City Council - Regular Meeting

Heat. Sorry. yourself.

Good evening. Welcome all. Welcome to the Monday, April 27th meeting of the city council. I wanted to call us to order. Uh let's start with roll call, please. Mr. Aen here, Ms. Connley here, Miss DS here, Miss Flynn here, Mr. Snder here, Miss Underh Hill here, and Mayor Hardy here. Thank you, council. If I could ask everyone to rise and join us in the pledge of allegiance. I know we also have some students in the audience. If students would like to come forward and help us lead the pledge of allegiance, we'd welcome them. up to the mics here.

Second. Thank you. Pledge algiance 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. God bless you. Well done. Thank you. Uh, is there a motion tonight to adopt our meeting agenda? I move to adopt the meeting agenda. Is there a second? Second. All in favor?

I. Meetings adopted. Uh tonight is the beginning of proclamation month and so we have a number of special proclamations tonight. Um but first off before we get to those we want to do a special recognition of our employee of the year and so I wanted to invite uh Sharon Gibson our HR director as well as representatives from our employee review board to talk about Dale Rajidu who we had a chance to honor right before this at our reception.

Good evening. Thank you. Uh, it is my pleasure to continue this evening's recognition of the City of Falls Church's 2025 employee of the year, which represents the city's highest honor for a member of the city's workforce and reflects the meaningful impact our employees have in serving the community and advancing the work of the city. This year, we received nominations representing an outstanding group of employees across the organization. In total, eight employees were nominated for this recognition, each put forward by their peers. I'm pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2025 employee of the year award is Dil Raj Sidhoo, deputy building official. I also want to acknowledge and welcome um the SidHoo family. Thank you for being here. It's a pleasure having you and we appreciate we know the support that you're providing. It's very important and we thank you. So this year the selection was made by the city's employee review board comprised of Mr. Edwin B. Henderson II and Mr. Joseph Rolo who after careful consideration made the selection of the employee of the year. At this time, I would like to invite Mr. Rolo from the employee review board to share remarks and formally re I'm sorry, formally read the justification for this year's selection. Thank you, members of the council. Good evening. Good evening, everyone. Uh for the last five years, I've had an opportunity to review many uh nominations for employee of the year award and the eventual

recipients for that award. This year has been no exception. Uh Mr. Sidu's nomination letter reads in part. Would you like to join me? You have exemplified the highest standards of public service. With your exceptional performance, leadership, and commitment, you have made a transformative impact on the city's most significant development efforts while advancing broader organizational goals. Your contributions have been clearly met and exceeded the criteria for employee of the year award and reflect the great credit that you uh have placed has been placed in you by the city of Falls Church. Congratulations.

Thank you. your before you leave, we do want to present a plaque in recognition of your selection of employee of the year. And I know we opened up the floor for remarks earlier, but I do want to give just a minute in case anyone wanted to share some remarks regarding um our nominee for 2025 employee of the year. Okay, guess we've had plenty of that for today.

Too much for good things. So with that, I will present this to Mr. Rolo and the employee of the remot board to present. Okay. So if you want to read the inscription, I'll read it.

Sure. So the inscription reads 2025 employee of the year Del Raj Sithu in recognition of outstanding achievement in advancing and improving public service in the city of false church. And with here and with that we would like to invite the employee review board dil city leadership to the dis to take a picture. We'd also welcome his family to join us up here if you'd like.

Absolutely. Please. Mr. Cell, would you like to join us? Thank you.

We have a birthday as well today. We're not being very Not much, but happy birthday.

Thank you. That concludes the presentation. And once again, congratulations, Draj. And do Raj before you go um I think you've had lots of things said about you that I think probably embarrassed you but I do want to note that uh earlier in the reception when you had your brief speech I really appreciated how you spoke about the team first in building safety and you said that all the accomplishments that you're receiving the employee of the board wouldn't be possible without kind of the team effort of building safety and I think that says a lot about you as a quiet leader and the integrity uh and all your hard work. So, thank you for again all that you've given us in false church. Uh, and we're so glad that you're part of us. Thank you.

Any other comments? Okay. Well, let's move on to um proclamations. We're going to switch up the order. So, while we have the building safety team in the audience, we're actually going to move up proclamation B and declare uh May 3rd through 9th. Um, actually May 2026 as building safety month in the city of Falls Church. and Miss Lynn will do the honors.

Thanks, Mayor Hardy. And yes, we have the good fortune that it's also um the proclamation for building safety month with so many members of the building safety team here. Um whereas the city of Falls Church is committed to recognizing that our growth and strength depends on the safety and essential roles our role our homes, buildings, and infrastructure play both in everyday life and when disaster strikes. Whereas our confidence in the resilience of these buildings that make up our community is achieved through the devotion of vigilant guardians, building safety and fire prevention officials, architects, engineers, builders, trades people, design professionals, laborers, plumbers, and others in the construction industry who work year round to ensure the safe construction of buildings. And whereas these guardians are dedicated members of the Virginia Building Code Association, an international code council, nonprofit organizations that bring together local, state, territorial, tribal, and federal officials who are experts in the built environment to create and implement the highest quality codes to protect us in the buildings where we live, learn, work, and play. And whereas these mild modern building codes include safeguards to protect the public from hazards such as hurricanes, snowstorms, tornadoes, wildland fires, floods, and earthquakes. And whereas building safety month is sponsored by the international code council to remind the public about the critical role of our commun community's largely unknown protectors of public safety, our local officials who assure us of safe, sustainable, and affordable buildings that are essential to our prosperity. And whereas built to last, the theme for building safety month 2026 encourages us all to get involved and raise awareness about building safety on a personal, local, and global scale. And whereas each year in observance of building safety month, people all over the world are asked to consider the commitment to improve building safety, resilience, and economic investment at home and in the community. and to acknowledge the essential service provided to all of us by the local and state building departments, fire

prevention bureaus, and federal agencies in protecting lives and property. Now, therefore, I, Lady Hardy, mayor of the city of Falls Church, Virginia, do hereby proclaim May 2026 as building safety month in the city of Falls Church and call this observation to the attention of all citizens. If I could invite our building safety team, so Dil Raj, John Russell, and others to come join us to receive the proclamation. Thank you for making possible all of our safe buildings and everything that we do take for granted around the city. Hey guys, you're awesome. Okay. So, back to the proclamation declaring the week of May 3rd through May 9th as public service recognition week in the city of Falls Church. And Mr. Cider will do the honors.

This uh proclamation makes the point that each and every one of our public officials, public uh servants uh are important and do important work. Whereas public servants work at the federal, state, county, and city levels to provide localities across the United States with the essential services they need to function. And whereas the work of public servants encompasses a wide variety of responsibilities, including promoting and maintaining public safety, educating our children, hosting community events, repairing and maintaining our streets, sewer systems, and public utilities, caring for vulnerable populations, promoting fairness and inclusion, protecting our natural environment, engaging with the public, and providing responsive customer service. All of which come together to form a well functioning, efficient, and effective system that meets the needs of the community. And whereas public servants turn our community dreams into a reality, turning proposals and legislation into tangible outcomes through the policies, programs, and projects that they organize and execute. And whereas public servants are on the front line of emergencies, working round the clock to ensure the safety of the community and to facilitate its ability to function during times of difficulty. And whereas city and school employees always go the extra mile to meet the needs of the false church community. Now therefore, I, Letty Hardy, mayor of the city of Falls Church, Virginia, do hereby proclaim the week of May 3rd through 9th as public service recognition week and thank all public servants for contributing to make the city of Falls Church such a great place to live, work, learn, and play and ask the public to join in recognizing and celebrating the cities and schools dedicated employees. I could invite everybody who works in

local government and public service to come join us. Should be a really big group. Federal workers, federal workers as well, especially this year. School workers, volunteers,

federal workers, HR director,

Tom, elected official. Should we bring that in the middle? All right. Get the line. make it along that side. I'm sorry.

Yeah, that's right. Beautiful guys. Thank you, Rachel.

Sure. Okay, so next up is proclamation declaring May 2026 as Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the city of Falls Church. And Miss Connelly has the proclamation. Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders make up an important part of the city, bringing valuable cultural experiences, ideas, and practices that enrich and strengthen the fabric of our community. And the city of P false church is proud to be home to people of many cultures and countries that Asian-American and Pacific Islander populations have ties to, including China, India, Japan, Laos, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam, among many other nations. and the varying experiences of Asian-Americans remind us of the opportunities and resources the city has to offer, as well as the issues we can improve on. From first generation immigrants and asylum seekers who have worked to create a home in a new land to established generations that seek to improve the quality of life and advocate for a better community. And Asian-American and Pacific Islander community members are some of the most active advocates for the cultural of cultural preservation in the city. with Asian-American community members leading the charge to support and maintain important local businesses, community spaces, and cultural touchstones in the region. And businesses and organizations led by Asian community members line the heart of the city's downtown and comprise the Eden Center, one of the region's most popular commercial centers, drawing visitors to the city from across state and count borders. Many of the contributions of the Asian community and false church reflect the values the city holds, including resiliency and creativity seen in flourishing businesses, regional

distinction demonstrated by popular annual events and small town character stemming from strong connections and a welcoming environment. And Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month celebrates the culture, history, and contributions of Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Nether Fry, Letty Hardy, mayor. of the city of Falls Church, Virginia, do hereby proclaim the month of May 2026 as Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the City of Falls Church and call upon all to recognize the many contributions and achievements of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans and to support and visit the abundant variety of Asian-owned businesses and restaurants in the community. and Lei, I believe you're here to help accept the proclamation or we'd welcome anyone else who would like to as well. So, thank you for joining us on the Asian.

There's also a Vietnamese version in there, too. Okay, thank you. So, thank you. Blaz is our outreach specialist to the center. He's a really great addition to their right. You want to hold it up?

Beautiful. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Continuing with our heritage months. Uh we're proclaiming May 2026 as Jewish American Heritage Month in the city of Falls Church and Mr. Aen will do the honors.

Thank you. Whereas JewishAmerican Heritage Month was first observed in May of 2006 by a presidential proclamation in recognition of the 350 plus years of Jewish history in America that began with the 1654 arrival of Jewish refugees at the port of modern-day New York City. And whereas JewishAmerican Heritage Month encourages the community to raise awareness and understanding of Jewish American history, heritage, and culture, both past and present. And whereas during this month, communities across the United States will celebrate the contributions of Jewish Americans, a diverse group of people representing many races, ethnicities, and Jewish movements. And whereas Jewish Americans have contributed significantly to cultural, social, and political fields, helping shape American sports, entertainment, arts, medicine, cuisine, science, government, and business. And whereas the city has been home to community leaders with Jewish heritage who took part in both founding and nurturing the city of Falls Church, including but not limited to Edith Abramson, Sue Alum, Lu Alum, Harold How Silverstein, and Ellen Salbury. And whereas several of these leaders also helped to charter Temple Road of Shalom, which has become the largest Jewish congregation in Virginia. And whereas the city wishes to honor the many contributions that Jewish Americans have made and continue to make to our community.

Now, therefore, I, Lady Hardy, mayor of the city of Falls Church, Virginia, do hereby proclaim the month of May 2026 as Jewish American Heritage Month in the city of Falls Church and call on all of our community members to observe this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities. I can say a few things. Yeah, welcome.

Thank you so much. Uh it's so nice to be here on such a lovely evening with so many proclamations. I'm Caner Sydney Mikey, one of the six clergy members at Temple Road of Shalom, and it's so nice to see several members of our community here. I'm the member of our team who lives in the city of Falls Church. very proudly. I live here with my husband and my one-year-old daughter and we just love living here. And so I'm really honored to accept this proclamation and to have the Jewish community recognized. Um it's very meaningful for all of us. So I wanted to share a blessing um with all of you um to thank you and to uh express joy for being together in this moment um and wishing strength and hope for everyone in their own life and their own journey. Eloh amen. Amen. Thanks everyone. That was lovely. Thank you. Would you like to help come receive the proclamation? Thank you for that.

Anybody else?

Anybody else? Okay, to round us out for proclamations, uh we have a proclamation declaring April 2026 as April as ArabAmerican Heritage Month in the city of Falls Church. We originally issued this back in April, but I believe we have guests in the audience. And so we will have Vice Mayor DS uh read the proclamation tonight. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Whereas for over a century, ArabAmericans have been making valuable contributions to virtually every aspect of American society, including medicine, law, business, education, technology, government, military service, and culture. And whereas since migrating to America, people of Arab descent have shared their rich culture and traditions with neighbors and friends while also serving as model citizens and public servants. And whereas Arab Americans have enriched society by embodying the entrepreneurial spirit that makes the nation free and prosperous and a diversity in faith and creed that strengthens American democracy. And whereas roughly 75% of V Virginia's ArabAmerican population resides in Northern Virginia. And whereas Falls Church was once home to the mother of ArabAmerican studies, Dr. Alexa Naf, who spent her life collecting oral histories

and artifacts relating to ArabAmerican culture in the 19th and 20th centuries and whose collection still lives with the Smithsonian today. And whereas the history of ArabAmericans in the US has also been tainted with misconceptions, bigotry, and hatred. And whereas Arab-American issues such as civil rights, stereotyping, and bullying must be combed through education and awareness. And whereas the city of false church proudly recognizes the rich cultural diversity that strengthens its community and enriches the lives of its residents. And whereas ArabAmerican Heritage Month is observed each April to celebrate the history, culture, and contributions of ArabAmericans and to promote greater awareness, inclusion, and appreciation of their role in shaping our nation. Now, therefore, I, Lady Hardy, mayor of the city of Falls Church, Virginia, do hereby recognize the month of April 2026 as ArabAmerican Heritage Month and encourage all citizens uplift and celebrate the ArabAmerican community members in our city during this month and throughout the year. Were there people to help receive the proclamation?

I don't think anybody joined us this evening. Um, but they did receive the proclamation during the month of April.

Well, good. Thank you. Um, well, thank you all for your patience as we went through that tonight. I think it's evident that um, diversity and the strength that we have as a city really comes from all the differences and not being similar. And so this is we appreciate everyone actually being able to be part of all the special proclamations we read tonight. Uh to finish up kind of special presentations, uh we have Operation Earthwatch in the audience and so I wanted to invite uh the kids as well as the organizers to come tell us about their program this year. You all were very patient through a bunch of ceremonial things. And thank you for helping lead the pledge of allegiance earlier. You guys did a great job. See how you can stand in the front. Okay. Hi, good evening. Uh we are Operation Earthwatch. Thank you to the city council for having us here tonight. Operation Earthwatch is a free environmental action program for kids in kindergarten through fifth grade who attend Mount Daniel Elementary School, Oak Street Elementary School, St. James Catholic School, or if they live in the city of Falls Church but attend school elsewhere. Do you want to share your favorite thing about Operation Earth? My favorite thing about operation earthquats is like all the protecting nature stuff.

It's important stuff. Um, I like the t-shirt designs.

The t-shirt designs. Operation Earthwatch is a wonderful way for students and their families to promote environmental action in our home and at uh in the community. From October through March each of uh of each school year, Earth Watchers observe nature, participate in community events, conduct research, create art, and more. This year, Operation Earthwatch hosted six meetups at Mary Riley Styles Library with more than 30 participants who worked on environmental action activities. 12 particip participants completed the full year's activity activities. My favorite thing about Operation Earth Watch is how it helped me realize small efforts can add up to something bigger. Students who complete all of the activity sheets in a given school year receive a t-shirt designed by the students. Our t-shirt con contest theme this year was build a brighter future by conserving energy. Uh and 18 students contri contributed to the design. We are grateful to the civic We are grateful to the civic organizations and businesses in the city of Falls Church that make Operation Earthwatch possible. We also want to thank our parent, teacher, and student volunteers as well as the community for their support this year. And last but not least, we would like to recognize our high school volunteer, Sylvia Wit, who graduates next month. Sylvia has done so much for our program, and we are very excited for her next chapter. My favorite thing about Operation Earthwatch is the t-shirt contest.

Thank you so much. Great. Thank you. Nice work, kids. Would you like to come up? Maybe you'll get your photo in the newspaper if you all come up for a photo. What do you think?

Like Heat. Heat. Oh, really?

You'll have to bring back this t-shirt since everyone really liked the t-shirt design. What this year's winning t-shirt is. Thank you all. So, while we wait for the room to clear out, uh, madam clerk, do we have any oath of office for board and commissioner members in the audience? We do not.

Okay. Let's move on to receipt of public comment then. Um, I know we have public hearings tonight and so if you're here to speak about the budget, you're welcome to either speak now or speak when the item is called later on during the public hearing. But we'd welcome public comments um at any time. Uh so let's start with the receipt of uh public comment through written comment summary first please.

Yes and the these are the comments uh written comments received by the city council since their last action meeting um regarding the budget. The following wrote in support of installing solar panels on the community center. Matt Adams, Will and Caroline Below, Shaun Dacon, Anry Vid, Laura Ledwith, Cara Nath, Ida Peterson, Sandra Tarpinian, and John Ward. The following requested that in the FY27 budget, the schools are funded at a level that maintains current services for students. Um we heard um from Anne Brady, Robert Kavanaaugh, Jeff and Michelle Goldberg, Valerie Kelly, Eric Litwin and Natalyia Sika, Kimberly Nevett, Larry Rice, and Heather Schmidt, the AAB chair. Um Allison Bramley asked that the budget support stricter enforcement of traffic laws on key streets, expanded sidewalk coverage for safer pedestrian access, and addition of a community center swimming pool. The following wrote with concerns about increasing taxes. Sophie Darling and Marcia Herzburg. The Falls Church Climate Action Network asks that the uh 2027 budget elevated elevate coordinated climate and energy work by appointing senior a senior leader on energy and developing an energy budget crosswalk. Um they asked um that the city expand rooftop solar on public facilities to capt capture federal tax credits, develop EV incentives and a public charging plan, uh improve energy performance at Meridian High School, support transition to electric manual lawn equipment, and shift school bus funding in the CIP to ensure all new buses are low carbon. The Environmental Sustainability Council voted to support the budget goals outlined in the FCC FCC letter, false church climate action

network letter. Uh Mary Kate Hughes wrote to support the budget goals the school board wrote to the city council about. Uh Kristen Shapiro wrote in support of continuing the revenue sharing agreement with schools. Sarah S. Belden asked that the FY27 budget fund improve access and usability of Robert's Park by prior prioritizing a sidewalk on Randall Randolph Road or adding a second park entrance and by allowing limited off leash dog use in the fully fenced area. She also wrote to ask that a CNI tax be levy to fully fund street repaving, bike master plan implementation and ADA compli ADA compliant sidewalks and that pedestrian and bike safety and snow clearing and enforcement on the W and OD trail and sidewalks be a focus in FY2027. Regarding Virginia Village, the following asked that council revise the Virginia Village advisory services scope after setting clear public priorities regarding buffering, compatibility, open spaced, mixed income housing, and analysis of preservation andor rehabilitation alternatives. And um those who wrote about that were Nater and Bernardet Baroo, Mary Lou Pickle, and James Thompson, president of the Winter Hill Community Association Board of Directors. Allison Brown asked that the city prioritize affordable housing and enlarge units for families at Virginia Village while ensuring current residents are not displaced as redevelopment proceeds. Mark Resta asks that the city consider preservation, renovation, or modest changes rather than a large-scale redevelopment project for Virginia Village.

