Board of Supervisors Budget Work Session #1   3/9/2022

Alright, thank you and good afternoon everyone.

I'll call to order this budget meeting on March the 9th, 2022 of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors.

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

The supervisors who are electronically present at this meeting are Supervisor Diantha McKeel of the Jack Jouett District, Supervisor Ann Mallek of the White Hall District,

This is our fiscal year 2023 operating and capital budget, and at this time I believe I'll be turning it over to Mr. Andy Bowman, Director of Budget, to lead us off.

Good afternoon to the Chair and the Board.

My name is Andy Bowman, the Chief of Budget, Department of Finance and Budget.

Thank you for the introduction.

And I'll be handling the majority of the staff presentation today, and I'll ask our team as they join the call to go ahead and pull up the presentation.

While they're doing that, I really just want to take a moment before we get into content to acknowledge that an unusual place today where I'll be doing most of the presentation, but there has been a whole month's worth or months and months of worth of strategic thinking, critical analysis, and a lot of thought and care that has gone into shaping this recommended budget.

So I would like to publicly thank our team in the Office of Management and Budget, our Deputy Chief of Budget, Ryan Davidson,

Our Senior Budget Analyst, Tia Mitchell and Laura Van Zandt Our Grants Unit, Kim Gardner and Victoria Melanthi And also the newest addition to our team who's been here less than two months, Mr. Thomas Unsworth So with that, I'll go ahead and get started into the content today If we can go ahead to the next slide

I always like to start all of these budget work sessions with what the agenda looks like ahead.

And the good news is that with every meeting, this list should go shorter and shorter to May 4th when the board is scheduled to adopt the tax rate and the fiscal year 23 budget.

Today is all about information and discussion.

There is no action that is requested by the board at today's meeting.

That same will also be true on March 14th when we have information presented by the school board chair and we also discuss the capital improvements program for both county government and public schools.

I will note on this calendar, while most of these are information early on, I want to flag the March 17th meeting where the board will be asked to propose a tax rate and a budget for advertisement.

At that time, the budget can still be amended well beyond that.

and the tax rate that is proposed can change too.

With one exception is that the advertised tax rate the board selects on March 17th becomes a cap.

So for example, if the board were to advertise the recommended rate of 85.4 cents, the board could adopt that rate or lower.

They would not be able to go higher.

I'll discuss this again as we get closer to March 17th, but I just want to signal that that will be the first time in this process the board will be asked to take action on the

So moving on to another slide on process, really about how these work sessions work.

And this is another slide I'd like to start with, as we have a lot of content to cover.

We're working in a virtual environment.

All this will be our third budget in this particular environment, where we really see this as a very interactive approach.

While I am going to be doing a lot of presenting, I want to allow as much time as possible for more discussion and questions as possible.

So I'm going to be taking lots of breaks through this presentation as we work through each chapter of the document.

And the board will certainly have questions and comments and staff will be here to respond.

I will say that for questions that we are not able to immediately answer on the spot, we will provide those by email to the board.

And for public transparency, we also publish those questions and answers on the website.

Now as we go through questions with the board, I think one thing that assists staff is there are two things we're looking for for follow-ups.

The first of which is the kind of magic words we've listened for historically referring to the list.

This would be something where we have a list for something in the budget where the board is looking for a potential change.

It could be more of something or less than something or something different altogether.

For example, if we finish a chapter and the board felt there was an adjustment needed to that chapter, we would note that and bring that back in the context of all the lists and potential adjustments at a future board meeting.

There will be also requests for just general information in terms of how does a particular process work or data on a particular service and we'll also be gathering those as well as we've had to date receiving the board questions and responding as we were able to.

So to take a look at today's agenda, we're going to start focusing on the general fund on the next slide.

And we'll start with an overview.

I actually want to pick up before we go into the general fund to add to some comments to elaborate on the county executive's comments last week about the all funds budget and some of the changes in the total budget.

From there, we'll go to the general fund revenues, the expenditures, and those functional areas.

I will suggest that if the board desires after public safety may be a good time for a break.

With that said, I will pause before we dive into content on questions, but I do want to continue a little bit more based on what we said last week on the next slide about our total all funds budget and what that means.

So this is a slide that the board has seen before that looks at our all funds budget.

In the county, we have the general fund, which is the primary operating budget for the county.

In addition to that, we have the school fund, which is the primary fund for school operations.

We have capital and debt funds that provide services for those projects.

And then we also have special revenue funds, which really refer to grants or outside funding the county may receive where there is usually some sort of state or federal restriction in how those funding can be used.

So I wanted to just walk through, because we received some questions about the total budget increase for all funds of 21%.

So the next slide, I've got a little more detail to talk about really what is driving that.

And I broke this slide into two categories, the first of which is really what's driving the budget today in the general fund.

And then what are the other funds, those capital projects, the grants that are really driving that increase as well?

Because our budget is large and complex when you look at all the different funds and how they work together.

So I want to try and break this down into some smaller, hopefully easier to digest pieces in terms of where we'll spend our time today versus Monday with the school board and the CIP.

So when we look at the all fund summary, the first driver in our revenue increase is our general fund local tax revenue.

All local tax revenue received into the general fund.

Compared to the 22 adopted budget, that is an increase of $49 million or 18%.

Now, there's an important note that we should make on this, as this is not a typical adoption of the budget.

When the budget was adopted in May of 2021, at that time, we were in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 21, and we began to see a dramatic change in our economic recovery that began to take place.

As we continued to watch revenues in fiscal year 22 through the first two quarters, we saw very strong performance, and we actually appropriated $22 million in tax revenue

In December, to just be able to move forward on some things that would otherwise be recommended in this budget, or had we known that sooner, the economic recovery would have been addressed in the 22-top budget.

So of that 18% growth, a little under half of that was already approved in December, and now we see the rest of that coming forward in the revenue growth projected for fiscal year 23.

To take a moment on the drivers and other fund revenues, we have state revenues in total are up 11 million or 12%.

And that state revenue is largely earmarked as support from the states directly for public school operations or some funding that is earmarked for school capital projects.

We look at federal revenue next.

A lot of this is received in what I call the grants and other special revenue funds category.

That is an increase of 15 million or 67%.

and that is primarily due to $12 million of American Rescue Plan Act funding that is planned to be spent in fiscal year 23.

That's a bit of an anomaly as that obviously was not the case in last year's budget.

We wouldn't project it to be in next year's budget and that just speaks to some of the kind of the challenge in looking at the all funds budget with some of these funds or capital projects that may come and go based on particular timelines of grants or projects.

And finally, we have the CIP where,

based on the timing of when projects are appropriated.

As is the case in fiscal year 23, there will be a large recommended appropriation where we have bond proceeds, funding projects like the school capacity for high schools, the final phase of the court's modernization project.

So that explains that.

So we'll explain the other funds in more work sessions starting on Monday, but just wanted to provide the snapshot of the total budget to get a good sense of what is the general fund and local tax dollars

and what is changing outside of that.

So with that, everything we're going to talk about the rest of the day is about the general fund.

All right, board.

So we'll go around in our order.

Just a process question at this time.

This is a great slide and I appreciate it.

I saw, Andy, that you sent us the presentation, so I'm assuming that this is part of the presentation you sent us, so I don't have to be worrying about capturing this.

Okay, thank you very much.

I'm all set, thank you.

Supervisor Andrews?

I'm also good for now, thank you.

Thank you, and Mr. Bowman, I am fine now as well, thank you.

So go ahead then and start on the next slide on general fund revenues.

Now I should, if it helps manage expectations of anyone, whether it's the public, this is going to be the longest section of comments I had in today's section.

And we'll probably also have some charts and graphs that are more technical than the others.

So I'll go through all this information and then again, we'll pause and allow as much time for more discussion as possible.

So I'll start with a couple slides that the board has seen before.

The first one is the allocation of our total general fund revenues, which total $368.2 million.

This just provides some perspective on where revenues come from, with the largest category being general property taxes, followed by other local taxes, then with other local revenue, state and federal, and other transfers making up the rest of that.

There are two things I will point out on this slide.

First of which is just to kind of echo the comments I made before.

That federal revenue, again, does not include America Rescue Plan Act.

That is accounted for in a separate fund.

And the second thing I'll point out is I've shared this slide many times over the years, and the common reaction I received is that people tend to be surprised that the state and federal portion of the general fund is only about 9%.

If you imagine that doughnut in the face of a clock, those would be those two pieces of the doughnut at about 11 o'clock or so in dark blue and light blue.

So moving on to the next slide, this is another slide from the county executive's presentation on our major tax rates and any changes.

And I'm going to spend the next few slides taking them one at a time and walking through each of them.

So starting first with the real estate property taxes.

The fiscal year 23 budget is balanced on real property tax rate of 85.4 cents per $100 as assessed value.

That is the same rate as calendar year 21.

Each penny on the tax rate generates $2.38 million in estimated collectible tax revenues.

So for example, if the board were to advertise a rate of one penny lower or one penny higher, that is the amount of revenue that would be either removed or added to the budget that we would need to adjust for.

There is something called the lowered or effective tax rate, which is equal to 78.8 cents per 100

for $0.788 per $100 in assessed value.

And what this lowered rate is, is actually a term that's part of the Virginia Code advertising requirements for the tax rate public hearing.

And what this refers to is the amount of the rate in which the amounts of the county's tax revenue in 2022 would be the same as we received in 2021.

This is based on the reassessment change in value only.

and it does not include any changes to new construction, new parcels that are being created, or changes in land use status.

So for example, with the 8.4% total reassessment, if we removed that percentage increase from 85.4, that's how we would arrive at 78.8.

I will note in real estate taxes that there is the tax relief and elderly program.

That program is actually reported as an expenditure in the non-departmental chapter.

It totals $1.5 million, which is a 16% increase from the fiscal year 22 adopted budget.

And this does reflect the direction from the Board of Supervisors on February 16 to update the requirements for that program.

Moving on, we'll talk next about personal property.

This is a tax rate that applies to individual vehicles, motorcycles, and boats, as well as any business tangible personal

This, interestingly, is not a revenue that we spend a lot of time talking about in terms of the rate historically.

We actually did the research and this rate was first created in 1991 and revised in 1993 and has not changed since that time.

So for calendar year 22, we find ourselves in a unique situation where we have a 26% average annual increase for personal property vehicle valuations.

Much of this is due to what is believed to be a short-term anomaly that's created by the ripple effects of the pandemic, where we have supply chain and material shortage issues.

There's been a large spike in values for vehicles, particularly for used vehicles, and it's notable because these are assets that one would generally expect to depreciate over time, not to increase at 26% on average year over year.

So with this unique situation, our team looked at what was happening, and we fought hard about how to best respond in an appropriate and equitable manner.

After looking into several options, we concluded that reducing the personal property tax rate would be the best way to address this and to bring that rate in line with the projected revenue growth we had from this revenue source from the fall as we were embarking on the five-year financial planning process with the board in November.

And reducing this personal property rate would help reduce what would be otherwise a large unexpected bill

for community members and for individuals and businesses.

And the value of a penny on the personal property rate is equivalent to approximately $107,000.

So on the next slide, I'm going to shift my comments away now from property taxes to discuss other local taxes.

On the other end of that spectrum, we have bedroom communities where they may not have that strong of a revenue mix, and they rely more on the community itself to generate the revenues to fund the services to serve that community.

And the more vibrant and diversified your revenue sources are in the long term, the more resilient your budget will be.

So we looked at this data to where we've been over the last 15 years or so.

And we can see that in fiscal year 2007, about 60% of general fund revenue came from real property tax revenue.

By fiscal year 22, that amount had increased to 68.5, and we can see in five-year increments how that number has changed on the slide.

This is because the pace of which the real estate assessments have grown has been more rapidly than other revenue barriers, such as state or federal revenues, which have grown, but it's been a slower pace.

So during this time, the Board of Supervisors has been working at the state level to give the county more options for taxation so that we can further reduce our reliance on property taxes.

We've already been given authority for a local cigarette tax that the board enacted that would be effective January 1st.

There's a plastic bag tax that will be considered in the coming months.

And we also have additional taxing authority for transit occupancy and food and beverage taxes.

And I'll start by looking next at the transit occupancy and food and beverage taxes.

So this comes from, as I mentioned, the enabling authority to increase rates that was provided during the 2020 General Assembly session.

There are two recommended rate changes.

Both of these are to increase these rates to match the city of Charlottesville and this recognizes that there are thousands of people who visit our community for vacations, sporting events, weddings, and just other reasons for our natural and historic resources.

We are a regional hub for commercial activity and increasing taxes in those two areas means that we can make some incremental progress to begin to shift revenues from the people who live here and to spread it out more broadly to those who are also visiting our community.

One slide that I would like to provide for reference is a chart that I'll take a moment to explain.

This is our food and beverage and transit occupancy taxes, our actual revenue by quarter, from the start of fiscal year 19, well before the start of the pandemic, to where we are currently through the end of fiscal year 22 and quarter two.

And this is all based on the existing rates where we've been the same rates during this period.

So on the left half of this graph, we can see what that revenue looked like from the summer of 2018 to the start of the pandemic in the spring of 2020.

We then see on fiscal year 20, quarter four, that is the first full impact of the quarter.

Starting in March, there was a little impact on the third quarter, but it was most strongly felt in the fourth quarter.

We can see a very steep drop in those revenues.

Since that time, we have seen those revenues upward trend all the way through fiscal year 22.

