City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Thank you.

It is 6.07. We are going to officially call to order tonight's September 8th legislative meeting. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Mayor Gaskins. Here. Vice Mayor Bagley. Here. Councilman Aguirre. Here. Councilman Chapman. Councilman El-Nubi. Here. Councilwoman Green. Councilwoman Marks. Madam Clerk, next item. Closed session discussion concerning the performance of City Council appointees, discussion on CONSIDERATION OF THE INVESTMENT OF PUBLIC FUNDS WHERE COMPETITION IS INVOLVED AND CONSULTATION WITH LEGAL COUNSEL REGARDING 2026 GENERAL ASSEMBLY ACTIONS.

MADAM MAYOR, I MOVE THAT CITY COUNCIL CONVENE IN CLOSED EXECUTIVE SESSION PURSUANT TO VIRGINIA CODE SECTION 2.2-3711A1, A6 AND A8 TO DISCUSS THE PERFORMANCE OF CITY COUNCIL APPOINTEES TO DISCUSS OR CONSIDER THE INVESTMENT OF PUBLIC FUNDS OR COMPETITION OR BARGAININGS INVOLVED. IF MADE PUBLIC INITIALLY THE FINANCIAL INTEREST OF THE CITY WOULD BE ADVERSELY AFFECTED AND A8 CONSULTATION WITH LEGAL COUNCIL REGARDING 2026 GENERAL ASSEMBLY ACTIONS WHICH REQUIRE THE PROVISION OF LEGAL ADVICE BY SUCH COUNCIL.

Okay, there has been a motion. Is there a second? Second. There's been a motion by Councilman Aguirre and a second by Vice Mayor Bagley to convene in closed executive session. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, the ayes have it. We are now in executive session and will convene at 7 p.m.

Thank you.

Testing 1, 2, 3. Testing 1, 2, 3. Testing 1, 2, 3. Testing 1, 2, 3. You can hear me? OK.

Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay, it is 7-17. Councilman Aguirre.

Madam Mayor, move to reconvene in open session. Second.

There's been a motion by Councilman Aguirre and a second by Councilwoman Green to reconvene from closed executive session. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, the ayes have it. Councilman Aguirre. Oh.

We're good.

Okay. With that, Madam Clerk, next item.

Moment of silence and Pledge of Allegiance.

It is our practice as we begin each of our legislative meetings to begin with a moment of silence followed by the pledge. We ask if you are able to please rise. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty Okay, Madam Clerk, next item.

Presentation of a proclamation recognizing September as Sickle Cell Awareness Month.

Okay, I have asked Councilwoman Green to read this proclamation. If you are here joining us in recognition of Sickle Cell Awareness Month, we ask that you please come to the front at this time.

Good evening, everyone. It's good to be back. It's good to see so many good friends in the audience here tonight. I am going to be reading the proclamation for Sickle Cell Awareness Month, and then I will get my good friend here to introduce herself and talk about all the wonderful work that's being done in our city around sickle cell awareness. Whereas the Heart of Gold Sickle Cell Foundation of Northern Virginia Incorporated was founded in the city of Alexandria in 2011 by the late Clarissa Pearson, a sickle cell warrior and proud graduate of Alexandria City High School. Go Titans. And whereas sickle cell disease affects more than 4,000 individuals across the Commonwealth of Virginia, significantly impacting their health, well-being, and quality of life, and whereas persistent health disparities and barriers to access continue to affect the quality of care for individuals living with sickle cell disease, and whereas it is important for the estimated 155,000 Virginians living with sickle cell trait to know their status as when both parents carry the trait, there is a 25% chance that their child will be born with sickle cell disease. And whereas the Heart of Gold Sickle Cell Foundation remains committed to providing education, support, and advocacy for individuals and families AFFECTED BY SICKLE CELL DISEASE AND SICKLE CELL TRAIT WITH THE GOAL OF IMPROVING HEALTH OUTCOMES AND INCREASING PUBLIC AWARENESS. NOW, THEREFORE, I, JACINTA GREEN, ON BEHALF OF ALIA GASKINS, MAYOR OF THE CITY OF ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA, AND ON BEHALF OF THE ALEXANDRIA CITY COUNCIL, Do hereby proclaim September 2026 as sickle cell awareness month in the city of Alexandria and encourages all residents to increase awareness, support education and advocacy efforts and stand in solidarity with those affected by sickle cell disease. It went in witness whereof. I have here unto set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Alexandria to be affixed this eighth day of September 2026. Aaliyah Gaskins, Mayor.

Thank you to the mayor and everyone on the council for recognizing this important month. I think it's something that we need to focus on that sickle cell disease impacts many of the citizens here in the city, but there's something that everyone could do. Increase blood donations, talk about it, share information. We have information packets for each one of you. so that we can carry on the legacy of Clarissa, who was a proud graduate of Alexandria City High School. Thank you so much for this. Yes, and please give everyone your name. Oh, I'm sorry. Melanie Pearson Hurley. All right, wonderful.

Thank you, Melanie, and thank you to you and to everyone in our city that makes sure that we are aware of this disease and continues to fight for those that are suffering from it. So thank you so much. And with that, Mayor Gaskins, I move to adopt the proclamation.

There has been a motion by Councilman Green and a second by Councilman Chapman to move the proclamation recognizing September as sickle cell awareness month. Is there any discussion? I would just echo my thanks, Ms. Melody, for bringing forth this proclamation. My cousin has sickle cell, and I'm always amazed by how many people still don't know the impacts of this disease. what it does to individuals, to their families. And so I thank you for your call to action about the importance of education, but also a reminder that all of us can play a role in raising awareness about sickle cell in our community, as well as the resources that are available. So with that, there has been a motion and a second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. The ayes have it. The proclamation passes. Thank you. Madam Clerk, next item.

Presentation of a proclamation recognizing September as Suicide Prevention Month.

I have asked Vice Mayor Bagley to read the proclamation recognizing September also as Suicide Prevention Month. If you are here joining us for this proclamation, we ask that you please come to the front at this time.

Are your ears burning? I was just talking about that.

Yeah, I'm sure you are.

I'm saying good things. Are we on? Yes. All right. Good evening, everybody. I think everybody's been here before, but I'll agree to the proclamation, and then I'll hand you guys the microphone to share a little bit about yourselves and why you're here. All right? Okay. So, whereas suicide is a serious public health concern that affects youth, adults, families, schools, workplaces, and communities across all backgrounds and walks of life, And whereas every life lost to suicide leaves a lasting impact on family members, friends, colleagues, and the greater community, underscoring the importance of compassion, connection, awareness, and access to support. And whereas mental health challenges can affect anyone, and creating communities where people feel safe asking for help is essential to reducing stigma and preventing suicide. And whereas Suicide Prevention Awareness Month provides an important opportunity to educate the public about the warning signs of suicide, encourage open and honest conversations about mental health, promote available resources, and remind those who may be struggling that they are not alone. Whereas suicide prevention is a shared responsibility that requires the collective efforts of individuals, families, educators, health care professionals, first responders, community organizations, faith communities, local leaders, and advocates. And whereas the Suicide Prevention Alliance of Northern Virginia, SPAN, a regional coalition of community services boards and community partners, works to raise awareness, share resources, and strengthen suicide prevention efforts throughout Northern Virginia. including through its Ask, Talk, Connect campaign, which encourages community members to recognize when someone may be struggling, ask direct and caring questions, talk openly and provide support, and connect individuals with trusted people, professional help, and crisis resources. And whereas increasing public awareness, reducing the stigma associated with seeking help, encouraging meaningful human connection, and ensuring that people know where to turn during times of crisis can help save lives. And whereas the residents of City of Alexandria are encouraged to learn the warning signs of suicide, check in on family members, friends, neighbors, and colleagues, listen without judgment, and help connect those in need with appropriate service and resources. Now, therefore, I, Sarah Bagley, on behalf of Aaliyah Gaskins, Mayor of the City of Alexandria, Virginia, and on behalf of the Alexandria City Council, do hereby recognize September 2026 as Suicide Prevention Awareness Month in the City of Alexandria and call this observance to the attention of all our citizens. And witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and cause the seal of the City of Alexandria to be affixed this eighth day of September, September 2026, Mayor Aaliyah Gaskins. And with that, I'm going to hand the microphone to my right. Oh, to my left.

Well, thank you. And thank you to City Council for this proclamation. So I'm Alan Lomax. I chair the Suicide Prevention Alliance of Northern Virginia, the Leadership Council. This is a purposeful reason why I do it. And we always say that we need to speak out when we know when we've lived it, when we've experienced it. So I always try to live what I talk. My father killed himself many, many years ago. He was a military veteran. He struggled, and unfortunately, during that time period, we didn't know a lot about how to deal with suicides. We didn't know a lot about... We really buried the whole conversation. whether the person was struggling or the families afterwards, because I know during the time when my dad died that there were certain churches that you couldn't even be buried in the church cemetery. We've come a long ways. AskTalk Connect is very important. This is basically a tool that every community member can use to help out their fellow community members and their own families. And I would be remiss, I was reminded by my colleague over here who will speak in a second, that today is September 8th, which is 988 day. And if you or a family member are struggling, please, if you're in crisis, call 988. That's the first thing you need to do. And if you want to be a help on the front lines, contact SPAN, contact one of the CSBs. In Northern Virginia, we do have all five CSBs are a part of our Suicide Prevention Alliance. So I'll turn it over to my colleague who serves on the Leadership Council.

Good afternoon. Thank you. And thank you for recognizing Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. My name is Rebecca Kiesling. I am the executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness here in Northern Virginia. I also serve on the national board for NAMI nationwide. This month, as well as May, are kind of our Super Bowl months. It's the month that May is Mental Health Awareness Month. And it's the month that businesses, boards, schools recognize the work that people do around the country every single day. We have to impact, we have to talk about our mental health, our mental wellness in order to prevent suicide. That's what's going to work. So thank you all for recognizing Suicide Prevention Awareness Month and make sure that if you or a loved one is in need of help, ask

Good afternoon. Thank you to the City Council for inviting us this evening. My name is Jim Page. I'm the Executive Director for Concerned Citizens Network of Alexandria. I'm also an Army veteran, and within the last 24 hours, 18 veterans who are in my network committed suicide. That's every day. I'm 78 years old, so do the math. Just do the math. Those are the number of veterans who've died by suicide, and that's a conservative number. So suicide prevention is personal to me and my family. So in this city, we're lucky to have a city council, city leaders, and partners like Rebecca and Alan who take this work seriously. So my plea to you is find somebody and just talk to them, because talking does help. So tonight, go home, pick up the phone, call a friend. It's OK to talk. So thank you.

Well, thank you, all three of you, for being here, for the work that you do. I'll add one sort of other angle on this, which is I think you all know for 10 years or so I've been involved with gun violence prevention work. And one thing I want to mention along those lines that we learn is, first of all, attempts that happen with a gun are incredibly much more lethal. And so please, if you are a gun owner, please be mindful of responsible gun ownership, of locking things away, of being conscious of who has access to any weapons and who's expressing interest. Because the truth is, a person will not determinately find another way. The truth is you can intervene. You can slow down. You can have that opportunity to have a conversation. And so I always want to take a chance and take an opportunity to make that plea. To reinforce with 988, there's also a text feature. I understand different generations have different comfort levels about picking up the phone and calling a stranger. You can text on 988. And I believe Spanish is also available. Is it every language now? OK. So every language is available. So not to belabor the point, but I do think this is an important moment to express all the resources available. So with that, I want to thank all of you, thank everybody here listening tonight, and I move the proclamation.

There has been a motion by Vice Mayor Bagley and a second by Councilman Elnubi to move the proclamation recognizing September as Suicide Prevention Month. Is there any discussion? I would just add thank you again to the Alliance for bringing forth this proclamation. I recall last year when we did this proclamation, and Alan, you shared your story, but so did everyone else. And I think everyone in the room had a story or an example of how their life has been impacted by suicide. And so I thank you for continuing to raise awareness in our community. I would also add one other resource for people who are sometimes thinking, I don't know what to say when I have this conversation. The city runs a program called Caring University, and on there you can find free resources in mental health first aid as well as suicide prevention. There are online courses, but then we often do in-person trainings as well, and they're free. to everyone in the public. So I would just encourage you to come join us and meet some other people so that you can be a part of these prevention efforts. With that, there has been a motion and a second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. The ayes have it, and the proclamation passes. Okay, Madam Clerk, next item.

