely with the SmartScale funded 5th Street Trail Hub project.
  • 03:20:50
    We're also delighted to see over $20 million in transportation leveraging program, which will allow the county to move forward with a variety of transportation priorities, including
  • 03:20:59
    Mike Pegg quality of life projects.
  • 03:21:02
    Despite these and numerous other high points in the budget, we are disappointed to see conservation funding being zeroed out.
  • 03:21:10
    Mitigating the impacts of climate change, protecting land for wildlife habitat, biodiversity, agriculture, and forestry, protecting drinking water supply in the Rivanna River, protecting water quality in the Chesapeake Bay are all of paramount importance.
  • 03:21:24
    That's why scientists and politicians around the world are calling for us to increase our conservation efforts
  • 03:21:29
    and strive to protect 30% of our lands and waters by 2030.
  • 03:21:34
    As you all know, our land and water resources are vital to the future of our region and are a critical component of what makes Albemarle County such a special place to live.
  • 03:21:42
    In fact, the Albemarle County Comprehensive Plan acknowledges this throughout the document and specifically calls for the county to quote, strengthen the acquisition of conservation easements ACE program by providing a stable, dedicated funding source and staff resources for administering the program, end quote.
  • 03:22:00
    In the past, the county has made significant investments in conservation.
  • 03:22:05
    And at its peak, the county was investing more than $1.6 million annually in conservation.
  • 03:22:10
    Unfortunately, this budget does not continue that conservation leadership example, and as a result will cost future generations.
  • 03:22:18
    We should be increasing the pace of conservation in Albemarle County, not stepping back from it and planning to do less.
  • 03:22:25
    I know that many or even all of the members of the Board of Supervisors are strongly supportive of conservation and numerous surveys have shown that Albemarle County residents share this support.
  • 03:22:36
    I implore you to invest in conservation and invest in our future.
  • 03:22:40
    Please do not leave this important program on the cutting room floor.
  • 03:22:42
    We need to protect our land and waters today so that future generations can benefit for them tomorrow.
  • 03:22:48
    Finally, I will close by applauding you for including the adoption of a plastic bag tax in the 2023 budget.
  • 03:22:55
    I would recommend that this tax also be coupled with a community education campaign to inform residents of the sustainable alternatives to thin film plastic bags.
  • 03:23:03
    Thank you very much for your time and all the work that staff have put into this budget so far.
  • 03:23:07
    I appreciate it.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:23:10
    Thank you.
  • 03:23:10
    Our next speaker, please.
• • SPEAKER_14
  • 03:23:13
    Our next speaker is Robin Madera.
• • SPEAKER_29
  • 03:23:15
    Go ahead, please.
• • SPEAKER_34
  • 03:23:20
    Hi.
  • 03:23:21
    Good evening.
  • 03:23:23
    My name is Robin Matter and I reside in the White Hall District.
  • 03:23:27
    I am making a very important public comment urging you to add funding to the year 23 budget for the previously approved and budgeted Darden Tow turf and light project.
  • 03:23:38
    Quite frankly, I am very disappointed that this extremely important community project has been pushed to the wayside.
  • 03:23:45
    I wish you could respond to me because I'd really like to understand why as a team this has not been a priority to you when it is to our community.
  • 03:23:54
    I'd like to genuinely ask you as a group, have you visited our county fields?
  • 03:23:58
    Have you walked the fields of Darlington Park?
  • 03:24:01
    Have you walked the fields at Henley Middle School or Murray Elementary School?
  • 03:24:06
    If you haven't, I highly recommend you do as representatives and stewards of our community.
  • 03:24:12
    Once you have been out there and witnessed the dilapidated condition that our county fields are in, not to mention unsafe, you will see what it's like.
  • 03:24:21
    It's an utter shame and embarrassment we don't even have close to quality fields for recreation sports in our community.
  • 03:24:27
    The Dardentown complex is the site of the most fields in our city and the county, but the fields are barely even playable.
  • 03:24:34
    It is in the middle of the county, a perfect spot to be utilized by everyone.
  • 03:24:39
    Why would we leave this extremely valuable piece of property to further waste away?
  • 03:24:43
    We are looking to build additional parks, but we can't even maintain the ones we have.
  • 03:24:48
    I just don't understand.
  • 03:24:50
    Have you talked to your constituents about this?
  • 03:24:53
    Have you received emails over the years in support of Darden Towel Project?
  • 03:24:57
    I can guarantee you if I were to create a petition in support of this project, I would have thousands of signatures in a matter of hours.
  • 03:25:04
    I really feel like you are not acknowledging this important project.
  • 03:25:08
    We are completely behind our neighboring communities in terms of quality fields and specifically turf fields.
  • 03:25:14
    Other areas in Virginia are reaping substantial economic benefits and bringing jobs to their area for sporting events that can be held at their complexes.
  • 03:25:24
    We desperately need this facility to be updated.
  • 03:25:28
    The only turf fields in our community are the high schools and UVA, neither which are readily available to the community and both are very costly to rent.
  • 03:25:36
    Our active community, youth and adults suffer because of our lack of quality field infrastructure.
  • 03:25:43
    The county is in a much better place as we slowly move against the pandemic effects.
  • 03:25:47
    We just heard that from the CFO and Andy.
  • 03:25:50
    We've received substantial funds from the government and are in a much better place.
  • 03:25:54
    In fact, we even have an abundance of funds.
  • 03:25:57
    Financial concerns should no longer hold this project back.
  • 03:26:01
    Nor should any of you.
  • 03:26:03
    Please do what is right for our community and amend the FY 23 budget to add funding for the construction of turf fields and lights at Darden Tow Park, just like it was approved a few years back.
  • 03:26:15
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:26:17
    Thank you.
  • 03:26:18
    Our next speaker, please.
• • SPEAKER_14
  • 03:26:21
    Our next speaker is Mike Ginsberg.
• • SPEAKER_29
  • 03:26:27
    Go ahead, please.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 03:26:34
    Good evening, it's Mike Ginsberg in the Scottsville District.
  • 03:26:37
    I would like to speak on behalf of funding all-purpose multi-sport used turf fields at Darntown in the 2023 budget.
  • 03:26:44
    In my time coaching youth travel soccer in Charlottesville for the past 20 years, I have seen hundreds of multi-sport turf complexes across America and Europe.
  • 03:26:52
    Every sports complex mirrors one another in that they all have numerous turf fields vying for various sports like soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, and football.
  • 03:27:01
    from Greensboro, Williamsburg, Fredericksburg, Richmond, Asheville, just to name a few, and many other localities throughout our region all have public parks with multi-sport turf fields.
  • 03:27:11
    It's incredibly common in Virginia.
  • 03:27:13
    and we are definitely an outlier in this regard.
  • 03:27:17
    I'd like you to consider three things for funding turf fields in Darden Town.
  • 03:27:21
    First, installing turf fields would have a positive economic impact for hotels, restaurants, and many other businesses in the Charlottesville area.
  • 03:27:28
    Large sports tournaments, especially soccer tournaments, can bring in well over 200 teams, which equates to around 6,000 people.
  • 03:27:34
    The economic benefits are massive for all the businesses that serve these weekend sport tourists.
  • 03:27:40
    Second, the current grass fields of Darden Tower are not inspirational and they have been widely viewed around town as sort of a punishment to play there.
  • 03:27:48
    I have listened to everyone complain about the grass fields of Darden Tower for the past 20 years and from watching soccer practices and games there and from playing on the fields myself, they are not an enjoyable field to play on and they're quite frankly unsafe and they're not suitable to play on.
  • 03:28:04
    Third, if you fund the new turf fields, kids and adults from all different backgrounds will enjoy the fields.
  • 03:28:09
    While soccer is by far the largest sport played by adults and kids in the Charlottesville area, it's important to recognize that multi-sport turf fields allow for lacrosse, field hockey, football, CrossFit, Ultimate Frisbee,
  • 03:28:22
    These respective organizations often struggle with finding suitable fields for their activities.
  • 03:28:27
    And just as important, putting these turf fields at Darden Tow in a terrific centrally located area in the Charlottesville area is incredibly important to provide more options for kids that don't have the opportunity to play different sports.
  • 03:28:39
    As a resident of the Charlottesville area for the last 20 years, I strongly believe that funding multi-sport turf fields in Darden Tow would be an excellent use of public funds by enhancing the local economy, by providing kids and adults with a safe and enjoyable playing surface, and by allowing all members of the community to participate in a wide range of sports equally.
  • 03:28:57
    Thank you for your time.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:28:59
    Thank you.
  • 03:29:01
    Our next speaker, please.
• • SPEAKER_14
  • 03:29:04
    Our next speaker is Scott Roth.
• • SPEAKER_29
  • 03:29:08
    Go ahead please.
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 03:29:11
    Members of the board, good evening.
  • 03:29:12
    Thanks for having me.
  • 03:29:13
    My name is Scott Ross and I live in the Samuel Miller district.
  • 03:29:16
    I've signed up to speak today to also reintroduce from 2018 and 2019 the upgrade to the existing fields at the Dardantow Park and how important and impactful that would be for this community.
  • 03:29:28
    As the president and founder of Three Notch Brewing Company, a father of three boys who are very active in youth sports, and as a youth soccer coach and adult league player, I do have many motivations to support this project.
  • 03:29:39
    As a coach, I have dealt with the difficulty of trying to train a U-11 travel team on the current fields of Darden-Tow.
  • 03:29:46
    My team is considered the premier or the second best in under-11s with 10-year-olds joining me from Albemarle and surrounding counties to learn and compete in the game that they love.
  • 03:29:56
    But because our local communities lack high quality fields and the elite level teams are granted first options on the fields at South Fork or the newly constructed Belvedere Fieldhouse, we are forced to train our second, third, and fourth level teams as well as all of our challenge and recreational squads on subpar services.
  • 03:30:14
    If you can imagine trying to learn advanced ball skills or how to make a precise pass while playing on the oversized surface of a waffle iron, you'd have a pretty good idea of what it's like to play soccer at Darden Tow.
  • 03:30:25
    It is nearly impossible to train on these fields and very frustrating for the families who are paying large sums of money for their children to participate in these sports.
  • 03:30:33
    Couple that against weak arguments around environmental issues and it becomes clear to me that the support of this in the community is very strong.
  • 03:30:40
    Also, and something I want to get a little bit more in the weeds on, what I haven't seen presented to this board in the past is the economic opportunity and ROI that this project affords.
  • 03:30:50
    The City of Richmond reports that the Jefferson Cup, which consists of just four youth tournaments throughout the year, is worth 32,000 hotel rooms and brings nearly $25 million of impact to the area.
  • 03:31:02
    The Matthews Sportsplex in North Carolina opened with a mirror image of Darden, five artificial surfaces and facilities very similar to what is currently at the park.
  • 03:31:13
    In their first two years, they hosted 17 tournaments ranging from soccer to rugby, lacrosse, and field hockey.
  • 03:31:19
    They have now added six more fields and a championship stadium and estimate their impact to be $80 million to the local community.
  • 03:31:26
    As a brewery and restaurant owner, I can speak firsthand to how important sports, historical, recreational, wine and beer tourism is on our hospitality industry.
  • 03:31:35
    I am responsible for the livelihood of over 200 employees and I fully understand how large of a hole we have created for the hotel and restaurant industry these past two years.
  • 03:31:45
    The county's commitment to a sports tourism project like this one could be a strong catalyst to bring our local food and beverage industry back to full strength while also generating meals tax dollars to bolster the budget.
  • 03:31:57
    Additionally and finally, as a coach and a parent who is actively involved in our youth sports development, I cannot think of a better project to get behind than the Darden Tow upgrade.
  • 03:32:07
    I will even donate some of my time to the concession stand if need be.
  • 03:32:10
    I urge you to immediately put this project back in the budget, and I will take some time to share some of the additional economic data that I've researched with the board via email.
  • 03:32:19
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:32:20
    Thank you.
  • 03:32:21
    Our next speaker, please.
• • SPEAKER_14
  • 03:32:24
    Our next speaker is Dargan Kobuchov.
• • SPEAKER_29
  • 03:32:28
    Thank you.
  • 03:32:30
    Go ahead, please.
  • 03:32:36
    Hello.
  • 03:32:37
    Go ahead, please.
• • SPEAKER_14
  • 03:32:39
    Mr. Coggeshall, if you could unmute your microphone.
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 03:32:48
    All right.
  • 03:32:49
    Can you hear me now?
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:32:50
    Yes.
  • 03:32:51
    Go ahead, please.
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 03:32:52
    OK.
  • 03:32:53
    My name's Dargan Coggeshall.
  • 03:32:56
    I live in the Samuel Miller district.
  • 03:32:59
    I am a double graduate from UVA.
  • 03:33:01
    I'm a business owner in Albemarle County.
  • 03:33:04
    I create jobs for the county.
  • 03:33:07
    But most importantly, I am a father of three kids, three athletes.
  • 03:33:14
    And I want to put into perspective what some previous speakers have said ahead of me.
  • 03:33:21
    I just got out of the car and actually in the house now.
  • 03:33:27
    I thought I was going to need to take the call from the car.
  • 03:33:30
    I was driving to McIntire Park to pick my son up who plays at the level of the previous speaker's son where he coaches where he was practicing soccer in the left field of a baseball field.
  • 03:33:49
    and we have done this for year after year after year because of the inadequate and unsafe surfaces where our children go to play sports.
  • 03:34:03
    I have a player at the elite level as well and I can tell you over the last 10 years I have gone to places like Chesterfield, Culpeper, Haymarket,
  • 03:34:20
    God-awful places like Hamilton, New Jersey, where I've spent tens of thousands of dollars allowing my child to pursue her passion in soccer because that is where the facilities are.
  • 03:34:37
    That is where competition comes to play.
  • 03:34:41
    None of these places have the appeal of Charlottesville, Virginia.
  • 03:34:49
    We have the university.
  • 03:34:50
    We have historic homes.
  • 03:34:52
    We have the Blue Ridge Mountain.
  • 03:34:54
    We have the James River.
  • 03:34:56
    We have breweries.
  • 03:35:00
    We have wineries.
  • 03:35:04
    We have no facilities in which to bring other people who want to spend money on their children's passion to host.
  • 03:35:17
    If you've seen the movie Field of Dreams, the Kevin Costner movie, the phrase is, if you build it, they will come.
  • 03:35:29
    I can tell you from a first person perspective, and likely everyone who has spoken tonight can tell you from a first person's perspective, Charlottesville would be a highly desirable sports tournament destination because of all the other things you can do.
  • 03:35:49
    You know what Hamilton, New Jersey is like?
  • 03:35:51
    It's an armpit of the world, but they have facilities.
  • 03:35:56
    They have turf, they have lights.
  • 03:35:59
    People would come, and it's called a multiplier effect.
  • 03:36:03
    They will come and they will rent, they'll get hotel rooms.
  • 03:36:07
    They'll go to different tourist destinations.
• • SPEAKER_14
  • 03:36:10
    Mr. Coggeshall, your time has expired.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:36:15
    Thank you, Mr. Coggeshall.
  • 03:36:16
    You're welcome to submit to the clerk any written comments if you were not able to complete your remarks this evening.
  • 03:36:25
    Thank you.
  • 03:36:26
    Our next speaker, please.
• • SPEAKER_14
  • 03:36:29
    Our next speaker is Ann Hunter.
• • SPEAKER_29
  • 03:36:32
    Thank you.
  • 03:36:34
    Go ahead, please.
• • SPEAKER_36
  • 03:36:37
    Thank you, members of the board.
  • 03:36:39
    I'm Ann Hunter, executive director of Live Arts, which is a 31 year old volunteer powered theater in downtown Charlottesville.
  • 03:36:47
    60% of our patrons live in Albemarle County, as do most of our board members.
  • 03:36:52
    And I am not going to talk about parks or soccer, but I'm going to talk about the arts.
  • 03:36:57
    We're grateful for the board's $10,000 LIFT grant in 2020 and the $2,500 grants in 21 and 22, which helped us continue to make theater throughout the entire pandemic, unlike most theaters around the country.
  • 03:37:12
    We stayed open, we kept our staff, we kept making theater.
  • 03:37:15
    We're delighted to be included in next year's budget at $5,000.
  • 03:37:19
    I just wanted to let you know the focus of this grant is rebuilding our 1,200-person volunteer corps after it was decimated during the pandemic.
  • 03:37:29
    And of course, you can understand why.
  • 03:37:31
    People didn't feel comfortable venturing out, so they stopped volunteering.
  • 03:37:36
    And now we have to give them a way to re-engage so that we can continue making theater of the community and for the community.
  • 03:37:44
    Instead of talking about the value of theater, which I'm guessing you all understand, I'm going to talk about our impact in the community.
  • 03:37:52
    So each year, very basically, we invest about a million dollars in the local economy, paying wages, rent, vendors, and et cetera, business expenses, and we're a nonprofit.
  • 03:38:05
    We participate in downtown revitalization and regional tourism efforts, which strengthen the regional economy, including the
  • 03:38:12
    the Convention Visitor's Bureau projects.
  • 03:38:15
    We've been engaged in creative place making long before the NDA popularized the phrase.
  • 03:38:22
    So with Roots as a scrappy startup theater operating in a converted warehouse on the fringe of downtown
  • 03:38:28
    We helped to transform downtown into an iconic arts and entertainment district.
  • 03:38:33
    That was back in the 1990s and 2000s.
  • 03:38:38
    Today we're considered what Seville Weekly calls the best dramatic arts venue in Charlottesville.