Thank you for that very comprehensive summary. Um, let's receive a public comment live or virtually. Yes. Uh, first we have Nater Baroo. Uh, followed by Mary Lou Pickle. Oops. You're going to time me. I know. You ready? You're going to time me. You got the stopwatch going. All right.

Good evening, council. Um, I'll keep my comments uh rather brief and just highlighting some of the points that I raised in my letter. Um, first of all, um, I just wanted to um, note that I'm speaking in my individual capacity this evening. I want to start with the process regarding the procurement of the contract for um real estate services as it relates to Virginia Village. As to the process, it raises serious concerns about transparency and how this is being handled altogether. We just recently learned that this isn't a city advertised contract. It's actually being written on a Fairfax contract. That even makes this more concerning. There was no city specific solicitation, no opportunity for the council to shape the scope, let alone the public. There is no meaningful opportunity for the public to weigh in on the beginning of this effort with the contractor which is going to help shape the RFP for a contract that sets the set the framework for a major redevelopment in the city that raises serious transparency concerns. This is not a routine contract such as filling potholes or dealing with street improvements. It sets the framework for a major redevelopment that it is going to have cost for the city as a whole. What gets studied, how opinions are defined, and ultimately what gets built. Advancing that framework before the council has clearly set priorities and before the public has had a meaningful opportunity to weigh in calls into question the integrity of the process narrows the range of outcomes before guard rails have been set publicly on substance the scope is clear on

affordable housing and financial feasibility both goals which I support what it doesn't clearly require is buffering building scale compatibility with adjoining neighborhoods or a meaningful opportunity for open space. Those are baseline planning requirements. If there are not explicit, they won't meaning shape the outcome. Those emissions are not accidental. They signal that they are not priorities in this process. Depite despite multiple comments made by staff and council members. If they're not in the scope, they won't ultimately get done, and the contractor won't know how critical they are to the community. The scope also relies on broad language such as affordable housing, fiscal, and community objectives without defining what community objectives are. In practice, what that means is focus will be on unit count and what's economically feasible will drive the decisions while buffering compatibility carry less weight. There are also additional gaps such as no clear income requirements in market race housing. So the first step should be to revisit the scope and revertise it. If that is not done at minimum the RFP must explicitly have these requirements in it. This is the moment to set expectations. It's the moment to be transparent. If we're they are not set now, they won't be part of the outcome moving forward. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we have Maryl Pickle, uh, followed by Dave Gustoson.

Okay. Oh my gosh, my time's up. I'm going to I'm gonna You're done. We'll try again next week. Here we go. Okay, you start and I'll start it in a second, Lie.

Okay. Um, dear honorable mayor and city council, thank you again for all the hard work you're doing for our community and for the city. It's appreciated. I wanted to um reiterate the comments that you got about the school funding um that it be funded at levels that um keep student services at the present level. And uh also I wanted to talk about Virginia Square. I did want you to please do whatever you have to do. If it's readvertise, if it's um advertise it to begin with the scope, the contract for the scope for V Virginia so that you can include direction to the consultants to incorporate import and scale elements at the outset of the process. These elements should include transitions and scale to harmonize with existing neighborhoods. The scope should include buffering, setbacks, extension of contiguous green space. It should include evaluation of rehabbing the the units and expansion of the present units rather than tearing them down to build something else. Um, it should include a mixed income framework that includes market rate housing. I just ask you to take the time to get this right. You have the time. You really do. And it feels like the city is in a hurry to to do this, but I would just pray that you think carefully and consider the contract because it will shape neighborhoods and have a big impact on residents and commuters. It's not um isolated in that one area. It will have a larger impact. So again, thank you for the work that you do and I appreciate you taking into consideration um those values. Thank you.

Thank you for joining us.

Next we have Dave Gustiffson. Um and Jeff Peterson is signed up for uh the budget. If you'd like to go next or you can speak at the public hearing as well. All right. Uh, good evening, Mayor Hardy, members of the city council, and city staff. Um, want to start with a few thank yous. Uh, first of all, thank you for approving the uh, the scooter pilot project. Uh, that's something that a lot of us have wanted uh, for a long time to create uh, more connectivity in the city and uh, create connections to transit and enable carfree and carlight living in false church. So, thank you very much. I look forward to uh renting some scooters uh and and getting to the metro uh more quickly. Um I I know, you know, hopefully I I will uh help set them up if they are knocked over and encourage others to do the same. I know that's one of the uh annoyances that comes with those. Uh wanted to thank uh Mr. Shields for his many years of service. Um I will always uh remember and be grateful for uh when I was out there uh keeping an eye on the uh the creek at uh 2 in the morning. uh carpulls up and uh and there's Wyatt also uh keeping an eye uh on the uh the many creeks of false church. Um and so that dedication is very much appreciated. Uh so congratulations on your retirement and thank you for all your service. Um I also wanted to thank you all for recognizing uh Operation Earthwatch tonight. Uh in that same vein, um I wanted to join the uh the other folks who wrote in to uh encourage city council to add uh community center solar as part of your FY27 uh budget. Um I we've uh we've had some uh extreme weather lately. You know, not too long ago, we had snowcrete that was paralyzing the city. Uh we've had extreme weather uh in the summers. We've

had uh horrible uh air outside. Uh so anything we can do to uh advance our climate goals uh that were adopted recently. Um the sooner that we get solar panels on the community center, the sooner they start to pay for themselves. Uh and unfortunately the uh the federal government is uh is killing off the uh the tax credits at uh December 31st, 2027. So, uh, if we want make this even more of a, uh, win-win for the climate and for our budget, uh, amid the rising costs, uh, with the war in Iran and, uh, data center usage, um, community center solar is a good investment. Uh, so, thank you all for all the extra hours and extra effort you're putting into the budget negotiations. It's very appreciated. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Peterson, did you want to speak now or Thank you. So, we have some folks signed up for the actual budget public hearing, so Okay, I'll hold on to them. So, is that it for live public comment tonight? Yes. Okay. Uh, well, we have Was there someone online that was waiting to speak? No, thank you. Just trying to make sure I'm not up yet. I'm on the agenda. Okay. So, we're good on public comment for now. Yes.

Okay. Well, we have uh two annual reports tonight. So, we wanted to welcome the ESC's annual report as well as the retirement board. Welcome, Mr. Tberman. Yes. And we have um gone back to our tradition of five minute uh timing of reports. So, just wanted to remind everybody

uh I I just want to circle back to the Operation Earth Watch before I get into the formal thing because a little this is like a little tearary moment for me. My daughter, who is now 26 years old, started off in that program and she went through it and she marched in the parade. And then she went on in high school to be a student rep to the environmental sustainability council and she organized the Operation Earthwatch party for two years in a row. and she would come home and she said, "Dad, you need to get involved in the Environmental Sustainability Council, you know, because I know you care about this kind of stuff." And I think one year finally 2019, I came along and I joined the ESC and here I am at the the pinnacle of

now you're chair of environmental stuff here in the city of Falls Church. Please thank your daughter for us then.

Yeah, her name's Hana. She's great. Anyway, thank you. Uh uh good evening, Mayor Hardy, Vice Mayor DS, and members of the city council. I am Mike Traverman, as you know now, chair of the environmental sustainability council. Uh thank you for the opportunity to present our 2020 2025 annual report and more importantly, thank you for your continued leadership advancing environmental sustainability in Falls Church. The ESC serves as an advisory body to the city council and the public on environmental issues affecting the city. We have nine seats with two currently vacant and we are also supported by six student representatives. I'm joined in leadership by my vice chair Matt Cunningham. This past year was a year of transition. We said goodbye to several longtime members and we welcome new members who bring fresh expertise and energy. I'd like to take a moment to recognize and thank former chair Joseph Shirzy and former council liaison Debbie Hiscott for their service and their lasting positive impact on the city. Our work is supported by three groups. the energy transition subcommittee led by John Ward, the habitat restoration task group led by Amy Crumpton, and the education task group which runs Operation Earthwatch led by Kathy Height. You all saw before. Um, we also benefit from strong support from our liaison. First, Council Member Mary Beth Connelly, whom we were delighted to welcome at the start of this year. planning commissioner Tim Stevens, the dean of environmentalism in the city of Falls Church, and Kurt Lawrence, the city's environmental planner. Kurt's partnership is essential

to our work, and we're very grateful for his support. Thank you, Kurt. We also stay connected with local environmental groups including the false church climate action network, bike falls church, and the Sierra Club, which helps inform and strengthens our recommendations. Turning to our work, 2025 and early 26 have been very productive. Much of our focus has been on supporting implementation of the city's energy action plans, and together with council and staff, we've made meaningful progress. Highlights include funding rooftop solar at Aurora House, completing the geothermal system at the community center, authorizing the CPACE financing program, launching the shared mobility devices pilot, strengthening minimum tree canopy requirements and non-residential zones, rolling out organics collection and an incentivized solid waste fee, and adopting the accessory dwelling zoning amendment. These are significant accomplishments and we appreciate your collaboration in making them possible. At the same time, the challenge in front of us remains urgent. The past three years have been the hottest on record. Climate change is already affecting our community through higher temperatures, more intense storms, and rising costs. And while false church has taken important steps, we are not on track to meet our goals of reducing emissions 50% by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2050. Closing that gap will require faster progress and broader changes in how we build, how we travel, and how we use energy. Every year of delay locks in more damage and increases the cost of protecting our residents, our infrastructure, and our local economy.

Looking ahead, the ES ESC will focus on several key priorities. We will continue tracking and supporting implementation of the city's energy plans. We'll launch a green building initiative to bring forward practical regionally informed recommendations. will support advocacy for more energyefficient statewide building code and promote the residential energy audit program so residents can take concrete steps to reduce energy use in their homes. We will continue to push for expanded solar installations on government school and private buildings including the community center. We also develop recommendations to encourage electric vehicle adoption. In closing, the ESC is proud of what we've accomplished, but our impact ultimately depends on your action. We appreciate your leadership and partnership, and we look forward to continuing this work together in the year ahead. Thank you, and I'm happy to take any questions.

Great. Well, thank you for assuming leadership of the SC. Um, I think I said in a comment earlier when we were debating budget, what's kind of urgent and important and climate change, I think you make a very good case, it is both urgent and important. So hopefully we will continue making progress despite uh a lot of work to do. Yes. Thank you very much for that. So questions or comments for Mr. Tberman? Vice Mayor.

Thank you Mr. Tman for all your great work. Um just two quick questions. Um about the solar uh I know that I believe um Mr. Gustiffson said that you know the credit for solar runs out December 31st of next year. Um, but I think the the issue that I can't remember who brought to our attention, but that there may be a rush um for people to try to get solar put in um before this credit runs out. And so I think that was um and I'm sorry I can't it's not coming to my mind who who was I believe that was Mr. Ward if Thank you Mr. Ward. Um and so it was the point there was that you know we have to time is of the essence I guess. Is that right?

Yeah. Uh that's correct. uh the the tax credit runs out at the end of uh 2027 and um you know if you were to fund the the community center solar in fiscal year 2028 you really wouldn't be able to get started until July 1st I guess technically because that's the beginning of the fiscal year and you would have six months uh you know and I don't know exactly the process but I imagine there'd be an RFP involved and which would you know could take time and or or maybe not maybe Andy Young could talk about that but um you know get getting from the start, you know, from from zero to the finish line would be extremely challenging. And, you know, we we experienced those conditions with the end of the residential tax credit where contractors were were backed up for many, many months. Um, and they raised their prices because everybody was trying to get through the door in a panic at the same time. So that that's that's the risk that you you would be taking by doing it.

Okay. The following year. Thank you. Uh and the other question, I know that um there was um in your report you um had mentioned wanting to put solar on the top of Mariel and Henderson Middle School. Has has anyone or not just you but has anyone approached the school board about that idea?

Uh I the the answer the an answer is yes. I believe um folks from the false church climate action network went over there to talk to them about that. Yeah. And and and you look I I follow that you know they're doing a a facility conditions assessment now and they're trying to determine across you know and even city buildings, school buildings the condition of everything, right?

Um you know I I think I think FC can did kind of have a suggestion as how you might overcome roof issues. Um, you know, that project wouldn't require any capital. I mean, you'd have to replace the roof, but that would be a power purchase agreement, which wouldn't require the actual solar wouldn't require any capital. It's almost like a lease kind of structure. It's a financing structure. So, it's really the roof.

Um, so, you know, I would encourage who whoever's in charge of the FCAs to address that building as soon as possible. uh because that's probably the most important building remaining in the city government and schools portfolio to put up solar. It's big, right? I mean, the the rest of the things we're talking about or house community center, they're smaller, but that that's probably our biggest building remaining, right? Sorry. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Other questions or comments? Cassandra Hill,

just a super quick comment. Um, I think of the ESC as like a really great watchdog in our community in terms of, you know, I read the energy action plan many a few years ago. Um, but you know, things fall out of my head and so it's um really great to have the constant pushing and reminders and you know, this is what we agreed to. This is what we're planning to do. This is what we need to do to be able to get to 50% reductions by 2030 and 100% by by 2050. So anyway, just thank you for constantly beating the drum um and reminding us what it is that we need to do because we're managing so many different things up here. Um and it's it's helpful for I mean this is the point of a lot of boards and commissions is to come to us and say, "Hey, this is the top priority." And so thank you for um making those priorities very clear of of what you expect from council. So thank you.

Thank you very much. Yeah, we we love to communicate two ways. But to Miss Underh Hill's point, I know this is when um our when we were running for office this fall and I think it was the um FFCCA and I think questionnaire. Um but one of the ideas I had and I think I've mentioned it before um to my colleagues is you know we love when we go through CIP um Kaitlin does this whole like red um yellow green. this is not on target, you know, and and it might be something to think about annually to have I don't know if Kirk could do this. Sorry Kurt to give you work, but um if it could be something that you know, here are some things that all of our different environmental groups and also like go all these sorts of things, but characterize it, say, oh, this is really red. We're not even look, you know, and sort of like, hey, this is within reach. this is yellow, but you could, you know, I think that would give us this reminder um you know where where we are with some of these these goals.

So, it's just something to think about. I guess it's probably more for Mr. Shields and staff, but um I agree with Miss Underh Hill that it's sometimes with everything else that we have going on, it's it's just good reminder to where we are with some of these things and and we're behind and and I know that. So, thank you.

You're welcome. Yeah. Um just briefly on that um you know the plans went in the plans were adopted at I think the end of 2023. Okay. So we're you know we're a few years into it and I know Kurt has been working on like with ESC you know metrics how do we how do we determine whether we're on pace to the various metrics that are laid out in those energy plans and we we we sort of dove into that last year for the first time. Is that right Kurt? and and you know we got some data and we need a lot more data. Um so you know we're working on that and um you know uh that's the community plan. The government plan I guess Lionel is now finally kind of on board with that if I'm not mistaken of of you know kind of reporting out on that maybe um maybe I'm but uh yeah we we we didn't we don't really have much on the government plan. I would say that the false church climate action network took a stab at the I think it was the um community energy I think it was a community energy plan and they put out a report I think it was last fall kind of tracking but you know read yeah we'd love to see that I think it's I think my guess is is in pro in progress and Kurt and Lionel will get together and put out a report every year hopefully that would be that would be great

thank you Mr. Dragon.

Um, I just wanted to touch on something that's new and some place I think the the committee can really help dig into a little bit. Um, as staff is resource constrained on on like everything um coming out of Richmond is the balcony solar and is this something that would help us? And I I kind of understand it. I don't know if it's practical. Is it a realistic thing for the city? You know, what can we do to with it? Can we can it help us reach our goals? Um I think understanding and coming up and researching I think would be a place that the SC could really help. um just tell us a little bit more about it because sometimes we get we look at these big projects and they're they're very difficult to find the money for and sometimes they take a while but often the little projects a lot of little ones can really deliver dividends. Um, I don't know if that's a solution and I I would love to see the ESC take a crack at that. Um, and hear your thoughts on the little stuff like that.

Thank you. Yeah, know that that's a that's an excellent point that that was a late breaking development in the last few months. Um uh uh the the the plug-in solar balcony solar is actually pretty simple and it works and people will be able to use it without um you know you'll be able to put up to uh I think 1,200 watts on your uh you know so it's it's it's a good thing and you can put it on in a balcony on an apartment building plug it right into an outlet and uh the electric company can't tell you not to do that or your your apartment manager can't tell you to do that you can do it. So, it'd be something that we ought to we we we certainly will promote. Thank you. Thank you.

Any other final, Mr. Snider? Sure. Sure. Thanks very much for your work and thanks for the recommendations. Um the um rooftop solar for the community center. Um, so how does the um federal program work and um what's the out- of pocket cost for the city to um to do that rooftop solar on the community center? Okay. Um the first part is how's the how does a tax credit work? Um which is I know how tax credits work if you're paying taxes. The city doesn't pay taxes. So, how does that work?

Well, they they have what's called uh um in the inflation reduction act, which is this was still part of um Mhm. they have what's called a a refundable tax credit where not for profits and governments can claim the tax credit just by filing a simple Oh, I will never say anything simple, but a a tax return. Um, and I and I believe the city may have already done that if somebody uh for the geothermal for the geothermal at the community center. But what I'm interested in is how does this program work? Is it different? Is it the same as the geothermal?