Or report city council reports on boards, commissions, and committees, Northern Virginia Transportation Commission, Councilman Aguirre, and Vice Mayor Bagley.

Okay, I'm going to start with Councilman Aguirre to give Vice Mayor Bagley a chance to get seated. Councilman Aguirre.

I THINK ONE OF THE BIG NEWS WAS THE CHANGE IN COMMUNITY CHOICE AND THE QUALIFICATIONS THAT THEY ARE NOW ALLOWING. VERY, VERY BIASLY, I THINK ABOUT THE EXTENSION OF THE DASH ROUTE INTO ARLANDRIA, CHITILAWA, WHICH WOULD BE HELPING TO CONNECT BETWEEN TRANSIT SERVICES AND ALSO opportunity zones and equity emphasis areas. So I think that was one of the biggest takeaways. Of course, we had reports from our Ramada board members, reports from VRE and DRPT. I think, jokingly, it was the longest DRPT report in the history of MVTC. And yeah, I think those were the key highlights for me. Oh, and there was a review of Nova Transit and how much we've been improving, but I'll let the Vice Mayor fill in the details on that one.

OK, Vice Mayor Bagley. Thank you. So I'm going to... start with that DRPT report. One of the things that was mentioned within it is DRPT was tasked by the General Assembly in studying a potential bus consolidation of Northern Virginia local bus services. And so they are undertaking that study. They are on a deadline of December 15th, I think. It's a fairly tight turnaround. And I know We have a lot of bus riders in Alexandria, a lot of people who depend on that service and are very familiar with that service. And so there will be a forum October 21st, I believe it's being planned. It will be held in Arlington. But if you're interested in that study and some of its results and proposals, this is an issue that the General Assembly is looking at. And what I mean by that is dash QA. Fairfax Connector and ART are the four that the study is examining the pros and cons of a potential consolidation. So this is something Councilman Aguirre and I are following closely, and I would invite the public who has feelings about transit to follow. With regard to that state of Northern Virginia's transit, I would encourage anybody to look at novatransit.org, where you can see this presentation. And you can see some really compelling statistics about essentially growing ridership in all forms, on the bus, on the train, on Metro. And we continue to be a huge part of that growth. But really, it's happening regionally. And so there's strong support to continue the investments we're making locally, but also regionally. And then as to Councilman Aguirre mentioned commuter choice. I will then move on to the next one. Or did she call the next one out?

I will call it in one second. I was just going to say, Mr. Manager, given the significant impacts that a consolidation of DASH would have, and I would argue negative impacts, is there a way that we can push out to the public via e-news or just on our website more information about that meeting?

Yes, Mayor. We can do that.

Thank you. With that, Virginia Railway Express, Vice Mayor Bagley.

Thank you. Oh, there we go. OK, so VRE met in July, and then we didn't meet in August. But there's a lot going on that I wanted to take this moment to update the general public. A lot of you have probably seen the cranes and the giant hole right outside our station. Um, what's happening there is we are in the middle of a 18 month, two year process to replace the bridges at King and Commonwealth. Those are a hundred year old bridges that are struck frequently by cars and trucks passing under them. When they are rebuilt, they will be both higher and wider. So it's going to reduce the number of strikes and also make a much better experience for everybody passing underneath that includes walkers, bikers, drivers. So this is a great project, and it will also include accessibility at the station. We have had an at-grade crossing at that station for years. If any of you have had to drag your luggage across the train tracks, that is not a best practice in the industry. So we will be eliminating that at-grade crossing and using an elevator that allows you to go underneath and then take an elevator and come up on the other side. OTHER VRE-RELATED ITEMS I WANTED TO MENTION, YOU MIGHT HAVE HEARD THAT THEY WILL BE CLOSING THE FIRST STREET TUNNEL, WHICH IS JUST OUTSIDE OF UNION STATION. THEY'RE CALLING IT THE PAUSE FOR PROGRESS, WHICH IS A BRANDING WIN, I GUESS. BUT IT WILL PREVENT TRAINS FROM PULLING INTO UNION STATION FROM THE SOUTH BETWEEN OCTOBER 19th AND THE 23rd. THIS WILL IMPACT VRE'S SERVICE, WHICH WILL END AT LAMPHONTE STATION DURING THAT PERIOD AND THEN SHUTTLE PEOPLE ALONG OR HELP THEM GET OVER TO THE METRO. BUT I WANTED TO HIGHLIGHT THIS BECAUSE THIS IS Another pause for progress, because for those of you who use that train, if you'll notice, it slows down to like 10 miles an hour, that last bit there. And you just chug along to get to the end. We're trying to resolve that. They're going to be fixing and interlocking, modernizing it. And it's all part of this significant five-year investment to really unlock the volume and the speed and the number of trains coming and going. in the area. So just be mindful if you're a VRE user that the trains are going to stop at L'Enfant. Oh, the last thing I'll mention is, well, Rail Safety Week is coming up in September. It's the week of the 21st. Try Transit Week is next week, so give it a try. It's a flat fee, $5, to take VRE into Union Station, where the zone that we're in is very easy, so that's all there is to it. And then the last thing I'll mention is VRE does this wonderful fundraiser for triple negative breast cancer research called the Tour de VRE, where we ride either 8 or 30-something-ish, I think it's 35 miles, following the path of VRE. It's really well organized. It stops at the stations along the way to get food and drink and bike repairs if you need them. And it raises money for that cause. And the ridership has kind of tripled every year now. It started, I think, with like 20 people. And now it's at 300. But it's a really lovely thing. I've participated many years. And I'll be participating this year. And that's on October 3. And you can find more information at BRE.org.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Madam Clerk, next item.

City Council general updates.

Are there any general updates from members of the council?

Madam Mayor.

Councilman Aguirre.

My apologies. I meant to put the ad hoc school board governance and election group on there. Very quickly, the first meeting, I say, went very well. We came to a general consensus around potential four-year terms for the school board which of course will beckon the question to this body if we would want to do four-year terms. And we also came to consensus to discuss what staggering would look like. I think the next meeting which will be on September 15th will be the meeting that's very telling because that's where we'll be discussing not just the potential of staggering but also a reduction in the size of the board. So that's pretty much the update and I don't know if my colleague that's also on there would like to add anything.

Councilwoman Marks, would you like to add anything?

I WOULD LOVE TO ADD SOMETHING. WE REALLY NARROWED THE CONVERSATION TO FOUR TOPICS. THE SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS REALLY WANTED TO DISCUSS CONTINUITY AND MAINTAINING CONTINUITY IN A THROUGH LINE ON THEIR BOARD. WE RAISED THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS IN PRESERVING THE INTEGRITY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS AND THE VOTERS' ABILITY TO WEIGH IN AND MAKE DECISIONS ABOUT WHAT THE BOARD LOOKS LIKE AND HOW THE BOARD FUNCTIONS. WE DISCUSSED PRIORITIZING COMPETITION AND QUALITY OF CANDIDATES AND THE GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE IN GENERAL. SO IN GENERAL WE DO NEED TO COME UP WITH A PLAN THAT THIS BODY AND THE SCHOOL BOARD COULD BOTH GET BEHIND SO THAT OUR STATE LEGISLATIVE BODY MIGHT BE WILLING TO CARRY THIS INTO RICHMOND AND OPEN UP OUR CHARTER AND DO THAT. SO WE'RE AWARE OF THE NECESSITY coming up with a plan that is appealing to all. And that plan may be nothing, but we're working on it. So my thanks to Councilman Aguirre for running a great meeting.

OK. Well, thank you for the update. Madam Clerk, can I ask that you add that to the oral reports? OK. With that, are there general updates? OK. Seeing none, Madam Clerk, next item.

City Manager's Oral Report.

Okay, aye.

Madam Mayor.

Hold on one second. Councilman Aguirre.

If you, no, no, no. I was going to say if you'd be willing, if there's no one pulling anything from consent, if we could take that item out of order and just get consent out of the way before we go back to the report.

Yes, so that we can let, because it looks like there are some staff who are waiting here. So I'll take a moment of privilege and see if there is a motion to take the consent items 13 through 26 out of order.

So moved. Second.

All right. There's been a motion by Councilman Aguirre and a second by Councilman Chapman to take roll call consent items 13 through 26 out of order. Madam Clerk, this is a roll call vote. Please call the roll.

Councilman Aguirre. Aye. Councilman Chapman. Aye. Mayor Gaskins. Aye. Vice Mayor Bagley. Aye. Councilman El Newby. Aye. Councilwoman Green. Aye. Councilwoman Marks. Aye.

All right. The ayes have it. Thank you to the staff who came for those items. Madam Clerk, next item.

See managers or report.

I have asked the manager to give updates on several different items today. Mr. Manager is going to give a brief introduction of each and so what we will cover. And then we'll go into the presentation, have questions, and then we can move to the next item. So Mr. Manager.

Perfect. So welcome back. This is four robust discussions tonight. The first one will be an update on the state of the economy, if you recall. I know the council does, but to the community, this started really last year on the first legislative meeting of every month talking about the state of the economy. The reason that we would do that is to make sure that everyone has a firm understanding of what's happening in our local economy, our regional economy, our national economy. because those are critical pieces of decision making that the elected body, the council, gets to weigh in on. And that kind of information is really critical. So tonight is an opportunity for Todd O'Leary who is the Visit Alexandria CEO, to talk a little bit about all of the activities that have occurred since January. Really, it's been an incredibly busy summer. And I don't want to steal his thunder. He's got some good slides and some good presentation material. And then he has an annual meeting coming up that would have more detail and more information. So with that, Todd? While he's coming up, I do want to highlight, to brag, he is a wonderful partner. And he's going to illustrate one of his projects related to the World Cup. And the smoothness of how that World Cup was handled and how it built a partnership with the Republic of Croatia really doesn't happen without an amazing partnership. And Mr. O'Leary and his team did a great job with that.

Thank you, Jim, for that really very kind introduction. And good evening, Mayor and members of City Council. Nice to be with all of you this evening. We did, in fact, have a really incredible, particularly summer season here as it relates to tourism in Alexandria and really helped turn the tide, as we'll sort of finish up our presentation this evening, really helped turn the tide of what was a sort of challenging, a mixed environment over the course of calendar year 2025. We finished fiscal year 26 on a very strong, positive note, and so excited to share some of those results with you. The first slide you see here is our Unlock Your Story destination marketing campaign. And in February of this year, Visit Alexandria debuted our brand new destination marketing campaign, again entitled Unlock Your Story. This campaign was constructed to honor the many stories reflective of our deep history in Alexandria while also showcasing our vibrant modern city that we all enjoy and that, of course, is brimming with myriad stories of shopkeepers and restauranteurs immigrants and restaurateurs who bring visitor experiences to life every day. A key strategy of ours was to leverage our two blockbuster events, World Cup and America 250, of course, as major reasons to visit Alexandria. Also, part of our key strategy was to move consumers from dreaming about a trip to Alexandria to actually booking it. And our strategies paid off. Our PR team secured 30 high value press hits in key markets. And all of our advertising goals were achieved, garnering 46 million impressions, 3.7 million video views, and an engagement rate that grew 9 percentage points over last year alone. So not only were people seeing our marketing, they were actually engaging with it and learning these stories of our of our incredible locals. All of this exposure helped drive more visits to our website. In fact, page views of our campaign landing page alone grew 150% year over year. All of this traffic generated significant views and engagement for our member listings. We're a strong membership organization of over 450 businesses here in Alexandria, and ultimately traffic into the doors of those businesses. Oh, thank you so much. The World Cup represented a once-in-a-generation opportunity to promote Alexandria as part of a major global sporting event. Working with our partners at the city, as well as Episcopal High School and Hotel AKA, which is now called the Satire, we pulled off nothing short of a major coup, as Jim mentioned, to host the world's number 10 ranked team here in Alexandria. And you'll probably remember, we also had a chance to host other teams as part of the World Cup as well, namely Ghana, which was super, super fun for the community. This community, as it always does, really showed up and welcomed the team and all of our World Cup visitors with open arms. From red and white flowers to street pole banners to wrapped dash buses, retail specials, and themed food and drink offerings, it was so much fun to see. how Alexandria really came together and put our best foot forward. I know the community really enjoyed the various events that took place during the World Cup, including the Croatian stamp exhibit, flavors and sounds of Croatia event, and of course the community training session. Plus the watch parties and other World Cup events really brought a local Alexandria flavor again to this global sporting event. It was also particularly meaningful to see how Alexandria's relationships with both the Croatian embassy and the Croatian Ministry of Tourism and Sport delivered yet another dimension of partnerships through sport that manifested in a star study event, as well as a tourism summit that existed between our two countries. The other major event, of course, this year was the semi-quincentennial of the United States. We've been excited about and planning for America 250 for years now. Once again, this community really showed up to celebrate. The city was festooned in red, white, and blue bunting, flowers, and street pole banners. Even an Alexandria-specific 250th logo was developed that helped create brand signage and other welcome elements for businesses throughout the city. Of course, Alexandria's biggest 250th event happened in mid-June with sails on the Potomac, which brought three tall ships to Alexandria along with our own Tall Ship Providence. Kudos to our friends at OHA for producing such an incredible series of events that really showed Alexandria in a fun, interactive way. Visit Alexandria had an activation at sales on the Potomac, which not only provided visitor information, but also encouraged visitors to share a fun Alexandria story or two as part of our Unlock Your Story campaign. So we really worked to try and tie those two things together. So how did all of this work to drive visitation to Alexandria? With me, I have Vito Fiore, who is our vice president of marketing and research at Visit Alexandria.

