County Board - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon. Welcome to our penultimate work session um of many uh on the fiscal year 2027 budget. Thank you to colleagues sta and staff colleagues for being here and the manager and to colleagues for continuing to work through a busy time. Uh we will we have a number of different um slide decks and presentations to work through and we will have time for discussion but I will send it to the manager to move us in the right direction.

Thank you Mr. Chair. We have a as you noted we have a lot to walk through today. Um, we have we're going to be talking a little bit about the remaining capital funds that we didn't discuss in prior departmental work sessions. I want to remind you that there were a few departments here that did focus on their capital investments. So, um, that's where we're starting. I want to also lay out sort of just one, it's not a caution, but it's more just sort of a context note, which is this year's PGO capital, it's constrained. Okay, we don't have a lot of money and I know there's always when we get to this work session this question about overlap between what we're spending on PGO um to maintain our our infrastructure and what's going to happen with the CIP. Now, this year I consider it's it's a bonus year. Um, we're as soon as we finish this, we're going to get to move into the CIP. And so, we'll do our best as we go through this to try to lay out the distinction between what we're talking about now and it will be natural for you to raise questions. Uh, do not get offended if we say we're going to get back to you about that when we're looking at the CIP. So, um, I'm going to turn it over to Kyle Scott, who this is his first CIP and PIGO session with the county this year. So, you have to be nice to him. So, uh, I'm going to turn it over to him, and he's going to be the ring leader for all the presentations.

Mr. Scott, welcome.

Uh, thank you. Uh, so good afternoon, uh, chairperson and board members. My name is Kyle Scott, and I'm the capital planning coordinator with the Department of Management and Finance. Uh, as everyone said, we've got a lot to cover today. We're going to start talking about the capital the capital side and then we'll have some uh some budget discussions for the county manager's office and the board office. As Mark said, we did cover uh a couple of other uh departments related to capital budget uh parks and technology. And today we're going to start with a very high level capital program overview for fiscal year 27. Uh which will be followed by programmatic details for the remaining capital areas that we haven't discussed. and those include facilities, transportation, public safety, uh, Crystal City, TIFF, Metro, and debt. All right, before we get into the numbers, um want to talk about some of our guiding principles. With our current fiscal environment, it is important that we take a measured approach which considers the impact on the general fund, the everchanging impacts of interest rates and inflation and prioritize the most critical projects in this constrained environment. In addition to our local infrastructure, we have a number of regional commitments like Metro and we are required to meet our obligations as part of this plan's development. Although most of the discussion today will focus on year one of of the capital plan, we considered the future resiliency of our infrastructure with this proposal. Regardless of the funding availability, the need of our infrastructure and community continue to grow. The proposed budget prioritizes maintaining our current commitments and responding to emerging service demands. All right, next slide, please. All right, uh now to some of the numbers. Uh capital funding has several uh several sources that are dedicated and restricted uh to specific capital activities. This presentation is focused

on pay as you go capital or PIGO and short-term financing. You might hear people say STF uh totaling about $26.6 million. If you're looking at the presentation, we try to denote it there with that box or it's the first two uh first two lines. Uh later this afternoon, we will discuss uh transportation capital fund and the crystal city uh tax increment fund or tiff. I would like to note that this discuss that the discussion of borrowing in the form of general obligation bonds will generally be covered in our debt conversation later and more thoroughly during the CIP development process in a couple of weeks. All right. When the Cany manager proposed this budget, it was mentioned that we have very limited one-time funding available. And to provide some background of typically funding uh funds that remain from the prior fiscal year supplement the capital program for the following year. This past fall however there are very little monies available and none of the funding was able to be uh allocated to the capital program for fiscal year 27. Within this constrained budget the focus of funding for the 2027 centered on maintaining what we have in the most critical areas. We'll be going through the 10-year plan process in a few months, which will allow us to try to supplement uh some of the recommendations that you're going to see here today. Uh as you can see on this slide, even with the limited resources available, the um the resources are spread across a wide variety of capital program types um which we'll discuss in more detail this afternoon. All right. And now to talk a little bit about some of the funding types. Uh capital capital capital projects in the PIGO fund are predominantly resourced with the general fund net tax support. This is in the form of an ongoing transfer uh one-time uh funds and debt service using short-term financing. The ongoing transfer from the general fund

for this proposal is 6.2 million which is aligned with the 26 funding levels for this formulation cycle. There were some additional onetime resources. is available from completed project contingencies and some fee revenue in certain programmatic areas. And to give some background on the profile of PIGO project, it's a county asset that is purchased or maintained with a useful life of 10 years or less. And the projects proposed for funding continue to focus on a must-have maintenance where maintenance or replacement was based on the assets life cycle and replace for safety or cost avoidance. All right. Additionally, the PGO capital program is funded with short-term debt financing, which is financing of assets with the useful life of 3 to 10 years. Because of the shorter useful life of of projects, the interest rates are typically are historically lower than rates for longer term bonds. The finance this finance tool allows us to spread payments over a term rather than paying all at once. This of course helps with affordability of all the equipment that is purchased with this source. As with geo bonds, debt service short-term financing is funded in the general fund in the operating budget. This year, the amount of projects that were funded with short-term financing is higher than previous years because it includes over $6 million from the auto equipment fund for the replacement of six pumper trucks or six fire pumper trucks. Uh, this source has historically been used for finance equip to finance equipment uh for enterprise technology, synthetic turf fields, and various public safety needs. Um, so so far we've been up here a few minutes and we keep stressing uh constrained and limited resources. To better illustrate that what we're talking about, we focused uh or we pulled together uh the various funding sources for PIGO across the last six years. You could see that the overall funding has been lower in the past two

cycles. And as mentioned previously, the fiscal year 27 funding is significantly constrained by the lack of one-time funds. And we do anticipate this to be the case for fiscal year 28 um and as part of the planning process um because we anticipate there to be very close uh budgeting at the end of at the end of this year. All right. And then a key consideration um to consider as we go through this process. Um and some of the drivers include but are not limited to that and that are wait a key consideration of this project costs are are continuing to increase some of the drivers include but are li not limited to various supply chain issues, increased demand for materials and labor shortages. Increased cost of bulk uh bulk materials and large equipment are also major contributors to capital project price increases as well as longerterm execution time for projects with the increased project cost. One of the biggest impacts of the county is how many projects we'll be able to fund. We've had to make really hard choices about what projects to fund and where to focus investment. And with any prioritization of project funding, there's an added layer to maintain a balance between improving existing assets and funding new projects. Both are important to balance between the striving uh towards a state of good repair and funding new projects to meet the evolving needs of the community. All right. And as we have mentioned previously, today's discussion is focused on the operating elements of the capital program. However, in a few weeks, the county manager will propose a 10-year capital improvement plan uh which is developed on a bianial basis. The decisions made in the formulation of each impacts the other uh with respect to cost and affordability. As noted on the slide, the county has act is actively requesting public feedback on how the county should focus our planned investments in both near and long term.

The feedback window closes April 23rd and we encourage residents to participate. Um for general information on the CIP, please visit www.arlingtona. us/cip. And uh that concludes our presentation for the 27 PGO budget. We look forward to answering any questions you might have.

Thank you, Mr. Scott. Um colleagues, we do have uh five minutes set forward for just discussion on this short piece. We'll see if we can come close. Um I will uh not seeing any lights. I'll go for it with um a question just to see if I understand context uh on one thing which is slide seven and the blue orange and dark blue uh in the fiscal year 2027 last bar there's 6.2 2 million in ongoing and 2.5 million in one time. Let me see if I can take a crack at I I don't I don't yet know the original source of the 17.9 million in in uh short-term. Uh and this could be for anyone, you know, but I'm guessing that the 2.5 million in one time is a reflection of what a tight fiscal year it is. We didn't want to use that much one time. I'm guessing that the 6.2 two million in ongoing is fiscal reality so we don't commit a budget misdemeanor or budget felony. Um because there's things that we will have to spend money on over the next less than 10 years that isn't a one time this year piece. If those if either of those is incorrect, that's fine. If they're correct, I'm interested in where does the 17.9 million come from.

Sure. So the 6.2 2 million is the same amount of ongoing money that's in 26, same amount is in 27. Uh the onetime money is some reallocated balances uh that we had from projects that have uh concluded uh and so they're being applied to uh other projects, new projects in FY27. And the short-term financing is a combination of two things. It's the uh $11 million that's in the base transfer from the general fund to fund the debt service of short-term financing. And in this fiscal year, which is not always typical, we have uh the the purchase of the fire pumper trucks that that Kyle mentioned, and that debt service is um over in the auto fund. And we talked about that a little bit when dees was in here on the on their budget a couple weeks ago and why that number was so much. It's because we're budgeting now for the payment of those pumper trucks out of the auto fund, but it's in the short-term financing funding source.

Great. So, that seems the the that seems to under help me understand we're down a little bit from 33.9 million. Did we do in the development of the budget, was there some analysis and discussion of even coming down further on this to create room uh perhaps on one time or perhaps on ongoing uh or not? just channeling uh some of the discussion we had last year on reducing CIP projects and the PGO component of that.

Right. Well, the the the need is much greater than this. We started out and and and departments proposals that they put forward. uh the manager kept the level level funding of of of PIGO coming or capital coming from the general fund uh level and we just scraped some extra dollars that we could find from the savings of projects. So this is the bare minimum of of funding that we had on Mark. You want to Thank you. And I I would just add one thing which is that in the 20 years I've been in the county, the first 10 years I was here,

uh there was a practice, though I think it was disfavored at the time to scrape some of that ongoing money in in PO and move it over to the operating side. And it it's much like what I tried to do. I've tried very hard here as I did in AHIFF to put ongoing dollars for these capital needs. There's far in excess of the $6.2 million. Anytime you pull money from that, it's really, really hard to convince any board, no matter how thoughtful you are, to take from an immediate operating need and put it into capital. So, that is the bare minimum. And you can see we've been slowly in inching that forward. Um, the onetime money on top, the 2.5 million is a reallocation in previous years. And Richard, you can correct me if I'm wrong. When we had money at closeout, the board very thoughtfully would say, "Well, we want to apply some to Ahif. We want to apply some of these onetime dollars to capital needs." And this is just another example of how tight budgets are.

Great. Got it. I use more than my share, Miss Cunningham. And then Mr. Karen Tonus, just to clarify on that. Um, so the 2.5 uh that is so much smaller in and 27 the onetime funds is mostly the close out. It's not it's not reflecting on the fact that costs are going up on projects so we have fewer leftover funds at the end. Uh there's actually no closeout dollars because we ended last fiscal year razor thin out right and usually we allocate you know the a portion of the available monies to the next year's PGO right

which did not occur. So, these are just existing balances uh that we had in PIGO already from projects that were completed under budget. Pulled that money together to add to the project list for 27. Okay. And then um for the short-term financing, I I guess it's as a line of credit. What is the interest that we pay on that compared to our bonds? Maybe um Jason when he does debt can address that issue. 4%. 4%. Okay.

Brilliant. Um and then uh just noting on the general fund uh PGO projects here, it's things like the uh central library that is leaking and an elevator that is broken in the in the shelter. I just it seems like those are capital needs that would otherwise have been taken care of in our CIP if we hadn't moved things forward over the last decade. Is that generally true? Like those are some projects that I think have moved over time as we've made room for schools.

Some some projects moved up based on on the need. So they were funded out of the PGO operating budget. And to your point, we'll have a much more wholesome explan um conversation when we overlay bonds on top of this as a part of the CIP. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Karen. Miss Cunningham. Over to Mr. Karen Tonus.

Uh thank you. Um more or less on the same. So basically uh up to fiscal year 25 about half of our pay go would be financed by one time. uh and now we are in a situation where more than half is financed for short term while keeping the uh the ongoing so the general fund contribution flat about $6 million. So strategically, this means that like we did between 23 and 24, we have to begin to increase the one-time contribution to just re rebalance the sources, right?

Well, your budget director might encourage you to apply ongoing to the capital program. So So that that means that we have to look at more ongoing going into PGO, right? That would be a recommendation I would make. Mhm. So for me it's not so I mean it's obvious this this becomes now very obvious because ongoing uh which is you know very flexible money as as we just discussed is not anymore available. So and and we are filling the gap basically with short-term financing.

I Yes. And I would say that next year when we're developing the the 28 budget the short-term financing number will drop back down to around 11 million level. This is just a unique year where there was the planned purchase of the six fire pumper trucks. Um yeah because it was it was just available from from from there but still I mean the uh uh would you predict that we are going to continue in the descending from 43 million to now 26 million? Are we going to expect less?

Uh, based on the conversation we had around midyear and how we think we'll end this fiscal year, I don't believe there will be lots of additional onetime money available at the end of this fiscal year for 28. So, it's going to be we'll have some difficult conversations around funding. So, just uh I I just want to say that we're in for for increasing if if I could add one thing and this is giving you a little bit of a preview. We're not done with the CIP yet. We're literally we're multitasking. Um, but we have much as we talked about with housing, we have I call this uh a little bit of a meteor heading for us in that me t

um which is our maintenance needs. Okay, which we normally would have handled some of these

yearbyear here. They're growing bigger and bigger and what's going to happen, it's just necessary, is that we'll end up crowding out our ability to do new projects. So that's giving you a little bit of preview of what you're going to see in the CIP, which is as much as everybody wants to do new projects, we're going to need to rebalance the CIP and our conversations to pushing a lot of our bond funds in a maintenance direction. We'll do it consistent with the GAP uh government accounting policies, but you're going to see a lot of pressure for that. Whereas the last few years, I think we were able to accommodate schools when they had new buildings and do other kinds of things. we're just going to be constrained. Thank you.

Yeah. Uh that that's that's the answer I wanted to elicit. So, thank you, Mr. Caronis. Fiscal responsibility, the terms crowding out. Economists are talking in there thinking smart and not necessarily irrationally exuberant for next year. Onward, unless I see other I do not see. So, we'll go on to the next. We're close to on time with our little schedule here. So, onward to the next presentation. Right. going to go to next up is dees transportation I believe and I'm going to have Sarah Crawford and Va Huffman come forward VA are you doing the presentation oh Sarah is okay great

so just if you we did a run of show that had and I'm good we're going to transportation next and we'll come back to facilities and energy management correct right there okay so different slide deck but transportation heard you loud and So, um, when you're ready.

All right. Ready? Well, I'm starting off, so I think we're ready. Sure.

My name is Sarah Crawford. I'm the assistant director of transportation, and I'm joined today by our transportation capital funds manager, Vijaya Hoffman. And today we'll both be giving you an overview of our operating budget for capital for transportation. This is focused mostly on the PIO portion of the budget but does include some notion of the transportation capital fund. On the next slide, um we wanted to give a little bit of an overview of where we are in terms of construction. As um was discussed or alluded to previously, a capital project typically isn't completed within one fiscal year. Um capital projects span multiple fiscal years. So this map shows projects that are currently underway in calendar year 2026 with some projects that will be wrapping up in 26 such as the Columbia Pike transit stations and the military road safety improvements. Um, we also have projects that will continue on through 2026 that are underway, including the Crystal City Metro Rail Station east entrance and the East Falls Church bus bays. We will have some projects starting soon in calendar year 26, most of which will span into calendar year 27. One of which I'd like to highlight is the Arlington View Connector Trail. And we'll give more detail on these projects as we get to the CIP presentation. As we were putting together the slide on equity, we really wanted to highlight how throughout the past four to five years, we've really integrated equity into all of our programming, services, and planning. We have looked at equity in terms of trail connectivity to provide bicycle and pedestrian options throughout the county, north to south in specific. We've also um highlighted equity in some of our programming. The Vision Zero program has done an equity emphasis analysis and has targeted safety improvements specifically in

those areas to ensure that we're we're providing those safe facilities in areas that may need that connectivity most. The neighborhood complete streets program as well in addition to their um ranking criteria has taken an equity into consideration in selecting projects. And we also have our services, our art transit service and our capital bike share and shared mobility device permitting program services that ensure that we are citing capital bike share stations, providing transit service and ensuring that um our deployment of shared mobility devices is consistent with equity emphasis areas. We also have our CAB cabbie for all program which provides a reduced cost capital bike share membership for qualified um participants and allows them to avail themselves of this mode of transportation at a much reduced price. All of this kind of leads the way to the planning process we are currently within Arlington's transportation future which will really underpin the next phase of planning and programming and services once it's adopted um later this year. I wanted to touch a little bit on our funding sources. We'll go into much greater detail on these other funding sources as we get to the CIP. Um, but I did want to highlight some of the differences in these sources and why PIGO, even such a small portion, is so important to our capital program. Um, just to show that we really do need these PIGO dollars to keep some of our operating capital moving forward. We have um three pots of local funds that we use for transportation. Two of which are isolated specifically to trans transportation per the Virginia state code and one of which um was adopted by the county board for use of on infrastructure and open space in the Crystal City, Pentagon City and PTOIC yard planning area. There are a number of different competitive programs that we use to fund our capital projects. um

within the portfolio. The state typically administers federal funding, though there are some opportunities at the federal level where we do apply directly. But for the most part, the state competitive funding is moderated by the Virginia Department of Transportation or the Department of Rail and Public Transportation where we um compete for funding for operating and our transportation capital projects. At the regional level, we have two sources. um MVTA regional, which is a large pot of funding, but as you'll note from that line item and the one at the top, um NVTA local, it's really focused on congestion reduction. So, we have to really tailor the projects that we submit through that program to ensure that we can rate competitively to receive those funds. And finally, the commuter choice program run through MBTC must benefit those toll payers um in order to be considered favorably by that program. So on the next slide, this shows a snapshot of our transportation assets. And I'm just going to highlight the items. I'm sorry. Is this Oh, okay.

All right. Miss Huffman, can you bring your microphone a little closer?

Oh, yeah. Sorry. I was trying to get the pointer to work, but um maybe it doesn't work. I'm just going to highlight the items that have changed year over year. So, uh in the very first on this very first circle, we have actually added a metric. It's the number of protected bike lane miles. That's 12.3. In the third circle where we have our AT assets, we have 82 A buses. That is four more than we had last year. And it is the four pilot battery electric buses that we have. Under capital bike share, we're excited to say that we have 130 more bicycles. Includes more pedal bicycles as well as more ebicycles. Under parking, we have added a new metric and that's the parking sensors and those are the sensors from our demandbased parking pilot program. Um, so that is another asset that we are tracking now. And uh under signalized intersections, we actually have three additional signalized intersections. That's not a number that typically goes up from year to year, but we have three more this year. George Mason and Park, Columbia Pike and Ralph, and one in Crystal City. uh for UPS's uninterrupted power supplies we have added almost 20 but most importantly at this point threearters of our signalized intersections have uninterrupted power supply I think those are all the highlights for this page so probably go to the next slide on this slide it shows some examples of the types of programs and projects that we fund with PGO now we do tend to limit our PO requests to programs that don't qualify for our dedicated funding sources like TCF and TIFF. I will actually draw your attention to the third photograph on this slide for paving. So, typically, you know, PGO pays to maintain our paved streets. And in past years, we have used it for slurry seal in our neighborhood streets

and for micro surfacing on our arterials. Now the cost of slurry and micro have gone up to a point where we've determined it's no longer cost effective for us to do that. So instead we have moved to what we call crack sealant which is more of a topical application and that's what that photograph shows. So that is a new approach that the program is has started using as of this fiscal year. Next slide. This shows the list of transportation programs for which we are requesting PIGO. In total, our PGO request for fiscal 2027 is 2.3 million and you can see it is less than half of our adopted PGO for fiscal 2026. Just a few items that are worth noting. At the top of the list, you will see our request for paving. And again, it's specifically for crack sealant and for markings. And by markings, I mean the replacement markings when we do mill and overlay of our streets. So you can see that our request is down considerably year-over-year with this new approach that the team is using. Street safety improvements. The next item in the table is also down considerably. I should note that the 1.25 million that you see for fiscal 26 includes 250,000 for photo speed. So really the comparison, the applesto apples comparison is the million dollars going down to 48,000. Next is parking technology that is new this year and it specifically relates to maintenance of the sensors associated with the demandbased parking pilot as well as the software subscription that we need to get the information from those sensors signals and it maintenance. It would appear that we are dramatically reducing our PGO request when in fact what we did is we took a look at the life of all of the assets the individual components and we determined that anywhere where the life is longer it could be actually funded

with bonds. So we are shifting the the request requesting less pay go and we will be requesting more bonds as part of the CIP process. I think those are probably the main items I wanted to highlight on this slide. U I should mention that many of the programs and we will be discussing each of these in further detail in coming slides. Many of these programs rely not just on payo but also on bonds. This slide shows our paving program and with paving we measure the condition of our streets with the pavement condition index PCI. So the PCI for 2025 is 83.18 and that represents street condition that is near excellent. So that's really good news. However, it's important to note and the graph here shows this that PCI tends to lag investment in paving. So when you look at the graph, you can see the bars show the number of lane miles that have been paved every year. And you can see that when we decreased our investment in paving, it took a few years for PCI to go down. And when it did go down, customer satisfaction was negatively impacted. So I think that's really important to just keep that in mind. It's also important to remember that we just went through another brutal winter this year. So we'll have to see what happens with PCI when we measure it this fall. Now, the PGO is going to be paying to maintain the pave streets. And as I mentioned, we'll be doing that with crack sealant and also it pays for replacement markings and then of course also things like to measure PCI. Um it's really important to maintain our paved streets because if we don't maintain them and the the pavement gets to be at a point of deterioration such that the subps also deteriorates then we're no longer looking at being able to simply do mill

and overlay. we actually then have to go to full depth rebuild and full depth rebuild costs five times what mill and overlay cost. So it's it's really important for us to sort of maintain the streets in a condition where we don't have to do full depth rebuild. Um finally I will note that we continue to track potholes and potholes for the last few years have been tracking right around under a thousand which is exponentially lower than what we were experiencing some 10 12 years ago. Um you see the statistic here for fiscal 25 and for fiscal 26 we're trending right about at that level maybe slightly lower but kind of close to that number. Yeah. And then the other thing I I'll mention is you know just on potholes you know potholes of course are always a nuisance when you're in a car but if you're on a micromobility device or when you're on a bicycle then really that could involve some severe injuries. So it's just important to keep an eye on potholes. That was an excellent transition to our street safety improvements program. Um, this is the program within the budget and the CIP that funds our vision zero program. Um, the vision zero program of course um is focused on ensuring that the county as a whole, not just transportation, but on the whole supports an environment that gets to zero fatal or severe injury crashes by the year 2030. This goal was established by the county board upon the adoption of the vision zero action plan in 2021. And since that time, we've been implementing a number of different treatments, both permanent and pilot and tactical throughout the county to get to that goal. And one of the graphics I'd like to draw attention to on this screen is related to our quick build projects. Every time we implement a quick quick build project, we do an assessment of the crashes before at that location and then after at the location. And as you can see with just our quick build

projects alone, we've achieved a greater degree of success with reducing crashes at these specific locations. And I have to say much more data can be found on the website. The Vision Zero program has one of the most comprehensive websites in the transportation program. And just for anyone who's listening, I'd encourage you to take a look. There's a ton of information on there that not only explains the program, but provides information about different locations throughout the county. Overall, Street Safety Improvements is funded by a variety of different local sources. We try to use TCF where we can when the project that we're implementing is eligible per the state code. However, that's not always the case and we do need PGO for certain initiatives that are not eligible for TCF. This is namely our pilot and tactical projects such as implementation of speed management um like the tactical speed humps, turn hardening, education campaigns, and school zone improvements. Um, as Miss Huffman mentioned, the PIGO funding for SSI, um, is 400,000 in 2027, um, which is lower than what was approved for 2026, which was $1 million. The program is always scalable. We can ratchet it up and ratchet it back. But this level of funding for PIGO is not ideal for fiscal 2027, and we won't know until we reach the end of that fiscal year, but it may be a challenge to reach that 2030 goal. Moving on to parking technology. Um this is a new program um for the operating portion of the capital budget. The county recently completed the performance parking pilot. This was funded by the Commonwealth. This was an innovative um program that we partnered with the Commonwealth which was um a sophisticated technology and software program to detect occupancy um through um installation of um hockey puck type devices in the right of way um that through transponders tell us active parking um usage of that space. Um this

