Board of Supervisors Regular First Meeting   9/7/2022

Good afternoon.

We'll call to order this regular meeting of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors at approximately 1.05 p.m.

on Wednesday, September the 7th, 2022, here in Lane Auditorium of the County Office Building.

Board, we have Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley has requested to participate remotely in accordance with applicable board rules of procedure.

Rule number eight,

B-1B, enacted pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley provides that she is unable to attend the meeting in person due to a medical condition.

All right.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Motion by Supervisor Andrews, seconded by Supervisor McKeel.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

Ms.

Grace?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Yes.

All right, thank you, Board.

The supervisors who are present today are Supervisor Diantha McKeel of the Jack Jouett District, Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley of the Rivanna District, Supervisor Jim Andrews of the Samuel Miller District, Supervisor Ann Mallek of the White Hall District, Supervisor Ned Gallaway of the Rio District, and myself, Supervisor Donna Price of the Scottsville District.

I would also like to mention that our County Executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson, our County Attorney, Mr. Steve Rosenberg, our Clerk for the Board, Ms.

Claudette Borgerson, and our Senior Deputy Clerk, Mr. Travis Morris, are also present.

At this time, if you will stand as you are able and join in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right board, we're at item number four, adoption of the final agenda.

Before moving for a motion on that, I do have a few comments to make.

First, we'd like to comment that we've added to the consent agenda a change in the start time for the September 21st meeting from our normal one o'clock to a two o'clock p.m.

start.

At Supervisor Mallek's request, I would be adding a discussion

on buffer protection for Albemarle streams to occur after the adoption of the consent agenda.

At Supervisor Galloway's request, add a discussion on the county's participation in the Safe Streets for All grant program, also to occur after the adoption of the consent agenda.

If you want to do yours at the end, that would be fine.

Yes, thank you.

All right, thank you.

So that modifies what has been proposed for an amendment to the agenda.

So moved.

All right, we have a motion from Supervisor Mallek and a second from Supervisor McKeel.

Any further discussion?

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley.

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Yes.

All right, board, we're at item number five, brief announcement by board members.

Yes, good afternoon and welcome to September.

I have just a couple of things that I want to note.

I requested from the school division a list of all the immunization requirements to enroll in Albemarle County Public Schools.

There's a lot of chatter and discussion now about vaccinations.

and we have breakthrough diseases that are happening.

If you look at New York, we have polio now circulating in the wastewater.

So I was interested in what the vaccination requirements were and I'm not going to go through the list.

But I do want to just remind everyone of the importance of getting your vaccinations, the importance to public health in getting your vaccinations, keeping them up to date, and to making sure that your children also receive their vaccinations.

And the only other item that I wanted to mention, certainly the papers these days and the media is full of articles about the impacts of our changing climate and whether it's heat waves

Drouts, flooding, we can see it happening all over the world.

And I just wanted, I noted something in one of the articles that I just want to make a note of.

that right now droughts in Europe are disrupting specifically the river cruise industry, which is a big tourism draw for Europe and brings in lots of revenues for them.

And I just want to make a note that we, as we're looking at our strategic work and our work with climate change, we may very well want to make sure that we look at the businesses

in this community that are economic drivers where we could have risk because of climate and see how we might want to address it.

It's all about sustainability and resiliency and making sure that we're diversifying ourselves and protecting ourselves from climate risk and I would say also climate migration.

I talk a lot about climate migration.

Thank you.

Yes, as a board member of the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau, I wanted to announce that we were actually finalists in the Destiny Awards.

One of them for Discover Black Seaville and the other one for the Roadless Travel, which is the Monticello Wine Trail.

So I'll be able to report how we did on that.

I don't know yet.

There were 300 applications and we did very well.

And I also wanted to let you all know that for everyone who loves wine that Virginia is the 10th largest producer of wines in the nation.

Alright, thank you.

Yes, thank you.

I'm going to take this moment, and perhaps Ann will say something afterwards, but I want to express my sympathies to the family and friends of Dwayne Snow, who we lost very recently.

I didn't personally know him, but his reputation is one of warmth, good humor, and service to others above self.

He stepped up to serve on this Board of Supervisors, served with conviction representing all the areas of Samuel Miller District from 2010 to 2014, which we should be grateful.

A lot of memories of very earnest debate during those years, but in a friendly and very civil way.

I mean, we're talking now and then about the loss of civility in our local and federal and state exchanges.

That never happened here because being a decent human being was what he really excelled at and was also very open-minded about

Stepping over that imaginary line that really shouldn't exist in local government, but to make sure that we were able to have some successes that were absolutely coalitions of the willing.

So there's a lot to remember.

Thank you.

I was sort of undone by that one so I didn't do what I was supposed to do.

I also want to welcome our new local government reporter in the audience, House Spencer out there who is hiding, who is here to keep an eye on the meetings, hopefully always in person for the daily progress and I'm really glad to see him here.

I was on the way down listening to a webinar from the Georgetown Law School Climate Central and I would recommend everyone check out their website.

They have databases.

This meeting will be recorded and as soon as I get the recording I will share it with everybody talking this time about sea level rise but focusing on the loss of tax base for local governments.

and how all these operations are going to have to change.

And I think there are many other opportunities for previous and upcoming events which may be helpful and interesting to many people.

Also, September is Recovery Month, which is a time to focus on the needs of 20 million people living with a substance use disorder in the United States.

Recovery Month is a time to acknowledge the many millions of them who have taken steps to address the harmful impacts of substance use on their lives and to encourage others to do the same.

Research shows that only about 1 in 10 people with a substance use disorder receive any kind of specialty treatment to address it.

Every community and every individual are impacted by substance use in some way.

According to county health rankings, Albemarle has one of the highest rates of binge drinking in the state.

Like other communities, Albemarle saw an increase in opioid overdoses through the pandemic, with EMS calls for overdose increasing 87%.

from 2019 to 2021.

And this is from the Community Mental Health and Wellness Coalition.

Albemarle County is working to develop a mobile crisis unit that will help connect individuals with mental health and substance use concerns to local crisis and treatment services.

We all have a role to play in preventing substance use concerns, increasing access to treatment and supporting recovery and hope.

Albemarle County is an active partner

in the Community Mental Health and Wellness Coalition to help identify and implement strategies to address substance use in our community.

There are a lot of events throughout the month and the details can be found at www.helphappenshere.org slash recovery month.

Thank you.

Supervisor Galloway.

Thank you, Chair Price.

I have a couple items.

I would like to echo the remarks made of former Supervisor Dwayne Snow.

My interactions with Mr. Snow were as a school board member during a very trying time financially for the schools and for the county, but I do recall discussion in one particular budget year about equalizing the tax rate and what that meant to the school division which was already staring in the face of very big cuts and he was

He was a person that helped that conversation through to not make even further cuts on the school division side.

So I always appreciated the fact that he was willing to have an open mind to conversation and did not approach a conversation with no being the first effort.

So I agree, very decent, decent human being.

The second item at our most recent Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission

We received updates on the regional cigarette tax board that is happening.

There is an agent, the compliance agent has been hired so that person is now beginning to be out in the field.

And I'll send this PowerPoint that was presented to us to the board.

You may find some of the items interesting.

So there was a stamp created in the region so that the actual

cigarette packs, the cigarettes have the stamp on them or the cartons.

Collections began January 2022 and there was a 90-day sell-through period allowed, meaning it was easier to do the stamp moving forward versus having to go back out to the retailers and apply the stamp.

So they allowed a time frame in which you could sell through the ones without the tax and then moving forward apply the stamp.

January collections were 203,000.

June was 245,000.

The total between January and June was 1.46 million.

So this is for the region.

4.8 million packs sold in that time frame just in our region.

And that is just getting started.

So the reporting

because the sell-through items would not have been included in the count or in the dollars.

I'll have to go back to the meeting.

I forget what the treasurer had announced each locality's amount they were just receiving for June, and I cannot remember the amount that came to Albemarle, but that money is starting to come in, and as the data through the rest of this year will see, at least right now, in my opinion, it doesn't show that this tax is going to serve as a deterrent.

and I think all of us set back a little bit with some wide eyes when we heard 4.8 million packs sold just in our region.

So as that data continues to come in, I know that it will be reported at the TJPDC and I will continue to share that with the board and again I will send this presentation over and then I will track down the individual amounts or our team probably knows.

And then the last item, just as a heads up, I had mentioned to Emily at the end of the meeting, I'm going to ask some questions about the archive search on our websites.

So thank you.

All right, thank you.

I have a number of items.

First, I honor the memory of former Supervisor Dwayne Snow.

While I did not serve with him, I respect the dedication and civic service that anyone who does what he does and stands up to represent the community deserves to be respected, and I thank him and his family for that service.

Supervisor Mallek, thank you for pointing out and I welcome our county beat reporter here.

Print media remains the cornerstone and bedrock of journalism, unlike broadcast media where they focus on seven second sound bites.

Print media can go in depth.

We look to you to hold us accountable as public officials and to ensure that our community remains informed of things they need to know about.

So thank you for being here.

I echo Supervisor McKeel's comments with regard to climate resilience.

I have been communicating with the Office of the County Executive on a number of areas of shared concern in terms of preparing.

We are fortunate this year that we seem to have an abundance of precipitation, but we know how quickly that can change to drought and we must build in that infrastructure now as well as looking at things that we can do to improve our capacity in the future.

which may include things like in building codes requiring grey water, looking at water usage for lawns and things like that.

Over the last several weeks on the 19th of August the Department of Environmental Quality held a meeting here

in Charlottesville, which was focused on industrial solar installations.

That's something that is of great interest to everyone these days, and I was very pleased to see how active the state is in ensuring that proper steps are taken.

On the 25th of August, the Secretary of the Department of Energy was here in Charlottesville at UVA at the chemistry lab.

Very exciting information in terms of the prospects for hydrogen-based fuel, which is a carbon-neutral fuel source, and they are looking to have ten sites around the country for hubs for this, and our hope is that we will get one of those here in Albemarle County.

August 28th we had Seize the Day at Walnut Creek Park recognizing and honoring those who serve in, with, or accompany the military and I thank Deputy County Executive Mr. Henry for the work that he and the Defense Advisory Committee has done to enhance the presence and visibility of our military connection here in Albemarle County.

Be on the lookout.

The Virginia Arts Festival is coming again this fall.

They've really got some great offerings and I would encourage people to look to try and participate and attend and we're very excited that this week the announcement of two million dollar grant towards the three notched trail.

So we've got some real progress taking place there.

So that's what I have for today.

Thank you board.

We do have a proclamation recognizing September 15th as International Day of Democracy.

And as a matter of the Chair's privilege, I take the opportunity to move as a motion a proclamation recognizing September 15th, 2022, as International Day of Democracy.

Whereas, the United Nations observes the 15th of September as the International Day of Democracy, with the purpose of promoting the principles of democracy and to commemorate the day in a manner that contributes to raising public awareness of universal human rights.

and whereas the Universal Declaration of Human Rights emphasizes that the will of the people is the basis for the authority of government and whereas political and public participation rights are crucial to the advancement of all human rights and are essential for democratic governance, the rule of law, social inclusion and economic development

and the empowerment of individuals and groups to eliminate discrimination and marginalization, peaceful assembly and association, freedom of opinion and expression, and access to information and education.

And whereas the International Day of Democracy provides an opportunity to review the state of our democracy,

promote its principles for the protection and effective realization of human rights and create an environment for greater citizen participation, equality, security, and sustainable development

Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize and celebrate the 15th day of September 2022 as International Day of Democracy to remind us of and to exhort our continuing protection of the governing principles by which the freely expressed will of the people is exercised and respected

in this great country.

