City Council - Regular Meeting

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Can you hear me? Okay.

Yes, we can hear you. Dave, can you hear us?

Yes. Thanks very much. One more time. Oh my god. Heat. Heat.

Okay. Good evening. Welcome everyone. Wanted to call the Monday, March 23rd meeting of the city council to order. Let's start with roll call, please. Madam clerk. Yes, Mr. Mr. Aen here. Miss Connley here. Miss DS here. Miss Flynn here. Mr. Snder here virtually. Miss Underh Hill here virtually. Mayor Hardy here. Thank you. Council, uh, let's do electronic participation motions for Miss Underh Hill. Mr. Snyder. Uh, M. Vice Mayor DS, can you start, please?

Yes. Um, Councilman, Council Member Snyder, could you please identify your remote location and reason for participation by electronic means? Thank you. It's uh jobreated travel uh San Diego, California. Thank you. I move that the city council approve electronic participation by council member Snyder in this meeting for personal reasons pursuant to the city council's adopted policy. Is there a second? Second. I heard Connelly on the second. Call roll, please. Mr. Aen, yes. Miss Connelly, yes. Miss DS, yes. Miss Flynn, yes. Mayor Hardy, yes.

Thank you. Good job, Miss Connelly. Thank you. Thanks very much. Uh, Council Member Underh Hill, can you identify your remote location and reason for participation by electronic meets? Sure. Um, I am in Falls Church, Virginia, and I am remote for medical reasons. I move that the city council approve electronic participation by council member Underh Hill at this meeting for medical reasons pursuant to the council's adopted policy. Is there a second? Second. Miss Aen on the second. Call roll, please. Mr. Aen, yes. Miss Connley, yes. Miss DS, yes. Miss Flynn, yes. Mr. Snder, yes. and Mayor Hardy.

Yes. Motion carries. Thank you, council. If I could ask everyone to rise and join us in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Is there a motion to adopt tonight's meeting agenda? I move to adopt tonight's meeting agenda. Second. Second. All in favor? I. I. I.

Agenda is adopted. Uh, do we have any conflicts of interest declarations tonight, Miss Connelly? We can save it till before the budget. Yeah, we can hold on that one. Uh, well, let's move on to proclamations. Uh we have a proclamation declaring April as fair housing month in the city of false church and Miss Flynn will do the honors.

Thanks. Whereas fair housing has been enshrined in federal law since 1968. And whereas the city's fair housing code prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, marital status, national origin, sex, including gender identity and sexual orientation, elderliness, familial status, or disability. And whereas the Virginia fair housing law further protects against discrimination based on source of funds, source of income or military status. And whereas the city of Falls Church has made it a priority to conduct fair housing testing throughout the city and fair housing training for city staff and rental property staff members. And whereas as a community and as a government, the city is proud of the cultural enrichment brought by our citizens who can claim heritages linking them with Africa, Asia, Central and South America and Europe and those of all races, religions, ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientation and ages who come to false church from all parts of this country. Now therefore, I, Letty Hardy, mayor of the city of Falls Church, Virginia, do hereby proclaim the month of April 2026 as Fair Housing Month in the city of Falls Church and call upon all to support the city's total commitment to fair housing. Is there anyone in the audience helping receive the proclamation? Okay. If not, we'll hang on to it. Okay. Uh, Madam Clerk, do we have anyone in the audience taking oath of office tonight?

No, we don't. Thank you.

Okay. Let's move on to receipt of public comment. Could you start with a summary of written comments, please? Well, I'm going to read it from here. Um the written comments received since your last meeting um on budget, Andrew Olsen of Bike Falls Church supports fully funding the FY27 paving program in support of mobilities for all modes and requested that the city adopt a 12.5 cent commercial and industrial tax to fund a transportation improvement program. Uh Jacob Williams supports fully funding the FY27 paving program in support of multimmodal transportation improvements. Regarding the park naming public hearing, Bruce Buyers wrote to support naming the fellow's park area as Firefly Forest Park. Um, regarding snow, this uh CACT provided recommendations on snow removal protocols overall and in relation to Oak Street Elementary. Joseph Daher provided comments about snow removal as did um Joshua Wisebomb. Um, in other uh written comments, Marty Merve wrote with concerns about the new organics bins and Christine Ward Ward wrote with thanks for the new organics bins. And we also did receive um the petition you received before your last meeting regarding renovation of the teen center. We received all the um signatures that were to be attached to that. So, I forwarded those to you today.

Great. Thank you.

Great. Well, let's receive uh public comment either live or virtually. Yes. Um, first we have Meg Byer and uh followed by Bruce Buyers. Welcome. Okay. Good evening, council. I appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Meg Buyer and this is my friend Maggie Prevett. Um we both grew up in Falls Church City and we have children in FCCPS ranging in ages from 7 to 15. We're here to request funding for the community center teen room. I have circulated our signed petition through the city clerk as Celeste just said and the council. Um we currently have 259 signatures. Uh you have 242 in front of you, but there were some hand signatures I didn't bring. um most of which have been inerson discourse and at bus stops, the sidelines, room parent meetings. So, we really kind of passed this around town. Um we presented the petition to the Wreck and Parks Advisory Board on March 11th and they unanimously supported it and encouraged us to attend this meeting to discuss city funding opportunities. As community moms, our children and teens attend open gym, birthday parties, and spend their Saturdays playing youth sports at the community center. The community center really is at the heart of the city. Growing up here, the teen center was the place to be. It was lively and inviting, and it is in need of updates. So, we now seek your support to include it in the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget. We need more welcoming and free public spaces that foster youth social connection. A critical argument for an improved teen center is that it would be an economic equalizer for our youth. It doesn't have the cost barrier of places like coffee shops or travel sports. Teens of all income levels can meet

friends there for entertainment and comfort without a pay wall. By making these improvements, we could provide a refreshed and equitable space for teens to thrive and enjoy. Our teen room should also be comparable to other teen centers in surrounding counties. An updated teen center would improve mental well-being for community youth by addressing issues like social anxiety and an overreiance on technology as a substitute for connection with peers. Regarding details of our community vision, uh we have some great ideas around new flooring, bright paint, interactive games, art, improved lighting, seating pods, and some improvements to the kitchen area. These ideas coming to fruition hinge on Wreck and Park's needs and council funding, but we are eager to negotiate and consider a variety of creative approaches to this. We would like to appoint a youth panel of students for their input and to hear what the teens want to see there. We'd like to give them a voice in this process. We also suggest consideration of charitable donations, fundraising, and community gifting to occur handinhand with city funding. So, this is a topic we'd love to discuss further with the council at town halls and at future meetings. We have such faith in our council to invest in our children. We're hopeful and excited to move ahead with this project and process and we look forward to more collaboration and development with the city. Thanks so much.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Bruce Buyers followed by Jim Coyle. Good evening. Um, I'm Bruce Buyers and I'm one of the founders of an organization, citizen organization that we started calling Friends of Fellows Forest, uh, formed in early 2020 when the city had just acquired that property on South Oak Street. And the city because the COVID pandemic was underway put out a survey which uh at first seemed to us to some of us biased toward infrastructure intensive and active recreation. So things like pickle ball courts, tennis courts, skateboard parks, dog parks, uh performance venues were being suggested and we wanted to argue for a more environmentally friendly and sort of ecologically conservationist vision for the park. Uh thankfully over the years um thanks to Danny Schlid and the recreation and parks advisory board, we feel that our concerns and our vision has mostly been uh accepted. So that's uh very nice. One thing I wanted to comment on. Uh I understood from the work session notes that were available online that the name uh Firefly Forest Park was rising to the top of the list with the council at a work session and um I think that's very very appropriate. It turns out that that place has approximately 10 different species of fireflies. For a couple of summers, it was an observation site with

a national citizen science group called Firefly Watch. And by looking at the flashing patterns of fireflies, you can determine different species. So, it's actually quite a little haven of biodiversity for those magical insects in the city. So um I think the group which was called calling itself friends of fellows forest would be happy to take on a new name of friends of firefly forest park and to try to work continue working with the city to develop environmental education materials both for visitors to the park and kids over at Oak Street Elementary School as well as um helping to mobilize volunteers to do ecological maintenance and restoration work. So, thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Uh, next we have Jim Coyle and he is our final speaker who signed up tonight. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Uh, Jim Coyle, chair of the Falls Church 250 committee, and Elise Bankston is here from the chamber. She is on our committee and a big supporter. Uh is this working properly? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Uh just quick three updates we want to bring to you. One, uh we got the door knockers, I mean the door hangers out. The Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts delivered 6,000 of them over the city over a two weekend period.

And then this the committee distributed them to all the multifamily projects in the city. So hopefully everybody who cares has seen the door hanger and I brought some extras if there's no one in if there's someone in the audience who hasn't had a chance to see them. So we're very happy with this effort. Second thing you probably have heard we have been reserved to have the mobile Virginia state mobile museum for Memorial Day and uh it took a lot of effort on the part of a lot of people for us to be first in line but it's kind of a coup for us to be able to get this mobile museum for Memorial Day. Right. Yeah. So, we're really excited about that and we're starting now to get a lot of volunteers who are going to help us manage it and spread information and all the rest. So, we're really happy with that. Uh, and then last and probably more importantly, we're planning a civic jam on July 3rd, the evening of July 3rd. Uh part of our vision, if you recall, is really to try to bring the whole community together to celebrate democracy and the 250 anniversary. And so we've come up with the idea of a civic jam that will involve every community organization, the chamber. Um and we're trying to get local musicians rather than hiring outside people. um lots of activities, but we'll have more to say on that, but we're really happy that we're going to have a civic coming together on July 3rd in the evening.

So, that's the three things I wanted to bring you up to date on. Do you have anything, Elise? No, just n We want nonprofits and civic organizations. They're going to be the ones highlighted. Yeah. At Civic Jam. Yeah. Good. And so, any questions? Otherwise, those are the three things we wanted to bring you up to date. Yeah. Thank you to you and the committee for all your work. Okay, good. Thank you. We look forward to joining you. Is that it for public comment? Yes. And we do have a public hearing later on about the um park naming. So, yes, that will be opened again.

Great. Okay. Well, uh we also have um the Arts and Humanities Council annual report tonight. And I see Von Analone is here. Perfect. and Laura. Oh, all of you. Okay, we're all here supporting.

Good evening. My name is Ron Angelone, 212 West Cameron Road, and I serve as vice chair of the Arts and Humanities Council representing the Victorian Society. Our chair, Laura Connors Hall, is here. Ari is also here and Ely Benson as you've already seen all of whom are members of the Arts and Humanities Council. On behalf of our members, we're pleased to present you with our annual report for 2025. Couple months late, but we hope you've had a chance to glance through it now. The visual and performing arts and the very broad humanities disciplines continue to flourish in Falls Church and 2025 was once again a very busy and productive year. We want to acknowledge and thank the many creative individuals and organizations engaged in sharing the arts and culture with the Falls Church community. And we want to give special thanks to our staff liaison, Holly Irwin of the Recreation and Parks Department, other cooperating and hardworking staff members, our city council representatives Justine Underh Hill and now Vice Mayor Laura DS and more and of course our enthusiastic and involved board members. We also want to thank the various businesses, project developers, and creative team members for working with member organizations and the city to ensure that public art remains an integral part of the city's landscape now and into the future. I did want to just briefly highlight four issues for your consideration as we move through our nation's 250th anniversary this year and beyond. As Jim has mentioned first, based on our past experience, we are discussing with city

planning staff ways that we can be involved earlier in the planning and review process for voluntary concessions on new development projects. And we understand that nothing is in the pipeline right now, at least as far as we know. We will strive to ensure that public art and cultural content are fully considered as potential public amenities for young and old alike. Second, we've also begun working with city economic development staff about enhancements to the visit falls church website as a means to better represent arts and humanities programs and events as we inform residents and welcome visitors. Third, while we understand that as usual, the budget for next year is tight, perhaps even more so this year, we continue to recommend that the Arts and Humanities Grants Program funds be increased by $10,000 to ensure broad creative participation and the continued excellence in the arts that everyone in and around the city has been coming to expect. And finally, we hope that efforts that are underway, and we're excited about this, to reinvigorate watch night on New Year's Eve will be supported by the council as well as by many other interested parties. So, thank you. We'd be pleased to answer any questions or respond to any comments you might have.

Great. Well, thank you for all the work and the uh nice succinct report. Do we have questions for Australians alone or members of the art council? Defer to you as a lesson on if you want.

Thank you so much um Rhonda and um I just want to say I was in so I was at the um watch night meeting earlier today and uh so it was a great collection of community leaders and staff members. It was it was great and uh Chief Farard was there who's on in our audience tonight. Um but you know reading the um staff report on the budget which we'll be talking about later um there is a specific bullet point in included in that staff report for watch night. So um so as far as you know we we could tell and and don't want to steal Mr. Shields Thunder, but uh it looks like, you know, that that that's um going to be a you know green light for that, you know, that that you're going we're going to have funding for for watch night. And uh it's pretty that that meeting this morning was was great to see just everyone coming together um to talk about, you know, whether it's restaurants or businesses or community members and our public, you know, safety officials, everyone coming together for that event. So that's great. And thank you for your leadership. I know it was a it was a heavy lift getting this annual report together. So, thank you very much. It's it's very thorough and I appreciate it.

