Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

budget. Please join me in the invocation which will be led by Mr. Shroud and the pledge of allegiance. Father and our allies as they carry out the fight against Iran's corrupt leadership, protecting our peace, loving our people, and delivering them from tiring. Father, we ask you to guide us in performing our role and provide wisdom to ensure we make the best decisions for our citizens and their future. We thank you once again for the opportunity to serve and ask you us for the ability to discern what we hear and the judgment necessary to act in accordance with your will. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Amen.

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. All right, thanks everybody. Um, we will open the floor up for public comment. Comments will be limited to three minutes per person in order to afford everyone an opportunity to speak. Please provide your full name and district from submitting your public comment so that it can be properly included in the public record. And actually, before we get moving, um, Mr. Dyn, can you hear over the speakers back there? Okay, that I I really appreciate the fans, but I want to make sure that the public can hear and it's not just a a constant roar over the uh over the YouTube.

Yes, Mr. Chairman, we can hear you fine. Perfect. Thank you, sir. And thank you all for setting all this up for us and keeping it bearable. All right. Anybody um interested in the audience in making public comment? All right. Did anybody get any uh correspondence? Hey, Mr. D, do you have anybody online? No, Mr. Chairman.

Awesome. Thank you, sir. I'll close public comment at this time and we will switch over to the agenda items. Before we do that, I want to give a shout out to um all the folks that uh put put the work into getting all this packages done. Um the whole financial team, uh Matt, Miss Fish, and uh I especially want to single out Miss Fish. She was out here last night at 9:30 cuz I I just asked the question, "Hey, can we have the uh the raw spreadsheets on this instead of just a PDF file and and she she actually came in and and it's not a single spreadsheet. It is gobs and gobs and gobs of spreadsheets. So, thank you so much for all that extra time. I wish you hadn't done that because it's going to be a long day. We we'll bring you caffeine every few minutes." All right, Matt, over to you, buddy. There was an email that we got.

I'm not sure if we make sure I use our microphones because I'm having trouble hearing Ken way down there.

You're talking about the one from Miss S? Yeah, Matt Res responded to, but she said she was going to make the public meeting. I don't know. I saw it. I wasn't sure if she wanted that read in the public comment. Matt addressed it, so I assume that we were good. Okay. If not, we can bring it up at the next Tuesday meeting since I've already closed public comment. You good, Matt? All right. Cool. Over to you.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, uh, anybody online who's watching from the public. So, this is our FY27 budget work session as a followup to my initial nonbalance budget presentation from this past Tuesday night. So, this is where we were April 20 or April 7th. Um, as you can recall, almost a $4.2 million delta. Now, I want us I want to start by saying something right now. The budget, this is this is not a school budget. This is not a Dr. Boyd budget. This is not a finance budget nor a board of supervisor budget. This is a county administrator's budget. And I am responsible for everything that has been presented to the board up to this point. And uh in conversations yesterday uh there was a uh with all the cells with all the sheets that we you know we we look at there was one number that I missed before I made my presentation and I take full ownership of that. So the unfortunately the the the one cell that did not or was inadvertently carried over was the $3.6 million transfer in the revenue line item. So as of yesterday afternoon uh we learned it's almost a $7.8 8 million delta in the draft budget. So again, I'm county administrator. This is my budget. I take full responsibility for it. But let's move forward. And I we got creative. We were, you know, we were working on this budget to the we hours of the morning last night and came in and made some additional cuts. I kind of want to show you where we're at. Um and I've got some interesting data and, you know, some some brainstorming ideas for for revenue. So, um, so last night, uh, went through department by department, line by line, and I ended up cutting $1,24,08 out of the budget. Uh, then this is everything from a $200 line item up to some some major cuts. And I'm going to go through these and then what I did, I had a senior staff meeting yesterday

morning. I, you know, sat around in the the table with my my team. I said, "All right, everybody." I said, I need you to go through your individual budgets. I'm going to go through them, but I want you to go through them also and come up with cuts. So, there may be additional cuts forthcoming as each department comes in front of the board today. And I will go through, you know, each of the individual cuts that I made last night to equate to that a little over $1 million. This morning, a little bit more uh big ticket item, eliminate funding of non-mandated outside agencies. That was another 274 in savings. So, this was a slide that you all saw on Tuesday night. You know, potential cuts for the board of supervisors. And I've colorcoded this. You know, red, yellow, and green. The red, those items are gone. The yellow, they're either in progress or I've touched them. And the green, I did not touch those particular line items. You know, and I do want to read uh the the third line down there, you know, no full-time positions here at the county for this year. And I do want to call only one one transfer of a job. I'll talk about that later, but I do want you know you all to see that. So outside agencies as of this morning, $275,000 approximately who doesn't, you know, who who does not get funding. These are the out the list of outside agencies that I cut this morning to try to make up this delta. Again, this is a work in progress. Um, but this is this was the request. Now, there are mandated outside agencies that we have to we have no choice, but these are the optional ones. So, I just wanted I'm not going to read through the whole list, but it it's there for the public. It's it's it's it's there for you, you know, for you to see. And Miss Bender, do you I mean

Yeah. I just want to ask you a question because some of these on this list, we don't even fund them at this moment. Correct. That's right. You can look at the the FY26 budget, that column, that's who was funded last year. the 10,000 10,035 so there are only three four five there were only seven of them funded last year okay because then and then on the previous slide I do have concerns with counting the comprehensive plan up concerns on that

thank you so uh second year here no new positions at the county so I I did have three of them in there um unfortunately we've got to close this gap so I've eliminated the capital projects inspector and engineering and the administrative assistant for the administration suite and also the grant writer for the county and the schools and then the the the transfer. So there's only going to be one transfer request with this operating budget and that's from administration to finance. This is Miss Turner who we transferred earlier this year still paying her out of the administration budget. I do request that position be transferred full-time to finance as of FY27. We had some conversations with uh Mr. Franklin Social Services. Yesterday on Tuesday night, I had indicated that the the Chin's position would be uh directed to DSS. So that would be a reimburse a reimbured position. We learned yesterday Mr. Franklin had some additional conversations with with his group in order to transfer and in order to be have that position in Department of Social Services, an individual would need to have a bachelor's degree at a minimum, no questions asked. the person who's currently in this role does not have a bachelor's degree. So, we could move it, but then we're telling somebody who's been working at the county hard, you just lost your job. And I don't I I don't believe in that. Um I don't think that's right. This is a it's a good worker. He's the individual is a good worker. So, that money that job the the chin's position goes back to the general fund. It is not going to social services as previously indicated. So, we do not get reimbursed for that. Okay. Is that clear? All right. So, you have to put on your creative hat. And I I want to thank Mr. New. You know, he's always running different ideas by me. So, Mr. Mets, you know, you

you may I know you were not part of this since you were not on the board of supervisors. There has been a request by waste management to increase the tonnage at the landfill. And this there's been historic precedence for increasing this through different uh uh amendments to the host agreement over the years. So right now current annual tonnage is 1,248,000 tons and we receive $5 per ton and in beginning in calendar year 27 that rate will increase to $6 a ton. So let's just do the the plain flatout math. So um 248 times $5 and I divided that by two. But this is the second half. This is July through December. Uh in calendar year, we'd get $3.12 million. And then as of January 1 of 27, it goes to $6 a ton. So if we max out those six months of the first half of calendar year, three 3,744,000. So maximum amount, you know, we could be looking at $6,864,000 in revenue generated by the landfill. Okay. Should the board want to consider working with and you know and going back with the waste management and saying you know what we're we're looking we can increase this annual cap to 1.6 million tons. Now this would shorten the life of the landfill. So you know this was discussed so so be aware of that but it's frontloading the money now. So, um, if we do this, you know, maybe we I think the previous amendments was it was a fouryear uh four-year cap on it for the different amendments. You you can do, you know, you know, different time limits, but let's let's face it, the the the location of this landfill is very convenient for anybody in the northeast. If they go to other waste management landfills, they drive by our landfill to to dump it. So, uh, you know, with with, you know, time and money, fuel, I mean, this is very convenient for them. And this is something that they had

requested. So uh looking at these numbers, if we do increase it to 1.6 million tons, you know, the first uh first or the second half of this calendar year, you're getting $5 a ton, you you can see the numbers at $4 million it would generate. And then the first half of calendar year 27. So maximum amount on paper, best case scenario, everything is maxed out an increase of $1,936,000. Now, that's not realistic because, you know, if if they go over their tonnage, then there's a penalty. There's there's additional fees that go on it. Talk to Mr. New Chuck. You know, realistically, you're looking maybe 13 $1.4 million in increased revenue. So, so this is another way, you know, we're always looking at cuts, but this is a way we can bring in some additional revenue for the board's consideration. So what I did, I went back and I looked at the last number of years of the the the historic county budgets, the operating bud, the total budget for the county all the way back to FY19 up to FY27. And then I put a trend line in there. And you can see the $145 million uh that that that's proposed for FY27. That's pretty much spot on. If if you follow the trend over these last years, that's what we're looking at. So, I just wanted you all see how the the overall budget has grown at King George County. Next slide is taxable assets. So, so you look this year we're almost $5.2 billion worth of assets. And it's when you look at it, you can see here we go. This is organic growth and then that was a reassessment between 22 and 23. This is organic growth and there was a reassessment year right there. So the the reassessment years really stand out.

Again, you look at this this trend line of of the taxable assets. Then I went back through um Miss Pucker helped me out a lot this morning. I come back and I look at the historic real estate tax rates and you look at that trend line. It's going the opposite direction. So I know there you know there's some articles going around where we're watching other localities of you know what should that tax rate be and you follow that trend line where where does that point to in in FY27? Yes. Yes sir. I have a question. C can we have this brief do we have this brief

I I finished it literally a minute before I got down here sir. I can I can send it to you but this I've been working on this since you know started late last night in the early morning hours. So, all right. And I I will I will definitely I can get this to all you, but I I was hoping there's no errors in it because I just got done with it right before I got down here. So, again, you know, you look at the the the budget going one direction, the ask a question or ask a favor of you. Absolutely. Before you post this online, can you clarify on the slide where the that top line is the equalizer rate. The rest of those are actual rates. That's fair enough. I don't want the resident seeing that going

save if you go to 50 cents you all that good point Mr. Solins so we will make that point and uh I'll have my staff remind me. Yes sir. Very good point. Agreeing with Mr. Stout for our further discussion on the day. It would be good to be able because I can then we can I can take a 30 second I can email to you right now. I would appreciate because it'll be able so we can refer back to it if we

so so what I will do is I've got I think one more slide and I'll pause I'll I'll back out of this and email it to you all. So you have it. So deficit as of yesterday, $7.8 million as I stated, you know, the the cuts I did last night, cuts this morning. If we do the additional uh landfill, you know, the the agreement and if waste management agrees to it, that's a that's a, you know, money in of 1.3 million. So we're looking at a a deficit right now of $5.2 million or 10-centent real estate tax rate increase. And that's with all the cuts that I proposed. So that's my last slide. Let me pause real quick here. Let me get it to you all so you have it. If that's okay with you, Mr. Solins, and just, you know, I'll be happy to answer any questions now or we can do it throughout the day, but I do want to get this to you all.

Anybody got any questions right now? All right. So, go ahead. All right. Let me just unplug my computer and and I I'll get it to you. Just stand by.

All right, I think we're good to press home. Yeah, my hair today. All right, Mr. Chairman, I think you guys should have all received my document.

Can you confirm you've received it? Okay, very good. So, would you like uh to start going through the Yeah, let's hit it.

All right. So, first up, we've got uh the landfill, Mr. New Chalk. So, what I've got on the screen is just the the overall budget summary. We can go through just so the board sees how this is is generated. So, you've got your your accounts uh over over on the left hand side and then each tab, say for instance, you want to go to um 3311, which is uh vehicle repairs and maintenance. So, this is the way the budget's created. I'm just going to walk you through it. So each department head goes through and puts exactly what uh they want to see with their uh vehicle repairs and maintenance for the landfill. This totals the cost, carries it over to the uh the budget summary. So with Mr. New Chock last night, so the board graciously approved a new new uh rolloff truck for Mr. New. We're going to get that ordered and hopefully up and running as close to July 1 as possible. So some of the money that Mr. new truck built in here was based on he was not sure if he was going to get the new rolloff. So he had uh $15,300 for the Peterbuilt in the Mac rolloff repairs uh I'm sorry rolloff truck tires uh 153 and then the repairs $35,000 with that new rolloff truck. I figure we can cut this and if there are repairs or tires we can find it out another part of the budget. But I made those two particular cuts. Line item 6,000 under miscellaneous. There was um what we got here? No. Six. Where we at? There we go. $3,000 per per M. Smolnick for uh for miscellaneous materials. This you can see what these are. These are safety vests, brooms, shovels, paint. um you know particular items for the convenient uh for the landfill and then in account uh 801 there was money for

rolloff containers Mr. New Chuck had requested two rolloff containers. I figured we can do one now. They are pretty bad out there, but looking for any budget cuts that we can. So, I reduced it by uh one for a total cut of for landfill $61,70. Questions, concerns by board the board members. What was the number again? 61,000 70 61 070. Thank you.