Uh, it's a different section. It's called the I think it's the section 48 um E section 48 uh clean energy tax credit. and it's geared towards um uh yeah they got rid of the residential but you know businesses can still and governments can still take advantage of the tax credit through the end of 2027. So it's just a separate portion that they didn't get rid of. So you, you know, if you were like a residential homeowner right now, you could lease rooftop solar panels and still get a tax credit because the panels would actually be owned by

an LLC or some corporation who who could then take the tax credit and pass a portion of that savings on to you as a homeowner in the form of lower lease payments. So if you're a corporate entity, if you're a government, you can still claim the tax credit through the end of So I'm trying to dig down what's the total cost of the project and then what's the total offset potential for the tax credit and what if we don't get the tax credit,

right? So in the CIP, I believe the uh total project costs on this were listed as 182,000 in 2028. Um, and uh, the underlying uh, project itself, the the actual hard cost for the solar was was around I'm thinking $133,000 or so. Um, no, wait, it was u, no, it must have been 150. It was it was about it was about 30 some odd thousand for soft costs. And I'm not sure exactly what those are. Um, but the hard costs were whatever the difference between 182 and the soft costs are. So, um, and the tax credit would be 30% of the hard costs. So, approximately $40,000. Um, and if you do the math, you know, if you you ask the question, what would happen if we didn't do it? Well, we didn't do it. the hard cost of the project. If we did solar eventually, but we missed the tax credit, the hard costs would be uh 43% more than if we did it with a tax credit, which is counterintuitive when you think about a 30% tax credit, but it's a smaller number. Do the math. Okay?

Is a tax credit. It's a it's a big it's a it's a substantial uh savings. And um you know there are other aspects to it where um you know if you move if you move if you move um a do you get the panels running sooner you'll save another year of electricity sooner um and I know there have been some questions in the in the comments. What will it achieve that we're not achieving with the geothermal because we spent a lot of money on geothermal on that building. So what would this achieve that geothermal hasn't? What would this achieve um In terms of energy, it'll provide renew it'll it'll provide renewable energy uh for the city. It'll lower our greenhouse gas emissions.

No, no, no. I was asking G in that building, we already have geothermal in the building, right? So, what I'm trying to do is have we calculated what is the additional value for putting solar in since we've already got geothermal in there?

Well, the geothermal is used for heating and cooling in the building. It doesn't I don't believe it even covers the entire uh community center. I think it's just a portion of the community center heating and cooling. Um so the community center continues to use lots of electricity that it gets from Dominion from the grid. um which uh costs money and has a a a greater greenhouse gas emission uh impact than uh the solar panels would. So, okay. So, it'll lower emissions, it'll save us utility costs, and

yeah, I'm just trying to do a costbenefit analysis here. Um that's all. So, I appreciate Thanks for the information. Yeah, you're welcome. I'd be happy to assist in going through some of the numbers and work with staff, but I think you know Yeah, I think staff has a pretty good grasp on those numbers. I mean, you you Thank you. So, you're welcome.

Okay, other questions or comments. Uh so, I have a few. Um building along the lines of solar, I know in the um your annual report, Mr. Tberman, it noted that Meridian uh high school's energy performance is not where we thought it would be. uh so that utility bills aren't decreasing and I think we had built it expecting it to be net zero ready. We added the PVA panels a couple years ago. Um given that you guys really love to dig in, I would be curious whether there's an opportunity to learn from whatever is going wrong. One, fix it at Meridian because obviously it's a giant school and should be performing better and two are there any learnings to apply uh before we add PV to Aurora House and then this new discussion on community center as well. So that's kind of one request. Um, second, I love that you talked about uh looking at solid waste and composting options at multif family given that that's half of our housing stock now in the city. Um, likewise, it'd be great to extend to our business community. I know we have a handful of businesses that actually voluntarily compost and it's complicated because they use, you know, big haulers depending on who their landlords are, but that might be another angle to pursue is um how we can get less waste, I think, out of our business community and partnering with chambers or other businesses too. Uh finally, I guess I wanted to be a plus three on the uh hold us accountable um on these goals. So we adopted kind of go and see goals several years ago. And so similar to CIP dashboards, affordable housing goals, um vision zero, complete streets, things that we've adopted and said are important policies. Um I would love for the ESC and FFC to hold us accountable and continue holding us accountable on how we're doing against them. So whether it's a red, yellow, green dashboard, whether it's metrics and goals that we're not hitting because we are trying to balance so many things, but at the end of the day, um this is both important and urgent. Uh and I think on the community center solar, if there's an opportunity, I think the fact that it's in the CIP, I think there's agreement that this is important to do. And I think you're really trying to make the case that this is important to do earlier so we don't run the risk of losing that 40,000 tax credits. That

would really not only one help offset the cost, but two, help make the ROI come back sooner to us. um the faster we can get the roof on there with PV, the better it is for the city's utility bill. So, um I'm certainly open to the conversation how we can fund that sooner, although CIP's tight, but I think you make a compelling case that that is one area that we can, you know, start doing more on climate given that we are not doing enough, I think, in my opinion. So, thank you for your advocacy and for your report and all your work in the SC. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Appreciate it. Thanks for your time and attention and consideration.

Thank you. I'm sure we'll discuss that again when we get to budget and CIP um at the end of the night too. So we'll revisit that again. Uh the next annual report um thank thank you Mr. Ryber. Thank you for your patience is the retirement board. Welcome. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Um, yes, my name is Connie Ryberg and I am the chair of the retirement board. Uh, on behalf of the retirement board, thank you for inviting me here tonight to present our annual report. Um, I think most of you know me, but just a quick introduction. I have been on the retirement board for 17 years or so, and I have more than 30 years experience as a pension actuary uh, consulting to corporate pension plans. So, a little different from government plans, but a lot of things transfer over. Uh, the retirement board oversees the pension plans for the city, uh, what's called OPED, other post-employment benefits, which is retirey medical and retirey life insurance, and then the defined contribution or savings plans, kind of like the 401ks for the government. Um, in total, that's $250 million that the retirement board is overseeing. Um, we have a lot I have a bunch of statistics here in this annual report. I will go through them quickly and just highlight a few items in part because my bottom line message here today is the plans are in good shape. So jumping to the table in line 11, this just outlines for our pension plans and our OPED plan

the return on assets that we are uh earning in the plans. Um we look at it from a long-term perspective. So, we look at the 7-year um average returns which are in the second to the last column and you can see those are are strong and ahead of our long-term expectation of 6.5%. All right, moving on to the table in line 25. Um, annually we ask our plan actuary to do a measurement of the plan's funded status. So we take we ask them to calculate what's the value of the benefits that we've promised to employees and former employees. What's that what's the value of that promise and then what are the assets that we have to back that up and where do we stand? So the funded status of the plans are outlined again in the second to the last column. You can see those are strong above 100% and very consistent with the prior year. Moving right along, uh, water sale. So, as a reminder, back in 2014 when the city sold our water system, $9.2 million of those proceeds were invested in the pension plan really to create an endowment. So, the idea is not to touch the principal, but the investment earnings there can be used by the city for other programs. It's through a sort of a complicated mechanism but uh I would say it's worked very well for the city. So jumping down to title or to line 41 just what has the value of the city what has the value of that 9.2 million been for the city over the 10 years FY16 through FY25. Well the principal has increased by $1.1 million. We have a reserve account. So when the city chooses not to use the full

allocation of investment earnings and decides to hold some back, we've created this reserve account. So that's at $3.4 million right now. And then in the 10 years, $4.6 million of that of those investment earnings have been used for this by the city for various projects. So in total, $9.1 million of return to the city over the 10-year period. So for an average of about $900,000 per year. At this point in my annual report, I always like to remember and thank the late Ira Kalin, um, Miss Connelly, Mr. Snyder for their leadership and vision in in making this idea a reality. I think it's arguably worked out very well for the city. Lastly, on to uh lines 47, some information about the defined contribution plans. Again, these are like the 401ks for government plans. In this top uh table, we've got we look at the asset allocation. So where it says 457b asset allocation, these are the investments chosen by the employees. We look at this and say these are well diversified. So we are on track there. And then finally at the bottom of this page starting on line 59 are some statistics about like employee contributions and uh account balances. And with that, I'm going to stop and see if there are any questions.

Great. Wow. Well done. Impressive. Nice job. Thank you. Efficient and informative. Do we have questions for Miss Ryberg? Mr. Cider, I just um want to thank you so much for bringing your expertise to this important public work and it's it really uh demonstrates um what our citizens provide um to the larger community. You are a great example of that. So, thank you very much.

Thank you. This one, I just wanted to echo Mr. Snider's thanks. I think it's quite remarkable that you're doing this for 17 years now, sort of for the benefit of the city employees and these various pension funds. So, just want to again recognize you. We look forward to the presentation each year as an opportunity to say thank you and to see how well um all these various funds are performing under yourstead and sort of the stud of the um work and the board that you um have consistently led. So, thanks again, Vice Mayor. And please don't leave.

You do, Miss Ryberg. You do such a fantastic job. I know you from when um I was on the school board side of things. But um I your annual report is always is just so incredibly impressive and we're very lucky to have you leading this effort. Um I really enjoyed um reading about the periodic review of all the contracted services. Every year you looked at a different contracted service which I thought was so impressive and it's clear you really follow best practices. So that that's phenomenal. I really uh enjoyed reading that and just showing it just gives me such a sense of security knowing that that you're in charge of this. And um I just the one question I had was um if I was reading it correctly, so did we hire or did was there a full-time administrator hired? Is that what I was reading?

Yeah. So, and before I answer that question, I want to give a shout out to Cindy Master is our also master of ceremonies here where she is really shephering a lot of these RFPs. So, I want to make sure that she gets that credit for making sure that we stay on track. Um, so yes, um, we're managing a lot of plans with a lot of things going on

and we talked about needing to stay strategic and Cindy was getting bogged down in a lot of things that were not strategic. So we talked to our legal counsel and said you know and I know this from my you know other work that you can use plan assets to hire someone or pay for someone to take on certain roles and responsibilities that are for the benefit of the participants.

So we made that decision that we needed that extra support. our legal outside legal counsel supported that or or agreed that that was a reasonable use of the money. The retirement board voted on it and so yes, that is something that we are doing and it has paid great dividends. We've really been able to ramp up the RFP and lots of other things that we've been working on. While we're doing well and things are good, there's always more to do and more improvements. So, um, I'm glad that we're able to to be moving.

So, it sounds like it's been very helpful to have this person. Okay. Yeah. Cindy, big big head nod from Cindy. No, I think that's that that's one of those things where it's money well spent, right? I mean, if if we because you know, you have your own full-time job. Mesters has her plate very full. You know, if something were to fall through the cracks, that would be devastating to the and and so I fully support that. And I think again this is money well sprint to make sure that we've got everything in alignment. So thank you very much

just wanted to make a quick comment um as the former liaison to the retirement board um I think one of the great things about the retirement board is the fact that it has employees and people that and citizens who might not necessarily know exactly how a pension fund works mixed with experts like you. Um, and so one of the things that I've been particularly grateful for, um, with your service on the board, uh, is specifically how you take the time to explain things. Um, and you will, if somebody says something and they're not quite clear, you'll actually be able to step in and help usher the conversation and and sort of set the parameters and and and guide people uh to better understand exactly, you know, this gets complicated exactly how things work. So anyway, big thank you for all of that.

Thank you. And we are very fortunate. We have um three citizens on the board, myself, a person with significant investment uh background and uh a someone with a legal background. So we really are very fortunate to have some very specific skills from the citizens and then of course the employees bring you know their perspective which is very very valuable as we manage these monies for them. Mr. Reagan

and as the current liaison to the retirement board, I've I've been to a whole one meeting cuz you meet quarterly, so that's all there's been. Um, and I was very impressed. I didn't have to do anything. It was like you guys knew what you were doing. I'm looking forward to more of the same and and seeing what you guys do because I think this is a boarding commission that really has their act together. Thank you. Great. Well, echo the thanks. I think we are very lucky to have your long service. So, please extend our thanks to everyone on the retirement board as well.

Thank you. Okay. Uh I think that is it for the special reports. I think we're ready to move on to report of the city manager.

Thank you, Mayor Hardy and u members of council. I'll just have two quick reports. one, I would like to just highlight the great work of the false church 250th uh committee. Um, and I really would like to invite all the members of the public to participate in the events that are lined up. um almost every week there's a 250th event that is planned and so you can go online you can see um uh things that are happening and so just as a few highlights um on April 30th there's a soapbox series at the four Ps uh where the theme is Irish immigrants and their contributions to the city and the nation the women's history walk on May 9th stories from federal employees federal employees are so much of the fabric of the city of Falls church. Um, and that one's going to be focused on the Department of Education on May 10th. Um, and the list goes on and it um, one of the climactic events will be on July 3rd. I ask everybody to put mark it on their calendar right now, the Civic Jam that's, uh, planned right here in Cherry Hill Park from 6:00 p.m. till 10:00 p.m. on Friday, July 3rd. It'll be a celebration of uh, civic life in the city. And if we think about what makes this country great is of course uh democracy, but what self-government really is about is that deep ecosystem of of volunteers and civic leaders uh throughout our society, deep in our society. And that's where all of our protections of liberty ultimately lie. And it's really appropriate that that's what we're celebrating in the city of Falls Church. And uh it's going to be a really fun night with live music, great food, a beer garden, um and the participation of uh so many of our great civic groups in the city of Falls Church. So mark that on the calendars. And a big thank you to uh the 250th

committee for their great organizing work and Holly Irwin, our staff liaison to that group. The second thing I'd like to report on is on Wednesday, May 20th, we'll have our annual Department of Public Works open house at the Robert Golf Operation Center. So, everybody's invited. It is a week uh day night and it's from 3 till 6:30. And part of the purpose of that, there's been a lot of outreach to area schools so that school uh so teachers can bring students by to the operations yard, see the equipment, see how we get things done in the city from a DPW uh perspective. And so I wanted to plug that event again, Wednesday, uh May 20th from 3:00 p.m. to 6:30 um at the property yard. That's my report tonight. Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. I was also going to give props to OCOM and the FCC TV team for all the videos related to false church. That's right. The reflections at 250. Yeah, the most recent one was terrific. So kudos to them for that. They've all been terrific and we've had great civic leaders participate in that video series and they're really inspiring. Give you great great excitement about what's going on in the city.

I also just wanted to thank on the 250 front as well. while I was at the opening of the 250 and counting um exhibit at false church arts which is really fantastic and sort of just art reflecting our collective conscience and a lot of different sort of um takes on you know founding ideals and evolution of you know those ideals and and and how collectively we're performing or falling short in different ways. Um, and then the Arbor Day. Um, thanks to the city and staff and to Vipas in particular for the Arbor Day and its tiein to 250th with the giveaway of the 250 saplings as well as the planting of the 100 trees in Cherry Hill Park and the overall commitment to planting 250 trees um throughout the city this year. So, in addition to the upcoming events, also wanted to just thank everyone for their participation in those um very recent events.

Great. Thank you. Do we have an official 250 tree? Like is there one tree that's like here's the 250th that's going up in the city and we get like a little commemorative plaque. I don't know if there's a tree. The tree of the year is the oak. Um but uh it's a good question. Let me find out. I don't know if any of them are 250 years old. Well, eventually there will be, but whether we want one identified as the special 250. Madame Mayor, this is um this is a democracy, so we have 250 lead trees. Okay. Okay. Do we have council requests for Mr. Shields?

Anyone? Okay, I have a few. Um, I noticed that at Anandale and Gundry there's a new quick build that's up with some flexi posts and some paint. Um, that was a pleasant surprise. I don't know whether it was in response to the further concerns we had heard from the neighborhood, whether we had gone out and done some additional speed measurement, but one whether we can get an update on the work and two whether the neighborhood still expect some sort of like post project monitoring and data collection because I think they were expecting that to happen in May,

right? Um so we do have the data collection is um we will have some numbers I think on that. U the stop sign running is the big concern and um and and collecting data on that is difficult. Um but we will have some data to share. The flexiplo were installed as an additional measure just in light of the you know ongoing concerns particularly about that intersection and stop sign running there.

Okay. I watched it for a good 45 minutes even before the stop sign uh before the flexi post were put in and then afterwards and I do think it it does as most flexi post projects do make you slow down and take the turn on a tighter one so you can't kind of take it at a faster speed anymore so that is helpful. Uh along the same lines, uh I had a whole large group of Grove Avenue neighbors come out um to my walking office hours last week. And so as my commitment to them, I wanted to raise a broader concern is with the NTC program paused, I think we owe um all the neighborhoods that have active cases in the queue, kind of an update of where things stand during the pause, when they could expect things to be unpaused, what it means in the interim. um do we you know anyway in room measures as well as what we should expect um because I think they were anxiously waiting more actions and I imagine there are other neighborhoods besides Grove who have that feedback.

I'll I'll also add to that. I mean, my expectation in the council retreat was not that that we were pausing the neighborhood trafficcoming program to discuss like the scope of the neighborhood trafficcoming relative to other ways to address trafficcoming and that it wasn't a pause on all trafficcoming measures. And to the extent there needed to be top down sort of rapid response implemented that that would continue to happen regardless of the conversation which we've you know continued to stress should take place sooner rather than later post budget cycle for determining next steps.

I think we talked about scheduling a work session discussion on where we are with NTC in light of the pause. So probably would invite the CACT to join us for that discussion on how staff is thinking about it and next steps and how we transition to more of the tops down approach. Okay. Any other council requests? Madame Mayor, if I might, following up on Gross, there was an accident there and I know that there'll be has a police report been issued yet? Um the full accident reconstruction report we don't have yet. that's being performed outside of the, you know, by the Virginia State Police. Um, I do expect we'll get it soon, but we've not received it yet.

Yeah. Um, I I would just ask if that suggests something that can be done quickly um that we move on that. Yeah. So there was a the Grove Avenue folks did have some visibility things that are are kind of probably on the most feasible to do. They're mostly in uh the park authorities uh terrain. So we'd need to work through the park authority um about that. There was an idea about removing some on street parking um and that it would be in the city's purview. So uh that that's one of the takeaways from the Grove Avenue meeting.

I should add that Justin Wilson who is the executive director of Nova Parks had joined me. So he was able to observe a lot of the behavior at that trail crossing where the crash happened and I think they had some takeaways of you know treatment they could do on uh the bike path. U mainly the issue is and we observed it Friday evening like people coming off the bridge heading uh eastbound just speed down the hill and don't obey the stop sign and between the curve of West Street turning onto Grove is a quick one. Um that's where we have both visibility issues as well as pedestrians and bicyclists not stopping at the stop sign. So, so thank you to staff in advance. Um, I would love to see some quick actions as a result of that crash once that analysis is out too, as well as the broader discussion on what we're doing during this pause. Okay. Well, let's move on to business on the agenda. Actually, no, we have a city manager recruitment update. My apologies. Uh, Shield, are you giving the update or is Miss Gibson going to? So, um I I think on you know the council has wanted to have the opportunity pretty much every meeting to provide the community with an update and so we can maybe prep a little bit more on the choreography for that but I think the intent was just to announce the um uh hiring of a firm to help the city council in the recruitment process and and mayor I don't know if you want to share that or I I could speak to it if you like.

