Remarks by Maureen Coffey
61 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 3
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Thank you, Chair DeFerranti. October annually is Domestic Violence Awareness and Prevention Month. And so we use this as an opportunity every year to reaffirm our commitment to a community where everyone can live safely with dignity, free from violence, free from domestic abuse, anywhere that they are, anyone that they are in our community as well. In 2025, Doorways, who we have represented here today, responded to 836 hotline calls from Arlington community members, provided safe house services to 144 individuals across 75 households, and continues to underscore our need for continual…
And I'll just add that our annual Domestic Violence Awareness and Prevention Month event will be next week on October 28th at Lubber Run Community Center at 2 p.m. All are welcome to attend and participate. And it should be a really good opportunity to learn about what we're currently doing and get involved if you're not already. So we look forward to seeing you there. That's 2 p.m., Lubber Run, October 28th.
I think we'll start with this one first. Sure. See if there's any questions or comments from colleagues.
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Yeah, absolutely. Well, and I will also just highlight that I believe our Office of County Auditor has joined the Local Government Auditors Association or whatever order those words are meant to be in. And so they have additional peer support now through that organization as they go undertake this first peer review and they can rely upon others who have gone through this, which I think has been really I think has been helpful to the office. Yes. So with that, I will move that the County Board adopt the revised charter of the revised charge for the Office of County Auditor.
I think at the time we had a vague discussion around whether there was potential personnel as we were evaluating the performance of the county auditor, if maybe the audit committee could go into closed session to talk about private personnel matters. And that was Sort of around the beginning again when we split them the two charters Last year it kind of it was there and we talked about it in a really vague sense And I think over the last year and as we've revisited We determined that that situation is never going to occur and would not necessarily comply in Virginia Code with an opportunity…
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Thank you. And I'll just highlight on specialized equipment. I don't know for me personally that the cost of investing in Toronto level snow equipment makes sense for Arlington, where we do get these snow events only once every five to 10 years, and if we were to explore that path, I would be extremely interested in how much of our capital fund would have to be invested realistically, because I don't think you can have just one of those and make any amount of difference. It would have to be a full-scale fleet investment, and then whether that capital cost is really justified by the frequency…
Thank you. I really appreciate all the work that has gone into this. I think this is a really novel and critical thing that the county has taken on. And all the work on engagement I think is the most important part, both with our youth, thank you all so much for being here today and participating in this process. This is for you and we want you to feel like you are owners, not just you know, participants. This isn't adults doing something to you or for you. It is something that we want to do with you. And so your participation really does matter here. But as we think about especially moving…
That's great to know, and I think we have some folks who will be happy to make connections up here. You know, we, as much as this is owned by not the board, it is a staff initiative, we want to be as supportive as partners as we possibly can be, and so I think we'll all be happy to follow up to get some of that kick-started. Thank you.
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Yeah. Thank you so much to everyone. This has been quite the process to put together this year. And we will have robust discussion in November. We'll have, I think, the most robust discussion on the 29th with our General Assembly members here in person. And so I don't want to belabor too many points. I do want to highlight the short session element will impact what is I think reasonably achievable. The General Assembly is always a fast and speedy body when they meet, but the short sessions are somehow faster and speedier than ever. And with the bill limits in particular, it really does limit…
And I would just also add that oftentimes when our community is surprised, we on the legislative team are surprised as well. There is no one who has full and complete information. And there are pretty significant things that were changed in the budget, were changed in veto session or even before that, that no one had talked about out loud until they were passed into the legislation. So I think as much as our community is stressed out by that, we have active staff that are paid to be on the ground, to be talking to people, to be paying attention. And we still get surprised. And so I think…
I just had a quick question. Go for it, if that's okay. I will be very short after this. Sure. Separate from our public EV charging, we are doing a lot, the air team is doing a lot in terms of multi-unit buildings, especially in new site plans. And I wonder if you can just share, unrelated to our public EV charging, what we are working towards when it comes to our multi-unit buildings. Because I think there's a lot there that obviously is not necessarily related to this presentation.
Great. I believe the C-PACE financing tool that we recently revised as well can be used for existing buildings to access capital to retrofit for things like EV chargers, is that right?
I know that that's one of the greatest challenges is the retrofitting of existing buildings does cost a lot.
Which is why we're now setting minimum standards for EV chargers and new construction buildings. Absolutely. But thank you. I just wanted to make sure we got all of that on the record too. All right, I'm all good.
If the motion maker is willing to accept those, then we don't have to vote on the amendment.
I'll just make a concluding statement. Go ahead. You know, I think part of the reason that we directed staff to do this during the capital improvement plan is to make sure that we can continue to sustainably invest in expanding our electric charger infrastructure. We want to make sure that there are as many EV chargers accessible in as many places in the county, but that does cost us significant amounts of money to do so, and by creating a fiscally sustainable EV charging program that does account for the capital costs as well. It will enable us in the long term to make more of those…
Yeah, I think just, you know, given this is a pretty unusual thing for us to do, I just will share. I think it has come to our attention that not all issues were worked out with all of the signatories on the MOU. And so we want to err on the side of caution and respect towards everyone that needs to be signing this MOU to make sure that they have the time they need to work on those issues and come back to us, not because we are reconsidering our commitment to a behavioral health docket at the circuit court level. I think we're all committed to that and all supportive of that, but we also want…
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Thank you. Senator Howell and I have the great fortune of sharing an alma mater. We both went to Oberlin College in Northeast Ohio, which I did not know her very well by the time I was out of college. And here in Arlington, she only represented two precincts of Arlington and shortly thereafter her district was redrawn to not include any of Arlington. But I've always felt a deep kinship because Oberlin College represents so much of who I am as a person and how it shaped her, how it shaped me. Oberlin's one of the first schools that co-educated men and women as well as one of the first private…
All right. That's as high as it goes. September is National Preparedness Month. We're grateful to be joined here by our Department of Public Safety Communications and Emergency Management. I will say that emergency planning is an area that I as a board member was a lot less familiar with before I got into this position but is truly integral to every single part of what your local government does. Emergencies happen with little or no warning and being prepared beforehand makes a real difference for individuals, families, and entire neighborhoods. National Preparedness Month is a reminder that…