And Mr. Mr. Newuk, is there anything else you wanted to add about the you know, you you can speak a little bit more eloquently about the the host agreement and the tonnage cap? Is there anything else that you wanted to to add to the board of supervisors should they wish to? Again, my numbers right now that deficit is based on the board's willingness to go back and and work with uh waste management to increase that annual tonnage. So, Mr. Newuk, anything else?

Well, there's there is real precedent here. the 18th, the 19th, and the 20th amendment uh covered this. In 2018 and calendar 2019, the host uh tonnage limit was actually increased to 1,800,000 tons. It was only in the 20th amendment uh that was brought back down to 1,600,000. Uh so the current base is 1,248,000. Um but so for they intended to do for 5 years uh in the 20th amendment uh but there was a discrepancy with the date. they accidentally put January 2024 when they they meant to do December. Um, so there's real precedent there for that. And as Matt said, it does shorten the life of the landfill. Um, so if you go from 248 up to 1.6, you're looking about every 3 years losing a year. However, I think there is appetite for extending uh this current landfill agreement if possible. So right now we're probably going to run out of space in about 21 years. Um, but the hope is that in about 10 years we'll start the process uh for an expansion because it'll be easier to expand an existing permit than to get a new one.

Yeah, thank thank you for adding that bit of information. That was one question I had after thinking about your chart there for a little bit. Um, you know, the 21 years is sort of relative any way based on the demand and um, I think that gives us some flexibility to continue to work. I I'm quite alarmed by the shortfall in revenues this year. So I I hope all departments are looking at their revenue sources and coming up with ideas like this. I I would definitely be supportive. Excellent.

I also spoke with Waste Management this morning and asked if it would still be possible uh to tie this to the expansion of Perkins uh with Reason and Waste Management thought that that was something that would be reasonable. So we could both tie both of these together. uh they'll commit to a date for the Perkins expansion as well with a tonnage increase. And while we've got Mr. New up there, then the next one in front of me, I did not make any C or with the convenience center. So Mr. Newach and I have had some discussions a majority of the the convenience centers, you know, or the the salaries of the part-time workers before we get out from the landfield. I I'm sorry.

Before we go away from the Okay. Yep. Is there any other questions on that? All right. So, I'm looking at the uh the PDF file that you sent us out. I um reversed that back into an Excel spreadsheet and kind of started playing with a little bit. And um we had talked about salary increases, 4% for some organizations, 5% for others. I'm looking at the budget. Um so, the FY FY26 budget is an increase of 4%. But what I'm showing at the department level and a county administrator level is a 9% increase of salaries. Which one of those numbers are we working with? So, so we're we're still on the landfill, you said.

Yep. Okay. And let me get back there. Mr. Joe, while he's looking at that, if we do the increase, at what year will the landfill be done? right now at at current rate it's expected to make it 21 more years but it's a little bit of a rolling um date because you've got dynamic compaction and and the limit is your height so as it gets heavier it continues to to compact what's down below on that first level but their their actuaries have it about 21 years okay so would if we make this increase that would decrease you said one one for three about

I mean so if you look at a a base rate of 1,248,000. That's very rough math. Uh, you know, that's just me adding 300,000 and and 350,000 tons on top of it. Matt, we're good. I was looking at the calendar year 25, not fiscal year 20. Yeah, we're good.

So, so I I wanted to preface back to my slide where I had the red, the yellows, and the greens. Some of these, like I said, we were we have been making cuts or were in progress. And I wanted the board to know that as far as COLA adjustments on Tuesday night presented 4% for the county, 5% for the teachers with a a compression fix it step nine for the teachers and then a cola and a merit for social services. Talked to Dr. Boyd, talked to Jonathan Franklin yesterday. I said, "Here's where we're at." So everybody's going down to 2% and we're, you know, and I've I've asked Dr. Boyd and Jen over there to run the numbers to get rid of the compression for uh for step nine for the teachers. As Dr. Boyd when he gets here, I just want to let you all know there is a is my understanding the way that is if the state mandates a 3% cola, we have to match that. So those numbers are not in from the state yet. So as we're talking salaries here, and that was I'm glad you brought that up, Mr. Sins, because I I skipped over that in my initial presentation. We have reduced the cola to everybody down to 2%. Got rid of step increases. Got rid of merits

and we're still at a $5 million deficit. Yes, sir. Well, no, no, no. Those numbers are not baked in yet. Those are in progress. Those are the the yellow bars. We're working on them right now. Okay. I have to ask the one question. With not doing those increases, what does that do for our retention level? Understanding that other localities are raising the tax rate. You they lose staff. staff. And I know at the school level, they've already lost one whole grade level at one of the elementary schools to a new school in in Stafford because they're giving them $20,000 more. So, as a person who has a parent as a child in the schools, and I know there's two other on the board that have that concerns me to lose quality teachers.

You're going to lose quality teachers. You're going to lose quality county workers. Yes. So, I was going to ask, so you said 2% you didn't leave yourself any for merit. No, I I I I stuck with 2%. I I I mean, I'm I need to cut right now. Okay. So, this morning the consumer price index was released and we're at 3.3% inflation from last year. So, effectively, you're giving everybody a cut if you go to 2%.

And then that's why initially I we were predicting that three somewhere around there. That's why I went with afford to try to stay ahead of inflation. But, you know, un unless there's a willingness for the tax rate increase to support that, I'm I'm going to have to recommend cuts, unless the board is okay with with increasing tax rates to to keep our staff and the schools up with inflation. At least with inflation, I I'd like to you to at least consider I mean obviously with discussion amongst the other members some portion of merit a two plus 1% merit or 2 plus 2% merit so that there is some management ability to reward and retain the best

and we we we can as we're working on these these colas that's we'll work some options. Yes sir. But that's going to have to be there's going to have to be a cap associated with that or it's going to turn into a default 4% for everybody anyway. So, we're going to have to look at that and see how the numbers bake out. Okay. I I don't think we have the the details we need to make that decision right now.

Yeah. No, you know, the the worst case scenario would be the 4% cola that I that I suggested initially. I mean, that's that's max, but that's what you want to avoid, but that's your worst case scenario. 2 plus two. Going back as we closed out the last year. So we took $3.6 million out of the general fund to balance the budget last year from all the departments. How much was returned at the end of the year? Do you have a computer?

I heard the number 8 million kicked around which sounds like Jesus math but I got Miss Dillard. She's going to go grab her laptop. I don't want to go through everything on the screen and go through all the files. I want to She'll go through it not to confuse everybody, get everybody dizzy and I'll give you a number. How's that? I have a quick question on Nola. So, you mentioned the schools and the county staff. Did you also mention fire? Would that mean fire and rescue and the sheriff's office?

So, no, you know, fire, rescue, and sheriff have a a guaranteed 3% step increase. So, they do not also receive the cola. They are only the 3% guaranteed and that is on their anniversary date. So these step increases, I sign off on those on a monthly basis based on when they started their tenure with King George County. And I believe it does go down to maybe years 20 to 25, it goes down to 2%. So it does taper off near the end, but that's a guaranteed raise. Uh and for for for public safety that's built into their contract, too, right? Yes. Yeah. I don't my personal opinion. I don't want to go messing with people's contracts. So

and that's why Yeah. Those those numbers those were the green lines. I did not touch those. Okay. So, to bring this back to uh Mr. Newach's discussion on landfill, um since we're obviously challenged this year in finances, have we looked at what the savings would be by going down to one service center on the weekends? Well, that's that's a discussion that we had and initially it's, you know, on the weekends, but the weekends are pretty busy days. I believe Minister Newchuck said this morning they should not be concurrent days, Tuesday, Thursday.

Well, if we're going to do during COVID, um, we had reduced hours. We had Perkins uh, shut down. We had reduced hours. So, if you were going to do two days, I I might lean, if you wanted to do a weekend, maybe like a Sunday, Wednesday, or we could do, you know, Caroline County is shut down on Wednesdays. that's their maintenance day uh during the week. But I mean, a lot of my I have four full-timers. I have eight part- timerrs. So, I mean, it's you're you're looking at saving part-time salaries. It's it's really it might not be quite the number you're looking for for the headache it's going to cause the public.

Yeah, Roger that. And I I in no way intended to say both centers would be shut down at the same time. Um I I think just as I've looked around at the around the other counties um service centers have been one of the areas not all the service centers being closed but maybe taking um and concentrating on one main one for our weekend hours. Okay. I asked the question I don't think we have the number. Um I I would like to just throw one thing out. So the the King George County landfill is not open on Saturdays and Sundays. So everything that we take in we're having to compact and hold. Um and and we're nearing um some of our limits um on on what we can do. So if you're if you're shutting down that you're concentrating it to one day, it it might cause you some additional issues.

Okay. Thank you. Excellent. Yes, sir. And I will tell you as the person who's here during COVID, um the hate mail you're going to get if you close those convenience centers down, you will not believe how many emails you will get.

So let me preface this, right? We are in a shortfall this year. I I'm just looking at what our revenues are this year and it's not looking like we're going to hit the revenue number that that we had predicted for this year which puts us at even bigger hole. The only options we're left with is what services are we not going to provide. There are certain mandatory services we have to fulfill and we have to fulfill them well otherwise we'll have additional expenses for retraining new employees that like you had mentioned right if we can't keep up with salary expectations we lose people when we gain somebody new it is more expensive to train a new employee than to retain a good existing employee so I I I am going to ask this question probably for many of the departments where are you looking at to take non-mandatory expenses out of the equation. So, this was just the first one up. Thank you for being my uh guinea pig,

sir. We have and I know that this is going to be unpleasant unless and and the hate mail is interesting, right? If you're unwilling to pay more in taxes, what service do you not want? All right, any other questions? All right, I'm sorry. Now we can move on to the uh portion. I think we touched on the convenience centers. That was that was the next one up. Any other questions maybe on the convenience center? Again, I did not propose any specific cuts last night for the convenience centers.

I didn't see anything that that raised my eyebrows. Okay. Litter control is a grant. So, next up, if I can keep moving, will be the treasurer. I think we've got a representative from the treasurer here. Thank you, Mike. Yes, sir. Thank you,

Matt. Yes, sir. I have a question. Um, and this may be a it may be a finance question, but I'm looking at that historic county budget slide. Yes, sir. you had up and it shows from FY19 81,841,000 to what you had for FY274 million.

I'm just going to pull it up here for so everybody can so we can have it for a talking point. Everybody sees it. Is is the budget sir? Is that the one?

That's that's it. So in looking at that if if I took the 145 million the top amount and I subtract out the FY19 the 81 million amount then the average a year increase is $7,94,000 average. If I or we just used FI26 and subtract out FYI 29 or or 2019, it's the average is 7 million. So there's a a $94,000 difference, but the trajectory here, what this tells us is we're increasing right now. the budget's increasing like 8 million. So, we're taking what we're spending today. We're taking our current budget and we're increasing that an average of $8 million a year. So, that means in 10 years that's going to be another $80 million. Yeah. I think there's a problem. I don't know if that's sustainable. So, you know, I mean that that's a big picture. So, there's a lot of details. There's a lot of details in here.

And and remember, this number there is way beyond just that booklet. This is all state revenue. This is federal revenue. This is the entire county budget. What you've got there is pretty much the general fund where there's discretion amongst the board of supervisors. you you know baked into here is the state aid for uh for schools that's based on pupil generation. The board of supervisors in any local county doesn't have a say over that. So really the booklet that you all have here this is really what you the board of supervisors has control of. You can't control your debt service. That's already done. We know that's $9.8 million. We know we know what our debt payments are for the next 20 years. So I just wanted to clarify and this is I mean this is everything. So, so you remember what I said at the at the board meeting on Tuesday night of the $145 million if you take salaries and benefits for county employees, salaries and benefits for school and debt service, you're at $103 million. That's 103 just to just to keep everybody working. And then you've got your keep the you know keep the fuel in the buses, the lights on, the heat on. You know, how many million does that add? So, the the big piece of the the piece of the pie that this board can really focus on, it it's it's not the 145. And that's why I wanted to put that that those numbers up there on Tuesday night.

Okay. But you're here's here's the thing. We started out and and you showed us this. Mhm. Okay. So, what we need to focus on I mean you're what you're trying to do is you're you're focusing our attention. focusing our attention on a mount that we can't impact. We need to be focused on what we can impact the operating budget. So what you wanted to see is the historic budgets for operating what you all have control over. So the I'm sorry the general fund. I didn't say I meant the operating.

