I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to take a look at the first one. I'm going to take a look at the first one. I'm going to take a look at the first one. I'm going to take a look at the first one. I'm going to take a look at the first one. I'm going to take a look at the first one. I'm going to give you a quick look at the results. I'm going to give you a quick look at the results. I'm going to give you a quick look at the results. I'm going to give you a quick look at the results. I'm going to give you a quick look at the results. I'm going to give you a quick look at the results. Then you put the key on that and then you get back. Do you know? Yes. I'm not sure if my hand is not so good. I know. It's so awkward. So, I'm going to do you a few more minutes. Yeah. I'm going to give you a few minutes. Yeah. I'm going to give you a few minutes. Yeah. I'm going to give you a few minutes. Yeah. I'm going to give you a few minutes. Yeah. I'm going to give you a few minutes. Yeah. I'm going to give you a few minutes. Yeah. I'm going to give you a few minutes. So, the part of the movement of the obfuscation is like that, right? I could do it like that. But then, you do the more rotating, the more out of the way. So, do you want to use the third, or you can go back to the third, or not again? I'm going to go back to the next slide. I'm going to go back to the next slide. I'm going to go back to the next slide. I'm going to go back to the next slide. I'm going to go back to the next slide. I'm going to go back to the next slide. I'm going to go back to the next slide. you recording stopped I'll play it. Yeah. How do you think it is? Okay. I'm just wondering if you could play it. I'm just wondering if you could play it. I'm just wondering if you could play it. Yeah. How do you think it is? How do you think it is? How do you think it is? How do you think it is? How do you think it to go ahead and call recording in progress. 25th, 2025 legislative meeting to order. Madam Clerk, please call the rule. Mayor Gaskins. Here. Nice mayor Bagley. Councilman McGuire. Councilman Chapin. Councilman Elnubi. Here. Councilwoman Green. Councilman McPike. Here. Okay clerk next item. Approval of electronic participation resolution by city council. We have two members of the council. Council member Aguirre and council member Chapman who will be virtual. I will entertain a motion to approve the electronic participation. So moved. Second. Okay. There's been a motion and a second. Any discussion? There has been a motion by Vice Mayor Bagley and a second by Councilman McPike to approve the electronic participation resolution. This is a resolution, so Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Aye, Senator Bagley. Councilman McPike. Mayor Gaskins. Aye. Councilman Elnuby newbie. Okay, Madam Clerk, next item. Consideration of close executive session to discuss the investment of public funds and to discuss the disposition of publicly ill-real property. At this time, I will entertain a motion from Vice Mayor Bagley to convene in close executive session. Madam Mayor, I move that the city council convene in close executive session pursuant to Virginia Code sections 2.2-3711, brands A3 and A6, to discuss or consider the disposition of publicly held real property. We're discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the city and discussion or consideration of the investment of public funds where competition or bargaining is involved where if made public initially the financial interest of the city would be adversely affected. Second. Okay. Any discussion? Okay. There has been a motion by Vice Mayor Bagley and a second by Councilman McPike to convene in a closed executive session. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Say nay. Okay, the ayes have it. We will now convene an executive session and we will come back at 7 p.m. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. James. Oh, I was wrong. I had no one to go. You all such a family man. Oh. I am the sadder. I was a six. I was a six. I was a six. I was a six. I was a six. I'm sorry, I just wanted to ask you to come to the office. I'm here to ask you a round of questions. No, no. No, the pay-off is not right there. And I just want to ask you a few more questions. Thank you very much. As long as you're ready to do the work, I'll see you next time. Thank you. How do you use the plus and plus and plus and plus? I have no idea. I'm not just to map it out. I have no idea what that was. I just can sketch it. Thank you. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I don't know. that nobody else has had in this world. Very interesting. You heard that. That's from the start. Sorry. Yeah. I'm going to walk in the park. I'm going to go over here. That's the, I'm just going to play. Yeah. I think it's all up. We can just play it in the moment. We're on a different way. I'll do it for you. I think that's the whole thing. That's fine. I just remember what happened earlier. I can't. I can't believe that. Why do you still remember people? I'm here, I'm here with a cathode. Because I was like a little. That's just... I... You know. But I'm not focused on that. Okay. If that's what you're okay with, I'm okay with that. So I think you can do that. So we're here just kind of there. Okay, so then...al right, I always think. That's the easier part. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to do a little bit to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I'll share it. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. We did it for the executive session. We did it. I'm going to have to go to the other side. I'm going to have to go to the other side. I'm going to have to go to the other side. I'm going to have to go to the other side. I'm going to have to go to the other side. I'm going to have to go to the other side. I'm going to have to go to the other side. I'm going to have to go to the other side. I'm going to have to go to the other piece. The air that was coming in was out of the house. It was sometimes because I never heard of it. I was considering that people were dumb to put it in front. I'm going to go to the office. I'm going to go to the office. I'm going to go to the office. I'm going to go to the office. I'm going to go to the office. I'm going to go to the office. I'm going to go to the office. I'm going to go to the office. I'm going to go to the office. I'm going to go to the office. I'm going to put it in the camera and do the it in time to do that, just you can't get it out. I think that's a good thing. You can't solve it. You can't solve it. That's fine. I have to say that's fine. That's fine. I can't do that. No, it's kind of a problem. But as I said, you should not get someone that didn't drop it off. It's not stupid to get it in the way. It's like, I understand it's like, it's just a system. It's all a system. It's all a system. It's a problem. Right, so first, So this is the first set of the inventory. and then study and consultants. So there's some consult with the better. And do you have help with the gap that consult is like that? Okay, so you have to be happy. And we have to be happy. We have to be happy. At the very end, at the very end, we have to be happy. So, I'm going to start to the bathroom. At the very end, at the very end, you have to go to the bathroom. So I'm going to go to the bathroom. And then I'm going to go to the bathroom. And then I'm going to go to the bathroom. And then I'm going to go to the bathroom. And then I'm going to go to the bathroom. And then I'm going you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I think we're going to get the right to pay. No. Okay, so the only cash number is I up here? It's like a foot. Because, yeah. Just. Oh my god. It's going to be a question of my back. I'm going to lay a lot to put this in. So, you can just put a table bottle in. I'm going to put a top coat in it. And then you get a hint of the box. The top box. The table is on. The plus box. I have a password. Thank you. Okay. I'm going to have to go to the next meeting. So I have the up-to-date of what events were shut and the budget. I have two ideas. A presentation. I understand. Okay. This is the end. So I'm sorry. I'm going to go you to come to the office. I'm going to ask you to come to the office. I'm going to ask you to come to the office. I'm going to ask you to come to the office. I'm going to ask you to come to the office. I'm going to ask you to come to the office. I'm going to ask you to come to the office. I'm going to ask you to come to the office. I'm going to ask you to come to the office. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the spot where I can go. I'm going to go to the spot where I can go. I'm going to go to the spot where I can put it. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to do a little bit't tell me how you talk to you. I just got up, and I'm about to get up. Yeah, about to get up. That's all I'm going to do. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. I'm going to have a little other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to start with the first one. I'm going to start with the second one. I'm going to start with the second one. I'm going to start with the first one. I'm going to start to the room. I'll going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm sorry. Just... I'm going to go back to the next floor. This is the area you're going to find out. I'm going to go back to the next floor. I'm going to go back to the next floor. I'm going to go back to the next floor. I'm going to go back to the next floor. I'm going to go back to the I'm going to have a little time to get back to the next slide. This is the first time I've ever had a So, we have a very good view of the system. It's a very hard to find the machine behind that last one. So, we have a very good view of the panels. And we have a very little bit of the other thing that I would like to do is to get the parts of my hand and the other stuff that I would like to do. So, I would like to do a little bit of the other thing that I would like to do is to get the parts of my hand and the other stuff that I would like to do is All years of my life, I've been so much of my life, This I can do that. I'm not sure if I can do that. I'm not sure if I can do that. I'm not sure if I can do that. I'm not sure if I can do that. I'm not sure if I can do that. I'm not sure if I can do that. I'm not sure if I can do that. I'm not sure if I can do that. I thought I thought that I'd going to be to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to talk to you about the first thing I do. I'm going to talk to you about the first thing I do. I'm going to talk to you about the first thing I do. I'm going to talk to you about the first thing I do. I'm going to talk to you about the first thing I do. I'm going to talk to you about the first thing I do. I'm going to talk to you about the first thing I do. I'm going to get that out so you can just not do that. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to have a quick summary of what you're going to do. I'm going to have a quick summary of what you're going to do. I'm sorry. Yeah. I'm going to ask you to come back. I'm going to ask you to come back. I'm going to ask you to come back. I'm going to ask you to come back. I'm going to ask you to come back. I'm going to ask you to come back. I'm going to ask you to come back. I'm going to ask you to come back. I'm going to ask you to come back. I'm going to ask you to come back. I'm going to have a stage called the Madden Hill. And I'm going to have a room all the way to the grounds and all the way to the grounds. And I'm going to have a room all the way to the grounds. And I'm going to have a room all the way to the grounds. And I'm going to have a room all the way to the grounds. And I'm going to have a room all the way to the grounds. And I'm going to have a room to go for a meeting. I'm going to have a meeting with the President. I'm going to have a meeting with the President. I'm going to have a meeting with the President. I'm going to have a meeting with the President. I'm going to have a meeting with the President. I'm going to have a meeting with the President. I'm going to have a meeting with the President. I'm going to have a meeting with the President. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yes. