Board of Supervisors Annual Organizational Meeting   1/4/2023

Call the meeting to order for the January 4th Board of Supervisors meeting.

Today is January the 4th.

It is 1 p.m.

My name is Jeff Richardson, and I'm the county executive.

And this is our annual organizational meeting.

I will be presiding over the meeting until the election of chair, after which time I will pass the meeting over to the elected chair for the chair to run through the remainder of the agenda.

I'd like to take this opportunity to recognize that with us today to the far right is Mr. Steve Rosenberg and he is in fact stepping, he is just off the dais down at the far right.

He is our county attorney.

Also with us today is Claudette Borgerson and Travis Morris from the clerk's office and they are present at the meeting.

I'd like to take a moment to personally thank Ms.

Borgerson because this annual meeting occurs once a year.

and there is extra work that has to be done to make sure that this part of the meeting runs smooth.

She has taken an extra amount of time to get me ready and thank you so much for doing that.

I'd like to also recognize our officers who are present at today's meeting.

The Albemarle County Police Department is a critical part of the day-to-day operations and success of Albemarle County government and there's a lot of good things that happen every two weeks when we have board meetings on the first and third Wednesdays.

but seeing our officers who come here to be a part of this meeting, it's always a pleasure and today is no exception.

Ben Chisholm, Officer Ben Chisholm is with us today and Officer Andy Munsey.

At this time, I'd like to invite members of the public to join in as we observe a moment of silence.

Item four under the annual organization meeting is the election of the chair of the Board of Supervisors for calendar 2023.

Thank you, sir.

We have a nomination.

We have a second from Ms.

Bea LaPisto-Kirtley.

At this time, I will ask the Board of Supervisors, are there any other nominations for chair?

There being no further nominations, the nominations are now closed.

I move that the Board of Supervisors name Donna Price Chair for the 2023 year.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Aye.

Okay, that's it.

And I would like to formally welcome

our chair for 2023, Chair Donna Price, and at this time we will take a moment to change seats so that Chair Price can oversee the remainder of the meeting.

Maybe we can use this time to say Happy New Year to everybody.

Thank you, Mr. Richardson.

At this time, I will open the floor for nominations for Vice Chair of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors.

Yes, Chair Price, I would like to have the honor of nominating

Jim Andrews as Vice Chair.

Is there a second?

Second.

We have a nomination by Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley, a second by Supervisor McKeel.

Are there any other nominations?

There being none,

I nominate so moved.

Thank you.

Is there a second?

Second.

We have a motion by Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley, a second by Supervisor McKeel.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Yes.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

Ms.

Aye.

Thank you, Board.

We will now take a moment for Supervisors LaPisto-Kirtley and Andrews to change seats.

While that's happening, I do want to point out that our county attorney, Mr. Rosenberg, is actually sitting in the audience today because he has recently been sick and while he has cleared all health standards under the CDC guidance, simply as a matter of extra caution, he has decided to sit in the audience in order to just ensure that there is an adequate distance between himself and the other members on the dais.

Board, at this time, each member will have an opportunity, should they desire, to make any comment on the election of the chair, the vice chair, and the outgoing vice chair.

Thank you both, all of you, Donna, for your leadership over the past year and we look forward to more great things this coming year and we thank you so much for your leadership as Vice Chair.

Thank you, Supervisor Galloway.

Yeah, I echo those comments.

I want to thank you both for your leadership this past year.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you and thank you Chair Price for

having me work with you this past year, I've really enjoyed it and I think it's a good opportunity to learn a lot and I think the changes that we have made, like Supervisor

All right, thank you.

Yes, I'll echo the same comments.

I'm very honored, very grateful for your trust in me and hope to earn that trust and grateful for all the work you did last year in teaching me all about how this works as well as I can learn and I'll keep learning.

We seem to have gotten through this a little faster than the U.S.

May the force always be with us.

Thank you.

Board, first off, thank you very much for your confidence in allowing me to serve another year as your chair.

I also want to especially thank my EXO, Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley, for her exceptional service last year.

as vice chair and her selflessness by providing a greater leadership experience opportunity by the board in passing that torch to Supervisor Andrews.

Supervisor Andrews, I want to thank you and first the board for electing you and also you for being willing to serve in this capacity because one of the most important things that we do here is work towards continuity of our exceptional working relationship.

The hallmark of this Board has been our collective commitment to serve our community, even when we may disagree on individual items that come before us, and I look forward to another year of exceptional service together.

At this time, Board will move to item number nine, the appointment of the Clerk and Senior Deputy Clerk.

So moved.

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

Oh, I apologize.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley was the second.