The thing is is where we're at today. We're we're getting briefs from indiv the individual departments. So you're getting a piece at a time and after you get done going through that, you know, because every one of them, I'm talking to the board members here, every every department's going to come up and they go through and it's all going to sound like, okay, man, we got we can't cut this, we can't cut that, or they may offer something, but you can't really dip through the details to figure out where you can cut that way. I mean, you're going we're going to hear each department brief. want to see their budget, but it's it's going in taking some time and needling in to figure that out. We don't get that here. That takes it it really for me, I have to actually crack the code. And honestly, I have to use and and I didn't bring it with me, but I have to use my magnifying glass in my office to try to read the words in this, right? So, that's why I asked for the brief because I can see the brief better. But if we're looking at individual departments, we're getting briefed by individual departments and we're trying to figure out pull, you know, a couple hundred thousand out here and a couple hundred thousand out there, a few hundred thousand here. It's going to be very difficult to close the gap where we need to be. You know, I'm but I'm interested in our a trajectory and I'm interested in why over 8 years we we we're getting close to doubling our budget. You know, in another year, we're going to be right at it. You know, this time next year, you know, that brief instead of saying 145,000, this is going to be saying 160,000. So, we're right at doubling, you know. So by then, you know, if I go home and and at my house, my budget has doubled in 8 years, my expenses doubled in 8 years, I got to figure out what's going on and where the money's coming from. And that's our job. We got to figure out

why why do we why are we allowing the county's budget to grow by 8 million a year? So along those lines, you heard me Tuesday night ask the question like the the slope of the line like was about 2 million give or take each year. Where that came from was last year what was on the website when we finally published the bud budget was 137 million and change. The year before was 135 million and change. Did we have the wrong numbers before or do we have the wrong numbers now? because again that was a roughly two give or take you know we can round it up to three million but it looks like we made a huge jump this year Mr. songs. Like I said, I worked till about 1:00 in the morning last night. I was up at 7 this morning trying to crank these numbers out to go back through and reverify everything. I I was looking for general trend. I can go back, but I'm going to need a little bit more time.

That's fine. I mean, I just want you to understand the logic what's going on and and the numbers that I've seen before and and you know, if if we get a fivem minute break, if if you like me to to try to create that operate the the general fund budget with a trend analysis, I can do that. I went through and pulled these numbers off of of um SharePoint with what we've used traditionally for the the budget summary and I've gone to the bottom of that and that's the number that I've put in. I I I can't verify. I didn't have time to go back and review the minutes from all these fiscal years to see what was officially adopted. I I got you. Yeah.

Please understand, you know, there's a thousand moving parts and then some. We we fully appreciate that and I I appreciate the work that you've done. You you're doing a really good job. We're just we're trying to understand all of it. You know, we we got some PDF files. Some of us, me too, are visually challenged, you know. So, you know, we're just trying to understand really what's going on cuz when we hear stuff like having to raise taxes by eight pennies, that that that's that's impactful. Yeah. Losing people. Yes. That that's impactful, you know, to the to the staff and to the teachers and and and all the other various staffs around the county. But people losing their farms because they can't pay their dag on property taxes, that that's impactful as well. So, we just want to make sure that we get it right. So, we're going to take five and let him uh do some tweaking.

Go for it. Quick question for Matt. Is we're talking about the numbers. That's not anything statemandated, right? Yeah. We're talking about I don't understand your what's not statemandated. I'm sorry. Like, is it part of the increase in the budget? Is it because of state mandates? You know, I mean, I would expect since his enrollment has gone up now. Enrollment has tapered up, but as enrollment, you know, filled high school and everything about So, but that's state but that's state funding because you get so much per pupil. So, state funding has increased as this goes up also. Right. But are there unfunded mandates in there that have increased? Oh, are there unfunded mandates? That's what I'm trying to ask. I'm quite certain there are. I mean, you know, I've seen them in, you know, other localities. They're they're here.

Yeah. There's a curriculum requirement that's put in. The curriculum was 686 for social studies for next year was right at a million last year for math. That's 1.7 million. Yeah. I'm just asking because that that's part of that rate too is stuff that we can't control at all. That is correct. All right. Thank you.

Yeah. Just one last quick about that, right? Yes. There's things in there we can't control. There's also growth of the county in there. I mean, if you look back at revenue growth has historically been about 2%. Even though our personnel people that live here growth is like 1.2. 2. And so that's kind of baked into this trend line over the whole period. I um I am interested in what the then you got to look at what's the what's the part we can control, right? Take out the state part of the schools, take out our federal contributions out of that. What are what's left for us to control within that? Which is why I asked the services question, right? Because that that's those are the pieces that are within our authority to control. Um, but I would expect that over the 20 years of growth that we have had, you have seen an equivalent services growth to match that. Right? I don't think parks and wreck was anything like it is now 20 years ago when the county was half the size that it is. Um, my finance teacher is echoing in my mind at at the moment that hey, remember the the value of your dollar halves every 20 years just based on inflation. And I bring back up because this morning the inflation number came out and we're at 3.3%. So expect everything to cost us 3.3% more than it did this time last year.

That's all. Cool. Also was there's a bunch of legislation that was going to get passed that they pushed off till after the midterms of course because they don't want to affect the elections for the one side till like 2028. But it's gonna you're gonna see another bump because there's like 50 or 60 different uh things that they've signed that 100% of that cost they're going to mandate is being sent to the local. So by 2028 you can look at it increasing a whole lot.

So take five, right? Oh man.

All right, Mr. Chairman, thank you for that pause. So, you know, I do want to, as I, you know, realize over the break, I want to make the statement that the the numbers the top the FY27, those are projections. However, they are considered in the trend line. So, that is a hard point on these. So, you know, if it makes sense, you know, I guess if you wanted to project, you would only do FY19 or FY26 and see where that number falls. But here's the the historic general fund. Um, this is fund 100. Um, you can see some years we were below, some years we were we were over. Um, but it's just, you know, really the the year-to-year increase of the general fund. And again, these are based on the numbers I'm pulling off, not off the website, but off of not verified by the minutes, but based on the summary sheets that's in the the finance folder for all the previous years. That would include the 13.2 population increase we had in 10 years. Also, probably some of that revenue.

Yeah, there's organic growth in here. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay.

Any idea what happened between fiscal year 24 and 25? I don't know. That that's that's quite a jump. I I the the budget numbers um that you were showing before, that's like a $17 million delta. That's that's massive. Yeah. I'm I'm I'm not sure what happened there, sir. All right. Just curiosity. Sure. All right. Any questions on this so far? Okay.

We don't know why there's an increase. No, I mean, we understand why there's an increase. What we don't understand, but I was a curious question. 24 to 25 was a huge jump compared to the others. No. Um, the rest of it looks like it's a relatively stable glide slope. Yeah. But what I'm saying is we didn't You don't know why that's there?

You know, that that was a previous administration, previous board. Again, this was the approved budget. I don't know what you know, you may have approved $79 million, but if if $72 million was spent, they may have returned a large number. You know, I don't know. But it it could be padding. But again, you then you also need to look at what was returned that year. Just because that's the approved budget doesn't mean that's what was actually spent, right? Did we get do we get the information on what was returned this year? We can we can do that.

Yeah, I think that's not my question. My question is is if excuse me and if if I'm preparing this, if you present this to me and I'm looking at it, I said, you know what, I've got a question here and I need to get an answer because regardless of whether it's a previous year or not, I want to know why that's there. And and it's a budget. Um budgets are good, but I need to I would need to budget alongside what was actually spent. So I can see okay that the um this is the amount budgeted and we were uh above or below it. Are we historically below? Are we historically above? You know how is that happen? Of course then my next question is going to be why why am I below? Did somebody not extend their budget? Who was it? Are they doing that multiple years? Were there three years in a row they overestimated? Or maybe, you know, but it's figuring those those questions out because we're looking for what, $5 million. So things like that matter. is trying to figure out um it's going to take cracking that open to get some of that stuff,

you know, and and you know, I'm the historical data is great to see trend analysis and all that to open it up and say, why was this done? How much was returned? You know, we can't do anything about that. You know, that this this is my advice. let's focus on FY27 and make it, you know, that's what we need to be drilling down on. So, we can't do anything about the past. I get it. But looking at those trends, what we can say is we're asking for more and more each year and we're giving back more and more each year. We're asking the people of the county to tighten their belts for a year just so that we can return more money at the end. And it is absolutely a possibility. I'm not saying that's what we did. But without knowing those numbers, we can't say whether we did or not.

Right. And that's, you know, and you look at that fund balance growing year after year. There there, you're right, we have a very very healthy fund balance here. And the the return to the citizens, as I said on Tuesday, and whenever we need to spend, I'm just saying hypothetically, $20 million on a vote. And we can we can frontload 10 million in cash and only borrow $10 million. That's the savings to the the to the to the residents because now you're not paying interest on $10 million over 20 years.

Exactly. So whenever we bought a new courthouse or you know of course we can't do anything about that but you know if I know that I'm going to buy a new car or I'm going to need a new car then I'm say you know what I'm going to start saving for the new car now. Well in the county it doesn't appear as though there was any savings that you know set aside for you know what we're going to need a new courthouse 10 years ago they said we need a new courthouse let's start putting some money away that probably didn't happen. So, I'm in agreement that we can't change the past, but we can learn from it so we don't recreate it. You know, um whenever the people out there start throwing tomatoes this way, you know, it's like I want to make sure that I'm not the guy that continued on or just made bad decisions that they have to live with. So, we're trying to make better decisions. And we should be putting away money now. We should be saving money for that future building. We should be putting that money away for the future building. But we're presented today with a deficit. So before we can save money, we need to figure out how to get out of the deficit.

Um so let's I I think we're trying to solve it all today. And I think we can agree that we're not going to solve it all today. Um and I think you're going down exactly the path that I want to, just not right now. Those four people in the audience that are scaling, they're starting to scare me. So, let's try to get back on timeline and we'll get the briefs from the from the departments and then we'll have the conversation um you know at a different time when these people aren't you know on hold. Um we good with that? Yes, sir.

All right. Thank y'all. Sorry you're smiling again. That's great. Thank you. All right. Thank Thank you. So, treasurer um it's not Why is my screen not sharing? Let me see. Why is this not

Mr. D? Yeah, Mr. D to the rescue. I'm not sure if my screen's different from what's up on on the projector. Yes. Yes. Yes. He's doing great. All right. So, the treasure the the you all have her the spreadsheet. Uh Miss Kerrion is here representing the treasur. Thank you. So, really last night I went through their budget. I remember whenever they presented to us, it's it's pretty darn lean. I took out $5,000 for postage and that that's that's really all I could trim. Um I didn't see anywhere else. It's they run a lean budget. If there's anywhere else, anything else, you know, you would like to add any questions for treasures department?

No. The only big piees I saw were in things like printing and and uh shredding and whatnot, but those those numbers are so small, it's insignificant, right? You give me two give me a nickel today and two nickels tomorrow, it's 100% increase, but it's still small numbers. So, yeah. Okay. All right. Nothing else with or I see possible question

real quick. I think this is more like a global question. In several places I see shirts for staff in a year where we're asking everybody. I I think that's one that I would not be supportive of unless we wrap them all into work with Amy Southall and maybe do group some group buys from the county level or set up a county purchase website or something. Um I just think it makes a bad it's not our money. Right. So, typically, I mean, yeah, I agree. There's a lot of good reason for it, and I some organizations, right, that have a very forward- facing face to the public, um, you know, I I like the look, but if I'm looking for what's required, shirts isn't it.

That's about Yeah, usually it's it's $100 a person. That's $27,000 right there for for I mean everybody everybody. And my thought is is if we pulled that all into one buy, we get a little better wholesale rate. I would like that think thought process to percolate across all of the county departments, right? As opposed to 500 here, 500. You're just first one up that it was on the list. Sorry. Is it actually coming from them or is allocated there? It it's alloc. So the the uniforms line item in and everybody's budget is it's it's part of the operating budget. It's six. It's down to six. May still be a large buy. Okay.

Just allocated. So they can if they're making a buy for $20,000, but where's that money going? It's allocated. It's still coming from the same kitty. I think I saw somewhere it was $100 a polo. And I'm like, oh, so it's $100 a person is is what's what's allocated. That's that's traditionally what's been done here in King George. Yes. I But do we need to continue to do it? Right. Are shirts important to the function we provide? Yeah. Is the question. I don't know. I bought my own. Tried to. Did I pay for this? Tried to. I'm willing to buy my own. Any any other questions for Miss Kerianne?

All right. Thank you, ma'am. Next we have the Commonwealth Attorney, Miss Gusman. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. Hope you're doing well. Oh, hang on there. I hear you're under the other. Hang on. I'm hidden legal.

