Hey, good evening everyone. We are going to go ahead and get started. It is 701. Today we are going to dive into our third budget work session. I think a couple things for the council. I think it worked really well when we kind of asked questions throughout. I think also for this presentation we're going to have different department heads rotating through. So if you have a question on that topic, we'll pause and do that before we move forward. With that, I'm going to turn it over to Alithia to get us started. And there. I just want to do a quick little introduction. So tonight is your third work session. We're working our way through, I think, the 10R 11 work sessions. So this is now where we get into a little bit more focused attention in key areas, recognizing that it's a lot of budget information to absorb and ask some questions. So tonight really is related to aloeuvia's portfolio and health and wellness and central services, community and human services, things like that HR. So I'm going to turn over to Aletheia. Feel free to ask questions along the way. I think she's got a presentation that will kind of walk you through some of the highlights, but look forward to a great discussion. Thank you, City Manager. Mayor Gaskins and members of the City Council. I'm a Leithia Prado, Deputy City Manager. Also tonight in some capacity will be serving as well as the interim chief labor relations officer to some extent until the existing acting one at least. I think was double booked Megan. So tonight will review programs and initiatives carried out or recommended in FY26 proposed budget and primarily focus on maintaining program service delivery and internal operations and needs such as personnel initiatives. So the department's represented tonight are a mix of public and community focused services as well as internal operations and like mission supports services for the city as an employer. As you mentioned some will come to the table for presentation and discussion and obviously if have any questions at any point, regardless of whether or not they're coming to the table for presentation, we're all here to answer any questions that you may have. Specifically for our presentation, we will highlight, as I mentioned, just a few programs and services. go over updated city council priorities in a second. And please also note that I believe you all have a list of reductions and subplementals that if you have any questions that are all outside of this agenda, obviously, feel free. So for our city council priorities, as we discuss the components of the budget tonight, it will fall within the parameters or under the umbrella of the revised and updated council priorities here on the screen, employee attraction and retention, housing opportunities, eliminate community disparities and economic strength. I just want to note that community connection has been collapsed under all four of these as was discussed during Your city council retreat. So here's the exciting part, fun part. As it is the theme of this year's budget building on progress, we've had a great 2025 in many ways and had a lot of gains. We had our triple A bond rating maintained by our finance and OMB team. The resident survey was completed. Recruitment of retention and compensation initiatives were started and funded and well underway. We have strong youth programming. I think it was just highlighted a couple nights ago, or maybe in a recent council meeting about the highest number of youth participants in the summer youth employment program. We also have our Alexandria Justice Information System that has been updated. We've made progress there in one area in relation to courts, and we continue to build upon that progress. We installed additional voting equipment in the midst of four elections. City Hall and Market Square renovations are kicked off and well underway and we've had some climate action initiatives and programs that have been launched successfully such as the Eco City Academy. So with that, we'll jump to the first priority, which is employee attraction and retention, and I will turn it over to our Chief Human Resources Officer. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of Council, Alyssa Williamson, Chief Human Resources Officer for the city. Our budget this year features a step increases and cost of living adjustments for peace-kill adjustments for our non-bargant and bargain employees specifically. We have allocated $2.4 million for step increases for our non-bargant employees, $1.8 million for step increases for our bargain employees, as called for under the contracts, a 1% cost of living adjustment, or $2.3 million for a non-bargant employees, and a total of $2.1 million toward negotiated pay scale adjustments for our bargain employees. Our health insurance premiums, consistent with trends across the country, are increasing this year. We expect to see United Health Care increase just incrementally by about half a percentage point. Kaiser will be increasing by about 7%. We're continuing to negotiate, but those are close to the final figures. That's seven. Seven percent. There was a, um, turns that we've seen include rising medical costs, including rising cost of prescription drugs, um, hospital services, and our claims data. So some of the strategies were engaging in to drive those costs down down over time include getting employees engaged in our award-winning wellness incentive or wellness programs, which reward behavior that will make our employees healthier which is better for them and better for cost. If I could ask the 7% versus more. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Yes. I tried to waive to you. Missed it. Yeah. The 7% versus the 1% is that just writ large across their offerings or is that something specific to Alexandria? Do we have different populations in those two programs? What could be driving? That's what it's like. Part of it is claims usage data and part of it is adjustments over time. So last year we saw more of an increase in UHC and less in Kaiser. of the health care providers and apply that to our wellness program to try to drive them down over time. So we take that data meet with the the healthcare providers and apply that to our wellness program to try to drive them down over time. Okay. Councilman Chapman. When is the next time we kind of go out to the market to really go and follow look at what offerings and providers are going to want? Our contracts for our UHC and Kaiser extend through FY27. So we'll be renegotiating after that. We just renegotiated this past. Yeah, so it's three years. Just one thing on that that I think is instructive and why perhaps we are doing this in kind of a two step. The Kaiser Health Program is different than the UHC Program. They operate a little bit differently, and in order to really get this where it needs to be, I was really do need to align, and we really frankly couldn't do it the last, this last round given timing. But I do think that's something that we need to take a look at because the offerings are different. The approach is a little different. And so that's a, that did restrict sort of what we could do this last time, but I think with our new HR person and you'll see a position later in it's being requested. I think that we'll have a big assist in regard to the revise of what our new health plan should be for our employee base. The goal is to create parity, more parity. Two programs. Quick follow up and then I'm going to go back to Councilman Chapman. When we were in our work session with ACPS, health care came up as a potential shared opportunity. And one of the things that was mentioned was that, you know, there would be challenges with doing that. Is that because of the timing challenges you're mentioning? Is that because of the fact? Like, what else would we need to understand to see if that really is shared? I'll start in maybe Elisick and Health or Aletheia. So what that was about is right now ACPS is health plan, they pay a higher subsidy, I think it's roughly 80% and 90% at the city level, we do not pay that. And 89% by the way is the highest of any school division in the entire region by 10%, 20% I think, which makes it very, it manages a very good incentive to retain employees. What the CFO indicated there is the way, if we were to add to that program while the population of health participants would grow, which could potentially help us on the pricing, they believe that because our workforce perhaps has a higher level of health need that the blended rate would end up becoming higher than a teacher or a ACBS population and perhaps maybe a little healthier, frankly, a little younger. I could get that wrong, but I think that's essentially when they talk about the blended rate. it's that. I would say that it's probably worth really looking at because the buying power of basically doubling the participants could be really pretty powerful. And I will say ACPS is rate increases have not been as high as ours in the past. Thank you and I appreciate the manager's explanation because I think one of the things that I'd love to delve into and maybe not during the budget process. But as we have conversations in the future about renegotiation and if we're working with ACPS to see if there is a way that ACPS could possibly break up the various employee levels that they have while their teachers are going to be unique in and of themselves. HR professionals within the school system are probably going to be similar to city HR professionals in certain specialists and supports for the system and for the schools And so maybe looking at how we do that if that's an opportunity that then allows us to better blend And that could be something that could hopefully bear some fruit Councilman agree to that point do we know if any other school divisions are combined with the city in their health insurance? Is there a fact? I'm not sure about that. We can follow up and get you that information for sure. Councilman Aguiri. Thank you Madam Mayor. And when we get to the renegotiating portion too, we have for many years only had two options. And potentially looking at bringing in another option, if possible. Let's take that back. I have a different question on this slide, not related to health insurance, but it's helpful to see the vacancy rate overall. I guess what I'm curious about are which departments have the highest vacancy rates and what are those rates currently? We can pull that information report back. Just like for attracting purposes for questions like this. Are these budget members that are coming out? I just will be just a follow-up of all the questions that are coming, but how should we synthesize? Because I know there's a lot of departments going to be here today. Yeah, right. Well, I'm so good. Oh, good. Now, we'll record these questions as you ask them and we'll add them to the list. Thank you. Um, Vice Mayor Bagley. Yeah. Just on that note and if you know, is that is the 12% overall vacancy rate? Is it down or up relative to prior years? Yeah, here's returning down. OK. We've been at one point in the last couple of years. We were up 15, 16%. If you recall, even last year, we were above the 12%. When council initiated some of the incentives as well as the Compensation Analysis, we changed some of the reclassification Approach. We did a couple additional things that the council gave us Authority to do. That is moving the number down. The other thing we're doing, particularly on the recruitment strategy, for instance, the mental health, we have a very specific recruitment approach that is helping. It's not where it needs to be, but it's helping. But then in the primary HR function, we're much more aggressive in trying to pursue quicker advertisement and things like that, but we're not there yet. So that 12% is actually, you know, it sounds a little high, but that's actually probably below the norm in not just the region, but nationally for cities and counties. And we're typically, you know, I think last year we were trending at 1.15 and a half percent. So I think that was my follow-up is trying to place this in context with like a 4% national unemployment rate. This sounds high, but if in the memo about like departmental and like citywide trends, if you can just give us some context because it would be it would be valuable. And then if we can just I'm sorry I was we could go back one slide real quick. The page that has the step increases in the cost of living adjustments. I assume this doesn't include what's happening in the ACPS operating budget. This is just on the city side. Do we know how these compare? I mean, obviously we have the book, but I'm just curious like just to have the context tonight, how these compare with the step and colas in their superintendents budget. Yeah. I think I should have this. There are stamps or light. Close, but I think their steps are a little hard to have a slightly different step schedule. That's what you're doing. So they're doing that and then I believe that there are more world words recommended in their budget was 2%. And so we are below that. We are 1%. Our staff is slightly lower. The average is you could someone that to point something in earlier in your career until the last in case you guys were very heard it's probably a couple points higher than that. Thanks. Before you go to your next, not really finished here. Councilman and Gary has a follow-up question. Yeah follow-up to that. I'm confused also. I can't remember if we saw this in one of the ACPS slides but with their increase where they would put them in the region and without their increase we're put them the region. And likewise for us with our increase, how does that compare to other jurisdictions? Because I know we can't go into the detail about every single department and everything, but just in general what our surrounding neighbors are doing in terms of this as well. I can help