And looking at the quarter over quarter comparisons from fiscal year 22 to fiscal year 20, we can now see that the first two quarters of fiscal year 22 are exceeding the performance where they were in fiscal year 20.

One more data reference I'll provide is on the next slide.

This is a comparison of the food and beverage and the transit access tax rate to the city of Charlottesville, but also to some neighboring communities kind of down the road of Interstate 64 and 81, where that shows the county's food and beverage taxes at 4% and 5% currently, and these are the current rates for other localities.

We have highlighted in kind of this orange-ish color those rates that are greater than Albemarle,

are equal to the current rates.

So moving on next to the cigarette tax.

This is one that the board has already approved.

It went to effect January 1st of this year.

Fiscal year 23 will be the first full year of the cigarette tax.

It will total $1.2 million in revenue.

Rather than discussing a lot of the analysis behind that, I will report to the board in terms of how that revenue is allocated in the proposed budget.

First is a local tax revenue that is split among the schools and CIP based on the usual funding formula.

And for county government, we are recommending to allocate to the community response team, which is a social services led team that I'll speak to later in this presentation, the operating cost for the street sweeper, and then also the administrative cost for the regional program the county participates in.

On the next slide, I will talk about the plastic bag tax.

This is the smallest of these revenues totaling only about $20,000 for a half year.

It is proposed to be effective January 1st, 2023.

And for this, there are uses that are restricted by the state or environmental cleanup programs, pollution and litter mitigation programs, educational programs on environmental waste reduction, and also providing reasonable bags to recipients of the programs noted on the slide.

I'll say that this is a revenue that other Virginia localities started implementing January 1st.

And so we'll be watching their data very closely in the coming year to understand when a, you know, kind of per establishment or provider in other localities, how we can better improve on that recommendation or that projection of $20,000 for a half year, because the data around that is very limited and challenging to predict.

But as we watch the experience of other localities in the coming year, we should be able to get

So that concludes my comments on these tax revenues.

But before I open it up for questions, I'm going to spend some time talking about state revenues.

At the county executive's initial budget presentation, several board members expressed a desire to know more about our state revenue assumptions.

So I'm going to share two slides on our current assumptions, how to compare the draft budgets in the General Assembly, as best we know them today, and what else we are watching that is going on in the state.

More than half the largest category of the state revenues come from personal property tax relief.

where the state provides that funding to the county and that appears as a credit to individual personal property taxpayers.

This number has actually been static since around the late 2000s and at this time there's no risk that that number will change based on what we've heard from the state.

The second largest category is the reimbursement we receive from the state for Department of Social Services programs.

Many of those programs are done on a reimbursement basis, whether it be the staff who provide the program,

or the direct services that are provided to the community and reimbursed later.

At this time, we are not seeing any signals from the state where that $4 million number would change one way or another.

Moving to the next category, there is $2.7 million that the state provides for constitutional officers and registrars to support their operating budgets.

This does not fully fund their operations.

It's a formula from what's called the State Compensation Board or the State Electoral Board.

and they provide funding to those operations and then the county supplements that to provide those services.

Looking at the House of Delegates and the Senate budgets, we are comfortable that we have a revenue projection aligned with our current assumptions.

We'll never know for sure until the final numbers come out with the state budget, but we would expect there to be a low variance in the current projection right now.

The fourth category is $2.7 million that we received from the state for public safety support, particularly for the police department and the fire rescue department.

The county budget matches the House of Delegates budget, which assumes level funding.

However, the Senate budget has included an increase that is not included in the recommended county budget.

This is for funding to the police department for what's commonly known as House Bill 599 funding.

Now the actual amount of that that would be going to Albemarle is still to be determined.

Whether that is even incorporated into the final budget is to be determined.

That is at least one item out there that would be favorable as we watch in the state budget.

And finally, there's the remaining $1.2 billion is in just other state sources.

Most of that comes from the vehicle rental tax that goes to the state and then is remitted back to the county.

At this time, we're not seeing any change based on what we know today.

to that particular revenue source.

That is the general fund, but there's obviously impacts going on just beyond ongoing legislation, the state budget, and impacts that could occur elsewhere.

So when we look at remaining pending legislation, there were certainly a number of bills that were introduced back in January when the General Assembly began, where there were a number of problematic bills around revenue authority and limits to that.

The good news is, as of now, those are largely resolved or defeated in a way where we're still not saying they wouldn't come back in the General Assembly in some form.

But for now, most of the problematic bills have been defeated or resolved or tabled for a future budget.

So the same budget is currently in conference committee where the House and Senate have proposed their different budgets and are working that through.

And so we are working with our partners at the Thomas Jefferson Planning and History Commission, BACO, and VML to continue to watch this as we learn more as the budget continues to go through its final phases.

There are some impacts outside of the general fund that I do want to acknowledge.

The most notable bill remaining is what is being called the grocery tax, where there are different approaches at the state level that are being taken.

The intent is really to hold localities harmless.

Now I think one of the challenges is how localities are held harmless may have ripple effects.

For example, there's a proposal that would hold harmless localities for this education funding by diverting funding from transportation.

So while that may plug the hole in a potential education budget, that would obviously impact not money that comes directly to the county, but funding the county relies on from VDOT to execute future projects.

So the public schools, when they're here on March 14th, will discuss their revenue picture and the operating budget.

I will share, we are also watching very closely the school capital funding included in the governor's budget and included in the Senate budget that passed the Senate.

There is about $3.6 million in school construction funding that the schools accounted for.

The schools and county government have accounted for to fund the current CIP.

The House of Delegates has not included that $3.6 million in their version of the budget.

So that is one we can look at closer when we look at what that means, what that 3.6 million is providing on Monday.

But just wanted to make the board aware that is another issue out there is we think not only about the general fund, but where the evolving state picture looks like, as best we know it as of today.

So that concludes all my comments on revenues.

I shared a lot of information, all these tax sources and state budget.

So it would really be the best if I could pause now and address any questions and

Thank you Mr. Bowman.

Thank you, Annie.

That was an excellent presentation.

I believe the current schedule for the state budget is to have that adopted in late April.

And I know there's certainly a process that will go forth where the governor will obviously adopt that budget.

And then the state agencies and administrative functions will kind of communicate out the details of county funding.

Some of them are very clear, other than just take a little while to work through the administrative process.

So I would hope that we would know as we are nearing our budget what that may look like.

However, that depends upon the state budget meeting their intended timeline and that does not always historically go as planned.

Right.

You answered my question.

That's great.

Would you go back to page 17?

Thank you, Donna, for the page numbers.

I just wanted to make sure that everyone, mainly in the public that was listening, when you reference administrative costs for this, you're referring to, and you said it briefly, but that's the administrative cost of that particular program that we are sharing with other localities.

That is correct.

Right.

Thank you.

And that's all I have right now, Andy.

That was a good presentation.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I have several short questions if I can give them to you one at a time and let you answer them.

And it's very helpful to have the papers because then I can scribble quickly.

On page 11, you talked about each penny on the tax rate being $2.38 million.

and it seems like just a few years ago it was 1.3 or 1.5 million.

Sure, actually I'm going to refer for anyone who's listening who may have their budget or maybe follow along online.

We look at on a page 51 we have the calculations, although I suppose it could be clear when we update the adopted documents.

to look at the total amount of revenue we project to receive based on the reassessment that we know now, the reassessment we project next year, and the other assumptions we make into our revenues around the collection rate, which we base on our historical trends.

And so that generates, for real estate, about 197 million or so that we would, rounding up to 190 million or so that we would collect.

So really dividing that number by 85

by .854 generates the number of 2.838 million for how we get to that total amount of funding.

Thank you, that's perfect.

I know someone will ask and now I have the right words to use.

On page 12, about the vehicles particularly, I understand the complete story about reducing it for this year on the vehicles.

Are we treating this as an equalized tax rate for this category and how will we

Prepare our citizens for the fact that when this blip is over, the board at the time will be readjusting this going forward.

I was also very surprised to hear that the rates hadn't really been changed since 1993 originally.

Actually, that's another question.

I'll start with the first part and what we did and just clarify terminology because I know what I talked about kind of an equalizer lower rate in real estate that was really about the same amount of revenue.

We have not done that for personal property.

We have compared budget to budget.

I believe it's about a 13 percent increase in total personal property revenue.

And that really reflects, we looked at our fiscal year 21 action and where we were in November was around thinking some projections that we would grow about four and a half to five percent or so in fiscal year 22 and then another four and a half to five percent in fiscal year 23.

And so we really went back to say that let's bring that revenue down to a level that would be comparable to what we were working with in the fall.

Now, in terms of what we would be thinking in next year's budget, I think a lot of that is a challenging question of not knowing what the used car market looks like.

Excellent.

The only other one just as a comment really for future consideration on page 18 when we talk about how we will be considering using some of the revenue from the plastic bag tax.

I am a firm believer and strong supporter of reusable strong fabric bags because you can put heavy things in them and they don't break for one thing.

But I am in my looking around for other things for produce have found that a grand majority of the alternatives out there are made of plastic.

So I hope we will be diligent about, if we intend to do any kind of distribution bags and things like that, I hope we will really be diligent to seek out hemp and true fabric as opposed to plasticized because that will be greenwashing our effort and that would be sad.

Thank you, Andy, for a very comprehensive explanation.

And I'm glad we've had the materials go over ahead of time, but I don't have any questions at this time.

Thank you, Andy.

Thank you.

$12 million, you said?

Yes.

So just to move from $428 to $342 costs us $12 million.

So on the real property tax, that would be equivalent to what, Malle?

How many pennies is that?

I think it's real easy to look at.

Of course, I'm supportive of this because I think this is real anomaly with used cars, and I don't know if it stops by next year.

You know, average is 26.

Some cars, even the last eight to nine months, have been up 40, even 50 percent over what they were last year.

So it's a little nutty.

And who knows when that starts to come back down, but especially when you think you have a depreciating asset.

But that's a significant amount, so I think that gets lost sometimes in what we're doing with that particular piece.

Have we done any case studies on, you know, in the past, I remember in my time on the school board and probably even in budget presentations on this board,

where when we talk about the real estate property tax, we talk about, well, this change equates to this to an average household of, say, $350,000 home, et cetera.

Have we done any sort of study to say, well, OK, if I own a car that a year ago was at $15,000, it's up 26%, now it's $18,900, $19,000.

Have we done any case studies that show if we stayed at the tax rate that means this to the average car owner and now with the adjustment it brings it back down to here?

I don't have that prepared for today, but we could put something together and I think I'll just kind of share in advance of that while real estate is unfortunately relatively simple, whether your home is worth $100,000 or $1 million, the math is relatively the same.

When we look at what happens with the funding we receive from the state personal property and how that applies at different values, different values of cars will be treated differently.

But we can certainly provide some examples to show it for a car at $10,000 for a particular type, what might happen for a car at $25,000 or whatever the right number can be.

I think it would be helpful for those, for our constituents to see that.

You know, the vehicle, the tax that's paid on our cars is one that we actually, a lot of us see.

I'm not saying that people don't see the taxes they pay, but some, the way that tax is processed on your real estate is different than coming down to the county office building sometimes and writing a check.

For those that own their property outright, of course they have to do different types of things.

I think it's important for that to be told so that people know what to expect and see change-wise relative to where their cars double the example or etc.

So thank you for that.

When you said the $3.6 million for the CIP to the schools from the state, you said that is being factored into our current budget or is not being factored?

It is currently included in the CIP that we'll discuss Monday.

If that changes, then we'll have to have a backup plan for that.

That is correct.

Yes, I have a few small questions, but I just want to stop for a second and thank Supervisor Galloway for trying to clarify that the drop in the personal property tax rate equivalent to about five cents of real property tax is a huge point.

I guess I would follow that up just as a question for maybe further research.

I'd like to understand a little bit better about tax relief

programs, processes for personal property taxes versus real estate.

And based on the, you know, very different kinds of valuation and what's available.

With that, I turn to a couple of really small ones.

You showed a graph with respect to the occupancy tax, I believe, and I don't know that this information is readily available, I apologize, but I'll just flag it for perhaps looking into it, whether the occupancy rates have recovered.

as much as the occupancy tax revenues.

So I just don't know where we are in that.

Otherwise, a couple really small ones.

We talked about the plastic bags and the programs that it's eligible for and I'm just going to be curious

or SWA, Solid Waste Authority, would be potentially a beneficiary of monies that might come in from plastic bags since their programs touch on that area.

And a really small one, but something I noticed in going through the materials, there are payments in lieu of taxes by state and federal landowners and

I noticed their projected increases in payments are relatively small compared to the increases in valuations that we're generally seeing and I don't know exactly how best to approach that sort of thing.

So those are the only things I had at this point.

All right, thank you.

Very, very quickly, I too support the personal property tax reduction that provides the greatest equity

of benefit across the county that I think you could do.

Really appreciate the county looking to take action to reduce the 68% of total revenues coming from the real estate tax.

And in particular, the transient occupancy tax going up 3%.

Those are tourists who come to our area.

The meals tax going up 2% is not limited solely to transients who may come through and are tourists, but it's a relatively small amount.

Having lived in Virginia Beach for about 18 years where that location was able to benefit from tourist dollars, I think those are great actions that you've taken there, recognizing that there is an impact.

But I know when I travel, which is fairly frequently, I don't look at what the transient occupancy tax is on the room.

And a 2% increase is not substantial, I don't think, for the meals taxes.