I apologize.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

And board, the floor is open for a motion to appoint Travis Morris as senior deputy clerk.

So moved.

Second.

All right.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley has made the motion, a second by Supervisor Andrews.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

Ms.

Aye.

Moving to item number seven, the Board 2023 calendar.

This will be a time to set the days, times, and place for regular meetings for the calendar year 2023 and for the month of January 2024.

So moved.

Second.

We have a motion from Supervisor Andrews, a second from Supervisor McKeel.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Aye.

Thank you, Board.

And for the public, what that does is we've basically adopted the same calendar for 2023 that we did in 2022, which is to have our meetings on the first and third Wednesday of every month, with the exception that in January we will have three meetings on the first, second, and third Wednesday of the month.

The first meeting in January is the organizational meeting, and the second and third would be our regular meetings.

In July, we will have one meeting,

We will not have a meeting on the first Wednesday in July, which allows staff to have an actual vacation during the summer.

And in December, we will have a meeting scheduled for the first and second Wednesday in December which allows staff to have a vacation over the holidays.

And then by having the organizational meeting on the first Wednesday in January following the holidays,

Moving to item number eight, we now have three items to look at.

The first is the adoption of the 2023 Board Rules of Procedure, which is an amendment to those rules as they were adopted last year.

So we'll now open the floor.

We'll go through our order for any comments that board members may desire to make with regard to the adoption of the 2023 board rules of procedure.

All right, thank you.

Supervisor Galloway?

No comments, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I have no comments.

Therefore, the floor is open for a motion to adopt the 2023 Board Rules of Procedures.

So moved.

Second.

All right.

We have a motion from Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

We have a second from Supervisor Andrews.

McKeel.

I'm sorry.

Supervisor McKeel.

Actually, what I was thinking is I did not give our county attorney the opportunity if he had any presentation that he wanted to make on these.

Thank you, Chair Price.

I think it's a positive sign I didn't get winded on the way to the podium.

I don't believe there are any questions, thank you, but I will make sure I give you that opportunity as we go to each one.

So on the next item, I think there's nothing warranting an explanation.

There's one proposed change that I think you all can discuss amongst yourselves.

And then the next item, I don't think

Thank you, Mr. Rosenberg.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Thank you, Board.

We'll now move to the next item, which is adoption of the Board policies for 2023.

I do want to bring up that there is a proposed addition of paragraph 5 here.

regarding supervisors' attendance of educational and leadership programs, which I will be happy to address when it comes my turn, but obviously any other supervisor is also welcome to address that.

So we'll go through our order.

Supervisor Mallek, any comments or questions about the board policies for 2023?

The only comment I have, I had the great good fortune this year to participate in the Sorenson Institute's political leaders program.

The reason that I have proposed or asked that this paragraph 5 be added is because when I was accepted into the program one of the questions was, does your employer offer any sort of educational funding?

And we do not have that currently authorized.

for supervisors to attend.

I did pay for it out of pocket because I felt it would be self-serving to ask that that be changed after I had been accepted.

I am not proposing this solely because of that program, as good as I think that program was.

I believe that there are many programs

that could benefit the Board of Supervisors which then benefits the county.

The things I learned and was able to come back each month and share with this board I think warrants consideration of this as a funding opportunity.

And so I think it's important to note that the language here is that subject to approval by the board, supervisors may be reimbursed.

So it's not an automatic.

I don't think we could count on

the Sorenson Institute or any institution annually offering an opportunity to a member of this board.

But if a supervisor is able to identify an educational or leadership program that this board believes would bring value back to the board, this is the mechanism which would then allow the board to be able to approve at a funding level that we would then have to set through the budget process.

because I really do believe that this was a great return not only to me but through what I could share with the board and I just wanted that to be an opportunity that the board can consider whereas this past year that was not even something that could be considered and that would be my comment.

It didn't occur to me until you were talking that I thought

Exactly.

It would have to be an application by a supervisor to the board, approved by the board, subject to whatever budgetary amount has been authorized through that process.

So no guarantee, and the board would then have

the ability to identify whether that program would bring a return of benefit to the county through a supervisor's attendance in that program.

Well, I think those are covered through our, through the VACO membership.

Yes, but that is already authorized.

Got it.

Okay.

Any other questions?

So moved.

All right, we have a motion by Supervisor McKeel, a second by Supervisor Malek.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Malek?

Yes.

Ms.

Ms.

Thank you, Board.

We now move to the final item under this section, which is the adoption of the Board of Supervisors operating guidelines.

We'll go through our order for any questions or comments that any supervisors may have.

No questions, and I think they have proved worthwhile for the last couple of years.

Thank you.

Yeah, I want to, I agree with Supervisor Mallek.