Great. Any others? Okay. I I really would like to thank you for the public art and the way that art is interwoven into the fabric of false church and the arts and humanities council has a lot to do with that. So, thank you for that. And I also want to thank you for putting that picture of the kids painting the chair because I've been wondering for the last year where that chair came from. So I was glad to see that. Um surprise.

Yes. Yes. Um there's so much lovely art and you know when Miss Hardy and I first started on council uh there wasn't and we both had our turns uh being on the arts humanities council and it's wonderful to see how you have flourished and will continue to do so because of the work of all the people in arts humanities. We certainly appreciated your time on there. Yeah, I was going to add that uh public art really has blossomed in the city. So, thank you for kind of continuing to encourage and push us on that. Um I noticed that in your report the utility box wraps does not have further funding.

There wasn't any particular action during 2025 on utility box wraps. I think it's it's still there. There's still that opportunity. um there just wasn't um there wasn't a particular project that came up during that time. Okay. So, if there's a specific budget ask now would be the time. There is. Yes. So, I think it's I think I love the idea of using kind of existing canvases around the community and I think it helps kind of add more vibrancy to our community. So, keep looking for those opportunities and keep up the good work. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. I think we're ready to move on to the report of the city manager.

All right. Well, thank you, Mayor Hardy, and members of council, members of the community. Um, if I could just give two quick city manager reports, and then we will transition to our budget presentations. And our choreography for the budget presentations is we'll lead off with the school budget presentation. Um, that will be provided to you by the chair of the school board, Kathleen Ty. And, uh, then we'll have the general government presentation after that. Uh but just as preliminaries, if there's uh two things I just wanted to share with the community to make sure people are aware of. Uh the first is the unveiling of the Dr. Eie Henderson portrait at the EB Henderson gymnasium at the community center. That is planned for 100 p.m. this coming Saturday. And uh after the unveiling, there'll be light refreshments and all are welcome to that. That will be a happy event. Um, and then second, uh, we're in a series of four meetings with respect to Virginia Village. And for the public's information, Virginia Village is a community of 20 quadplexes located on South Maple Street. Uh, the city with the partnership of the Economic Development Authority has acquired nine of those 20 quadplexes with a goal of preserving them as affordable housing. We're engaged now in a process of updating our small area plans to consider the future of that neighborhood um in in the city's planning documents. We had a first planning session last Saturday uh at the Oak Street School and we'll have a follow-up visioning session with the community tomorrow night, Tuesday night, March 24th, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at Columbia Baptist Church. Uh so all are welcome to that to engage in the future of the Virginia village area. After those two vision uh visioning sessions, staff will draft some language to update our small area plans to address the things we've heard

about the Virginia Village uh neighborhood. And then we'll have two uh public sessions to discuss th that draft language. Uh the first is Saturday, April 11th from 10il noon at the Oak Street School. And then the second will be Tuesday night, April 14th from 7 to 9 at Columbia Baptist Church. Um, so I wanted the public to be aware of those uh of that public engagement process. Then we'll come back to council to report on what we've heard and and uh consider next steps from there. Uh, I want to thank our planning staff and our housing staff for their work to organize these events. Um, so with that, we'll then transition to budget presentations and want to welcome our chair of the school board to the podium. I'm going to go sit in the audience. Um, and I'll be next up. Um, and just also acknowledge my colleague, uh, Superintendent Dr. Terry Dade. Uh, good to see you here tonight along with your full budget team. And, um, uh, Chair Ty, I'll turn it over to you. While we're in the middle of transitioning, I think we do are ready with the conflicts of interest disclosure.

So, let's start with that. Miss Connelly, the city council is discussing tonight the city's proposed fiscal year 2027 budget. I am an employee of the false church city school board, which will be affected by the proposed budget amendment. Because I'm only one employee among many who may realize a reasonably foreseeable direct or indirect benefit from the proposed ordinance, I am allowed to participate as a council member in this matter under the conflict of interest act. After consideration, I am electing to participate in this transaction because I am confident in my ability to participate fairly, objectively, and in the public interest.

Great. Thank you. Welcome, Chair Ty, and welcome to our school board friends and our school friends. Okay. Thank you for joining us tonight. Um,

all right. So, thank you. Good evening, Mayor Hardy, Vice Mayor DS, and City Council. Thank you so much for the opportunity to present our budget to you tonight. We're very grateful for our strong partnership and hope that it is evident in all the hard work we have done to be responsive and collaborative in our budget work this cycle. Okay, as you know, it really is always budget season. Um we began conversations on FY27 in early fall, but our public b public public um budget process began with you all on December 1st last year at our joint meeting. And since then, we have used every public meeting we have had as an opportunity to discuss, prioritize, and refine our budget. Um getting a better sense of the district's needs, as well as using updated financial data from the general government to guide our process. And so we will start with our revenue. And as you can see, we are looking at a very modest budget growth from FY26 to FY27 um with an overall growth of just over 3%. And in addition, our requested local transfer comes in at 4.1% honoring the updated guidance that we were given in February um by you. And that local transfer, as you know, is the vast majority of our funding. SECPS relies on false church city to provide nearly 81% of our operating revenue. And this is up from 79.8% in FY26, which is primarily due to a decrease in projected state funding. And as I'm sure you are also well aware, the state has not actually passed a budget. Um, we will not be back and will not be back in session until late April. Um, so that's just the best projection we have at the moment. And moving on to expenditures. Uh, as you also know, the SECPS budget is a people budget um with approximately 85% of the budget supporting salaries and benefits for staff. We're committed to supporting our staff, honoring our commitments to them and also staying competitive across the region. But even

with those commitments, our average salaries are lower than most of the region and our starting salaries are mid-range at best. So these expenditures are budgeted as leanly as possible and anything more really would start to negatively impact the services that we're able to provide. And here you can just see our revenue and our expenditures together uh on one chart and how they compare over the past few years. I'll let you dig into that in your own time. Uh and I did want to take a moment to talk about enrollment. Um, as we discussed in December, we did not see the enrollment this current school year that was predicted. Um, and as you will see in the next slide, we have adjusted things accordingly u because of that. But we still have grown significantly over the last several years and we are projected to have 35 more students next year. So that all really does have an impact on our budget. And to give you greater context uh for how we came to our current budget and to make sure that the community understands our process, I just wanted to review how we got to our final request. Uh we first asked what would it cost to just keep doing what we're doing. Uh that maintenance of effort, just maintaining current levels and honoring our contracts and obligations, not adding any enhancements, uh put us at a 5 point 5.02% growth in the transfer of local funding. But we also spent a good deal of time considering all that we would like to add to our district to advance our work um and improve our schools. But however, in late February, we were given updated guidance based on Q2 data that our request should stay at 4.1%. Which is what we're presenting tonight. But we sharpened our pencils and reduced our budget from maintenance of effort by over $500,000. We did this by leveraging attrition, realigning staffing levels based in part on that delta between the projected and actual enrollment and right sizing our labor relations contract.

Let's see. Yeah. And but however, in early March, we were met with another challenge with our health insurance rates that resulted in a reduction of yet another $120,000 beyond our maintenance of effort. And you can see how we found those adjustments on the slide here. It's also important to point out that in early March, we were told that tax revenue growth was actually $400,000 higher than anticipated. That is revenue that is typically shared 50/50 per our revenue share agreement. But the recommendation was not to include our portion of 200,000 or I think it's closer to 183,000 um of that revenue in our budget which was disappointing and a bit unsettling. But in the spirit of good partnership and prudent budgeting, we did not include that increase in this budget request. But we do want to be clear that that additional revenue would be shared if we are all staying true to the revenue share agreement. Those funds would be very significant in helping us just get closer to our maintenance of effort levels before we are able to consider consider any new initiatives. And further reflecting on the revenue share, um I just did want to reiterate yet again um that it is deeply valuable to our entire city. Not only does it provide predictable and responsible budgeting, it also clearly articulates that we are all on the same team, that we rise and fall together, and that message prevents unnecessary division in already very divisive times. The school board remains deeply committed to the revenue share, and that should be clear from all that we have just presented. But that revenue share is a shared commitment and there are some unresolved questions or issues that merit further conversation. Um being told the schools would be held 100% harmless from the changes of a solid waste fee when the reality is $26,000 this year that will grow over time is challenging. Additionally, the debt service for our gorgeous new high school that we love and appreciate that debt service is significant and will have a considerable impact on revenue allocation for many

years which we understand. However, how that debt service will be met in regards to various revenue streams and how that will impact the revenues that are subject to the revenue share is not yet entirely clear. And we look forward to continued conversations on these topics and any others that arrive arise in the spirit of continued collaboration. So in conclusion, I just want to um say yet again that this is the truly the leanest budget possible. Um which is uncomfortable when the guiding message is that we are in uncertain times. So we will be operating with narrow margins, hoping that that uncertainty does not come to our door. There is so much more we would like to do to advance our district and better serve our students who are struggling in math or reading, better support our youngest learners, um, and increase our staffing to bolster our financial and legal systems to better safeguard the district. Um, but we do understand the reality of of the times and with this request of a 4.1% increase, which is the lowest request in the past 5 years and represents an overall growth of just 3.1%. We do believe we can continue to um serve our schools and greater community to the standards that we all expect. So, thank you again for this opportunity tonight and we are grateful for the continued partnership.

Thank you. Uh I'm sure we have questions um and comments, but let's hold those until the city manager also presents those.

Thank you, Chair Ty. Um good evening, council, members of the community. Um, so it is my pleasure to present um the proposed budget for fiscal year 2027. Um, a couple people I'd like to thank before we get started. Um, and I'll start with our finance team with our new finance director, David. So, um, and Melissa Ryman and Russ Almarie. uh they have worked together as a team to help guide all of our department heads and to put together a budget that we think um uh meets the moment and and um and is a budget that uh provides for reliable, responsive and resilient services coming in uh to the coming fiscal year. I also want to thank Andy and Jenny who as our deputy city managers did a great deal of work on this budget and all of our department heads. So, we'll we'll jump in and um I guess I'm supposed to drive. Um so, uh the uh agenda for tonight, we'll provide a little bit of regional context on the budget. We'll talk about revenues and expenditures. We'll discuss some of the strategic priorities in the budget. We'll do a quick summary of the CIP. Uh Caitlyn Sabsy, who's our CIP coordinator, will be with you at your next work session to go into a deeper dive on the CIP. and that is where a great deal of the action is in this year's budget. And we'll close with a discussion of fund balance, reserves. Thank you, uh, Madame Clerk. Uh, fund balances, reserves, um, our utility funds, and then the process which will engage with the community, a process by which this staff budget proposals becomes the community's budget um, ultimately with the council's adoption on May 11th. So looking at the regional context, um the regional economy is facing significant headwinds and all of our peer jurisdictions have characterized

this year's budget as a time of caution, a time of uncertainty, uh stability focused budgets um focusing on core services and that is very uh much uh the message with the city government budget as well. We do have um uh stronger revenues on uh than our peers do. Uh with uh real estate growth coming in um stronger than all of our peers, kind of our closest competitors with Fairfax City and a great deal of that is due to new construction. Um our peers are either considering no change in the tax rate and two of our our adjacent peers are considering tax rate increases with the budget. This provides sort of a a summary of some of the things that in the major pieces of of individuals budgets where we talk about some of the other tax revenues that our peers are considering, notably the meals tax in Fairfax County and an increase in the meals tax in Fairfax City, a discussion of the school transfer amounts um and compensation levels. And I'll I'll speak a little bit more about public safety collective bargaining agreements. The city of false church does not have collective bargaining. Uh but we are proposing a significant increase in police officer compensation and response to what we're seeing in the regional marketplace for public safety. And that's one of the really key strategic initiatives in this year's budget. Um staffing. Most of our peer jurisdictions are reducing staffing levels either through filled positions or mostly through vacant positions. and the city government budget does as well. So, uh this slide has a lot of numbers in it. Um but we'll kind of walk through these are sort of the big chunks of the city budget and the bottom line is that the overall budget with with uh in terms of the general fund is growing by8%. So,

a very modest growth to the budget overall. Our general government operations are growing by $1.8 million or 3.4%. 4%. The school transfer is growing by 2.3 million or 4.1%. As was just noted in the presentation before, once you factor in state funds, the school budget as a whole is growing 3.1%. Um, so a smaller number than the 4.1% that's shown here. Um, now we have some decreases. Uh we do carry a contingency in the proposed budget of $267,000 to provide the city with some flexibility as we go through uh the budget year. Uh we also have a small step down in debt service and we have a significant step down on the use of capital reserves, a $3 million decrease there. And what's behind that is uh with phase two of the West Falls project, uh we've been provided notice that Hoffman is not planning right now to proceed with phase 2. That phase two came with it as a $10 million payment to the city. So, we uh took steps to pull money out of the capital improvements program um and and uh there's a $3 million impact um in FY 27 relative to last year. Um and tax relief and incentives. That's both for our seniors and for veterans and it's also for our tax abatement programs for Founders Row and for Westfalls. Um and that's what's behind that number. So, um, a little bit more on revenues. So, the city budget is $134 million. Uh, the majority of our funding comes from real estate taxes this year, about 61%. Um, we have generally been in the high 50s. So, the real estate uh is a larger portion of our budget than it has been in the past. And then uh going around

the horn we have a series of personal property pack tax which includes business tangible and then sales meals and bole and other taxes which are principally paid for by our business community. So kind of in in a rough way our resident uh homeowners pay about 40% of our budget, businesses cover about 40% and 20% is covered by everything else. about 4% of our budget comes from state and federal funds. And so we are almost an entirely locally funded operation for both our schools and for our general government operations. That's an important thing for people to understand about city finances. In terms of an overview of taxes and fees, we're not proposing any changes to the real estate tax rate and the budget that's before you, nor any changes to other local taxes. We do propose some adjustments to our utility fees, to our um to our solid waste fee, the new solid waste fee, and to our building permit fees to cover costs. And we'll talk about that in more detail. A little bit more detail on uh assessed value growth. Uh 61% of our revenues come from real estate. And so an overall 6.9% increase in assessed value. That number in the middle of new construction of 4.2%. 2% growth in the commercial realm that is largely coming from Westf Falls and that new revenue is being used to pay for the debt service of Meridian High School per the plan of finance that we articulated when those bonds when the bond referendum happened. So, we're transitioning off of lease payments and onto tax yield for West Falls. and that new construction is is uh what's what's picking up that part of the debt service. The impact to your median homeowner in the city is a 5% increase or $611.

