City Council - Regular Meeting

that experience into working on more post-graduate work at Emory University in Atlanta where he is specializing in artificial intelligence. Another example that I thought was interesting that came out of here and this is sort of a a continuing education uh idea and it's at Radford University where they have programs that you can use that are asynchronous you know online learning that uh is really useful for people who are already working professionals who want to expand their resumes and cyber security is is right in the thick of that. A guy named Tim Shelton who's a network engineer for the Renault County government took advantage of this. This is free. It's funded through CCI. He and several colleagues signed up for this foundations of cyber security class. So they can get credentialed in that and increase their hireability if they want to move on or stay there and have a deeper pallet to work from within their jobs in county government. Ted, you also write about how CCI benefits can find their way off campus and into surrounding communities and uh for an example, you use some students at UVA wise. They were involved in these cyber security assessments in which they visited three businesses and they did cyber security assessments for each of those and gave reports uh pretty substantial books of notes and to-do type of things uh that the folks at those organizations could use.

Tad Dickens reports for cardinals.org. I'm Fred Eckles. Cardinal News is a nonprofit online independent news organization covering Southwest and Southside Virginia.

RadioIQ and WVTF Music are in the process of upgrading our digital donation systems. So, the online donation form on our website and mobile app will be temporarily paused starting on April 1st. If you want to become a member or make a donation during this period, please call our business offices at 1 8008568900 and select option one. Thank you for listening and supporting public radio across Virginia. Support for RadioIQ is provided by Olio Financial Planning, meeting clients at the intersection of life and money, taxes, estate planning, insurance, and more. Details at meet io.com. And from Virginia Housing, helping make home ownership possible with specialty home programs, financing options, classes, and more. Learn more at virginiaousing.com. Cooler this week under sunny skies. High temperatures will be in the upper 50s in the southwest around 69 for Dan Belrono today. A high near 66°. Fairly clear tonight. Lows in the mid-30s and low 40s. We're expecting more sunshine tomorrow. Fairly breezy. Highs from the low 50s to lower 60s for most. Mid60s in Southside. Sunny skies Wednesday. Highs in the mid50s and low 60s throughout the region. 43 in Blackburg and Rowanoke. Lynchburg has 46 degrees. Charlottesville and Fredericksburg 46. Richmond 49 degrees. To see Mount Rushmore in 3D, you travel to the Black Hills of South Dakota. For the US economy in 3D, I hit the open road.

Marketplace Morning Report is supported by GE. With GE Key, Agentic AI, and GE Smart Software, GE is at the forefront in Agentic Procurement, Orchestration, and autonomous supply chains.

I'm David Brancacio. First, the price of crude oil remains very high, but down 1% at about $110 a barrel right now. The oil producers cartel OPEC plus did agree Sunday to slightly increase pumping to perhaps calm prices. Yet, many countries can't extract more because of the US Iran war. Stocks, Dow futures are down slightly. S&P futures are up a tenth percent. NASDAQ futures are up 4/10en percent. We get a revised economic growth figure, GDP, covering late last year on Thursday. But let's go beyond flat statistics here. On this 100th anniversary year of what's called the mother road, I wanted a more immersive, updated view of the US economy by traveling a length of historic Route 66, linking Chicago and Southern California, where I started.

For roadtpping 66 in 2026, we go for a variety of vehicles starting in a Whimo robot taxi at the pier in Santa Monica, California. myself and two friends. So, this is Route 66 right here, right? Yep. Route 66.

The robot turns onto a stretch of 66 called Santa Monica Boulevard in a city at the sharp end of the coming economic transformation. Headquartered here are some of the entertainment companies soon to be amped up or wiped out by artificial intelligence. Sky Dance, which just bought Paramount. Also, the gaming company Activision Blizzard is here. But Santa Monica with its elevated coefficient of economic inequality is not all fancy studios. Doesn't smell.

We limit our drive to just 25 miles in a carbonintensive 1966 Oldsmobile 442, followed by a stint in my plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt. But the bulk of the 900m journey with two buddies will be in a spiffy 2026 allect electric Rivian SUV which is so darn quiet even at speed that we need to add a playlist. Which version? Stones. Now Chuck Barry.

That song shapes the oldies vibe of so much of modern 66. A mix of kitschy nostalgia and t-shirts on full display starting 2 hours east in San Bernardino, California. Nearly erased from that company's official history is 66 as the root of the 1930s mass migration carrying desperate families fleeing the environmental disaster of the Dust Bowl who collected in camps here. I just blowed in blues. In a moment, two Route 66 towns where the artificial intelligence revolution is nowhere in sight.

Marketplace Morning Report is supported by PaloAlto Networks. PaloAlto Networks delivers comprehensive cyber security protection while automating cyber defense to stop threats so organizations can thrive. Learn more at paloaltoetworks.com. And by Progressive. Progressive Commercial Insurance offers personalized rates and customizable coverages for your business vehicles. More at progressive commercial.com. After a night in one of the concrete cones for rooms at the Wigwam Motel on Route 66, it's back to the recharged Rivian for a rapid climb into the economy of the high desert where I find this man up a ladder.

The patina on this building is for real. It's earned. It's not painted on. It's not fake. Matt Parker, jack of all trades, including photographers, working on the weathered wooden sign at the Baghdad Cafe in Newberry Springs, California. Matt says there are so few jobs along this sandy stretch of 66 that unemployment is not even a topic of friendly conversation.

When I give rides home from church or something like that, a passenger will get in, I've never said these words. So, so what do you do for a living? Those are just words I've I've never put together. You can buy t-shirts and cold drinks at the cafe. They're trying to sort out permission to cook food again. Who would come here when the amazing Peggy Sue's 50s diner is just 17 miles west? Answer the French with the French taste in movies. Uh, Mrs. Jasmine, you got to carry your suitcase yourself. We ain't no grand hotel.

My name is Mrs. Muncheta. Baghdad Cafe 1988. German actress Mariana Seabasht dressed for the Bavarian Alps ends up here. German movie, but it's the French who come to relive the magic. If you buy the tourist package from in France to come here to America, the States is on it. While the sand long ago reclaimed a famed water park here, multiple artificial lakes survive. And Matt's plan is to tap his deep well to refill his lake to be the centerpiece of what he'll brand the Sweet Haven Campground. Also, the railroad's talking about coming here and making this a hub to store here rather than down in Long Beach.

The BNSF Railway is now building along 66 east of here the biggest railway to truck freight facility in the country. It promises thousands of direct jobs if world trade still calls for such a complex in this era of tariff induced reverse globalization. Closer to the Arizona border, we spot the restored neon sign for Royy's Motel and Cafe. The motel's abandoned. The cafe has no hot food, but it has Miss Nicole selling an eclectic range of sodas. I try pumpkin. I mean, we have hundreds of people easily a day. Easily.