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Of course. They were definitely. They were definitely.. They were definitely not. They were definitely not. They were definitely not. They were definitely not. They were definitely not. They were definitely not. They were definitely not. They were definitely not. They were definitely not. They were definitely not. They were definitely not. They were definitely not. They were definitely not. I'm sorry. You were done something second place. But I think it's a little bit too late. It's a little late. And yeah, it's something. John and Eric, we have a couple of minutes to come out. Okay. I'll leave you. I'm going to put it on the table. I'm going to put it on the table. I'm going to put it on the table. I'm going to put it on the table. I'm going to put it on the table. I'm going to put it on the table. I'm going to put it on the table. I'm going to put it on the table. I'm going to put it on the table. I'm going to put to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. Thank you. I have a I'm just going to have to the next slide. I'm going to take a look at the other side of the table. I'm going to take a look at the other side of the table. I'm going to take a look at the other side of the table. I'm going to take a look at the other side of the table. I'm going to take a look at the other side of the table. I'm going to take a look at the other side of the table. I'm going to take a look at the other side of the table. I'm just going to say that I'm going to be the first to start a new project. I'm going to be the first to start a new project. I'm going to be the go to the library. I'm going to have to go to the library. I'm going to have to go to the library. I'm going to have to go to the library. I'm going to have to go to the library. I'm going to have to go to the library. I'm going to have to go to the library. I'm going to have to go to the library. I'm going to have to go to the library. I'm going to get some hair. Hey! I'm going to get some hair. I'm going to get some hair. I'm going to get some hair. I'm going to get some hair. I'm sorry. I'm not going to to the next slide. I'm going to have a quick look at the information I have. I'm going to have a quick look at the information I have. I'm going to have a quick look at the information I have. I'm going to have a quick look at the information I have. I'm going to have a quick look at the information I have. I knew that it was going to have to go on. I'm going to have to go on. I'm going to have to go on. I'm going to have to go on. I'm going to have to go on. I'm going to have to go on. I'm going to have to go on. I'm going to have to go on. I'm going to have to go on. I'm going to have to go on. I'm I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm sorry to say that I'm not wearing a hat. You're lost. Or a little hurt. I'm not saying anything. And actually, these sessions I was going to play on the last night, I didn't think the shot or something was going to come back in. I'm going to send you the document. There are lots of information. And actually, I saw you play a lot. It's a shock or something. I can't even hear you. It's a big honor. You should be a good saver. I hope you can add a second. So I have a word to say to you. I'm going to send you the document. I'm going to send you the document. I'm going to send you the document. Yeah. I I stop by the state. I'm sorry. I'm going to go. I'm going to get some presents. I'm going to get some presents. I don't like all of them. There we go. I'm going to write them right away. I think Esther is going to come. Well, I'm going to say here we go. I'm going to get some presents right away. Oh, there we go. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to write them right away. Yeah. I'm going to walk one. I like taking pictures. So let's go walk one. Because you just, I like taking pictures. It's like a foot. Oh, yes. All right. I appreciate you. You're welcome. All right. Yeah. All right. I'm going to take a picture. Yep. You're going to say to you. All right. Yeah. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. I'm going to get a little bit more patient. I'll be a little bit more patient. I'll be a little bit more patient. I'll be a little bit more patient. I'll be a little bit more patient. I'll be a little bit more patient. I'll be a little bit more patient. I'll be a little bit more patient. I'll be a little bit more patient. I'll be a little bit more patient. I'll be a little bit more patient. I'm going to have to go back to the hotel. I'm going to have to go back to the hotel. I'm going to have to go back to the hotel. I'm going to have to go. I'm I I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm going to have to go. I'm sorry. I'm going to go to the next slide. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I can't help but I'm so happy. I can help. I can help. I can help. I can sorry. I I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I have a problem with that. I'm going to go back to the next slide. I'm going to go back to the next slide. I'm going to go back to the next slide. I'm going to go back to the next slide. I'm going to go back to the next slide. I'm going to go back to the next slide. I'm going to go back to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to have to say that I'm going to have to say that I'm going to have to say that I'm going to have to say that I'm going to have to say that I'm going to have to say that I'm going to have to say that I'm going to have to say that I'm going to have to say that I'm going to have to say that I'm going to have to say that I'm going to have to say that I'm going to have to say that I'm going to have to say that I'm going to have to say that I'm going member of the National Party. I'm a member of the National Party. I'm a member of the National Party. I'm a member of the National Party. I'm a member of the National Party. I'm a member of the National Party. I'm a member of the National Party. I'm a member of the National Party. I'm a member of the National Party. I'm a member of the National Party. I'm a member of the National Party. I was just wondering how I was going to work in over here. I was just wondering how I was going to work in over here. Yeah. I was done. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah. I think that's a very deep bridge. It's a very deep bridge. It's a very deep bridge. It's a very deep bridge. It's a very deep bridge. I'm and we said, we don't know what we're going to do. We're going to get this down to our head. We're going to see how this is going to work. We're going to see how this is going to work. We're going to see how this is going to work. We're going to see how this is going to work. We're going to see how this is going to work. We're going to see how this is going to work to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm just going to have to get my hands on the floor. I'm just going to have to get my hands on the floor. I'm just going to have to get my hands on the floor. I'm just going to have to have a look. I'm going to have to have a look. I'm going to have to have a look. I'm going to have to have a look. I'm going to have to have a look. I'm going to have to have a look. I'm going to have to have a look. I'm going to have to have a look. I'm going to have to have a look. I'm going to have to have a look. I'm going to go to little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to have to go back to my father. I'm just trying to make tonight's the first one to hear. I think that was really a big time. I think that was really a big time. I think that was really a big time. I think that was really a big time. I think that was really a big time. I think that was really a big time. I think that was really a big time. I think that was really a big time. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm going to have to the to you. I'm I'd like to ask you a question. I'd like to ask you a question. I'd like to ask you a question. I'd like to ask you a question. I'd like to ask you a question. I'd like to ask you a question. I'd like to ask you a question. I'd like to ask you a question. I'd like to ask you a question. I'd like to ask you a question. I'd like to ask you a question. I'm sorry. I'm going to go to the and I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the front. Next, we'll go to the back. And I'll go to the front. And I'll go to the front. And I'll go to the front. And I'll go to the front. And I'll go to the front. And I'll go to the front. And I'll go to the front. And I'll go to the front. And I'll go to the front. And I'll go to the front. I'm going to be a member of the community. I'm going to be a member of the community. I'm going to be a member of the community. I'm going to be a member of the community. I'm going to be a member of the community. I'm going to be a member of the community. I'm going to be a member of the community. I'm you. the I'm going to go to of this. I'm going to get more of this. I'm going to get more of this. I'm going to get more of this. I'm going to get more of this. I'm going to get more of this. I'm going to get more of this. I'm going to get more of this. I'm going to get more of this. I'm going to get more of this. I'm going to get more of this. I'm going to go to the next floor. I'm going to go to the next floor. I'm going to go to the next floor. I'm going to go to the next floor. I'm going to go to the next floor. I'm going to go to the next floor. I'm going to go to the next floor. I'm going to go to the next floor. I'm going to go to the next floor. I'm going to ask you to come back. I'm going to ask you to come back. I'm going to ask you to come back. I'm going to ask you to come back. I'm going to ask you to come back. I'm going to ask you to come back. I'm going to ask you to come back. I'm going to ask you to come back. I'm going to ask you to come back. I'm going to get a round of applause for you. I'm going to get a round of applause for you. And I want to give you a round of applause for you. I want to give you a round of applause for you. I want to give you a. I'm the I'm going to go to the next room. Okay. Good evening. Okay. good evening everyone. Vice Mayor Bagley, I will now entertain a motion to reconvene from executive session. Madame Mayor, I move. Madame Mayor, I move that the City Council reconvene in open session. So moved. Okay, any discussion? Okay, hearing none, there's been a motion by Vice Mayor Bagley and a second. And a second by Councilmember Chapman to reconvene in open session. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, the ayes have it. We are now in open session. Madam, at this point, I will entertain emotions. Okay, I love the excitement. We're eager. I will entertain emotion to adopt the resolution that was previously circulated to the council. Madam Mayor, I move that the city council adopt the resolution regarding the closed executive session that was previously circulated to the council. Okay. Okay, there's been a motion and a second, any discussion? Okay, hearing none, this is a roll call vote. Madam Clerk, please call the the role vice mayor Bagley councilman Chapman all right mayor gaskins hi councilman Elnube best is dedicated to the power of Hispanic councilwoman green hi councilman McPike did you get councilman Raul Geary a Geary he said I oh councilmanary, I'm sorry, I didn't know you were here. Aye. In you to spring community. Aye. Okay. Madam Clerk, next item. Moment of silence and pledge of allegiance. Okay, at this time we are going to have a moment of silence followed by the pledge. If you are able to stand, please join us. I call the leadership to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic of the U.S. and for our nation, for our country, and for the from the path invisible to liberty and justice for all. Madam Clerk, next item. Presentation of a proclamation recognizing the fifth anniversary of the Alexandria Archaeological Commission. And I have as council member Elnubi to present this proclamation. If you are here to join us for this proclamation, we ask that you please come joining us for the proclamation. I will read the proclamation and then present it to you all. Whereas the city of Alexandria has a rich archaeological heritage with 3 million artifacts that survive from a 13,000 year period and reflect the great diversity of the human experience. And whereas the city of Alexandria finds that its residents support for the study, preservation, protection, curation, interpretation, exhibition, and promotion of these archaeological resources is unique among American cities. And whereas the city of Alexandria has shown itself to be a pioneer in the development of community-based archaeology in America through the creation of the Alexandria Archaeological Commission for the first in the nation 50 year ago on this day. And whereas the Alexandria Archaeological Commission's long record of accomplishments has helped Alexandria be recognized as a model for public participation in archaeology through such endeavors as the Alexandria Archaeological Protection Code, Alexandria Canal Tide Lock Park, Alexandria African American Heritage Park, Jones Point Archaeology, the Contra bands and Friedman Cemetery Memorial, the Alexandria Waterfront History Plan, and the Ships Committee. And whereas the Alexandria Archaeological Commission has presented the Ben Brennan Award for Archaeological Excellence for 16 years to individuals, businesses, and groups who have made extraordinary contributions to Alexandria's history and archaeology. And, whereas, the city of Alexandria through the support of the Alexandria Archaeological Commission received the partners for livable communities, culture, builds community award for the unique public-pri private partnership that exists in the city to preserve and highlight the historic importance of the Alexandria waterfront. Now, therefore, I, Alia Gaskins, mayor of the city of Alexandria, Virginia, and on behalf of the city council, do hereby recognize the time service service, and accomplishments of the past nine current members of the Alexandria Archaeological Commission over the past 50 years. The City Council acknowledge the contributions of these individuals to the Alexandria and American history and archaeology, and thanks them for their community service. In witness, where