So that's with no change to the tax rate. I will note that over the past seven years, there's been a 17 cent uh reduction to the tax rate. We were at a dollar 35 um about seven years ago. And so the city council um has been able to make significant reductions to the tax rate in recent years. Other local tax uh revenues also are coming in at 6.9% sort of the bottom line. So healthy growth uh personal property uh that is uh business tangible for the new businesses that are moving into to town but also new households coming online to the city and bringing vehicles with them and those are going onto the tax rules. a sales tax and meals tax. That's something we've looked at very carefully, but based on our second quarter financial results, we're we are predicting growth in those area areas. The hotel tax is one area where we do see the changes in our regional economy. Less people are traveling and our hotels are feeling that pinch. So, um a summary of our expenditures. So, the largest portion of the city's budget go does go for our schools with education at 43% of our general fund budget. Uh, debt service is 8% of the budget with about 6% of that um uh going to schools and 2% to the general fund. And then going around the horn, um police and fire is the next largest uh part of the city budget at 13%, public works, the maintenance of all of our streets, infrastructure and facilities, 7%, recreation, parks, and library 5% and on around the horn. So, here are the the key budget drivers that we some of the challenges we faced in putting this year's budget together. Um first uh to maintain a competitive compensation for our workforce, we propose an investment in our workforce

of a 4% merit increase um for our civilian workforce. For police officers, as I mentioned earlier, um as we see what's happening in the region with compensation in public safety, we're proposing um an increase for for our police officers at the lieutenant rank and below. uh 14%. Uh there's some variance in terms of sort of individual impacts, but um but that's the kind of the average impact for our police officer core. Uh so that's $400,000. Um importantly in this year's budget, this is really kind of one of the main challenges that we faced. Um our interjurisdictional contracts increased very significantly this year and our contracts with other vendors also increased. So that was a $2.5 million challenge just to maintain existing levels of service for things that we contract out. And these many of them are really core municipal services that we have either contracted with our J partners um or contracted with vendors. Uh we also faced a $1 million decrease in investment returns. And so that was a big challenge for us. We knew that that money was volatile. And so when we had larger than usual investment returns, we put them towards to surge up our paving and street maintenance efforts and we put it towards affordable housing. And so with that decrease in investment returns, we're now pulling that money back out, but we'll talk a little bit more about what the impacts of that reduction to paving and affordable housing uh will be. So we have some grants to offset that. to balance the budget. Uh we propose seven positions to be defunded in the budget. That's about $800,000. And we have uh also all of our departments uh were given very strict budget guidance. And through their

efforts, we identified about $700,000 of operating efficiencies. So some examples of that will be insourcing our recycling center um hauling services. So doing that with staff as opposed to a contractor and we save money by doing that. We've changed the way we're handling our landlines and our cell phones and we've realized savings uh through that. Those are some examples of operational efficiencies um in in the budget. So uh uh so our finance director David So prepared a pivot table to sort of walk us through the steps of those big chunks of our budget. So through the revenue share agreement uh with $2.5 million for the general government operations. Um so 1.1 uh of that goes for the staff pay increase, 400,000 for the police pay increase, 1.3 million for the J contracts, and 1.2 million for contractual cost increases, and then the $1 million loss of investment revenue. So at that point, we have about a $2.5 million gap in our budget. um relative to December where uh David presented a gap between about 2.5 million and 5 million on the revenue side our gap kind of ended up being on the the lower end of what was projected but we knew going into this budget this was going to be a severe budget where we're going to need to do hard work to to reduce some of our costs. So the reduction in paving and affordable housing sort of marries up dollar for dollar with the reduction in investment revenue because that's how that was being paid for. and then the $700,000 in operational savings and then the $800,000 from the defunding of seven vacant positions in the budget. That gets us back to a balanced budget. So, a little bit more on street maintenance. Um, in the tax rate, what we're or sort of in the operating budget, we're proposing $700,000 that's

embedded in the tax rate and then $800,000 through the use of capital reserves for 1.5 million uh for street maintenance. That's a decrease from 2.2 where we were using that investment revenue last year. Um, some good news, however, is that staff has gone out to find additional funding sources and we've put in a grant through the state of good repair uh program with VOTE. It's federally funded uh for the repaving of Route 7 and Route 29. So, that's a really expensive big chunk of our paving burden. Um, and we'll have some outside money coming in to lift that burden off of our local taxpayers. Similarly in affordable housing. So $200,000 is what's in the proposed budget for FY27. That's a step down from the $500,000 that was uh the case last year where we had augmented it with investment uh revenue. So that 200,000 will be to sustain our CCAU program where we uh provide rent subsidies for households. So at 40% AMI. So, we'll sustain that program and then as we move forward uh for the affordable home ownership program and the V affordable housing preservation at Virginia Village, we've put in for federal grants through the congressional directed spending. Uh that money is pending uh with Cindy's good efforts and uh we have gotten those dollars in the past. We feel reasonably optimistic we'll get them again in the future. So this is the list of the vacant positions that are defunded in this position and they uh range from in building safety with the code administration. Um two IT positions. Now I will note that those IT positions are transitioning from in-house positions to contracted positions. That's part of the growth in contracted services that I mentioned earlier. Uh public works a

maintenance worker position and public safety. Uh uh we have uh a school resource officer position. We have two that are vacant uh in the long term. One is being temporarily filled by u officer fishley. Uh but we would defund the second position. So we would go forward with one SRO position and then a part-time deputy position and a part-time library position. So that's the list of the positions that we propose for defunding in the FY27 budget. So the council has uh laid out three pri clear priorities for progress and environmental sustainability, transportation, economic development, housing and responsive government. And we are we look forward to engaging with the council in work sessions to discuss how this budget meets u the the needs in each of those areas in a way that make sure we protect reliable services, responsive services, and resilient services for an uncertain world. So some of the the key things in the reliability that investment in workforce is really our core uh statement in terms of maintaining uh reliable services for the city u maintaining a state of good repair of city streets including the grant uh that I just mentioned for paving Route 7 and 29 sustaining support for the CCAUS. And we uh a new um item in this budget is contracted SISO services uh to bring in additional outside expertise to protect the city's network and our IT infrastructure from cyber attacks and continuing our fire hydrant investments. Uh responsiveness uh watch night is as was noted earlier in this meeting is back in the budget uh by popular demand. I think it has actually been edifying for staff to see the the community rally to that special event and I think it's going to be reinvented and better than

ever. Uh we've we've done structural changes within our budget to drive process improvements. So when we talk about the CPED's budget, the CPADs director position was defunded last year in this year's budget. Uh we are proposing to promote from within an internal recruitment to create a department of code administration where we can sort of drive the process improvements forward in a coherent way and empowering staff to move uh changes forward in code administration. Um and also as we move forward with our ERP uh which we've talked a whole lot about um um making sure we have the structural changes and the governance changes to drive decision making and progress in using technology effectively as an organization. I think notably uh we have a h 100red million for transportation projects responsive to one of the council's top strategic priorities to transform this city to be more walkable, bikable, safe for all users of our streets. Um and then I think the the work that we did to meet the the challenge of these rising contract costs with $1.2 million and budget cuts is a is another example of of responsiveness in this budget. And then resilience looking ahead to the future of sanitary sewer just core infrastructure. We do make key investments in it to keep INI out of the system. And we're also um joining with our our Fairfax County to upsize some of our downstream pipes which was constraining some of our ability um to to deal with growth on on the sanitary sewer side and storm water investment. Um we have 8.7 million in the CIP for larger conveyance and for green infrastructure for flood uh prevention and mitigation. So just a quick review of the CIP. I' I've mentioned some of these so I won't go through them all in detail but we do

look forward to on April 6 we'll go through the CIP in detail. Um but the the big story in the capital improvements program is our investment in transportation. overall $162 million CIP with h 100 million uh dedicated towards transportation and most of that is grant funded. So 94.8 million of the CIP is is uh grant funded and um we have a smaller use of capital reserves just under 5 million in the six-year plan um as proposed tonight. And we do have debt financing for our utility funds for the sanitary sewer and for the stormwater utility. But for the general fund tax supported debt, there's no new debt uh plan to be issued until 2031 with the next issuance being for the fire station 6 roof replacement. Notably in the CIP, we are proposing to move the property yard, which was a big part of the discussion last year, to move it out to the 10-year planning horizon. And that does um uh defer uh potential debt coming on board for the city with that move. Uh this is a look at our general fund balances. And uh so the dark blue at the bottom is our unassigned fund balance. And that really is the city's shock absorber. That's money. It's just what it says it is. It's unassigned money that can be there for major emergencies or adverse um incidents that happen to the city. Um above that, the lavender is our capital reserves. And so what you see is through the CIP, we draw our capital reserves down to just over $3 million, which is our policy minimum for maintaining capital reserves in the city. So, we we spend all the money uh that we have in our capital reserves. And then the blue on top is our building permit fee reserve. And you'll note that

that will all be spent uh by the year 2028 absent any other large projects that come online. That building permit reserve grew because large projects pay significant fees and that we know we'll have inspections over the three years following those fee payments. And that's what that permit uh reserve is for. And it is part of the reason why we're coming to the council with suggestions for uh increases to our building permit fees to make sure we can sustain our building safety uh uh functions. Uh so utility funds, we do uh propose increases in our storm water fees, sanitary sewer fees, and solid waste fees. Um all of them are driven by sort of natural increases that are happening in those areas. uh the 7% is to uh fund for uh capital improvements. We we have been very successful in getting grants, but when you look out into the future into the six-year plan, we'll be doing more of the capital lift with local funding if we're not able to get additional grants for storm water. So, a 7% increase or a $23 increase for your average household is proposed there. And then sanitary sewer rates across the region. There are major investments happening at the treatment plants. And so uh along with Fairfax County and Arlington, uh we have a slightly more than inflation increase to pay for those the city's share of those capital improvements really for maintenance and repair for those treatment uh facilities. And then solid waste is the inflationary increase for our hauler and for tipping fees. So with that, we'll uh just discuss about the public engagement in the budget and um we will start on Thursday at noon in the Dogwood room. Uh we traditionally had them in this room, but I think with better uh TV cameras there,

we'll just do that hearing in the Dogwood room and um and look to engage with the public on this budget proposal. Um on April 6, we'll have a series of work sessions going all the way through May. Our second uh town hall is on April 30th and uh budget markup is on May 4th with final consideration on May 11th. So, with that, um, I know all your questions will be for the school board, and so I'll invite, uh, Chair Ty back up and chair and superintendent Dade, but um, but thank you for the opportunity to present this budget and look forward to engaging with the council as we move forward.

Great. Thank you, Mr. Shields. Uh, I'm sure we will have questions and comments even though we at the beginning of the process with six more weeks to go. Um, so, who wants to get started? Well, I I just have a just to start, Mr. Shields, with a quick question. Um, April 20th, that is a joint meeting with the school board. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. Um, so we might want to just be on that uh chart. It's clear on our internal document, but um on that it doesn't, you know, it doesn't it says budget school, but you might want to just say with school board just so it's more clear to the public. Yeah, we can do that.

Thanks. I have other questions, but I'll hold this. Maybe I'll just start down the line and go. Oh, sure. Start with the newbie. Yeah. Should we mayor, should we start with schools and then go to city or does it matter or I don't think it matters.