  • 03:38:44
    More importantly, we create what placemakers call social cohesion.
  • 03:38:49
    That's a fancy term that really means
  • 03:38:52
    connection in a community.
  • 03:38:54
    And as social cohesion grows in Albemarle County, you can expect to see greater resiliency, stronger social relations, a greater sense of belonging and participation, greater trust and less inequities, all essential traits of a healthy, thriving community.
  • 03:39:12
    As the county and the nation continue to reckon with the ripple effects of the pandemic and the social justice movement, Live Arts serves as a catalyst for healing, connection, and addressing disparities on multiple levels.
  • 03:39:27
    And we do that through all of those volunteers who help to make the theater.
  • 03:39:32
    As a predominantly white theater, we are committed to dismantling the systems that have perpetuated patterns of injustice.
  • 03:39:39
    One small example of that is the makeup of our board, which is now 43% people of color.
  • 03:39:46
    There's a long list on our website.
  • 03:39:47
    Ms.
  • 03:39:47
    Hunter, your time has expired.
  • 03:39:49
    I appreciate it very much.
  • 03:39:50
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:39:51
    Thank you.
  • 03:39:52
    Ms.
  • 03:39:52
    Hunter, you are welcome to submit to the clerk in writing any comments that you were not able to complete this evening.
  • 03:39:59
    Our next speaker, please.
• • SPEAKER_14
  • 03:40:01
    Madam Chair, we do not have any more speakers tonight.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:40:05
    Thank you.
  • 03:40:06
    I will close the public hearing.
  • 03:40:08
    The matter is back before the board.
  • 03:40:10
    First, Mr. Richardson, would you desire to make any comments in response to the public comments?
• • SPEAKER_30
  • 03:40:18
    Not at this time, Chair Price.
  • 03:40:21
    The staff and I will be happy to answer any questions that the board has.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:40:24
    All right.
  • 03:40:25
    Thank you.
  • 03:40:26
    Supervisor Andrews?
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 03:40:32
    I got a hodgepodge and I'm not sure I want to jump into all of them quite yet.
  • 03:40:38
    I do appreciate some of the comments that have been made, but I think we'll have to take them slowly.
  • 03:40:47
    I am aware that
  • 03:40:49
    There are facilities that also have been called to my attention that there may be facilities for our recycling program that we'll want to look at at some point to see whether they've been adequately accounted for in terms of the needs of the baler and paper sort.
  • 03:41:09
    That's a different issue.
  • 03:41:14
    I'm going to stop and see if you can come back to me.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:41:20
    All right, thank you.
  • 03:41:22
    Supervisor McKeel?
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 03:41:25
    Yes, I really appreciate everyone that joined us to say something tonight.
  • 03:41:30
    We appreciate it.
  • 03:41:31
    I just have one confirmation question.
  • 03:41:35
    I believe that during the budget work sessions, we'll be having a discussion about turf fields.
  • 03:41:42
    Is that correct?
• • SPEAKER_30
  • 03:41:44
    Supervisor McKeel, that's right.
  • 03:41:46
    And let me take a second to call on Mr. Henry.
  • 03:41:50
    Trevor, could you kind of put a framework for that work session, please, sir?
• • SPEAKER_22
  • 03:41:56
    Yes, sir.
  • 03:41:57
    Excuse me.
  • 03:41:58
    Trevor Henry, Assistant County Executive.
  • 03:42:00
    We're planning to present to the board
  • 03:42:04
    on the March 23rd work session.
  • 03:42:07
    It's not just a turf field discussion.
  • 03:42:10
    It's going to be a discussion led out of Parks and Rec on overall field needs.
  • 03:42:17
    We will talk a little bit about the history of the DART turf project and talk about the current CIP request, which includes four natural grass fields at
  • 03:42:31
    at Biscuit Run, which has been really local government's top priority project.
  • 03:42:36
    It's in the CIP recommendation this year.
  • 03:42:38
    So it'll be a work session.
  • 03:42:40
    We will have a consultant that will attend and can help answer questions related to turf field technology and address some of the
  • 03:42:52
    We were asked a few years ago, and really we'll look for board direction kind of out of that as to next steps related to, you know, the Durdentown turf project was funded.
  • 03:43:06
    It got paused, went away during the pandemic, did not come back through the process.
  • 03:43:12
    And so it is not an active project, but we will bring information back related to that and hopefully have a really good discussion with the board for any direction out of that.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 03:43:25
    That's great.
  • 03:43:26
    And my expectation, and I think you addressed that, Kevin, in your comments, I really would like to know what the current data science is on the current turf field products, right?
• • SPEAKER_22
  • 03:43:42
    I won't personally, but we'll have an expert who can talk about that.
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 03:44:02
    I don't have questions right now.
  • 03:44:04
    I want to thank citizens who spoke tonight and also those who are writing in and look forward to good discussions and all the work sessions at Town Hall.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:44:12
    Thank you.
  • 03:44:13
    Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley?
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 03:44:15
    Yes, I also want to thank all those that have really, really good comments and I'm hoping that they do tune in, so to speak, on March 23rd because
  • 03:44:27
    We're going to have a robust discussion because I do feel that we need to have a really good sports venue here in Charlotte or here in Albemarle County.
  • 03:44:42
    Biscuit Run I think is the optimum place to have that.
  • 03:44:46
    I'm just going to put it out there already.
  • 03:44:48
    But I would also like to know on the 23rd the condition of the natural grass fields at Darden Town please.
  • 03:44:57
    Thank you.
  • 03:44:58
    Thank you.
  • 03:44:59
    Supervisor Galloway?
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 03:45:05
    Well, it's going to be important, not just for the current board, but for the public to understand that don't do a quick history of that Darden-Tao project.
  • 03:45:17
    That has to be a pretty thorough understanding of why it got paused.
  • 03:45:20
    It didn't come back because of the pandemic.
  • 03:45:23
    But there was a lot of conversations that happened before the pandemic.
  • 03:45:29
    So we just got to make sure that we're very clear on the history of what happened that December and then we had some board members switch out, etc.
  • 03:45:37
    I'll get into where I'm at on that topic when it's on.
  • 03:45:40
    Can you clarify which work session that's going to be?
  • 03:45:42
    Is that going to be on the 14th with the capital improvement project?
• • SPEAKER_22
  • 03:45:47
    I know, sir.
  • 03:45:48
    March 23rd.
  • 03:45:49
    I'm not sure which number that is of work sessions, but it's the work session on March 23rd.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 03:45:55
    All right, because that one in our book just says if needed.
  • 03:45:57
    So that's where we're planning on that one.
• • SPEAKER_22
  • 03:45:59
    That is a planned needed one.
  • 03:46:01
    Yes, sir.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 03:46:05
    I mean, it's obviously generating a lot of interest, so we want to be clear what date it's going to be hashed out ahead of time.
  • 03:46:13
    And that one may be we may be getting some requests for information or some heads up questions prior to that day.
  • 03:46:21
    My other, I'm going to make a couple comments in response to some that I heard.
  • 03:46:25
    The comments about the ACE program and us stepping back on conservation, we paused the ACE program to do a program evaluation.
  • 03:46:34
    I don't think stopping and doing an evaluation of a program when the whole board is supportive of evaluating where we stand with it and the investment we put in it as a step back.
  • 03:46:44
    So I just want to retort, if you would, or rebut, if you would, that that's what we're doing there.
  • 03:46:51
    We'll do a proper evaluation and then Mr. Richardson I presume if we wanted to put funds into the ACE program even though it's zeroed out right now because of the pause that we have plenty of reserve options to go to that if we had some projects we wanted to fund and the board was supportive of it that we would have the funds available to do so.
  • 03:47:11
    You know that's rhetorical but you could answer it if you want but that's that's my guess on that one.
  • 03:47:19
    And then the only
  • 03:47:23
    Sorry, going through my notes.
  • 03:47:32
    No, I think that's it, just those two comments.
  • 03:47:36
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:47:37
    Thank you.
  • 03:47:37
    Supervisor Andrews, did you have other questions or comments you wanted to raise?
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 03:47:44
    I'm going to save them for future discussion.
  • 03:47:46
    I really appreciate the presentation that you did earlier and the various categories on the organization of it.
  • 03:47:55
    And I think as we go back through that, that's really going to focus on some really important issues.
  • 03:47:59
    So thank you very much.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:48:02
    I'm not going to ask any specific questions right now.
  • 03:48:04
    We do have a number of work sessions where we will go into great depth over the different segments of the budget.
  • 03:48:10
    I will, however, add my voice to those who believe that we do need an Albemarle County
  • 03:48:16
    a sportsplex type complex.
  • 03:48:19
    I have several questions as regards what is the best location, Darden Cow or what we now have is the possibility of Biscuit Run.
  • 03:48:28
    I'm not however interested in simply kicking the can down the road.
  • 03:48:32
    and not being able to provide that type of a venue.
  • 03:48:35
    I also continue to have questions as do many of our community members based upon the various opinions that have been shared with us as to the advisability of artificial turf versus natural grass turf because there are advantages and disadvantages to each and Mr. Henry I do look forward to
  • 03:48:53
    you know, that in-depth discussion that we will have.
  • 03:48:56
    So, Mr. Richardson, I don't believe we have any action to take on this at the moment.
  • 03:49:05
    Unless there's something else that you have, are there any questions for us at this point?
• • SPEAKER_30
  • 03:49:11
    Chair Price, let me ask this finance officer, Ms.
  • 03:49:14
    Birch, would you like to clarify the work sessions or is there anything in summary that you would like to provide the board to get us ready to go after this evening?
• • SPEAKER_37
  • 03:49:22
    Perfect.
  • 03:49:23
    Thank you, Mr. Richardson.
  • 03:49:24
    I wanted to thank you, Supervisor Galloway for mentioning that some of your materials were printed before we knew the topics for the last three work sessions.
  • 03:49:35
    And so I wanted to spend a moment to talk at least about work sessions four and five.
  • 03:49:41
    The 23rd we just spoke about will be about what Mr. Henry had talked about in our
  • 03:49:46
    our fields and our play and our recreational uses.
  • 03:49:49
    March 30th is going to be focused on ARPA, which is the American Rescue Plan Act.
  • 03:49:55
    What is the recommended funding in the budget related to that?
  • 03:50:00
    You will also be hearing about housing initiatives that we are funding through ARPA and other means, going back to CARES and some of the funding we have done related to housing initiatives, rent relief, mortgage relief, et cetera.
  • 03:50:15
    and then Boys and Girls Club will be there at this meeting to do a formal proposal to the board related to their capital contribution request.
  • 03:50:27
    So that's happening on March 30th.
  • 03:50:30
    At this point in time, the April 6th work session has not yet been agendized in terms of what we're going to talk about if we need that, but it is there.
  • 03:50:41
    And so I think what we typically do is as we go through these work sessions,
  • 03:50:45
    If the board identifies areas that they still want more discussion and to dig deeper on any specific topic, we can use that April 6 date as that moment.
  • 03:50:57
    So the 23rd and the 30th are full as of right now, and so we would be looking at any additional topics that aren't addressed in the first five work sessions to happen at the 6th.
  • 03:51:10
    So I did want to clarify that for you all, so thank you for that.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:51:14
    Thank you, Ms.
  • 03:51:15
    Burch.
  • 03:51:16
    Anything further, Mr. Richardson or board members?
  • 03:51:19
    If not, I thank you all.
  • 03:51:21
    And again, we all thank the public for your comments.
  • 03:51:24
    They are very helpful towards us, both those that we heard tonight as well as the numerous emails that we have all received.
  • 03:51:31
    At this time, board, we'll move on to item number 18, fiscal year 2022 budget amendment and appropriations.
  • 03:51:38
    Mr. Bowman, it appears you're taking the lead on this one.
• • SPEAKER_10
  • 03:51:42
    Yes, I am.
  • 03:51:43
    Thank you to the chair, and good evening again to the board.
  • 03:51:46
    I have a presentation that I want to pull up for just one moment.
  • 03:51:59
    If I could just get a thumbs up that you all can see that presentation?
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:52:03
    It's not in slide show yet, though.
  • 03:52:05
    It still shows the invitations to the side.
  • 03:52:09
    Now you've got your notes.
  • 03:52:13
    Now, there you go.
  • 03:52:14
    Thank you, Mr. President.
• • SPEAKER_10
  • 03:52:17
    So this agenda item is a public hearing and an action item to amend the fiscal year 22 budget.
  • 03:52:24
    I just want to pause for a moment because this evening to date, we've been talking about the upcoming fiscal year, fiscal year 23, and the work sessions ahead for the rest of March.
  • 03:52:35
    Tonight is about fiscal year 22, which is the current fiscal year ending June 30, 2022.
  • 03:52:45
    The Virginia Code requires that a public hearing be held when amending the county budget when the total amount of funds exceeds 1% of the currently adopted budget.
  • 03:52:54
    That is the case tonight as we have an amendment of $23.1 million.
  • 03:53:00
    I have just two slides to overview the contents of this amendment and then I will turn it over to the Chair and the Board for any questions and to hold a public hearing.
  • 03:53:09
    The first appropriation I want to highlight is directly related to an item that was on today's consent agenda.
  • 03:53:15
    where the board approved the authorization of refunding bonds totaling $21.5 million.
  • 03:53:22
    And it's not just the bond issuance that is notable.
  • 03:53:25
    The impact of this refinancing will create a debt budgetary savings of $1.9 million over the remaining life of prior issuances.
  • 03:53:35
    And I just want to take a moment to not only talk about the dollars and cents, but also to go back to the county executive's comments in the presentation to the public of the recommended budget.
  • 03:53:46
    Because we spoke last week about the county's three AAA moderated agency ratings.
  • 03:53:52
    And as of this week, those have all been reconfirmed through this refinancing process.
  • 03:53:59
    So these letters are not just letters, they're meaningful in that they provide in combination with the county's financial policies, both a way to reduce the county's risk and to provide the board and the community flexibility as we manage our budgets through uncertain times as we are now in the pandemic.
  • 03:54:19
    So I just wanted to take a moment to connect the dots from what Mr. Richardson spoke to last week to where we are today and what we'll be talking about further through March.
  • 03:54:27
    The other appropriation that I want to highlight is also related to the capital debt program.
  • 03:54:33
    There is $4.1 million that is being provided one time at the school board's request from the public schools fund to the capital budget.
  • 03:54:42
    The board may recall, as Mr. Richardson alluded to earlier, in December there was a notable revenue update that was provided by formula to county government, public schools, and the capital budget.
  • 03:54:54
    At that time, the Board of Supervisors approved a one-time contribution to the capital program of $4.3 million from what was the county government's formula share of that revenue update.
  • 03:55:08
    In January, the school board held discussions about their portion of the revenue update, and a portion of that is for operations.
  • 03:55:15
    They are including a portion of $4.1 million that is going to the capital budget.
  • 03:55:20
    So I'll highlight on the bottom of this slide, both of these actions are items that are incorporated into the fiscal year 23 recommended budget.
  • 03:55:27
    And they are some of the strategies that have positioned the county executive to recommend a CIP that is making transformative capital investments over the next five years.
  • 03:55:37
    And again, we'll speak about more of what those investments are in more detail as we go through the work sessions.
  • 03:55:43
    We wanted to just connect some of the financial strategies in 22, the work we've done with the board in December and school board in their own discussions,
  • 03:55:50
    and how that is leading to the capital discussions we'll be having in the coming weeks.
  • 03:55:59
    So I also just want to take a moment to acknowledge there are other appropriations in this package tonight for approval.
  • 03:56:04
    I'm not going to go through them in detail because they are discussed in detail in attachment A. They are mostly state and federal funding or appropriations where the county is the fiscal agent for entity.
  • 03:56:15
    In this case, it's the Charlottesville Albemarle
  • 03:56:19
    After the public hearing, staff recommends that the board adopt a resolution, attachment D, and I'm available for any questions prior.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:56:27
    Thank you, Mr. Bowman.
  • 03:56:29
    Supervisor Andrews?
  • 03:56:32
    No, I'm good on this.
  • 03:56:34
    Thank you.
  • 03:56:34
    Thank you.
  • 03:56:35
    Supervisor McKeel?
  • 03:56:37
    No questions.
  • 03:56:38
    Thank you.
  • 03:56:39
    Thank you.
  • 03:56:40
    Supervisor Mallek?
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 03:56:42
    No questions right now.
  • 03:56:43
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:56:44
    Thank you.
  • 03:56:44
    Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley?
  • 03:56:47
    Thank you very much, Mr. Bowman.
  • 03:56:49
    No questions.
  • 03:56:50
    Thank you.
  • 03:56:51
    Supervisor Galloway?
  • 03:56:52
    Thank you, Andy.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 03:56:53
    No questions.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:56:55
    And I have no questions.
  • 03:56:56
    So, Mr. Bowman, I'm going to presume you don't have anything to respond to the supervisors at this point.
  • 03:57:02
    And we will now open the public hearing.
  • 03:57:05
    Before asking the vice chair to read the rules, I'll ask the clerk, has anyone signed up?
  • 03:57:10
    I just want to confirm.
• • SPEAKER_14
  • 03:57:11
    We do not have any speakers signed up for this item.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:57:16
    All right, there being no speakers, we can waive the reading of the procedures.
  • 03:57:20
    I will close the public hearing, and the matter is back before the board for any comments, questions, or a motion.
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 03:57:30
    I congratulate you on the bond rating, maintaining that screen.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:57:38
    Thank you.
