Good afternoon. I am pleased to call to order this meeting of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors on the November 19 at 1PM in Lane Auditorium. I'd like to note that today, as we have Supervisor Anne Malek of the Whitehall District, Supervisor Ned Galloway of the Rio District, Supervisor Diane McKeel of the Jack Jewett District, Supervisor Billa Pisto Kirtley of the Ravenna District and myself, Jim Andrews, representing the Samuel Miller District. Supervisor Mike Prueter of Scottsdale District regrets he's unable to attend, but we have a quorum. And we're joined also by our County Executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson, Deputy, I'm sorry, the Senior Assistant County Attorney,
Lauren Bowden and, our Clerk, Ms. Claudette Borgerson and Senior Deputy Clerk, Travis Morris. Also, let me please welcome Albemarle County Police Officers present, Lieutenant Angela Jamerson and Master Police Officer, Ronald Vanderveer. Thank you for your presence here today and for the work you and your colleagues do, everyday on behalf of the people of Albemarle County. If all present could stand now as you are able and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. And I now ask you to join us in a moment of silence. Thank you. Board, our first item,
of course, is adoption of the final agenda. Note right from the outset that we're pulling items from the consent agenda. We're pulling the May to June and item 8.4. Those were from items eight point one and eight point four, at least part of 8.1. If there are no other proposed changes, we need motion to adopt the final agenda as amended. So moved. Second. Motion from Supervisor McKeel, second from Supervisor Malek. Without objection, if the court will call the roll. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Andrews?
Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lapis or Kirtley? Aye. Ms. Malek? Yes. Thank you. It's my pleasure, or to bring us to the next item, which is a proclamation recognizing restorative justice week. And this will be presented as a motion by Vice Chairman Kim. Yes. I'd be happy to read this. Proclamation recognizing restorative Sorry. We'll do brief announcement by Board members right after that. We can do brief announcements. Yes. That's only came up very quickly, but that's okay. Can you go on or stop? Does it matter? We can do brief announcements quickly since we did stop here.
So just supervisor Malek, are there any announcements? I'm sorry. Oh, thank you. Yes. This month is the eleventh anniversary of the Early Seal Exchange founded by Benny Clark and Chestnut Grove Baptist Church. Their work is supported by many community members, some from four other parishes right in Earleysville, Pleasant Grove, Buck Mountain, Barbados. The exchange receives donations of housewares, furniture, and clothing and is raised in 2025 alone over $34,000 In addition to supporting the IRC, Buck Mountain Food Pantry, the free clinic, and other local charities,
they provide job training for young first time workers or job changing adults to solidify those soft skills essential for employment today. We in the Earliestville community are grateful for the exchange and all they offer, from friendship and a welcome gathering place and a coffee pot or a house refit following a fire catastrophe. Those starting over are given what they need, and Saturday before Christmas is a special children's shopping time with wrapping assistance offered. And we really appreciate all they do. And, at some point, perhaps later in the day, we update on various things from the VACO conference.
It was a very successful but exhausting ninety first conference. Thank you very much. Thank you. Supervisor Gollum? I have no announcements. Thank you. Supervisor Lapiz Piquerly? Yes. I have a long list. No, just kidding. But I did attend a wonderful event last night. It was for the Albemarle County Police Department, their promotions of new officers and also life saving awards. This is really, it was really meant a lot to me to be there, to representing everyone because we do have officers that have actually, endangered their lives by saving others.
So we are very, very appreciative of that. And congratulations to the new Albemarle County Police Department, trainees. Would that be correct? Supervisors and officers. Correct. On Saturday, I attended the Saint John Community Center. They had Thanksgiving, you know, welcoming everybody and such. And what was nice is we were able to thank Gary Wood from Firefly because he he's the president of Firefly, and he was actually able to get, with the help from Albemarle County, he was actually able to get,
Internet to that community when we when there were problems. For the EDA, we're continuing to monitor businesses and and help them financially so that they can succeed. One that I really liked was, Penny's Pizza. So I like that because it's and then, we're doing other things also. So that's it for now. Okay. Thank you. Supervisor McKeown? Sure. I just have a couple of things. We participated last week in the official grand opening of the pedestrian bicycle bridge across
29 North, which will make that corridor much safer for pedestrians and bicyclists. Very exciting news. And, I think it will foster some economic development on at least one side of that corridor. And, it was a great event. The University of Virginia participated and, the city of Charlottesville and Albemarle County and, of course, VDOT, and it was just a really wonderful event. So we were able to promenade. And it really is nice in that, as you might expect,
they have lights along the bridge deck so that when you walk it at night, it's you feel very safe, not just lights from above, but actually lights along the bridge deck. I'm working on trying to see if we can get some colored lights so that we can change those lights instead of just having them white all the time. It'd be kind of fun to be able to do some different colors. Having said that, the, last Saturday, just this past Saturday, I happened to have a crew of about 12 young people, high school students, who raked my yard for a donation to Habitat,
and it was lovely. They swo they is it swooped or swooped? Anyway, they drove in and with their rakes and I provided the the, the paper bags, you know, for the, for the recycling and for the trash, I guess I should say. And, they filled, I think for us, about 18 bags, which I now have to figure out how to get rid of, but, oh, well, that's okay. But they did a great job. And I just think it's really exciting when young people step up to the plate and volunteer like this. And it was really for a good cause for Habitat,
so that was fun. And then, to let you know, last night was the final the last meeting of the Regional Transit Partnership. We have now moved to an authority. So we, officially declared the partnership gone, and the authority is in its place. And we had a celebration, and it was it was fun, for everybody to to to be able to celebrate. It's a little sad, but, and hard for me to believe that the partnership has been in in place for eight years.
And but, you know, it takes a while to get everybody on the same page and and processes working, but that was a great celebration as well. And tonight, the Chamber of Commerce is presenting the twenty twenty five best in business awards. So look for if you're not joining us tonight, then look for the advertisement or the announcements in the paper about the winners, for the best businesses for 2025 in the community. Thank you. Thank you. And I guess I will just briefly announce, as I said last meeting,
that there's the North Garden 5 Ks this Sunday, and it's a fundraiser for both Red Hill School and also for the North Garden Volunteer Fire Department. And so there's still possibilities for that. And the price goes up end of today. So but with that, we're actually a week away from a little more than a week away from Thanksgiving. So I also want to wish everybody safe travels and happy Thanksgiving. Super I just wanted to add that in addition at the closing out of the partnership and the beginning of CARTA last night,
there was a lovely resolution passed and adopted and presented to Diantha for her tremendous support and leadership for the whole entire time as chair of the partnership. I thought that was really well done. So thanks. Thank you, Anne. I wanted to crawl under the table, but it was lovely of them to do that. And, but, you know, it can be embarrassing, but it was lovely. And and it was a great celebration. Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. If there's nothing further than now, we are ready for the, proclamation, and I apologize for the delay. Okay. A red first bite. Here we go.
Alright. We'll read this first then. We're gonna read this and it says so you stay where you are. Stay where you are. I'm gonna read it as a motion and then, ultimately, you'll get a cut you'll get the the the copy. Proclamation recognizing Restorative Justice Week. Whereas Restorative Justice Week begins annually every November, falling on November 16 through the twenty second '22 in 2025 and aims to recognize the power and effect of justice based on the restoration of human connection in lieu
of retribution and punitive proceedings. And whereas restorative justice is an internationally recognized approach for responding to crime and incidents of harm that provides the opportunity for dialogue between those who have experienced harm, the harm perpetrators, and their community to address the harm and meet the needs of those involved. And whereas Central Virginia Community Justice serving at Charlottesville and Albemarle was established in 2022 to provide space for those involved in harm to lead their own accountability and healing
through restorative justice And whereas Central Virginia Community Justice has supported over 200 individuals through the restorative justice process to address situations of harm in our communities and our schools, and Restorative Justice Week serves as an opportunity for residents to reflect on how our community can find growth and healing and restorative approaches to conflict and harm. Now, therefore, be it resolved that we, the Alamar County Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize November 2025,
as Restorative Justice Week to promote to promote the safety and well-being of all county residents in their communities and schools by encouraging the learning and practicing of restorative skills of human connection and healing as amends of attaining justice. Signed this November 2025, Jim H. Andrews, chair, and more candidate board of supervisors. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor McKeil, second from Supervisor Malek. Without objection, the clerk will call the roll. Ms. McKeil? Yes. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms.
Lakisto Kirtley? Aye. Ms. Malek? Yes. Thank you. So miss Ashley Fenelli Matthews, am I pronouncing that correctly? Executive director of Central Virginia Community Justice. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Do you guys have any questions or anything? I have a few things I can say if there's time to Please. Go right ahead. And then we'll have comments. Great. Briefly. Well, thank you, Chair Andrews and, supervisors. I'm Ashley Sonali Matthews, executive director of Central Virginia Community Justice. For restorative justice week, I just wanted to share a quick story. One afternoon, a driver looked down at his phone to check his directions and accidentally struck someone,
exercising on the side of the road. The criminal case began as usual, investigation, criminal charges, prosecution, court hearings, and lots of unanswered questions for the person who was harmed, who wanted to know what happened and why did this happen to him. Thankfully, the prosecutor was listening to that harm person when he said he wanted, but what he really wanted was a chance to make the road safer for everyone, and that's when they called us. So once the case came to CBCJ, we were able to bring together the people involved in the accident and make a plan for how something good could come out of this terrible accident. They ended up agreeing that was the responsible person would do 25 presentations about distracted
driving. And so over the next year, he did presentations for over 600 people, including 400 who were driving age youth, about the dangers of distracted driving. And it was a very effective presentation because I still think of it when my phone dings when I'm driving and I remind myself not to look at it. And so, you know, through restorative justice, the harm person's needs for getting his answers met and having a meaningful outcome, were able to be met while also allowing the responsible person to take action to make his community better,
you know, with dignity. And so, you know, in sharing that, we just want the community to know that that we are here. Whether you're an adult or a youth, whether someone's been charged with a crime or there's just a situation in your community or your school that you need help resolving, you can reach out to CBCJ and initiate a process where we can prioritize your needs, your healing, and the whole community's safety. And this week, we are celebrating National Restorative Justice Week. We have several events happening and still a couple more to come tomorrow. So if anyone is interested, all the information is on our website, which is communityjusticeva.org/events.
All the information will be there. And I just wanna say we're so grateful for the county support who's been partnering with us for these last few years as we got off the ground, as well as for the collaboration of the Commonwealth's attorneys offices in Charlottesville and Albemarle, without whom we would not be able to do this work. And I wanna give a particular shout out to, Commonwealth attorney Shannon Pollock, who was the initiator, of the pilot program that turned into CBCJ. So thank you very much for this recognition. Thank you. And I have questions or comments. I'm starting with Supervisor Malek. Well, thank you. And you are in the spot to be able to help make such good positive
outcomes out of terrible things that happen. And that brings the community together, so thank you very much. Thank you. Superfessor Galloway? Yeah. Thank you very much for being here. I think it's, I mean, the stress that gets put on regardless of how somebody's involved in an incident like that, the fact that both can come together and perhaps help others sort of prevent something like that from going you know, happening again is that's a good thing to have happen. So I appreciate the efforts and the work on that. So thank you again. Thank you. Supervisor LePage and Carmen. I thank you also for, taking a proactive approach to something to an accident that happened.
I think that's, pretty smart and, continue to do that. And so hopefully more and more people would get the message. Thank you. Okay. Supervisor McKillen? Yes. Thank you for being here. I will say decades ago, I was on the disciplinary committee for the Almore County School Board. They had representatives from the school board, and I was on that committee for years. And we used restorative justice for the students in Almore County who came to us. Some of them some of times, it was appropriate. Restorative justice was appropriate. Other times,
it was not. It's and that's there is a distinction there, but when it works, it's just really wonderful. And it's a nice option for this community to have, so I really appreciate you being here. And it was fun for me to be able to read the proclamation. And I also extend my gratitude to the work you're doing. And, you know, the word restorative implies to me of balancing or rebalancing, and a community wide rebalancing, which is, I think, an important component of restorative justice. And it's bought in by the community. Victims need to be empowered, and that's one way to do it, actually, is through restorative justice.
So thank you for the work you're doing. Really appreciate it. And I will bring you this. Okay. Well, thank you so much. Sure. Thank you. Okay. So, Board, this brings us to our next item, which is public comment on matters previously considered or currently pending before the Board other than scheduled public hearings. I believe we have one online participant today, and Vice Chair McKeel will read the rules and introduce this to you. I will be happy to read the rules. I just have to get them out first. All right. Alright. We do have one person who has signed up remotely.
So during this time set aside for public comment on matters previously considered or currently pending before the board. Individuals may address the board of supervisors. Individuals are allowed one opportunity up to three minutes to speak at each board meeting during matters from the public. The clerk will announce each speaker before it is their turn to speak. Timekeeping is conducted through a timer. The timer will commence when you begin speaking, and this begins your allotted time. You will be notified when the three minutes are up and you are requested to bring your comments to a close as your microphone will be muted after about five
seconds. In order to give all speakers equal treatment and courtesy, the board requests that you adhere to the following guidelines. When addressing the board, state your name and if you live in Alamar County, your magisterial district. Address comments directly to the board as a whole. You may upload written comments through the eComment portal or email your comments to the clerk. Speakers may not share any news time with another speaker, and back and forth debate with the Board of Supervisors is not permitted. All comments are live streamed, recorded and published on the Alamar County website.