All right Board, we have a motion by me and a second by Supervisor Mallek.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

Yes, I am.

Come to the mic.

We can't hear you.

And after you speak, come up and get this.

OK.

You can wait till after you speak.

All right.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair and honored board members.

On behalf of the following organizations who signed the request for a proclamation, I want to express our deep appreciation to the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors for recognizing September 15, 2020.

22 as International Day of Democracy.

These organizations include the National Organization for Women, Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice, Indivisible Charlottesville, Piedmont Group, Sierra Club, Charlottesville Friends Meeting, Quaker Meeting House, League of Women Voters, United Nations Association, Charlottesville Branch, and the Albemarle County Democratic Party.

International Day of Democracy is a United Nations day of observation.

Every September 15th, every year, the International Day of Democracy is commemorated around the world.

On this day, the UN urges all governments to promote and uphold the principles of democracy.

This day provides an opportunity to review the state of our democracy and renew our support for democracy as we strive towards a more equitable, inclusive, and sustainable community.

This year marks 400 years since my ancestors came to Virginia.

We have a lot invested in democracy and it is truly something that we feel grateful for, to be able to enjoy democracy in this country, whereas so many others do not have that opportunity.

But it's kind of bittersweet for me after 400 years that we are no longer able to take our democracy for granted.

Today, equality and democracy are under assault.

There are undemocratic forces at work who do not respect the Constitution.

and don't recognize the will of the people.

I think we're all aware of what's going on in our country today.

The Sierra Club has a national campaign and this is part of that.

We started this a year ago to begin promoting democracy.

These are indeed perilous times.

So let us renew our belief and commitment to the principles of democracy on September 15th, International Day of Democracy.

Thank you.

I would like to hand you this resolution.

You can come around to the side if you would like.

And Board, I believe that we may in turn have some comments to make as well.

Thank you, Mr. Bowers.

So we'll go through our order.

I just appreciate, Kurt, the bringing this forward to us and the participating organizations.

It's really wonderful to remind folks about how important democracy is to our country and we need to make sure that regardless of who we are or what party we belong to,

that we are upholding the ideals of democracy.

It's critical for our community, our country.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Yes, I think it's so important and thank you, Mr. Bowers for presenting this and acknowledging what we've done and encouraging us, which is something easy to do because we all believe in this.

Basically, we are all Americans.

regardless of race, creed, color, party.

We're all Americans and we should strive for that goal and not let anything, anything tear us apart.

We need to be united.

Thank you.

I second the comments being made.

There's been obviously a lot of partisan bitter disagreement over this country recently, and many of these issues keep me up at night.

But one thing that gives me hope is that votes matter, and that people are allowed to vote.

And so I applaud this.

And I'll add that early voting in Virginia starts on September 23.

Thank you.

Thank you.

One of the most encouraging days for me always is election day because I see people at the polls that I never see any other place or any other time and I remember voting with my mother when I was a little kid in the 1950s and then taking my children and now my grandchildren watching them go and it is strengthening civics in our country.

This education system will be incredibly important if we're going to do better

so that our population as a whole understands what their civic rights are as well as their responsibilities and some of that is missing.

I think when you watch Jay Leno streetwalking and I mean jaywalking and they don't even know who the president is I mean that's a horrifying thing and it's not really funny it makes you sort of sick so I do hope that we will all help to get that conversation going with our in our whole community.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Bowers.

Elections are how the people express their will, and it is frightening to see how not only are actions being taken to limit who can vote, but then the integrity of the results being called into question.

So I think it's important as a board, as a local governing board, to endorse

to take this type of action to say that the election integrity matters and the people do need a way to be able to express their will with as few obstacles as possible.

So I'm very pleased that this resolution was before the board today.

Also pleased that in Albemarle County, the last several handful of elections I know, turnout has been quite strong.

So even more so, probably due to the early voting and things like that.

Allowing folks easier ways to participate versus putting obstacles up to participate is the only way to show or have a healthy democracy.

Before I go, I'd like to invite you all.

We're having a Zoom online meeting on September 27th, which we are going to be talking about democracy and election reforms.

Thank you, Mr. Bowers.

I also have comments to make.

As an attorney in several states, as a former election official, former chair of the Board of Governors of the Military Law Section of the State Bar as well as a number of other state or local positions that I have held,

I and everyone sitting up here at this dais has had the occasion to take certain oaths.

For state oaths, we swear or affirm that we will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of, in my case, the Commonwealth of Virginia or the State of Virginia.

As an officer in the Navy, I took another oath when I was commissioned, each time I was promoted, when I served as a military judge.

and that would be that I support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

As a retired naval officer, I am still subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice and while one may argue whether it would be advisable to recall me to active duty at my age, I am subject by law to that and I hold that oath dear to me to this day.

We have an election coming up in two months and another election in two years after that.

When I hear elected officials say that there will be rioting in the streets if the law is enforced.

When I see armed residents showing up at library boards to intimidate elected and appointed officials.

When I see that members of the House of Representatives have recently been awarded up to $10,000 each to upgrade the security of their homes.

When I see members of Congress attacked with a knife, threatened with murder by people outside their homes, Supreme Court Justice life at risk when someone travels across state lines with an intent to commit murder.

When I see senatorial candidates and former governors run campaign ads hunting down their political opponents.

When I think back to the date of August the 12th, 2017, when our community was invaded by people intent on committing violence to enforce their will against the will of the people.

When I hear the President tell the Proud Boys to stand back and stand by,

And of course, when I look back at the events of January 6, 2021, the insurrection and invasion of the U.S.

Capitol, for the specific purpose of preventing the peaceful transfer of power in the United States, I am offended and appalled.

I am thankful to live in this community, Albemarle County, where our population does support the rule of law.

But we need that enforcement throughout the country.

Democracy needs to allow for all legitimate voters to vote, that they not have their names improperly scrubbed from the voter rolls without justification and improperly disenfranchised, that electoral districts be fairly drawn and intimidation not be allowed.

Democracy demands that those who lose an election, who fair and square lose an election, admit and concede that the election represents the voice of the people.

Those who promote, incite, or engage in violent actions to overthrow the will of the people do not support democracy.

We may be political opponents, but we are not political enemies.

And I thank those organizations who brought forth to this board that proclamation.

And I support and thank this county, this community, and this board for our support to democracy.

Thank you.

All right board, we will now move to our next item which is from the public and I understand that we have no sign ups either in person or online at this point.

Board, we will now move to item number eight, the consent agenda and I believe the only amendment to the consent agenda was changing the time of our next meeting.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Yes.

All right.

Thank you, board.

Now at this point, we have added at this point in the agenda at the request of Supervisor Galloway a discussion regarding county participation in the Safe Streets for All grant program.

So Supervisor Galloway, I will turn it over to you.

and I believe Kevin will probably want to provide some information.

I think we can do this simply and without a lot of time.

The Safe Streets for All is a grant program, a federal grant program.

I had mentioned it at a previous meeting.

Those who can apply to receive the grants can be local governments and or like MPOs.

So the TJPDC was putting a regional effort forward.

But it's not the only way to participate.

You can participate on your own as a county.

But I've learned that it was the decision to not participate in the program.

And I think it's clear that I disagree with that decision.

So I'm just asking for information as to why the decision was made.

and then shared information about the grant with supervisors over the weekend so that you would understand some of what it is.

But obviously just hoping that Kevin can provide further information to the board about where we are with it and then if the board does decide or perhaps has a different take then we could do what we need to do.

The deadline is September 15th so this board will not meet again before the deadline.

All right.

Thank you, Supervisor Galloway.

Can I just ask a clarifying question?

My understanding is that the other localities participating in TJPDC have determined they're going to participate.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr. McDermott, you just got promoted to Supervisor.

Thank you.

Kevin McDermott, Planning Manager here over the Transportation Planning Division in

Right now we obviously have a lot of grant opportunities coming our way as a result of the bipartisan infrastructure law and other recent funding structures put out by the federal government.

So we've got a lot coming our way.

As you know, we did just get that RAISE grant recently another bipartisan infrastructure law bill This one was brought to us the Safe Streets for All grant Was suggested to us through the TJPDC back in Towards the end of July.

I think that the city of Charlottesville had been interested in going for a grant and so The the way this is set up is that they favor regional

Regional groups going after this together.

So the City of Charlottesville went to TJPDC.

TJPDC reached out to all the localities to discuss whether or not this is appropriate.

We expressed interest and we talked to them a couple times through the month of August.

Sometime late in August as we were looking at some other opportunities we had.

and trying to figure out where funding could come from.

The planning division basically looked at this and thought maybe the timing wasn't quite right for the safe streets for all forests.

Part of those timing considerations are

that, as you may or may not know, we are also going for a separate grant right now called the Reconnecting Communities Grant.

We are planning to bring that to the board in early October to discuss that and ask your support for that one.

And that would evaluate safety on a particular corridor in Albemarle County, Route 29, going from the city line up to the river.

And also, between that

The Raze Grant, as I mentioned, and then our efforts with the Multimodal Transportation Plan, we thought we've got a lot going on right now, perhaps we should hold off on the Safe Streets for All grant.

And also considering the timing because

This was a short burn, as Supervisor Galloway said, it is due next week and we hadn't had a lot of information about it, what the cost would be, exactly what the scope would be, so for those reasons we decided that we would back out of this.

We did support the grant, I think it's a great grant, and if the board is interested I'm happy to

reach out to them and see if we can participate.

I have talked to the TJPDC and they are still moving forward with it.

They think that other localities are on board.

I haven't heard for sure if they are or not.

I know the city of Charlottesville is.

and I think there are some others in their region that are planning to join in.

So the idea would be to create a safety action plan for the entire region with the goal of reducing or reaching zero deaths on highway facilities in the region.

So I'm happy to answer other questions about it.

They don't have, as I said, they don't have a specific scope yet for what they would do with that safety action plan.

But the idea behind it is that they would evaluate safety issues.

We would have a commitment from this Board of Supervisors that we are going to try and achieve this zero deaths or reduce roadway fatalities, create a committee, evaluate, study the issues that are out there.

Thank you, Mr. McDermott.

Board, at this time, I'd like to go through our order for any questions that supervisors may have and then we can do comments after that.

I don't have questions.

I think the only thing I would add is that the amount that would be committed to would be dependent upon those who participate.

And it wouldn't be equal, just like TJPDC, a lot of times it's done based on your population.

The ballpark range would be a $20,000 to $50,000 ballpark item.

Obviously thinking about if the board wanted to proceed, where would those funds come from, I would make the recommendation that the board take it from the board's strategic reserve.

which is exactly what that reserve was set up for was so this board could take quick action on an item if they desired or chose to do.

So I think that's where it could come from.

I'm being mindful of the fact that this would add to workload of staff, but I guess in my mind while there are multiple grant programs out there, we have an abundant of transportation projects that we would like to see solved.

So to me, while yes, sometimes it's said you don't want to put so many pokes in the fire, but when it's attempting to get money to solve transportation, which many could argue is our number one issue in the county, we should put as many pokes in the fire as we can.

So I obviously think that we should pursue this grant, and if the board were to agree, that would be my recommendation of where the money could come from to do the match.

Obviously understanding that the final amount would have to be determined

If we don't participate, then that changes the amounts for the other programs.

So I was told in a committed way that it was five of six of the localities have agreed to participate.