All right. Thanks, Todd. So yeah, so what you see here is this is revenue per available room, which is basically the gold standard of understanding lodging performance in the industry. And so what you can see here is the blue line is group uh year-over-year change and the orange line is transient year-over-year change so group tends to be you know business uh meetings etc meetings and events uh but it's not strictly that right there could be leisure components of that but you know generally when you see group think business when you see transient think leisure um and so what you see here is if you start way back at the beginning of this chart january 2025 There was a big spike that was mostly due to the inauguration that there was compression from D.C. where there's increased hotel room nights associated with a new administration coming in, as well as people that are attending the inauguration. And, you know, February was also looking pretty good. It was positive. But as we got into February, March and throughout the rest of the year, as there were impacts from COVID, you know, uncertainty around the budget, new federal policy changes. It really took a hit on the D.C. region. And so you can see in particular that blue line is really where a lot of the impact was felt and was really in that those that business and meeting side of a visitation. So you really can see that really double digit declines in revenue per available room for hotels throughout calendar year 2025. Slight declines in transient as well, which does have a business component to it, but nothing like what you saw on the group side. Then you really saw a turnaround there whenever you moved into the 2026. You can see that, of course, January had some declines related to comparisons with the inauguration from 25. And then from February on, you can see really that group-led, both group and leisure saw double-digit increases in each month. But in particular, group really led that recovery. So moving on to the next slide. And then this is just a different way to show it. This is based on this overall monthly revenue per available room change versus previous year for 2026 calendar. So what you really can see here is that January, of course, versus the inauguration saw that comps comparison was challenging. And so that was to be expected. February turned positive. And what we've done on this chart is kind of show you what some of these key moments are throughout these events that Todd mentioned a little bit earlier. So the Unlock Your Story campaign launched in February. We saw some slight increases there. And then really from March on through July, we saw this is something you don't always see, right? I mean, even whenever we see growth, oftentimes it's in the single digits and we're happy with that. But we really saw growth. compared with previous year, which was challenging, you know, 15, 20, even 30 and up percent increases in revenue per available room. And that really accelerated as we got into the summer with the impacts of World Cup and our 250 events. So this is sort of my final slide. I'll just say that, you know, even before I get into these individual pieces, as we talked about the, you know, the impacts of those particular events, we know that from our data that there was over 90% occupancy during sales in the Potomac weekend. And we also saw over 90% occupancy over 4th of July where there was obviously impacts from the DC region causing more people to stay here as well as throughout the region. So moving into sort of the top-of-the-line results, we really were in a challenging spot in January. We were down about 10% to that point in the fiscal year versus previous year in REVPAR. But we had such strong performance in February to June that we went from basically being down 10 points to up three points in just that five-month period. So that really, I think, is a testament to success. the recovery of tourism in general in the region but then also the effectiveness of the campaign and also these uh major summer events that we talked about that we're really hoping for to deliver and they really did um speak but you might just say well did we just ride the wave of performance uh in in virginia or in dc region well not i mean that's that's a component but really we're able to track the sub markets throughout the commonwealth of virginia and we found that Alexandria from March on has been ranking first or second in that percentage increase in performance over those months. We also have marketing attribution data that shows that our length of stay has increased from 2.0 to 2.3 days. And that's important because obviously that means more room for our hotels, but it also means more people eating at our restaurants, shopping at our shops, taking our tours. And it also means that there's more time for them to get out into the neighborhoods, right? We can promote neighborhoods all that we want, but if people aren't staying long enough to really get out there and explore the neighborhoods, then you're not going to have that impact. And then finally, the percentage of visitors that stay overnight, we found increased from 77% to 82%. So fewer people that are spending time in the city just for the day and more people that are coming overnight. And so that's really a big win for us and I think a good result for this campaign. Thank you very much, and we'll entertain any questions.

Great. Thank you for the presentation. I think it's really helpful for us to have this context. I know last year when we were doing the budget, one of the big concerns was as we're seeing declines in hotel stays and we're seeing declines in visitor spending, what does that mean as we're trying to fund all of the resources we have? And so I think to be able to see a correlation between the events we're investing in, how we're bringing in more people, getting those longer stays, and then hopefully continuing to generate more and more revenue for the needs of our city is really important. Are there specific questions? Okay. With that, thank you very much. We appreciate the time.

Thank you for the opportunity. Thanks.

Mr. Manager. Yeah, so mayor council we the second item is related to Some of the construction impacts that are occurring in some specific areas

Oh, Mr. Manager, actually, item 10 is the update on city ACPS budget categories.

Oh, I'm sorry. So, sorry, Ebony.

Don't go too far.

I'm joined tonight with Kevin Greenleaf, who's our finance director, and Morgan Rout, who's our budget director. And I'm going to do this presentation, but they're going to help me. So the reason for tonight is really to highlight for the community and the council and the ACPS school board and parents in regard to recommendations and a process that will be followed for the FY28 ACPS appropriations. If you recall, the City Council passed a resolution, 3368, that adopted in March. And really, there are two reasons that were stated in the resolution in regard to switching to a process where The city would allocate budget by categories, nine categories that are allowed by the Virginia state code. The good news is ACPS was using those categories to build their budget. But the two reasons, one was to increase transparency, particularly transparency To the community about where where are those financial decisions being made? If you recall ACPS is roughly a third of the city's budget, which is really important So it has a material impact on decisions and priorities across the entire community So dollars that go to ACPS are the same dollars that are used to provide programs and services for the entire community and then the second item was really again around the transparency idea and concept that More detail in the budgeting and appropriation of funds to ACPS frankly, the City Council has a larger reach with the community and This again is such so these are decisions that are so critical not just to the short-term and interest of our educational system, but the long-term financial health of the entire city. Additional detail in regard to a budget piece that's about a third of the city's budget is really critical. The fortunate thing is we worked really long over the summer working both with a CPS staff as well as with led by Morgan route and Kevin Greenleaf, there's really three recommended three areas of recommendations that wanted to highlight and this really gets to the process because that's what I'm speaking of I'm not speaking of what how many dollars to go anywhere That's not the conversation. It's simply about the process So the first step is really about the budget submittal process, you know, how does the budget get submitted and? The second one is, how does the budget get adopted by the city council? And the third is financial processes, particularly what happens once a budget is adopted and ACPS has to operate within that budget and things change over time and decisions get made and how does the movement of funds and appropriations occur during the course of the school year? So I'm going to take each one of those. And I think the good news here is that there's very, very little change in terms of the public processes. But there are some changes that I wanted to highlight. And before I go on, I do want to also commend the basis of these recommendations. We had our BFAC and our budget advisory councils play a critical role in both the review and the analysis of the ACPS budgets and the use of those categories. including transfers in the past. So that information is really critical. And they did an amazing job, and it really helped our staff throughout the summer. So the first step is really about the budget submittal. And this is where, how does the budget get to a point where, as city manager, my responsibility is to present a proposed budget to you for your consideration, and that occurs in February. So the basic format stays the same. The basic financial structure stays the same. The same formal timing is the same. What is different is that there is more detail that is necessary by ACPS in terms of its budget submittal to the city. The good news is as I said, they use not those nine budget categories that the state allows already in their draft budgets but now some of that would need to be submitted to the city for review as well as Maybe some of the elements that make up those budget categories the larger dollar amounts in each category and then the second piece is some of that information is would be most beneficial a little bit earlier in the process. So some of the working information that staffs are working on would occur in that December time frame, much like city departments do. And the benefit of that is that the review of the overall priorities inclusive of ACPS would occur together as opposed to the way it has been in the past, where, frankly, we received the budget from ACPS a week or two before the budget is presented, that's not sufficient time to consider that in the priority treatment along with everything else. So really, most of that, the budget submittal process stays the same with the exception of two things, more detail and earlier information for staff. On the budget submittal, again, by law, as city manager, I would be required to submit a lump sum budget to the city council, but in order to assist you as you deliberate in the categories, we would present the ACPS expenditures by classification using some year over year changes so you can see where there are major cost drivers and major changes. Again, there's really no change in the schedule at all in this process. Then we shift to the second part, and this second part really is when the city, when I present the budget to you for your consideration. So after February, this is the process all the way leading up to the adoption of the budget process. Again, you would continue to hold city council and school board work sessions like you do. frankly, a little bit more important. Not that they weren't important before, but some additional details in that. But the big change here, and it's not significant because you already consider it, but your add-delete process will need to include any change that you would want to make in the ACPS budget. And that would be the really significant change there. In the financial process, this is step three. This is after the budget's been adopted. ACPS now has the budget. And much like with how we manage the city's budget, there are changes that are going to occur, and those are called transfers. It means money moving from one category or one department or one classification to another. It doesn't mean within departments and it doesn't mean within classifications. So we're really talking about transfers between classifications. An emergency happens, a new roof needs to be put on, big significant dollars need to be moved around that weren't necessarily considered during the budget approval process because it was unknown. That's what we're really talking about. And in the FY28 budget, once it goes into effect on July 1, any transfers would require city approval. That's in the state law. So that would require city approval for any appropriations of funds. Again, ACPS's budget is roughly a third of the city's overall budget, so it has significance to policy implications that the city council would consider. The way that we structured the transfer process, it's very similar to how this, U.S. COUNCIL AND ACPS WOULD SEE TRANSFERS TODAY IN TERMS OF TIME. WE'RE TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT THOSE ARE ALIGNED AS TIGHT AS POSSIBLE. SO FOR INSTANCE, THERE'S REALLY TWO DIFFERENT TYPES OF TRANSFERS. THERE'S THE EMERGENCY TRANSFER WHERE SOMETHING HAPPENS AND You have to expend the funds in order to fix the problem. And that can't wait for a council meeting or a school board discussion. That has to happen. That process is literally within a 24-hour period. It's submitted between staff and staff with justification and review. And then that gets approved. And then that goes into your supplemental ordinance that goes in front of the city council at periodic points in time. That process, I think, is pretty straightforward. The second process would be transfers that the ACPS might do between classifications, between one of those nine classifications. The good news there is that in discussions, this was one of the biggest concerns that believe a CPS staff had I think working with Morgan and Kevin I think we we have a pretty good process for how we would handle transfers those transfers would occur very similar to how the city does transfers today the difference though would be that The city attorney's office has identified the ability to use delegated authority in order to have a threshold by which you can designate that authority to the city manager should you want to do that, where the transfers would go through the administrative review process. It would be documented. It would be highlighted. But it wouldn't require a city council approval. And we are recommending that process, which would require a docket item for your council consideration in the future. And we're recommending that that would be about the threshold would be at $500,000, which would really mean that only the most significant transfers the ACPS is looking to do would come to the city council. There would still be visibility with the monthly reports and all the transfers, but the actual actions would occur at the administrative level if it's below that. And that is somewhat consistent with Other jurisdictions that are using this process today, they use a essentially delegated authority, if you will, in order to manage the transfer process more administratively than through a council docketed process. And then in terms of financial reporting, this was a conversation I know that we had with city council in regard to making sure that there's a good level of transparency and detail. And again, currently ACPS produces a monthly financial report of actual expenditures versus budget by object. And so in order to track expenditures by classification, we did discuss adding a table to that report that for actual expenditures, end budget versus budget by classification, which is referred to in the ACPS budget as function. So again, there's not a lot of change. It's just terminology and some adjustments. I will say I'm not trying to discount the effort here because it does require more staff-to-staff interaction. The good news is it's a very positive working relationship over a long period of time between the CFO and our financial people. And then the next steps, if council were inclined, is we would move forward in providing guidance to city departments, ACPS, and our partner agencies. Council would have your retreat on November 7th. You would discuss and provide budget guidance resolutions on the November 10th meeting. And then you would finalize the budget transfer process, which would be through the... I believe it's a resolution that would delegate that authority, should you want to do that. So mayor and council, I just want to highlight this effort really did take a lot of thought process, both on the part of a lot of different people. We, as a city staff, convened a team of about five or six different departments, including our city attorney's office. It really worked very hard to find a way that would achieve the things the council wants to achieve in this process with the level of detail and clarity, but try to not create new processes if we could use current processes in place. So that's where we are, and I think unless directed otherwise, we would move forward in this effort.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Manager. I saw hands from Councilman Alnubi and Councilman Marks and then Councilman Green.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Can you tell me how we arrived to the 500 number?