I want to especially call out that I appreciate that when some of us ask questions of, you know, of whoever, that when it seems relevant to all of us, that response comes back out to all of us.

So I think the staff has done an incredibly good job at that this year.

Thank you.

I don't have any questions.

I agree with Ned, though.

That was the biggest, most impactful change, so that we were all getting the same information at the same time.

It was very helpful.

Yes, I concur with Supervisor Galloway that that was a momentous change.

that really keeps all of us well informed, thereby keeping our constituents well informed and also for transparency.

Thank you.

Echoing those comments, I see the hourglass model is working exceptionally well where supervisors go through the county executive's office, not directly to staff and directing them, and the information coming back through a similar mechanism, ensuring that those items of interest to all supervisors are shared with all supervisors.

When we all comply with these guidelines, we work our best.

Second.

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

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Aye.

Moving on to item number nine, adoption of the final agenda.

The floor is open for a motion to adopt the final agenda.

So moved.

Second.

A motion from Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley, a second from Supervisor Andrews.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Aye.

Board will move now to item number 10, brief announcements by board members.

Thank you, and I will echo again the Happy New Year that was expressed earlier.

I did a little history pondering in the last few days.

Albemarle was founded 279 years ago, a division of Henrico, which was one of the six original counties.

We have a lot to be proud of and a lot to work on.

2023 will be full of successes and challenges.

Oh, this is for the 11th, but anyway, that's fine.

I'll talk about Jack again.

I'm inspired by this wonderful community in which we live, inspired by citizens, by our county staff, and by fellow elected officials who inspire each other and us to do our very best work every day.

And I will show this picture again next week by Jack Bertram here, 102 years old.

just passed away on Sunday and he was a fighter pilot on D-Day and a spectacular, gentle giant old man in Earliesville.

So I will read his proper thing again on Wednesday.

All right, thank you.

Supervisor Galloway.

I would take the opportunity to wish everybody a Happy New Year and as I've said multiple times in the last couple months on different press things that I've appeared on or participated in that

always remind everybody that as supervisors begin or if you want to understand what a supervisor's priorities are pay attention to what they are focused on during budget season and I know that we're getting ready to gear up for that you know it will be April and May before we know it as we work through the budget so just reminding the public to pay attention to us as we work through that budget time.

Okay, thank you.

Yes, I'll say my comments until the next meeting.

However, I just wanted to let everybody know that if you want to know what's going on with the supervisors and also in Albemarle County as a whole, please sign up for the Albemarle.org newsletter.

It's very easy to do.

You can sign up for the areas you want to sign up for.

It's a good way to keep in contact.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you.

I would add my expression of gratitude.

It's already been expressed very well.

I want to reflect just briefly on the year now that I've been on the board.

We started last year, January 3rd, with a storm that wreaked a lot of havoc and challenged many aspects of government safety services and life in general.

We had a pretty deep freeze this month, and my feeling was that

Maybe we're lucky, but things went much more smoothly.

We had some outages, but not as prolonged.

I'm looking forward to a hopeful year ahead.

It's a lot warmer, maybe a little too warm.

We have a lot of challenges.

flu and pandemic are not done and climate change challenges, land use challenges, economic challenges that we'll face but I couldn't think of a better team to have in place to deal with these things so I'm very grateful for that.

It's also I'll remind everybody in election year so in addition to some board members being up for election for school board members are up and local

Senate, State Senate, and House of Delegates offices.

Following up a little bit on Supervisor Andrews, I was out of town when the freeze hit, did lose power.

Fortunately, good neighbors helped step in and light a couple of fires in my wood-burning stove, so I did not come home to frozen broken pipes.

But also in that regard, I want to give Dominion a little bit of credit here because since the January storm of last year, I know in the Scottsville Magisterial District, I have frequently seen their trucks out there cutting down the dead trees.

Virtually every ash tree in my area has died from climate change and the emerald ash borers.

and I was following the outages while I was out of town visiting family over the holidays and could see that it was substantially less widespread than last year.

So I do want to give the line workers get all the credit.

I mean they're out there in the worst of the weather helping restore power to us.

The other thing, Mr. Richardson, when I came back and came into the building for the first time yesterday, I had the opportunity to interact with several staff members.

And I asked them, you know, how was your holidays?

And without exception, every single one of them was rested, they were ready,

They were excited.

You could see that they had been able to recover over the holidays.

And the work that I believe this board did in pushing the calendar last year, and you and your staff did,

to actually give staff opportunity this past July and over the holidays to rest and recover from two plus years of the pandemic.

We've got our first team ready and we do have these challenges ahead of this.

This is going to be a very challenging budget, not only for this year but the next several years.