with that one too. So the last I saw the information that Superintendents put together, I think the average teacher pay, the teachers are at number two or three in the region. Somewhere in there, the health insurance there at the top level. when you compare that generally with the city, we are our MRA and step if you combine those together and you look at the rest of the region. And I'm comparing some of my Maryland competitors, our DC and Virginia based on some of the work that Cog does. I think we're probably in the average of what everyone's doing. There's places like Loudon, Prince William, they're gonna be substantially higher. I think depending upon where we are, we're right probably in the middle. The collective bargaining changes that because we're in year three of our collective bargaining a lot of the other jurisdictions are in year one and two so we backloaded our bargaining a little bit so that's why those numbers are a little different but I'd say we're generally in the average of the compensation we're not gonna be at the highs but we won't be at the lowest. And would just add, I do think it would still be helpful to get like an official memo. And I think looking at also making sure we're looking at the same jurisdictions. I know comparators are often different, but also, I'm saying I say, being clear about what has been proposed in those other jurisdictions versus what has been adopted in those jurisdictions to help us under understand. There you go. No, no, no, I just add on to that actually. We're thinking pretty much the same thing because by getting the memo and everything, we're also providing a visual for the public. Right, because when the public sees where ACPS is with or without the increase and where they stand in the region, And then they also see where we are with our increase. And it helps to build this narrative that we're talking about. Yeah, if I could just clarify one thing about the question about the schools. Their MRA was 2% that was the school board adopted. Of course, that's not fully funded by the city. Your guidance to the city manager was to provide funding for them to do whatever the city has done. And so what higher funding level includes is the 1% that the employees receive. But the school board adopted was too. I did have one. I'm glad you brought us back. For the cost of living and this step increases, are senior leaders eligible for those as well? So senior leaders are under a different scale, so step increases don't apply, but they're eligible for increases and the scales would be moved. So I can help with that one too. So our executives are all merit. There is no step, there's no MRA, it's pure performance based. It's awful. I mean, as we think about the whole workplace of choice, I just want to make sure we're doing something for every level of employee to be able to have opportunities to grow here. Thank you. We can go to the... Oh, actually, no, Councilman Aguirre. on that side. This one? Yeah. Okay. Just a quick comment. Really, really excited to see employee resource groups came off the ground. Thank you all so much for making that happen. Really looking forward to engaging with some of them. As they start to organize and. Grow. We're really excited to. That's a great transition to the suite of retention incentives. And they were currently working on, there was 1.75 million allocated in the FY25 budget for employee attraction and retention. And Mayor Gaskin's to your point, we are trying to reach all employees with how we disfers those funds. And so you'll see a one-time monetary incentive for our highest risk positions. This is intended for a group of 456 positions and total $756,000. We also are investing in education and professional development, increasing that ceiling from already a fairly competitive $3,200 to $5,200 per employee for a attainment that would help them advance in their career. We've allocated $50,000 toward employee resource groups, so that would be $5,000 per group as they start to help them have some kickoff events and get their groups off the ground. We have seen some initial interest for everything from divergent employees to caregiver employees, to Hispanic and Latino employees and are hosting an info session soon to get our employee base acclimated and help folks connect so that they can form those groups. We have also allocated $50,000 to a hard to attract positions, so for hard to fill positions, 50,000 dollars will be allocated on a position by position basis. So we'll be reviewing that and incentivizing that's also a retention incentive because the folks who are carrying the load, all those positions go vacant, are experiencing higher work stress. We are investing in expanded mental health benefits. That's something we've heard and interested in from our workforce through Spring Health. Employees have access to six free mental health visits, but some employees would like more. So we've allocated $100,000 to supplementative services where employee see additional care. We have also set aside $50,000 for what we're calling spot bonuses for frontline workers. So that's if you have an employee in the field a supervisor is able to recognize their exemplary work in the moment with a $100 pre-tax incentive. We have allocated another $10,000 toward enhancing our orientation and onboarding processes. This is the first impression with the city and it's very important that we set it off on the right tone. And there are some pieces of information that are really helpful to get the moment you start with the city like time sensitive benefits and role information. And finally, we'll touch on the compensation analysis and future slides, but we've allocated $500,000 of that funding toward the compensation analysis. Can I just ask a follow-up question? You said the 50,000 for difficult to recruit positions. Yes. Also is a retention tool? Yes. Can you say more? I understand it in the sense that like we're trying to get somebody in that position faster. But if I'm carrying multiple other duties, I'm not being compensated for those other duties necessarily. So, right. And you might be through the high risk positions instead of, but also the stress on the individual's workload often drives folks to look for other positions. So by pulling teammates in quicker and reducing their workloads through the hard to fill incentive, we're assisting those employees who are at risk of departing. Okay, is there any, I guess are there structures in place that if you are taking on, maybe you're not in interim, but you are taking on double the load that you had previously, that you are able to apply for some sort of released relief or petition for additional compensation? We have a few different pay mechanisms where we can recognize that additional workloads one a special merit and where we can provide a lump sum payment to employ to recognize the work that they've taken on and that's often when they have long term vacancies or colleagues on leave. Thank you. Councilor McGrane. Thank you Madam Mayor. On the retention study, can you tell me the last time the city did a retention study? How much it cost then or if you don't have that information you could get it to me, but just wondering is there anything else tied into $500,000 to do retention study. So the $500,000 for the compensation analysis is that the retention study I may have misbehave. So we allocated $500,000 toward the compensation analysis and this planned and the monetary incentive for high risk positions is $756,000. So is there one of those? Yeah, I was talking about the $500,000. So in 2019, I believe the city initiated a compensation analysis and got through some early stages of it. But in 2020, the pandemic occurred and the effort wasn't carried through. So we will be seeking to capitalize on some of the good work that's already been done, which I think will minimize the cost and allow us to use more of the funds for implementing necessary adjustments. Councilman Chapman. Yeah, I appreciate you. I appreciate just you said that last point because I want to make sure. I understand I'm assuming in after the studies over will have an understanding of the cost to fully implement everything and hopefully staff will come back with the possible plan, action and funding required in future years and something. I think that takes us to the next slide if that's okay so she can talk more about the compensation study but the answer to the question yes, in terms of having a path forward so that we can implement the cyclical process of reviewing positions on a more consistent basis. We wanna start there, and then I'll go to the bargaining. So right now the city has approximately 550 classifications, and a lot of them have developed organically as needs of a reason and one department or another. That's a lot of classifications and it does make it harder to understand where you sit within the organization. So there are a few major phases of the compensation analysis. One is to assess those classifications and simplify them so that it's easier to know what your position represents, ensure that we're being consistent across the organization and how we're compensating positions, and make it work clear what the opportunities for advancement are. After we've gone through the classification, the application effort, we will assess the positions for market competitiveness. So we will research a critical mass and determine what our positioning is within the market. At that point, we will work with a vendor to develop recommendations and a proposed implementation schedule. That is for the first implementation to touch every classification for the first time. So which grades should be moved at which time and and what would the cost be? We would like to develop that schedule in a sustainable way so that on a cyclical basis, we can keep this work up. It'll be a lot easier once we've had it done for the first time. Does that study also apply to some of our shared employees? Meaning? I'm thinking like Sheriff's Department Libraries, AEDP, clerk's office, yes, yes, we provide compensation management for those groups and it would include them. So they'll be included in the review. Yes. Councilor McPike. Given that some of those shared employees actually answer to an elected official who's outside of this organization. How will that principle elected official be involved in this process? I think that during the process they would be involved just as the department heads will be involved in keeping them informed, taking the feedback and input, getting information as we need to. We haven't yet made a distinction and we would probably rely on the feedback and input from one the consultant but also just the back and forth that will have to occur and actually occur between department heads and the compensation team. If you recall we have the Department ofmentation Managing this project. And so we are working in phases and we'll have to, we were having a discussion I think just today in terms of what the communication plan will look like, what the information flow will look like on a regular basis. And we, I'm not sure that we would make a distinction in terms of that communication with the individuals who are the heads of our departments versus the head of our partners such as the sheriff or I don't know Angie and voter registrar so speak. I can understand that I just you know hopefully when you are hiring the firm consult with this, they'll have experience in Virginia because this scenario you have, where you have basically two sources of funding and the back and forth pulling of the places versus the local is fairly unique to this environment. And so I think there's often a, you know, different pressures on this. There are internal departments that only respond to the city manager to the council. For sure. And I think, as Alyssa mentioned earlier, in working with the consultant that we're working with and about to kick it off with. And having the study from the beginning, we do have some of that history that we're building upon and being mindful of. But thank you. I think the other dynamic, while we were not successful, this legislative session, I think we talked about last night, we want to keep bringing this up. And so if we are successful at some point, and getting a study group, making sure that they are, there's overlap. I guess my other question would be, it would be helpful as you work with the consultant and the phases are identified, being able to have sort of clear criteria that can be shared back with the council on how different groups were determined for each phase. Because I think sometimes what happens is then the community might say, okay, well, we're gonna mobilize and we're all gonna advocate for this department. And I think we don't always have a resource to say they are in phase two. This is how they were chosen to phase two. is where they compare and what's going. So however that criteria can be mapped out and shared back with us would be helpful, understood. Thanks, Mayor Bagley. But there's a budget question I think we've asked in years past related to the BRS contributions in the Sheriff's Department specifically and that study and I'm what I'm realizing is and I'm checking the slides is that we'll probably have a separate session on place via Sheriff to talk about that thing and maybe I'll just hold that question for that conversation especially if the sheriff is here that night to sort of be a part of that dialogue. There will be a work session on public safety and the courts. Okay. And I guess if you wouldn't mind, I don't recall if I asked this question in last year's budget or in the one before, and an alcohol and look, but it was a budget, a prior budget memo addressing an analysis done of the retirement system contributions and pension for it. Yeah, we can get you that information and certainly have, once you have that, whenever you