So if that number's changed or something's happened since Thursday, then that's just a different animal.

The last thing I would say is that on the web page that I was sent out to show you, the types of things that you could go after

are turn lanes and crosswalks and widening of roads, but it's specific to safety.

I like the appeal of it because it's not just specific to say an urban area or a rural area.

It's the all-encompassing.

So I appreciate that we're going after reconnecting communities.

I think this is another one that we shouldn't pass on the opportunity to try to achieve because regionally those other bodies I think look to us to go, yeah, you have transportation issues in Albemarle County.

that, if solved, will help all of us in the region.

We can be a choke point, much like the city is.

So with that, I'll leave it to the board.

All right, board, let's go through if anyone has any questions.

Yes, I did.

I did speak with the TJPDC, and they came back and said that if we wanted to participate, what they would ask is that we would agree to a not to exceed amount of 60,000.

If we had gone this alone as a county, and if the amount was in the $200,000 range, my position would not change.

So from a dollar standpoint, in order to get the magnitude, I would still be making the same recommendation.

Alright, thank you.

So we'll go through and see if anyone has any questions for Mr. McDermott.

Yes, I appreciate, Ned, thank you for bringing this to us.

I had a chance to look at the information you sent us over the weekend, and you are correct.

I filled in multiple projects that we have been talking about for years that we just haven't had the money to do small local projects that would make a big

I do have a couple of clarifying questions though and thank you for being here today and helping us with this.

Tell me exactly what you all, I guess what I'm concerned about is your thought is that there are capacity issues with staff and you're trying to figure out how to best use your capacity.

Yes, absolutely.

They would be leading the process for us.

Our time commitment would be sitting on the committees, assisting with the public outreach, reviewing documents, that kind of stuff.

Yeah, so that really makes a big difference for me.

I am really interested in supporting this, I will say, especially after hearing that about your capacity issues and the help from TJPDC.

It is not.

Each one is evaluated individually by the federal government.

Yeah, but this is a competitive grant, so there's no guarantee for the public, unfortunately, because I already have it spent.

I think we could look at our districts, right, and find two or three projects in our districts that would work with it, in many of our districts, so this is great.

I am very supportive of this.

And I guess those are all of my questions for right now.

Alright, thank you.

Yes, thank you very much Supervisor Galloway for bringing this to our attention.

You're correct when you say transportation is our big issue, one of the biggest issues in Amarillo County.

You had mentioned sidewalks and also right-hand turn lanes, which I think would go a long way in creating

making safer streets.

Yes, absolutely.

Okay and we all realize that our biggest issue is of course speeding and that's going to be handled hopefully legislatively with photo speed cameras which this would not be included in that has to be something worked out by our legislators to allow us to do that but I'm in favor of whatever we can do traffic calming

right-hand turn lanes, things like that to make sure that our streets are safer and I'm supportive.

I guess the question in sort of putting it the other way, I'm hearing a lot of good reasons for this and I'm aware that the decision was made based on a lot going on and I know there's a question been asked about either or in terms of eligibility for other grants if we

sign on for this.

Is there a sense of what we would lose if we don't?

If we don't do this, are we getting more attention for anything along the other grants that we're spending?

Is there staff time?

I guess I'm going to rephrase.

There is obviously a lot to do.

and I know that we have a lot to do means that we're going to be very busy, but with all the irons in the fire, we still probably haven't got enough going to solve all the problems.

Yeah, I don't think if the board would like to do this, I don't see any reason why not.

I don't think that

I think that when you ask me about capacity I'd probably want to turn to Jody or Charles and have them answer to that.

If we were to get these grants, as Supervisor McKeel mentioned, these are competitive, all of them.

We don't have either yet, so putting in the application is only one piece of it.

If it comes back and it gets funded, then we would find ways to prioritize the planning process.

I guess one thing I just want to make sure that we all keep in mind is that

that's the plan both of these are planning grants and they identify projects then we have to go out and actually get the projects and and then it turns around and it becomes a maybe an FES a project management division issue where we have to

Manage the actual implementation or construction of the grants.

So that could be a possible bottleneck when that occurs if we don't have staff on hand to be able to manage the federal construction dollars that would come our way if we were to get those grants in the future.

Thank you.

All right.

Yes, thank you.

So smaller communities always go find extra help to help them fill out the grants, supervise the grants, all that sort of thing.

And we have not, as a county, necessarily done that.

And people who have lived in other places keep bringing this to my attention and saying, well, why are we letting all these millions of dollars of trail money go away just because we don't have a particular person who can manage it?

So I would ask you to consider that.

that if there's implementation that needs to be managed that there are consultants falling all over themselves and I'm not necessarily thrilled about consultancy in general, but when it's a very specific task, I think that that's something that we can consider.

Outside help is often funded by the included in these big BIL and IRA grant programs.

So I hope that we will think about that.

You've talked about the scope and the match and that this planning but getting the details for a particular item crosswalk where neighbors are screaming for help because of the danger.

gets it to the point where then we have enough details to be able to say yes or no on the going forward to get it done.

Right now I see every single district is mired in a long list of things where we don't have the information to make the decision or who's going to go first until somebody gets killed and then all of a sudden we go first.

I hope that this would be the outcome of this grant, that we would

be able to get the sufficient information to be able to jump on the project when it comes along.

I am horrified still that Albemarle County had the highest death rate in the Commonwealth three of the last ten years on our highways.

So that's including Fairfax that has 1.6 million people in the county.

So we have work to do and I hope that this grant would get us the information that we could use to do better.

All right.

Thank you, Mr. McDermott.

I have no questions.

Chair Price, I think that Board Member Galloway presented to the Board

a funding strategy that would suggest that not to exceed $60,000 would come from the board's strategic reserve to serve as the local required grant match.

That's coming from TJPDC per Mr. McDermott's conversation with them today.

So I think an action with this with this grant obligation commitment being due September 15th I'll look to Mr. Rosenberg to make sure that I'm not out of line But I believe that coming out of this meeting this evening We need we need the board if the board is so inclined to give us that direction so that we can Know that we've got the commitment from the board on the local match I'm looking at Mr. Bowman

for the strategic reserve money that the board has to make a $60,000 withdrawal from that for this type of work.

I want to recall that we've got well in excess of that amount of money and that's a use that this board would

Consider, just for the reason that that's there.

I see Mr. Bowman affirming that.

So I just want to make sure the board, that is an item that you need to take care of today in order for us to meet that obligation.

Thank you, Mr. Richardson, and I would concur that if the board is so inclined that we would have to have a vote on it and put the limit.

The motion, as I understand, would be for an expense not to exceed $60,000.

If that's what the board wants to do.

Alright, thank you.

So I believe we've finished the questions.

I do want to give the board members a chance to go around with any comments.

Not really.

I continue to support this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I do support applying for this, and as I read the website materials, the upper limit on the grants was $50 million.

So there's a lot of dough here.

We're looking at great potential if we're lucky.

and Supervisor Galloway.

We started and we will semi-finish with you.

Well, I think having a regional safety implementation plan in and of itself is worth the commitment of resources.

That it could lead to implementation grants obviously makes it more appealing.

I want to make sure to Mr. Richardson's comments about the action needed

Since this has to be in by the 15th, I want to make sure that the board action also includes the ability of the either or the county executive and board chair to do whatever they need to do in terms of sign off or

taking decisions, what have you, to get this in by the 15th, that they are empowered to do that by the board.

So if we can take a crack at the motion now, or we could get some wording together to make sure all that's done and do it.

This is the reason I wanted it parked earlier in the meeting, so that if we can take action later today and make sure that we've got our ducks in a row so that we don't have to do something special before the 15th.

Thank you for being ready to handle this on the fly.

Thank you.

I have no questions.

My comments are that I also support this.

I think it's important for people to remember that the TJPDC is composed of the City of Charlottesville,

and the counties of Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa and Nelson.

Albemarle County not only being the largest but being the central county within that.

The ability to operate as a region rather than us not participating in this and in that respect being either actually or perceived as an outlier I think would be detrimental to our regional success.

So I too support it.

It appears to me that there is the consensus.

We will have to have a vote.

And the floor would be open to a motion to authorize Albemarle County to participate in the Safe Streets for All grant program at a cost not to exceed $60,000.

And with further authorization to the county executive and or chair of the board,

to sign any such documentation required for this after having been approved as to form by the county attorney.

Mr. Rosenberg.

So moved.

Second.

It's a good thing we have you and that it be from the... So I offer the friendly amendment, the board's strategic reserve.

Thank you, Mr. Rosenberg.

That's why you get paid the big bucks for being here.

All right, so I have made the motion.

It has been seconded by Supervisor Malek.

Any further discussion?

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley.

Pardon me.

Aye.

Ms.

Malek.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Ms.

Price.

Aye.

Mr. Andrews.

Yes.

Yes.

All right, thank you, and I want to thank also Mr. McDermott, Mr. Richardson, and all the county staff that is prepared on short notice for us to be able to address this and resolve it today.

Chair Price, I did have one comment I wanted to make for the board, and I do appreciate Mr. McDermott being here this afternoon, and really appreciate Board Member Galloway bringing this

To our attention in the scope of our strategic planning, I do want to talk just for a second about the process because several board members asked Mr. McDermott about workload and workload capacity.

This is not a workload capacity issue per se.

Mr. McDermott provided to this board on July the 20th in his quarterly transportation report.

First, top of the page, fifth bullet, I believe, he said, we're looking at two grants, the Reconnecting Communities grant, we're also looking at the Safe Streets for All grant, two grants that we're looking at as well as other bipartisan grant opportunities.

Mr. McDermott, when he and I visited last Friday, he said, Jeff, I just didn't have the detailed information.

from TJPDC in order to make a decision in time to run it through the county process, including 30 days before the grant is due, the grant's due on September 15th.

On August 15th, he should have had this vetted through our grants team, which includes our finance team, and those folks are looking at this to make sure that the county is phrasing the county's commitment

in an accurate way regarding what is expected of us in order to execute properly with our responsibilities on these grants.

I hear the energy and the excitement that this board has for this, and Mr. McDermott made it clear to me last Friday, he said if the board wants to fit this in, we will do what we need in order to fit it in.

But at the time that he was looking with the deadline that TJPDC gave him,

He just could not meet the internal deadlines of being able to appropriately scope this.

By contrast, the Reconnecting Communities grant was vetted appropriately throughout the month of July, and this is coming back to the board in the first meeting in October.

That's not in competition with this.

Those two can run in parallel, but I felt compelled to say that to this board because

We do look for the grant money and you take these two grants off the table There's still workload issues in that division and this board should be well aware of that.

Thank you Supervisor Galloway, I appreciate that information.

Mr. Richardson, I learned about the 30-day processing to run it through finance for the for a grant and

That was not information that I knew about.

I think it's important for us to know about that because in the future, just as in this instance, if there is a grant that pops up and we have to pivot quickly, then board members should be aware of what the process is to help it along so we're not doing things like this on the fly.

That being said, I think it's also important for a

organization to have the ability to pivot and act quickly when needed.

Had I had, I wish that I had maybe dove into this a little bit more strongly in the August meeting and I will be mindful of that in the future.

Thank you.

I did have a question actually for Mr. Richardson and that is, is there communication we can have with our regional partner to make sure that they understand

our process here so that they're making a better effort to get this information together in a timely fashion.

I don't want to set traps for our staff just because somebody else isn't living up to their deadline and maybe this grant just popped out of the blue and didn't have any time.

I don't know.