Again, cash flow is driven by crossborder commerce. Nicole says here it's bus loads of Italians. So many that the soda bottle recycling bin out front warns in Italian, no spatura, no garbage. People come to Amboy to bask in the weirdness of a place where the motel, school, and church are deserted, and there's a half corporate jet left out back for added post-apocalyptic vibes.

So, it boomed until about 1972 when the interstate came through and they said it dropped down to about 2% of the traffic overnight. Tomorrow it's onto a piece of Route 66, more forwardlooking, a campus that calls this the year of AI empowerment. And I wanted to let you know that I'm moving to a new beat here at Marketplace. And after more than 13 years, this is my last week as host of the Marketplace Morning Report. Again, old Dave Bronachio will still be around from APM American Public Media. Do you have an old or unused vehicle you no longer need? Do you want to support public radio? Then donate it to support this station. You can give an unwanted car, truck, motorcycle, ATV, or even your boat. It's quick, easy, taxdeductible, and we'll even pick it up from you. Go to radioiq.org, click the support tab, and drive all the way down to the vehicle donation link. Thanks. You're listening to Radio IQ on WVTF Rono, WRIQ Charles City Richmond, WVTU Charlottesville, WVTW Charlottesville, WVTR Marian, Wis FM Wise, WQIQ Spsylvania, WIQUR Lexington, WHC Emory, HD3 of Wurv Richmond, and on 92.5 Richmond and 94.9 Fredericksburg. RadioIQ, a listener supported community service of Virginia Tech on your smart speaker and online at radioiq.org. Welcome to NewsHour. It's live from the BBC World Service in London. I'm Tim Fra. The Iranian authorities say one of the leaders of the powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps has been killed. Iranian people tell the BBC they're scared of the latest ultimatum

from President Trump. We're worried about Donald Trump's threat to unleash all hell on Iran if Iran does not make a deal. We're stocking up on water and essentials. Also, NASA's Artimus 2 mission has now entered the lunar sphere of influence, the gravitational pool of the moon, and it sounds like its emotional pool as well. The four of us have looked at this moon our entire lives and the way we are responding to what we are seeing out the window is it's just like we're a bunch of little kids up here just we cannot get enough of this. It's amazing. How Northern Ireland has become a world leader in support for mothers who've miscarried. And the icy world of curling hits a hot streak. All that after the news.

BBC News with Danielle Yao Vietka. The Israeli defense minister says the military has attacked Iran's largest petrochemical plant at Aselu. Israel Catz says the facility is no longer functioning, but Tehran hasn't confirmed whether the sites are offline. Our correspondent in Jerusalem, Daniel Simone, has more details. This follows an attack last week on another prochemical facility and the Israeli defense minister saying that taken together these two attacks have struck over 80% of the Iranian prochemical industry. They are saying that this is necessary because they are saying that industry and the steel making industry which was also struck last week by Israel is a money-making machine for tyran. They say both industries also feed in to making weapons.

Iran says the intelligence chief of its powerful revolutionary guards corps has been killed in a USIsraeli air strike. A statement from the organization said General Majid Khadmi had been martyed in an attack at dawn. He's the latest senior figure to have been killed by the United States in Israel. Gi Gaul from BBC Persian has more.

He was a veteran of almost 50 years with revolutionary guards and also he was appointed last year after the head of IRGC. Good morning and welcome to the city council informal session for April 6th, 2026 beginning at 9:00 a.m. City Council meetings will be televised live and replayed on RVTV channel 3 on Thursdays at 7:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and video streamed through YouTube at YouTube.com at Ronokeba. Council meetings are offered with closed captioning for the deaf or heart of hearing. This time I'll ask our clerk, Miss McCoy, to please call the role. Mr. Hagen, here.

Miss Sanchez Jones here. Vice Mayor Maguire here. Mr. Nash here. Mr. Bison here. Miss Powers here. And Mayor Khan here. And a quorum is present.

A couple of announcements to get us started today. On April 20th, 2026, beginning at 10:00 a.m., Rono City Council will conduct four interviews to select two candidates to serve as Rono City School Board Trustees for three-year terms of office, each commencing July 1st, 2026. The four candidates that we will be interviewing are Derek Kakniss, Darlene Burcham, Christopher Link, and Donna Little Page. We have this morning for consideration. Oh, one more note on that. On the interviews, that same day at 7:00 p.m. at our regularly scheduled 7:00 p.m. meeting, a public hearing will be held to hear the views of citizens on the said candidates for Rono City School Board Trustees, and an announcement of the successful candidates will be made at a subsequent council meeting. Our items for action today include a communication from my office requesting that the council convene in a closed meeting to discuss vacancies on certain authorities, boards, commissions, and committees appointed by the council pursuant to section 2.2-3711A1 Code of Virginia as amended. The uh boards and commissions that we'll be considering appointments for today are included in the agenda. Need a motion and a second on this item, please.

Moved. Second. Thank you. Council members Vison and Powers. Madame Clerk, will you please call the role? Mr. Hagen. Uh, I, Miss Sanchez Jones, Vice Mayor Maguire. Hi, Mr. Nash. Hi, Mr. Volison. Hi, Miss Powers. Hi, Mayor Cobb.

I The motion is adopted. A communication from the city attorney requesting that city council convene in a closed meeting to consult with legal counsel pertaining to actual litigation regarding a workers's compensation settlement where such consultation or briefing in open meeting would adversely affect the negotiating or litigating posture of the public body pursuant to section 2.2-3711 A7 code of Virginia. A motion and second, please motion. Second. Thank you. Council members Vol and Sanchez Jones. Madame Clerk, will you please call the role? Mr. Hagen, I. Miss Sanchez Jones, Vice Mayor Magcguire. Hi, Mr. Nash. Hi,

Mr. Powers. Mr. Vison, I'm sorry. Hi, Miss Powers. Hi, and Mayor Cob. I And the motion is adopted. Third is a communication from the city attorney requesting that city council convene in a closed meeting to consult with legal counsel pertaining to actual litigation regarding opioid settlements where such consultation or briefing an open meeting would adversely affect the negotiating or litigating posture of the public body pursuant to section 2-3711 A7 code of Virginia. I'll entertain a motion and second please. Second. Thank you. Council members Vol and Hagen. Madame Clerk, will you please call the role? Mr. Hagen, I. Miss Sanchez Jones.

Hi. Vice Mayor Maguire. Hi. Mr. Nash. Hi. Mr. Vison. Hi. Miss Powers. Hi. And Mayor Cobb. I. The motion is adopted. Finally, a communication from the city attorney requesting that city council convene in a closed meeting to consult with legal counsel regarding a certain legal matter requiring the provision of legal advice by the city attorney concerning contract obligations involving a city-owned facility in the central part of the city of Roanoke pursuant to section 2.2-3711A8 code of Virginia as amended. We'll entertain a motion and second, please make the motion. Second. Thank you. Council members Powers and Vol. Madame Clerk, will you please call the role?