I have here and to set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Alexandria to be affixed on this 25th of February 2025. And Madam Mayor, I move that we present the proclamation. There has been a motion and a second, any discussion? Okay, well we'll do you at this time if you want to invite our guests to share who they are and share a little bit more about their work. We'll do that and then we'll pass. All right, good evening everyone. I'm Scott Virick. I'm the Alexander Historical Society's representative on the Alexander Archaeological Commission. And all of us here on the commission, we really dig archaeology, so this is a really exciting night for us. Boom. Good evening, my name is Seth Tinkam. I represent the Historic Alexandria Foundation to the commission, Historic Alexandria Foundation is one of several historic nonprofits in the city of Alexandria. Hello, I'm Ann Greer. I'm an at-large member of the Archaeological Commission. Good evening. My name is Eleanor Brin, and I'm the city archaeologist with the Office of Historic Alexandria. And I have the pleasure of being the staff liaison to this commission, the pleasure of working with our chair, Ivy Whitlatch, and such a dedicated, passionate group of people who want to continue to explore the history of Alexandria with each shovelful and each bag full of artifacts. And it's really their input and their spirit that's kept our program so vital for 50 years now. This is the first commission of its kind in the country. And so today is definitely a historic day. I'm Susan Hathgaka. I was a member of the Archaeology Commission for five years in the 1990s. And I get to tell you what's here. Thank you. Hello. I'm Ivy Willatch, and I am the current chair of the commission. And after we do introductions, I have some special announcements for honoring the City Council of 1975 and every City Council since in how their support is bent to the Alexandria Archaeological Commission. I'm Esther White. I'm the Vice Chair of the Commission, and I represent Planning District 2. I'm Tatiana Nacoloscu. I'm an archaeologist for the city, and I'm the curator of those 3 million artifacts from over 260 sites within the city. I'm Ted Pullium, and I represent the Alexandria Association on the Alexandria Archaeological Commission. So as I mentioned, the commission decided that we would like to nationally honor our city council, not only in 75, but also today in their support, their vision and their recognition of how important it is to preserve Alexandria's history. This is the flag that Senator Warner had flown over the Capitol at his comments on the commission and I give this to the City Council, but I might want to back to get through it. Okay, I'll just sign for a little bit. And if all goes as planned today, we all know Congress is having a few moments. The first man buyer is supposed to enter into the congressional record, the recognition of this founding 50 years ago, 225-75, about this historic moment that the first archaeological commission formed in the country and the leader and the model for our archaeological commissions around the country was formed. It is something the city and the city council and the city government should be proud of and for which we continue to be proud of their support and vision as we go forward in some challenging times coming ahead. Well, thank you Ivy and thank you to all the volunteers that have joined us today. I was gonna say before I give it back, it was gonna be the first thing I have in my office. Cause I don't, okay. Well, so we'll put in the museum and we'll frame it. But I just wanna say, okay, thank you. No, but I really just wanna say and express how proud we are as a city to be able to not only be the first, but as you said, we are the leader setting the standard for what these commissions should look like for appropriate and impactful archeological practice and exploration should look like. And I just want to say, I have learned so much from many of you who are standing here, but also from our volunteers who join you every single day. I know I was so impressed that at your celebration, there were middle schoolers all the way to some of our seniors who continue to help us uncover our past, to learn about our stories, and to make sure that we're continuing to capture our history so that the next people who join the commission will continue to make those discoveries. So thank you so much. I'm glad we get to spend this time celebrating with you and continuing to celebrate. With that, there has been a motion by Councilmember Elnubi and a second by Councilmember McPike to approve the proclamation. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, the motion carries. Thank you. And we're going to do a quick photo with the whole council. Yes. Okay, hold on, are you sure? Yeah. You got everybody? Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Madam Clerk, next item. Presentation of a proclamation declaring the month of March is Irish American Heritage Month in honoring St. Patrick's Day. Okay, and I've asked Councilmember McPike to read this proclamation. So if you are here to join us for our Irish American Heritage Month Proclamation, please go ahead and start making your way to the front. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. All right. Well, we have a prop. Thank you. All right. Well, we have a prop. I'm going to read very slowly so you'll have to hold that up for a long time. Whereas the Irish have greatly enriched the culture of western civilization from its earliest days. whereas the Irish have nobly preserved the Celtic and Gaelic traditions from ancient times to the present. And whereas the history of the city of Alexandria is replete with the contributions of many people from Ireland and their descendants. And whereas the city of Alexandria is home to many Irish who are active in its cultural, economic, political, and social life. Now therefore, I, Kirk McPike, from Northern Ireland, of descent, on behalf of Alia Gaskins, mayor of the city of Alexandria, Virginia, and on behalf of the Alexandria City Council, to hear by proclaim the month of March as Irish-American Heritage Month in the city of Alexandria. And the city of Alexandria recognizes the incalculable role played by the Irish and their citizens in the world, national state and city affairs. And witness whereof, she is here on two set her hand and calls to see all the city of Alexandria to be affixed. This 25th day of February 2025. Thank you. And so Madam Mayor, I will move the proclamation. It's been a motion by Councilmember Mike and a second by Councilmember El Nubi, any discussion? And if you want to invite our guests to share? Absolutely, well thank you all for being here today. I think there might be something coming up on Saturday that you all want to mention here, but you know, we always do this proclamation before this parade and it's really great to have so much representation of Alexandria's rich Irish history here with us today So let we'll just pass this down y'all can say hello Pat Garry I'm a parade marshal Frank MacCrow, Jr. Vice Chair of the Ballet Shanners Hi, I'm Maggie Hayes. I'm Chair of the Ballet Shanners And we just like to say that the Irish are very proud of their history and the help of creating such a beautiful country and the city of Alexandria. We did have a little help doing that. And we, the Ballet Shanners, are very happy to spread the Irish culture and invite you all to join in the celebration of St. Patrick this Saturday. We'll be at 1230 on King Street and we hope to see you all there. It's going to be a great time and we appreciate everyone in the community that helps make this happen. Thank you very much. Shlancha. Hi, I'm John Brick. After a dozen years as parade captain, I have worked myself to assistant parade captain. I'm here to bring you over'm the parade captain. Erin Sol, I'm the lead marshal. Tasha Pablo, I am the parade captain. Angie Neen, neighbor, parade marshal. Simba, Harold Sinette, the treasured by default. And we're helping to have everybody come out. We love everyone. Come out for a good time. Surprise. I'm Lucille O'Flairity and my father named the ballet shanners. So I just wanted to share that with you. Daniel Fairfax, our player. Yeah. Well, thank you all very much. And thank you for all the work that you'll put in for what's going to be a fantastic parade on Saturday. And with much better weather than our last one, so. Thank you. Yes, and we are so excited. And if I could just add, I guess, thank you to LaCelle's dad. Thank you to Maggie and the Valley Shanders and all of the volunteers and parade marshals and captains here. I know the council is really excited to dawn our best green on Saturday. And so we hope that everyone will come out, spend time at the parade, and then go to our restaurants and spend time throughout our city afterwards as well. I, they have a comment from Council Member Chapman. Sorry, one thing that I always like to mention is that this group is a volunteer running group, and it couldn't be done without their time, their talents, and their treasure, but you also have an opportunity to donate your treasure as well to keep this going. So please do not hesitate if you have that opportunity. They've had and maybe will have another event, a fundraising event, and support of the Bala Shanners. Again, they've been doing this for a number of years. How many 42 years I just saw somebody say, 42 years with their money and with the donations of the community. So if you like what you see on Saturday, please do not hesitate to donate. Thank you. Thank you Councillor Richett. Seeing no additional comments, there has been a motion by Councillor Memor MacPike, a second by Councillor Elnubi to approve the proclamation. All those in favour say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The aye's have it and the proclamation is approved. And we're going to do a quick picture as well. Thank you. Okay. Madam clerk, next item, please. Board reports from members of City Council on boards, commissions and committees, Council of Government, Transportation, Planning Board, Council of the Nguiri. Yes, we can. Yes, we can. Perfect. Perfect. So really short for Cogn2pb not a lot going on, but for As my phone starts to die. For any of the transportation wants we had our intercity Report that was just given out. You can find that on the website at Cogtpb outside of that. We were just looking at the United plan, working plan, the draft United Working Plan. So, yes, that was pretty much it. So, on TPP, thank you Madam Mayor. Thank you. Very, very, on that first. Waterfront Commission Vice Mayor Bagley and BRA Vice Mayor Bagley. Okay, the Waterfront Commission at 7.30 a.m. this Tuesday. I see a lot of people are very excited to see this. I see a lot of people are very excited to see this. I see a lot of people are very excited to see this. I see a lot of people are very excited to see this. I see a lot of people are very excited to see this. I see a lot of people are very excited to see this. I see a lot of people are very excited to see this. which continues to move along. We anticipate that that development will come before planning in maybe April and Council in May. But the Waterfront Commission was providing feedback on concerns about access to the waterfront as part of the plan. The phasing of that project, it's going to be built in two pieces with the west side, actually, in vision to be built first, followed by the east side and the east side is where parking lot that is a parking lot. The parking lot is a parking lot. The parking lot is a parking lot. The parking lot is a parking lot. The parking lot is a parking lot. The parking lot is a parking lot. The parking lot is a parking lot. The parking lot is a parking lot. The parking lot is a parking lot. The parking lot is a parking lot. The parking lot is a parking lot a check in on a couple other big projects around the city. The big wheel bikes location is turning into a taco establishment, I believe. And that is moving forward. And I'm seeing some nods from key players in the audience. But the taco trailer is not moving forward at this time. So you'll still get your tacos, but frickin' mortar tacos. And then there was a question, some questions asked and I thought might be interesting for the community to hear about the parking enforcement pilot in Old Town that was in 2024. It was effective and has been renewed for another year. In 2024, the contractors issued 26,000 tickets. So mind your two hour limits when you're parking in Old Town because their enforcement is taking place. We also discussed future meetings, talking about enhancements in Founcers Park, the possibility of a Waterfront Commission retreat, which I actually think is a really great idea for this organization as it continues to evolve. And I'll leave it there. It was the last meeting as well for Nate Masek, who has served on the planning commission for 10 years, very admirably, and has been a liaison to waterfront. So we thank Nate for his service. I'm sorry. You have VRE and the campaign on adolescent pregnancy. So let's just have you. You would talk next too. All right. On last Friday, I chaired the VRE meeting. We had two really interesting presentations about sort of transforming rail in Virginia, which we got sort of an overview on the history of that, which was essentially a significant