want to have that discussion, I mean that that number would be a recurring expense and that's a choice certainly, Casla can make. We also, going from 25 years to 20, also has an impact on turnover and recruitment as well, but we'd be happy to share all that. I think that analysis is a little dated. We need to update it a little bit with the actual arrow, but we pretty much are ready to go on that. I appreciate that. I just process wise. I want to make sure it's a pending, you know, it's a current year question. So thank you for that. Yeah, I think since it sounds like it's ready to go if that memo could be done before we have the public safety work session. And then we have that data to go into that session. So. This is the third. Yes. So with collective bargaining, I think you're aware that in April, we will begin negotiations with our two existing or involving our two existing labor contracts with fire and police. And we will also begin negotiating the new contract, which is with administrative and technical. We are required to have bargaining completed by September unless there's some sort of negotiation between the parties that extends that date, but just to clarify any type of budget impacts for the most part generally involving these negotiations will be in FY27. So continuing on our emphasis of investing in our people, investing in our employees, we are requesting a deputy in human resources to support benefits administration and learning development programs, so our sort of total employee investment, ensuring that our processes are efficient and responsive to our employee needs. This will allow us to expand communications to employee benefits and professional development opportunities and take more strategic approach, identifying some operational efficiency Suiencies across the city. We have a lot of departments and it to the extent that we can standardize the offering of our human resources services, it ensures that every employee gets the same experience across the board. We also have as partners to our collective bargaining organizations, we want to be able to effectively update pay scales and communicate benefits information, and there are some additional engagement opportunities and reporting, and we want to make sure that we are responsible partners, and this will assist us in meeting those expectations. We also are requesting an executive assistant role to essentially free up leadership capacity so that we can have those executive positions focused on high level strategy and collaboration. The final budget ad for human resources is an additional $10,000 for those onboarding orientation updates so that we can make sure we have immediately deployed and accessible information for all employees. We have an exceptional orientation program. It's a comprehensive day of programming. One day a model for new employees. They come in, they hear from the city manager. They have vendors from our health insurance partners and retirement. It's one of the best public sector orientations I've seen coming into this organization as a new employee this year. But to do that, you can't do it every day. And we have folks starting on essentially every day. So we want to be able to meet them when they start. Thanks, Mary. The me when we last? I'm sitting here and you've given me this information and I just don't have an in front of me. When we last updated our in office remote policy and what that policy is currently. Sure. So I believe it was in 2022. When I first got here, there was a much more, we were still in the COVID period. So it was a pretty much a remote work environment. As we moved out of that, the current policy is that for non managers, you can have with a telework agreement, you can work two days remote, and subject to that telework agreement and some performance measures. And then if you were a supervisor above, you have one remote day, as you can work subject to approval. And that I've asked that that apply across the entire organization, including our partner agencies, recognizing those partner agencies don't report to me, but just consistency of operations, but there are also unique circumstances. The other thing I should say as it relates to that policy, there is also the ability for departments to provide recommendations, suggestions about compressed work weeks. That does not happen, but that was available in the memo that I sent. And then the second one is we do make certain allowances depending upon individual situations or small group situations, although we do try to be pretty consistent so that the public understands what what that service level looks like. Now thank you for going back over that. And the reason why I ask is part of this larger like comparative, you know, workplace choice and how to be competitive. And it feels increasingly like this is an area for opportunity potentially. I don't know what the performance outcomes are, you know, of in-person versus remote. But to the extent we're mindful, I guess, of the positions of the options, we see what the marketplace, you know, provides. I'd be curious if there's feedback from applicants or people who are declining our offers, you know, based on those terms. I'll hold that note. One of the articles I'm seeing maybe last year or year four was about kind of organizations being creative around the use of leave. And I'm interested in kind of what our philosophy is around how many days we're giving kind of annual leave, personally sick leave, grievance leave. I mean, different levels of leave is that something that we think could also make us stand out. If we looked at it, and I think, I don't know if I put this budget question into you already, but kind of what is the fiscal impact or value of an increase in leave if we increase it by, you know, annually by five days or something like that. What does that mean for the workforce and financial position? Vice Mayor Bagley. So if I could, I appreciate that because I think if there's a way to supplement that question about leave just just to give us a survey, if it's easily available of how other jurisdictions who are competitors, are handling this remote versus in-person balance, just to make sure that we're not missing out or not competing in that regard. Yes. Thank you. I will say, again, we'll do a budget memo. Our sick and vacation leave for crews fairly quickly and probably were towards the front of the market on that the flexibility of how they could use to probably not at the front of the market of that some places go to just it's lever it's not leave I know know our director has some strong thoughts on how we might be able to encourage our workforce a little differently. And I think that's something that I think we're certainly want to look at. I think anything can make us more competitive and still provides great opportunity for our employees and the service that we need. But in terms of the quick accrual of second vacation, it's fairly fast. We also have a higher percent of certain special leads, if I recall correctly, parental leave. We're probably at the top range for that and some other things, but in terms of flexibility on the use of leave, we're a little more probably in the more traditional way, but Alyssa, I don't know if you want to add to. Yeah, so we can we can follow up with the specific various types of leave. Um, it sounds like that would be helpful. I right now are sick leave and vacation leave are in different buckets and there are benefits in drawbacks. There are a lot of creative things you can do if you look at it globally. I will say that's one of the reasons having worked to focus on our benefits program would be helpful because I think you have to take all of those costs into account together. If you're going to say, um, pool, leave days or leave days or in some places, allow for a chart back for leave days. I wonder, because I really like where Councilman Richettman was taking us with like, what are those creative options? And I wonder if there's a way in the memo that maybe even lists some of those things so we can start to look into them. But also I'm thinking like what are the things that maybe might need to be different for city governments. You know, I think about the fact that there's times where you guys are here really late at night. I hope we never have a meeting until I'm gonna make sure, but it knows this until midnight or later. But if we do like is there a certain policy that you know the next day, you can have a day off for the next two days. Or I know at the COG meeting today, they talked about in DC, given some of the things that our first responders saw in relation to the plane crash. They implemented a new mental health lead policy and people can just take the days they need. No questions asked. Like, how do we think about that as the role of public servant changes? So yeah, if there's a way that the memo could throw out some of those ideas or give us places we can go to look, I think maybe then there's an opportunity for a presentation to the council to have some discussion about what those creative policies are that we would want more information on. And we do have the option for compensatory time for folks who are working beyond their standard 40 and who aren't eligible for overtime. And so there is some flexibility baked in, but we can certainly get back to that. And to the question about the cost of adding in day, it's an imprecise measurement because part of it involves how much work is absorbed and lead caps, but it's roughly a million or 1.1 million per day added. It is on hold on. So at the council to retreat, we heard the importance of an employee engagement survey as a key component of our retention strategy to build on this initiative. I'd like to hand it over to the Office of Performance Analytics to discuss our engagement survey. Thank you very much. Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of Council. I'm Greg UCM on the Director of the Office of Performance Analytics. In support of this council's established priority for employee attraction and retention. This proposed budget includes $40,000 for an employee engagement survey. This would be a collaboration between the City Manager's Office, Race Office and Department of Human Resources. What surveys aim is to hear directly from our employees so that we can understand what it would take to keep them here and what challenges they are facing and to continuously improve the organization. I guess this may be covered in that, but I'm just curious, one, are there kind of specific goals or targets that you guys have set that you're able to share back with us? And if so, are there any kind of goals of the service survey that will help us get at kind of perceptions around culture? Yes. So, that's a great question. I mean, this we're still researching exactly how we want to conduct this survey. There's a lot of different directions that the survey like this can take. But there is sort of a common thread, of course, around culture, how employees interact within the workplace, what tools and resources they may have, how they interact with their managers and how the entire organization feels to them on a day-to-day basis. And then I know you mentioned the various departments that will help with the design. Is there any staff group that will also be like an advisory group or able to give feedback to those departments on how we think about the design of the survey. Yeah, I think that's a great point and something that we certainly will build in as we're developing the survey. Any other questions for OPA or HR before we move to DCHF? Thank you, Greg. Thank you. Thanks. The evening I'm Kate Garvey. I'm the Director of the Department of Community and Human Services. And I'm joined by my stellar leadership group both here and also online. So I may be joining a friend has been suggested at certain time. Thank you. And as you'll hear, you know, throughout our presentation, we are responding to the four priorities that you all have from housing opportunities to employee engagement and retention to dealing with disparities as well as the economic strength of the the city. So we're going to start first just to highlight some of the focus that we've had on supporting affordable housing and maintaining people in effective housing and just quickly with our homeless prevention funding. this is where we're supporting individuals who are at imminent risk of losing their housing. This is a longer term benefit that we're able to give to individuals with our transitional. This is a longer term benefit that we're able to give to individuals with our transitional. This is one time financial support for first month's rent and utility support. With our homeless shelter, this is our partnership with Carpenter Shelter doing both a year round and our winter shelter. Then with the CSBG dollars, we use this three months of emergency rental assistance that's provided to individuals. This is through the state funding through VDSS. Next, the rental relief. This is the focus on individuals older adults and those with disabilities. And we talked about this earlier in the year about changing both the name as well as how we were making determinations about the increases along the lines. And then finally the eviction prevention is assistance three months of emergency rental assistance for those 50% AMI or at risk of being evicted. Sorry, I have a couple questions. I think my colleague does as well. So the first question I had as it relates to the Homelessness Prevention Program. What is the average cost per individual? It's about $10,000. Okay. And I had a similar question for the average cost for those in shelter care. I guess in our homeless shelter, not shelter care. We are serving typically about, it's 650 to 700 individuals. So we would be, we anticipate this year, it'll be 750 individuals, so the cost breaks out related to that. Okay. And