Mr. Hagen, I. Miss Sanchez Jones, hi. Vice Mayor Maguire, hi. Mr. Nash, hi. Mr. Vison, hi. Miss Powers. Hi. And Mayor Cop. Hi. And the motion is adopted. Now, it's uh my pleasure to introduce um and welcome our guests for our legislative committee who are joining us virtually today. and I'm going to recess our council meeting and turn it over to Vice Mayor Magcguire to lead our legislative committee. Thank you, Mayor Cobb. I am going to call to order today's meeting of the Rono City Legislative Committee. Um, and I will ask our clerk to please call the role. Mr. Hagen, here.

Miss Sanchez Jones here. Mayor Cobb here. U Mr. Nash here. Mr. Volison here. Miss Powers, Miss Appel, Miss Trigg, and Chairman Maguire. Okay. Thank you very much. We have a quorum. Um before we um I'll jump before I introduce um our guest, I want to make a motion to approve our minutes from our March 2nd meeting. Move. Second. Thank you, council members Hagen and Bison. And I'll ask the clerk to call the role. Mr. Hagen. Hi, Miss Sanchez Jones. Hi, Mayor Cobb. Hi, Mr. Nash. Hi, Mr. Volison. Hi, Miss Powers.

Hi. Thank you. Oh, and Chairman Magcguire. Sorry. Hi. Thank you very much, Miss McCoy. And now it is my pleasure. I'm going to turn it right over um to our guests. We have Mr. Preston Bryant. And I'm not sure if uh all I I see Mr. Cox. Um I don't know if Mr. Binkley will be joining us, but um I will turn it over to you to give us an update on where we are with uh uh legislative items in Richmond and then we'll hear a little bit about um our federal legislative uh requests.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee. It's a pleasure to be with you this morning. Um, first I want to uh again thank uh Miss Boore and Miss Karini for their quick responses and direction during the busy legislative session and for all members of council who were so engaged uh during the session. As you know, we're not over yet. Um uh first may I call up uh ask uh the PowerPoint to be presented on screen. Thank you very much. And you can go to the next slide. Thank you. So, you can see uh this was the 60-day session of the long session. Uh we are scheduled to come back into session on April 22. That's for the one-day reconvene session where the general assembly will take up the governor's amendments uh and vetos either sustaining uh the uh either approving or disapproving the amendments or sustaining or overriding any vetos that the governor may issue. Um, the governor has until April 13th at 11:59 p.m. to amend to sign, amend, or veto bills and then uh the legislature will come back on April 22 to take them up. And as you know that uh we did not uh adopt a budget just yet. There's a quite a difference between the House and the Senate principally on one issue and that is the data center industry sales tax exemption. It's now valued at about $1.6 billion that is not coming into the treasury. The Senate insists on uh uh ending that sales tax exemption in uh January 1 of 2027 despite the code of

Virginia extending the sales tax exemption until uh 2035. Um so that's the the major hangup uh at the moment. Um, so they will take up uh a special budget session beginning April 23, the next day after the veto session. Uh, and we all presume that uh there's current there's still currently negotiations going on on the budget. And so that when they come back on April 23rd, we hope to have a vote uh within a day or two on a reconciled budget. Uh that remains to be seen. Um, next slide. a quick uh quick glance at some of the um your pro going uh through your uh legislative program and looking at uh what your priorities and positions were. These are a few that uh we pulled out that have passed. Um and we'll talk about some of these, but you can quickly see the school of medicine capital funding. The governor Yncan put that in the budget. The legislature kept it in the budget. We coordinated uh on that strategy following Curillion's lead with Mark Lawrence who represents the Curillion um tree canopy legislation we it was a priority um solar expand expanding use of solar we'll go through some of these in the succeeding slides um all the the budget the uh constitutional amendments that you supported in your legislative program they were all were all passed uh the housing uh trust fund you supported uh increased funding. I think the House has $12.5 million uh increase. The Senate has a $50 million uh increase in the Virginia Housing Trust Fund. Uh so that item remains to be reconciled in the budget negotiations. The currently the trust fund has about $175 million uh in it. Storm local assistance fund um Governor Yoken proposed I believe was

$43 million additional that has remained in the budget. Um so some of these things are contingent upon uh adopting a final final budget. Uh next slide. Uh looking uh going in order uh in your legislative program and following that format. U we have uh pulled out uh those uh corresponding bills. House Bill 181 Delegate Rousul adding an ADU provision for the city of Rono. The homebuilders association of Virginia opposed this particular bill and other similar bills across the state. Uh they believed very strongly that um there was a better way to go and that is adopting the uh using the economic development authority as has been done by the city of Richmond. They like that approach. The committee chair uh house county cities and towns uh supported that position. Um this was across numerous bills that uh ADU uh related bills. Um and the only way Delegate Rousul was able to get this bill out of committee was to agree to this particular language on uh having the BHDA study the e efficacy of the program and requiring a reenactment clause, meaning the bill would have to pass again next year. uh that was the only way this bill came out of committee. Delegate Rousul worked very hard on it and we supported his efforts. Uh but this was uh uh kind of a position handed down from on high so to speak. Um similarly uh the real estate uh delinquent taxes uh uh bill that you have um we initially had wanted increase from uh 75 to 150,000. Um the uh Senate uh the House Finance Subcommittee reduced it to 125,000. They still calculated this as ahead of

inflation since the last time it was increased and that was 2019 when it went from 50,000 to 75,000. So this was was certainly agreeable. Uh next slide. Um this was a particular interest of uh of of council the emergency custody orders and the trans the um transportation of uh ECO patients. Um uh especially from curillion and such. Uh we worked a lot on this bill. Um the the the house bill was was amended uh to 50 miles. uh we did we had to put a limit on it in consultation with the city attorney's office uh we came up with 50 mi radius which was akin to other uh code sections along this line so that was not new that was consistent but nevertheless uh both the house and the senate bills were not successful but instead there were other house and senate bills that took the approach of permitting uh sheriff's departments or police departments uh uh re-engage engaging or hiring retired police officers for this function um this transportation function. I think that remains to be seen whether this is an effective uh uh solution. Um I think the Royal Police Department and the the sheriff's department is are probably in a better position to assess the likelihood of retired officers assisting uh with the TDO and ECO transportation challenges. So we'll have to see how that uh plays out. Uh next slide. Uh the Virginia Transportation Museum. This uh yet again uh did not was not successful. Um I don't think there was no legislation introduced on it. Uh you know the transportation museum is represented by other lobbyists and and they did not proceed with um legislation. Perhaps Miss Flynn at the