investment that began years ago by the state of Virginia to buy land, so that end to buy rail essentially, that could put us more in control and separate freight from passengers, which anybody who's taken a train in Virginia knows, if you're late, it's probably because there was a freight train in the way somewhere. So by purchasing the rail, by building a fourth track, which is also part of this project, we have a vision for the future, hopefully by 2030, where we'll be separating passenger rail both commuter and sort of traditional Amtrak service from freight rail. And there was one, they showed us some slides and some interesting things. And one of the ones that I actually wanted to read out because I love examples like this. With all of the projects envisioned sort of the long bridge and the fourth track and the enhancements all along the service and then separating freight and passenger, one of the benefits we should experience as a society, basically, is the removal of 4,180 daily truck trips on I-95. And if you can't picture that, it's end-to-end, it equals a lane of trucks from the Pentagon to Spotsylvania. That's 57 miles. So by creating this capacity in rail, we'll actually also be benefiting everybody's experience on on 95 and the environment. So I wanted to share that detail. Also, Valley Shanners will have the VR reflux in it this year, which is very exciting. So keep your eyes out for a very functional looking train with smoke and bells, and it's very, very cool. And it will be green. So that's VRE, keep an eye out for their float in the parade this weekend. And then I'll finish up with ACAP, yes? Yes, okay. ACAP began with sort of, and I'll just again remind the community that ACAP does its work because it repeatedly wins a significant $700,000 a year grant, the prep grant, from the federal government. And it has used that money over, gosh, decades now, to dramatically lower the rate of adolescent pregnancy in Alexandria. If you look at that chart, it is almost a one-way downhill with some little spikes, sort of pandemic-related ups and downs. But it has continuously brought those figures down. So we won that grant yet again and we are going to be mindful of spending every penny of it while we can. So we went over that. We also talked about the recent Alexandria Health Report that came out that some of y'all might have seen that shows that Alexandria unfortunately is slightly ahead of our jurisdictional neighbors in an area we might want not want to be, which is STIs. So we need to do some work in education and distribution of condoms, which you can pick up for free at the Delpepper Center, and in testing to make sure that we can bring those STI rates back down to or below the state average. And Acap will be working with the health department to work on those figures. And that is my report. Thank you. Madam Clerk, next commission. City Schools of Committee, Mayor Gaskins and Councilman Chapman. Okay. Councilman Chapman, do you want to start? And then, okay. The City Schools Committee, we met yesterday for those who were not here in January. One of the things we reported is that we focused on kind of mapping out a work plan from now until June. Part of our work plan looks at the memo that Vice Mayor Bagley and council member El Nubie put forth, which is really a data request helping us better understand whether or not Dash could play a role in getting high school students to school. And so last night we received two presentations. The first was from Dash, the second from ACPS, both focused on kind of what is the existing state of their systems. And so we looked at utilization, we looked at current routes, we also looked at some existing costs, as well as other dynamics that we needed to know about the different special types of transportation that ACPS has to provide. The next step we've talked about, could we get a map or some sort of overlay that allows us to really look at ACPS routes with dash routes so that we can understand who are the kids who are the young people who are already on a dash route where there would be minimal changes if we went down this path, who are those that are close or within a short walking distance to a dash stop, and then who are those young people who are actually not anywhere near a dash route where we'd have to think about what would be the cost to potentially do a route. We also had some additional questions as related to safety related to maintenance and cost. And so we'll continue to explore both of these systems and then provide a report back to the other members of council and the school board in the coming months. The other thing that we discussed was that previously in city schools there were a set of kind of regular updates and so how could we look to bring back some of those updates and so come March we are going to bring back an update and do one specifically focus on collective bargaining and sort of where ACPS is in within their process. So we will report back at that time. All right, thank you. Madam Clerk, next item. More report from the city manager out in Santerbury mentoring partnership program highlight. Okay, Mr. Manager, I think you have a presentation for us. Yes, I have a few things under the oral report. The first one is just to give you a little bit of a presentation, a special presentation on the mentoring partnership. We have our interim Parks and Rec Director Jack Brown here so I think we're gonna show a video and if you want to share a few thoughts Jack. Yeah so I'm Jack Brown and Acting Director for the Department of Recreation, just wanted to share with you tonight. This year, there was actually a reorganization that brought four very energetic and committed individuals from court services to the Department of Recreation. One of their substantial programs, which is, you know, provides a major benefit to the city is the mentoring program, and we wanted to highlight their good work and show you the impact that they provide to our Alexandria residents. We have a very short video to show. I'm not sure if I can do it. Like that she has always been there for me, so she has been there for like two years. And like she always has been like by my side and has like helped me always and I really care for her and I just hope that she's doing good. I'm going to mentorship program. It impacts my entire family because my family has been able to attend events and to see different projects that my daughter has worked on during the mentorship program also. We just look forward to the everyday text messages where we're sharing what she has done, awards that were accepted on behalf of the mid-tourship program and also getting knowledge of the mid-tourship program. What I enjoy most about mentoring is really the quality one on one time, though, I get to have with my mentee seeing her grow. I've been with her for about two years now. And so just the changes that I've seen in her over the last two years have been amazing. She's also taught me a lot about myself, just causing me helping you to think kind of in different ways. And so it's been rewarding in ways that I didn't anticipate. I'm so chosen to come up with this. just because of the positive impact that it can have on the community. I'm just being able to guide kids in the right direction and life and being able to be a resource and an asset to them and their personal growth really just drew me towards becoming a member. All of the mentoring programs here in Alexandria offer great tools and supplies for all the mentors feel equipped to fulfill the role of the mentor and that they can provide the best experience. All of them are themselves but also for their mentees. All of the programs give any tools, any access to resources, whether it be tickets for different outings or materials that they can breathe, that they can even share with their mentees so that they can make the most of their experience. Okay, well thank you Mayor and Council. I know that with the video and the Zoom link, there's a little bit of a lag. We'll make sure that that gets posted on our website so everyone can see the full breadth of the young people's commentary about the benefits of the mentoring to them. No, that would be great. And I will just, I guess, amplify what we heard at the end. If anyone is interested in being a mentor or knows a young person would be interested in being a mentee. If you go on our city's website, there are a ton of resources on the Alexandria Mentoring Program page. I think there's an entire mentoring university. So if you have questions about what it takes to get started or you're looking for support in beginning your mentoring journey, just want to put a shout out. We are always looking for caring adults to help us with those programs. Great. Thank you. So the next item tonight as the team comes down here, really pleased to provide you an update on FY25 budget item that will be instrumental in our current and future budget work. Last year at this time, the council began discussions about an opportunity to engage the community in long-term planning for the city's economic, long-term sustainability. In 2007 to 2009, the city undertook a similar effort. It really created a playbook for commercial and residential growth in our city. Since that time, there's executed on many of the recommendations. Also since that time, our world is dramatically changed. It continues to change today. And from an economic development standpoint, the blueprint changes as well. So tonight, I'm introducing the internal team that will be working with external resources over the coming months to plan for and execute an economic summit Which will be followed by the creation of a strategic framework and action plan and I'm excited to announce that the summit will take place on Wednesday May 8th beginning at 3 o'clock p.m. And running into the evening and I'm going to turn this over to Stephanie Landrum, who is the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership, President CEO, and she'll introduce the some of our consultants tonight, as well as our staff. Great, good evening. As the city manager said, I'm Stephanie Landrum, President and CEO of the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership. And our internal team with Gemini is our sitting here, who will be working, who already have been working, frankly, to get us to this point and will be working over the coming months. Julian Gonzales with Assistant City Manager, Mary and Marquez, who is the SVP at Alexandria Economic Development Partnership, the committee's meeting with the committee. The committee is also meeting with the committee of the committee of the committee of the committee of the committee of the committee of the committee of the committee of the committee of the committee of the committee of the committee of the committee of the committee of the committee of the committee of the committee of the committee of the committee of the committee of the committee of the committee of the committee of the committee of the committee of the committee of the committee of I'm a manager, Marian Marquez, who is the SVP at Alexandria Economic Development Partnership, Ebony Fleming, Director of Communications, and Catherine Caraway in the Planning Department. So that is our internal team, but to execute a endeavor as ambitious as this one, we turned to some external partners to help us. So I'm excited to introduce to you the team from TIPS Strategies, Tracy and Jen, who are going to introduce themselves as part of their presentation. And I will turn it over to them. Welcome them to the chambers. Thank you so much. Good evening, Mayor and City Council members. It's great to be here. We'll start off giving you a quick overview of TIPS very quickly and then Jen will spend most of her time going through the project overview, the framework, some of the things that we'll be doing on this trip that we're on today. But again, my name is Tracy McDaniel. I'm the president of TIP strategies. Our firm has, it is celebrating 30 years this year, where a national boutique economic development firm that focuses on building strategies and workforce development, organizational development, advisory services that really help elevate communities to diversify and build their communities. This is the team. I mentioned that I'm the president. Jennifer has worked with me on several projects. I'll let her introduce herself. But she will be the project lead for this team. Good evening, everyone. My name is Jen Todd Goins. I'm a senior consultant with TIP. And as Tracy mentioned, I'll be the project lead for our work with the city of Alexandria. I have a history and economic development and city planning very much kind of existing at the nexus of those two things which I think will be really beneficial through the work that we do in this project. I'd like to start by talking a little bit about our project. Goal is we really have a two part goal for this particular initiative. The first is to host the economic summit. This is very much a community focused event where we look at not only providing information about economic development in Alexandria, for any information about trends that exist, successes within the city, but also providing community residents and opportunities to provide feedback on a strategic framework for the city of Alexandria, which brings me to the second part of our goal, which is developing that strategic