then what is the current waiting list at the Alexandria Community Shelter? I should have called that. So we'll have to get that for you. Okay. And then the other question I had, I think it was on the handout. It talked about sort of resources for permanent supportive housing. I was wondering if you could just go into a little more detail about, seem like this was, I gotta find it, but it seemed like this was one time funding, kind of like what's our long-term planning and projections as it relates to permanent supportive housing. Great, one of the things we highlighted a new project that we are entering into with the state, and this is ongoing funding, and this is a focus on individuals with serious mental illness. It's for 35 individuals. It will cover their rent. It will cover really getting them set up in the apartment as well as staffing in the office of housing and in our department. So both really looking at the focus of really seeking out appropriate places for people to be and then our support to maintain individuals. This is a critical project for us as we see. And as we'll talk, we hope to see you all in May to talk about the point in time count where we see the increase in a percentage of individuals who have behavioral health issues who are homeless, who are long long-term, street homeless. And so if we can get at this population with this long-term funding, it will be significant. This is similar to during COVID, where we were able to get housing vouchers for individuals who are unhoused, and the transformation was significant. The individuals who are really just looking for a safe place, who do not want to come into shelter or being group settings, but to have the respect and the ability to be in housing. Another great element of this is that the state is prepared to expand the numbers for us if we can do it, but we wanted to start out in a manageable way. And again, a lot of this is related to Phil called was leadership. And also the knowledge of this, the work that the housing, the office of housing has also done too. And so they knew that we could carry it off. And they've not been able to do it in multiple places throughout the Commonwealth. So this is a great opportunity for us. And we do hope that we'll be able to rapidly say to them, yes, we can expand. No, it's huge that it's ongoing and that it's covering both the housing and the referral on paper. I would love, you know, once we get up and we are super successful, like finding ways to celebrate and elevate that work. The other question I just had, as it relates to the community shelter, I'm just wondering kind of like what is the long-term plan for that space? And I ask it not from a, I don't necessarily think more shelter is the answer. I think we all know we want to go upstream and have more housing. But like, what point can we or is the right time to start conversations about maybe could that be a space like we've seen with Carpenter shelter in Oldtown where there's shelter on the bottom housing on top some other like multi level partnership there. there. I think that's something that we've always really wanted, especially when you look at the space that's everyone recognizes that's not the ideal. And there is an openness to with housing partners related to that. It's just, it is a resource issue, but I think for us having the opportunity and recognizing, you know, they're not, you know, it's always difficult if we were to move that setting, where will that be, where would that be, and where would that type of service be accepted? So it is a process, but I think it's always important for us to be thinking about what the possibilities are, especially for really the mixed use that's there. And so I think we're, I don't know, nothing solid, but I think always thinking creatively, particularly about because we recognize the space is not what we would want it to be. And I'm an adipartner too. Okay. Okay, I'll jump in. We have done a couple studies with DCHS. Sorry. Yeah. I dragged this chair all the way over here. That's very easy. Thank you. Sure. Kieler with the Office of Housing, Deputy Director with DCHS. We have done some studies on this through some co-ag grants. So we have done with our partners with the exact looking at Carpenter Shelter model. So it's definitely something that's on the books is obviously funding dependent. So it sounds to me like knowing we have some studies, knowing we have some interest. I think there's just a real opportunity here. And with the growth happening there, the jobs that are there, I guess I wonder, we've heard about the real estate study, Jim, I know Morgan, we've heard about reprioritizing and relooking at projects on the CIP. I don't know which one is the right venue, but I would just hope like we find a way that this project doesn't get lost. And if we're able to bring that current data with existing studies with the need that we... I don't know which one is the right venue, but I would just hope like we find a way that this project doesn't get lost. And if we're able to bring that current data with existing studies, with the need that we have, and with this potential to relook at our pipeline, could we position ourselves to do a really cool partnership here that ideally is not all city-funded, but leverage is a lot of different partners to do that. Yeah, we've also been talking about them, Obviously, they're the site there and all of that. So it's all, it is all discussions that aren't going, but as based on your direction, we can obviously continue and elevate it. I don't know, I'm one of seven, but continue. I see. I see. And then I had one more question, and then I will get it. come and spend a gerry on the older adult rent relief. I know we've talked about different threshold levels. I'm curious like, what level are we at right now to qualify, what income level do you have to be at to qualify for that? That is 30% AMI. Okay. Thank you. Come and spend a gerry. Oh, sorry. Let me go by 3rd bag, let me quick follow up on this one. And then okay. Yeah, I'm just curious if are we at 30% of AMI because that's our capacity or because there's an industry, I think about my day job and we kind of draw it like a 50 or 60, you know, generally speaking, were you qualified for subsidies? So I'm just kind of curious how we landed at 30% as just kind of a capacity of what we can serve, of seeing some nods behind you before. Yeah. Okay. And I think we would need more funds to raise that number. Okay. Absolutely. And so, and we because of also who, and they have been at that level, and we're seeing people at 99% of their rent, they are that their rent is taking other income. So yeah, it's just that, but that's all that we can do at this time. Yes. Do we have any sense of what the need is at 40% at, like, do we have any sense of like a wait list or rejection level or we can get it because we just recently changed it this year so we couldn't gather that data for you. I think it would just be useful to know where our seniors are. Thank you. Yeah, so if we did the levels at which we're seeing rejections but also what is the cost to serve to serve those levels. Right. Councilwoman Graeme., and also on that on the program, is it something that they reapply for every single year? They have to be certified each year. And what happens if they're rent will go up each year in complexes that they live in? How does that factor in? It is part of the deterrent determination. thank you. Meg Erike. I think so. So it's not really a question and I'm actually a little reluctant to bring it up, but you know, I can't remember if it was a year or two years ago now. I remember he's a little foggy. We had an update from the eviction prevention task force. I say I'm reluctant because I don't want to take you all away from all the work that you're already doing because I know it's additional work to give an update. I'm not saying anything immediate. Maybe in the short term, just a quick memo to see what's going to happening. Also what we're preparing for with what's going on at the federal level and then potentially towards the the end of the year, maybe a short presentation or something to be docketed, but at Y'all's pace. Okay. Okay, next we're going to talk about the funding for the food hubs. And as we've talked about last year, that this mode of providing food security support, we really feel very strongly about that this is more appropriate than the large scale distribution. So this is again through a live where we have the food hubs in on Mount Vernon and also in the West End and so you provided $200,000 on going for the food hubs and what we're putting in the budget is the $300,000 additional to support them fully. So we, you know, again, seeing tremendous utilization of the food hubs and they also multi-use. So where there are people individuals again, shown respect and their ability for them to choose their own food when they need it as well as the other supports that they need. So there are other things that they can choose from and have access to other service providers during that time. We are exploring the possibility of the West End of food coming into the Pepper Center. We're doing, yeah, we need to do still more study. If that's feasible, but that would be a savings related to the rent on the West End side. We need, there would be changes we would need to make and things like that, but looking at that at this time. I guess we would be curious to see what it would take to maybe not have an either or, but I'm sending the fiscal implications of still keeping the current western because I mean that plaza is so heavily utilized and I think you're able to reach a different side of the west end over there. So just'm just going to look at that in the next ability. Then the other item related to food security is the position, the food security coordinator position. This is partially funded by the state. We put in some money, general fund dollars to continue this work. And we do feel strongly particular with the environment that we're dealing with right now, having someone who's really leading our strategic thinking about this and ensuring that we're working together with all the food providers across the city and really looking for alternative resources as well as quite frankly alternative service delivery modalities where we do anticipate we will have individuals who may not be eligible any longer or be participating in the SNAP program and just an increase in food insecurity in general. And so really wanting to be sure that we're continuing to focus on this and truly support all the providers who are focused on food security. I have Vice Mayor Bagley and then Counciltene Gary. I'm sorry, I'm taking us back a slide. And on all of these housing related services, Alexandria loves its pets and yeah but the more you like touch on homelessness and eviction prevention and sort of there is I'm curious if there's either anything and here you can speak to ways in which we try to facilitate sort of either temporary care for people intermittently experiencing homelessness for their pets so that they can be reunified or just programming that's conscious of like sometimes that's how people end up in a car because they don't want to be separated. And it's it's just something I'm trying to be a little more conscious of because I've been doing the volunteer hours at the courthouse in Saj and you realize that's a piece of people's decision making. And so I don't mean to put that directly on you, but if and we do have a very strong partnership with the animal probably related to our domestic violence and sexual assault program. And so they we do work together related to that. But I don't think we've. Oh, very good. So it's a temporary, you know, being having them sheltered and then what's the long term. So I guess like the isolated question that I'd be curious about is just like are their particular funds needed to support what they're doing, you know, the intake that they're doing or are their additional funds that might help us better support people experiencing, you know, a limited-related challenge in their housing? We'll need to check, too. Like what's the scope scope of it? And then also, if it's still, if it's really just an alignment with what the shelter is already doing, but we can check on that. Thank you. Sure. I know one dynamic. When I had my tour of the shelter, they mentioned that because it's now taking people much longer to find housing, they're having to keep the pets longer than they had traditionally kept them for and that leads to additional costs but also creates some separation issues and other challenges for the animal and for the person who's increasing. They'll play my joystick. The you mentioned snap and I triggered something in my head and this might be a little bit difficult to track. I mean, if the program even still exists, you know, within a year, which fingers crossed, knock on wood, it will, um, snap, Medicaid, some of the other benefits programs. I know we already do this, but tracking the trend, it's going to be weird, right? Because we may see a drop of people who typically apply, who aren't, and then an intake of people that don't. So if we could get some updates on that eventually, when you start to see a trend, if you could let us know. Absolutely. And we are tracking actually across all of our programs to see and trying as best we can to determine what's what's the cause. And so both and and also with some of our partners too, so things that are in group settings, it's there withdrawal but also with our with our benefits program and based on why. And so we've already seen production in the Medicaid expansion. We're also monitoring our lobbies and things like that to see what's what's going on to be sure that we're getting ahead of things. And again, thinking about are there alternative ways that we should be providing support and