City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everyone. The Richmond City Council budget work session will now come to order. Madam Clerk, if you would provide the chamber emergency evacuation plan announcement. Upon activation of the emergency alarm signal, all persons should immediately exit the building. Please choose the exits to the left, right, or front of the council chamber or the east or west stairwell outside the rear doors of the chamber. Do not use elevators or escalators. At the exit of the building, security would direct everyone down 9th Street to the assembly area located inside the former safety building parking lot. Able person should assist visually and hearing impaired visitors with exiting the building. Persons wishing to speak oh, that's about it. That's it.

Not quite that one, madam clerk. Thank you. Mister Warren, if you would provide an overview of the protocol for the work session, please.

Yes. May I please the council, RJ Warren, council chief of staff. I'll be brief with this one. On your, docket today is two portfolios. The first being operations, and that will be facilitated by DCO Wiggins.

And also the mayoral portfolio, which will be facilitated by the mayor's chief of Sid Dav, Lawson, Regisoria. In mister Wiggins' portfolio, you have, you know, Amquire Control, Richmond Fire Department, recent Richmond Police Department, Department of Emergency Communications Preparedness and Response, Department of General Services, department of parks, recreation, community facilities, and department of public utilities, and department of public works, a large portfolio. So if you look in your, budget book for today, there's two presentations in there. One that's gonna be led up here by mister Wiggins, and then a second one provided by the mayor's chief of staff, which addresses the three entities within the mayor's portfolio, which is the office of the mayor, the office of strategic communications, and the office of intergovernmental affairs. She will not be presenting up here, just to preserve time.

The full twenty minutes we're giving to mister Wickets to present on operations. However, when we go around and you have your five minutes to ask questions, you can ask questions to either of them at that time, to the mayor's chief of staff regarding mayor's portfolio or mister Wiggins regarding, the operations. The only thing I would ask is if you have several questions, let's say for mister Wiggins, you ask his first, and then, for miss Wigesoria, you ask her second just to prevent Pete from having to jump up and down. We are going to go for for a second round today of questions for five minutes as stated in SOPs. I just ask when we get to that second round to try to be as concise and quick as you can, out of respect for the for the day and the and the work the staff needs to do.

And, once again, please pay attention in the SOPs. We have listed the predetermined order of questions so you all know where you're at on there. And, I believe, that is it I need to share with you just a friendly reminder that, I've, informed you a few times, which is why I got the microphone. Amendments are due two weeks from yesterday, regarding this budget. I will be available after this if you wanna discuss that, in further detail. So thank you so much.

Thank you, mister Warren. With that, welcome DCAL Wiggins.

Well, good afternoon, president Noble Good afternoon. Vice president Jordan, and esteemed members of the council. I hear a little reverb. Can you all hear me clearly? Well, I appreciate the opportunity to present the proposed f y twenty seven budget for the operations portfolio on behalf of Maribula and CA O'Donnell.

I've now been with the city for nearly six months, and and during that time, I've had the opportunity to engage with many of you. I look forward to continuing continuing those conversations and to build building relationships with those council members that I have not yet had the chance to connect with. I'm especially excited to oversee the operations portfolio as it closely reflects my professional experience over the past twenty three years in both county and city government. This work is deeply aligned with my background and delivering core services and managing complex, high impact operations. During my time here, I've had the opportunity to work closely with our department leaders.

I want to acknowledge that they have been incredibly welcoming and helpful as I've transitioned into this role. I've also been genuinely impressed by their knowledge, professionalism, and commitment to service. After twenty three years in public service, I do not see that lightly. These are leaders and professionals whose experience and expertise are highly sought after in their field, and we are fortunate to have them serving our city. I am proud to stand firmly behind the work of these teams.

They deliver critical services to our residents every day, often under challenging conditions, and they do so with professionalism, dedication, and a strong sense of public service. Given both the limited time that we have today and the breadth of the departments within this portfolio, I will be providing a very high level overview that focuses on key priorities, major investments, and overall service impacts. The operations portfolio encompasses many of the city's most essential and visible services. It provides strategic oversight of public safety, infrastructure, and core service delivery, ensuring that residents receive reliable, efficient services and that we maintain a high performing city. I often think of the operation team as the Navy SEALs of the city, and that's the last time you will ever hear me make a navy navy analogy as I am an Air Force man.

So I want you to to just think about the portfolio as a whole. And the reason I refer to them as the navy seals is that we rely on them to handle the most critical situations. And oftentimes, while we're in our bed sleeping comfortably, while we're in front of our television watching our favorite program, we have no idea of the crisis that are inverted and the issues that are handled proactively. And with that, I would like to ask everyone that falls under the operations prefer, though, to stand up. Thank you.

So for FY twenty seven, the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Community Facilities were transitioning to the operations portfolio, positioning the city to build on its sustained national performance gains over time. The park system has advanced from number 58 to number 16. That's very significant. And this is in a national top ten one hundred rankings, reflecting enhanced programming and amenities. Aligning parks with operations will sustain this upward trajectory by integrating maintenance functions, strengthening capital, project execution, and expanding the city's green space footprint.

This proximity to core operational resources will enhance coordination, reduce duplication, and strategically deploy investments that directly improve scoring metrics within the national ranking framework. This portfolio includes a wide range of departments, as the chief of staff just mentioned to you earlier today, and together with these agencies from the backbone of city operations protecting public safety, maintaining critical infrastructure, and enhancing quality of life across our community. Following the presentation, I will address any questions from the council. If needed, I will engage the appropriate department head for technical and detailed inquiries to ensure that you receive a thorough response. With that, I'll move into a high level overview of the proposed f y twenty seven budget.

Okay. We'll start off by just giving you a quick overview of our mission. Our mission is simple. We provide strategic oversight of public safety, infrastructure, and core services, including parks and recreation to ensure reliable, efficient services in a high performing city. We always like to begin every discussion with our Merrill pillars, which is the framework for how we operate, prioritize, and measure success.

And you'll see those seven pillars reflected here. Alright. Under again, this is going to be a very high level overview. We'd like to reserve some time for questions, but I'll hit the high points. This is not an all encompassing report of all of the, major accomplishments of this operations portfolio.

But, again, just for the sake of time, this would be a very high level presentation. I would like to highlight that RFD graduated two recruit classes, achieving full time staffing and eliminating years of long vacancies. This is important. This is something that happened under chief Siegel's watch, and this is a a very difficult task to perform. He was able to recruit not only new recruits who are newly entering, the fire services career field, was able to successfully recruit, seasoned firefighters from other jurisdictions.

Says a lot about his leadership. Also, with recruiting those additional candidates that, have eventually come on as full time employees has been very helpful in reducing overtime. We'd also like to highlight that DPW achieved the sixth consecutive reaccreditation from the American Public Works Association, and d c DCPR completed a citywide integrated preparedness plan, following the launch of the multi agency coordination center. They have also completed several upgrades to our 911 phone system and our computer aided dispatch, also known as our CAD system. Moving on to our thriving neighborhoods category, you'll see that RPD, that shootings are down to a ten year low.

Homicides are down to a seven year low with an 80% clearance rate. They also maintain CALIA gold status and DGCS certification. Rape is down 30%, robberies are down 11%, and property crimes are down 14%. Again, this is just a snapshot of the great work that's being done by chief Edwards. Should time allow, I would ask him to come up to give you a little bit more details about the work that he's doing with his team.

Also, I'd like to mention that RFD opened two fire stations, Station 12 And 21. This helped to increase response capacity and to improve overall city coverage. I think it's also important to mention that they achieved a 56.6 arson clearance rate. Doesn't sound impressive until you consider the national average is about 28.1. So they have doubled the national average in that particular category.

Moving on to thriving neighborhoods. DPW has litany of accomplishments, and I'll just rattle off a few here. They've been able to pave a 165 miles. I like to pause right there. I've been very impressed since coming on board with the seat of Richmond with the condition of our roads. Again, I've been in this business for twenty three years. Much of that has been focused in the area of public works, and I have been beyond impressed with the pavement condition index and the condition of our streets. I would rival our public works department, and our road resurfacing team with anyone in this country. We've also repaired a 132 blocks of sidewalks. We've graded 816 gravel alleys.

We've installed 39 speed tables, six hundred and thirty eight eighty eighty eight ramps over 10,000 potholes, and we completed over 2,300 LED streetlight conversions. Moving on to thriving families, we've delivered 49,000 meals to youth across 16 sites in partnership with the USDA summer food program. Under our driving cap economy category, we've activated Bryant Park as a regional economic and community hub hosting the RVA big market with a 100 plus vendors and over 4,000 weekly visitors. Excuse me. DPW has successfully issued over 1,700 work and street permits, which is a sign of the many construction prod projects in our great city.

We've also been able to issue 26 encroachment assessments, nearly 2,000 building residential permit reviews, over 600 building commercial permit reviews, nearly a 100 special use permits, over 30 subdivision plots, and a little bit over 20 plan of development reviews. Under our thriving and inclusive communities category, RFD graduated a recruit class with the highest percentage of female firefighters in the department's history, 59%, which is very impressive and difficult to do. Moving on to our thriving and sustainable built environment, DGS was able to, sustain infrastructure through Fire Station twelve. They earned the Fiero honor award, the APWA Mid Atlantic Recognition, and league gold certification. And so we're not only getting projects completed, those projects are being recognized by our peers and national organizations.