Commonwealth Attorney. There we go. There I am. All right. So, last night, what did I do for Commonwealth Attorney? Cut $500 for postage, $100 or 1,000 for travel, and $1,320 for office supplies. The only issue is going to be with travel. That's travel and training. And that's mandatory for us to have our CLE. We have to have continuing legal education for the three attorneys to be able to keep our bar licenses. So So this the n all 9,000 is needed.

Hold on. I don't think they changed that. It should be 7,500 because we had to do with the elimination of Charlie not being part of the cow's attorney's office. So, actually, we should be okay then with 8,000. So, that's okay. So, that's okay. All right. You did it that way. It was a good cut last night. Right. There you go. Good job. Thank you, Mr. All right. And then the other one was for office supplies. Um, and we I I I took out 1320, take it down to even 7,500. Got it.

So, I just noticed this is one of the few departments where um personnel expenses goes down at request this year versus last year. I miss Guzman and I chatted just before this meeting. I just want to say I appreciate the work you're doing to rework your staff and how you're using them to fill urgent needs at a little bit lower rate than we've been paying in past years. So, thank you.

Well, and number one, I do have to thank Mr. Smolnik and all of finance because they did allow me in the middle of a very busy budget season to move around money because obviously the board knows Mr. Charlie Clark who is no longer with my office because he became a judge. But his position was 100% county funded. And because of how the state does their things, I had that $75,000 position that was open that I had told you last December, I couldn't hire an attorney for that. So, because Charlie left, I could then hire my new person with the base of that 75 and steal some of Charlie's money to then pay him at a rate that is appropriate for an attorney. So that was a little bit of the generosity of the board in previous years showing the fact that we needed to have three attorneys and so then the state came in and gave us the 75,000 that we did need. So in the end it all worked out.

Any other questions? All right. Thank you. Thank you. We've got clerk of the court next 21. Oh, did I miss one? Who did I miss? Okay. All right. So, let's We've got Let me see. What I

So I did not touch the courts nor the judges salaries from from I I didn't make any additional cuts last night. Is there anything that the the board sees in clerk of the circuit court, the technology fund, the judges there? There I mean these are very small budgets. Mr. Small neck one, double check the health insurance premiums calculation. Uh, this one was a 63% increase over last year. For which which, uh, oh, I'm sorry, clerk of the circuit court, 21600. Okay.

Um, it jumped from 87 to 142. There's a few departments, I'll flag them as we go, where the increase seems to be disproportionate to our healthcare increase. This one, I think there's a little bit of staffing input to that, too. So I could maybe understand and we we'll look at that and it may just not be staffing maybe people changing different plans or or whatnot. So thank you for the for the note. So uh circuit court clerk of the circuit court the salaries went up a lot like over 100,000. Did we add a a person there?

Yes. So this was a a request. There was a raise for the um Miss one one of the employees uh over there over there in the court's office at the request of one of the judges $1,000. No, it wasn't $100,000 raise.

This is a we're taking notes and flagging these. We're not going to fix everything and have the answers, but we we are we're flagging it and we'll go back and look at it. Exactly what I'm looking for. Yes, sir. Thank you. a different question if it's reimbursed by the comp board versus we're paying it out of our budget. It's a little unclear whether there's components.

We can move on the flag and move on. We're good. Let's keep it rolling. We we made note of the question and we'll get the answer. So, we are down gen. Well, yeah, we got so so this is the year. Remember last year we had combined courts. This year they they split them. So now we have general district court and JDR. Hey, can can you can you come up to Yeah. Yeah. So just maybe explain the difference. We had to learn a little during the budget review team.

Hi, I'm Rebecca Connor. I'm the clerk for the general district court. Sherry Taylor is now the clerk for J&DR court, but she is not here. She they had court today, so she had to be there. So, I'm just here for both of us to see if there was anything that you needed for me for any changes or any cuts. I mean, one budget's 25,000, one's 21,000. These, you know, of local money. These are very small local local funded. So, I I did not make any or propose any cuts last night to either uh general district or JDR.

Okay, no worries. I I'm looking at the line. It was in the spreadsheet. It says fiscal year 26 salary and wages was 473,000 and change. The department request is 583,000 and change, but like uh Mr. Met said, it's kind of hard to tell if all of that is on the county or none of that is on the county or what. So, um it's just a big increase. And I don't think that has Which which specifically account number 1100 I think that's cir let me go back clerk of the circuit court. Yeah yeah that's the district. So yeah we're um we're funded our salaries are paid by the state.

Gotcha. Uh and so there is part of our bud that we've it's in there for um salary supplement that you guys you know have approved graciously to us to help you know because you know we collect and do so much for um the courts and stuff. So um but that yeah there's a $6,258 supplemental. Yeah, it's not much but Gotcha. You know, I'm just taking the I'm just taking the numbers at face value when I'm when I'm doing the budget at home, you know, I lose my mind when I can't account for I'm like and then my wife is like, "Oh, remember I went and did Okay, sweet." You know? Yeah. Just trying to account for it. Yeah.

So, are we good? You need me for anything else, Matt? Guess not.

I think next one we've got Commissioner of the Revenue We are getting my Yes. Okay. For commissioner of the revenue. Let me pull this up for you all. So 5210 uh that's that's postage $1,000 there and and uh Miss Pucket I I told a fib this morning I did remove 1350 for travel training. I thought I looked at a lot of numbers last night so I do apologize for uh for our conversation this morning but um it took that down to $6,70. Um, and then also for 6,0001 office supplies removed it by $1,000 or so 3350. And these are small cuts. Um, but but I'm I'm making them. And if there's anywhere else the board would like to see cut, just, you know, please let me know. Ask a question.

So, I have a question on salaries. We had talked at once before about um some raises that were um provided already over the course of the year. Did that occur? So, so yes, last fall there was a there was a vacant position and those funds were redistributed amongst her staff members. Um, this year the request was made again. I had a good conversation with Miss Pucket. You know, we looked at other surrounding localities and and very similar to pretty much every other employee at the county. You know, King George is underpaid. Um, however, you know what we decided to end up doing was that the one position that had been vacant for about a year, year and a half, uh, she decided to fill that job. So now, Miss Pucket has you are fully staffed. Um, I think you've had you have more people in your office than you've had in the last year and a half. So, um, we we did in fact, you know, utilize that um, we did not redistribute that open job to salary increases for for the current staff. other than we hired another body to to take on some of the additional work. And some of this had to deal with some of our conversations with and I I mentioned it, you know, the the license plate tax, you know, the the Maryland tags on cars. That's going to be a project, as I state on Tuesday night after after the budget's done, but that's going to take some some uh some brawn and some teamwork down in the commissioner revenue. So, we decided to add that position um or to fill that position that was already approved by the board of supervisors versus redistribution of funds.

Okay. So, the 10 or so increase 10 or so% increase in salaries, that's from adding a new position, not from giving double raises over the course of the year. Damn. So the the numbers or the the salaries that you're looking at the the numbers, sir, can you repeat that for for wages?

So what I'm looking at in the spreadsheet is an increase of about 10 give or take percent in salaries and wages. Is that in addition to raises that were already given over the course of the year or is that because we added a new person to it? Yeah, I'm looking. Here's commissioner revenue FY26 of 449. Or is that a reflection of the raise that was given earlier in the year? The raise that was given earlier in sorry the raise that was given earlier in the year is included in this fiscal year 2627 budget. Okay, perfect. Thank you.

Any other questions for Commissioner of the Revenue? All right, we're moving on. We've got community engagement. All right. I know I made a couple minor changes to community engagement. Let me pull that up for the board. Sorry. Okay. The the first cut I made I discussed was Miss South Hall this morning. She had $4,500 requested for an intern. Um we've got some, you know, full-time staff. I think we're were rolling up there. So, we we decided we could cut that. So, $4,500 there. And then from printing and binding, I took $10,000. That was account 3500. So $14,500 from community engagement. Is there anywhere? And remember this is a a unique position where we're you know Miss South has some of the funds for for salaries are in the general fund and others are in the tourism fund. The tourism fund comes from percentages three, four, and five of the transient occupancy tax. And that has to be used for expenses that bring or keep people here for overnight stays. So, so Miss Southall's department is a kind of a blend. Any questions for myself or Miss Southall?

Just going to pause for a minute and make sure. Yeah, I feel like I've been hogging the mic. Okay, press home. All right, I think we see. Okay, so tourism or tourism was tourism is not general fund. That's so we we you guys Yeah, we don't touch that. So, next one is community development. Let me pull this up. I think we're going to have some discussion here based on small just quick before we jump over tourism. Sure. Are we fully expending our occupancy tax dollars now? Yes. Yes. That's a that's a almost it's a balanced budget within itself.

Thank you. Good question. All right. Community development. I expect the conversations number one um really the first there there are several items here tied to the comprehensive plan you know so state law says you have to look at and identify whether or not there's needs to be changes um you know I think they've done that and we are pushing forward with a comprehensive plan last year $150,000 it's it's in in the current budget right now FY26 as with everything things are getting expensive um we we've we've seen proposals. We saw what I think one locality spent $725,000 on a comprehensive plan. I think it was James City County. Um, but you know, comp plans are running $250 to $350,000. So, we had 150,000 last year. We requested it just due to giving staff time to breathe and clear a few things off their plate. We decided to move it to FY27. So, we are right now we the RFP's been out. We're getting ready to interview next week. But again, looking for these high ticket items, $150,000 for for the comp plan. I know it's a very variable county thing, but this is a decision the board needs to make. You know, is it because you've got $150,000 for the comp plan. Um you've got $1,500 for printing and 6,000 for advertisement. Sound 157 plus the 150 for $325,000 right now. So I'm just looking for guidance from the board. You know, what do we do

costwise? How do we compare to other counties of our same size and complexity for update for recent or co cost for a con plan? What how do we compare? I mean I I would think that we would be a lot less expensive than a plan for Stafford or it is and you know in James City was I don't know what their population is. It's probably pushing 90,000 right now but they were 700 and some thousand. But, you know, there's really you can't tie it to a, you know, per capita, you know, looking at the and I'm I'm looking at Kelly the I mean, I think 250 to 350 was kind of that that range of maybe a little bit lower. Oh, that was the low range.

Yeah, that that was the low range. 250 to 350 for a comp plan. I mean, for and I I can't recall the counties, but unless you're doing a monster county, I think James was one of the biggest, but that reflected the the rate. So, if you ask me my opinion, I think we're right in line with a a 25 to 30,000 uh person community. That's what I'm asking. And I wasn't trying to relate it to per capita, but the complexity of the county, we don't I think we're right in line. Railroad, we don't have a ton of industry, you know, it fairly simple, I think, but yeah, we've been through a couple comp plans amendments. They're they're pretty involved. So, so I think we're right in line with with our dollar value.

Yeah, I I think I agree. This is not an area I would look to cut. We've talked a lot about setting the county up for the future strategy and this is the beginning step of that. Um I'm even alarmed that we're discussing pushing it into FY27 from the starting in the summer. This is also where we get the community buyin with what the strategy should be. I got a question. So, there's a few tweaks that we're making to our old comp plan, right? I mean, we're not throwing the whole thing out. We We are It's It's It's a start. It's a It's a redo. Whenever you do a comp plan overhaul, it's a redo.

Whoever you do it, whoever does the comp plan, they're going to take past comp plans that they they're not writing verbatim something different just for your county. They're going to create something and they're going to plug and play and make changes that conducive. Some of that language will be the same from every comp plan to the next is what I'm saying. I mean, just like an architect, every now and then they design buildings, but when they come out here to school, they've already got 20 different schools that they've already designed. They're going to bring them out as if it's a brand new thing for you with a couple tweaks, right? I'm just wondering how we why we if there's we can't create our complaint. I know it's a tedious process, but I mean, we're going to be using a lot of the same verbiage we already have, and we're just going to be making little tweaks and little things where we where things need to be changed on it. I just

There's a good point. I mean, you know, whenever I get my my car worked on, I'm going to take it to the professional who knows what he's doing or she's doing to make sure it's done right. We could do it. Absolutely. You know, I could I could probably, you know, work on my vehicle. It may not be done right. It may not be done the best way or the most efficient way. So, can we do it? Yeah, we can do it. What's the end product going to be like? Is it the best for our citizens? You know, everybody is good at their own thing. There are people who only do comprehensive plan updates and that's who those that's the group who responded to our solicitation. So, it all depends on what end product you all want.