If if participating by phone, press 9 to let us know you want to speak and then 6 if from a landline to unmute. If by Zoom, please remain muted until you are called on to speak. And our one speaker for today is Alicia Linehan, and I'm going to look to our clerk. Miss Lenahan, you may again. Good afternoon. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Alicia Lenahan. I live in the Scottsville District. I apologize for any background noise. I am outdoors and at work. Since April, you've been reminded that stripping constitutional rights from our immigrant and refugee neighbors threatens all
our rights. Since April, you have been reminded that far from targeting violent criminals, the administration sweeps up anyone it wants to, including American citizens. In July, you were presented with a resolution that requires ICE agents to be unmasked, identify themselves, present warrants, and drive marked vehicles. Excerpts from the resolution are worth reading into the record because the situation has only gotten worse. Quote, ICE tactics have been widely documented in national media and public forums, creating confusion and fear among residents, undermining the ability to verify whether those are carrying out enforcement or legitimate federal agents
or individuals posing as law enforcement. Numerous reports and video evidence show that US citizens and immigrants with lawful status have been detained, questioned, or targeted exacerbating distrust and public safety risks, end quote. The resolution lists values that we all hope are dear held dear by this body, quote. Albemarle County is committed to the rule of law, civil rights, and the safety and dignity of all its residents, regardless of immigration status. Albemarle County reaffirms its commitment to due process,
equal protection and the rights of all individuals within its jurisdiction. Albemarle County will continue to uphold its values as a safe, inclusive and law abiding community where government transparency and public safety remain paramount. Albemarle County strongly condemns using unmarked vehicles, masked agents and unidentifiable personnel in immigration enforcement activities conducted within the county and used such tactics as harmful to public trust, community safety, and constitutional protection, end quote.
You have been unwilling to take a principled stand based on ideals. Perhaps this development will provide you with the shield of pragmatism. The FBI issued a bulletin and public warnings about criminals impersonating ICE agents in early November. The internal bulletin was circulated to all law enforcement agencies and detailed several instances throughout 2025 where individuals posed as immigration officers to commit violent crimes including robberies and kidnappings. The FBI urged all law enforcement to adequately identify themselves during operations to help keep
the help the public distinguish between legitimate agents and imposters. It is not unreasonable or radical to expect ICE agents to be unmasked, identifiable, drive marked vehicles, and provide legal documentation authorizing their presence. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. This brings us to our consent agenda. And as I mentioned before, we're pulling the 8.1 items of May seven minutes and June four minutes from 2025, as well as item 8.4.
Other than those, are there any other proposed changes to the consent agenda or anything to be pulled? And we're looking for a I move we adopt the consent agenda as amended. Second. Motion from supervisor McKeel, second from supervisor Malek. Without objection, clerk will call the roll. Ms. McKeil? Yes. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. LaPesa and Kirtley? Aye. Ms. Malek? Yes. Thank you. Board, this brings us to our first work session, five year financial plan work session. This is being kicked off by Mr. Andy Bowman, Assistant Chief Financial Officer and I believe also with Caitlin Malcolm,
Chief of Budget Office of Management and Budget. Welcome. Thank you for the introduction. Good afternoon to the Chair and the Board. I do want to, take a moment to introduce today, miss Caitlin Malcolm. She is the county's chief of budget who joined our team, earlier this year. Miss Malcolm comes to us after fifteen years working at the federal government level. The The last eleven years were with Food and Drug Administration working in progressively responsible roles in budgeting, performance and strategic planning. So I will kick things off today, but, Ms. Malcolm will also be contributing to the presentation and, be a familiar voice to the Board pretty soon as we work through the budget
calendar ahead. So Excellent. Welcome. And, also, thank you to the budget team sitting just over my shoulder to the right. Abby, you're also part of the budget team. Thank you. So, before we get into any desired outcomes today, I always like to take a moment to start these work sessions with what are the previous discussions, on the next slide, with the board of supervisors as held in financial planning, and what are the meetings that are ahead? So the process this year of long range planning and the budget kicked off in late August with the adoption of the calendar. The board also received the second annual spear report looking at a lot of the
data and performance around the county's strategic plan initiatives. Last month, we were with the board for a economic outlook report from with, doctor Cheryl Bailey of Virginia Tech, as well as receiving updates from public safety studies. Excuse me for interrupting. Our screen is not working. I checked the connection in the back. Are they all in? No. The connections. Because it doesn't do it. Scanning the signal. It's not connected. That's why there's no signal. Up there it is. Okay. There it is. Just Thank you. I'm I Please excuse me. Sorry, Andy. Go ahead. If that's the worst thing that happens to us today, it's gonna be an amazing week.
So that's a comment about life, not my presentation, to be clear. So, this, discussion will, continue today on the five year financial plan. How does that tie into the strategic plan? What does the county's financial forecast look like? This will be continued on December 3 with a joint conversation with the school board about their capital request. All of that begins to come together with all of the other board's discussions and the county executives recommended fiscal year twenty seven budget will be presented on February 25. So on the next slide, there are really two desired outcomes we have today in today's work session.
We've been generously allotted about an hour and a half on the agenda. Ms. Malcolm's presentation will be roughly half an hour, so that will allow as much time as we have or can have for board discussion and question and answer. So miss Malcolm and I will walk through an overview of the five year plan, what are the base assumptions driving that on the revenues and in the expenditures, and then really allowing that time for board discussion of what plan does well, what may be missing, or other topics the board would want to explore further at an additional meeting. So, before we dive into the material, the actual five year plan,
I just wanna give a a brief one zero one of what is long range financial planning. And the board of supervisors knows this very well, but for members of the public who may be less familiar or just tuning in, long range financial planning is a fundamentally different exercise than annual budgeting. Usually, when staff is before the board in the annual budget, we're talking about changes that will take place immediately or in the next coming months. Long range planning is very different because it's more about what are the decisions we're making today and how might that influence where the county's forecast and revenues and expenditures
will be three to four to five until one years from now. The the annual budget is required to be balanced. The the long range five year plan is not. And it's really a question when you have an unbalanced five year plan, what are those decisions, whether it be policy strategies you can act that begin to shape the trajectory differently in the future? One of the key things we look at is, are the operating budgets and capital budgets in alignment with each other? If there's a facility being constructed in the capital budget when it comes time to open it, how we reserve capacity in the operating budget to provide services from that facility? Five year plan is not just about dollars.
From these discussions, the board could choose to enact policies or just other levers that may be about more than dollars or look at even in the existing resources, how those are being deployed to meet the board's strategic plan. And finally, this does provide a framework for the annual budget process. So we're not here to balance this week or 27 budget, but this does provide some helpful framework as we think about the months ahead leading into the budget and subsequent long range strategies. And then finally, this is the best information we know as of today, just as it, is subject to change. We'll continue to keep the board updated as we move through the process.
So, I'm gonna start with the bottom line upfront on the next slide. This is what the county's five year plan looks like for a five year projection of revenues and expenditures. The revenue is the blue line and the expenditures is the orange line. And we can see below that, for the next five years, we have a gap of the percentage of the general fund that starts a little over 1% and grows to 3% in year five. And to clarify that this five year plan assumes that funding is provided to public school operations and the capital debt service by formula. So when we look at that gap, that's really a county government gap that we would need to work through.
Schools and capital would have their own needs, but this is really just taking a look at the general fund knowing those transfers are being provided, kind of by policy as the board would expect. So in preparing for today's presentation, I've shared this graph with a number of county staff, and there's really been a pretty consistent reaction that I've heard is that this five year plan looks very different than prior five year plans. What we see here is a period in fiscal year twenty seven and twenty eight where that gap grows from 1.3% to 2.8%. But by the time you get to fiscal year twenty eight all the way through fiscal year thirty one, that gap remains relatively steady.
And so, for just from a perspective on how this different this is compared to a year ago, we can go to the next slide. This is the five year plan that was presented to the board last November. And you can see it's a different five year period because now we're '26 to 30. But in fiscal year twenty seven, we had forecast a 5% gap, and that would steadily grow into a 9% gap. So if you, it's now computed by going back to the previous slide. You're just kind of visually seeing how those lines change. We can go back to the last update. That can just provide a visual perspective. But I wanna take a moment and really do a side by side comparison because then there's a lot of change in just a one year period.
So on the next slide is just a very high level of, what do these gaps look like for the four years that are in common in these two plans? The first line again shows from fiscal year twenty six to '30, that gap growing from 5% to 9% fairly steadily. Fiscal year twenty seven, again, we see we're at about a 1% gap and then it rises to three before, you know, moderating, I would say. The two biggest changes in this factor, two biggest changes, that are the biggest factors in this. First is during fiscal year twenty six, the board, enacted a tax rate increase on the real estate tax rate of 4¢.
That provided, funding for public safety and housing and school items that were part of last year's five year plan. And that roughly $12,400,000 that was approved is ongoing and now gets applied to all years of the plan. The second very significant change is, really just the changing tax base and economic outlook in the future years. I'll talk about that more when we dig into revenues, but because of the board's strategies and economic development and the investments they have made, that is really providing a different future in the next five years, than we would have previously thought.
And so that's one of the benefits of five year planning is sometimes you're not taking actions that pay a dividend in the next year. They really do pay off in subsequent years. So going to the, next slide, that's just very high level summary. First highlighting the different trend in the past. But the other big takeaway for, the the board that I would share today is that staff sees two very distinct periods in the next five years, and we'll walk through this in more detail today. In the shorter term, in the first two years of that plan, we know we're an evolving revenue outlook, and I'll speak to that more in a moment. And we also have some significant expenditure obligations in the coming years.
Years '29 to '31 is really when we see the benefit of the board's strategies and investments in a changing tax base really take off. And that allows that, we'll still have some obligations, though perhaps not as large, but it allows the board to more robustly advance strategic plan goals than perhaps they could in the first couple of years. So with that high level summary, I'm going to speak next about some of the details on the revenues. I'm gonna start this with just a few reference points of where has the county been, where is the county right now, and then where might the county be going? So, this slide is one the board has not seen before,
so I will take a moment to explain it. This is the average, I'm sorry, the actual in the blue bar, the actual revenue growth year to year, that the county has, calculated. What is, different in this chart than some prior years is the staff and OMB have gone back and done an analysis to say if there was no change to property taxes and since fiscal year 'fifteen, what would that year to year increase look like? So this gives us a sense of what does a normal non tax rate adjusted increase look like year to year to give us perspective. Now we can see in this graph, there are two bars that I have grayed out.
Fiscal '20, which was significantly impacted by the onset of the pandemic and fiscal year 2023, which was impacted by more maybe the aftershocks and unexpected things we learned in the pandemic from supply chains to economic recovery to inflation. And so, as staff, we looked at those two outliers and said, what would it look like if we took an average of the blue the blue bars, it was just that normal economic growth that is not related to tax rate changes, and that was about 5.5%. That's not to say that we would have five percent five and a half percent in the future. That just gives a past reference point to anchor ourselves as we begin to anticipate
what the future could look like. So moving next, we will look at where is the county right now. So this is a page, the board has seen before right out of the fiscal year twenty six adopted budget and presentations. What are all the categories of revenues that make up general fund revenues? These are the revenues that fund, county day to day operations, more than 70% of public school operations where they pay the county's debt service, as well as contribute cash to the capital projects. So as staff was thinking about, really, what does transformational change look like in the five years? What are the ways that, the county could affect what that outlook looks like?
Because I'm gonna go around, if we can imagine this being the face of a clock, I'm gonna start it at 11:00 with the state revenue percentage at the the light blue color at 6% and the federal revenue at 2%. Those items are largely, reimbursements for expenses for programs that have been prescribed by the state and federal government. And so in any typical annual environment, it's very hard for the county to influence what those revenues are. However, the county does have legislative, priorities with the state and federal government that can shape what those look like in the future. So that's just a long range one that really ties to the board's legislative program
and priorities. Next at about 10:00 of the the donut is that other local in the dark green at 4%. What that revenue makes up is really a lot of the the permits fees, things like EMS cost recovery, the, the speed cameras that the police officers have, park user fees, a lot of, community development permit fees. All of those are mixed in there, and staff knows that every few years, we need to continually benchmark and look what those look like, to have those updated. Now there's certain always opportunity to revise and refine those numbers, but it would take a tremendous amount of change and only 4% of the budget
to change those five years. So that's more of just something we would look at an annual kind of short term to mid term strategy and where we would be. Moving next to the other local taxes piece at about 09:00 in the donut is the other local taxes. Virginia is a Dillon rule state, and so counties can only enact those authorities that are granted to it by the state. That includes a lot of the caps that are set on taxes such as sales, food and beverage, and business license and other categories. And by and large, the county is at the maximum of all of those states. There's a couple exceptions,
but by and large, that 18% is really maxed out to what the state has allowed counties to do. And so the way to change really that in the future is the legislative program with the state. So that brings us to the, the last piece of the doughnut, which is two thirds of that of general property taxes making up 67%. Now that includes both real and personal property taxes and other smaller classifications. Now there's really, two primary ways to change what is, that amount of the pie and what revenue is generated, one of which is the tax rate, which the board exercised last budget process, to adjust both the real property and the personal property rates.
The other way to look at that is what is the composition of that 67% and what makes up that? And so we'll go to the next slide about where we are today. And this is information the board has seen before. Now what does the county's tax base look like among the major categories of, real estate? And so what we can see is data from 2015 to 2025. We can see there's been a significant increase in the share of residential from 61% to about 68%. We can see those gains have been largely, offset by the changing smaller pieces of the pie for commercial and industrial moving from
15 down to 11 and agricultural moving down from 20 down to 15. So the reason this matters is not so much the revenue this generates, but what it costs to serve, these different classes of real estate. So that connects to, next slide with the information the board has seen before on the cost of community services study that the board saw earlier this year. So for every dollar that is generated, from the county, it costs different amounts of, services to provide to residential properties. For the primary reason that we think of the largest expense in the county's budget is education. Residential is the tax base that is providing those students.
Commercial, industrial, and agricultural both provide services both have service demands too, but it is a net revenue positive for those ventures. So one of the ways the board is able to relieve pressure on the residential tax base is by rebalancing what the relative percentages are of the tax base of the commercial and industrial and the agricultural sectors. Now this is not, to suggest that the county has a plan to, chase without regard commercial and industrial. The board has also approved in the last year, on the next slide, the Board of Supervisors' economic development strategic plan.
This was the second plan that was updated. And included in that are the three target industries at the top of intelligence, national security, life sciences, and agribusiness. And by targeting those, efforts there, we're able to diversify the county's tax base, provide, you know, provide, services and rebalance what that cost of services looks like as well as all the other benefits that can be received from economic development. So as we've had, we talked last year in the budget process about, the county's investment in Urbana futures. We talked about the partnership with Home Depot.