Certainly. That's from doing a review of other jurisdictions' practices. We saw a range of some jurisdictions have no threshold. Some of them had $100,000. Chesterfield County was half a million dollars. That's how we arrived at that number.

Yeah. So just a little bit more on that. So in looking at past ACPS transfers, what that would really mean is that I think maybe two transfers would come to the city council as opposed to the- That's correct.

So over the whole year or multiple- For FY26, they had a total of about, I think, 29 transfers between classifications. Roughly eight of them were over $100,000, and two of them were over half a million. Very helpful. Thank you.

And again, that's a number that you can direct us a different way. I mean, I think what we were really looking at is because a lot of that information would still be transparent and open, it just would not require a specific council action. The beef act report talked about tearing Which was an interesting process Again, we're trying to keep this as simple as possible. So we wanted to choose a number that felt that only the most significant of transfers would come to the City Council but The other number we had looked at was, you know, $250,000 to $300,000.

No, and I really appreciate the flexibility and the thought process behind making it more streamlined. And I know there's a lot of work that went into that, so I really appreciate you guys doing this.

Thank you.

I'm actually going to go to Vice Mayor Bagley because she has a question specifically on thresholds, and then we will come back to the order.

Thank you. One of the things I noticed as well in the comparisons between other localities using this is the scale of difference between our responsibility to the school budget. And so is this number relative to that scale difference? Some of them only spend a lot less, just broadly speaking.

That's a great point. Yeah, so a lot of those jurisdictions, first of all, their budgets are much, much smaller. They're very limited. So if you scale it, while that 500,000 might sound large for a community that might have a threshold of 100,000, if you really look at it in true comparison, it's very, it's scaled.

Okay, because, you know, just to remind the community again, we're required to fund 80% of our schools, and many of the jurisdictions that use this methodology are at like 30 and 40%, I believe, significantly lower and have smaller systems. The other, on this point, and it is something I've found useful on other, Boards and other situations like this where there's authorized spending authority in a similar vein We would still get maybe a monthly report on transfers that occurred within the managers authority just so that we have sort of an ongoing sense of how frequently and to what extent and that might also give us a sense of whether this is the right number Is it too high? Is it too low? So the next time we're sort of learning as we go and

The schools already have a monthly report to the board that shows every transfer, not just above a threshold or not just between classifications. Every transfer goes into a report on a monthly basis. We can share that with you as well and also flag the ones that would fit into the core of that threshold.

I APPRECIATE THAT. I GUESS WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO ASK IS THAT JUST THE STRAIGHT LIST OF TRANSFERS MIGHT NOT BE AS USEFUL TO US AS SOME ANALYZED LOOK AT THOSE TRANSFERS AND THEN PASSING ALONG TO US AN EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OR CALLING OUR ATTENTION TO ITEMS.

THANK YOU. I'M GLAD TO SEE A HIGH DOLLAR THRESHOLD AT THE CITY MANAGER'S DISCRETION. I'M WONDERING IF THERE IS A LOWER DOLLAR THRESHOLD AT THE ECPS STAFF'S DISCRETION.

I MIGHT NEED A LITTLE HELP, BUT I SENSE THE APPROPRIATIONS UNDER THE STATE LAW REQUIRE CITY COUNCIL ACTION. I don't think you can delegate it to a non-city entity or a non-city staff. So I don't think you could do that. I mean, Sharon, do I?

This is strictly on our side of the house. Um, this is strictly on the city side of the house and so it would not be, it's not ACPS making an appropriation. It would be the council through the city manager. All right.

Secondly, uh, you know, given the impending CBA, I'm interested to know how that will be affected considering that support staff is funded across categories.

No, that's a good point. I think in conversations with the CFO and the acting superintendent, that's that level of detail that we would need to get. Where that will be really important is if in the add-delete process, for instance, council wanted to adjust one classification up or down and then conversely move one up or down. There may need to be some conversation about which pieces go where, because ACPS does spread some of their personnel across classifications. That's actually not that different. We do some of that with our enterprise projects across programs. So it's really more trying to get additional detail as it relates to each one of those classifications and how that would work. So if we're well prepared, if something needed to move, we could answer those questions. And ACPS staff will be part of helping us answer those questions should council have them. And that's where I think behind the scenes the budget review process will involve our partners a little bit more than they've done in the past.

I RECOGNIZE THAT THIS IS, WE'RE DOING THIS FOR THE FIRST TIME. I'M JUST HOPING IN AS MUCH AS WE ARE TRYING TO PROVOKE TRANSPARENCY IN BUDGETING FROM OUR SCHOOL SYSTEM, THAT WE ARE EQUALLY AS TRANSPARENT DURING THIS PROCESS TO MAKE SURE NOBODY SUCH AS SUPPORT STAFF FALLS THROUGH THE CRACKS AND THAT WE'RE MAKING SURE EVERYBODY IS GETTING TAKEN CARE OF AS WE ADMINISTER THIS. Councilman green Thank You madam mayor.

My question is also around them. I guess the transfer from classifications and Mr. Manager you just said something if we need to move something up or down in a classification. Can you explain that to me?

Yeah, so I think what what I was referencing is in an ad delete process where let's say there was $5 million in a classification and you as a council decided that you wanted to move a million dollars out of that classification, you would have to identify where in the classification you would put it and where will you take the million dollars from. That's really what I was talking about, up or down.

I got you. So just for clarity, because I'm not sure, I want this clear with the public, that within a classification, the schools can move things around should they want to. But when it moves from one classification to another, and it's $500,000 or more, then it would come to the city council. I don't want to make that very clear. So within their own classifications, they can transfer things should they need to.

Correct. Just like they do today within a classification, they can move money around and adjust on all those things. Okay. Thank you.

Councilman Chapman.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I think my question regarding transfers deals with what if they want to make a transfer from something that's operational to CIP. I think a recent example would be, I believe, books that we had a conversation about a couple of years ago where there was some conversation where that was originally an operational year-to-year expenditure, but there was an opportunity to kind of shift that to kind of a CIP model.

I'LL TAKE A SHOT AT THE FIRST PART OF THAT. SO WHEN COUNCIL ADOPTS THE BUDGET WITH THE CLASSIFICATIONS, THAT'LL BE THE OPERATING BUDGET CLASSIFICATIONS. SO ACBS WOULD BE ABLE TO MOVE DOLLARS INSIDE A CLASSIFICATION, BUT YOU COULD NOT MOVE MONEY FROM AN OPERATING TO A CAPITAL WITHOUT A SEPARATE PROCESS. BUT YOU TELL ME, MORGAN, IF I believe so because if we're changing the appropriation to the CIP we're gonna need to do it on that side So where this would come in and particularly important is in the budget deliberation process if you were looking at us the CIP and you saw one time cash and flu infusion of something and you may be able to look at the operating capital together in that conversation, much like you've done a little bit of that in past budgets, really related to cash capital.

Yeah, I think I'm looking at what we've done on the city side as it relates to capital projects that we have had positions on the operating side kind of fall under those capital projects and now be an item that's covered in cip versus an item that's still consistently covered in operational and i want to see i want to understand how do we connect the dots or catch that if acps is looking to do that not to say that that's a bad thing or or or a good thing but we just want to make sure in terms of transparency we understand when that's happening i think there's two ways that we would see that one is

If it's between classifications, then even if it's below half a million dollars, it's still going to come to us and the city manager. So we'll still see everything that goes between classifications. But then also if it involves a change in appropriations on the CIP side, then we're going to have to work that through the CIP process as well.

Two more. Last thing.

I'm assuming this is just to ask this question, but I would assume it's already going to be fine. But as we put in this process, we know there's leadership change on the ACPS side. And so as they do this and new leadership comes in, they're going to be brought up to speed on what that budget, the new budget process is, and probably have a chance to weigh in on that as well.

Yeah, absolutely. I think... I mean, it really just is going to require regular communication and conversation and discussion. And I think with the new superintendent, we'll start that right as soon as that person is hired and joins in. And one last thing I did want to say, because we've created a team around this, that team, which again includes Morgan and Kevin, also David Lanier from the city attorney's offices, that team is available through the entire process. So there's a base of information that can be shared with new employees of ACPS and coordination of that. I think that's incredibly helpful.

Thank you. I just want to make two quick comments, and then I want to move us to the next item under oral reports. First, just a thank you to staff, the team, but also the members of the different budget committees. I think what has been nice about this process is council was very clear the direction we wanted to go in and that we were going to move forward. And I know it's taken a lot of work over the summer to be able to get these recommendations. So thank you. The other thing is just recognizing I've heard add, delete come up a lot of times. And that is already a complicated process. I think what would be helpful is either by the time we do this November 10th guidance piece or before the first work session with ACPS, we should have a draft of the add, delete process and how this will work. Because it's going to be new for all of us. There's going to be a lot of different pieces moving around. And I think our bodies should have some space and time to kind of talk through how that's going to happen.

Yes, excellent point. And we will seek to memorialize this through the budget process resolution that you all adopted in November.

Yes, well, you know the first memo that you do every year is the add-delete? Yes. I think what I'm looking for is a really specific of like exactly if it's in this classification, you can't add eight different classifications. You have to, and how we'll use our spreadsheets. And then lastly, I know every year we kind of build the side-by-side calendar with ACPS and with the city. It would be helpful to get that as quickly as possible. There's an infographic, though, the one that maps them out, how they flow together. I think that would be helpful to have in time for our retreat. But, yes. Thank you all for your presentation and time today Mr.