Please go ahead.

Okay. So um the city council after uh some deliberation has selected a firm with Rafelis u to assist the city council in the executive recruitment process for the next city manager. Um, as part of that process, there will be community input as well as um, uh, you know, um, stakeholder input that the city council will be welcoming as, uh, the city council works with this firm to develop, um, and post the recruitment ann um, announcement. And uh so uh stay tuned for links where people can weigh in on that and um and a little bit more detail on the schedule and that process now that the firm is uh is on board.

Great. Thank you. This is a very important recruitment. So we appreciate recruit uh procurement going through this with us and selecting the firm. Any questions for Mr. Shields? Okay. Okay. Well, let's move on to business on the agenda. Um, before you call the public hearing, I think Miss Connelly needs to make a conflict of interest disclosure since we're primarily dealing with budget tonight. If you have that ready. I do. The city council is discussing tonight the city's proposed FY2027 budget. I am an employee of the Falls Church City School Board, which will be affected by the proposed budget. Because I am the 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 track in this transaction because I am confident in my ability to participate fairly, objectively, and in the public interest.

Thank you, Mr. Shields. And so, uh, we do have a whole series of budget items and the city clerk will read those. And tonight is the advertised public hearing for as is May 11th. So, yes, there's two advertised public hearings and this is the first and the second is on May 11th. And uh we do have a staff report that will follow the the reading of the titles, but I might recommend to the council that you open up and have the public hearing first and then we could have the staff report and then council discussion and and uh and direction from there. And so uh does that that sounds fine to me? Okay. And so we do need to open and close each of the six public hearings

and we can't open them all together. I believe we've been advised to open them separately. Okay, let's one. Sure.

Our first public hearing is TO26-03 ordinance fixing and determining the budget of expenditures and revenues and appropriating funds for expenditure for fiscal year 2020 27 across the following funds. general fund, sewer fund, storm water fund, cable access fund, affordable housing fund, school operating fund, school community service fund, school food service fund, community development authority, and capital improvement program funds, and adopting the FY27 to FY20 uh 2027 to FY 2032 capital improvements program. And we do have three speakers signed up for this public hearing.

Okay. and they're fine speaking on the budget ordinance as opposed to this ones further down, I believe. So, and so did you want to open public hearing? Let's open the public hearing. We welcome Jeff Peterson followed by Michael Troberman. It would be cruel to make you wait for five more. Welcome.

All right. Thank you.

Good evening, council. I'm Jeff Peterson, 205 Tyson Drive. I chair the False Church Climate Action Network. We're a local nonprofit organization working to help false church residents and businesses address climate change. You can find out more about us on our website at fccan.net. For many years, the city deferred proposals to make investments to better manage energy to protect the climate on the grounds that we didn't have an overall plan to set priorities and invest funds wisely. Today, we have pretty good plans for climate change for both the community and for government operations. And we have made some progress. I you heard some uh items identified earlier. Uh solar for Aurora House, the community center HVAC, uh soon to be uh released uh residential audit program, but overall the budget before you tonight makes only very limited investments to implement the adopted energy plans. This underinvestment will doom our future efforts to meet the 2030 goals in the plans. The Falls Church Climate Action Network urges you to amend and strengthen the budget to better implement the adopted climate and energy plans. Our letter to you provides detailed recommendations. Here are just a few examples. Uh the budget should fund and accelerate the project to put solar power on the roof of the community center. As you've heard and discussed, the project will pay for itself over time, and doing it now means we'll get a

substantial savings thanks to the federal credit. The existing fleet replacement element of the budget uh should be upgraded to provide a more public plan to schedule and schedule for city vehicle purchases including both uh electric vehicles and electric school buses. Um and as another example, uh the city and the community, uh we're shifting gradually but steadily to electric vehicles and the city needs to start now to invest in a public charging network and we need a plan to do that smartly that could start right away. Uh as I said uh there are other improvements needed and they're identified uh in our letter. Uh we hope that uh there's still a chance to make some important improvements to the budget. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next we have Michael Troberman followed by John Ward. Hello again. Um uh first as in my ESC capacity, I'll remind you that um in the written comments that the ESC endorsed the false church climate action network letter and we also endorsed solar on the community center. But I'll make this on my personal capacity if I could. Okay. Michael Troberman, 323 North Underwood Street. I'd like to comment on rooftop solar for the community center. This is a 182,000 CI CIP project currently scheduled for FY28, but it remains unfunded. I urge council to both fund this project and move it forward to FY27. There are three key reasons. First, tax credit savings. Moving the project up by one year allows the st the city to complete it before the 30% federal investment tax credit expires at the end of 27. That credit is worth roughly $40,000. Capturing the credit significantly lowers the upfront cost and improves the city's return on investment. Without it, project card costs would be more than 40% higher. Second, logistics. If the project stays in FY28, the city would likely have just six months to complete it before the tax credit deadline. This is a very tight window to issue an RFP finalized design and complete installation, especially in what will likely be a crowded, high-cost contractor market due to the expiration of the tax credit. Third, electricity cost savings. Completing the project one year earlier will save the city about $6,000 in electricity costs.

And beyond the financial case, there is an environmental one. Rooftop solar directly reduces the city's greenhouse gas emissions and aligns with the government operations energy action plan, which explicitly calls for installing solar in a way that maximizes federal funding opportunities. Accelerating this project by one year would reduce emissions by 13.2 2 metric tons, avoiding an estimated 3,000 in damages to public health, infrastructure, agriculture, and ecosystems. This is a straightforward opportunity to save money, reduce risk, and advance the city's climate goals all at once. Thank you for time and consideration. I hope you'll take action to move this project forward. Thank you.

Thank you. And finally, we have John Ward. Thank you. Good evening. Uh John Ward, 335 Riley Street. Thank you very much for your time this evening and believe appreciate so much the work you guys do putting having to weigh and balance all of the different priorities that the community puts in front of you. Um I'd also appreciate the the very very grateful to see all the comments you had for Mr. Troman on on his annual report. That was great. And actually, I want to modify my comments a little bit this evening to probably address some of those questions that came up. Uh, in case those questions are an obstacle to funding the things that we've been asking for, I've written two been a co-signer at least on two or three different emails and letters over the past six months, which have gradually sort of narrowed their focus down to can we get rooftop solar on the community center. Um, a lot of cases have been made for that. This evening, um, I want first on Mr. Schneider's question about we put a lot of money into the community center with the geothermal. I want to just remind the council that was the HVAC center HVAC system needed to be replaced. We were going to be having multi-million dollar system there no matter what. Uh the going to the geothermal system was actually turned out to be the lower capital cost option once the federal tax credit was considered. my gratitude to former mayor Tarter for having kind of prodded the city and the community to consider the geothermal at the time when we weren't really going down that path. Uh so that was actually the cheaper option uh um and uh that was the really selling point that and the carbon reduction not so much the operating cost the operating cost reduction that was predicted was fairly fairly modest. Um Mr. Aen's question on the uh balcony solar we'll definitely thank you for take that as an action item with the other environmental activities we undertake. um back of the envelope. I think if all 6,000 residents put a panel, put maxed out and all 1,000 businesses did it, it'd be significant.

It'd be a major input. I think it would probably trim maybe roughly 4% of the city's electricity consumption. That's not that's not nothing to see. That's that's a major cut. Um but I think it's it is fairly optimistic and we'll kind of touch on that a little bit more. We'll try to get back to your your request for that for that information. And uh Miss DS asked about uh we have we considered have we talked to the school system. I know I did uh had presentation to the school board or at least a public comment and we met with uh Kevin meme when he took over as facilities head uh early like in August or so and some emails. He was he was interested in hearing more about what the options were on uh for solar on on the school. And I'll be honest, the only reason that the middle school has been the focus was because the CIP put that as the focus for that was always the alligator closest to the boat, the one facility that was going that that was where solar was going to go once the roof was ready. Quite frankly, Mount Daniel would probably be a more cost-effective place, but we've been focusing on Henderson because that's where the roof refurbishment was going to go. Really want to prioritize getting those FCAs done so that we can decide the city can decide and where's the best place to put that investment. Thank you for your time. Great. Thank you. Is that it for public comments at signed up? Yes. Any other members of the public that wish to comment on this before I close the public hearing on TO26-03? Okay. Seeing none, we're going to close the public hearing. Should we continue open public hearings for the remainder of the ordinances and then we will discuss the staff report and other items? Okay, let's move on to the next one. So our next public hearing is TO26-04 ordinance setting the rate of tax levy on real estate for tax year 2027 and on personal property machinery and tools and all other property segregated by law for local taxation in the city of Falls Church, Virginia for tax year 2026. I'm going to open the public hearing.

Anyone wish to give public comment about the tax rates? I thought we had a taker, but now okay, seeing none, I'm going to close the public hearing. Let's move on to the next one. Yes, we have TO26-05, ordinance setting the storm water utility billing unit rate in accordance with chapter 42, article 7 of the code of the city of Falls Church, Virginia, as of July 1, 2026. Opening the public hearing for TO26-05. the storm water fees. Any members of the public wish to comment? Okay. Going to close the public hearing. Let's move on to the next one. 20 uh TO26-06 ordinance to amend the code of the city of false church chapter 42 utilities article 3 sewer section 42-172 availability charge to increase sewer service and availability charges to be effective July 1, 2026. Thank you. I'm going to open the public hearing for TO2606. This is for sewers. Any members of the public wish to comment? Okay, I'm going to close the public hearing. Two more to go. Uh TO26-07, ordinance setting the solid waste collection fee in accordance with chapter 34 solid waste section 34-3 residential solid waste collection of the code of the city of false church, Virginia as of July 1, 2026. Going to open the public hearing. Any members of the audience wish to comment on this? This is a solid waste fee. Okay, I'm going to close the public hearing on that one.

And our final public hearing is TO26-12 ordinance to amend chapter 15 fees. Article one in general, article 2, Department of Development Services, and Article 3, Department of Public Works of the Code of the City of Falls Church to adjust development related fees to remove reference to copy fees and adjust the fee for returned checks. I'm going to open the public hearing for TO26-12. Anyone wish to comment? I will note for council I did forward a letter that came from the Chamber of Commerce after a discussion that we had this morning with them. I think that came after maybe the noon deadline. So, but you should have it in your inbox. Okay, I'm going to close the public hearing on budgets. I think that's it for public hearings and we can move on to the staff report and discussion.

Okay. Thank you, Mayor Hardy, members of council. So um uh uh David so our finance director has just about four or five slides that we'll go through just to summarize some of the discussion from the work session last week and um and we have also listed on the agenda a work session at the end of the meeting but the council is going to hear from our sheriff uh Matt Kay. Um, and I might suggest that that budget work session just be pulled forward to this discussion and it all could happen together because the only other agenda items tonight are the consent calendar and then under other business is the contract uh for the Virginia Village project which we would handle last. Um, and so, um, the other thing I would like to note before I turn it over to, uh, David is to invite the public to, we have a town hall meeting on the budget on Thursday this week at 7:00, uh, here in this room and people can participate either virtually through the team's link um, and uh, here in person in this room. And so one of the things for the council, we're going to lay out some of the consensus items that we heard from your work session. Um I would like to be able to take that out to the U town hall meeting to get have so the public is informed about sort of some of the things the council is thinking about before you make final decisions. And part of the purpose of that second town hall meeting is to get feedback on the budget as a whole, but also on sort of the the direction that the council is taking. So any last guidance the council wants to give prior to that uh town hall meeting on Thursday would be very welcome. Uh Mr. So let me turn it over to you.

All right. Thank you very much Mr. Shields. Uh good evening mayor, vice mayor, and members of the council. Uh tonight I'm just providing some updates to our budget. So on this slide here uh this was presented in our third quarter budget and finance committee meeting. Uh and this is uh just to kind of outline where we've where we've gotten. So starting in our FY 2026 budget, uh moving on to the the projection um that I presented in that third quarter meeting, um we're projecting to grow about an additional 6.5% just driven by really strong growth here in the city of Falls Church. And so that being said, we took a look at our 27 proposed numbers and saw that it's coming in much more conservative than our 26 projections. So, uh, the staff and I took that as an opportunity to kind of look at our numbers again and reconsider, uh, what our 27 projected numbers were. So, uh, starting with the personal property tax, uh, that continues to come in stronger. So, uh, we've included an additional 230,000 just based upon the continued efforts from the commissioner of revenue. Uh, sales tax, we did see some opportunity there. Uh, we did increase it by about 70,000, but knowing that, uh, sales tax, it's uh, there's a little bit more of a a spikiness just based upon a lot of the construction uh, sales that have been going on throughout the city. Uh, the third row that we have here is the meal stacks. And so this one was the one that we felt uh very comfortable in terms of where the city is is heading. Um now one could one could say that the 410,000 does seem to be pretty aggressive, but just based upon the 9.1% um projected number that we're going to end in FY26,

we do expect there to be continued growth uh within the city of Falls Church. And so, uh, the team and I took a really good look at that number and we felt that 410,000 was a good realistic number. Um, so, uh, I would say that's that's an achievable number, but again, uh, there's a lot of uncertainty, but just based upon the data we we've looked at, we haven't seen any of the uncertainty hitting the the local tax revenue. And so it's difficult to to project that uncertainty number uh within uh our tax projections. So u all that being said, we totaled about an additional 700,000 for council to consider. So the next slide. So based upon last week's work session, uh the preliminary consensus seemed to be cutting the real estate tax by half a penny. And then based upon the revenue share agreement, we would split the remaining 360,000 with half of it going to schools which is 180,000. And then for the other half for general government, um we are recommending to put the remaining 180,000 in straight street maintenance, but to lower our usage of capital reserves. So currently we're using 800,000 annually for within our capital reserve to fund our street maintenance. So we're asking to reduce it from 800,000 to 620,000. So pave street maintenance budget would remain the same but the the dependence on uh capital reserves would be reduced.

Can we just can we pause there quickly and I just I think that's different from how we all understood it. And so I just do want to pause there for a minute and make sure and confirm right I confirm what you're saying and read back to you our understanding is that we are not actually increasing the paving budget at all despite our conversations about trying to do more on the street maintenance front but simply ensuring a more reliable future stream for the paving budget by now putting it into operating taking it out of capital reserves but not doing anything more in terms of that maintenance of effort that we were hoping to achieve by actually finding more dollars or identifying more dollars for street maintenance.

So that is that is their recommendation and I and I want to just acknowledge that um you know ultimately the city council can is going to make this decision. Um, and so we wanted to uh put forward this proposal as part of another step of weaning the city off of the use of one-time money for ongoing maintenance. And uh that strengthens the city's financial condition and moves us uh you know in the right direction. Uh we recognize that the city council also wants to increase the level of effort on street maintenance. And so um we acknowledge that um and uh and still this is a recommendation. The city council ultimately can make the decision which way you want to go on that.

So going back to the slide that showed FY25, 26 and 27 paving budgets. I think we all had a lot of heartburn that FY27 was below 26 and was even below 25. So are you saying we're still going to be below 25 and all we're doing is switching the color of money?

Yeah. If you look at the next slide, it kind of tells that story. And so this was the slide that you saw that that you know, everyone had a negative reaction to FY25, we had 870,000 in the tax rate for paving. That's going down to 700,000. And that's largely because other maintenance in the public rightway is increasing. And so, uh, it sort of is coming out of the asphalt part of, uh, of the things that we do. If uh you follow the recommendation we have in the operating because these are all operating budget numbers that in the operating budget it will go from 700 to 870. So from the perspective of this chart we will get back to our um 19 uh FY25 level of effort in the tax rate. Um, but it will not be a $180,000 increase to paving uh as a sort of a gross increase. If that makes uh I I can explain a little bit more. I'll stop there.

Do people understand that or have further questions? Connelly.

So then can we use the $180,000 in capital reserves for some one-time spending or do are you recommending that stay in capital reserves? Well, we uh we will take the sort of careful approach and not recommend spending that uh 180 in capital reserves. That's kind of where we are because we're we have a plan to use all the capital reserves. Um and so this would give us a little bit of buffer to add projects in the CIP. If the council were to appropriate right now, you uh you still could and stay within uh policy compliance. Uh but you'd be kind of right there at the razor's edge.

But before we had the new Q3 numbers, we were essentially using capital reserves for this anyway. So we were at the edge. Yeah. And all this does is give us a little buffer. So, in this proposal, if we do add the 170 or 180 to this, all of that will be operating dollars in the paving program or we still have some use of reserves for

Yeah, we'd still have $620,000 uh use of reserves. Uh the one other note I'd like to make is we are projecting to run out of capital reserves by fiscal year 2030. So, I think that's another concern that we have. So any additional we can wean ourselves off of uh allocating some of these capital reserves will lengthen the the you uh the availability of capital reserves for future years.

Yeah. I I think this was tied into the concern I had during the work session about cutting the tax rate. I I I have a problem with saying a consensus because it was definitely not a 70. um is that I feel like the cutting the tax rate we are mortgaging the future it's similar to in the current environment we shouldn't be adding an FTE because you're making an immediate you're adding a cost that has a multi-year impact we should not be adding FTEES the school shouldn't be adding FTEES all that the the reason I have been against the half point cut is because I view it as a multi multi-year impact to our revenue stream. And this actually really highlights that we have tough years ahead. And honestly, not using the capital reserve and shifting it, we are undercutting the paving. We're undercutting our streets. Um that 700,000 was not maintenance of effort. I think we all understood that from DPW's uh the discussion with them. This says to me even more so that uh I can't vote for a half penny cut when I look at things like this. And it's I'm going to continue to take that position because I feel like we are mortgaging the future here in a way that we can't really it's not easy to change. I'm glad you mentioned the FY30 because one of my questions was what is the forecast for our capital reserves moving forward because that is not an operational bag of money. Um there are it's for to me it's for

onetime costs. I mean using it for police cars would make sense. Um using it to fund the community center solar would make sense. Although I'm hoping maybe we can talk about that with the leftovers from FY16 if there's enough. Um, but this is an operational thing and the fact that we're using it for operations does not sit well with me.