Recently, the governor's been here this fall for Afton Scientific and Ascarazenic announcements. All of those things collectively are going to change the future of the county's tax base to look differently than it does today. And so, with that, that really does provide some of the increased revenues that we, will see in the out year of the five year plan to help shrink that gap from what it would be otherwise. So before we get to those out years though, there is a matter that has the county's staff's attention on the next slide as we look at the county's economic output report. Doctor. Bailey was here for her presentation of a very thorough report of economic data,
and these were staff's major takeaways from that report. First, The US economy, we are seeing a slower economy right now. The data is here and showing that the economy has slowed from what it is in prior years. The other thing we're monitoring is there is continued uncertainty. As there's a lot of shifts at the federal policy level, it remains to be seen how all of those play out and will impact local revenues and the community at large. Virginia's economy is the next one, and this one has staff's attention because this cooled faster than the nation's economy. Typically, we're used to seeing Virginia outperform the nation's economy year to year.
However, because Virginia is so leveraged in the, the operations of the federal government, and in particular, North Virginia is a disproportionate large, size of Virginia's economy, this is a different change that may not be a direct impact, but perhaps that has indirect impacts that we're trying to monitor with the soon to be released state budget and the other factors that we may see. So finally, there is Albemarle County, which provides a solid economic base. But we also know that we are not immune to state and national trends for better or for worse. And so we have to keep an eye on what's happening at the national level and what's happening at the state level because those can impact us.
The other thing we know that time is on our side and planning is on our side. Just in the same way that we had a five year plan five years ago that would have had a out of balanced fiscal year '26. By the time we got to fiscal year twenty six, we had a balanced budget. And the board has continued to pursue strategies about what else can be done in the long term and multiple year planning, to really line up that strategic plan with revenue growth and the services that the board is expecting the county to provide. So, on the next slide, I will just wrap up my portion of the presentation before we turn it over to the expenditure side. Really, the main takeaway is hitting those again is that we have a different trend this
year than we have seen with the board in the past. Really, that different trend includes two periods within this five year plan. First, the evolving revenue outlook that we heard from doctor Bailey and I just spoke about. And also knowing that on the rise end, there are strategies in a changing tax base that will, you know, allow the the, the county to reduce some pressure on the residential tax base and also advance some services in a way that would otherwise not be possible. So for the rest of the presentation, I will, not believe miss Malcolm has fewer slides if anyone's looking for a sign of relief, from me. But I will, turn it over to miss Malcolm, and at the end,
I'll be happy to answer any board questions. Thank you, mister Bowman. Good afternoon. My name is Caitlin Malcolm. I'm the chief of budget. Is that a little better? Yeah. Okay. As Andy indicated, I'm gonna walk you through the expenditures that are built into the five year financial plan assumptions. So on this first slide, which you've seen in several past budget cycles, represents some of the obligations that we've picked up in past budgets. As you know, the past few fiscal years have had a higher than usual number of obligations, and those obligations have been driven by many of the priorities you see on this slide. So for example, we've picked up costs from expiring grants in both public safety and transportation,
and we'll continue to do that in f y twenty seven and in other years in the plan as we have more obligations. You'll see that trend continue in the assumptions that we've built into the five year financial plan. In particular, we're keeping an eye on several obligations in fiscal years 'twenty seven and 'twenty eight, and I'll go into more detail on those on the next slide. So in FY 2027 and 2028, I'd like to cover the most substantial obligations that we have built into our expenditure assumptions for the five year plan. In total, those obligations are around $10,000,000 per year for the share for the local government.
First, the plan assumes that the board will continue to prioritize keeping pace with labor with the labor market by investing in cost of living salary adjustments and the reclassification of positions consistent with our compensation philosophy, which has been a focus of the past several budgets. Next, 2027 is a rate update year for the Virginia retirement system. So we're waiting for more data and have a placeholder reception built into the plan right now for that potential increase. We've also included a placeholder assumption for the health fund, which we will continue to refine as we get closer to the budget development process
for FY twenty seven. Next, we're anticipating an increase in the revenue sharing for the city of Charlottesville. The revenue, which is calculated by formula, comes off the top of our budget before we then allocate the remaining funding to policy, according to policy, to schools at 54%, local government at 36%, and capital and debt service at 10%. For reference, in the past four years, revenue sharing to the city of Charlottesville has increased 30%. So that's from f y twenty three through f y twenty six. Next, consistent with recent budgets, this five year plan assumes that we will continue picking up the cost of firefighters
as we come to the end of two FEMA safer grants. We also anticipate that in f y twenty seven and '28, we will see operating cost increases associated with the completion of the court's renovation projects, and we will also see the first debt service payment for the county's portion of the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail renovation. We also have included the next years of the Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA contract with year two, which is next year, FY '27, being the highest escalation year that's included in that agreement. Finally, for the local government portion, included in the assumptions are some costs associated with benefit administration for the supplemental nutrition
assistance program, which has undergone changes at the federal level as the result of public law 01/2021, which has also been called the big beautiful bill. Finally, we recognize that our partners in schools also have several several obligations on the horizon in f y twenty seven. Our five year plan includes the formula driven increases for public schools operating expenses. Within that, we're mindful that in f y twenty seven, we'll be opening two new schools. Same as the impact to local government, schools will see an impact from the Virginia retirement system rate update, and they will also see the first impact from the collective bargaining agreement process. They will also see the first impact from the collective bargaining agreement process.
And finally, we're aware that the state recently released the local composite index for the for Virginia, and we are working with the schools to determine the impacts to their budget. On the next slide, we'll walk through the expenditure assumptions that are in the five year plan within the framework of the strategic plan. On this slide, you see the six goals of this board's strategic plan. What I'll do is walk through those six goals and the 23 objectives underneath them to really connect the actions and planned expenditures in the five year plan back to the board's strategic plan. The expenditure assumptions you see on the next slides represent our total budget and work
that's happening across all across the county. So some of the items are the result of new funding that may be added in future years based on the board's direction. But many of the items are, already in the existing budget based on previous direction and budgets passed by the board. Many of the areas have recently received new funding from the board, and staff are continuing to work through implementation of those priorities. The emphasis in the five year plan is really on how the resources, both dollars and staff time, are directed and how that time is pursued, or prioritized in pursuit of the strategic goals. In the center of this slide,
you'll see goal six, which covers workforce and customer service in the center of the wheel. That's because the workforce and customer service goal is integral to supporting all of the other goals in the plan. I'll start with that goal as I describe the five year financial plan expenditure assumptions in more detail. For workforce and customer service, the five year financial plan expenditures assume that we will continue to make adjustments to benefits and salaries to be consistent with the market in all years of the plan. In years three, four, and five of the plan, we assume that we will continue adding staff in non public safety positions consistent with
projected population growth. I'll get, into the specifics on public safety positions in a future slide under goal one. We also assume that we'll continue to train and develop existing staff at the same level we have currently budgeted in FY twenty six since that's a critical piece of staff development, productivity, and engagement. Continuing under the same goal, the plan assumes that we will continue efforts to modernize business processes, including technology, to transform customer service demands. As you're aware, the plan includes recent investments in several new technology systems that have been implemented in recent years. One focuses on development tracking,
one is focused on financial management, and another is focused on human resources. We're continuing to realize the benefits and efficiencies of those systems, and those investments are represented here within the plan. On the previous slide, I also said that we are adding non public safety positions in years three, four and five of the plan, consistent with population growth. In years one and two of the plan, we have not included any new positions outside of public safety. Instead, we will continue to identify areas where we can reengineer to achieve cost savings before adding new positions.
Under this objective, we have also included investments in cybersecurity to protect the county's IT infrastructure and data. And finally, under this goal, we have the ongoing space planning and strategy work that's already included in years 20 six and '27 of the CIP. The goal of that work is to achieve efficiencies while prioritizing customer service and employee wellness. Moving to goal one for safety and well-being, I'll first highlight that this has been an area of significant investment in recent budgets, and those investments are all reflected here as ongoing expenses in the five year plan. This includes the heart team expansion,
the Burkemore Ambulance addition, which serves one of the biggest call areas in the county for emergency medical response services, the renovations to the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail, and the recent court's renovations and their resulting operating impacts. In fiscal years 2027 and 2028 of the plan, we continue to pick up the cost of firefighter positions that have previously been funded by FEMA SAFER grants. And finally, the plan includes the six police officer positions that were added in FY 2026. The additional officers, which is the highest number of positions added to police since FY 2016,
are resulting in two more officers per shift, which we expect to improve response times. The new officers will be assigned to patrol to ensure that coverage meets growing demand in the community. In addition to the investments that are in our base that I covered on the previous slide, the five year plan includes assumptions for new funding in a few areas to support the objective, support community safety through highly responsive services. Starting with the obligations we covered on a previous slide, the plan includes expenditures for the court's facilities operations, the county's portion of the debt service for the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail renovation costs,
the agreement years for the Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA, and again, locally funding to expiring FEMA safer grants. The board recently received information from two studies on public safety staffing. The five year plan includes new funding to support public safety staffing study implementation. The plan includes a placeholder assumption in the first year, and it's staff's intention to work through the specifics of what that funding will look like when we get to the FY twenty seven budget development process with the board. The plan includes new funding, investments in public safety in each of the five out years as well.
And that will help facilitate a phased approach to implementing the recommendations laid out in the public safety staffing studies. The last objective for goal one includes, recent new funding for the community assistance program and the increase in funding in f y twenty six for the human services funding profit excuse me, human services funding process and nonprofit agencies. The board has recently updated the process and the priorities for those human service agencies, and the plan includes continued investment in the community consistent with the board's direction in those areas.
The plan also includes work around continuity operation continuity of operations that's been in the plan for several years. Excuse me. In the budget for several years. Goal five focuses on education and learning. In support of this goal, the five year plan provides funding to to school operations based on the allocation of local tax revenue formula. In addition, the plan includes the following CIP items, the school's maintenance and replacement program, the school bus replacement program, the construction of the Albemarle Career Exploration Academy at Lamb's Lane, formerly called High School Center 2,
and the construction at Mountain View Upper Elementary School. It also includes in f y twenty seven, the design, and in f y twenty eight, the construction of the Northern Feeder Pattern Elementary School. Finally, it includes school renovations. As part of the upcoming f y twenty seven budget development process, we will need to update the CIP to include 2031. Capital investments in schools will be a key component of that work. To that end, on December 3, the board of supervisors will have a joint meeting with the school board. And at that time, the school board will present their request for the '27 through '31 CIP.
The next goal focuses on resilient, equitable, and engaged community. The five year plan includes the FY '26 new funding from the board to support the climate action plan. The plan also includes increased ongoing funding for Climate Action Plan implementation starting in FY '28. In f y twenty seven, staff will provide options to the board for one time funding for the climate action plan once we have a final f y twenty five number from the audit. In addition to the climate action plan, the school area includes ongoing work by staff in the following objectives of the strategic
plan, foster community partnerships and engagement around county priorities, implement stream health initiatives, identify and mitigate community risk while building, sustaining, and validating the community's capability to respond to and recover from disasters and other natural threats. The next goal focuses on infrastructure and place making. The board has made significant investment through the creation of the Broadband Accessibility and Affordability Office, and that office is currently working with federal, state, and local partners with the funding in place to make progress on the broadband improvements
that have taken place in recent years. We also have a goal under this, excuse me, an objective under this goal around partnership, which includes working with our water partners at the water sewer authority and the service authority. So there are no new dollars associated with that objective in the plan. Continuing under the goal for infrastructure and placemaking, our department of facilities environmental services were before the board in the past year to talk about the litter collection program that is funded by the disposable plastic bag tax. Going back to mister Bowman's presentation, that's another example of revenue diversification that the board has taken on in recent years.
Transportation is another area where the changing and evolving services in our community are highlighted through some of our recent new funding. F y twenty six was the last year of the micro transit demonstration grant and the first year that the county fully funded this service. In the plan for f y twenty seven, we assume the continuation of the micro cap program. However, the exact level of service and any changes to the program will be part of the larger budget development discussions. Changes to the amounts of state and federal funding received through grants and other assistance, such as pandemic relief, have resulted in increased financial responsibility for the county to provide the same level of
service to our residents. In response, the board has increased funding for CAT, Jaunt, and other transit partners in recent budgets. As we transition to f y '27 budget development, we will continue a holistic look at the transit services provided to county residents, and we'll also continue engaging with partners who provide those services and oversee them, such as CAT, Jaunt, and Carta, to ensure the most efficient and effective delivery of services throughout the community. Finally, under this goal, in the CIP, we continue investments in the transportation leveraging program. Through this program,
the board puts aside local funding to support transportation projects and leverage funding from the state. The final goal that we'll discuss today focuses on quality of life. The plan recognizes the board's recently adopted AC 44 comprehensive plan and assumes that staff will continue development of zoning modernization consistent with the board's direction. The five year financial plan also includes expenditure assumptions to support the development at the Ravenna Futures property. With respect to continued economic development, the plan includes funding for the economic development fund. Specifically, there are ongoing funds to support the fund starting in f y twenty eight and
consistent with the approach for the climate action plan. Staff will provide the board with options for one time funding in FY twenty seven once we have a final FY twenty five audit figure. For recreational opportunities under the quality of life goal, the plan includes continued operations and trail build out at Biscuit Run, as well as completion of the athletic field updates at Biscuit Run and Darden Tow. And the final slide on the strategic plan expenditures goes into more detail around investments in housing. Over the past six years, the board has invested over $22,000,000 in affordable housing.