So I have no further questions or comments.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And just to recap, as we have a lot of content today, just one of these specific follow-ups we'll bring back in the section is the

scenarios around personal property requested by Supervisor Galloway.

We'll also look at that data on occupancy rates Supervisor Andrews requested.

That data is available.

We can get that pretty easily.

And we'll also elaborate a little bit about the payment in lieu of taxes increases and the basis of that.

And certainly there's some longer-term follow-ups we heard from Supervisor Andrews and Supervisor Mallek around the plastic bag tax and the use of that.

If I missed anything, please chime in now.

The only other one I mentioned was just understanding the relief programs.

Yes, relief programs, thank you.

Mr. Brightman, I would also add for some of these what I'll call specials packages,

I know that some of those dollars have to go to the CACBB, the Charlottesville Albemarle County Visitors Bureau, but it's really good to see where taxes that are raised from specific revenue sources are being used towards something that benefits that program.

So the ability to the extent that we can to use some of the transient occupancy tax revenues towards things that will encourage

visitors to our community is really a good thing to do.

All right.

With that, thank you, Mr. Richardson, for the quick math on the property taxes.

Let's put them back and get to them.

So we'll move to the expenditure section next.

So this is really just before we get into the sub-dollars and details, we always begin our budget process with the strategic plan, which are those nine priorities, the board, the children, the slides, and underpinning all of that is our quality government operations box.

We're also in the final year of the strategic plan, and we're looking forward to in parallel developing a new strategic plan as part of our fiscal year 23 work.

We also had this diagram on the right that really we've used a lot in navigating the pandemic to guide our financial management.

Ensuring our financial foundation, supporting our economic outlook in our community and also our workforce stabilization.

Another thematic slide I'll go to next is also from the county executive's presentation.

It really is about the framework of our budget, where as we look at all of these priorities and all of these recommendations, how do we really break these down to some themes to make this 300-page document a little bit easier to digest?

So as we go through these next chapters, I'm going to be kind of categorizing a lot of these changes into one of these categories, whether it's urban service delivery or

working differently, just to try and connect the 300-page document to the summary I'm preparing today to what the county executive positions on February 23rd.

So moving into the next slide, this is the expenditure side of the general fund, which also totals $368 million.

It is a balanced budget.

It's required by law.

And just to point out a few highlights, the largest portion of the general fund is the transfer to the school division, which we can see in the lower left in that large orange piece.

The next largest piece is in the upper right, public safety, that kind of pink color.

And then we see the third largest category is transfers to capital and debt, totaling about $36 million.

So as we go for the rest of the afternoon, I'm going to kind of imagine that face of the clock.

I'm going to start at 12 o'clock in administration.

and then begin to work our way around as we go through each chapter and pause for more discussion.

Before we go into administration, on the next slide, I want to take a moment to discuss some overall budget drivers.

They're really not confined to one department.

They're a little bit of everywhere.

I'll start with a couple of operating issues, the first of which we have already factored into the budget, a notable increase in fuel prices.

The numbers are shown on the slide.

I will note this projection was prior to the current spike that we're all seeing in the gas pumps.

So while we do have an increase, we do need to continue to monitor this as a budget management issue as we usually do.

Because at this time, we can't accurately predict is this a situation that will only exist in fiscal year 22?

Will it extend into fiscal year 23?

Or how far will it extend?

The second item I want to note is really driving our operating expenses kind of across the board is that we're really increasing our vehicle replacements compared to last year.

So for some historical perspective, where we've been really from the onset of the pandemic, in fiscal year 21, when that was the beginning of the pandemic, we suspended all non-public safety vehicle replacements, and we dramatically reduced our number of public safety replacements.

Since that time, we've been attempting to gradually build back to stay responsible asset management program, where in fiscal year 22, we reinstated public safety replacements to that normal level, and we just did some minimal non-public safety replacements.

In fiscal year 23, we are continuing to return to a more normal level for the fleet, recognizing that if we don't do so, we'll begin to have other costs such as higher maintenance or some of those costs in terms of downtime or unreliability of those vehicles themselves.

This is an increase that we are phasing back in with one-time money as that is the appropriate use of vehicle purchases for that.

So moving from operations, I'm going to spend a couple slides talking about workforce stabilization.

I'm sticking on this slide for now.

We have included $2.8 million, which is funds a 4% salary increase that would be effective July 1st for employees.

In addition to that, there is $1.5 million that would begin to

implements a mid-year salary study that was approved by the, the salary study itself was approved in December.

And our new county government HR will be undertaking that during this year.

The intent of this funding at this time is not to say specifically what will happen, but position the board and the organization to be able to move forward, whatever that right time would be.

And that funding is right now a blend of ongoing and one-time money that is noted on the slide.

And certainly as we go into next year's five-year planning process and fiscal year 24 annual budget process, all of that will be considered in the context of that total budget picture.

We've also included $1.3 million that reflects a 6% health insurance premium increase.

We also have a $0.7 million increase from the Virginia retirement system.

The state is determining those rates.

That is a mandated cost increase.

And they had to increase those rates from where we were two years ago.

based on their analysis and assumptions for the overall plan.

So I wanted to take a moment to talk about workforce stabilization a little bit further.

We had some questions from the board about this on February 23rd, and just kind of take a step back from the numbers in the budget to say, where are we in terms of our strategy and our current workforce changes?

So at the top of this slide is some information that was back in December during that mid-year update.

The county executive presented a strategy to first provide a mid-year adjustment in fiscal year 22, which was that 6% market adjustment.

Second, looking in the short term, that we would need to include an additional adjustment in fiscal year 23 while we're performing additional market analysis and establishing the new county government HR.

That work would all be underway.

Then looking third, a little further down the road, that we would be positioned in that county to implement the results of that pay plan study, which would again be to be determined.

So that is the plan, but I expect the board may be wondering what's currently changing our workforce as we attempt to recruit and retain the wide variety of employees who deliver the services and execute on the plans that are in this county budget.

In our current staffing, we're currently seeing something a little interesting and a little unusual out of the ordinary in our data, which is kind of the middle part of the slide.

Right now, mid-year, 7% of our county government positions are unfilled.

That 7% does not include any positions that were approved and not yet filled from that December budget update, recognizing that one, those are still underway, and two, to do some historical analysis, we wanted to give an Apple established comparison to prior years when there wasn't that significant mid-year update, because again, that's not a usual process that we do, at least for that magnitude.

So we noticed that over the years, from fiscal year 13 to 20, in about the middle of the year, we usually rounded 3 to 5 percent of our positions were unfilled.

So that sounds like a very small percentage change, but we thought about what that really means in our raw numbers, that kind of based on the size of our workforce and the difference between 3 to 5 to 7, there are probably somewhere about 18 to 36 positions that we would have right now that are vacant to one, what would be our usual turnover level.

and not only are they vacant, but they're not providing that service or it's having to be provided by the existing staff or whatever combination may be needed.

So over the years, we began to look at this data and just wondering, well, where are we seeing some of those impacts?

Is it focused in one area or is it focused in the images too?

Because it's common at times to see where an organization with such a diversity and the types of service we provide,

We may have particular classes of position or areas of competition where we need adjustments to specific areas.

But talking with our HR director, Mia Coltrane, and many others, we're really seeing and looking at the data, but we're seeing that these recruitment retention kind of issues right now are more widespread.

There's not one department I can point to and say, well, if we could address a particular issue there, then all of our recruitment challenges would be solved.

It is more widespread than we have historically seen.

Final data point I will share at the bottom of the slide is the impact of retirements.

Fiscal year 22 to date in our retirements is already greater than fiscal year 21 and fiscal year 21, and that number is expected to grow by the end of this fiscal year as shown on the slide.

So there are a lot of figures, and just to kind of summarize before I pause and kind of conclude my conference in this section, kind of helps bring some clarity about the takeaways from this slide.

I think for me first is that the county does have a need for a plan to evaluate its compensation and position the board and organization for future implementation.

The second is that it seems every day we can read an article, whether it's locally, regionally, or nationally, that the workforce market is changing rapidly.

The county is certainly not immune to that when we look at some of this data.

The third takeaway as I think about this data is that in the county executive's presentation back in February, he noted that we have several positions that are proposed to start mid-year rather than July 1.

This data really informs staff's thinking about some of that approach and the reality is that we are simultaneously recruiting and retaining for our existing workforce as well as filling positions to enhance the services that are called for in the 23 recommended budget.

So this concludes kind of some overall comments I have about general funding expenditures from here on out.

It's going to be more focused on kind of going to my department through the book.

All right.

Thank you, Mr. Bowman.

Thank you, Andy.

Again, much appreciated.

I will say, in general, I am very supportive of our salary study that we're going to undertake.

I think that is an excellent plan.

And while you have this slide up,

Maybe you could just for the public clarify market adjustments for folks so that the public that might be listening understands exactly what we mean when we say because in December we gave, remember, a six percent market adjustment.

I just want to make sure that everyone understands that because we did that and then we're coming through with this budget recommendation on another four percent.

Sure, I'll start with some introductory comments, but I'll ask perhaps our HR Director of Vehicle Train is on the call and they want to add to this more than I can.

I think part of, just first, a very minor distinction.

Historically, when we've talked about market adjustment, part of that is distinguishing past years, we have done merit increases in combination with market.

So part of that distinction is really just the fact that this is more of an across the board adjustment rather than some additional merit adjustments that we would look to.

The county currently does have a competitive market of some local and regional organizations and also looking at comparable localities throughout the state.

But before I go much further, I really don't want to speak more from the experts.

You're muted, Ms.

I apologize.

One of the things we're looking at is a skill set that is being required across with our competing localities that are similarly situated.

And so as bonuses are added, increases are added, different stipends are added for skill sets, we have to be competitive with those areas.

Great.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate that.

And the other point I might just make for myself is I really appreciate the comparison of the vacancies because you're right when you think, I first looked at the three to five percent, but when you put it into numbers and you compare it, it really is very significant.

And I do remember over the years, whether it was a school division or county government, that often we did have recruitment challenges in one department or maybe two departments.

So it's challenging to see that our challenges now are really across multiple departments.

And I appreciate hearing that as well.

I made a note, slide 25, but for the life of me, I can't remember what I was.

I was going to ask you, would you mind going back to slide 25?

What was I?

Well, now that I see it, I'm not sure that I remember what my question was, so I'll just let it go.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate the presentation and the good answers.

Thank you.

I am all set right now.

Thank you.

Yes, I'm glad also to know that, well, not glad, but the recruitment challenges are across all departments.

Ms.

Coltrane, you mentioned engineering.

That's just one of, it's mainly in our technical areas.

Okay, and are those the ones that are in fact retiring?

Because I noticed we have like 31 retirements.

It's a mix.

It is a mix.

Okay, that is a challenge.

You're absolutely right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So to stay on, I guess, to stay on this slide, where do I start?

I guess Mia, the rectus hit Mia.

I mean, this is borderline crisis mode, wouldn't you say?

I mean, 18 to 36 positions above usual turnover level.

Then we haven't even talked about retaining staff or staff retention, which the comp study is all about, frankly.

I mean, we better be talking about this with the urgency and concern that it deserves as we continue through this budget.

Sure.

One of the initiatives personally is having those recruitment plans.

Our new recruiter for HR begins on Monday, and there won't be any pressure there.

But that's one of the tasks of really getting a good pulse on every department.

and where the energy needs to be focused.

We know public safety is one, but as we've mentioned, it's not just public safety.

We're seeing it across the board, even within HR, with the competition being where it is.

Even get after this?

Yes.

I mean, this is a big problem.

If we don't get the compensation, I mean, the compensation study obviously have to take the time to do it.

And if we don't right size and get ahead of what we need to do, I mean, salary is a big part of that.

There's other factors, of course.

Then retention becomes a problem and you double up retention on top of recruiting challenges, then we really have an organizational issue.

So, and this may be for me or this may be for Andy or a combination of other folks.

So the question, the 6% adjustment we did and the 4% adjustment we're doing here, I had talked about trend line.

Does this put us at where we should be relative to inflation?

Does it, in your all's opinion, right size us or is it get us a little ahead?

Are we still a little behind?

It honestly is hard to say when you look at what our competition is doing around us, especially in some of our similar situated localities where certain departments are offering entry-level things, entry-level bonuses and stipends and sign-ons.

And, you know, if you receive this certification, you get, I mean, two years, you get this type of increase.

That's fair.

We don't know the baseline yet.

I think that is an assumption, and I think how we prepared that assumption was really looking as we've done past compensation studies, looking at number of employees, those number of adjustments, also recognizing that some of that may be a partial year, we have to pick it up.

So certainly we will be very connected with the HR team as they find we can better inform our discussions as we get to the fall and the five-year plan and the annual budget too, knowing that without that baseline, it's tough to know exactly where we'll end up.

I got it.

So but $500,000 is the placeholder for it right now.

Correct.

Cost wise.

That is correct.

There's a total of 1.5 million of which is 500,000 ongoing, 1 million one time.

And when you had the other slide up that had the 1 million there, or it might have said 1.5 on that slide, but

That workforce stabilization of a million dollars is coming out of one-time monies.

Can you talk, and if you did, I got a little distracted when you had that slide up.

So if you spoke to it already, I apologize.

I think the first kind of maybe backup of why that number is there and kind of where it originated from.