Yes, ma'am, and thank you very much for Supervisor Galloway's comments, all duly noted, as well as Supervisor Mallek did visit with Community Development this morning, and that was exactly the conversation, is how do we do a better job, and that's probably the county executive's office, not the department, to do a better job with TJPDC, paying attention to these grant opportunities that are out there.

Thank you all and I'm reminded again of my Navy days if Mr. McDermott and Mr. Richardson were in the Navy you would be CBs with your can-do attitude of finding a way to get things done.

Board, at this time we'll move to item number 9, SC 2022-45, 1699 Cole Lane Homestay.

Yes, Chair Price, thank you.

So we have two of these special exceptions today.

I'm going to kind of tee up both of them a little bit here at first.

And would you mind just speaking up a little bit, Mr. Savote?

How's that?

Better?

Much better.

Thank you.

OK.

I apologize.

I'm going to tee both these up a little bit.

together to start with, which is they're both LLCs.

I don't think that's a surprise to the board.

I know you reviewed the materials prior to the meetings.

I don't know.

You're doing it again?

OK.

And we'll try and lean forward.

Start with the first one.

You can see the presentation does show that Leah was going to be here, but she was unable to attend today.

So I'm going to take both of these.

So the special exception is at 1699 Collie Lane.

It is returning from the August 3 meeting.

This was the one that we had heard, and it was deferred to this meeting.

The property is owned by Wing LLC, which is formed by the Woodard family.

Woodards have owned this property since the 1930s and they created the LLC to facilitate and manage this particular large parcel.

Both of these tonight are, this afternoon, excuse me, are rural area zone parcels that we're looking at, the large acreage, five acres plus.

Other than the resident manager special exception, these structures meet setback, they meet parking, all those things that we are used to seeing special exceptions for, if the board recalls.

We've modified the regulations so that if you meet main structure setbacks now that you're not required to have.

We've implemented screening and things for those things that are less than 125 but still meet main structure.

So all of these meet those main structure setbacks.

There's no other special requirement for these particular homestays.

And again, this is a request for resident, the resident manager.

The only things that I might add is special events or restaurants.

These are things that specifically home stays aren't allowed to do, just as a reminder.

But again, they're not asking for any of this.

There's no indication that any of this is proposed.

This is still kind of a pure, what I call pure, special exception.

It's just one that we're dealing with, and it is the resident manager.

special exceptions factors for the board to consider.

I know you all are familiar with these under the County Code 1833-49 and 1851-48-D3.

And we talk about any adverse impact to the surrounding neighborhood, public health safety, welfare, whether or not it's consistent with the comprehensive plan.

These are just kind of our standard factors to consider.

Now we'll get to the good stuff, the pictures.

This is located on a 205-acre parcel at the corner of Milton Road and Jefferson.

For those of you who are familiar with that area, that's old, I believe it's Sismont Market.

Simeon Market, excuse me.

And this is part of the parcel that the market is located on.

And from the photo, I don't know.

You can see the green asterisk is the location of the homestay.

So when I go to the larger photo, my cursor is not showing up.

There we go.

It is located here.

So you can see that it is quite a large parcel.

It borders two of our main roads in that area.

The house does meet main structure setback on 732, so that is compliant there.

The request again is for the resident manager.

Staff's analysis does not show any

Issues with parking or screening.

It is located in an area that we don't believe would affect the health, safety, or welfare of any of the residents in that vicinity.

All right.

Thank you, Mr. Svoboda.

We'll go through our order.

I don't have any questions at this time.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

Thank you.

And Supervisor Galloway?

Yes, no questions.

All right, and I have no questions.

I did have the opportunity to speak with the applicant this week about the home stay, and I think most of the information is clearly provided in the application.

The property has been in the family ownership for approximately 100 years and I would offer that this largely complies with the underlying purpose, at least one of the underlying purposes for the homestay regulation in the county.

I would point out, however, it is a LLC applicant.

We understand from our competent county attorney that we cannot consider that, and I accept that.

It does raise, however, again, for me, the question as to whether these special exceptions should go with the applicant rather than with the land, because once they're approved, ownership changes and this has been approved.

So I'll bring that up at a later point of our meeting today.

May I interrupt for just a moment to ask, do we have the authority to delineate that as part of our approval if the issue is approved?

Okay, very good.

Yes, but it really wouldn't make a difference what they do later on.

I mean, once it's been approved and goes with the land, it goes with the land.

All right.

Then as the supervisor of the district in which this is located, I would move that the board adopt the resolution to approve SC 2022-00045, 1699 Cole Lane Homestay, attachment F. Second.

All right.

A motion by Supervisor Price, second by Supervisor Malek.

Any further discussion?

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley.

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Yes.

All right, thank you board.

We'll now move to item number 10.

This is SC 2022-36 5600 Turkey Sag Road Homestay.

Thank you.

As you stated, this is 5600 Turkey Sag Road.

This is again a request for the resident manager.

This particular LLC has more than the one owner.

This is the one owner, Bradford Manning, who is the applicant.

He is also going to be the resident manager.

So in this particular case, actually, the beneficiary of the LLC is the resident manager.

Again, this is a five acre parcel.

We went through what's required.

Again, with this particular application is located on the large parcel, meets all the setbacks.

Impacts are minimal.

There again is no request for a restaurant or special events or anything like that at this time.

And we do not believe that that is the intent based on our conversations.

This is just a five room homestay.

Special exception factors, we won't go through those again.

There are similar to the last ones and now we're to the photographs.

You can see the large house.

It is located fairly isolated from the rest of the community or the area there.

These are all large parcels.

It's in sort of a valley.

And so we have not identified any impacts that would

need to be addressed.

Again, you can tell by the location, you can see my cursor, that it is about as centered as you can get, I think, left to right, and it is deep within the property line, so it is well protected.

And the adjacent properties are well buffered.

All right.

Thank you, Mr. Osvaldo.

We'll go through our order.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Supervisor Malek?

No questions, thank you.

Thank you.

Supervisor Galloway?

None, thank you.

Thank you.

And I have no questions at this time.

If there are any comments from the board or the floor is open if a supervisor desires to make a motion.

Yes, I would like to move that we approve SC 2022-36 5600 Turkey Sag Road home stay attachment F. I believe it's attachment F. All right, thank you.

We have a motion by Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

Second by Supervisor Mallek.

Any other comments by any board members?

I would simply echo my comments from the previous one with regard to the ownership going with the land rather than the applicant, but have no objection.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley.

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Aye.

Yes.

Mr. Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Yes.

All right.

Thank you, board.

Ms.

Birch, our chief financial officer, and Mr. Bowman, it appears you'll both be here and sharing your presentation.

Good afternoon.

We can.

That's great.

Get organized here.

Thank you board, Chair Price, and members of the board.

We're excited to come before you to update the financial management policies, which serves as the guiding document for really all of the financial practices that we perform here in the county.

And so this is

Before you today, I didn't share that my name is Nelsie Burch.

I am the Chief Financial Officer for the county.

As you can see on this slide, board and members of the public, we have the distinct honor of being one of 47 counties in the United States that have a triple, triple A bond rating.

And much of the performance of our financial management really stems from the policies, the sound policies that we have and that we're asking to update today.

They serve as a cornerstone for our sound financial management.

The last time we were before you board would have been January of 2021.

At that time, just to give you a perspective, Lori Allshouse, who was the former chief of budget, took on a new role for us, which is the assistant CFO of Policy and Partnerships.

At that time, when I came into my role, I recognized that we needed to have a position that was really dedicated to the policy side of the house.

and so Ms.

Alshaus brought kind of what I would call the first round of some cleanup related to our policies.

Since then she's retired and we have filled that position with Mr. Jacob Sumner who's in the audience and he has been really helpful in updating these along with Mr. Bowman to my left who is our Chief of Budget.

Mr. Bowman and I are going to take you through this presentation

I'm going to focus on the first part of this which is related to the fund balance changes that we're asking the board to consider.

Mr. Bowman will be working through the changes to our funding formula as it relates to how we allocate funding across the county and the schools.

So one of the reasons we are here before you today is that with the upcoming economic uncertainty that we are facing, both locally but also nationally, as a triple A county, we are asked to perform differently.

There are different expectations of us with respect to the bond market and the investors who have invested their dollars in our bonds than other counties or cities might have because we do have

So we're coming before you now with a series of changes.

And on the next slide, most of them are really just clarifying.

There's a significant amount of language that has been modified to clarify, to condense, to consolidate.

policy versus procedure to make the policies, they are dense, so to make them a little bit easier to read as you navigate through them.

Also, to incorporate and ensure that we have the right best practices in our policy as it relates to our interactions with our financial advisor who is Davenport and Company.

Learning what we've learned from the rating agencies and how they report on our finances and their expectations of us as a triple, triple A. And then also with respect to accounting and budgeting best practices that are put out there from the Government Finance Officers Association.

The last two pieces of this are really where we're going to spend the majority of our conversation, which is about our request to the board to strengthen one of the two reserves that we have in our fund balance and reserve I will use interchangeably.

I'm really speaking to the unassigned fund balance and this is what typically people refer to as the rainy day fund.

So I'm going to have, there's a series of slides that I'm going to walk through so that both the public and the board understands exactly to what we are referring.

And then the second piece of this is a recommendation to simplify how we share revenues among county government

public schools, debt service and capital.

This is an attempt not to change policy and our expectation of how we fund the schools or capital but really to simplify an overly complicated formula that I am going to outsource to Mr. Bowman to walk you through when we get to that point.

On the next slide, what I wanted to share with the board and the public was that the financial management policies, while I mentioned before, they're quite dense.

There's a lot of information in there.

And they really run the gamut of everything that we do.

And so if you think about numbers, the numbers that we deal with in our shop, in the Department of Finance and Budget, but across the county, they always start with the planning aspect.

which is that budgeting piece.

And then it moves through, you know, we issue bonds to pay for things.

We collect revenues.

We just had a nice conversation about grants and grant administration.

And this is part of that planning effort that sets us up for the execution.

So if we do really well on the planning side, then the execution becomes much easier.

And so the execution are things like buying, purchasing, and procuring goods and services.

and then reporting on the activity of the year.

So we start the year with a budget, we end the year with an audit, which is really accumulation of all of the financial activity that we have undergone in that year.

And so in the next slide, what we will talk about is I wanted to spend a moment to really make sure that everybody understood what we are talking about and what we are not.

And so a fund balance and the general fund is really where we're focused.

So the general fund is the discretionary account of our government.

this is the place where the majority of our tax dollars go and this is the place that the board has the most control for how we spend those dollars because in a lot of ways there's not a there's not much discretion there's not much not many so we're looking for there's there's not a lot of

We have a lot of discretion, sorry I'm missing the word, in the general fund, where like we were talking about that grant just a moment ago, that grant is going to come with a lot of strings.

And so that's typically not what we're talking about when we talk about the general fund.

And so with that,

The general fund's fund balance, and this is where I want to spend just a moment, this is a fund balance that we're asking the board to maintain about $53 million, but this is not something that we have to find the money every year to fund it.

This is an accumulation of prior year activities that have built up over time and so I'm going to talk in just a moment that we've got two of them.

We've got a 10% reserve that the board is very familiar with and then we have a 1% budget stabilization reserve which is the one that we're asking for

a recommended change to.

And so this fund balance, it sits there.

It's much like a personal savings account.

You save money because you underspent or you maybe took on a secondary job.

And it is not part of your ongoing revenue or your ongoing budget.

And so this is part of that what falls at the bottom after we have paid for everything in that fiscal year.