Those investments are included in the five year financial plan. In addition, the plan includes the dedicated 0.4¢ that was adopted in the f y twenty six budget. Similar to the approach taken for the Climate Action Plan and the Economic Development Fund, staff will provide options for the Board's consideration for additional one time funding for the housing fund in FY twenty seven once we have the final results of the FY '25 audit. In addition to that, we are continuing to provide expanded tax relief for the elderly and disabled in the five year plan consistent with the board's direction, and we will also continue exploring the developer incentives tax rebate program that was adopted
by the board in 2024. That includes the content I'll present today on the expenditure assumptions. Before I turn it over to the board for discussion, I'll reiterate what mister Bowman spoke to earlier. We really see two time periods laid out within this five year plan. In years one and two of the plan, staff are keeping a close eye on the evolving revenue outlook and will make recommendations to the board for the significant expenditure obligations that we expect to see in fiscal years '27 and '28. In years three, four, and five of the plan, we start to experience the results of the strategies the board has focused on over
the past several years, resulting in the change to our tax base that Mr. Bowman spoke about. Our projections show that we will continue to have obligations in 'twenty nine, 'thirty and 'thirty one as we would in any budget year. However, at this time, we are projecting additional capacity in those years that the Board can direct towards more robustly implementing and advancing the strategic plan goals. On this final slide, I brought back the questions we referenced earlier to help facilitate the Board discussion and feedback. With that, I turn it over to Chair Andrews to begin the discussion, and we're available to answer any questions you might have.
Thank you very much. Appreciate this. And we'll go through our order. Now, Supervisor Mallick. Thank you. As always, this is very challenging, but very helpful to go as we go along. And I know last year and the year before, we had the board started many new and really important programs and therefore then had to make additional revenue sources available to do that. I guess my initial reaction is it's time to be patient and get the ones we've already started a little further along and basically continue to see
how the revenue programs and the greater outside sources come along to see what we're really looking forward to. I'm very reluctant to get out too far in advance of that kind of information. And as far as what's missing, I don't have any missings. What's always lurking in my mind is trying to balance that old formula that we keep talking about because when one side of the formula is galloping along, it's hard for the other side to keep up no matter what the percentages are. So I will stop there. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Galloway.
Yes. Thank you for the presentation. I'm happy to see the breakdown of the first two years versus the third, fourth, and fifth year. Mhmm. I think that's smart given we know what the reality is going to to change. So I guess one question I would ask, kind of building on top of that, and I don't know who to direct this or who who may be able to answer it, but have you all theorized, since we've achieved a large a large and then a couple of more moderate economic development successes, what it would take to change like, you're using real data, so this is kind of what you're expecting and making your best projection on that.
But then to tweak that formula to say, well, if we got another, or we build out Revanna Futures and another, you know, economic development success happens, what it would take to move those percentages? Like, do we have is that something that you've even thought of or theorized? And I and the reason I ask is strategic it's on the strategic information for the economic development team more than probably financial planning. But I'm just curious, like, we we're dealing with real information, how it's changed the gap, how it's changed the percentages of where the tax is coming from.
But did we did we go to that next step and go, wow. If we got a second one of these of this size, what would that do to our outlook? Yes, that's certainly an option we can prepare. We have not already created something to date. And I think there's a few ways you could look at that in terms of one particular development, or you could look at that in terms of that overall blend of the tax base, what that would look like. I think it's one as we'll continue to learn more about these current announcements, what are the other indirect impacts they may have in the community as well. So there's not one scenario we have, but that's one thing that we're going to have in our mind as we continue to study the tax base.
It's it's always it's one thing prior to the announcement of AstraZeneca not to devalue Home Depot, Athens Scientific, and places like that, but that one's on a scale that we've not really seen before. I think that's obvious. And you can always talk about it. Like, during budget town halls last year, we were theorizing it. We were we were suggesting this is what we wanted to happen. Well well, now it's happened. So I think it's important to start thinking about that from the standpoint of, well, here's what since we know the impact of that size of project
from a financial standpoint, to be thinking about that and talking about that with the economic development team to to achieve the next one or the, you know, one that's half the size would would mean this to the financial, kind of outlook. So I just think it's part it's a I fully expect that this team would do that anyway without me even bringing it up because you all do that in your prognosticating. But I think that's a fascinating way to kind of look at it from, you know, where's is Emily here to tell Emily to go get it go get this stuff. So if I may, sir, I'll ask Caitlin,
if you'll go back and show the slide that shows cost for services delivery where you've got business and industry, residential, and there was a third column. Perfect. And I'll ask Jacob, Mr. Sumner, our CFO, just to talk for a second about just to remind the board because I think that data is important, that he'll remember specifically that we've looked prior to the most recent announcement at Ravenna, and I believe the mix on, commercial and industry is just over 11%.
11.3. Yeah. And so, yes, there you go. That's even a better that's a better slide. And talk just for a second about as we look out five years, where that would move that needle. Sure. So in the next five years, looking at, as we run the different scenarios on how the announcement at Urbana Futures would impact our tax base, using our normal growth assumptions for all these different categories and then layering on what we did expect from the most recent announcement, we would anticipate going from this 11.3
on the commercial industrial in 2025, till in about five years being above that 15% mark. So as we looked at a comparison from ten years ago, back back in 2015, when we were at 15%, going forward five years from now, we would anticipate us coming back to that 15% and helping to to rebalance some of the the the reliance on the residential, tax base. So I guess in my mind, is it like in my way of thinking, I go, alright, well, this type of project moved at 4%. If we got another project of the same size,
does it move at another 4%? So I guess that's the part that I'm just again, this is all just theoretical kinda thinking of future targets, not not actuals. But is that a good way to kinda think about it? I would. And if you wanna answer that later. Yeah. I mean, you know, for the you know, when you go out and speak to the public, especially like the town halls, we have a very different story to tell this in the upcoming budget than we did last year on this particular item. So when we talk moving forward, I feel like we would have we we don't have abstracts since we have real.
It's like, wow. If we can build out Ravenna Futures, here's what we kind of expect that's going to move that tax base to look like. It just furthers the delivery of what we said we were trying to do last spring. We're actually doing it. Yes. And wanna continue to do it. And I think when we talk about, you know, when we talk about roads, oh, well, we're gonna do this project. It's coming at this date and time. It got approved by SmartScale. I think once you get some things like this for economic development, it'd be nice to be able to talk in those terms too Yes. For what it's worth. Since you're on this this particular slide,
the question I have, and this is probably, like, I'm assuming for Andy. The I noticed on this particular one, we're breaking out the residential and the multifamily. On the next slide and in the cost of services report, I don't remember breaking out multifamily versus single family detached. It's commercial. None? It's commercial. Multifamily. I understand. Yeah. Yeah. I'll I'll I'll take that one. But I'm saying well, let me get to my question. I'm sorry. The, if you go back, you know, I'm I'm interested in understanding why you broke it out here that way. I I think I I mean,
I obviously, I get in the next page why it's there. Did it did I miss it? Was it teased out on the cost of servicers report that there was difference between the different types of residential based on the service delivery? Because I don't remember that. I just remember residential. Right. So there And that might be a follow-up. The reason why it's broken out on this slide into four categories and and residential multifamily are separated is these are the categories that, are in in the the state's real estate assessment, sphere of how they categorize properties. And it goes back to how we assess the different properties.
So the the residential, tax base is based off of market value. And then multifamily is really driven off of, an income approach, which is very akin to the commercial and industrial, how we assess those properties. But when we translate that into cost of services, when multifamily, even though we assess it like a commercial property, it brings a lot of the service requirements and needs and service demands that a residential, component brings. And so that's kind of the translation we make between, you know, slide 11 here and a slide and slide 12 when we look at the cost of service. I'd love if they had tweaked that, and I'll go back and reread the cost of services report.
But when I think of putting 400 units at one location Mhmm. And the road infrastructure needed for that, it's less than if you had to do the equivalent to satisfy 400 units of single family detached requires more road infrastructure. So there's there's gotta be a difference. Schooling, maybe not, because it's the same. But even then, you've got all your kids in one place, and they're not spread out. So you're picking them up at one bus stop at an apartment complex than if you're going and hitting six bus stops, probably. So and and, you know, maybe I should have thought of that during the cost of services report,
tweaking that out, but it's just something that caught caught my mind. I think there have been questions since the budget, both during the budget town hall and since from residents who talk about taxes. And I had more of these conversations on election day when I was out at the polls. I don't know that that we, the public, generally understand how multifamily impacts taxes in terms of both revenue collection. So when you mentioned the income basis that's used to to figure that out, I don't think necessarily that people believe it or understand that it's commercial when it
comes in because obviously the the tenants, the renters, it's not like they'd avoid paying taxes. It just gets put into their rent. Mhmm. So they're paying for it even though it's a commercial tax. So I think that's something in the budget this year we might wanna think about just in terms of how to help folks understand, how that works a little bit better. And in May, I saw Peter walk ins, but it might even be during that your presentation you do every January or February whenever. I know we talk about assessments and things like that. But, you know, we told a story last year during the budget town halls about how multifamily had
actually come down a little bit. And then there's, like, reasons, you know, I had proper ideas or suggestions as to why I thought that was the case in terms of why that dropped, but I don't know if it was accurate or not. So just calling that out as something to maybe think about both when we talk assessments in the early part of the year and during the budget town halls next year as well, just to help folks understand how that how all that plays out and works. Because, I mean, that's the the basic question is I see all this multifamily coming up. You've gotta be collecting more revenue from that. So,
you know and then that's the question. Explain that to mayor, kind of talk through that. So, I think, obviously, we'll know more about what is missing when we meet with the school board with their CIP requests. I think the only thing that I can think of in terms of what missing is, and I won't put any qualifying words on here, but we will have two very different members of this board come January 1. So a lot of your you know, when we when you think of budget priorities, policy priorities, issue priorities, we've got things in plan. I'm not saying that it's,
you know, that these two new members, one of which is sitting out there, is are gonna come in and, like, you know, turn the dais over and start, you know, making a creating chaos. But it will be different different things that we're gonna be hearing in terms of priorities and policy direction. So I suspect staff's aware of that, and, I think it's Regarding the commercial and industrial, I know there was a big, huge windfall with AstraZeneca coming. What I'm wondering in regards to our, analysis and going forward, if we get another AstraZeneca, which was, I guess,
initiate actually initiated by the state and we were fortunate enough to to be able to land that, because of the quality of our county. But we may or may not get another AstraZeneca. Are we looking into what we can do to increase commercial and industrial? You know, more so the the little guys, frankly, as opposed to as well as landing large, large companies. I'll be happy to try to talk to that just for a second in that they do have the slide that shows the recently adopted economic development strategic plan.
And, whether we were lucky or good or both, the timing on the work that was done over the past year, I think, to put this forward, it it is really good timing in that these goals line nicely with the work that's going on and that has been going on. I'll point specifically to goal one, and that is the continued work that we're doing, with our, national security department of defense intelligence work, our deputy county executive, Mr. Henry, is, I would just say, in constant conversations with our state and federal partners to continue to position ourselves to
not just support the existing Ravenna Station and the DoD intelligence work, but also to, to talk openly with federal and state partners about the opportunities for expansion, to show that we are a strong community that connects well back to Washington, D. C, the 2,700 workforce at the Ravenna campus representing three DoD intelligence agencies. They just are good community partners. They've been here since 2002 and they do good work in our community. They're good community citizens. They strengthen our economy.
And Ms. Lupisto, currently, you'll remember that the, Weldon Cooper Center did the study on the economic impact of DOD defense work in our community, and it's about $1,300,000,000 for the region and about half of that comes directly out of Ravenna. So I think your question was a little broader than that, though you're also looking at, support for existing businesses, and I think that's really important that, Ms. Kilroy's staff, has a portion of their time devoted to existing businesses in our community to do
site visits, to talk about potential for expansion, what are your needs. You are on the EDA and so you know that on any given month, they'll talk about, their report on it visiting existing businesses. What are they looking for in terms of expansion? What do they need? Do they need property? Do they need space and so forth? And so there's a lot of work going on there. And we're I think we're also beginning to pay attention to what I would call, opportunities with underperforming properties. Mr. Galloway talked about earlier, Fashion Square Mall. This board will remember several years ago us taking a hard look at the declining
tax base at Fashion Square Mall, which is emblematic of what we see across the country with these very tired 1970s, 1980s malls and the Home Depot, which this board worked very hard with our EDA and our staff to get these Home Depot landed and in. We think of Home Depot as being an anchor tenant for that property. We think that over the next few years, we could see resurrection in that area and additional tax base growth. So I think that's the kind of stuff that you're looking that you're looking for
staff to come back to where we may not have all of our eggs in one basket, so to speak. Yes. That's that's correct. I'm I'm looking for that. I'm also looking for the development of our underused properties. But I'm also hoping with any other new properties that come up because at the EDA, we kind of look at everything. Love to have another AstraZeneca. Love to, be able to utilize Fashion Square in a in a good area too. I just wanted to make sure that we did not forget other opportunities. And, you know,
maybe they'll all lead to our biotech, life science initiatives. But maybe they won't. Maybe they'll be somehow supportive of that. But I I think I think we are looking into that. Correct? And we're doing all that. I know the EDA is. So Yes, ma'am. We we are. We, I I probably could talk about this and wait waste much of the board's afternoon because I get pretty excited about it. But when we look at the recent announcement of the Manning Institute, the research center at Fontaine, and the connection back through the university up Rio 29 into the North Fork,
Research Park. Just so much continued opportunity for appropriate investment growth, and then it connects, I think, across the road into our Ravenna Futures Park. So I believe all of that is falling into place, kind of focusing for a minute on goal two in Life Sciences. Okay. And lastly, I wanted to touch on the agribusiness economy. If I could get a little more expansion on that, what are we doing in that area? That may be one where we have to get back with you.
I'm looking at Mr. Henry. I would like that if the board would like to hear a little more on goal three, if you if you would if you'd be okay with miss Kilroy coming back and talking a little bit about that. I'm probably not the best person to speak currently on where we are. Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Excellent presentation. A lot of information. Really appreciated. Thank you. Very well Thank you. Situated. Thank you. Supervisor McKeown. Yes. Caitlin, great presentation. Thank you very much. And same for everybody else. I agree with Bea. Lots of information.
But all based on assumptions. We have to ground ourselves because being the more times you go around this barn, the more you realize that things can change for the better or for the worse. So just recognizing for everybody that we have a gap now. Will that gap decrease? Will it increase? We honestly don't know for sure at this point. I'm just and I really would agree with what Jeff just said. And, b, I would love to have a little bit more information on the agribusiness.