Manager next item, okay Now I'd like to ask Ebony Fleming to come on up our office of communications and community engagement so With the construction the renovation of our both the city hall, Market Square, and the parking garage. That is a significant, complex construction project in a very tight space with a lot of activity occurring around it, which means that for safety reasons, there's things like sidewalks get closed, road detours and a lot of construction related traffic does have an impact on some of the specific businesses that are in very close proximity to that area. So a group of the businesses and Mayor Gaskins as well as city staff team have really been looking at what are some of the supports necessary during this temporary point where we're under construction for a couple years to try to make sure that the businesses continue to be successful and prosper. And so Ebony's going to walk you through the coordinated response that we've put together. And I'll be happy to take any questions. I would say this is evolving. When you deal with construction impacts and you deal with small businesses, there's lots of reasons that businesses succeed and don't succeed. So when I say evolution, it means we might start in this spot and maybe pivot based on what's happening and trying to really make sure we understand that.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. Good evening, Mayor Gaskins, Vice Mayor Bagley, and members of council, Ebony Fleming, Director of Communications and Community Engagement. I'm going to skip ahead a few slides because the city manager stole my thunder. I do want to get to this three-part approach that we have started with An interdepartmental task force, the city manager, has convened. We are meeting with city hall adjacent businesses to hear from them their concerns about what they're seeing on the ground, what impacts the renovation has has really brought to their doorsteps. And the way we're doing this is collaborate, promote, and connect. We've had already just one monthly meeting with impacted businesses. Through that, we've heard their concerns regarding parking, potential opportunities to collaborate with the city for amplification of some of their campaigns and events. On the promote side, it's really important that we leverage city partnerships, channels, our digital platforms. So being able to do this alongside hearing what businesses need from the city to, again, amplify what they're doing on a daily basis to get that customer activity back to where they previously saw it or even better. We're also creating a library of graphics to support what they are doing for their marketing side. It's important that they are doing their own marketing. But if we can replicate some of those efforts on the city side For instance, later on this month, there is the Old Town Beauty Curl. We will be promoting that, giving the opportunity for businesses to join in on that for that awareness. And then Connect, sharing advanced information about city events and activities so businesses can align promotions with anticipated customer activity. CURRENT STRATEGIES THAT ARE UNDERWAY, WE ARE HIGHLIGHTING OUR CAR-FREE OPTIONS, INCLUDING DASH AND METRO. WE ARE REALLY UPLIFTING PARKING IN OLD TOWN. IF YOU'VE BEEN BY THE CITY HALL SITE, YOU'LL SEE NEW PARKING BANNERS ALONG THE PERIMETER. THERE'S THAT ADDED WAYFINDING. WE'RE ALSO PROMOTING THE LOWER KING STREET VALET PROGRAM. strategies that are being explored, partnerships with nearby garages, any sort of parking subsidies, discounts, waivers, and validation programs that businesses can use, and opportunities to look at how we are using our underused tour bus parking. That is an evaluation that will take a few more months, but that is underway. And here we see the promotion and engagement that is currently underway. I mentioned the monthly meetings will have ongoing coordination through the interdepartmental task force. We will be highlighting some of these businesses, especially the city hall adjacent businesses in the small business video series that OCCE currently does on a monthly basis. Coordinated promotion through city and partner channels mentioned this earlier, but this is really about again amplifying the work across all available platforms an advance notice of city events and seasonal activities and Sidewalk sale is a good example of that. Plaid Friday, Small Business Saturday, these are opportunities for businesses to, again, amplify that they are there, that they are open for business, and really leverage the city in that effort. Parking and access, continued promotion of parking information, wayfinding. We have wayfinding signage already around the area. We will continue to assess if this is actually effective in making sure that the foot traffic gets to these businesses that can be behind the construction. That is going to take a little while longer, but that is currently underway. And then the farmers market, we will open two spaces on a rotational basis based on the interest of the city hall adjacent businesses to see if they are wanting to participate in this no-cost participation for the farmers market. That invite will happen this week and we'll go from there. We'll assess that in January if this is truly something that those businesses can benefit from and then move on from there. That will be the end of the farmers market season when they start again in January. In the near term, some of this I've already mentioned. I do want to skip down to January 2027 because that is where There will be a wayfinding participation fee waiver for those city hall adjacent businesses. I think that is one of the more helpful benefits that the task force did come back with to be able to support businesses in this area. Throughout the process, we will be looking at several areas for success. It's not just a matter of saying that we did things. How well are we doing them? Are they really moving the needle on the work that we're trying to get done? So business conditions, there will be that feedback between the businesses, the business owners, as well as what we're seeing on our side from any sort of metrics that we can measure, whether that's digital or otherwise. Customer activity, again, that's going to come directly from our businesses in the area. Participation, this is how they are really using the city's tools that we will be providing and letting us know if it's really working. And then the digital engagement, there are a lot of QR codes out there. We'll look at that and see if if it's really truly working. And that's it. If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer.

CHRISTIE WOODARD- Councilman Aguirre.

Thank you for that, Director Fleming. Can I ask, what are we considering adjacent business? Is it directly across the street? Is it one block in each direction?

CHRISTIE WOODARD- City Hall adjacent will include the Fairfax, Cameron, and King in, yes, directly across the street from the site.

So would Taco Bell count?

No, Taco Bell doesn't count.

Well, I'm just trying to get clarity on like, so then would Bon Me count?

Yes.

Because?

They are right there on Fairfax, or in Cameron, right?

So not people on King Street then?

It would be the one block around City Hall. Subway, so yeah, it would include both side include on the one side of King Street all the way Where you are facing the construction on Fairfax? It would be the block where we have essentially the the the truck So it would be that one block from King to Cameron and then Cameron all the way up to Royal And then obviously we want to evaluate whether we want to go a block further from that given some of the dynamics of who's who's truly impacted by that and

Well, I think that's what we're kind of getting at. I'm concerned with who we're considering is actually impacted. I think a couple of my other concerns is that people thinking that the businesses are closed, I'm confused why they would think a business is closed if it's just City Hall that's under construction. The other buildings are clearly open. And I think the other thing, too, is that I'm all for advertising the parking so that people know where to go. I think it's a little bit of a fine line if we start advertising for those businesses.

We would be looking at like shops are open. We would use sort of that type of communication to make sure that the lack of visibility that occurs with some of the heavy construction, that people know that those businesses are open and that even though that sidewalk is closed at that one point, it doesn't mean those businesses aren't open and available. So we would use terminology like shops open, things like that. When we do like a sidewalk sale that's consistent with the King Street corridor, we want to make sure that these businesses are connected into it. But one thing on the distance, so it depends on the tool. The tool related to looking at bus tour parking, that really is on king between Royal and Pitt. So that would have an impact on some businesses that are just outside what I'd call the main piece of where they're really struggling.

I guess I'm struggling a little bit with the visibility as well because... I mean, you can still see the things that are open. I get that the fences are up. But correct me if I'm wrong here. I think it's interesting that you put as one of the metrics is foot traffic trends. If the sidewalk is literally closed where City Hall is, and they're on the sidewalk where the business is, wouldn't that business get more foot traffic automatically?

Well, like if you take King Street.

Well, not King Street because a lot of people are still walking on King Street. I'm thinking on Cameron because on Cameron it's been closed on that side. And so everybody's had to cross the street and walk on the northern side of Cameron Street where all the businesses are, which is essentially giving them more foot traffic.

Correct. A lot of what the businesses are saying is, A lot of the foot traffic from King Street that would come over organically, went before construction, is no longer happening.

On camera?

Right. They're not making their way from King Street to Cameron. So having the wayfinding, the signage on King Street, King Street and Fairfax, King Street and Royal, we are still pointing businesses are open, boutiques are open. in these other areas.

OK. Well, then I think this goes back to when I brought up Subway. I think everybody could tell that Subway is open and it's right on King Street. Now, when we're indicating the businesses that we're trying to support are on Cameron Street, I think that's different because then I could go along with what you're saying there. So I just want to flag those things for you guys. Thank you.

Councilman Green, Vice Mayor Bagley.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Director Fleming, you mentioned tour bus parking. Now that the fencing is up, where are the tour buses parking when they're coming to Old Town? They used to park right on King Street there and drop off?

They are now on King Street in front of the temporary city hall. Okay, they moved up. Yes. Okay, one block.

Correct. Thank you. So let me use that because that's a really good point. So that takes up essentially almost that entire one side of the block, and we are evaluating whether we can restrict limit the hours. We can try to capture some of that curb space a little bit more. Now, it won't be like a whole block, but can we pick up three, four parking spaces then would help a couple of those businesses that are in the corridors and maybe not as visible. That's the type of thing we'd be looking at. The same thing with the farmer's market. Some of the businesses that have a product type that relies on someone as they're walking by, they would be the type of business that may benefit from having a space at the farmer's market to sell their product like coffee or something like that. Some of those other businesses would probably not benefit from being in the farmer's market. So the tools are going to be somewhat determined by what businesses are being impacted and how would we use that. I think this is, in some respects, it's a good, strong menu of options to try to work through. But there's also a consistent strategy around the promotion of the businesses that are impacted by the temporary construction for a couple of years.

I think, too, just going back to something the manager and director Fleming said earlier, is it is evolving. From what I've heard from the businesses, but also in these conversations, that there are different challenges that are arising. So for example, there have been times when we've had to shut down a portion of a street that maybe wasn't decided before. And that had to happen because a new piece of information came up in the construction. And so what does that mean when you've already plans or maybe an event that you were going to do on the sidewalk and that change happens. Another time, I think there was a time when there was an emergency thing where Dominion had to shut off a bunch of things. And then all of these businesses that were very close within that small, I think, one block radius, you have an ice cream shop. If you don't have power for 24 hours, that impacts your ability to sell that product. And so I think it's going to be a lot of two-way conversation. What I appreciate is that there's a lot of ideas here, and every idea may not work. Some may work better in the summer than they do in the winter, but I think it gives us a chance to kind of at least hear back where we're seeing the greatest impacts and where we might need to make some adjustments, not just here, but also this isn't the only construction project we're going to do as a city. Vice Mayor Bagley, and then I had Councilman Chapman.

I have a quick comment and then a quick question, I hope. The comment just being with regard to the buses, I mean, quite like a cruise ship that pulls up, I mean, those buses debark those numbers that we saw earlier from Visit Alexandria. So, I mean, while I appreciate, you know, the effort to bring in parking, I'm at that building a lot, and I see exactly what those people do when they step off, which is they see Maiden ALX, or they go to Subway, or, you know, so I think there's, I just want to, you know, the buses are literally people coming here to engage in our city and spend money, and THEY'RE ARRIVING IN ONE VEHICLE RATHER THAN 40 DIFFERENT VEHICLES THAT WOULD REQUIRE 40 PARKING SPOTS SO THERE'S PROS AND CONS TO THE BUSES ON THE PARKING FRONT WHAT I WAS HOPING YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO COMMENT MORE EXPLICITLY ON IS THE NUMBER OF PARKING SPOTS THAT WE LOST CAPACITY WISE ARE WE PRETTY CONFIDENT THAT CAPACITY EXISTS IN THE ADJACENT LOTS WITHIN A ONE OR TWO BLOCK SPAN BECAUSE A LOT OF STAFF USED THAT PARKING SO THERE WAS X number of generally available parking to the public and my question is Is there capacity within a block or two else?

Yeah, I'll ask your deputy director come up my My thought is when we talk about the market square garage It was heavily populated by staff parking at least during during the workday. I think the benefit was it was open on weekends. So it did have that benefit. But in terms of the every day, I believe there's probably sufficient capacity elsewhere to make up for that that is specific to non-monthly parkers.

Yes, thank you. Hillary Orr, Deputy Director of Transportation. The manager is correct. I don't have the exact numbers of how many parking spaces, but there were garages that had capacity that are now having more people park in those garages. And then throughout Old Town, we have looked to add parking spaces on street as well to support the businesses.

And I think there might be a long-term upside here too, which is as people have discovered these other lots that had capacity, those lots will continue to be there when Market Square reopens with a bigger, nicer, safer parking lot. Thank you.

Councilman Chapman.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I was just going back to the kind of question around tour buses. And the only thing that just popped in my mind was kind of understanding the two-way communication between the tour companies. How has that been?

I can find out for you.

OK. Because I think the thing that in programming a tour bus to come to the city, it's not that a tour bus is just going to pop up per se. Most of them have a certain schedule of when they're going to come, when they're going to leave. And I think that that should allow us to, to better program those spaces. I don't know, and maybe Hilary and experts and staff can help us figure out what signage would be, where people understand, hey, the spaces are available for general use, but at 4 PM, somebody's coming. I don't know what type of signage would do that type of work. But I do think there's an opportunity with communication tour companies to kind of understand the reservations they already have and, you know, who's coming when and if there is something that's more short-term popping in, where they can go. Kind of an opportunity to revive some of the old tour option, tour bus options and tour bus parking relationships. that most of the tour buses that I've seen are mainly just drop off and pick up. And so they're not necessarily parking in those spaces. They just need a short 20 minutes or so to disembark everybody and get everybody on their way. And then they can go park wherever they're parking else in the city or a whole town.