And then we have decisions to make about what to do with that.

and so like I said we have accumulated this balance over time and it's not something that the board appropriates.

It's not something that we intend to spend.

It is there because we are a triple AAA.

The investment community wants us to make sure that we've got a cushion to land on in the event something unforeseen happens.

And so that's really the purpose for a fund balance and this rainy day fund that the board and others have heard about.

And it really is a critical piece to the bond rating process and something that we have to defend every time we go to market and sell bonds to the investment community.

And so what I did want to share is what it is not.

And so a fund balance is not something that you use as an ongoing funding source.

So what we are responsible for is making decisions that keep our budget in balance and not create a structural imbalance.

And so anytime we would drop into this fund balance and use it to pay for something that's going to be an ongoing cost, you create a structural imbalance in your budget.

And so I wanted to be very clear that that's not what a reserve or a fund balance should be used for when we talk about this fund balance, the Rainy Day Fund, our unassigned fund balance.

The board just used a portion of your strategic priority reserve that is completely separate and on top of and outside of what I'm talking about today so not to confuse the two.

The other thing I wanted to make sure to point to is

The fund balance is not something that you should use, you the board, us as staff, to avoid making really sound financial decisions.

It goes along the ways of using fund balance to support ongoing operations.

We really need to not do that.

And this board and this county does not have any experience in this.

We have always really held

and tight guarded and safeguarded that fund balance that we have that the public is expecting us to maintain because that's our policy, the 10% and the 1%.

So I'll walk through that in a little bit more detail.

So this slide right here will give you a perspective for what am I talking about?

What are these numbers?

Where are they?

And so the place that you will find these numbers, which is a 10% of our budget, really is what that means, 10% of our revenues, our operating revenues,

we hold in a fund balance or in a savings account.

We do not appropriate them.

We do not use them to support our annual budget process.

You can find them on our balance sheet in our audit.

That's the place that you would go to determine what is the fund balance of our government.

On top of that 10%, we have a 1% budget stabilization reserve.

This was a reserve that was put into place back in 2017, so prior to my joining the county.

It is a really great financial management tool to have.

What we're asking the board to consider today is modifying this in a couple ways.

Currently, Andy, if you could go to the next slide, I think that I can walk through this more effectively.

Currently, the way that the 1% is calculated, it's calculated on a different base than the 10%.

So the 10% is our operating revenues, which incorporates the schools.

The 1% is only the county's general fund.

It does not include the schools.

So we're asking the board to make a change to this.

This is change number one, which would be to make the denominator the same as the 10%, which would include the schools, the total county general fund, both local government and the schools.

And that change in and of itself would be about $700,000.

On top of that, we're asking the board to consider increasing this budget stabilization reserve from 1% to 2%, which is another $4.3 million.

Now, this is not an ongoing cost to the organization.

This would be a one-time contribution to get us to that 2% level.

We're also asking the board, which is the third piece of this, which is not on this slide, but it is to clarify the intent for what the budget stabilization reserve can be used for.

I have several slides I'm going to talk in just a moment about that.

But before I get there,

In the board's packet, it was an FYI at the very end.

You received a supplemental email from Mr. Bowman, I believe yesterday, that takes you through how do we think fiscal 22 performed.

So we ended fiscal 22 at the end of June.

We are currently going through all of the end of the year accrual process.

We are working towards our audit, which is due to the auditor of public accounts at the end of November.

and we wanted to bring the board an idea of where we think we're going to end fiscal 22 with respect to how did we perform, what sort of budgetary savings or positive variance did we have because of things happened, right?

The budget's a plan, we executed that plan, so how did we end?

And so that report and the reason why we brought it to the board much earlier than we typically have is we wanted to give you the assurance that we can use some one-time funding from how we saved in our budget management in fiscal 22 to be able to afford that increase that we're asking the board to support in this budget stabilization reserve.

And I'm going to get to why now and the intention behind this on the next few slides.

So the next slide really talks about clarifying the intent.

One of the opportunities that this pandemic gave us

and as we managed our finances through this without any clarity about how low was our economy going to go, how quickly was it going to bounce back, how long is it going to last, is we had to make some pretty draconian decisions back in March of 2020 because we did not know what was going to happen.

Going through that experience, which really, by all intents and purposes, probably was our rainy day.

We had a major jolt to our economics and the world and locally.

And we needed to make some decisions about how we were going to manage through that.

We froze significant positions.

We made the right calls at the time based on the knowledge that we had.

but what we did not do was use the budget stabilization reserve to smooth out some of those severe actions that we had to take because we did not realize that the intention when this was originally set up it wasn't clarified

what we should use it for.

It was really protected like the 10% unassigned fund balance.

We never considered that as an option to smooth out some of the hiring freezes or to smooth out some of the other decisions that we made.

We pulled back considerably on capital projects.

And so we wanted to clarify that the intent would be that this could be a strategy that we could use in order to smooth out some unanticipated things that happen throughout either throughout the year or as we're finalizing our budget and are working with the board on that.

And again, I have some examples in a few minutes of what we're talking about.

We wanted to clarify that this is not just for operating, but for capital as well.

If something happens, if there's an opportunity that we could explore in our budget, let's say for instance our budget's already been approved, that maybe we could dip into this if we had a plan for how to fill up that bucket back once we spent those funds.

We wanted to clarify that this is not an ongoing source of funding, but it's also not untouchable.

We can touch it.

We can use it.

But the rating agencies and this policy is expecting us to have a plan for how we replenish that.

And so you can use it, but you have to have a plan for how to fund that thing going forward or how to replenish that bucket if you spend it.

So on the next slide are a few examples that we wanted to share.

Really, this is not an exhaustive list.

We really did not want to put an exhaustive list together for how this could be used because of a few things.

The board will have to appropriate this if we plan to use it.

So we will not be asking for this to be appropriated as part of our budget and then we have the flexibility to spend it on whatever we want to spend it on.

We would have to come back to the board with a plan either during budget adoption, during that process, or as we're managing our budget and say why we think we need to use the budget stabilization reserve

and what our plan would be to replenish those funds.

So that's number one.

Number two, the reason we wanted to give some examples was to make sure that we clarified in this meeting what we think the intent is of how you would use this budget stabilization fund, excuse me, budget stabilization reserve.

And so the first two examples are related to revenues.

There are often times that the state, even in this year, the state was really slow in making some decisions that we did not know their impact on our local revenues.

We were in our budget deliberation and we had to make some assumptions.

Those assumptions at any point in time could be incorrect if it goes the other way.

This budget stabilization reserve could be used in that moment where Mr. Richardson has already provided a balanced budget to the board.

You all are meeting with constituents and having your public hearings and doing your work sessions and we hear of an issue that we are going to have to do something different because the state made a change at the last minute.

One example, the next one is related as I mentioned before, like in the pandemic, we could manage through that differently.

If we knew that the intention for this was we could use this funding, we just have to replenish it.

And then on the expenditure side, as the board knows, we have the revenue sharing with the city of Charlottesville.

this often times there's one year where we have a swing up and then the next year is a swing down and it's really hard to plan for the expenditure and so what happens is if we have an unexpected increase in what our contribution is to the city of Charlottesville

We would then have to take that funding from something else that we were planning to do that year in order to fill that bucket.

But the next year maybe we didn't have as big of an increase.

And so we could potentially use this budget stabilization reserve as a way to mitigate any sharp swings in our revenue sharing with the city of Charlottesville.

And then the last one, an option that we want to keep out there is as we navigate through this workforce stabilization world that we're in and having to come up with options for retaining and attracting talent

We might need to come up with one-time funding strategies to do something different that we haven't thought of.

And so this would be outside of the budget deliberation process.

And we might come to the board and say, we think we need to use this one-time funding to support this effort related to workforce stabilization.

So that's just a few examples for consideration.

And then the last slide on this is the why now.

As I mentioned at the outset, we have to perform and the bond rating community and our investors are expecting us to act and perform like a triple, triple A. And what this is saying, currently our 10% on a sign plus our 1%, when we compare ourselves across other triple A communities and counties across the country,

We don't have a reserve that's overly high.

It's actually performing more like what you'd see a AA credit looking like, not a AAA.

And we know, and you all will hear more in October when our economist comes to talk about

the uncertainty in our economy.

We know that things are pretty unstable economically.

We don't necessarily know what that looks like and what that means, but we need to plan for that.

And we also need to define, once we have this option in front of us to increase the budget stabilization reserve, that we could use this to help us smooth out any economic uncertainty that we didn't plan for.

We've shared here a few of the reserves that we've had in the last few years that we plan to no longer continue and we would use the budget stabilization reserve in its place in the event that we would need funding for one-time priorities.

And then the third to the last bullet, we had made a commitment, and I remember Ms.

McKeel had asked, you know, how frequently will we be going to the market to issue bonds?

It's been kind of inconsistent when we go.

And when I got here, I had said we are going to go to the market every other year.

With the first year I was here, I don't think we'd been to the market for four or five years.

and that creates some serious strain on our cash management.

And so we will be going to Wall Street every two years to convince bondholders and the rating agencies that we are good.

We're performing and we're acting like a triple, triple A. And so this recommendation on the budget stabilization reserve certainly helps us tell that story of what we learned during the pandemic and how we think that this is a good place to be in as we navigate through the next round of economic uncertainty.

And so with that, I believe that that's the last slide on this piece before I turn it over to Mr. Bowman.

I wanted to pause, Chair Price, if there are any questions.

Thank you, Ms.

Birch.

I think this would be a good time before we switch over.

So let's go through our order.

Yes, thank you.

I really appreciate it, Nelsie, because I think that was very clear and easy to understand.

It was a great presentation.

Thank you, and Andy.

I do have a question.

We're talking about replenishing.

Would you just speak shortly on replenishing?

What does that mean?

Timing?

Are we replenishing it?

Do we have to replenish it the next budget cycle?

sure absolutely so typically rating agencies want to just know you have a plan so if something significant happened where we really it would not be fiscally prudent for us to replenish let's say all eight million dollars in one year they just want to see what is our plan and path

to replenishing that.

So maybe we said we're going to add $2 million in every budget year for the next four years and then stay committed to that.

It probably wouldn't sound alarms to the rating agency community.

They just want to know that we've got a plan

that we're executing on that plan and that we will be replenishing it.

It really is going to determine the circumstances that we're in at that moment, whether we can do it in one fiscal year or it would need to be spread out over several.

But I would expect us in the next fiscal year we would have it replenished would be probably where we would start is can we afford to replenish that if we took it out.

Yeah, I think that's very helpful.

Thank you.

And I do see this as another, when we talk about resiliency and flexibility, I think that's exactly what we're doing with this work.

That's exactly right.

Can you go back to just slide nine for a minute?

And really just wanted to point out, I think it was page nine, slide nine.

Sorry.

But I do appreciate the page numbers.

I just wanted to remind the community or have a make a couple of points about revenue sharing because it is something that the community is always very interested in in Albemarle County and now see the revenue sharing

The amount is a two-year lag.

Would you just speak to that?

Because people might say, well, what in the world is going on that why you would know that every year?

And there are a lot of moving parts to the revenue sharing formula.

And I don't think we have to go into that.

But just a couple of minutes on the delay, the lag.

Sure.

I'll speak to that.

Andy Bowman, Chief of Budget, Department of Finance and Budget.

There are three components that go into that revenue sharing formula.

And though they operate on a two-year lag, and two of those we can know in advance, the third component is information we don't receive from the state until usually sometime mid, even to late January.

And so by the time we're there, it's almost about a month away from presenting the budget to the board, the recommended budget to the board and the community.