  • 03:57:39
    Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley?
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 03:57:41
    Yes, I move that we approve fiscal year 2022 budget amendments and appropriations.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:57:47
    Second.
  • 03:57:47
    All right.
  • 03:57:48
    We have a motion and a second.
  • 03:57:52
    And before we call the vote on this, I just want to comment again to thank county staff for the work that you have done to maintain our triple AAA bond rating.
  • 03:58:04
    And this is a perfect example for our community to see the value $2 million
  • 03:58:10
    that you are saving our taxpayer community members to be able to get through this.
  • 03:58:14
    Mr. Cantner, you have a question?
• • SPEAKER_24
  • 03:58:16
    No question.
  • 03:58:17
    Just to be clear for the record, the motion that was referred to would be the adoption of the resolution that's attachment B?
  • 03:58:25
    Yes.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 03:58:27
    That's what I meant to say.
  • 03:58:28
    All right.
  • 03:58:30
    And the second supports that.
  • 03:58:33
    Who seconded that?
  • 03:58:35
    Supervisor Mallek, yes I see Supervisor McKeel and if you would just verbalize that you support that clarification.
  • 03:58:45
    I do absolutely.
  • 03:58:46
    All right there being no further comments if the clerk will call the roll.
  • 03:58:54
    Aye Ms.
  • 03:58:55
    Mallek Yes Ms.
  • 03:58:58
    McNeil Yes Ms.
  • 03:59:00
    Price Aye Mr. Andrews Yes Ms.
  • 03:59:05
    Gallaway Yes Alright, thank you all very much.
  • 03:59:10
    At this time, and if y'all are leaving for the evening, I want to thank Ms.
  • 03:59:15
    Burch, our County CFO, and Mr. Bowman, our Chief of Budget, as well as anyone else in your staff who has worked to make this such a successful evening.
  • 03:59:23
    Thank you very much.
  • 03:59:25
    You're welcome to item number 19, Virginia Community Development Block Grant.
  • 03:59:33
    And Dr. Pethia, I believe that you'll be leading this one off.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 03:59:37
    I will.
  • 03:59:38
    Thank you.
  • 03:59:39
    Good evening, Chair Price and members of the board.
  • 03:59:42
    I am Stacey Pethia, the housing policy manager for Albemarle County.
  • 03:59:49
    Each year, the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, more commonly known as DHCD, makes federal grant dollars available to non-entitlement areas in Virginia through the Federal Community Development Block Grant or CDBG program.
  • 04:00:05
    And for those in the public that do not understand what a non-entitlement area is,
  • 04:00:10
    Non-entitlement areas are cities with populations less than 50,000 persons unless that city is designated as the principal city of a metropolitan area such as the city of Charlottesville.
  • 04:00:24
    Non-entitlement areas are also counties with populations of less than 200,000 so Albemarle County fits in that category.
  • 04:00:33
    In calendar year 2022, DHCD has a total of just over $15.7 million in CDBG funds available for non-entitlement communities.
  • 04:00:44
    $6 million of those funds are available through a rolling open submission application process with the remaining funds to be awarded through a competitive application process.
  • 04:00:53
    As a non-entitlement community, Albemarle County is eligible to apply for up to approximately $1.5 million in CDBG funding.
  • 04:01:02
    Projects eligible for a CDBG program award must meet one of three national objectives, which include activities benefiting low and moderate income persons, projects that prevent slums and blight, or projects that address an urgent community need.
  • 04:01:20
    Eligible activities include, among other things,
  • 04:01:25
    activities addressing economic development, housing rehabilitation, housing production, and the construction of community facilities or community service facilities such as libraries.
  • 04:01:37
    Albemarle County has been successful in receiving several CDBG grants in past application cycles.
  • 04:01:43
    Past projects have included a water and sewer project in the Oak Hill neighborhood and the rehabilitation of 29 owner-occupied homes in the Algarine neighborhood.
  • 04:01:54
    And most recently, the county has been awarded a CDBG grant to support the construction of five single-family homes and a Monacan Indian Nation tribute park as part of the Southwood redevelopment project.
  • 04:02:06
    For a project to be considered by the county for CDBG funding, potential applicants must notify the county no later than March 11th.
  • 04:02:15
    This notice should include a brief description of the project, the proposed use of CDBG funds, and a description of the beneficiaries of the proposed activities.
  • 04:02:25
    The completed application that includes the proposed budget and all required attachments should be submitted to the county electronically by March 18th.
  • 04:02:34
    Then staff will return to the board during a public hearing scheduled for March 16th with any potential CDBG project applications for the board's consideration.
  • 04:02:44
    Are there any questions?
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:02:46
    All right.
  • 04:02:47
    Thank you, Dr. Bethune.
  • 04:02:48
    Supervisor Andrews?
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 04:02:50
    Let me get that timeline straight again.
  • 04:02:52
    March 11th, the notify by, and then the applications are due when?
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 04:02:58
    The following week, March 18th.
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 04:03:00
    Okay, but the board acts on March
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 04:03:04
    16th, sorry, my dates have been mixed up.
  • 04:03:09
    Okay, I just wanted to... That's a good call, sorry, none of us caught that.
  • 04:03:15
    If the actual full application could be provided by the 15th, that would be great.
  • 04:03:22
    And these could be also for future CDBG project rounds as well.
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 04:03:27
    Okay.
  • 04:03:28
    At that time, we're looking at how to best support the most successful, likely successful projects.
  • 04:03:35
    Is that how this works?
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 04:03:38
    We look at a range of factors, and a lot of that is greatest need within the community and how best support this.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:03:46
    Thank you.
  • 04:03:46
    This is great.
  • 04:03:47
    All right.
  • 04:03:48
    Thank you.
  • 04:03:49
    Supervisor McKeel?
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 04:03:51
    Yes, we should keep our fingers crossed that we get it.
  • 04:03:57
    But we have been fairly successful in the past.
  • 04:04:00
    Yeah.
  • 04:04:01
    So that's all good.
  • 04:04:01
    I don't have any questions.
  • 04:04:02
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:04:03
    Thank you.
  • 04:04:04
    Supervisor Malek?
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 04:04:06
    No questions right now.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 04:04:07
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:04:08
    Thank you.
  • 04:04:09
    Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley?
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 04:04:11
    No questions.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:04:11
    Thank you.
  • 04:04:12
    Thank you.
  • 04:04:13
    Supervisor Galloway?
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 04:04:15
    No questions for me.
  • 04:04:16
    Thank you, Dr. Pepio.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:04:18
    Thank you.
  • 04:04:18
    And I have no questions, just an expression of appreciation of your hard work.
  • 04:04:23
    This time I'll check with the clerks.
  • 04:04:25
    I understand that we do have one speaker, so I will open the public hearing and turn to Vice Chair LaPisto-Kirtley to read the procedure for the speaker rules.
  • 04:04:33
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 04:04:36
    During public hearings, the board will acknowledge speakers addressing the item listed for public hearing.
  • 04:04:42
    Speakers are limited to one appearance of three minutes per public hearing item.
  • 04:04:47
    The clerk's office will identify each speaker.
  • 04:04:50
    Applicants are limited to a 10-minute presentation of their proposal and are allowed a five-minute rebuttal at the close of the public hearing.
  • 04:04:58
    Timekeeping is conducted through a timer.
  • 04:05:01
    The timer will commence when you begin speaking and this begins your allotted time.
  • 04:05:09
    You will be notified when the three minutes are up and you are requested to bring your comments to a close as your microphone will be muted after about five more seconds.
  • 04:05:18
    In order to give all speakers equal treatment and courtesy, the board requests that speakers adhere to the following guidelines.
  • 04:05:26
    When called to address the board, please state your name and if you live in Albemarle County, your Magisterial District.
  • 04:05:33
    Address comments directly to the board as a whole.
  • 04:05:36
    If you have written statements and other supporting material, you may email them to the clerk to be included in the record.
  • 04:05:43
    If you represent a group or organization, you may identify the group to be recognized.
  • 04:05:48
    If you exceed your allotted time, you will be asked to end your comments and the microphone will be muted.
  • 04:05:54
    If a speaker does not use all allocated time, the unused time may not be shared with another speaker.
  • 04:06:01
    Speakers are permitted one opportunity to comment during each of the public comment periods per meeting.
  • 04:06:07
    Back and forth debate is not permitted.
  • 04:06:10
    You are reminded that all comments are live streamed, recorded, and published on the Albemarle County website.
  • 04:06:17
    If participating by phone, please press star nine to let us know you want to speak.
  • 04:06:24
    Then star six from a landline to unmute.
  • 04:06:28
    If by Zoom, please remain muted until you are called to speak.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:06:34
    Thank you.
  • 04:06:34
    If the clerk will identify the first speaker.
• • SPEAKER_14
  • 04:06:38
    Our speaker is Dan Rosenzweig.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:06:41
    All right, thank you.
• • SPEAKER_20
  • 04:06:44
    Go ahead, please.
  • 04:06:44
    Can you hear me?
  • 04:06:46
    Yes.
  • 04:06:46
    Hi, good evening, Chair Price and other members of the Board of Supervisors.
  • 04:06:50
    My name is Dan Rosenzweig and I'm the President and CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville, a nonprofit affordable housing provider with the largest portion of its service area in Albemarle County.
  • 04:06:59
    I want to thank you all for supporting CDBG applications historically and thank staff very much for preparing this hearing and for its partnership in our open CDBG grant.
  • 04:07:11
    Tonight I want to let you know that assuming you approve a county CDBG application, we would be hoping to work with county staff to prepare an application for Southwood Village 2 infrastructure and home construction funding.
  • 04:07:23
    And I want to clarify what we will be applying for.
  • 04:07:26
    We'll be seeking some infrastructure and home construction funding for Village 2, which is the second resident designed neighborhood and the portion of the development that is currently under construction.
  • 04:07:37
    Home construction in this section will be critical to providing rehousing opportunities in phase one of Southwood so that we can move as many families as possible out of the failing septic conditions present in phase two.
  • 04:07:49
    That is the area of the current mobile home park.
  • 04:07:52
    Building rehousing opportunities in village two will thus help pave the way for upgrades to infrastructure in phase two so that we can decommission all of the septic as quickly as possible.
  • 04:08:04
    CDBG and other sources of federal and state funding, most of which require a county habitat partnership, are good sources to fund infrastructure inclusive of converting septic to sewer in phase two.
  • 04:08:15
    Other sources of funding outside funding include ARPA, which we'll be discussing on March 30th, infrastructure bill funds, the rules for which are still pending, congressionally directed spending, for which we have a request from Senator Kaine, and DEQ Brownfields grants.
  • 04:08:33
    Existing or upcoming funding opportunities that fit squarely within the guidelines for this grant and the other pots of money that I just described include the phase two sewer line installation, onsite rehousing of residents currently living on failing septic, removal of the septic tanks, and an upgrade of Hickory Road to VDOT standards.
  • 04:08:55
    I do understand that in a couple of weeks you'll be having a work session agenda item looking at the financial status of the Southwood Redevelopment Project.
  • 04:09:01
    And I very much look forward to updating you and having conversation about that.
  • 04:09:05
    That'll be a welcome opportunity to lay out the options for immediately improving the health and safety and the conditions of the fine families who live currently at Southwood and for moving forward and work on a partnership plan to improve lives for generations to come.
  • 04:09:20
    So again, thank you so much for your support up to this point.
  • 04:09:24
    And I do hope that this can work out.
  • 04:09:26
    and thank you for your service.
  • 04:09:27
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:09:29
    Thank you.
  • 04:09:30
    And just to confirm with the clerk, no other speakers signed up?
• • SPEAKER_14
  • 04:09:35
    That is correct.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:09:36
    All right, thank you.
  • 04:09:37
    At this point, I will close the public hearing.
  • 04:09:40
    The matter is back before the board.
  • 04:09:41
    Dr. Patio, do you have any comments to make in response to the public comments?
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 04:09:47
    Not at this time.
  • 04:09:49
    He was correct.
  • 04:09:50
    We will be coming back to you next month with an update on the Southwood project.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:09:55
    All right.
  • 04:09:56
    Thank you.
  • 04:09:57
    Board, I'm just going to look to see if anyone has any comments, and I know Mr. Campner has one.
  • 04:10:03
    What we have been asked to do is to set a public hearing for March 16th on this item, but let me hear from Mr. Campner first if there's anything else.
• • SPEAKER_24
  • 04:10:13
    That was it.
  • 04:10:14
    That was the topic.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:10:15
    All right.
  • 04:10:16
    Thank you.
  • 04:10:17
    So just probably for the easiest way to do it, I would just move that the board approve setting a public hearing for March 16th.
  • 04:10:26
    to review and approve a submission for any proposed applications to DHCD.
• • SPEAKER_33
  • 04:10:32
    Second.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:10:34
    Any further discussion?
  • 04:10:36
    Seeing none, if the clerk will call the roll.
  • 04:10:38
    Mr. Bea LaPisto-Kirtley.
  • 04:10:45
    Aye.
  • 04:10:46
    Ms.
  • 04:10:46
    Mallek.
  • 04:10:47
    Yes.
  • 04:10:48
    Ms.
  • 04:10:48
    McKeel.
  • 04:10:49
    Yes.
  • 04:10:50
    Ms.
  • 04:10:51
    Price.
  • 04:10:52
    Aye.
  • 04:10:53
    Mr. Andrews.
  • 04:10:54
    Yes.
  • 04:10:55
    Ms.
  • 04:10:55
    Gallaway.
  • 04:11:04
    The board at this time will move to item number 20, SP 2020-00008, Boys and Girls Club Northside Special Use Permit.
  • 04:11:14
    And Mr. Langell, will you be leading off on this one?
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 04:11:19
    Yes, I will.
  • 04:11:20
    Thank you, Chair Price.
  • 04:11:22
    Give me one moment and I will share my screen.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:11:25
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 04:11:32
    Okay, can everybody see should we PowerPoint?
• • SPEAKER_29
  • 04:11:36
    Yes.
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 04:11:37
    Okay.
  • 04:11:39
    Good evening members of the board and thank you for having me here tonight.
  • 04:11:43
    My name is Cameron Langell.
  • 04:11:44
    I'm a principal planner with the Community Development Department.
  • 04:11:47
    And tonight I will be giving you the presentation on SP 2020-08, which is the Boys and Girls Club Northside Special Use Permit.
  • 04:11:56
    One thing I'd like to let the board know is in the top right corner of all of my slides, I have a number and that represents the slide number.
  • 04:12:03
    So I'll be able to go back to that if you have any questions or comments.
  • 04:12:09
    So to begin, this special use permit is proposed on the campus of Albemarle High School, Jack Jouett Middle School, and Greer Elementary School.
  • 04:12:18
    This parcel measures 216 acres and the special use permit
  • 04:12:25
    is within the 5.15 acre area in the center of the screen.
  • 04:12:32
    The primary uses that surround this parcel are undeveloped land, as well as single-family attached parcels to the southeast.
  • 04:12:42
    The zoning of this property is RA rural areas, and that's represented by the white color.
  • 04:12:47
    The property is also in the entrance corridor overlay zoning district, as well as the airport impact area overlay zoning district.
  • 04:12:58
    Sorry, I'm having some trouble with my throat.
  • 04:13:00
    I don't mean to sound funny here.
  • 04:13:04
    This proposal is asking for a community center use in the RA zoning district.
  • 04:13:10
    and what this proposal is, is the Boys and Girls Club of Central Virginia.
  • 04:13:14
    They are looking to redevelop the central portion of the campus property.
  • 04:13:18
    Again, that's a 5.15 acre piece of land that is in the center that's currently used as a driving track for Albemarle High School.
  • 04:13:26
    What will be going on at this community center is the Boys and Girls Club before and after school and summer activities that they currently host out of Jack Jouett Middle School.
  • 04:13:36
    They are also proposing to relocate their administrative offices from their current location on Cherry Street or Cherry Avenue to a new building that they'll be building within that 5.15 acre portion of the site.
  • 04:13:48
    As part of the community center use, they will also be able to host events for partner agencies such as the Junior League of Charlottesville, the City of Charlottesville's Parks and Recreation Department.
  • 04:14:01
    There's a variety of activities that they will be able to do with that community center special use permit proposal.
  • 04:14:07
    So this is an image that shows what the actual site would be developed as and that is indicated by the blue squares and rectangles that you see on the right-hand side of your screen.
  • 04:14:19
    That represents a two-story building that would have different programming inside of it.
  • 04:14:24
    The applicant is here tonight and they will be able to show you a floor plan that gives an idea of what different kinds of classrooms or you know recreational spaces inside the actual building.
  • 04:14:34
    They will be also installing new parking and you can see that on the right hand side of the screen and far left.
  • 04:14:40
    Aside from the buildings there is also some outdoor recreational space that will be provided and that includes some sports fields as well as other gathering areas that could be used by students or anyone that's going to be using the community center.
  • 04:14:54
    So I wanted to give just an overview really quickly about the different zoning regulations that come into play here and the timing and sequencing of the events that have occurred so far with this project.
  • 04:15:04
    Right now, the Boys and Girls Club does operate before school, after school, and summer activities that are permitted by right for students of the public school system.
  • 04:15:13
    Those are considered accessory uses to a public use.
  • 04:15:16
    They're allowed by right.
  • 04:15:18
    The county did approve a site plan for this new community center building and other improvements that are tied to it, such as the parking,
  • 04:15:24
    and so on.