As the team evaluates the tour bus parking, I will make sure that we keep that in mind and get that information back to council in an update.

Well, thank you for your presentation and your time tonight. Mr. Manager, next item.

Sure. So if our police chief, Tarek McGuire, and his team are coming up. Mayor, I just want to frame the discussion a little bit. So, you know, there has been a significant... community conversation in regard to flock cameras and the use of technology in many cities across the country, including in Alexandria. And I think tonight is really about having a conversation about how do we utilize that technology Where are we moving in direction that really addresses and looks at the conversation and some of the key guiding principles that the city has as it relates to the rights of all, the protection of all. the ability for us to make sure that privacy concerns are paramount, as well as making sure that our community is safe for all. And I think tonight Chief McGuire and City Attorney Travis McCray are here They're going to have a short presentation and really try to identify, I think, four key areas where they are moving forward with action to really address that community conversation. And this is really not the end of the conversation. This is sort of the pathway into the conversation tonight. So...

If I could just add one piece, I would say in addition to the update, I think it would be my expectation that as a council, we'd also give some direction back as to what we'd like to see.

All right.

Chief.

Good evening. Excuse my voice a little bit, but good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of Council, Tariq McGuire, Police Chief. As the City Manager just stated, across America and throughout our region, our local communities are engaged in important conversations about automatic license plate readers, commonly referred to as ALPRs. Over the past month, I've taken the opportunity to listen and learn from members of not only our department, but also our community. I've talked to area police chiefs. I've talked to scholars and persons that are a part of different organizations that advocate for different reasons. And those conversations have reinforced the importance of approaching technology with both an appreciation for public safety, but also a potential clear commitment to ensure that we're protecting individual liberties. I am of the opinion, as leaders, our responsibility is not to choose between public safety and civil liberties. Our responsibility is to ensure that both are protected. The Constitution does not ask us to sacrifice one for another. It requires us to govern in a way that safeguards the rights of individuals while protecting all persons in our communities. So noted, during today's presentation I want to provide some background on ALPR technology. I want to discuss the importance of governance and oversight and also outline the considerations for the mayor and council as we determine a pathway forward. Just to provide some history, ALPRs are license plate images, I'm sorry, ALPR systems capture license plate images They convert them into searchable alphanumeric data and compare them against databases of license plates often linked to reported crime or other public safety purposes. ALPRs are nothing new. They really originated in studying in the UK back in the 1970s, and then they have emerged as public safety tools not only in public and private sectors, but also in modern policing in the early 1990s and early 2000s. Also in Alexandria, we have other forms of ALPRs that support parking enforcement and school zone enforcement. So I want to specify some information about our ALPR program. The Alexandria Police Department currently operates fixed LPR cameras that you see on our public roadways. There are 61 of those cameras. They have been acquired through a combination of grant funding and city funds. And again, they are static display cameras that are put on our major thoroughfares and ingress and egress points throughout the city. with the incorporation of those cameras within our community. There were multiple groups, not only the community that was talked about during the time to educate them on ALPRs, But we also talked to our Office of Race and Social Equity and other applicable city departments to talk about where we would station these LPRs at. And the first one, I also want to clarify a formal definition of what misuse is. It means that misuse is personnel assessing any law enforcement database for a purpose that is not for a legitimate public safety need. And so I want to further clarify the safeguards that are governing access to our database. Personnel in our department who are not trained on LPR usage cannot access our database. We have approximately 233 officers that are trained on this system, that utilize this system. We also have non-sworn personnel such as our crime analysts that are also trained on the system. And those that are not trained cannot access the database. And I also want to talk about the investigative process of utilizing the system. When a person accesses the database, they must identify an investigative purpose associated with an office type. They must also provide a corresponding case or CAD number, which goes along with our computer aided dispatch system, along with a specific reason for the search. Those search categories correspond with Virginia law and are categorized throughout the system in different areas. All required fields must be completed before a vehicle search can be conducted. These requirements create a record of who conducted the search why was conducted and the call associated with it And I also want to specify that data is purged every 21 days Unless it has been identified to be associated with a criminal case or ongoing law enforcement investigation The third thing I want to talk about is our auditing. The data is audited monthly by a dedicated policing unit. This unit governs our technology. They also govern mobile data cameras inside of our vehicles. These audits identify clerical or administrative errors that are not necessarily indicative of misuse or malicious intent. For example, an officer may inadvertently enter an incorrect case number or reference number. In those instances, the officer is going to be contacted through the auditing process, and we're going to resolve what that information is to ensure that it was for a legitimate law enforcement purpose. As of today, our current auditing process has not identified any malicious misuse. Finally, I want to affirm this, that we do not share any information with ICE as it relates to LPRs, nor does state law allow us to do so. I want to talk about actions that we have taken as a police department. As I talked earlier, last time I was in front of this council, we talked about the public safety plan. The last pillar on that public safety plan was concerning technology. And we have been in the community having multiple education sessions. We've talked about LPRs as a function, as a police department, to reinforce some of the thoughts that were just shared with this council. And I will tell you, there have been several opinions from our community members as it relates to ALPRs. One of those is the concern about a mass surveillance system across the United States as it relates to ensuring that persons are not being tracked subject to the Fourth Amendment. The second concern that has been shared with us is that the need for police departments to ensure that they have emerging technology to ensure that we can continue to protect our community that are in support of ensuring that we have LPRs but also governance. The other part of our community has expressed to me that, of course, like many others, similar to myself, you go online every single day, right, and there is new education, there are new stories that are out there, and they're seeking to have a better understanding of not only the technology, but how it also works to safeguard our communities. And with that process, it is important that I as the police chief and my staff and my team continue to listen not only through education sessions, but also one-on-ones as we have been open to during this entire time. The second thing out of those conversations has brought forth is increased transparency in what the searches are, not only the categories of the searches, but also frequently asked questions about our governance and oversight. And I'm happy to report over the last week, probably week to week and a half, We've been working on online information, dashboard systems that we can produce, and that was published on today on the department's website where you can go see that information. The third thing I want to highlight is also about independent third-party auditing. I TALKED ABOUT THE INTERNAL PROCESS WHERE OUR STAFF AUDITS THIS INFORMATION. WHEN I WAS PREVIOUSLY IN FRONT OF COUNCIL, DR. ROBIN ENGEL WHO IS A NATIONAL CRIMINOLOGIST WHO IS LOOKING AT OTHER AREAS OF OUR DATA, WE HAVE A DATA SHARING AGREEMENT WITH HER AND SHE IS CURRENTLY MEETING WITH STAFF IN ORDER TO IDENTIFY HOW SHE CAN BECOME A THIRD PARTY TO AUDIT OUR DATA SO WE CAN STRENGTHEN ACCOUNTABILITY. And then the final thing I want to say as police chief, at the heart of this situation, we know that there has been national commentary associated with the vendor. We take an oath to the Constitution, and that is not only to uphold the Constitution, but to ensure that we are protecting all citizens. And in doing so, we have also been meeting with additional vendors that I believe that have stronger safeguards that will address what the needs are of our community. But I also will preserve the need for our department to continue to utilize technology, ALPR data in a responsible way. And we are exploring those options currently. Bottom line for me is that I want our community to be safe. And the second thing is I want to ensure that we are upholding the oath that we have taken as a police department as it relates to our sworn members. I'm subject to your questions.

I'm going to open it up to questions and comments from the council at this time. Are there any? OK. Councilman Alnubi, Councilman Marks, Councilman Green.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Chief. I can't agree with you more. I think we all share the goal of making sure we're keeping our community safe while making sure our civil rights are also protected. So I appreciate you saying that. And I want to root everything I say tonight and all my questions tonight in that. These goals are not mutually exclusive. You touched on this a little bit on the misuse or if someone does something wrong while they're looking for data. There were reports of 56. Any of those 56 were for nefarious reasons, reasons other than searching for a crime. What I heard you say is sometimes it's just someone enters something wrong, and what we do is we train them, right?

Absolutely. I think it will point to the legitimacy of our auditing system, that we hold our officers accountable to what they search. And in those cases, I believe it was over a multi-year period, in those cases, the unit that does that specific auditing, they will reach out and contact that officer and validate what the information was and take what those corrective actions are. Normally they reach out to them by email. And when technology is new and it's also being integrated, there will be mistakes happen, right? Officers are subject to human error. And we have identified no malicious intent. They make those corrections. They coach them. They train them. And quite frankly, if that mistake is made, for example, a third time, then they are completely locked out of the system, and they will be subject to full retraining.

Got it. That's good to hear. You talked about the third party audit. Is there a timeline? And I'm sorry if I missed this. Is there a timeline for that? And also, is there a timeline on, you mentioned before we're looking into alternatives to flock.

Is there a timeline on that as well? I think we want to work on it as soon as possible right to bring back to mayor counsel You know, I believe we have to be diligent And I also believe we have to ensure That the safeguards the contracts right what is being proposed is consistent with our community values And what we expect as a police department and so that is something that we have actively been working on we've actively having conversations about and And I do not have a definitive timeline. I do recognize that there is a sense of urgency as it relates to the things that we're dealing with socially and in our communities. But I also want to ensure that I'm doing my due diligence and that we get it right in advancing what we need.

Thank you. I appreciate that. I think from my perspective, I would appreciate if you can come back to us with a timeline. I think at this point, I have a place, and I don't know if my colleagues share that, but I'm at a place where I want to see serious steps towards getting rid of flock, if possible, and what that looks like, to potentially get rid of flock and what that looks like. So I would appreciate steps towards that and a timeline on that. Another question. How much control do we have over other agencies seeing our data? And I'll tell you exactly why I'm asking that. I don't want another police department or another locality that has a 287 agreement with ICE accessing our data. Frankly, simply, I'm saying it as straightforward as I can. I don't want ICE or any locality that deals with ICE accessing our data because I don't want them targeting undocumented immigrants without using our data, that sort of thing. To the extent that we have the ability to do that, are we able to wall those localities? I know we'll take work, but do we have that ability?

We do have the ability to do that, sir. I will tell you that my staff is going through the agencies that we share data with. Again, we're in compliance with the law. That data sharing is only with agencies across the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is not even accessible by outside the state nor the federal government. I share some of those same concerns. And as you pointed out, we're doing our due diligence to identify any risk associated with that. And I think we will take the actions in consultation with OUR CITY ATTORNEY'S OFFICE AND THE CITY MANAGER'S OFFICE.

SOUNDS GOOD. I APPRECIATE THAT. I'LL STOP HERE, MADAM MAYOR. THANK YOU.