I mean, I don't have as many about the schools. I I do have some concerns. Um there's some tone pieces, some micro some things there, but um the I'm looking at the maintenance of effort and it's like we seem to the budget does seem to be maintaining the effort. So I I kind of view it as yeah, this is a maintenance of effort budget is what I'm seeing in the schools except for maybe where the health insurance came in and then there were some some hits. Um hopefully we'll be able to adjust. Uh I do see coming in fresh. Uh what's strugg I struggle with with is more of a general process thing of schools having to lock in their budget before we even start. It's kind of like maybe they're 90% locked in. This is something for next year um to talk through. But as far as the school budget, um I really don't have any deep questions around that. I do have um some questions to make sure that we are right side being accurate with the sharing of the debt service and that that is all working as intended. Um the as we've had some discussions, I'm still a little bit confused. So we'll work that out. And um

Mr. If I could just interrupt briefly um for a process point um I think the practice in the past we've had which is um we maintain a kind of a running Q&A document. So is that the plan to do as well? That is and um so we've already received some budget questions. We're logging those and our goal is to have have a weekly turnaround on council budget questions. Okay. So Mr. If you have specific questions now would be great and then get it out before Wednesday to turn around. Oh, but those I have some I have a bunch of specific questions, but maybe I'll feed those into the Q&A document. Um, but as far as school board, I don't have more than some general comments.

Okay. Uh, do other people have school related questions? You go ahead for school going school. Sure, we'll do school. Okay.

Um, sure. I'll hop in. Well, thank you to the schools and our school board colleagues for being here. Appreciate all the hard work that you've done. Um I know that we've also talked about sort of the budget schedule in general and kind of increasing communications and trying to make sure that we maintain them um at this sort of handoff point in time. Um so remain committed to doing that and ensuring that you know we are thinking about you know the work that you've done um thus far in the budget cycle and and seeing this as um really a commitment to maintaining the communication and I know the frustration you know over well where did that additional $400,000 come in or kind of what is happening to that $400,000 and as I think I explained to Miss Ty as my budget buddy um you know as as council I personally am committed to where you've the work you've done on your budget. I'm not looking to like dip into it anymore. I kind of want to get a sense of the school's budget and Mr. Shields's budget as proposed to think about that additional revenue that we weren't expecting um and kind of where it best fits in terms of filling holes recognizing that it is important to at the same time honor the revenue share for our ongoing partnership. Um, so those are things I'll be kind of thinking of as we continue to kind of struggle with what the budget looks like this year. Um, and the work that each side has done, recognizing kind of the the period that we're in as one still of economic uncertainty or um, at least, you know, sobering in terms of how far our budget dollars go given the cost drivers that we um, are all experiencing. On the school side, I do appreciate I know it came up at the budget and finance meeting. Um the budget Q&A that you included on the contingency and reserve funds. Uh I still would like to understand sort of the fund balance and the 2% a little bit

more. Looking back at the budget amendment from December, it looks as though the schools generally are able to maintain that fund balance in 2% without dipping into it. And so theoretically, I kind of have just a broader question about operationalizing that or what it looks like when the facility conditions assessment is done, for example, about kind of how those funds could be used or might be used more effectively if they've essentially been sitting there like unused or untouched for like a seven-year period, for example. um rec fully recognizing like why they exist conceptually, but but whether they might be operationalized better in in something other than one-time funding if it's capital reserves or as the budget generally when it's like coming in at anywhere between 1.4 and two plus million each year. So, just a thing that I'm continuing to just like trying to wrap my head around when we're looking at budgets being as lean as they are. Um, I think on the, uh, city side, uh, I'm optimistic seeing sort of the grant funding coming in on paving or possible funding on paving or possible funding on affordable housing. I still uh have concerns, right, that that's not a sustainable mechanism for costs that we know we're going to incur every year. And I think if we were talking about a paving budget, we wouldn't necessarily have like Route 29 or Route 7 at the top of that paging paving budget. And so even though it gives us dollars, does it gives us dollars in the place that we need to be able to avoid those longer term kind of roadbed reconstruction costs that we're so concerned about? And then on the affordable housing side, just thinking longer, both short term and long term in some of the upfront

affordable housing costs we have in the immediate future because of housing preservation, because of possible Virginia village redevelopment, because of possible like relocation, and then longer term, what a sustainable affordable housing contribution for the city means to help support any affordable housing that we increase. want to think a little bit more about what that should look like in our budget as an operating cost as opposed to filling holes with one-time grants. Um, so these are all kind of just comments on top of my head when I look at my initial review of budget. Um, I'm happy to see the policing um, public safety investment and our police force with increased salaries. I want to make sure that we are still doing what we need to to make sure that we have an effective public safety team. So, I know that, you know, during the last two budget cycles, we heard from the chief, there were outstanding public safety needs. The chief was going to, you know, assess his department as he learned his department. And I want to make sure that that $400,000 that's going to really um retaining people is not supplanting budget needs that exist that we aren't filling to make sure that our kind of public safety needs are being met across the city. So something that I'll be interested in as um the budget cycle continues. And then um I did have a question uh for tonight which is just we are hearing from community members even though we see a 6% sort of average assessed value increase for residential homeowners that we do have a large range and that there are large I don't know if it's large or not but that there is at least a subset of the residential homeowner population that has seen like

doubledigit increases in assessed value even over 15% increases in assessed value. Um, and so I would be interested in understanding uh just when we start our work sessions kind of the breakdown and kind of how many households we're seeing. for example, with a over 10% increase or an over 15% increase to really understand a little bit more in terms of um like layers of what this increase of kind of taxpayer burden looks like. And so that we can try to think about that and really understand um how different households in the community are affected and understand whether your budget to the extent we see increased appeals this year can absorb marginal impacts from for example um assessed values on some properties that may be higher than where they ultimately land given the outcome of any assessments. Yeah, I was going to plus one that because I feel a number of those concerns and I know we normally keep 200,000 aside in our budget for appeals. Um I don't know if that's at risk this year, but I've certainly gotten a larger volume of concerns from residents. I'd be interested as Miss Flynn on the distribution of the increases and whether 5% may be the average, but there may be a larger portion of people who are seeing double digit growth.

Yeah. Um please continue. So like I said, I I submitted some comments already to get the ball ball rolling. I won't go I mean questions. I won't go through the questions tonight, but just wanted to preview kind of my thinking where how I'm approaching this budget season and we'll kind of be pressure testing the budget, recognizing the work that's gone into it, but wanting to make sure that it is effectively delivering on what we know long-term costs will be as they continue to kind of build each year. Thanks, Vice Mayor.

Thank you. Uh, thank you to Miss Ty and Mr. Shields for your presentations. Um I do have a question for the schools. Um do you have given between the step and the cola, do you have an average um pay increase per staff member?

Good afternoon. Good evening. I'm sorry. Um Alicia Prince, uh Foster City Public Schools. Just want to follow up around that. So, um, our cola, um, is 2.8% and then our step is, um, it it it's the next step up for folks. So, it's really hard to give you an average because everyone falls in a different scale um, and on a different place. So the the best is it it kind of equates to like close to Nope. I don't even want to do it that way cuz it doesn't it's not going to give you an accurate number. But it does it the cola and then that step increase with the step increase varying because we have people who've been in our division 35 years, people who've been there one year, right? And it'll just be a different amount.

Okay. If if it would be okay if when I was on school board, I know that we always had like an what it averaged out to be. So if if you wouldn't all mind like at some point just get even a range would be you know one of the things we're trying to do is make sure that our staff and school staff are somewhat pretty you know equivalent for equity reasons and so um you know if we could get some sort of a a range like or an average between you know and I know it is different depending on the the steps and all that but I know that when I was on school board we did have some some sort of average increase.

We're happy to provide that. Okay, thank you so much, Miss Prince. Uh, and I and Miss Ty, I appreciated um your comments about um the uh revenue share. Um or maybe this was in your presentation. I'm not sure if you you did touch on that tonight. Um but just, you know, specifically in your your report talked about how the trash fees affecting it and also how that service is handled. So, I think we really need to continue to utilize our budget and finance committee meetings to keep going through that. And I know Miss Connelly is one of our architects of the revenue share from from years back and it's um you know not uh I think it's just continues to have tweaking and and working and talking through that. So I think that's something that we'll we'll continue to talk about and it's not lost on me that you know the 4.1 um is the lowest request in the past 5 years. So, uh, you know, that is that is definitely noted and I thank you all for for being good partners and and going back to the drawing board and finding some some cuts for sure. So, thank you all for that. I want to acknowledge our our um public safety officers in the audience. Thank you all for being here. Uh, I echo Miss Flynn's comments that um public safety is I'm sorry, Miss Flynn's comments that public safety is so um important and vital and it is I was just talking to Chief Hard this morning. I was listening to some um report on the radio. It's just it's tough and we want to make sure it's tough to recruit police officers. We want to make sure we retain our great police officers. So any kind of, you know, money that we can put um to Chief give to Chief Far and his um staff and and retain our great officers, I completely support. And I know Chief Art's done a great job filling some vacancies. So we're doing really well there. I know that we have to continue to look at keeping our fleet. Um you know, one of the things when I was on school board, I was telling Chief Art, every year we got two new school buses to keep that fleet. You know, we need to just make sure we're doing that on on

our public safety side of of general government, too. So, um, you know, I'd love to talk more at some point really digging in some more to the to the public safety budget, but, um, thank you officers for being here this evening and, you know, we I I'm sure I speak for all of my colleagues that we support, um, you know, attracting the best and retaining the best and and that's all of you in the audience. So, thank you. Um, just a couple other quick things. Um the um again, Miss Flynn talked about and and as did the mayor about housing assessments, and I do feel like there's a little bit of a I can't see Wyatt over that podium. I did I'm like, where did Wyatt go? Did he leave? Um but I I do think there's a little bit of confusion among in the public sometimes. We received an um a letter uh to the council about complain to us about the housing assessment and you know the mayor responded well you know and sort of explained we set the tax rate you know and all that. So it might be interesting at some point for the public um also to have a work session on assessments you know it seems like there's this sort of um idea out in the community that it's just out of nowhere that these assessments come. So you know that might be something that could be good. I know Darius, I believe it's Darius is new and um you know if we could, it doesn't necessarily have to be part of the budget um cycle, but at some point I would like to do a deeper dive into the assessments if that would be possible.

Yes. Uh we could absolutely put something together and I just want to just reassure there's a a formulaic way uh of how our real estate team assesses the the value of the property and one of the key drivers of that is sales data. So I think it's just bringing I guess some residents aware of if there's values of houses that are being sold much higher than maybe what they've previously purchased for. You know that does inflate the the assessments and and the valuations but absolutely can put together maybe a kind of highle overview of how our assessments work to kind of give uh some assurance to the public.

That would be that'd be terrific. Thank you Mr. Toe. Um and then a couple other quick things. Um I um just again I've I've done several shout outs to um Tom Clinton, but I want to do it again. Um that he, you know, really took that time to to find a lot of our cars that are um all the pe new people who moved into rental housing in our in our city. Not everyone registered their cars. And so um Mr. Clinton and his staff really went out and worked with the apartment um the landlords and really worked to reach out to residents and let them know they need to register their cars. And that's why you see quite a quite an improvement in personal property tax revenue that came in. So just a big shout out to Tom because that's that's a huge help uh for us. And um then finally just um on the staff report I I just wanted to compliment I don't know if it was Mr. So or your team or but this staff report I think is terrific. Um I you know I'm going to I actually just saved it to my computer when people you know email with questions. I think it's it's very really helps um people understand uh the budget I think and and so I just wanted to compliment you and your staff on the staff report. I thought it was really good and um specifically I just wanted to um support on line 70 where you're talking about the sanitary sewer. Um you talked about you know proposing an increase to availability fees charged to new developments to cover the costs of expanding the system over time. And I just think that's terrific and you know obviously I'm sure that we all support that. That's the you know to growth pays for growth. But um yeah I am in complete support of that and uh I just wanted to thank everyone for I know I know budgets are are a heavy lift and uh just I think we're off to a great start on on both the schools and the city and I know it's it is a little bit of a tighter year this year but I think you know working together in partnership we'll get through it. So thank you all very much.

Great. Before I go to Miss Connelly, I just want to make sure that Miss Underh Hill and Mr. Snder, if you all have questions or comments, raise your hand since you're virtually. I don't see your hands raised, so I'm going to go to Miss Connelly if you have questions or comments. Oh, you all do. Well, we'll call in you first, I guess. All right. Thank you, Mayor Hardy. Thank you, Mr. Shields and Miss Ty, for that presentation. Uh, I've got about five questions. The first one is about the community center teen room. This is the first that we've heard I've heard that there's a need to redo the community center teen room. And I'm just curious as to is there a budget estimate for that? Is this something that would cost $20,000 or $100,000 or is there a way we can get some information on that and hear from staff regarding what could be done?

So that's a developing situation. It's not in the budget right now. Um but we're kind of all ears. I think the case it was a very compelling case. So I'll follow up with Danny and the team and then Caitlyn if it rises to a CIP. Hopefully it does not. Um and how much would that what's rise to a CIP? It's a lot. So I won't even it's not going to be that much. No. Um so we'll follow up to see what kind of strategies we could have to update the teen room.