transportation museum can provide further insight. Next slide. for budget and funding. Uh the delegate resetown redevelopment plan, $600,000 would did not make the final cut into the house budget. Uh but as we mentioned earlier, the school of medicine uh funding the capital construction uh adding school of medicine to the capital construction pool uh that was included in Governor Yncan's budget and we coordinated with uh Mr. Lawrence uh at the Korean School of Medicine and that stayed uh in the in the budget the proposed language stayed. Uh next slide. um Amtrak there was no uh budget movement introduced and you know the regional airport commission is actually represented by others and their budget amendments uh for the terminal improvements and for the runway improvements the study of uh were not uh were not included. Uh next slide. The council had particular interest in uh urban tree canopy. Um you'll note that what was passed is permissive. So it allows you to adopt an ordinance to do this and there's uh depending on the number of units per lot and acreage size and such. There are some details to that but it does uh it increases 25% tree canopy or 30% tree canopy depending on the number of lots and this is a permissive um u local local governments may adopt such ordinances. Uh next slide. You had various uh interest in uh additional solar uh local government uh solar improvements. Uh, one directs the Department of Energy to adopt an online platform not to be made public, uh, not

to be launched until, I should say, uh, summer of 2027 that, uh, that allows local governments and contractors for solar projects uh, to work off of a unified uh, easy facilitated permitting uh, platform. Uh, that passed and is currently before the governor. Um the next one, House Bill 711 and Senate Bill 347. These are not permissives. These are SHs. Um um this is a mandate of local governments to um include regulations and exceptions for certain groundmounted solar projects on uh in your case commercial or industrial property or institutional property unless they're permitted by right. There's some nuances to that that um Ms. Karini and her office will will um sus out uh in due course. Um next slide. Uh similarly, this is uh um also kind of a a mandate in so much as it's a shall not uh local government shall not adopt uh or prevent a locality from locality shall not prohibit um these so-called balcony solar devices. That's not to say that they are unfettered and can be used by right. Um they must uh comport to the local government's uh height and setback uh allowances or or requirements. Um they must adhere to and not violate any historic uh district or architectural guidelines. Things like that you still have in your control but you just can't prohibit the use of them. Similarly, um investor own utilities like Appalachin Power, they cannot add interconnection fees to these. Um and it also prohibits landlords uh from uh disallowing these devices. Uh which is not to say they

have unfettered tenants have unfettered uh use of them. uh they still can't be used if u um if it's going to require uh like building changes to a landlord's property or electrical upgrades or something like that. Um they're not allowed to require the landlord to to undertake uh such actions. Um House Bill uh 1234 and the Senate Bill 26. This bill actually passed last year but was vetoed by Governor Yncan. And it allows it permits local ordinances to require up to 50% of um u essentially commercial uh parking areas. Think of a major department store or something um to have solar canopy. Um if it's 100 spaces or more uh you can require this uh you have to work with uh I think there's a work group established to uh at the local level to to uh to develop such an ordinance but this passed this year uh after being vetoed last year and is before the governor. Uh next slide. The various uh civil liberties of the constitutional amendments that the council supported uh the prohibition on marriage or or repealing the prohibition on marriage between uh same-sex persons, the cannabis retail market, which I'll uh discuss uh in a little bit. Uh both passed uh next slide. uh the reproductive rights uh for freedom uh the the fundamental right to reproductive freedoms passed and the voting rights for post incarcerated persons automatic restoration that passed uh as well. Next slide. As you know there was no uh RO charter legislation introduced on May to November uh elections. Next slide. Other items of interest, uh the 1% uh sales

tax, optional local option 1% sales tax for K12 school construction and renovation. Uh this past but still problematic. Um uh Delegate Rousul had the best legislation. It was the most commonly accepted by the broadest audience. It had the greatest uh flexibility and application. You would be able to apply the sales tax. um to past issued debt. For example, there are a number of localities that they might not have immediate uh in the future immediate uh school construction or renovation needs, but they may have uh be carrying debt for recently completed capital projects. U delegate Russell's bill, for example, would have allowed the 1% uh uh sales tax revenue to be applied to that past debt. Um that bill was not successful. It was successful in the House but got held up in the Senate Appropriations Committee because the Senate u had a different approach, a much more restrictive approach and they included the language in the budget, not in legislation. So it's currently a matter before the budget conferees. But this u the Senate budget language is more restrictive. It does not allow revenue to be applied to past uh debt and it contains the provision in it that doesn't allow uh it to to reduce the plan or offset other local appropriations on your on the K12 CIP. Local governments are finding the Senate language to be too restrictive and perhaps um in some localities not really useful enough to actually put before in referendum to their citizens. um a option for the voter referendum. Um they don't think it's uh it's flexible enough to to warrant putting before their citizens. This has been the case

the the decision of or the input of uh a number of localities. So we will see where this goes in negotiations. There are a number of local governments and VML and Veo urging the budget conferees to change this language and adopt uh provisions more akin to delegate resol 334. Uh we're working on this uh currently uh during the during the recess so to speak. Um next slide nearing the end Mr. chairman. Uh collective bargaining. Um this is uh an expressed major concern of local governments. It doesn't take into effect until 2028, but the governor can start uh um she must uh um appoint members of the public employee relations board by October of this year. Um the public employee relations board, the perb is all powerful. um it has arbitration authority. It can sue you. If uh it doesn't think local governments are negotiating in good faith. Um um there are a number of local governments um that have adopted uh resolutions uh and sent to the governor's office urging either a veto uh not likely or an amendment to remove local governments and public service authorities so that this would only apply to uh state government. Um the uh point being no local governments uh that we can determine asked for this. Um no local governments that we can determine were um um uh upset at the with just the local opt-in only provision. That's that's current law. Um and all local governments see that this can be uh really um challenging to adopted uh

budgets. that can really upset local government um and school division uh authority and operations. There are probably 20 or 30 local governments, chambers of commerce and public service authorities who have uh written letters to the governor or adopted resolutions and sent to the governor's office to oppose or amend this bill. And um VML and Veco are taking a um a very strong stance on this. Uh they prefer to leave uh local governments uh asis, which is the opt-in uh provision for um collective bargaining. This is a a major policy change uh in Virginia as you know. Uh next slide. Uh this is my last slide, Mr. Chairman. Um, I know Ron Oak has um been engaged in photo speed uh monitoring uh efforts and ordinances and such in recent years and you've uh uh paid a lot of attention both last year and this year to photo speed monitoring sorts of bills. There were two primary photo speed monitoring bills passed this year. The first one uh House Bill 1120 is specific to highway work zones. Um it does have various requirements amending various requirements in the code now that uh Miss Karini and her office will uh sus out. And then Senate Bill 84, it's more expansive than uh just u highway work zones. It also includes pedestrian crossing violations, stop sign violations, and um school crossing zones in addition to highway work zones. So that one's a little bit more expansive, and those are currently before the governor at this time. Um, Mr. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, that's my last slide. Um, I'm happy to take uh questions. Um, or we'll

turn it over to Mr. Mr. Cox. Thank you very much, Mr. Bryant. That was um very helpful. I think we do have some questions. I'll start if uh the mayor or our deputy chair um Vol questions. I'll come back. I just had a a question about House Bill 181 uh the affordable uh dwelling units. Um we know that they put in that we need to have a uh a study done. So what does that look like between uh and of course we have to get it reauthorized. So kind of what are the steps that are going to have to be done to between now and then to to get this bill moved forward?