I think that would be helpful, at least, for me. So if we could sort of think about that sometime in the future. I really appreciate the points, and I agree with many of the questions and the points that the Board has made. I want to just ask a couple different questions. I don't think it will surprise anybody on the board that I'm going to go to schools in education. And, I I have to try and figure out how I'm going to frame this because in the years that I was on the school board, I didn't follow the county board of supervisors' budget discussions and CIP discussions
hardly at all. I'm just saying. And it wasn't because the information wasn't there. It was because I was doing school board stuff. Right? And I honed in when we started talking about the CIP the joint CIPs and all that. And I've been listening lately to some of the school board meetings, and I'm a little concerned again about the connection that they're making to what our work is and what our foundations are as far as financial foundations, questions about why a triple a bond rating.
I mean, you know, just question and I get it. They're fair questions for them to ask. It's just that I think we need to think about, going forward, how to connect and ground the school board in more of the data understanding that we have because I think it will be helpful going forward, especially when we're seeing negatives, which could change. I'm also a little concerned that with the announcement of AstraZeneca and some of our work around workforce development, there is a sense from the school board that all of a sudden we're going
to have hundreds and maybe a thousand more kids in this community that they're going to have to provide facilities for. And I don't know how we get at that. All I know is that when we were on the school when I was on the school board, maybe when Ned was too, we could predict pretty well growth, but we could never predict where that growth was going to go. That was where and it was very difficult in why sometimes we ended up with a school that was low enrollment and another school had a high enrollment. It's just the way of the world.
Right? And there seems to be a sense from the school board that with the AstraZeneca and some of the growth, they're all going to be living in Albemarle County. They're going to be in the Western feeder pattern. They're going to be. And some of that will happen, but I don't know, given the location and given what I'm following with other school divisions in the state and the lack of families, populations growing, that they're they, I think, are anticipating. And I think if we can ground ourselves somehow or another I hope I'm making
sense while I'm talking about this, but if we can ground ourselves and help them ground themselves in the fact that that population that's coming in, some of those folks aren't gonna have children. Some of them are gonna live in green. We don't we wanna make sure that we provide capacity that we need as much as possible, but we don't want to overbuild because some communities right now are very concerned that they are on the cusp of overbuilding. And so I and this is not I'm not trying to say diss the school
board or anything. I'm just saying that if we can work together more closely on grounding ourselves in some of the data, if possible, and some of the predictions, I think it could pay dividends for us in the future, because some of we're and I would say that none of this is gonna happen immediately. It's gonna take years to roll out. And I hear, hold on to your seat. They're coming. Well yeah. And so I just think trying to figure out and I know this is a really hard task, But, if we can sort of center ourselves with more ground even of information on why
we do what we do, the school system is one of six departments. They're one of six. They're our largest as far as funding, and many would say our most important. Having said that, I think if we could work together somehow or another and I know, Jeff, you and and Matt work really closely together, but I'm specifically talking about the school board members themselves, if we could figure out how to do that with together as a team. And I guess that's really all I have to say right now.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Also, excellent presentation. I'm focused on the slides as what's the plan doing well and what's missing, and respond to some of the comments, just to try to understand them in my own mind. I really appreciate how this is tied to the strategic plan and keeps coming back to the strategic plan, which is really important for us to keep in mind. And the way that you have built the assumptions out and I think done so as clearly as you can, knowing that you really can't predict the future, but you brought it as far up to date as I think is currently possible.
And I assume that for example, in Slide five that the assessment growth is based on the assumption of the 5.5% or is it it is, okay. So again, the economic outlook may change and that would change that. Go ahead. Yes. To clarify the specific assumptions on revenues, in fiscal year twenty twenty seven and fiscal year twenty twenty eight, we would expect revenue growth to be probably a little below the 5.5%. And I'll say, if you actually look where fiscal year twenty twenty four to twenty twenty five was, it itself was about 5%.
So this is not to say that we are gonna see declining revenues, but that rate of growth may not, surpass. And so that's a number we'll refine because we're at a relative low point of information at this point of the year as we continue the annual reassessment and some of our other major revenues. I will, I say because I don't want to cause any concern with the Board. The Board did have on its consent agenda the first quarter financial report today for fiscal year twenty six. That year is performing as expected. There's no concern in the current year that we would have a sign of trouble. But when we then we would look in the out years, that's when we would see something where we think of that 5.5
plus economic investments would have a higher grade of growth. And so that's why we see that, it's tough to see kind of the slope of the blue line tends to increase in the last three years compared to the first two. I appreciate that clarification. It clearly does increase. I can't immediately tell how much, but that's perfect. There was a comment made about multifamily versus single family, And I understand I think I understand the differences in how it appears as a residential cost of service versus what commercial or industrial property might bring. I also think that as you look at that,
you have to look at the revenues generated as well as the cost of services because of course, we would expect the value or the market taxation, if you will, on a multifamily might be less than what it would be on a current average residence in Albemarle County, knowing that that residential values are really high right now and almost prohibitively high for affordable housing. But there's a lot to unpack there is I guess what I'm saying when it comes to trying to refine cost of services. I very much appreciate how economic development has been discussed around this.
I shudder to think that Emily is not here that AstraZeneca has really raised expectations, it appears. When is the next one? We have obviously a robust team working on economic development. I appreciate that there are anchor tenants and you may even think of AstraZeneca as a way as an anchor, but there's a lot that goes beyond that that will be taking place, I know. And I would suggest that when we start talking about goal six and customer service that part and parcel of the economic development is what are we going to accomplish
in terms of process improvements, efficiencies, ways in which we can spur additional activity by just making things a little bit more reasonable for those who would develop those properties. Also, obviously, we want to look at savings as we go through the planning process, what the process improvements and what efficiencies might bring to bringing down the costs of running the County business. Obviously, we'll have a long discussion on schools and a meeting coming up. In terms of missing things, I would identify two concerns.
One is a concern that that I just I know it's I know that they're thinking about it, but I also recognize that some people in the public are going to be alarmed that there's a public safety study that's identified significant needs, yet the constraints seem to suggest that we're going to look at five years of phasing them in. And of course, there's got to be a lot of prioritization there because some of those things that just now that we know that they're there, we can't really wait to fill them in if it's a real public safety issue.
But I trust that process and I know that that's going to be looked at very closely. The other thing that always I could say it and it won't probably change anything is that there's not much mention when we go through all this of UVA. And of course, we have expectations that UVA has built in growth projections, Walden Cooper study says what our future population will be. And to some extent, I look at that and say, well, how do they know that? Because UVA told them in some sense. I mean in the sense that UVA has plans.
And we need to be having those in our discussions a little bit more, I think, going forward, if that's possible, as we improve our relationship with the University. So Please let Ms. Mount get out. I'm sorry. No, you go ahead, and then I'll I just had a couple of things to add when you're done. So I'm not going to ask Ms. Shiflet to come up unless she feels compelled to do so, but and maybe to correct me or to add to what I'm getting ready to say. But as recent as a couple of weeks ago, she has done she's done a lot of work,
at the Weldon Cooper Center through the Senior Executive Institute, as has miss Dimock, who's with her as well. But specifically, where I'm going with this chair with your comment about using them to help us. We've asked them to work more closely with us, and they've been very, very receptive to working more closely with us on some analysis. One example, and it was, Ms. Shiflett's idea, is I wonder if we can get better data on our daytime population growth, which really helps to inform our,
strategies on where the stress is on our infrastructure. And also it could help the board with discussions with the General Assembly, our local delegation as we, infrequently but at times talk about our tax structure and as a regional economy what that means. And it also is it could be a part of your tax diversification, continued discussion about the people who live here permanently and are full time residents and may own businesses and such, but then also people who visit and come here for a variety of reasons.
And so I say that we've just had that conversation in the last couple of weeks. And again, I think that we want to strengthen those relationships because that is a rich level of think tank and analysis that these people are good over there. They can help us. And oftentimes, it just requires us to talk to the right people and ask. Yes, sir. Thank you very much. Chief Weissman. Thank you very much. I began making more notes when, Ned began because I realized I had not said all the things I really needed
to say. With the economic development successes. That's half of the equation. And I hope that we will all be presenting the whole populate the whole equation whenever we talk to residents because I'm very concerned that people will have this, oh, well, this is great, and they'll be all this money and taxes will go down immediately. But we need to make sure we understand what that that we're sharing that with the population growth that we are undergoing now still, 5,000 people per year, over the last three,
then and the pipeline of units I don't even have those numbers in my brain right now, but I know that that's something that that half the equation needs to be, I think, mentioned as often as we mentioned the income side and the job side and the AstraZeneca side so that we do not lose sight of the fact that everything has to be understood as we go along because the services the reason why I think we were at 18.22 way back in 2010 was because the population growth had been almost flat for decades.
And it has made it almost impossible for the business side to even begin to keep up because we're growing so fast in residentially. So that's just something I keep bringing up in my mind, and it does sort of artificially increase the split when the residential is still going so wild. So that, as I said, I look forward to those updated numbers as we go forward. I was listening in to the chamber, the president Mahoney's discussion the other day, and he did mention that,
economic impact study of the university will be released in December. So I'll be interested to find out what their people say about how what they're contributing to the community. And, that will be one more information set to be able to be put in with everything else. But, thank you. Thank you. Are there any additional comments or questions? Have we provided enough feedback? Is there anything additional? Thank you. Thank you for your time, miss Ted. We're a little early, but we are now scheduled for a fifteen minute recess. And I think we can do that.
Okay. Welcome back. Our next item, Board, is the first action item of financial management policies update, and this is led by Mr. Andy Bowman, Assistant Chief Financial Officer and Jacob Sumner. Good afternoon again to the Chair and the Board. As the Chair mentioned, this is an action item different than last items, which is a work session. This is an update to the financial management policies. And as some background, these financial management policies are really a cornerstone in the board's sound financial management. When policies are done well and they're adhered to and they're reviewed,
they really provide a framework for when sound financial or for where in in an environment where sound financial decisions can be made. By having them, they are able to insulate the county from financial crises, help the county attain the highest, bond rating possible, and I'll speak in a moment about what that means. And really just promoting our long term financial stability and linking our budgets together, whether it'd be the operating budget and the capital budget. When it comes to policies, there are really three things, again, to adopt them, which the board of supervisors first did back in 1994, to adhere to them,
which is an annual process, and then to periodically review them. That is a normal, healthy thing to be doing. The last time these policies were updated was in September 2022, so just a little over three years ago. These updates I would characterize are, are notable but not as significant and as much of an overhaul as what took place in September 2022, but we wanna do wanna spend time today and discuss these. One of the reasons of why today, we do know that, next year, the county will be issuing its next bonds to fund its capital program. We have not, we're currently analyzing when in 2026 to do that,
but having this review in close proximity to, the, the bond issuance is a good practice, because these are things that our bond rating agencies do look at. This is, again, a lot of the the policies and the factors do drive the county's triple triple a bond rating. The county has, three ratings and is only one to 55 counties. The data's a little bit dated as of last year, but only 55 counties of the 3,000 in The United States have this bond rating agency. 13 of that 55 are in Virginia, so we are amongst some good company in the Commonwealth. And, and also because of,
the implication we have there, we also made sure we as part of this review, we worked with our financial advisers to make sure there were no risks in these policy updates, as they work closely with the bond reading process with us. And, the board knows this very well, but for anyone who may be, you know, tuning in online, to supervisor McKeel's point, a triple a bond reading is a very valuable thing, because that one allows the county to borrow at the lowest cost possible. This is essentially the equivalent of having an individual with a perfect credit rating. So if they need to access the market for borrowing in a short term emergency,
they will be able to need to. Because there is a, triple triple a bond rating, whenever the county goes to market to issue bonds, there's always a good demand which allows the county to get the best interest rate possible. You could imagine if you were an individual and you had to do a home project. If you had eight or nine vendors just show up at your door, you'll probably get a good rate. And that is exactly what happened last time when the county issued its bonds. This is a very favorable position to be in. It's also very favorable because it allows as much flexibility as possible to the board of supervisors. If the board and, boards in other communities who have higher debt loads,
they have less flexibility in their budget year to year because so much of their budget goes to the very first thing, just like an individual who may pay their rent or their mortgage. Everything after that is what they have flexible. A low debt service payment and low cost of that debt helps to give the Board flexibility to do all of the other six goals in the strategic plan. So that's just a little bit of why that is important and given that flexibility to the Board of Supervisors. So in the executive summary, there are five categories of changes that are highlighted. I will acknowledge the first four generally, and I'll spend a little time on the fifth one.
The first of which is, the grants policy section. Really, we looked back and didn't receive a lot of updates in 2022. So this is really reflecting some updates to call out previous board direction, in terms of authority delegated to the county executive, just reflecting best practices and some other things with roles of staff and the board. The second item is changes to reflect best practices or recognize code requirements. One of the things we do is not only look at our policies, but best in the community as an example or the financial community. One area as an example was we realized,
we did not have a policy statement in our debt policies around how we manage federal arbitrage requirements. For those not familiar with the term, the basic idea is you can't borrow money to make money. There's a lot of compliance and things that you need to go through with that, and we just had a policy statement added in to set the board's current expectation of how staff manages them. Third is just adding language to clarify the intent. An example here would be we have a policy that every year, the finance department would pursue GFOA, the Government Financial Officers Association, their distinguished budget presentation and distinguished audit awards.