Thank you. Yeah. I I'm just sorry to interrupt you, but I'm the parks and rep uh liaison and I was at that meeting where Miss Byer presented and I suggested to her to give us sort of an itemized budget so we knew what kind of number we're looking at. So hopefully we'll get something um in this current year's budget. Mr. Shields, we put in a contingency and I saw on our slide here that we are reducing that contingency. What did we spend that contingency on? It was a not what we expected to, but it was a contingency. In 2026, we did a little moving things around to cover something with the contingency.

So, one one thing we'll talk a little bit about how we've used it this year. Um, and the reduction, however, the difference between the 650 and the uh 267 is that that money is now being deployed in the operating budget. um kind of in all of the things we're trying to do in the budget, we we had to reduce the council contingency in order to balance the budget for this year. Um but in terms of how it's being used this year, um did did you want to have a quick

Well, my my question is we put 500,000 in there for emergencies related to the economy, related to what was going on in the federal government, our concerns for our residents. Did we use it for that or we use it for something else? We did increase the emergency assistance um by a modest amount um and uh the remainder of it was to meet other rising costs that we had in the budget this year. So it was generally for cost increases is where most of it has gone. Sorry, mayor. Can I have one one follow up on that while Miss Connelly gets her mic

set up? And it was just I had this question. and it's in my budget questions, but that 2675 that we're seeing in fiscal year 2027 approximates somewhat like what's left of the original 500 and then we went through budget amendment. It was used for reasons we didn't actually like originally authorize. We authorized it during budget amendment. We're hoping that if we were to see a surplus, it would go into a contingency. It would reopen the next fiscal year for example. But is that 2675 a carryover from the current contingency? the current contingency in your mind, you'll be coming back for another amendment or like to reappropriate that and this 2675 is new and something you've just built in based on fiscal year 2027 projected revenues.

Correct. So to answer the the last question, it's it's a contingency based it's a new one just based upon the current events. I think there's still uh a lot of uncertainty that we're going through and so this contingency is is needed. Uh but based upon uh what we spent in 26, we spent about 300,000 uh 250,000 of that was for the uh city attorney uh legal fees and then the other 50,000 was for the facilities assessments uh for city government to uh coordinate or to do a joint facilities assessments with the schools. So, uh, 300,000 was what we used this year out of the 651,000, but they're two separate. They're not related.

Done with your So, my question then is we didn't use it for what we set it aside for, but we are setting more aside just in case for next year. Yes. Yeah. Because there's just a lot of uncertainty of all the uncertainty. I mean, fuel prices are now going up. So there's just again we can't predict what will happen but we know uh we may need this for some unforeseen uh expenses. Okay. And that's 2675 is the proposed correct amount. Okay.

Um the CCAU program you mentioned that we would continue funding that. My question is now that we have it we can't ever unfund it right because it's keeping people in their homes. So that really has to permanently be in the budget. So the city council very wisely created a buffer. There's three years of runway in the affordable housing fund so that in the event there was a fiscal um sort of an emergency where the city council saw fit not to fund 200,000, we would still have three years runway in the affordable housing fund. And that was done very consciously by the city council.

Okay. um the positions that you're defunding, you're proposing to defund. I just want to talk about them a little bit. You said none of them are filled, so it wouldn't be that people would be losing their jobs, but they're all I mean, we don't when we put positions in, they're for a reason. Um are we concerned about the work that will fall on other staff to fill these positions? How how did you just pick them because they're the ones that aren't filled or what was the rationale for those specific positions?

So, they all have impacts and when we go through work sessions by department, we can talk about those in more detail. Um, this really is, I think, a reflection of the staff trying to work to solve problems. And so, we uh we knew we had to make reductions. they needed to be operating budget reductions. They couldn't just be sort of, you know, saving one-time money or sort of gimmicks. And um and so this plus the other operational efficiencies we've identified are true s, you know, cuts that uh we'll want to spend a little more time to describe to the city council at work session. Each one of them has its own sort of universe of impacts.

Okay. So, my concern on that one is that our city is growing, our needs are growing, and at the same time, we're thinking about cutting staff. Um, and if we had a little more money in the budget, we might not need to cut staff. That's right.

As the person who always advocates for higher taxes, I'll say that. But I do think that that's an important consideration. I mean, people pay taxes to get the services that they expect. And if if we're shrinking shrinking shrinking things down and we're not able to provide the services people expect, then we have an imbalance there. Uh the insurance the schools mentioned that they had a $120,000 hit because of increased insurance rates. What's the does the city also have the same? Well, I guess fewer employees, but was there also a similar increase to this?

Yeah, there was also a similar impact. uh it was accounted for in part of the the staff increases that we had in there. So uh for us uh it was more of a a split mix. We have um the 13% was I believe for um uh Anthem. Yes. Uh Anthem. And then there was actually no increase for on the Kaiser side. So for us it wasn't as big of a of a hit um compared to what the schools had. So for us it netted out to the 10% that we had uh closely budgeted for. Okay. Yes.

Um and then my last questions kind of follow along with what Miss Flum is asking about the police and that is I just want to make sure that the funding of the police is where it needs to be. Um, I'm appreciative that there's a salary increase in there, but I think we also just need to uh look at some of the cuts or the lack of funding that has been there in recent years. And over the years, we talked about accreditation and is there a person in there to help with to be doing accreditation. Um, Miss Flynn mentioned the fleet replacement schedule. I want to make sure that we're not falling behind on that. we were talking about falling behind on paving, falling behind on this, but this is another thing that we could be falling behind on. Um, so I just want to make sure that we are covering all of that as well or figuring out a way that we can make sure it's adequately funded.

Thanks. Okay, Miss Hill, your hand.

I'll just note uh there are needs out there and so when we have the budget work session with police, we'll discuss those. Fleet is a concern. Um we have an old fleet and we have um not kept up with our fleet replacement. So when we get to year end, we are going to come to a council with a budget amendment to put some year-end money towards fleet replacement. That will be a start, but it's not going to get us really where we need to be. So that's going to need to be an ongoing conversation on fleet. And I know there's some some other things that the that the chief will discuss with the council at work session. Thank you very much. That's all. Miss Andre,

thank you. Uh, thank you for this presentation. I started making my way through the 361 pages of the full budget um but did not make it fully through. So, I'm I'm looking forward to um many more questions as we dive into it this year. Um, briefly from the presentation, um, I just I just have a couple questions. Um, and maybe some of these can't be answered tonight. Um, but do we know where the road conditions on Broaden Washington stand uh versus other roads and and would that even be a priority?

Um, it is a priority. That's a, you know, just because of the weight of the trucks and the volume of traffic. That's a road that does need to be reconditioned regularly. you know, as um our engineer uh Tara Busen has Tara Hoff has described for us, particularly on these big heavy uh highway roads, when you get behind on maintenance, the costs really start to accelerate on you. So, we're very pleased to have put that grant in. We do think it's a priority. Uh in terms of broaden Washington though the in the and the last time we repaved it. Um I was under the impression that that was actually not our responsibility to fund the repaving. Um that that was something where the state or VOTE would chip in. Um the last time that we paved it was that done through grant money or was that something that we paid for?

So it is the city's responsibility. Um, and we have been successful in getting grants to pave Route 7 and Route 29 in the past. That's why we feel optimistic that we'll get that grant again uh with this application.

Okay. Yeah. I mean, I I will say great that um we're hope we're applying for grants. Um I do think that uh we are more likely to get a grant for Route 7 and Broaden Washington. Um and so while it's nice that we would have that, that doesn't necessarily mean it's it fully replaces like what the city should be doing in terms of repaving. And it's almost like this is something that we would need to do anyway and we would likely get state funding or VOTE funding or other funding or federal funding, excuse me, for it. Um, and so I'm deeply concerned about the fact that our like we, you know, this winter was harsh, the freeze thaw cycle was hard on our roads, lots of potholes. This is something that's only going to get worse. And for many years, I believe over the past decade, this is something we've been uh kicking down the the road, uh so to speak. Um and so in some ways, like if there were a proposal to council to say, "Hey, would you guys be willing to take on debt and would you be willing to take on 10% at a 10% rate or a 20% rate or something like that?" We'd probably say, "Oh my gosh, no. We don't want that." Um but in some ways what we're doing here which is uh not catching up on our road paving program severely exacerbates costs in the future. So this is basically debt that we're taking on today. And so that's that's the sort of framing that I'm looking at this in. And so when we have a question about do we expand library hours that's very different than do we pave our roads because this is something that will we will have to pay for and we'll have to pay for and even larger costs in the future. Um and and Greening of Lincoln was was evidence of that which is um you know suddenly costs are astronomical on that project and I

believe that we're going to start seeing things like that throughout the city as we as we start taking a closer look at our roads. Um so I guess mostly a comment that I'm deeply concerned about our road paving budget and and where things stand right now. Um, and I know that things are tight. Uh, but as I go through the documents, um, something that I I I would like to figure out is is there any more room, uh, to get a road paving budget a little bit, uh, beefed up from where it is now. And that's my only comment. Thank you so much. I appreciate it, Mr. Snyder.

Um, thank you very much. Thanks for the presentation this evening. Um, I do have a number of questions. Let me start to go through them. I'd like a list of all vacancies that are that are in existence now and will likely uh be um in existence during the next fiscal year. That is, we have information about imminent retirements from both the city and the school. So, I'd like a total list of vacancies uh obviously by classification and not by name. Um I question the reduction in SRO's uh whether that's prudent. Um and I'll be uh pursuing that one. Um the next question I have is whether we have adequate contingency to cover energy costs that are have already risen dramatically and could potentially affect the city and the schools directly but also would affect uh all the providers of most of the providers of goods and services. So, have we adequately established a contingency capable of covering a worst case energy inflation um continuation? The next issue on paving um I share the concerns. I guess my basic question is is the money that is currently budgeted for paving adequate to deal with the conditions that have emerged this winter? I'm thinking a classic example of that is Maple Avenue between park and broad. The next question I have for the schools is how does their budget u align with uh any collective bargaining uh issues. The next question I have really relates to legislation and we'll be scheduling a

legislative committee meeting here in the near future whether there's any action we should be taking in terms of advocacy um regarding um questions um in the state budget that would have a positive impact on the city of false church. the uh I share the question about the community center costs and interest in in seeing what we can do there. Um the uh one other comment I want to make is I'd like the city to review the extent to which we're going after transportation grants. There have been several funding cycles that have come and gone without the city applying for funding. And I just want to make sure that we're staffed up adequately and following these streams of transportation funding to make sure that we're maximizing our uh our possibility to get state grants, to get um uh regional grants, and even to get federal grants. So, I want some information on the extent to which we're um maximizing our efforts to get grant funding across the board, but I noticed in the transportation area several um funding streams have gone by without us putting in an application. So, um those would be the questions I have tonight. I'm sure I'll have more, but I want to thank everyone involved in the process. This is going to be difficult. Um but with uh with goodwill and um careful uh budgeting and a clear eye on what is necessary versus just what um we might prefer to have if we had more if we had unlimited funds will um will see us through this. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Snider. Um Mr. Reagan, do you have one?

Yeah, I really only covered the schools before, so Okay. Um I do have um several bigger questions. I I've been going through the document. I haven't gotten all the way through. Um I will be I have a whole bunch of smaller questions, but a couple big themes here. Uh one is of course on I'm going to plus one on the paving. Uh when I was on the CAC, uh Tara came to us. She gave us a presentation on and this was two years ago about how underfunded we were last year. CACT supported the um increased funding. We're very excited that the of the increase last year and it was still a million short of what had been requested by DPW and I at the time we thought that was okay, we're now going to bump up to clo to try and get closer to a sustainable level and now we've reversed that. Um, I I was not aware that that was a surge funding. Um, I think our levels need to be there for our local streets. I think we're we're teetering on the edge and we're going to get into real trouble if we don't figure out a way to to fund the local streets. Um, and then we just need to double check that we're not double paving on like Washington. We've got the Washington multimodal and other items coming in. I hope we're not double paving it and then tearing it up for a CIP project. I doubt we would do that, but just want to double check. Uh the other thing I have not heard much discussion about um is well let me talk about um real estate first. Uh we absolutely are hearing increases. Uh one of the interesting notes in here is that the we talk about 6.9%

assessment increase for residential or 7.2 6.9 overall but buried in here is that single family was 8.1 increase. So the average as you get into single family was even greater. and is that that that is painful. That is a painful number. Um I've noticed certain other jurisdictions have talked about uh an equivalency value uh which is kind of the combination of assessments going up and tax rate going down. So basically your your taxes stay at the level of inflation. I don't think we've ever talked about that. I think it would be good to know about that and I'm going to plus one understanding the details of the assessments and who's getting hit who's not and how is that fleshing out um I would like to understand that and then the other coming back to what I was saying is there's one area that I don't really hear a lot about discussion about and that is outside of real estate tax rate are there revenue opportunities um We talked about the phase two in West Falls. Well, we're not if if Hoffman's not exercising their option, then that's now our property. We should be Are there opportunities to make revenue there? Are there other revenue opportunities in the budget to help us um help us? Nobody really wants to tax more, but we're also hurting if it means that we can um can get some of the critical items, maybe reduce the um cuts also where we have um I know that one of the proposals that

came in from Bike Falls Church was about going to the CNI. I I know you briefed us on that. I'm still unclear if CNIE is in the budget if we added CNI which would be a big hit and I'm not sure that it is maybe too big a hit for the community. Um would that then free up this the money that's currently CNIE? I I don't know. Um I'd like to explore that a little bit more. Um, and those are the big things. Uh, as far as the FTEEs being cut, one one question I have is if a position was fil was still in the budget, would it actually get filled in the next year? And I'm specifically thinking about the SRO positions which have been vacant for a while. We now have a temporaryly have a police officer there. um they're a challenge. So even if we had two SRO positions, would it just be that one of them would be sitting empty anyway? Um so I I would like to understand that a little bit better and those are my the big ones and I'll I'll be sending you a whole bunch of little ones.