Back in the five-year planning process with the board in December, we shared the conclusion of the audit and after all the reporting done, what did our year end fund balance look like above our policies and how that could be invested.

There was approximately $13.2 million that was allocated again in December was just for board feedback.

No decision was made.

four areas to invest money into capital, invest money into the housing fund, invest money into economic development, and then a portion for this workforce stabilization.

So that's, again, not an answer to your question yet, but to provide some context in terms of how this number came about.

And so I think this is one, too, knowing that we can do something and we didn't want to be so prescriptive to solutions to say, well, yes, it's bonuses, or yes, it will be implementation sooner than we thought it would be.

So the million dollars, I mean, you could be using that, you said bonuses, so if we wanted to offer a signing bonus, it could potentially come out of this type of money.

Yeah, that could be one option.

I think we would have looked at that compensation setting by those recommendations.

So my bigger point would just make sure, and it sounds like that's the case, that one-time monies are being used for one-time expenses.

So we're doing a 4% market adjustment for salaries this year.

What does 1% equate to?

What's the cost of a 1% raise for our staff?

Got it.

And the vehicle replacement, the topic, the vehicle replacement fees, are you guys, are you encountering issues of having availability or is the specialized nature of what we're looking for for vehicles not really a problem for us?

We are seeing supply chain issues, I believe, I'm not going to quote the exact department, but certainly vehicles that were ordered last summer at the start of the budget process, some of them have not arrived yet, some of them have been very recent, which is a longer lead time.

We certainly would have looked into that.

And I think part of our approach, really on the non-public safety fleet side, is knowing that we're easing back into the replacement plan, and we'll certainly do what we can to reshuffle vehicles as we are able to and repurpose that fleet.

Because my guess would be if you have a vehicle that

because of availability that if you have to pay a little more for it and you need it, you got to do it to get it versus just waiting it out until stuff stabilizes.

I appreciated the fact you've got the fuel, the increase in fuel.

This is outside of where we're at in the budget book right now, but I noticed there was like $100,000 for fuel reimbursement for volunteer fire folks.

And you do have a fuel reserve beyond whatever you put in.

Am I thinking of the

Am I getting my days on the school board confused?

There was a time and it may have been when you were on the school board where we did have a separate reserve.

That's where we would go.

If fuel doubles over the next few months, then we go to the contingency reserve.

Got it.

Thank you, Andy.

All right.

Well, on this slide in this discussion of fuels, I just will put in my plug for us to look to the future and recognize that the electrification of our transportation is in process.

And if you look at protections from the car companies, that's the plan going forward.

So think about that.

Next slide, please.

I'm just going to jump back into where you've got the levels of staffing.

I really appreciate what you're doing with respect to staffing, the need to be competitive, and I'm not seeing things in here that I say, well, you know, why all these new positions or why all these adjustments are very important.

I still want to make sure I understand everything here, so you've got a bullet

and the 36 positions and 18 and 36 are 50% apart.

I can walk through that.

So we have right now about approximately 900 FTEs in the 23 recommended budget.

Got it.

every 1% of 900 is 9.

And so kind of that 18 to 36 represents somewhere from 2 to 4, if you kind of meant 9 times 2 to 9 times 4.

And that 2 to 4 is really the difference of 7 minus 3 to 5%.

currently unfilled positions.

Those obviously were part of the approved prior budget, but they were not expended.

And to the extent that there are these vacancies that have sort of effects carry over and things like that.

So I'm going to be looking into just understanding how that's played out.

I'll add that we do kind of budget for just normal attrition through our budget process knowing that even in a perfect world we would never be 100% staffed throughout the year so that does go into our budget process assuming that as part of our total our total budget picture we budget that based on about two-thirds of our experience so that we're not budgeting in an area that's so tight but we're also not being so concerned that we're over budgeting when our conversation would be just given that turnover what we call salary lapse is just

just part of running an operation budget.

All right, and I'm good.

Thank you, Mr. Benjamin.

Andy, Supervisor Chair Price, can I just interject?

I want to make sure that we didn't mislead on anything.

This is Nelsie Burch, the Chief Financial Officer.

I get to sit in the wayside and make sure that the information provided

is as accurate as possible.

And I want to go back to the one that Supervisor Galloway had asked a question about, ensuring that we're using the $1 million for

Workforce Stabilization and the implementation of our class and comp for one-time needs.

I don't necessarily know that that's true or false that we will do that and let me explain what that means.

There could be situations where we get the results of this class and comp study back and we need to put an infusion of dollars into people who are in a specific

category of positions.

It will become an ongoing cost, but we need something to help smooth us, to help retention for the now, but we don't know what that is.

So the one million was really there to help us understand that we know we're going to have an expense.

We do not at this point in time until that study is done know what it's going to be, but we need to

to be prepared for it, to give us a runway, but any decision that gets made, we then have to pay for it fully if it is an ongoing cost.

Mayor Price, can I make a comment?

Please.

Thank you for that.

I appreciate that.

I mean, we are so used to from maybe a disciplined mindset to think one time monies for one time costs.

So I certainly understand the rationale.

I guess the only alternative way to go about doing it would be to say, well,

We would take, as opposed to taking one-time funds and setting that aside for this use, we'd have to take some operating monies from somewhere and put that in a drawer and not use it to have it available to do this.

Understood.

Thank you, Ms.

Birch.

We'll move next to the administration functional area.

This is page 73 to 94 of the book, and we'll go ahead to the next slide.

This is just the standard donut chart as we look at the departments and categories who are in this.

I'm not going to go through this in detail, but instead hit the highlights on the notable changes and how they tie to the themes of the recommended budget.

We can go ahead to the next slide.

Several changes, so I'll talk these through one at a time.

The first of which, under this theme of working differently, is really related to the ongoing funding for the ANSI Community Center Grant.

And actually, this is maybe an interesting one to start to, to segue from the last conversation where we essentially had a position that was funded with one time money for three years.

And as part of our long range financial plans, we've had a plan that should that position prove successful, we have a plan accordingly to pick that up as we are in fiscal year 23.

But aside from that, let's focus on what this position does.

This is really a position in the programming that goes with that to staff the NC Community Center.

Part of that work is the center itself and part of it is the on-the-ground connections with the individuals and the organizations.

The second change in terms of working differently and this was shared in the county executive's presentation is about these neighborhood and community engagement specialists.

Because of the workload associated with the comprehensive plan in the Department of Community Development, we're recommending two three-year temporary engagement coordinators that would help support the committees that the neighborhood development team supports.

and they also use that model of the ANSI coordinator to build relationships with the individuals and community organizations in other parts of the county.

The rest of the themes here are around quality government operations.

I'll start with in the Board of Supervisors budget there is a commission for boards and commissions.

There are over 50 boards and commissions that have seats for community member appointments.

The budget recommends providing a dedicated administrative support position to ensure that everyone has a good experience, whether they are first-time applicants or a seasoned volunteer, from the application to the appointment, to the orientation, and the ongoing training.

I will note that, as I alluded to before, this will be the first year of the county's county government HR that is led by vehicle train, who we've already heard from.

This is not really as much of a change in fiscal year 23 as continuing what has already been set in motion to provide the positions and operating costs to provide the support for county government policies, mandates, and other needs.

I will speak next about the Department of Finance and Budget.

There are three changes I will note here.

The first of which is a position noted in Finance and Budget.

This one is actually paid for from the Capital Improvements Fund.

And the reason for that is this is a senior procurement specialist that is going to provide support really primarily to the school capital program.

We have included and discussed more on Monday starting in addition to the normal school maintenance replacement projects, the beginnings of three schools over the next five years and their growing capital needs and this has really provided a dedicated resource to be able to move the entire capital program forward not just from the project management perspective but from all of the support that happens in finance and budget.

We also have three accounts that are proposed to be added really in terms of

The Core Systems Modernization Project, I'll speak a little bit more detail later today, and really the organizational readiness in terms of all the pre-work that needs to happen as we embark on new modern financial systems.

Finally, within finance and budget, there's a revenue analyst who would serve to improve the revenue analysis function.

I should note that in the somewhat recently reorganized Department of Finance and Budget, we're thinking very differently about how we work across offices, and this is a position that would simultaneously support revenue analysis across multiple functions within the department.

Moving on to information technology, there are two positions, one of which was a position that was begun during the pandemic and funded out of what we call the pandemic reserve.

really for the audiovisual support that goes on, whether it be kind of these virtual or hybrid meetings, or just the kind of ongoing nature as how our government has changed, particularly with the system engineer, where we have more mobile devices, more staff working in the field and greater strain on our support networks.

Both of these positions are really designed to support those efforts.

And I'll also note, not an increase, but I want to take a moment to explain the voter registration and elections budget.

They do have a fully funded request.

It's a little unusual this year because where most departments tend to be a little steady year to year, voter registration and elections changes really based on the election cycle.

And next year with fewer primaries and what is forecast to be a lower turnout in the current year, this would be sort of like the down year in terms of the four-year election cycle.

Now, I will say that we are in regular communication with our registrar, Jake Washburn, who I thank for being on the call today.

As we're always watching with state requirements, how they may change and how we need to respond to those, and so we are just in regular contact that there's a supplemental appropriation we need to bring forward to make sure that we're being responsive to provide fair and efficient elections and also meet our state requirements that we'll respond to as we

because we need to.

And so again, one of those reasons where in the current year, we've used the Virginia 15 receipts for that purpose for things that didn't quite line up on the budget process, but were state directed.

All right, thank you.

Thank you very much, Andy.

Again, I appreciate the clarity and the good report.

We're talking here on this lot about new positions and I have some questions but in general I am very supportive of these positions because I do think that our realigning and upgrading our systems, I mean this it all plays together for the most part.

I do have one question for the maybe for the finance and budget piece.

I know we talked at one point about how many agencies we were the fiscal agent for, which seemed like an absolutely ridiculous number because we were certainly supporting other agencies within our budget.

Can you just help me where we are on

on working our way through that.

For example, we were the fiscal agent for the ACRJ for the jail, and they are now their own fiscal agent, which actually has worked so far very well.

Yeah, absolutely.

I can speak, and then I think the Assistant CFO for Policy and Partnerships, Jacob Sumner, is also on here, and he can provide any additional information.

Supervisor McKeel, you're absolutely right.

So when we started this effort of really trying to figure out the totality of the organizations that we support, I believe there's about nine that we had at the time supported through a fiscal agent.

We had fiscal agent responsibilities.

One of them was ACRJ.

What we are doing for instance right now is looking at our existing fiscal agent relationships including Blue Ridge Juvenile Detention Center.

What has been illuminating is when you take ACRJ and they've gone off and done their own thing and we did that very collaboratively.

They also support in some ways directly or indirectly some of the financial services, procurement, and technology needs of Blue Ridge Juvenile Detention Center.

So Jacob is working on updating that MOU with them to more clearly define what is it that we do for you and what do you want us to do for you and are they aligned and then we're going to communicate that

Once we get agreement with them, and they've been wonderful to work with, then we will move forward and educate all of our departments that support them on this is what we will be providing for them.

So that's just an example.

ECC is another one that we provide a lot of services for.

I sit on the management board of ECC.

And they are just beginning to start talking about what support they want from the county.

Do they want to do something similar to ACRJ?

So they're starting these conversations.

Or do we just need to clarify how we support them?

from an HR, IT, finance perspective.

So we are actively engaged in these conversations with our partners.

The last piece of this that I'll mention is really being clear and also passing along the administrative cost to do things for outside entities that we are not required to do something for them.

So there are many entities in our community who might get a grant, but they're not able to get the grant themselves.

It has to be

passed through a local government, which would be us.

We are adding administrative costs to that.

And so we're trying to recoup the cost to provide these services and also being pretty clear about responsibility.

And we draft agreements where before it would have been more handshake, sure, we'll do this for you, without any understanding of the risk that it puts on the county.

or the entities.

So we're clarifying a lot of that work.

So that's kind of in general.

I don't know, Jacob, if you want to mention anything specifically that I missed.

Sure, thank you for a few moments.

One thing I would add, in addition to this, this is an ongoing conversation, and the basis for a lot of the analysis is what's in our cost allocation plan, and we are getting ready to kick that off again, but this year it's an annual process to do.

and it helps us really have a good handle and a good understanding on those administrative costs to provide the services to those partner entities.

Yeah, that's great.

I really appreciate the update on where we are.

While I know we want to always help our partners, we can't do everything for everybody.

And we have to be clear on what we have the capability of doing and handling and responsibility.

So that's great.

I would like a little bit more clarity around, because I know some people might be wondering, we have neighborhood and community engagement specialist positions, which

From my understanding of what these positions are going to do, I'm very supportive of them.

But it might be good just to talk a little bit about those specific positions and what they will do.

And then we also have yet another position, the board and commissions position, the boards and commission, which I am also very much in support of.

But I think those two bullets for me, would be helpful to just hear a little bit more information around those

I'm going to delegate both those questions to some of the individuals closest to it.

I'll first ask Emily Caroy, our Director of Communications and Public Engagement, to speak a little more about those.

Sure, thank you Andy and thank you to the board for having me here today.

So the idea around the neighborhood and engagement coordinator positions is that the staff that are working on the comprehensive plan, which is estimated to be about a three year endeavor, are the same team that currently supports the seven community advisory committees.

And so in order for them to focus on the work of the comprehensive plan, there was an identified need to sort of look at staffing those a little bit differently.