For council members who were not around before, we really built up capital reserves. Maybe Mr. Shields, you could give us some background because I think our policy says we were supposed to have 2 million in capital reserves, but we really built it up as part of the plan of finance for Meridian. And so the idea of even having having capital reserves is kind of a new phenomenon as of 2019. I I that's uh that's right. But I I I would um note for the council um we did build up capital reserves with pennies on the tax rate as the leadin to the big high school effort. Um and so that was a unique circumstance and it was very difficult to do. Um but you know with with a big project like that the council um was able to to do that kind of financial planning and then we were also helped um with the sale of the water system and that's sort of the big chunk of money we heard earlier tonight about 9 million going into the pension fund. Uh but about uh 12 million went into the city's capital reserves that were used uh for the um and you know some of that money is still what you see uh today that we're we're spending um uh through the CIP.

Yeah. So to be clear I think I generally support the idea of weaning ourselves off of a structural problem where we're using onetime money to fund operating. But that said, I don't love the idea. For a while, we were holding 35 $40 million of taxpayer money in reserves and we had to do that per policy when our debt service was super high and we were exceeding all the ratios. But the plan is to spend down some capital reserves because at the end of the day, that's taxpayer money we held mainly in reserves per policy when we had to meet um our debt to expenditure ratio was exceeding various percentages. But the plan is not to have a giant capital reserve because we also have an unassigned fund balance that is a city's rainy day fund. And so this is kind of a new construct. I mean, as of 2019, but you know, we really shouldn't be sitting on a ton of taxpayer money when it could be deployed and towards one-time projects. Agreed that we shouldn't be using it on paving. And I think a plan to kind of wean ourselves off is appropriate, but at the end of the day, the money should be used productively or returned to people.

Miss one.

Um, I'll I'll echo Mr. Aen's concerns on sort of the half penny reduction. I think I said at the work session, look, I am very sensitive to taxpayer burden, but I don't think that structurally we're like going about recalibrating the budget properly. And to the extent that I would support a half penny residential tax reduction, I wanted it to be offset somewhat with a CNI tax increase because if we are sort of saying we're reducing the tax rate, real estate tax rate because of residential tax burden and that tax rate is 1/3 commercial, 2/3 residential, you're basically giving up $119,000 of operating revenue when you reduce the residential tax rate. and we don't take advantage of something like CNI tax increase to actually create a funding stream and ongoing mechanism for things like bike infrastructure and missing links which are two priorities that we consistently hear about in the community or if we were reducing residential tax rate thinking about car tax or the personal property tax as a revenue stream to actually dedicate toward um the paving budget as a way to do so through operating given given that we think we will plateau and that we should probably designate that and remove it from revenue share frankly in order to make sure that we have an ongoing kind of street maintenance program that isn't raising these costs over time and so I think where I currently sit with budget even though I don't love the idea of this $700,000 but given where we landed with revenue shares to the first 350,000 of it that I would prefer prefer to treat, you know, that 350 doing the 50/50 revenue split as operating with a caveat to not, you know, turn it into full-time positions

on either side of the general government or schools and then have the $350,000 in this year's budget by retaining the 1185 rate, but treating it like as of fiscal year 28 as though it's really only 118. so that we can do the CNI increase at the same time we actually do a residential real estate decrease as opposed to going so thin this year we're not going to have the opportunity to offset next year and then we lose the commercial revenues that we would otherwise be getting out of real estate taxes the same way we lost the commercial revenues last year because we did nothing with CNI tax when we actually decreased the tax rate for solid waste fees and essentially let that one-third of operating revenue disappear um by not offsetting. And so my kind of concerns coming out of the police conversation where we talked for I don't know what it was an hour about unfunded police needs that are not going to show up in capital reserves. we're hearing about the community solar that we're not going to be otherwise funding would be to keep the 340 in on solely the general government side and actually fund things that we're not going to otherwise be able to fund with a hope and expectation that going into fiscal year 28 we treat this as like effectively a 118 tax rate but leaves ourselves a cushion to actually meet some unfunded needs this year that we're not otherwise going to achieve. Other thoughts

on the point about um I think we all had reservations about using any of this money for FTEES. Do we have any visibility from the schools of what they would do with their share because I think their list of unfunded needs were in fact actually all FTEES. No, nothing other than the list that that the council is saying. I think two of them were not FT AI implementation was a big one on theirs which I don't believe is an FTE but most of them were FTEES which I'm real hesitant on. And do we have data on what their fund balance is going to be in at the end of F526? We've not received that yet. That would be helpful before markup.

Other thoughts?

Yeah, Madame Mayor. Um so a couple things. Um first of all um based upon the data I have that highway design life is 20 years with resurfacing needed every 10 to 15 years. So I'm not entirely sure that's that's uh appropriately bucketed as operating costs. Uh and I'd like to see more of a discussion about that because I don't necessarily accept that assumption that repaving is an operating cost. Number one. Number two, according to the Council of Government's data, 62,000 federal jobs have been lost in this region. We are now at a 30-year low of federal jobs. I believe that we have to show credibility not only in what we spend, but in what we don't spend, and that I think we're on the brink of losing the support of the public at the level of taxation that we have right now. So I'm firmly believe that we should try to go for the half penny at least um even as we try to fund uh other things uh that that we try to fund.

Thank you. Other thoughts down this is I guess more of a question for Mr. So, um, reading the staff report, uh, there was a t there's, um, in terms of keeping the real estate rate flat, um, that the median homeowners real estate bill would increase by $611 or 5%. Um, if we were to bring, and not to put you on the spot, but, um, if we were to bring that down by a half penny, do you know what that would result in for the median home owners tax? If you don't, it's fine. And I just it's about a $57 decrease in the bill.

Okay. So it's okay. Again, knowing that all, you know, every little bit helps. It's not, you know, over a year, you know, $57 probably isn't isn't huge, but I definitely understand. Um, Mr. This is one of those things I think it's very obviously very tough because I I see both sides of it and, you know, we are we continue to be one of the highest taxed areas. um in Northern Virginia, but I agree also with my colleagues to my left that, you know, we could we could utilize that money. So, I'm, you know, on the fence right now, but thank you.

I would like to clarify that because I did a little research that when you include some of the smaller jurisdictions, we're actually middle of the road for taxes. Um we're currently at 1.18. Um Arlington just raised theirs 2 cents and they're the lowest other than Louden. We're going to leave Louden out of this. But when you look at Vienna, Hearnden, Manasses, Manasses Park, all of them have higher tax rates than us. When you combine both the Fairfax and the local and Fairfax in Alexandria are in the 1.125, 1.123, and 1.135. So, we are a little bit higher than them, but We used to be, it used to be 10 years ago a huge gap. And so I applaud the council's work over the last 10 years to bring that gap down, but I would not characterize us as the highest in um in Northern Virginia anymore.

One nice evolution in the budget cycle, I think this year, last year, is we started actually talking about the median tax bill impact and less about the tax rate, right? Because we all know that your tax bill is your rate times your assessment. And when you look at our assessment charts, like ours were double. Like the reason why your budget is so healthy is because our assessment values are double what the region is. And it's because we are a desirable place to live. When you have limited housing supply and your desired, you have high demand, prices go up. And so when you look at actually the median tax bill, the 611 plus the other fees, I think 600 plus is probably the highest we've seen in the past five plus years. And so I think I sent around an article last week that Arlington, even with their two penny increase in the tax rate, their median tax bill change is still lower than our $600. And it's because their AVs did not go up as much. So while the tax rate information is accurate, we have lowered at 17 cents in the past 5 years. I think at the end of the day, I think what we should all hold very carefully is the median tax bill impact and what we can do not only to help alleviate for taxpayers, but also for me, I believe in actually just constraining our budgets in anticipation of leaner years ahead and holding ourselves to kind of truly what really is essential to fund and really having some discipline and not funding some things as well. Miss Connelly.

So, I just want to talk about the contingencies that we have, the funds that we have, the opportunities for one-time funding because the solar at the community center is onetime funding that will event will save us money in the long run and is the right thing to do. So, could we use that $180,000 that would be sitting in capital reserves to fund rooftop solar at the community center because it's a onetime expense. We could Yes,

that's not staff's recommendation, but we could decide to do that. Um, my other favorite pot of money, and I know Mr. Shields is going to roll your eyes, but you just get to have to listen to me talk about the the pension investment where we've been using smoothing all those years, but it seems like there's a lot of money in there, too. Are we smooth enough? Can we take any more than $650,000 out of that this year to help us over this hump? So, what the $640,000 represents is a 7% anticipated return on investment of the 9.2 million. And so, um that uh balance has grown to 11 million. Um and so the 640,000 represents about a you know a 6% expected uh return on investment. And that is these days sort of what actuaries are recommending is um is a reasonable anticipated future returns. So I would recommend staying pat on the 640 and not increasing that. I that'd be my recommendation. Uh but that could be referred to the retirement board to see if they have an opinion on it as well.

I think it would be to stand pat. Okay. While we're onetime money though, we have FY26 surplus, right? Remember, we're ending the year with a surplus that we're also splitting with the schools. Are we using it for a mass? What's the staff recommendation or early thinking on that, right? For the year-end money. Yes. 26 year end money. You want to speak to that, Dave?

Yeah. So, currently we don't have plans because we we still it's a projected number. So, we usually wait until the end of the year and when we have the final results. So just based upon the current circumstances, you know, our projection was best guess as of the data available, but just with the current economic uh uncertainty, I I think it'd be prudent to hold off on some of these conversations until we get towards the end of the fiscal year. Uh and we have a much better uh sight to what that number will be. But you do anticipate ending the year with that surplus that you had shown us. That's the hope. Uh but just based upon kind of what's been going on uh we're kind of crossing our fingers.

Okay. And again I would love to have the school's projection as well. I think the other that's kind of the hanging chat out there is there was additional commercial AV of 170,000 I want to say that we talked about in February. So when commercial assessments came in higher, I think the city manager made a recommendation to put our share 170 into the operating budget and then the school share actually in school capital for one-time spend. Um and so that's another bucket that I think that we have not talked about did not go into their operating. Correct.

That's correct. And so, um, by putting the 170,000 into the school CIP, um, one, it did honor revenue share. That 170 was in addition to what the school board asked for. And then the other consideration that was behind that that action that I or that recommendation that I made is that the schools are doing a facilities assessment right now. They don't have funds to implement what they find from that assessment, at least in the budget. And um and so I think these funds will be needed. But that is secondly operating dollars though like that is ongoing money. So commercial assessment came in higher this year. It's going to come in at the minimum at that level next year presumably. Right.

That's right. And so to me that's a good thing for them to have recurring pay as you go capital for school facilities. Um because they have the largest physical plant by far in the city. And uh so I think it is going to I think the city I think the city will benefit from having that built into the operating budget as we go forward. It probably is going to need to be larger in the future. Can I ask a followup on that? So I mean that's your recommendation. That's right.

And if we were to adopt the budget, I mean it's not like we can include a direction as to the 174 goes goes. Right. So I mean I guess at the end of the day we would be saying revenue share x amount of dollars expectation that you use this 174 for your for a new ongoing facility upgrade operating revenue but ultimately like the schools will decide how to spend that 174 in their budget. Well, the CIP is special. Um, uh, so if the council adopts it as I've recommended, um, it cannot be spent for operating purposes by the schools. It must be spent for capital projects. And those capital projects then would come back to the city council and you would appropriate them. So the city council would retain control over that 170K, but it would be designated in the budget for school capital needs. And when is the FCA expected to be done?

Um, end of end of the year. So half of this year. Yeah.

So So the report from the the schools was that they had brought down to their minimal existing to fund their existing level of um services. And then there was they took the they got the hit on uh on the benefits which we also got that hit. Um, with this change in with the 700,000, are we are will they be getting that to I think was $25,000 they needed to get up to meeting their funding for existing services that they also had a 500,000 which was all new services. Um, but we heard from a lot of people in the public comments that we want to make sure that the schools are getting funded to where they need for the existing level of service. I want to make sure with that 700,000 that that that is the case

for that versus this 170. I'm a little bit confused on which numbers are which and I think the 170 is FY26 numbers. February minus. So in essence they're getting 170 plus yeah 350,000 more operating dollars right than proposed budget than the proposed budget. So that's where I think again in light of our concern about FTE usage like if that's all going towards operating I think that should give us some pause.

But you're saying one you're you're saying one yeah there's 350 more going to the schools than what came in at the school's proposed budget. 74 of that is the money that the city manager is recommending would be designated in a CIP stream. So there's really 174,000 operating revenue so to speak apart from whatever the if we were to use the 700 and a 350 one time if we didn't come down the half penny. Trying to remember where that 205 came from. Oh, all these numbers benefits. Yeah. I'm not I'm getting confused.

I'm losing. So, just a quick question. Mr. Shields has recommended 174,000 on the school CIP. I haven't heard any school board member talk about that at all or school staff talk about that. Like, do they have CIP needs ahead of their FCA? They know this is in there. Do they want it there? They know it's there. Um, and uh I don't uh I I think I think it's going to be needed. I that's that's I guess all I can say but there was not a lot of consultation. Um it it is my description of it just a moment ago is it was the full rationale that I had for that recommendation.

Yeah it was definitely because I remember it the recommendation that that money be moved to CIP. I I remember read I just don't remember when because I remember you the mayor and I had talked about that. I mean February May.

Yeah. I mean it definitely was in some document or something that I I believe that was shared with the school board, you know, but we never really touched on it. We didn't have a huge discussion about it, but I definitely remember seeing that somewhere. I mean, I will say candidly in both my conversations with the chair and the vice chair, they were taken aback that there was a designation of $174,000 to CIP as opposed to $174 into revenue share with the schools being able to decide how to use that 174 and that it was, you know, potentially a I don't know overstep or my words, not theirs of sort of designating the funds in that way coming out of the conversations around the additional revenues. And my my my own response was that I think it was a um effort on the city staff side to honor revenue share in a way that the council at that point was not necessarily um committed to adhering to revenue share. But that that's my understanding of the views from my individual conversations just to make clear given your question council member Connelly about the 174 and my explanation of how I took it in terms of its treatment in the budget. Yeah, I and I understand that perspective, but I also to our city manager, you know, you're the one with the expertise, with the eye on the, you know, the long-term and the CIP and things that we have coming down the pike. So, I really would defer to you if you feel like for that 170 that's, you know, it technically it still goes to the schools, but it's going into a CIP. like I just I feel like you're you're guy you know I um I understand the schools would like it but I also feel like you know you have the expert you know what's ahead of us and and that sort of thing. So I I would defer to your you know advice and experience on this one.

I guess the final part I guess to decide whether it should go in CI school CIP or not is their fund balance again like if they've ended the past 10 years with a surplus of onetime money and I think traditionally that is what is used for capital needs whether it's you know maintenance of the properties like I'm curious what they'll end FY26 with and whether that's an opportunity for onetime funding and if their FCA is not going to be done until the end halfway through this fiscal year like sounds like per this community center solar discussions. We actually have a more immediate CIP need now

just so that I understand. So we can put money into the school CIP. The schools can also put money into the school CIP. So that that funding can come from two different quote unquote sources. Is that correct? Or are we in control of the school CIP? I don't want to misspeak. um um you know when do you have an answer to that? Yeah, that I'd have to look into but I think in short for the current projects that's in the CIP. So we do have some uh projects here outlined related to school CIPs. But in terms of the funding, yeah, I think I'd have to go back and see historically how we've funded um previous school.

I feel like we're getting into the realm of some speculation. Maybe we should um discuss this at next week's work session after staff has had a chance to have some discussions and research a little bit.

I think that's a good idea, Mr. Aken. But what I I was getting at something else before we got into the that was one question. the the pressing needs that we seem to have are paving, masked arms, police cars, we're going to hear from the sheriff later, solar. So, these are all the things that are not in the budget that we're hearing we really should be putting some money towards. Did I forget anything? Are those really like the shiny objects that have risen to the top in the last month or so? and taxpayers

and well yes taxpayers but there taxpayers are always there but these are these are the things that we're trying to figure out the right way to fund these items or not fund these items I think the they just changed the slide center well the first one is the one that really scares me is fuel and energy yeah

so I guess to wrap up the previous conversation some information I guess that we would like more information on one um information from the schools about the fund balance. Two, what they plan on using the additional money from FY27 on if it is FTEES or if it's additional onetime spend. Three, um what their planned uses are for the 174 that's currently in the school CIP if they have needs. Was there anything else? Okay. just has a question related. Uh I mean I guess related to the CIP and go thing. So I guess on a slightly different topic. I don't know if we can shift topics now.

Are we good on that previous one and revisit it next week? Sorry. Questions. The um a city council pay raise is figured into the budget. How much is that? I don't have that figure right at the tip of my tongue, but it is built into the operating budget. Like 35,000 maybe. 35,000 is what I recall. Okay. And how much um is in the budget for benefits to city council members? Do you remember that? It's an increase of $28,000 from what I remember.

Yeah, I think it's listed in the budget book itself. And so we can we can get that number. So 35,000 increase in city council salary and then the benefits because benefits weren't provided until the last couple of years benefits is 85,000 total. Yeah.

So, in our 27 proposed budget, we have about 85,000 um for benefits for city council and about a 35,000 increase in salaries. So, $120,000 right there. Okay, thank you.

Can I ask about um Okay, so I I have a few questions about um like on a slightly different topic um about funding the solar on the community center. Um, I know there was discussion about shifting some things around um, in terms of the city hall reconfiguration. I don't know if anybody up here has had discussions about that, but I would be or if that's been brought to your attention, Wyatt. Um, but I would be curious to know like what exactly is involved with the city hall reconfiguration. Um, and what the expectations are for that. Um, and if we were to uh reduce the cost there, what would be the implications?

So, in the CIP, we do have um money for city hall configuration. Last year, we had a discussion with council about potentially going out to lease properties. Um, and uh that was not supported by the city council, you know, ultimately through the budget process. I think we pulled that recommendation back, but we do have real space needs in this building uh right now. And so uh the intent behind that money is to reconfigure space uh workspaces so that staff can fit in this building. And then one other element to it is uh for the permits counter itself to reconfigure that space in some of the findings of the permit process assessment. And so there's some sort of a slice of that is intended to implement some of those recommendations.

Yeah. Um, and so would this be something that would just meet the current needs or it's something that would be expected to meet current and future needs or what's what's the sort of scope of that?