Great. Well, thank you. Um I think everyone's had a turn now, so mine. Um, well, first of all, I appreciate uh the school board's work to date as well as the new team. So, we appreciate having a new CFO in both general government and schools. Uh, and I want to echo the thanks that the staff report in the deck was really well done. U, I think a lot of the traditional slides that I asked for showed up, so thank you for anticipating a large part of our questions. Um, can we go to the slide that showed the regional picture? I think it was one of the first slides I usually ask about this. So, I was glad to see that we at least opened with this because I do think that's important context. Um so as you read these bullets and um all the highlights I think what is clear to me is that the uncertainty is here. Um I think earlier during the presentations a comment was made I jotted it down was you know we're going to keep doing what we're doing. I think that actually doesn't work because this is at our doorstep and I would challenge us to actually think more critically about what really is a need versus what is a nice to have. And I understand that our budgets are largely people driven. But when you look at kind of what our neighbors are facing. Uh and then the next slide I would like to go to is the one that talks about uh the 4.2% growth is largely from new construction. If you take that context paired with why our revenues are what they are, the only reason we are not in the situation that our neighbors in is because of the new growth that we had. And so I want us to keep those two as kind of the top of- mind concerns as we start this budget year because I think it is prudent for us to keep in mind that regional context and what next year's budget will look like. So Mr. Shields, one of my first questions will be um if we did not have actually the next one. Next slide, please. One more. It's the one that breaks out kind of new construction by residential commercial. Sorry, several sides. There you go. So, if we did not have the 4.2% in new construction, given that we don't have new projects in the pipeline, what does the FY28 budget look like? And I'm

pretty sure it's going to look not as great as a 6% uh revenue growth. And so, I want to keep that in mind because I do think that while we are budgeting for the current fiscal year, it is very prudent for us to keep in mind what the economy is going to be. And I think it's a combination of where the region is plus what our economic outlook locally is going to be. So that's kind of what I'm going to start with is I do think that's important for our colleague my colleague to think about. Um salary parody is really important. So I want to echo uh Vice Mayor Dan's request on understanding um kind of the school increases. I think that's been a principle that we've tried to maintain the past several years. We want um all our public safety officers to feel equally proud of being um an employee of false church as our teachers. And so maintaining that parity and getting as close to that as possible is really important to us because at the end of the day we are in a people business here uh in general government. Uh, a few specific questions. Um, one that I do ask every year and I'll ask again is could I get a look at the 1357-year look back on our city population growth versus our school student enrollment growth, budget growth accordingly for general government uh, schools versus CPI and then also end of year fund balances. I always like that historical look back at where we've been because at the end of the day because we are people business we are driven by kind of the needs of the growing population and our students. Uh a specific question for the schools if we can go to that slide. I'm sorry I don't have the number jotted down but I think on the school state funding I noted that there was a one and a half% decrease and I know with the new administration and the priorities of the general assembly they're committing to hopefully sending more money. And I know the LCI is not favorable to us, but I'm curious why we're expecting a one and a half% decrease. Is because of declining enrollment um their sales tax revenue.

Okay. Just so that people can hear in the mic, it's declining sales tax revenue. So, uh and this is early on, right? We don't I I want to make sure it's really clear that we don't know what's going to come out in late April from the new governor and what she may project, but initial what came out from the former governor's budget was a decrease in some of the one one uh sales tax will go up and one of the other taxes would go down and that's why we would expect that decrease. So that 1.5 decrease was due to the decrease in that tax. Okay. And how much of that is tied to enrollment? Is it based on that's not an enrollment base?

Okay. But our state funding amounts would be tied to enrollment, the little money that we do get from Richmond. It's uh it's it's fully it's slightly uh tied to that enrollment, but more than that, it's tied to the LCI.

Okay. Uh and I guess a question for maybe Miss Meer. Um we expect that the state will have their budget done by third week of April. Hopefully. I would like to be optimistic this year that they will have it on April 23rd. Have heard some initial indications. They're talking about a compromise on the data centers and that tax exemption is what's driving all of the state budget and the transit funding. And so that is still two and a half weeks before we adopt. And so hopefully, I mean, that's clearly something we should discuss on April 27th at kind of our last work session because obviously Metro funding's on the line, potential school funding changes, but there's still a lot of uncertainty on what's happening, but that gives us at least a couple weeks to know where that might stand.

We'll certainly know at that point whether they've reached agreement and voted on the budget or extended the special session.

Great. Um, my next request, um, similar to kind of Mr. Agan's question. Um I think on slide six, I think we did a good job benchmarking kind of what the proposed tax rate changes on real estate. I'd like to actually benchmark what all of the tax rates look like um across the region, including ours. And the reason I asked for this is because I think we had lowered the car tax rate several years ago below $5. And when I read Arlington's budget, they had uh were rearing essentially um the amounts. I believe they're currently provide 100% relief for the first 3,000 in car value versus in false church we provide 100% relief for the first 1500 in value. So I don't know whether there's worth one looking at rebenchmarking that is it worth the paperwork involved in giving car tax relief for cars that are below 1500 or should that number change and then does that change um any revenue options we have uh given all the at least the current concerns we're hearing on the real estate tax rate side. An interesting idea I've been thinking about is, you know, would we consider lowering the real estate tax rate and then increasing the property the car tax rate to make up for some of that revenue uh to provide some relief for those double digit real estate assessments that people are facing right now. Mayor, just on that point, and I had a similar thought, it's also a way if we if we thought about doing that, right, to to try to begin incorporating a dedicated paving budget, for example, if we're reducing a real estate tax rate and then we're increasing a personal property car tax and we're cost spreading like the cost of the roads across the actual drivers as opposed to just the homeowners, right? that it's it might be a way to think about actually creating a a like key budget item for paving purposes.

Great segue because like my colleagues, I don't love that we are not funding our street maintenance and our affordable housing. Um I guess I would argue that frankly those are maintenance of effort for general government. Um, and so even if we think the $1 million grant on the street side and the fed money on the housing side is likely to happen and fingers crossed, um, I would love for us to figure out a more sustainable local source for funding this and not just using plusup onetime funds. And so I will plus four I guess I think is what I counted everyone on that one. Um, so benchmarking all the tax rates on slide six. um look at lowering real estate tax rate, increasing car tax rate as well as different tiers within car tax if that is additional revenue drivers. Um and then I would like a summary of what at least as proposed in this manager's budget, what is a total increase for the median household beyond the real estate tax. So once you add in all the fees um that are being proposed, what is the change for the median household? I think that is it. Um actually one more uh on slide 14 given kind of again like regional uncertainty and the re I guess the environment economically for all of us. Uh I shared Mr. Snider's concerns about various wild cards. I think energy prices are one of those. Um, but I'd like to understand how our assumptions around local tax revenues compare to our neighbors. These are quite bullish. I know we've had a lot of growth and we, you know, are counting on our local economy to bring us through, but I think it would be prudent for us to look at how these compare to what our neighbors are expecting. For example, sales tax and meals tax of 8 and 5 and a half% is quite bullish in the environment right now. And so, I want us to be eyes wide open on what these assumptions are and whether we being too aggressive compared to our neighbors. I know we have a lot of faith in our local businesses for

helping. Um, but I think it's important for us to look at what the region is facing too. I think that is it. Any final questions or comments? I know that again this is the beginning of a six to seven week process for us. So, we probably will have more to come. Um, but we appreciate the work and the recommendations um from the manager and the requests from the schools as well. So, thank you all. Okay, I think we're going to transition to very anticlimactic council requests now after budget. We made a whole bunch of requests during budget, but I feel like we have probably other council requests. Thank you all for joining us tonight. Okay. Who's got a council request? Mr. Aan.

So, just real quick, I probably should say that I live on Lincoln and and therefore have a personal but more than a group of three. Just going to say it real quick, but um I've noticed construction starting on Lincoln Avenue at um Great Falls and I'm assuming that that is part of the beginning of Greening of Lincoln. It's the initial and it's in the right spots, but there's no information out there about, oh, we've started the greening of Lincoln or what that construction is about and that if it is the beginning of the the first phase, it's going to be uh going on for a while. So, uh I was wondering if that was the beginning of greening of Lincoln or if that's a different project going on. So, I see uh Andy talking with Amanda, and Amanda is racing to the podium.

Apologies, I missed the beginning of that. You're talking with the construction at um Great Falls in Lincoln. I think I think it's um so we we've issued notice to proceed to the contractor for that greening of Lincoln phase. And I think they're beginning some I know some initial testing and test bits and I think there'll be another phase and some additional outreach coming out soon. Um okay. I think we need to accelerate the outreach because the the work they're doing right now, they are basically closing the intersection, having slow stop flagmen do it during the day. Yeah, I think there's some Washington gas work that's related to our project. We've been talking about it recently, but and it's going to be like that till the project's done, so it's going to be a while.

Yep. Thanks. Um the other question I had was um around the city I've noticed there are some yellow bins that I don't believe the residents have brought in. You know, we've we delivered them appropriately and then certain residents have just left them sitting on the curb and I'm wondering what the plan is with those situations. Amanda, are you you want to speak to that? You shouldn't have come. I I can speak to it generally, but yeah, the organics bins. I mean, I I I know that some folks have been reaching out to to Lonnie Marquetti, our solid waste coordinator, and we're able to to pick up some of those bins. Um, and there there's some capacity within the staff to to handle that. Um,

did you have a more specific answer? Sorry. So, Lonnie's been getting requests in from the public and anyone who is listening, if you do want to return your bin, you just need to email recycleva.gov gov and Lonnie will put that as part of the list. What if they're just grumpy and just leave them sitting there?

So, so by city code, there is a city code provision that says you you need to take them in off the street uh by Thursday and um we enforce that very gent gently. Uh but it is an issue like in Winter Hill where it's very tight and very congested. the neighbors really want their neighbors to pull their trash bins in and so we've been working with some of our neighborhoods on on uh that concern. Um but at any rate, that's the rule.

All right. I think this is more a different question though. Not not bringing them in on Thursday, but just they've been delivered and people in that instance they send a they either were haven't gotten to it yet, but we will pick them up because they've sent in an email or they left them out and they haven't sent an email. So the instruction to the public is you should send an email to recycling false church.gov so it can get on our list and we will pick it up for you. Others other council requests

Connley. Um these are follow-ups to council requests that were replied to in the council request memo. One is just about the Harris heater. We got a message from uh a resident there complaining that the semi trucks delivery trucks from Harris ter were coming out and making U-turns in that intersection. And the response was there would be more police enforcement enforcement of that. But I think a really easy thing to be would be to go to Harris ter. Yeah. And that's what we because they're vendors. So I was not that's been a problem maybe two years ago. I was not aware that that was still a current problem. doesn't either until that message.

So we uh what we do is we follow up the Harris ter manager and that manager contacts the trucking agencies and make sure they understand the correct route because part of their VCs is there's a truck route and they're not to deviate from that.

Okay. Um the Greenway Downs question just about the construction at the corner there of George Mason and Seatin. Um, I I would I just feel like there needs to be a little more supervision about how they secure that site at night because it still has some big gaps. Um, where the it's sort of plastic fencing and big holes and it's just kind of there and and we haven't seen those people working on a regular basis, but when they do work it gets bigger and bigger and bigger. So if you would just whoever is supervising them just go over there and supervise them a little more. Um and at the traffic circle at Maple and Annendale that construction today I just want to point out that they were reringing the traffic light and there's a huge amount of damage to the covers on the traffic light and that wasn't there yesterday but it was dangling down really low today. So as they were doing the construction. And so I just want to make sure that that is not that if that ends up as it's a broken traffic light at this point, but I guess it's going to go away because it's a traffic circle coming. Um, and then on the fields, I'm hoping that we could have some kind of connection between the school social workers and the HHS staff because I'm starting to get questions about what's going to happen with the fields and the school social workers are getting questions and we just need to connect them to make sure that the community members know what's going to happen and they can get the right answers from school employees as well as HHS employees. Thank you. other council requests. Um, I had a few. Um, I know we got a some comments about the yellow cards,

but have those kind of slowed down? Are people happy to have them now or do we adjusting visually to the the additions? Yeah, I believe so. And um I do want to thank Lonnie Marquetti for her hard work on this. She's very responsive and um has worked very hard on this roll out. I'm not aware of you know we had some of the initial questions but I think I think we are addressing those and I think it's going well.