So the thought was, let's bring temporary positions in sort of in alignment with the timeline for the comprehensive plan on board to support the needs of those committees.

and when we looked at the amount of time that goes into supporting all those meetings and the prep that goes into sort of planning the meeting with the chair ahead of time and then follow-ups that have to happen afterwards, it's a little shy of two full-time positions.

On the other hand, we've had the ANSI coordinator position in place now for several years and

Part of that job is the running of the center itself, programming for the center events, making sure the tenants have what they need.

But a lot of the real benefit that we're seeing is really in the community connections that the county has sort of on the ground in Southern Albemarle, Esmont, Porter, Scottsville, and some of the other communities in the southern part of the county.

During the winter storm events,

In January, staff were calling on Ed to say, what are you seeing?

What are you hearing?

What are people telling you their needs are?

And that was able to help us understand what some of the resource needs were in the southern part of the county with the widespread power outages.

and that's work that he's able to do because he's down you know he's down he's physically down in the Esmond area and he's meeting pretty regularly with with the community organizations that serve that part of the county and so you know with the sort of the balance of the time that the that these two temporary positions would have but they would sort of focus on other parts of the county so northwest east to be building some of those similar connections with the Ruritan, the Lions, faith-based institutions

to help really give us, you know, sort of the more grassroots connections that during a storm or another event, you know, we can really use to get a better ear to the ground understanding of what's going on and use those networks really for information sharing during what can be some really critical times.

So that's the idea for those positions.

Is that helpful?

That's helpful except well it's great yes and I knew that I'm thrilled to hear about the ANSI position and that was fine.

I asked about the cake positions which I think you did explain and I will say that my particular CAC has lost our staff person that was supporting and it has been a struggle since that particular person's left so I'm thrilled to see this.

And I'm going to invite Mia Coltrane to respond to that one.

That's great.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

I did come up with a good draft.

I feel that will help support the boards and commissions perform a lot of those administrative duties and really, really everybody that with all the boards and commissions

We have about 55 of them that this person will be the liaison to all of them and that person would bring everything together in a sense of coordinating, making sure training is done, any paperwork that needs to be done, anything that is administrative this position will take care of.

And what I did do is look at other localities that have similarly situated positions and really combine pieces from different departments and compiled and then looked at our salary structure and our current classification system of jobs that are similarly situated as well.

That's wonderful to hear.

I'm extremely supportive of this because of all of our boards and commissions.

And this job is not about going out and recruiting necessarily people.

It's really more about supporting the boards and commissions and keeping the process organized.

and having a poor person so we know who to go to for help.

And that's what this position is.

Yeah.

And I do want to remind, well, just to remind us that we had a study a few years ago about how to support our boards and commissions work better.

And that particular study actually recommended a staff person to help with that.

So we're really just

following what that recommendation was from many years ago.

I can't remember how many, maybe four years ago.

And I guess that report is still out somewhere.

But anyway, well, thank you, Mia.

And thank you very much, Emily.

I appreciate it.

I'm very supportive of all these positions, by the way.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I have a couple.

Just thinking back to the fact in 2009 we had a 15%, 75 people reduction in staff and we are crawling our way back to that level as needs are certainly increasing in many different departments.

So I appreciate the analysis that's going on.

I had a similar question regarding the boards and commissions position and I assume that sometime going forward there will be a formal discussion about this because I feel like while we talked about it individually briefly many months ago we haven't really had a general powwow about exactly it and where it's going to live.

I had heard somewhere also that there was going to be recruitment of people at the CACs and I'm glad to know that that's not going to be part of it because I don't think

I think that should be more organic in my opinion in the CAC level than to have someone from downtown basically recruiting and I'm looking forward to seeing the draft

My main question for discussion at a future time is where it should live because if the task is coordinating with executive staff on updates to the website and all those kinds of things, that's not really a board and clerk

I agree with Supervisor Mallek that I would like to see.

I think she was speaking about the boards and commissions position about being able to update the web website and I mean that person or someone might call for someone should be able to do that so that should be clarified.

I agree with that because I think keeping that whole process up to date and current is extremely important.

I'm glad to know about the boards and commissions position because I too read somewhere that it was to recruit and I'm glad it it's not going to be a recruitment position but that it will be to keep everything organized so I'm very interested in seeing it how that works

because I will be working on, I'd like to see this year, what positions, what boards or commissions can be, if we can tighten up the process, if we can, you know, which ones are working, maybe which ones aren't working as well or don't need to meet as often perhaps.

I'm very happy to hear about the Cape position, did not understand that

at all.

I'm glad to hear that it's going to be helping the CACs and going out for community engagement.

I do have a question regarding the CACs.

Are those, the two people, I think it's two people we're recruiting there, are they going to, this is a question I guess for Emily, that are they going to be up to date on

That's a great question, Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

Several years ago, the CACs were staffed out of what was then community relations, so that which is sort of before the pre-Cape, and then a couple of years ago, they were shifted over to community development.

And again, this is sort of a backfill, you know, allow the neighborhood planning team to focus on the comp plan and so have these

These positions sort of help backfill the need for staff support for the CACs.

Right now, the CACs have staff presentations from sort of across the organization, not solely community development, although we recognize that there is a lot of community development time that goes into the areas of interest that members serving have.

So these staff liaisons would

you know continue to work with staff across the organization to prepare presentations, updates, keep the CAC sort of engaged in what's going on in the county and so you know some of the time that they're

you know when they're not specifically working with a committee it'll be you know connecting back into the organization through the work of the CAPE office to you know determine you know what are the things that we want to make sure folks know about what's the best way to share that information and then sort of facilitate you know an update from parks an update from transportation you know sort of at the at the interest of the group so it'll it certainly we hope won't feel very different

It would depend if it was a specific development application.

I think we would still have the reviewer from community development come and do that.

The CACs have been the venue for community meetings for special use permits and rezoning applications before the county.

and then the staff person who's assigned to that application would be part of the community meeting at the CAC.

We certainly expect that that would continue.

So it's more the role that Rachel and Michaela and Tori and various others over the years have been serving to, you know, make sure that there's an agenda, make sure that everyone knows where the meetings are, make sure that those rooms are reserved at the point that we're having rooms reserved again.

and really working before the meeting to make sure that we have presenters lined up and ready to go and then after the meeting on questions that maybe came up during the meeting that we didn't have the right folks in the room to respond to, making sure that those responses go out.

Good.

I think that's very good.

Thank you very much.

I really appreciate that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Supervisor Galloway.

Great.

I got a kind of an in the weeds question, Andy, and I'll direct it your way and then we can go from there.

And this is just trying to understand the movement here.

So the Board of Supervisors has the 91889 deduction, but that's a combination of the cost of the annual audit that's being moved to finance and budget plus the increase of the public hearing advertisement cost.

So that difference is 34,111.

Then the finance and budget had said 125 or 126 was being moved from the Board of Supervisors budget to finance and budget.

So is that 34-111 truly just public hearing cost increases?

Or is that a combination of some other increases relative to, you know, associated with public hearing?

All I did was I took the 126 in the finance budget on page 89, subtracted 91889, and that was the difference I got.

And I might not be doing it correctly.

When I see a deduction in one place, then see where it gets back filled in another, and the numbers aren't the same, I just like to understand

Okay, it's clearly a decrease in the office, the supervisor's budget, because that cost for the audit's moving, but there's also an increase in there somewhere, so I'm trying to understand what that actual increase is, and my trying to figure it out was 34,111, so I mean that can come back later.

Does the cost of hybrid, of all the things that we've already done virtually,

Where does that live?

Does that live in the operating of the Board of Supervisors?

It could be the information technology budget.

I think currently it's in a couple of departments, but really information technology is the long-term hope of where those costs will be.

Thank you.

And then

Let me see, I got two more.

I guess Mia, this may be for Mia and or Jeff.

We're pulling apart local government HR and school HR.

The operating cost budget line for local government moving forward, I mean, I presume that's based on operations so far, but since it's a new kind of approach, are we fairly confident that we've got

What we did is we looked at how, even from the recruitment standpoint, before we added any fringe, we looked at the salaries and what we would potentially bring those individuals in per area, per position.

That was the first and foremost.

And then I worked with our existing HR department to look at expenditures that local drug was using.

and that we gave a baseline on what was being spent currently.

And then once we get into the first year, we can assess for the following or subsequent years on if we need to increase certain areas, if we need to decrease certain areas, but we needed to get a baseline.

Got it.

Thank you for that.

And then

So this may be for Nelsie and or Andy.

On page 89 for the revenue analyst position and the three accountant positions, the sentence that exists there says, these positions will improve the revenue analysis function and provide organizational readiness in advance of the core system's modernization project.

Absolutely.

I will start, and I know on the revenue analysis piece that Andy will be happy to share his experience.

So revenue analysis is something that before I

came into my position.

We had an economist in finance and budget.

That position was moved to community development.

That person has since left.

That function doesn't, it fell to be absorbed.

with the people on our team.

The economic piece, which we are looking now to partner and get an outside entity to help us with some economic analysis.

But there is a piece of that that goes into helping project future revenues.

And when we went through the last two years, Mr. Bowman has been part of DF&B working with our colleagues, the county assessor,

Jen Lynn, our Chief of Revenue Administration and her team, there needs to be somebody who is cultivating and using the revenue data all year long so we don't have to pick it up when we get into budget season and kind of try to figure it out.

It really, we're at that place where revenues are getting very difficult to project and we need somebody on it all the time.

So that's the revenue analysis piece and it's being cobbled together by Andy as the lead with other people.

But we've recognized that one person needs to really be responsible for all of that work.

The second piece is related to the three accountants.

And this one is really,

is really related to preparing us for the core systems modernization.

And so in my time here, we have looked at a lot of things.

Ms.

McKeel had asked about our support of external partners and what that has done for us.

It's one area we've looked at our capacity.

The other area we've looked at capacity is in our accounting function.

We have four accountants.

That is not an ample amount of accountants for accounting this size with this complexity as we are about to launch into a new financial system that we want to make sure it's fully integrated and we have the appropriate backfill.

So what is the vision is we are using and we will onboard these accountants to run the day-to-day accounting

as we use our subject matter experts to help us develop the future state of our new financial system.

And then once that is developed and fully implemented, the full complement will handle all the accounting functions in the future state, which is about a good complement, six accountants for the size and complexity that we have even with a new system.

Yep, very well.

Thank you for that.

When we project revenues and how we project revenues is incredibly important.

My first year on the board, the timing of when revenue projections was done, because there is some subjectivity into a revenue projection, is very important for us to stay on top of, as you said, year round, not just as needed when a budget conversation comes up.

So very good for that.

And then my last question, kind of another in the weeds question, but I've alluded to some of this before.

You have in the finance and budget, again on page 89, the $42,000 increase for payroll services.

This is, this kind of, you know, anytime you see that, I know that this is savings, that this is covered by savings elsewhere.

because the new payroll services is going to allow us to be a little bit more efficient than before.

But it's easy to look at a big budget of our size and kind of just skip over all the $42,000 increase, but is it really an increase or how is it offset?

So, you know, just to follow up on a previous question, don't need an answer now other than maybe just a yes or no and we can maybe look at it again.

but do we track or do you and your department track, you know, as one, this type of increase goes up, it's offset somewhere.

I mean, it might not be a dollar for dollar tracking, but yeah, we're saving these FTEs over here because now this service is in place and now those FTEs are being redirected elsewhere.

You know, that story is important to tell, I think in any budget or when dollars are there.

Yeah, so Chair Galloway, I think at some point in time you and I have had this conversation.

I can't remember exactly when it was, but I do also not, I don't want to mislead the board about what we're doing when it comes to core systems modernization and where we are as an organization.

And so one of the areas that we're focused on is not, these are not efficiency gains that you're going to see where we're making this investment and we're going to see dramatic efficiencies.

Partly the reason for that is the complexity and the things that we haven't necessarily focused on in an organization of this size and this complexity is going to start to get some of the focus that we haven't done in the past.

We've tried to do it, particularly in my shop, I've really worked hard with my team to make sure we've got, we are looking at all the areas that we're responsible for and making sure that we are fully complying with federal law, state law, local laws.

But we aren't doing it at the level that we will in the future, but a new system will allow us to see things that we can focus on and know where our areas of issue are, whether it's tax collections and customer service or it's throughput for procurement.

Why does it take so long to do this?

Since it's so manual, it's very hard for us to see where our issues are.

In a system that allows you to see things from the beginning to the end, all in one system, then we can triage it differently.

And so the goal would be to do exactly what you said.

We're starting to look at performance measures.

We're starting to track kind of, you know, what we can track now, ADP implementation with payroll, we can see things we've never been able to see in our old system about efficiency, effectiveness of pay, and all of those metrics that you would want us to have.

And so I just wanted to be careful that this isn't all for efficiency.

We will get efficiency over time as we develop, as we train, and as we build our teams.

But you're not going to see it at the moment right now with the investments that we're making.

Great point.

I'm just glad, I mean, and it sounds like, yep, you'll be watching it and be able to tell that story over time.

You're welcome.

All right.

I have one comment.

No answer is needed right now.

I'm glad to see Mr. Washburn.

Sorry.

All right, I have one comment.

I'm glad to see Mr. Washburn is here with regard to the election allocation.

We are waiting for the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to determine whether we're going to have to have a House of Delegates election this year.

It's anticipated by the end of the month, the decision will come out and if we do, then we're looking at likely a primary in August, possibly a runoff.