Um if I reme remember correctly, I don't have the language before me. Um this was in a so-called enactment clause uh bolded in the bill at the end of the bill and it directs local governments to uh set up um um a a work group uh with your local certain stakeholders in your locality if I'm remembering correctly to consult with them on what shall be uh in this ordinance and how best to adopt an ordinance as you go forward. But I would have to refresh my memory. um I don't have it before me, but it does require you to uh assemble local stakeholders, if I remember correctly, to uh before adopting such an ordinance to get their um broad input.

All right. Thank you. And I also had um one other question um which was uh about casino legislation. I was just very interested to to hear uh what happened in that realm uh this year.

Uh good question. Um the major we don't have this on a on a slide. Um the major casino focus was in Fairfax. Very controversial. It's been uh going on for the last year or two. Um where Fairfax, which is uh Fairfax County, which is suffering from uh elevated office vacancies and such. um trying to um some legislators want to broaden the tax base in Fairfax. Uh couple years ago, they authorized uh or proposed legislation that did not pass to u allow a casino to be developed in the Tyson's Corner area. It was not successful this year. It was put in again and it was successful then not successful and finally uh toward the end of session there was a uh compromise or there was a a conferee report that uh I believe again allows a um um a casino to be proposed in Tyson's area. Um, and I believe it was it may have been uh is not subject to referendum like uh I think that's correct. I did not follow it quite so closely. Um, but it also uh overrode uh kind of some local government authorities or concerns and uh the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is uh as best I recall they're not happy with the state legislation. Um but it did uh go forward and that is now before the governor as well. that is specific to Fairfax County.

I um I also wanted to ask a follow up on that. Um you know, it sounds like that uh there's a lot of uh interesting politics going on behind the Fairfax County one. Um but is there any movement on the state level to regulate uh casinos? I know that there's they're under the lottery board currently. Um, and I know that there's some uh talk about what should be the the governing body for them and wanted to know if there's any movement on that.

There's been uh behind the-scenes discussion on the Virginia Gaming Commission and the Roman lottery plays. I believe uh one one chamber the other uh members of the House and the Senate. I think the Senate preferred to keep it under the lottery. The House maybe preferred the Virginia Gaming Commission approach. the governor, at least candidate Span Burner was uh articulated that she wasn't in favor of any additional gaming uh uh ex expansions until the Virginia uh uh gaming commission was put in place. Um that was the last uh I heard on her position anyway. Um so that went to skill games and you know other forms of of of gaming. Now, that notwithstanding, there was also additional online gaming um options that passed this year as well, and those are before the governor's uh right now. So, I'm not sure what the governor is going to do uh given her past position as a candidate on opposing additional gaming um until the Virginia Gaming Commission or related similar entity was set up and could assess and chart a path forward. So, We'll see.

Thank you. Thank you for that. Thank you. I I don't um I was curious um just as a point of reference on Delegate Rousul's um budget amendment to include the downtown revitalization study. Did you get any indication as to whether he'll reintroduce that um in the next session? I have not, but I can follow up. Mr. Mr. Yeah. And we can do that as well. Thank you, Councilman Hagen.

For uh HB681, which is the one that deals with the um transportation, which I think is the Yeah, you just passed it. Um for that one, does that include the 50 mile uh No. Yeah. Yeah. Right there. Um does that include the 50 mile uh limitation? I don't think it does. I will have to go back and check. Um, I don't think uh that I don't think it does, but let let me stop short of declaring that uh Mr. Councilman and I will get back in touch with you. That was my only question. Any other questions?

Okay. Had a couple, but before I was going to um piggyback off of Council Member Volison's question. Um, since you brought up the casino, were there any other updates from our casino lobbyists that the city's employed that you wanted to share with us at this time that would be relevant to the legislative update? Um, I did not engage. Uh, we we had a conflict on that. So, sorry, sir. I'm sorry, Mr. Brian. I was talking to Councilman Ballison. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I know what you know. Uh, so I haven't heard anything about this. Yeah.

Okay. Just checking. I had one quick question. Thank you, Mr. Bryant. And that was just um to flag for Miss Karini that on a couple of these bills, I'd love to get um some time on your calendar to talk about the bills that will be permissive, meaning we'll have the option to decide how or if we put those forward. Um but I did want to flag for you the one bill that Mr. Bryant mentioned that was not permissive. I think it that was HP 711 and SP 347, the solar permitting bill. And just to get that on your radar, um so that we can start getting whatever balls rolling we need. um since it sounds like that's not optional for us. So,

absolutely, Vice Mayor. I'm um when I met with Mr. Nash on our one-on-one, we talked about I'm going to do a memo that lists everything that's permissive and mandated and then kind of a summary of everything else. So, I will have that to you in the next couple months.

Thank you. That would be great. Appreciate that. All right. Well, if we don't have any more questions for you, Mr. Bryant, then um I'd be glad to hand it over to your colleagues to give a federal legislative update. Great. Thank you. And uh thank you council members and uh to echo what uh my colleague Preston said, thank you uh to Miss Ber and to the city attorney Kiny for um all their help and and helping move quickly, especially with uh we'll get into a second, but with um earmarks, as I will as I will just refer to them, uh those things come at us very fast and uh a little chaotically. So, they were very helpful and bring us around quickly. Um, on a sort of personnel note, St. uh Scott unable to be here this morning, he um actually had his first child a few months ago and is taking uh her to the White House Easter egg roll. So,

um he is at the White House right now, which is uh great for us. But uh to get into our presentation today, next slide, please. Wanted to dig into um sort of, you know, kind of what we've been up to lately. um talk about earmarks, um talk about uh just the general DC lay of the land. I'm sure everyone here, you know, reads the newspaper and sees what's going on. Um but kind of give you how that's going to impact us, how that's going to impact the budget process. Things are changing very quickly. Um, in fact, you know, from the moment I submitted these slides to now, kind of one big update on uh what's going on in DC with uh a possible rec second reconciliation uh coming through down down the pike for us. Um to kick it off with earmarks, um as you know, in the in the parlance, they are called congressionally directed spending in the Senate. They're called uh community project funding in the House. So, just to make it simple, we just refer to them as earmarks. Um and so we submitted uh three earmarks this time around. Um and then we had a fourth that we are partnering with uh one of our local the road regional airport on. Um, we just uh from a process standpoint uh worked with uh city attorney Kini and Miss Borer to get out a sort of questionnaire to department heads sort of asking for what are the pressing projects that we could get um and go after federal funding on. Um we sub submitted that probably a little over a month ago, five weeks ago or so. Um and then asked uh department heads for their uh the directors for their feedback and what projects are sort of you know shovel ready on the precipice of getting moving. Um and use that to source uh what we would ask for from our senators. Um our members of Congress currently