  • 04:15:40
    but the approval of the special use permit tonight would allow those other aspects of the community center which includes the relocation of the Boys and Girls Club administrative offices as well as the ability to host events for outside partner groups to use this new community center once it's fully constructed.
  • 04:16:00
    So the factors favorable and unfavorable with this proposal, staff was not able to identify any unfavorable factors
  • 04:16:07
    We were able to identify four favorable factors and that includes that this use is consistent with the purpose and intent of the rural area zoning district.
  • 04:16:16
    It will not create a substantial detriment to adjacent properties of land.
  • 04:16:20
    It is consistent with the character and uses of the surrounding area and this use would be consistent with many recommendations from the rural area chapter and community facilities chapters of our comprehensive plan.
  • 04:16:34
    We recommend approval of this special use permit, but we are recommending that the board include these two conditions with this approval.
  • 04:16:42
    And both of these are zoning performance standard conditions that are meant to protect the adjacent properties from any activities that would be going on with the community center use.
  • 04:16:52
    The first condition you see is specifically pertaining to noise and outdoor music.
  • 04:16:57
    It limits the hours that that is allowed to be going on.
  • 04:17:00
    And then any activities that require night lighting outside of the building must cease between the hours of 10 p.m.
  • 04:17:07
    and 7 a.m.
  • 04:17:11
    So at this time, I would be glad to take any questions from members of the board.
  • 04:17:15
    I would also like to make the board aware that I do have two of my colleagues from community development here with me tonight, and that's Bart Sabota, who's the zoning administrator.
  • 04:17:24
    and Rebecca Ragsdale, who is planning manager.
  • 04:17:26
    They can assist with any questions that come up during the public hearing that you may have right now.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:17:32
    Thank you, Mr. Langell.
  • 04:17:34
    So at this time, we'll go through our questions.
  • 04:17:36
    Supervisor Andrews.
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 04:17:39
    My only question which was I think partially answered for the Planning Commission materials is I'm just trying to understand the timing here just a little bit.
  • 04:17:47
    The project is already underway, the site plan was approved, but now the special use permit is necessary for the particular use as a community use.
  • 04:17:58
    Is that my understanding?
  • 04:18:00
    Is that how that works?
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 04:18:01
    That's correct.
  • 04:18:02
    So this new building, again, once it's completed, let's say that the Boys and Girls Club did not get the special use permit, they'd still be able to do the before school and after school and summer school activities that they operate out of Jouett Middle.
  • 04:18:16
    But the special use permit would allow the administrative offices of the club to be located inside the new building.
  • 04:18:22
    And they would also be able to basically rent out that space to these other community organizations that they frequently partner with.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:18:31
    Thank you.
  • 04:18:33
    All right.
  • 04:18:34
    Supervisor McKeel.
  • 04:18:36
    I have no questions.
  • 04:18:37
    Thank you.
  • 04:18:38
    Thank you.
  • 04:18:39
    Supervisor Mallek.
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 04:18:42
    One question.
  • 04:18:43
    I very much appreciate the noise condition and also the lighting condition.
  • 04:18:49
    Now, does your lighting condition mean lights out at 10 p.m.
  • 04:18:52
    and therefore it's dark?
  • 04:18:55
    I hope so.
  • 04:18:55
    That would be great, but I want to ask.
  • 04:18:57
    Yes.
  • 04:18:57
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 04:19:06
    Yes, I just wanted to ask, so you said that other entities may be able to rent it so that they would be able to for a cost?
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 04:19:19
    Yes, so I'm not sure exactly what the cost, you know, sharing is.
  • 04:19:23
    I mean, the Boys and Girls Club is leasing this area of the property from the school system.
  • 04:19:29
    So they have an agreement set up and I know the applicant will be able to give more information on what they typically do with their other community centers when they do lease space out to.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 04:19:39
    Okay, so they do lease space out.
  • 04:19:41
    Okay, and what would they be doing with the property then, you said on Cherry?
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 04:19:49
    I'll let the applicant answer what their plan is for that building.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 04:19:55
    Yeah, I would like to know.
  • 04:19:56
    I guess I'm asking why there's, you know, moving it over to the Boys and Girls Club.
  • 04:20:04
    Because that requires building a new building and do they have the funds for that?
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:20:09
    Alright, so we'll let the applicant address that during.
  • 04:20:11
    Thank you.
  • 04:20:12
    OK, thank you.
  • 04:20:13
    Any other questions, Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley?
  • 04:20:16
    No, thank you.
  • 04:20:17
    Thank you.
  • 04:20:18
    Supervisor Galloway?
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 04:20:24
    I guess I just want to make sure, let's make sure all the children are gone before the lights go right out of ten.
  • 04:20:32
    No offense to Supervisor Malek, I just had frozen children like, oh crap, what do I do?
  • 04:20:39
    Lights are out.
  • 04:20:43
    I guess in the spirit of Supervisor Andrew's question, I was a little baffled
  • 04:20:48
    I had to reread this one a few times to understand why this was in front of us.
  • 04:20:53
    So I get it.
  • 04:20:54
    I don't need anybody to explain it to me.
  • 04:20:57
    I do understand.
  • 04:20:58
    But when we talk about staff time and workload,
  • 04:21:03
    Someday, maybe somebody can tell me how many hours this took because this one should have probably been handled or could have been handled administratively, but I'm sure the rules prevented that from happening.
  • 04:21:14
    So this isn't a criticism, but it is a little baffling to me that after I read the executive summary a few times, I was like, what?
  • 04:21:24
    I guess the one substantive question I'll ask Cameron, if you don't mind putting the slides up, it's merely just a general curiosity more than anything.
  • 04:21:33
    the site plan layout, since it's in front of us, I might as well ask.
  • 04:21:38
    See, I couldn't remember your slide numbers that you said to the fleet told me to pay attention to.
  • 04:21:42
    Fine, I guess it is.
  • 04:21:45
    The space to the bottom that looks like a golf hall, what is that part of the campus or area?
  • 04:21:58
    I see the buildings, I see the athletic field that bend down in the bottom, kind of laid out from the Ivy Creek Center.
  • 04:22:04
    What is that?
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 04:22:05
    That's part of their stormwater treatment.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 04:22:08
    Oh, so that's like retention stuff and all that.
  • 04:22:10
    All right, thank you.
  • 04:22:12
    That's all.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:22:12
    All right.
  • 04:22:14
    And I have no questions.
  • 04:22:16
    We'll open the public hearing.
  • 04:22:18
    I see we have the applicant here, so Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley, if you'll read the rules, please.
• • SPEAKER_27
  • 04:22:30
    You're muted.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 04:22:33
    During public hearings, the board will acknowledge speakers addressing the item listed for public hearing.
  • 04:22:39
    Speakers are limited to one appearance of three minutes for public hearing.
  • 04:22:44
    The clerk's office will identify each speaker.
  • 04:22:47
    Applicants are limited to a 10-minute presentation of their proposal and are allowed a five-minute rebuttal at the close of the public hearing.
  • 04:22:55
    Timekeeping is conducted through a timer.
  • 04:22:57
    The timer will commence when you begin speaking and this begins your allotted time.
  • 04:23:02
    You will be notified when the three minutes are up and you are requested to bring your comments to a close as your microphone will be muted after about five more seconds.
  • 04:23:11
    In order to give all speakers equal treatment and courtesy, the board requests that speakers adhere to the following guidelines.
  • 04:23:18
    When called to address the board, please state your name and if you live in Albemarle County, your Magisterial District.
  • 04:23:26
    Address comments directly to the board as a whole.
  • 04:23:29
    If you have written statements and other supporting material, you may email them to the clerk.
  • 04:23:35
    to be included in the record.
  • 04:23:37
    If you represent a group or organization, you may identify the group to be recognized.
  • 04:23:43
    If you exceed your allotted time, you will be asked to end your comments and the microphone will be muted.
  • 04:23:48
    If a speaker does not use all allocated time, the unused time may not be shared with another speaker.
  • 04:23:55
    Speakers are permitted one opportunity to comment during each of the public comment periods per meeting.
  • 04:24:01
    Back and forth debate is not permitted.
  • 04:24:04
    You are reminded that all comments are live streamed, recorded, and published on the Albemarle County website.
  • 04:24:11
    If participating by phone, please press star 9 to let us know you want to speak.
  • 04:24:16
    Then star 6 if from a landline to unmute.
  • 04:24:20
    If by Zoom, please remain muted until you are called to speak.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:24:25
    Thank you, Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.
  • 04:24:27
    Good evening, Mr. Pierce.
  • 04:24:29
    I presume that you will be making the presentation as the applicant this evening.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 04:24:34
    Thank you, Chair Price.
  • 04:24:36
    Good evening, Supervisors.
  • 04:24:37
    I'd like to introduce L.J.
  • 04:24:39
    Lopez, who's the owner's rep.
  • 04:24:41
    We'll be doing a brief intro, and then I'll speak with you a little bit after that.
  • 04:24:44
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 04:24:47
    Madam Chair and members of the board, my name is L.J.
  • 04:24:51
    Lopez with Milestone Partners.
  • 04:24:53
    I really appreciate the opportunity to be here with you this evening.
  • 04:24:56
    I want to thank staff for all their support throughout the duration of this project.
  • 04:25:02
    We're not done yet, but we worked cooperatively with staff to this point.
  • 04:25:06
    We really appreciate their support.
  • 04:25:09
    I'll address just a couple things that had come up before we get into the meat of the presentation.
  • 04:25:15
    One, I need to take a page out of Cameron's presentation book.
  • 04:25:18
    I'll number these slides for future.
  • 04:25:20
    I think that's a great idea.
  • 04:25:21
    Apologies that we don't have any of the slides numbered for reference, but happy to review any of them if you have questions.
  • 04:25:30
    Supervisor Galloway, we share your sentiments.
  • 04:25:34
    We're just following the rules.
  • 04:25:35
    We're here tonight because of those rules and
  • 04:25:40
    with the leadership of staff.
  • 04:25:42
    They've taken us through to this point and again really appreciate staff and their support.
  • 04:25:49
    And Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley, I will kick your question to Mr. Pierce when
  • 04:25:57
    He talks about in answering the partnership and how to utilize facilities and allow outside organizations access to the facilities when not used for its primary use as a club.
  • 04:26:10
    So with that said, this very high level summary, I think Cameron did a fantastic job.
  • 04:26:20
    The current use is allowing the Jouett Club to operate before school, after school, and during the summer, either in the Jouett School as it currently is or in a new facility on campus.
  • 04:26:32
    And that's what the current zoning allows for.
  • 04:26:34
    The SUP request expands that as a community center designating it as a community center use, which allows the above current use and then expands it to allow the club to partner with its strategic community partners and offer access to the facility including Albemarle County Public Schools, nonprofit organizations, clubs and civic programs.
  • 04:26:59
    Some of those as Cameron referenced, Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts,
  • 04:27:04
    The Garden Club, etc.
  • 04:27:06
    would now have access to the new facility.
  • 04:27:09
    and it would allow the expansion or the inclusion of the organization.
  • 04:27:14
    So the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Virginia, their administrative headquarters would be located in the new facility.
  • 04:27:21
    So high level overview of just the special use permit and the application request.
  • 04:27:27
    And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions and any technical questions about the project, but I'm gonna turn it over to James Pierce
  • 04:27:36
    to talk about the project, its plans, and as noted, the building is under construction.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 04:27:47
    So much to say about this project.
  • 04:27:49
    Very excited about the opportunity to collaborate with the county and the schools to achieve such high level goals.
  • 04:27:57
    That is a meeting for another day.
  • 04:28:00
    I think we're here to focus on building use and so I will save much of my enthusiasm for the 30th when we'll be seeing you again.
  • 04:28:08
    For now, I just want to address a couple of the questions by supervisors.
  • 04:28:15
    Administrative space is being requested in this building because it is larger than the facility at Cherry Avenue.
  • 04:28:21
    We have an overcrowding situation at the Cherry Avenue Club.
  • 04:28:25
    We have specifically built in additional space on the top floor of this building so that we can open up space at other clubs to serve more kids.
  • 04:28:34
    We've also planned in this facility on the campus of 23% of all kids in Albemarle County a much larger space.
  • 04:28:44
    And so there's space to accommodate as many kids as possible here.
  • 04:28:47
    I hope that answers the administrative space question.
  • 04:28:51
    The question regarding use by other organizations, certainly we are better together as a community and we want to make sure that the facility is utilized as much as possible.
  • 04:29:05
    First two users would be Boys and Girls Clubs and the Albemarle County Public Schools, those two logos at the top on this slide.
  • 04:29:13
    In evenings, on weekends, if there are not school or
  • 04:29:17
    Club uses planned.
  • 04:29:19
    We certainly do want to open it up and we've had much success in exposing kids across the county and across our area to our great community partners.
  • 04:29:29
    So it's consistent with uses that we have in other clubs that we've got.
  • 04:29:36
    So we opened our parking lot to the SPCA during the pandemic so that they could have a clinic in an area where maybe a lot of folks couldn't necessarily get out to the SPCA.
  • 04:29:48
    That's just one example of a planned use of part of this space.
  • 04:29:54
    Just to give you a quick overview again, there are plenty of outdoor spaces.
  • 04:30:01
    There is access from Greer, from Jouett, from Albemarle High School and Ivy Creek.
  • 04:30:07
    We have outstanding outdoor spaces planned here, as well as about 48,000 square feet of youth development facilities inside.
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 04:30:19
    Next.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 04:30:21
    Again, the pink areas are multi-age use.
  • 04:30:24
    That's two gymnasia, one cafeteria, a cooking area and a kitchen, a STEM room and an art room.
  • 04:30:32
    And then the green spaces are teen space and the blue spaces are for 12 year olds and younger including a games room on the far left page here and five youth development classrooms.
  • 04:30:47
    There will be four squash ports in the basement.
  • 04:30:50
    We're very excited about this.
  • 04:30:51
    As I said to you in a previous meeting, this is an international game and on an international campus.
  • 04:30:59
    There are so many nationalities represented at Greer Elementary especially, but also certainly Albemarle High School and Jouett Middle School.
  • 04:31:07
    And we're excited that we're going to be bringing such a fun game.
  • 04:31:11
    to so many of our kids on this campus, many of whom have experience with this game already because we've got a program running at Jouett.
  • 04:31:20
    And then the next slide should be the administrative offices.
  • 04:31:24
    This is the planned top floor of the facility.
  • 04:31:26
    Again, our administrative steps.
  • 04:31:29
    We're proposing to move our administrative space here.
  • 04:31:33
    Also have access to three building principals who will be partners of ours on this campus.
  • 04:31:39
    That's another advantage that we saw to moving our administrative space here.
  • 04:31:44
    Here are a couple of images.
  • 04:31:46
    This is our gym.
  • 04:31:47
    The planned gymnasium, again, we expect this to be full all the time.
  • 04:31:52
    It's one of the most popular spaces in any of our clubs.
  • 04:31:57
    The teen center, again, it has indoor outdoor use.
  • 04:32:00
    It's got a teen center here and then you can see right out the window an athletic space.
  • 04:32:08
    This is the squash floor looking out on the beautiful wooded area behind this site which is just amazing for launching so many hikes into the woods and again you can see all the fun that we're planning and proposing in the squash area.
  • 04:32:24
    and there's a sample of one of about 10 indoor spaces that can be used by schools during the daytime as classrooms or extensions of learning opportunities and sites on this campus.
  • 04:32:36
    And certainly for us, this is a way to close the door and have community partners who run some of our high quality programming during afterschool and summertime.
  • 04:32:48
    Current state of affairs, actually this is probably
  • 04:32:53
    No, we've got the elevator shaft in.
  • 04:32:54
    We're filling in around the building here.
  • 04:32:57
    You can see the field on page left starting to take shape and some of that big mound of dirt being loaded in right around the edge of the facility so that we can start closing it in under roof here pretty soon.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 04:33:09
    I don't want to take too much of LJ's comments here.
  • 04:33:13
    Oh, no, no, no.
  • 04:33:14
    Make one interjection.
  • 04:33:16
    This is an existing stormwater facility that was part of the public schools' capital expansion and its stormwater.
  • 04:33:24
    Our facility has underground stormwater detention, maximizing space on site.
  • 04:33:30
    And so that is existing and untouched as part of our stormwater management plans.
  • 04:33:38
    So just one point of clarification when that slide came up.
  • 04:33:41
    Thanks, Elgin.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 04:33:44
    It's a really current picture.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 04:33:48
    Current picture building, we're beginning backfill around the lower foundation wall.
  • 04:33:54
    And so that dirt pile that you see in the distance is a source of backfill.
  • 04:33:59
    And once we get that completed, we'll be in a position where we can start, as you noted in the prior slides and site plan, there are
  • 04:34:11
    Jim components, lobby components that are kind of annexes to this main core of the facility.
  • 04:34:18
    So as soon as we get that back filled, then those components will be under construction.
  • 04:34:27
    Lower level picture of the
  • 04:34:35
    Primary squash, we've got some drainage pipe, slab which just recently poured, some HVAC duct being so very exciting to see the volume of this space and this exterior wall facing south is direct access and connection to the natural area and it's the launching point as James mentioned for a lot of outdoor programming for the Boys and Girls Club.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 04:35:07
    The main event.
  • 04:35:08
    So we now have a whole bunch of youth tour guides.
  • 04:35:14
    This is our first group that was out on site two weeks ago.
  • 04:35:19
    And we're just really excited.
  • 04:35:20
    Anyone who'd like to get an up close and personal tour, we now have about 30 of our members who are ready to walk you through the site.