Great.

Thank you.

I just think it's always good to go back to this particular topic so that the community understands.

And that's all I have.

All right.

Thank you.

Yes.

Thank you very much for the presentation.

And I really commend you on your forward thinking and planning for our county.

I'm just in awe, frankly, of how this is going forward.

I think everything makes sense and it really puts us in a strong financial situation.

Thank you.

Thank you for all of the answers to questions prior to and today.

I've been asking a lot and I've got one more, I guess, and that is in this last slide where it says other reserves have been reduced or committed.

Sure, I'm going to use some approximate numbers.

The amount in the pandemic reserve that was unobligated I believe was approximately 1.5 million.

And closing out that reserve is one of the ways that we were able to strengthen the budget stabilization reserve.

Of course, the federal ARPA funding we received over two years was 21 million.

That has all been planned for at this time.

Now, that is not to say that there couldn't be flexibility as the circumstances of those programs change.

This is just to recognize the county has been fortunate for the past two years between CARES and ARPA funding to receive large infusions of formula-based cash funding.

And while there are federal funding opportunities on the horizon, they will be more competitive than formula-based.

The General Fund Strategic Priority Reserve, that was funding really around community development that has been planned for in the future.

And that was a balance of, I believe, around $400,000.

And then we have the Capital Budget Stabilization Reserve,

This was something that was created in the middle of the pandemic that totaled approximately $3 to $4 million.

As part of the most recent CIP, that was anticipated to be eliminated.

In the county budget, maintenance reserve, I believe, was approximately $1 to $2 million.

Thank you very much.

I applaud the effort and I think this is further evidence that this is really just shifting things so that we have one pot that we're looking at for stabilization.

Thank you.

Thank you.

One clarification.

Back in Budget 101, there was a description of the pot of money that was used for cash flow between the January collection or the December collection and the June collection.

Yeah, no, that's a great question.

So typically this fund balance is actually our cash.

It's our working capital.

And so there's real money here.

This isn't just an accounting exercise.

There's real money that we use to manage our cash flow and our working capital of our government.

So that's a great connection, Ms.

Mallek.

Yes, so I'm going to say what I know and then I'll ask Mr. Bowman to add any additional comments.

I think that it happened as part of not appropriating it into the budget.

So some organizations and some governments actually use their budget stabilization and they will appropriate it as part of the budget into their budget conversation.

I think because we didn't and on top of that we had this 10% that you don't touch, I think the two together was probably part of the reason why it was, from a staff perspective, we never brought it forward and we never really considered it.

I would add, going back and reading the minutes in 2017 when this was created,

and also the minutes at the start of the pandemic when we reviewed with the board kind of what our reserves were out there, the 366 plan, all of those.

Through any of those discussions it was never really contemplated that those would be used and so I don't know that it was ever a specific interpretation or it may have been some of the approach in terms of how it was budgeted but through our practices we've seen that they've been treated as hands-off.

Thank you.

So the second bullet here, the other reserves have been reduced or committed.

Some of these, you know, with kind of what you would call liquidating them, so we're not going to continue to move forward the pandemic reserve.

That allows for us to have a year-end positive variance to contribute to this bucket, this additional five million that we need to fill from one to two percent.

The other piece of this, I think it's a good illustration of how we have, in essence,

use these reserves like we want to use the budget stabilization reserve in the future.

So each of these, Mr. Andrews, I'm glad you asked that question, each of these we put money aside, we maybe used it, we maybe didn't, but we had a plan for replenishing it that next year.

I think so.

So after we make this action, these don't exist anymore.

Correct.

Because we pocketed local money.

Yep, absolutely.

We probably would have added it to the budget stabilization reserve.

And so I understand in practice,

the comments made about the revenue sharing.

So January rolls around.

We think revenue sharing is 15 million.

We're a month away from the recommendation.

We find out it's 15.5 million.

It's an option.

So it's one of the strategies we could use.

I think that as staff, we will always try to not do that.

We'll try to figure out, does it make sense?

Is there somewhere else we could go for half a million dollars that isn't drawing from a reserve?

But now we have this as an option to present to the board that we're just going to take it from this because it's too late in the game, and the offsetting expenditure or revenue is too harmful.

Ms.

The only thing that I would add is that in most years, that's a good example of a fund that we find out about in that late January, February timeframe, and we're way down the road with our budget.

Most years you can go back and look and it's only about a two to three hundred and four hundred thousand dollar swing either way for the city or to the county and in the grand scheme of the budget while that's significant money when you talk about operational cost it's usually not budget changing levels when you're at that two to three hundred.

There's been one year since I've been here where it was 1.6 million dollars.

and $1.6 million can change the entire tone of the budget message that not just goes to the board but goes to the community that we serve as well as to the departments who have worked since October, November to try to put a budget together that is blending not just across the departments but is also tied to the board's strategic plan.

So I'm very happy with this scenario, as we've put out, that we could, in fact, Supervisor Gallaway, use that to soften the blow, so to speak.

Yes.

And the reasons given, I think it's on a different slide, you had the revenue share and you had workforce stabilization.

So the expenditure side.

When might it be used?

Are we going to identify upfront other uses for planning purposes so it doesn't get... I guess my concern is how the 1% got locked away and not used.

If we identify, hey, these are

and I'm not saying it has to be exhausted or locked into only these five things, but the more we could identify when we might go to it I think is helpful for everybody and it's more transparent that way.

And then when we do go to it or it doesn't become a bucket we think we have to avoid because, oh, it's not on that list, so to speak, or we don't think about it.

It does.

From a budget management perspective and where I sit, to me, this gives us intention for how staff should be approaching this in order to help inform the board when we bring a recommendation.

If it is the intention that the board is like, oh, we need to have this a little tighter, we absolutely can do that.

If there are, let's start with these, and then maybe we add as we go.

We can do that.

The piece I was trying to capture was we will always have to come to the board with our plan because it has to be appropriated by the board.

So there's nothing that the staff could do to spend this without the board's knowledge.

It does.

I think it's important for our budget book and for the public to be able to look and go

What are the reserves we hold?

So simplifying and having fewer, that's better.

But then they should also be able to look at each one and go, I mean, we do have a lot of reserves.

And I follow it for how long, and I still go, what's that reserve for?

So having fewer is good, but then we have to define very well what that reserve's intent is.

And that has to be outlined very clearly in the budget book, because sometimes I think

The reserves are where folks get a little squirrelly in terms of you have all these buckets of money and they're undefined and not that we're hiding it, but that can be the sense, you know?

So the better we do, the better job that we do explaining what the reserve buckets are and what the intent is behind them obviously is what I know you're getting at and why the bond agents or the rating agencies like this.

But it's also important for our community to be able to understand, well, that's why that reserve is important to us.

Okay, if this ever happened in the community, that's where the board would go to get the dollars.

I think that's all my questions right now.

Yes, thank you.

I had always assumed, but it may be erroneous, that we needed separate buckets.

When we had a big trench from the federal government, you have to be able to send in all those reports, and so it's helpful to keep that money separate.

That was just what I thought was happening.

Just a little more anecdotal.

information about the general caution.

I think everybody felt so burned from the recession that we've just been really holding tight to everything and making sure that we don't make a mistake.

So I'm all in favor of that.

But then we have to be able to jump when the jumping is good.

All right.

What I would add is and not speaking for Supervisor Galloway, but what I kind of took away from his comments there is over time,

As board members change, county staff change, the foundational reasoning why this change has taken place is what I would call the legislative history.

And having some sort of documented, summarized, articulated legislative history of this would be very helpful in future years, perhaps.

replacing a listing of these are the reasons why it might be used versus these are the reasons it may not be used.

Just something so that as people go forward, we understand that part of it.

And not to play with words, Mr. Bowman, while we may be fortunate that we got the ARPA and CARES money, we are blessed that Mr. Richardson, Ms.

Birch, Mr. Bowman, and everyone who works with you has worked as hard as you have

to make sure that we are one of 47 counties in the United States.

There are 3006 counties, which means we are not in the top 10%, 1%, we're in the top .03% of all counties in the United States with a triple-triple-A rating.

And the benefit that that brings to our community is

Literally untold.

I mean so we are very blessed with the work that y'all have done And I totally support this is as you mentioned at the very beginning it is a strategy not the strategy for dealing with Financial issues that may arise over the course of the year.

Thank you.

Any other questions or comments?

So the next piece of this that we wanted to change, again this is part of the big financial management policies, is the sharing of revenue among the county government, public schools, debt service and capital.

And so really our goal as we approach this was to figure out a way that we could simplify the math

but not change our policy, not make a recommendation to ask the board to change your policy related to the funding strategy.

Our current practice and policy is so complex that it's very hard to train staff on how to do this calculation

it's extremely difficult for the public to understand how do we calculate this what is in essence a mythical 60-40 split and you'll see that in a moment as we walk through and Mr. Bowman walks through the board and the public of really how does 60-40 come to be and it's after a whole series of things happened and then we split at 60-40 and so it's very difficult and it lacks transparency with respect to how do we get there.

We also have been working with our counterparts at the school system, their financial experts over there, to make sure that they understood and could use this simplification with this calculation to better plan and prepare on their side.

And so we've reviewed this with them.

They are on board with our recommendation and appreciate its transparency as they move forward with their five-year operating and capital planning.

And then the last big thing was we went into this wanting to see how close we can get to the current calculation

the outcome.

We do the calculation and there's the result of that calculation and do it in a very different way but not decrease the plan funding for either the schools or the county government, their operating budgets.

Thank you.

As I move to the next slide, this will be difficult to read and that is a little bit intentional because this is the status quo right now to show the degree of complexity we have.

These are two charts that we published in the adopted budget document that show how we calculate the funding to capital and debt and to the public schools for their operations.

I will not walk through all these numbers and steps and calculations because it would take me a good portion of the afternoon.

But to conceptually walk through what is happening here, at the very top of this formula, we are defining a shared set of revenues that we will be sharing among all of these categories.

We then are making some adjustments to reduce those shared revenues.

Then in the middle, we are calculating a capital and debt transfer, which is actually the box on the right broken out.

We then will make other adjustments to take some other items, sometimes what is called off the top.

After all of that is completed, we finally get to what is called as a 60-40 split of revenues for operations with counter-government public schools.

So this speaks to Ms.

Burch's point that 60-40 is part of the formula, but it is the very last step in a very long step process and calculation.

So as we sit down with our staff and we're working with the public school staff, really what are the guiding principles if we were to come up with a simplified formula?

The first is we just need to simplify the calculation.

We need to ensure that it is shorter overall, that we have numbers in the budget that are very easy to tie to, it is easier to understand, easier to train new staff on.

The second guiding principle is that we don't want to do any change, we don't want to change policy, we're trying to simplify math, to not decrease any projected increases for the operations of public schools or county government.

And the third point related to that is we want to keep the actual dollars as close as we can, but we know it won't be quite exact because we're going to be rounding some figures and changing some math.

But if there isn't any decrease in any area, how can we mitigate that?

So before I walk through some math, I will start with just conceptually what is happening, and then I'll walk through the math with these concepts next to them.

The first is we will begin, as we do now, to calculate a change in shared revenue, which I'll define in a moment.

We will then, as we do now, continue to have a reduction in expenses that reduce our available tax revenue.

And then finally, just to simplify the adjustments and take capital and debt out of the middle of the calculation to the end,

We would split, using a whole number of percentages, that net shared revenue, 10% for capital and debt service, 54% for public school operations, and 36% for county government operations.