connection and talking again with our nonprofit partners about that too, if it becomes a barrier because people do not feel safe to come into certain settings, can we go out more effectively? So. You're saying exactly what I'm thinking, because I am curious if folks that have typically applied for some of these services are not gonna be applying. But like I said, it's difficult to see that when if you still see regular numbers because you have a different group now that's a line for benefits. And that is the other piece of trying to track and so for newly and employed federal workers too. So again, we're seeing the decision you're saying. But yeah. Thank you. That's been japan. So for the 300,000 that is going directly to rent for spaces. No, it's for operations for us for operations. Yeah, so it is with it is paying partially for food as well as staffing. Okay. So what we already have city funds going to pay the rent piece. Backdoor. It's part it's part of that whole budget. The 500,000 budget has. I guess the one thing that I was thinking about, particularly for the site on the West End, and maybe this is part of a negotiation with the landowner, if I recall, when we have the development of that property, we have some set aside space. And so maybe there's a conversation about the future value of what we potentially have there versus what we're currently doing. And maybe there's a conversation there to save us kind of more current or recent dollars versus a set aside piece of land. Because as we know, we have a lot of set aside pieces of land that don't really, we don't get to really use. And so maybe there's a conversation there that we can have to really take advantage of some savings in the near turn. Also I'm agree. Thank you, Madam Mayor. OK, can you clarify for me that the line where it says cost will be covered using state dollars the cover general fund personal expenditures. Yes, that's awesome. Thank you. So this is you have most of the reduction most of the things that we're asking for. We have been able to cover using state funds that are allowed to cover our personnel. So what we're able to back off the general fund in general, so it's not specifically paying for the food hub. It's making space within the budget to cover personnel costs using state dollars. So thank you for asking. I should have I should have addressed that. I'll just yeah. Could I make a point because this I did want to comment about DCHS and how they handled the budget this year. As you can imagine, DCHS is one of our most complex parts of the organization and this was a very challenging budget season with a lot of strong needs. DCHS's budget requests both the supplemental and the reductions matched up together. So I think they looked at a totally comprehensive way which is fantastic and it's the way you should look at these things and thinking about how they best conserve and utilize all of the funding, all of the creative ways to manage their budget effectively. And I think it ends up resulting in when you see like there's a lot of reductions, a lot of ask. It ends up being a net positive or at least neutral to the city. And that's really challenging. I just want to probably commend the team. They worked really hard to do this. And there's obviously a lot of competing needs and a lot of people that need their help. So I just want to point that out. This was a really hard thing to do for an organization as complex as this. I had a great job. Thanks much, Jim. Appreciate it. So, next we'll go on to early childhood and this too. I just want to give a review again. So just as a reminder, these three early childhood projects had previously been funded by the Fund for Human Services. And when we came upon the situation where we had many more requests than we had funding, we did come forward with a recommendation that we would cover these three projects using early childhood arpa funds for two years and this is the third year and so we need to we need to accommodate this within our own budget and so here to we've been we're able to cover it. This isn't a request, but we are able to cover it for this last year. And so these are some of our most critical programs where we are having early childhood family support. We have a healthy families program as well as CFNC. And so these are programs that we feel are critically important. And we also had the obligation because this was a three year commitment commitment that they had won and so we must cover it for this year. While we're on early childhood, do we still operate the crisis stabilization fund? We do. Is that something that as we think about the impact of what's happening with the federal administration changes and federal workers losing their jobs. Is that that blood program they might be eligible for or kind of what are the criteria for whether or not you can qualify for crisis stabilization child care? Actually our crisis child care is very focused on families who are unhoused. And this is while the family is within the shelter and it was giving the flexibility for job search. And so this was important when that was not permissible with the child care subsidy program. And we have underutilized it because the state does allow that now so that you can job searches and accept a lot of activity and so you can receive subsidy, check your subsidy while you're doing the job search. So we do still have it. It's 18,000 dollars. It's a small amount but that is available but it is at this point focused on families who are in the shelter. I guess knowing that that is for a very specific population. Do we know of any of our neighboring jurisdictions who are looking at kind of what is the state of childcare now? And as people's childcare is disrupted in many different ways, how can we support families? Yeah, there's a lot of discussion and talk and a lot of anxiety. I need to check to see if anyone has put something new in place. But we are looking to at our numbers. We're not at a weight list yet, but we could be close. We do have room in our family child care, family day homes, and we do still have space certainly in VPI. But I think it's we need to be looking at, you know, particular individuals who've not had this need prior and what does it look like and related to the eligibility. And again, we're very fortunate here because we have so many wonderful, you know, nonprofit partners and early childhood linkage that we can, I think that this is a place where we could really think creatively about what we would do with kids first years, ACPS and others to try to think, how could we do this differently? And I also thinking about those programs that are local where we have flexibility related to eligibility and how we apply the funds and how we approach it. Again, it's not it's not unending funding, but wherever and I think we would wanna do this with any of the programs that we have, where we have our own local authority to determine how we would use the funds that we might wanna think differently about both eligibility and delivery. Okay, and so just, yeah, with, did were there any questions about the early childhood programs? Okay. Thank you. I should just quickly go. I think we skipped. Oh wait. This is a news. This is a slide. The way you hand out that I think we added a slide this afternoon. So if the one that you put it out last night might be one less slide. Yeah. So the one, okay, send me, I think that will come after this one. I have that one. So is that, Do you have this for you? I have that. Yes, this is the one, I was looking for this one. But do you wanna do the, was the staffing before that? Yeah, I was checking. Yes, it's the one before. The next one. Yeah. It really does. OK, so the mental. Yes, this is the new. Yes, it's the new side. And yeah, I don't want to talk about it either. No, that's. But you. But when we were before you last year, we were really at a crisis point related to our mental health staffing. And that was clear. And so we have worked very hard during this year accessing the resources that you provided for us to try to really stem the tide. And we had multiple strategies to address this. And again, trying to think through how do we compete in this region with, you know, not just financially, but because this work is so hard. And so we were able to come together, look at the classification, the grade of the mental health positions to increase that. We are currently close to Fairfax compensation for senior therapists where with the improved grade, our range is 72,000 to 127,000 and Fairfax is 77 to 129. So this was major for us. We were also able to look at giving bonuses. And again, we looked across to our comparators, what else were people doing? So we were able to provide bonuses for new hires. We also were able to bring on a temporary person to really look at, this was another thing talked about the length of time It took us to bring somebody on so this temporary person is working with our hiring manager so that in as soon as we Know we're gonna have a vacancy that we're acting on it and that we're doing more innovative recruitment activities and so right now We do have We have have 14 vacancies, 13, 14 senior therapists. We had, we had eight resignations and five were internal moves and one sadly stopped remember passed away. So again, you know, we, when we were before you before last year, it really felt as if We were hemorrhaging and we did not have a chance to really get secure and the support and funding that you provided gave us stability, gave us also competitive abilities to attract folks. And then also this retention work, we also have funding related to covering certifications and licensure and one of the wonderful benefits of this too is their state funding for that. So while we've expended what was provided to us, the state has this ongoing. So it also helps us with interns and other requirements. And this is going to be ongoing funds from the state. This will not, we will not lose that many. We also are adopting an under higher process so that we can bring. And we're not supposed to call it under higher. There's a better name. Sorry. You know, it's a clinician and trained. That's not, but it's something better, something better. But in any case, it is bringing someone and before they have their license, and so we can bring them in, they can work under the license of another individual, and then they would stay with us once they receive their license. So that's again, trying to build a place where people want to remain with us. So. Thanks very badly. I'm Councilman O'Nealby. I'm thrilled to hear and I appreciate the work the manager and your department has done. It really did feel like a crisis on here. And so I'm pleased to see that their response is having an impact. One of the things I was curious about is in our retention and our hiring, how successful are we in creating a workforce that looks like our population? And are there particular funding challenges or recruiting challenges that go with that effort? It's interesting. I spoke to GW Middle School students who have the day eighth graders, and they brought this up, like wanting counselors and teachers who look like them, who have, and so is that a part of our recruiting retention efforts and then it's sort of how successful are we? Do you need more tools? It's a very high priority for us, particularly in this area, using the language line is not appropriate. You're having a clinical discussion, you're having someone talk about there. I mean, we can use it, but that is not the ideal in any manner. So you're having someone talk about something extremely private and to have a third party be part of it. So one of the strategies we thought we went to the Latino Behavioral Health Conference in Texas and we brought a whole, we really went all out. We made videos, we brought clinicians who've been doing this work for us there to be recruiters. We related, we had, again, I got a acknowledged full-called, well, on this one, created wonderful materials. And we felt, you know, we were hoping we were going to come back with the 15 folks, but we really saw probably two or three people apply. But those are the kinds of things, we're not always going to Texas. We're going to stay in the DMV for the future. But those are the things that we've got to do. And for me, and it's been my experience elsewhere, you know, how our department and how our city is known is particularly important. And also when people see, I do see people like me who are not just in my position, but up in higher levels, this is a place I wanna go and and be and that's part of what we have to have that credibility. We I can get you the languages that we currently have working in the diversity of the staff but we need to do better. There's no question that we need many more Spanish speaking clinicians and more on par also. I'm okay. Oh, this, well, I might be stealing my, look at all this collegial. Um, um. So. Well, I might be stealing my, look at all this collegial. And I might be stealing what is what I've learned my colleagues, annual question on sort of the bonus is available for multiple language speakers, people who are called, I know that's a program we've had in the past or is that still what that. the language stipend. So are we dispersing those funds? Does it still exist? Do we need to increase it? Is that a tool? Yes, we have that program. It's not as substantial as I think we would like. We are recruiting for a new language access coordinator that position has been vacant. So I think with that, that's going to help us a lot. The other thing that we are doing though that I think is pretty intentional is we are looking for bilingual, multilingual speakers as an asset and how we do recruit and look at that as a really a big benefit. I think if you look today versus a few years ago, many more of our employees do speak multiple languages. One last thing