  • 04:35:29
    So it's really been terrific to be able to add.
• • SPEAKER_14
  • 04:35:31
    Your time has expired.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:35:34
    All right, thank you for your presentation and you are of course welcome to submit any additional documentation to the clerk's office.
  • 04:35:45
    So I will ask the clerk, do we have anyone signed up to speak on this matter?
• • SPEAKER_14
  • 04:35:49
    We do not.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:35:52
    All right, so we have no public comments, so no rebuttal, but I will go back
  • 04:36:01
    We'll close that part of the public hearing, return the matter back to the board for any questions that you may have of either the applicant or staff.
  • 04:36:10
    So we'll go through our order.
  • 04:36:12
    Supervisor Andrews?
  • 04:36:14
    No questions.
  • 04:36:15
    Thank you for the presentation.
  • 04:36:16
    Thank you.
  • 04:36:17
    Supervisor McKeel?
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 04:36:19
    I don't have any questions.
  • 04:36:20
    I will say that this proposal for the community center has been really welcomed by my community because we don't have any place in the area to have meetings or anything.
  • 04:36:33
    I don't have any questions.
  • 04:36:35
    I just want to say that my CAC reviewed it, had no concerns with it, and I have not heard anything from the community about it.
  • 04:36:45
    So thank you for the presentation.
  • 04:36:47
    And with that, I'll let somebody else have a turn.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:36:51
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 04:36:52
    Supervisor Malle?
  • 04:36:57
    The school spaces are now so busy that I think this extra space will be welcome and used all the time.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:37:05
    Thank you, Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 04:37:07
    Thank you very much, Mr. Pierce and Mr. Lopez.
  • 04:37:10
    I have no questions and I am in full support.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 04:37:13
    Thank you, Supervisor Galloway.
  • 04:37:16
    Yeah, how many, um, James, your admin space, how many employees do you have?
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 04:37:22
    Uh, 10 to 12.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 04:37:23
    So they're probably looking forward to having a nice, I mean, brand new, I mean it's not often you get a brand new facility to go work into, so I would imagine they're looking forward to that.
  • 04:37:33
    And thank you, Mr. Lopez, you clearly do
  • 04:37:35
    I thought the stormwater facility is existing.
  • 04:37:38
    You're not putting that in.
  • 04:37:39
    That's what was already there.
  • 04:37:41
    Appreciate you clarifying that.
  • 04:37:44
    And yeah, I echo Supervisor McKeel.
  • 04:37:50
    I mean, outside of Northside Library, there's really no, I mean, for the amount of population that is there, there is not a lot of meeting space for the community to go to.
  • 04:38:00
    So I echo those sentiments.
  • 04:38:02
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:38:04
    I just have a couple of quick comments.
  • 04:38:05
    The first one is I want to really express some appreciation to Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley and McKeel for helping to get this at what really is an improved site over where it originally had been proposed on that campus.
  • 04:38:21
    And I think this is a good example of how doing it right is better than doing it quickly.
  • 04:38:27
    It was time to look at the site, and I think this really is a much better location.
  • 04:38:32
    I also had the opportunity, excuse me, last week to meet Mr. Pierce out there and take a tour and it is an absolutely fabulous facility and one that is definitely needed and it's appropriate that it be located on the Lands Lane campus where 25% roughly of our students are enrolled in schools.
  • 04:38:53
    The additional amenities and facilities that are going to be provided here
  • 04:38:57
    really are going to be unmatched anywhere in the county and it clearly makes sense to move your administrative offices here to this wonderful facility where so much utilization will take place.
  • 04:39:09
    I have a quick question for our county attorney and that is, and I'm not, as I'm trying to think back to where the other Boys and Girls Clubs locations are, and they are as I understand at least not on county-owned property,
  • 04:39:24
    The one in Scottsville is at the Scottsville School of Apartments.
  • 04:39:28
    The one at Southwood is currently just sort of an older building.
  • 04:39:33
    This being on the county property, that does not, Mr. Campner, does that in any way change the authority
  • 04:39:40
    that the Boys and Girls Club has to be able to determine who is appropriate to use the facility.
  • 04:39:47
    Whereas, you know, if it was a government entity, we run into a public space and it's in there, you know, less opportunity for a government entity to restrict utilization by different groups.
  • 04:40:02
    Does that change any because it's on county property, albeit at its least?
• • SPEAKER_24
  • 04:40:06
    It's on school board property.
  • 04:40:10
    Yeah, and so it's subject to the terms of that lease, and it'll depend on the terms of the lease.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:40:17
    Okay, and so I'm going to presume that that leaves the Boys and Girls Club with the flexibility to approve those organizations that are consistent with your mission and not necessarily be subject to compelled use by others.
  • 04:40:33
    All right, thank you.
  • 04:40:35
    Mr. Langell, Mr. Pierce, Mr. Lopez, thank you.
  • 04:40:38
    I have no further questions.
  • 04:40:42
    Mr. Campman?
• • SPEAKER_24
  • 04:40:44
    Before it sounds like the board's getting ready to take an action, I just wanted to go back to Ms.
  • 04:40:48
    Mallek's question about the second condition that reads activities requiring night lighting must cease between the hours of 10 p.m.
  • 04:40:59
    to 7 a.m.
  • 04:41:00
    I read that as
  • 04:41:02
    requiring the activity to cease, not the lighting, recognizing that we rarely require that a site be completely dark.
  • 04:41:13
    And so this condition as it's written is reasonable.
  • 04:41:20
    It would be unique for a condition to require that the lights be completely turned off at 10 p.m.
  • 04:41:28
    to require somebody to do that.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:41:32
    Thank you, Mr. Kamner.
  • 04:41:33
    And I would suspect that other lighting would be all night at the other school facilities there.
  • 04:41:38
    So I think what Supervisor Malek was talking about was just that the activities would be ending and that type of lighting and noise.
• • SPEAKER_24
  • 04:41:48
    Well, the expectation is that the lights will come up.
  • 04:41:51
    And I don't want anyone to think that we're going to cite the Boys and Girls Club for a zoning violation if the lights are inadvertently left on.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:42:03
    I think the spirit is very clear there, thank you.
  • 04:42:06
    So if there's no further commentary by any supervisor, I'm open to a motion.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 04:42:13
    I will make the motion.
  • 04:42:17
    I move that we adopt the attached resolution attachment E to approve SP2020000008
  • 04:42:28
    A subject to the conditions attached.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:42:32
    We have a motion and a second.
  • 04:42:35
    Seeing no further discussion, the clerk will call the roll.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 04:42:39
    Ms.
  • 04:42:39
    McKeel?
  • 04:42:40
    Aye.
  • 04:42:41
    Ms.
  • 04:42:41
    Mallek?
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:42:43
    Yes.
  • 04:42:44
    Ms.
  • 04:42:44
    McKeel?
  • 04:42:45
    Yes.
  • 04:42:47
    Ms.
  • 04:42:47
    Price?
  • 04:42:48
    Aye.
  • 04:42:49
    Ms.
  • 04:42:49
    Grangell?
  • 04:42:51
    Yes.
  • 04:42:52
    Ms.
  • 04:42:52
    Campbell?
  • 04:42:53
    Yes.
  • 04:42:57
    That was very helpful.
  • 04:42:59
    I will follow up with part of what Supervisor Galloway and others mentioned, and that is that perhaps this is the type of situation that we can look to move on to the consent agenda.
  • 04:43:10
    And as the chair, I'll work with county staff to see what might be the best thing in terms of trying to reduce this additional burden upon staff.
  • 04:43:20
    Mr. Campner?
• • SPEAKER_24
  • 04:43:21
    Yeah, this is a special use permit, so it requires a public hearing.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:43:27
    There's the answer.
• • SPEAKER_24
  • 04:43:28
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:43:28
    All right.
  • 04:43:30
    That will save county staff time.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 04:43:34
    Thank you.
  • 04:43:36
    I'm sorry, Donna, I was just gonna say we all had that discussion, you know, it just seemed like it was kind of weird.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:43:51
    incident.
  • 04:43:51
    All right, board, at this time we'll move to item number 21, a public hearing on ordinances to revise the local magisterial district and precinct boundaries.
  • 04:44:01
    And I believe, Mr. Washburn, that you'll be taking the lead on this.
• • SPEAKER_24
  • 04:44:07
    Actually, I will be starting the presentation.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:44:09
    All right, thank you, Mr. Campner, and the slideshow is up and visible.
• • SPEAKER_24
  • 04:44:16
    Good evening, Chair Price and members of the board.
  • 04:44:18
    I'm Greg Kantner, County Attorney.
  • 04:44:21
    I will be presenting today, along with Jake Washburn, the County's General Registrar and Director of Elections, and Brian Becker, a GIS Specialist in the Department of Community Development.
  • 04:44:32
    Also with us to assist in answering questions are Anthony Bissette, who I don't see.
  • 04:44:38
    He may be ill this evening.
  • 04:44:41
    An attorney in my office and Emily Kilroy acting in her capacity as interim director of the Office of Equity and Inclusion.
  • 04:44:50
    I will be presenting first with brief reviews of the schedule, the guidelines that were used to develop the three options that are the subject of today's public hearing.
  • 04:45:00
    A summary of the Office of Equity and Inclusion's review of the options and comments received from the community through February 28th.
  • 04:45:10
    I note that the public comment period will close on March 4th.
  • 04:45:15
    Mr. Washburn and Mr. Becker will follow me with a review of the three options.
  • 04:45:20
    Next slide.
  • 04:45:24
    And next slide.
  • 04:45:29
    Today's public hearing is one of three remaining important dates in the redistricting process.
  • 04:45:34
    The remaining dates are March 23rd when the board will be asked to adopt an ordinance in the corresponding map and March 24th and thereafter when the map and the ordinance are published and the voters are notified of the changes.
  • 04:45:49
    Next slide.
  • 04:45:53
    And next slide.
  • 04:45:55
    The purpose of the guidelines is to inform staff and ensure the public of the applicable criteria for the redistricting process.
  • 04:46:03
    For staff, these guidelines have been critical to ensure that the board has provided a redistricting plan for consideration that complies with all applicable federal and state laws, as well as criteria that reflect longstanding practices and customs recognized by the courts.
  • 04:46:19
    Next slide.
  • 04:46:24
    This slide shows the fundamental requirements of redistricting imposed by state and federal law.
  • 04:46:30
    Population equality among the districts, protecting the voting rights and the voting strength of protected classes, district boundaries that are compact and contiguous, and boundaries that are observable, such as roads, rivers, or other significant features.
  • 04:46:46
    Next slide.
  • 04:46:52
    The county has established its own magisterial district criteria over the years and I want to speak to the first bullet because comments have been received regarding increasing the number of supervisors to seven.
  • 04:47:04
    Under the county executive form of government, the county is authorized to have a board composed of between three and nine supervisors.
  • 04:47:14
    Increasing the size of the board was previously raised by the League of Women Voters in 1991 and by a supervisor and former president of the League of Women Voters in 2001.
  • 04:47:26
    In neither 1991, 2001, nor 2011 did the board express a desire to increase its membership.
  • 04:47:34
    An increase in the number of supervisors can be accomplished in two ways, by either adding a seventh magisterial district
  • 04:47:42
    or by adding a seventh supervisor who would be elected at large to serve as the chair following a referendum of the county voters.
  • 04:47:51
    Even assuming for the sake of argument that the board is interested in increasing the membership of the board by adding a magisterial district, staff does not recommend pursuing it during this decennial redistricting.
  • 04:48:04
    State law allows the number of districts to be changed at any time, not only as part of the redistricting process.
  • 04:48:11
    Next slide.
  • 04:48:16
    The first two bullets on this slide are highlighted because they pertain to the congressional district split in the northwest corner of the county created by the state redistricting plan.
  • 04:48:29
    The number of county voters who fall within the seventh congressional district will be below the minimum precinct size of 100.
  • 04:48:37
    which will require the board to request a statutorily authorized waiver from the prohibition against precincts.
  • 04:48:44
    As the board will recall, this request has been made to the state.
  • 04:48:52
    Next slide.
  • 04:48:56
    The target size of 2500 is intended to accommodate growth between decennial redistricting and to allow polling places to not be overcrowded.
  • 04:49:06
    The county has some precincts that exceed that target date by a large number.
  • 04:49:12
    However, Mr. Washburn has told me that early voting reduces the strain on polling places on election day.
  • 04:49:19
    Next slide.
  • 04:49:22
    For polling places, the state has several criteria and I have nothing to add to this particular slide.
  • 04:49:35
    Next slide.
  • 04:49:39
    My only comment regarding this slide is that the purpose for having centrally located polling places is to ensure that the maximum travel time for voters, at least as many as possible, be not more than 20 minutes.
  • 04:49:58
    As we'll see in some later slides, there were a couple of comments related to the distance that some voters would have to travel under
  • 04:50:08
    and various options.
  • 04:50:10
    Next slide.
  • 04:50:14
    And next slide.
  • 04:50:16
    The review by the Office of Equity and Inclusion has been provided to the board in post film one.
  • 04:50:22
    I have condensed OEI's memorandum to two slides and I've allowed the board to read the summaries.
  • 04:50:29
    This slide that you're currently looking at summarizes some positive and negative effects of the options.
  • 04:50:36
    I'll give you some time to read through those.
  • 04:50:57
    Okay, next slide.
  • 04:51:03
    And I have just a couple of comments regarding this slide, and then I'll allow you to read its content.
  • 04:51:09
    In summary, OEI's review identified some positive and negative impacts, but also concluded that none of the three options unduly impacted any populations to a greater extent than others.
  • 04:51:22
    As a final note, I want to thank Emily Kilroy,
  • 04:51:25
    Irdafad Binta-Fared, and Putnam I.D.
  • 04:51:28
    de Cortez in OEI for their work on this.
  • 04:51:31
    They have significantly elevated the analysis of the impact of redistricting minority groups in the county over the prior decennial redistricting processes.
  • 04:51:46
    Next slide.
  • 04:51:49
    Comments received.
  • 04:51:50
    Next slide.
  • 04:51:52
    There are two classes of comments that were received because two different locations were established where the community may submit written comments.
  • 04:52:03
    This slide shows the comments received at VOS at Albemarle.org.
  • 04:52:27
    and next slide.
  • 04:52:29
    The following five slides summarize the comments received at engage.albemarle.org in response to five questions.
  • 04:52:38
    With two days to go in the comment period, 28 comments have been received.
  • 04:52:43
    Many responders did not answer all five questions.
  • 04:52:49
    I'll give you a moment to read those.
  • 04:52:52
    Brian, if you could go back to let them say what the questions were asked.
  • 04:53:11
    Next slide.
  • 04:53:15
    In response to question four, 11 responders ranked option two as the preferred option.
  • 04:53:28
    Next slide.
  • 04:53:30
    This slide has comments that pertain to county wide issues.
  • 04:53:34
    The numbers following the comments are the number of persons who made that particular comment.
  • 04:53:49
    This slide has comments related to specific options.
  • 04:54:25
    This slide has comments suggesting movement of populations and precincts.
  • 04:54:29
    The suggestion to move some residents of Crozet from the White Hall to the Samuel Miller district, you will recall, were also made by two who submitted comments to BOS at Albemarle.org.
  • 04:54:54
    And I will comment on the third bullet, the comment to add Porter's Precinct to the Scottsville District.
  • 04:55:01
    That was a shift that was made in the 2011 redistricting because of the population growth in the Scottsville Magisterial District.
  • 04:55:13
    We were reluctant to do so, but had we not done that and made one other
  • 04:55:18
    Precinct ship, it would have required a fairly dramatic shift among all six magisterial districts.
  • 04:55:28
    I will now hand the presentation over to Mr. Washburn and Mr. Becker to review the maps, unless the board has any questions of me at this point.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:55:38
    All right, board, I don't see any hands up.
  • 04:55:41
    So Mr. Campner, thank you.
  • 04:55:42
    We may come back to you.
  • 04:55:44
    Mr. Washburn.
• • SPEAKER_23
  • 04:55:53
    Can you hear me?
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 04:55:54
    Yes.
• • SPEAKER_23
  • 04:55:55
    Okay.
  • 04:55:56
    Madam Chair, members of the board, I'm Jake Washburn.
  • 04:55:59
    I'm the County Voter Registrar.
  • 04:56:01
    Thank you for the opportunity to do this presentation.
  • 04:56:05
    At the very outset, I need to make a correction in the written outline of the effect of the changes, and it is not earth-shaking, but it's pretty significant.
  • 04:56:20
    In the
  • 04:56:22
    The cheat sheet that I had drawn up to outline, to make a written outline of the changes, I had said that the second option map proposed would affect the fewest number of voters.
  • 04:56:38
    That is not correct.
  • 04:56:42
    I think in the, when we were pulling the numbers together originally, we must have flipped one and two on that issue.
  • 04:56:49
    So it is,
  • 04:56:52
    The first option, which will affect the fewest number of voters, and that will be about 1,700 voters.
  • 04:57:01
    The second option would affect about 2,400 voters.
  • 04:57:07
    The third option would affect about 5,800 voters.
  • 04:57:14
    The difference between one and two is not staggering, but it is significant.
  • 04:57:20
    I think particularly in light of the fact that one of the comments that was received favored option two specifically because they said it would affect the fewest number of voters and I apologize for the error but it was something that was nagging at me and Brian and I rechecked it today and determined that we had somehow flipped those two numbers so I just want to be sure at the outset that
  • 04:57:47
    corrected sheet that I can send to be posted ASAP.