is something that allowed us through that pilot to moderate pricing to reflect the demand which leads to the optimized use of curb space. This program is key to establishing the data foundation that supports an informed and optimized curb management. This will be further enhanced through the policies that we define through the upcoming um update of the master transportation plan. So during the term of the um grant, the operations were funded through the grant, but now the county must take on um the operations and maintenance responsibilities. This may be more appropriately incorporated into an operating budget in the future, but for now we're um using PIGO. Uh this PEGO funding level will allow us to maintain data collection and analysis, but we it is a reduced level than would allow us to maintain um the screens that are posted in the right ofway that allow people to make decisions in real time while they're navigating to a parking space. So moving on to our signals and its maintenance program, we are requesting $360,000 of PGO. Uh this will also be supported with bond funding. And on this slide you can see just a few examples of some of the assets. So first we have the signal poles and the signal poles they go through um a structural inspection that we do on a six-year cycle. So every year we try to get to about 50 intersections of our roughly 300 intersections. Um the the next is flashing beacons and that includes school beacons and then of course we have speed indicators and we have a whole host of other devices out there in our right away. Can go to the next slide. On this slide you can see the condition of our signal poles. Now I should mention that we started doing the structural inspections in fiscal 2023. So this is our fourth year doing the structural inspections and naturally we started by prioritizing

the intersections where the signal poles were not in good condition. So at this point when you look at the pie chart we've got about 50% of our signal poles are in good or fair condition. And then we do have some uh that are in poor or critical condition about 27% and those have been prioritized to either full replacement as part of capital program capital project or structural repairs. And then finally we have about a quarter of our signal poles that have not been inspected yet because again you know we're going through the sixear cycle. We haven't completed all six years of the first set of of sort of inspections. So I think we can go to the next slide on this program. It's a proactive zone maintenance of the county maintained sidewalks of which there are more than it's over 400 miles and under this program which we started in fiscal 2024 we are aiming for a 10-year maintenance cycle. So prior to the init initiation of this program we were on a 20ear cycle. Um, so we aim, we've got the county divided up into 20 zones and we aim to do two zones every year so that we hit the 10-year cycle. And in the map that's shown on the slide, all of the green zones are the ones that have been completed, including zone N6 and S7, which were completed in fiscal 2026. And the two zones that are highlighted in pink are the ones that we intend to undertake the maintenance on in fiscal 2027. So the proposed PGO budget for this program is 250,000. I should mention that this is actually a 22% decline over fiscal 26 adopted, but we are hoping that as long as the program can secure the bond funding that we will be requesting as part of the CIP program, we are hoping to be able to

maintain the 10-year cycle. That is our goal on the bridge maintenance program. This program maintains the 38 bridges that we have across the county which includes 11 pedestrian bridges and these bridges are inspected by annually and they are rated on scale of 0 to nine. All elements of the bridge are rated and the county's goal is between six and seven which is satisfactory to good. All of our bridges currently are in that range except for the Alington Ridge Road Bridge which as you are aware is currently under construction. Our proposed FGO budget for bridge maint maintenance is 236,000 and uh this will also be supplemented with bond funding. Moving now into cap transportation capital fund. Uh TCF as you know is comprised of two elements. There's the commercial and industrial tax and there's NVTA local. So for TCFCI, we are projecting 19.8 million of revenues in fiscal 27. This is actually 14% lower than fiscal 26. You know, reflecting the the vacancy rates on our commercial properties across the county. NVTA local is actually a bright spot in the revenue picture and it is projected at 12.6 6 million and is 5% higher than fiscal 26 adopted. So because NVTA local as you know is driven by sales taxes and therefore it is going up year-over-year. This shows the budget summary for TCF. So expenditures is staying relatively flat to small increase year-over-year. Revenue is dropping driven by TCFCI and the staffing that is home costed to TCF is staying static at 43.5. Um I should mention that the decline in TCFCI is

proving to be a real challenge for us in our CIP and we will be discussing that in the next coming month in the next couple of months. So as we noted earlier um capital projects span more than just one year. Our our capital projects I would say from cradle to grave last anywhere from 3 to eight years when you consider concept development, design, public engagement, procurement and finally construction. So we wanted to highlight some projects that have been recently completed or are underway. We have our South Walter Reed Drive project which is under construction now in coordination with the Arlington Public Schools um career center project. Um that will wrap up in 2027. our military road uh safety improvements project is anticipated to wrap up this calendar year. Columbia Pike um which is just we're putting the finishing touches on Columbia Pike now with the transit stations and we're thrilled to be completed with that project. Um it was substantially completed this past December after years and years of construction and um it's starting to look great. And finally, uh, we wanted to highlight the South Carlin Springs Road Pedestrian Improvements Project, which is an example of one of those projects where we've been able to be fairly nimble because of an all hands approach within DEES. With our real estate team, our signals team, our engineering bureau, we've been able to get this project under design and underway in a relatively short amount of time. This is the prelude to a longer term vision for South Carlin Springs. We will be beginning the corridor study for this corridor after the conclusion of the master transportation plan update. So it will begin um within fiscal 27 um roughly in the winter time frame. Turning to the Crystal City tax increment financing, the TIF as we affectionately call it is used for

public open space and transportation projects within Crystal City, Pentagon City, and PTOAC yard. It's funded through redirecting 25% of the property taxes within that area to this fund for these projects. One of the significant benefits of TIF for transportation is our ability to use this fund to leverage external funds. We have the Crystal City Metro Rail East entrance on the screen and at $146 million, twothirds of that project is funded through external sources and a range of external sources from state, federal, and regional funds. TIFF and some TCF have been used to round out the funding for that project. Highlighting a couple of additional TIFF projects. We are able to do some TIFF projects um using Holy Tiff. Um it is a smaller source, but it allows us to do some complete streets projects such as the project on the right on South Street. But it also allows us again to leverage those external funds to do larger projects. We recently completed the Army Navy Drive Complete Street and we are underway on 15th Street South which will um close out in 2027. This is the budget summary for TIFF and expenditures are relatively flat year-over-year. Revenue is declining sharply almost 14%. And TIFF is is actually does not just represent commercial properties but also residential properties. Yet it is dropping about as much as TCFCI and that is because of the way TIFF is calculated. It is an increment to the 2011 base year and therefore it is inherently relatively volatile. Uh now this is going to pose a challenge not just for transportation but also for parks and so this will come up as part of the capital improvement plan discussions. So, in rounding out our presentation today, I think we've talked a lot about

how we're trying to use the limited payo available to fund the absolute core needs that we have within transportation. Um, but this will face um pressure on our program moving into the future. The revenue declines that Miss Huffman spoke about in both TCF and TIFF are challenging now and will be challenging as we bring forward the CIP in the next several months. And one thing that we'll also talk about as we move into the capital improvement plan is how TCF is used to pay for operating expenditures which on its face is an eligible use whether it's art service or capital bike share but it puts a crunch on our ability to deliver capital projects into the future. Um with that we would be happy to take any questions.

Thank you both for the presentation. Um just grateful for the work as I've accreted years just respect so much your rigor and thoroughess both of you and and the tag team back and forth on the slides as well. Colleagues open for questions. Vice chair coffee.

Great. Um thank you both for your work and for being here. I think this is some of probably the least glamorous and most important work that we do as a local government, but it really really does matter. And honestly, I think I want to start with two just like shout outs, which is one, um, one of my friends sent me a picture yesterday or two days ago of the new digital transit screens on Columbia Pike that are online with the upcoming um, buses, which which buses and how long it's going to be. And they are just so excited that that is that is there now. And so I I think people notice when we get things done. Um, and then the other project is the South Carlin Springs Road one, which uh is another one where neighbors basically as soon as construction showed up texted me and were like, "Oh my god, it's really happening." Um, and that one we know took a lot uh to get to. And so I think I just want to make sure you all know that the community does see the work and appreciate it as much as it can be hard to get done and disruptive as it's happening. Um, I think I am decently concerned around the decrease in the street safety improvements budget. Um, I know a couple of years ago when we had uh ample one-time money, we tried to kind of max out what we thought was really usable in a single fiscal year for all of the street safety projects. Um, and I guess one of my questions is around how you reach the 408k and really is that driven by our lack of fund availability? Is that calculated based on a projection

of of a certain number of projects that we can get to? Kind of what drives 408 specifically? Sure. Um, I I think most simply it's driven by the the constrained funding environment. As I mentioned, the pro the program is scalable, so they will use it to the best of their abilities, but they could do more and they would do more otherwise. Yeah. And um this may be I know we're we're getting to the end of things here, but this may be a follow-up question unless you know it off the top of your head. Um, do we know approximately what the cost per project on the quick quick builds is? Not off the top of my head, but someone Dan might

phone a friend. Phone a friend. We haven't had a backup slide in in a while, actually. But no, it's

nerds. You're nerds. You're nerds. Oh, there we go. Uh, good afternoon, Mr. Chair, county board members. U, as you know, our uh, quick build program is very flexible and so there's always a range and those projects. The reason we call it quick build is because you know they're identified and we act upon them quickly as opposed to the capital program the capital projects Sarah described which are 3 to 8 years. These we try to complete within a year. Um so it varies. Um of course within the quick builds we have what we are we call our tactical quick builds where you see the ballers or the flex posts the the tactical speed humps the separation for the bike lanes. Those are fairly inexpensive in general. But when we talk about the other side of the quick builds, we're talking about um things where we're hardcaping intersections, right? We're building out concrete. So that does vary. But in general, we've been kind of averaging uh somewhere between um 50 to 100,000 per project. But again, there is some variation there because sometimes it's more, sometimes it's less. But that's kind of the mid-range of what those projects cost. Great. That's that's a very helpful ballparking for for us. I think um I you know I would like to see us not slow down on this and I I really do think that it is a community priority as well. Um we we hear all the time especially vision zero now that there is a lot more visibility and awareness and the quick builds. I think when people see them pop up in their neighborhood, as we know, all of a sudden they're asking for more quick builds. Um, and I think the tactical speed humps are a perfect example. They showed up in a

couple of school zones and now I think every single neighborhood that has a school is trying to get those as soon as possible. And so I I just I think I think this is an identified community need and I think it's something that people may not uh as they scan the budget immediately call out, but I also think people will notice if we stop or slow down the investments that we have been making. So um I just pinned that for all of our friends here. Um, and I feel like I had one other thing. Uh, but I might need to find it. So,

we can come back if we need if if it's pressing. We for sure can come back. Mr. Spain.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, um, both to Sarah and M. Huffman, thank you for uh your presentation today. I just want to go uh in maybe a couple of areas here. Everyone, thank you for the update uh on our paving uh platform and and the risk associated with not doing anything. I mean, last year when I was here, I was a bit wanted to understand more about uh you know, the the the paving apparatus and and how that far that money goes, but it really made a lot of sense here today about why we need to be more proactive in these approaches because the cost associated with not doing anything is significant. Um, speaking of proactive, I'm looking at slide 13, um, with some of our zone maintenance when it comes to our county sidewalks. And maybe you can help me out a little bit. I'm reading this to say around $250,000 u, a payo goes towards some of our sidewalks dependent on zones, but then we have some additional supplemental through bond funding. How about how much is that? Like additional

Sure. So the bonds are sorry so the bond funding in recent years has been right around 700,000. Okay. So it is predominantly bond funded but but po is important because there are aspects of the work that really the the life isn't long enough to justify bonds. So there are situations where we do need to use PGO as a more appropriate source of fund.

Great. And you know for my colleagues and everyone who's probably watching I understand what we're doing here with PGO and transportation. I think it's also a unique opportunity for everyone who may be listening in if they don't know. uh a couple of us sit uh over at the NVTA and there's about 13 projects potentially that uh the public can weigh in on uh here in Arlington and I would encourage folks to do that um because it will help uh outside of PIGO and some of our sources is other lines of funding uh right that comes out of MBTA and the state that can help us with some of our transportation uh programs that we have going on. Other than that, thank you for a very uh thorough report. Um, again, we're in very unique times when it comes to budget and sometimes we're asked to do more with less, but other than that, Mr. Chair, I have nothing additional to ask at this time.

Thank you, Mr. Spain, for the sidewalk focus and and for your questions and comments. Uh, we'll turn next to Mr. Karen Tonus, then Miss Cunningham.

Thank you. Uh first of all um not only thanking you but also recognizing the amazing work that you have been doing over several years now to actually show uh uh the yield of these policies in data that everybody can see. Um there is a uh there's a small taste of that in in slide number nine about how quick build work on crashes. So uh but uh I mean there's not a single we we get a ton of considered input on or questions about uh uh transportation issues, traffic issues, traffic counting issues, etc. The first thing that I do is always go go to visit z and see what's going on in this particular place. And this is mostly very uh you know wellshaping my my understanding. So in that sense and a little bit piggy piggy you know writing on the um the discussion that you had with vice chair coffee when we say street safety improvements there are always two types. One is what we do to tame the uh how dangerous car traffic is. And there is a tribe where we where the the focus is to improve pedestrian and cycling the reduction. Is it where do we have more or less a philosophy what we would be doing first or how we would be approaching that? So what is what yields most for vision zero?

So as I mentioned we do have a variety of sources of funds. We focused on the payo through this presentation but a lot of what Mr. Neighbors spoke about with the quick builds and the hardscaping is eligible for TCF in most cases. So that work will continue. It's those pilot treatments. And if you'll recall in the last fiscal year or so we implemented the tactical speed humps near school zones. that's a pilot and that type of tactical treatment can only be eligible for PGO. So those types of innovative forwardthinking elements that we've not yet tested in the right of way, we would slow those down. We would not be able to install as many tactical speed humps or the next thing that the vision zero team has identified as a need. And I don't know if Mr. Neighbors, you want to build on that at all.

Sure. Um I think part of the question too is how do we determine or prioritize

and um going back to what the vision zero goals are. It's to eliminate all fatalities and serious injuries before 2030. Okay. Um so we look at and we do different uh analytics and different programs to really target those types of crashes and in general that's our priority. So, we look at the high injury networks around the county where most of our crashes are happening and we'll do a high injury network safety audit. Uh, and that identifies like basically the lowhanging fruit of things that we can do, what kind of uh tactical things we can do to help support reduction of crashes on those corridors. We also look at where there's clustering of crashes around the county and that's what we call our action spot program. And those again we look at how we could address those in the short term using um the SSI funds. What are the kind of lowcost lowhanging fruit that we could do? Um and then the third thing is we do this critical crash uh review where we have uh police we have a multi-disciplinary team that looks at all the critical crashes each quarter. Um we also look at any pedestrian bicycle crash and seeing what kind of things we can do. So a lot of what is done through vision zero is tackling those most immediate needs. Now the team also works across the county on we said like the more intermediate type program the quick builds and the capital projects as well. Um and sometimes a lot of the things that are identified in those different analyses go into that capital project program. Uh I'm trying to think of a good example. A good example is um military and nustous roundabout. You know, there was a risk that was identified there and that became a capital project,

right? Uh the reason why I'm asking that is because sometimes uh we can uh there is a there is a u a backstory to uh doing more uh tactical uh because it helps to save and and condition uh on the other side on the on the on the big capital side and sometimes you you save a lot of money if you can accomplish the goal with tactical. So the always the idea was to do more tactical so that we can you know uh no no use use stretch the the cap the CIP dollar further at the end. Um in the same thing so another I mean for me it's a it's a heavy expense the the the street light the the signals the the traffic signals etc. We do we uh I mean intersections we do here with these you know quite quite laborious uh and and capital intensive structures right. So is there any uh thinking of trying to figure out a a way to uh to do that for for less or or with a different type of setting

like we have in other cities. I mean I'm I'm I'm always saying and I mean I see I was you know observing on Columbia bike for example this takes a lot of uh uh I mean in order to safely put one of these it's it's it's laborious expensive it's really a lot I mean it holds for a long time I I get that but do we think along these lines

we do where we can and when we talk about uh you know the state of good repair obviously that's one area we're focusing on so that we can you know make sure that the the signal inter intersections are performing as we want them to. I will say in general uh we we do see a lot of opportunities through uh our our signalized intersection projects to enhance um the accessible pedestrian signals. we enhance the uninterruptible power supply. So when we do have power outages, the signal still operates, right? Because otherwise if we don't have that, you know, it goes to a blackout condition, which is a safety risk for us. Um, we also do other upgrades such as looking at phasing, looking at timing improvements. So there there's more than just the infrastructure itself. It's it's the other elements that kind of go along with that that we see as a big safety benefit um when we deliver those types of projects.

Right. And and soon we will be asking even more because we want signal priority and other things. Right. So uh does this fit here? Go ahead.

Okay. Good afternoon chair and uh board members. Uh I think uh Mr. Quanton is your question includes an aspect of uh the style of the signal and the cost associated with that. Uh I just want to say um there is a benefit that coming from standardized uh infrastructure which allow us to implement uh programs like more consistently. Another thing is that master arm allow us space to put on additional signs, sensors, and other devices. Uh I don't know, I I want to pump the team up a little bit. We use sensors for vehicle detection. So we uh unless it's the old you know signal that hasn't been upgraded we no we we no longer cut the loop in the pavement which is still widely used by other uh places. Um there is a cost associated with that. However the benefit is very significant. You don't need to worry about the utility cut somehow damage the loop and your signal no longer operate as designed. and also it give us opportunity to tweak you know the sensor the range and everything. So Arlington is really on the I will say leading uh group for technology and the tsp and all that those all come with sensors and devices that need a place to put them. Uh I always uh wondered how DC puts stuff on their you know pole on the side which sometimes hard to to detect when you have parked cars on it. Again um I will say the price that we pay for the equipment is very well paid back by the service level.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Caronus and Miss Pl. Um, I had a question about kind of parking at large and this might be a follow-up question, but it seems like, um, we did the parking pilot and now there's a cost to continue that to maintain the sensors and maintain the software. So, I'm kind of interested in like the overall return on investment for our parking um, pilot investments, the the built environment and software that we're creating, as well as the enforcement side. Um, so I I think we've talked through the pilot, learned from the pilot that we have a major payment compliance issue. Um, and so this is probably more of a manager question, but can we look across all of the parking efforts? Like what are we spending and what are we collecting? Um, and how might we do more to collect more? Um, so the program, as you noted, does allow us to collect that data and identify where non-compliance is higher in some areas than other areas, and we can use that information to um allow for enhanced enforcement. As to the return on investment, I don't have that number off the top of my head, but that's something that we can certainly respond with.

Okay, great. Um, and then on the sensors, I think this is actually Mr. Karen's question. And I I know we were very early adopters of putting the sensors in the pavement. Is that now that the pilot is kind of concluded I guess when we found that it was useful will we stick with that technology or will we move to some of the newer on the pole lower cost technologies? At this point we are planning to stick with that technology and to note Mr. Spain's comment earlier, we do have an application into the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority to continue um the pilot in in other areas of the county um to allow us to expand the reach of the data collection. Did you want to add anything?

No, that that was good. I I'll add that um you know we just did kind of um you voted to continue that program and so that gives us the ability to you know look you know keeping the program in the ground um in the areas that it is currently uh with the additional funding you know we could expand those areas because we have about 4,400 sensors out of about 5,900 parking spaces so you know there is still some room for growth.

Great. Thank you. And then on the NVTA question, and this can be offline as well, but I'm I'm curious how we're doing um in recovering the funds that were owed from NVTA. I know the the focus on congestion has always been a little tricky because they're used to expanding roadways and that's not what we want to do. How's that going and what do you need from the board to support that?

So, the language um in the enabling legislation in the state code is a little tricky on that. We're not necessarily owed anything, but we are owed the long-term benefit of the dollars that are raised in Arlington. And that is a very complicated calculation based on location and travel patterns. Um, I will say that we are underwater and that we um should be receiving more from the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority than we are based on that long-term benefit calculation. I would say that as a public service announcement, people can Google Northern Virginia Transportation Authority and see that their public comment period is now open for those 13 projects and submit letters of support to the authority. Um because while congestion reduction relative to cost is one of their main factors that they consider when funding projects, um there's a variety of factors including modal um diversity um and public opinion. So that would be

and it's millions of dollars that were out of balance. Yeah. Yeah. 100. Great. And then last um we can tag this for later, but I know in July we're going to come back and talk about snow. Um but I'm really interested to hear how some of the quick builds and all the bumps and everything survived the snow and what we what we learned, but we don't need to do it here. Perfect. And but you didn't go out to 14th Street and see as the snow pile melted some of the tactical items that I was keeping an eye on the Quincy Street pile. But yes,

thank you, Mr. Schwarz and Miss Cunningham. I'll I think Vice Chair Coffee had one thing. I just um I'll ask one question that's related to your earlier point and shared point of several on the vision zero. Um you know, uh Mr. Karen Tonus pointed out the tight fiscal state of good repair is something we're having to you know evaluate based on how difficult this budget is. But I guess I would say that the difference between 400,000 and a million. You know I neither want to say that every issue is a sudden crisis even though to that those neighbors it is. Um I'm not in a space to advocate for more onetime funding at this place. It would be onetime funding to get us from 400 to a million as I understand. Is that fair?

Uh I would say for this fiscal year it is fair. If I may add, one of the things related to eligibility for NVTA local is that the effort be included in the regional transaction plan. And because of the timing of the vision zero action plan and the last transaction plan, a sa a comprehensive safety program was not included. We're working with you all to get that included in the next um transaction plan which is undergoing an update right now and that would allow us a lot more flexibility in using those funds. So in a very long- winded way of saying we will be able to do more for vision zero with MVTA local in the future than we can now which may reduce our reliance on PGO next fiscal year and the year after.

I guess I would say that's very helpful and aligned with Miss Cunningham's efforts to support Mr. Mr. Karen Tonus and Mr. Spain on getting us to long-term uh equity or fairness there. I I guess I would say that um if there were additional one-time funding, the vision zero flexibility such that the manager could access it through a contingency or onetime funding would be high high on my list without prejudging the relative level of the vision zero pieces because you know down the street from me there were two accidents in one weekend and yet I kind of am averse to submitting something for my own next neighborhood not because it's a you the worst, but it's unbecoming and and so I want to look at the whole county, but there's some like contingency or potentiality of stuff that depending on if we're in a the level of fiscal crisis that or fiscal challenge that we that I might be supportive of, but I'm not in a space at this moment to be thinking we should add onetime funding if that helps. Yes. uh really appreciate the board recognizing vision zero being a successful program and we really appreciate the community for loving it. Uh which is what drive us to work harder. Um at the same time I do want to point out vision zero as a program is a total countywide program. So the safety priority has been implemented uh you know in other projects other programs outside of dees you know really all the way one of the goal of vision zero is to plug that safety mind into everything we do. So uh the pay goal amount looks significant of last year to this year's variation but the program as a whole is actually fairly strong and thanks to your support plus um quick build is not the only way as Sarah has

pointed out you know when we are in area that's eligible for other funding we are implementing safetydriven projects outside of the quick build funding. So I just want to point that out and we also have done a lot of the lower hanging fruit. The next crop will take a little bit harder thinking to identify. Um but thank you for uh loving our program. Sure. Thank you to you who are implementing it and it's not always a thankfilled part of the work but it is super important Miss Coffee.

Yeah. and um I still will be interested in more money. But um one topic we have talked about a lot in the past but I don't feel like we spent much time on today is the capital bike share investments because I know uh systemwide cabbie is doing very very well and particularly as we do expand our protected bike lane network and and bike infrastructure in general we want people to be taking advantage of that. Um, are we doing any additional expansion of Kabi in PGO? Is this a is this a CIP conversation? Where does this happen?

So, we don't use PGO at all for capital bike share. This is all TCF. Um, we we have funded expansion, replacement, and ebikes for fiscal 2027, but the longer term vision for capital bike share would be part of the CIP conversation.

Okay, great. Um, and then one last comment about uh parking and performance parking. The park mobile app interactive layer that showed where spaces are open is gone and I can't find it. And I I know it's still in the other like separate app exact nav that you can use. But the park mobile one which is most helpful because that's where you everyone uses it anyways. And so I just flag that as what do we do about that because I noticed it a few months ago and I've been checking and looking and I don't know what to do. So he's going to fix it. Well, we're we're working with Park Mobile

to figure out a solution. Great. Yeah. Happy happy to hear. I just feel like to the point of uh return on investment, one of the services that this provides is making sure that our residents actually have the ability to see what we also see. And um and that was much easier when Park Mobile had a layer that allowed me to see whether a parking space was open or not. So I'll leave it there. Thank you. Did you have piece to add, Mr. Neighbors? Okay. Thank you. And I wasn't saying you had to fix it yesterday, Mr. Spain.

Yeah. Thank Mr. Chair. It'll be quick here. First, you know, we only get this opportunity uh about once a year to come in and and I want to kind of lift up what our vice chair said at the beginning and really thank each and every one of you uh uh in the Department of Transportation. you know, I'm the junior person here and over the past 15 months from, you know, Greg, y'all bringing me over and showing me around and and to what all the work you did on the the Columbia Pike adventure, you heard about the what's going on now. I really thank you for for all that hard work. I I just as we think about pay go and and and initiatives that we have moving forward, I just want to ask a question and maybe I don't know if it's so much germaine to what's going on now, but I think it is. Uh I would like for you to do some additional work and engagement with our disability and uh commission on aging um as we think about some of these initiatives and projects. Uh have you had any of that over the past year with the level of intentionality to get their perspective and insight on some of these projects that we have coming on? Can you talk to that just a little bit?