We're all looking at inflation, we're looking at

a likelihood of a recession.

We have no idea where property values may end up because of interest rates.

We have a lot of work to do and a lot of uncertainty but we do have our A team on the game and I know that we're up for it.

So thank you and county staff for the work that you all have done and to be prepared for this.

No, Madam Chair, I do not have a report this evening.

I move that the Board of Supervisors convene a closed meeting pursuant to section 2.2.37.11a of the Code of Virginia under subsection 1 to discuss and consider appointments of supervisors as members or liaisons to various county authorities, boards, and other public bodies, including, without limitation, Acquisition of Conservation Easements Committee,

Audit Committee, Solid Waste Alternatives Advisory Committee, High Growth Coalition, Metropolitan Planning Organization Policy Board, Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, Capital Improvement Plan Advisory Committee, Regional Transit Partnership, Piedmont Workforce Development Board Council, Regional Housing Partnership, Agricultural and Forestall District Advisory Committee, Blue Ridge Committee for Shenandoah National Park Relations,

Historic Preservation Committee, Economic Development Authority, Police Department Citizens Advisory Committee, and Hazardous Materials Local Emergency Planning Committee to discuss and consider appointments to various boards and commissions including, without limitation, the Economic Development Authority,

We have a motion from Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley and a second from Supervisor McKeel.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Aye.

All right, thank you board.

We will go into closed meeting.

We're going to use the small conference room right back here behind the stage.

Let's take a five minute break and then we'll all meet in there.

Are we back in?

I'll call the board back to order.

and turn it over to Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

I do.

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

We have a motion by Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley, a second by Supervisor Mallek.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Aye.

Thank you.

All right, and do we have any motions coming out of the closed meeting?

We do.

I move that the board make the following board committee appointments for 2023 or extending into 2024 if noted.

Ned Gallaway, Audit Committee, Dartow Park Memorial Committee, Metropolitan Planning Organization Policy Board, places 20, and that expiring in December 31, 2024.

Places 29, Rio Community Advisory Committee, Regional Housing Partnership, and Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, with that term expiring December 31, 2024.

For Bea LaPisto-Kirtley, Acquisitions of Conservation Easement, the East Committee, Dardan Tau Park Memorial Committee, Pantops Community Advisory Committee, Places 29 North Community Advisory Committee, Police Department Citizens Advisory Committee

Ann Mallek, Supervisor Mallek, Blue Ridge Committee for Shenandoah Park Relations, Crozet Community Advisory Committee, High Growth Coalition, Historic Preservation Committee, Metropolitan Planning Organization Policy Board, the term expiring December 31, 2024, Piedmont Workforce Network Council, and Regional Transit Partnership.

For Diana, for Supervisor McKeel, Economic Development Authority, Places 29 Hydraulic Community Advisory Committee, Regional Housing Partnership alternate, Regional Transit Partnership.

And for Supervisor Andrews, 5th and Avon Community Advisory Committee, Agricultural and Forestry Advisory Committee,

Audit Committee, Solid Waste Alternatives Advisory Committee, and Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, term ending December 31, 2024.

All right, we have a motion from Supervisor Andrews.

Is there a second?

Second.

Second by Supervisor Malek.

Ms.

Ms.

Malek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Madam Chair, I believe we may need to take a pause.

Let me check with you.

Okay, the technical glitch has been resolved.

I move the following appointments, citizen appointments, reappoint Mr. Donald Long to the Economic Development Authority.

Re-appoint Karen Pape, the Equalization Board.

Re-appoint Kate Lambert to the Places 29 Hydraulic Community Advisory Committee.

Appoint Irene Weir to the Places 29 North Community Advisory Committee.

Re-appoint Audrey Kocher to the Places 29 Rio Community Advisory Committee.

Alright, thank you.

Second?

And so we have a motion by Supervisor Andrews and a second by Supervisor Mallek.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Aye.

Committee reports and matters not listed on the agenda.

We will go through our order.

Thank you.

Yeah, I'm going forward to the board if you're interested.

At our last MPO meeting, we had some talk of the VDOT cost estimating manual they use for smart scale and projects like that.

It's 127 pages.

I'm sure it's a delightful read.

since it was forwarded in follow up to our MPO, both Supervisor Mallek and I have received.

If you're interested, I'll send that to everybody for your perusal.

Thank you.

Thank you, Supervisor Galloway.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And nothing for me.

It's been a very short beginning to the year.

If there's nothing, anything further from you, Mr. Richardson?

No.

There being nothing further, Board, we will adjourn, excuse me, until January the 11th, 2023 at 1 o'clock p.m.

in Lane Auditorium.

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

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