And I'll just point out here, in terms of where the 60-40 go, it is still there, because if we were to take off of our pie, take out 10% for capital and debt, we would have 90% of the pie remaining.

If you split 90% 60-40, you get 54-36.

So to now actually show some of the dollars and what this would look like in practice, this is going to be kind of the before and after.

I'll jump back to what we've seen before.

And this is what looks like the after in the simpler formula.

So to walk through this just kind of conceptually with some of the numbers there, step one is we are starting with calculating a change in shared revenue.

Those are the first three lines.

Shared revenue is defined as general property taxes and other local taxes, just as it is today.

The third line there is called non-categorical state aid.

What that is, because this is a change, we would be splitting revenue that is not obligated for specifically public schools or county government operations.

Currently, we split about $15 million of that, but there are some other revenues that are included in that that aren't designated for one purpose or the other.

What we've gone back looking at history is there may be times where the state will change local revenues to state revenues, such as the telecommunications tax.

There may be other changes out there that are directed by the state, and we want to ensure that our formula is able to accommodate those without a revision to our financial policies or any of that math.

This is also an advantage because non-categorical state aid, even though that's kind of a technical term, is a number we can point to in our budget document as we can for these others.

So the second category is some changes that reduce our expenses and available tax revenue.

These are the exact same ones we include now with the revenue sharing agreement with the city of Charlottesville.

The tax relief programs that the board has authorized and expanded recently.

EDA performance agreements.

These would be agreements with the Economic Development Authority, a third party in the county, where tax revenue is being collected as part of that agreement.

So for the duration of those agreements, that would apply.

And finally, the transfer to our water resources fund, which is funded by 0.7 cents on the real estate tax rate.

So after we make those reductions, we're left with shared revenue, and then we're just splitting that 10, 54, 36.

And so this is kind of to show here's the simpler math.

But the second criteria we're going to look at is by going to this approach, have we substantially changed the results?

So to take a moment to walk through these numbers, we can see right here is that because we prioritize not decreasing operations, we see that the second and third line, the transfer to the schools and county government operations, this is a what if we did this in fiscal year 23, those would grow at less than half a percent, to each of about a few hundred thousand dollars.

We do see that capital and debt service would see a decrease of approximately $750,000.

And this would, of course, extend into the five-year CIP.

Staff has identified that we're able to mitigate this reserve because earlier this year we had been reviewing with our controller's office and some outside accounting expertise that we really have some technology cost in the capital improvement program that need to be removed because they are more appropriate as an operating expense.

So this is something that we have begun to implement in the current fiscal year and will continue in the next fiscal year.

So while the revenues going to capital would be less, so would the expenses it's required to be fund.

And I believe over the five-year period, capital would receive less than $4.9 million.

The amount of expenditures we'd be moving would be at $4.7 million.

So a very small difference in a more than $290 million CIP.

So finally, just to recap this, going back to our guiding principles, we have reduced the number of items in the calculation.

They are all identifiable in the budget document.

This is easier to train, to calculate, to communicate, and to understand.

We now have one calculation for the major components of our budget.

And this proposal does not significantly change that distribution of net shared revenue.

These are my final comments.

Thank you, Mr. Bowman.

We'll go through our order.

Again, I really appreciate this.

This was very helpful and I appreciate your wanting to take a look at this because certainly over the years, the 60-40 split with the school division has been very confusing, depending on, it didn't matter which side of the organization you were on or whether you were a community member.

And I do think this will help a great deal in simplifying.

I also appreciate your outreach to the school division.

and working together with them so that everybody understands and we're on the same page.

That's excellent.

and only one other comment.

Again, over the years, there have been discussions about where does technology belong?

What part of technology belongs in the CIP?

And we've gone one way and then we've gone another over the last couple of decades.

So I really appreciate the clarity and I think we received some more information that actually explained this.

and so that's a great change.

I think that's excellent.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

I really appreciate the presentation and the, once again, forward thinking and putting us in a very good, in my opinion, a financial position.

Also, the clarity between the school board and us

and simplifying things and making it more transparent.

Fully supportive of this.

Thank you.

I have asked my questions and I'm very happy about what I've heard.

This is great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I really appreciate the advanced time to assimilate and try to digest all this.

This helps my brain a lot.

Referring again to the budget hard times that Ned mentioned earlier in the meeting,

two times at least between 2009 and 2012.

There was a reduction in revenue and so the same formula was used to share the pain and I would assume that that would be also available if worst case scenario happened again.

Thank you.

I appreciate the fact that this will be easier to explain.

I think Supervisor McKeel would agree that as a school board member

walking through I remember in public meetings explaining the off the top and with numbers in front trying to show how you got to the 60-40.

So I mean I do think this will be a more transparent or clearer way to explain how that split works.

So the rationale given for the 750,000 change to the capital

There's a difference of about $160,000 and we would approach that as one of all of these assumptions will be updating in the upcoming CIP.

That will be one thing we'll need to solve for in our CIP that totals more than 200 million.

So as a percentage, I believe it's maybe a tenth of a half a percent.

Just 160.

And that's a one-time issue you have to contend with as we make the switch?

Yes.

Oh, so now that we're taking the 2% will be calculated off the whole amount and to my point about being very clear what the budget stabilization reserve can be used for,

It seems to be a good opportunity to include in the examples how if something was needed to help stabilize the organization but originates in the school division side.

Years ago, the Board of Supervisors did cap their reserve and what they could retain.

with the idea that if something was needed that took more than that reserve that you come back to the Board of Supervisors and ask for it.

So it would seem to me that this budget stabilization reserve would be the place that if some emergency happened and they needed to come to us that I'm assuming this is where we would go to help take care of that.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

If it was unanticipated, I think that that is going to be the place that we're going to ask some pretty tough questions is if this was not planned.

They could not have known.

And then what is the impact if we weren't to fund this out of the budget stabilization reserve?

Those would be some of the questions we would ask the schools.

But absolutely, it would be available for any unanticipated needs, just like on the county government side.

But we would have to bring it to the board for your consideration before we could do anything.

So let me just take it a step further.

So we identified workforce stabilization as one area we would go to it.

But we would presume that they would have their own game plan for workforce stabilization within their own planning and not be thinking of this reserve for that purpose?

I don't foresee them thinking that they would go to this reserve for their needs for that.

I think what the expectation would be, based on our conversation with the board a few weeks ago at the offsite retreat, is you will understand what they are or are not able to do or not do when they come back to you all in December and talk about their five-year operational needs and concerns as well as their capital needs and concerns.

So I guess I would just advise or hope that being that this board and that board are political positions, that clarity of what it will be used for organization-wide is going to be important to have up front.

And I concur with Supervisor Galloway on that.

I have no further comments.

Thank you.

I'm so grateful to be in a group because I get questions from what other people say.

But the school already has the 2% of their total budget that they keep.

Correct.

And what they've done the last few years is anything over that 2%, they have come and asked if they could use that for unanticipated items in their budget.

I don't remember exactly what was over the 2%.

We can get that information.

I can't recall, but I do know that we have authorized something over the 2%.

Maybe speak to the one strategy among many is the public schools identified a risk in state funding this year based on the timeline of the school budget.

And they included in their budget a reserve in capital so that they could be prepared of what would happen if those state revenues were not as strong.

So that did actually happen, unfortunately not as much as the worst case scenario.

But through their planning ahead, they were able to then move forward and kind of give themselves some flexibility.

And there was a reserve that was specific for workforce stabilization, if I recall.

At least the rationale or one of the examples to a pocket that was put aside was if wages or things change that they'd have that money to go to.

It's one that I followed up on a few times.

Would you follow up with the public schools budget office to get that clarity?

Well, we got the clarity.

We got the answer.

It took two times, but I got an answer that I was satisfied with.

But that's what I'm speaking to, that pocket of money.

Yeah.

OK.

I'm good.

All right.

If no other questions or comments, the floor is open if any supervisor desires to.

We just lost our slide there.

Move that the board adopt the financial management policies attachment A.

So moved.

Second.

All right.

We have a motion by Supervisor McKeel, a second by Supervisor Malek.

No further discussion.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley.

Aye.

Ms.

Malek.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Ms.

Price.

Aye.

Mr. Andrews.

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

At this time, we'll move to item number 12, fiscal year 2024 operating and capital budget calendar and recommended process modifications.

Thank you, and I promise that I'll have less math in this presentation.

So the desired outcome of today's presentation is to set some dates associated with planning the fiscal year 24 budget process, and also to consider some modifications related to our capital process and our community human services agency processes, which I'll go into in more detail in a minute.

Annalise staff brings forward this budget calendar and any changes to the board for their approval and feedback and today is that day.

Before I get into the dates specific to the annual budget, I want to share this slide to connect the dots to relate the board's work to date in the strategic plan to our financial planning process.

The board has already begun the long-range priority and policy process in August with the strategic plan retreat and much of that continued in just the discussion prior to now with looking at our financial policies.

This will continue in October, where we'll receive an update from some economists on the economic outlook that we're partnering with.

We will also, in October, continue the discussion on the board's strategic plan, and then move into a long-range financial planning sessions in November to December, with one of those meetings in December being with the public schools, to look at our long-range picture of both the operating budget and the capital budget in the strategic plan, and try and bring all of these items together.

The five-year financial plan would then inform the annual budget process, which is what the calendar dates that we'll be talking about next.

So this is a slide I won't spend much time on, just to acknowledge that the backbone of our budget calendar is based on these legal requirements that are set forth in Virginia code.

The calendar does comply with those, but this is for maybe some of the unusual anomalies for why the board may advertise a tax rate so far in advance of the hearing.

or why does there need to be seven days between the public hearing and the adoption of the budget?

Those are set forth by the state code and not up to our staff discretion.

Another item that I will note that does not leave required but are other considerations, I'm not going through these in detail, but the present board and past boards have provided feedback to staff about how we can position them for success and how we schedule these work sessions on top of the board's regular business that happens through February, through March, April, and so on.

So this is a list that, as we can see in combination with the legal requirements, does create some potential challenge points in the calendar to be able to comply with all of these.

And we do have one point that I'll speak to in a minute where we do have a challenge that we're trying to do something different this year to meet some of these conditions, but it will also create another issue with the condition.

To explain what that is, we will start on fiscal year 24, starting largely the same way.

The county executive would present a budget, a recommended budget, on February 22.

We would have a public hearing on March 1st and then some work sessions starting on the 8th and 13th.

I've highlighted March 15th because this would be a change this year.

March 15th is an actual regular board meeting.

So the intent would be to hold a work session really as the afternoon session of that board meeting.

And then the evening would be for whatever business needs to take place then.

for the board to set the maximum tax rates in the advertisement.

Now this goes against one of the rules to not hold these meetings on a regular work day, but the advantage here is that right now in the current fiscal year, the board may recall we had a Monday work session, a Wednesday full meeting, and then a Thursday work session, which actually ended up to be a Thursday morning.

So rather than have three meetings in one week, it's trying to get down to two meetings in one week, not have one of those meetings be back to back, and then to use the time of six months from now in agenda planning to make sure that we're working with the clerk and the county executives to have an agenda on March 15th and all the meetings around that that allow that process to move forward for the board.

So that would be the change right now, and that is the rationale for why we are trying to do that.

This calendar last year would have read March 13th, March 15th, and then a third work session on March 16th.

I'm sorry, March 15th, regular board day, March 16th would be the number three.

The rest of the calendar is largely the same.

We have less space for work sessions if needed.

We then have the public hearings on the rates and the proposed budget on April 26 and the adoption on May 3.