I did want to say that I think is really important about sort of the look at the community. You look at our executive team, you will find probably one of the most diverse executive teams in the entire region. I'm thrilled we're got some amazing town, amazing skill set, and it really does probably mirror the community pretty heavily. But I do think language is an area where we're we're need to do some more. And fortunately with the loss of some of the federal workers, which is a problem, it's also an opportunity because there are some particularly in the mental health area. We just talked to Kate today a little bit about this where where we do have areas that are hard to recruit. We now have an unfortunately different talent pool that we need to tap into. I think there's one second. I think there's a couple follow-up questions on this. So Councilman Aguirre and then Councilman Green, and I promise we'll come now. Not so much a question, we're so comment, just to my colleague brought up. I spent eight years on the Board of Social Work for Virginia and Pip, you know, pipeline, pipeline is a major issue when we're talking about some of this. So the more we can, as a employer, express this to universities and to folks that are part of that pipeline, the better. And no George Mason has been doing a lot, but, you know, there's more work that we can do with some of the other universities that we have in the Commonwealth to be able to try and address some of that. But it's not a thus problem, it's not a Virginia problem. And this is a national issue because we're not just talking about social workers, counselors, psychiatrists, we're talking about nurses, a bunch of other fields where it's not just needing the diversity and the ability to speak different languages, but also just people to fill those positions. So. I'm so I'm in green. Oh, I can't. I swear. That's right. I'm talking about you. Councilman in the movie. Thank you. And along the the same lines pipeline and recruiting at the first workforce. Have do we help pay for education or for licensing? We now are able to help with the licensing cost. That's been new this past year, so that does help. Yeah, and I wonder if that would help the recruiting of the first workforce, especially in that area. So my other question is, are these positions, do they have a virtual component to it or any of them fully virtual? Because I also think that would help with the recruiting because I think in that field, from what I understand, the biggest challenges, some people can just work from home from anywhere. So it makes it hard to find people, but if we're able to find a way to make some of these positions full of your remote, then we cast a much wider map where we can hire people from all over. At this point in the end, they do have two days per week when they can be remote. I can do telehealth, tele, but not full time. You got it. And we do know in some of the other jurisdictions that that is something that is offered. Yeah, but we've had us not been something that we have offered. Got it. Thank you. Now Councilman Green. Thank you Madam Mayor. I was wondering, so the mental health staffing, is that in conjunction with the two mental health counselors that are being reduced from the Sheriff's Department? Are they under your staff? Yes. And sit in? OK, so can you talk to me a little bit about how long those positions have been open? And then how I guess I can put in a question with the Sheriff's Department. But it's more so about how we're getting mental health services in a timely manner to emate to the jail. And that's definitely on my next slide for sure. I'm sorry. I can do that right now. You can take your time. No, no, that's good. Okay, thanks. Yeah, so that with the sober living, so those two positions were in the sober living unit. And the sober living unit has been closed since 2020. And so it was, and prior to the closure, we also did have difficulty having it entirely filled, the census, the average census really never got above 14 was the highest. And so in terms of utilization and use of resources. And again, this is so difficult to make any choice like this, but because it's not been in place for five years and the prior to to that time that it was not fully utilized. And also the physical plant challenges within the jail, we really felt this was the best of a bad way to choose, as well as the importance of the other services that we'd be providing in the jail. So we do have 10.5 positions in the jail in addition. But we have had difficulty in filling those positions. We're at 5.5 filled right now, but are on the verge of bringing on two more people right away. So that for us is really important that we are having the general offering for the individuals. And that staff is doing triaging to identify quickly if someone is in crisis working with the jail staff to be sure that we're responding, doing risk assessments, and also looking at the discharge planning that needs to take place. We are really trying to focus in the future once we are fully staffed for more group activities with individuals who have substance use disorder. And we are really pleased that there is a medication assisted treatment program within the jail now, which is absolutely critical. And so to really meet the physical needs of individuals without dependency. So those are the ways that we've been dealing with it. But that's again a hard decision, but this it felt because it had not been present and we know when was no one was losing that service because it had not been offered. And again, this this type of a program is difficult in in where we have people in there for a short term when it's intended to be a 98 program. And we would so frequently, when we look at the statistics, how many individuals actually completed the program, very infrequently, largely because they were being discharged and the timing was challenging. So. And I would say if anyone is interested, the Health and Safety Committee, we did a long presentation on sort of all of the different levels and dynamics and departments that are involved in providing inmate mental health services. So we can circulate that. The other thing we did ask was more information on kind of what's the standard of care that we should be working to achieve and what do we need to understand about wait list or timing for folks to get services. So there should be some follow up information coming back to the full council. Just one additional piece here to put it together to a little bit different than this in this proposed budget. We are funding the recovery court. Again, it's not the same. I get that, but you know, into case point that this is much more short term. The recovery court is a little bit longer term. And so we frankly made the choice to fund the recovery court over something that had been funded, had been operational for five years. So I was really the basis of that. I have a question about a different bullet on this slide. Okay. So I just, um, well, I can, like, and if you want me to talk about the dental I can do that. Yes. Okay. Sorry, minute. And I think I, um, I guess one of the things that I'm most curious about is when we had our council retreat and the data that Dr. Rose presented, it is very clear that dental care and lack of access remains an issue within our community. I know in past presentations, we've heard there are concerns about the current model, it is far away, transportation, there's all things that we would want to shift in a dress. I think what felt unfinished for me is like, even if this is not the model, then what is the long-term plan and what's the cost to achieve that? Yes, again, this is another tough cut for sure. We have looked at the utilization as we've talked about before. And so back in 24, if we had 50 individuals utilize the service, we also do have funding coming through the Fund for Human Services for Northern Virginia Dental and said that's $36,000 to support the operations. And we do still need services. And as we've talked about before, ideally it would be something. Excuse me. Sorry, I caught your. Thank you so much. That this could be delivered by neighborhood health within our building. And as we've talked about before, it's the specialty care that they've not been able to get. And also they have a high demand now also. And so the wine term is really can we figure out a way to attract dentists to operate. Now again, we have a much a beautiful facility now. And so could we attract students or others to come in and do this, but there's no question there is need. But because the utilization also was low, it's also a small amount of money. It's $25,000, so but we have seen a really small, you know, high no-show rates and not full utilization for the reasons that you talked about, but we must have a vision going forward because the failure to meet the dental needs and we have concerns about the future in terms of finding also. Yes, would, I mean, it's challenging because it wouldn't be our direct employee but hearing some of the resources were making available for difficult to hire physicians. Like what could that look like for dentists for their ways we have incentives we could use for that? And then I think the other, I think the other one that gives me pause about this is that it feels like we're taking away one component without addressing like the root cause. Like if the reason why the utilization is low is because of transportation, because of other issues, I'd want to figure out like what's the strategy to adjust that because then those numbers would be much higher. And if we're not fixing that piece of the problem, then I fear we're getting, we're not putting in the resources we might need for a program that could have that. And we do have other kind of logistical problems with the program. So the patients have to pay up front, they've got to go to the facility, pay in advance and then come another time. So, and we've been in a negotiation and talk with Northern Virginia Dental before about, how could we build this to make it the best, you know, access as possible? But I hear you, what would it look like? It would be close by, also you would have multi-lingual staff there, and we would have a place where you would be able to come back more easily. But again, it's a serious resource to share. Yeah. I don't know. the legal staff there and we would have a place where you would be able to come back more easily. But it's a serious resource to share. Yeah. I don't know. Morgan, maybe you can articulate this better than I can. I wouldn't know how to frame this in a budget memo. But I think what I'm trying to get at is we're not going to have our ideal by the end of that point. Right. Right. And we're still going to need this need. And so I guess how do we get a better sense of like what's that bridge? Councilman and Gary. right and we're still going to need this need. And so I guess how do we get a better sense of like, what's that bridge? Okay, okay. Councilman and Gary. Thank you Madam Mayor. So the funding that we're giving from the Alexandria Human Services Fund is at the same on par as previous years, is it lower, is it higher? It's the same. It's been the same for three years. Yeah, so they add 36,000 and it helps to support the operation. So dental assistant, dental supplies, receptionist, and part, yeah, part time dentist. And I definitely agree with the mayor on a lot of what she said. I'm still very reluctant around this just because this is where we get one of the biggest return on interest, right? Yeah, I can't remember what the number was, but I think for every dollar we invested at MVDC, we got like three or four back or something like that. And that might have been more, I can't remember, but I mean, that's pretty big for relatively small investment that we see on there. The other thing that was brought up, you know, you think you mentioned students. So Nova has their dental clinic down in Springfield. I'm wondering if we can talk to them a little bit more about trying to bring somebody up. I know that's a conversation with neighborhood health as well. And speaking of neighborhood health part of the issue with incentive is that folks at work in FCHC's, they will get some reimbursement money for towards school and other things in rural areas or in areas that are considered high need, but because they're in North Virginia, they don't receive that incentive. So that's just one of bring that up because that was mentioned as well. Yeah, and I participated in Michigan, Mercy, several several years. And I mean, the need is definitely there. And in my, you know, almost 10 years of Medicaid before dental services were expanded, the top two needs were dental and mental health. So yeah, it's, and again, you know, from from our own reporting and everything, we know the need that's there. I guess, yeah, the question goes back to the specialty part, because the cleanings and, you know, the railway checkups and stuff like that, that's fine, but it's that specialty care. We're really near a bridge that gap. Not when I don't know either. And in the past we have brought, we've come together to try to think this through and I think we need to do it again to have the key partners, see the neighborhood health and Nova, others, and certainly the American Indian down tilt to try to think what what could it look like? And not with the huge impusion of money, but in terms of what it what's actually available and are there is there any way to incentivize bringing in folks for the special key care? And actually, I don't know if that's something if that we can look at the federal level in terms of incentivizing for, I don't know where that money comes from actually to pay. I'm assuming it's coming from the federal government. I mean, this federal government, maybe not so much, but I don't think you get tuition reimbursement for the state