Moving on to our beloved Richmond Animal Care and Control division, excuse me, department. This department has over 50 positive news stories. That's extremely difficult to do. They have an extensive following on social media, over a 190,000 followers. I wish I could give you a comparison to what other jurisdictions have, but this is a very difficult thing to achieve, and that's directly connected to the work that they're doing.

And let's move on to the proposed budget. You'll see, Richmond Animal Control, their position. Their staffing position is remaining, flat. You'll see a slight increase, a little bit over 80 k, and this reflects internal promotions promotions and, the reorganization of the department. Excuse me.

You also see a $59,000 decrease in our operations budget. Again, we're always trying to find ways to operate more efficiently, not letting cost be being the determining factor over service delivery. We have to be able to chew gum and walk. But Richmond Animal Care and Control has done a great job in decreasing their operating budget without sacrificing the quality of our services. Moving on to the Richmond fire department, you'll see that there's just a slight increase in staffing.

That's the the five additional staff members are not new employees necessarily. This is just a technical adjustment with the, five funded positions were, funded through a grant program. We're looking to bring those, positions on board, which are the civilian fire inspectors Due to the success of them being able to complete several fire inspections, these positions will be incorporated into their org chart permanently. You'll also see that they have been able to accomplish about $820,000 decrease in our operating budget by really focusing on their fleet management program. This is directly related to an adjustment in our repair cycles, and this is, again, the end result.

Let's move on to the Richmond Police Department. You'll see a a $9,000,000 increase, and we have about a headcount, a little bit over 50 personnel increases. I will say that chief Edwards has done a great job with working around a national challenge of recruiting sworn officers. If time permit again, I would like to bring him up to explain the strategy of hiring civilian personnel and reallocating work that is being performed by, some of his sworn personnel and transferring those duties over to some of our civilian workers. Much like the fire department, you'll see that he has five FTEs that are being transferred over to the office of gun violence prevention.

That's a strategic move, but it's not the hiring or the acquisition of five additional FTEs. This is just a transfer to another area of our city. You'll see the operating budget increase a little bit over $2,000,000. This supports critical equipment and agreements such as body worn cameras, our records management system, and some of our equipment leases. I'd also like to highlight that RPD was able to get a little bit more than $8,000,000 in grants and special funding.

Alright. The CPR, you'll see decreases across the board with the department. They've worked very hard again to find a cost savings without compromising service delivery. You'll see that, and under the personnel budget item, there is nearly, $600,000 decrease in that area. And you'll see across the operating budget, there's, about a little bit over a quarter of $1,000,000 in decrease in their operating budget due to the reduction of a onetime expense, which was the construction and completion of our multiagency coordinating center, also known as our emergency operations center.

Mister Wiggins, you have five minutes remaining.

Thank you. Okay. Let's try to speed this up a little bit. We have a little ways to go. Again, you'll see the highlights here with department general services, a slight increase in their personnel budget.

About three FTEs have been added to that department. Again, this is a big part of their operating budget increase was due to the renegotiation of the janitorial and security contracts as, you all are aware of the efforts behind, getting our contractors a competitive salary. Okay. So moving on to Department of Parks and Recreation, you'll see a slight personnel budget increase of $468,000. These are due to salary increases really directly connected to some of our collecting bargaining collective bargaining agreements.

About a $172,000 in decrease in our operating budget for the parks division as well. Alright. I'll move on just for the sake of time. Let's talk about what you can expect moving forward. You'll see a greater adoption of RVA.

I've had to address many questions about RVA three one one and the effectiveness. I'll tell you that we are certainly not where we would like to be, but we're moving in a direct direction of where we intend, to make significant improvements. But you'll see greater adoption of r v eight three one one, specifically with the parks division. It'll add a better work request process to add daily operations and will enhance, much of the constituent experience as well. Also, you'll see that our RDOT will serve as the coordinating agency for all transportation man matters with the city.

This department will design a one stop shop for citizens and external agencies and will be fully equipped to plan, design, and construct many projects within our mobility network. DPW, again, as I mentioned earlier, I want to highlight that they're on track to pave a 150 lane miles. Again, I know we're struggling for time, but it's important for me to mention that we cannot back off of our paving program. We need to continue to make the same investments in this program. You've been able to make significant strides.

Just interrupting the funding for one year could have a dramatic impact on the condition of our roads. So I, urge you to continue supporting this initiative as I know that you have, and it reflects well with our city. Alright. Looking at our thriving families, coming out of, a record breaking year with our out of school participants, the program is seeking to further increase the number of slots made available to students by about 5%. And for the sake of time again, I will conclude here, and I will address any questions should you have any. Thank you.

Thank you, DCA Wiggins. And, we will have few questions. We from members, and so we'll we'll start with we will start with, council member Jones. Yes.

Thank you. Thank you, madam president. Thank you, mister Wiggins, for your presentation. I'll say the same thing I said to miss Jackson. I feel like this is the first time I've seen you at the mic. So thank you for all that you have been doing since you've got here and really working to, continue to enhance our operations. So thank you. Thank you. Appreciate you. And thank you to all of our public service, public safety, and all of you that keep our city safe.

This is a very important portfolio, and it definitely speaks to, the other day, we talked about finances, like the engine, and then public safety is, like, the operations. And so, being able to highlight, what we're doing in a way that helps make it make sense is very helpful. And the acquiring of parks and rec, everybody knows is very near and dear to me, so treat them well. And, my only question that I have is you mentioned, that we are coming off a record breaking year for out of school time, and we're looking to increase the number of slots. I'd like to know how that is planning to be rolled out, and then how does that align with, our out of school time that we fund through NextUp and through other partners.

And so what does that look like for parts of it?

So I hate to punt a question. Could you first of all, if you don't mind, I heard you mention the increase of slots. I'm having a difficult time hearing

you clearly. Is that better?

Much better.

Okay. So it said, that they were coming off the record breaking year for out of school time and is seeking to further increase the number of slots made available to students by 5%. And so I was wondering how are we going to do that, and then how does that align with the out of school time that we support through NextUp and other entities?

Yeah. So thank you for that question. I had the opportunity to, have a brief discussion with director Froelke over the weekend as we toured, some of his parks facilities. And, as you know, affordability for many of the programs is a, very important component. And, really, finding ways to maintain cost and, at times, to decrease cost of the programs, is our hope that it will increase the participation in these programs. We don't have an exact number of slots. Again, you know, the important piece is to maintain the system that we have, but also looking at the reduction of fees to adding more participants into the program.

So will we be adding will this be addition to to already existing programs, or are we looking with this increase to new programming? I'm just trying to get a sense of

So no new programs at the moment. Again, we're we're trying to sharpen the saw with the existing programs that are in place. I can't think of any new programs right now in mind that, you know, participation will be, a challenge, but our our primary focus is on the existing programs.

Thank you. And lastly, can we get a side by side of what we are serving and what offerings and then what we're looking to do in terms of increase?

Yes. If you don't mind, I don't have that.

No. Not I'm now. I'm saying if you can get it back. That would yeah. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you, council member Jones. Council member Abelbacher?

Sorry. I thought I was down the line a little bit more. Thank you, DCA Wiggins. Appreciate your leadership and all of your team, and your portfolio. A few questions. One, around parks and rec. I see that there is, 5,000,000 in the FY '25 CIP. That means that it looks like that's down by about 23% from last year. I'm assuming that means that there are going to be some CIP projects that are deferred. Can you speak a little bit to that?

So at CIP projects as a whole across the entire enterprise, we're looking at the reprioritization of many of those projects. One of the advantages of bringing parks into the operations portfolio is that, you know, one, it's a force multiplier. Two, there's economies

of scale.

To the mic?

My apologies. Two, there's economies of scale that we can take advantage of. So the reduction of their capital programs is not necessarily necessarily a reduction of, the the program as a whole. There are also ways that we are able to consolidate existing, CIP projects. For an example, the Department of Public Utilities is a perfect partner for, parks because we're able to take on more green space, and we're also able to share the cost of many of those programs. So although you see that reduction, it's really a not indicative of what's happening with the overall program.

K. Thank you. And then Animal care and control. Looking at it looks like that there is an elimination of one animal, animal control officer. Just like what was the rationale behind that knowing I've I've I've had to call animal care a couple times for constituents, and it's Right. You know, they they do their best, but they're already pretty thinly spread.

So it's a great question. It's not necessarily a reduction in an animal control officer, per se, but it's, part of a greater reorganization strategy that director Peters have put in place. So that may be, it is a reflection of a higher tier, position within our organization.

Okay. Thank you. And then department of public works. I noticed that the special fund adopted versus actual for FY '24 and FY '25 is it it differs significantly. So in f y twenty four adopted, it was 56,000,000, but the actual was 58,000,000. And then f y twenty five, the adopted was 61,000,000, but the f y '25 actual was 38,000,000. Can you, explain that fluctuation, and was that grants that were not fully expensed?

That's that's part of it. But I will invite director Vincent up to kinda give you a a a very brief kinda snapshot of what's going on there.

Okay.

And we're supposed to ask the Mayoral portfolio questions?

At the that you

no. You asked that within the slide minutes as

well. Okay.

Good good afternoon, everyone. Bobby Vincent, director of public works. I believe your question was the difference between the fiscal year 2425, and '26 budgets. Yes. For the general fund, primarily, is, the Department of General Services, being pulled out of the Department of Public Works with regards to, portions of fleet where fleet as well as the biggest portion was facilities. And so that was the biggest, decline in terms of the general fund impact on DPW's budget.

Excellent. Thank you. Mhmm. So I'll hold my other questions. No. Go.