framework and action plan to foster equitable economic development in the city of Alexandria. Just a quick overview of our schedule. You'll see here we've started our discovery phase. This is really when our team seeks to learn we're reviewing background information from the partnership and from the city. We're also doing some data analysis internally. We have started meeting with stakeholders. I'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment. Start identifying opportunities, taking us through implementation and a final deliverables some time over the summer. A lot of people might ask, you know, what informs the strategic framework in the action plan? And my answer would be three major things. The first is what you tell us, and that is meant in the broad sense of what we learn from our stakeholder engagement. What are we learning from our round tables, from our interviews, from, you know, the experts who live here and live and breathe this city every day? every day, we also look at what the data tell us. So what do we learn from our economic assessment, what do we learn? from our interviews, from the experts who live here and live and breathe this city every day. We also look at what the data tell us. So what do we learn from our economic assessment? What do we learn by looking at industry and workforce data? We will also be doing some kind of benchmarking in comparison to see what peer cities look like in terms of that data. And the fourth part is what our experience tells us. And through this, we often go back to the rest of our project, our firm team mentioned the scenarios that we're seeing in Alexandria seek information about as practices. The others have seen, as well as making sure our recommendations are responsive to emerging trends and economic development. As I mentioned, I would come back to stakeholder engagement and here you can see the kinds of stakeholder engagement that we are doing to make sure we facilitate a community informed process. The first are roundtable discussions. You can see here a list of the types of topic areas that we're having in these roundtables. We're also conducting several one-on-one interviews looking at a community survey. This will be released in advance of the economics summit. And the survey will be very much based in perception, kind of asking what do people think about economic development in Alexandria? And we'll use that to also inform the summit agenda. We will be hosting, of course, the summit that I've spoken about. And then we have some staff from the partnership, who will be giving us an asset toward the community to make sure that we more deeply understand the assets and community on the ground here in Alexandria. With this, I'll turn it over to Tracy to talk a little bit about what we see as a firm with challenges and opportunities in economic development and what that means for Alexandria. Now, I really wanted to show you this slide because we as a firm identified about 10 leading challenges that we believe economic developers face around the country. This week I attended the International Economic Development Council in Washington, DC. I was able to execute a session on leaders in time of crisis. What does that leadership look like? And during that time, we really took the opportunity. IEDC had about 500 leaders across the country that are economic development practitioners. We were able to talk to about 100 of those leaders in a focus group setting. And in that setting, we asked them, what are the major challenges that are facing them during these times today? Because that information helps us get a glimpse of how we could share that with clients, understand exactly what they're facing, and possibly build strategies to help them. The top five areas that they are facing today are politics, federal funding, workforce, tariffs, and immigration. And as you can see, all of those are bundled together, can impact a workforce, industries, and any community. And one of the things that we identified, it's like what is the tone of these leaders that we're saying? Most of them are still very optimistic about they want to continue to work in those communities and be competitive. Because being competitive in times like this is very important. Diversifying those communities, the building, resilience strategies, and with all of that, we really believe that Alexandria is well positioned during this time to be competitive. And we are very excited about the opportunity to work with you on this project. We believe that you have a wealth of talent. We also know that you have industries in this area that are really, really driven by future opportunities. So we will be able to dig in that, look at alignment opportunities as we work through this project over the next several months. Again, we're excited to be here and we're happy to address any questions that you may have. Well, thank you so much for your time and for joining us this evening. Are there any questions or comments from members of the council? Councilmember Chapin. First thank you for being here. Thank you for the presentation. I think one of the things as I've mentioned in our meetings that I'll read right here just for my colleagues as well is is, you know, when we get to the summit, and particularly the implementation afterwards, I really want to make sure we're leveraging the community, and the community, not just interest, but kind of the education and expertise of our community. We have a number of folks that are either futurist or kind of ahead of the curve in their own industry. And that has helped us kind of deal with economics long-stern sustainability, excuse me, in the past and leveraging some of those industry leaders. And I really want to make sure, however we set this up, we're making sure that we're engaging those people, pulling them in if we got a pull them in as a little roughly to the conversation because I think they know that if we are able to leverage their skills, their their hometown wherever they're living will be positively affected. So I just want to make sure that is kind of a regular thread that we're weaving through this whole process. Thank you. Vice Mayor Bagley. Thank you. I want to thank the team for the presentation and I had the opportunity to, you know, to begin working with you all and I'm excited about moving forward. One of the things that was on the prior slide, we sort of had five or six phases of this. Yeah, I'm curious what comes after, if you all have a vision for that yet, like, you know, after May 8th and beyond. I can mention, or speak to the shorter term vision that we have after the summit, we will be internally TAP producing kind of a report that summarizes the outcomes from that summit So that would be not only kind of what did we learn in that pre-survey? What did we learn from the interactive discussions that happen as well and that will inform again a refinement of that strategic framework? We're also anticipating sending out a survey after the summit so that if you know someone's not able to attend, they're still able to provide some input into the process and have that also be part of what we look at when we're influencing that final deliverable. And ultimately what this results in is a specific set of actions that are targeted to growing our commercial economic development base. When do we actually vote on the budget? Is it like May 5th? Is it just before the... It's the end of April. Is it the end of April? OK. It's often in May. OK. Well, hopefully we will have thought about how we're about to enter this budget so that we'll be positioned to act on what comes out of the summit. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Well, I have two questions. One, for the roundtable discussions, I'm really glad to hear that even before the May summit that we're already starting our engagement, I'm curious if there are small business owners or there are any folks who fit within this category who want to engage. What is the best way to direct them either to you or the staff? How do we get them to you now? I can deal with that. No, you can't deal with a button. So we are happy to take any names from you of people who would like to participate. We can also go through the team at AEDP to make sure that they get those names to us. We're actually engaging, I think, starting tomorrow with several representatives from the small business community. And it's just the open beginning of the process. As you come up with names or people that we should be engaged with, please let us know. We literally take the discovery and the interviewing part to the end of the project. Thank you. I appreciate that. Mayor, can John, if you could go to one of the last slides. One of the things that we did want to end on is that we have launched a web page for this project and it is live on the city website and that is a good venue for you to point interested parties to track as we shape the summit, engagement opportunities leading up to and following and basically all things related to this process will be on that website. It's great. And then I wanted to pick up on a thread that Vice Mayor Bagley started us on, which is kind of what happens next. And how do we make sure we're in a position to act on these recommendations? I think maybe Mr. Manager, after we have kind of the recommendations, it might be helpful to do like a work session with the council where we can kind of weigh in on kind of what did we take to move these things forward, but also if there are, I know, several council members lifted up some specific policies they're interested in at our retreat kind of making sure that there's also sort of council input into how we implement and how we go forward. And then lastly I would just say I too have enjoyed a meeting with you and I would just put out there I've had the chance to share my vision with you, but just so my colleagues know as well. Something I really hope is that this is a citywide focus. I think at the end of the day our city only thrives and economic development works when it works for all of us. And so how are we making sure that we're looking at our assets and our opportunities and our community members across the city? I think the other thing is, and this goes back to implementation, I really want us to be a council of action. I think I'm sure I can predict with my crystal ball that Jim is going to tell us in his presentation that we've got a lot of needs and we've got limited resources. So I think really being intentional about the way we leverage our unique assets, the way we build a pipeline of workers, especially our young people in order to position us for the future so that we have the resources to provide the services our city needs is really, really important to me. So looking forward to May and looking forward to some sort of future work session with you both. Thank you. Okay. Thank you for your time. With that, Madam Clerk, next item. Presentation of the proposed annual operating budget for FY 2026 including schools the proposed capital improvement program for FY 2026 to FY 2035 including school CIP and the proposed tax rate recommendation The moment we've all been waiting for. Okay. Good evening. So, I think it, uh, I'd love to say it was well planned, but if you'll notice on your agenda tonight, you had proclamations about our history. You had proclamation you had a presentation about how our youth is our future and you also had a presentation about how our future is tied to economic development. So that really fits very well with what I think you're about to hear in the budget presentation. I will say that it's a fairly lengthy presentation this year. There are some things that we felt very strongly that we need to highlight to the community. And as you can see in the first two rows are some of our most seasoned experts in budgeting, financing, as well as our deputy city managers and our chief of staff who have been instrumental in helping me through this process. Mayor Vice Mayor and City Council is my honor to present the proposed FY26 operating budget and 10 year capital improvement plan for your consideration. Tonight represents a next phase, not the first phase in the budget process, where the council and the community get the opportunity to review the proposal of the next few months culminating in a council adoption at the end of April. Tonight's presentation is a result of substantial input from the community on a continuous basis. Represents substantial input from boards and commissions. Represents substantial involvement and feedback from community organizations, from residents and businesses, from the City Council. And it also is an outcome of our hard work from our city employees, including our department directors, who had to make very difficult recommendations that are forward to you tonight. And I would just once again just commend our department directors. This was a very, very difficult budget and a challenging process. And once again, our director stepped up and really helped us craft a budget that I think you're going to find tonight is both fiscally prudent, cautious about our future, positive about the progress we're making, and targeted its investment. So tonight, I'm going to follow this agenda. Really, talk a little bit about revenue and expenditure forecasting. I'm going to highlight budget priorities and how the proposed budget is identified what state what goes into