I I go with staffing resources required to do it. This is something that pops up once every 5 years. Like if all the things to contract out, I I I just because we're not paying retirement benefits and overtime and all the accessory expenses with an employee for something that is a short duration 12 month effort to get done. Yeah. So, um, the thing about you know, I look at the comp plan and I and I agree with Bill on a lot of points of that in that um, whoever's doing a comp plan, they're going to ask us a lot of questions. They're not going to they're not going to just go create a comp plan without asking us what do we want? Where do we want in that? Where do we see the growth? They can't go and say and plug a development somewhere in the county that you know without somebody in the county. They're going to go to the uh either one of our boards or to our community development.

I'm sorry. Could you repeat that? Go ahead. No, I'm No, I thought you were asking me a question.

Uh, well, I was just trying to kind of making a statement between what Matt and Bill and him were saying is that uh, you know, there's updating maps, there's updating the population maybe within those maps. There's going to be updating where the service authority is being ran and and such like that. Um, but a lot of it is updating that stuff. It's not recreating it. Um, somebody uh whoever was doing the the the plan though, they can't do it exclusive of us. So, you know, to say that, you know, can we do it and put put that on on our employees? Um, I'm, you know, I think I would ask them if it's something that we could just, you know, go in and update and they ask us questions and, you know, maybe we update it. I don't know. Without having to, uh, you know, pay somebody to do it. Um, you know, I don't know. A lot of the verbiage in there, I think you look at it and update it where it needs to be updated. But are we going to change? Are we going to move an industrial zone? Are we going to move uh you know a community development? We're not going to move or not community but you know move a development. We're not going to do that. Um we may say that there's an area that we want to target for for growth or something like that. and you know having an outside source tell us something you know I mean they could tell us they want to put it somewhere we don't want it and we still don't have to take that I think you know I'm asking Kelly I mean what do you think about

in my experience I've done it both ways so when you're doing minor updates to your comp plan like updating demographics updating maps updating sewer and water lines those have been things that the internal staff has been able to do. I was under the impression that the board wanted a huge public engagement process to go into this, which is the part that we do not have the expertise in. So, if that's the case, I'd feel more comfortable hiring outside help to run the meetings, you know, run the the message boards, do the graphics where people come and put sticky notes. Like that's that's the benefit I see of of hiring an outside firm. They're better with the public engagement piece. If you you know I could look at census data and update demographics all day. That's that's something that I could do. You know Kyle upstairs could update maps for us. That's something he could do. But if we want a fullblown community input comp plan update, we're going to need help. I would say being here for the last one and coming in just as it has started, the community engagement is very important because the comp plan, we hear a lot of people that come up and they protest on certain developments or they agree with certain developments and they say it's in the comp plan and that's what developers look at and is what businesses look at. So that community engagement is important because they tell us what they want in the community and they elect us and they pay the taxes. And so I think the community engagement is a vital part of the discussion.

In the year and a half that I have been here, I have seen more public comment on this is in compliance with the comp plan. This is not in compliance with the comp plan. It's subjective. So I agree with you in that if you can get community buy in that says this is what you all said, you can't get up here and make that argument anymore. And I think that would benefit you guys. I mean cuz you can pull whatever parts of the comp plan you want. One part says solar, one part says no, and people say it's not in compliance with your comp plan, and then they sue you. I mean, so it's like, okay, or is it not?

I don't disagree with that. But the people that are going to complain are the ones who weren't involved in the process in the first place, and they're going to say, well done. It's like, well, you have the opportunity. Well, I didn't know about it. I didn't just know, you just didn't get off your duff or you didn't get involved. But now it's a little late. And and that's probably where we're at today with a lot of that. Yeah, I mean um and that's where I definitely see the benefit of having, you know, a group come in that can set up a website that can set up surveys that can go out and have public meetings and have the time to get everybody's input. So, can we have a parking lot, Matt, where you put things like this in a parking lot where we don't make the decision on as we go through? And

I mean I mean I can my goal is to have a balanced budget to you guys by April 22nd. This is about $160,000 total cost. So, I mean, we're going to need to make a decision pretty soon on it. If you if you would like a balance or we're just going to I can keep it in, but knowing it may add a third of a penny to the the real estate tax rate. I I'll gladly keep it in, but you know, if if I'm to present a balanced budget, the fork in the road is coming up very soon. Matt, can this be taken out of the the CIP? I mean, or or capital. I'm just throwing it out there. Capital or the land. It's not a capital It's not a capital by asset. So, no. Right. Unfortunately,

I see the vitalness to it. I mean, just from my experience the last time and getting community buy in and I was I was surprised. I mean, I was a brand new supervisor, but listening to some of what the public you don't realize what they want. Sometimes we get lost in a vacuum and not realize what they want. And once again, they're the ones that play taxes and elect us.

Right. agree with Mr. Straoud that there probably are a lot of people that are complaining, try to use this against us, but I am also hearing people express concerns already that we're going to cut the the the public out and not include them in this. And the people that I'm hearing it from, I I have pretty strong confidence that they'll actually be a participant and help give us some information, you know, give us some thoughts. So, it's a mix, but uh anyway, Mr. Mats, go ahead. So, I think as we were bouncing it around here, like all good discussion on the comp plan, I'd like to come back to the actual budget for community development. Uh that I thought we had said no new staff, county staff, and it looks like we still have the goes from 957 to million 53.

That is no new staff. Is that counting the cola? that was there's there's no new staff in No, Brian, jumping off your point, do we have enough staff for all the projects that are now on our plate? So, my my counter to that is I think most of the new projects have profered that they would be glad to provide um funding for consultant services and I I'm a big proponent of what do we have to maintain control of versus what can we contract out. So, um I I would just take a look at that we salaries and wages on this line. It's 100k. That's more than the cola. Salaries and wages. Oh, I'm sorry.

Salaries and wages is not just salaries. It also includes some of the um benefits like FICA and things like that. Now, the total salary for uh community development just salary by itself. It's um including the COLA. Okay. The 2% COLA and the 2% VRS. cuz now you have to know that with the new laws that VRS and hybrid has to have a a set amount come out every pay period. So their total salary was what? 1 million28309. That's no new positions. That's just with their regular salaries. That's what that is.

Okay. That is a little bit better number than what I had written. Yeah. You I'm thinking you guys are looking at the old ones. Th those numbers did include probably the the 4% Okay. and the merit. Uhhuh. And that's why they look so high. Yeah, they're updated now. And we can make sure you get the new updated forms for all of the um department. I think even the spreadsheet we got last night still had Yeah, these are and like I said, we were working this morning. So So yeah, what's on the screen is the most that's that's current as of right now. Yes. So, don't even bother looking at what we have in here.

That That's why I've been bringing each one up. This is, you know, if you have specific questions, I'll go through my cuts and, you know, if you have if you have a note, direct me to the appropriate uh account item and I will go to that. So, let's just hit pause on the comp plan. A couple other changes that I made. Um, contract plan review. We do have some staff in here. So, I've cut this out. Now, some of the the Crawford cases that we've had, you know, we've we've worked in uh where, you know, some of the sighting agreements, hey, we're going to pay for plan review. Um, which is I I think a that's a good approach. There are other things that, you know, is as as as many years as, you know, Kelly's been in in community development, sometimes if there's a a full-blown traffic impact analysis that's 500 pages, I mean, you need to be a transportation engineer to review that and to provide proper guidance. If the board's looking for the proper guidance, you've got you I mean, you have to hire a PE who specializes in transportation engineering. But looking at the the the the account for um contract plan review, I did cut that by $25,000. That's account 3160 for professional services. I cut 1,000 for office supplies and $5,000 for road signs. I know. So So the road signs, a lot of the replacement signs, they they contract to get those replaced. If if something gets, you know, stolen, tore down, they do have to fix those. I think you guys are

almost caught up.

Yeah, you're you're almost caught up. So, I cut $5,000 out of that particular line item. So, cut where I can, but the, you know, the big elephant in the room right now, if if you guys want to, you know, give me direction today. Um, I mean, I it sounds like you guys, well, I don't I want to I don't want to assume, you know, do we keep the full-blown comprehensive plan, public input in the budget with, you know, the the minimal advertising and printing associated with the comprehensive plan? That's the question. I'd say yes. I I want to see us do something with the downtown corridor. I want to What do we want to do with the 3 and 301 interchange? I mean, those should be derived out of that comp plan work. I don't see how we have a logical discussion about those things without going through this step. I would say yes to because that discussion targets the Shiloh district especially and a lot of the folks in the Shiloh district like the rural atmosphere and there needs to be some public input about the potentials and and how they feel about that and the trade-offs.

Well, we need to add a data center industrial zone in Shiloh district as well. Absolutely not on the data center industrial part. be on county record and we're all going to look like no comment. That was a joke, right? No. Okay. Good draw straws. You good? Keep it in. So, I got two yeses to keep the comp plan in.

I'm not supposed to. What's the total cost? Roughly for 165 this year plus 150 in this current budget. So, you're in it for about 320. About 320. 315. 320. Keep it in. We need it. We need it needed it last year. Okay. So, we'll we will we will adjust the budget accordingly and keep everything associated with the comp plan in the FY27 budget. Okay. Are you guys good with the other cuts that I proposed? Okay. Any other questions for for Kelly? Do you want to do boards? What's that? Boards.

We're going to do Yeah, we got boards right after. So, the next one uh is is the for the the boards the planning commission BZA. Um then there's uh let me pull this up. What's BBCA? That's zoning appeals. Mr. Harren's building board of zoning appeals. So, whenever somebody has a building BBCAC, building and code appeals.

Okay. Thank you. Sorry, there's too many, as I always say, too many acronyms. So the the one cut I made here, but it is substantial. So on Tuesday night, I I mentioned uh you know advertisement and you know, Miss Fish kind of brought this to my attention. She did. She's like, "Hey, here's an opportunity. Talk to you, Miss Leuke." So it's it's an online platform that meets state code for advertising. Take for instance the budget that's coming up. This is a very large advertisement. I want to say whenever we advertise for the FY27 operating budget, we're looking at a public hearing cost around $3,500 just for the ad to citizens. Yes. So, so you know, uh, Community Development has certain boards that they're responsible for, but this new platform, uh, is $150 per advertisement regardless of length. So, it's going to be substantial savings. So you look here, we just saved $15,000 just in community development budget. And you'll see how it translates to board of supervisors as you guys hold public hearings for your application. So I think that that was a good find. Um

what is this? What is this service? Say it's the free press. Oh, and that still covers the state requirements. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Good job. Thank you. Yes. That's the kind of cutting we need right there. kind of good recommendations and stuff. So that's 15,000. So other than that, uh that that was my only cut for the the planning um boards. Any other questions for for Kelly? I have none. Thanks. Thank you, ma'am. No problem.

Matt, I do have a question on that. Just what Miss Fish had said. Uh, so that's only $150 per advertisement as opposed to 3,000. Correct. Anytime we advertise for a public hearing, it will only be $150 no matter the length and no matter how many times you uh advertise. So for each public hearing, it'll be $150, right? Flat fee. I'm so happy to see some competition come back into the local advertising.

Okay. Under county administrator, so impacts me directly. 300 for postage. Uh I cut myself out of the Veco conference. $1,800, $1,000 for office supplies. $750 for gasoline. That was um uh based on what I'm spending right now. I think you know will suffice. And I did cut the two new positions and that's that's reflected here. So you recall I did have a new administrative assistant and a new grant writer. So those were salary plus benefits for both of those positions. I've I've eliminated all all new positions at the county. So without benefits, $98,850 from administration department. Any questions?

I I have severe heartburn about cutting the grant writer. That is a job that pays for itself. Um it's unfortunate you have to fund it up front so that you can get paid back on the back end. um just voice my disappointment in that. Um while I've got the mic, this is another one where I had flagged the healthcare expenses. It increased 184%. From where we were last year, just double check we didn't make a math error.

We'll check that. Thank you, sir. Um, we can't keep going down this path, Mr. Smallik. Um, we ask you a lot of questions. Um, you have to set the strategy for your staff and and internal. Um, I I honestly I went to sleep last night wondering, are are we not getting the revenue because we have no no staff for enforcement? Um, I think I'd entertain thoughts on this going forward in the next year. so that we can make a good rational decision. But, uh, grant writer is just one of those pieces. I I I I will say I was one of your other positions I was not for, but the grant writer I have, um, there's economic development, which I know you're having to cover as well now, too.

Transportation, parks, and wreck. There's there's a I have questions about car tax in the commission in the revenues office, right? But they're already loaded up with all the reassessment stuff. So, we don't have staff to do the to answer the questions we have today. We don't have the staff to do enforcement that we need to do today. How much longer can we keep doing this?

You remember I was Yeah, I was requested I think last year was 23 position requests. Now, some of them are duplicate, but this year I was requested 21 just at the county level. So, you know, I don't know what the numbers were before I got here. I know there's, you know, a lot of turnover and whatnot, but Grand writer is one. If I if I had to pick one position, that's one where you got an easy ROI, a little bit money up front, you return back. But then I'm tasked with, you know, closing that delta. And, you know, that's maybe I'd recommend to my friends here that maybe we get better at watching the revenue and expenses and deficits as we go through the year. And if um things start looking turning a corner on revenues, maybe this is something I'd recommend we bring back up mid year.