No. Go ahead.

Oh, okay. Alright. The rest of my questions are in the, mayoral portfolio. So you're off the hook. TCA Wiggins.

Run. Okay. I mean, I think this is I'm gonna start with an observation and then move to some questions. Observation is it it seems from my cursory glance that a lot of the kind of forward facing personnel that we think of when we think of how people are served by city hall are either flat or reduced. And I'm gonna talk about that, like, across the portfolio.

Like, library's flat. Maybe there was a reorg with, animal control, but they're down one FTE. Parks is down FTEs. But then internally, administratively, there is a net increase in FTEs. So can we can you kind of either one of you speak to that as, like, the rationale for I mean, because I'm thinking about everyday citizens are gonna wanna know why we're adding more FTEs at 900 East Broad. But when they call animal control, there might be one less person answering that phone.

So I'm Lawson with Jay Saria. Thank you all for having me, chief of staff to the mayor. I can take a stab at how I think that impacts my portfolio, and then, maybe if the CIO would like to talk more broadly across organization. So, yes, all of the departments, were asked to go through the exercise of the 2%, reduction and, so that we could see where that could come from in order to accommodate increasing expenses, you know, honoring, you know, our commitments in other areas and priorities that that we were looking at. So when I think about what has occurred, if if if if part of what you're referencing is in our portfolios that those are some of the front facing people and not the internal people, we have not had a reduction in in force in any of our portfolio.

So that so I'm not totally most of what the where the reductions came from, was not removing FTEs. It was coming out of the operations side of the of the three budgets that I oversee. So, so it may if you do you wanna clarify if there's something maybe I could help more specifically with? Or

I I don't I don't think so at this point. I think I think it's it's more of a maybe it's more of a

A broader

Sedona question, related to, again, like, looking at all of those portfolios.

Yeah. Yeah. And I I will just point out that because because I think one of the things we did do, like, in OSC's budget was actually move some of the funding that was being used for events, for instance, in order to in order to increase a few people that can be front facing in order to communicate more and increase capacity. So I feel like if that's one of the things you're interested in, I think we we were able to accomplish that. But I'll let yeah. CEO Donald, do good on that one? Great.

That is running. Where are running from?

Alright. Well, listen. Great question. And I think it's actually probably a little temper than simpler than we're making it out to be. When you look at the personnel complement that's in your budget books, you'll see that the general fund only had an increase of three positions total.

So there's not a lot of growth in this budget, and so we're doing more with less is one part of it, but it's also realigning. I think I had an opportunity to look at council deliberations from the year before, even yours. I think you highlighted, you know, you wanted to make sure people were paid appropriately on the front end, and then some of our hiring folks both delivered more, but needed to live within the city. But also that peep we were not duplicating jobs and things of that nature. So some of it is listening to counsel and kinda rightsizing our investments and making sure that everyone we're aligning appropriately kinda meets that, charge that you gave us. You'll see

that. I'm flattered.

Yeah. I mean, not just you. It's the whole council. I mean, I think everybody was kinda uniformed on that. I think the second part of it is you can see that in some of these realignments.

You're aligning parks and our with our operational departments. And while we do have a human services component that will remain, also things like grounds maintenance and things of that nature will be better aligned together. You'll see the same thing in what I'm calling constituent services when you look at, and it's not neighborhood services because I get them confused sometimes. Our titles are the same, but those outreach, folks aligning them with the participatory budgeting people and, you know, our full complement of folks. Even some of the help we got from council member Trammell where once a week, we'll be going out I'm sorry.

Once a month. Now let me say once a week. They're track me in the head. But once a month, we'll be at Hickory Hill providing services to seniors. It's really just better aligning our resources, especially in this time of very limited growth. So that's the general reason. And if, again, that personnel supplement would be very helpful to you because it'll show you that it was only an increase of three, net positions over the previous year.

I do appreciate that, and I I do appreciate that there's a only net three positions. I think I think the where those positions

Yeah.

Are matters Mhmm. Quite a bit. And that was sort of my my point in indicating that. I did have a question around the neighborhood and community services and your, and your office. Mhmm. So it it looks like there were it, I think in the budget book, it said four neighborhood and community service FTEs moved over to your office in order to align with more constituent services. But then when I look at neighborhood and community services, they've only they're only net negative 2.62 FTEs. Yeah. So explain that math to me.

And, miss Abhakar, you have one minute left. Okay.

Thank you.

No. I think it actually proved the point that you said. We still have to make sure that we have outgoing our forward facing activities still meet the measures. So while we align some of those activities, we left some of that capacity there. So we didn't take the vacancies that existed.

Okay. And then, with your office

Mhmm.

Again, just if you could explain the $1,100,000 increase in personnel between f y twenty six and f y twenty seven.

I'm sure

it's a full 1.1, but I know it's based on

2.5 3.6.

Yeah. I'll have to look at it. I didn't know I was on the docket today.

But,

still, I mean, I think the adjustment one is around centralizing some of the training requirements that we have for all staff, and it'll be paid out of the CAO's budget. In addition to that, you've got the salary increases, for our staff that are baked into the budget. So there are a few different areas, but we'll get you a detailed list in writing. Okay. It's net neutral with the natural growth.

Okay. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you, council member Ampa Bunker. Councilwoman Trammell.

Thank you. I have a question for the police chief.

Councilwoman Trammell, I think Speaking to the mic?

Yeah. Oh, okay. I'm sorry.

Yeah. DCL Wiggins will Okay. Contests of doing so.

I wanted to know, I know yesterday, the chief told us how many officers that he doesn't that he needs about a he's, like he's supposed to have, like, 750. Is that right, chief? Seven fifty, and he's, like, a 170 police officers that we don't have. And I was gonna ask him how is he going about recruiting, trying to get new officers or get officers to come to the city because I'm always hearing that Chesterfield and Henrico has got more officers than we do. And I know that we have more issues and more, I guess, like, more problems per se.

And I was just trying to find out from the chief, you know, how is he recruiting to bring officers here and also about the retirees. I know that he said that he's bringing them back to work on different things.

So council member Trammell, great question, and we'll invite chief Edwards to come up and to explain his strategy. You touched on it a little bit earlier of how he has increased the amount of civilian personnel, within his department to offset some of the duties that are being performed by sworn officers that could be taken on by a civilian personnel. His use of technology, also is is unmatched. He's, been able to work around, you know, very challenging conditions, which has not reflected. As you can see, his crime stats are down, and he's done a great job of addressing this national challenge, which is not isolated to the city of Richmond.

But, chief Edwards, do you mind coming up kind of going a little bit more detail about how you've incorporated civilian personnel into your department?

Absolutely. Miss Trammell, I'm Rick Edwards, chief of police for the city of Richmond. To talk about the numbers, that we did we discussed briefly yesterday. So the Richmond Police Department has been authorized for 750 sworn. We are currently funded for 650. As of today, we sit at 604, and that includes all sworn personnel. As as DCA Wiggins says, the first thing I did when I took over as chief of police is line by line, look at all the positions we have, what I can fill, what we can civilianize, what can be consolidated, and we've done that. So I've civilianized my chief of staff. We've had crime analysis unit additions. Every member of our real time crime center is a civilian.

Our disciplinary re review office used to have a captain, a sergeant, and a civilian. It's now run by a part time police officer. Our forensic technicians are transitioning from sworn to civilian because when I advertised for these civilian positions, unlike the sworn, we have hundreds of people applied. So it's not a matter of not wanting to work for the Richmond Police Department. It's a matter of wanting to do the kind of work that is required of a of a sworn member of the police department.

Again, with our line by line analysis, I cut positions. The plea chief police the police chief has always previously had a driver. Maybe that would've helped me last year when I got my speeding ticket, but, I cut that position. I cut the position of another officer assigned to the chief's office, so we've just tried to be leaner. And as DCO, Wiggins also talked about invest in technology to continue continue to drive crime down.

But I wanna assure you, there is nothing more important, nothing more critical to the Richmond Police Department than, hiring more sworn police officers. We currently have, let's see, 28 individuals in training right now. We are working with Lee Enterprises in in in order to, target individuals in YouTube app YouTube ads and other forms of advertisement to get people to consider the Richmond Police Department. Our our applications are up 20%. But as I've said publicly before, we are not willing to sacrifice our standards to fill those positions.

And when someone, does something in our academy or or in the police department in general that doesn't meet our standards, we hold them accountable, and probably nobody's terminated more people than than me as chief of police because of those, the goal to to ensure that we put the very best, wearing this uniform.

Thank you, Chi. Thank you. Well,

it would be helpful if I didn't have to keep lowering the mic. But I I do want to mention that, you know, it's comparing RPD to some of our neighboring jurisdictions and, you know, for Henrico, for an example, who's substantially larger in population in some areas than we are. So the number for number comparison, may not give you a true feel of what the vacancy feels like for chief Edwards as it would for other jurisdictions. And percentages probably would be a a better indicator of how far down, he is from a staffing position, but I I do want to wrap up this particular, area by just saying is is it's not reflecting in his ability to fight crime in any way. In fact, you see his numbers are trending down in in all areas.

I just know that, when we're at Hickory Hill about a month ago, Odie was there, and he was speaking. And we had some citizens there about it was about the mayor's budget. And I remember Odie saying that one thing that was dear to his heart was public safety. And I really appreciate that because he was sitting there telling us, you know, that Richmond has challenges, and we have a good police department, good officers that you can address those issues along with the fire department and others, because they all go hand in hand. So I appreciate that.