if you go to a a rural area, if you're, it's federal. Yeah, so I wonder if it's something that we could look at, federally to say, hey, yes, we're in Northern Virginia and it's very affluent, but there's also high need. I'm gonna go to Councilman McPite. I think the other opportunity here is if I reflect on the retreat, one of the things we said in the eliminate community disparities. Like we feel like we're doing a lot of things well, but there are these key areas where we like know we need to do more. And I think this is one where like every single map, every presentation like overlayed in this issue. And so I feel like it's right for us to test as a council. Like when we say we want to go deep on something or when we say we want to be as data driven and we don't want to go live, we want to go deep, like could this... like it's right for us to test as a council. Like when we say we want to go deep on something or when we say we want to be as data driven and we don't want to go live, but we want to go deep, like could this be the chance to reactivate those partners and figure out what that could be? Council member Pike, thanks for your back, Blake. Actually, I have a question about the third bullet point as well, but on this one, So we have $51,000 in fiscal year 2025 between Unforgiven services and just direct funding that went to NBTC. With us pulling back this $25,000, how does that impact Alexandria residents access to NBTC services? They would still be able to go. This would just- I'd be freeloading a bit. A little, yeah. And this has been a line term collaborative. And we had this shared MLA among the jurisdictions. And each group decided that wasn't functional the way that it was. And so people made different decisions about doing a straight contract with them or not at all. And so we would still have access. Yeah. then because it's just a quick question on the third bullet point, I imagine that the vice mayor will go back to the first. Um, regarding those sort of remaining reductions, you say efficiency savings and revenue from the state offset general fund expenses. Is that can like all continuing revenue from the state or is this stuff that's going to drop out of our budget for fiscal 26 and be back on our Ledger in 27. There's a there mixture said those things that were one time only we've Connected to our one time only request so the food the food hub funding is a single year Mm-hmm as well as the early childhood, but we do have ongoing areas where there are two positions where we were able to back out the general fund. One is related to substance use disorder support for adolescents and in youth and that is ongoing. So we we've made it clear what we're attaching which funds to so that it isn't the obligation doesn't fall to us fall to the budget for next year. Okay. Just want us to be thinking. That's right. 11 months ahead at this point. Because 11 months from now could be, you know, a much deeper conversation, but hopefully we'll be in a position where we can master the resource to continue the programs that we need to continue. Thank you. So I am going back to the horizontal care. I apologize because it's possible I just misheard your, it's late and I am trying to track it all. There was reference to like a lot of need, but then I also thought you expressed at one point like an underutilization. And did I hear that? Well, yeah, I mean, for 24, we only had 50, we had 50 patients who utilized it. Yeah. OK. And then what we know need was identified. And so I think what I'm curious about is by spending more money in like outreach or an engagement, you know, what might we see the need addressed and the utilization. I know that sounds like to spend money to, but that's what I'm wondering if people expressed on that survey, you know, that there is need for this and then we're seeing under utilization, is it communication and education that could bridge that gap if we continue to commit the funding? And so is the budget question like, what would it take to further communicate, educate about the availability? I think it's part of it, but it is also part of the logistics that we were talking about. So the distance going to Maryfield, having to do the payment in advance. So it is something because we have many appointments made and then not follow through. So it's not that the people didn't connect to say, I do have this need, but then it became oh, and erous in some cases or, you know, people have so much going on. But so I think it's the combination of, can we bring down the barriers to access as well as do as you're saying that? And just also trying to make it determination is, I mean, what we're talking about here is very specialty dental. I know we have a bigger need across the board for general dental. That's one of the reasons that we're funding never at health at 200,000 more. But doesn't mean that we don't have this other need. But I do think we need to get a little depth on the extent of that need across the board because if it's preventive in the normal, that allows us to use students. Those type of, you know, this becomes a, I think that was the challenge that I think we had this year trying to figure out where is that fit. I think by the way I'd more follow up. And then it's, I don't want to, I think it's intentionally related and I don't want to scratch at another like ball of, I don't know what the metaphor I've lost it, but we have like a micro transit program, a subsidized micro transit program that works to, in the way that it does. But I'm wondering if one of the barriers is transportation, is that a potential opportunity here? If we needed to take our micro transit or sort of Uber fund it, we provide some reduced cost, Uber rides or access to lift or or pre-arranged cabs at a reduced cost. If we connected a program that already exists like that for seniors to get rides places, if we looped it in to our dental program, it wouldn't solve the whole problem. But if one of the barriers to transportation would be visiting, I think think we would give Cab fare and other things before, but we don't we don't have that now. And I feel like this is there's like a budget question and there's also like a larger like assessment of the program. What's working? What's not working? And like a strategy and planning question for how we go forward. And I think looking to staff to figure out how we achieve both of those conversations will be important. That Council on traffic. Thank you Madam Mayor. I think on the last point you made, I think my question kind of to staff would be it'd be great to kind of pull the more recent history around Council to be frank Council struggles with this. This is not the first time we've talked about this organization dating back the last decade. We've talked about specialized dentistry versus general dentistry. How do we deal with that? Some of the barriers. So as we look to kind of get deeper with this, can we make sure we pull that history and share with folks so that folks who know that all the various conversations, past councils have had one this specific topic because it is something that's been frankly brought up by staff multiple times over a number of fiscal years. And as we're kind of doing now, council's kind of pushed back because we do hear about that need. And so can we kind of fully understand how that's historically gotten us to this point. Councilman Al-Nubi. Thank you on the same point. So I know you said the number of people using it dropped, but do we have a sense of how many Alexandrians you used it in the last few years or at least used it last year? How many people from our city? Beyond who we subsidized? Is that what you mean? How many yeah how many Alexandrians benefited from it? I mean you can come back with that. Well the 50 was out those were all All Alexandria. Lester. Yes. Yeah. And that's less that is a going down. It was yeah yeah, it was 88 in 2023. And what is the eligibility for Alexandrian to use that? I'll need to check that. Yeah, with the. OK. Yeah. And what is the total cost annually for not just our share? What's the total cost annually for that program? I'll be up. And what is the total cost annually for, not just our share, what's the total cost annually for that program? I'll have to get that because it is a large budget because it is cross jurisdictional. So they do have Fairfax folks, Arlington and others that we could get. And I don't know. Not okay. We can get you the full budget. Yeah. And I wonder, I mean, I assume it's a resource thing, but if we would stand up our own here in Alexandria, I would be curious what would that take. Yeah, I think for we were to move in that direction. I think neighborhood health would probably be the right partner in finding, especially since they're located in Alexandria. We have a great relationship with them. They've got the house and that solves the transportation issue and some other things. It's just the challenge of getting there. So you ask sort of what my future right look like. That may be a, I think that's potentially one of the options. Yeah, I think that would make sense. Just to explore and just understand. And maybe it's easier than we think it is. Maybe there are some opportunities there, like you mentioned, like partnerships or something, or maybe there's already a space that we can use or something. So yeah, unlike understand, like where are the roles and cons and the opportunities there and the challenges. And then dental space in the Delpepper Center is really quite beautiful. There were multiple chairs. And yeah, so that's okay. Come to Nicarie. Really fast and also just to keep in mind as we move forward through this, at the sunset not had development. There's space hopefully planned to be able to expand neighborhood health existing footprint. And I don want to speak for them But I believe in conversations with Dr. Khan the idea was to have dental space as well. So we're talking about accessibility We have spaces on both ends of the city I'm gonna go back to Kate. I just want to flag for people. Kate has two more slides This session has like 13 13 other departments that we didn't even touch. So I don't think we're going to get through all this night because by my watch, there's only 13 minutes left. So we might just want to think about that additional session that's needed or how we get to some of these departments if people do have questions that we're not touching. Yeah, and just to clarify, we don't have slides on any of those other departments. We provide these are these are some big departments. I will tell you I have like 12 more questions for these departments, but I'm not going to add tonight for the sake of time. But and I think I think I'm versus not you think I'm to Dr. Rowe. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks, Kate. Continuing with eliminating disparities. Something comforting about a more chair. Good evening. I'm David Rose from the director of the Alexandria Health District. I'm here to present an ongoing program, city program, city initiated and so we run it having impact within the community. The Teen Wellness Center, as you see on the slide here, is a partnership among ACPS, DCHS, and the Health Department. And they opened in September of 2010, and it was at that time the first clinic for teens located in the school in Virginia. Originally, City Teen Services were offered at the Adolescent Health Clinic, which was part of the Health Department. And that opened in 1988 as a recommendation of a City Council Task Force on Adolescent Pregnancy, which was part of the health department. And that opened in 1988 as a recommendation of a city council task force on adolescent pregnancy, which was established to discuss and address the issues surrounding teen pregnancy and parenthood. Now the teen wellness center mission is to ensure that each and every Alexander teen succeeds physically, emotionally, socially, and academically. As you see here, the two locations the center each side has an office support staff, a public health nurse, one or two family nurse practitioners and services are for a teen city residents only 12 to 19 years of age and provided free of charge. Now there are certain services that require a parent or guardian, and you'll see those listed here in terms of physical immunizations, sick visits, things like that. However, a section with productive health services are confidential, and you'll see those listed here, family planning services related to STI and HIV screening. We also perform mental health and substance use screening referrals and DCHS, as mentioned before, up provides mental health services on site. You'll see that there are school and community outreach that's mostly performed by our health educator, which works between the two sites. And that involves a collaboration with ACTS, DCHS, and A-CAP, for those who are phobic for acronyms, that's Alexandria campaign at adolescent pregnancy. And as you see again on this slide, you'll buy the pie chart, there are over 2600 total visits in 2024, and you can see the distribution of those visits. This May for the first time, the Teen Wellness Center is offering middle school sports physicals. Each week in May, one of four Alexandru middle schools will have two days during that week with either one or two providers. And the goal for the four weeks is 80 to 100 sports physicals per middle school with a total about three 20 to 400 total for that four-week period. Now for each day spent off site, I will admit that we will be reducing provider availability to high school, as we have limited providers there. But beyond increasing both awareness of the TWC and access to services for a population that may be unfamiliar, we feel that enabling youth sport participation is well within the program's mission. As it contributes to increased physical activity and socialization and positively impact mental