Sure. I can speak to one element of that through the Arlington's transportation future. we have our advisory group um and the disability advisory commission has one member assigned to that group as with the other commissions and I I checked in with our team and they're incredibly active and have been really helpful in bringing that perspective to our long range planning and I think through that we've always recognized the value of every voice in our community but the intentionality with which those comments have been brought to the

uh transportation plan conversation has has been incredibly valuable for how we think about that related to all of the elements of what the transportation plan oversees such as car curb space management, transit, etc. So, I'll offer that as one item. Obviously, understanding there are ways we can connect into the future on capital projects or other items. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thanks all, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Spain, and thank you again for all the work. You have seen this board member at his most eager, Mr. Neighbors, and also I hope you've also seen us all thank you deeply for the public service because not everyone is perfect all the time who is advocating for their intersection. So that is just a huge thank you to the whole team and we'll we'll move to the next item which I is it facilities and energy management or is it

next up we're going to do facilities which um also includes energy management. people. Come on. That's all right.

Okay. With this I'm going to turn it I think I turn it over to Adil who's going to go through the presentation joined he he's joined by everybody here at the table. So over to you.

Yes. Thank you Mark. Hello Mr. Chair and board members. My name is Adil Jihan. I'm the facilities and engineering division director. With me today I have Adam Kulawi from the facilities management bureau. Ryan Whitney, our planning manager from the facilities design and construction bureau. And then Stephen Burr, our energy program manager from the office of sustainability and environment manage management. Next slide, please. As we developed the budget for this year, these three key priorities guided our decision-m in the facilities management area. We're working off a large m deferred maintenance list that Mark deferred to referred to a little bit in his comments um as of our building portfolio as we manage them. In the meantime, facilities design and construction is focused on delivering facilities that continue to meet our users needs so they can be successful in their missions to support the county. On the energy management side of things, we're looking at cost-effective ways to move the county's sustainability goals forward. Next slide. This map shows our fiscal year 27 project requests that Adam, Ryan, and Steven are going to be discussing in detail. I do want to point out that the central library plaza renovation project bids came in a little bit under and so we are requesting that we reallocate uh the payo for that project to the Madison Community Center project instead. So, next slide. Oh, the facilities and engineering division manages 90 county owned buildings and five lease facilities with it with a total portfolio of 3.9 million square feet. We support a large variety of buildings so all the departments across the county can meet their mission so they can develop the county's vision, deliver the county's vision. Some of these buildings and sites such as fire stations are critical. Um these include

network operations center, public safety functions and as these are critical services that the government needs to provide. It is our mission to keep these buildings operating 24/7. We also support libraries, parks, human services and transit so they can continue to provide the services that the community expects. Our building portfolio is not only diverse in its functions but it is also diverse in age. We have buildings that range in age from two years to 241 years old. Next slide. To support the various government missions, it is critical that we maintain our buildings in a state of good repair. The portfolio of buildings we have is starting to age and the average age of our building is 45 years. As Adam is going to talk about in his slides, a lot of the systems in these buildings are past their useful life and need an investment to keep them in a state of good repair. Our building portfolio is currently valued at approximately 2.1 billion. And the maintenance that is overdue on these buildings is roughly 278 million, which is roughly equivalent to 13% of our building portfolio. While ideally we wouldn't have any deferred maintenance, uh a more realistic goal is to keep this number below 5 to 10 within 5 to 10% range. Having a large deferred maintenance list can result in unexpected facility closures leading to rush decisions uh which may or may not be strategic and emergency repairs can be more costly than planned maintenance. Next slide. buildings. Uh how well a building is doing is measured with what's called the facilities condition index. And for this year, we overlaid our facilities condition index with the county's vulnerability index to see how we're doing from an equity standpoint. Um we want to have our buildings in the green and the yellow range uh for the most part. And as you can see, some of

the buildings we do have are starting to be in the orange and the red range. uh for the most of the buildings that are shown in red, the good thing is they're either vacant or we have an upcoming project to address uh the critical needs there. So this uh next slide, this brings us to our FY27 budget proposal of approximately 4.1 million across uh across the three groups. While this proposal is significantly lower than the FY26 adopted budget, we do have balances from previous years which will allow us to continue executing projects. With that, I'm going to turn it over to Adam and he's going to take us through the FMB request. Right. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, board members. Uh not to sound like too much of a broken record as we go through mine, but uh again, what you'll see here is a summary of our FY27 facilities management capital budget request. and it is a lower request than previous years, but we are continuing to perform general facilities maintenance utilizing multiple funding sources as well as program operational budgets based on their needs. And we also are are focusing on general uh betterments to community services and supporting critical infrastructure. uh the amount funded or requested here are just some of the initial steps that we are looking to take towards addressing our total deferred maintenance and moving closer and closer to our goal of truly maintaining a state of good repair. And again uh we'll go into more detail on that as we go into the 10-year CIP uh later this year. And next slide. So what does it all really mean uh when we say state of good repair? It's keeping our facilities operational, functional, safe, and reliable to prevent loss of program space and unplanned facility closure. I say unplanned because of course at times we do have to close a facility to do a larger maintenance project. What I want to draw your attention here on the right, I think as the county manager called it, was a meteor I think it was. Yes. So to address what that what that looks like in terms of the facility and the complexity of our

systems uh as Adil mentioned we have approximately 3.9 uh million square ft in facility space about 2.4 million is in county owned space a significant amount of that falls with that within that 30 to 39 and a little more into that 40 to 49 year range too far. Um skipped it there. So Eddie, uh, moving on. So what you'll see I know on the on the handouts is that, uh, how that aligns with a lot of the facility systems that make up the operational capability of them. And these are the pictures you're looking for on the slides.

It's a slide number nine that shows all the little diamonds for each one. So okay, what you'll see there is how the total the average facility age of 45 years aligns with many different systems within the building and end of their useful life. So as we are looking to address and keep these facilities operational this uh at this point in time we have a significant number of systems that are at the end of their useful life and potentially risk failure and loss of program space. But again we take diligent efforts to achieve the maximum capability of their useful life through uh diligent preventive maintenance and corrective measures. And you know the best analogy I like to use is like your car. You change your oil, change your air filters, rotate your tires to get it going to its maximum useful life. And as I as I say that, I realize as we transition to EVs, I'll have to come up with a different analogy because there's no oil changes there. So, we'll come up with that next time. Uh any so that all being said that we do have to still perform capital improvements uh to maintain and maximize useful life of our facilities. So, we go to slide 10, which uh talks about just what we have underway. Okay. Uh so some of the noteworthy projects that we do have underway or that we've sorry we've completed we have done some large large scale critical infrastructure improvements including electrical system upgrades to the court's police building where we did a comprehensive electrical recommissioning of the entire facility as well as the uh antiquated switchboard replacement at court square west. We're also improving users experience uh as well as uh incre improving some of the energy efficiency with window replacements at Argus house. We've performed exterior repairs to the Museum of Contemporary Art or Mocha, including our roof repairs and uh the uh the Portico entrance as well as a very uh large-scale targeted refresh at central library, including roof replacement, HVAC in the auditorium, as well as the historical preservation room and uh the restroom improvements. We're

also supporting county operations with the Bosman knock relocation and which will also help uh rightsize our portfolio and repurpose our existing footprint. We are also improving our energy consumption uh and decarbonization efforts by the completion of the HVAC electrification at Quincy 2, which we'll go into a little more later, but that the long story short on that one is we have to replace the uh gas fired heating RTUs with all electric uh rooftop units. Going to the next slide on projects underway. Okay. Um we try to continue or we manage a very active uh portfolio of projects and just some of the the note not noteworthy ones that are underway with planned completions either in the near future or not too distant. Uh includes a critical system uh replacements such as fire alarms and generators providing resiliency and continuity of operations as well as safe use of a number of our facilities. We have modernized uh key infrastructure including elevators or that's planned at the courts police building as well as the head start program and uh HVAC improvements at the detention facility uh ensuring that we are providing a a a safe and reliable space uh for our sheriff staff as well as the uh population that resides. Uh and lastly, we are getting closer and closer to achieving our electrification efforts at uh cultural affairs 3700 south four mile run uh with that boiler electrification expected to be completed uh later this month. And we are continuing our bundled efforts at the Madison Community Center uh to make improvements for the community as well as our the significant energy improvements which we'll talk about more in the next slide and was previously alluded to. Uh so this takes us to FY27 looking forward and figure out how do we

continue to provide a the critical um and important infrastructure and facilities that the community relies on. So, as was previously mentioned, the original budget request was 1.5 million for the central plaza library uh repairs that or central library plaza repairs um that um after it went out for construction solicitation came in under uh under budget. So, we are asking to repurpose uh and reallocate that funding to the Madison Community Center project, which also went out to bid and came in a little bit over budget based on the need to uh or desire to perform the additional community improvements to the lower level fitness area as well as some additional accessibility updates. Uh we are also requesting funds to modernize the elevator at the residential program center which will maintain reliable accessibility uh for uh that provides vital services and connection with community resources for those in need. And and lastly supporting our critical system infrastructure. Uh we are at our public safety radio sites. We are requesting funds to replace the un uninterpretable power supply or UPS's at our public safety radio sites. And it's a rather short list this year, but again, uh overall the goal is to take those initial steps in addressing the long-term uh or the large deferred maintenance that we have in our bud in our um need for. Uh with that, I'll now turn it over to Ryan Whitney to talk about facilities design and construction.

Thank you. Uh good afternoon. My name is Ryan Whitney. Good afternoon uh board chair and board members. I'm the uh facilities of design construction planning manager. So, facilities design construction is asking for $988,000 um for a couple of programs that we have. First, I want to highlight some programs that we completed this year. Starting with the Lee Community Center study. I think you're all aware about the Lee Community Center was vacated when the last arts program moved to 3700. So, we've completed that study at Lee Community Center. The second project that we've done is the Oakland Street warehouse phase one. This was a precursor for the signature theater to expand in the back of their warehouse space. Um so we've completed phase one of that. Phase two's will is underway. The other program I'd like to highlight highlight again is moving um and building out the studios at the arts Arlington arts at 3700 for mile run. Um this moved that art program from Lee Center and did a um fairly significant renovation of that facility. Moving on, everybody's favorite talk up topic within the staff is hoteling at Bosman. So, we have completed phase one of hoteling and we have been uh implementing that hoteling for about the last six months. Um, and I'll talk a little bit about phase two coming up. Um, furthermore, we have um put in a temporary trailer for water sewer streets at the trade center. I know this was a particular item of the board to replace the old trailer had been there for quite some time. So, we have a brand new trailer. Again, this is a temporary trail until a permanent solution can be figured out and that will be part of the CIP process. We have also completed the detention center study looking at this building about not only the building infrastructure, working with the sheriff's department to um identify programs not only currently and future use of the building, potentially even restacking the building, but looking again at the building infrastructure and what would needed to make sure that we can continue um working with Adam and his team to make sure that building is

um maintained. We uh did some work at Boston Garage taking down the archway. So that work has been completed. Um and again the Boston garage will be a topic of discussion during the CIP uh in the coming weeks and months. And then the last project that I'd like to highlight that we have completed is the fourth floor courtroom at the court's police building uh working with the judges. We have completed that courtroom and we are underway on the design of the next set of courtrooms. So, some future projects um or projects that are underway are the um 2700 art space. Um this is the art space next to 3700. This is the outdoor space um that is well underway and I believe we'll be having a ribbon cutting uh next month if I'm not mistaken. We have also started construction just recently on the Quincy site access gate. This was a request from some of the neighbors where there was some idling vehicles at the Quincy site. So, putting in this access gate will give us uh control about who can park there. Um, you know, listening to what the neighbors have requested. We have uh connected and allowed now for the solar panels and the uh technology for the bus charging at AOMF. Um, this is obviously one of the last things or the last thing to be done at that facility. Um, so we have uh underway to connect that so the buses can start charging. As I mentioned before, we completed Oakland Street warehouse phase one. We are we'll be working on phase two again to bring uh highlights to that building as the precursor for the signature theater warehouse to do their expansion. This will allow for the police department to continue to use that facility. Um the Bosman consolidation. This again is uh dealing with hoteling but really the catalyst for this whole um the start of the hoteling was for the dipsum consolidation moving from courts square west and moving over to the sixth floor of this building. So that project will be underway uh very shortly. The

contractor has been awarded and they have uh started work uh this week. Um, furthermore, Quincy 1 Fire Logistics, we will be uh renovating the second phase of that building um providing the fire department with fire logistics for storage operations offices and to provide logistics for the fire department throughout the county. And then the last project that I'd like to highlight is u one of the very large projects that our team has been working on and will continue to work on is the expansion of the homeless shelter at building 2020 across the plaza. Um, this again was a large project for our team looking at a building that was built in the 1960s. So, we're looking at not only expanding the homeless shelter, but also doing a number of significant upgrades to the building for the building infrastructure to make sure that um Adam and his team and FDNC can do um the work hand inand to make sure that we're building out the homeless shelter, but also focusing on the infrastructure of the building in general. So some of the proposed projects and why we're asking for funding is for the planning studies um and the planning the facilities condition assessments. Uh obviously I think as we've talked in previous years the facility condition assessments as you can see from madam's presentation are vital so we can understand what is going on with the portfolio the age of the buildings what things should be prioritized. Um, so we are asking for funds for the facility condition assessment and planning studies as I think you've heard uh about and you will continue to hear about through the CIP. We are really focusing on right sizing the portfolio and using the spaces that count county already owns or leases more efficiently and increasing that utilization. Um, and then the other item would be the facility finishes. As you can see from some of the pictures, we have some furniture and other items which pro propose a a risk that we are seeking funds to fix. So with that, I will hand it over to Steven Burr.

Great. Thanks, Ryan. Um good afternoon uh board chair and board members. I'm Steve Burr on the uh Arlington Initiative Rethink Energy, the air team in the office of sustainability and environmental management. Um this slide uh shows the FY26 adopted and FY27 energy management pay request. An important element of this is to note that FY27 requests were focused on leveraging opportunities to minimize payo requests while still keeping the same amount of energy and climate project outcomes. Uh this was completed through innovative financing models such as leaning into solar purchase power agreements or PPAs uh for on-site solar and the implementation work for remaining federal grants for public EV charging installations. On the next slide, it shows the proposed budget for the uh for the PGO energy management projects in FY27. Other request is for $740,000 from a variety of funding sources. The energy management programs focus on a few guiding principles including uh approaching energy and carbon performance in a data-driven process to identify costeffective measures for county facilities and also aiming to have programs that can benefit the community GHG emission reductions that have a multiplier effect. A few quick examples of this is uh elevating the GHG um savings per dollar invested metrics in county facilities as we target measures that have high GHG savings impacts relative to investment and also expanding the public charging um using smaller investments by the county that can be coupled with remaining federal funding um that can yield larger community action to support the community energy plan goals. On the next slide, um this shows the public accessible EV chargers uh that are currently installed at county facilities as well as the next four uh priority facilities that are planned for uh installations uh uh in the green. Um and again, this is through a regional grant through the uh MW COG. Uh the

additional FY27 includes uh sites are Barcraft, Barcraft Garage, Walter Reed, uh Community Center, and Blummont Park. The FY27 PGO request is a matching funds for the for the CFI grant uh where the federal uh where the federal government through the Metro Washington COG will provide 80% of the funding for EV installation, planning, design, and construction funding. Uh these sites also support ongoing efforts for the county to lead by example with ex with installing publicly accessible EV chargers as well as advancing several goals for private EV adoption. Um all all with a goal to impact communitywide GH reductions. The additional four sites will now uh have the county's EV charger port go from the current 51 ports to 67, spanning 13 sites from the current nine. These four sites are anticipated to be the last near-term locations for EV charging at county sites as we shift focus to other EV charging models and priorities. Uh the county is actively working uh on other EV charging aspects including removing zoning barriers uh to promote private investment through a variety of means through the EV zoning ordinance um that I noted as well as uh potential for the EV chargers and the in the right of way um through a pilot program noting that there's a lot of competition for the for the right-of-way space. Uh the rightway work may take on a variety of models including public private partnerships and strategic areas where there's high concentrations of multifamily but limited parking and constraints with current parking garages. On the next slide, uh this is a deeper dive into the current publicly accessible EV chargers um that the county has developed over the last several budget cycles. Uh the bar chart shows the available chargers for the community and how there's been year-over-year increase in number of stations plus the use of those stations. A few metrics that the county tracks uh through this EV charging uh at EV uh for the EV public chargers are available on a public dashboard on our website and

the data shows there's been over 40,000 charging sessions uh at the end of calendar year 25 with close to 600,000 kilowatt hours of electricity provided. One other key metric to highlight is the utilization rate over a 24-hour period or basically how often people are actively charging at those stations. I'm happy to report that the county's average utilization rate for FY uh for uh calendar year 25 was 16% um exceeding national benchmarks. We were able to to see uh usually in the range of 12 to 15% indicating that the county's investments are being utilized by the community. On the next slide um is another area uh energy management pay request and this is related to on-site solar at county facilities. The graph shows the increasing solar that are installed or planned. Uh the county the county has shifted its focus um towards power purchase agreements or PPAs where an implementation partner provides the capital cost for these installations and the county pays for uh pays for the system through the electricity produced uh through the utility bills offsetting the grid electricity cost. Uh this model is beneficial to both reduce upfront costs for the county as well as the ongoing maintenance uh and operations of those systems. We recently completed the installation at Lover Run in September of 20 uh 25 and we're excited that that the board adopted for new uh for other installations uh Quincy 1, Quincy 3, Central Library and Equipment Bureau at at your March meeting. Uh the funding request for FY27 is to support solar ready upgrades that may be needed to it that may be needed to address at these sites outside of the PPA scope. Um that will be identified potentially through the up upcoming uh detailed design process as well as provide additional analysis for PPA at future county sites. Uh the next slide provides an overview of the facility's decarbonization efforts where we are seeking to retrofit existing natural gas HVAC equipment with

electric options as the equipment reaches its the the end of its useful life. The charge is to fulfill the board's guidance from the FY23 PGO budget to transition electric equipment for existing facilities. The county approaches electrification through an analytical process where there are several uh several aspects to be evaluated including each facility's unique characteristics. What electrified HVAC technologies could support the facility needs impacts coordinate with Dominion if additional electrical capacity is needed? Impacts on the programs using the facilities and any potential interruptions for closures during the upgrade time. Uh as well as forecasted utility bills going forward. Upfront capital costs of these systems are assessed with the incremental cost and benefits through the dollar per GHG metrics as well as payback periods for each uh each application. Operation and maintenance costs are quantified when data is available along with utility cost which unfortunately uh we're facing some large near-term increases um for for those cost. We're also monitoring recent major shifts and changing electrical grid dynamics with the increased grid load uh and demand as well as generation crunch and supply constraints um as well as the Virginia Clean Economy Act all for informing the life cycle GHG impacts of these measures. Several of these projects in the chart are nearing completion and the FY27 payroll request is to complete a thorough evaluation, measurement and verification or EMV process for these facilities to learn more about how the actual systems uh about the actual system performance uh and to compare back to our forecasted modeling for these upgrades. Um we're planning for uh this analysis to compare how different technologies such as a uh variable refrigerant flow or VRF at Madison um which had more complex design needs and higher upfront cost but is forecast to have reduc uh reduced operational cost. um comparing that with um something like

an electric resistant boiler that is being installed at the cultural affairs building that has reduced capital cost uh but also some uh potential premiums on the utility electric electric bill. Uh another technology is a Quincy 2 building where the building has operated with a new RTU that was installed a few months ago. Um and preliminarily the data through the recent colder than average winter has shown that there's been an overall energy use but the but the uh utility bills have stayed constant with the higher electricity unit costs. The proposed EMV work will help the county further refine its process when evaluating electrification technologies uh and help communicate both the cost and benefits. This information is also vital to inform the future planning process and how we be and how and to better understand how technologies are installed and how technologies evolve over the future. Uh on the next slide uh uh this slide shows the proposed FY27 PGO projects for energy manage at the top as well as the FY27 proposed bud uh climate action fund allocations at the bottom with uh uh with for the climate action fund within the current budgeting process. The remaining calf balance is about $1.5 million. On the next slide are three project proposals to be um for consideration to um for allocation of that $ 1.5 million in the climate action fund. Um I'll spend a few minutes diving into those um because of just the connection between the ongoing PIGO work and then the climate action fund um through uh and and how those relate. Um so on this slide there are um these community-f facing pilot projects are designed to be transformative and drive GHG reductions within the largest community GHG subsectors that are identified in the in the recent calendar year 2023 greenhouse gas inventory. These programs will expand and support current county programs and have timelines over the next few fiscal years for full implementation.

The first project is an existing buildings pilot program for about 8 to 12 existing multifamily and commercial buildings. And this is to receive energy and carbon reduction support through energy benchmarking, an energy audit, and customized support to help reduce energy uh and the associated greenhouse gas emissions. This program uh will also seek to connect to the county's current sepace program and any existing or future incentives to to help amplify implementation. The estimated budget for this program is $190 to $250,000 and is uh and is designed to be scalable for potential future phases. In this center is another pilot program for residential home assessments to help homeowners make informed decisions about energy upgrades in their homes through energy assessments. This program is envisioned to provide support for residents to get customized information about their energy efficiency and electrification options and aligns and supports the county's updated residential program which we're excited to be launching over the next few months. Uh we are also mindful to balance program design for program impact with targeted means testing to ensure that funding is driving climate actions that would have not occurred without the program. addressing means testing, program eligibility, and reducing free ridership will be incorporated into the program design. Uh the estimated budget for this program is uh between $75,000 and $125,000. And then lastly is another round of ebike vouchers um being proposed. Uh in the fall, the county successfully completed a pilot program uh of the EV vouchers utilizing a grant and had a tre a tremendous response from the community. We received over 10 times the applications for the available budget for the program. The program also offered enhanced vouchers for income qualified residents that uh provided additional funding allowing access uh to the program for all income levels. The Arlington Foundation also provided financial support to EcoAction which helped us implement the program for enhanced voucher recipients to receive ongoing maintenance for their ebikes. Uh

participating bike shops in the program also benefited from increased year-over-year sales from the program. The estimated program uh budget is $120 to $240,000. And like the first round, the program will include an enhanced voucher component. While there are some important design uh program design considerations, these program uh proposals represent a suite of climate programming that can have a direct impact on the community's GHG emissions uh with in the biggest subsectors and are designed to augment the current county programs to accelerate climate action. With that, I'll turn it back to over to Adele to finish the presentation. Okay, thank you, Stephen. To close out the presentation, we are facing some significant budget challenges due to several factors such as supply chain issues that Kyle talked about and significant inflation. Our focus is on delivering ongoing projects within budget and schedule. We're prioritizing state of good repair projects that will allow the departments to deliver on their missions uh to support the county. Our strategy includes rights sizing the county's building portfolio to meet the users's need and continue our investments, cost-effective energy investments that will also advance the county's sustainability goals. Thank you.

Thank you each for the presentation. Um quite a lot of material for us to uh seek to dig in and dig through. Uh colleagues if you have questions Miss Cunningham

um I would like to ask um how much we are saving through the electrification. So over the years as we've electrified buildings um what's the total carbon saving? What the dollar saving? Is there a maintenance um reduction as well? First part of my question. The second part is I think earlier in the budget work sessions we talked about electricity costs were um going up but not clear yet by how much and I wonder if we know the answer to that yet and how that changes the return on investment for electrification.

Just miss Cunningham just because I want to understand the first part of your question. There's general electrification and then there's our solar farm. Um I I mean the buildings because we're talking about the buildings right now, but sure the other is interesting as well.

Yeah, I can jump into the um so I think for the first part is yeah, we've been uh looking at um measure by measure on sort of what those savings are. Um and then I think the FY27 EM andV workers are really taking to have a hard standardized look at that particularly as now we have equipment that is um uh installed and we can have sort of compare that post um pre-installation to post installation and really see those and also verify some of the assumptions that we had going in on sort of um savings and and cost and and so I think that we're really looking to um as we get more projects and more more projects implemented to really collect and sort of share that data on sort of you know particularly for buildings and facilities to to really help both see what you know the investments that have made and also for planning uh in the future. Um and then for the second piece about electricity cost and so um uh the um county gets its electricity through the Vepka contract and those negotiations are ongoing with with Dominion. Um and so I think there was a estimate provided um in the range of 32% uh increase to um to electricity pending those negotiation process process that is still um unfortunately ongoing. And will that be enough of a shift to change some of our um you know payback periods and potentially invite us to invest more in the electrification?

I I I think potentially there's that and then also seeing what's happening on the natural gas side as well. There is um the county does have a natural gas supply contract and has a 36-month term that we are um about 10 months into and so that helps with a bit of stability. Um, Washington Gas also currently has a rate case for their um, that's at the state corporation commission for their distribution charges and is seeking an increase. So there so there could be some additional cost on the natural gas side as well. So we're really tracking this um, as best as we can and trying to sort of document the assumptions we're going in given all of the changing costs to um, in the uh, energy markets. Great. Thank you.