I do have a question about, for Bobby Benson. I guess I have to ask you first. Okay. The citizens are still texting me about the, the trucks. The trucks are coming in the neighborhood, and it's not Bobby's fault because the trucks are old.

And they're you know, this, it's got all the the waste just pouring out the back of the trucks into their streets, and they're very upset because they said that, we should be treated like like the people that are being treated across the river. They wouldn't have those kind of trucks in their neighborhood. But I told them, you know, if you don't have the new trucks or you don't have you know, everybody gets you know, the trucks, they don't pick where they you know, that's it's and and even a new truck could, you know, break down or have, you know, problems.

Yes. Yes, ma'am. So great point. Immediately coming to the city of Richmond from a a much larger organization where I oversaw the sanitation division, I will tell you that that is a a common problem. Not that we have become complacent and have accepted that as a problem that will exist.

I just wanna kinda give you a kind of an outline of the challenges that come along with that. Much of the problem, resulting from garbage trucks leaking is one, as you mentioned, is that we do have older garbage trucks, but I'll I'll say our DGS, who oversees fleet, has come up with solutions to prevent that from happening. And you'll think you have the issue fixed, and there'll be a reoccurrence. You'll find a spot where it allows fluids to escape from that vehicle. But it also has a lot to do with, the residents improperly disposing of items, if you will.

Right? Things that should not go into, standard municipal solid waste collections We're going to the back of that truck. Our hope is is that the folks that are riding on the back of those trucks were are able to spot that quickly enough and to call back into the shop. And if there's a spare available, they could swap that truck out with the truck that's functioning properly. But that that is a never ending battle even when you have, a fleet of fairly new trucks. It's it's it's it's a challenge.

And, you know, those employees have a very hard job. Anybody that can do that kind of work, I mean, it's

it's you it's

know, I see them and and, you know, we don't thank them enough for what they do and not just so mad when I see people just throw the trash on the ground, the big bags of trash, and expect them to pick them up. And I know I've had this conversation with Bobby over and over. You know, this is not fair because the citizens will yell at them, hey. I paid my taxes. Those bags are laying on the ground. Pick them up. No. That's not their job to pick them up. They gotta be inside the trash can and not on top of it where the possums and the rats and everything else then got into them and got the trash all over the place. And, you know, my head I mean, I just they don't get praised enough for the work that they do and what they have to see and what they have to deal with. And not only that, everything else that goes along with it. And you know what I'm talking about.

Absolutely. Yes, ma'am. And and I will tell you with full transparency, I was given a cheat sheet on council member Tramble to make sure that public safety and public works in your district was always, above board. And, I can assure you if there was any way that we could prevent a leaking garbage truck in your district, we would be vigilant in doing so. But, again, we're not satisfied.

We haven't become complacent, but it's it's a static situation. As you know, you can go weeks, maybe a month without a complaint, and then you can go a particular week and receive complaint after complaint. Newer garbage trucks will help to reduce the amount of complaints, but I can't tell you it would totally eliminate

those complaints. Someone asked me yesterday, how come they don't carry brooms on their trucks?

So I I noticed a garbage truck yesterday with a broom on it. It may be the type of truck that they're seeing that doesn't have a broom on the side of the truck.

They don't have time to take a broom and and do they? I mean, we don't have extra

So so typically

but because if you do

for one, you're gonna have to do for everybody, and you know that.

Yeah.

It's just like the speed tables. You know? This person got a speed table. Now this one wants speed table. I got 15 people waiting for speed tables. So I was like, I didn't I didn't know they carried brooms. I saw their broom. I didn't see no broom.

Okay. Yes,

ma'am. What we'll I'm sure director Vincent will go and do a inventory of these trucks to make sure that that he has brooms and rakes on the side of those trucks.

And water hoses too. You gotta bring a water hose. Yeah. Water hose. Yeah. Well, either they want the fire department to come out there and, you know, sweep you know, clean the street.

Yes, ma'am.

But Bobby does really good because when we call, he gets the sweeper over there.

Yes, ma'am. I will tell you

Miss Tramoy, you have one minute left.

Thank you. Yes. I knowing direct events like I do, there would be a broom on every truck following this meeting. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. I have any more questions.

Thank you, council member Trammell, vice president Jordan.

Thank you, president Newbell. DCA Wiggins, thank you for being here, and thank you for asking, your wonderful staff to stand so we could thank them. It has been a remarkable year, and we have a lot to be grateful for, in their diligent work for the city. Just had a couple of questions. I would say the first had to do with, staffing at the fire department and trying to understand, wonderful success of the new graduating classes.

You know, our binder says that we're fully staffed now, but our vacancy report showed, you know, really excessive amount of overtime, which I believe is budgeted for in the coming up year as well. So just trying to understand, are we recruiting enough folks? Should we have more we should be Yeah. Be shooting for a larger, fire department to help bring down those overtime costs.

Yes, ma'am. Great question. So, as I mentioned earlier, there are two classes. I think we had 23 in one and twenty two in the other. Both classes had, a different category of recruits.

One was to recruit folks that are newly entering into the fire services profession. The other is to recruit what we call laterals, those who have experience and that could come and and and immediately contribute to, the department. As it relates to the the increase, in staffing and the connection to overtime is that, again, it's it's going to take time. It's almost like an amortization chart. But although chief Siegel was fully staffed after the completion of those classes, attrition immediately went into effect.

So as we're recruiting, we're competing with other fire departments that become just as aggressive as we are. And, again, through attrition and transferals or, folks looking at other agencies, we've lost a few in the process. So as of today, I believe he's about three, FTEs down from where we were after recruiting the 45 additional recruits. We're we're not waving the victory flag, but we are saying that we have made significant contributions and accomplishments. While I have it on my mind, I do want to mention that there will always be a certain level of overtime required with RFD because, through the Fair Labor Standards Act, if the fire personnel, if they work beyond, a number of hours, which is not the same as, the number of hours with other departments, it triggers mandatory overtime.

So I wish there was a way that we really could not call it overtime as opposed to, what really is an unfunded mandate through the Fair Labor Standards Act. So yeah. So so we will always see a certain level of overtime, with the fire department.

Okay. I appreciate that answer. I also had a question about staffing in DPU, and it looked like sort of a a fairly significant staff reduction. I'm just wondering what that reflects because I can't picture we need fewer people in DPU.

Yeah. So, again, the the numbers that you see, unfortunately, are a snap shot in time. It's not necessarily a reflection of what you see today. I I will mention again, we're always looking to, have a sharper knife and to look at things holistically. And what director Morris has done is restructured his department. So what may appear as vacancies or a significant reduction in his staffing would be the transfer of positions in certain areas. The number do you have a number of vacancies that you were referring to?

Well, in in our budget book, it says for fiscal year twenty twenty six, there were a 145 vacancies out of a total budgeted FTE of 803. So 803 was the 2026 figure. And then for fiscal year twenty twenty seven, it's $7.84.

Yeah. I can assure you that that's not today's number. What I would like to do is to give you an accurate detail of where they are today if if if that helps.

Okay. Thank you so much. And then, some of my other questions are relatively minor, so I'll just supply them in writing.

Okay. Thanks.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, vice president Jordan. We will now have, questions from, mister Breton.

Thank you. My first line of questioning relates to, wanting to understand how to read the new budget with respect to our new department of transportation within public works. So I know that a lot of residents are demanding quick action on pedestrian safety this year, particularly around schools. And so how is this new department equipped to engage with the community with their observed needs?

So, before I invite, director Bayno up, I again, as I mentioned earlier, this is a strategic move which was made a lot quicker than we would have liked to. The mayor in his infinite wisdom made the decision to, make this move quickly and not focus on means and methods as much as the outcome of establishing a Department of Transportation, for a few reasons. One is that, in the, transportation slash, mobility arena, it's important as we apply for grants and we speak on, forums and, really, Richmond is on a national stage because the work has been done. It's very difficult to achieve the respect when transportation operations are nestled within, a department as opposed to, there being a direct, indication that this is a concentrated effort. But to your question of how that division plans to address things like school safety, I would like to invite, director Benno up to address that question.

And if you don't mind, just for my edification, if you can just repeat that question again.

Oh, that question was around community engagement. Like, how are we prepared to staff and support community engagement?

K. And as he comes up, I'll let him speak to some of the social media work that he's done, and he's working with our mayor's office of communication as well. But I'll I'll let him go a little bit deeper.

Andy Banno, director of transportation. You're, you're asking my favorite kind of question. So, the the short answer is, we have a community engagement division specifically set up within the transportation team. So this happens to be folks that were already on staff that have a background in especially with in person types of engagement. But now with all of us together, planners, engineers, and folks that are really good face to face doing outreach, with us all being together, we can be much more strategic about how we're engaging.

And then not only project specific community engagement, but year round, helping people understand why we do the things we do, what's on the horizon, and how they can be part of all of it, so demystifying all of these things. So for I've been at the city for a couple of years now, but for the last twenty five plus years, that aspect, community engagement, specifically around transportation projects and urban planning, has been a huge part of my career. So I'm gonna be very actively involved in that group year round. And then, hopefully, over time, that division, grows and grows because I mean, one of the jokes that we say often is if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears about it, does it make a sound? The understanding the community understanding what's happening is so critical to to our success.