So I would just ask that some calculation be made as to what those expenses might be.

if we do have to have an election.

Supervisor Andrews, you had a question or a comment?

You skipped me, that's all.

You missed a turn.

Yeah, and of course, my comment was going to be that everybody made such great comments that I really didn't have much to add on this course.

Efficacy, which I think is what you're driving at there.

And I think it's great.

And I also was going to make a comment about redistricting.

So I think the comments of Chair Price will be very helpful on that.

So with that, not wanting to be skipped, but I don't have any further comments.

And thank you, Supervisor Andrews.

I do apologize.

Board, we've gone through almost two thirds of our time and one third of our outline.

Thanks.

I hope I can make up some time on this next slide.

We'll look at the judicial functional area.

This section includes the budgets for the three elected constitutional officers that are fully funded as well as courts operations.

I have no further comments on this chapter.

Mr. Bowman, that will help us catch up a bit.

Supervisor McKeel?

No comments.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I have a comment.

No questions.

I'm glad to see everything's fully funded.

for these three departments.

I do want to recognize that in the conversation, Bea, you can't hear me, do I need to yell louder?

I want to make sure, and I feel like this came up during the jail conversation that we had last time about the expansion at the regional jail, but our Commonwealth Attorney Office, I think,

There's some offset of programs that are being implemented by our Commonwealth Attorney that helps us with capacity at the jail and speaking to more to support services, which I see as cost avoidance.

So that's recognized and fully appreciated.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you, Supervisor Galloway.

I agree with that remark.

All right, and I'm fine.

Thank you.

Mr. Bowman?

We'll move next to public safety.

I do have two slides on this chapter.

We'll begin next with the first with the police department focusing kind of reframed in terms of urban service delivery connected back to that theme.

Sorry, I rushed through the donut.

We can pause there for a moment.

The budget includes two police officers to help strengthen the squad-based policing model to help foster the deeper coordination and relationship with the community.

And we do have a highlighted and supervised gallery noted.

We do have a budget neutral change where we are converting a part-time victim witness program to regular full-time.

This is one where, it started in December with that update, but our office has challenged departments for those positions where we've had temporary part-time employees where there really is a demonstrated long-term need.

to look at the conversion of those employees and just to find a way in their current budget to reprioritize funding to address those ongoing needs.

The police department is one of those examples and there will be some others in the presentation I know today so not a budget impact but it does convert that position.

Looking at the contributions to public safety agencies, these are largely based on the shares of the regional agreement noted with those agencies on the slide.

I'll note that the change in the Charlottesville Albemarle Regional Jail is really about that funding agreement and the other changes that happen in their budget with the state, rather than a decrease in service or anything like that.

I will slow down a little bit on public safety on the next slide to discuss the fire rescue system.

There are a few notable changes here.

First of which is the Pantops Public Safety Station.

This includes funding to operate the fire engine there, which is currently operating weekday daytime to 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

That is to further support the strength of fire rescue service there in the county's development area.

In the long term, this will also reduce our reliance on the city of Charlottesville for calls east of the city.

The county currently has a city fire contract.

It's the cost of fiscal year 23 estimated to be $240,000.

That is due to be renegotiated in the near future.

And putting these resources in place will have, will be immediate in fiscal year 23, but in the long term, be able to provide an offset to those costs, whatever it may be when it's renegotiated.

And it also will provide that service in the development area itself rather than responding for a more distant location.

The second item I will note in the fire rescue department, which is really about the fire rescue system, is what is being called the Volunteer Fuel Reimbursement Program.

This is a program that would be new at $100,000.

It would really be to be in a TIF as part of our recruitment and retention efforts to make volunteering more cost-usual for members that would provide direct reimbursement to members based on pre-established requirements in terms of their service to the community.

There is a fire rescue and increase related to the community response team, but I'm going to hold my comment on that until the health and welfare chapter because that is a health and welfare initiative more than a public safety initiative.

Finally, I've talked about public safety community partners.

I also need to speak about the volunteer fire rescue stations.

There's a board approved volunteer funding policy that guides those funding recommendations.

There are increases for operating expenses totaling $140,000 consistent with the volunteer funding policy.

And then we have also included funding for one-time costs for volunteer stations.

The total is an increase of $83,000.

All right.

Thank you, Mr. Bowman.

I don't have any questions, Annie.

Thank you very much.

Certainly, public safety is one of our core missions and very important.

And as our community grows, we've seen our growth and the need to increase this budget.

But thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you, another excellent description.

And I am interested, a number of years ago, the Pan Top Station was being contemplated, and once it was staffed, it was supposed to then have enough balance of services all around that we could then create a true mutual aid with the city and not have to have the contract anymore.

And I will stop there.

Thank you.

OK.

My one question, we're all supportive, very, very supportive of public safety and fire rescue and volunteer fire department.

I'm just wondering, I just wanted to ask him, actually getting into the weeds as a supervisor,

Galloway has done before, that the volunteer fire rescue, the amounts that are being given or the monies that are being compensated well deservedly so.

Are those also tied to making sure that the volunteers have the proper certification certificates with you, with the fire department on

Yes, we, if you recall from last year's discussion, there was a need to involve ourselves more in determining the strength of a volunteer department in terms of their staffing and their training availability.

It's a phased approach.

We're rolling out the staffing plan now, so we'll at a moment's notice know what everyone's staffing

Yes, I will say because we have a training division that does the high majority of the training for all the volunteers in the county

Thank you, Supervisor Galloway.

Remind me, for the police department, the two positions for 23 are police officer positions.

Were the seven and a half that are prior, were those all same positions?

Yes, I believe so.

If I remember correctly, we had, I'll ask Mr. Davidson to correct me if I'm wrong, there were eight officers that were added in December

and then there was a part-time position that was moved from the police department and a part-time position from fire rescue to creating public safety, public information officer, and community engagement.

Thank you, and in the past when we've talked about police positions, we often have talked about

where we are relative to how many officers that we have per the population, and then where that stacks up to the state.

Where are we at on that number?

We can provide that as a follow-up.

We've been historically about 1-3, but you really need to go out to the next decibel to see where that is.

But just in the interest of time, we can provide that as a follow-up.

And this can be a follow-up as well.

I would be curious, both for the police department and the fire rescue department, how supply chain, in terms of the equipment that they need to support not just an officer or a vehicle or what have you, if they have major issues dealing with supply chain issues or not.

And that may be an easy question.

I'm curious about what the current status or state of affairs is with that.

I'm good.

I maybe want to understand at some point the various volunteer fire rescue differences between the different locations and how those budgets go.

But that's all for now.

They come later.

Thank you.

Just a brief comment.

I'm very supportive of the volunteer fuel reimbursement program.

We all know that volunteerism has been a special challenge of late and is not anticipated to get any better.

So something that will help us to show our volunteers the support we have for them is greatly appreciated.

Other than that, I have no other questions or comments right now.

Thank you, Mr. Bowman.

Let me first ask, do you have an anticipated amount of time that you believe you'll need for the remainder of your presentations?

Yeah, I would say that, you know, the pace we've been in the last couple chapters is more of the pace we'll be.

I will have just a couple of slides for each in breaking for more discussion.

So I think I will share as well that if we do not cover the non-departmental chapter last Wednesday, I don't think that would be problematic to pick up another day.

So if we were able to get through 50 slides in community development, which is just another 15 or so, that feels manageable.

So, board, I'm just going to do a quick look.

If anyone would like a break at this time, please raise your hand.

I'll look for a quick count.

Not seeing any hands up, Mr. Bowman.

Everyone is mesmerized by your presentation, and we'd like you to continue.

All right, so we will move next to public works.

Taking a moment to look at the STONUT charts, the public works functional area is primarily made up of facilities and environmental services.

also includes the contribution to the Ranasov Waste Authority and then some other public works agencies.

When we look at the notable changes in this area, I'll connect first again to the theme of urban service delivery.

We have the program for entrance corridor vegetation and right-of-way management.

This is really about better maintaining our existing spaces and to ease that process as we build new infrastructure in the new development area.

We have a program that we have budgeted to begin in the middle of the year in fiscal year 23.

It would include what we call a right-of-way program manager and also the contractual and operational costs associated with that position.

Also, starting with mid-year, we have in the capital budget, which we'll discuss on Monday, the purchase of the street sweeper.

We've included the funding to operate that street sweeper.

Again, anticipating that would begin mid-year fiscal year 23.

We've included under this theme of quality government operations, we've now been for the last two years really trying to identify in our building posture what our level of cleaning services is.

We have funded that temporarily from the pandemic reserve and now going forward having an operating budget in line with what that cleaning protocol is in the future.

Another example under quality government operations of budget mutual change is converting a

where it is a temporary position to a regular full-time position for a fiscal security specialist.

Again, that is a much usual position based on facilities and environmental services department reprioritizing their funding to make up that difference in the total cost.

Finally, I will note the contribution to the public work agencies.

The main highlight, again, is RSWA.

Rivanna Solid Waste Authority.

One of the big drivers in this is the operating impact of the capital project for the Southern Convenience Center.

They would anticipate it to be opening in mid-year in fiscal year 23.

All right.

Thank you, Mr. Bowman.

Just a couple of quick comments.

I don't really have any questions.

Obviously, I'm thrilled to see the urban service delivery.

I would make just a generalized statement.

As I drive around the county within the development area, I see a real difference in the way the development areas look.

Some are really well maintained and others, especially in the older urban ring area,

and I hope as we're looking at how we are implementing this program that we look at the, and certainly look first perhaps is a word, at the areas that are most in need of help and care and maintenance.

The Streetsweeper program is wonderful and that's going to help our pedestrians and bicyclists a lot.

Just a couple of comments.

And

And I guess that's really, I'm just thrilled to see the current Southern Convenience Center that's coming online.

I think the southern part of the county will be thrilled to see this finally realized.

So thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you, and I agree, lots of great steps forward.

I know that there is ordinance work to be done first, but hopefully by next time this year, we will, this year next time, we will have also a waiver program or collaborative program to get snow off of sidewalks.

And that will go along with that street sweeper program very well.

Thank you.

Yes, I look forward to the street sweeper program getting all of our primary roads swept and then onto the secondary roads and this is going to be fantastic.

Thank you.

Yeah, echo and applaud the fact that we're moving in this vegetation and right-of-way management.

I mean obviously the Street Sweeper program as well.

I won't, I'm going to ask the question now, but expect that we can get the answer at a later date so we don't take the time today.

But the approach to the

entrance corridor vegetation right-of-way management.

I see that we have a right-of-way program manager position who's going to oversee.

I'm very interested in understanding how that's going to work, what the logistics are, and what your game plan is for the program.

So I think that's a little much to try to get into now, but if that could be, whether that's a written explanation or at a future meeting, I want to learn more of the ins and outs of that of how it's going to operate.

We'll provide that as a follow-up.

Nothing more to add.

This is all really good to me.

Thank you.

And quickly, I'm really impressed with the urban service delivery.

First impressions or lasting impressions, it takes about a tenth of a second to form an impression.

And when people come to our community, if it's a negative one, then they'll likely going to have that.

So that's really good.

The street sweeper program is a safety issue as well as appearance.

And I don't recall, but what is the estimated opening date for the Southern Convenience Center?

Good evening, Board, and Andy, thank you for the introduction.

I originally hoped that we would be able to open in the fall.

I think our construction schedule is on the timeline to accommodate that, but we are anticipating supply chain issues with some key elements, including the trash compactors that will collect the tag-a-bag program.

As well as the containers themselves that collect the recyclables Everything made from steel or that has a chip and it is taking longer to get just like cars Are taking longer to get so we're we have we're moving forward placing those orders.

I appreciate it.

Thank you, Mr. Bowman.

With that, we'll go ahead and move to the next functional area, which is health and welfare.

To take a look at the donut chart here, we'll see the largest part of this health and welfare chapter is the Department of Social Services.

Also included in this is a wide variety of partnerships in the community.

Some are larger kind of relationships between the state and local governments with the health department and region 10 or community services board.

And then we have some other health and welfare agencies and I'll speak to in just a moment.

So in the first department of social services, in this theme of working differently, now is the time I want to just talk to the community response team.

This is an effort led by the Department of Social Services with a police officer and a firefighter, EMT, and a social worker working to respond to calls for individuals in crisis.

Depending on the details of the call, the team would adapt their response to best meet the critical needs of the person to ensure the safety of all parties involved.

The response team will then work to support the individual beyond the immediate crisis through

This program responds to troubling growth and mental health calls for service to have unique needs.

It allows us to preserve our fire rescue and police resources where an urgent medical or criminal matter is not part of the situation.

The funding identified from this initiative I mentioned earlier is coming from a portion of the cigarette tax revenue that took effect in January.

Beyond that, I'll highlight some additions around this theme of quality government operations in our Department of Social Services.

There are three eligibility workers dedicated to the benefits program.

That includes the programs and eligibility around the Medicaid program, supplemental nutrition and assistance program, and temporary assistance for needy families, refugee cash, and refugee medical assistance.

This is really just a reflection as we look at the volume and how that has changed in recent years.

Just kind of the drive to the right size and support for that operation.

I should note that these positions and social services are also partially funded by state and federal funding.

Finally, we have a housing financial list that will provide accounting and financial reporting for all housing program.

In addition to local funding, there is often state and federal with the unique requirements out there that we want to be responsive to.

Outside of the department, I will note that there are health and welfare contributions.