Really just clarifying the intent of that is to get objective independent feedback. That is why we do that, for that process. And then finally, just other clarity changes for clarity, brevity, and readability. But the one that I do wanna spend a little bit more time on is actually continuing a conversation that the board of supervisors had in March around the allocation of shared revenue formula update. And so I'm going to, just recap, in summary where that is. There was a, an attachment b went through this in little detail. So if the board is familiar with, I'm not gonna have new information to that today. But the allocation of shared revenue is how funds are really allocated across public school
operations, county government operations, and then the joint debt and capital program. Having a policy guideline is a really helpful practice for both county government and schools because it provides a little bit of a, a little bit of guidance on what we can reasonably anticipate heading into the budget process. Different communities will pick different ways to do this, but usually, you know, will communities with Albemarle and other triple a, they typically have some standard. So there's, just to walk through the math and what is proposed to change, the way this works is step one is the staff will take the increase or
the decrease in general fund revenues that are local taxes and those that are state noncategorical aid revenues. So these are revenues that are not designated for any other purpose. For example, if there's revenues designated for public safety, those are not shared. In the same way, if the school division receives funding for education, those are not shared. But there's a for example, we receive state revenue for a vehicle rental tax. That's not designated to any program that can be shared. So after that, total calculation is done, we then make some adjustments in step two. We're recognizing the change in the city revenue sharing,
tax relief for the elderly and disabled, any, tax rebates and performance agreements, and, the designated transfer of the water resources fund is deducted as well. What is new and included in these is the, affordable housing investment fund where the board of supervisors in the budget process dedicated 4 tenths of a cent to that affordable housing fund. And the board had a consensus at that time that not only that point 4¢, but how that changes will be dedicated to housing in the future as well, just like the water resources fund is right now. So once we come up with that remainder number that is allocated 54%,
to the public school operating budget, 36% to county government operations, and 10% to the joint debt and capital budgets. Now this, this final step is very important is that, the board of supervisors is in full control of how this formula works. They can adjust that annually based on the given needs and the situation. So this is a guideline that's very helpful, but this is the the policy intent in an annual budget. It's reasonable the board could always choose something else. So this is one the board has full flexibility. It's not driven by the state or the local government or any other outside, entity.
So one item that was discussed during March, and this was an item that the board did not have to take direction on back in March. They were not asked to, but it was also just conversation of is there a consensus in the board about what about that 3.2¢ that was dedicated for public safety? That 3.2¢ for operations will continue to remain dedicated to public safety operations and all the things that it funded in the fiscal year twenty six budget. However, just like housing, over time, the value of those 3.2¢ as property values change, as the tax base changes,
that will change as well. And so the board asked, well, what how should that be treated? And there's, two options, staff presented to the board, was not a recommendation at this time. And because there was a, a variety of board opinions, and there was not a majority, this is when we just wanted to bring that conversation up again in case, with any, conversations held recently or just additional time. If the board would like to do something different, this would be a time to do so. So there's two options. Option a, which is actually how attachment a is written, is just to continue that change in 3.2¢, not the 3.2
itself, just the change in the value in future years, if that were to be, split by the current policy. Option b would be if that were to be dedicated for public safety expenses. And so and again, just whether whatever decision the board makes on option a and b, it's just a planning standard, and the board may amend that in a current budget process, under this current policy. Or in the future, that policy could be revised again. So in that discussion in March, staff laid out a few considerations for the board, of really, you know, what would this look like? The first option, support just the intent to have a general guideline. The second area is that,
looking at complexity. And this goes back to a few years ago, this formula was a lot more complicated than it is now. And so the idea was, are we going back to, to a lot more math? But this is just one step. Staff does not view the complexity as a barrier to implementation. The third is really just a question for the, the the board's reflection about really, what is a simpler communication for board members when they communicate to residents where their tax dollars go and any changes in the tax rate. And then the fourth consideration was really long term financial planning, because this is one where, as I said earlier today,
we're not here to balance fiscal year twenty seven budget, and, either option or a or b will not balance or announce fiscal year twenty seven budget because there's a relatively small change in one year. So this is really about what a long term strategy that we can begin to plan differently with whichever path the board may take. So, this slide was it's an updated version of the math that the board saw in March, and I'll take a moment to walk through this because it's a busy slide. But on the far left, we can see the categories in the fiscal year twenty six adopted budget where funding is allocated.
The water resources and affordable housing have dedicated amounts, based on, the tax rates. We then have the capital and debt, public school, and county government operations highlighted there. What we could see in this hypothetical, and this is a hypothetical of what if next year we had 5.5% shared revenue growth? What would that look like? That number will probably be different than that, but that's just for give us an order of magnitude of what might be an average year. Because, again, we're trying to think about this in a long term change versus one particular year. So we see first in that red box, the change,
what would happen under normal circumstances shouldn't say normal circumstances under the current policy, where, capital would grow about 4.8, public schools 5.4, county government 5.1. Under option b, where that change in the 3.2, we see that, there's a, you know, a small incremental change where capital drops from 4.8 to 4.7, public schools drop from five 5.4 to 5.2, and county government increases from 5.1 to 5.3. Now those drops are not decreases in funding. They're just a change in the total amount of increase that would be otherwise provided.
If you would it's easier for anyone to look at this by, dollar amounts instead of percentages. On the very far right, I've highlighted that in the capital budget would receive about $50,000 less than it would otherwise in one year. So that's a relatively small amount, even over five years CIP. That's not going to disrupt a major project. It's just one assumption among many staff would consider. Public school operations, in option b, we receive about $300,000 less than they would otherwise. And that $300,000 is relative to the, overall transfer that we'd receive in the scenario of an increase of $11,000,000
and a total transfer in the ballpark of $220,000,000 And then finally, for county government, and I should say county government, but those would be dedicated to public safety. There would be about $348,000 in expenses that would be available for public safety than otherwise. So certainly, that is one thing that helps, but that's certainly not 348,000 that will fully implement the public safety study. So it is not something that does transformative, but it could be a lever of the board we're looking to, make a change in that direction. So, again, just to recap, in March, the board members had a variety of questions,
variety of opinions, but no vote was taken. There was no consensus. Some board members had shared that they're even still still debating on what their approach would be. So what we have for today is, attachment a is written as, no change to the current policy. However, if the board would like to direct option b, that can be amended as well. And so I'm, glad to answer any questions this time. I'll turn it back over to the chair, for questions and eventual action. Thank you. So as I understand it, we're answering questions, looking at the, attachment made and also looking at this Yes.
Allocation question. So super manager Malek. Thank you. I was fine until the very last thing you said because my takeaway from the board discussion was that the 3.2 was for public safety and was not going to be folded into the general fund because that was the way it was presented to the public and to the board originally was that this was for public safety. And we obviously have had lots of information we have learned since then about the increasing needs for public safety. So I abs I am very much because of that,
if there's something I misunderstood, then please explain. But, otherwise, I'm very much in favor of of the b because that's what we said we wanted to do, and I'd want to follow through on that. Yeah. And to clarify, I went back and watched that discussion a couple of times because no vote was taken and there was consensus. And at that time, there was three board members who supported option b, two supported option a, and one person was undecided at that time. And so, there was no motion. There was nothing taken. So it's just a chance to now get something more official as we move into that process, which is maybe perhaps why some of the ambiguity,
is what you're feeling now. And the water resources fund is option b, basically. It is that 0.7¢, and whatever its growth is, that's what it gets. That's the model I have in mind for this. Thank you. I get it. Thank you. Supervisor Galloway. Well, the at a bare minimum, the the housing coming off the top is important. Mhmm. I stated that last year. I did remember there being consensus that that would would be there. So I'm pleased that that was in the projection, both that was given earlier and here. The the part that I think were unknowns as to why there wasn't perhaps consensus
then was that the the study that we received in October hadn't come out. We foreshadowed that. And I can only speak for what I recall myself saying was that I was interested in keeping a part of that dedicated moving forward in out years, but not knowing if it needed to be the full 3.2 or not. That the study would inform us a couple of things. Like, once we had the study, we would understand, alright. Do we need to continue to dedicate the monies moving forward? If yes, how much? And then if not the full amount,
then what to do with that remainder? So that was kind of like where coming into the October meeting, we didn't really get into that discussion with the public safety report, for you know, that that's not a critique. That's just the what we didn't get into this conversation when we had that report in front of us, which I think was part of the reason why I was asking for further work sessions on those reports so that I could understand how to make this call a little bit better. Now you the way the way this was presented is conflicting a little bit with what I when what I when I read this going in.
The $3.48 is for one year, not spread out over five years. Correct. One year. And so there would be, additional compounding, in fact, with each additional year. Okay. Because when I read it, for whatever reason, I read three fifty over five years, not three fifty for one year. Sorry. That may have, been if I misspoke, the the 50,000 for capital and debt was more 5 because that's a five year plan. A five year number for operations for the 350,000, the risk of doing math in my head would be at 1,700,000.0 compounded over, five years.
Right. And then the other wrinkle was that if the three point two wasn't interested in being dedicated, I, in particular, had some interesting ideas of what to do with that difference. So if it was, like, a penny or a half a penny, could maybe go elsewhere, which I was targeting of the affordable housing dedication for. So I am starting to be very I wanna be sure I'm being consistent in what I have said publicly and what I have said to constituents, especially since I just went through an election. But if you get rid of where it's going, I was in support of 3.6¢
remaining dedicated, regardless of where it was being allocated to. I might have changed what I think it was going to be allocated to, based on the public safety study, but option b would fall in line with what I was thinking going back to the last budget. So if the public safety piece, now that I'm seeing this three fifty number, it helps me kind of start to do that, consideration of, all right, three fifty is about well, salary wise and benefit wise, it would be about three police positions. Sounds about right, mister Davidson. We're getting a nod from him.
Yes. And then but that doesn't include because each police position, that's just salary and benefits. That's not the equipment, which usually comes out of if we have one time money, sometimes we we will try to use one time money to pay for police and equipment and all that. Correct. But three fifty is about three police positions. Yes. So, if we continue from today for planning purposes to keep the amount dedicated, we can always change or switch based on during the budget time. But it's important I I I wasn't considering last fall
making this call. I understand why we need to make this call because otherwise, you're not you don't know what to tell the school division for what the Mhmm. What the number's gonna be the plan for. So the off the top number would change by that three fifty, basically? Correct. For that particular item? Yes. So, to remain with where I was at coming out of the last budget and what I would be a proponent of, while I might be different in where that three six goes, the spread of it, I think it's important to I'm I'm supporting keeping that three six dedicated for the standpoint of what you're asking today,
knowing that we have chance to discuss this and converse it. And we could even change this split if we we could plan for this. And if we wanna make the decision by the end of the budget cycle, then we we can certainly do that. That's correct. Really, what we'll do is we would take if, we've only heard from two board members, but if the consensus is option b or option a, that will really get worked into the county executive's recommended budget, and then the board continues to have the opportunity to shape that as they see fit. Yes. I I mean, my read of the public safety I mean, the hard part when I say three police officers,
I mean, because it's both fire and police. So if you did one police officer, one firefighter, two positions a year is not going to satisfy and, I mean, I understand you all are going to phase it out over five years, but the needs of that study, based on the past twenty or thirty years of practice, this doesn't get us a lot of play to get at what that safety study is. Yes. That's a good takeaway because I would want to manage the board's expectations that, certainly, this would help advance that study, but in no way would that address all of the needs identified in that study. Both of those can be true.
As I would imagine others who have well, I think public safety is going to be a bigger community concern this coming budget cycle than we all maybe even could realize. I think that's in addition to housing and in addition to education and other things that are typical will have been more typical issue items. I think public safety is gonna be more one we're gonna be hearing about from the community than we maybe have heard in the past. So that's interesting. So that I mean, that's where I'm at. I think for with with knowing that I might not say the whole three two
to public safety, but if it's all dedicated for the planning purposes, it it gets the job done. So option b would be where I'm at Thank you. For now. I do have a question. Oh, and the comment I would make, regardless of which one of these we fall on, I really similar to the earlier point about in the budget town halls, we're going to have to do a really good job, especially now that we did a dedicated tax last year. I think people understood what it was going to, but I even, like myself, coming out of the budget cycle, how it works in the out years if you continue to dedicate it,
because, really, we've only had the water fund that we've done that with recently, that we'll have to do a good job of explaining how that works when you decide to keep it as a dedicated rate moving forward. So just flagging that. The question I have isn't on the changes. I think the changes you made to the grants, all the red lines in the policy were fine, but for whatever reason, it stood out. And this isn't a I'll preface this with this is not a question of getting into a conversation of taking a stance on derivatives. But on page five of the policy, item f, the county will not entertain the use of derivatives as a method of financing debt
unless and until such time as the Board of Supervisors adopts a specific derivatives related policy. Now there's only a few counties in the state that even have a derivatives policy. So my questions for today would be whether you do or you don't, do you have to state it in your policy that you do or you don't? Is that why it's there? I'll I'll I'll take this one. So because derivatives are are are seen as a risky financial, instrument, rating agencies are looking for those things that could have, risk to the financial situation or outlook for locality.
So having a statement like this in the financial policies really is a strong signal to the to the rating agencies that, you know, the the the board is is not in favor of using something that's as risky as a derivative. So that's the point of item f, is to say that Correct. Versus coming up because I I think when I was looking around, maybe it was Fairfax that specifically states they're not going to use derivatives, I think, unless maybe they are. But I might have follow-up questions kind of in the hallway about, you know, in a in Fairfax County,
when you're got a $15,000,000,000 CIP and a 5,000,000,000 operating budget, derivatives might yield them something. But it may it seems to me it would change slower. Would that be a proper understanding? To to not get into the risk because the yield would be wouldn't be as, you know, as the numbers shrink, it wouldn't be as worthwhile? Yeah. I I think it's definitely more on the the risk, exposure aspect. Absolutely. If there's, larger dollars are at play, then the larger the risk, that is also at play. So the and it then I'm going to presume the answer to the next question based on your answer
to the first question, which is then we're not this wasn't here as if we had some sort of derivatives related policy in the queue about to come to us. We're just leaving it here. Correct. And this is not a high priority for us. Us. And and and that's just to get to the opinion. Yes or no? Yes. Alright. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Lucista Kirby. Thank you for the thank you for the presentation. I'm in favor of option b. I have stated so before when we were, looking at looking over everything. And now with the safety study coming out,
realizing we need 70 officers, and that'll take place over five to seven years. This will not solve the problem, but it will definitely help. So I have not changed, my opinion. I'm going for option b, because that is at least beginning to get us, there. Although we like I said, it won't pay for everything we need, but at least it helps. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor McKeown? Sure. I'm in favor of option b as well. And I think I may have been thinking about the study was coming out anyway.