Okay. I will ask about, kind of lighter, quicker, cheaper is a term for these quick build, quick things that we can get out quickly while we wait for those longer term expensive long term projects. Is there

a lighter, quicker, cheaper line item in this year's budget or next year's budget, and how much is it? So the way we structure well, real quick. Lighter, quicker, cheaper, quick build projects. The the reason for that and cities across the country, in fact, the world, do this type of project. It's intentionally low cost, high impact.

So it's not simply delivering a cheap project because it's it's more affordable than something else. It's it's strategic about spending money in a way that will have some type of high impact, so high for safety impact. As far as line item goes, we we avoid that level of detail. City in in fact, city of Richmond many years ago, it's my understanding, had very specific breakdowns of different types of improvement projects. The problem you run into is over time, you need to switch your focus.

You need to do more of this thing and less of this thing. And if we have everything line itemed out, we can't be as flexible. We can't use our our good engineering judgment to say, let's do more of this type of quick build versus that. You heard earlier about the repaving. Sometimes repaving is a way to do a quick build project. You can you can create a a road dive. You can do some type of daylighting project, for example. If you keep those things together, all within the the purview of the transportation team.

Are we able to get an after the fact accounting of the type of spending that was done? If you can't sort of promise ahead, can you report back at the end?

The you'll be this is part of the community engagement that you're gonna be seeing year round. You're gonna be seeing on the fly, before and after, here's what's happening or, you know, here's what's coming this weekend. We're doing this thing right now. And then immediately after, whether it's through information that we're sharing with each of the council members so you can pass that out in newsletters or social media or video clips or the media themselves, local press, being part of these things. Because we want people to see, for example, bike corrals going in corners, some street art that's going in in certain neighborhoods.

We're we're leveraging our relationships with other departments, like the office of community wealth building and parks and planning, neighborhood community service, all of these different groups who are already engaging with folks. So the especially when we're doing these quick build projects that do have high impact, we want people to know all about it the moment it's happening. So and then over time, yes, there will be that formal kind of here's what happened. Here's what we planned. Here are the extra surprises that we didn't realize we were gonna have funding for as if those things happen.

How about what types of projects do we fund from our operating budget versus having to go to CIP bond funding or grant funding? Or is what's the rule of thumb? Like

The you mean the nature of the project? Yeah.

Like, yeah. Which projects could do we have to go use bond funding or grant funding for? Which ones do we have to use just city tax dollars for? Are there certain rules or rules of thumb that distinguish those? I'm gonna I'll give

it to director Vincent to get into the specifics of the different types of budget, but I will say that there are some types of, transportation safety improvement projects that to the average person, you wouldn't know that it that it came through, one type of funding bucket versus another. So bike lanes, for example, or dedicated transit lanes would be another, where perhaps it was funded out of this bucket. Perhaps it was funded out of that bucket.

So, wanna see if I can just kinda give you a a general answer to to address the funding strategy. So, typically, anything that comes out of the operating budget is directly correlated with day to day expenses. Capital items are long time term investments that require, some level of, internal, external funding through prolonged payments. And then you also have grant funds that are limited to, whatever the scope of that particular project may be. Right?

And what I would ask, director Vinson to come up to explain, a very robust program that they have, which is the smart scale program, how they proactively go after grant funds and work with our partners. I know there are projects that, director Vinson has worked with Henrico on, just to make sure that the probability of getting funding for certain projects is increased because of the collaboration of projects that, may go across jurisdictional boundary lines. But, Rick Vincent, if you don't mind kind of giving an explanation.

Good afternoon, everyone. Bobby Vinson, director of public works. Excellent question. So as many of you all may know, over the past, couple of years, I've been taunting about the fact that we have touting rather about the fact that we have $1,200,000,000 worth of dollars to spend within the public right away. That is comprised of a combination of funding sources.

The way that we utilize those sources from a maintenance perspective is through general line items in terms of the special fund and the operating fund. So that's where we can wind up combining some of our sidewalk projects, moving them around the city, and not having them detailed out. For our geo bonds and for our bonded projects that come through state and or federally funded individual projects, those projects also have an impact on sidewalks, paving, complete streets, etcetera, but they're more site specific. Whereas with our other funding line items, we might wind up doing 80 intersections off of that one line item, within our budget. So that's the way that that, winds up working.

So if my constituents are looking for the commitment that, you know, safety is important this year, let's see it in the budget, like, where are stop signs and crosswalks and bump outs? Which line item can I point to to say, look here? You can see the city's commitment.

That would be in the Department of Public Works line item with regards to the special fund. And what what is it called? What's the name of that budget line item? State maintenance budget line item for special funds within the Department of Public Works. So the way that the Department Works budget is broken up, we used to have internal service funds and enterprise funds.

They were removed. Now we have general funds, geo bonds, and we have the special fund. So the special fund is a combination of CVTA funds as well as state maintenance funds that come from the state, all of which for us to take care and maintain the public right away. So any work that we do in the public right away with regards to trees, sidewalks, paving, all of that winds up coming from CVTA dollars and or the special fund which comes from the state maintenance funds.

Okay. And it sounds like we try not to overpromise the granularity of what's in there in order to be able to adapt and make judgment calls throughout the year, is what I heard. So, you know, I would say there's a lot of interest, in having transparency after the fact to see the breakout of the spending, to see the trends, to see how much is going to safety, how much is going to access and and and speed throughput, how much is going to pedestrians versus cyclists versus autos versus buses. That type of transparency is excellent so that we can not try to over, promise in the future, but just trust that that transparency of the trends in the back would be great

to see. That's correct. And if you noticed at the beginning of the DCAO's presentation, we had a lot of numbers in there for public works. It's because we're tracking those numbers through our GIS database. So at any point in time when someone needs to know how many lane miles we've swept, how many miles of sidewalks we put in, or how many miles of alleys that we've graded, we'd be able to provide that information.

Actually, I mentioned to I the the stat was pretty interesting. Was, you know, a 165 lane miles of roads got resurfaced, and six miles of sidewalks got done. Yep. So pretty big pretty big ratio there. Do you know what the budget ratio is also, like, the amount we're spending to keep a 165 miles repaved and the amount we're spending to resurface six miles of sidewalks?

Yes, sir. We're spending a roughly $15,000,000, for our paving budget, plus we're spending an additional 5 to $6,000,000 in paving public utility projects that they give us that money to do their final restoration work. So we're averaging somewhere in between 18 to $21,000,000 worth of paving per year. When you look at sidewalk work, we're doing now about 6 and a half million dollars worth of work where we used to be doing less than three. We increased our sidewalk crews from two crews.

That was one brick crew and one concrete crew. So now we have six crews where we have two bricks and four concrete crews and a breakout crew. So we're spending roughly about $3,000,000 in maintenance, inclusive of staff and equipment and materials, and we're spending another 3 and a half million dollars annually on contractors. The difference is maintenance takes care of anything, a half a block and below, and we have our contractors working on projects that are that are a block or more.

Alright. That was awesome how you do all those numbers. If I wanna can I go into the budget book and find those, or do I have to call you again to have you tell them to me again?

You would probably have to call me again because they are all not individualized. But anytime you want that data, we can certainly provide it to you because it's underneath our special fund, within the department.

Okay. Now is Complete Streets, like, more of that same concept? It's just another bucket of discretionary funding for all kinds of projects?

Or No, sir. We have complete we call it complete streets, which is, basically dollars that we have set aside that come from our operating budget with regards to our state maintenance funds and to our CBTA funds. We go that goes into a bucket that we categorize for complete streets. That's where we do all of the work efforts that I just indicated. However, when we do a complete streets project, say, for instance, like a Jank Road project, at that point in time, that's a actual funded individual project specifically to do a complete street upgrade of that particular section of roadway. Say, for instance, Commerce Road, Cenk Road, Hay Road is also one that's in the process of coming up, and Hall Street is currently active.

Yeah. It's all going so fast. I actually lost track of what what the answer was. So okay. So CompleteStreet, it comes out of the CVTA, Spencer Von. It it's just a subset that ends up going into projects?

We we can't do CompleteStreet projects through the CVTA. However, there is complete a Complete Street of an individual project is also categorized as being Complete Streets.

And I see I see about 20,000,000 a year is what we put into Complete Streets. Is that right?

20,000,000 per year that we put into Complete Streets is, 10,000,000 of that is for, paving, and then we break the others down for traffic engineering, street cleaning, and sidewalks.

Okay. Actually, I do have a question. I know that we did a, I believe it might have been your department did a a study on 10 school zones for safety improvement recommendations. How many of those recommendations made it into the current proposed budget? Do we know?

I'm gonna turn that over to our department of transportation.

So be before before we do that, I I would like to provide a point of clarification. And I understand your concerns as it relates to being able to, see the allocation of funding for certain projects is not lost on me. I do want to, express that we follow the standard chart of accounts, far as how we account for items. And, typically, we don't break projects down to the finest detail. So for a particular line items, what we will typically do is to provide the level of detail for that particular line item and the task that are associated that were expensed to that particular line item.

So I don't want, and I know that you're not saying that we aren't being transparent. But just, you know, for the sake of discussion, it's it's not as much of a an issue with good accounting practices as much as it is. Well, it that's exactly what it is actually because we're following the chart of accounts. But any any level of detail that you need for any particular project, we're happy to provide that. But to your question, what line item can you look at? And this this is not exclusive to the city of Richmond as most cities, but I'll, let mister Bain will come up and address the other question about the school projects.

So I don't have a one for one. We'll have to get back to you with details. But what he's referring to is the road safety assessment that was in front of, quite a few schools on the high injury network. So we have in there, I I know you appreciated how thorough those studies were with, short, midterm, and long term recommendations and eve even policy recommendations with that multidisciplinary effort. So, ideally, all of those things eventually get funded. But I we'll we'll have to get back to you with the specifics of what's in the, proposal.