One I will highlight is that we are, as part of our fully funding the health department's request, that does allow what is a community health worker down at Yancey Community Center to go from part-time to full-time, just to be able to provide services further than they are able to right now.

So next in health and welfare, I'm going to speak to the process we call the agency budget review team process.

What this is is a group of staff and community volunteers who are led by John Freeman, who's here with us on the call today.

He's our retired assistant social services

Here we receive 43 program applications who review those and evaluate those based on a set of criteria in terms of how they are performing and how they are aligned to the county's human services goals.

The ABRT then earns those evaluations into a rating for those programs and provides them to the Department of Finance and Budget.

We then take those evaluations and assign funding recommendations to them.

So if you are an exemplary program, and I'll say some of these agencies may have multiple programs in there.

If you're an exemplary program, we have provided you 4% salary increase above your fiscal year 22 funding.

Solid programs received level funding, and a full program received a funding reduction.

In addition to existing programs, there is funding recommended for new programs that has scored exemplary, and those are funded for these programs for the first time that are listed on the slide.

Thank you, Mr. Bowman.

I don't have any real questions.

Again, I really appreciate all the hard work that this particular, I believe, department requires.

The social services was one of our departments that was hit the hardest during the pandemic and I know those folks have really been challenged and have been working hard.

And I do appreciate very much staff's work through the ABRT process.

I know that is another of one of our reviews.

It really requires a lot of detail and work by folks and I certainly appreciate it.

Just a quick comment.

I think, Andy, when you were talking about our mental health team that is going to be created through this budget, that is

really needed and just a great move forward.

I just want to remind folks that I'm looking forward to an upcoming discussion among staff and the supervisors about how that team could be used to assist us in our panhandling

issues, many of whom might fall into this category, as well as some signage that we might be able to create in concert, you know, along with our community partners.

And I think other communities are doing that, and it's a great opportunity.

I don't think I have a question right now.

All right, thank you.

I just want to applaud staff and frankly the

the county for coming up with this program, which is a new, which is a different way of looking at mental health problems and addressing the needs of those who have mental health problems.

And I think this will be very successful.

I love the fact that we're trying something innovative and new and trying to help people.

So I'll be looking forward to seeing how this works out.

Supervisor Galloway.

Thank you.

This may be a question for Mr. Richardson.

In the past, and this is the one department this year that I'm focusing on for this, that there have been times where the departmental request maybe didn't make it into the recommended budget.

I think a lot of those requests have made it in this time.

But this is the one department I want to make sure.

Were there any things here that didn't make it in?

that the positions that are needed.

Andy, could you could you lead that answer for me, please?

I don't have anything up my sleeve here hunting or searching, it's just this particular department in the past is one, Khaki, this will be the first time she's heard me say this, but your predecessor in their scorecard and the report that they would give would sometimes talk about keeping like 1% or a couple percent of the budget unspent, and this is the one department where every dollar should be spent.

So I want to make sure that we're providing the resources needed for the service delivery.

The positions that are recommended in here, the housing financial analyst and the ones that are included, look, I'm glad to see that are in here.

You know, again, this is not a gotcha or anything like that.

It's just making sure that we are taking care of what we need to take care of within this department.

Thank you.

Very little to comment.

I really do applaud the whole community response team approach here.

I recognize that it says a position is partially offset by state and federal revenue, and I hope this is consistent with a trend.

that's being encouraged everywhere.

And I applaud the challenge of reviewing through the ABRT requests, maybe to understand that process a little bit better down the road, but no questions otherwise at this time.

All right, thank you.

I don't have any specific questions with regard to the amounts that are recommended for the different entities.

I am still a little uncertain about part of the process, though, and this is not necessarily to be answered today.

Any time after this, for me and other board members, if they're interested, may be helpful.

On page 139 of our materials, when you talk about the process, I do understand that the ABRT team, and let me anecdotally add to that, how much value those individuals provide to this entire process, which makes it more objective, less subjective, and substantially less political than it would be if we did not have that process.

So I think that's really good.

But the ABRT team

They review and rate the applications and then recommendations for funding amounts are made in the context of the overall county budget development process.

I understand what that's saying.

I'm not quite sure on some of the application.

And the other thing I noticed is on page 138 of our materials, we have several entities that are listed with a single listing.

But when we go into the appendix, starting on page 141, a number of those entities are listed more than one time.

So I'm having a hard time correlating a single entry on a budget amount with two entries on the ABRT review process.

And I understand for the programs that were funded in FY22, how on slide 42 here on the screen, you talk about the exemplary solid and poor.

Yet there are other entities that may have gotten one of those ratings and have not been recommended for funding.

And I understand that would come into how the funding ties in with the county's overall

budget development process, I would just personally like to understand a little better how those determinations are made.

And again, I'm not asking for an answer to that today, but it would help me to understand this whole process a little better.

So thank you.

Other than that, I have no further questions.

I'll say just again in the interest of time with the several questions, we can incorporate all of this into this list of follow-ups.

I will say that kind of a quick answer is that on page 138 where we have the table, it really is about all the agency programs in total.

We certainly could break that down by program.

For example, the Free Clinic is one agency that conducts multiple programs, and those programs are evaluated each on their own individual merit.

But I do appreciate and understand the feedback that when you're trying to tie how the funding recommendation ties with a particular program, particularly for an agency where you may have four or five programs, as some of these do, it doesn't quite lead you to understand where you don't have some of these agency changes that are simply a 4% increase level or something else.

There's other changes that are factoring in there.

Thank you, Mr. Bowman.

And your instant recall of facts throughout this entire complex budget process is amazing.

Thank you.

I was going to send this question in written, but I'll ask it now.

And I'm embarrassed to say that I don't know because I thought I did know and now I don't.

On the charts, it says REC-ADP.

And I always thought that was a ratio I've requested to where the differences were, but now I don't think I'm right about that.

That refers, and again, thank you for the feedback, because I'm sure if others have these questions, if board members have these questions, others in the community who read this document even less often will have that as well.

So what that refers to is the recommended budget in fiscal year 23 minus what was adopted in

For example, I'll give one example on page 138 AHIP, the Albemarle Housing Improvement Program, were funded at fiscal year 22 and $412,000.

You're muted.

My short game for understanding these is to look for places where there are big changes or deductions first as a way to try to understand.

So thank you.

All right.

Thank you, Mr. Bowman.

All right.

We will move then next to the Parks and Recreation culture.

Just take a moment to pause at the donut distribution of this.

In this chapter, this is actually the Jefferson Addison Regional Library is the largest funding share of Parks and Recreation and Culture, followed by the department itself, our Commission and Commissioner of Visitors Bureau, as well as some other cultural contributions.

So to look at the notable changes, could we group these in a theme of quality government operations?

We've included an increase for this summer to a planned return to a full season of programming.

That has not been the case over the last two summers in the pandemic for a combination of reasons, but this budget does allow the funding for that to be possible.

The second adjustment is an increase of really to begin to phase in what we're calling the Eastern District Maintenance Crew.

This is the expectation that as Biscuit Run Park comes online in the future, there will be additional operating impact.

And rather than bring all of those staff on at one time, and really recognizing their needs in the Eastern District that are just beyond only that park, or just the entire network,

of Parks.

This would bring in one position mid-year and then seek to phase those additional positions in as that park comes online.

I will note that there are some budget usual changes that have highlighted elsewhere where Parks and Recreation has re-prioritized funding to convert some temporary positions to full-time or increased part-time hours around trail maintenance and community center services.

So that is the Parks Department, but I'm going to take a moment to talk about the rest of this chapter.

We have included here the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library.

The primary drivers of this agency, which is again governed by a regional agreement, is JMRL has been watching the county closely about our approach to the $15 minimum wage, which the board approved moving to the last budget process.

JMRL is now following based on the similar methodology the county implemented.

In addition to that, as a major budget driver,

It also includes increased bookmobile services out in the community.

Next is the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau.

This is calculated based on a regional agreement based on the prior year's transient occupancy tax revenues.

So that is a slight decrease based on that regional agreement calculation.

Finally, I will speak to the cultural agency contributions.

We have, separate from ABRT, really recognizing that there are organizations in this community where the human services criteria are not a good fit for them, and they're also providing services.

A few years ago, staff developed a staff-led process with criteria specific to those, and so we partner with the Community and Public Engagement Office, the Office of Equity and Inclusion, Parks and Recreation staff, and Economic Development staff.

to really, you know, based on that criteria, evaluate these agencies and from there develop funding recommendations.

Again, these agencies are much smaller compared to the other parts of the budget as they total roughly $50,000 to $60,000.

There were 10 applications received from staff and the funding recommendations for any new programs and increases are noted.

There were some agencies who were funded in the past and did not request funding again, so part of those savings are being reprogrammed to cover those increases.

Thank you.

I apologize.

Thank you.

I appreciate your concise and good report.

I think I just have more of a comment.

I don't have any real questions about that.

I really want to just make a comment that we have 13 parks when we look at the number of parks we have.

The vast majority of them are in the

areas and inaccessible to many people.

We do have one small pocket park in an urban area, Charlotte Humphries Park, which is essentially a great walking park, but very small.

So just and then of course we have Garden Town Park, which is accessible to many people.

So I just want us to think about when we think about our park

and Recreation System and Biscuit Run coming online to remember how many of these parks are really inaccessible to many of the folks that live in, I can speak for certainly the Jack Jouett district, but in many of our older urban neighborhoods.

Thank you.

Thank you and I'll follow along with Supervisor McKeel's comment to say I hope that we will keep in mind when urban properties are in transition as other communities sometimes grab those locations instead of allowing them to

move on into higher density in order to create those very accessible places.

I think the county has been lucky to have donations.

These rural places were donated to us and so we're doing the best we can, but I think it takes a much more active role to be able to get ownership of some of the more urban

higher priced properties.

The only question I had, just to leave a thought, I hope that when we're going back to summer, the full summer programs that the Parks and Rec department is considering running their life saving training in house because I know that was a bit of a disaster last year when the community agency that was going to do it just decided not to.

And so that left a lot of our

our young lifeguards scrambling to try to get training at Richmond and other places.

And that's all I have.

I'm in favor of these.

I do have a question regarding the bookmobile services.

I'm wondering how much that will be impacted regarding our gas prices, if there will be an increased or decreased need for this, depending on what happens with gas prices.

I just think that's something, probably something to keep an eye on, but I do like what we're spending our money.

We will follow the library staff to get their response to that question.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

For follow up, if you could, I could not for the life of me remember the middle school sports program, what that entails or what that is.

I'd love a summary description of that sent out just to remind me what that encompasses.

Timing, you know, just the basic ins and outs, the facilities used, that sort of thing.

And then I presume the increase, the 69-222, is because of the limited offerings over the last couple of years in comparison.

That is correct.

When we built last year's budget, it was not into stating what normal programming would be.

Right.

And then along with the summary description of the middle school sports program, again, this is just for understanding.

So I have it in my head.

It was lumped together with summer swim and summer camps.

I'd again just be curious of what the expenditures are for each itemize those three groups.

What's the expense for each one?

And what's the spread around the calendar?

Just kind of an executive summary, if you would, of all those programs.

Just be real helpful for information.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, I think this is a really important area for quality of life and I appreciate what's going into it and like to see it supported.

I'm confused a little bit, you mentioned the 69222 and I'm assuming you're talking about the difference between for the local revenue sources and the dramatic difference from fiscal

your 21 actual really jumps out at me.

So I'd like to understand that a little bit better.

And that's it.

I know we're going to have a discussion later about some capital aspects of parks and some improvements.

All right.

Thank you.

And concurring with a number of comments, if we've learned nothing else through the pandemic, it's the importance of our parks, recreation, cultural opportunities.

One of the very first slides today pointed out that the outdoor recreational parks and amenities only comprises 3% of the county's budget.

And as with other supervisors, very much looking forward to the March 23rd discussion.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I'll take a moment to thank the board for their feedback on things where we could have gone into more detail or may have not been clear.

Certainly when preparing a 314-page budget document with multiple authors, we're always making that judgment about how do we summarize things.

And sometimes when we get it right, sometimes we could go in more detail.

Sometimes we perhaps go in, too.

So I do really appreciate that feedback from several supervisors as we move on through this.

So moving on next to community development.

And the first thing I'll clarify is this is what we call an organizational area based on some state reporting categories.

But this is unique because community development is the only area where we have the department as the same name as that organizational area.

So the community development includes the Department of Community Development, which is the largest portion.

It also includes our economic development services.

It includes the funding for our various transit agencies as well as some other community fund agencies.

So to look at the notable changes, and I'm going to start with the Community Development Department.

I'll first hit on this theme of urban services delivery.

Again, this looks to add a position and some related operating costs for annual remediation funds for a property maintenance inspector.

And that would really be to prioritize addressing building and flight violations.

Under the category of Quality Government Operations, we have a Management Analyst II position.

II really just refers to a specific classification.

One position that really is around supporting the department's financial management and analysis functions.

We would look to, this one is not budget neutral, but when we look at our geographic data services, or what's sometimes called GIS,

Services, converting a temporary staff to a full-time given the demand and overall need for those services.

And we've also included a combination of projects under this category of strategic use of one-time funds.

It is common in the annual budget process as Community Development works through their work plan that we'll be discussing with the Board of Supervisors in the near future.

to have some of those costs that may come and go, whether they be related to master plans or other projects, and a lot of really related to what are the board's strategic priorities.