  • 04:57:54
    So that having been said, we start out with the new state election districts.
  • 04:58:03
    For some reason that nobody really understands, there's a little tiny sliver in the far northwest corner of Albemarle County that has been put into the 7th congressional district.
  • 04:58:14
    All of the rest of Albemarle County is in the 5th.
  • 04:58:18
    There are 108 people living in that tiny sliver, 34 of whom are registered voters.
  • 04:58:24
    So because of that, because we didn't want to try to set up a voting precinct with 34 registered voters, and in fact the code prohibits the creation of a precinct with less than 100, we applied to the State Board of Elections for a waiver to administer a split precinct.
  • 04:58:42
    The State Board of Elections at their meeting yesterday approved our waiver.
  • 04:58:46
    So we're okay on that.
  • 04:58:49
    But it's just an odd thing.
  • 04:58:52
    Nobody quite understands it, but that's the way it is.
  • 04:58:56
    Under any, all three of our proposed options, that split precinct would be the free union precinct up in Northwestern Almore County.
  • 04:59:06
    Then I guess, Brian, if you can go to the next slide.
  • 04:59:09
    Okay.
  • 04:59:11
    So the second major change is that
  • 04:59:16
    Albemarle is now entirely in the 11th state senate district.
  • 04:59:21
    It was earlier split between the 25th and 17th.
  • 04:59:26
    So that's pretty straightforward.
  • 04:59:30
    And then Brian, can you go to the next slide?
  • 04:59:35
    Now we're showing the new 54th and 55th Virginia House of Delegates districts.
  • 04:59:41
    As you can see, the 54th comprises all the city of Charlottesville and then the, I guess what we could refer to as precincts, Albemarle County precincts in the urban ring of the county.
  • 04:59:58
    All of the outlying precincts are in the 55th House of Delegates district.
  • 05:00:06
    Okay.
  • 05:00:06
    And now I guess if you can go to the next slide, Brian.
  • 05:00:10
    So here is, this is, let's see, what is this?
  • 05:00:15
    All right.
  • 05:00:17
    Here is the current map of Albemarle County magisterial districts and voting precincts.
  • 05:00:26
    The challenge in creating the new magisterial districts and precincts was, one, we had to get a nearly equal population in all six county magisterial districts.
  • 05:00:40
    And there's been significant population changes over the last 10 years.
  • 05:00:44
    So there's just no way we were not going to have to somehow adjust magisterial district lines to achieve population parity among the six magisterial districts.
  • 05:00:56
    and the other thing is that because of the way that the 54th House Delegates District and 55th are drawn, we will have to move some precinct boundary lines so that we do not have any split precincts, which are prohibited under state elections law, except in the very limited circumstance that we have up in the little sliver up in Northwestern Albemarle where there's such a tiny population.
  • 05:01:27
    So based on these goals, the County Electoral Board and the County Attorney's Office, me,
  • 05:01:36
    and Brian Becker, who's the GIS mapping wizard, got together as soon as the state district lines were published and started working on proposals for redistricting that would meet all of the federal and state criteria.
  • 05:01:58
    We came up with three proposed options.
  • 05:02:02
    Brian, I guess if you can go to the next one,
  • 05:02:05
    there is the first proposed option that would, essentially we had to reduce the overall population of the White Hall Magisterial District and the Ryle Magisterial District.
  • 05:02:23
    We had to increase the population of the Scottsville Magisterial District and the Samuel Miller District.
  • 05:02:30
    And by adjusting the boundary lines as
  • 05:02:35
    proposed in this map, that's what we did.
  • 05:02:38
    And as I said earlier, this would affect the fewest number of voters.
  • 05:02:44
    That is, the fewest number of voters would have to go to a different voting location polling place than they have in the past.
  • 05:02:53
    And in addition to affecting the fewest number of voters, there are a couple of other changes that it makes that are outlined.
  • 05:03:03
    on that summary, it's posted.
  • 05:03:07
    I can go through it if you'd like, but it also will be sort of time consuming.
  • 05:03:16
    Generally speaking, this is what the option number one would look like and it would meet the population deviation requirements and it would adjust the three precinct boundaries so that we wouldn't have a split between the 54th and the 55th house of delegates districts.
  • 05:03:36
    Then Brian, can you go to the second option map?
  • 05:03:42
    This is the second option.
  • 05:03:44
    It does, again, overall the same thing that we had to do, which was to reduce the populations of White Hall and Rio, increase the populations of Samuel Miller and Scottsville, but it just does it in a somewhat different way and would affect about 600, no, about 650 more voters would have to go to a different polling place.
  • 05:04:12
    But the precinct boundary changes would be the same in option one, option two, or in option three, because we'd have to prevent split precincts between the 54 and 55 House of Delegates districts.
  • 05:04:29
    And then, Brian, if you could go to option three.
  • 05:04:33
    Option three would
  • 05:04:35
    would be, I guess, the most dramatic change because it would create a new voting precinct.
  • 05:04:41
    It would split the current Ivy voting precinct into Ivy and South Ivy.
  • 05:04:47
    And so between that and the other magisterial boundary changes that would affect a great more voters that would affect about 5,800 voters would have to go to a different voting location.
  • 05:05:06
    So those are the three options that we have proposed.
  • 05:05:13
    And we've got some other demographics if you'd like to see them, but do any of the supervisors have any questions?
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:05:24
    All right.
  • 05:05:25
    Thank you, Mr. Washburn and Mr. Campner.
  • 05:05:28
    We'll go through our order.
  • 05:05:29
    Supervisor Andrews.
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 05:05:32
    Well, real quickly, is the reason for the South Ivey precinct needed is because there's no way to put that into East Ivey, this section that's moving from Jack Jouett.
  • 05:05:49
    Is it different from option one?
  • 05:05:52
    And if so, then, you know, what's causing this to need an additional precinct?
• • SPEAKER_23
  • 05:06:01
    No, I mean, we thought we should give you all three options rather than two, to be perfectly honest.
  • 05:06:11
    I don't know whether that's just because we all grew up with let's make a deal door number one, door number two, and door number three, but we grew up a third option.
  • 05:06:24
    And I think at some point down the road,
  • 05:06:31
    It may be legally required that we split the Ivy precinct in two because it may have too great a number of voters, but it's certainly not required at this time.
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 05:06:49
    Thank you.
  • 05:06:53
    Please come back to me on this one.
  • 05:06:54
    I want to hear other people have to say.
• • SPEAKER_27
  • 05:06:57
    All right.
  • 05:06:57
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:06:57
    Supervisor McKeel.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 05:07:00
    Yes, and thank you, Jake, and I appreciate the presentation and explanation.
  • 05:07:06
    Just help me a little bit for clarity, since we had a little bit of a change here.
  • 05:07:12
    So, option three now moves the most voters, and it sounds like to me significantly, but you said 5800 voters?
  • 05:07:21
    Yeah, 5860.
• • SPEAKER_23
  • 05:07:28
    under option three would go to a different voting location than they go to now.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 05:07:34
    Okay.
  • 05:07:37
    Did I hear somebody else say something?
  • 05:07:39
    Okay.
  • 05:07:41
    And when we're talking about the new precincts, moving folks to new precincts, I think it says that there's still, so even with that change or with what we have now, the new precincts would be within 20 minutes.
  • 05:08:00
    Does that mean 20 minutes of what we have now or 20 minutes of what the laws require?
• • SPEAKER_23
  • 05:08:07
    I think what it means is that if you hopped in your car at your house that you ought to be able to get to your voting precinct in a 20 minute drive unless you ran into a horrible traffic jam.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 05:08:24
    Okay, so that's helping me a little bit.
  • 05:08:26
    So it's not 20 minutes additional.
  • 05:08:28
    It's 20 minutes.
  • 05:08:30
    All of these are saying that you only need 20 minutes to get to a polling site, essentially.
• • SPEAKER_23
  • 05:08:36
    Correct.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 05:08:37
    Okay.
  • 05:08:38
    All right.
  • 05:08:38
    That's helpful.
  • 05:08:41
    And I think those are my questions for right now.
  • 05:08:48
    Thank you.
  • 05:08:48
    I appreciate it.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:08:49
    Thank you, Supervisor Mallon.
• • SPEAKER_27
  • 05:09:01
    You're muted Ann.
  • 05:09:04
    Ann you're still muted.
  • 05:09:05
    You're muted Ann.
  • 05:09:09
    You're muted Ann.
  • 05:09:18
    Ann you're still muted.
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 05:09:20
    I'm so sorry, my Zoom went to midi screen here, so I was trying to get back to my mute.
  • 05:09:28
    I apologize for the delay.
  • 05:09:29
    All right, this has been very challenging to wrap my brain around, and I'm doing my very best, I promise.
  • 05:09:40
    The different things I've noticed about option two, and I can only really comment about the White Hall district because I'm more familiar with the roads there than in other places.
  • 05:09:51
    It looks like we have a little triangle around Plank Road that goes south of 250 that stays in the White Hall district.
  • 05:10:01
    And then there's a chunk north of 250 that comes out of the nature precinct that goes into the Maysville precinct.
  • 05:10:08
    if I understand that correctly.
  • 05:10:09
    And having driven from the Fox Chase area to Batesville quite a few times, that is quite a haul to be able to move all those voters down to Yellow Mountain to Broadus Church to vote.
  • 05:10:22
    So that's, I guess, one of the things that makes number one look a lot better to me than number two.
  • 05:10:30
    And I guess
  • 05:10:36
    One of the things that was, I think, in our conditions, we tried to cause the smallest disruption to the fewest number of people.
  • 05:10:44
    That is a really good thing because it's hard.
  • 05:10:47
    People have a hard time, all of us have a hard time with change.
  • 05:10:50
    So I think that makes a distinguishing between one and two.
  • 05:10:54
    in my mind.
  • 05:10:55
    And it is absolutely not my district, but I couldn't tell the answer from the map.
  • 05:11:00
    Is all of Jack Jouett now in the 54th or does it have to be divided between two delegates districts?
• • SPEAKER_23
  • 05:11:09
    I believe all of Jack Jouett is in the new 55th.
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 05:11:14
    I guess that's all my questions.
  • 05:11:16
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_23
  • 05:11:17
    Okay.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:11:19
    Actually, Mr. Washburn, I believe that part of
  • 05:11:22
    Jack Jouett is in the 54th.
  • 05:11:25
    The Eastern are closest to the city of Charlottesville, but the rest of it appears to be in the 55th.
  • 05:11:36
    If you go back to your maps of the 54th and 54th.
• • SPEAKER_23
  • 05:11:39
    Well, I think that there are two precincts in the Jack Jouett Magisterial District.
  • 05:11:51
    that are in the 54th.
  • 05:11:54
    But I don't think the Jack Jouett precinct itself is in part in the 54th.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:12:03
    I may have misunderstood.
  • 05:12:04
    I was thinking of the Jack Jouett Magisterial District.
• • SPEAKER_23
  • 05:12:07
    Oh, okay.
  • 05:12:07
    Yeah.
  • 05:12:08
    The Georgetown precinct is for sure in the 54th.
  • 05:12:22
    And it is a part of the Jack Jouett Magisterial District.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:12:26
    As is University.
• • SPEAKER_23
  • 05:12:28
    As is University, correct.
  • 05:12:29
    Yeah.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:12:31
    I apologize, Supervisor Malek, I was thinking Magisterial District, not Friesen.
  • 05:12:36
    Alright, thank you.
  • 05:12:39
    So was I. Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 05:12:45
    Yes, Mr. Washburn, could you please go to Option 1?
  • 05:12:51
    Okay, so for option one, I think for the Rivanna District, option one, there's only a small portion between option one and two of the Rivanna District and the lower left-hand corner of the Rivanna District that would then be in the Scottsville District, correct?
  • 05:13:18
    A tiny piece.
  • 05:13:22
    So that's the only difference.
  • 05:13:24
    I'm basically not really impacted that much.
  • 05:13:28
    I do like option one or two.
  • 05:13:30
    I think I'm going to leave it to my fellow supervisors who are more impacted to help me make a decision.
  • 05:13:42
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 05:13:54
    Am I next?
  • 05:13:56
    Oh, you were muted there, Chair Price.
  • 05:14:00
    Sorry.
  • 05:14:03
    Jake, I'm presuming because the numbers are identical, option one and option three.
  • 05:14:08
    Now I'm getting selfish here, just focusing on Rio and Jack Jouett.
  • 05:14:13
    Nothing is different between option one and option three for those two magisterial districts.
• • SPEAKER_23
  • 05:14:21
    I think that's correct.
  • 05:14:24
    I believe that is correct.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 05:14:26
    At least for Rio, the population for option one and option three are identical so they should be the same.
• • SPEAKER_23
  • 05:14:32
    Yeah, I believe that is correct.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 05:14:34
    And then just to confirm because I couldn't and that there were a set of maps where I missed it,
  • 05:14:40
    The change that Jack Jouett would take on is basically Dominion Drive up to Four Seasons, up to Rio, then down to Greenbrier and Whitewood, but it doesn't cross Rio, it's just that kind of
• • SPEAKER_23
  • 05:15:00
    Yeah, that's my understanding.
  • 05:15:01
    It just, it grabs a little bit more into the Georgetown precinct and gives up a little bit of agner her because we had gotten some feedback that that would be better for communities of interest.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 05:15:17
    Yeah, but Dominion Drive Four Seasons is kind of the furthest it goes and then it just lops off up to Rio and assumes all that activity.
  • 05:15:26
    I just wanted to make sure I understood the boundary that it was going to change.
  • 05:15:30
    Option two, from my perspective, looking at the Rio district, lopping that little corner off up in the far north of 29 north seems a little confusing.
  • 05:15:42
    You know, 29 can be quite the barrier.
  • 05:15:44
    And so that little, I'm not, again, just from a Rio district standpoint, option two isn't appealing for that reason.
  • 05:15:54
    And option one and three are basically the same for me.
  • 05:15:58
    So from that standpoint, it seems to make sense what you're suggesting as it relates to Rio and Jack Jouett.
  • 05:16:04
    But that little chunk, I don't know how many voters would be in that little tip there.
  • 05:16:10
    But that could be, to me, that just seems like a needless change when it seems cleaner in the other iterations.
  • 05:16:19
    OK.
  • 05:16:22
    And then, Donora.
  • 05:16:24
    Dunlora, Branchlands, I guess is Woodbrooke then all in the 54th?
• • SPEAKER_23
  • 05:16:33
    I believe that Woodbrooke is entirely in the 54th, Dunlora is entirely in the 54th, Branchlands is entirely in the 54th.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 05:16:51
    Northside and Woodbrooke would be in the 55th.
  • 05:16:54
    Correct.
  • 05:16:55
    Northside would be in the 55th.
• • SPEAKER_23
  • 05:16:59
    Yeah, Northside and Hollywood.
  • 05:17:01
    Yeah.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 05:17:03
    Yeah, I think we missed it spoke.
  • 05:17:04
    Let me restate them so that I've got it clear.
  • 05:17:06
    Okay.
  • 05:17:06
    Northside and Woodbrooke would be in the 55th.
  • 05:17:09
    Agner, Hurt, Dunlora, and Branchlands would be in the 54th.
  • 05:17:12
    Correct.
  • 05:17:14
    Thank you.
  • 05:17:17
    Woodbrooke's in the 54th.
  • 05:17:18
    Mm-hmm.
  • 05:17:22
    Can you go back to that slide so I can see that?
  • 05:17:24
    Because Woodbrooke in the past has been a split sometimes and then that got corrected I think.
  • 05:17:30
    So this new 54th and 55th as it plays out over the Rio district sometimes can be.
• • SPEAKER_23
  • 05:17:40
    Brian, do you have that sort of zoom in map that you made that showed the dividing line between the 54th and 55th in the
  • 05:17:51
    I guess in the inner loop or the urban ring?
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:17:56
    He's pulling that up.
  • 05:17:57
    Supervisor Galloway, Agner, Woodbrooke, Branchlands, and Dunmore would all be in the 54th.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 05:18:04
    So only Northside is the one that goes to them.
  • 05:18:07
    Thank you for that clarification.
  • 05:18:08
    I thought Woodbrooke had moved.
  • 05:18:14
    Got it.
• • SPEAKER_21
  • 05:18:16
    I'm sorry, which option did you want to see?
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 05:18:19
    We were just trying to confirm the
  • 05:18:22
    the Woodbrooke, Dunlora, Branch Lands, and Agner Hurte are all in fact in the 54th?
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:18:26
    Correct.
  • 05:18:28
    Yeah, and that's the House of Delegates map that you've got.
  • 05:18:31
    All three of the options would show that.
• • SPEAKER_18
  • 05:18:35
    Great.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:18:39
    Right.
  • 05:18:43
    I have some comments, but I'm going to first open the public hearing and checking with the clerk.
  • 05:18:50
    I just want to confirm that there are no speakers signed up.
  • 05:18:54
    That is correct.
  • 05:18:55
    No speakers.
  • 05:18:59
    I will close the public hearing.
  • 05:19:04
    The matter is back before the board.
  • 05:19:07
    And what we want here, what staff is looking for, is the board to provide direction on the final redistricting ordinance for adoption on March 23rd.
  • 05:19:17
    So I'll go back through our order on any final comments that supervisors may have.
  • 05:19:24
    Supervisor entrance.
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 05:19:27
    So we're supposed to pick one of these at this point?
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:19:30
    Whatever you believe your guidance would be.