Okay. Well, thank you. So that is the end of my line of questioning around new DOT. Thanks, guys, for all that detail. I just wanna ask a little bit about budgeting. We asked this of the three one one team, like, what it would take to better integrate our, like, DPU with three one one, to better integrate DPW escalations through three one one for such as trash. They said they just needed staffing. Is the answer the same on our side, or would we need technological budget to do that?

Yeah. So, for full integration, full integration will always have a component of DPU having a customer service center. And, again, having very similar experience in a larger jurisdiction just because of the technicality and the technical nature of the work. It requires DPU to have SMEs to address these service requests. It typically doesn't work well when funneled through the general three one one practitioners because there's so many complaints that resemble another.

For an example, a sinkhole, could be, a really a road collapse issue, and it's not associated with the sub the infrastructure, the subgrade of the road. So to be able to address those issues well, there will always need to be a component of, DPU having their own customer service center. I will say that that is an area that director Morris has directly focused on. He's added about 20 new customer service personnel to this particular process. But going back to integration with three one one, we're always looking for opportunities, always looking to have a sharper knife to cut through these issues.

But this looks like, possibly certain levels of APIs that will help to connect RVA three one one system with DPU system because how they collect these complaints and dispatch the calls is integrated in their system, which is needed to maintain day to day operations. So no software does everything well, and so we have to make decisions on how we select software programs and how we connect those software programs and how there's the the the electronic handshake that occurs. But we're we're not satisfied with how those complaints are handled. And I know, doctor Morris isn't either, but we're actively working on that full integration. And step one is by adding additional staff members to support that effort.

Thank you. I have two questions about the police department. And one is, do we have a breakdown in this budget of how much of our budget goes to technology related to surveillance? Is that a line item that is easy to find?

Chief has given me the the nod. Yes. And and if you need that information, I'm sure he can provide that at a

later time. I've also got a lot of questions around our our our speed enforcement levels, and I'm wondering, is that dictated by our staffing levels, or is it dictated by policy choices? Well, whether how much we enforce speed speed enforcement, in the city?

Well, I will say this is having continuous conversations and weekly updates with chief as it relates to public safety. There hasn't been a challenge with, any traffic enforcement related issues, so it's not driven by any budget limitations. It's just priority prioritization of, crime fighting and, enforcing our traffic safety laws.

Okay. Thank you. It's a I had a great time. That was, I'm I'm good for now. Thank you. Thank you very much for all those answers. Thank you.

Thank you, councilman Brenton. Councilwoman Gibson?

Thank you, madam president. I wanted to start, with RPD. There is, the line item for the, contractual agreements. It's, like, $1,200,000 increase in contractual agreement costs, and it notes that, 1,200,000 of it. I'm sorry.

There's it's $1,200,000 in contractual agreement increases. And the description in the budget book indicates that that is inclusive of the license plate readers, which there's been lots of discussion about. Can you can you talk specifically about what the amount is that is the increase and, you know, for the license plate readers in in the budget that's reflected?

So, specifically, how much have we spent on the LPRs is what you're asking? Chief, do you have that number handy? Okay. Come on up and tell us about.

So we get a lot of questions about, Flock, and I wanna differentiate between Flock is the company, LPR is the technology, and there's also gunshot detection we have under that same contract. So for the LPR specifically, we are estimating the new contract to be $371,250. For the for the Raven audio detection, that is estimated to be $167,200 for a total of approximately 538,000 to flock this, coming fiscal year.

Thank you. My next question is regarding the fire department. Thank you. So I I flagged this in our meeting last week. The 2025 caper showed, $4,000,000 overage for the fire department in ex in excess of its budget. I'm hoping to understand better what drove that and, and how that seemingly structural deficiency in the budget is addressed in the proposed budget this year.

So I'm I'm glad you mentioned that. Chief Siegel called me about that last night, and we were taken off guard by that number. We really need to chase down why that number reflects as a a $4,000,000 overage. I don't have that answer for you right at the moment, but we intend to go back and do a little bit more research to find out where that number came from, council member Gibson. I'm sorry I don't have an answer for you today, but this caught us off guard somewhat as well.

Thank you. My next question is regarding DPU. Following up on, council member Abubaker's point about, you know, those front facing FTEs, The budget notes drop in 21 FTEs of customer care specialists. In my district, the the need is for more when it comes to, you know, hearing back from folks. So that was somewhat concerning to see.

Can you talk about that? And I'm also wondering if we could get a bigger presentation perhaps on that. I think the biggest line item change in the budget this year is the additional $47,000,000 for utility expenses. Yeah. And so I think it's really critical that the public understands exactly what that's going to.

Yes. Yes, ma'am. So, starting off with the the reduction of the 21, I believe, FTEs, that's not a true indicator of what's happening because the 20 additional those 21 positions are now, that that service is provided on a contractual basis. So it's, contracted employees or contracted agreement that allows us to hire, these customer service agents, if you will. As it relates to the $47,000,000, much of that $47,000,000 is directly related to gas expenses and, our utility expenses as as well.

So we're not immune as a as a government agency to rising cost of electricity and other utility related expenses. We're we're experiencing the same thing. And that growth or that increase is really commensurate with what you're seeing throughout the nation and the consumer price index as well.

So for clarity, those positions are outsourced?

It's provided through a contractual service, but I'll ask doctor Morris to come up to give you a little bit more details on how he's handling that particular area of customer service.

Hi. I'm Scott Morris, director of public utilities. So what he was referencing is is we use contractual services. We actually have a contingent of about 20 customer service agents that are getting trained. Actually, right now, we are also implementing a new customer service system as well, and those new employees are getting trained on that new system with the expectation when we do a go live in the May. They'll be fully, trained on the new system, fully, have the full ability to actually engage with the the citizens, perform and execute all those type of agreements. So it's not a true loss and reflection of the at the EU because it is contractual services.

Thank you. It would help be helpful to get more clarity on that. I'm just looking at the budget on page two eighty one. It shows that there were 41 customer care specialists in the adopted 2026 budget, and 20 are proposed in the 2027 budget.

Yeah. And I think if you look at, comparable between the f y twenty five actuals and the f y twenty seven proposed, you see only a loss on a couple of positions. Some of those are due to transfers. Some of the discussions on those FTEs were, the fit in the organization, making sure that those positions were never stood up. So those positions were never eliminated. They were kind of, stood up to be for contractual services for the the project synergy, that new customer service interface system. So there was no actual cut or loss in FTEs that were trained into contractual services.

I wish I could say that I followed that. But

I'm happy to go break down or or a little bit more detail, to explain a little bit further if you like.

Thank you. My my final question, I is is perhaps more broad. I'm I'm wanting to make sure there's clarity on actually, no. I'm going to ask about Vision Zero. We're putting in more cameras now, and I'm wanting to understand what the revenue projections are for Vision Zero.

How much have been budgeted is in the budget based on revenues in 2026? What is the projection for 2027? I was not able to find that line item in the budget to express what those revenues are. And my question is is correlated with the recent audit about funding for other grants and funds that we have. So I I wanna make sure that there is clarity in in that revenue and that it is being put into the appropriate fund. And I and I'm wondering what that number is and what the revenue looks like.

Yeah. So, if I understand you correctly, council member Gibson, you're asking about revenues associated with cameras in the network. So if you're okay with this, I would like for, me to have the opportunities to give you a more detailed rundown and to meet with my colleague, DCAO Jackson. Because that's a it's a very difficult question to answer just standing in front of a podium without giving you explanations on the breakdowns of whether whether it be just revenues or operational costs associated with Vision Zero. But I'll, be happy to provide that information to you in the form of a separate report if that's okay with you.

Is that revenue in the budget somewhere?

K. So let's we'll bring chief Edwards up.

Council member, just for the safety speed camera, I can talk about the for fiscal year '26. As of February 28, the current revenue was $4,145,330. The current expenses are $1,586,003.22, and I can certainly email this to you. And the net surplus of two point five million fifty nine thousand. The projected revenue to end the fiscal year, if everything stays the same, is 5,400,000.

Estimated expenditures will be just over 2,000,000 with a surplus of 3,400,000. And those funds can be used to support the program, which, again, I have to staff it with four part time employees to manage the program, one full time employee. And after that, it's my understanding, the rest of the funding goes to Vision Zero for the program.

And I'm sorry. And is that outlined like, where is that in the budget?

I don't I don't think it's outlined in the budget, specifically. It's projections.

So there's no projection for '27 yet?

No, ma'am. And and we haven't added the projections, obviously, for the red light cameras. Those are just coming online.

Thank you.

Yeah. Miss Gibson, you have one minute remaining. Thank

you, councilwoman, Gibson. DCO Wiggins? Yes, ma'am. What happens when you're the last? Is that many of the questions have been answered. And so I'll I just I just have a couple of additional, CVTA and our what it will be our do we have a projected opportunity in terms of funds that will be available that can go to our department of transportation to address our priorities. We have any projection for this new upcoming year.

Far as, president Nouba, far as what that number actually looks like?

Yes.

You know, I I don't have that information in front of me, but it looks like, you know, excuse me, director Vincent does.

Especially looking for opportunities there that might provide additional funding to address some of our transportation

Yes, ma'am. Items and outages. And and and come up with me. So we're gonna do the one DMC thing, those of you all who, are familiar with, co wrappers. The c v the c pardon me.