Okay. Uh we talked briefly about this in the budget but I think it's a current fiscal year issue is the pothole repair. Um do we have enough money in the current budget to do all the pothole repairs because there are they're growing like overnight. Um we do. Um, and we're we you know, people should feel free to report them in, but we do have a good log of them and we will be addressing them over the course of the spring.

Yeah, the the one on North Maple that Mr. Snder cited kind of just grew like last week and then um the ones near the state theater have deteriorated. So, the ones that were small are now much bigger and so if we could just continue the public messaging because some of them are actually quite dangerous I think at this point. Um, relatedly, the corner broad in Washington's getting all torn up. the brick sidewalks. I don't know whether it's utility work, but it's quite disruptive because it's a high ped area and I would say the pedestrian detours are not great. I ran through there this earlier today and then I think Miss Connelly asked about this in the past, but what is the status of the Greenwood Downs traffic coming because it seems to have stalled. Nothing's really happening.

So, uh, Amanda, do you have an update on that since you're Thank you for joining us. or 20.

Yeah, we we there is um there is a bit of a a pause right now um on on some of the work. So, I know there a couple parts. There's obviously the the traffic calming aspect and the speed hump conversations that we've been having and I believe that is all moving forward pretty well. I think there have been some some meetings with some of the residents about a couple specific instances. But then there's this uh kind of storm water storm structure element that our um our engineering team has been discussing more recently. So, I think they're having some act. So, at the moment there is a bit of a pause in the work. I think an update was just made on the website. Um, and it's something we're really actively working on because the project is is under construction. Uh, and so we are, you know, looking to to to answer a few of these kind of storm water questions uh and then get the project going again and we'll be making sure we're in clearer communication uh with with the residents on that.

Okay. At this point, when is expected to finish and are we on track to hit that? I think we said May most recently. Uh that's Yeah. Well, that that's our most recent estimate. Yeah.

Okay. Okay. Thank you. Any final requests? Otherwise, you can get to business on the agenda. Okay. Well, let's call the first item business on the agenda, please. Yes. So, our first item is a public hearing uh for TR TR 26-05 resolution naming the city-owned parkland located at the property formerly known as 604 South Oak Street, currently known as 310 Fellows Court, 306 Parker Avenue, 304 Parker Avenue, 302 Parker Avenue, 502 South Oak Street, 302 Fellows Court, and 304 Fellows Court real property code number is 52-206- 090 52-206-91 52-206-92 52-206-93 52-206-94 52-206-95 52-206-96 and anticipated to be consolidated to the address 500 South Oak Street with an RPC to be determined.

Great. Thank you. So, our deputy wreck and parks director Amy Youngs is here to provide the staff report on this.

All right. Good evening, council. And I apologize to whoever has to read the resolution with all of that. Uh tonight, council is requested to select a name for the park being built on South Oak Street. As a reminder to council and for the public's information, uh, by city code, a park can be named after the ecological features, historical significance, uh, geographical location of the park and exceptions are made to commemorate an individual service or to better identify the use of the park. Over a 100 recommendations were submitted through feedback form on the city's website. We received recommendations from the planning commission, arts and humanities council, recreation and parks advisory board, the historical commission, and we also engaged with the Oak Street Elementary staff and got suggestions from the students there. All recommendations are in the staff report. Uh, city council reviewed and discussed the recommendations during a work session last week on March 17th. There was significant city council support for Fellowship Park, Firefly Forest, and Hidden Harvest Park. Following further discussion, Firefly Forest was identified as the most preferred option among the three and I'm here to answer any questions for your hearing.

Apparently, we had a fan in the neighborhood of Firefly Forest. So, but it's Firefly Forest, not Firefly Forest Park. That was I was hoping that we clarify that when we uh when we do this. So, um in your work session, I think was just Firefly Forest. Every one of our parks is fire is park at the end. So, it can be up to council. Um Reckon Parks does not have a strong opinion. I was going to bring that up as well. The firefight forest park does not have much of a ring. I much prefer Firefly Life Forest.

Any disscent from that? Okay. Uh any questions or comments before I open the item up for a public hearing? Yeah, I I would just like to um I mentioned this at our last meeting, but um the uh some of the residents point out to me that that neighborhood is called Virginia Forest. And so um you know the the combination of having the Fireflies and then having also the geographic area of forest and then as Miss Flynn pointed out the alliteration of firefly forest um

and fellows. So, um, but I I think the I I would like to throw my support behind, uh, Firefly Forest and and, uh, probably leave off the park, but I I don't feel strong too strongly either way. Thanks. Okay. Uh, I'm going to open up the public hearing. Any members of the public wish to comment on this? We don't have any public comment beyond member of the public.

Okay. Welcome, Mary Katherine Chase, 208 South Oak Street. I live uh down the street from uh the property. I have kids who have gone to and will go to Oak Street Elementary and I love Firefly Forest. I love the alliteration. I love learning about the Fireflies this evening. Um I love walking that property already and I can't wait for what Recken Parks has planned and so I I love that this has come out of public comment. I'm really excited.

Great. Thank you. Any other public comment? Okay, I'm going to close the public hearing. Is there a motion from councel? I move Oops. I move to adopt TR 26 26-05 Firefly Forest. Is there a second? Second. Flynn on the second. And call roll, please. Mr. Mr. Aen, yes. Miss Connley, yes. Miss DS, yes. Miss Flynn, yes. Mr. Snyder, yes. Miss Underh Hill, yes. And Mayor Hardy, yes.

Motion carries seven to zero. Thank you, council. Congrats. We look forward to the groundbreaking. Thank you very much. And you did a terrific job leading this whole Thank you. Yeah. initiative. Great job. Can we do the groundbreaking after dark when the fireflies are out in June? Right.

I think I made this comment during one of our earlier work sessions, but I feel like this is like the third or fourth park we've named in the past several years, which I do think is an important kind of investment and open and recreation space for the community. So, nice job to all of council and to staff for bringing those opportunities forward. Uh, can we get to the next item, please? Yes, we have TR26-12 resolution authorizing participation in Virginia opioid abatement authority cooperative partnership agreement for cooperative applications. So, uh, council, this is, uh, the city council's already appropriated $10,000 of opioid settlement dollars, uh, for, um, for opioid um, um, addiction uh, prevention and assistance. What this would allow us to do is to enter to into a cooperative partnership um regionally so that that $10,000 would be pulled. The city would get benefits from that partnership, but we'd also be able to kind of amplify our uh efforts to help this uh part of our community uh through this regional partnership. I'd be happy to answer any questions about it. the the dollar amount that's at stake is $10,000 that came out of the opioid settlement.

Okay. Any questions? I think we already briefly talked about it in work session last week and didn't have any. Okay. Is there a motion then? I move to adopt TR26-12. There's Aen on the second. Call roll, please. Mr. Aen. Yes. Miss Connley, yes. Miss DS, yes. Miss Flynn, yes. Mr. Snyder, yes. Miss Underh Hill, yes. Mayor Hardy, yes. Motion carries seven to zero. Thank you.

And we have nothing on consent tonight. Um, but we do have two other items under other business. First,

yes. The first is a conflict waiver for the city attorney's dual representation of the city of false church and the economic development authority concerning Virginia Village. Thank you uh mayor, members of council. Um as you know the city is embarking on a project at the Virginia Village subdivision. Um and uh that that property has land owned by our economic development authority. Uh the city manager is presenting uh just after I speak an agreement between the city and the EDA concerning each party's obligations for that project. Um uh and that is before council tonight. Um it's been the practice of the city to have the city attorney represent both the city council and the economic development authority. Um that's been the case and it's been successful. Um the interests of those two bodies are uh typically have been aligned. Um but this project will be uh last for a year and a half to two years and um certainly the interests of the city and the EDA are currently aligned but there's always the possibility that those interests could diverge uh during the course of the project. So, as the city attorney, I'm obligated ethically to um to let you know about that potential for conflict and to let you know that you have u the option to wave uh that conflict so that I can represent both the city and the EDA. and further if an actual conflict should arise um you have the uh option at that time to withdraw your consent to this waiver um of dual representate for dual representation. So the form is part of the staff report. It's called disclosure and waiver of potential conflict of interest and the motion before you tonight would have you uh approve that and authorize the city manager to sign on the city council's

behalf. Thank you. Okay. Any final questions or comments on this one? Not. I'll take a motion. I move to approve the waiver of potential conflict of interest as attached to the March 23rd, 2026 staff report and to authorize the city manager to sign such waiver on behalf of the city council. Is there a second? Second. You can call roll, please. Mr. Aen, yes. Miss Connley, yes. Miss DS, yes. Miss Flynn, yes. Mr. Snyder, yes. Miss Underh Hill, yes.

Mayor Hardy, yes. Motion carries 7 to zero. Thank you. Let's call the next one.

Yes. The next item is memorandum of agreement between the city of false church and the false church economic development authority for the management of Virginia village properties. Thank you councel. Um so um the city council has reviewed a term sheet and uh so I want to just update the city council on a couple of the key terms. I know this was discussed at work session last week and so stop me if you don't want this much detail but I think there are some important things just for everybody to understand about the relationship between the city and the EDA with respect to the Virginia village properties. So first of all uh there currently there are nine properties that are titled to the EDA. Um, eight of those are currently being leased out as affordable housing. And ultimately the uh the idea is to uh have these properties u be sold or transferred to another partner who also will preserve them as affordable housing and who may in the future uh redevelop the properties uh for affordable housing and possibly for other u uh uses. That's the visioning process that we're engaged in right now with the community to determine what the long-term dis disposition of these properties will be. So, I would like to uh sort of draw council's attention to section three of the agreement at line 125 where uh talks about the terms that govern the management of the properties. And in this relationship, the EDA holds title to the properties, but the city dedicates staff to administer a contract for property management services to operate and manage the properties so that they're safe, well-made, well-maintained, and committed affordable housing. Also, the city um through its staff will set rental rates for these properties in conformance with

the city's affordable dwelling unit policy. Um the city uh also can use its relocation policy which we've had for decades in effect what we're updating right now if in the future uh tenants need to be relocated either for maintenance activities or potentially in the future for the redevelopment of the property. Uh so those are some of the key sort of day-to-day nuts and bolts management issues that are addressed in this um in this agreement. And then in section four at line 41 uh discusses the financial management. And so all rent proceeds are deposited into an account that is under the name of the EDA. It's referred to as the Virginia Village Rental Fund. And those funds are supervised by the city finance director and subject to all the law laws and policies of the city and commonwealth for public funds. Um and that's really important for transparency as we go forward. Um the agreement lays out how the rental fund can be used. So first and foremost maintenance and repair of the properties. Uh second potentially used for acquisition of additional Virginia village properties. Um it's generally grant funds that are going for that purpose but rent could be used to augment those grants. Um potentially if there's debt on the properties in the future, there is none now. uh the rent could be used to offset that debt. Uh four, consulting services for the planning uh andor marketing of the property for future redevelopment that at least contain a component of affordable housing. Um those are some of the key things. It it goes to list a few others, but uh that's how the rent funds um are being used now

and that's how the agreement governs it. Um section D uh under financial management does allow um if you will recall the EDA still has $475,000 invested in the Virginia Village properties. So the EDA is allowed to use the rental proceeds uh to earn a return on its investment. And that ROI is defined as uh CPI plus 1%. So, they get 100 basis points above CPI. That's payable once a year um in July on that $475,000. At line 168 is a new provision that was not in the term sheet and came about through the discussion with the EDA. And so, the EDA wanted to get its money back and have uh the agreement sort of lay out two different cases. So, one is um if if the city council were to essentially walk away from the affordability component of the project and say we're just going to market these properties, get max value that we can, then um then the EDA gets its 475 back plus profit. And so profit equals uh the uh the fair market value of the property minus the 950,000 they put in to purchase 302 Shirley. So that's a market sale uh scenario. The other more likely scenario is uh if it's sold, leased, or transferred as part of an affordable housing effort. And under that situation, the city council will retain the choice. You could either keep that 475K in capital because it's quite possible the city's going to need it. Affordable housing is difficult and

continue to pay that ROI uh which is CPI plus 100 basis points or they can pay the 475K back. So, just wanted you to be aware of that provision. Um we I think they're very reasonable provisions and u and and I recommend them. Uh but they did come about at the request of the EDA. Um I think those are sort of the I think those are the key things for the council to be aware of in this agreement and I'd be happy to stop there and answer any other questions. Mr. Dragon,

as you were reading off the uses of the rental fund, it occurred to me based on the conversations from uh at the event on Saturday, um often rental includes utilities and would that be I'm not sure is that covered under maintenance and repair of the properties, but if the if the rent includes say electricity, then obviously we should be able to use the rent for paying the electrical bill. I'm not sure if it's in there.