don't really participate in the earmark program. If they do, they'll do like one or two uh sort of big ones related to federal highway funding. they do not tend to do uh the projects that we would be going after. So, um we're really asking our senators uh senators Kaine and Warner to help us out here. Um so, what we ended up submitting and we I think had uh a few different projects come down come down for us uh that folks sent to over what we ended up submitting. One was the little over $3 million uh in river kayak park uh which was submitted last year and not advanced into the final bill. Um we feel very strongly about that's a good project. We've uh talked about it with our Senate delegation. Um the second project that we submitted was the Amtrak station uh which is uh updating the Ruford building, renovating and building it out to create a permanent Amtrak station um with enclosed waiting space, restrooms, ticketing, support space, ADA upgrades and flood plane compliant systems. Um we had to phase that because that's a pretty large project. um one where your typical earmark is somewhere between 500,000 and about $2.5 million although sometimes they're bigger. Um but we phased that. So it's phase one. So doing the studies, doing all the things you have to do to get the project ready. Um we also did the same thing with the Mil Mountain Greenway Bridge phase one project. Um and that uh just from a macro level is to repair the historic stone wall, repave the roadway, replace the switchback bridge to preserve a key greenway link between downtown Rono and the Rono Star. Um so that is phase one of that project. And then finally, uh we learned while we were in DC with Councilman Lawson that u the airport uh will be submitting a runway extension

study. Um so that way we are sort of seconding their uh their earmark submission. Next slide please. Um in order to advance our ear marks and get those out there um what we've done in the sort of leadup time is uh we've we had C we happen to have uh lucky coincidence we had Councilman Bison up in uh DC for the National League of Cities conference. um took him around to we stopped by Representative Klein's office uh to talk about some other issues, went to Senator Warner's office, um had a meeting with them regarding Ron Oak housing, and then we've done some one-on-one follow-ups. Um I I attended an event with Senator Kaine, made sure to thank them, thank them on behalf of uh the city and for all that they're doing. Um we have also had a meeting recently with uh Senator Warner's office regarding Ron Oak Housing and the sort of uh we we've had a decline in some of the community the HUD community block grant funding uh section 8 vouchers and some of those money that from coming down. And so to talk about how to fix that um how do we get more of that money? How do we get the federal government um to sort of be back funding at the levels that they were previously? Uh so we sort of brainstormed some ideas and we'll stay in touch with Senator Warner's office. Um also, like I said, have had uh some sort of stops just to make sure we're keeping the city's priorities to the front of mind with our Senate and House delegation. Next slide. um to get into the macro big picture real quick. Um what's sort of coming down the pike for us? Uh number one, we are still figuring out this DHS shutdown. um that matters because until the Department of Homeland Security is fully funded and everything is open again um

with Department of Homeland Security, so things like TSA, FEMA, until those are or Border Patrol running again, it's kind of hard to get any other big pieces of legislation moving. Um what uh the majority in the House and Senate has decided is essentially they will do a two-track system. one where they get uh the deal that the Senate passed a couple weeks ago through probably this week. Um where they will reopen the Department of Homeland Security but not fund uh will not have specific uh funding mechanism for TSA or sorry not TSA for um ICE and for the Border Patrol in there and then they will fund ICE and the Border Patrol via uh a second reconciliation bill. That's a very big deal just because reconciliation last year took up a lot of time, took up a lot of energy and oxygen in DC. Um what House and Senate Republicans settled on was essentially a piece of legislation that focused primarily on tax cuts and then cuts to uh Medicaid and other sort of safety net programs. So reconciliation 2.0 know, could be something similar to last time. What um House and Senate Republicans are pushing for is a narrower bill that sort of focuses on funding ICE and the Border Patrol for 3 years that would essentially safeguard them from if the House or Senate control flips to the Democrats, basically make sure that those programs are funded and they can't really touch it um or make any uh modifications to those programs. So, the reconciliation remains to be seen. The president has said he'd like to see reconciliation 2.0 on his desk by June 1st. That's very, very ambitious. Um, but we will see. You'll start to see, I think, uh, pieces of information starting to come out this week about um, what reconciliation is looking like,

what types of uh, are how are they going to pay for uh, things like ICE, the Border Patrol, the war in Iran. um probably looking at things like uh changes to the tax code, changes to the health care system. A big focus for this administration is uh the waste, fraud, and abuse that's going on in our safety net and our sort of social programs. Um things like Medicaid, Medicare, and so they are beginning to um find ways to cut back on those programs, trying to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse. Um, so I I would look to to be that one way of having some savings in the second reconciliation bill. Um, also at play here, and it's another piece of this sort of Jenga that's going on in DC is just appropriations and getting the government funded. Last year, government funding did not get completed until the year we are currently in. Um, which is why earmarks and other things were due under such a tight timeline. Under normal order, the uh the uh budget bill would be done at the end of um end of September and signed in October and then we would have a few months to work on earmarks and other things for appropriations for the next year. This time around, all that wasn't done until January, February. So, um things are sort of behind already. They're working to catch up. The thing that's kind of hanging over I think the head is the of of all chairs in the House and Senate for the committees is uh the upcoming election in the midterms and sort of the potential for any sort of shift in partisan control and making sure that they are I think getting through final priorities, final um things that they can put forward before an election uh done now. Um, obviously that's easier said than done because there's uh just a lot going on. So it's going to be hard

to be seen. The other dynamic here I think that really drives Washington right now is that uh the majority in the House is a two or three seat margin. Um any given day if one member is sick, if someone doesn't show up, if something happens, um you're really looking at a very tight margin in the House. So, uh, that that can make big legislation even harder to pass and even more difficult. Um, outside of sort of ending the the Department of Homeland Security shutdown and appropriations and a potential recon second reconciliation bill, the other things that are on uh they're sort of on the agenda moving forward for Congress, and again, I'm not the most optimistic about these things getting done just because we've got reconciliation, we've got appropriations have to get done, and we also have very tight uh margins in the House and in the Senate. But the the other pieces of legislation that I would just put on your sort of radar for potentially moving forward would be things like the Save Act. That is a piece of legislation that the president is u very big on. Save Act would essentially make uh voter ID uh the law of the land nationally put more federal controls on the elections process which is typically controlled at the state, county, and city level. um save act is something that they want to fold into reconciliation. That's going to be a little harder uh to actually do because reconciliation is supposed to be in terms of uh budget policies and not in terms of uh actual policies policies. So uh save act is something that I think look for um the majority in the house and the senate right now to find some way to get some of those pieces through. This is a huge priority for President Trump. um and obviously is getting some push back uh from Democrats and others just because things like uh your you have to prove