Regardless, I'm in favor of Option B at this point in time. Having said that, the red line changes you made, I agree with it. I didn't have any question about any of them. They all made sense, making everything match together properly. And so that was all fine. So I'm good at this point unless you have other questions for me. But option b, and the changes look good. And I also am fine with the changes, and I'm fine with option B. I understand some of this is based on that study and recognizing what that study
brought to us. But I think it also goes back to Supervisor McKeel's previous statements about when we get in discussions with the school board of understanding what we're doing, why we're doing it, and also what are the constraints of the budget with respect to the schools, because this is obviously not something we're trying to do at their expense so much as to recognize that we know this is an area where we need to do some dedicated funding, at least for the time being. Anything further? This is very helpful. So today just to repeat this back, because I appreciate the board's clarity in this.
This is exactly the direction staff was hoping to, to have. Really, in step two, we'll add a phrase really for the, the tax increase in calendar year 2025 of that $0.032 The change in that would be listed among the items like the affordable housing fund, the water resources fund and everything else. So on this final slide, this motion will be modified, I guess, to be approval of attachment A with the modification of option B being added to that. Now if the board would like us to come back and just write rewrite that and bring that back on a future consent agenda,
we could do that as well so we're not writing policy on the spot. Okay. We don't have a problem. We can be Okay with saying it's with option And you don't attachment a modified by option b. Is that sufficient? I I think it's up to you. I I I mean, if it has to come back on consent afterwards, that should be fine to reinforce this. But I just don't want there to be any confusion. I don't want there to be any confusion as well, so I'd rather the motion at this point clarify that. Yes. If that's the case, the board may not make a motion at all, and we can just bring it back as a consent agenda item the next available board meeting. Sorry,
I'm trying to read a few different expressions here. No, that's fine. I think it's important to take a vote on this right now. No, I think so too because we consent agenda is just going to confuse you. All right. We're looking for a motion to approve the Attachment A recommended revisions to the County's financial management policies with the addition of the option B, revenues being dedicated. Can you state that one more time? One more time. So we're looking for a motion to approve Attachment A, recommended revisions to the County Financial Management policies with
the inclusion of the $0.032 dedicated to public safety as $3,600,000 That's really what it is. It's already in there. Well, let's not say $32,000 if the whole thing is in there. Well, it is a 3.2. I mean, it's That's it. Yeah. I think if you just say option b and don't get it. Just leave it at that. So can I Please? Okay. So maybe the motion should be that the, board adopt the revised financial management policies as set forth in attachment A with the revision adopting option B.
So moved. Second. Okay. We have a motion from supervisor. I think you are. McKeel, second from supervisor Malek. Thank you. Without objection, this court will call at all. Miss McKeel? Yes. Mister Andrews? Yes. Mister Galloway? Yes. Miss LaPista Kirtley? Aye. Miss Malek? Yes. Great. Thank you. And Yes. I'll leave leave one thing for thought, not discussion, but thought for future. And that is I brought up it didn't get a second in March, but that 0.4, I had suggested, should go into housing instead. I'll put that back out there, and we can talk about that going forward.
Yes. I think that belongs in the discussion of the budget, with the I'm going to keep raising it. After the New Year. That's what I said. Mr. Richardson. Mr. Chair, I did want to add one thing. No need for Mr. Bowman to pull the slides back up. On the brief discussion about the county's AAA bond rating, two ratings attained in 2003, third attained in 2013. So the reason I pushed the Board back to that slide, and we don't I don't believe we need to see it, I'll make my point fast, Is that this county has enjoyed a a a nice history of very strong financial
management over the course of decades. I was, fortunate enough to be in a meeting earlier this week with interested parties who are here in the area to look at potential investment opportunity. And in the meeting were folks from the University of Virginia, folks from the, biotech industry from Norfolk and, of course, the county. And the University of Virginia did an outstanding job of outlining the work that's going on at the university. And on their first slide, they stated that they were triple triple a bond rated,
one of only four universities public universities in the entire United States. So is the city of Charlottesville. And so, the investor took great interest in that, and the reasons are clear. But it speaks to a strong local economy, where it's healthy. The university has a healthy economy. And we we we have our issues like any other community, but we can show a lot of good things that are going on with and through the university, with the city. And I think that's just, all the things that Andy and, Jacob Summer said are so important.
But it's also good to know that we are aligned with our partners who also have a history of really strong financial management. And so I learned that this week. I had no idea. Yes. I appreciate that. At some point, I'll just try to Thank you, the Board, for the past two hours for all your attention and direction and feedback. This has been very helpful to staff. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. With that, Board, we'll move to Action Item 11, SE 20,250,029, two Thousand 238 Richmond Road access setback for clean earth fill activity.
This is led by Francis McCall, Deputy Zoning Administrator. Welcome, Mr. McCall. Good afternoon, Jerry Andrews, members of the board. Francis McCall, deputy zoning administrator, presenting the SE-twenty 20 five-twenty 20 '9, special exception, request to waive access setback requirement for a proposed clean earth fill activity. So to orient you here, the site is located along U. S. Route 250 East at 2238 Richmond Road. The subject parcel oh, sorry, approximately 2,000
feet from the intersection of I 64 Interchange. Subject parcel lie adjacent to Faith Christian International Church with Thomas Jefferson Foundation property and some hay fields across Route 250. The applicant proposes a 1.77 acre clean earth fill activity on tax map 78, Parcels 48 And 49, with access to the site provided through Parcel 48A. Clean Earth Fill activity is a permitted by right use under Section 4.31 of the Alamo Chapter 18 of the Alamo County Code,
provided it complies with the supplemental regulations of eighteen five one two eight and the associated water protection ordinance plan, which is currently pending approval. The only relief requested in this, is from the access setback requirement in five one two eight, which otherwise requires the access to be at least 50 feet from adjacent property lines. So Attachment B in your, the report maps the location of the proposed clean earth fill activity and the existing access route across Parcel 48A And 48 in relation to the adjacent church property and
surrounding uses. Parcel 48A, which is zoned highway commercial and contains an existing auto repair facility, And Parcel 48 And 49 are zoned sorry, that's Highway commercial. And Parcel 48 And 49 are zoned rural area, with Parcel 48 containing one single family dwelling and Parcel 49 being vacant. So here is the access shown in purple on the map on Parcel 48 And 49, and that is, actually existing access. It's existing, graveled, area. Again, most of the clean earth fill will be placed on Parcel 48 with a portion
of it on 49 shown here. Apart from the requested variation to the access setback, all aspects of the proposed clean earth fill activity are designed to comply with the supplemental regulations in Chapter 18, Section 5.1.28. Here's another view of the proposed activity just with an aerial overview. The existing gravel is shown in yellow and the proposed fill area is shown in orange. Access from Route 2 is via the existing entrance on Parcel 48A, which is, again,
developed with the previously noted auto repair facility. Parcel 48 contains that single family dwelling with 49 being vacant. And then Parcels 48 And 49 are under the same common ownership. So staff's evaluation and analysis of the proposal finds no harm to the public, to the public, and the adjacent property owner supports the exception to the regulations. The staff is recommending that the Board adopt the resolution in Attachment F. And I have the following motion and am here to answer any questions,
as is our County engineer. Thank you. We'll go through our order starting with supervisor Mallick. Thank you. I didn't spend sufficient time on the topo. The gravel road that is there, grade wise, I mean, is it is it within the parameters of what we're being asked to decide, with the exception, first of all, that the road is gonna be able to handle the traffic of the 20 ton or for 15 ton trucks taking stuff in? I assume they're gonna be importing to this site. Correct. And it's on a a a grade up the hill?
Yeah. Frank Paul, county engineer. I visited the site, and it's a relatively flat because it's going to be gravel access. Yes. To the right of it is a you can see there's kind of a steep grade. So to move the road to the right, they would have to excavate Yeah. Further outside of the buffer, but, and that would be a steep drive, or it would have to be excavated to be a to match the grade that's there now. Right. And In terms of improvements, they may just have to put additional gravel on it, but that would just be, like, driveway maintenance. But no additional disturbance of the buffer would be required.
And there's enough width so that with sheet drainage coming down the steep and crossing this heavily, now much more heavily traveled driveway, that it will not impact from runoff and stuff? There is enough width at the right when you turn off the entrance from the, parking area, it gets a little tight right there, but it's adequate for them to to get through. Yes. And is this the first one we've had where there's no proposed use? I mean, that somewhere in the staff report, it said about one building site for a house.
They they have not identified a specific amount of development. Our understanding is that they have a site that they're moving the dirt from, and this they also own these properties that they're also putting this this, fill on. But this particular property, not aware of any anything submitted as far as for any further development at at the time. And the fill site is in the RA? I'm sorry? The fill site is RA right now? Correct. Okay. Alright. That's all my questions. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Cowler? I appreciate that the report was well done.
I mean, it was very sometimes these things like, what? I have to re but it was it didn't actually come out with a whole lot of questions, and I think supervisor Malek's questions clarified anything that was remaining. So thank you. Thank you. Supervisor LaKeith Vergheen? So they're proposing this clean fill for a possible development. We don't know what you I I don't know. They didn't they have not really specified that. They say development in their narrative, but, it could be for another house Sure. That Okay. Theoretically. But, no proposals are in front of us at this time as far as that goes.
And you feel confident regarding, what supervisor Malek brought up regarding the roads and everything? Yes. Okay. I have no problems with this. Supervisor McHugh. I have no questions. Thank you very much. I apologize, but I looked at this before, and I still am not convinced I fully understand the topography. I see it goes uphill as you go to the right. But is there a low spot? Where is the low spot at? I believe the lowest spot is gonna be at the At the at the entrance where they're moving in and then moving up. In the fill area, is it is it the low at the left The fill area.
Yeah. Or is it somewhere I believe the WPO application, which is attachment c, I think, has that more some more some more of those details. I did not include that in in any of my, visuals here. I'm just trying to understand what it's accomplishing with respect to that hill, whether there's another hill on the other side or whether it's just changing where the hill is. Yeah. It's going from the lower. It's it's going to be obviously higher where it essentially fills in at the top of kind of in the middle of the of the fill area,
that orange outline there. It it's that that's gonna be the higher, elevation. No. Yeah. So the the topo slopes from Left. Right down to the left. The stream is on the left of your, screen, so everything drains as you'd expect towards the screen. Okay. So Yes. There isn't any additional grade there, going doesn't change grade. It's consistently downhill to the left. There is a change in grade, which is the fill that's going in there. So it is raising the grade in that within that orange Okay.
The direction of slope, that's all I did. Correct. No. No change in Okay. I just thank you. That was helpful. I wanted to make sure I understood that. My understanding is we're dealing with something that is vi right except for the location of the road being closer than the 50 feet and that's why we're being asked to look at this. That's correct. I have no problem with this. And it is in the Scottsdale District, but with supervisor Pruitt not being here, I'm looking for I'll go ahead. I move to adopt the resolution attachment F to approve SC twenty twenty five-twenty
nine, 2238 Richmond Road, access set back for clean earth fill activity for the reasons stated in the staff report. Second. We have a motion from supervisor Lupisto Kirtle, second from supervisor McKeel. Without objection, the clerk will call the roll. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lupista Curley? Aye. Ms. Malek? Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Paul. Warren, this brings us to from the County Executive. We have a report today. I do have a brief presentation, Board, some of the good work that's going on across County government.
I'll take just a couple of minutes and I'll take an opportunity to, again, really appreciate the work of our CAPE Division Community and Public Engagement led by Abby Stump, but she's got a wonderful staff that reached through the departments and really were looking for good work connected to our strategic plan, but also board knowing that we're working our government is working, seven days a week, and we just don't have time to see everything that's going on that matters. And I hope this report will offer the Board and the community a little bit
of the stuff that we're involved in on a day to day basis. First of all, this is something that I know that our board is familiar with. Last, November 11 at eleven a. M, we were in this building and American Legion Post-seventy four hosted the event to commemorate Veterans Day in Lane Auditorium. The event brought together residents, veterans, families, elected officials from our area to recognize those who have served. This year's, ceremony emphasized gratitude, unity and recognition of service and sacrifice. I will make a personal observation.
This the bottom part of this auditorium was almost full. And so it was really heartwarming to see the number of community members who were here to take advantage of this wonderful event. And also, you can see in the background, one of our local high schools, had, their symphony orchestra here, and it really added a lot to the ceremony. More than 120 residents joined the country gathering community event at Simpson Park. The event featured live music, dancing, opportunities for neighbors to connect,
community organizations set up booths, shared resources with families. Attendees enjoyed a welcoming and formal atmosphere at one of the county's southern area parks. The event has been part of an ongoing effort by Ed Brooks, Jesse Brookins, Tamara Ryan, to strengthen our community connections in a really important area of our county. So it's a nice picture and it and it was a well attended event. So good good good opportunity to be in the community. The Office of Housing offered an in person support, to assist residents that were applying for housing choice vouchers waiting list.
The Office of Housing staff provided an open house to help residents navigate the wait list application process. Team members helped answer questions, review documentation, ensure residents could submit applications that were complete. The approach helped to reduce barriers to those who may not have access to technology or the support at home, and it also reflects our county's commitment to expanding access to services and resources. This photo includes Anthony Harrow and, Tyshae Chambers, both of which they work for the Office of Housing.
So we're glad to have these folks, in our building and reaching to the community to see what we can do to help. Boy, I was surprised at these numbers. Parks and Recreation and Albemarle County Public Schools have been partnering for thirty two years to offer our middle school sports programs, to our local schools. Cross country remains one of the most popular programs, strong participation growth year over year. Recently, a meet was held with 178 middle school students that were competing. The program helps to build both health, confidence, teamwork for students to become,
hopefully going on to high school and compete. Parks and Recreation continues to adapt and grow offerings based on student interest and school needs. Parks and Recreation is projecting 400 participants for the upcoming middle school girls volleyball season. So we've got a good relationship with schools. And hats off to Bob Krickenberger and their team to connect and and and, share our resources and get our kids out moving in our community. This is another partnership. More than 120 high school students gathered for Albemarle County's Youth Climate Summit.
The event was organized by Facilities and Environmental Services and Communities and Public Engagement Office in partnership with public schools. Students explored climate science resilience, real local challenges with 28 experts from regional organizations, 28 experts from regional organizations. The event supported youth leadership. It connected to the learning to their learning and to the county's climate action goals and initiatives. And just observation, board year out as much or more than anyone, but these kids are really interested in climate.