I will share that we've also been coordinated with these dates on the school division and though they have not yet set their calendar, they are attending to approach a similar calendar as they did last year and they understand these dates and we should be able to fit together as we did the last couple of years.

So before I open up to questions, there are a couple process modifications that I'll discuss.

The first of which is what we call our agency budget review team.

And what this is is a group of staff and community volunteers who evaluate human services nonprofits.

These tend not to be the larger nonprofits that are human services related, where there's a relationship with the state, like the Health Department or Region 10 for their mental health and substance abuse programs.

These are more than some of the smaller groups, such as the Boys and Girls Club, Computers for Kids, the local food hub, and some others.

This is a process that the board has regularly endorsed, so these modifications are intended to be incremental rather than an overhaul of the process.

First, what we would like to do is we've observed in recent years that there have been just a couple of agencies where we've looked at them and said, you know, it's not really a best fit for this practice.

Due to the nature of the program, we need to move them to a separate county process where our OMB staff will work with others to review those.

The intent this year is to make sure we're not making one-off decisions, but to take a fresh look at all the agencies and make sure that we have them in the right review buckets.

The second is that we would look, as the county has been a few years now doing this on our own, we have some data about some community agencies who are high performing with exemplary scores and looking to how we can streamline and give still an adequate review but a streamlined review based on how those agencies performed the last two review cycles.

The third change is really a change in how we've approached this in our budget recommendations.

Of course, this will be subject to the overall budget process and revenues, other decisions, but as new agencies have come on through the ABRT process, they've been limited in that we've ... I shouldn't say arbitrarily, but the practice has been to cap their new funding

at approximately 50% of their request.

And so we've realized that that practice is not really making the difference to position those agencies to succeed if we're really determining them to be aligned with our strategic plan and being able to deliver the services we're intending to.

And so this is not to, of course, guarantee any new agency could, but this is just to say that as new agencies are coming on, changing that practice to not limit their funding as much as we have in the past.

So I do have one more modification that I'll discuss.

And I will thank Kathy Demick, our director of Department of Social Services, for being here as her team has taken on the lead of this process with community members and staff.

So the final process modification is what we call our nonprofit community partner capital request process.

Right now, we have a formal request process for nonprofit community partners with operating funds.

But we do not have one for those who are receiving capital funds.

The intent is to build upon our current processes and create one so that if there's any non-profit community agency who has a capital request, that can be brought into the budget process at one time.

And all of these requests can be considered together among all requests as we develop the fiscal year 24 to 28 CIP.

As those requests come in, we would relate them

I should note just to manage community expectations is that we currently do have a balanced CIP from fiscal year 23 to 27.

and what is your fiscal year 28 right now would contemplate the construction of the third school capacity project.

So while capacity may be limited, we do want to take this opportunity to have a formal process to bring these into a one budget process rather than the one-offs that may come to the board throughout the year.

And then if we're in a position to adjust the CIP or based on the strategic plan or any other changing criteria, we have that information to be nimble and we can inform the board in the context of the total budget process.

So that wraps up three topics, and staff would recommend the board adopt the preliminary budget calendar and approve the modifications to the process.

All right.

Thank you, Mr. Bowman.

We'll go through our order.

Again, thank you very much.

This is great.

I really appreciate, I think we talked about several times during the last budget process, about how to deal with the one-time requests that come in.

and I really appreciate adding or trying to figure out that step.

Can you go back to page 26 a minute?

We're talking about, you mentioned A&E providing money to new organizations, non-profits that don't have a history.

to help them get a good footing.

I think that's sort of what, help me with that because I may have misheard what you were saying.

Yes, thank you.

To clarify, new is not necessarily the agency themselves being new.

They would still need to meet the other criteria for performance and existence and all the other governing procedures we look for.

Much better clarification for me, thank you, because I was very concerned about that because

I really appreciate that clarification.

That was really important.

One other question about the schools and CIP.

During the last budget cycle,

we had the schools needed to put into the CIP a project that was based on a donation that a specific school gave that wasn't vetted, right?

And it resulted in the CIP needing a fairly costly addition

based on federal law.

The schools at that time promised that they would go back and not have these donations that come in that are sometimes pretty hefty in certain parts of the

County and the community to look at that to make sure that they didn't have any ramifications for our CIP going forward.

I hope you're understanding what I'm saying.

I want to make sure that that has happened because that was, if I remember correctly, it was a $600,000 hit to our CIP.

based on federal law and a donation that the schools accepted and didn't even rely, and I get that, but they get a lot of donations and they have to have a process for vetting those and making sure that there's not unintended consequences from those donations.

Ms.

McKeel, what I'll say is I did bring this concern to the attention of the COO at the schools a while back whenever we talked about it during the last capital budget process.

I was informed that they have a process in place.

I think they've modified a policy.

I don't know what that is, but we can certainly make sure that the board understands the process slash policy that they're operating under because I do know that they worked on it.

Well, and I'm not.

I just want to make sure that they did what they said they were going to do, that they haven't lost track of it, right, during the pandemic.

Because it impacted our CIP last year.

And so as long as they have the process in place, because we're getting ready to come up on our next CIP process.

And so that's great to know.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you very much, Mr. Bowman.

I only have one question regarding getting the nonprofits on the same page and getting them all to submit to you at the same time.

Is that something doable?

Is that something as simple as notifying them that all applications are due on by a certain date?

Or do they have, or are their applications

I think for the operating process we may get requests throughout the year, but if so we sort of explain the process, get them on our distribution list.

When the application is released, we will communicate to everyone on our list whether they were awarded funding last year or not, so we include them.

I'm not sure if there's any other outreach that we've done in the past, but certainly we will do that.

Right, so you're requesting the application

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This has been very helpful, as always.

My only question, it may not really be part of this, but this ABRT process, as you work with applicants,

Thankfully, good afternoon.

Thankfully, I've been part of the ABRT process for the city for a number of years, particularly during those years where we were collaborating between the city and the county.

Yes, we provide a technical assistance to nonprofits throughout the application process and that technical assistance can be as simple as number of words in each one of those boxes required for the online application or suggestions about other sources of funding.

Many, many community partners work with county staff pretty regularly and so we're sharing resources back and forth if we receive a funding application or a funding opportunity that we can't take advantage of or we need a community partner for we reach out both directions and so I think that that is pretty free-flowing information.

In addition, there are some points that are attached to the budget and generally one of the things we look for is that the request for county participation is less than 20, or preferably less than 10%, but certainly less than 20% of the overall project budget.

So that sort of implies or certainly remedies or any potential request for 100% of funding simply from the county.

Yes, especially the part that shows that we're working with them closely on these.

These are community partnerships.

I appreciate it.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And thank you, Supervisor McKeel, for keeping me from going down the drain on the new agency thing because I was about to go into orbit about that.

So that was a big sigh of relief.

In here, in the criteria, I looked for it, but I may have missed it.

These are agencies who are in the county because this has been asked of me quite a few times over the years with this AVRT program is it looks in the book like we're funding a lot of agencies that aren't even in the county.

So I just want to make sure that from your perspective there are guidelines about that and or that the majority of what they're doing is serving county residents and I don't really know how we keep that straight.

Many of the nonprofits are based in the city but are required to serve county residents.

They report their beneficiaries to us by zip code and by neighborhood.

I think it's a mix.

Certainly, most nonprofits are funded by both the city and the county.

I think that if we looked at the per beneficiary cost, we would see some fluctuation over the years whether county residents are

being funded at greater rates by the county or city residents at greater rates by the city.

I don't think, I think it was maybe eight or ten years ago the last time we tried to do that calculation and it didn't have a clear message for either municipality so we haven't done it again.

All right.

Well, thank you for that clarification.

Thank you.

Supervisor Galloway.

And understood and agree with the capital for the nonprofit request.

But to be clear, we're not opening up, hey, there's a new program with lots of money.

This is for certain orders of magnitude.

I like that it's tied specific to the strategic plan.

But we're talking like Boys and Girls Club, the center, those type of things.

It's not to be designed to be, oh, we can do a renovation.

Or I don't want to be opening up a new set of requests.

understanding that the only avenue these places have had before is through advocacy during budget season.

So I appreciate that we'll have a new process in place, but it can't be, oh, we're defining a new program to have access to funds.

It's just that if it meets that type of historical, I don't know other way to say it than magnitude, that this would be the process that would be played out.

Yes, correct.

Very good.

Can I just ask for clarification on that?

Because I think timing is important.

I mean it has to come in at the right time because our budgets are based on timing, am I correct?

Yeah, and I think Supervisor McKeel, what's helped us on the

ABRT kind of community programming side is knowing that there is a time and a place to go for your request, which has not been there to Supervisor Galloway's comment.

It's not been there on the capital side, so it's very difficult to plan.

It's very difficult to manage expectations.

It's very difficult for us to know what the need is and how it helps

Move the community where we want it to go.

So hopefully, this process will help the board and staff say, nope, you've got to wait.

You've got to wait.

This is the process that you get in the door on.

And I would concur with those concerns of having the perception that we have now opened up a new line of funding for all of these capital improvements.

As Supervisor Galloway mentioned, and as I'm aware in the last few years, the center of the YMCA, the Boys and Girls Club, have all been recipients of very large contributions from the county.

I'm extremely appreciative of establishing this process.

in order to depoliticize it, desubjectify it, make it a much more objective process tied in with the county objectives.

And Supervisor McKeel, your comment reminded me of something else, and that is, for example, we have three high schools.

The economics of the school districts for those high schools vary substantially.

And we have seen throughout our lives around the country, because of the way schools are funded and because of the disparity of incomes in different school districts, it's very

very common that you would find some schools who receive substantial financial support from the public that other schools within the county may not receive.

And we on the board then have an obligation to ensure that when a school

And Donna, can I just follow up on that for just a minute because it's true and to

To speak to that, we have schools that have in their PTO fund balance $60,000, $70,000, $80,000, $90,000.

We have schools that have $1,500 and $2,000.

So we have a big disparity.

But the schools have been working on a public education foundation, Albemarle County Public Education Foundation.

And I think their intent is to use that as a way to more equalize

And I'm not sure where the PEF right now, the Almore County Public Schools PEF stands.

That might be a good question today for when we have our

Absolutely.

But it has been a challenge over the years with schools.

Right.

Sorry, I keep having follow-ups here.

When we're looking at criteria for these agency capital requests, the various projects which Chair Price just mentioned, the YMCA was done long before I got here, but at least it came to fruition, but the decision was made long before 2008.

The other two

One thing that was really important to me, and it may not be to others, was that the county dollars were multiplied many times over.

for example the senior center the county put in two million dollars if the senior center goes out of business we get a twenty two million dollar building comes straight to us to me that math works really well and certainly was told to me in a very stern lecture from a ninety-year-old former county treasurer back in two thousand eighties anytime you can get a really great return like six or eight ten times return on your money spend it and get it don't mess around but the other thing that i

think is important for us to remember.

For both of those recent projects, those were the last dollars in their fundraising, not their first dollars.

So it was when people have come to me and said, well, do you think the county would invest in this?

I said, number one, I have no idea, but number two, I guarantee you we will not give you your first dollar.

If you get 95% of your money raised, maybe there's a chance, but I certainly can't predict.

So those things might help to sort of solidify

The preliminary budget calendar set forth in attachment A and approved the staff's recommendation for modifications to the upcoming budget development process.

So moved.

So moved.

I heard the first from Supervisor Andrews with the motion and Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley is the second.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Yes.

All right, thank you.