I HAVE COUNCILWOMAN MARKS FOLLOWED BY COUNCILWOMAN GREEN. THANK YOU AND THANK YOU, CHIEF PROCURIER. I'M INTERESTED ALSO IN GETTING FLOCK OUT OF ALEXANDRIA. FROM MY PERSPECTIVE WE NEED TO KNOW EXACTLY WHAT WE HAVE NOW understand its efficacy what the purpose is of this in our city and Understand really if it's proportionally appropriate to the response or a proportionally approach appropriate level of response to the crime that's happening in Alexandria and then we as a community can have a conversation about whether or not this technology benefits the people of Alexandria enough to justify its use. And I think that's a community conversation, not a sort of lopsided decision-making process. So I appreciate you clarifying some of the discrepancies we've seen in the press and everywhere we have some conflicting numbers. I do appreciate that. Rather than ask questions, because I think many of us up here have chatted with you and we've all read and sort of done our homework, I would love just to raise some issues as we move forward. Eliminating flock isn't enough for me. Eliminating and moving to a new and similar technology isn't enough for me without an extended conversation. And so number one, I just want to make clear to everyone here as we are continuing our options moving forward, I don't want to conflate the time between audits with the time that we retain data. So if we are going to agree to surveillance of any kind, I really want to make sure that it doesn't disadvantage women. So you and I have talked about, in a great conversation, about how violent crimes against women and children aren't necessarily reported within seven days. So as much as I don't want our data kept at all, I do want to take women into account when we're talking about destroying potential evidence that could rectify a situation for women that affects women differently than, let's say, an automobile theft. If we're going to use this equipment, I want it to benefit women. I would like to understand how we can keep Access to our system hours and hours only for example rather than sharing Access and availability to other jurisdictions that have different laws different values than we have here I would like to understand how Alexandria can gatekeep access query by query so if you know a jurisdiction that is affiliated with ICE and is pursuing tracking people down unlawfully were to access our database. We don't have much control over that if we have an agreement with it, but if they had to call us and give us a reason and give us a case number and tell us what was happening. We have a lot of people here who are in political disagreement with our federal government. We have a lot of agency heads, judges, people in Alexandria who I would like to be able to protect by having somebody from your department and your office make a decision about whether or not that access is given and that search is run. I'd like to understand what happens if we don't agree to a search like that. I'd like to make sure that women seeking abortion from other states aren't able to be tracked down, and undocumented people aren't able to be tracked down through our services without somebody in Alexandria agreeing that it's a lawful search. I would like to see a map of every camera in Alexandria. I think that is a bare minimum. I would like to see that. And I would like to understand not only what ALPRs are operated by flock, but what else are operated in the city. I know that, for example, nationally crime is down, but auto theft is up in Alexandria this month by 9%. So I would like to evaluate the efficacy of what we're doing before we move to a different provider have the same thing all over again. I'd also like to explore if there is a role for the independent police auditor or somebody else on the home team rather than a third party to participate in auditing and running these searches. The only other question I would ask of you, which I don't have an answer to here, is that we have triple the ratio of cameras to residents and triple the ratio of cameras to square mileage here in Alexandria. And as we move forward, I would like to understand why we have such a density of coverage as opposed to our neighboring jurisdictions.

So those are a lot of questions. I will try to. I know you want feedback on some. I mean, we can get back to you on some others.

I don't need answers. I mean, that's just my expectation of our policies moving forward. But my question about the density is specific.

Yeah. I'll just make these few comments associated with that. Since I've been here as police chief, I have worked very diligent and very hard to inform the community about violence and closure on violence here that has happened within our community. And in many times, while I may not say it publicly, some of the greatest work that our detectives do and our officers do, while it may be difficult, is to sit down with the family and tell them that we have arrested the person that has seriously injured or killed their loved one. And secondly, we also have been able to sit down with people and validate that they were not a part of a crime when someone has alleged that they were a part of a crime. And we take that very seriously in bringing closure to victims. As it relates to our violent crimes, as the most recent murder that we had in our city, we were able to utilize technology in multiple cases to bring somewhat closure. And also, as it relates to the serial rapists and the person that was exposing themselves to women within our community, without technology, we would not have solved those crimes. And so I understand and I recognize the concerns. But again, I think that we can ensure the public safety for our community because we are in a modernized world. Technology is everywhere, and you're absolutely right. As law enforcement, we have to ensure that we have the governance that is in place to ensure that those systems are protected and they're governed in the right way. The other thing is that I am confident THAT THERE ARE OTHER SYSTEMS OUT THERE, RIGHT? BECAUSE AS WE SIT HERE NOW, TECHNOLOGY IS ADVANCING. PEOPLE ARE STUDYING DIFFERENT AREAS, RIGHT, TO ADVANCE PUBLIC SAFETY. AND I AM CONFIDENT THAT THERE ARE STRONGER PROTECTIONS AS I PREVIOUSLY NOTED THAT MIRROR THE VISION NOT ONLY FOR THE COMMUNITY BUT MAYOR COUNCIL'S GOALS. AND SO WE'RE TAKING ALL OF THIS INTO CONSIDERATION AND I NOTE YOUR POINTS THAT YOU JUST SHARED.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Chief. A couple questions. My first one is when did the flat contract start and how long is the contract? And I would love to know how much did we pay in city funds versus the grant that was appropriated?

So I'm jogging through my memory as you asked that question. I can tell you that in 2023 is when the contract was initiated and we began to pilot cameras here within the city. The grant funds I think were approximately over $300,000. That's a one-time grant or was it renewed? It was through DCJS. One time? I believe so. I would have to validate that to you. And then the second part of what city funds were spending, I would have to follow up with you on that. I want to say that the majority of funding was supported by grant funding. The majority by grant? Yes. Okay. But I will follow up to validate that.

And do you know how long the contract?

So the contract, I'm not sure of expiration date, but I can tell you that the contract can be discontinued at any time. Any time. Okay. Yes.

All right. And your slides mentioned 21 days. And then the data is purged, um, except for an active, or one of the exceptions is active cases. So a case could be open for six months, right?

Yeah. So, um, or longer or, uh, yeah. So that data still stays. I can, I can speak to that. Right. Uh, Once data is identified as an investigative purpose, it's part of evidence for number one. The second thing is that why 21 days is critically important from an investigative purpose, number one, is what is defined by the law. Number two is our detectives do field follow up on foot. They speak to witnesses, and sometimes that exceeds a seven-day period or a 14-day period. And so we want to ensure that we're preserving that right, not only in compliance with the law, but to give a reasonable amount of time for a detective to follow up. When you look nationally, there are some police departments that keep data for up to a year to six months. That has never been our practice. So we're in compliance with the law, but we also want to give uh detectives or officers or whoever's following up on the case a reasonable amount of time to do follow-up to go out in communities to talk to people to identify victims and witnesses and so they could get an investigative lead that is associated with the crime or probably on day eight or day nine and so again i think that it's a reasonable expectation

Okay. If I could get that information that I asked for, I'd appreciate it. Thank you.

Vice Mayor Bagley.

Thank you. And thank you for the presentation. I'm not, I appreciate there was a question from some of my colleagues about like the number and location of cameras. And I guess I'm leaving tonight without what I think is full clarity that WITH THE NUMBER AND LOCATION. I JUST WANT TO SECOND. I APPRECIATE IT SAID 61 ON THE SLIDE. BUT WE'VE SEEN SOME OTHER NUMBERS ELSEWHERE. SO IF 61 IS THE NUMBER, I THINK MR. MANAGER OR IF WE CAN HAVE SOME FOLLOW-UP THAT CLARIFIES WHAT THE NUMBER ISN'T OR THAT SORT OF THING. JUST BECAUSE I DO THINK THE COMMUNITY HAS HAD OTHER NUMBERS SHARED. And I will respect and agree with 61, but I'd love to know what, maybe there's something really simple, like we moved them. You know, and one snapshot in time showed a camera here, but today that same camera is somewhere else.

I think the other thing for consideration is we're not the only entity right within the city that has LPR cameras. Okay. So I say that from the perspective of there are private businesses that have them, right, and then also on the border there are neighboring cities that have them. There's also, I believe, the Inova Junior College campus, right? They have them. So I think that I'm speaking about contractually what we have as it relates to the police department that I can validate. And so when, again, I'm not speaking about anyone else's camera count. I'm speaking about what my staff and my team knows internally. Persons can go around the city and they can individually count cameras, but it's not validated that all of those are APD cameras. And so we can work on to get you that information.

No, I appreciate that. And I think just based on the murmurs in the audience and generally, I think buried in what you've just said is an acknowledgment that private corporations, private landowners, private businesses, private community colleges are also currently making choices, making investments. So to the extent we can close the loop on that, and if 61, this is the current map, this is the current 61, I'd appreciate that. I accept that 61 number tonight, but it would just be nice to have something clarifying. And to the extent maybe you are aware, and I get you can't speak to a full list, but if for collaborative reasons or other reasons you are aware. and they're publicly accessible, identifying any others, if only to rule out that this is not a city-operated camera, as people understand what they look like and might start to spot them. So I just wanted to kind of agree with the questions and the concerns about location. I also acknowledge and sort of agree with the concern that if we, let's say, are perfect actors, except a premise that our department is perfect actors, but others may not be. I want to agree and sort of like to hear more about to the extent we have any ALPRs, flock contracted or otherwise, what is our ability to start from a place of we don't share at all, recognizing that means Arlington and Fairfax might not share their data in return. choose on a jurisdictional basis, choose on a case-by-case basis. Maybe that's more a question for the city attorney's office and a higher level analysis of what are the trade-offs of setting our policy as close held as possible and then degreeing it out. Because I understand at the state level, we have rules that say it can't go outside the state. No federal agency has access. But if we are sharing with that partner list, which is substantial, We don't necessarily know how they're handling that. And then as this night is intended to also sort of express future development and policy, I would like to think that there is a potential policy that could be developed by our city attorney's office, by APD, by national, listening to the NAACP, listening to other organizations, where certain cameras and certain applications could pass that policy because the efficacy, the application, the tradeoffs weigh in favor. The simplest version of that I can think of is where we have speed cameras, speeds are lower, and they only capture photos of people who are actively violating a law in that moment. I don't know for sure that those are perfect and that those don't have improvements and surveillance concerns, but is IS THERE A VERSION, YOU KNOW, THAT COULD PASS A POLICY THAT THIS COUNCIL AND THE COMMUNITY IS COMFORTABLE WITH? I DON'T KNOW SITTING HERE TONIGHT WHAT THAT IS. BUT I'D BE CURIOUS AS WE MOVE FORWARD AND AS WE RETURN THIS CONVERSATION, YOU KNOW, IS THERE A LEVEL, AND AGAIN, AS WE HAVE A COMMUNITY DIALOGUE AND WE'RE HAVING FEEDBACK AND WE'RE CERTAINLY HEARING FROM A LOT OF PEOPLE, YOU KNOW, IS THERE A LEVEL ON THE SCALES OF, YOU KNOW, of cameras that have such limited application and limited retention and limited use that the community does support. I'm not presupposing that support, but I'd like to hear that as well. And I'd like to hear what those much more limited, constrained uses are. With regard, you know, because I think about those speed cameras we put up in school zones, which the data does tell us has lowered speeds in those zones, and those cameras only capture my understanding, you know, the violation as it's happening. I'm just checking my notes real quick. Yeah, I mean, I think those were generally where I'm at. I appreciate the presentation. And to the extent my colleagues are asking about timelines, I know the mayor still has her comments to make. But I would like to leave tonight with, if not answers, sort of a vision for a path forward in the community.

I'm going to go to Councilman Aguirre, and then I have some thoughts on this. Councilman Chapman, and then I'll go.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. So just along the lines of some of the questioning that's been happening, and I'm not expecting an answer right now, because I don't think we went through a distinguishment of what all the different cameras are. So can we get... List definitions if you will because you have The LPRs that are mounted on cars. You have the flock cameras. We have body worn cameras. We have cameras that are for traffic Violations there's cameras potentially on school buses, right? So if we can get a list of to kind of distinguish what's what I think that'll be very helpful in explaining to the community what we're looking at in totality and then with the private sector or even the community college that has their own personal cameras that they bought. I'd also like to know if we have, as APD, agreements with any of those businesses to get direct feeds or anything of that like.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I wanted to just jump in here with the earlier conversation about some of the I guess I could call it tinkering that we can do with the system and with what we're looking at and how we use these cameras. I also want to have an understanding when you guys come back is kind of the amount of capacity needed to do some of what folks are asking for. Is that additional people? Is that additional dollars? I want to understand budgetary issues as well. And as we transition to additional policy, change of policy, or additional vendors or changes of vendors, excuse me, I also want to understand that part as well. So it's not just kind of the front edge of the conversation, but the back end as well.