This could be a mid-year higher. We we could bring this back up. You can authorize a half FTE come January 1 if if I think Mr. Go ahead. Um, excuse me, Mr. Mets. How are you all this morning? I had a question. You said healthc care went up. I am looking at uh health insurance premiums um account number 2300. It was 25598 in the FY26 budget and it jumps to I don't say I have your spreadsheet. 71,956. It's almost three almost three times for county administrator

under county administrator fund 100. Yeah. The premium for the county administrator is only 29,520. All right. So there's typo. So that Yeah, that's got to be something. Yeah, it's was 25598 last year. Now it's up to 25 29 with the increase. That makes way more sense than what Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, please if you see some more of that, let me know because I'm looking at it. I'm like, "No, that Thank you." But thank you for clarifying some of those. How does that information get in there? It's an export, is it not?

How some information get in there? Okay. But you couldn't export you and I. So um whenever there's a new health care premium we we actually in enter these numbers and we actually verify these numbers. That healthc care premium is actually what the employee chooses. There's more than one different one that they can choose. So whichever one they choose that's the yearly cost for that that healthcare. Well, I think our question was how did it go from printed as 71,96 to the real number you pulled up was

26. I'm guessing somewhere somebody just it dragged a column across. I mean because maybe some of you know it'd be nice if we went through this and realized hey you know what there was actually it's not as bad as we think it is because No, I I don't know. I don't I didn't even see this and I didn't look at it. I wish we had it, but it's it may have been something that was dragged over from another column, you know. So, I can tell you right now that that Yeah, that that that's wrong. Well, we've got our updated working documents 29520. Good question. Yeah. And so I don't know how many of that is like that. So,

yeah. Can we do anything for you gentlemen? If you guys want to take a 5m minute break, I will be h cuz I printed off the new ones myself. I will be glad to give it to you. No, it's it it's okay. It just as long as I mean they I shouldn't say it's okay. It's it's there's an error in this case. It's in a good way. Okay. But is there a way they can just look on your follow through with this? How about this? How about after tonight? meaning Monday you guys send us your updated spreadsheet

and what we can do. Yeah. So, and I was thinking about this just to give you guys I got to check with Levita because all these spreadsheets every single cell is tied to one another. So, if if I'm I'm not not saying I don't trust the book, but I can give you access to all of these to go through them, but we got to lock it because if once you start searching numbers, it changes everything else. That would be helpful. I think for our purposes if you just take the values from the summary. I don't I don't necessarily care about the workup sheets, but if you can at least give us the copy the values from the summary into a new sheet. Okay.

So that we can go down and look and you know do some real quick math on you know percentage increases and whatnot. Then I I think we can at least have uh some educated questions to bring on later on instead of going um item by item by item. We can look for some big deviations. That make sense. Amy says it makes sense. You're overruled. Thank you so much. Uh I I think some of the clarification Miss Fish sent you all the the spreadsheets and it was printed last night. I forgot what time 9:30. They will continue to be worked on for about the next 3 to four hours. So, so you know what she sent you that was still a working document. We were in process of making those changes, you know, into the into the AM hour. So, I I think that's some of the confusion. Whenever Miss Fish sent those to you, those were the most updated numbers and we went through and and made uh made additional changes to try to find these cuts for you all. All right, we ready to move on? Next one. Board of Supervisors. Let me pull this up.

So, with the board of supervisors, uh, one of the first things I cut, I know we talked about this last year and I I asked the question and it was said, you know, let's keep it. It's Goto Meeting which is where we the platform we're using right now. That's $6,000 a year we pay for. We already have Microsoft the suite which has Microsoft Teams. So why don't we just use that? That's that's my suggestion. As someone who has had to use it as long I I had said to you that as long as the teams allows us to participate I'm good with that. The go to meeting can be a challenge.

That's right. Yeah. Yeah. So, so I've I've cut goto meeting alto together also in 3160 uh scribe. So scribe is the the board elected last year to have verbatim minutes. We we talked about this. So we've kept it in there. So right now the way and and some of this dovetales into a recent discussion from April 7th with a splitting of the board of directors board of supervisor meetings. So the way it's set up right now the board of supervisors pays the entire scribe fee. So what we've done is we we've we've looked at that amount and a 60/40 split. 60% board of supervisors, 40% service authority. So that's what I cut out 40% and that's the $1,920 reduction that whenever Mr. Hamilton presents his budget. Since those meetings will be split, we figured this is a good time to split part of the the transcription cost of the

I have a question too and I'm going to go back to I've seen all the old minutes and that legally we do not have to give such a detailed transcription of the meeting minutes. Legally it it isn't. I mean somebody could themselves go to YouTube, download it and transcribe it. That that you are correct. 100% honest. I just think we get rid of it and go back to the the way that is legally and if that's the board is very specific. Last year the board directed me to keep verbatim until the board tells me otherwise we're going to keep it. But if this is a good point for discussion if you don't want verbatim minutes we can get rid of scribe altogether.

We're cutting back to what's mandated. I would run that by the county attorney because it does still say we have to provide minutes. I don't know whether the YouTube counts as minutes for I'm not talking about that. If you look back at the old ones, the minutes are are a different it's not word by word action minutes. As long as we're not going to generate staff hours to generate the consolidated set of minutes, right? Um scribed or scripted or whatever it's called. Um Jeff, again, if it's saving us staff money, I'm I'm for it. But if we we can ask Mr. Dime too and see if our teams because you can transcribe in there. Transcribe.

Yeah. And I mean, it doesn't get every word correct, but it gets plenty close enough and if there's a problem, people can deconlict. And we still Yeah, we still go back through even with Scribe. I know one time she's gone, it was Miss Bucket instead of Miss Pucket. So, very similar. But those are easy things for staff to run through real quick. Boom. Knock them out. Yeah. Just let let Microsoft do it. I agree with that. Just how much will that save? Because it's kind of silly to use it. It's uh 4,800 a year. So between both of these, that's almost $11,000 in savings right there between those two. Good job.

So we we'll cut the we'll cut them both. Good deal. We'll make note of that. All right. And then the advertising account. This this is dovetail to what we had with with Kelly and Community Development. I was able to save cut $17,000 out of this budget um for the free press. I we may be able to go a little bit more, but I just wanted to make sure that that's where we're at. So 17 out of 25 is now gone and I took $500 from office supplies. And Matt, I just want to make a comment here because if public is listening right now is people don't realize that every time we have to advertise something for the board of supervisors, it's an advertisement we're required to do and it has to come out of our budget. That is correct. Any other questions with the board? That's $25,420

out of your budget. Sitting up here chatting, I think we can probably take a little challenge on those conference fees. Okay, that's 5540. Last year at least 11. I don't think we're even close to spending that this year. Yeah. So, we've got Veo for each board member. Um, professional training for new board member and then Veo training for the board members. You can take money for me out of those. I'll just pay them all. 10 10K. You guys agree with 10K? We're not going over that, I don't think. What is it at right now? It's 12750. $12,750. might go back to the number when each of the board members have to do a travel budget. So that could be 10 probably is a fair.

Okay. Well, we we'll reduce that down to to to 10,000. All right. I think we've got that noted. Thank you. You're going to BO, right? Yes. I'm also on the board director. So, yes. Not bigger. Are you going to go again? Okay. You want to go Okay. You don't want to go? I I paid my way last time anyway. So, if I do go, I'll just pay my way. One more time in English. I paid my way last time. If I do go, I will pay my way. Okay, fair enough. And I We've got three representatives there. I don't think we all need to go. I'm not going then. Okay. If somebody drops off, I'll take their spot, but but I don't plan on going anyway.

So, 10,000 less another 1,800. All right. Noted. Thank you. Any other questions on the on your all's budget? All right, moving on. County attorney. So, I've got that up here. As you know, we have a a contract with uh Mr. Stewart. So, there are Let me pull this up. So the big ticket item is is line item uh 3150. So he has a we have a monthly retainer in here 12875 and then there's uh per his amended contract for any outside litigation. Uh $300 an hour. We baked in 420 hours. I think the first couple months 20 20 I think we've been receiving bills for outside council 20 to 25,000 each month so we had to we had to include that at 126 what we did we slid uh the Kaufman and canol's HR support sometimes there's HR spec we had a case uh uh very spe very recently chief Moody in his 28 years me and my 22 we've never faced it before so we have to have outside HR counsel you got you know attorneys specialize in each areas. I know human resources has a good relationship with Kaufman and Canolles. Senator Stewart put me on to Ford Harrison. So, two different attorneys, one's Northern Virginia, one's down in Hampton Road. So, those we slid those from administration and human resources into the county attorney's budget. So, it was just a even for even transfer. We've got a health insurance for for Mary 8.25 a month. uh outside council I cut that by $30,000 was 50 uh down to 20 and then third party attorney fees I cut it from $8,000 down to 4,000.

Wait a second. Back up. So we have contract with county attorney. He's he's not staff. What what what did you say about healthcare? So whenever uh Miss Mary Pelleteer Stewart passed the bar, she she assists and um we had a conversation about, you know, can we provide healthc care insurance for her? The answer, the legal answer was no, we cannot. She's a contract employee. We cannot do that. However, they offered the the the supplement for her to to purchase healthcare insurance. Was that part of the contract that we signed with the attorney?

It was not in the contract. I know there were some discussions among the board when this came up. Um, did the board approve this? I don't I don't recall this being in the minutes anywhere. I just It's a 70% increase over last year. And you look back 2 or 3 years ago, I remember my predecessor proclaiming about the savings we were getting with the county attorney and we're spending more now than we ever had. I can actually answer that. That was a personnel matter and that was in a closed session. So that

in the open session he has talked about how it's half as we're we're half as this expense we used to be. And in the past they were spending five I think about $500,000 and a lot of that stuff was on I was never in the budget for 500,000. I'm talking about in the past that's what they and a lot of that was just on outside sources of our past attorney having to reach out for help on everything. It was somewhere abouts there. And in the past we had a we had a attorney and an assistant attorney also in the budget. So, you're okay with them approving contracts without bringing it to the board? I don't think they have approved the contract.

It sounds like we're we're now paying for an assistant attorney and healthcare for an assistant attorney. Look, I'm just looking for budget items, right? Where, you know, can we get contracted services where it would be cheaper for some of these questions? I think HR, you're doing that, right? You're going to an HR company or HR attorney questions, right?

I guess Brian, I don't understand what your question is. I mean, and to get because you made a couple of points. So, what's the the down question? So, I guess well, let's just go with off of last year's budget. How much of the difference between 267100 and 370400 are for the additional? So it's not apples to apples. How much of that is for your HR attorney? So for HR we have I took it down to 8 12 is 18,000 for HR. That was a transfer. So $18,000 transfer

that that doesn't nearly account for the nearly 100,000 in growth. I mean so there's still 80k that's grow growth from last year I believe with the amended contract there the second item there the litigation and outside services that that's the $126,000. Okay. I I think that I think that's where came in. That was part of his amended contract that was approved by the board of supervisors. And those are the bills. I think I think the first couple months are 20 to $25,000 a month on top of his retainer is what were being build. And the only way to really fix that would be to get out from outside litigation.

You know, we can we can look at that. Um you know, they they do itemize the the bills that come in. you know, if if if we want to present those to the board to see how that is being built, we we most certainly can. I think we just needed to explain it. I think you've done a decent job. I can say on the HR part since I had to deal with that when I had my role at the beginning of 2024, there is definitely legal that no county attorney and HR related. You have to have people that are specific, especially in federal and and as it was put to me, those rules change monthly. And so you have to have a law firm that actually specializes in that type of law. It's just like water law. You have to have people that are very specific in that kind of law.

So going back to something you just said that kind of concerns me and I want to make sure that we clarify. Um and I'm going to speak for the board, but y'all correct me if I'm wrong. Um when you say that the way to get away from this is to get get out of outside litigation. We're not going to roll over and let Amazon win. I did not say that. I know, but I know where you're going. I am not going there. So, so what I can do, you know, for the board, what I'll do is I I can send you the the monthly invoices to see how they relate to what specific cases. I I can get those to the board as they come in. Which what do we have going on right now? It's the the HOA with Hopyard,

Amazon Yeah, those are the only two right now, right? There's not a lot right now. There was last year we had that that development. Jackie saying something to me. Sorry. There's also the um group. Yeah. That's a rec that's a recent blew me group. That that one just came in. Mouth Dillard is going to go pull the the monthly invoices to and they should be in the warrants every month, right? the the amount is the detail how he ch you know how how his hourly are built and what specific cases are not in the warrants warrants are just a dollar amount I'm good for today okay

anything else with county attorney Mr. Sure. Five or I can choose myself. Yeah, let's take five. Okay. Thank you, sir. We'll do five in it.