And so let me invite um Mr. Young maybe to to speak to the scope of work as it was envisioned with this project. So I think you know um the direct answer is primarily current needs right um we've we've got a lot of kind of space sharing and things going on today that's kind of clumsy and it kind of makes it inefficient for our staff to work and so the the intent of this the funding here is to bring in a you know a designer consultant and help us identify ways to kind of make the space work better for our staff whether it's converting spaces is into additional meeting rooms, reconfiguring furniture to be more amendable to sharing, reconfiguring the permits counter like Wyatt um explained. Um it's a limited amount of money, you know, for that kind of work and so we we need to bring somebody in to help us kind of figure out how best to spend it.

Uh okay. So that that money would be for both the a designer or consultant as well as for I don't know cubicle separations or like I guess furniture or other things like that. So it would be all-encompassing. Okay. Um I guess so then the other thing was for the community center solar that is we we would have to provide all that money upfront or that's not or it would be something that it would be a certain amount that we could pay over time. I think it would be everything up front.

Everything up front. Okay. Um and then in terms of uh I guess we were also discussing the I mean, if we were previously on the edge in the CIP before um or excuse me, in in um funds for like not operating expenses, but um what is it? Reserves. Um using that 180 or $170 to then apply that to the um solar on the community center. Um that's that would be a possibility that's still on the table too. Okay. Um but then that would also mean like a little bit less for road paving. Like if we if we were to use that money, we could use it for the community center solar. We could use it for road paving. We could use it for whatever else is a quote unquote onetime project. Um okay. Uh I think that covers a lot of my questions. I would like to find some way to fund the community center solar. Um, you know, it's in terms of returns and other things like that. It's it's difficult because like for road paving, uh, the returns that we get are actually quite substantial in in that we don't go further into debt. Um but this the returns on the community center solar uh in theory I don't know how it's been working with Meridian but in theory uh we would see good returns as well as the fact that the the tax credits are here now. Um so that would be my two cents. I do have one more question but it's on a slightly different topic too but related to um environmentalism. Uh we DPW purchased I know this is coming up in consent but I'm worried that I'm not going to be functioning by the time we get to consent. Uh DPW purchased um three gas

cars uh for their fleet. Um I believe in the goep uh it was supposed to be like one gas, one hybrid, one electric. At least that was what was laid out. If we go back to the go, I don't I don't know if I've got the the specific trucks in mind. The three vehicles that I think we've bought out of public works this year that are gas vehicles are all heavy duty large vehicles for, you know, kind of replacing some vehic

and then urban forestry. And then urban forestry. They're all F250 or larger trucks. There aren't hybrid or electric. Okay. Uh solutions available for those mission sets. I do. Yeah. So I think in Oh, yeah. So in the in the GOEP, I believe um it was supposed to be for those specific trucks. It was going to be one gas, one hybrid, and one EV. Um and so if you don't have the answers tonight, I would be curious to find out. Um was that a funding thing? Was that uh you know just none of these vehicles are hybrid or it's just not that doesn't exist? That is that is the answer. It doesn't exist.

Yeah. I mean I think so in 2023 I think Mike kind of referenced that earlier this evening. You know tried to make projections on all of the vehicles in the fleet and what we thought might when it became replaced be available to to meet that mission set. So the electric vehicle world in the United States has evolved quite a bit in the last even 12 months. Like we had an order for two electric F-150 pickup trucks and Ford canled the production of that truck, right? And and as an example and so we're getting the team's getting creative and finding ways to do hybrid and electric vehicles for the fleet. We've got four different manufacturers of things that we've now purchased, which you don't really like, you know, we don't really like to do. But in the spirit of trying to kind of find ways to use electric vehicles in the in the fleet, I think we've done a pretty good job. It just kind of where we're at in 2026, there isn't a solution for all of our needs in the kind of hybrid and electric world.

Gotcha. I was I was glad to see that they're the police department is getting hybrids um for a lot of their uh the Ford Ford replacements. Um okay. So then I guess my point would then be given that um I guess the the goep laid out the strategy to be able to get to the 50% reduction by 2030 and and 100% by 2050 and given that we aren't able to I mean with current technology or whatever else that we aren't able to even get hybrids for some of these vehicles or whatever else um that makes the community solar that much more important or just even um other ways that we can approach um making sure that we reduce our government emissions. even more important. So that would be my plug for community center solar if we can find find some money um in the budget for it.

So is there are there other people who would like to see community solar so while we're kind of kind of in markup like are there other people that would like to see community center?

So the community center I would also like to see community center um solar happen with one-time funds versus operational. I'm not sure I would trade off necessarily trade off paving, but one question I have, we talk about the future benefits of community center solar. I would like it would be helpful if we had some numbers around that. What's the net present value of community of the the solar on the building? And and I know you're not going to have that ready right here. We don't usually do that. most of our stuff is it's an expense and it's gone. But this is one where there is an MPV there the but I don't know what it is. So I'd be interested to to hear what that was.

So I'll give you a general kind of answer. I think the payback's somewhere between 15 and 20 years. And I think in the CIP book we estimated 20 if you include all of the costs. I think the 182,000 that we're uh proposing which includes kind of staff time and everything to manage the project. So 20 years which from a business investment standpoint like financially isn't

Yeah. I mean it's a 20 years is a long return on investment especially with the life of these. But I also know that the the agreements that that are in place are tend to be a little bit tilted towards the um companies that manage them. Um but I think it would be also good to know, you know, in the f the future value of of this 200,000 is $2.4 $4 million or whatever it is that net present value the which is a different number from the the payback period. Other thoughts on community center solar? Yeah, Dave.

So, partly why I engaged in the conversation a few minutes ago was to get a good handle on if we do that, what is the what is the number we ought to put in? And what I heard was that we're the the argument for moving this from 28 to 27 is for us to be to take advantage of a federal program. So what is the total cost minus the advantage from that federal program? And that's the number that I think we ought to be working with. So I think it's roughly, you know, the 182,000 minus the 40,000 that that uh Mr. Traberman referenced earlier this evening.

So we're talking about 142,000 after we get money back from federal. So that's that's moving in the right direction on that anyway. But we need to pay the 180 upfront though. Like

well I mean this is this is why I probed do we get is the money assured or isn't it? Because the main argument for why we're moving this from 28 to 27 is to take advantage of this program. And I thought when I asked that it's it's an assured amount of money. It's not like a discretionary grant. If that's true, then, you know, it seems to me we ought to put in the cost for the budget. We ought to budget that cost minus the federal uh program that we're going to get the benefit of.

I think they're two different issues. So, it's as assured as federal programs are these days. So, that's kind of putting aside one thing, but I think the other is that that's where I I mean, I was advised that it's assured. Yes, that's the case. But I think we have to spend the money and then we have send in the paperwork and then they send us 40,000 checks budget. Can't we can't we set up the program and then and then how soon do we get the the federal payment? So we I I believe we've applied for the kind of rebate tax rebate if you want to call it that on the community center HVAC yet. We don't have it. And so I it um so it's like it that does call

it's likely that it comes it comes the year after we spend the money. Yeah. I'm just trying to figure out well if we build in the 180 I think we ought to somehow recognize that we're the reason why we're moving this up is that it's saving us 40,000. I don't want to lose that 40,000 savings. That's the justification for moving from 28 to 27. I I would wonder what uh the GAP standards say about the way to to deal with this because that's the generally accepted accounting practices, what we're really talking about is cash versus other accounting methods. Um yeah, I think David

I think without getting into what our accounting standards are given our experience with community center like geothermal, we essentially send in the rebate paperwork and we're waiting for it back. Sounds like we might need to budget 180. We will probably get the 40 back, but we need to spend 180 first, right? That's probably the step.

Yes. And then let's say for this example, the 40,000 comes the following year. Uh it would flow in as a surplus item for let's say FY28 then and then we would come to council and ask to appropriate that money. So to try to wrap up the conversation because I know we have a sheriff patiently waiting in the audience and I would like to get to his presentation on community center solar. I think I'm hearing general consensus that people would like to fund it. The how is obviously the issue. I've heard three different options. I've heard one is could we punt on city hall reconfiguration or part of it because that's 50,000 in planning and 150,000 in construction. and could we somehow swap them or delay it a year or not fund that as much? Second, we could use FY26 surplus money, the additional 340,000 that were expected at the end of the year. Third, we could use capital reserves. So, if we are freeing up money from the new 700,000 based on the favorable Q3 results, could we use some capital reserves to fund community center solar? Are there other options that people have thought of? I I have a question which is uh could we use like for I know this is against you know getting to 50% reduction on GHG admissions but could we use SREx or other things to offset the cost of the solar for a few years to be able to better fund it a little bit. Okay. Anyway, maybe maybe it's so it might not make a big enough difference.

Can I can I on Okay. So yes, I would like to fund community solar. I would have a list of three things I would like to fund and would like to continue to be part of the conversation about how we fund those things. One, I'm not um satisfied with just not increasing the paving budget and just having it as a net zero paving budget. And so I would put that on the list. I would put community solar on the list. And I would put likely like two of the eight police vehicles that we need to start replacing on the list. And so like I don't want to start I I want to keep them as a group because I think we need to think about them as a group and where the money for things comes before we finish the conversation. I'm not going to like beat a dead horse on the whole council salaries council benefits issue. I've talked about this a lot. I don't think council should be conceiving of itself like part-time employees. I don't agree with council benefits being treated like council part-time employees. I recognize we made a decision on council benefits. I'm not looking to revisit the decision on council benefits given the increase in over $28,000 in council benefits in a year. I think it's um responsible for us to look at whether we should actually be doing an increase in $35,000 in council salaries the same year. If we've made a decision that benefits are important and we think that that, you know, is an important thing for people who serve on council to have, then my view on it would be like to go ahead and fund the benefits, but to not actually fund the $35,000 salary increase given that we had the conversation last year about taking it up in late of this year's budget. Okay, so back to community center solar. Were there other options on funding it or because I think I'd like to at least put it back to staff out of the three funding options we talked about if there's a desire for us to do something

about it out of the three what would you recommend and you don't have to answer it now but

yes sir what I uh think on May 4th we'll have a short work session discussion on the community solar so we can uh give answers to the questions and some of staff slips on that. Okay. Are we ready to move to inviting the sheriff? Okay, sheriff, thank you for patiently waiting till 10:20. Thank you, mayor. Um, good evening, everyone. First, I want to thank everyone for permitting me to speak to you tonight. Um the sheriff's request falls essentially into two categories. One of them is increasing our budget to permit the hiring of a full-time deputy and the other is to provide um market adjustments to our to four of our um operational deputies. Just to give you some background, the sheriff's office has essentially three classifications of deputies. Uh full-time, hourly, um and volunteer reserves. The volunteer reserves are unpaid and for the last 30 years have pretty much provided services to the sheriff's office and essentially they're baiffs and they work on special events but they are armed deputy sheriffs. The hourly deputies, of which we currently have four, are also certified law enforcement officers, but they work on an hourly basis, on an as needed basis, but they also have full-time additional employment, which limits their availability to work for us. So essentially the core of the sheriff's office in terms of personnel are five certified law enforcement sheriff's deputies of which I am one. And being a small agency

essentially all of us are operational deputies. I mean from the sheriff on down to our corporal u we all do everything. So we're or all sort of generalists. Now what precipitated this u bifurcated request is that our reserves will no longer be with us by the end of the year. And as you can imagine, we have had as many as 18 reserves that work for the sheriff's office. The difficulty with reserves is that most of them are not certified law enforcement. So essentially their duties are performed under the supervision of a certified deputy and generally constitute baiff activities. So I know the police department was before the uh council and uh requesting market adjustments for their police officers. My request is essentially the same thing for the same reasons but at much more modest amounts. So um as you all know the surrounding agencies are making a concerted effort to poach as many officers and deputies as they possibly can. Um the challenge that we face is that when our three reserves, our free deputies, um probably by the end of the year are gone because one has moved to South Carolina and needless to say we will not be seeing him generally and also one of our certified hourly deputies is retiring in May. So that has severely shrunken the availability of personnel that we have to perform our mission. So we are approaching essentially an operational crisis and that more leads

into my request for a full-time deputy sheriff. But back to the request for a market adjustment. Uh just I know everyone here understands this but many people don't. Sheriff's deputies are all police officers. They just have additional training to be sheriff's deputies. And our five full-time officers, all of them, including me, were police officers at some point. So, every single one of my operational deputies, which is a corporal, a sergeant, um a lieutenant who's a canine, and my captain, um they have they're involved in all the operational aspects of what they do, but they are all subject to be poached by agencies. And what concerned me candidly was that I am aware that some of my deputies and want has applied to another agency but fortunately chose to stay with us and for the sheriff's office to lose one deputy is tantamount to the police department losing five police officers. So when I was advised that my part-time permanent position was eliminated, which incidentally was filled previously, but that individual went to the police department to work on their red light camera program. So during the course of me attempting to recruit a part-time permanent deputy, which I severely and sorely needed, um I was advised that I would no longer have that position. Now the so when you do the math so by the end of the year I'm going to lose my three reserves my three officers and for the last 30 years plus the uh city of false church has enjoyed the benefit of these individuals working tirelessly

dedicated to the job showing up to work all the time but that is over and one of the reasons that that program is over is because of liability community expectations and the change in attitudes toward law enforcement. Now, sheriff's departments um unlike, you know, maybe like police departments to some degree, we can appoint reserve deputies, but the sheriff and the jurisdiction that the sheriff works for is responsible for the behavior of those deputies and their qualifications and their training and the duties that they're tasked with. So, um, given my background, I have a fairly acute knowledge of liability. And at this point, given the sophistication of our jurisdiction and the approach of surrounding jurisdictions, we can only utilize certified law enforcement personnel because they they are armed. They carry guns. They carry guns and weapons outside of the city at special events. And of course our five full-time uh deputies and our three well we have four now but in on May 1st we're losing one. So essentially I'll speak to three hourly ones but they have jobs and they're not available. So most of the task of the sheriff's office falls on the five full-time deputies and with assistance from our u our hourly um sheriff's deputies. So again, recruitment and retention is a severe challenge in this jurisdiction because every single one of my full-time deputy sheriffs is subject to poaching by any jurisdiction. And unfortunately, and I'm just going to candid about this.

So police officers have a tendency and sheriff's deputies to almost act as free agents sometimes. So they are sort of looking out for maybe the grass is a little greener on the other side of the fence. So um and quite frankly you can't really blame them because if you're going to work u and you and you work for a jurisdiction that you think is not paying you enough there are plenty of jurisdictions out there that will snap you up. So, um, in order to try to head that off and again, I mean, sheriff's deputies and the work that we do is law enforcement. I mean, we do have some civil functions like civil process and evictions, but many deputies are killed and injured in evictions and in civil process. And one of our most um hazardous tasks is inmate transportation. Because when I worked for the police department, when you dealt with people, you weren't really sure if they had committed a crime. But with sheriff's deputies, we are transporting individuals that have been either accused of a crime or have been infect uh convicted of a crime. So sheriff's deputies on some level engage in more hazardous activity. Plus, we're out in the city and we're required to respond to active shooters and things like that because we are all trained police officers and sheriff's deputies. And obviously the community expectation is that a sheriff's deputy driving around is going to respond to an active shooter situation. So you know, so at this point all our deputies need to have that level of training and therefore any further hiring by the sheriff's office will require that these individuals are law enforcement certified. So uh but again the figures that we are requesting these market adjustments in addition to the 4% fall in the 5%. Um

we have a K9 officer we'd like to give 12 uh 8% to because as you know K9 officers have a dog that they're responsible for and they're responsible to take them home and care for them all day. So they're constantly tasked with taking care of this dog. It's like having a 5-year-old. Okay. that they're constantly keeping a track of that's furry and uh so they are entitled to a certain additional compensation because of that omnipresent obligation that they have. So uh we want to we are requesting a little more for uh our lieutenant and as a matter of fact he's the K9 officer that responded to the Eden Center with the hang grenade. I'm sure you heard about it. So he was there assisting um all the other bomb squad with uh performing the searches. So again, um I think for us losing an a deputy would be virtational nightmare and it would also be a a a significant officer safety issue because when you only have five full-time deputies and you lose one, you've essentially lost 20% of your full-time force. So, um, and that ties into our request for a full-time permanent deputy sheriff position. Now, the cost for that, um, is a little uncertain because it really depends on the training of the deputy sheriff that would ever be considered. So, um, we estimate, and I've spoken to, um, HR about this, um, the cost would be roughly 30 to 35% of the salary that we hire the full-time deputy with. So, I would anticipate that would be around maybeund5, $110,000 at this point, maybe $120,000.