the budget and what I did not make it into the budget. We're going to talk a little bit about that process that was followed. We're going to talk a little bit more about what our proposed operating expenditures are. And then we're going to move into the second piece, which would be the capital improvement program. So for the community's edification, there's really two main things that happen through the next few months. The first one is operating budget. That's the annual budget. Those are the dollars that the city uses to provide city services and programs to the community on an annual basis. The capital plan is a 10-year capital plan that looks out that amount of time, that decade, and identifies the longer range, the more significant, the multi-year projects that they're going to take some time to develop. It also represents a one-year funding. The year one is what gets funded in this annual appropriation. And then we're gonna finish with a budget calendar and I've been with the city long enough now to know that the budget calendar you're gonna see, you won't be able to read it on the screen because there's a lot of opportunities for additional input and comment and feedback. And we're really, frankly, it is incredibly helpful during this process to hear from our residents and businesses about what's in the budget and what they'd like to see, perhaps, changed. And I know the council has a future ad delete process that you take very seriously and do make though some of those adjustments. Okay. So this budget builds upon the progress made in maintaining our infrastructure, keeping our residents safe, improving the lives of youth and families, and providing significant housing resources all during a very uncertain time in our country. This budget does not leave anyone out. From senior tax relief to early educational funding combined with steps to reduce the cost of living in Alexandria such as the free dash service, reduce programming fees for parks and rent programs to food security support. The proposed funding in this year's budget is limited but provides meaningful dollars to help those that needed the most. This budget plan for substantial impacts caused by the federal administration by allocating funds to protect our residents and provide funds to offset potential losses or light upon upon grants to provide needed services to our residents. Again, you know, the discussion about what happens at the federal level definitely affects the city of Alexandria, not just in our budget process, but in our residents and businesses every day lives. Let me go back a second. So the proposed budget is a $956 million budget. That rep and a $2.08 billion 10 year capital budget. What that represents is roughly a 3% increase on the operating budget. About a third of that is for ACPS funding for the schools. And a portion of that is to cover the cost of inflationary pricing, particularly with supplies and goods and services that we all rely upon. It does not, the proposed budget does not include a tax rate increase. The proposed budget does not include a tax rate increase. What it does do, though, because we have had, and you'll see in the later slides, some appreciation in property assessment, that there will be people in this community that will pay more in taxes for the city services. The other key point is whether there are some new things in this budget, targeted investments, a lot of what we're doing in this budget is to continue to build on the progress we've made over past years. This is one of the harder slides to present in that when I referenced our department directors, one of the directors that we provided to the departments in this year's budget was to look at both ads to the budget and reductions to your base budgets. We've done that the last several years. You'll see a slide later that represents $32 million in cuts over the last five years in base budgets. As you can see in this year's budget, we're talking about a $6.4 million reduction in expenditures, but continued target investment in our youth housing, infrastructure, public safety, and strategic investment in our employees. The third piece is also critical. It feeds off of what you just heard in the, with some of the economic development introductions, is we're doing some target investments to try to accelerate the opportunity for commercial tax-based growth. That's critical because as you see, you'll see in the later slides, the residential tax burden is high and the one way to relieve that is to grow our commercial tax-based with quality commercial development. So with that as a backdrop, let me talk a little bit about revenue and forecasting. So the revenue, as I said, the budget is $956 million. The bulk of our revenue comes from property tax. As you can see, the blue and the, I guess I'll call it the orange on the right side of your screen. That really represents property tax. And then the green right next to it represents personal property. So that is a significant amount more than half of our revenue comes from that source of funding. There are other smaller revenue sources that you'll see in there, but frankly, they're so small that the bulk of where we receive our funding is really property tax and some sales tax. So to talk about the national economy, this I would caution you, this is a point in time. Obviously, the national economy and our local economy is changing pretty dramatically as we sit here today. On the national economy over the last year, our GDP growth did increase slightly. From the previous year, our job growth was fairly steady at about 186,000 jobs per month on a national basis. A very low unemployment. And as you can see, the inflation was in that 2.9% to 3.4%. On the local economy perspective, according to some of our economists nationally, the confidence in the economy is shaky at this point. That's due to some of the uncertainty at the federal level and some of the changes that are occurring. It's hard to tell exactly what's going to happen in that space, but it's important to recognize that that does represent uncertainty. And when people are making economic development decisions uncertainty means that they're typically going to be holding back on that. The other thing you can see here is that the unemployment rate is in Alexander has always been very low. I would highlight that we have over 13,000 federal workers in our residing in our city. That doesn't include contract workers who rely on federal programs to support their own work. So that does, again, represent uncertainty. That word, uncertainty, is something that you're you're going to hear over and over again tonight because without sort of a time frame of when these actions take place it's hard to tell exactly how we're going to be able to respond to those. Couple other uncertain points the federal grants, the impact state and local programs, federal trade policy, this is important as relates to tariffs. Our CIP has a lot of steel and lumber and things like that embedded in them and the cost structure is based on one set of circumstances. Those circumstances may be changing in 2025 and beyond. And then certainly the federal downsizing effect on the regional economy. Those are things that we're paying close attention to. I know council knows this, but to the community we have an inter-departmental team that meets very regularly to try to ascertain how to respond effectively to changes at the federal level. Terms of federal funding, $51 million or 4.3% of our FY 2025 approved operating all funds budget so So that's not just operating. There's other funds there. Represent the challenge that we have. 21 million is in the department of community and human services. And then 8 million is in reimbursements related at the federal level. So again, how are we responding to that? Monitoring of the impacts at a constant and regular level as well as coordinating with our regional partners. We have advisors that are assisting us, particularly at the federal level to understand the nuances of decisions that are being made there, both positive and potentially negative. And then the ability for us to respond to changes in revenue that we might have counted upon. The other thing that we're doing in this year's budget, you'll see is that we are putting some dollars to make those available. Should we need those in significant in emergency or a significant change of how we've projected and forecasted revenues and expenditures. So there's a $3 million position that we've put aside for true emergencies and then a million dollars in a sign for potential loss and grants. That will not cover all of the potential impacts, but it does help us mitigate some of those if we need to. I think this is a helpful slide. This gives you some positive. The positive is that our property tax base, which is really what drives a lot of the dollars that we need to provide to cover the cost of city services. We've had steady property tax growth, as you can see, between probably two and three percent, although there's been some anomalies up and down, as you can see, this year we're at, oh, 2025, we're at 2.57%. It's steady growth. This is a great community to live in. This is a great community to invest your life in. And that's not gonna change. I think you'll see in our budget, we are doing some great things to protect our quality of life, the way that we provide services to our wonderful community and special community. And what the property tax doesn't tell you is the people. People here is what make our community so special. And so regardless of the dollars that we put in the budget or not, we have an incredible positive we positive forward thinking community that's gonna be able to manage through any situation, including historically that you've done in the past before I got here, and when I leave, you'll still be doing that. This gives you just a little bit more data. Our residential tax basis, you see, this sort of breaks down our real estate property task assessment. The residential is growing at the 4.5%. You can see it's going up from 2025, which our total taxable real estate property value is up about 2.5%. Again, you've seen this slide before, but commercial property does include the multi-family in this slide. If we broke this out to include multi-family, these numbers would look like 82% residential to 18% commercial. The imbalance between the commercial and residential is a risk factor. And in this and in future budgets and a healthy out of the area economy must include quality commercial growth for us to avoid greater tax burdens being based on residents or cuts and services. Just a little more detail. This shows the more detailed breakdown of the commercial market. There's some good news here. The good news is that some of our general commercial properties are hotels and shopping centers continue to rebound from the pandemic and are showing strong growth, which tells me that our small business community, while it does have some challenges and we need to pay close attention to that, really does drive some of our economy. Again, just to highlight some things on the tax rate, there is no change in the proposed and the real estate tax rate. It stays at the $1.13.5. There's no change in the personal property tax rates. We continue to provide elderly disabled and veteran tax relief in this year's budget, and there's no change in other tax rates. In terms of some of the fee adjustments there are some fee adjustments on in the recreation and parkside some of our rental fees are going up slightly to compete with the market. You heard on Tuesday about the short term rental fees for registration and to pay for some of the for our residents. And the . . . . . . . . . for registration and to pay for some of the enforcement that's necessary to make sure that they're good quality neighbors for our residents. And then there is the parking fees are going up slightly. They haven't been looked at since 2018. So there's a slight adjustment upward in that space as well. No change in the sanitary sewer, no change in the refuse fees. On the stormwater, the continued planned increased fee is embedded in this year's budget. Again, trying to continue to take significant action in flood mitigation efforts through and resiliency efforts through the entire community. So what does this mean to the individual tax bill? So I think this is instructive on the single family assuming the average assessed value. The real estate tax bill would go up about $37 a month for the average single family home. In a condominium setting, it would be $22 a month, and overall across the board, it's roughly $29 a month. Remember, this is average. If you look at the median, I think what you'll find is that the tax increase, the median resident will pay will be lower than these numbers. Okay, to talk a little bit about budget priorities, again, I'd always like to start with our mission. I need to key there as a thriving Alexandria. And you can see our values. This is really what we strive for every day that we provide service and quality programs to our community. Council priorities, these are your priorities. The employee attraction or attention, housing opportunities, eliminating community disparities, the economic strength. And this is in January, you highlighted that the community connections is really the lens at which we should look at every priority with a fairly strong emphasis to