Bobby Benson, director of public works. The CVTA, we're projecting to receive approximately $18,000,000, $18,000,000, yes, ma'am, per year. And the way that that funding has been working, it it works for a combination of efforts, both maintenance, in terms of mister Robinson, in dealing with street cleaning, dealing with, additional sidewalk issues, things of that nature, as well as urban forestry with regards to some tree planting. And we also utilize it for several of our intersections with regards to increasing visibility at our high on our high injury network with regards to crosswalks and also some signal modification work as well as well in addition to, speed table. So the way that it works is kinda like mister Benno indicated earlier, where he works with maintenance, and maintenance works with him in order to address some of our, issues that are identified.

I want Andy to also speak on behalf of that.

In terms of

so in term in terms of, priorities, that it remains Vision Zero and Complete Streets. And so anything that we're able we're we're all you you've heard, multiple people from Public Works over the years talk about the shortage in in maintenance funds that we get year after year. And we're a maintenance first state. Richmond's gotta maintain its its streets. So anything starting with smooth surface leads towards safer streets. And then along the way, anything that we can do to calm vehicle speeds while providing more options for people to move around safely on foot or on bike or using the bus, We're constantly looking for those opportunities. So priorities remain the same, Vision Zero and Complete Streets.

Thank you. The are there any of those funds that will go towards maintaining fear free opportunity?

Their free opportunity? Yes.

From CVTA, any of our that comes to us.

At this point in time, no, ma'am. The the, standards for the CVTA dollars is that they have to be used in accordance to the state maintenance funds. And the way that the state maintenance funds are used is for the maintenance of anything within the public right away. So it wouldn't go towards, employee reductions or anything of that nature. Those dollars will come from other areas of our, of our budget.

Thank you.

You're more than welcome.

DCO Wiggins, just one last question for me. Okay. Yeah. We made a request of 40,000,000 of the general over at the general assembly. It's looking like maybe 20,000,000 if we are fortunate.

I know they have to come back April 23. So have we had to have we planned for that shortfall in terms of the 20 we, like I said, asked for 40, and I know we had a list of items and priorities to address. It's looking like if we're fortunate, 20,000,000. Have we accounted for that difference, in our budget?

So, president, knew were you referring to the DPU?

Because absolutely. Okay.

Yes. I'm sorry. Yes. DPU.

Yes. So it's again, it would have been great to receive the full amount. But as always, with any projects, you just handle them according to the highest priority. And sometimes you have to lengthen the schedules for these improvements, but no impacts on our ability to to deliver safe drinking water to treat that water. But, again, it would help be helpful to have those funds to be able to do repairs and reduce the operational cost by repairing these assets, but there won't be any critical gaps because of the, inability to achieve full funding.

Okay. That was really the concern. We asked if 40 looked like maybe 20. And what would be the implications and impact for the plan in terms of I I know that, director Morris has been working diligently yourself. Alright.

So, thank you. Like I said, the other questions have unfortunately covered our staffing for our public safety professionals, fire and police, so it's been addressed, contractual security and janitorial. So I'll just go inside there. At this point, we have, opportunity for additional questions. And, I'll start with council member Jones.

Thank you, madam president. I just had two quick questions. One was, pertaining to, I'll put it down, the lighter, cheaper, quicker projects, and the funding that is going towards that. Have we been able to, like, assess the impact of these projects? Because I know that it was noted that a few of them are on the high injury network, and so that pertains to, like, a lot of speed. And then I've seen some of those, like, not necessarily what do you call those? Those white the white things that are what do you

call them? The lineages?

The whatever you call them.

Yeah.

The flex poles. Yes. I've seen them leaning. And so I I I'm just wondering how much, are we going to put into that versus real measures, to enforce the traffic. That's my first question. And then my second question is relative to, mister director Vincent has said something pertaining to, sidewalks and the right away. I'm sorry. Have so much talk, and I missed it too. But, like, I was wondering, have we budgeted for with adopting the affordable housing trust fund, have we budgeted for the amount of housing that we know we're going to build in areas that do not have sidewalks?

Right. So, starting with your first question about, you know, measuring outcomes, which was a significant reason for the creation of that department so we could have a team that is focused on these efforts and, having measurable outcomes, whether it be through allocation of fundings for certain projects. We're not quite there just yet. Not fully, there. But this time next year, I'm sure you'll see, performance measures and service level agreements and things of that nature that, would be indicative of the work of the newly formed division.

And the last question, I believe you're asking about, the installation of sidewalks in comparison to the growth of residential and multifamily residential properties. I will I will say that most of the work that of sidewalk installation is is due to other transportation related studies, which should come along with, the permitting of certain projects. That should be a front loaded, effort working with our planning team, DCO DCAO Evertz team. But the the trigger of sidewalks based on population is not always a indicator as much as, the particular use, the type of projects, and, the increase of vehicular traffic and calming traffic excuse me. Traffic calming measures.

So it's not always a direct correlation with growth in sidewalks as much as it is with the type of projects and the use. Did that answer the question?

It does. And I think what I'm attempting to share is that you hit it right on the head is that, you know, we see the growth, but we're not necessarily communicating about maybe what's needed prior to it. And that's why I'm grateful for the way that we're doing this budget process because it gives each the council and the administration to kinda understand from each side what our request would be. It's like, hey. Could we know? Because we're we're we're voting on funding and budget and projects that we know that are happening in our district, but they're not inclusive in this budget. So how do we get to a place of communicating or talking, to ensure that that is happening? Because it's a lot of it is after the fact.

Yeah. Well, again, I don't I don't want to give you the indication that there's a failure to plan, adequately for the installation at sidewalks or any infrastructure for that that matter. But what I would like to do is kinda give you an overview by working with DCO, Ebert, to explain when the projects come in and how that that process is communicated with the Department of Public Works for the need of the installation of sidewalks or not just related to pedestrian safety. It's related to, as I mentioned, traffic calming devices and just, transportation engineering as a whole.

Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate that. And I think, like I said, it just helps all of us work together because I know I'm constantly getting flagged, right, for projects.

Yeah.

And yeah. No. No. You're fine. I was just saying I'm I'm getting flagged. Many of us are because the Citi is growing, and we're constantly talking about the growth. And a lot of times, you are maybe up against whether or not Citi is in a position to even support or vice versa. And so I just think like I said, sometimes I think those conversations should be had on the front end versus trying to figure out how we solve after the fact.

Yeah. So what I would love to do is to hear about these projects in your district and sit down with, director Vinson and hopefully DCAO, Ebert, to talk about these projects, and if there are any missed opportunities, how we could

I got one for you. Contract. We can meet next week. I got one.

K.

Right

next We'll do that.

Yeah. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you, councilwoman. Jones, that concludes your questions. Correct? K. Thank you. Councilmember Trammell.

I don't know if we went off course or what. But, anyway, I've got a lot of retirees that live in my district, like, public works, public utilities, police, fire, and all of that. And they have not had not a cost of living raise in over sixteen years since governor Wilder was our mayor, and that was over sixteen years ago. And we've had two other mayors, and there's been nothing put in the budget for them. And now I see that we don't have anything for them again unless council can, I guess, find the money somehow to give them some kind of a raise or some kind of because they're texting me, asking me, and I'm not gonna let them down and not ask the question?

Understood.

So I appreciate that. And, also, I'd like to get your name I mean, your number and all that because I I appreciate I think this is the first time we've really talked face to face. And I would like to ask you some questions about the property that we bought where the casino was gonna go, and we lost it. And we paid $5,000,000 for it. And I know and I appreciate Odie saying that we're gonna probably have maybe, like, maybe an update maybe in June.

But I'm wondering, has it has anybody been trying to market the the property? Because I know that the citizens that have been coming to the meeting said they want, like, a outlet mall like what they have in Williamsburg. That would be something because you got the Hilton I mean, you know, the Hilton hotel over there, the Red Roof Inn. You got a bunch of hotels. And I'm hearing that when people go to Petersburg to to the casino, they come back to Richmond to the big hotel over here, and then they just look out the window, and there's nothing there. So they go back wherever. Right. So we could we're losing a lot of revenue. We could have restaurants. We could have, like I said, outlet malls over there, stores, and entertainment.

We have a 100 acres over there. That was a steal to get that property.

Yes, ma'am. So I I I do know that DCAO, Evert, is actively working on that side, working on a few economic development initiatives as well that she, will be prepared to, I'm sure, provide you with an update on that that particular site. And we're referring to the Altria site. Yes, ma'am. As it relates to retirees, I I get your concerns.

We all share those concerns. To have a big, cost delivering increase into that, particular area is I I I get your concern. But those discussions are happening internally. It's not, that is lost on the team. It's just, the ability to financially prepare for continual increases. So

Yeah. But when we're trying to hire more people or bring more people into the city and they hear us council members, you know, crying out for the retirees because they've given over twenty five years of their life to the city, and then we'd, basically say, you're out the door. We don't care about you no more. So that's a that is not a very good message for them to take with them because, like I said, for sixteen years, they've been asking for ever since governor Wilder, when he was our mayor, for us to do something because as you said, their medical's gone up. They've gotten older. Groceries, everything, utilities, the Depco, all of that. And they still live in the city, and they still pay taxes, and they feel like we've kicked them to the curb. So that's to me, that's not right.

Understood.

I appreciate you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I'll make sure that you get my information before I leave.

Do you want my cell?

Yes, ma'am.

(804)

240-5056.

To pick up quickly.