And in order to give the uh full-time operational deputies the market adjustments requested uh for FY27 that would be approximately uh between $18 and $19,000. So that that's a fairly modest cost in my opinion and would help the retention um of these uh very very important members of our of our agency. Um, and at this point, as a practical matter, if that request was uh granted for the full-time permanent deputy sheriff, here comes a tough part, the recruitment part. Now, it was very difficult for us to, as I said, we were in the midst of recruitment for the permanent part-time deputy. And we were experiencing an extreme level of difficulty in finding a suitable candidate because most individuals who have a lot of experience and are law enforcement certified, they are not looking for part-time positions. They are looking for full-time positions. And part-time positions, as the name implies, work part-time. And our needs arise spontaneously. like um as an example, we'll get a call on 8:00 in the morning and say uh we we need you to pick up an inmate this afternoon at 3:00 and it's in Ron Oak. So, I mean, there are a lot of situations where we have to have people full-time who are available. And again, you know, I draw analogies to the police department. Although we have differences in some of our duties, a lot of our duties in terms of the requirement of of law enforcement application are extremely similar. And one of the similarities is that you know we we don't make widgets. We we're not in

manufacturing. Our obligation to act and and engage in tasks is sometimes goes up and down in terms of the frequency. So some days are very very busy, some days are not so busy. So but we the sheriff's office works on court orders. So when the court orders us to transport inmates and to um perform evictions and things of that nature, we are under court order. We cannot we do not have a lot of flexibility. So we need to have individuals there to comply with an order signed by a judge. So um that is something that is particularly important for us on a court day. On some given court dates, we may have to go to three or four different jurisdictions to pick up inmates that have been ordered to appear before the judge. So in one day, we can go to in one day, Louden, Fairfax, um different jurisdictions, pick up individuals and bring them back. What has become a significant problem lately is because of the lack of um availability of deputies, we are sending one deputy with one inmate. So to have one deputy with one inmate out on the road between jurisdictions is a significant officer safety issue, especially if you have multiple jurisdictions that we have to collect from. And so that even one additional full-time deputy mitigates that to some extent, but at this point we just don't have the availability of it. And so that need is paramount. And so just the way our operations work, um that is something that I would strenuously request be permitted. Um so and here's another important issue. As I said, all our full-time deputies and our hourly deputies are certified

Virginia law enforcement. Now, certified Virginia law enforcement requires that you maintain that certification. Plus, you have to train. We have to train with all the equipment that we use. If we don't have enough deputies, training suffers and mandatory training. Deputies can't even go to they can't take time off work. I mean, so, you know, we're all working all together all the time. And needless to say, deputy wellness um becomes a serious issue that ties into retention. So all these factors tie in together. And unfortunately when you're hiring law enforcement, there's that big curve in the beginning. You have to hire them, you have to train them, you have to outfit them, you have to get them familiar with the procedures, and there's so much competition for deputies. it takes a long time to find an appropriate um individual to work for your department because it's specific to your department. Now, another issue and this is something that I'm sure most of you know and I'm almost done um is that the sheriff's office has traditionally done a lot of traffic enforcement. I remember when I was a sheriff's deputy, I performed a lot of traffic enforcement. And in my office, all traffic enforcement performed by sheriff's deputies does not cost a city anything because it is all done under state DMV grant. So, this additional deputy will also be able to, in addition to the the massive need that we have for the deputy, we'll be able to go out there and address the one thing that I hear the most of when I walk around the city is traffic, stop signs, speeding, you name it. That's what what my ear is bent most of the time. So, I mean, that is sort of an ancillary benefit to having um another deputy. So, we also put out the speed trailers. Um, and

again, in the event this is granted for the full-time deputy, um, it it still will take quite some time to do the interviewing and finding someone because again, we have a lot of competition, but if I don't start now, I'm going to be way behind the eight-ball, especially when my reserves leave. So again, I I have never I don't believe I've ever appeared before you and really asked for anything and um but I I see this coming and I really need to get in front of it. And with that, um, I would request your consideration to take that under advisement. And if you certainly need any more information or any additional, um, statistics and things and I know that, you know, with the things that we do, there's been a general increase in what we do. But unfort unfortunately, since we do it, the things that we need to do go up and down. Some days require more deputies than others. Just like the police department has more calls some days than others. So, but you have to have the individuals present. And I think having an additional sheriff's deputy is I hate to use the word a modest request because everything is cost and you know I've listened and everything's important, but this is a public safety officer safety um situation and I have an obligation to bring it to your attention

which is why I'm here today. Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate Uh, I'm sure we have some questions and comments for you, Sheriff. So, thank you for um joining us and sharing your request. Um, Miss Flynn,

so I just wanted to confirm my understanding. So, so you're saying basically you're requesting an 18 to$19,000 increase in funds in order for the pay adjustment. And then the one time, not the one time, the one FTE deputy sheriff, but the one FTE deputy sheriff is what you're requesting understanding that a half FTE, so you're part-time sheriff would be removed. Right? So, you're saying I'm down half a person from where I was and I accept the half a person, but I would like to actually have a full-time person because I couldn't had difficulty filling the half position anyway. So, instead of being down a half, you're kind of up a half,

right, with a full-time person. Well, when it when I was when I was trying to fill the um part-time position, I sort of asked for it to be changed to a full-time position, but not formally because I was pretty much advised that that wasn't going to happen. So, I was like, well, this is what I have, so I better fill it before it gets taken away. And lo and behold, it got taken away. But it took that's because I was unable to find a um permanent part-time because many of the individuals we interviewed were only interested in full-time positions.

Got it. So I'm just So I'm just saying so in the budget book you're listed as having six FTEEs. You the sheriff, the captain, the lieutenant, the sergeant, one deputy sheriff, and one senior administrative assistant. And so what you're asking for is seven FTEEs. And instead of one deputy sheriff, there would be two deputy sheriffs. Right. And the recently one of the the deputy sheriff was promoted to corporal. So you'd have a you'd have you the captain, the lieutenant, the sergeant, the corporal, and then a deputy sheriff. Yes. Okay. Other questions or comments? Mr. Reagan?

Yes. Um during the tour um when I first came on board was being oriented um there was some discussions that you also respond outside of our jurisdiction especially the K9 officer. I think there was a description of him going to that all the canines came to a bomb threat to a school. Mhm. Um when you respond and support the neighboring jurisdictions, do you does your department get compensated for that response or is it I mean what's the balance there? Because we're small and they're big, it seems like you would be going to them more than they would be coming to us.

Yeah, you would think so. Yeah. But it's actually an issue of availability. Like as an example, when I was working for the police department when we had a person barricaded in a house on Hillwood and so all the jurisdictions around us responded in mass and so you had dozens of officers from Alexandria, Fairfax, Arlington um who responded and stayed there for a couple of days. So the cost of that was astronomical. So, you know, it's one of those things when you have mutual aid officers appear and deputies appear without regard to compensation, okay? Because you give what you get. And that has sort of been the standard law enforcement approach for jurisdictions for as long as I can remember, and I've been in this over 25 years. So, in answer to your question directly, there is no compensation for responding. And so in a in a similar situation also the police K9 responds also. But I think at the Eden Center the police K9 was not available at the time. So but I mean just like whenever whenever a situation arises like that which is a critical significant event everyone's going to show up. So but to answer your question no there is no compensation. But the I'm sorry I'll just answer your question a little bit more. It might be helpful in context. The K9 officer also scans the whole building before court. So that's one of the functions of the K-9 is that they check the building, the judge around the judge's car and everything in the courtroom and outside the courtroom. So they have an ongoing obligation plus any event in the city

and all the talk about the bomb threat. I think Sher um the chief said it was actually a fake and there was no public threat luckily. So, so for anyone who is worried about having a grenade at the Eden Center, yeah, I was there and was one of the first ones to show up and yeah, it was in fact a very real looking grenade. So, okay, other questions or comments? M Connelly. So, Sheriff K. Yes, ma'am. The day-to-day regular responsibilities of sheriff's deputies and the members of your team, not counting parades and things. Mhm. You're here for court every week? Yes. 2 days a week? One day a week?

Two days a week. And it varies which weeks of the month. And while you have some here for court, others are transporting prisoners. Yes. Okay. Yes. And then you also have evictions. Mhm. And what else? Civil process. Okay. So, you're serving papers when there are

serving papers. Yes. And um and then um we do some tax but it's been a while since we've done tax sales. We work with the treasur's office too when they have to do things like that. But you know civil civil civil process requires a lot of deputy time. Evictions require a lot of sheriff's times and also that has gone on the increase. We've had in a fiveday period we had an eviction every day. Mhm.

So I mean it's it just is and again these evictions are scheduled and a lot of these the every inmate transport has to be court ordered. So but you know another example we had recently a excess of 24 hours of guarding um an individual having a mental health crisis at the hospital. So that required uh one to two deputies to be there for over 24 hours. So needless to say with the limited number of deputies that we had um they worked many many many many hours. So again the uncertainties of what we do requires the availability of deputies and even if if they're not here they're they're in training and doing something along those lines. But again I mean even though our tasks are a little bit different the need for the number of personnel is very consistent to the police department. even though they work 12-hour shifts and do all that. Um, we work um, sheriff's deputies work 20 days a a week plus Saturdays many times. Um, police officers and I was again one for many years, you work 14 days a month, but you just work 12 hours generally speaking. So, um, but since you're law enforcement and you're required to have all these certifications and all that and you're in the city, if you're a sheriff's deputy and someone's robbing a bank, you are going to respond. Our rules require that you respond and certainly the community expectation is that an armed, trained, highly experienced uh, law enforcement officer of which all our deputies are. Okay. So you're you're dealing with a very high quality level of law enforcement responding to someone and being present in the city. Now also the city has an extensive number of special events which frankly could not be conducted without the sheriff's office in terms of law enforcement um

traffic control, street closures, just general security. and the K-9 officer along with the police K9 officer canvases the whole area too on every special event. So I mean a lot of what we do is not apparent but it's just kind of done I guess under the radar for lack of a a better phrase. So um and we're not really used to telling everyone what we do, right? we just kind of do it. And but trust me, if I'm up here and I'm be if I'm asking for a deputy and to give um some modest increases uh beyond the 4% to my operational deputies, I I genuinely feel it's a need.

So then the amount that you're asking for is 120,000 for a full-time deputy. Yes. And 20,000 total or 20,000 for each? No, 20,000 total. 20,000 total. So, yeah. Um, yes. So, as an example, 9% Well, four 5% above the 4%. So, the percentage that I'm speaking of are in addition to the 4% that citywide employees are receiving uh would be 5% for my sergeant and my um and my uh corporal and uh 8% for the K9 officer because of his additional duties and 1% for my captain because he's um heavily operationally involved.

Okay. Any final questions or comments? Mr. Snder. Thank you. Uh Sheriff, thanks for for um for uh presenting this evening. Um and you contacted me last week and we had a good discussion and at that point you were estimating 50 to 60,000 additional. I think I asked that number repeatedly and that was the number. So that's doubled from then till now. So the question is why? I I uh well I may have I mean in terms of the full-time deputy cost

I'm just since we're in the mid middle of a budget I'm trying to get a number that reflects the need as opposed to what may be desired and when you and I talked it was 50 to 60,000 more and what I'm hearing tonight is it's double that amount and I'm just trying to figure out what's the difference.

Uh um I honestly don't know. I I believe when I initially contemplated the um market adjustments for the sheriff's deputies, I was utilizing some of the percentages that the police department had advanced for their um police officer one, police officer 2. And with that math, with the numbers that I was contemplating, I believe the total for the four operational deputies would have been $50 to $60,000. Then after some consideration and consultation, I felt it would be more appropriate to reduce those figures and attempt to incre I I I sort of anticipated the amount of money total that I would be asking. I want to keep it in a certain range. And so I reduced the amounts for the market adjustments requested in order to provide more funds for the full-time deputy because I anticipated that most deputies that would apply would require a higher starting salary because probably they would have experience because they would be already certified and we would not be sending them through the academy. So perhaps that's the reason. Yeah, I'm I'm just trying to figure out because I recall that you went through the staffing issues very similar to tonight and the number that I was given and I think I asked it repeatedly the number was in the 50 to 60,000 range and tonight it's more like 140,000. So I'm just trying to figure out what happened. What's the difference?

I I honestly sir I do not know. I may I may have I was utilizing different percentages for the market adjustments, but but certainly our our entrance salary for a full-time sheriff's deputy would be in the 70,000 range plus benefits. So, I may have misspoke or misunders I really don't know, sir. Is that Mr. Snder? Yeah.

Okay. Uh so, to wrap up, uh thank you for joining us tonight, Sheriff K. Um I guess a couple of uh follow-ups that would be helpful as we consider your um presentation tonight. So one um I think general we all you know want to support our law enforcement and public safety and so we appreciate especially when you step in as I said over email on traffic enforcement. I think that is the number one thing we hear in the community. I think anytime one of those speed trailers shows up in a neighborhood and neighborhood cheers because they really are grateful that that is a a good trafficcoming device. Um that said, I think you know while the concerns you've shared with us about you know people barricading themselves on Hillwood Avenue or crime, I think Chief Hard last week also congratulated us that we've actually seen the low 17-year lowest crime rate. And so presumably inmate transfers would also be lower, but I think I'm hearing you say it's actually higher. So I would love more data on what actually the workload increase has been on both inmate transfer as well as evictions. I know that was evictions was cited in the budget Q&A, but it only goes back three years and Virginia has had a had a eviction moratorum during COVID from like 2020 to 2022. So, I wonder if there's kind of a backlog and maybe we're seeing some bounce back um trying to catch up on some of those whether we're actually returning to kind of pre-COVID levels of evictions. Uh and so I would love some more data on that. And then finally for special events, um we certainly appreciate the sheriff's support at those. my understanding we hasn't actually increased any special events in the city as much as the city council would like to see more. Um and so getting a better sense of kind of the sheriff's workload would be helpful for us to evaluate. As you can see, we're all pretty hesitant um to keep adding to the budget, anticipating some lean years ahead, but we want to weigh your uh request very carefully.

Yes. All right. Well, thank you very much. Any information you need, I'm more than happy to provide. Great. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your consideration and your time. Thank you. Have a good night. Thank you. You too. Okay. Okay. So, where I know that we still probably want to discuss more budget, but we also have other things and we're close to 11. Do we need a bio break, a quick recess before we continue with the rest of the agenda or people just been getting up? Like to move around. Yes. Okay. So, let's It's 10:51. Let's uh come back at 11:00. Okay. Maybe Justine, if you want to go home, you can. My brain is Nothing.

Maybe Art got one. Good.

I like the whole like met earlier like fell all over me earlier. First read on that

on which is it first reading or uh this is just first reading because this is a kind of a step behind the budget.

Oh 1051. Okay. Thank you. Still missing Dave. Thanks for the snacks, HR. You're the best. left um in our budget discussion which is first reading on to 26-13 and we had our HR director patiently wait till 11:00 at night to do this with us

and this is a first reading for to uh 26-13 ordinance adopting the fiscal year 2027 permanent positions count salary increases and employee classification plans for the city of false church.

Good evening. The city maintains three classification plans. The regular government position classification plan, the temporary employee classification plan, and the police classification plan. Together, these plans establish job classification, salary ranges, and the compensation structure for all employees. The FY2027 proposed budget includes 270.5 permanent full-time or FTE equivalent positions, a reduction of 5.1 FTEES from fiscal year 2026. The salary range adjustment for both the regular government position classification plan and the temporary employee classification plan will increase by 2.5% at the minimum and maximum of the range. Employee pay increases for per permanent employees receive a 4% salary increase. Temporary employees a 2% increase. The police plan classification was adjusted at the starting pay for police officer one, increasing the first step from $66,46048 to $76,400 resulting in a class plan that includes an increase of 15% step increase of 3% resulting in a total increase of 18.4%. Individuals who are within their probationary period for fiscal year 2027 would not be eligible if they were hired um after April 1st, 2027. And so that is a summary of the FY2027 permanent positions count, salary increases, and the employee

classification plans for the city of Falls Church. Happy to answer any questions. We have questions. Go ahead, Mayor Beth. So, we've not done this in the past. Does this mean that there's no opportunity to increase employee count throughout the year? This is it for the year? Do we have to revisit it if we need to hire another person or how does this work?

Yes, we would have to revisit it if we're going to establish a new position or a new um classification range in the class plan. We would have to submit it and present it. Anyone else? So, we're doing first reading tonight and second reading will be the same night as final budget adoption. Yes. Okay. Is there a motion? I move to grant first reading to to 26-13. Schedule a public hearing and second reading for May 11th, 2026 and advertise the same according to law. Second. Miss DS on the second and call roll, please. Mr. Aen,

yes. Miss Connley, yes. Miss DS, yes. Miss Flynn, yes. Mr. Snyder, yeah. Miss Underh Hill is absent and Mayor Hardy. Yes. Motion carries six to zero. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Have a good night. So we have consent and then we will get to our Virginia Village item. So on consent we have appointments as well as the two contract authorizations that we talked about last week in work session. Does anyone want to remove anything from the consent agenda item? If not, I'll entertain a motion. I move to approve the consent agenda. Is there a second? Second. Miss Flynn on the second. Call roll, please. Mr. Aen,

yes. Miss Connley, yes. Miss DS, yes. Miss Flynn, yes. Mr. Snder, yeah. Miss Underh Hill is absent. And Mayor Hardy, yes. Motion carries six to zero. Thank you. Before we move off of the uh vehicles, I think in the discussion work session we had with the chief, there was discussion that there would maybe be two vehicle purchases for police fleet depending on their unspending in their department budget. Is that my recollection correct? That's correct.

Okay. And we'll continue the conversation with council as we get into um kind of closing out the year-end financials um as see if we can make more progress on fleet replacement um uh with year-end money.

So in total requesty I think you'd asked for six or eight or whatever it was but we think we can hopefully make progress with two. Um so two is in addition to three that were already procured through the normal budget process. So five uh new uh police cars are already in process now for this year. So that's that's a good step. And there's one other element that um as we sell old vehicles um one of we're sort of tallying up the receipts of that that's about $85,000 and it's possible that uh we could bring a a budget amendment to repurpose the value from those uh sold vehicles to continue to refresh our fleet. And I'll just remind council whenever we do refresh fleet we always in your staff report there's a sort of a crosswalk to the goep the uh government operations energy plan so that we can track our progress what we said we're going to do and what we are doing and um and we do that with every police vehicle with every vehicle purchase we make. So to recap, make sure I got it right. The police expect five new ones already in 2026. Three already ordered, two from additional under spending as we close out the year, and then potentially as we sell off the old vehicles, that brings in additional revenue that we could convert.

And that's a future decision for council, but that's one more opportunity that we're kind of working through uh internally and and hope to be able to bring to you. Okay. So to me, that should help us feel better about that unfunded need that the chief brought to us last week. Yeah. And I have a outstanding budget request to basically get a table cuz it's not clear to me how many cars are in the fleet like what the cycle is, what like does this mean half of them are now up to date? Does this mean a quarter of them are up to date and sort of the the the outstanding ones and the years for them? So I would still ask for that table by next year. Yeah, we'll produce that table. It should be totally this is not you know hundreds of vehicles. this is a small number of vehicles. We can provide much greater clarity.

Thank you.

Okay. U Mr. Shields, kind of along those same lines, um I know that we've spoken before about the term that the schools use maintenance of effort. And um one of the things I've been thinking about, you know, when I was on the school board, we always knew every year two school buses. We had to that was, you know, definitely two. But before your departure maybe is one of your your things that you you know we I use the term brain dump. We we're going to have to we want to get some information from you. But one of the things I would like to say is like what is our maintenance of effort? What what is the bare minimum we have to do on paving every year? How many vehicles doing like sort of like a list of like these are really to to keep business going? Like these are sort of your minimum standards to make sure that you know every year. Is it two police vehicles? Is it one big, you know, DPW ve, you know, I don't know what what it is. I think to to Erin's point, I think or Miss Lynn's point, I think that would be helpful at some point just to kind of give us your parting advice in terms of budget budget needs.

Thank you. And how to do it with less revenue.

Okay. Well, on vehicles, one quick question is obviously the police cars themselves we we end up getting new, but the police chief also mentioned like the fire marshal or the deputy fire marshal. Have we looked at, you know, low mileage used vehicles? Well, we the city of false church has a lot of low mileage used vehicles and so for instance that deputy fire marshall is using one of our old cars that has low mileage but is you know 9 years old and um uh is my understanding. So we do repurpose our own fleet in that way. Should we buy any? Uh it's a good question. Um, I don't we don't usually I I don't I can't recall us ever buying a used vehicle.