So, I I would view that as under the maintenance and repair of the properties, but for clarity, we could add that. Um, and any utilities has called for under the lease agreements. Yeah, I think if otherwise we might just get ourselves in trouble. Yep.

Okay. Other questions or comments? This one? I have a few. um this this 168 sort of looking at it the way it's written and the way that you just described it. Do you feel like the purposes of affordable housing, right? or purposes other than affordable housing encompasses like the project generally and doesn't have to run necessarily to the parcel. So it is specific to 302 surely and um so it is possible that some of the properties would be sold in order to allow other to generate capital so that other properties can be redeveloped as affordable housing. That's a possible scenario. I would view that as encompassing an affordable housing situation.

Well, I mean I know you do, but I'm saying in the it's like essentially a contract, right? and people in the future are going to be looking at this in terms of the terms of the language. And so I just wonder if if it should be more clearly memorialized that the parcel even if the part like that the parcel the parcel could be used for the purposes of affordable housing even if there isn't affordable housing on the specific parcel. Does that make sense? I follow you. Um,

I it was just in you're saying it out loud now that like it clicked in my brain and I like or that my brain, you know, like did something to it, processed it, I guess, is what would be a good thing to describe it as. And so I just want to be clear. I mean, maybe we're comfortable with the language, but since we're being so specific about 302 Shirley, and I don't have the map in front of me to remember exactly where 302 surely is, but since we kind of are talking about the Virginia Village parcels as a collection as opposed to specific parcels, I just want to be clear that the purposes of affordable housing run to the collection and not necessarily neessarily the specific parcel if it's part of the overall purposes of affordable housing as to the quadplexes

we own.

So I I'll without getting too bogged down on this. So this did not when it was first discussed with the EDA it did not reference 302 Shirley. It was the collective but how you divide up like the the the EDA's profit became complicated if you think about it as a collective. And so we said well for clarity it improves it by naming the property that they put their money in to purchase. Um, but that idea of the collective, which is still in my mind because that's the way it was originally drafted, may have gotten a little bit lost with the specificity about the property. So, um, we might add a clause in there to that effect. The the point of it being that the market rate is a situation where kind of the all the properties are it's it's determined that afford that we're walking away from the affordable housing mission collectively.

Right? That's that's what scenario one is. Scenario two is we're pursuing the affordable housing objective collectively and therefore the city council reserves the right to keep the EDA's cash in the project.

Right. Yeah. I just want I just wanted to be clear for who's ever reading this in x number of years. Right. like that purposes other than affordable housing does not necessarily mean that we didn't achieve affordable housing within the collection of properties of which 302 was a piece right and so it's so I I I I understand the intent of it I just don't know that the intent has translated properly onto the page but it's so it's just I don't know I just want someone to look at it more closely and reflect on it. And then I had also asked about whether the recital should include something about why if we're going to call out 302 Shirley, then they might want to explain why 302 Shirley gets differential treatment than the other eight properties that the city owns because of the way that the initial funding and purchase of 302 Shirley occurred versus the other eight. And so that we might want to include that in the recital. So, I didn't know if there was like an intentional decision not to include it or if it just came back to us more quickly because when we left the work session, I thought this was going to the EDA before we saw it again. So, this would give it time if we moved to postpone this to when we thought we were getting it that we'd clean it all up and still have the EDA signature before the council signature.

Right. Um, we could do that. That's that is an option.

I mean, that would be my preference. And then on the staff report, it didn't bother me that that it's in the staff report because it's not actually part of the sort of. Um, but I do want to understand the language at 33 lines 33 to 38 a little bit more when we say with an updated vision for the future, the city will then commence a competitive process to select a nonprofit entity and convey the properties to them with covenants to prever preserve affordability. And so I understand right like that's the RFP process and it and it in combination with sort of the Virginia village visioning process and thinking more about the RFP and those timelines. Can you just talk about like what is what is the role ultimately of the RFP and council with respect to the RFP? So you are envisioning a like we're setting up the selection committee, right? But we are not conceivably we're not approving the RFP cuz it didn't seem like you were putting it on an action item for us and we were setting up the selection committee and then once the selection committee selects the partner, is it coming to us for approval of that? is like is that setting into motion the sale without C council action as to what the selection committee actually selected right cuz RFPs don't always come back to us so I I I suddenly became a little bit uncomfortable with the language in 33 to 38 and and what council's role is with respect to the RFP once that partner selected and I get the whole SAP amendment and like someone would need to come in and potentially apply for a zoning map amendment or

entitlements or whatever else. But I I want to understand select a nonprofit entity and convey the part properties to them with covenants to preserve affordability. Where are we if any in that process? So I would uh I should have read these out because this is a key provision in the agreement. So if you look at section 5D line 2011 of the agreement, this was this is a key provision. The EDA grants the city the sole and absolute discretion to sell option rent and cumber or otherwise convey interest in the properties in the name of the EDA as its agent. So the city to answer your question drives the RFP process.

Yeah, I get that. But I yeah, which is why I'm not concerned about the way theou is worded. I think Erin's concern is not

concern about 33 to 38. And when you say the city drives the RFP process, where is council in either approving the RFP as submitted, which I thought we were getting kind of like a look at that. Oh, sorry. I thought we were getting a look at that RFP submission or what the 5% substantive piece of the RFP was, but I'm I'm trying to understand is there going to be a council vote? And I'm trying to understand when we do a selection committee and the selection committee selects someone, are we going to vote at that point in time to ratify the selection or or does the submission of the RFP just set in motion something separate and apart from any council action and is our role only as to the small area plan amendment until someone until that person who got the sale for example or the properties conveyed to them comes in and asks for council action with respect to those properties in the form of a zoning text amendment and entitlement like whatever it ends up being. So, um, the council, um, I believe appoints the selection committee, authorizes the issuance of the RFP once you're content with the RFP saying what you want it to say, and the selection committee renders a recommendation to the city council. The city council then chooses the top ranked uh, respondent.

And is that so, right? So you're saying we could agree or disagree with the selection committee. Can we decide not to proceed if we're not happy with the RF the top ranked RFP? Yes. Person. So in all those things, the city council is the sole decision decision maker. That's what this agreement stands for. Okay.

Okay. If you're if that was really important given that the EDA owns title which is very powerful thing that is a really important part of this agreement that this agreement stands for the in terms of setting policy and making all the major decisions the city council is the sole actor that I understand the city council's role with respect to the EDA. I wanted to understand the city's council role with respect to the city manager and the planning department and this selection committee. So once we stand up that I I want to know at what point in time is city council voting on things other than the small area plan amendment and what like what are our votes as to the RFP process? And so if you could encapsulate that somewhere in the staff report since this is going out anyway I think it would be helpful. Okay. I view that as more of the roadmap discussion. But if there if this staff report that section 33 to 38 was meant to be very broad language that sort of states things that are already understood in more detail elsewhere.

But yeah, I guess I'm asking it cuz when we did the road map, Art asked about, you know, are we going to see the RFP before it comes back to us? And it was like, yeah, we can bring you the RFP and we'll slot it in somewhere. and it did not seem like there was going to be a council vote on

issuing the RFP. So, I'm trying to just I want to nail us down on what the expectations are with respect to this development. And I don't have issues with theou other than like the slight things I talked about. I do want to make sure we're clear on like what our role is at what points in time. Not simply advising, but being accountable for action with respect to Virginia Village. I think for the ultimate success of the project, the council has to authorize the issuance of the RFP because that RFP, what the development community has told us, they want the RFP to say real things. They wanted to they want us to tell them what they want, what we want, and only the city council can do that. So, uh, that's the process that we that we envision. I think for those of us who are around for the West Falls project and building the schools, it feels very similar, right? Like we had an RFP but ult and we had a recommendation committee but ultimately we had to be the ones to make that decision. So this feels similar

and similar the drafting of the RFP for West Falls which is in my mind like that process is in my mind when we think about this process. Uh that developing the RFP was a big deal. We uh had lots of input on that and ultimately the city council made the key decisions and what that RFP said.

Uh I did want to go back to kind of Aaron's original concern. Can we go back to that section about are we the collective versus 302 surely. So I think the scenario I want to guard against and looking to staff to see whether we are accounting for that in lines 170 through 182 is let's say 302 Shirley as part of the collective is a market rate the the parcel turns into market rate housing that helps fund the broader affordable housing initiative that happens on Virginia Village. Would the EDA expect scenario one or scenario two? So I would like them and everybody to expect that that is scenario two. And I think there's language that needs to be added to make that clear. And I think it would be something like, you know, um, in the event the city council directs the sale, ground lease, or transfer of 302 Shirley Street for purposes related to the preservation of or expansion of affordable housing, and a market sale where the sale proceeds are used to subsidize affordable housing in the Virginia Village area constitutes an affordable housing sale. We'll do better than that. But that's the idea to be clear that that's a market sale where the proceeds are used for affordable housing here um is subject to provision two. I guess I might s if we're going to go beef up section two or scenario two, I would ask that maybe in scenario One.

And then likewise are there, you know, would you want to lower fees to retain and attract small businesses? Those are kind of two kind of policy areas. I think there was a third that I mentioned in the meeting, but I don't know whether that's enough time in the budget process to talk about all of those. Okay. Um, we can certainly try. Okay. Yeah. Aaron,

do you feel like um you have sufficient direction in the next two weeks to be prepared by April 6th to have a more wholesome discussion of this personal property tax like what 20 cents would mean or what the variation in real estate tax cuz I think when you come back on that it is an area of interest and I I for one would like to see more just in terms of what what are the cost implications right so when we talk about the average like the average bill or like you know what what does that look like when you do a line item of like cost increases or when you offset uh increasing the personal property tax and potentially decreasing the real estate tax somewhat to still have that 400,000 in play for example what does it mean to an average car tax bill versus an average real estate bill and so I just want to put on your radar since we don't have the meeting next week. That that's the type of information I'm looking for in at least trying to assess or make an informed decision over those values or those rates.

Well, we can certainly provide the numbers in terms of what could be generated um by a change in the personal property tax rate, what the cost is for a penny or a half penny on the real estate rate. So you can compare those side by side and then sort of inject in the paving discussion with those. And I think between those three variables, we would certainly be able to provide good information for the council to make a decision. Do we have a sense for example of like the average car tax bill? Yeah. So I mean that's what I mean if we could get that information too so that we know so what the what the taxpayer experience is not just what the revenue

cost is based on how what we set the rates as and if we pull those levers like what it means do you actually help a person or do you yeahad if you own a $8,000 car versus if you have a $60,000 car you know some different scenarios I think the fourth scenario then so beyond because we know what a penny on the real estate tax rate is pretty well. We know how much, you know, personal property does. Um, I guess the other and then Erin's point of if we change one and decrease the other, what does that give us? I think the fourth one is the tiering of the property tax relief. That's a probably more complicated one, but that's one that and I know our commission of revenue has mentioned that in the past. This is about I think

where we give relief, right? instead of the first 1500 that we give relief to. Is it worth giving first 3,000? Because that would presumably offer more relief to your lower income population because their car values are usually lower and it would be a process improvement and because those lower value assessments typically are very time inensive for the commissioner staff is what I've heard in the past. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, changing the taring might be harder, but I think I'm interested in that too, especially as we look at tax burden overall and trying to direct our efforts to help kind of the lower income population, too.

I would also be interested in the uh gross receipts business taxes. There's a variety of different rates. If we could simplify those and maybe uh look at which ones are more targeted towards small businesses versus which of these are really hitting larger businesses or even taking just a look at some of these rental properties. There's different rates for residential versus commercial. I mean, it's there's a whole variety of stuff on uh page BO2. I think I just made Tom go.

Okay. Anything else on schedule? Okay, we do have council leazison on reports. Anyone want to talk about regional committees or council? I guess a sidebar that I had with Cindy before the meeting is when the ledge committee is reconvening. Mr. Mr. Snider, I don't know if you're still with us, but I know that there's it'll be uh April 6 at 10:00 a.m. That's the current thinking. Just confirm off the press news. Yep.

Thank you. Because I think an item of discussion is obviously, you know, should we regionally or individually advocate on action on metro funding? um as we did not get a successful conference budget and then I think any bills that are at the governor's desk whether we want to have an opinion on those and again consider joining regionally. Yep. Exactly. Yep. Okay. Any other standing or regional committee council lays on items to bring up? Council member comments minutes. We have two sets of minutes.

Who is read? I move to approve the minutes from January 27th, 2026 as presented. Is there a second? Second. Downs on a second. All in favor? I I. Any or absent? Okay. January 27th is adopted. March 9th. Anyone? Move to approve the minutes from March 9th as presented. Is there a second? Second. Down's also in the second. All in favor? I. Any nos or exceptions? Did we already approve February's meetings? Thank you. Oh, thank you. Sorry. Did we already approve February? Yeah.

Oh, January 7th was a lagger. 27th. Okay. Okay. If there's no other business, are we ready to journ? Yes. Before 10:30. Be good for budget night. We're journed. Thank you. Thank you. I'll count down. See you Wednesday morning. Or see some of you Wednesday morning. You're flying out before then, right? I am.