I think you also may have asked about the actual ongoing operation and maintenance of the equipment. So because of the timeline on the projects, the first one that's actually truly come online is Quincy 2. Uh so we are still trying to figure that out, but we are projecting that there will be some savings because a lot of this equipment does have either less moving components or ones that don't uh operate differently. However, what I will also counter is depending on which technology, some of them do operate more year round. the VRF and heat pump systems that provide heat throughout the winter will be operating on a you know full year basis versus where they would typically scale back uh during the winter time and only work during the summer. So there's more that we'll learn as we convert more and more of these facilities over uh but we are projecting in some areas uh some potential uh maintenance savings.

Great. Thank you. So, I just want to see if I heard correctly at some point. You also asked eventually about if we're able to get to dollar savings and I think you sort of said Mr. Bird that it will take more time and uh is that did I hear correctly? If so, at some point after the budget in the process some effort at a dollar amount might be of interest. Did I listen correctly? I'm not sure.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And I think some of the um EMV um uh protocols that we're looking at really um has sort of um comparing the sort of 12 months of data uh performance data before the installation and then 12 months of performance data after. And so there is a little bit of lag after the installation. That's sort of the gold standard for um uh EMV work for um energy efficiency uh projects. There is some work that we're doing like um like um uh my colleague Adam mentioned about like the um uh the installation at Quincy 2 and then that and and we looked at at sort of through the heating month with that. So so yeah so we are sort of ongoing as that as well as trying to get that more larger sort of picture through the v work.

Great. The two of you have done some science I've done less science. So the sort of dumb lawyer big picture is within for me at least and coach me if this is not right sometime after the budget in the next two to five months if there were an email that might sort of describe the dollar range of savings or where you are that would help me a lot at that big picture is that within the realm of the possible or is it or could you do a table or or something like that after the budget just so I understand? I think we can certainly provide that and also share. Um Yep.

Great. And then on the second question, Mr. Schwarz and to to Miss Cunningham, there is an estimate uh and I since the negotiations are ongoing, I'll leave it to Mr. Schwarz whether he wants to follow up or share that estimate now. I don't think there's a state secret as to it, but I would leave the discretion to you on that. Yeah. Know I mean I've shared a number with you, Mr. Defrante, and that number came straight from Steve Burr. So the current status of the negotiations. So we'll just leave it at that. Yeah. And I'm not I don't have any problem sharing. The reason I was koi a little bit is that if it's negotiation sensitive, I'd rather you guys know and not them. So thank you Mr. Burr and thank you Mr. Schwarz. I hope that helps.

And so onward I see Mr. Spain's light and then Well, thank you Mr. Chair. Um, I'll tell you what, slides um, five through 10 are very telling for me and I really appreciate if we pull go to slide five, the you know what you're able to do this year uh,

up against the vulnerabil uh, index. It's a really tell all right with our facilities. But would you state that the majority of our facilities here at least the conditions are they do they fall within the good uh realm or excellent cuz the way I'm reading this is that we have high risk associated with not uh continues uh investment and we perhaps risk paying more later on down the road in some of these facilities given their age. But overall, where you say we at? Um, good. Excellent. I wish. Oh, you're laughing. Okay.

Yeah, you can see that on the map. It's a little bit difficult to see the dots, but there are starting to be a significant number of, you know, dots that are in the poor to deficient state um, you know, state. Uh, so we do need a little bit of a, you know, and Mark alluded to this, we do need a there's a meteor coming and we need to make an investment in our facilities.

Yeah. And I think uh for the last question I have I think this is going to be slide 14. Um made reference to I think this is down at the the trailer the temporary piece down there and this may come up in our CIP and I know Greg is not at the table. There's an there's an additional project I think that can you that we are we may be thinking about down the road outside of the trailer which I'm very appreciative of. Can we for the public can we talk a little bit about what that project is and what it may look like? I know it's early in the stage.

We have um we have a couple of options that we want to discuss with Mark before we share those. Okay. Yes. It's been a while. Yes. Good. But but we are planning on addressing it. Um, so we do have some projects that we're proposing in the CIP. We'll leave it at that for now. Yes. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Well, Mr. Spain, and I'll ask maybe if the ears of God can talk to David and the two of you can flag for a 2 by two uh that conversation because I appreciate having recently brainstormed in a public setting and realize the limitations of that. I appreciate your discretion, but I also do want to follow up so that we at least get that on the table and and not knowing exactly what it is. But thank you, Mr. Spain. Vice Chair Coffee.

Thank you. Um I'd like to go to the sides on the climate action fund. Um and just make sure that I am understanding how all these pieces fit together. Um in particular the 1.5 million unallocated that mean that means of the two slides 23 and 24 all the different things put on there those programs are not included in the 1.5. the 1.5 is above and beyond the programs that are listed on these two slides. That's correct. Yes. Okay. Um so that's great great to know because it we're already sorry I believe the um

the next the next slide is what what could be allocated could be. Okay. Yeah.

That is Yes. Okay. That is very I was going to be very impressed at how much we were doing with 1.5 million on top of that. So, um, that's helpful and I think this has been a a topic of of interest for all of us and our environmental groups in C2 around what do we do? Um, and so I think I am especially the building um, pilot program. I'm super interested in kind of understanding 190 to 250 doesn't seem like frankly all that much money in the grand scheme of buildings and facilities. Um and so can you give a little bit more especially for predicting 8 to 12 buildings at that budget a little more detail?

Yeah, certainly I can. Um, and so I think that that was um, the dollar value was scoped around a couple different support items. One was to help with energy benchmarking, sort of that adage, you can't you can't manage what you can't measure. And so that would be the first step. Um the second piece would be a sort of um level one uh energy audit to help see where there are opportunities and then some support um probably through a contractor to help just to provide what those opportunities are and then um and then connect with the CPACE program as well as um incentive programs whether it's a utility incentive whether there's programs through Reggie potentially in in the future. And so it's really trying to help at that sort of front end, understand your situation, understand your energy use, and then set set up for for those implementation in the future.

Right. But but not not funding the Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. This Yeah. This is not funding like any implementation, just that help support to get gather information and also build awareness for the building managers and owners. Great. That that's very helpful um for clarity. And then on the ebike voucher program, um do you have data easily available on how many apps we received in the first round and how many vouchers were given and then are people if we if we did pursue this would we include the people who previously applied in this second round or would we make everyone reapply? I think

that's a great question and we haven't um thought about that program detail if we just reopen it to folks who have applied before or um we had roughly uh 25 thou uh 2500 applications. We had 244 ebike vouchers to provide um and so 177 of those were the standard voucher um and then 67 were the enhanced vouchers with an additional um voucher for the lock um so they could lock their um so folks could lock dirty bikes. Great. Okay. And then I think we'll have more to consider and probably guidance around this topic. So, thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair Coffee. It's also the case that we have this interplay between your presentation and the climate office which is a little later today and uh just a so uh Mr. Karantis.

Thank you. Um a lot packed in this. Um I want to go uh I want to ask you one thing. So on the EV charging program uh so this is a very successful program. What I don't know is whether we have an idea right now that we know how the up the uptake is um which is higher than you know the average 16% is is a high uptake is whether you know given the cost per um perch charging station it's around $11,000 for a new one uh if I understand it correctly correct me if I'm wrong um whether we begin to have an idea of how is our cost. Are we covering costs? Are we does it look financially reasonable? And you know we are we're offering that at a relatively low per kilowatt we said cost covering. Uh so are we in the right place with that?

Yeah. So I think that it is in relation to the uh EV rate ordinance that um that we charge and we um included we didn't include capital cost in that sort of the thought behind that proposal was to keep the rate a little bit lower so folks could could use it. Um and so that was indexed to the uh Vepco rate. So as electricity rates go up that um um but um as far as capital cost for recovering that that that wasn't was included but certainly

but now the system begins to age as well. So the first ones are, you know, three, four years old. So they will require some maintenance at some point. So I I just encourage you to begin to think about this because I think it's an important cost factor. the uh the fact that we could expand the the system and offer everybody. I I made a very simple division and I saw that the that the average charge is about uh 14 kilowatt hours which is amazingly well distributed I have to say. So um um I begin to to to think about this as a now as a system as a as a as a proposal and and I just want to encourage you to to think about the uh financial viability of this as we as we go. Um I know that we can adjust the rate at any time because it's an ordinance thing. Uh so I since we're talking about pay go here and we want to pay now second question is $190,000 is for the next 18 or 16 sorry um uh charging stations uh Walter Reed Barcraftoft and I forget where the ne the other one is. Um the uh this is this is pay go money. Right. Right. Didn't we have also a grant for this?

Yes. So that's the county match for the for the grant. The total project is about $500,000 with sort of the planning work and installation. And so that's for the portion of the of the county match to to leverage the 80 that one match. It's an uh 80% federal match, 20% county match. So that's that's so that's that's an important part. Thank you for for clarifying that for Absolutely. So it's even more expensive to actually it it is yeah um depending on the site and if there's well I understand the the parameters but it's a significant capital that we are managing there. It's a good thing that we have it but we have to maintain it. So thank you

I yield I mean I there there are many other things that we will be

sure I know you have deep interest in this area. Thank you Mr. Garantonis. Um I will just touch on a few things. um reiterating, thank you very much for following the science and not putting the 1.2 million into Lubber Run, at least, you know, if I had been wrong and it should have been done, I would have had to get a glass of wine for Miss Garvey. Um but I also but I or whatever is appropriate but I also um had some skepticism that pre and and so given what you said about the two weeks versus 3 days of you know we all want to go faster but we don't want to not spend money strategically. So as much as we want to do climate action fund we still have to think thoughtfully. Um flagging again the residential program center elevator. I'm thrilled about that. But that there's facility questions at the at the place as a whole. That's on my mind. Uh thank you for your description of the homeless services center. There are big questions of um sewer and and the structure that I don't need to have I don't I'm a not a subject matter expert, but I do want to find a way to make sure that the stakeholders in the place learn more science and also get their input. So there's a melding of the users and the science or the the engineering what what is all there. I am not best friends with the Senate majority leader, but every time he's charges his car without having to pay for it, he lets me know via text message. And so while I'm not a, you know, cuz he's a lawyer and he comes to the courthouse and so just saying that out loud that like unless it's a policy for underneath like we don't have a free we're not doing free charging. So he he thinks that the software in the system is not always up

to date and so I'll just say that out loud. I could be totally wrong. Who are you referring to? Mr. Serville. Maybe we take notes, but he does. None of us followed what that I get a text message all the time that says you're, you know, I'm charging my car, but I'm not having to pay and you guys should collect and so that is a question. I will look into that. Thank you. Yes, it's because it's all charged on my account. Ah, he has a keraton's account. Excellent. Okay. Don't forget that I have to pay for parking, too. So,

and sorry to be elliptical. There's no political risk in me saying this out loud. He if he he would not he would not have his challenge. The 75 to 125,000 that is residential. Is that for outreach pilot? Are we talking video or is that like you know just so I understand a little tactically what's underneath it? Yeah absolutely. And so that is um a outreach as well as a discount on the energy audit. So the so the thought is that you know that the homeowner would you know pay a portion and then and then the county would pick up a portion for for that. So great. Y

huge thank you to the technical expertise and certainly on Lucky Gardens we had a chance to engage. Thank you to everyone. I do not know if there are additional lights. I think we are ready to move on. Thank you colleagues for Oh, thank you colleagues for your patience and each of the four of you. It strikes me that you're individually carrying a huge amount of trust from the community as a whole and a huge bucket of work. You probably don't hear when everything goes smoothly. If there's a challenge or concern, you hear all all about it. And so we just ought to reiterate the thanks from our community and our county board.

Thank you very much. Next up we have Public Safety Capital and Jeff Bergen who is our resident expert on that is resident in New York State. So he will be beaming in virtually from a Waffle House. No, actually I got that confused with a federal official. I apologize. Well, thank you. And you could have these in a Waffle House. Thank you. As well, we have quite a few of our public safety leadership that's here,

right? And they'll be they'll be available and uh they're going to come up here in the front row and uh be joined by Grace who's sitting in the last row who I'm not going to let get away with that. Um so, uh Mr. Bergen, are you available? Yes, I am. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you very much. Okay, go right ahead.

Okay. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chairman Def Freranti and members of the board. Um, my name is Jeffrey Bergen and I am the financial officer for the Department of Public Safety, Communications, and Emergency Management. Um, it's my pleasure to represent public safety today and to present our FY27 capital projects on behalf of the public safety chiefs who are here in attendance as well as the phenomenal staff and subject matter experts from across public safety who can answer any of the questions that you have today. I will do my best to answer as well, but I love that they're here to answer if they have any if you have any questions. I'd also like to thank the county manager, uh, DMF, and all the staff who assisted us in putting together this presentation and during the capital process. Next slide. Um, so, Public Safety Capital is a unique group in that we work together across our departments and our projects and they cut across all of our agencies and reflect our common business areas. Um, I believe we're one of the only groups in the region that that does this and has a governance board and a public safety information technology group that uh that can that can kind of pull all these together. Um, these projects differ from our operating budget in that these are items that can be longerlasting, higher cost for replacement and more difficult to be sustained uh than in our operating budget. So within each of these areas, we have a multitude of projects which we will cover in our 10-year CIP in a few months. That can include uh our backroom systems such as the 911 phone system, the live scan technology for sheriff and computer AED dispatch system as well as uh deployable aspect, pardon me, deployable assets to our first responders such as defibrillators, uh breathing apparatus, and first responder

shields for police. We have subject matter experts across all these areas and we have public safety IT which is something I do not think anyone else in the region has as we mentioned who provide phenomenal expertise project management implementation and recommendations to this group and uh this combination allows us to prioritize our projects as a group and balance the blend of life safety projects as well as good refreshment. Next slide. In addition to the unique internal roles that we have, we have the benefit of being able to collaborate regionally as well. Um, we've always kind of brought this slide up and talked to it as a hallmark of what we do. But the the region has very strong interjurisdictional working groups both at COG and in other working groups that we have. This allows our leadership to talk through what is next in terms of technological solutions, security, interoperable performance. Um the information from these groups comes back to the public safety governance board and working groups and helps drive the recommendations we make on projects, project timelines as well as affordability. It helps as we mentioned earlier when we have constrained uh budgets that we can kind of rep prioritize and look at what the region is looking at as a whole. In addition to these working groups, we have the regional benefit of COG procurement. So, it's something that we always uh like to to highly tout whether it is negotiated rates on behalf of the whole region or a list of negotiated contracts available to the region. It has been critical to allow for our projects to get off the ground, get quicker to solutions uh from multiple jurisdictions. We have many examples over the years of this collaboration, but a recent one has been our partnership with the city of Alexandria on Next Generation 911. we're able to not only negotiate uh race as an entity but to design our systems and solutions to provide redundancy. So this is critical for our public safety agencies where as we know emergencies do not uh know jurisdictional borders. Next

slide. So this is uh one of our favorite ones we always like to talk about moving from planning to the operational. And this picture really shows our systems at work together. And I think this really gets to the heart of what Public Safety Capital is all about. Over the last few weeks, you've heard from multiple agencies during their budget work sessions, talking about the work they do, from fielding 911 calls to dispatching response agents to the field to handling calls in the detention center. You've heard us talk about safety and security of first responders and the challenges and successes each one of those face doing their job. This is a reminder reminder that the capital portion of our budget really is the investment in those critical tools and systems to help each one of those individuals perform their duties. It's the continuity of these systems that's our main mission. But as you can see, it's not just one system or one asset, but the interconnectedness of these systems that make it so critical. We can't talk about the benefit of replacing say thermal imaging cameras up here as a standalone item when it is a response element in the field that our officers use while riding on their fire vehicle apparatus or communicating on their radios. Uh when we talk about the challenges in staffing sometimes in 911 call centers, it's not just the callers uh in the for the community but also for the officers being dispatched in the field and ensuring the radio and the radio systems are sending accurate and timely information to first responders. This slide also gives us a moment to pause and give thanks because over the years our proposals for refreshment of these core systems has always been supported and prioritized even when we do have constrained resources and has allowed the agencies to focus their attention on other matters. Uh knowing that these critical systems are always been made a core part of the capital improvement plan and you'll see these in the 10-year CIP that we bring forward. Um, and we always have to thank our DMF partners for truly understanding that mission and working with us and

prioritizing these proposals. Next slide. And uh, one of the things we always try to do and we we do highlight our PSIT group and helping us do this is when we are proposing our projects, we as you can see kind of comparing FY26 to FY27, we're always looking for that consistent uh, investment in projects. You may have some years that are larger than the others, but we try not to have wild swings of of high budget years and and low budget years. We're really trying to maintain a consistent investment approach where we can prioritize our projects man and manage the implementation. Um I'm trying to channel our PSIT uh staff will always say, you know, can you get it done this year? And that's really something we always try to make sure that we're we're really focusing on the projects that we can implement on time and on budget and have a benefit to to our first responders. Next slide. So in looking at our projects for FY27, these are the list of the projects that we will be investing in or proposing here today. Um our first one up and the largest one in the group is our uh fire vehicle apparatus. Um Kyle spoke about this in the in the beginning talking about, you know, that funding coming from uh coming from, you know, auto auto funds and things like that. This is a purchase for six pumpers. It is a part of the fire department's purchase and buyback program for their pumper, ladder, tower, and rescue vehicles. Um there's over 20 vehicles in the program, and they're replaced about every 8 years, ensuring we have a well-maintained and efficient uh apparatus system. That's also so we can m maximize our buyback potential. We also have a few projects coming up for uh the police department. The first one we have is our mobile data computers. What we'll be doing in 27 is extending the warranty out on those devices. So these are things that are used in the field by first responders. And we're extending the warranty to ensure that they're operable for another year so we can kind of evaluate the

financial landscape in FY28. So when we come forward with the 10-year CIP, we'll be looking at kind of a a different replacement cycle, pushing those out to the FY28 and trying to replace those mobile data computers. Uh then and and that's another benefit of being able to look at this refreshment cycle and ensuring that we have some of that wiggle room in our implementation year so that we can do things like buy extra years of warranty to ensure these are operable for our first responders. We also have some response equipment as well as you see with ballistic shields for the police department, a replacement of uh of those items uh coming up at FY27 and then up again for replacement and the 10-year CIP. Next slide. And lastly, when we're looking at our future budget considerations, uh our biggest focus will be the continuous investment in the core technology for public safety, whether that be from critical equipment, uh critical response equipment, core systems, or those critical applications. Uh we will continue to ensure that these projects are regionally focused, that they meet the interoperability and security standards and meet the needs of our first responders. But in addition to this, we also face the same challenge as everyone else has said today too, which is funding and increased costs becoming an issue. Um, we also still will replace hardware, but we are seeing a growing shift from hardware cost to software costs and cloud hosting with moving some items from capital to operating. Um, which is something we are keeping an eye on in the future and something again that our public safety IT team will continue to research as we put together our 10ear CIP. That is um all of our presentation for FY27 and uh yield my time if anyone has any questions on our projects.

Thank you, Mr. Bergen, uh for joining us and for summarizing succinctly. Vice Chair Coffee, thank you. I I'll pick up where you left there on software as a service. I think when we think about other technology investments, it's easier to think about which things are moving to that model versus public safety does seem much more um concrete. And so I'm if can you give us an idea of which things which types of things are moving toward software as a service in the public safety sector?

Sure. Um so we've just undergone one of those transitions with our computer aated dispatch. As a matter of fact, cloud-based software as a service platform as well as the towing uh uh the towing management software that we've implemented. What that is allowing us to do is sort of break down the barrier when it comes to our continuity programs and um partner more uh frequently with some of our neighbors. So, Alexandria, for example, a number of years ago, we entered into the shared 911 call taking system. there's still a lot of physical assets in that essentially little black boxes that go between us with the CAD program now um that is allowing us to be cloud-based and move to subscription based services for some of those um things. Um we still have records management for example within the police department and fire department that are uh more um locally hosted. uh but as those begin to reach their end of life in the next few years, we are likely going to be moving to uh alternative models of providing those uh those services as well.

Great. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Chair Coffee. Uh Mr. Spain, did you have your light or no? Okay, then I can does. Anyone else does? Okay. Well, I saw the chair. If you're ready, go for it. Uh I just want to go to slide six. um for these funded projects. So, uh I can understand a little bit about the $400,000 being spent on mobile data computers from what you stated that is basically for a warranty, right? Uh the ballistic shields at $475,000. This is for I guess the lifespan of the current inventory has come to an end.

Yeah, that's correct. Correct. current the current inventory we have 50 plus ballistic shields uh have reached the end of the manufacturer's rated um lifespan and as a result we have to remove those from service so we have 50 this is this is for 50 or so yeah okay good uh this is I think that's all I have Mr. Chair for right now thank you thank you Mr. Spain Mr. Karanus

uh thank you on uh sorry on the e summons system so I understand the the benefits of that but is there any any idea of what we want to save on the other side because eummons makes it easier to process these they go you know everything is is more efficient I guess so when we say that we have to spend something is there any narrative that tells us what we are saving at the same time I know that the uh Virginia State Police has been implementing that since I don't know

pre- pandemic actually if I remember correctly and a strong I mean those who were advocating for this were saying well you know uh we we will have we will see savings on the other side so one of the ideas of doing what vast coffee mentioned like you know uh you know transitioning into service software etc. It is always argued for among other things okay

with with savings and efficiencies in the administrative part. So I'll I'll I'll start this and I'll let the chief um put in some of there. Um the best way I can say this is it has been my experience overwhelmingly that while we find efficiencies those efficiencies are quickly subsumed by the additional workload uh that the public safety teams are going through. So I'll give you an example. While e- summons may reduce the amount of paperwork um that uh an officer has to do and the followup and it may speed the process by which individuals um in the criminal legal system you know are moved through by having those electronic records transferred between uh us between the court system and district attorney etc. Um, if you'll notice and remember back the corresponding calls for service increase, the corresponding um, uh, citation increase and increase in the number of hours that our officers are spending doing some of those things. Um, uh, the time that we save quickly goes to them doing more. So, the only thing I would really add to that is, you know, in the old paper format of traffic summons, the officer wrote it all out and um Aeron's already explained the time saving there, but we used to have to have somebody in our record section hand type all of that information into the records management system from every summon. So, there's substantial save time savings and you know, it's as much as you scan a driver's license, it populates. So it, you know, there's no real mistakes that happen and it saves both on the front end and the back end having the electronic system. And there is a fee that's charged for every every ticket that is issued. I think it's $5 and that started in 2015ish, I think.

Yeah. Which is set by the state. That's good to know. Sorry, Mr. Konis, but I was wondering if we could charge more to cover more of the cost.

So try not to violate state law. So in general what I'm after here is to understand I mean uh if there are efficiencies you so I hear not so much I mean you know uh which is a problem I mean sorry I mean this I understand I mean I'm not saying how many hours we are not if if we say we are not going to spend that many hours in uh uh in p paperwork so I I would like to see where where we are going to to invest them right So if if this is now a trend and we are going to see more movement towards there we we need to have this conversation. Uh that's that's just for for starters. Thank you.

Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree. I think you know the the think about it is the advent of technology and the additional administrative functions that we expect of our line officers have grown as these things have gone. And I'll use an example. Body cameras and incar video cameras are a great example. While a number of those processes are automatic, there still is um uh the officers still have to tag some of those cameras to incidents and and make sure that some of those files. So the time that we sort of saved in doing this, well, we've replaced that with another task that our patrol officers, our supervisor or sheriff's deputies that have to go do because that's just another piece that we've added to their workload, if that makes sense.

Right. But in the emons case, this was a system that was completely manual and paperbased and now this is exactly the same system that is electronic. So I would expect some savings there and so uh right it's not like we add it a lot because now it's easier to do right and I understand that this exists and we you know the the the example that you brought is is very important right the the the body warn camera uh program uh but I want to see what we we're gaining from from this movement

thank you Mr. Karen Tonus. Uh, Miss Cunningham, my question, my only question is right on that 222,000 and thank you Mr. Spain as well. I see you want to have an additional question. There's been a variability. I assume that that other sources is actually ongoing general fund. Yeah. So there's been a little variability in the amount needed there in in the last few years fiscally 100,000 in 26 25. Is there a reason that it jumped up a little bit u or that you're aware of? Is there any way to save a little bit of ongoing money?

This is actually to cover the system maintenance and to replace some of the printers that are in the vehicles. Is there anything else that I'm missing? Grace. Grace. Come on up. Grace. Sorry. Here. The reason it jumps up is because of the replacement cycles for the printers and the cars. Yes. Sorry. That that's all that that that was Nikki. Yes. So, basically it's the printers. We have to replace them every couple of years.