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 05:19:34
    Right, and I'm pretty sure my guidance would be to prefer one or three over two.
  • 05:19:43
    And understanding that the South Ivy thing will add another precinct and confuse more voters, that leans me towards option one, I suppose.
  • 05:19:56
    And again, I'd love to hear what other people have to say, but that's where I'm leaning.
  • 05:20:00
    Thanks.
  • 05:20:01
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:20:02
    Supervisor McKeel?
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 05:20:05
    Yes, thank you.
  • 05:20:06
    Yeah, my preference would be one or two.
  • 05:20:10
    And I'm leaning actually because Ned's district, the Rio piece, where we connect
  • 05:20:22
    and what he was discussing, because it doesn't take all of that community interest, it just takes a portion of it, then that leads me to probably prefer option two.
  • 05:20:38
    just because if I can't, if the Jouett district can't get that whole community of interest, I think it just creates even more confusion because we're just moving it a little bit and then having a different magisterial, I mean a different line.
  • 05:20:55
    So I think at this point, like I said, it would be, my preference would be either option one or two, but I think
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:21:06
    We've lost Supervisor McKeel.
  • 05:21:10
    We'll give her a second to see if she comes back.
  • 05:21:14
    Here we go.
  • 05:21:17
    Diantha, we lost you for a moment.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 05:21:18
    So you had said- Yeah, and that's- I'm sorry, that's the second time that's happened to me today and I thought my connection was pretty strong in the urban rain.
  • 05:21:26
    Anyway, so I guess my last comment was I would prefer option one or option two
  • 05:21:36
    and I won't go into all the details but my preference of the two would be option two I think at this point.
  • 05:21:40
    All right, thank you.
  • 05:21:42
    Supervisor Mallek.
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 05:21:46
    Thank you.
  • 05:21:47
    I would prefer option one as far as the impact on the White Hall District because of those two sections, two small sections moving rather than one large one, which and keeping the roads at 250 as a major divider between the two is very clear for voters so they don't get confused.
  • 05:22:07
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:22:10
    Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley?
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 05:22:13
    Yeah, I prefer option one or two.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:22:18
    All right, Supervisor Galloway.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 05:22:19
    Yeah, I got a new question then.
  • 05:22:24
    So does option two then not move?
  • 05:22:30
    I guess I wasn't looking at this.
• • SPEAKER_23
  • 05:22:33
    Brian, can you put back option two?
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 05:22:42
    When Diantha made those, when Supervisor McKeel made those comments, so in option two it's just that northern tip of Rio that's moving.
• • SPEAKER_23
  • 05:22:51
    Right.
  • 05:22:52
    It doesn't stay the same.
  • 05:22:55
    Option two sort of lops off the top of what we have referred to for years as the rabbit ear.
  • 05:23:03
    but not all the rabbit ears.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 05:23:04
    My contention was that that part was in addition to what existed in one and three.
• • SPEAKER_23
  • 05:23:10
    Yeah, well, I think it is in addition.
  • 05:23:16
    I don't think either option one or three takes the top of the rabbit ear and moves it out of your district.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 05:23:24
    Understood.
  • 05:23:25
    I'm saying that the Jouett piece, supervisor.
• • SPEAKER_23
  • 05:23:27
    Oh, okay.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 05:23:29
    So I would maintain down to Whitewood and Greenbrier, I would just be losing the rabbit ear tip.
  • 05:23:36
    Correct.
  • 05:23:37
    I was thinking I was losing both sections.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 05:23:41
    And that's what I wanted because I am just saying that that's what made sense to me was to keep that community of interest, but we're really not doing it.
  • 05:23:49
    It's just shifting it and making it even a little bit more confusing.
  • 05:23:52
    And I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but I think Ned and I are talking about the same area here.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 05:24:02
    I have to confess I did not scrutinize the other folks' districts as much as I did mine.
  • 05:24:09
    So the one in three are identical.
  • 05:24:13
    It seemed to me that one impacted less people than three, so I was preferring option one.
  • 05:24:27
    I don't know which would be a greater, it seems to me to be a bigger burden on the voters in that tip of that rabbit ear to get the Baker-Butler versus that group in that Dominion Drive Four Seasons.
  • 05:24:38
    Where do they vote?
  • 05:24:39
    Where does your Greenbrier, is that Jack, do they vote over the high school or?
• • SPEAKER_23
  • 05:24:45
    You mean the Northside precinct?
  • 05:24:48
    The Georgetown precinct?
  • 05:24:50
    Pardon me, the Georgetown precinct votes at Albemarle High School.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 05:24:53
    Yeah, they're in our high school, but that's not the, see the dividing line is... And option two, the dividing line remains what it is today.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 05:25:06
    Correct.
  • 05:25:07
    Yeah.
  • 05:25:07
    So, I mean, it's... If you added, if that's option two, if you did option one, the dividing line would be Dominion Drive and Four Seasons Drive.
  • 05:25:18
    And then that whole kind of block of community would go to Albemarle.
  • 05:25:22
    whereas the rabbit ear would get over to Baker Butler.
  • 05:25:24
    It seems to me that it would be more confusion or maybe more of a burden for the folks to get over 29 and down to Baker Butler than that community making it to Albemarle.
  • 05:25:36
    I'm not, speaking to Supervisor McKeel, I'm not going strong inclination either way here, but just trying to find some kind of difference there.
• • SPEAKER_23
  • 05:25:47
    Well, I mean, just to clarify, I mean, what I've always thought of as the rabbit ears is what runs up off the west side of U.S.
  • 05:25:56
    29 North, and which is in the current Northside precinct.
  • 05:25:59
    And that, in option one, all those voters would continue to be in the Northside precinct.
  • 05:26:06
    They wouldn't have to get across, you know, 29 to the Baker public.
  • 05:26:10
    Yeah.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 05:26:11
    In option two, they would.
  • 05:26:15
    And that's the part that's saying to me seems to be a little convoluted.
  • 05:26:19
    Okay.
  • 05:26:20
    So, but I mean, now that I'm understanding it's that section or that section, population wise, I get it.
  • 05:26:27
    I guess they're comparable unit wise, but it may be least, I guess, less disruptive on the southern portion and the upper portion, but I can be persuaded either direction, I think.
  • 05:26:40
    Supervisor Albemarle, Bea LaPisto-Kirtley.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 05:26:44
    Yes, I think I'm going to go.
  • 05:26:47
    I want to make sure Ned gets his rabbit ears and I'll go with option one.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:26:51
    All right, Supervisor Andrews.
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 05:26:58
    I hate to ask this if it's not convenient, but would you be able to remind us one more time what the population spread is under option one?
  • 05:27:11
    for any of the options really for dividing up the population to six districts.
  • 05:27:18
    Is that available to just look at?
  • 05:27:21
    I know we worried a lot about how many people are being moved.
• • SPEAKER_23
  • 05:27:25
    Right.
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 05:27:26
    But we haven't at all seen anything tonight about how evenly balanced.
• • SPEAKER_23
  • 05:27:32
    Right.
  • 05:27:34
    Where it falls within the plus or minus 5% deviation.
  • 05:27:39
    Brian, I know Brian has those numbers.
  • 05:27:44
    If he throws them up in one data form, it may be sort of overwhelming.
  • 05:27:52
    But Brian, I'm wondering if you could throw up that, sorry, post that data, poor choice of words, and then
  • 05:28:05
    just explain to the supervisors, well, under option one, there would be, you know, 17,422 voters in White Hall and there would be 18,000, et cetera, et cetera.
  • 05:28:18
    Is that possible?
• • SPEAKER_21
  • 05:28:20
    Are you seeing the spreadsheet?
  • 05:28:22
    I'm still seeing the map.
  • 05:28:24
    Oh, sorry.
  • 05:28:25
    Sorry.
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 05:28:27
    I have seen it before.
  • 05:28:28
    I just was hoping it would be something for
  • 05:28:32
    The target was 18,728 was the mean.
• • SPEAKER_21
  • 05:28:34
    The 5% plus or minus was from 17,791 to 19,664.
  • 05:28:38
    So within option one, these were the target deviations.
  • 05:28:40
    So Samuel Miller was the greatest by going down 706,660.
  • 05:29:05
    Rivanna is the lowest from the target by 188.
  • 05:29:12
    I think our challenge, I don't have the original, but the current status says I'll have it up here, so we're comparison.
  • 05:29:27
    Did you want to see one of the other options?
  • 05:29:30
    This is option two here.
  • 05:29:33
    And I know it's really small.
  • 05:29:37
    And this is on the materials that was in the packet.
  • 05:29:42
    Yeah, we have it.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:29:46
    All right, thank you.
  • 05:29:47
    All right, Supervisor Mallek.
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 05:29:53
    I have been trying to find the chart, which I know I have seen, that has the six districts and the 17,000 XYZ numbers, but I can't find it.
  • 05:30:02
    So is it possible for you to easily just read those six numbers, the actual numbers in option one?
  • 05:30:10
    And then I think that may give us a good sense of if we're sort of balanced or not.
• • SPEAKER_21
  • 05:30:15
    And option one, Jack Jouett has 19,070.
  • 05:30:20
    Rio would have 19,279, Rivanna would have 18,540, Samuel Miller would be 17,962, Scottsville was 18,055, White Hall was 19,461.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:30:52
    Okay.
  • 05:30:53
    All right.
  • 05:30:56
    Thank you, Mr. Campner.
• • SPEAKER_24
  • 05:30:58
    I was just going to note for the supervisors who are also online, if you pull up this agenda item, attachment D has the three options.
  • 05:31:11
    The maps that in the key has the populations of each of the magisterial districts.
  • 05:31:20
    Those are on pages two, three, and four of attachment D. Thank you, Mr. Campner.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:31:25
    I'm going to... Supervisor Mallek, go ahead.
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 05:31:30
    Does anyone see attachment D in today's agenda in the online?
  • 05:31:34
    Because I can't find it.
  • 05:31:36
    That's why I couldn't find it.
  • 05:31:37
    Thank you.
  • 05:31:38
    All right.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:31:39
    I have not made any comments yet, so I would like to share my comments on this.
  • 05:31:45
    I strongly support option one, and I do so for the following reasons.
  • 05:31:50
    First off, I do not support option two primarily in this instance because it takes, there are certain boundaries that I think make perfect sense for magisterial districts and I-64 is an excellent one.
  • 05:32:06
    and option two takes part of the free bridge community that is north of 64 and moves it down into the Scottsville district which is not otherwise connected with that community.
  • 05:32:19
    So it's really taking the community that is an integral part of the Rivanna district and moves it down into the Scottsville district but it's pretty isolated from the rest.
  • 05:32:31
    Even perhaps more difficult than
  • 05:32:33
    the Woolen Mills area that currently exists within the Scottsville Magisterial District is you have to go into the city to then get there.
  • 05:32:40
    I do not support option three because it has the greatest impact on the largest number of our voters and I don't think it's really necessary that we have to do that.
  • 05:32:53
    When I look at option one, it does several things which I think make a great deal of sense.
  • 05:32:59
    Scottsville Road, Virginia 20, as you move south of Mountain View and Biscuit Run, it takes that population from Samuel Miller and moves it into the Scottsville District, which I believe makes more sense given the terrain that western part of Scottsville Road
  • 05:33:17
    in that part of the area really is more closely aligned, I believe, with the Scottsville Magisterial District, again, because of the terrain, because of the mountains, the hills, the rivers, and things like that.
  • 05:33:30
    And otherwise, it appears to have, well, it does have the lowest impact on the number of our boaters.
  • 05:33:38
    And so at this point, I would strongly support option one, do not support option two,
  • 05:33:46
    really at all and believe option one to be better than option three because it impacts a substantially smaller number of our population.
  • 05:33:55
    And as a general comment, I just want to thank Mr. Washburn, Mr. Campner, Mr. Becker, everyone else who has been involved in this process.
  • 05:34:05
    The complexities that you've had to deal with with a delayed census, a delayed state redistricting that was not until December 27th at the Supreme Court
  • 05:34:15
    issued its final ruling, and the time constraints under which you have been operating have really been significant.
  • 05:34:23
    I also want to thank the reality of our Office of Equity and Inclusion examining every aspect of this in order to ensure that we were not disadvantaging any communities of interest.
  • 05:34:35
    So I really appreciate the work that everyone has done.
  • 05:34:38
    Are there any other comments from any other supervisors?
  • 05:34:44
    Not seeing any, if I might, Board, it appears to me that overall the consensus is towards option one.
  • 05:34:52
    There were some comments towards option two, but I do not recall any significant support for option three.
  • 05:35:01
    Supervisor Galloway?
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 05:35:03
    I'm sorry, I didn't get my hand up fast enough when you asked the questions, but it won't change what you were talking about.
  • 05:35:09
    This is just more a curiosity.
  • 05:35:12
    In option one, well, we'll stick with option one because that sounds like that has some support.
  • 05:35:19
    The Agner Hurte precinct.
  • 05:35:22
    Have you guys looked at the precinct level?
  • 05:35:23
    Does that, because Branchlands is a very small populated precinct.
  • 05:35:29
    I would imagine nothing's getting added.
  • 05:35:31
    Agner Hurte would just lose that chunk in their total population.
  • 05:35:36
    Correct.
  • 05:35:38
    And then as development continues, do you guys ever look at the spread amongst the precincts?
  • 05:35:46
    So like there's going to be some development that's coming into that where people that voted Dunlora, there'll be development that will impact Northside.
  • 05:35:54
    Not really, well, I guess some things could have developed up and eventually impact Agnerhert, but not yet.
  • 05:36:00
    I just, that was more a curiosity question than anything.
• • SPEAKER_23
  • 05:36:04
    Yeah, I mean, it was about three years ago, I think, we created three new precincts because there were a couple of precincts that were just getting too populous.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 05:36:18
    So if the Northside or Dunlora got too big because of development that's in the works, then you might break those into two precincts.
• • SPEAKER_33
  • 05:36:27
    Yeah.
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 05:36:28
    Thank you.
  • 05:36:29
    Yep, understood.
  • 05:36:31
    Supervisor McKeel.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 05:36:33
    Donna, just a comment.
  • 05:36:34
    My preference was between one and two, but I really didn't have really strong feelings either way.
  • 05:36:42
    If the majority of the board are more comfortable with one, I mean, I'm happy to go with one because it's not a huge difference for me.
  • 05:36:50
    I just thought it was a little bit more straightforward.
  • 05:36:53
    I do like the idea that the fewest number of voters were moving.
  • 05:36:59
    I'm just saying that it sounds like to me there's more support for one and I'm happy to fall in line and go along with the majority.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:37:08
    Thank you, Supervisor McKeel.
  • 05:37:09
    And if I could just ask, is there consensus on the board that our current support is towards option one?
  • 05:37:17
    Any further comments or opposition?
  • 05:37:21
    Seeing none, Mr. Washburn, Mr. Campner, does that satisfy your needs and desires for this session, this public hearing?
  • 05:37:33
    Do we need to have a motion on that, given that it was a public hearing?
• • SPEAKER_24
  • 05:37:39
    Well, the action will be on the 23rd.
  • 05:37:41
    I think the consensus is fine.
  • 05:37:47
    The board will act on option one on the 23rd.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:37:51
    I just wanted to make sure that we didn't miss a procedural requirement.
  • 05:37:56
    If nothing further, again, Mr. Campner, Mr. Washburn, Mr. Becker, all those who have worked on this, we thank you substantially for your efforts.
  • 05:38:04
    And I think the lack of significant community commentary is a very positive indication that they see the work that you've done as being very fair.
  • 05:38:13
    So we thank you for that.
  • 05:38:15
    The board at this point will move to item number 22, a public hearing on a proposed ordinance to repeal the panhanding regulations in order to comply with state law.
  • 05:38:27
    And Mr. Campner, I believe that you'll be teeing this off.
• • SPEAKER_24
  • 05:38:33
    Yes, thank you.
  • 05:38:34
    Let me get reoriented here.
  • 05:38:44
    And I'll ask if you can see my screen.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:38:47
    We can.
• • SPEAKER_24
  • 05:38:47
    Thank you.
  • 05:38:49
    Good evening, Chair Price, members of the Board.
  • 05:38:51
    I'm Greg Kantner, County Attorney.
  • 05:38:54
    The ordinance for the Board's consideration would repeal County Code Section 10-123, which prohibits a range of activities commonly known as panhandling.
  • 05:39:06
    An ordinance to repeal an existing law is a simple act, but because this issue has generated a lot of questions over the years,
  • 05:39:13
    I wanted to briefly explain why repealing Section 10-123 is recommended.
  • 05:39:24
    Section 10-123 was originally adopted by the Board of Supervisors in 2005 after the General Assembly amended Virginia Code Section
  • 05:39:36
    46.2-931 that year to enable the county to prohibit persons standing on any public roadway or median from distributing certain written materials, soliciting contributions, and selling or attempting to sell merchandise.
  • 05:39:50
    The justification for this section will sound familiar to those on the board who have heard from their constituents on this topic over the years.
  • 05:40:00
    The executive summary accompanying the ordinance adopting this section on July 6, 2005 identified a number of complaints from motorists being approached by persons soliciting money and referred to the potential for injury to drivers and their passengers as well as the solicitors.
  • 05:40:19
    The police officer who spoke and supported the ordinance during the public hearing explained that the police had observed panhandlers guarding in and out of traffic
  • 05:40:28
    and some occupants of motor vehicles felt intimidated when they were approached that panhandlers congregated at the busiest intersections and that there were complaints of trash for panhandlers congregated and there were turf battles over panhandling locations.