health, substance use, and sexual debut. And that was why I wanted to say about teen moments. Right, fair bag Lee. Thank you for this. This is hugely important. And again, I mentioned earlier, I was at GW and this was a topic that they asked about concern of reproductive rights, excess and health. And so I'm so glad we do this. I know Acap has talked about and are concerned about their prep grant funding. And a substantial portion of this work is funded with that prep grant. And I'm just curious if you're office, or if you have any insights into the stability of that grant and the scenarios for to continue these services should that grant funding, the dissipate or change in some way. Well, I'll have to get back to you in reference to the prep grant, but in terms of these services, the staff is city general funded. In terms of some of the medication, some of the things that we provide there, we have other funding for that as well. But the prep funding in terms of the education, the outreach, and those other things that it supports, I'll definitely have to get back to in terms of stability. But at the moment, we feel pretty good about the services that are there. We would like to expand as you heard in terms of making sure that people are aware, and we feel that this middle school outreach accomplishes a couple of different things. Of course, here's marketing involved in it as well, but there are services and we do believe in the mission. I guess I'm curious, given what we're seeing in terms of changes to previous approaches to public health and emerging threats and just things happening, I'm wondering is the health department doing any sort of risk or scenario planning? And if so, as part of that, are you all safe looking at additional resources or capacity that we might need in order to strengthen our local public health infrastructure? At the present time, because of challenges that may be occurring on the federal level, we are looking at our exposure to the federal grants and actually we're looking at the group operations to be thoroughly honest if there are certain reductions that occur in federal funding but that's 50% or more we feel there are certain programs that will be protected of the VDH the state has been very good about supporting or projecting support for various programs And so in the short run, we don't feel that there's gonna be a major impact if there are changes there. But in the long run, there may be some significant sort of changes in terms of just what are we statutorily mandated to perform. So there may be some other activities that need to be reduced, but we're going to work to continue to provide the services that by statute we're supposed to be providing. Thank you. Okay, thank you. I think we're going to neighborhood health. Flight 18. So for neighborhood health this year, it's an additional $200,000 in one time funding that brings our total funding to a little over $1 million. Just to give an idea, especially given some of the conversation that we've had tonight of how their funding is allocated across their services. For FY25, they spent roughly $90,000 on pediatrics, 25,000 for OBG and women's health, 165,000 for dental, 509,000 for adult health care, and about 33,000 for behavioral health. And just to circle back to the conversation very quickly on dental and having conversations and kind of revitalizing the conversations with our partners, we have discussed that during the budget preparation discussions and we'll take back all of the feedback and input and ideas that you all have provided tonight. So we have a question from my spare fan and other from Council in Japan. Why is this proposed as one time funding? I think it just gives us the opportunity to review again based on need for the next budget year given the data and information also just the environment knowing that there was increased but I think just the amount in terms of one time funding. Yeah, I think Galitha said it well. I mean, this is such a tight budget. Frankly, we expect this would be a request next year, but we didn't want to commit to some longer term situation when there's so much uncertainty. You're gonna see that throughout lots of these things where in the normal case, they would be ongoing funding this time. They're sort of this year recognizing we're already playing for what would it look like next year, but that's why you see that as a one-time funding for this. The other aspect of that is there are some services that we'd like neighborhoods services, neighborhood health to consider. And this allows us to have that conversation and look at what that funding stream looks like. All right. Um. allows us to have that conversation and look at what that funding stream looks like. All right. I control is going to be one. What's the exterminator line item? I appreciate the answer. I think my concern is the degree to which these are like staff positions. And to the extent it complicates like neighborhood health or any other department's ability to hire, you know, if. And I'm not, you know, this is just like trying to think through. We want to maintain these services now while we can. I appreciate that. I guess it'll be a question for six months from now, you know, and certainly for next year's budget, did that complicate these organizations, organizations, we can, I appreciate that. I guess it'll be a question for six months from now, you know, and certainly for next year's budget. Did that complicate these organizations' organizations' ability to provide these services if they weren't able to sort of confidently hire and staff to deliver them? This was not about additional staff. This was the cost structure that was happening that neighbor Dr. Conn explained it to me that his cost structure is increasing and yet he's still serving more and more people. So it's not about additional staff the way understood it, but your point's really well taken. There's probably other areas where we are talking about that. Okay, no, I'm glad to know that insight from from doctor. And I'm, you know, as long as I'm glad we're supporting it this year. Councilor Geary. No, I think that's fine because we are that is our last slide. Someone had to do this. I think the question I was going to ask is can somebody remind me where we are with the basically annual money that we gave to I know or give time? Yeah. For 90. and the Morgan starts at half finish. It's a budget as it has been in recent years with half of it, I think about's a little bit more good start to finish. It's a budget as it has been in recent years with half of it, I think about $490,000 in non-departmental contingency and then the other half of the other health department budget. Just two other things. So there is. Part of the contingency is still available this year. I know of as requested that, I need to bring that forward to the council. But I also had a really fantastic conversation with Dr. Benzel and someone for staff in regard to this funding source over time. And I think there's potentially some opportunity to make adjustments in this coming budget to maybe provide some alternative sources of funding for some purposes. To my colleagues, I prefer to finish to my colleagues. I know that has a what almost a billion dollar of revenue in their foundation they have more than enough money. I mean, if we are talking about localized dental support, we're talking about trying to figure out one time funding so we can figure out the next year's funding for support. So this we have a very obvious stream of revenue that can go towards in full or in part to this. As you all know, this has been a somewhat annual discussion because I just do not feel that we are helping this entity with the new hospital. They've opened another one and they have more than enough support financially to stand on their own. And we do not need to continue to do this. So thanks. Would you like a budget memo? Yes. One that? I can't understand this one. I think there's a lot of layers to that. But I think that would be helpful. And I think also to you, I think what I hear and what Councilman Chapman's raising is like, we are lifting up. There's a lot of health needs in our community. I think some needs we haven't't even talked about like community health workers and other support and outreach things like you talked about. And so I think being able to look at how we take a source that is supposed to be health-related in putting it into other health-related issues could be a real opportunity for us. Thank you Madam Mayor. And I think the other thing too, one one of the only jurisdictions that that pays us. And two, I'm going to try and control myself if I'm told one more time that this is just going to end to zinc care. Or I don't even remember what the word is now. If I get a one word response, that might jump out on my seat. Please don't. You could hit somebody's to yourself. Okay, so this brings us to the end of our presentation. It is 901. I guess does anyone have any very pressing questions for the other departments. Okay. So the... No, that's what I was going to say. I think the little two ambitious to put all of these tonight. I think there are some major departments here that are... Well, everyone is major. I think there are some areas that I think we'd like a much deeper discussion. So let's connect and figure out how we can. Yep. We can do that. Yeah. I also wonder to maybe for future. I do think it's helpful to highlight things, but I also wonder if maybe there's an opportunity to just go department by department. So for the questions we have, we can make sure we get to those. But we can discuss the format. I mean, I think it is helpful to just the next last slide is the schedule. So we have two more work sessions scheduled. One is Monday and then the one is following Wednesday. There's the last work sessions that we have scheduled between now and Add Delete. We could attempt to put some of these on the end of those other work sessions, but and I'm not much, no more helpful that we'll get through all of those than we would in this one. Yeah, there's 12 more. I thought we were holding like an optional... We have done that in the past, but that was typically after Adolid, and it's not particularly helpful to be having discussions after it's too late for you all to. As long as it's not me, I guess notice in advance, do we have the ability to add a session? I think we'd have to just look at your schedule and see. I mean, we have the one next week, and I don't think we have any available ability next week till we probably need to be the following week. Okay, let's go back and let's explore some options whether that's adding time to a session, starting earlier, maybe something like that in order to get this. I just feel like for us to do our due diligence as a council, we can't not have a discussion about budget analytics manager's office, but like all of these major functions. So yeah, let's explore. And if it is starting, or I mean, maybe it is just starting earlier, maybe it's adding time. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a couple of things. I think it is probably starting a little earlier. I also, this might not make me the most popular person here, but I would hate to bring staff back again for another day. And so, however we can figure out. We wanna look at it earlier, start time. And that's really good. I think it's a combination of, I think it's both earlier start time, making sure we're not asking everyone in these departments, but I can do some work to make sure we're clear on what are those departments we most want to see. So we have the right staff in the room. And then potentially if we have to, it might be adding like 30 minutes on the back end. And then also I don't know, I don't know the nature of any of your questions, but if any of them are more programmatic than they are our budget focused and we can put it on a docket or something like that. But if it's necessary to get done before ad delete, then we need to have that discussion if it's more informational about programs than there might be another timeline that we can work on. That's very exciting. Like what would stop us from having like the two Wednesdays, the first two Wednesdays of April, like we have work session for next week, work session. Oh, spring break. Yeah. Okay. Well, spring break maybe the weekend to that. Yeah. But we want to, we also want to be careful not to have a work session before I do leads or do. Yes, because we'll add leads or do on the one. Let's see. Where do they do? Third. I think I don't think we have to solve this right now. I will connect back and everyone be flexible your night maybe extended or it might start earlier with that. Yes, or both. Well, there's every. Again, I guess in the past we've tried to get everybody finished so that you know staff is here, staff is away from their families. I would hate to duplicate that again if everybody's here. I know that might not make me popular, but I don't want to have your suggestion in a state. I mean, we're not here to midnight, but we can as as quickly as possible, go through and bring back questions to staff. Hopefully everything is focused toward the budget, but I'm also sort. I think they are. I guess one hesitation I would have is for all of these other departments who weren't prepared to present. Now we're asking them to. What they know. Who's that? I mean, we let everybody know that they're here to answer questions tonight. We didn't, they don't have presentations because we didn't see that they had any major fiscal issues. We wanted to be the focus to be on compensation and DCHS. Those were the big ones. We did let people know that. Okay. We would draw that proposal. We are going to adjourn. Thank you all for your time. We will come back and communicate a plan that works before everyone. But thank you for the time that you have put in. It's very helpful.