your citizen citizenship in order to vote. Um your birth uh documents, so things like your birth certificate have to be the same as what you get for uh what you use for your voter ID, which is harder on uh married spouses who have a last name change. So save the act is something that's controversial. I think the president is continuing to push this on house and senate Republicans uh to the tune of he's even asking them to maybe reform the filibuster in order to get the save act through so they can pass it with a simple majority. Secondly is the 21st century road to housing act. Um this is a piece of legislation that deals largely with um trying to fix our supply issue in housing. Um this is the largest and biggest piece of federal legislation at taking aim at our housing supply um in a generation. So it's a very big deal. It has passed the House. It then passed the Senate. The Senate made changes to it though that u mean it has to go back to the House. It passed on a very bipartisan basis um which is pretty shocking for this day and age. Um so I I would look for the House to take this back up. The sticking point right now is sort of whether or not institutional investors um the president wants institutional investors to get out of single family housing and also out of uh some affordable housing. Um so that is a sticking point in the house. Uh people think you know whatever capital whatever money we can get into housing we shouldn't be discriminatory on what type that is. Um is sort of the push back there. Others say that things like rent to build or build to rent uh uh done by investor companies is actually hurting the ability of home ownership and making it harder in some communities to buy a

house. Um road to housing also has some I think important uh implications for cities and municipalities. It would essentially change uh the formula of how one receives HUD grants uh based upon um the uh zoning policies any sort of uh for lack of a better word any nimi policies in one's zoning in one's um multif family housing policies would cause uh the HUD money you get to lessen. Um so this is something that league of cities um no the county association are all looking at and trying to push back um so that local governments continue to have local control of housing. The third thing I would I would point to you on the horizon is uh the president has put out his framework for AI uh the AI economy for AI legislation. Um the president sort of is I think his administration is airing more on the side of fewer regulations um putting some consumer controls in putting controls when it comes to safety, children, others and families. Um but largely feel like AI companies need a low regulatory framework in order to compete with China and to have the best to sort of lead the AI arms race. Um there's a feeling I think across the I wouldn't say this is a red or blue issue just a general I think issue across the board where there's a feeling that AI is going to affect so many different parts of our uh economy out of our work our government everything that there should be some rules put in place obviously AI is changing very quickly so how do you do that in a way that will sure ensure success in the future so Um there continues to be talks among

Democrats and Republicans uh to look at some sort of AI legislation. We shall see. That's a that's a big one to to crack. But um I think that would probably be the third big thing that uh Congress is trying to look at before they go into the midterm recess in October. So those are uh the big things on the horizon for us. ear marks and appropriations prior to number one. Number two is sort of keeping those earmarks front of mind for our delegation. And then number three are what pieces of legislation that could come down the the pike in an election year that could affect Ron Oak and want to make sure that we're in the conversation. So that's um our our big things that we're working on. Next slide, please. Uh if you have any questions, need anything in particular, please do not uh hesitate to reach out to us. they're always available. Uh we will be in Ron Oak next month which we're very excited about. Um but happy to take any questions or any anything on what we're up to or any of these pieces of legislation and uh happy to get more more back to you.

Thank you very much. I will open it up to my colleagues for any questions. Councilman Nash, excuse me.

Um hey, how you doing? This is Councilman Fjan Nash. I wanted to ask or just kind of put on your radar this weekend. I was at an event and I was talking to our folks um who work at New Horizon's um healthc care which is a um federally qualified health center here in Rono and they fill in a a huge gap. Um the vast majority of our healthcare is offered through Curillion, but there's a large portion of our population here in the city um and surrounding area that rely on uh New Horizons for their primary care and in particularly their dental care especially. And um they are they're nonprofit so they cannot officially lobby but they have some lobby firms that they kind of neutrally work with. Um but we could be on the lookout for legislation that could potentially impact them. Um particularly with their funding with um the Health and Human Resources or Department of Health. Um I think that would be something good for us to put on our radar. That would be a big hit to our community if we lost um or they lost a substantial amount of their funding.

Absolutely. Um I'm happy to keep an eye out for that. Another thing that's happened since I submitted this on Friday the president put out his budget request um generally on the hill it's sort of considered the president uh the joke on the hill is that the president proposes the appropriations committee disposes and they do what they want to do. Um but the president did have some pretty big I think a 10% sort of across the board cut on domestic spending. Um, some of the programs that were the biggest impacted were EPA, environmental um, regulation enforcements, but also um, in the HHS and the healthcare bucket. Um, so that's something we are monitoring and we will uh, keep an eye on that and do a little digging into new horizons and what their uh, funding mechanisms are and how that can affect the city.

Thank you, Mr. McGuire. Oh, yeah. I just also wanted to add that um as part of of the president's uh proposal, the budget proposal, he's um requesting to eliminate uh community development block grant program, the home investment partnership program um as well as the continuum of care. Um all of those which are sorely needed um in our community. Um thank you for bringing that up. I'll come want to come back to that because I have an idea on a possible letter. But um Councilman Vison, did you have any questions or comments?

No questions. Just wanted to um thank uh Clayton and Scott for the um trip up to the hill. Um it was great being able to meet with Senator Kaine and uh Representative Klene um and speak with uh Senator Warner's um staff. And you know, these things are also things that we talk about as making sure that there's hope that there's HUD funding, um, you know, making sure that we're getting funding to the National Park Service and things like that along with our earmarks. So, um, I'm happy to have taken that stuff to our our legislative uh, body for us.

Absolutely. Thank you, Councilman. This is directed to my colleague, Mr. Ballis. I just want to say thank you for advocating for us to have a federal lobbyist. This is very important. So, thank you. And um also, Councilman Nash for advocating for New Horizons. Thank you,

woman. Um I had a couple questions. Did you have any anyone else? Okay. Um thank you. Just a couple quick questions. Could you give us the amounts for the FY27 earmarks? I think you mentioned the number that was submitted for the in River Kayak Park and I was curious if you could give us I think you said that one was a little over 3 million. Could you give us the tables if you have them for the others that were submitted? Yes, let me get those exact numbers to you. We had some shifting around of like

the original uh what what uh was being proposed which was much larger than like I had said uh for what was being submitted. We actually have city personnel submit the final request. Um so uh let me just get that back over to you chair chairman. Um I can tell you what they are. Yeah. Uh so there was the in river kayak park uh was a little bit over three. The Amtrak we put in for 10 million. The Mil Mountain Greenway we put in for 10 million. And the Reno Regional Airport runway extension study is about 7 million. Thank you.

And Mrs. Boore should have the the actual documents of Yeah. And then one other question. Um I think I heard you mention that our representatives are not participating as much with the community project funding or not as involved with the earmarks. Could you say a little bit more about that? Just specifically us, we're represented exclusively by Representative Klene. Can you say more about his role or how he is or is not participating in the earmark process?