No, I just I just saw a report that EVs are coming off the off of a lease. Uh, the number of EVs coming off lease right now is like skyrocketing because, you know, they took off 3 years ago. So, I don't know. I might need to look at that for myself.

Okay. Sorry, that was meant to be a brief question about fleet in light of um the concerns we had heard from the chief last week. So, I'm glad that they are getting five new ones and hopefully we can sell off some old vehicles as well. So, let's move on to the work session part of the agenda or actually no, we still have um authorizing the Virginia Village contract before we get to work session and hopefully we did all the work session early. Yeah.

Right. So, Virginia Village. Um, so what council is requested is authorization for the uh for staff to spend in excess of the $100,000 uh threshold for commercial real estate advisory services. Um the uh the city proposes to proceed with Jones Lang Lasowl to be the city's uh advisor and um uh the scope of work is in the uh in the staff report for this item and I would say uh in response to some of the questions the council has gotten about the scope of work is um that the essence of the Virginia village project is uh this is a commercial real estate transaction that we're envisioning because we're a public body. Our motivations and our intentions are for public purposes. And so the city is in charge of determining what our public purposes are in that. We're guided by our affordable living policy which the council adopted uh just a short time ago. In addition, in terms of public policy for community character, design um and kind of land development policy, that's the process that we're engaged in right now with our planning staff, um and with community to update our vision for the Virginia Village area. Um, and so what where this piece of the puzzle comes in is as we're trying to accomplish our public purposes through a commercial real estate transaction. Um, having commercial real estate advisory services that can give us given the input we give to our adviserss about what we're trying to accomplish and what

our thresholds are. um they can then give us uh information back about uh what the economics of that will be, how that will be received by um um potential partners u that we want to do a transaction with and uh that's really necessary advice as we go through the decision-making process. This group will not have opinions about buffers or building heights or even what our affordable housing goals are. We're going to tell them what those objectives are and then they will evaluate those and sort of give us some feedback as to what that's going to look like from a proform perspective. and um and some options might be more expensive to the city, so others might be less expensive to the city and then the but ultimately the city council with that information in hand um can make well-informed decisions. Um as a practical matter, um the scope of work is to help the city develop the RFP. Uh the city council is going to take uh public input on that RFP document and that's the what I call the big RFP um to solicit uh potential partners for the preservation andor expansion of affordable housing at the Virginia Village site. uh they will then uh support the selection committee uh to help them with the matrix and the selection process so it's rigorous and thorough. Um, when the selection committee gives a recommendation to the city council, the way that the city council is going to affect their selection is going to be with a term sheet that we will have

worked out and negotiated with the top ranked uh respondent. So that what you'll be selecting is an entity and a set of terms which we would call the interim agreement. um so that as much transparency on all parties side as to what the expectations are of that partner um are known and then once that is set which we're you know ambitiously targeting for next you know uh you know in the August September time frame then would uh factor ultimately into a pathway towards closing on the properties where the where the Virginia village properties are transferred to this selected entity um under the terms that have been negotiated in that interim agreement. And so that interim agreement then turns into a final agreement or a comprehensive agreement. Um and that might take a matter of months before that closing happens. So that's a summary of what uh this group would do for us and I'll stop there and be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. I think thinking about it kind of as like the small RFP and then the big one has been helpful based on the public comments we got last week and this week. So So this is the small RFP that you know to to get our advisor. The big RFP is the one that is really where the public policy u things will be worked out so that the RFP is as clear as it can be for the respondents. Okay. Questions or comments for Wyatt? Dave,

I just want to be absolutely clear because we've gotten so much comments on this decisions around setbacks and heights and density and all those things. Those will be addressed with public comment with um insights through the comp plan, the small area plan amendments and the the big RFP process. And both of those elements will include public comment periods and I'm sure going to be quite some discussion on city council. Um but those decisions reside within the planning or managed by the planning department and this is just one more this firm is one more resource for the city's planning department to utilize as they move forward. Is that I I just want to be absolutely crystal clear because

yes my understanding everybody else's understanding is correct and to advise on the economics you know not so much on the architecture or the you know sort of the vision for the site really to advise on the economics of it but nothing about this RFP is about those pieces that responsibility to figure all of that stuff out resides in our planning department and is still subject to public comment and public review. That's correct. Maybe one way to say is we're not outsourcing that. Uh the city is doing that work. Yeah.

Yes. All that community input from the past four sessions are going in those planning documents and then as part of the the transfer of information, those planning documents are going to feed into the RFP process the consultant is managing and then there will be more comment which is great. Sorry, I called on Dave Dex.

Thank you. So would you review again what this con what services this contract purchases? Um so said broadly um they are the services are commercial real estate advisory services and so um in a broad sense they will help us understand the economics of u of the of the uh affordable housing goals that we're trying to accomplish as well as um some of the ideas that come out of community forums in terms of what the built environment could be. There's a whole range through these community uh input sessions. So, they will help advise us on the economics of those options. Um they will assist us in developing the RFP, the big RFP. They will assist us uh they will assist the selection committee and its evaluation of responses. uh when the selection committee gives its recommendation to the city council u they will also advise uh the city council on a term sheet uh for an interim agreement with a top ranked respondent. So I I guess the the question is still there which is uh during the work session I asked if one of the alternatives this uh that this um consultant would consider would be um rehab as opposed to tear down and build new. Um and I thought I got support for that but I don't see that referenced here. Could you scroll down to line 177? I thought I saw that in the scope.

So, evaluate redevelopment, preservation or repositioning options for the site. Okay. So uh you mentioned a minute ago about um various elements of the built environment that is if there are setbacks if there's open space they would all have commercial ramifications. So to what extent is the this consultant going to be looking at the issues that were raised in the community meetings? Um I think that they will really be receiving that from the city and um and then helping us assess um different development models for feasibility. from an economics perspective.

Okay. Thanks.

So, and I think in sort of in the nuances, I don't think they would have opinions about, you know, how many feet the setback would be, but they would have opinions of a five-story building versus, you know, a a building that needs a different, you know, a concrete construction like a taller building. they will have they will be able to help us assess what the parking needs would be and what the cost of those parking needs would be based on the size of the building. Those are some you know some kind of simple examples of things that they would be able to give us um industry standards on in terms of what they mean from a cost perspective. other questions or Aaron.

Um, so I guess a comment I guess I was surprised looking at this that like there was no gray in it and I would have appreciated at the work session if that were clearer that there that we should have had no expectation that this would come back with any gray in it in terms of our comments being reflected in the document. So with me it would like as a as opposed to like are we capturing that conversation anywhere and if we weren't going to capture it I think that should have just been clear in terms of where we were and to not expect any changes. Um because you know looking at this I had a question about not the repositioning preservation redevelopment which I understand is reflected there but for example I can't find it now the language about you know assess wherever it was the the best and highest like use or whatever it was consistent or to achieve city affordable housing goals that then had no reference consistent with community objectives. And so it left me sort of questioning to what extent some of these do get worked in or what is the range right of community objectives that are being conveyed. And so, you know, if if staff is indicating that the community objectives will be uh clear that like we the community right do expect or the feedback from the community is that you know the traditional criteria that you would be looking at alongside affordable housing goals would be like buffering, building scale, compatibility with neighborhoods, open space. Then my hope is that regardless of whether the consultant is

saying, well, there's a, you know, we're not going to say if it's 20 ft or 40 feet. We're not going to say if it's four stories or six stories that we are not getting proposals that are like, well, what happens? How do you achieve the affordable housing goals with X fiscal impact, maxing out the lot? because I don't think we should be spending money on proposals that are like maxing out the lot for example when we are hearing from the community that we need to make sure that X Y and Z are part of the equation and in my mind it's kind of like an analogy you not to talking about Virginia redistricting but like when you think about redistricting and there are criteria and you think about like you know how do you maintain X Y and Z like there are factors that go into the analysis And I don't want certain factors that you would traditionally think of as things that we expect in our development or that we've had community conversations about just falling by the wayside in a fiscal kind of analysis city affordable housing goal exercise. And so I don't I don't want to pay for things if like we are not going to put the right inputs to get a reliable output as to the range of options that exist. And I recognize the value of doing real estate consultancy services. is it's clear to me that we lack the capacity or ability to do the depth of analysis that we likely need to do for the fiscals of the project itself and the fiscals for the city going forward. So, I don't mind putting the upfront money into it in order to understand the range of options and where we should be focusing our efforts. But I I'm just making clear I do not want to put money into something if it's not clearly communicated as to

what the inputs are and what the inputs need to be and get something back that is like not consistent at all with what we have been talking about during the community conversations. I mean, I imagine that the engagement with the consultant is not a like we talk to you one time at the beginning and then we get inputs at the end. Like along the way, we'll be talking about, okay, we're developing the RFP. There's probably some collaboration along the way. We'd be able to say, here's things we've heard from the community. Here's the updated small area plans. Here's the updated comp plans. You know, this is how we're thinking about it so that it wouldn't be we wouldn't be surprised by the end of the services we're getting. No,

I mean, that's what I'm trying to confirm. Am I going to be surprised next month with what where we are when we start the RFP process? So my expectation sitting here reading this and based on our conversations is that in a month's time I will have preliminary information on four options for example on redevelop maximum redevelopment given some you know consistency given consistency with community objectives preservation you know some double the units but keep some semblance of the neighborhood without doing high density, not high density or like overall high to moderate density redevelopment or or like am I going to see those options next month before this goes out to RFP or is this just going to come back in terms of we ran a fiscal analysis and we think in order to achieve this you need moderate density over 80% of the lot and that's what's going to go out and I have zero visibility into the fiscals on those four options to be able to make an informed decision about whether I support an RFP or not. And if I don't see four, like I'm not going to support an RFP if I don't get information from our consultant in the next month that isn't just like, oh, put this out based on running option A without giving serious considerations to option B, C, and D. So, I just want to be very clear about like where I sit right now with respect to like this project and where the RFP is a month from now. And if that like that's a totally different place from where staff is or from where you are or what you expect to happen in the next 30 days, like I would like to have that conversation and understand that. So, um,

where I think the greatest value, frankly, is going to be is is in the RFP process. Sort of trying to assess the proposals that come in and the ideas that come in. the preliminary work to advise kind of how we I've always thought the crux of the the biggest challenge to our schedule is going to be making a decision that we're happy with RFP, the big RFP. And what's so difficult but about the big RFP is we're going to be trying to resolve I think maybe some pretty big disagreements in terms of what we're trying to accomplish there. Um we have a community process and community processes sort of being what they are. There's a lot of input and at the end of the day some judgment has to be exercised as to what we think is um is if if we're going to accomplish certain affordable housing goals kind of what's the practical way that we're going to do that and that will start to narrow what can be you know what what needs to happen on this site if we're going to accomplish those goals. I think that's going to be the hardest part of this whole process. And um so the more clear we are in the RFP, the better the responses we're going to be. And it's going to be hard for us to be as clear as the market would want us to be because I think there's unresolved issues.

Yeah. I guess I guess my reaction though in hearing you speak is, you know, you say, well, you know, how how do we achieve our affordable housing goals? And I guess in my mind I say what affordable housing goals are realistic to achieve given X parameters and it seems like you are not saying that like what's realistic to achieve X parameters versus what do we need to do in order to achieve the housing goals and those to me are two different like those are two different inputs and I think I think the danger that I see is if we're not on the same page with the you know what are what do we need to do to achieve our affordable housing goals versus what what's realistic for our affordable housing goals given X parameters we're there's going to be like a gulf that continues to grow as opposed to a disconnect that we are somehow able to narrow

right so um the um one way to think of this is I think they're I think it is reasonable to ask for a preservation model. What would happen if the goal was to if if if we were to just preserve the units and not redevelop it and at the same time still try to make progress on the goals set forth in the affordable living process because there'd be a gap that we'd need to meet somewhere else in the city. And for there to be, you know, a fair fiscal analysis, you'd have to include, let's say our goal is to accomplish somewhere between 120 and 150 units on the on this at Virginia Village. And if um if the preservation strategy is going to be a useful comparison, you would need to do some sort of analysis. Okay. Well, how would you make up the gap of what you would not be accomplishing here elsewhere? and some sort of way to model that which I think they can do. Um and then provide some other options of what happens if you build it here kind of what are the ranges in terms of what you can accomplish and what the likely proformas of for a private developer are going to look like. So we have some insights even before we go out to the street. I think um I think that is some analysis that we can do before the RFP is issued. I think um so maybe I'll stop there and get some reaction to that.

If the more You mean like straight up preservation without doing anything? Right. Right. Like without doubling the units versus like quadrupling the units or you know I don't even know quintupling the units or something. Right.

Right. Yeah, I mean I have some caution about having too many variations on the theme like it becomes sort of confusing um in terms of what the options are as a preliminary analysis. Yeah, I guess that's why I'm just wondering, right? Like I mean I thought it was either we are going to get input on ranges A, B, C, and D so that when we get to the RFP, we can with some information that's better than the information we currently have. And the idea is that we're batting around to narrow A, B, C, and D to options A and B. But you seem to be saying no, or that we just put out options A, B, C, and D in the RFP and we get the benefit of the consultancy as to ABC or ABC and D. But you seem to be saying, "Well, we don't get the benefit in the next month of evaluating A, B, C, and D, and we put out an RFP that's simply A and B, and we just cast aside C and D from the very beginning without any sort of like way to exercise best judgment.

Maybe I'll just make a sort of a broad statement. I'm a little worried about doing all that analysis as a preliminary that we'll be kind of spinning consulting dollars. Uh it would be better to have sort of some barbells and then let the market tell us what they think is feasible and have the consultant help us evaluate um those options.

I guess that's okay, but then I want to see the options like in the RFP. So, I mean, I'm just being frank about where I think the conversations are and some of the feedback that you're going to get about limits that we're placing on the RFP if some of these issues aren't resolved before the RFP goes out. And then I guess I have a separate question. the consultancy is like contractual and so depending on the style of redevelopment that's ultimately envisioned. Does this stay as a contractual agreement or is there any like you said this person works for the city and we get the benefit of they're our consultant but does this flip at any time into an agreement that is beneficial for our consultant based on the type of development that occurs?

No. or it stays as a like contractual thing that where they're not getting x amount of value based on what we ultimately decide. So I understand your question to me is is there any incentives for the consultant to get to closing or you know anything like that and to be like at seven stories versus

No, they they're we're just getting their we're paying them a fee for their advice and there there's no incentive structure for any outcomes. Oh, and my last one, sorry, this is an easy one hopefully. Um, the contract is the motion is written to say exceeding $100,000 and we often see caps in the motion. And so I I'm just saying for my colleagues up here that I would be more comfortable actually having a cap in the motion like real estate advisory services not to exceed X amount given that we're actually taking this out of the rental assistance or rental rehabilitation fund or whatever it is. So I don't really want to go above 150 or 175 recognizing that only has 300 in it. And so I think it's prudent to for the motion to actually be made with some recognition that we're talking about a limited fund that's actually supposed to be used for like the habit habitability of the people who are living in the units that are there

in work session. It was not to exceed 175. Has that changed? Um that's the that is the expected upper limit of the budget. So, if we were to revise the motion to not to exceed 175, that's fine. That'd be fine. Okay.

Other questions or comments? So, my expectation as we as we go through all this is that again, this is the preliminary. We're going to hire these people as our adviserss. The other questions about the specific aspects of the development will come in the second RFP. Um, you know, those of us that were around when we did the high school, remember Letty mentioned the 13 different options. We don't want to have 13 different options, but there will be different options that we're going to have to evaluate as we go forward. and we're going to use our best judgment, what we've learned from the community and what the advisor is telling us, but we're not going to but the community input is super important in all of this and we're hearing from different members of the community, residents of Virginia Village, residents of Winter Hill, other people in the community care about this. So, it's we're not doing any of this in a vacuum of seven people on city council and two staff members and a consultant. This is all being airrated and shared and something that is supposed to be a community decision. And that's that's the intent that I'm going into it with. I'm assuming that's what my colleagues are as well. No one's going in with anything baked in. Okay, this is what we're going to do. We know it already cuz we don't know. So, we're really open to a lot of different kinds of feedback and information. But I don't want 13 options to have to decide on. I I I would recommend on this May 16th work session or is it the 18th um where we have the uh RFP scope of work that we have

we're going to have quite a discussion. So I I hope to see some solid structure at that meeting for to help us Okay, other thoughts? I mean, at some point, we just have to start somewhere. Like, we've been talking about this and I think we have lots of community input. We also have public policy goals that we're trying to accomplish and we have to start the process, figure out how those all fit together and what is the best option that best accomplishes it. And just like budget, what balances all those different considerations. But we can continue deliberating without input from the market or input from a real estate consultant and we're not going to get anywhere. And so I think we should proceed.

Well, and not to mention it's a tight timeline as it is with this process. So, but you know, I'll just say that again, we are um you know, we've heard from the community and and you know, having been through this on the school side with Meridian and having an owner's rep. That's kind of how I see this person as a owner's rep and is going to be there to, you know, we direct this person. this is what we want this, you know, and this person's going to lend their expertise to us, but we're really we're in charge of it just like, you know, we were at Meridian when we were building Meridian schools and Dr. Nun would say this is what we want and the owners rep would say, "Well, you can't afford that or whatever it was, you know." So I do think um you know we are listening but but this is not it's to me it's that the things that you know um the former mayor who spoke this evening like that comes in to me with the big RFP. So um so I'm I'm good to go ahead with this.

Okay. Is there a motion then with the revised not to exceed 175? Thank you for getting that up there. Just madame mayor, before we get there, I I was trying to approach this with an open mind, but after hearing the city manager describe what this project really is, which is 120 to 150 units, um I'm not on board with that.

Okay. Is there a motion? I move to authorize the purchasing agent or authorized designate to exceed execute a contract with the firm's Jones Lang Lasal for real estate advisory services not to exceed $175,000. Is there a second? Second, Miss DS on the second and call roll, please. Mr. Aen, yes. Miss Connley, yes. Miss DS, yes. Miss Flynn, yes. Mr. Snider. No.

Miss Hunter Hill is absent. Mayor Hardy, yes. Motion carries 5 to one. Thank you, council. Okay. I know we had the work session scheduled after this, but I think we did plenty on work session for budget. And I presume given that we're close to midnight, we do not need to do through schedule tonight. Okay. Is there any other business not on the agenda? Regional committee council lays on reports. Final council member comments. Okay. Well, let's adjourn then before midnight. All right. Call it a win cuz it's not 1:00 a.m. Thank you all.