  • 05:40:45
    At the time the section was adopted and it was amended in 2013, it was consistent with the applicable First Amendment case law.
  • 05:40:54
    However,
  • 05:40:57
    However, the section no longer satisfies that first amendment case law.
  • 05:41:04
    After county code section 10-123 was adopted and continuing through today, the federal court's analysis of the rights protected under the first amendment have been evolving and expanding with a brighter and harder line as to when and how the government may regulate protected speech and activity, which includes panhandling.
  • 05:41:26
    The county code section 10-123 is very similar to the panhandling ordinance in Henrico County that was held by a federal appeals court in 2015 to violate the first amendment because panhandling is protected speech.
  • 05:41:44
    Although the county has not enforced this section since the Henrico County decision, there's no reason to leave it in the county code until a replacement is found.
  • 05:41:58
    The repeal of this section would not mean the end of the county's ability to regulate several types of conduct that has been complained about over the years.
  • 05:42:10
    These would include laws that prohibit obstructing traffic, profane swearing in public, urinating or defecating in public, engaging in disorderly conduct, committing assault and battery, dumping trash on public streets.
  • 05:42:25
    In order to enforce those laws, persons who observe or victims of those crimes need to contact the police.
  • 05:42:33
    If the board is interested in hearing what would be required for a panhandling ordinance under current constitutional principles, I can talk about that.
  • 05:42:42
    If not, this concludes my presentation and staff is happy to answer any questions.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:42:47
    Thank you, Mr. Campner.
  • 05:42:49
    We'll go through our order.
  • 05:42:51
    Mr. Andrews, Supervisor Andrews.
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 05:42:55
    Thank you.
  • 05:42:56
    I certainly understand the need to repeal this.
  • 05:42:59
    I guess, you know, I think it's late and I'm not sure I want to hear what our options are, but if people do, I do think it's eventually something we should talk about.
  • 05:43:13
    Thank you.
  • 05:43:14
    Senator McKeel?
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 05:43:18
    I do see the need to repeal it too.
  • 05:43:20
    I think when we have ordinances on the books that we can't enforce.
  • 05:43:27
    Not a good thing.
  • 05:43:29
    And we did have a gentleman who was sending us, Greg, multiple ordinances from other localities that were on their books.
  • 05:43:40
    But every time I shared that with you, you were saying those ordinances are not enforceable.
  • 05:43:47
    And it was leading the public to believe that other localities had ordinances that they could enforce
  • 05:43:53
    but we weren't enforcing ours and I'm making you understand what I'm trying to say here yeah so I really think it's good that we get rid of this because we can't in this ordinance because we can't enforce it and I would I mean I just think well anyway we can't tell other localities what to do but it it's not good practice to have ordinances
  • 05:44:19
    that are still seemingly to be there that you can't enforce and you're not using them at all.
  • 05:44:26
    So anyway, thank you very much.
  • 05:44:28
    I appreciate it.
  • 05:44:28
    All right.
  • 05:44:29
    Thank you.
  • 05:44:30
    Supervisor Mallon.
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 05:44:32
    Thank you.
  • 05:44:33
    I am sorry that we don't have the ability with our police officers to stop and talk to people and ask them if they need assistance, which was so successful for a number of years.
  • 05:44:44
    But I understand the need to clean up the books and
  • 05:44:47
    I also would be happy at some other day to find out if there's anything that is clearly simple to accomplish because if it's a citizen going to the magistrate and all that kind of complicated process and it's not some behavior is not seen in person by a police officer then I think we are pretty much up the creek but thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:45:09
    All right, Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 05:45:13
    I agree.
  • 05:45:14
    Why have an ordinance on the books that we cannot enforce that is actually misleading because of the public reads it?
  • 05:45:21
    It's like, why aren't you enforcing this?
  • 05:45:24
    So it's, I think, you know, I do support removing this.
  • 05:45:29
    I wish it wasn't against the First Amendment, but it is against the First Amendment, so
  • 05:45:34
    The best thing to do then is to repeal it.
  • 05:45:38
    And I understand what Supervisor McKeel was talking about because this person was actually referring to laws that were on the books in Missouri.
  • 05:45:48
    which really doesn't apply to laws of the books here in Virginia.
  • 05:45:54
    So I'm hoping that maybe in the future we can actually look at some signs where they have them in Richmond where it's actually a sign in the median of the road, at least on Albemarle Street where it says that
  • 05:46:09
    Do not give to anyone soliciting or panhandlers but give them this phone number, have them use this phone number if they need help because they're homeless because that's what everyone is saying that they are homeless so help me.
  • 05:46:22
    So let's provide a phone number so that they can get some help.
  • 05:46:26
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:46:27
    Thank you.
  • 05:46:28
    Supervisor Galloway.
  • 05:46:29
    I don't have any questions.
  • 05:46:33
    Thank you.
  • 05:46:33
    Thank you.
  • 05:46:33
    Supervisor McKeel, I see your hand up again.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 05:46:38
    Yes, I have a suggestion and I just want to be able to make the suggestion before we end this whole topic.
  • 05:46:46
    And I don't know whether you want to have me say it now, make the suggestion now, or wait until after we vote and then come back to it.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:46:54
    I prefer to whatever you want to do.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 05:46:56
    Okay, so let me just throw this out.
  • 05:46:58
    When Bea's talking about signage,
  • 05:47:02
    We know that there are communities that have put signs up.
  • 05:47:07
    I am also aware that I believe in Waynesboro and in possibly several other communities, they are using their new mental health teams
  • 05:47:21
    to go to the beggars and to use them as a way of reaching the beggars and handlers and are having good success not
  • 05:47:37
    Not complete, but at least having good success with that process.
  • 05:47:41
    We have in the budget this year, we're going to have a mental health team made up of, as you all know, police officers and social services and fire and rescue.
  • 05:47:52
    And I'm just wondering if staff could look at that process of using that team in this application, perhaps, and come back to us at a later date.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:48:05
    Thank you, Supervisor McKeel.
  • 05:48:08
    I will now open the public hearing just confirming with the clerk we have no one signed up.
  • 05:48:13
    Is that correct?
• • SPEAKER_14
  • 05:48:15
    That is correct.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:48:17
    Thank you.
  • 05:48:17
    Then we can dispense with the reading of the procedures.
  • 05:48:20
    We'll close the public hearing.
  • 05:48:23
    The matter is back before the board.
  • 05:48:24
    I'll briefly comment that I totally support this.
  • 05:48:28
    Keeping obsolete or unconstitutional laws or ordinances on the books causes both confusion to the public and results in disrespect for the law because people believe that you have a law out there that's not being enforced.
  • 05:48:41
    It's the right thing to do.
  • 05:48:43
    As Supervisor Galloway commented at the very opening of our board today, the General Assembly could learn from the courageous example of Albemarle County when we rescind ordinances that are no longer constitutional.
  • 05:48:57
    It's come off the books.
  • 05:48:58
    It's much better.
  • 05:48:59
    And that's what encourages respect for the law.
  • 05:49:02
    Leaving them on is, in my opinion, a misguided political statement.
  • 05:49:05
    And it's just improper.
  • 05:49:08
    So with that, I will ask if any other supervisors have any other comments, and if not, then open for a motion.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 05:49:19
    I'll move that we adopt the attached proposed ordinance attachment A. And a second.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:49:28
    Any further discussion?
  • 05:49:30
    Seeing none, if the clerk will call the roll.
  • 05:49:37
    Ms.
  • 05:49:37
    Malle?
  • 05:49:39
    Yes.
  • 05:49:39
    Ms.
  • 05:49:40
    McKeel?
  • 05:49:41
    Yes.
  • 05:49:42
    Ms.
  • 05:49:42
    Price?
  • 05:49:44
    Aye.
  • 05:49:44
    Mr. Andrews?
  • 05:49:46
    Yes.
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 05:49:47
    Mr. Malle?
  • 05:49:49
    Yes.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:49:49
    All right, thank you.
  • 05:49:52
    Supervisor McKeel?
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 05:49:53
    I would just like to see if Doug or Jeff would address my suggestion or my idea because I'd love to come back to this if we could at a later date.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:50:03
    All right, and is that something for tonight or you just want them to have that to bring back to us at a later time?
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 05:50:09
    Well, I think Jeff has leaned in and taken his mute button off, so maybe he'd like to say something.
  • 05:50:16
    Richardson, with you leaning in, would you like to comment?
• • SPEAKER_30
  • 05:50:20
    If the board would like, I can work with Doug in the appropriate departments and we could come back and schedule a work session, an afternoon work session time for the board to hear more about the programs that are in Henrico and over in Waynesboro.
  • 05:50:37
    We also could have Kaki Demick, our social services director.
  • 05:50:41
    She's also
  • 05:50:44
    Thank you, Mr. Richardson.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:50:54
    Supervisor McKeel, that appears to answer your question.
  • 05:50:57
    Wonderful, thank you very much, I appreciate it.
  • 05:51:01
    Alright, we can move to item number 23, Committee Reports and Matters not listed on the agenda, although we did add two items earlier to the agenda.
  • 05:51:10
    So one is Supervisor Mallek, this would be one that you had requested.
  • 05:51:18
    to authorize the chair to sign a letter to Senator Warner in support of honoring our PAC Act, a promise to address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2021.
  • 05:51:27
    The floor is yours.
  • 05:51:32
    You're muted.
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 05:51:34
    Wow, fatigue.
  • 05:51:36
    I circulated a template where I had dropped in Albemarle County in various ways to support this bill.
  • 05:51:43
    I did get an email this afternoon that it is coming up for tomorrow.
  • 05:51:48
    So it would only be an email correspondence.
  • 05:51:50
    We would have time to get in to our two senators and our congressman about this if people are so inclined.
  • 05:51:57
    It is very last minute and I understand when I heard about it yesterday.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:52:02
    Any further comments, questions from other supervisors to Supervisor Malan?
  • 05:52:08
    Is there consensus support for me to sign, I guess, an email under the circumstances to Senator Warner in support of this act?
  • 05:52:22
    There appears to be nods of approval and thumbs going up.
  • 05:52:25
    So, Mr. Campner, do we need a vote on that?
  • 05:52:31
    You're muted, but I can see.
  • 05:52:33
    Alright, then I would ask open for a motion to that effect.
  • 05:52:41
    I'll make the motion.
  • 05:52:41
    Is there a second?
  • 05:52:43
    Yes.
  • 05:52:44
    We have a motion and a second.
  • 05:52:46
    Any further discussion?
  • 05:52:47
    Seeing none, if the clerk will call the roll.
  • 05:52:50
    Ms.
  • 05:52:52
    McKeel.
  • 05:52:55
    Aye.
  • 05:52:56
    Ms.
  • 05:52:56
    Mallek.
  • 05:52:57
    Yes.
  • 05:52:57
    Ms.
  • 05:52:58
    McKeel.
  • 05:53:03
    You're muted, Diantha.
  • 05:53:08
    Mr. Price?
  • 05:53:10
    Aye.
  • 05:53:10
    Mr. Andrews?
  • 05:53:12
    Yes.
  • 05:53:13
    Mr. Gallaway?
  • 05:53:14
    Yes.
  • 05:53:14
    All right, thank you.
  • 05:53:16
    And Supervisor Malek, I'm going to ask that you will help me and the clerk to make sure we have that correspondence prepared adequately.
  • 05:53:23
    Thank you.
  • 05:53:23
    Thank you.
  • 05:53:25
    We have a second item.
  • 05:53:26
    And this came in today.
  • 05:53:27
    And again, it was kind of a rush because the information shows that the action needs to be taken before our next board meeting if we are to support it.
  • 05:53:35
    This is Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.
  • 05:53:38
    and I will turn it over to you, Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 05:53:42
    Thank you very much, Chair Gallop.
  • 05:53:44
    There I go again.
  • 05:53:46
    Chair Price.
  • 05:53:50
    Yes, you received a letter from the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Historic Resources and we have a home that was built in the late 1700s at La Force in my district and we've actually approved it for a homestay, but they have applied for a natural
  • 05:54:12
    National Historic Preservation.
  • 05:54:17
    So I am asking that we support that.
  • 05:54:21
    They're asking, you know, if we'll support that to the Virginia Board of Historic Resources for recommendation to the National Register of Historic Places and inclusion in the Virginia Landmarks Register.
  • 05:54:35
    So I'm asking for support on that.
  • 05:54:38
    and if Chair Price would be so kind as to send a letter of support, if everybody agrees, that would be from the board and under her signature, if everyone agrees.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:54:52
    All right, any comments from any supervisors?
  • 05:54:55
    Supervisor Malin.
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 05:54:59
    I would say, yes, I support this heartily, and in the past, Margaret has sent off masterful letters of support for other projects, so she will be a great assist for you.
• • SPEAKER_18
  • 05:55:11
    If I could, Chair Price, just so the Board is aware that Margaret Milicheski, who supports the Historic Preservation Committee, they have already issued their support for this project, they have already sent their letter of support to the SHPO, and so the Board's letter of support would be in addition to that.
  • 05:55:26
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 05:55:27
    That's what I'm asking for.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:55:29
    Not much, guys.
  • 05:55:31
    Thank you, Supervisor Mallek, Mr. Walker, and thank you for volunteering, Ms.
  • 05:55:36
    Masalewski, to provide the letter for us.
  • 05:55:38
    So we will work with you.
  • 05:55:40
    Thank you for that.
  • 05:55:41
    I would add as a point of humor, my grandmother was born in Bayou Lafourche in Louisiana.
  • 05:55:48
    No relation.
  • 05:55:49
    but the name does have an appeal to me.
  • 05:55:52
    So at this time, Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley, if you'd like to make a motion for the board to approve the chair to sign such a letter.
  • 05:56:01
    So moved.
  • 05:56:02
    All right, do we have a second?
  • 05:56:04
    Second.
  • 05:56:05
    All right, we have a motion and a second.
  • 05:56:07
    Any further discussion?
  • 05:56:09
    Seeing none, if the clerk will call the roll.
  • 05:56:12
    Mr. LaPisto-Kirtley?
  • 05:56:13
    Aye.
  • 05:56:14
    Ms.
  • 05:56:15
    Mallek?
  • 05:56:16
    Yes.
  • 05:56:16
    Ms.
  • 05:56:17
    LaPisto-Kirtley?
  • 05:56:18
    Yes.
  • 05:56:19
    Ms.
  • 05:56:19
    Morris?
  • 05:56:20
    Aye.
  • 05:56:21
    Ms.
  • 05:56:21
    Andrews?
  • 05:56:22
    Yes.
  • 05:56:23
    Mr. Gallaway?
  • 05:56:25
    Yes.
  • 05:56:26
    All right, board, we have just a couple of things left.
  • 05:56:28
    First, are there any other matters any supervisor would like to make this evening?
  • 05:56:34
    Supervisor Andrews?
  • 05:56:36
    No, not at this point.
  • 05:56:38
    Thank you.
  • 05:56:39
    Thank you.
  • 05:56:39
    Supervisor McKeel?
• • SPEAKER_32
  • 05:56:41
    I'm fine, thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:56:42
    Supervisor Mallek?
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 05:56:44
    No, thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:56:46
    Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley?
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 05:56:49
    Nope, just waiting to go into closed session.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:56:51
    Thank you.
  • 05:56:52
    Supervisor Galloway?
• • SPEAKER_25
  • 05:56:54
    No, thank you.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:56:55
    And I have nothing, so Mr. Campner, Mr. Richardson, before we go back into closed session, just a last chance if there's anything that you have this evening.
• • SPEAKER_24
  • 05:57:08
    If you need me coming out of a closed meeting, just send me a text.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:57:13
    Thank you.
  • 05:57:14
    I believe we'll be able to handle this.
  • 05:57:15
    We just need to finish going through our board appointments.
  • 05:57:19
    Supervisor Andrews, do you have a motion to go into a closed meeting?
• • SPEAKER_26
  • 05:57:24
    Yes, I do.
  • 05:57:24
    I move that the board go into a closed meeting pursuant to Section 2.2-3711A of the Code of Virginia under subsection
  • 05:57:33
    members, to the Architectural Review Board, the Board of Equalization, the Jefferson Area Community Criminal Justice Board, the Jefferson Area Board for Aging Advisory Council, and seven advisory committees.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:57:43
    All right.
  • 05:57:44
    Thank you.
  • 05:57:44
    We have a motion.
  • 05:57:45
    Is there a second?
  • 05:57:46
    Second.
• • 05:57:47
    All right.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:57:48
    If the clerk will call the roll.
  • 05:57:50
    Ms.
  • 05:57:50
    McKeel?
  • 05:57:52
    Aye.
  • 05:57:53
    Ms.
  • 05:57:53
    Mallek?
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 05:57:54
    Yes.
• • SPEAKER_28
  • 05:57:54
    Ms.
  • 05:57:55
    McKeel?
  • 05:57:55
    Aye.
  • 05:57:57
    Yes.
  • 05:57:58
    Ms.
  • 05:57:58
    Price?
  • 05:57:59
    Aye.
  • 05:58:00
    Ms.
  • 05:58:00
    Brandenburgs?
  • 05:58:01
    Yes.
  • 05:58:02
    Mr. Nettles?
  • 05:58:04
    Yes.
  • 05:58:05
    All right, thank you.
  • 05:58:06
    If the clerk will let us know when we are in our closed session.
  • 05:58:08
    And you're live.
  • 05:58:22
    All right, thank you.