Don't you look somebody dude? Where you going? off again. I think

Jonathan, you got to go to the bathroom. Come on up. So with the social services budget, I just want to start with the with the administration. I know um you know it's a very unique department where there's a lot of matching funds coming from federal state government. Very complex budget looking through it and having conversations. We we met yesterday at you know 3:00. So I did not propose any changes to DSS budget but I think Jonathan you know who he is I think he's got a few things to to bring to the board's attention.

Yeah. Um, so, uh, I have brought Cut was listening all morning. Um, and, uh, uh, but before I get into that, I I just wanted to, um, uh, inform you kind of how our our revenue works. Um, so we don't we receive upfront allocations based off of the state budget, um, which ultimately is informed by the governor's final budget. So yesterday we uh Matt and I met uh to talk through um some of the administrative uh items in the preliminary guidance uh for the um uh the Ynan administration's uh budget that he released back in December. Now that could all change. We have a new governor um and currently the House and the Senate are are at odds. um and they have recommended different things that would impact our our administration. So um the preliminary guidance recommends uh or or not recommends provides a 2% uh cost of living adjustment for for salaries as well as a one-time 2% uh bonus. All of that could change. I think the Senate or the House recommends a 3% cola and doesn't invol include a bonus. And so so we're waiting for for the state to give us final guidance, but when it does come to that though those those revenues and the final budget guidance, um, one thing that I always want to avoid is leaving money on the table that gets distributed to other localities. So, one example of how that would work is if um Spanberger recommends a 3% cost of living and we only all provide a 2% then we leave that remaining 1% on the table and it goes and gets dispersed to the localities that provided it. Same with

the bo with a bonus. So, that's one avenue that I I just wanted to kind of inform you of. Um but uh in addition to um uh salary adjustments, the the cuts that I'm going to recommend, I I uh shared with you all back in December, I think that was when we had our first budget work session. Um and I discussed uh the Benty platform, which is an AI uh component that we could utilize. It's got a $30,000 uh price tag at this point. Um that is a a dream I'm willing to forego currently. Um so that's 30 grand. Um that's budget 3160 professional services benty. And then the in the same um category 3160 professional services we had um earmarked um consulting and management training uh for $10,000. Uh we can um uh we we will not utilize that this year. Um

so so in its entirety Yes. Yeah. Yep. Uh we can Jonathan the Vinty would that have eliminated the need for a staff person or not?

No. It would helped improve performance compliance and ease the job of existing staff. It it would it doesn't do enough work to uh reduce staff. Um, and then also we requested uh a a copier. So that is in budget uh 5410. So lease rent equipment and that's the uh $5,089. Um I will point out just in com if you're looking at annual comparisons um this is beyond the uh the DSS uh admin budget but the children's services act uh CSA budget we reduced that by $800,000. Our projections from last year uh all the growth that we have seen every year did not happen. It actually reduced. Um so um uh that could change. I could come back next spring and say we have blown the budget um because more kids required services. Um so that is a that is a very finicky budget item. Um uh yeah so those those are my cuts. Do you have any other questions

are over there already. So and then you talk about using that for compliance. you're already at like 99% compliance all the time. I don't know what you what you're asking. There's there's always room for for errors. Unfortunately, Sure. Thank you.

All right. Next up is economic development. I'll pull this up shortly. Creative economic development. Just bear with me for a second. I know I made cuts. I just want to find those. Okay. So, with economic development, uh, one vehicles, what we did, we we transferred with the the county administration suite. Let me back up. County administration suite has a, uh, Dodge Caravan. We've, that was a fleet vehicle where people could sign out. Now that we're fully staffed in the administration suite, I assign that vehicle to the suite itself. And then I have my work vehicle. So, I was able to cut some money. I don't want to double dip uh, between administration, economic development. So, I cut out 2 thou $250 for vehicle maintenance with that uh that particular line item account 3600. Uh cut $2,000 for advertising. I'll pull these up so you all can see them. So, advertising I cut in half. Uh then that's also for sponsorships of events. I cut 5540 travel IEDC. This is the International Economic Development Council. you I'm I'm I'm focusing on the state and rebuilding some things here so I don't need to travel travel nationally. So I pulled this uh conference as I did uh 5810 $400 for IDC dues. I cut $600 for gasoline and then Google suites. These are the actually the EDA's um uh just like the planning

commission they do not have their their King George domain. So we have Google Suites for their their Gmail accounts 6012. I pulled this out of uh the operating budget and this is taken care of through the EDA. So EDA's budget $6,66 worth of cuts. See the FICA went down by like half and then uh the VRS uh I'm sorry

I'm going health insurance premiums went down by like a ton. Are are those cuts real or are we messing somebody up? So, no, if you can recall, there was a a realignment of the economic development department with the FY26 budget. That was two full-time positions. There's a blended position now. So, so that's why.

Awesome. Thank you. Just want to make sure. Any other questions for economic development? All right. Hearing none, I will I will move on. Engineering public works. We have Mr. Young coming up here. I will pull up his budget. I I did make some slight adjustments last night and the public works. So, the big thing with the engineering department that that I did make a cut to was the the position that I had recommended um on Tuesday night. This would be the the inspector. So, that position is gone. I have Let me pull up my email here. I've got it. There we go. Thank you, Miss Dillard. So, uh so without the new position, uh Mr. Young had hoped for. He built in obviously what that new position would need. And one of them was uh a vehicle. So, we cut out the vehicle repairs. We cut out $420 for a cell phone, cut out $1,000 for the new vehicle insurance, and cut out $600 for gasoline. So really, his $83,220 plus benefits are associated with the cutting of the the capital projects inspector position. And those were the the cuts that I made for engineering. We have two individual, two very hardworking individuals in this department. I just chuckle. You have one landline for $48. Can you put his cell phone back and get rid of that landline? No, I I guess I would bring up like we probably should do an audit across the entire um funding lines of how many people have both a landline and a cell phone. I think most of us have just moved to a cell phone.

I would agree with that for the cell phone except for the emergency contact function of the landline. Yeah, that's why I figure you kept one.

Our landline isn't Is that not a um VOIPE? I'm I'm I'm hearing from my sappy. Yes, it is. Okay. Any other questions for for Mr. Young while he's here? All right. Thank you, sir. I I do have a question and not about the budget. They're running at Powerell Mill Bank. I do not have anything to do with that. That would be uh I believe Dominion. Dominion. Okay. Yeah. Underground Power Millbank. That's a good thing. Doing away with overhead power lines.

All right. Moving on to emergency services. Let me pull this budge up. This is I see Henson and Moody here. Thank you gentlemen for for being here. All right, I'm I'll I'll start just you know what what we did uh just to keep the same format. So I went through this line by line. This is and this is one of the the bigger budgets here. You know emergency services very important component for citizens. Uh looking at this I started with account 1,200. So chief had requested nine new positions with this this current budget for his staffing needs. Unfortunately, you know, with with my proposal, there will be zero funded positions. So what I did, I went back through this and I did this late last night. So if there are some corrections, I'm glad Chief is here, but this is this is what I did from from a layman standpoint going through uh I'll start with uh item 1,200 uh so there are the additional paramedic employees. Uh, I took that out. That was $105,36. Also, uh, the additional EMS supervisor, lieutenant, the assistant training officer, and the additional, uh, deputy fire marshal. These were all positions that chief had requested, and rightfully so, he built them into the budget. Um, but since we're we're not going to I'm not recommending funding any of those, we can we can take them out as far as uh, account 1,200 goes. So, looking at this, and here's where I I may need some clarification. Uh, looking at certification pay, I know

there's been a lot of discussion on this. I had a good talk with uh with Chief Moody uh just a couple days ago on this. So, for the advance, the EMT advanced. So, I guess my my statement and or question um so I see six current plus Henderson minus Beverly. So, the way that shows that that's telling me that there would be six instead of 10 So, if that's the case, we can go four times uh 4* 3 is $12,000 a cut. And I don't Is that in here? But that's a $12,000 cut that I made. I I'm It's probably in the uh in the summary, but I'll double check on that. Additionally, with 1650 for uh preceptors, ALS preceptor down here at the bottom. The way I read this late last night, 12 qualified in 2025. There may be more. Um, I'm I'm looking here. It's showing 20 at a rate of of $1250. What I did, I I reduced Yeah, there we are. The $22,000 reduction. I reduced it down to the number of qualified. If that changes, we can we can talk about that. But I want to do 10 at 1250. So, for um for the the for the uh for yeah, for for the um where am I at here? I'm I'm sorry. 1650. It's actually that's C pay. This this should be C pay, not temporary. That's where I got. But the line item down here is is certification pay. The the tab this this this heading is incorrect. That's what threw me off. Moving on to 3110. We've got health services. So, uh physicals, there were nine positions that were not funded. Nine new positions. So instead of the uh the the the full month for pre-employment physicals, I reduced it by those employees who are not funded as

with the FY27 budget 3310. So I noticed this in the the fire rescue, the EMS, and the general properties. They all have money for general station repairs. So this is, you know, I I saw that line item in three different budgets across the county. Reduce this one by $2,000. Um, you know, I I I I don't know the the extent we'd have to go back and, you know, see exactly where they're at, what they've spent, but uh we're going to and you'll see the the cuts in the other budgets also, but it does not need to be in three different places. Minimal cut in 5220 for UPS and FedEx. Where we at? 50 5220 Messenger. That that was a small cut. That was a a $250 savings. 5540. I know there's been some discussion on this. So the the aid to localities grant that we have this and chief correct me if I'm wrong but everybody whose homeowners insurance you pay homeowners insurance there's a a portion of that premium goes into a pot and the commonwealth divides that pool of money based on population and that money can be used for very specific things. It calls it out uh turnout gear, you know, PPE, travel training. Uh there there there are a couple of things I think you can I think you bought a boat a couple years you can use it for equipment purchases. Yes.

So trying to push as I stated last year I'm trying to push everybody to to exhaust the the grant money that comes in first before we spend a dime of taxpayer money. So, you it's going to be tight, but I'm I'm recommending that we we push 3,000 uh for for the food and lodging and 5540 to ATL as with the EMT basic and paramedic training 16K. I'd rather use the grant money first and if there is a deficit, you know, we can always come back. There is he can come back to me throughout the year and says, you know, Mr. Smoke, I need a little little additional money, but I want to exhaust ATL to begin with. And then is it 3,000 6,000 58.99 this is the uh the line of duty act. So looking at this the new positions requested unless I'm missing something. This you know the the seven here we can cut out this $3,712.80. So I made that cut last night. 6,0001 which is general office supplies minimal cut 13,000 down to to $200 13,000 down to 11,000 for a cut of 2,000 and then 67 this is building supplies so um supplies for the upkeep of the buildings was 15,000 I cut it uh by a third down to $10,000 so for this particular budget emergency services uh total cuts $190,60080 sense. And I'm I'll be happy to answer any questions. And I've I know I've got uh two representatives from fire rescue here. Uh should the board have any questions? Anyone? Go ahead. When's the new fire department, fire station come online?

In dog. Yeah, dog room. Uh we're hoping to start construction uh this maybe fall and about a year um year of construction time. Uh so we're probably you know we're looking a year past what's that 20 28 fall winter 2020. Okay. So next budget is when we have to think about outfit right of that station. I was thinking about some of your cuts. I'm like, you know, if we were not doing maintenance on Dog and when does that Yeah. come back to kind of catch us back up. Okay. Nope. Just thanks for giving us that little bit of And hopefully um most of our startup cost would be in the actual capital budget.

Big big expenses. I was thinking like toiletries and janitorial supplies, medical supplies. We're we're anticipating that that not being a big change. Good. Yeah. Maybe maybe a little bit of change, but not a big change. You think we can get you on the agenda sometime maybe, June to come and give us a little five minute status update on just just so we know what's going on with the fire department with the the new building? Yeah, I I would um what I would uh recommend I'm happy to do that anytime is I can is if we can get the project to a point that I can give you kind of some a good update. Mhm.

So, right now we're we're moving the architects are moving from their design phase. Once that's complete, then we're going to have, you know, kind of some some renderings in which we do have some renderings right now. I know Supervisor Stout has been an integral part of that uh that project. Uh but once we get to uh we can, you know, provide some estimated numbers, give you some good renderings, give you, you know, something that's a good product for a presentation, I'd love to do that. Okay, cool. Thank you. Absolutely. Any other questions? All right. You got a question?