And so to speak to what this includes in a little more detail, we have funding for the next phase of the form-based code, which we'll call in phase two, which relates to one of the board's strategic priorities in the BRIO 29 area.

We're also including some local funding for transportation project settings really to do some more in-depth staff work on the front end so that as we pursue future transportation projects we have them much better scoped out to know what those will look like.

We've included what we're calling a community development fee simplification study.

This is not quite simply just a update of our fees and what they should be.

This is also looking at our internal processes and streamlining where we can.

to reduce complexity where perhaps it is not needed for both staff and customers to make a more efficient process.

I'm really talking about working differently.

Maybe perhaps I should have added this to the slide to add that under that theme as well.

And then finally, we have some consultant services for the next phase of the Stream Health Initiative.

And that is really about strengthening the restoration and mitigation efforts of the streams.

So before I open it up to questions, I'll touch on the other parts of this chapter.

First, we have the Economic Development Office.

This is actually proposed in fiscal year 22, not fiscal year 23, but I'm going to highlight this because this could be changed by the board in the context of the total county budget.

It's part of the year-end funding that we discussed at this point.

Perhaps it was two hours ago of what funding we had left over from fiscal year 21 and how the board would invest that strategically

We set aside an amount of $5 billion that would go into the Economic Development Fund.

And the purpose of that fund is not necessarily tied to specific projects right now.

The intent is to position the board to be able to move forward that as opportunities arrive or performance agreements or other opportunities to match state or federal grants that we're able to be flexible in moving the speed of business to deliver on those opportunities.

Moving on from economic development, I'll highlight transit.

We have included flat funding for Charlottesville area transit.

This is based upon a proposal that CAT staff put together last year about looking at their ARPA funding, their CARES funding, and how they will leverage that in state funding to improve their services and what that path looks like in the future.

Also included, related to CAT, is what we're calling a microtransit reserve.

The board heard in January about the county's match for a microtransit demonstration grant that is successful would begin in the middle of fiscal year 23 and primarily serve Route 29 and TOPS areas.

We do have an increase for John really reflecting the county's share of existing services.

We also have funding for the regional transit partnership and I'll note that this also includes what the board heard in January about the funding for the transit governance study.

for the county share of that.

Final comment I'll make in this chapter is around other community development agencies.

There is funding for the regional housing partnership for the county share of that that is administered by the TJPDC which some board members already participate in.

This is really looking as the work of that committee has grown and the staffing and demands required to support that committee.

This funds the county share for that.

In my mind this feels very similar to where we were a couple years ago with the Regional Transit Partnership and how that has evolved as a regional work group with the TJPDC kind of being the piece during the administrative work.

Thank you Mr. Bowman.

I don't really have any questions.

I just really appreciate

The focus in these areas, because all of them are critical, in my opinion, moving us forward.

The Economic Development Office, I appreciate that while it's not targeted right now, it's certainly an important office because it's one of the offices that brings us in additional revenues.

Transit, I mean, these are all really worthwhile and I'm so pleased that we have a budget

where we can actually target money into these items.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I do also support all these different things and having the undesignated money in economic development so that when something comes up it's available is really, really important.

I'm going back to page 49.

Certainly support the urban service delivery position.

The later response is have we done the work we need to provide the ordinance in order to have the person be able to

carry something out or is this just someone who's going to go as has been done ad nauseam in the past and people going and looking but we don't yet have the ordinance behind us to do the work so I just want to make sure we're doing moving forward on that and I certainly am thrilled to hear about the work to reduce the unnecessary complexity of our permitting processes that is a ever-evolving thing it'll never be done but we need to keep moving

away added?

And is there a report back from CAT that I may have missed about how they have taken on their service deficits because we're flat funding them, but have they met those obligations that were shown in the past?

And I'll leave that for a future answer.

I will ask as our Director of Community Development, Jody Florida, was on the call.

Chief Bowman, I would be happy to do either, perhaps in the interest of the hour.

Well, if you can answer it quickly, Ms.

Gallardo, then that would be fine.

Let me see if I can do this in two sentences or less.

The intention for Stream Health is to figure out what the ordinance needs to have in it next year, Supervisor Mallek, and then follow on with any enforcement requests for support

Okay, and in writing the same questions focused on the property maintenance inspector, which was what I was asking about.

That's, that's fine.

All right.

Thank you.

No, I approve of everything that's being proposed.

No questions.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you.

And I think this is a request that at some point during the budget work sessions that we need to spend a little bit more time on community development.

I think Mr. Richardson and Mr. Walker probably know where I'm going, but I think we need the whole story of how this budget attacks

the things that we need to do, the positions we put mid-year last year, what we're putting in this current fiscal year, because I feel like in community development this gets at, or this is an intersection of a lot of things that we've talked about that are critical for the county.

You know, when we think of compensation and workload,

I think of the community development department and the staff and all that's asked of them.

When I think of service delivery, both for service delivery of the board achieving its strategic priorities and work plan and what the board wants to do, but then also our residents coming knocking on their door and developers coming knock on their door.

This is again just an area where compensation studies, how many staff members we have, the demands put on them by a board, by its own internal customers and external customers, are we doing what's necessary to advance what we need to advance for this department and for the board?

So I'm hoping that at some point in a work session we can carve up some time to hear that whole story of yes, this is why we think this is the way to attack that.

You know, business process authorization works in here.

This is critical.

I just feel like this is the place where if we're going to have a huge conversation about are we doing enough,

to further our agenda and provide the level of service needed for the things that are trying to come through the county that we need to have that conversation.

And I hope that I have some concurrence with that so that we can discuss those items.

Because if we need to add or put some more resources here, then we should have that conversation.

Chair Price, if I could just acknowledge that the staff would absolutely be prepared to have that conversation if and when it fits into your budget schedule.

You'll also have a bit of this conversation upcoming at your next board meeting with the Community Development Work Program.

Obviously, it is related.

So yeah, if that fits into your schedule, we'd be delighted to engage around all of these many pieces

My other question is related to the economic development target.

There are a total of four authorized with one vacancy.

that is not yet filled.

Got it.

And I echo the importance of making sure we have what we need here as well, because I echo Supervisor McKeel's comment and others about this, and Supervisor Mallek, about this being a generating, this generates some revenues for us and lightens the burden elsewhere on taxpayers.

I was thinking of a small area plan and some of the other things that are coming in play according to Housing Albemarle to make sure we have the FTEs here as well to support the vision and the plan that we're trying to go after.

So maybe that's rolled into the conversation we just talked about relative to CDD.

Thank you.

Yep, I don't want to keep us, but I want to second what Supervisor Galloway said.

I think this deserves a lot more conversation, and that is to point out how important this area is to everything we do and how we proceed with the community and the services that are provided.

I noticed, for example, real quick, a $50,000 increase for Camino and other software licenses, so there's obviously a lot of

Modernization I think that's going on as part of this process and service that could be provided.

I look forward to further discussion.

It's really important area.

Alright, thank you and I concur with the comments of the other supervisors of the importance of community development and economic development.

I also acknowledge that the community development has been one of the departments where the personnel shortages coming through the pandemic have been keenly felt.

Having said that, I want to really stress the appreciation for the attitude of assistance to compliance and not punishment when it comes to our applicants in the community development department.

As a frequent filer,

myself over the last number of years with the work I've been doing, I've come to really appreciate as a community member that attitude of assistance in community development.

And having said that, with regard to the blighted, abandoned, dilapidated properties that are attractive nuisances, I fully support the property maintenance inspector

in order to bring those properties into compliance because they are a danger.

And so really applaud the inclusion of that in our budget.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That brings us to the final chapter for today.

This is the non-departmental chapter, which is kind of a little bit of an unusual name, but a lot of this is not so much the general fund, but transfers that are occurring elsewhere.

So going on to the next slide, this chapter includes the revenue sharing payment to the City of Charlottesville.

That's an increase of about $133,000 next year based on the formula.

I'll highlight next the two major transfers that I highlighted earlier is the first and third biggest parts of the General Fund.

There is a $26.1 million increase to the ongoing transfer to the public schools and a $5.7 million increase to the ongoing transfer to the capital projects and debt service.

Now I should note, just as I did for the general fund earlier, the school division and the capital program have already received a portion of these with the new year revenue update in December.

So this is a comparison from where we are now to where we are

or the adopted budget of July 1st.

A portion of that increase, I believe the school share of that 26, about 10 million of that already occurred in December.

It's just a little bit of the unusual year where we have in terms of budget comparisons with our mid-year update.

So in addition to those one-on-one transfers, I've talked earlier about the strategic investment of one-time funding.

This includes $4.1 million as a one-time transfer to the capital improvements program.

recommended to take place in fiscal year 22.

That funding is helping support the projects that are funded in fiscal year 23 to 27 that we'll discuss on Monday.

There is also a 3.1 million transfer to the housing fund.

Again, this is a reserve that positions the board as now that there are

The work done on the affordable housing policy and strategies to continue to position the board as things are moving forward, how to best address those.

And we do have time scheduled to discuss housing further at the March 30th board work session.

So looking at other notable changes, there are some other reserves in here, some of which I've kind of talked through others in the presentation, but I do want to take a moment to explain Core Systems Modernization.

This is something that we put in non-departmental because it really is a project that touches so many of our internal-facing departments and really external too, from finance and budget to information technology to human resources to community development.

So for those who are wondering, listening, what does this name really mean?

As the board and perhaps others have heard before, the technology systems we use across the county and government are disjointed

They're antiquated and they don't really allow for the community to interact with our government as we would expect.

So over the next few years, we are embarking on new financial systems, new human resources, new community development systems, new financial systems, and other related systems that are really about enhancing the customer and the employee experience.

This not only improves our relationships with customers who we interact with,

It also provides us a position to be better off in recruitment and retention for our employees because we have systems that are operational, connected, and easier to train on.

So the board will hear this again on Monday as there is a capital component for this project, but this is really about the operational project, not only the funding that it takes to pull that off, but looking at the positions in terms of what are those gaps we need to fill to make these systems

Final topic for today is we have included a reserve for space, really with an eye towards public safety needs related to secured evidence storage from the police department and logistical space for fire rescue.

This is a placeholder really for a solution to be determined later about our overall county space solutions, again, with that focus on public safety.

So that concludes my comments.

Thank you, Supervisor McKeel.

I am fine on this, thank you very much.

Yeah, what's the current balance in the board's strategic reserve?

I believe there is what we call the capital budget reserve, I believe is that what you're referring to?

We had one where we

Yes, there's one in the capital budget that's been used to fund projects like the race board intersection and some other initiatives.

And then the one you were talking, the strategic priority support, that funding, that's where that's going.

Strategic priorities.

Yeah, to explain that in a little more detail, a year ago at this time, working with Community Development as they set out to embark on the comprehensive plan update and the related zoning work, we included $665,000 to support that work over the next couple of years.

And so that funding is appropriate and we will be carrying that forward from year to year as they continue their work.

This year, we took a little bit

That was done, and I spoke earlier about some of the one-time studies specifically called out, funded directly in the Community Development Department.

So really that study money that's been used in the past there is going there.

Thank you.

And then, yes, the business process option, I appreciate you spending a little extra time on that.

I just linked that to my comments prior on CDD and with the finance and budget.

I mean, I know that's linked to that story.

So just calling out, looking forward to learning more about how that BPO reserve is going to help us in community development specifically.

Thank you.

No additional questions.

And none for me.

Mr. Bowman, thank you very much for your presentation.

I just have one final slide, which is what I typically end on, which is just the schedule ahead.

We'll be back on March 14th, Monday.

We'll begin to hear from the school board about their proposed funding request, and then we'll spend the rest of the time on the capital improvements plan, which includes both county government and school projects.

This is really going to be a continuation of the story that the board has heard, or most of the board heard, in December around the work of the CIP's committee, which some of the board members directly participated in.

and so then we'll begin taking things on March 7th.

I really want to thank the board for all the attention among what has been three hours and a lot of information.

Thank you, just two questions to leave with you to add to your research list.

There used to be a chart that showed positions not funded throughout the organization, and so if that's available, I'd like you to share that with all of us.

Also, a link to the Parks and Recreation Needs Assessment, which I think was done in 2016, maybe.

I know I have a copy somewhere in my house, but I cannot find it.

And I also searched and searched on our website and could not find the link myself, so I need some assistance with that.

And others may as well.

We can provide both of those.

All right, so I think that concludes your time in the hot seat today, Mr. Bonin.

All right, Board, it's back to us for matters not listed on the agenda.

I have none.

I just want to really thank staff for this great work session.

Thank you.

I did not get my organized sheet where I can get it right now, so I will wait till next week.

Once again, thank you to the staff for doing an outstanding job.

There's a lot of respect that goes there for all the work you put into this.

Thank you.

Yeah, echo the comments and the appreciation.

I mean, this is the biggest lift we do year in and year out, figuring out this budget.

No, this is a high performing organization.

Really appreciate it.

And I can only echo those comments as I see the two dozen or so staff that are still on the screen and the dozens behind them who have helped put this together.

We'll now go to our county executive.

No, ma'am.

Chair Price, I do not.

All right board, we have one more thing that we need to do and that's to go into a closed session.

So do we have Supervisor Andrews?

Second.

We have a motion and a second if the clerk will call the roll.

Bisto-Kirtley, Aye Ms.

Mellet, Yes Ms.

McKeel, Yes Ms.

Price, Aye Ms.

All right, thank you, Mr. Morris.

I second.