Thank you, Grace. And voice of God coming in there. I guess what I would say someday help me with having, you know, rural Texas fire department. I'm not just help me a little. Keep helping me along. I don't want We have the best of the best equipment. And I'm not saying I don't want that for our people, but I also, you know, I always wanted new technology. And so that balance

with the ballistic shields safety. Yes. It's just, you know, we sell our our pumper and to other places and they use it. And how do you keep helping me along that? Can you say let me give you an example, right? Mobile data terminals is a great example. A lot of times the equipment that we buy is driven by a number of external factors. MDTS is the perfect example. In order to have a mobile data terminal that accesses the Virginia Criminal Information Network, the state police sets a set of standards by which those mobile data terminals must adhere to. Well,

the Commonwealth is not as progressive as some other places. And so the devices that they choose and that the state police typically require your very traditional old school mobile data terminals that come from Panasonic, for example, as a vendor and are ruggedized at this and that. And they're made for a time when physical storage on a device and hardware security was the most important thing. and we're not allowed to use anything else. Even though we have talked about using iPads, we've talked about using Microsoft products. We've talked about we can't. And so we have to spend 7 8 n $10,000 per MDT. And we have been pushing the state police on this one thing for years to be able to show them that we as a system have the same type of encryption. the same type of hardware security, the same type of standards that you need. We just do it a little bit differently and we can do it just the same, just as well, just as safe and secure and they don't believe us. So,

great. Thank you. Go ahead, M. That's a great point, and we can add it to our ever growing list of unfunded mandates uh and legislative agenda. That That's silly. It's just plain silly. Um my question was going to be on the ballistic shields very briefly. I think we had a request from the sheriff for a similar um expense. Can you share why one hits capital and the other maybe doesn't or how that gets done? Might be different. I don't chief deputy maybe I don't know ballistic shield something you hold versus vest but yes probably ballistic vest that's probably so the um

is one capitalized and one's not. Uh yes, long story obviously lifespan of the equipment um as well as uh um what the particular use is right the ballistic vest is a ballistic and stab resistant vest for officers and deputies um and is you know sort of a uniform thing everybody all right I learned two things today one is that our oldest building is 221 years and two is that shields and vests are different thank you thank you miss Cunningham Mr. faint.

Yes, I think I will go back. Um, we keep talking about these uh ballistic shields. Um, so that's around if you have 50, that's around $9,500 a piece. Is this something the chair brought up earlier? Um, when we're done with our shields, someone else purchases them or we are legally not allowed to resell those because they're out of NIJJ compliance. NIJJ compliance. And so we have to be in NIJJ compliance. That is correct. to be an operational vet. Okay,

that is correct. So the same as the Kevlar vests, they have a certain lifespan or um same thing. And we then are legally within this country not allowed to use them. However, fire bunker gear as an example. While it may not be NFPA standards, what we were able to do was export a significant amount of our old bunker gear uh to Ukraine, as a matter of fact. And um so we donated several truckloads. I want to say it ended up being in the neighborhood of two to 300 sets of gear. Um, so that is allowable. We did of course have to get some certain allowances from the federal government to do that. But those are sorts of things that we do look to do so that they just don't otherwise.

Yeah. At some point in time, can you get me the lifespan on each one of these these uh these shields? Yeah, sure. That's all. Thanks. I said, Mr. Chair, thank you, Mr. Spain. We'll move Thank you, Dr. Miller. Thank you uh for for helping us from afar. Uh Mr. Bergen and we will move on to the next. Thanks to the public safety folks. You're welcome to stay, but you do not have to. Um now what what used to be the end of our discourse was Jason Freeze coming. Yeah. And talking about Metro and debt, but we'll have a couple more. But uh I'm going to welcome the new father, Jason Fes. Congratulations. Thank you.

I'm not I think pictures is a relevant question, but maybe that's for after. Sorry. I can share after. Absolutely. Thank you. Go ahead. When you're ready. Good afternoon. Uh Jason Fes, the department

Department of Management and Finance. Uh so I'll go to the last few. Correct. The first we'll talk about debt service real quickly and then we'll move on to Metro debt service. um highlight here is that in FY2026 debt service budget for the general fund was about $88.2 million. Right now we have a 27 proposed budget going up slightly about um $1.7 million to $89.7 million which is about a 2% increase. Um this also included this there's a um which is one of the lower lines on on here. um debt service error is increasing slightly and that's due to we're renegotiating currently and we'll come back later this year with this um it's currently on a line of credit with PNC bank um we're looking at a new new either new line of credit or other product to refinance this but uh the debt service only increases here because we assume that we start paying off some of the principal um on this it's been it's been interest only currently but some of the principal to be paid off um but we'll be working through that structure as we do the refinancing so that's that's to Um, this is based on the upcoming bond sale. Right now, we're looking at about on the general fund side about $128 million of issuance. So, these numbers are based off of that issuance on the on the general fund side. We are actually right now finalizing what that amount will be. We're going through the projects, looking at the project needs, uh, what their status is, um, to see if we can push any of the issuance out to the next fiscal year if they don't need the funding just yet, um, based on how they're how they're moving forward. So, we'll be coming back again next month with that with the request for the 26 bond sale. Um, but this is based off of that about $120 million of of of bond issuance on our side. If we go to the next slide. So, key budget considerations we have. Uh, again, one thing you all may be aware of is that we did defer last year's bond sale that resulted in some one-time savings this current

fiscal year. Not ongoing. It's just a deferral of of some of the issuance. It will be issued eventually. So, um the project's still moving. It was just a timing issue. So, that was able to result in some onetime savings this year of about $6.4 million. Um but that will result in you know that this year's issuance may be a little bit higher because we're combining some of those deferred projects as they you know move forward with this year's projects. So, that's again and it's take a little bit more work of finalizing that list because of that kind of doubling of the projects and project needs as we refine it. Um, but we'll be coming back next month for that. Um, and then again on on Barcraftoft, you know, currently there's $120 million on that line of credit for the facility. Originally it was 150. We've paid down 30 million so far. That expires at the end of this year and we are currently in the process of evaluating what product we'll be using to to refinance that. So that'll be coming back soon as well. And so that's the very short on the debt service. You all have already I think seen a lot of the projects in the individual departments. We won't talk about those, but we'll open it up now to questions that you may have on on debt.

Colleagues, no questions. We'll keep going. Uh I mean, we'll keep going.

Perfect. Well, let's move on to Metro. So, Amada, we actually have some somewhat positive news this year, um which is that if you look at the bottom line here is that our general fund subsidy is actually going down. Last year or current fiscal 2026 adopted, we had a general fund subsidy of $50.8 million. Total subsidy, which includes all of our other funding sources we used to fund Metro, was $143 million. When we put out the proposed budget, we actually had a subsidy that was reduced on the total side, gross side to $136 million, which allowed us to reduce the general fund support down to $46 million as a portion. And the reason for that decrease was that WADA identified a mistake in how they allocate subsidy among the local jurisdictions. There was a a miscalculation in one of their formula pieces that we weren't able to independently verify because it comes from metro data they that they provide. So they identified that and what it ultimately resulted in was really that Arlington was the net beneficiary of that miscalculation. So, it lowered our subsidy about $7 million. Um, and so that's that's, you know, um, good news for us in terms of budgeting that we'll be able to have a slightly lower budget in fiscal 27. Further beyond that, um, what's happened recently is that Maryland has come back and asked Wamada to cap their subsidy. So subsidy, WA has a 3% cap on subsidies. It's at the whole level. So it's DC, Maryland, and Virginia capped at 3%. But when you do the allocation among each of the jurisdictions, some could be a little bit higher, some can be a little bit lower, but it averages that 3% based on the calculations. Well, Maryland's requested that theirs, which happen to be higher this year, be capped at 3%, which lowers Virginia below 3%.

So, a little bit more. What that means is we've gotten a draft of the subsidy. It's about 1.7 to$ 1.8 million further reduction to our subsidy based on Maryland's reduction request. So, so that so we have a FY202527 revised projection here which is the fourth column here. Um, that lowers it by that amount. A second thing that we have changed since we put out the proposed CIP is that initially we to be conservative did not include any assumption for Commonwealth funding starting in fiscal 27. Um, was too soon. We weren't sure it would be included. Now, we we've heard that in the budget there are some competing options for a short-term fix for Metro, but it sounds like it's promising and so we're hopeful, but we also want to be cautious to, you know, make sure it's clear that this is not approved yet. It's still a work in process and it will take some effort down in Richmond, but there are two, you know, there are proposals down there that may get us funding. So what we've done tenatively is put a revised subsidy showing and that's the the number in red here on the screen of kind of in the middle here of what we calculated as roughly $41 million would be our share if the commonwealth does come together and and provide that funding at the at the com at the state level to fund Metro going forward or at least for fiscal 27 until they come back next year hopefully with a with a long-term solution. But what that does is um you know we have we're showing here a slight reduction our general fund support of about 1.7 from proposed but then also you see that we're able to use that commonwealth funding and reduce we were initially basically depleting almost our entire balance at MTC state transit aid that's used for transportation of reducing that. So this is showing that we would not do that. We would substitute and put back in the state's support. So that's where we are

right now. Um and again in the next few weeks we'll probably hear what happens in Richmond and hopefully we can use their funding. If not we will have to and we have it available but it is majority of our funding. We'll have to go back to using our our state transport transportation aid at MVTC.

I I just wanted to interrupt Jason for a second. So when we've sharing information with you for you to do the chair's mark, this reduction that's signified by the revised column. Yeah. $1.4 million of one-time savings is now available that was not available when the budget was proposed in February. So that's something that you should keep in mind as you try to balance the budget. And that's something that's we've shared with the chair and that will go out as part of as you consider how to do the budget. And it's one time because of what Jason just said.

Yep. The the majority of this is is one time in nature of why the the subsidies coming down for us. It's it's not an ongoing savings. Go ahead, Miss Cunningham. Can you just help me with the math? I think you said 1.7 to 1.8 was the additional reduction from Maryland. Is the 1.4 related to that or how do you get to 1.4? for the one point. So it is how do I say um is it it's the red it's the commonwealth funding that

we've already taken so we've already taken a lot of the savings in the FY27 proposed a lot of savings so the 1.4 for is from the additional that amount is is attributable to to some one time like like with Maryland they're asking for deferrals and bus service and things that they're not cutting it's not cutting metro's budget it's asking for things to start next year versus this year so they're going to they will ultimately hit next year the majority of what's led to you know with Maryland bringing down the subsidy and then giving us the additional one point 1 1.7 total is deferral of service not elimination of service

and I think that's my question is the difference between the 27 proposed and 27 revised looks like it's 1.7 so majority of that's one time in nature some of it is gotcha perfect and then while I have the microphone my other question is um is the recalculation from metro uh potentially multi-year either going back or going forward Ward have we explored that

question it is going forward it is it is it helps us going forward so it's baked in it's a it's a revision uh base basically the new number will be the new base um it gets recalculated every few years or so it could change but we should see fairly standard um increase from here it does impact fiscal 2026 which we're currently in we do have an open questionable mada that at this point there is no in intent to to address it. But this is early. We just, you know, was just discovered recently. In theory, it does impact us this year. Um because we had we address we assumed that there was a large increase in in W in Arlington's Rogership in in comparison to other jurisdictions and it was based off the data they provided. Since that's not true, we're looking into what can be done this year. In the past, what has happened is when there were at the end of a fiscal year adjustments within jurisdictions or credits or or if people owed money, what happens is it would be applied to the basically two years forward due to budgetary so people can time and and and factored into their budgets. If it was a 26 issue, it would be put into the base of a 28 budget as we're deliberating because we're already working on 27.

I'm going to help Jason here. We he has been persistent to say you should fix it in 26. It's not a done deal at all and if it shows up it'll end up being reflected further on in the outyear. So we've been persistent but we don't have any more money for you as of the moment. Thank you.

Thank you Mark. So, I just following up and see if seeing if I understand. Um, if the 2-year Commonwealth funding that is being discussed, they're two different bills is enacted and becomes permanent, then there would be some additional ongoing savings that we would realize. Is that correct or incorrect? If the Commonwealth comes together with the funding, it allows us to not use the balances we had, state transit a balances, MBTC that were considered one time because it's balances we've been holding for the past couple years knowing this cliff is coming. Sure.

So, if we're able to receive this funding, it would we could keep it as a reserve as a contingency for other issues such as, you know, this, you know, future metro pressures. So it would put that back into our into our balances.

Full agreement with the keeping the NBTC balances, but you know in our list if the state does not in perpetuity do half, I'm going to be yelling at some people. Um and so if they do not then two three years we've had so many reasons to be not hopeful today. And I'm not saying this is the panacea, but if they do not, then you could envision, am I incorrect to say that 28 or 29 and they they do this, we could ini could envision some ongoing relief. Is that am I incorrect or throw water on?

Well, no. I mean, I we've had a long conversation about this. It's a matter of risk assessment. I think there could be some one-time relief that could show up because we could, you know, not have as much set aside in those balances, but we'll have to assess that based on what ends up happening. Is that is that correct? Correct. Yeah. The balances are used, they're used for four main things. They're used for capital and operating and both for metro as well as for local capital and operating uh for for art art and star service. Yeah. So, it's used for all of those. So, it addresses any needs we have between all of them. So, we'll have to look at the balances and what may be appropriate for the usage. Got it. Thank you.

And I did want to mention one thing, not because I'm trying to wish this on us, but we have to start I think it's next year that we're going to have to renegotiate the art uh lab we but the art labor agreements coming up. So, we have to make sure we have some reserves for that. Sure. Vice Chair Coffee. Yeah. I think this is connected to Mr. Defant's questions. Um the the row for state transit aid one time is basically coming from a pseudo reserve that we have that is held by NVTC. Is that right? That is correct.

And originally it was proposed the you know if we if we theoretically don't get state money we could use 26.7 out of that. is do you know the full amount that is in that pseudo reserve account right now? Right. So this line if you look at the that state translated one time that line you show it and you see how it

the 3.4 um in 27 or 26.7 initially that is most of it. There is there's a little bit more I think 10 or 15 million more after that's used but that's what we're calculating as the full available balance. And the reason we have most of this balance was during co we got a lot of relief funding to cover metro's subsidy as you know they lost um a lot of revenue and or ridership revenue and then it helps you know supplement that that um that part of the revenue and part of their budget. Well, we received more than than what we needed as a subsidy. Recognizing that that money is not it's it's one time and it's going to expire very shortly, but Rogership will not come back overnight. We knew that that funding would be needed once that the federal funds ran out and the last amount was this year I think $3 million three or four million the last little bit and so we've been holding it for the specific reason to help get us back to to the right state but it's not you know at some point as we start winding it down which if we don't have this Commonwealth funding it would wind down really quickly there could be a huge general fund um obligation coming forward.

Yeah. And that was kind of my my second part of the question was just around it seems like, you know, we're gonna fight as hard as we can over the next few weeks to make sure that the money from the Commonwealth is in the budget. Um up to them how they pay for that. But um but if worst case scenario it's not in for this fiscal year we are we are survivable for fiscal 27 and then we have a a 30 to $40 million question mark for fiscal 28. Is that am I reading that right

correct? Right. we would take a significant hit to the funding we've been we've been holding for this reason that we would hope hoping would have been able to be used for a couple fiscal years. Yeah. Maybe gone in one and a half one and a half years. Correct. Okay. Um helpful as always. Concerning as always. Thank you, Miss Vice Chair Coffee, Mr. Karen. No, no. Just uh that was just to to to reiterate that's just a a float float flotation device. So, a life vest under your seat, but the if if we have to to use it, the boat is gone. So, a very small one with a hole in it. Correct. Yes.

Fantastic. Thank you, Mr. Freeze, for managing the downside scenario and the irrational exuberance of the chair at the moment. Um or hopefulness, but we will see. And there is much left to do. And um onward we go. I don't see other lights. Thank you very much. I would say that from your judicious approach, your son or your daughter, your daughter or your son is very lucky to have you um very lucky to have you will be able to plan and think through contingency. Your son already has his college fund fully funded. Is that I was going to say check in. Thank you very much and congratulations.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. Next up uh is the county manager's office. So, I'm going to ask staff to join me here. While they're joining um for CMO, we've come up with a new uh way to think of CMO. We we our job is to coordinate, mllify, and organize. That's that's what we're going to do. Mify being the best. Is that the center of magnificent operations? Yeah, center of magnificent operations. or and there are some people in in the community who think I'm the county board manager, but I decline that position. You'd need to be paid a lot more.

All right. I'm uh you can tell I'm I have a lot of friends. No one wants to sit next to me. Michelle is here. Michelle here is here. Um we're going to let uh who should we'll let uh who should we pick? Erica, come up. You're just picking. You're not first. And we'll let Catherine come up. I need friends. Don't have any. No. There's a seat. There's a seat down here. Don't worry. All right, let's get going here. So, um,

Pam Lock has come all the way from Springfield, Virginia, too. I'm going to I'll be right back. Wait till we get the slides up.

Yep. You have a new logo. Okay. So, we have just to so you can pace yourself, we have about 29 slides. I'm going to go through the first uh I think about uh first seven or no more than that first uh nine slides and then we'll get into some of the details but if we could go to the next slide uh Jonathan or yeah thanks so manager's office we actually have a mission statement um and so I'm going to tell you what it all is I'm not going to read it for you but essentially what we're responsible for trying to deliver highquality services and focus on economic sustainability and make sure that we're a high performing organization. And you know, we also it's this mission statement is from quite a while ago, but also over the course of time and you'll see on subsequent slides, we have picked up additional responsibilities. And so if we can go to the next slide, um you'll see that here our these are our lines of business and functions. We didn't get around to sort of adjusting this, but we have a core and main office where we do most of the administration support of the county board. We've included the climate policy office and the main office and also the office of race and also our intergovernmental relations and labor relations. Um, and I'm giving some thought maybe to breaking those out as separate lines of business. We just didn't get around to doing that. And another item that we spent a lot of time on is our notice of funding availability and uh grant monitoring. You can see the next box includes communications and public

engagement which has those elements of communications engagement. There our video group and our constituent services and our office of human rights. You'll get to hear from Anna Anna Maynard shortly about human rights, what we do for workforce accommodation and how we support some outside advisory groups. Um and let's go to the next slide. we have laid out here and I just I wanted to mention why we have two of these items in yellow. One is as we go through the conversation and Katherine will cover this a little bit. Um the proposed budget at the time in February since then uh I've proposing one change which I hope the board will include in the adopted uh budget which is to move one position from the department of human resources into the county manager's office. this position works very closely with Katherine on collective bargaining and it was my conclusion that to provide her a little bit more of moral support um have that position uh moved into our office. So that's why that's highlighted in yellow because that's an an addition that I didn't include in the proposed budget. And then the other highlight in yellow is the position that I'm proposing to uh not fill, which is the environmental management specialist, which is where you get the bulk of the savings in my proposed budget. Everything else is laid out there in detail by the number of FTEES and go to the next slide. Um so we have a budget that comes close to it's over $8 million and the proposed budget you can see um the bulk of it is actually focused on personnel and you can see that the core office makes up the biggest piece of that. Next comes uh the our communications and public engagement office and then our office of human rights. And so some of the highlights of our budget we have put in ongoing the board was generous enough to put some onetime funding for fair

housing testing. Now we've included that as an ongoing expenditure. We have uh 1.25 million is included in my budget for the opportunities grant. That's an issue that I think that you're going to want to consider as you go through uh finalizing the budget and as I've already mentioned the vacant environmental management position as a as a reduction. Go on to the next slide. So we've had a lot of conversations in our office. You know we have the office of race which is uh has the main responsibility of focusing on equity initiatives across the departments but we also are an have become a department where we have our own business to take care of. So, we have uh dedicated three three members um who are working on the racial equity core team. You'll hear more about this from Cynthia. And we um spend a lot of time working and actually I would say is when we prepare the budget, for example, one of the things we're doing is constantly having conversations with departments about how they're integrating equity into the budgeting. And I was particularly proud today you got to see that the department of environmental services did something that parks and recreation had done which is I think there are very few examples of this across the United States of actually bringing equity principles into how we doing capital budgeting and that we've spent a lot of time focusing on that at least we have in our office to make sure that that's carried through. Um let's go to the next slide. So, as I we're a little bit um this is the number without them moving the FTE from uh the Department of Human Resources, and you can see we're a little bit under $8 million and we have 36 staff. That reduction in three FTEES is essentially the reduction of one position and we are assuming the moving of two positions from the independent policing auditor from the county manager's office to the county board office. Now, the governor has not yet signed that legislation.

We're hopeful that she'll do so any minute. So that's what we've included here. Uh next slide. Um so wanted to give you a little bit of a sense over the last 20 years. We did a snapshot of what was the county manager's office like 20 years ago. What was it like 10 years ago? And there's a few things to note. One is um and if you ever want to be bored, I can tell you why the community corrections division was part of the county manager's office in 2007. it didn't belong there and it was put there. We've moved that over to the Department of Human Services. But you can see fairly consistently from 2017 when I became manager, we added constituent services. And then in addition to that, there are other functions that have been um added which we have the office of race which came right after the county board adopted the equity resolution in 2019. We have labor relations which included which includes the uh efforts that we needed when the board passed the collective bargaining ordinance in 2021 and then also climate policy coordination which was an addition I think in 2022. So you can see the functions that have changed. We actually had a slide. I didn't bother including it because it's very complicated talking about what a what a county manager's office does in Arlington versus the county executive in Fairfax versus the city manager in Alexandria. And it's very hard to have an applesto apples comparison because they have their own quirks. But I will just say that we have picked up additional functions over the last 10 years that weren't there previously. So we go to the next slide. So, executive management and support for the county board. Uh, I'm not going to read through all of this, but Pam was very generous. She keeps very good track of things. We've provided only 167 briefings to county board

members in the last 12 months.

Yeah. Um, we have, you know, we prepare for a number of work sessions and we do um we have review of every single board report. our deputies and assistant county managers spent a lot of time on that this uh coming Friday. Uh it's tomorrow, right? Yeah, tomorrow. Um avoid all the deputy county managers because they'll be a little bit grumpy because they have to go through a lot of board reports. And then we also provide um the the the efforts we've um stepped up on the notices of funding availability. Then of course we spend some of our spare time trying to provide guidance to the rest of the organization. Um we go on to the next slide. Okay. Now I'm going to turn it over to Jennifer already. She promised she would do this in under 45 minutes. Go ahead, Jen.