Not really a question, but we may want to we may want to do like later on in the year whenever after the budget and everything has passed is take, you know, kind of like where we're at and then where you started from a budget aspect with the Wow. You know what I'm saying? just to so everybody understands the huge difference and really whenever they see the renderings and see what's there um I think they'll be pretty impressed with it. So yeah. Yeah. No, no, no question. Absolutely. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. My neck go back. No. Yeah.

Uh I think in some discussions, you know, we're in the the next um recruit class right now. Um what Mr. Mr. Smoldc has shown us last week uh if you looked at what was not funded was some he had some minimal budget in there for overhires. I I know that we always have a little fallout during that you know we always get we've been getting 10 recruits in and 10 rarely graduate. I don't think ever have we graduated a full 10. No, I don't think ever.

So um this is a policy that he's not allowed to violate. And since we own the policy I think at some point I'd like to get Mr. small to propose. Is there a better way? Those people don't come onto the budget until halfway through the year anyway. Um maybe with an agree somewhere agreement between the heads and the administration. What's a good number to allow them to overhire temporarily so that we'll end the year at a better headcount position than we've been out. Gotcha. I don't think it I don't think there's a real expense to that from a budgetary perspective, from a budget cap, but there is a headcount impact and our our policy today says we're not allowed to violate that headcount.

Okay. No, I'm I'm good with that. Yeah. I think that's that's just smart strategy. Yes. Yes. Build a little buffer in

and and that's almost become the industry standard. I think most of our neighbors are doing that, you know, because if not, it's you you really can't if you have a person that's a month in the program, you can't you can't rewind a clock. The the program itself is is moving ahead. So, it's kind of like um um I know we have if you think about boot camp, if you if a person drops out of boot camp two months into it, you can't just bring a person in and say, "All right, well, we're going to put you right in and start." you're like, "No, you got to go to the next you gota go to the next boot camp." And that's kind of where we're at. And that's a good analogy.

Very good. Cool beans. Any other questions? Yeah. Thanks, Chief. Okay. He just gave us reading material, I think.

Yeah. All that was is um so we we uh that was one of my um budget items that I passed I you know when we internally gave our our budget presentation back in I think it was January and in this very room and and amongst our internal team and you know there's no there's no question or secret that probably between public safety fire rescue law enforcement and the schools we're all within a in a hyper competitive market. And u so I knew that a couple of them had changed since since uh January. I didn't know that almost all of them had changed. And so we so just from January to where we're at today, our market around us has has changed substantially. And um you know I just try to always you know position ourselves as a county how you know how how can we recruit and retain um particularly with our starting pays not our mid and not our upper pays but our starting pays. They're like Caroline for example they're going we're we're hiring at 49,000 starting. They just they just upped it to 58. Carolina that it it's going to be very tough for me. West Morland's paying more than our starting. I lost a guy to West Morland last year to make more money.

Uh correct. And work less hours. Yep. So that's a that that's just that's just a challenge we're in. I mean, I've been I've been pretty um open and clear with that uh with Mr. Smolnik. Um, I it it hits hard when it's west of us. It hits harder when it's east of us and south. And and I'm not saying anything uh that doesn't affect any other department. We're all in the same boat. It's just a public safety right now is just a hyper competitive market and it's changing. Um we're trying to do our best to put flyers and recruitment things and say, "Hey, come to us." I had eight positions in the in the academy that's in this recruit academy. I had only 10 finalist. So, so it's about a 1.2 ratio per position. That's all I'm trying to do there. Look, there's some Northern Virginia localities in there. I know we're not we're not that's not up to us, but it just gives you allows you to put a pulse in a in a in a a temperature what's going on in the particularly in our market. So, thank you. If you guys I would take that as a big plug for the there's some new curriculum they're looking at in the CTE realm to work with our high school students that want to go into this field. Like it's a bit of a supply and demand Right. So, let's also help on the supply side. So, yeah, thanks for that bit of info.

As always, thank y'all for your support. We we couldn't do what we do for the community without you. Ask your question and Mr. and Mr. Smolnik and administration, Moody. So, kind of like um like the Marines do, the Army does, do you guys go up to the high school and set up recruiting tables and things that nature? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I know that you guys hired at least one of my old football players and yes we did. He's from King George and I I sense that he will probably stay around King George. He likes King George a lot. So I know that that will help. Also it helps with West Mo and something because they don't have any paid fire department so they're able to pay EMS a little bit more because we we kind of pick that load up a little bit for them too, right?

That's right. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Look, we're every every countyy's in this in a challenge. calls are going up and you know people the availability to volunteer is going away and uh it's it's just a it's just a challenge you know um but no we're to to your point we are very uh involved in um in the CTE program and we want to keep being involved uh we we've been able to recruit and get some good uh young people but we also um to Mr. uh Supervisor Mets's point, uh you know, we we also envision a supply. We're going to need these positions and need these young people to take these uh positions and jobs as our county develops. So, yeah, we're getting ready to have to outfit a new fire station and then new vote building. So, budget's only going to be going up at some point. And and back to that comp plan update discussion we were having. Do we when are we going to need a Shiloh fire station,

right? I'll tell you I think that that was in your the February 11th exercise we did. I I want to say that was that was when we put it in for CIP, but that comp plan really defines the what is our vision? How far do we go? But without having that, right, we might be wrong on our guess on CIP. You know, we've got to get worry about a barn and hay and everything for the horses first. Right. Right. Thanks, Chief. Yeah, absolutely. Chief Chief, if you are the next budget is is yours also. So, uh, King George Fire Rescue. Yeah.

I've pulled that up. Made made smaller cuts to this. This is obviously a a smaller budget. So going through last night, let's see. Okay, let me skip the

3310. Again, this was the uh uh repairs and maintenance. You'll see this uh in the general properties and you saw it in in emergency services. I made cuts here. Again, if if Chief does need more money, he can come back. But I saw this in three areas of the budget. So I cut these 5540. This would be the travel and training. This was a a push to the ATL, the ATL localities grant. Also, I'd like to see this that that grant burned up before we we spend any money on training. Is there if you need to interject, please do so. Um if I could um if I could just highlight one point on on uh when it comes to the building maintenance. The reason why it is seen and separate in this budget is in the other budget is for company one and company one is a county. You as a board of supervisors own that building.

This budget is for three. It's actually for four actual structures that are volunteer owned in which we have a lease on and part of that lease is we have to maintain it. So for example, we had to put a new roof on company 2 in dog about a year ago. So that'd be a good example. So we we pay for that. We uh but there we don't physically own those buildings as King George County. So just just to highlight that that doesn't mean we can't cut some. that just I just wanted to point that out that it was volunteer owned buildings. Y

So when we build a new company to station, what happens to the old one? That's a great question. Um I have some ideas and recommendations that I won't I don't want to necessarily go into right now, but uh if nothing is done, okay, then uh what would happen is we would vacate the building. the lease would be terminated. Um the volunteers would retain that building. They would sell the building most likely and then they would keep the money. Okay.

And that's a way uh that's a way it would be and I at least for the fire station, the rescue station, the older building, I believe they can't uh they have to maintain that because they can never sell it if they ever My understanding was it was donated and it has to always be used for fire rescue kind of purposes. Yes, sir. That was my that's my impression and my research on that building as well. But really the the one that would get some money would be the fire station. Okay. Gotcha. Yeah. Isn't it true too if we don't maintain that one it has to go back to the family that donated? I think that's also part of it.

Yes. Yes. That's that's uh that was part of the whatever deed I guess it be. And then then really the the last cut 6,0001 just as I've done with most most lo Why did I cut this 4,000? I think I typed 4,000. I did not mean to go 4,000. This this should have been a $500 cut because we I I was I did not plan on cutting. Um so it was a late night cut. So that that should be actually a $500 cut, not a $4,000 cut for for general office supplies. And that's it for emergency services and fire rescue. Uh and everything else, the EMS grants. Um that's that's that's money and money out. So I believe that's it for for Chief Moody and Chief Henson,

right? The ambulance. I don't know the ambulance fee. No. Good. Yeah, we didn't make any changes in any way. Thank you.

Thank you, gentlemen, for for coming. Any other questions? All right. Thank you. So, I I see uh I can I'm proud to say your honor walked into the door here a little while ago. Uh Honorable Charlie Clark. So, we we've we've been through the uh the courts earlier. I know uh Mr. Clark came over on his time here. And when one thing I know there was a question that came up on Tuesday night, the law clerk position that was that was asked about is that a comp board funded position? The answer is no. It's 100% general fund. So, I I I did have a a talk yesterday with Miss Murray. I think she passed it on to uh to the judge that there's no new positions here at the county. Yesterday when we spoke, there were three. As of last night, there were zero. So, um Mr. Clark is here to if there's any questions the board may have or if there's anything else that he'd like to add.

Well, first let me say that it's good to see everybody. Haven't done it from this side before, but it's good to see everybody. Uh hope things are going well. Um to his point, I I'll just say since it's being recorded, I think Judge Strickland had come in uh maybe in December was when that meeting was and had asked for a law clerk position. Um and a law clerk is different from an intern because an intern has not been through law school. A law clerk is a lawyer. they have not yet passed the bar sometimes um depending on where they are in their career, but they know how to analyze cases. They know how to help write opinions. Um and it's something that's very helpful, especially on the civil side of things. And what it can do is really speed up the process in terms of how quickly chambers can get orders out. So, if you have a case coming before us, um, and we need to get you a decision, but that decision is going to take some research. It's going to take some time, it might take 10, 15, 20, 30 pages of writing. Uh, if I have to do that myself, when court's done at the end of the day, and you start compounding that by case after case after case after case, the speed of justice slows down quite a bit. Um, and I'll point out asking for a law clerk is not just trying to make my life easier. It certainly would. Um, but a law clerk also really does serve the community in a lot of ways that you don't think about because things can get done a whole lot faster. I'll give you a perfect example real quickly and I know y'all got a lot going on, but um you have an adoption case come in and it's sitting on my desk and I've got a stack of stuff this high to get through and I can't go through and check that they have hit all the boxes they need for that adoption case because I've got

three or four other pending things. Then you've got a set of, you know, willful wanting parents to be waiting on this order so they can finally tell this child that they've been adopted and they are now their own. Um, it's things like that. Um, I understand uh I have not been watching the meetings. I'm sorry to say. Um, but um I understand the financial position uh that the board is taking right now. I'm not asking for the law clerk. I'm not trying to lobby you again today for that. I just wanted to make sure that for those watching at home, when we come back next year and ask for it, hopefully the revenue situation is a little better. Um, and the 75,000 plus benefits ask at that time I think will be fully justifiable and and and I'll ask you in the exact same way I did today. Um otherwise, um and obviously this is new to me. Uh but in looking through the budget and what's been spent in the past, I I'm good with everything else. I didn't do this particular budget. Judge Strickland and Miss Murray were the ones who went in and submitted it. Um but everything in here, I think, seems very reasonable. Uh the majority of it, of course, is the judicial assistant, and I can't tell you how indispensable they are. Um, and Miss Murray has got the reputation in the circuit as being one of the fastest, most go-getter ones. So, um, we're proud of that. Um, if you have any questions for me, I'm happy to answer them. I know given the fact that I just went after Chief Moody, this seems like a pretty tiny number. So,

well, I will tell you that as far there's some few positions that I feel like the county needs and the grant writer is one, the law clerk is the other one. I think that we have some pretty big cases coming up on some and the more support and help judges have in dealing with some of those things on the bottom line, it's not I don't think it's that big of an ask. Well, in the current in the current financial climate that I have heard, it would be a big ask. And I understand why the answer today is no. Uh completely and totally. Uh I'll lobby for it again next year. All right. Mr. Collins is not going to be happy.

No, he's not. I think I'm going to see him in about three weeks and uh I'm sure he'll say something about it. I I appreciate you coming in. That was my question. I was trying to get your law clerk. I thought it was part of the comp board uh list of of uh of positions. Um I think I'd asked it last week. I appreciate the explanation. I think Miss Guzman had also talked about reshuffleling a few things. Um appreciate you working with us this year and I'm sure we'll uh keep an eye on this one. Maybe even before we get to next year if the revenue turns around at least I'll otherwise. Is everyone comfortable with what's on the sheet as it stands? Yeah. Well, then I won't waste any more time, Mr. Chairman. You look like you might have a question for me.

No, I was just going to Thanks for stopping by. Never a waste of our time. It's always fun to see you. Happy to do it. Uh had a docket in West Morland today and it was pretty long, but we got here. We made it happen. We appreciate it. Good to see y'all. Thank you, sir. You want to jump to finance? Or we can take a break if we need to. I said we can take a break now if you need to, but we just got off.

If you're not if you're not ready, Matt, we take a recess. We can take a recess. Yeah, we can take a recess. I I thought I was holding somebody up. If we take the one hour recess, that's my our fault. I figured she was here, we could knock it out. I think she's ignoring us all together. We Don't use it.