continue to focus attention in that area. So in terms of the development process, as you can see, our budget process is a year-round effort that essentially involves receiving input and feedback from the community in multiple ways during the year, then combining that feedback with what the city can afford to accomplish in a general budget. We also ask the question, are we the right people to provide that service, that program? The forecasting we do helps us understand the revenue expenditures we can expect over the course of multiple years, not just the focus on a single year, as well as reviewing what's happening in the national local economies to inform our budget proposal decisions. We also request departments to submit their budget requests. This year both ads and reductions, along with the rationale and analysis to submit these requests. Next step is detailed review of each department's request by our senior team. And we also score those from an equity and climate perspective. This interactive process results in the budget I'm presenting to you today. Following this presentation, it becomes a really heavily involved review process that spans months of review and discussion with by the C Council, hopefully resulting in an adopted budget. So on the base budget analysis, you can see that I just covered most of that. I will say this year, particularly on the reductions, we looked very closely at whether we were able to provide that service a different way, whether there was a value added to roll that service into something else, or whether there really just was not a strong enough need to support that service any longer. In regard to decision making, we want to highlight a little bit about some of the parameters that we established in making decisions about additions to the budget. First of all, they need to align with council priorities. Those are the community's priorities that are articulated by the city council. If they don't meet those priorities, they don't get into the additions. Mandated requirements, those could be federal requirements, federal law requirements, those could be mandated contractor requirements, those we need to fund. And you'll see some of those in the budget. Maintaining our infrastructure, I'm a huge proponent. I know the council is of making sure that we can have all the great programs that you want, but if your infrastructure is in poor shape, you're not gonna be very successful. And that's particularly important when it comes to economic development. We have to be able to provide appropriate infrastructure services, and that's why there's a pretty high level of focus on flood mitigation, not just this year, but in past years. And then obviously making sure it's a very safe environment for our community. And then continuing vital services. There's just some services throughout the city that are vital to our entire community. On the reduction side, again, I highlight a little bit about this. Taking advantage of efficiencies, re-examining some of the vacant positions, and maybe we can do more with less, which we have been reviewing prior year savings where we may have budgeted for a certain dollar amount, but perhaps that department has found different efficiencies and those dollars can be deployed in a different way, and minimizing impact on existing services. So we really tried very hard to do that. We also have followed and continued to follow the primary fiscal policies of the city. This, the city has very strong fiscal policies that have been in place for years that make us a very, very stable, great community to live and work and also make us a great investment in the bond market as shown by our AAA ratings. These fiscal policies are among the strongest you will see in cities around the country. And as you can see, in the fund balance area, it identifies a minimum of 15%, we are above that. Shows cash capital at a minimum of 2%. We're above that. It shows our debt at a maximum at 2.5%. We are under that. We are maintaining all of those fiscal principles in place during this budget, including during these very uncertain times. So that's the revenue perspective. Now let's get into the expenditure side. As you can see from the slide, I think this is a really good slide to chose the breakdown of how we are deploying the dollars that are available in our budget. in the city operation budget, you'll notice that the increase is less than 2%. Council gave guidance about 2% across the board as a operating increase. And in city operations, we were able to do that. We're not without significant challenge but you can also notice that the bulk of that expenditure really relates to obviously some of the schoolwork debt service again the debt service is a function of some of our capital needs. So this is not a year where we are proposing a lot of growth in our staffing. In fact, very little growth in our staffing. We are proposing nine new positions, but we are also looking at cutting seven existing positions. Those positions are all vacant. They are not filled. They're not without pain, but we do believe that in this year's budget, we can manage that. That represents roughly a two position add to our budget. Some of the additions to highlight, there's a in our human resource department that continues to play a more and more critical role with us, particularly as it relates to management of health benefits and health plans and our compensation packages, collective bargaining. We have highlighted the need for a deputy director in that position. I think council will like this. We are proposing another noise inspector in this budget, which I think is important. And then particularly in fire with the need to stand up the pharmaceutical facility that I'll talk about a little bit later, there's two positions. And then a couple others that you'll see throughout. In the reductions, a couple of the highlights there, there is a account clerk, there is a planner, there's two classification counselors and an assistant fire marshal that has been redeployed to another position. So in terms of the next step of this presentation, I'm just gonna do some highlights about by priority, where we have suggesting and putting some proposed investment. The first priority is the city support of youth. So I think it's a really instructive slide. So when you look at this slide, you'll notice that the Alexandria Public Schools system, there's a $329 million funding for ACPS, for just specifically for youth. The city is also in its portion of the budget is adding 23 million for use support. So that told us over 352 million. So just to give you a little more detail on that, ACPS represents 281 million dollars in the operating and $48 million in the debt service. While the Alexandria School Board's adopted budget for consideration was for a 5.6% increase over last year's budget, or over $15 million in new funding. To fully fund that request would require an additional $7 million more in reduction in city department budgets on top of the over 6 million already taken or increase the tax rate by another 1.5 cents. It should be noted that when we talk about supporting our youth, we're not talking just speaking about education that they received during school hours. We're speaking about all of the needs are youth in terms of everything from mental health supports, youth programs and other key services that make for a well-rounded future adult in our society. Is with that lens that we're looking at the whole picture that this budget has been created and not one individual area of funding. A little bit more detail since, and this slide shows since FY 2020 up to now. Since 2020, this slide illustrates the continuous increased funding for the Alexandria Public School System, the great caller that you see here reflects the approved funding which is increasing at a greater rate than other city services and has been for the last five years. Again, the key takeaway here is that the C Council has prioritized funding for ACPS in the past five years. As we switch to the next priority about employee attraction and retention, I'm very proud of our employees. Our employees are some of the best in the country. They work hard, they care about the community, and I think it's imperative to us that we recognize that and try to create a great work environment for them. I know in last year, council made some very targeted investments to try to assist us. And this year we continue to do some of the same. This slide shows a little bit about some of the benefits that we offer. You'll notice there's two benefit plans that help keep us competitive with the marketplace. That's one of our unique advantages in working for the city of Alexandria. And I know with our relatively new human resource director, she's gonna be promoting that very heavily, particularly to people who perhaps lost their jobs due to some changes at the federal level. Our employee attraction or attention also includes the benefits that you see here, particularly I want to highlight the nationally recognized wellness program that we have. That also includes mental health. And then as you see, I know council has asked about this on numerous occasions, our vacancy rate hovers right around 12%. That is down from about 14 to 16% over the past year. And we continue to drive that down. Some of the ways that we're doing that is, is again, trying to create a different work, different level of work environment, trying to engage our employees at a different level, increased improvements in our onboarding areas, as well as compensation. And as you can see here, the The foundation includes a 1% cost of living adjustment. It funds the merit steps for bargain and non-bargained employees and it funds all of our commitments and collective bargaining. And I just want to highlight I would be remiss if I didn trades. Those are difficult challenging areas, and we have wonderful partners in our Union workforce there. A couple of targeted things that we are doing in addition to those slides previously about employee attraction or retention. We are, we'll be conducting an employee survey this year. I think that was something came out of the council retreat. We are also funding some additional promotional processes, third party, third party independent organizations to run our promotional processes in some of the fire service area. And we continue to try to improve some of our onboarding and orientation of new employees. One of the things that we found is that when you get a chance to work with us, sometimes it's not a great fit early on. And we need to do a better job on our onboarding with new employees. When we shift priorities to housing opportunities, I think this is, as I know, is one of council's strongest, most important priorities. This slide really illustrates the investment the city's making in the proposal. It is a $30 million allocation for housing in this year's budget, covering everything from funding for new affordable housing supply to housing rehab to eviction prevention. In economic or community disparities, these, there's some highlights here. The recovery court in the circuit, circuit judge area. We are funding for that. Early childhood support and intervention projects. We're going to increase neighborhood health funding. This is an area that provides significant health services. that the cost structure really does need some additional investment in that area. And as you can see the final one is while we're raising some of our rec fees we're also looking at making sure that those that perhaps can't pay those fees have the ability to still participate in our needed programs. In terms of economic strength, this is the other priority. On top of funding, continuing to fund the base funding of Visal Alexandria, which is our major tourism bureau and our economic development partnership. We are proposing some targeted funding. The first one is in regard to a $200,000 one-time investment related to small business incubators. That's really to providing small growing businesses and startups with training, mentorship, and potential funding opportunities really with the target audience being early startup. This may become an opportunity based on some of the federal worker loss. There's some incredibly talented people that may be looking to start businesses and we want them to start them in Alexandria. We also have assigned a million dollars that would be available. Should there be an economic development prospect that meets the council's focal points, particularly in commercial growth, quality commercial growth, and this would allow us to have some funding available to do that. If the quality project doesn't come forward, these dollars would not be spent. Last year, we created the One Start Center, which is really intended to help accelerate and streamline our development processes. One thing that we're not going to be all ever the most cost effective place to do business just because of our region and the cost structure here. But what we can do is we can match the speed of business. And that is one of our competitive advantages when we're talking about economic development. If we can go faster than our regional partners, we can go faster than our regional partners, we can go faster than other competitors around the country, then that represents something that one, we can control that, and two, that presents us with an opportunity for a competitive