Thank you, councilwoman Trammell. Councilwoman Alba Bakr.

I just have I wanna follow-up on councilmember Jones. I think she makes an excellent point about, how we prepare for future growth. And one of the things that I've been thinking about a lot is this notion that, as a capital city, you know, we talk a lot about how our public safety officers are are overextended because of all the things that involve in a are involved in a public capital city. But somebody brought up a really good point to me recently, which is that, in the capital city, at least we have, you know, VCU police. We have Virginia state police.

We have capital police that work with, RPD. Not to say that RPD doesn't need more people, but that's not the case for fire. And so at like, there's no state equivalent to to support our our firefighters, if something were to happen within the city bounds. So, I say all that to say, as we are thinking about growth, intentional growth in the city, how are we also thinking about intentional growth within our our public safety, fields, particularly with the fire department? So I know, for example, in Charlotte, they tie, building permits to there's basically a formula for Yeah.

Number of firefighters. So is that something we're looking at doing, and how are we projecting so that we're, you know, we're currently well staffed, but that's for this population.

Think CEO CEO Donald wants to address that question specifically.

Yeah. So, counsel, that's a great question. It was one of the things that we're looking at. We're also looking at enhancing our agreements. I think that the council is pretty familiar with automatic aid and mutual aid, very similar to your police department. So we have a as a unique situation here. And, of course, part of the team here is also coming from a capital city, in Atlanta. I also had the opportunity to work in the, District Of Columbia, our nation's capital. And so, again, using that case method, copy and steal everything. And so leveraging those agreements to kinda bolster our our public safety activities is number one.

Making sure that we have mutual aid and automatic aid agreements with all neighboring localities regardless of their size. The second thing is is is why the mayor has been so focused on this one stop shop, which we recently launched, making sure that the permitting process, is smooth for our external partners. Part of that is so we can get the correct data and understand, how that process works so we can project. I know many, municipalities tout using those numbers for fire, But you can actually use them for police as well, especially when you think about the permitting process. It includes all of our public safety entities pay play some sort of a role.

So we are looking at, permitting. We're looking at the neighboring jurisdiction, workforce, but we're also looking at areas in which we're being measured, especially for our ISO rating, which will have certification coming up soon. So we're looking at a variety of factors when we look at our growth. But I'll also be very honest and transparent with you because I know y'all are the transparency council is, what we call you around the water cooler. And so the you know, as we as we think about, you know, what that means here is we're trying to get a hold on our, expenditures.

Our, overtime was just much higher than what we want it to be. A lot of that has to do with just minimum staffing level. And so chief has taken some great, strides to make sure we feel those classes. Well, I think, mister Wiggins did an extraordinary job highlighting those recent efforts. One of the ones that is pretty innovative and we haven't talked about enough is this 22 laterals because most time, people are still in Richmond firefighters.

For the first time, we're starting to steal others. And we actually had, I think, three, return back who had been with the department before in his last class. So step one, because it's your point is well taken, preparing for growth. But I think the first part in that is stabilizing department, reducing the need for non FSLA overtime, and then leveraging our data to make sure that we're prepared to growth and permitting. You're spot on. I I don't know who you've been talking to or what you've been reading, but you you hit that one that nail on the head. But I would not leave out mutual and automatic aid agreements as a part of that formula.

Thank you. I think offline, I would love to hear how you, in Atlanta and in DC contend with Yeah. Sort of the mutual aid and, for for surrounding jurisdictions that there may be some some long standing history there. So Yeah. Working around that.

Most definitely.

We're delighted enjoy it. Yeah. Thank you. Thank

you, council member Abubaker. At this time, we'll proceed with council councilman Brenton.

I have, two questions for the public utilities. One is, which investment can I look to, to show where we are investing in improving the accuracy of our billing? And so, you know, I wanna Yeah. Tout those investments, and where do I find that?

Think I can take that one. So we're doing significant work on our current metering infrastructure. There's two types of technology as the AMR, AMI technology. We have AMR. And director Morris has done a lot of work with replacing things such as registers on our meters, to make sure that the calibration of those meters is accurate.

So and also the, software that accompanies this this technology, which has not been fully utilized in the past. And so that's step one is to make sure that the components of the meeting infrastructure, proper working order, and to make sure that the software systems that are used to manage that infrastructure is is working properly as well.

And with regard to the detail of it, I I love looking at, like, the detailed, like, accounts per department in the budget document. And it'll I'm I'm having trouble finding the that section for enterprise funds for utilities where I see, like, all the dozens of different, you know, accounting lines per department. Do we have that for the utility funds?

Again, it's we use a chart of accounts. And for each line item, we can provide you with details of those particular line items, which will probably get you closer to what you're you're asking for. But we'll definitely give you all the information that we have available, in upcoming days.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, councilman Bracken, councilwoman Gibson. Thank you, madam president.

I I have a this is the the broad question I was speaking to. Perhaps mister Donald might be able to answer. I'm just wondering if this budget reflects any Hudson positions that are currently filled.

Council member Gibson, is that across the entire enterprise? Yeah. I'll ask CAO Donald if no. Answer is no.

Thank you. The next question that I have is regarding the strategic these are perhaps under, the mayor's portfolio of the questions regarding strategic communications.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you. If you could speak, there's a number of positions that are, eliminated in this budget, and they were not all included on the vacancy report that I got, which is one of the reasons I have the question. So if you if you could speak to there are substantial changes in the department. If you could speak to the the positions that have been eliminated and, and then the the the new positions that have been added to this department.

Yeah. So I can speak, intelligently, I think, to the, the what we moved from operating to personnel, but I don't know the other answer. So I'm gonna ask, director Ketrau to join me, so that he can help. But, yes, we are, as I said before, to miss Abubaker's question, we are using in a budget neutral way, bringing over some operating funds, in order to provide, the, like, direct service capacity that we need in a in a couple of areas. So, yeah, you go with that?

My office hasn't eliminated any positions.

So looking at the budget sure. I'm looking at, like, budget. Yes. I'm looking at, page one twenty eight. It looks like there is, under strategic communications is this the right department? Strategic communications? It looks like, a human services technician, management analyst, principal management analyst senior, and a policy adviser are all, reductions.

We've reclassified some positions in the previous fiscal year, but there have been no reduction.

So can you speak to the additional two FTEs that are included?

Yeah. We're reallocating money from our operating budget to personnel. So these are budget neutral positions, and one is foyer support to help our foyer manager in her day to day foyer duties. And one is a social media support to help our social media manager in her day to day

duties. So

can I continue? Okay. So, I'm sorry. So you said that there's they're gonna be doing social media?

There's two positions. One is a FOIA support position, and one is a social media support position. The city already has a, social media manager, and this position would report to that person.

And so the FOIA position, obviously, I'm I'm I'm I'm interested in this position. But I I do have a question. In when we were talking about the FOIA library, there was, it was understood that the approach that, has been adopted would not include would not require any additional personnel. I'm wondering if you could just speak to that.

Yeah. As you know, FOIA operations include much more work than just the FOIA library. As I said, this position is to support the city's FOIA manager in her day to day FOIA operations, not the FOIA library.

Thank you. Could you please state your name and title?

Yes. Ross Quechua, director of strategic communications. Thank

you, councilwoman Gibson. DCO Wiggins. I'd to say thank you Thank you. For a phenomenal overview of our city's operations and public safety portfolio. And I'd like at the beginning, where there were applauds, I joined in applauding the extraordinary work of the agencies within your portfolio and their incredible service to our city, to our citizens.

I wanna say thank you again. We can do another round of applause, yourselves as well as us. Thank you.

I got it. Yeah.

We can clap again. We could. Yes.

Thank you. I can I I I'm sure every member here can share with you moments that they have interfaced with probably every one of the members of the portfolio and their responsiveness, as well as it it's not wasted on us, that there are many members of your portfolio who put their lives on the line every day for our citizens, and and we're appreciative of that, every single one of them in all the places that they are? So we So just wanna say thank you, and I really appreciate your overview. That gives us some sense of the accomplishments because oftentimes, we don't talk very much about those. We're we know we have challenges, and we're going to work through those, but the accomplishments are greatly appreciated.

I want to I did any

No. I was just gonna say thank you for the the the dialogue and the discussion, and thanks to the team for letting me be the face of the hard work that they do. I'm I'm just the face of it, and very grateful and appreciative to be here and for rich Richmond allowing me to be part of this process.

Well, thank you. You said six months in?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay. It's incredible. Six months, sir. Thank you. I'd like to say thank you to our chief of staff as well, miss Lawson, which is Saria, for being present and responsive to questions here.

And certainly, always, our CAO, mister Odi Donald, thank you for your presence and your responsiveness. With that, that concludes the work session, except we have a final component where our chief of staff will, give us, preparatory to our next set of work sessions, just some basic information, timelines, etcetera, and then we'll close out after that. But thank you, everyone.

Thank you.

Correct. Members, both you and city administration have a break next week. There is no work session in the chamber next week, and that's for two reasons. One, to be in alignment with, Richmond Public Schools spring break, and then also to give you time to begin, the analysis and discussion on possible amendments. Your next budget work session will be Monday, April 6, where both, CIP and human services along with Citi Partners will be discussed that day. Those are some heavy topics, so therefore, OD will be canceled that day. There will be no 04:00 OD meeting. It'll just be the 01:00 budget work session on the sixth. Thank you so much.

Thank you, mister Warren. And, again, thank you, all in attendance, and, we look forward to the next work session. This session now stands adjourned.