That's a tall order. Um good afternoon um Mr. Chair and members of the county board. The climate policy office works to advance um Arlington's efforts to plan and coordinate and implement climate action across the county. Um really focusing on working with other departments to integrate policies and programs and community engagement um within within the county uh operations and also beyond. Our mission is pretty simple. It's centered on turning collective action into real climate impact using a whole of government and whole of community approach to reduce emissions and advance sustainability. We focus on policies and programs that ensure that climate action is something everyone in Arlington can participate in. Our work is about building long-term resilience and creating a carbonneutral future for everyone who lives, works, and plays in Arlington. Our team is currently structured around four core roles, each supporting a different aspect of implementation and engagement. One position, the environmental management specialist role, is currently vacant and is proposed to be eliminated um which may impact of course our future capacity to support um program implementation and technical work. Overall, this is a small but high impact team working collaboratively across departments and with the community to advance Arlington's climate goals. So, over the past year, we've been busy. Um, the climate policy office has really focused on continuing to build both internal momentum and external impact. The climate action resolution that the board passed last February um calls for a unified whole of community and whole

of government approach to guide both current and future climate related policies and operations. On the whole of government side, we've made strong progress institutionalizing climate work across departments, which includes launching the climate leadership network and rolling out our climate 101 training to the entire county staff. We've also advanced key policies with our departmental partners like the CPACE ordinance update which and um and also continued uh engagement with utilities, regional partners on priorities like virtual power plants and net metering. We also completed a robust engagement process on gas powered leaf blowers and recently presented recommendations as you all know to the board on how uh we would recommend we proceed with the policy. On the whole of community side, we've expanded how we connect with residents. And last year, we launched the Get Green Arlington app, which has now more than 800 downloads. And um it we're looking at total of 58,000 pounds of carbon dioxide avoided as a result of that work. And that's like burning a,000 uh gallons of gasoline or manufacturing 600 sneakers, which I know is a a nice proxy for these types of things. Um, we've also made website updates that make it easier for people to find climate information. After redesigning the biofilic Arlington web pages, page views have increased by a,000% and users have increased 181%. Our programs like eco ambassadors and events like climate and cuisine are helping build real community engagement in this space. And finally, in buildings and energy, we focused on increasing awareness and access through initiatives like the uh HVAC listening session, which we did in collaboration with the city of Alexandria. Uh faith-based engagement, which we did in collaboration with the board office, and adding climate uh questions to the

residential satisfaction survey to better understand community needs. Next slide. Okay. We've made incredible progress as a county in our fight uh to against our contribution to climate change and thanks to our hard work, Arlington has cut greenhouse gas emissions by 33% between 2007 and 2023. Of course, this is involves many different factors, but Arlington's work certainly contributed to that um progress. We are proving that our steady commitment to sustainability gets real results. We are also turning big ideas into daily habits across our neighborhoods. Take our on street composting pilot. For example, the Department of Environmental Services is now collecting more than 10,000 pounds of food scraps and food soiled paper every single month. And the other fact is that we have over 7,000 average daily art bus riders. And we've also given 732 trees um to residents through a variety of programs. This shows how eager our residents are to step up and make a difference. These achievements highlight the power of collective effort and innovative programs in driving meaningful change. However, our journey is far from over. So, sustained focused action, which is what was called for in the the county board's climate action resolution, is the only way that we will continue to support our community and to truly build a resilient future. To that end, a big focus for the climate policy office in coordination uh is coordination and ensuring we're getting different perspectives and involving both county departments and the community and everything we do. Internally, we're supporting departments in integrating climate into their strategic planning where needed and convening conversations on emerging policy areas like plug-in solar or um as

also known as balcony solar and uh energy efficient building codes. Externally, we're really leaning into community-f facing programs. The climate action plan kickoff that I mentioned earlier. It was a huge through the climate cuisine event was a huge major milestone which we partnered with libraries to do and that brought close to 400 people both online and in person to the event. We're also continuing the engagement uh other engagement efforts like our climate action youth art contest which is already we've received an incredible amount of um different types of artwork from students both within the APS system and beyond. Um and that's in celebration really of the um the different types of voices that we want to include in our climate action plan. Um we also believe partnerships are another key focus and we've partnered with seriesiries which is a major global nonprofit um based in Boston um whose focus is on business leadership in sustainability and we've partnered with them to deliver the Arlington Corporate Climate Leaders which will have its first executive committee meeting on April 27th. And finally, we're working to make climate action more accessible to everyone. We're developing tools like the climate toolkit and climate hub so residents and businesses can easily find the resources they need and amplify the information that they want. At a high level, our approach going into fiscal year 2027 will be centered on three things. Building capacity, engaging the community, and integrating climate into everything we do as a county. Capacity building is about making sure staff and partners have the knowledge and tools they need, whether that's through forums like the climate leadership network that I mentioned earlier or resources like the climate toolkit. Community engagement is about meeting people where they are, working with businesses, community groups, and residents to make climate action feel relevant and accessible. And of course,

policy is key. We're working with internal teams to embed climate into broader county planning and bringing stakeholders to tackle crosscutting policy issues. So through these efforts, the climate policy office will continue to support Arlington's commitment to build a climate smart, resilient Arlington in fiscal year 2027 beyond.

Thank you. I think it's based on Mr. Schwarz vacating the table. I think that it's over to Miss Alicia Stores. We're moving right along. Uh good good afternoon uh Mr. Chairman and members of the board. So, the Office of Realizing Arlington's Commitment to Equity, also known as the Office of Race, was created not quite six years ago in 2019 upon the county board's adoption of an equity resolution. Um, our small but mighty team of two is focused on how to advance racial equity, inclusion, and belonging as core values of both our organization as well as the Arlington community. The Office of Race contributes to the mission of both the county manager's office and Arlington County government as a whole. Next slide, please. Currently, the largest portion of the Office of Races efforts is internal facing. Some highlights are shown here, including managing the interdep departmental racial equity core team or rect, which helps shape and implement equitable processes and priorities at the institutional level. Currently, the RECT is comprised of 23 members that represent 19 departments and offices. We develop and promote equity f equity focused training and tools for county staff, both online learning and in-person convenings. We collaborate across the agency with departmental equity teams and leaders as well as with the county's 11 employee resource groups to foster equitable practices as well as belonging. And lastly, we help administer the county's opportunities grant that provides critical human services funding to nonprofits serving our community. Throughout the agency, departments and programs apply the equity lens to their work, ranging from budget, budget decisions, project management, and

programming to how we communicate and conduct our outreach and engagement. We use the questions in the equity lens to identify existing racial inequities and help us strategically pivot to address, improve, reduce, and or eliminate those inequities. In addition to these internal functions, the Office of Race directly serves the Arlingtonian community. And here are a few examples. The Dialogues on Race and Equity Together Partners program completed its second cohort last year. We are constantly working to build connections, trust, and partnerships with uh with members and organizations throughout the community. We are working to advance immigrant inclusion through engagement best practices and the county's participation in the national year-long gateways for growth cohort that is being sponsored this year by welcoming America and the American Immigration Council and by creating spaces and opportunities for bringing the community together to celebrate diversity and raise cultural awareness.

Thank you. Great. Thank you. My apologies. I'm catching up. Um I think it's to Miss Naylor now. Go ahead. I think just push for red. Yes.

Oh, there we go. Thank you. Good afternoon. Um so I have been the the FTE as the chief labor relations officer um under the CMO dealing with labor relations uh essentially since the end of May of 2022. Um, and as the county manager highlighted in his remarks, uh, we are looking to have an additional FTE move from HRD to CMO under my supervision in FY2027. That's a position that's now in HRD and I work very closely with the person encumbering that position. um essentially focusing on a lot of fiscal analysis in terms of um analyzing compensation and budget scenarios as well as serving as a primary backdrop or support in terms of compliance um efforts um on the management and county side uh with the different agreements. Um so basically this slide just presents I think a brief overview in terms of some of my primary responsibilities. Um under the collective bargaining ordinance that was passed by the board in July 2021. Obviously the uh major responsibility there involves leading and negotiating our bargaining teams representing the county uh on reaching various agreements specifically the collective bargaining agreements with the certified labor organizations that we have in the county. Um no surprise these agreements cover a wide range of matters both economic and non-economic uh essentially compensation benefits and working conditions. So involving policies and procedures basically that impact working conditions of employees under these bargaining units. Um, in these efforts, I uh received critical support and direction from the county manager as well as deputy county manager

uh Michelle Cohen and work closely and rely heavily on the leadership teams at police, fire, dees, DPR, HRD, as well as the county attorney's office. So, currently there are three certified bargaining units. the police officers represented by the Arlington Coalition of Police, otherwise known Ziko, the firefighters represented by the International Association of Firefighters, IIAFF, Local 2800, and the service, labor, and trades unit. Um, and those positions are primarily in dees, DPR. And there's a very small handful of positions um in the police department uh that are also comprised as part of that unit. and that's represented by ask me the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees uh local 3001. Also under the ordinance there are two other potential bargaining units that are not yet certified and are currently unrepresented. So professional positions essentially countywide and then another countywide bargaining unit for office and technical positions. And that would be kind of a default position. any positions that are eligible for um bargaining unit inclusion that don't fall under the professional employees unit or the uh service labor and trades unit. Um another uh significant area is uh involved in terms of contract disputes. So under the ordinance, all CBAs, all collective bargaining agreements must have contract dispute resolution procedures that essentially serve as a means for the unions to enforce the provisions of the agreements. Typically, this involves a three to fourstep process with disputes being filed with um the immediate supervisor, then if they're not resolved

at that level, uh being elevated to the department director. And lastly, um if there's no resolution there to the county manager and ultimately if not resolved throughout the entire process, then the union can submit those uh matters to arbitration where we would receive a final and binding determination in terms of whether the county's interpretation or the union's interpretation of the disputed provisions under the contract um should prevail. And lastly, I serve as the subject matter expert on issues concerning labor relations or labor impact and advise the county manager as well as departments uh the management and leadership teams in the departments accordingly as questions arise or issues arise with respect to that. Next slide please. Okay, I'm sorry. Slide right before that. Yes, that one. Thank you. No problem. So this slide just uh provides a snapshot or brief overview of these efforts uh essentially over the last four years. So in 2022 we negotiated the first round of CBAs for firefighters and police officers covering FY2024 through FY 2026. We also, not noted here, but reached a one-year for SLT that provided solely for just payraises for that year. Um, and then in 2023, we negotiated the first CBA for the service labor and trades bargaining unit. And so the number of provisions kind of indicate or attest to kind of the wide range of of topics that are covered there. in 2025. So last year, we completed the second round of uh negotiations for the successor collective barring agreements for fire, police, fire and police. Uh

essentially covering FY27 through FY2029. um a C essentially we focused on way less number of provisions in the second round essentially um focusing on areas where there may have been some contract disputes conflicts or otherwise needed clarification um as well as some new topics. All right. And then in terms of training, um I was involved uh with HRD um in 10 sessions for supervisors and managers of employees in the SLT bargaining unit. So supervisors in dees DPR and police. Um, we focus or I focus particularly on SLT since compliance with a collective bargaining agreement and supervising in a unionized environment for dees and DPR was a pretty novel um uh opportunity essentially. Um whereas prior to this even though there wasn't formal collective bargaining AOP and IFF and IFFF have regularly engaged with county manager over county management rather over compensation and working conditions although this was not formally or legally required or binding. And then lastly in relation to contract disputes just giving you an idea over the last three years um with firefighters and the police those are the number of contract disputes that have been filed. Some of them in terms of uh firefighters and police um may represent duplicates in that we may have had multiple employees I think in two or three scenarios under each um filing regarding the same issue or provision. Um and then with SLT over the last two

years of that contract we've had one contract dispute. So that just gives the overall picture. Thank you very much Miss Naylor. And um colleagues, we are running a little behind schedule. I'm going to suggest that we keep going. There's a ton of material. Um, if there is a burning desire to to ask one question on the first 17 slides, uh, one question for all five of us or one question per I guess what I'd say is if you can write down and just hold until the end that that's what I' I'd ask. So, uh, legislative on to you Brian.

Yes. Thanks. Uh, thanks Mr. Chairman and members of the board. Um, so I just want to quickly mention something that's not on my slides, but I heard in your previous comments. I made a note about um setting that iPads printers issue and and seeing how we can uh how we can work on that. And then on uh on Senator Serville not paying for his charging. If someone give me a credit card terminal, I I used to work for him. I'm happy to show up at his house and ask him to tap.

Sounds good. So, um, but yes, so, um, we've had a a very strong year, uh, in, uh, first of the three buckets of of the work that I'm, uh, that I oversee. Um, of our what ended up being seven initiatives. Um, we were have been successful pending some budget decisions on, uh, five of seven for context. Um, se about 71% success rate. the average success rate for um for majority party delegates, which I think is more of a fair comparison, is 56% and 64% for majority party senators. So, we're we're, you know, hitting a pretty good average on on that. Um, and I want to break one piece of news that um I I'm going to give credit to uh Mr. Schwarz and and willing into being um according to the legislative information system the moving of the IPA to board supervision was signed um was just put into the system. So um so that's official

bodily response was fantastic. Thank you Mr. Yes. So we are um moving.

Yes. So um of our other past initiatives, the the tourism uh improvement district and transient occupancy tax bill was also signed. Um the rest we are still waiting on um final confirmation of, but we're hearing good things. Um and on our continued stuff, um both of those cases we we have good options for moving forward even though they weren't successful this year. And um we're we're hopeful on the budget um backfill on our emergency management um stuff because actually Envers, which ends up being a clearing house for most of this, uh uh services about 40% of the Commonwealth's residents on some of their programs. So, you know, it's more the northern half of Virginia than a northern Virginia um entity. Um that said, um next slide, please. Um federal earmarks, um we just got those in within the last month. Um we have uh 8.4 million that we put in. Comparatively, last year we had put in 4.6 six and received 3.5 million. So, we were able to boost um our our numbers there. Happy to uh go in depth with any of you on the on the specific projects um offline or through questions. Um but um we got some some great opportunities there. Um next slide. All right. And so in the final bucket here um is some like 30,000 foot stuff both in analyzing what we've done in the other buckets but also um you know some some more systemwide considerations. Um

I am nearly done. I have about 300 more of the 1200ish bills that passed to categorize into these the the listed categories here. So that um between that and some information we get from uh local attorneys association, we should have a good list of not only what we have to do in terms of changes to ordinances, but also current and future options that we could take on and of course uh workg groups um and any policy uh changes that would be at a subordinance level that we may just have to do something differently. Um uh quickly touching on refining our process for next year. Obviously, as you all might recall, I came in in September and we kicked off the uh the process in earnest. Our we're already having conversations now about kicking it off earlier and providing um more chances for community input, not only through our um our great uh commissions and boards, but also um you know, more general public input. um earlier in the process and uh allowing us more time to to analyze that as well. Um, also for our internal staff and um board members uh uh advisory board members and uh and also possibly the public talking about a general assembly 101 because the general assembly has its unique quirks and says things in ways that people don't necessarily uh understand because it doesn't right away make sense. So trying to provide people some context so they understand um so they can be educated consumers of what they hear uh coming out of Richmond. Um and then uh systematic review of our uh our earmarks um and just federal funding at large. Um I think we do a very good job of this

already. Um, but you know, always want to check our work and see to make sure that there's not anything we're missing out on in terms of of federal money in its varying forms. And also, um, particularly on our earmark process, sort of systematizing it more. So, we're putting less stress on the departmental staff when the deadline comes up and instead, you know, introducing little bits of work along the along the process to to make it easier, keep everyone's blood pressure down. um coming uh come ear. So with that, that uh that covers everything for me.

Thank you, Mr. Estie. Now we'll go to um we don't have to have a shift change for Erica to you. I'm ready to go. Forced up here from the beginning.

Uh as you know, uh the CMO Cape team has four legs to its stool. communication, public engagement, the Arlington video group, and our newest team, the constituent services team, which was added to CAPE in late 2024, shifting six FTEEs from the core office to CAPE. Uh, but the CAPE team really works uh like a ven diagram. My team is sick of hearing me talk about it that way, but it means that each team is really responsible for leading individual functions, but those functions feed into one another for the benefit of the entire team and for all of Arlington County government. Uh, small examples of how that shows in our day-to-day work include how the Arlington video group assists with storytelling strate strategy for our communications team. Our communications team lending graphics and messaging expertise to the public engagement team. The public engagement team's strong community relationships, helping connect the constituent services team to segments of the Arlington community who need assistance. and the constituent services team being able to elevate what they're hearing from the community to improve how we in turn share information back with the public. Next slide. I won't go through everything on this timeline, but uh communications has long been a part of the manager's office long before the cape team that you know today which came into existence in 2016 at the direction of our county manager. And our work has really expanded and deepened a lot over the past decade. Uh, for example, three years ago, we didn't have a Bos a welcome center here in Bosman. Um, and the constituent services team was really just two people doing that work. Um, in 2018, uh, some of CAP's functions such as some of our video producer positions, website dedicated positions on the comm's team were shifted to establish the uh, current public engagement team. And around that time, we also began focusing a lot more on proactive and engaging storytelling through social media, video, and infographics. And those shifts really did allow us to successfully lead

communications and engagement efforts for things like the 2020 census, the CO 19 pandemic response, and the launch of the new county website, but also that has led to critical functions being absorbed by existing staff positions on the team today. Uh, next slide. As I mentioned, uh, Simo Cape exists because the county manager believes that communication and engagement are extrically linked and must be linked to ensure meaningful, authentic connection with residents, visitors, businesses about county government operations. uh fulfilling that business uh vision, excuse me, requires not only my team but also investment from every county department because communication and public engagement really does vary across the organization and the resources required to do that varies. Um each team within CAPE as you uh see here serves as an overall Arlington County lead in specific areas. I won't go through all of the lists. Uh but whether that is building out strategies for the organization to better reach and build trust with specific segments of our community such as faith leaders, youth, our immigrant community and renters to improving constituent experiences and our responsiveness to inquiries through CAP or serving as a strategic communications partner on critical county issues. Our responsibility really is to ensure consistency in practice and serve as a resource and a convenor for all departments creating opportunities for collaboration, peer learning and resource sharing. And that can be really specific projects such as leading the indoor government section of the annual county fair or ongoing efforts such as the working groups that uh my team has established and leads for practitioners across the organization. Uh we also serve uh as the comm's team for DMF and as a supplement and a strategic link partner with the other CMR CMO core office teams such as the climate policy

office and the office of race. Our approach has allowed us to see a lot of successes um in FY25. The 15,971,080 online video and community event views across all of Arlington County government is really a testament to the strategic work that the organization has invested in, not only for Arlington Video Group on my team, but in our social media strategies, our equitable engagement practices, and more. Uh FY25 also saw 147,268 tracked participants in both online and in-person engagements which again is a direct result of the intentional and comprehensive efforts by staff from across the organization. Uh but I also want to point out that numbers while reflective of our highly engaged community cannot capture the intangible value of creating access and awareness. uh for those community members that learn about an opportunity and could participate but choose not to or the value of someone from a historically under represented community engaging with their government for the very first time. Next slide. And uh finally, there's always a long list of things in Cape's wish list, and I promise this image is not indicative of the year in which we hope to finally get to those. Uh but the list on here is uh some of the things that are either already in the works for the upcoming year or that we want to prioritize for FY27. Happy to answer any questions about any of that. But uh given the hour, I will turn it over to Anna, who I think is our next section.

Thank you, Miss Thank you, Miss Moore. Over Office of Human Rights. Anna. Yes, sir.

All right. Thank you very much. So um the office of human rights is responsible for enforcing civil rights protections and ensuring equal employment opportunity, supporting disability access and accommodations across the county. O OHR oversees a broad portfolio that spans community facing civil rights enforcement internal employee EEO support, ADA section 504 compliance, commission support, and countywide training and policy implementation. We are um a staff of five full-time folks. We have a director position that's currently vacant, assistant manager. We have two human rights investigators and our disability resources ADA section 504 coordinator. So, we're also another small but mighty staff. Um we support both community members and the entire county workforce. Next slide. So, what do we do? We have um both community facing and internally facing functions. Our community-f facing role um for for our office is to investigate complaints of discrimination across housing, employment, public accommodations, education, credit, and commercial real estate. We serve as a designated fair employment uh practices partner agency partnering with the EEOC on employment discrimination enforcement and we ensure the county compliance with ADA and section 504 providing consultation and advisement to departments and handling ADA grievances through our county's disability resources coordinator. Uh internally, the office handles employee EEO complaints and grievances, reasonable accommodation requests, and delivers annual workforcewide EEO training as well as training on specific EEO topics for our managers and supervisors and department cohorts anywhere we identify a need or have a request for a particular type of training. Next slide. In addition to that, OHR supports four advisory bodies. We have the Human

Rights Commission, the Disability Advisory Commission, the Commission on the Status of Women, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Advisory Committee. We also prepare the county's annual affirmative action plan to track workforce equity. And we are continuing our partnership with the Equal Rights Center to conduct annual fair housing tr testing and training activities as well. Okay, next slide. So, OHR maintains um or manages multiple workload streams that support both the community and the county workforce. Each year, we receive more than 90 human rights ordinance complaints with employment complaints making up the largest share of those, followed by housing complaints. Internally, we handle on average of about 20 workforce EEO cases annually. In addition to that, requests for workplace accommodations continue to increase year-over-year, and we're already seeing that we're ahead of our prior years in that area. So, we're very busy um in all of these uh these areas that we care care for. And wanted to focus a little bit on our fair housing efforts. Um fair housing continues to be a core priority for the office. This year we again partnered with the equal rights center to conduct comprehensive fair housing testing across all protected classes including source of funds and familial status uh with a particular target focused on retesting areas where we had concerns previously identified to see how we're doing in those areas. In that uh those efforts, we've also delivered four fair housing training sessions for housing providers and county staff and um we've completed the last one of those just yesterday. We've received some really pos positive feedback on the practical value of those test those um training sessions for both housing providers and staff who participated in those. Um and we we will be looking forward to completing the testing that's coming out later this summer and sharing more about that with you as uh we get the results back on that. Under the human rights ordinance, we do investigate um and

resolve housing discrimination complaints. Um, so this is a resource that has been and continues to be available to our community under the human rights ordinance. Um, that is the second most frequent type of complaint that we manage in our office. And we ex distribute the accessible housing bulletin to more than 7,000 recipients to make sure that the community is aware of accessible housing units that are currently available so that folks who need those are able to get into them. Okay, I think I've

Thank you, Miss Maynard. And so that concludes the county manager's uh thorough presentation and done at least as well with Mr. Schwarz rooting from the from the back benches is from the front row. Um no no in all seriousness colleagues I will be happy to open the floor. Um and I also don't I can go first if you wish. I see Mr. Spain's light and then Miss Cunningham and then Mr. Karen Tonis. Sure. Yeah. Um Mr. Spain. So, just to be fully transparent, I have four questions, but I'm not going to answer all ask all four right at this moment because there's a lot of testimony that have come here. Uh, and this is probably this is for the county manager. So, um, yeah,

come on.

You're probably be playing musical chairs here for a little bit. So, um, one, uh, I think we're all aware per your budget manager that, um, the environmental management specialist position that you recommended be, uh, um, not filled uh, this year. That decision was made. Um, however, there's been a lot of concern, right, that has been brought forward to us from not only some of our commissions, but also folks in the community. Um we know that you know there are some significant cost savings uh based on some of our climate initiatives. Uh and and I guess the question is do you believe that keeping this position vacant? Uh one does it really align with our county's climate action commitments or does it not going to question you undermining it but what is really the rationale here because a lot of folks still want to keep it. Uh when I say folks I'm talking again I think you know who they are the the commissions the people are doing this work. tell me a little bit about that recommendation or tell us.

Sure. So, you know, and you you all know this, which is you gave me an assignment to try to come up with somewhere between 35 and $45 million in in cuts and and also potential revenue increases. And all the cuts that I proposed in the budget, I can't say uh I can say I wasn't happy with any of the cuts I proposed except for those there's some that really were administrative efficiencies. This is not one of the ones I was happy with. Um, and I think it came down to a question of making choices. I think that Miss Fiorretti does an amazing job. Um, she has uh Reno with her who who does amazing work and she's embarking on the climate action plan. It's a lot of work to do and she has some help from other parts of the organization. she certainly would benefit from having that position, but when it came to a relative balancing between that and some of the other things we were seeing, uh, I'll just say in human services, that's where I came down on it. And that doesn't mean I don't value it.

Yeah, that's what Thank you. One other quick question while you're here and then I'll I'll turn it over and and save my time for a final question. Uh, this will Well, I'll wait. Uh, we have our our human rights folks here and thank you so much for what you're doing. Um, I'm looking at your numbers. Uh, let me pull my sheet up here. Current active HRO investigations. Um, you probably know in my former life at OIG, I used to be an investigator.

I would argue that, you know, 47 uh in complaints and investigations, even 22, are not really high uh in the grand scheme of thing given the number of investigators. What is your open to close rate on your investigations time from the time you get a complaint to the time you close it? It typically is within a year. A year, sometimes less than that. It just depends on the circumstances. Those that's a snapshot of what is active under active investigation. We get new things every single day and we close things as we proceed through them. So, you know, that fluctuates. Um, but that that's a a snapshot of where we were at the time that we grabbed those statistics.

So, you're telling me the average is a year that investigation is open that it from beginning to end from the time we accept the investigation till we complete it and issue our findings. Okay, great. That's good to know for right now. And I think that's it. I have two more, but I'll wait. Thank you. Uh, I think I said Miss Cunningham next. We'll go kind of popcorn a little bit based on what I saw. Go ahead, Miss Cunningham.

Sure. I was um going to ask human rights office as well. Um uh this board has shared a real focus on fair housing and um asked for additional work last year that I think is carrying forward. Can you give us an update on how that work is proceeding, what we're finding, what you need to ensure that we um in the absence of a federal government that's really enforcing much that we are helping landlords and um tenants in this case. So, we don't have the results yet of the current TA testing that's that's going on. So, we don't know what that will look like, but we should have a better picture of that once we have that to see kind of where we might have gaps things. Um, we do continue to receive housing complaints and we investigate those and and work to resolve them and typically we're able to resolve them uh work with housing providers and find a solution. I would say that the most frequent type of housing complaint that we receive is in the area of disability and reasonable accommodation is the most common thing. Uh and so we find that educating housing providers in that area might be helpful to to try to to ensure that people understand what how to handle those requests that come in.

Yeah. And if I could just add, you know, we shifted from bannual to annual testing. It includes retesting of where we saw problem areas. So I think

you know we're on the continuum of progression right to as we you know evaluate that and I've been working closely with Anna on this just because of the importance that you all placed and the managers placed as well. I can't emphasize enough what I think this we were able to execute those four rounds of training pretty quickly with ERC. They're great. And when I get the reports on um both she and I get the readouts on who attended 50 to 60 each one and the the um the diversity if you will of I'm not sure that's the right word, but like when you look at it, it is all the big uh management companies, real residential management companies. It's all sorts of great staff. It's other major property owners and it's and it's different names on each testing. So,

I'm aren't you pretty I'm thrilled. I think now could we do more? That's you and I were just having that conversation. So I want you to um and I'm glad we have ongoing funding for this. That's the other thing. So it can continue next year. Um so it'll be great to report back in fall once we have the results of that, you know, the testing and everything. So I'm sure not enough ever. I get it. Um but at least it's it's more than we were doing before. And Anna has been really strong in keeping it running, if you will.