um so let me offer a few thoughts and then i think i'm going to try and summarize what i think is the direction we've heard tonight chief while i recognize um you didn't explicitly say the vendor name i know some of my colleagues did but i do i don't want us to skate over the situation that for many of us in the community one of the reasons why this has risen to this point is because of flock and that specific vendor And so I want to be clear, at least from my perspective, that while I do think there's a role for technology and I do think we have seen the role that that has played and the benefit it has, I do not think there's a role for flock in this community. Second thing I want to say is as we are looking at new systems, I think this is where number one and number four are really important. If we're going to have community conversations about this, then I think it has to be intentional. This cannot be added to an existing meeting or something else. There needs to be a clear schedule of like, when are we having these meetings? The focus of this meeting is on this technology. And there's actually a, I was struggling with this and I've tried to figure out different options with the manager, but like there has to be a two way dialogue here so that people can share back their opinions on this. So one in four to me, have to be together in terms of that evaluation. Because if not, I think somebody else mentioned this, if not, we can go to a new system that has the same problems or does not address the concerns that we have. So I want to, I guess, be clear that I 100% agree with what has been said here about we need to move to getting to a new system and getting flock out. But the community has to have a clear way of weighing in on that. I do want to echo this piece about the timeline. Mr. Manager, I'll give you an opportunity to weigh in on that. But to me, this is urgent and as quickly as possible is necessary. I'm not saying necessarily for here's the new vendor and here's what we're doing because that doesn't leave time for the community engagement. But there has to be a timeline for when some of the answers to the questions are going to come back. And I think those also need to be published. Like we talked about transparency and online, I think every question we had here or answers that still need to be determined should be published and easy for the public to search and see as part of that transparency portal. I think that I want to echo the calls here for the types of camera and for the map. I think what we've seen is when we don't have clear information, and I know there are concerns about this, people create their own. And then we're all not operating from the same amount. And so I think if our goal is transparency, then our goal should be here's the number, here's where they are, and how we got there. And I think that's really important. So those would be the directions I give. And then I would just say, and we didn't really cover this as much. I think different people threw out different ideas. But while we are waiting for chief and staff to come back on what it will take to remove the flock cameras, I do think we need to be clear about then what other things can be put in place as quickly as possible, whether that's the things that were mentioned about different types of agreements, whether that's finalizing this contract with the third party. But I think that is the very stuff that also needs a timeline as well, that these things are happening and these things are happening today so that the protections we can put in place are being done. So I hope, I know there are a lot of different comments. I know we can summarize this by watching the video. But I do think what I heard loud and clear is there is still a role for technology. And we have seen what that has done. But there is agreement that we need to be moving away from the current vendor that we have. And that technology and our community has to be involved in getting the information they need to help with that decision and a two-way dialogue on being clear with us on how we move forward, whether that's a new policy or whether that's just a future decision about where we go.

Thank you. Taika.

All right. Well, then, thank you for your – actually, Mr. Manager, timing.

Yes. So thank you, Mayor and council members, for all the questions. So I think certainly answers to your questions, that's an urgency. I think there were some questions that were answered tonight, but we have a list. And I think what we would try to do is deliver those as fast as we can. I would imagine that some of the questions we can answer You know in days and some probably a couple weeks I would think that would probably be the window of time to come back with all the answers just clarification I I think the Website that has that information will probably be the right place to put that. Okay, so we would do that the third party agreement Don't want to speak for the chief, but I think we're very close to having that So that's that's probably would be measured in a week or so Assuming there's not a procurement issue related to that and then the third would be the dashboard with more information and I think I believe staffs working on that now and So we would probably update that a little bit. And then the question about locations, I think we would want to have a follow-up conversation on that.

And something that might be helpful is, you know, right on the home page we have the ICE operations link where we break down what we do and we do not do and what we're advocating for and so forth. I think maybe there just needs to be a dedicated page because not everyone knows how to get to the dashboard or the transparency portal or the FAQs. I think everything should just be in one place. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. Thank you, City Attorney. All right, Madam Clerk, next item.

Introduction and first reading. Consideration passage on first reading of an ordinance to vacate a portion of the public right-of-way at the southern end of Kent Place adjacent to the property at 2702 Russell Road.

Madam Mayor.

Councilman Aguirre.

If there's no questions from our colleagues, then I'd move approval of item 27.

All right, there's been a motion to approve item 27 by Councilman Aguirre and a second by Councilman El-Nubi. Is there any further discussion? All right, seeing none, Madam Clerk, this is a roll call vote. Please call the roll.

Councilman Aguirre. Aye. Councilman El-Nubi. Aye. Mayor Gaskins. Aye. Vice Mayor Bagley. Aye. Councilman Chapman.

Nay.

Councilwoman Green. Aye. Councilwoman Mark. Aye.

All right, the ayes have it. So she carries. Madam Clerk, next item.

Introduction, excuse me, in first reading, consideration passage on first reading of an ordinance to vacate a portion of public right-of-way at the southern end of Kent Place adjacent to the property at 2800 Russell Road.

Madam Mayor.

Councilman McGarry.

Move approval of item 28.

There's been a motion. Is there a second? There is a second by vice mayor Bagley to move approval of item 28. Is there any additional discussion? All right seeing none madam clerk. This is a roll call though.

Please call the roll Councilman Aguirre. Aye. Vice mayor Bagley. Aye. Mayor Gaskin. Aye. Councilman Chapman. Aye. Councilman El Newby. Stay. Councilwoman Green. Aye. Councilwoman Marks. Aye.

All right the ayes have it. Madam clerk next item.

Contested appointments.

All right. For our contested appointments, it is our practice that I will read the board. I will then share the names of all the individuals who received a vote and then read the name of the majority vote getter. At the end, I will then ask for a motion to approve appointment to these boards and commissions of the majority vote getters. The first board is Alex Renew. This is for one citizen member. And Mark Schofield received all seven votes of the council. The next board is for the Board of Zoning Appeals. Ian Paul Newman received three votes, that of Marks, Gaskins, and Bagley, and there were four votes to re-advertise. That of Elnubi, Green, Aguirre, and Chapman, this board will be re-advertised. Children, Youth, and Families Collaborative Commission. This is for three members. The following individuals received votes of the council. Martha Davis received El Newby, Marks, Gaskins, Green, Chapman, Bagley. Dan Edwards received all seven votes of the council. Eleanor Ellison received El Nubi, Melissa Marston received one vote from Councilman Aguirre, and Annie Rainey received six votes, Marks, Gaskins, Green, Aguirre, Chapman, and Bagley. That means the three majority vote-getters are Martha Davis, Dan Edwards, and Annie Rainey. The next is the Commission for the Arts. This is for one member, and Robin Jordan received all seven votes of the council. The next commission is Commission for Women. This is for two citizen members. Ashley Edmiston and Yvette Chang and Sarah Jackson received votes of the council. Ashley received four votes, Green, Aguirre, Bagley, Chapman. Sarah Jackson received three votes, that of Marks, Alnubi, and Gaskins. Yvette received all seven votes. That means our two appointees are Ashley and Yvette.

Commission on Aging.

This is for two citizen members who are 60 years of age and older. Everyone who applied received votes from the council. Allen Dinsmore received Elnubi, Marks, Gaskins, Aguirre, Bagley. Daniel Green received Green. Jane King received Elnubi, Marks, Gaskins, Aguirre, Chapman, and Bagley. And Judith Miller received a vote from Councilwoman Green. That means the two members who are age 60 or older who will be appointed are Allen and Jane. This commission also had a ballot for one member with leadership experience in a volunteer organization. Marshall Hespe received all seven votes of the council. It also had a vacancy for one representative of a supportive service provider. Thomas Miles received five votes, that of Elnubi, Marks, Gaskins, Green, Chapman. And then Denise Wright received two votes, that of Aguirre and Bagley. That means that Thomas Miles will be appointed as the representative of a supportive service provider. The next is Commission on Employment, and this is one citizen member, and Patrick Edwards received all seven votes of the council. The next is the Commission on Persons with Disabilities, and this is for one citizen member, and Rachel Dixon received all seven votes of the council. The Environmental Policy Commission, this is for one member from the field of environmental sciences or who has Alexandria waterfront expertise. Dan Beatty received six votes, Alnubi, Marks, Green, Aguirre, Chapman, and Bagley. And Holly Carr received one vote, that of Gaskins. Me. Historic Alexandria Resources Commission. This is for one Planning District 1 representative. Donna DeBlasio received all seven votes of the council. Sorry, I wasn't used to it. I was like, oh, who's that? Human Rights Commission. This is for one citizen member. Tess McIrney received two, that of El Nubi and Aguirre. And Jennifer Topping received five. Marks, Gaskins, Green, Chapman, Bagley. That means Jennifer is our appointee. The Independent Policing Review Board had an appointment for one member from a historically, racially, or socially marginalized community that has commonly experienced disparate policing in Alexandria or the Commonwealth of Virginia. Christopher Lewis received all seven votes of the council. There's also a vacancy for one member who represents an organization, office, or agency that seeks racial or social justice or otherwise advocates on behalf of the historically, racially, or socially marginalized. And all seven members of the council voted to defer this appointment. The Local Emergency Planning Commission is a vacancy for one community group representative. William Kehoe received four votes, that of Marks, Green, Chapman, and Bagley. And Yadel Avella received three votes, that of Elnubi, Gaskins, and Aguirre. That means that William is our appointee. The Public Records Advisory Commission has one citizen member. And Candice DiNardi received four votes, that of Marks, Gaskins, Aguirre, and Bagley. And Rachel Townsend received three, Elnubi, Green, and Chapman. That means that Candice DiNardi is the appointment to the Public Records Advisory Commission. The Sister City Committee, this is for three citizen members. Victoria James received six votes, that of Marks, Gaskins, Greens, Chapman, and Bagley. Bagley, and Alnubi. Elizabeth Poppin received seven votes, and Patricia Miller Scherznell received four votes. Marks, Gaskins, Bagley, Alnubi. Natalie Sutton also received three votes, and that is Green, Chapman, and Aguirre. That means that Victoria James, Elizabeth Poppin, and Patricia Scherznell are the appointees to the sister city committee at this point I will take a motion to approve the majority vote getters as read into the record so move madam a I have a motion by councilwoman green and a second by councilman Chapman. Is there any additional discussion? Seeing none madam clerk. This is a roll call vote. Please call the roll. I

Councilwoman Green. Aye. Councilman Chapman. Aye. Mayor Gaskins. Aye. Vice Mayor Bagley. Aye. Councilman Aguirre. Aye. Councilman Elnubi. Aye. Councilwoman Marks. Aye.

All right, the ayes have it. The motion carries. Councilman, well, actually, hold on. Let me make sure there's nothing else on here. One second. Yes, Madam Clerk, next item.

Consideration of City Council schedule.

Are there any comments on the schedule? If not, is there approval? All right, there's been a motion by vice mayor Bagley and a second by councilman Chapman to approve the council schedule All those in favor say aye aye any opposed.

All right, the eyes have it councilman Aguirre Madam mayor moved to reconvene in closed session as previously stated.

All right, there's been a motion. Is there a second? There's a second by councilman Chapman to reconvene in closed executive session Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Ayes have it. We are back in executive session. Councilman Aguirre.

Move to reconvene in open session. Second.

There's been a motion by Councilman Aguirre and a second by Councilwoman Green to reconvene from closed executive session. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, the ayes have it. Councilman Aguirre.

Madam Mayor, I move the City Council adopt the resolution regarding the closed executive session that was previously circulated to the Council.

All right. There has been a motion by Councilman Aguirre and a second by Councilwoman Green to adopt the resolution that was previously circulated to the council regarding our closed executive session. Madam Clerk, this is a roll call vote. Please call the roll.

Councilman Aguirre. Aye. Councilwoman Green. Aye. Mayor Gaskins. Aye. Vice Mayor Bagley. Aye. Councilman Chapman. Aye. Councilman L. Newby. Aye. Councilwoman Marks. Aye.

The ayes have it and the motion carries. There has been a motion by Vice Mayor Bagley to adjourn. Is there a second? And a second by Councilman Green. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The ayes have it. Meeting adjourned. 1032.

Treating people how they deserve to be treated.

I define respect as treating someone the way you want to be treated and allowing someone to do what they need to do.

I define respect as admiration towards someone's qualities. I think respect means like when we like stick with somebody through thick and thin.

I define respect as acknowledging someone's boundaries and sticking to them. I define respect as taking into consideration others' feelings and emotions.

Respecting others means showing a person's personality and morals, which creates a deep and peaceful atmosphere in a society.

Respect to me means showing kindness to others.

Respect means to me being kind and fair to everyone in my community.

I define respect as caring for the people in place around you and treating people the way you want to be treated.