Yeah, I I would just say that um he tends to pick up a couple earmarks a year, not sort of in the like this year um house members were uh told that they could pick between 15 and 20 projects. So, he generally just does fewer and a larger amount one. Um, and I would just say that's pretty very common for uh depending on sort of what party someone's in or how they sort of view the process of how they uh submit the earmark process. And so they they tend to go uh a smaller amount with a bigger uh sorry a bigger amount and then a smaller volume of ear marks.

Okay. Interesting. Um I'll follow up with you afterwards. I'd be curious to see what earmarks uh he has submitted recently. Yes, sir. require um on that. Um what he typically does, what Representative Klein typically does is gets a large amount of money for I 81. Uh hits most of his district. So that's what he does is he does small large things like so I think last year he got something like $80 million for I81 improvements. That's what he tends to do. And I think it's unfortunate especially because of his position on the appropriations committee. Um which should normally uh you have more say in where things go. Um but for him to not be a part of that and be on appropriations is disappointing in my my opinion.

Thank you. I was curious about that. Um and then lastly, I was wondering what my colleagues would think about. I was going to ask if there would be support for us sending a letter. I would ask for a motion um for count from council to Congress opposing the SAVE Act, which is I understand from everything I know about that from civil rights groups and voting rights groups and women's groups that it's um a pretty um aggressive attempt to suppress the vote. So, I would be interested in um putting forward a motion to have council send a letter to our federal representatives opposing that. Before I do that though, I was wondering to the point that Miss Turner brought up about some of the items I think in uh the budget that were zeroed out. I would also be open if folks thought it would be helpful to send a similar letter. Um maybe we could do that as well. I don't know if the audiences would be the same, but um I know we depend a lot on that funding and so for to be on record perhaps folks would be open to that. Um I just wanted to put that out there as an idea. So, I'll move the I think we have to do it as two separate or can we do both of them at the same time?

You'd have to do two separate. So, let's do Yeah, I'll make a motion to for the first to send a letter from council in opposition to the SAVE Act and um I will volunteer to work with Mr. Volin and Miss Karini and Miss Turner on that and anyone else can of course provide feedback and input. I would need a second. I'll second it. Okay. So, we have a second from council member Sanchez Jones and then I think we would need a vote. Um, so I'd ask the clerk to please call the role. Mr. Hagen, nay. Um, Miss Sanchez Jones. Hi. Mayor Cobb. Hi. Mr. Nash. Hi. Mr. Hi,

Miss Powers. Hi. and chairman McGuire. Hi. Great. Thank you very much. And then for the second item that we are talking about, could you miss Turner tell us again what were the um buckets of funding? You mentioned CDBG, but what were the other pieces? Yes. Um propo it proposes to eliminate the community development block grant program or CDBG, the home investment partnership program or the home program. Um, and it proposes the elimination of the HUD's continuum of care. And this is in the um, this is in the Trump administration, the

Trump administration's proposed budget. So, this letter would be sent to the White House from council and maybe CCD. We could figure that out. CC Congress. We could probably send it to our representative. Yeah, it should go to our representatives, I believe, because the White House is giving their proposed budget to Congress. Fantastic. Well, did you want to make the motion on that one, Mr. Vol? Sure, I'll make the motion. Okay. And the mayor um second. So, thank you, council me, for the motion. Uh mayor for the second and then um Miss McCoy, will you please call the role? A. Miss Sanchez Jones. Hi. Mayor Cobb. Hi.

Mr. Nash. Hi. Mr. Hi, Miss Powers. Hi. And Chairman McGuire. Hi. Okay. Thank you so much.

And it carries. Thank you all. Um I don't have any other questions for our um colleagues today from Meguire Woods. Does anyone else before we start to close out? I would just say one thing is um as we start to go through this gateway uh for the National Park Service. Um Clayton, if you can keep us uh posted as to what we need to do to continue with that. Um and I also wanted to bring up um something that happened at the National League of Cities. I went to the um I went to a a a panel on uh rail and one of the things that's coming up is the Union Pacific uh merger with Norfolk Southern. Um, and there I learned how to how we as a city can become a community of interest that basically says, you know, these are some of the issues that we are having with Norfolk Southern, whether that's, you know, at grade crossings or pollution or whatever it may be. Um, and we can put those forward. And so then, uh, as that merger starts to go forward, we have a seat at the table instead of, uh, being on the menu. So, I just wanted to flag that and I'll be getting that information to Miss Bore, but I think that's something that we should do as a city. I don't know. Do we need to uh get consensus before moving towards that?

Yes. So, I'll make a motion that we support uh the city becoming a community of interest for the Norfolk Southern uh Union Pacific merger. Okay. Thank you. We have a motion from Councilman Volison um seconded by Mayor Cobb to um support Rono becoming a community of interest to get a seat at the table um around the Union Pacific merger with Norfick Southern. Yes, ma'am. Mr. Turner. Yes. So, um what we'll do as staff is understand, you know, kind of research and see what that means and then bring it back to council on what the steps that we have to take and what all what that means. I think that's a great idea. Yeah. Okay.

So, would we need to vote on that then since we're just So, I I don't know what that means. I don't feel comfortable voting on something where where I would necessarily know. So, can perhaps we table this until the next legislative meeting. That's what I was asking is are we can we just look direct staff to look into it to get the information? So, we don't need to vote on the meeting today, I don't think. Is that okay? Yes. All right. Do you need to vote to give me um direction for us to to research and bring it back to you? Yes. Okay. Thank you. I understood that. But do we need we don't need to vote to give you that direction today? Or we do.

We do. So I'll I'll amend the motion to uh to directing staff to look into uh how the city could possibly become a uh community of interest for the Union Pacific North Southern merger. Friendly amendment. Yeah. Friendly amendment offered by the mayor to the adopt updated amendment by council member. We got to do Robert to look into to do an information uh factf finding on this to see if it makes sense for us. Um so thank you very much. We have a second and I will ask the clerk to call the role. All right. Mr. Hagen.

Hi. Miss Sanchez Jones. Maybe I need Hi, Mayor Cob. Hi, Keep it up, Mr. Nash. Hi, Mr. Volison. Hi, Miss Powers. Hi. And Sharon McGuire. Hi.

And it carries. Thank you all. Um, and thank you, Miss Turner, for um your staff time looking into that. And if there is nothing else, I'll thank our reps from Magguire Woods for being with us today. Um, our next meeting is scheduled for Monday, May 4th, 2026 in this room at 9:00 a.m. Um, and if there is no other business, I will adjourn this meeting. All right. Thank you all.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Maguire. Uh, thanks everyone for an excellent legislative committee meeting and all of the updates. Um, I will now reconvene our council meeting. Uh, we just have two quick questions. First of all, any items listed on the 2:00 PM city council docket requiring discussion or clarification from anybody? And then any um general topics for discussion by members of council at this point. All right, we don't have any briefings this morning. So, uh, we will be in recess until 2 o'clock p.m. for our series of closed meetings.