Yeah. Yeah. And the consistency is really important. So I'm glad we got it at ongoing. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Cunningham. I think I saw next Vice Chair Coffee and then Mr. Karan Tonus. I'm not part either of you go first, but I'll start with Vice Coffee with your indulgence, Mr. Karen Tonus.

That's fine. Um for Miss Fiorretti, um I know part of the whole of government approach has also been trying to integrate climate and sustainability into this budgeting process which I do think we got a pretty decent start this year. You know, we've seen the slides and in most of the presentations and there's been um I would say a thoughtfulness of every department towards uh sustainability. Um, but at the same time, you know, I think we have high expectations in our community as to what a climate conscious budgeting process looks like. Um, and I think, you know, we got to we got to balance high expectations with reasonableness about what can be achieved in in a one-year uh not even quite one year cycle um that we've been committed to this. And I I just want to ask kind of where where do you see us going and what do you think is achievable kind of by the next budget cycle in terms of how we think about climate in our budget. Uh so um the as we know the climate action resolution was really clear that we need to incorporate um a uh climate focused uh lens um into the budget. Um I I would say that it's been happening for a very long time. And what we tried to do this year was to um bring one I I know the county manager along with um the department of management and finance and others um asked the board uh the the sorry asked the departments to um provide a little bit more detail about how their budget requests proposals um um reflect on on uh our climate priorities. And and to to your point, you saw that uh incorporated

for the very first time in the um the department work sessions, budget work sessions where we see the next year is it we have an opportunity to continue to to grow and evolve. I think a lot of this um really relies on um and this comes back to the climate policy office's work on capacity building. So, in order for us to share more detail, um, uh, we we need to help to educate our staff across the the the the county. And so, I I envision the next year's um budget presentations to to include perhaps some a little bit more detail. and um and we can continue to work and and listen to our stakeholders to see if there's other ways that we can approach this. But at the end of the day, uh a lot of these conversations, these are uh decision support tool that we would incorporate within the um administrative review of the the the the or the deliberative discussions um that the manager has with the department. So, a lot of this is happening um within our normal process um so may not necessarily always be visible to the public at all times. So,

great. Thank you. I really appreciate it. Um on cape, I I think you can stay there. It's not really a question. It's a it's mostly not a question. Um I really appreciated slide 22 kind of showing the development and in particular um you know I think the one of the first slides from the manager was the expansion of what CMO does and I think even within that the expansion of what each part of CMO does is notable. Um and kind of as another you know looking forward to the next fiscal year as we're basically at the end of this process right um I know we have from the county board office side started to collect more data around our constituent services work and engagement and interactions and it's quite notable and we'll see that in uh the next round of the presentations but um having some comparable statistics about how much volume you all are handling especially from the constituent services team. I think that's one of the areas of the most um massive growth this past fiscal year has been um on the maturity and ability of our cso to react and respond, but also the more um we do the more we do it feels like the more we get. And so, um, I I would just be interested in in seeing some of that data kind of comparable to what we're seeing and collecting on our end. So,

and yeah, for the for the purpose of for the purpose of those following alone online, um, yes, Stephanie Bellow has been tracking that. Um, you know, we want to make sure that we have good data, right? And so that was a lot of the first portion of her her time, but she has been tracking that since um she arrived here the beginning of 2025. And um yes, we are planning to add that into our metrics for the next fiscal year. You know, we did FY25. We didn't have tracking for Cso at that time, but for FY26, we will have that and be able to share that back out.

Great. Thank you. That's awesome. Um, I'll I'll do a very quick kudos to Brian, Cynthia, and Katherine. I don't have any questions for you, but it doesn't mean your work is not also very very important. Um, and then I'll end with kind of a pin on um human office of human rights and the fair housing work. I think it is really great that we've gotten the fair housing testing into ongoing and I I'm thinking, you know, this is mostly a comment for our our colleagues um kind of pinning a a thought on budget guidance that it's not necessarily to have additional work done, but as we are getting these annual findings, thinking about a work plan perhaps of based on what we learn from the annual testing, what is it we should do about that? whether it is um you know landlord education or is it resident education or is it publicizing our reporting or you know I I don't know sitting here right now what those things are but I think across the next year if we start developing a work plan of how it would look to respond to those findings um that might help inform us in fiscal 28 about some additional investments we might want to make in in your office or somewhere else in the organization. Thank you, Vice Chair Coffee. It strikes me that we have been guidance has been an evolving thing over the last two or three years and we'll just have to there's an element of we have to we have to help as we craft that that budget guidance because some of it when I talk about it moves over into budget direction which you know you just have to we'll have to work to to work on. If I could add one point on that, I'm just going to be very brief, which because I had talked to uh Miss Coffee about this earlier today, which is that there certainly is a role for the human rights commission and also the tenant landlord commission. you heard them uh last night

about if we started doing the fair housing testing and we have those findings then it's it it I don't want it to be a dis discontinuous effort on our part because they all do sort of blend together and make sure that we have a plan for that because Anna is mighty and she's got you know two investigators and that that's just starts the process but really at the end of the day I really as the board has shown when it comes to working with our voters about what's you know for example right choice voting educating people and giving that information is so critical and we need to make sure that we do that. Thank you Vice Chair Coffee and Mr. Schwarz for that addition Mr. Karen.

Thank you. Um just to uh to add to that a little uh note on OHR on the office of human rights. Uh what we hear from the community and I believe this was part of conversations that we had already etc is that OR didn't have enough capacity to be proactively you know having a an active storefront under the community that says you know come in we are open for for your concerns we we want to hear from you etc. And it was not for lack of trying or for lack of commitment or lack of focus. It was for lack of capacity. Uh period. That that was the the point. And at the same time we had also a a uh an elevation of of of issues of discrimination of uh of racial uh you know uh sensitivity. We we did a lot at the same time. So that the focus on on having uh the capacity on in OHR uh uh you know was even sharper. So therefore uh seeing a vacant vacant position here which I understand that we will be filling uh was was kind of raising flags etc. Uh I wanted to to go back to um to Cape. Um, so it's amazing what Cape has accomplished in in the uh the the last few years and I and I've uh and I believe that we as a community also as a government understood the how how how how critical the roles are uh especially during the pandemic. I mean the census pandemic and and and equity public engagement for FTEES. Um the question that we always have is

how do we accomplish to hear those who are not shouting or cannot shout right. Uh uh the uh how do we keep track and how do we improve on this? uh because we are uh and you know you you have been fantastic in trying to uh get us to uh think more systemic systematically about that. You even helped us with training others to do that. So I would like to see how these four FTEEs how this how this is translating into community work uh because this is a critical part of the communication. We kind of separate it from the formal communication the you know the press releases and all this but this engagement thing is for me important. I want to know how we measure success.

I mean I think that is that is where always the rub is because engagement and relationships are not always a quantitative um piece. I mean I think we measure success by the work that we see and who shows up and who ends up being responsive. I think one of the biggest um indicators of success most recently and and both board member Spain and board member Cunningham are aware of that is with our faith communities. That was really an untapped area um that we had always wanted to to work into. And it was Sarah Tracy and her team that really worked with the Office of Race and others to spearhead that work. And you know, we've had people show up time and again and we've had new people show up every time. Um, we just actually today got emails uh back from folks on our CIP engagement from our faith network that were re-engaging on that in ways that we wouldn't have seen in the past. And so while again the n numbers are a hard thing when it comes to those relationships, but when those lines of communications are open, there is there are so many ways in which it can go when those relationships are built and the ripple effects of of strong relationships and people that um feel confident and comfortable engaging with their government. um particularly those portions of our population that are not necessarily trustful of government and when they feel like they can there is to me and again I'm very passionate about this work but there is no way to put a value on somebody who now trusts their government who talks to their neighbor who tells their cousin who tells their coworker and and spreads that that word out that Arlington County government and engaging and and being a part of those conversations and coming to them with your issues. They will help you solve it if you call, you know, they'll help you

work through it if you call, if you come in, if you go to the board. Um, that's immeasurable. Um, and so I think where this team of four really um sits is in spearheading that and doing a lot of that um initial boots on the ground work that then can be extrapolated out to departments and then learning from departments. for example, you know, you have the Latino community liaison in um ACPD that's been a really great partner for Sarah Tracy's team um in making sure that not only are we not all going to the same people at the same time and asking for the same thing, right, but that we're building on each other's strengths and relationships and building on each other's knowledge of the community uh there. And so they really are able to serve as a force multiplier for the departments um in that regard in terms of hey we went and we talked here that didn't really work but this really did work and let's have those conversations and so that is um you know again it's I don't know if it's quite a quite a numbers uh in terms of ROI but I think there's there's a lot of really important uh value work going on there. Yeah, I was not not after numbers. I understand that you know and and sometimes even even if you have numbers they they don't tell the story. The uh I was more about uh structures. So uh it is the the there there is public engagement in other departments. Right. Correct. I mean if you look major public engagement processes right now we have the comp plan. We have something that's in your department which is the resident satisfaction survey. Right. It's ongoing. Right. Uh so we have we have a ton of things the transportation master plan. So the these are these are major pushes.

My uh my concern is how do we uh harvest that that that many touch points of of actual individuals and and and bring it back to the central department of magnificent operations. uh uh uh that that that enriches and then you know how how does this translate into strategy? So it it for example we've learned a lot from uh from the comp plan outreach with uh focus groups right or with uh street interception of people. Yep.

So how does this inform? So it all informs through what a lot is through our internal relationships and some of it's more structured formally in those working groups where we literally have post-mortem conversations about what worked, what didn't. People are always going to each other to bring back strategies, bring back uh learning and and things like that. So for example, that canvasing that we saw it had such a good effect in the comp plan, right? We we used it for budget and now we're using it for CIP. So we take those learnings and we bring those back. Um, and then others are able to replicate those. And we really do work to serve as that central point of like, okay, here's the the toolkit for this little aspect of it and here's the toolkit for that aspect of it and providing those those resources across the way. And then I think in terms of, you know, and it's hard because if you think about public engagement and I said this in my in my initial slide comments, it is not the same across the organization, right? Public engagement on a comp plan is very different than com public engagement on even a site plan. Public engagement on the uh Arlington's transportation future is very different than public engagement on a road project that's about to to begin. That is very different than a legal Latino community liaison officer, right, in ACPD or the community engagement that goes on in in Dipkummer and fire for some of their community programs um that they do um with various groups or make available to the public. So, it is unfortunately not a one-sizefits-all, but we can glean little pieces of what others do and bring that back to improve the strategy of the whole and decide, you know, does a focus group make sense here? Um, we're actually looking, we were just Sarah and I were just talking today about, you know, the the one the one big area that is so critical to Arlington County that

is so hard to engage with is of course our rental community. and um and so you know we were talking about like can we use that focus group that focus group strategy that they worked out with the comp plan and can we do something with that model and shift it over to sort of try to make some of the same inroads that we've made with the faith community into our rental community. So um I I would be happy to have lots of longer conversations about this because I'm clearly very passionate about it. But um but hopefully that gives you a little bit of a sense of how those four people

right we we can talk more about that. I wanted to to to figure out whether the these are appropriate resources for the purposes of a budget discussion here. Uh I by the way I never referred to the rental community about the rental communities because there are so many in

well that's why the focus group model that was used in the comp plan with all those focus groups. You got to have different types of focus groups. Just to make a tiny comment on that, I I remember one of the first meetings we had when I joined the board and you showed me the database of all of the the property managers and people that um we have for our multi-unit buildings and we try so hard and one of the first things I did because I never get any information from my building about anything going on in the county as I went and I looked in the database to be like maybe they have the wrong email address, maybe it's, you know, management changes and people move on and and maybe it's it's the wrong thing and that's why I'm not getting anything. And I went in and it is it is the right email address. It is like it is for the general manager and the concier and like there is absolutely no reason the information is getting to the building and yet it still does not get to us as residents. And I think that just highlights some of the challenge of this is we can only do so much. Erica and team can only do so much. Um it we really are reliant upon other external partners to walk with us in this journey on reaching some of our hardest to reach people because we can reach out with as much uh excitement and vigor as we would like but it is not always getting where it needs to go.

Sure. Anyway, what what I'm after is I mean sim similar to how Cape evolved our our concept of efficiency of of public outreach. So I I I remember big campaigns like carfree diet for example etc that which we outsourced etc. And then we evolved into census the census campaign we discovered the concept of ambassadors. Yep.

Uh community ambassadors that we had to to dedicate uh you know uh staff time and and and focus to to recruit and then to etc. And for it's the same for the climate action plan. It's the it's the penetration that that that you know the capillary the capillary dispersion of of our of our reach that that matters here and I'm trying to figure out how to s to make it systematic

uh to the degree that uh also takes into account the huge equity uh disparities that we have right now because what is important for one part of our population it's not it's not only that it's the lack of of information it's the completely completely different value that information has for different groups. Mr. Thank you, Mr. Karen Tonus. You named a big concept and that's why wanted to interject and not take victory away from or defeat away from the jaws of victory. There is those three examples are very salient to me. Miss Cunningham, I ask your forgiveness. We'll still get to your question. It's going to go to Mr. Spain next and then come back to you.

Okay. Um they gave us a lot to digest today and I know we're on a a time hack here. Um first to Cape uh I I to you mentioned uh the engagement that you've had uh uh with faith-based organizations to be quite pointed. And I just want to commend you and Tracy and the entire team for that work. You know, you don't know what you don't know. And I also want to commend the county manager from our first conversation where we, you know, a year ago I said, "Hey, let's tap him to the source." And to board me Cunningham. I mean, you know, I learned a long time ago effective communication is the key to success. And if you intend to travel in a insular circle and you don't expand your horizon, you will see the same people each and every time. And what we saw a few weeks ago in person was just magnificent. So, it's working. I do want to talk kind of pivot to uh back to it's going to be two areas. Human rights uh and then I'm going to go to race. Uh, and I'm just going to say this as concerns that I have, Mr. Manager. We have an assistant county manager position that's now been open uh for going on five months, and I know you're working on that. Um, to all the things that I I believe some of our colleagues are are mentioning and uh what is the art of the possible? How can we, you know, build out this structure? I I would hope that and and also working with our human rights commission. quite honestly uh I think there's some some gaps and I just hope that we will continue to push forward uh in this area and uh because it it just feels that uh there's a lot of work to be done uh and until we get the right size staff and and the right people in place we can do more I think uh when it comes to human rights fair housing some of the initiatives you talked about some of my colleagues about you know what does it look like next year or down the road

with with fair housing I think that's you need to bring in some staff and let's work on that. So, just wanted to share those concerns that I have uh because I'm following that quite closely. I know the human rights commission has a meeting also tonight uh virtually uh and so I hope the conversations you're having with them uh is going well and I'm assuming you meet with them quite often. Oh, I meet with them every time they meet. Yes, they are. They actually canceled their meeting for

they did. Oh, okay. Must be news to us. News to me. All right. Uh, and the last thing on that, and I know this is more of a commission, but I would ask you to look into the Charles Hunter, uh, excuse me, the James P. Hunter, uh, human rights award has not been awarded since 2021 from my recollection, and I know that a board was created for a number of reasons. Maybe, you know, he he was also a Marine. So, I would ask you to kind of look into that and see what's going on. I know it's more commissioned, but I would love to see that kind of re-invigorated, reinvigorated here and kind of back out there if possible. Okay. I want to go to race for a second. Oh, my friend Cynthia, uh, look, uh, and this is county manager, uh, you're in a position, full transparency, you know, when I look at your role in this office, Mr. Manager, I kind of, uh, some experiences that I've have and I put that against the equity resolution. You mentioned in your testim keep saying testimony. You mentioned in your statements that you feel that we're working more internally right now by saying that I believe that kind of cuts us off from really what the resolution in and of itself expects of us to be doing in race and equity which and when we policy shape it's more than internal facing. It is also engagement throughout the community. It is very broad. I also believe quite honestly, Mr. Manager, that potentially you may want to consider how race and equity aligns under human rights within that office from a equity perspective given the role and the work that you do uh at human rights. So when we're talking about decision- making, resource allocation, policy development, and we're going to do instit institutionalized equity across our government functions,

do you feel that we're doing that uh Cynthia or is there more work to be done? Because if you're if you're if you're only doing internal type engagement from a race equity perspective, I think we we there's just a lot missing. So, just want to hear your thoughts on on how much more we can be doing, what's maybe missing because I think there are a number of areas. And lastly, uh I know we've talked about this with the board members, uh the annual report that typically comes out of this office. Can you give us an idea of when that may uh come out come back up again?

No, thank you so much for those questions and and comments. So I will reiterate just a little bit of of what I pointed out earlier is that a lot of the focus of my current team as well as that of my predecessors really had been internal focused.

Um and there's many reasons for that. One being our our small team size, but also because we have so many different county departments and offices that are in different places within establishing their e equity goals, implementing those goals. Um, and so the racial equity core team plays a really vital role in that by trying to create that institutional change across the agency. That all said, you know, where it's possible and where we have the bandwidth to do it, we will try to extend um the work of the Office of Race into the community, um the just the short history of the Office of Race really that has only happened through um working with consultants and working with community partners. it's just been the nature of the work because it's been more all-encompassing to focus on the internal. Um, that all said, you know, uh, we talked a bit about this the beginning of the year when my team presented the board members with a status update of of the office of race. Mhm.

And I think some of the touch points if you're looking at the 2019 resolution, you know, we've made a lot of progress as an agency in raising awareness about the importance of of ingraining equity into our decision-m whether it's project management, budget decisions, things like that. We also have a much more uh firm shared understanding of terminology, of strategies, and so we've made a lot of progress there. Um, I do think there's definitely opportunities for improvement in being able to work more with the community. I think the few chances that we uh it's already been mentioned a few times the the recent uh outreach with the faith community, we played a big role in that and in bringing those groups together. And so it's building the partnerships where we can, but also looking at the data and the information that we have internally and how we do a better job of tracking and monitoring that. And that really just has not been the primary focus for us yet, but we under we know that it needs to be.

Thank you very much. And I just want to say for the record, I believe your position, your role uh in our county is critically important to everything that we do. I thank you for your service. Thank you for what you put into it, you and your team. And Mr. Chair, that concludes my questions for today. Thank you, Mr. Spain, Miss Cunningham. I think Miss Naylor may have had to step out. So, this goes to the county manager without a phone of friend. Um Oh, she's back. You are out of my view. Too far. You didn't go. Thank you so much for asking her a question because I was hoping and hoping that someone will

I do what I can. I do what I can and I'll try to keep it brief so my chair doesn't kill me. Um I am curious about um the collective bargaining legislation that's moving through Richmond. I don't know where it is. Maybe this is a Brian question too. Is there any impact on your workflow and uh and just in general t talk to us a little bit about the addition of a second person um as we get into the rhythm of regular collective bargaining. Um, with respect to the first question, in terms of what may or is coming down the pike in terms of uh the new state legislation, I think it's unclear. I think in terms of the immediacy of the effect. Um, I think that's a big question. Um, but potentially I think there's no question that it could mean and have a great impact on an increased workflow. But I think it's it's going to be an evolving situation.

I wanted to congratulate Katherine for being polite. I'm going to be very direct about this. This isn't I'm not expressing a view about the legislation. Yeah. But if the legislation as is currently written is adopted with the number of bargaining units that are created, I mean, Catherine has been essentially been a oneperson operation for the last four years and working closely with this position and HR. If we have a proliferation of bargaining units, it's just we will need additional staff. Full stop.

Yeah. Fairfax, I think, estimated just implementing it on their end would cost them $22 million. So, we haven't done that analysis, but helps to understand. And we will not know the true impact until the governor does whatever the governor chooses to do. Sure. Thank you.

So, I think that I'm glad you asked the question and I imagine that there's follow-up conversation should you want it with Mr. and um and and uh and Miss Naylor. I'll just conclude by saying uh a couple of things. We'll see if I can uniquely try to say thank you, Miss Naylor. Your experience and your commitment to the process. Every conversation we've ever had, I've been impressed. I don't think you need moral support, but I'm glad you're getting moral support. Um uh Miss Maynard, you've been the rock that has kept the office continuing to go in not always easy times. I'll just be that, you know, just because of some of the vacancies that have been there over time. Um, Miss Moore, you got a huge team and a huge job. Uh, that's more direct reports than I aspire to in my life. Um, but that's also those who are the the extraordinary work that's being done and I'm really want to associate myself with you, Mr. Karenus, on naming the potential campaigns and what might be ahead as a strategic idea. Uh, Mr. SD you have navigated um not easy coming in. I'm recovering as a advocate um from a few years of work in that area and just grateful for your commitment and hard work. Doesn't mean it's always easy. The board uh managing the board including this board member is not always simple. Um Gateways for Growth looks really interesting. I know I may have seen it before but I just hadn't focused on it before and so thrilled that we're participating. I could perhaps use a trip to un a way to online or something to to give me a little context and on it. And I don't think that there's a value ad that the county board has on that. But I am thrilled that we're involved in it because we are all immigrants at this in this room. Not one of us that to my knowledge is uh strongly Native American. And so that's

a piece of what I understand from the description that is uh and it's the the fabric of Arlington certainly in addition to the United States. I want to just see if I understand Mr. Schwarz the three FTEEs that were down is the two IPA FTE and then the one environmental that that is correct and if I if I could just take a moment of personal privilege and I know because you've all expressed this to me but I want to express it publicly. We did not have any presentations uh today from the deputy county managers because they were too busy

answering all your request. No, I mean they were they work incredibly hard. I feel absolutely blessed to have the team that I have and they are all rock stars and I know you acknowledge that and I just wanted to make sure since they didn't get a chance to speak today and I think they welcome that that I make sure I acknowledge them. And then also there's other staff in in our organization. You get to see, for example, Stephanie Washington who sits out there and always has just a such a positive attitude and everybody else who really believes in the work that we do and hopefully that I know that you all do and to thank all of you. Thank you very much.

True facts on all of it. And there's a desire for not uh I do have unfortunately I can't quite end on that. I just want to put a pin. Sorry, you were so eloquent. Perfect. But no, I just I'll just put a pin on associating myself on the environmental manager position. I know we have limited resources, but there's iterations that could be a halfyear or a fullyear position that at least uh I'm going to want to pursue along with uh perhaps a couple of other colleagues. Uh so, and and if I don't thank Lynn, then my life is going to be a living hell. So, I forgot about Amen.

Pam. And that should be our last word. I think tonight I can actually adjourn adjourn us. No, we have a whole presentation left. I was eager. We do. We do. We have the county board office. I will share with colleagues that I need to pick my daughter up by 6:00. Um and so uh we will try to be efficient. Mr. Kush Kushner, over to you. Yeah, that's true. That's true. For sure. Write your questions down. We'll ask. Mr. Kushner to you when you're ready.