They really are. Okay? So board, here's really a neat picture from last week. Albemarle County, the city of Charlottesville and the University of Virginia celebrated alongside our own Virginia VDOT, Department of Transportation for the opening of the new pedestrian bridge over Route 29. The project represents a collaboration between the city, the county, the university and VDOT. It's a successful result of the Solutions '29 planning effort. The event highlighted how coordinated regional planning can lead to meaningful mobility improvements.
This is a final piece of the larger hydraulic road Route 29 bundle. The bridge greatly improves safety and connectivity for people that walk, bike and use transit along this corridor. The bundle also included a signalized pedestrian crossing and reconfigured traffic movements at Hydraulic 29 intersections, new roundabout at Hillsdale Drive and Hydraulic Road, improvements at Hydraulic Road, Brandywine Drive and Hydraulic Road, Michie Drive, including converted turn lanes, directional medians, extended shared use paths. This is a dangerous stretch of road,
and it has been for years. And we'll hear, unfortunately, several times a year of fatalities, people walking usually trying to navigate and cross multi lanes going from one side to the other. I hope this is used. And I believe one of the board members mentioned earlier too that that connectivity back over to the Old Gold's Gym property, that may increase the likelihood of a good economic development project in that area. That's a nice piece of property. Okay? Albemarle County launched Albemarle County Ascent, a new professional development program for employees that focuses on score,
core skill development. The county is partnering with Piedmont Virginia Community College, PVCC, to deliver expert led interactive trainings. Albemarra Ascent is a development series designed to build consistent high quality professional skills across our organization. This program will include seven classes on topics like meeting facilitation, conflict resolution, time management and each session offered twice for scheduling flexibility. Staff chooses classes that are most relevant and also has an opportunity to connect with
colleagues from other departments and we're using our very own community college to get this done. So this is a nice partnership. We appreciate, PVCC very much. Three Albemarle County staff members received recognition for professional achievements and expertise. Serena Gruea and Kate presented the was presented, she presented at the American Institute of Architects Conference sharing Albemarle County's approach to meaningful community engagement. Dirk Kingma in Community Development earned the Master Code Professional designation,
the highest credential that is given by the International Code Council. And finally, to the far right, Steve Davis, Parks and Recreation graduated with NRPA's Supervisors Management School that strengthens his leadership capacity within the department. These accomplishments reflect depth of knowledge, professionalism across county staff that and they, in turn, provide services to our citizens. So Almar County Fire Rescue completed a week long immediately dangerous to life and health
training series with realistic fire and EMS scenarios. Over seven days, 166 career professional, personnel participated in mandatory live burn scenarios. This year's training used a trailer to simulate a fire inside of a mobile home, offering a tightly constrained realistic environment for our crews. The crews also had to remove a victim from the live fire. They had to shift gears and begin treatment on the patient once, taken from the burning home. This ranged from simple burn care to more complicated care involving medication dosage calculations,
field intubations of an airway. ACFR's training division developed the scenarios months in advance and managed the extensive setup, teardown, equipment relocation while working seven straight days to deliver high quality training across the department. Again, 166 staff went through this training. So I believe this is my last one, Board. Recently, a community member sent a letter expressing gratitude for the compassion and professionalism of our ACPD officers during a suicide call for service.
I got this letter, and the reason that I took note is that this is six months old. This letter goes into detail about what happened and what those officers meant on the scene, during this terrible, terrible time of tragedy for this resident in Albemarle County. Listed the officers by name and said six months later after this tragic event, I I vividly remember how these people treated me and dealt with me during maybe the most difficult time in this person's life,
working through a family, death. And so I just I just wanted to bring this to your attention because our people in the field, they see people at their worst and at their greatest time of need. And I'm just so proud of it's not just police and fire. It's also our other departments that are in the field every day. It's social services. It's community development. These people are in the field every day, but police and fire are front frontline first responders. And, I just really, really, wanted to, express my thanks and continuing support for our training,
for our work with mental resiliency, mental health support to all of our, department personnel. And, and I know that these folks were also recognized at ACPD's event yesterday evening, but I did want to bring that to our board. So that is my report for December, for November, and I'll be happy to answer questions. And, board, do you know that we always package this and send this to you in your email in case you're in the community and you need to reference this material? Thank you, sir. Thank you. The supervisor now. Oh, I'm overwhelmed. Thank you.
That's it. Superfessor Cohen? Thank you, mister Richardson. I always I always look forward to these updates, so thank you. Thank you for the presentation, Mr. Richardson. That was very good, as usual. Thank you, Jeff. Great information too for the community. I also share my appreciation. I was there on the eleventh with the ceremony, and it was packed, for the Veterans Day. It was bittersweet, though, that there were no World War II vets. We're starting to get to that point. So, it's sad. Great agenda, so appreciate it.
Thank you for the report. With that, Board, we are to from the Board, committee reports on matters not listed on the agenda. So we'll go back to our orders. Supervisor Malek. I guess what I'll do is take a few seconds just to report on who spoke at the various committees at BECO conference that I attended. And then, if people want more information, they can get back to me. For the environment, energy, and land use steering committee, overhanging was a whole lot of discussion about energy and water for data centers. But also, Bryant Thomas,
who's the water resources division director at DEQ, updated people about the water supply planning that's going on regionally. Pardon me. Sorry. And provided good information about that. He did admit that $25,000 per planning district was not sufficient state funds to get anything done, but didn't have a check-in his pocket. So we'll see what happens with next year's budget on that because how they expect this to happen without that is ridiculous. Bill Burry, who's senior vice president at Dominion, many of you have met him, I'm sure,
talked about load demand, and it was a really important I called it to myself Energy one zero one. I I learned so much just from the real basics that he put in, all the different terminology and stuff like that, and also what their approach is, which makes me grind my teeth a lot of the time, but I was still very glad for the information. In the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, Charlie Lindecombe talked from the, Opioid Abatement Authority about the tremendous resources which have come to Virginia from that, and they're passing it down.
They're also, of course, I left my notes at home, grant opportunities through the December for localities to apply for the, for revenue from the authority for various programs. And I will dig that out when I get home and bring it because I was planning to report on that today. And board of directors lots of discussion with the board of directors about SNAP and how the county the counties were gonna be facing you know, picking up some very serious deficits. Grateful that things have temporarily resolved themselves.
Still a lot of support for serious implementation of the JLR education study, so there are still huge gaps involved there. Everybody is quite hopeful about the 1% construction sales tax. So we'll see how that goes forward. And just today, I listed in on the Water Commission, who is looking at Chesapeake Bay items, but also several different bills are already in the drafting stage about regulation of sludge, which is great because we certainly have thousands of acres in Albemarle and several different
magisterial districts which are directly impacted by this. And, since the federal government's not gonna be doing anything, the state and local are gonna have to fill the gap, I guess, on that. But there'll be more when I have it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Supervisor Calloway. I'll just remind on December 17, that's when the MPO is gonna meet, that we we talked about that at the last meeting that there'll be a presentation on transportation funding, which is more of an understanding how it works kind of thing. That's at 04:00 that day. At VAECO, the two committees that I sit on are the community economic and workforce development.
The same mister Thomas, the b d v d e q. I'm sorry. He gave more of a presentation on, sewage septic pumpouts and the problem with places not accepting it, which is more of a issue for the Eastern Shore, because it meaning that if they have to take it further away to find facilities that will take the and I've got the word that's used for the material, septage. Uh-huh. That creates higher costs for residents, etcetera. So that was the main presentation there. There there was some, talk about preview of the Virginia General Assembly by the VACO staff.
One little item to note, in enterprise zones, there's grants that can happen for economic development reasons, but there may be some consideration, or support for when we talk about, like, business ready sites, but doing the same thing for affordable housing. So think home ready sites. Mhmm. And maybe coming up with some grant programs or getting creative with grant programs that could help with affordable housing in similar fashion, which I think is great because a lot of this stuff, even here locally, we've talked in the past about how the process really can be parallel to how
economic development projects work. Working with, you know, whether it's a PPE or a PPP or whatever it's going to be, with our incentive program that it can follow along that same line. So I love it when these get framed together. Then the, unfortunately, on the transportation steering committee, our guest that was gonna be the bulk of the conversation was unable to attend. I won't repeat my comments I made that day about that. But the same gentleman that was supposed to be there, delegate Reid, it wasn't I mean, he was hung up for they were caucusing in Virginia because of the with the
changes in the election. He did he did have another session on transportation funding. I wish I had good news to report. I don't. I and I attended hoping to find some small glimmer of hope in this transportation funding issue, but there's none. You know, the fact that mister Reed is a democrat democrat from Northern Virginia, and the year prior, delegate Terry Austin was the gentleman that basically did what he did this year, is a republican from Southwest Virginia. And they they must have got a memo because their talking points were the same.
Mhmm. Just from one year to the next. So what I read from that is when one member of a party says the same thing from another member of an opposing party, that there's collusion because there's no way these they don't agree on anything else. Why are they agreeing on this? Right. End of the day, count there are really smart county supervisors in Virginia, and I was riled up going into the meeting. And the supervisor from Floyd County spoke about the difficulty on rural roads, not even trying to get after funding, but just talking about counts on rural roads and how problematic it is because of
the lack of funding that they're able to accomplish that they want to do in Floyd. I'm I'm forgetting the supervisor's name from the Lake Anna, Smith Mountain Lake area. I think it was, I forgot the county. Anyway, she she took them to task on a multiple, not just smart scale, but other funding issues as well. And then, of course, Phil North, who has been quite, who's down in Roanoke, has been on transportation for a long time and understands it really hit hit home the point on smart scale. So they basically handled the whole gambit of the different funding pieces and that it
is a that we're all frustrated. It's not an r or a d issue. It's not a small county or a big county issue. It's everybody. And the fact that, you know, the answers to the questions that were asked went remained unanswered, although there were responses, is interesting. So I'll be curious to see how our local delegation, have what they have to say about transportation funding, and we'll see what happens in the general assembly this coming year. But, I think their focus is elsewhere, and their take on that problem is just not going to be a big priority
coming up. So sad to report that, but that's just the reality of it, which is going to mean a tough cycle for smart scale probably the next time around, for our resident. And I think our residents just need to be aware of it because they they should rightfully come, you know, advocate to us and bring concerns to us, but it's not just us. It has to happen at the next level above us as well, including the new governor. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor, please do. Yeah. That's really, disheartening to hear. We're not gonna be getting or probably won't be getting a lot of help regarding
transportation because you're right. Every county, every city in Virginia needs that. They need that. So, I think the legislature's emphasis will be elsewhere, and that's that's sad. So I don't have anything else. Supervisor McHugh. Just to add to what Ned was saying, there will be a new commissioner come January. We'll see. Maybe she can drag Phil back. We'll see. Oh, Phil Shequette would be wonderful. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. In the VDOT world, he is the commissioner of ever. Yeah. But having said that,
I appreciate that, update, Ned. And I'm good. Thank you. Thank you. I just want to give you a brief update on that was my last, as a board member, Ravenna Solid Waste Authority meeting yesterday. And we did talk about some issues that are coming for the future. And the fact that just in growth in solid waste, we had a couple of big months in September and October where we went up over 300 tons per day average for the month of September. And that's up from two thirty five the month before and where our average had
been. So looking at the capacity, recognizing that according to VDEQ's 2021 annual solid waste report, Virginia has twenty years of solid waste landfill capacity remaining. And the Republic's Old Dominion Landfill at Enrico, which is the one used here as a remaining life of permitted life of fifteen years. So the number of vehicles crossing at the Ivy Center has more than substantially more than doubled in the past ten years. So we've been a busy County with a lot
of construction projects, which have caused a lot of this. But in addition, we're continuing to try to improve on recycling numbers, which goes up, but not quite as fast. We still have issues where 91% of plastic is not being recycled and trying to figure out ways to deal with that. The glimmer of hope, if you call it that, is that there are some Southeastern Public Service Authority has been looking into a contract with AMP Robotics for an intelligent robotics recycling sorting facility that would take debris waste and determine what could be recycled
and talking about diverting 60% or more from landfills to other uses. It's not really called recycling at this point because it really tears it up in the process, but it does divert it from landfills and makes it available for other purposes. And the Southeastern Public Service Authority, I guess, is my understanding, put it a $450,000,000 twenty year contract with Commonwealth Sortations and A and P Robotics for extending their landfill life. But if things like that are possible, it could help us in the future. But right now, it was kind of an alarming report.
There's a lot coming down. So and that just does that's just a tip. I recommend the report if you, want to learn more about the challenges facing solid waste. And to make that even worse, Virginia is still importing trash from other states because we're so cheap with our rates and making shortening that fifty years to twenty years because we're so greedy. Greedy for money and cheap with the rates. Well, the reality is that we need to start holding businesses accountable as well, but that's a whole another story in a discussion. Getting rid of wrappers and boxes.
If there is nothing further, then we will go into a closed session, and I believe supervisor Lapisto Curley has the motion. Yes, I do. I move that the Board of Supervisors convene a closed meeting pursuant to section 2.2 dash three seven one one a of the code of Virginia under subsection one to discuss and consider the annual performance of the county executive. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor Lupista Kirtley, a second from Supervisor Malek. Without objection, if the clerk will call the roll. Ms. McKeel?
Yes. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Acousto Kirtley? Aye. Ms. Malek? Yes. Thank you. Okay. We are back, and, we have to come out close meeting. I move that the board of supervisors certified by a recorded vote that to the best of each, supervisor's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and identified in the motion authorizing the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered in the closed meeting. Second? We have a motion from supervisor Lupista Kirtley,
second from supervisor Malek. Without objection, the clerk will call the roll. Miss McKeel? Yes. Mister Andrews? Yes. Mister Galloway? Yes. Miss Lupista Kirtley? Aye. Ms. Malloy? Yes. Thank you. And if there is nothing further, then we will adjourn to December 1, ten a. M, Room 241 for a special meeting legislative forum. Thank you, and good night.