Thank you to the team for being here and to the county manager's office. You are welcome to stay, but you do not have to. It's up to you. They actually are required. Sure. Mr. Kushner to you. All right. All right, if you give me just a moment and I believe we have the presentation loaded up. I was so I remembered and then I forgot. My apologies. All good. My side. Okay. All righty. Well, uh, good afternoon, Mr. Chair, Madam Vice Chair, members of the board. Uh, for the record, my name is Mason Kushner. I am the clerk to the county board. I am joined here today by my colleagues Jonathan Davis,

deputy clerk. Um, many of you might recognize him as the public face of many of our board meetings, the first point of entry out there in the atrium and um,

first point of contact for many of our residents who are engaged with our proceedings. I am also joined today by Mr. David Barrera, who is the board's communications and constituent services manager. He is joining us today virtually and he's on the line. Um, he's recovering from COVID. Uh, so he's joining us virtually just out of respect for those of us here trying to make sure we don't all get sick. And I am also pleased to introduce Ariel Ardura, who has just recently joined our office as our policy manager for the county board. Um, I'd also like to note that our county auditor, Wayne Scott, is here with us today. I'm sure everyone here is familiar with Wayne and Shirley and the audit team's incredible work over the last couple of years. Um, he's joined here today because he and the county auditors team exist as an independent line of business within the county board office's budget. So, he's here for any questions that you might have of his office. Um, with that really quick overview of the office, how we fit into the overall organizational picture of this organization, and because this is our first time presenting at one of these sessions, a little bit of background for our residents about what we do, how we serve, and then we'll get into the budget. So,

going to our first slide. Um, I'd like to ground today's conversation opening with the county's vision statement. Um, it was adopted by the board and carried through each of its successive generations. And it reads as follows, which is Arlington will be a diverse and inclusive worldclass urban community with a secure, attractive residential and commercial neighborhoods where people unite to form a caring, learning, participating, sustainable community in which each person is important. I open with this vision statement because it's the charge of this office, our office, to support you, the board, in advancing that vision in all of the work that we do. Specifically, as we move on to the next slide, uh we're here to guarantee the public's awareness of and access to the board's decision-making processes, our meetings, our hearings, um our town halls, any other public engagement formats. It's to preserve the continuity of the board's democratic governance, our operating norms, our procedures, um things of that nature. Uh it's to support the legislative policy and public engagement functions of this county board in close concert with the county manager's office and other departmental staff. Uh it is in coordination with the county attorney's office to ensure our legal compliance to ensure our transparency, public access and recordkeeping of the board's proceedings. And finally, it's to provide administrative policy communications and constituent services support to each of the five of you as independent county board members. Those are all pretty lofty statements. So, if we're going to distill them down into what we actually do for our residents, um our office is here to provide for publicly noticed and accessible county board meetings and hearings. And I'm speaking beyond the base level of the statutory requirements here. Um, it's our mission to make sure that all of our residents, regardless of their backgrounds, regardless of their commitments or circumstances, have the opportunity to weigh in and participate in the board's proceedings. We also preserve the record of your legislative products. Um, it's unsung, but it's important work to make sure that 20, 50, 100 years from now, there's a clear and accessible record of your decisions. Um, things as simple as sidewalk maintenance agreements to things that are as complex as the amendatory history of our codes and ordinances. um conditions for major site plans, even the very mechanisms um

by which our elections are conducted here in the county. Uh for our internally initiated projects, because there are a whole host of these things, but for those that are internally initiated, we provide some supporting materials for your decision-making. These are things like briefing papers down to the findings of broader qualitative, quantitative feedback opportunities that we do, excuse me, that we offer to our residents on items that come before you as the board. We also serve to provide a direct link between you um the board and our residents, not only through our engagements um and our outgoing communications, but also as a point of contact for some of our residents who might need a little bit of help navigating the organization and the various services it provides. We do this in very close coordination with county manager's office and their constituent services team. Uh I wanted to acknowledge them and thank them for their daily partnership. They are a vital asset. Um we serve as your administrative support for various advisory groups and bodies. Um again in partnership with a number of uh key departmental staff. These are our nearly 50 volunteer groups um composed of over 400 something residents who serves a critically important pool of shared knowledge. They help us um inform your policies and decision-making processes. We also support your work coordinating with something like 30 various regional or community organizations. It's their work to ensure that our residents and their needs are well represented and well coordinated across the broader region. Finally, we ensure public transparency for matters of FOYA, public meetings, financial disclosures, other regulatory or compliance related matters that work to reinforce trust between this board, us as a department, the organization, and members of our community. So, moving on to the next slide. Uh, very very rough outline of the board's organizational structure. Um, just for the benefit of our residents who might be curious about how work flows through our office. Um, I do want to note here that there are one presently, it sounds like two imminently additional lines of business within the county board office. Uh, that would be the independent county, excuse me, the county auditor and it sounds like imminently the independent policing auditor. Those will be spoken for in future iterations here, but I wanted to

just briefly give us an overview. Um, our office starts with the bedrock, um, which is our aids. Uh, everyone's likely aware, but each board member is directly supported by a dedicated member of our staff. um late in the day. A few may have been able to join us earlier, but I did want to call them out and uh share our appreciation for them and their work. Uh moving up to a couple of the general pillars of our office's support structure, starting with uh Miss Ardura here, who as I mentioned recently joined us as the board's policy manager. She's charged with research and recommendations uh behind your shared policy priorities. Next, over to our communications and constituent services team, headed by Mr. Barrera, who I'm sure many of you are very familiar with and who, in addition to handling the board's media presence, oversees the direction of our external communications and constituent services functions. Mr. Barrera is supported by Mr. Neil Lemon, who's charged with the day-to-day execution of those communications functions and who is also instrumental in overseeing and expanding on the board's public facing engagements and our social media presence among a host of other tasks. Finally, and as before, Jonathan Davis, who is our county board deputy clerk, he's the day-to-day face of our board meetings, our proceedings, and for many of our residents. Um, and he supports our office's various administrative and regulatory functions. With him, serving on the clerical team is Miss Ari Smith, who in addition to serving as our first point of contact for a whole host of our resident interactions, supports um a number of other critical functions that just keep our office running internally smoothly every day. So, moving on, uh, as we get closer to the budget discussion, I want to take a real quick moment to highlight an area that I know is of importance not just to this board, but to the organization, which is our centered work on equity and our focus on equity. Um, it's very much grounded in what we do as an office. A couple of really, really high level, but key examples of this are our active and ongoing participation in the county's racial equity core team, which you just heard about, uh, the creation of recently the new communications role to broaden access to and awareness of this board and its proceedings. uh particularly among historically underrepresented communities. It was to call out another couple of specific examples, the recent

implementation of a commission's wide demographic survey um that served to better inform our recruitment and appointment practices. Mr. Spain, I I did want to acknowledge that there was a lot of interest in this last night and while these practices are still in their infancy and there's always room to improve, um that was a direct outgrowth of our focus to equity as an organization. Um lastly, our strategic expansion of our open door Monday sessions. uh very deliberate site selection and very targeted outreach with a really really tight focus on um improving the accessibility and participation among our residents. So these are some concrete examples, but the important takeaway I want to offer here is that these are deeply embedded principles in our office and they um fundamentally inform all of the things that we do day-to-day. So moving along and into budget, I did want to take a moment to highlight some recent growth and accomplishments just as a backdrop. Uh over the last two years, we've done a lot of work. We've tried to do um strengthen the fundamentals of our operations and public accountability. We've got new tools to track our constituent service flows, excuse me, our constituent service workflows. We've got new processes that ensure accountability around our noticing processes um generally in a fundamental refresh of a lot of our basic operating norms. As an office, we've worked to improve public engagement, access, and transparency. We've got a growing social media presence. We've got deliberate and thoughtful outreach around our community engagements. We've got clear and more proactive messaging around our proceedings and as we're demonstrating here right now today um just more visibility into our work and a more consistent presence within the community. We've grown and we've restructured our staff roles to help support you and the community's priorities. I'm looking here at our new um policy and communications roles. Uh also in a way which various tasks are handled within our offic's operations that help streamline our work and free up time to make sure that we can be more deeply involved with our residents. Um, we have strategically grown and realigned those roles within our offic's operations. We've opened up a couple of new opportunities for upwards or lateral growth within the department and we've placed a really heavy renewed focus on making sure that our staff are aware of the various um training and developmental opportunities that are

available elsewhere throughout the enterprise. And finally, we've conducted several major initiatives to help inform your decision-making processes. Couple that just jumped to mind are the affforementioned demographic survey, the recent Arlington 2050 initiative, and the just concluded education and outreach around rank choice voting, just to name a few. Um there's a lot more I could highlight. They're, you know, these are the public facing initiatives, but the ones that I'd like to specifically call out, there are a bunch more that our staff work on every day. Um they're behind the scenes helping support you on a manner of special assignments, and um even more importantly, they're behind the scenes actively helping weigh in on ways that we can function better as a department. I did want to call out their work, call out their efforts because they are very much appreciated. But in the interest of time, um, moving along to the next slide and the budget itself. So, let's talk. Um, our submission this year was informed by, frankly, my first full fiscal year of new management, and it's grounded a much more detailed understanding on my part of our operational needs. Um, it seeks to align our resources with current conditions and priorities. Um, it's also looking towards finding operational efficiencies wherever that's possible. Um, it's looking to preserve the public's access. It's looking to preserve the integrity of our operations and accountability around our work, but it's looking to exercise good stewardship of what are frankly quite limited county resources. Um, it was developed in response to the increasing expectations from our residents um for transparency, accessibility, accountability in all that we do. And at its core, it really seeks to maintain a focus on our staffing needs just to make sure that our uh our baseline services continue to be delivered effectively. So, moving on to a slide that I think will illustrate what I am getting at with this. I've talked a lot about growth, transparency, and engagement. And so, I wanted to take a really quick moment here to visually highlight what some of that growth looks like in numbers. Um, just to give some context behind the demand that it's placing on our staff. Um this slide, like I said, excerpts a couple of our performance measures. Our critical in supporting starting with our critical is our commitment to responsiveness to our

residents. It's a longtime standard. Um it's my 10th year with the board and it has always been the standard that we aim to turn around our constituent responses within a two-e time frame. Um admittedly, there have been some challenging years over the last couple. Um we've been coming out of the lingering impacts of the pandemic. We've had some sweeping changes to the various um tools and processes that we use to drive our work. Um and we've had a little bit of turnover the last couple of years. Um we've also and importantly recognized several new board members over the last several years with a fresh set of uh priorities, fresh sets of ideas. So a key part of our work over the last two years in particular has been to stabilize and begin really cementing these day-to-day tools and norms, focusing on elevating our standards around responsiveness and looking to get that critical measure back to a place where we like it. The next two lines though are what are highlighting some of the really major major challenge that we face in doing this work. Um that first line in particular demonstrates what I've been driving at here. Um it is a significant significant uptick over the last couple of years in the number of engagements and the number of interactions that flow through our office. Uh I attribute this to a mix of factors. It's changes in the way that folks are engaging with us generally or just sharing their opinions. We get a lot more coordinated advocacy campaigns. There's been a major growth and uptick in the use and prevailance of these mass mail platforms. Um, but just as importantly, these are the results, in my opinion, of a very deliberate effort on our part to um to meet our residents where they are, to put ourselves out there, and to get out into the community. Um, examples are expanded open door Mondays, our promotion around them, our presence at the county fair, and increasing the number of forms and feedback opportunities that we as a department offer, among a litany of others. Um, at its core, I see that number as a challenge, but is a good thing. It represents um to me an ongoing willingness of our residents to engage in our processes and that to me is vital um to help try and get a better sense of things. However, because those are some rather concerning looking numbers on the

face of it, um I have introduced or we have introduced um starting a fiscal 25 and carrying forward um a new performance measure which separates out what I would describe loosely as actionable service requests or inquiries. These being distinct from general opinions, mass mailers, or single points of interest or feedback. Um, even within this new distilled category though, we've seen some sustained year-over-year growth from 25 to 26. It's been about a 10% increase. And if that trend holds, it'll be the same for next. Um, I say all of this just as a backdrop to the proposed changes which I'm about to share with you on our reductions for the coming fiscal year. So, at the very highest level, next slide, please. Um, these are our year-over-year changes as an entirety of the department. Uh, important to note, this does not include the, as was just announced, the independent police auditor function, who will be joining us very shortly, subject to, uh, the board's approval of that. But, um, noting that there is indeed some modest growth in our departmental budget. Um, it's primarily driven by employee salary increases and associated costs. And so, to partially offset that growth, we've made some targeted reductions to a number of our discretionary spending items. These are intended to help contain the budget um while at the same time ensuring that we can continue to meet our core service delivery needs. Um two further points before I move on though here. First that the FTE count represented on this particular chart includes our professional staff but does not include the five of you as board members. This is our professional staff internal to the board office and within the county auditor's office um but not the five board members. So if you were to include the five of you that would read as 19. Your salaries are however included in that other number which is the expenditures budget. So perhaps a more accurate reading of this would be uh that is the total expenditures budget for a 19 person office of which 14 are professional staff. The other clarifying point I'd like to offer here is um uh there is one currently frozen and unfunded senior auditor position um

that's been carried over from the prior fiscal year budget. Uh Mr. Scott, like I said, is here with us today and he can answer any questions or speak to any concerns you might have with that. Um, moving on to our reductions then which is the next slide. Here I've taken the opportunity to break out the board office as a line of business specifically given that within the county auditor's office there are no proposed changes other than the continuence of the frozen um you'll have to forget it's a senior auditor position. Um, so I am further within this slide splitting out between our ongoing operate expenses and our personnel expenses just to help make the distinctions and draw a clear line between what we are uh what we're working with here. Um, quick note, the number for fiscal 26 does not include the onetime funding allocated by the board for the ranked choice voting uh, education and outreach. That was onetime funding. It's not going to carry forward into fiscal 27 and for sake of discussion, I've omitted it from that number. Um but moving into things as I've mentioned before growth in our budget is driven primarily by employee salary increases and other associated costs such as healthcare. So to offset that um we've proposed a slight of uh operational reductions um counterbalancing. We're looking at things such as reductions in our legal advertising budget, provision of um food for board meetings, reduction in our food budget, reductions significantly to our internal printing costs, um reduction to our interpretation budget, and reductions to our just general office supply lines. There are a bunch of other uh minor kind of net zero internal reallocations that we've done to more closely align actual needs, um actual spend. Uh but because they're net zero, I haven't taken the time to break them out here. I do want to focus on these for a moment because these come through a thoughtful restructuring in the way that we are um looking to deliver our services and operations within the office. First, we're continuing our shift to a paperless model wherever that's possible.

Can I just pause for a second? I think it's most respectful to you and the entire office. I appreciate the presentation and I have to step out or I can't pick up my daughter by when they close. I would say the presentation seems outstanding to me all the way through and mindful of both budget considerations as well well as your efforts to build capacity and with that I I hope everyone will give me forgiveness for not being able to stay this extra time but the presentation's excellent. Just a friendly reminder that we are broadcast live streamed and these are uh archived and uploaded for future viewing and public consumption. We know you'll miss us. We'll miss you. Do you want your jacket? He doesn't

vice chair picking up where I left off. So, like I said, continuing our shift to a paperless model wherever possible. Um, wanting to be very deliberate about that because there are instances in which um bringing flyers, bringingformational materials, making those available to underserved members of our community is still important. So, looking to be more efficient to our internal operations. uh moving to an ondemand service for interpretation rather than proactive uh provisioning for all of our meetings. Um with the appropriate backups in place, of course, and of course on request, we will always be ready and willing to provide interpretation. Significantly tightening our belts around just the various operating supplies that we use. And last but not least, adjustments to the ways in which legal notices are handled, which is a response to um several recent changes in state enabling legislation. So, as I mentioned before, these are uh reductions that come after my first full fiscal year of really getting to delve into and get to know our budgeting needs um and aligning them accordingly. I do want to take a moment to pause here and key in on that last reduction specifically to legal advertising because it really drives one of the biggest challenges we have just from an operating expenses uh perspective. Namely, it is almost 50% of our annual non-personnel budget is reserved for legal advertisements alone. That leaves us not a whole lot to work with in terms of discretionary spending. It's loosely after this realignment 60,000 to administer a professional office of 13 filled positions. It's 12 plus vacancy that's under active recruitment and five board members which includes several fundamental costs, things like phone services, uh basic software licenses, other things that are just necessary to administer an office. and then further things that are necessary for the five of you to effectively do your jobs to advocate for us on a state and regional level to participate in conferences to attend Veo VML things like that to name a few. So against all that context I just want to say I value even more highly our investments into our workforce into our staff um and our work to modernize and adapt to develop implement new tools new processes to make sure that we are working efficiently with the resources that we do have in front of us. I believe we're on a solid trajectory. I

believe we can realize these basic operational reductions and efficiencies without impacting anything to do with our equitable and responsive service to our residents. So that said, looking out ahead. Next slide, please. There we go. Um we're going to continue to face some budget pressures and it's going to be driven by a couple of key factors. namely from an operational standpoint, um the maturity of you all's long-term shift from part-time to full-time service as board members. You're very active in the community. You have very busy schedules. Um goodness knows I can speak to that. Um but you got packed calendars with meetings, briefings, engagements during the day, after hours, on weekends, and that comes with the corresponding on increase in uh the demands on our staff in the office and elsewhere in the enterprise. I've mentioned elsewhere, it's the continued growth in the volume and complexity of constituent interactions. Going to again highlight our open door Monday sessions and a couple of our recent hearings as really prime examples of that. Uh it is no longer uncommon for us to host 40, 50, 60 plus residents at one of these engagements. Um and many more across the various categories of our regular business meetings. Uh a major question mark at this point and one for future consideration are the as yet unknowns that could result from the findings of the board structure and performance study. that's currently underway and what comes from that could very much shape future budget discussions. It is a giant question mark at this point for me. Um next is the plan transition at this point uh enabled by the governor signed into law of the independent policing auditor from the managers to the board's authority. Um as I understand it that controlling for any other externalities is a net zero. It's simply transferring of her budget from uh from the manager to the board office. But just for sake of discussion, wanted to note that here because it'll show up next year as a pretty significant increase in our operating and personnel expenses. And one more factor that's a little bit more difficult to specifically pin down, but for sake of discussion, it's um the ongoing affordability pressures that our staff face around costs of housing, transportation, associated things that

challenge us, especially around recruitment and retention. Um I believe fundamentally that the board's best served by a workforce that if it so chooses, can afford to live and work here. And to many that presents a pretty significant challenge. Then finally um and this is a very very conceptual point but given the growth in the work and growth in resident interactions that we've talked about here just a note of consideration for future discussion in that there might be some pretty significant utility for one additional at least part-time position to help bolster capacity in a couple of much much needed areas in our office. Some redundancy some capacity to our core functions. Um, I'm looking at things very front of mind. Things like the intake and processing of our correspondents. That giant jump in intake that you saw on the uh on the performance measures slide and coordinated scheduling being two that are front and center of me, especially as we've gone through the last couple of weeks. Uh, these are significant drains on staff time. Um, and each of them are structurally absorbed by a few or in some cases only one position within our office. Um, and to have some backstopping and redundancy would give us a lot more resiliency as an organization. So much to consider, but interest of time and in closing, just want to uh thank you guys again for the opportunity to introduce our office briefly today. Um share a little bit with our residents, some detail on the various ways that we're committed to serving them every day. I want to particularly thank every member of the board office staff for all the hard work that they do in service of our county and our residents to each of you um here listening in hopefully at home by this point. Um I hope you know that your work seen and it's very much appreciated. Um, and just to close us out, thank you for your time. Here for any questions as you have them.

Great. Thank you. And I'll I'll just start off by echoing the thanks to all of our board office staff. Um, we would not survive without you all. It really, you know, it's really core and key to our ability to be successful um members of this board, representatives of our community, to have staff that can do their jobs and that we create an environment where they can do their jobs well. And so, we really do appreciate it. I find our residents are often very um shocked to learn that each of us are only supported directly by one other human being, especially when you look across um the region at you know Fairfax or other boards um of of the counties that surround us where they have full teams that support each individual elected official. Um and so I think highlighting this is really important and then highlighting also the very clear data that we are collecting on what the service needs for our office look like. So um appreciate you presenting and seeing we got two lights and we got three lights. Um we'll start

that's fine. You can start. Yeah. We'll start with Mr. Keratonis and we'll work our way back down. Madame Vice Chair, I I disagree with you. We would survive, but we would be miserable

in the in the in the quality of of the service that we can provide to this community. So, uh uh it's not about survival, it's about commitment to public service. And this is why I'm uh really thankful to to the service of every single one. And to add another slight disagreement with our vice chair, it's not only one member that supports each of us, it it's also shared um resource uh at the same time. So they these five aids actually uh provide all the services that you have described here um Mr. Clerk. So I wanted to ask you one thing um uh that is very close to my heart and I believe that's an important consideration as well. So how what how do we uh take into account professional development for people who we ask to do a lot of things uh you know and you and you described already some of the stressors and the pressure points. Yeah, of course. So, it is it is a challenging op area specifically within an AIDS role and I can speak to that from experience. I um I started out in this office as an aid a couple of years back. Um like I said before, we are doing everything that we can to make sure that all of our aids and in fact all of our staff have access to and are aware of first all of the various trainings, training opportunities, professional development opportunities that are offered through the county or through our partners. But much more to the point um to make sure that they are an ingrained part of all of our internal processes, our projects, our ongoing initiatives. Um, aids like I'd alluded to earlier serve as liaons to major and ongoing initiatives. We have an aid, two aids who each uh support the functions of the ongoing board structure and performance work. Um, a lot of the work around our equity focus has been driven by our AIDS's participation in that core team. Um, so really it's just as I'd alluded to before, making sure that they have opportunities to get involved,

opportunities to drive, opportunities to um, grow their own resumes and grow their own portfolios. We do reserve a minor modest budgetary line for employee development. Um it's always one that I'd love to be able to expand on. Um but those are the central ways that we help support aids and help support the entirety of our staff.

Thank you. I I really believe that we have to think more aggressively about about um the professional development because we we ask uh your team to produce and and do so much work and and actually to grow into so many different functions and do you know perform like uh an orchestra as a soloist and as a conductor and uh they they they do the the entire gamut of of function. here. Uh so these are these are people who are very multiaceted and multitaskked and and uh you know my first attack to this is is professional development. So I would like to dive a little bit deeper on this uh offline. Thank you.

Absolutely. And I'd be happy to continue that conversation

and I would just echo the thanks. Um it's an amazing team that is assembled here and uh the correspondence numbers are shocking um that I mean it resonates but the 65,000 um incomings this year reflects a engagement in our community that is is great uh and I know we're working to uh really get a very consistent response and so I appreciate all the investment there in in conjunction with this uh manager's office and the constituent services team. I think we've really made good progress and people notice it. Um I I don't hear every day like I never heard back um at least in this current time zone. So this is this is great and just really appreciate it and appreciate your leadership uh and your attention to kind of building systems both technology and people um that will see us through and support our community. Well,

absolutely. Well, if I could just say again, they are the bedrock of our office. They are the bedrock of um our support to the community and we as an office could not function without them and they very much deserve every bit of that credit and support. And to our auditor, I've already done lots of accolades in the audit in the audit um committee, but uh so grateful for the work that you're doing and the way that you integrate across um across the whole organization to help us be better. Thank you,

Mr. Spain. I'm probably the last one that's holding us between the the gavvel. Um, so let me just say this. Uh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um, I don't know how you measure thank you, but I will just say, you know, you mentioned some things, Mr. Clerk. Slide 12, you know, shifting from part-time to full-time. And I've been a lot of places in my career, 53 years. Um, and I will tell you that we I view the county board office as the hub, the central hub of operations for 240,000 people in Arlington and and what you've been able to do um in some very challenging times uh is extraordinary. We haven't always seen eye to eye, let's be quite honest, but who do I see eye to eye with? But I will tell you that we're very young and um office staff and you've managed to do this in a way and and and and lead us um in a way that I believe is is duly noteworthy. When you talk about the issues though, the the we look at the stats and the intake, the sheer demand signal that we're seeing with our aids and staff, I think for the public, and you heard our vice chair talk about this a little bit, there is there is a lot going on as far as a demand and requirement that I think a lot of public just does not understand and know, but we see it. um everyone's not you know board member Cunningham or JD or any like all of us have our unique personalities and demand but from the intake to the outtake to the response to the engagement that goes on with staff to external partners and quite honestly at the end of the day I'll be quite

frank and what they're getting paid I'm shocked I'm just shocked because we ask a lot of them and so when you think about how we can be more efficient in the short term I see your request us on slide 12 and I think we're going to be talking about this. I think there's ways we can help you and improve in operations but you know we're all dealing in very uncertain times and it's tough but whatever we can do as a collective uh I hope we can get there to really look at some of the areas you lined out on slide 12 to kind of help you. And with that I think I'm I'm done miss uh madame uh vice chair but I'd love to hear from Ariel. Thank you for being with us. uh you come with a lot of what the public I don't know you ever been introduced to the public besides what any words you would like to say in your first couple of months but it's been a pleasure working with you and thank you for all your input and you come from you know DC and and working in some similar environments but you've been a very a big contributor to our success so any thoughts

thank you I appreciate that and uh this is my first formal introduction to the public Um I am learning a lot. I am exactly two months into my time with the uh county board. And what a two months to start. Yeah. Um I came from the DC council and Arlington County is a different beast. And I'm really enjoying working here and I've just got a lot to learn and I um really enjoy working with all of you. And I agree that the staff here are pretty incredible.

Well, I'll end with this. Uh there's a saying, and don't take it in a negative way, but just chalk it up to all these phrases I've learned over the years. Mr. Clerk, we're only as strong as our weakest link. That's deep. So, as we move as a collective, right, we got to ensure we leave no one behind, even internal to office. Thank you. Back over you, madam vice chair.

Great. And you know, I'll really wrap with I think you've done a lot of work on the budget to make sure that we are uh contributing to the overall reductions across the county despite the fact that we have very little out there to even reduce. And I think that's, you know, my main conclusion, my main takeaway from your set of slides is really just around how much we do with such kind of bare minimum resources at the end of the day. And um I appreciate, you know, highlighting that, thinking about what does that mean for us in the future. Um particularly, I think you keyed in on a really important thing, which is we're all doing this as our full-time commitment now. and that has not historically been how this office operated and it does change things. Um, and so I don't know that this year is a year to solve all problems. But I think your leadership in thinking about what has shifted, what has changed, and how do we need to address that going forward is is going to be very important uh for future budget considerations. And so with that, um, do we have anything else? I don't know. Do we have the county attorney or that's just offline? Okay.

Uh, no further business. Great, Mr. Manager. No further business. With that, we are adjourned.