advantage when we compete because we have great talent here, and if we can do speed to market, those are two ingredients to a successful economic development prospect. The final one I did want to highlight is the property assets study. What that's about is the city has numerous assets, land assets and building assets throughout the city. And in this environment, I think it's very prudent for us to revisit looking at every one of those. It does not mean we would sell any asset. What it means is perhaps we could utilize the asset that may be not being used right now. A good example of that would be perhaps we have a remnant parcel that could perhaps accommodate four or five homes on it. Well, that represents opportunity for the city perhaps to achieve a affordable housing goal or some other other goal. And that's really what we're trying to get to with that assessment. Really looking at that. And then I think this would probably be a multi-year thing where we would do the assessment and then come back to the council with what would be the actions we might suggest the council take. This actually is one of my favorite slides because in Alexandria, we're in a unique position that we have amazing nonprofits, truly amazing nonprofits that do so many amazing and positive things for our community. They frankly, if they were not here, the city would not be able to do those things. The support shown here on this slide told us over $158 million. And is why it's very important to our success as a community. As you can see, I do want to highlight a couple in there. You can see a live carpenter shelter that provides homeless shelter services and act. Those are three key nonprofits that really assist us in delivering service. In terms of city support, I think this is also a very helpful slide. We're also very fortunate. We have amazing partners with our constitutional officers as well as non-city departments that are really, for all intents and purposes, they are our city departments, but they operate a little bit differently. This represents $41 million in funding. And what that $41 million represents is that is the cost that is not covered by the state so that our subsidy is $41 million for this. So if the community will recall that council directed through the legislative process to go down to Richmond and see if the state legislature would consider revisiting and doing a study to identify perhaps a different level of subsidy for these critical positions that provide such important services of the community that the state is under funding. They're under funding to $41 million on an annual basis. So that is something that I think over time the community and the city needs to continue to work through. We need to continue to work through. Safety is obviously a a core service. And as you can see on this slide, the proposed budget shows $218 million worth of funding in regard to our public safety efforts. This highlights a couple of the new funding pieces, the medical services contract in the sheriff department. I mentioned about the pharmacy if you recall, for the community's purpose, there was a change in the interpretation of the law's related governing drug resource allocation that was coming from our medical centers, our hospitals. That had changed to move into the city department through our fire department where we had to stand up a pharmaceutical facility. And we're on track to do that. But it does cause us to add two positions, one medical director and one fire captain to support this needed service. And then as you can see, the second fire recruit school, which is really important. So when you look at expenditure reductions, just again to highlight this, this represents over the five year period, $32 million and in this year it's almost $7 million in reductions. The potential FY27 challenges are looking out further, again additional federal uncertainty. We have some collective bargaining that's going to move forward that will have some challenges forward on that. We do have projected increases in some of our debt service areas, both in the city and with the school system. Again, over each year, as a reminder, each year, you have the opportunity to reset that. So while it's on here as a challenge, these are all things that can be very positive for us in general, other than perhaps some of the federal uncertainty. Oh, you'll notice that last bullet, council did give me some potential opportunity if I chose to propose a one cent increase and what that might fund. Given the uncertainty in our federal kind federal situation, given our challenging fiscal position. I thought it was prudent not to do that and should the council want to do that, I'd be happy to weigh in but I suspect that the proposed budget is what you'll work off of. So that's the operating budget. So I guess the message I would give you on operating is that we continue to build on our progress. We're making targeted investments, particularly in trying to grow our economic development base. We understand the tax burden that our residents have and we're trying to be very careful with that, including trying to reduce some of our cost structures. structures and we have done that over the last five years. But we continue to have pressures related to inflation related to loss of revenue from the federal side and basically some just general uncertainty in the economy. So on the capital side, it's a 10 year capital budget 2.08 budget. On FY 26, it's the budget actually is $205 million. It does represent a decrease over the last year's approved 10 year CIP. That decrease really is a function of some of the major projects that were appropriated in 2025 that are no longer part of our 10-year capital project. Good example is the landmark, one of the tranches of funding for landmarker coming basically coming off our books. But again I would highlight for the community that everything we do in the capital side is somewhat similar to the operating side and that we follow strong adopted financial management policies such as debt is a percent of the fair market property value recurring general fund cash capital transfer as percent of general fund revenues and expenditures what this is all about is making sure that we never take on more debt than we can. Conservatively cover. And that's one of the reasons that we have a AAA on rating. So you see the CIP here. I think a couple of highlights you see in the orange, the ACPS, which is the $289 million. You'll see storm water management which is at 250 which is in the yellow and then the blue is really transportation. So that's a big bulk of our CIP over half our CIP is really in those three areas. So a couple of the key points in the CIP, and I know we're going to have a presentation tomorrow on this, is to continue to execute on the previously adopted CIP, maintain investments, particularly in the existing infrastructure that we have, continuing the existing commitment in the schools capital plan with with the approved CIP and making selected investments in our waterfront flood mitigation. There's additional funding that's been provided in that area really to cover two bulkheads that are necessary, really need to be fixed in with the current project. And then additional funding over a three-year period for the parking garage renovation, the market square, plaza renovation and city hall renovation in this space right here. In order to do that, there was some significant re-prioritization of existing capital projects. Some of those projects had been expended and the money had not been fully allocated. And so we used to move that money back to try to cover some of the reductions and reallocations and we were able to do that and still fund those additional projects without growing our CIP. In terms of the school system, consistent with the Guides, the Council provided the school board, the proposed CIP provides the same level of funding that was included in last year's adopted CIP, and also funds 100% of their quested funds in year one, 2026. While the budget guys provided by the council November was to maintain the same level, the school board did request a $57 million increase over last year's 10 year CIP, which represents an almost 20% increase in funding. This is not sustainable and the proposed CIP does not provide additional funding as requested by the school board. It also does not provide funding for the conversion of the Jefferson Houston to a middle school. In this year's plan, from my perspective, due to the need for additional conversations with our city council, turns at the broader vision of the community as well as the public, and is also tied to the redistricting process that has not been completed. In terms of the budget calendar, I told you this would be very difficult to read. Don't worry, this is all gonna be on our website. But as you can see, this represents the really, another phase of our budget process, which really focuses heavy attention on a weekly basis where the council's does deep in-depth reviews of all the focus areas and all of the requests for funding and the proposed editions, the proposed reductions and really hopefully results in an adopted budget on April 30th. Here and dear to the council process is the ad delete process here. That is due to members from council members on April 3rd. Submissions must be balanced must have two additional co-sponsors and must be the subject of a public discussion or a budget memo. I highlight that because this is a unique process that council follows which I think is an amazingly positive process. It really shows the ability for you as a comprehensive body to look at how to adjust the budget from what we propose based on your own interest, your own focal points, your own knowledge base, and it tends to be a very helpful process. I felt like that certainly the last three years. The final slide I have is really just to recognize that we have a lot of information that I presented tonight and there'll be there's a lot on our website. You can see these are all great opportunities to see both the timeline, the calendar, the resources. You'll start to see questions and answers, budget questions, public comments received, and then you can see the website down on the lower right that people can utilize. If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to show a little bit of a summary of a budget video that hopefully captures a little bit about what's highlighted in this year's budget. Hopefully it's meaningful to our community. Each year, the city manager, along with over 30 departments, offices and partner agencies, creates the roadmap for resource allocation. In the upcoming fiscal year, 2026, starting July 1st, city manager James Paragion is proposing a $956 million budget, which is a 3.1% increase over last year's budget. The proposed increase is a result of inflation, rising cost of city services, additional needs in our schools, and employee compensation. So this year's budget builds on the existing council priorities. Our budget builds off of that. Those are the community's priorities articulated through the City Council. With the guidance of City Council priorities, the budget emphasizes service delivery, resident quality of life, program sustainability, affordability, and community investment. In your own households, costs have increased in our country as relates to a lot of the things that we buy on a everyday basis. That's no different than what we do in the city in terms of our services. The proposed FY26 budget will be another consecutive year of growing investments in support of our youth. The proposed budget allocates funding and afterschool programming, mentoring, workforce development, transportation, and other services for our youth. This year's budget proposes an investment of $329 million towards Alexandria City Public Schools. This is an increase of more than $10.5 million to support increased teacher pay, expanded student programming, and increased learning resources. And the investments do not stop with our schools. In Alexandria, we are taking full steps to ensure that everyone has access to safe, affordable housing. The proposed FY26 operating budget includes a near $12 million allocation to continue efforts aimed at diversifying Alexandria's housing options. Combined with the capital improvement plan, housing initiatives across the Department of Community and Human Services, and real estate tax relief, a proposed $30 million will be aimed at the city's commitment to expand affordable housing in Alexandria. The San Zayin Naja Affordable Housing Project is an example of that commitment. It is our city's most ambitious affordable housing project to date with 474 new homes. 416 of those new homes are affordable rentals for families who earn 40 to 80% of the area median income. One of the things that's really, really important is dedicated funding source. And that's what the city's budget process and the city's funding through the office of housing allows to happen. Many of these projects take years and years to get zoning approvals, to get designed, to get our other financing sources lined up and it's that city money and city dedicated funding that allows us to have a confidence that we can build these projects. This year's proposed budget includes more than $189 million across our public safety units. The Department of Emergency Customer Communications, the Alexandria Sheriff's Office, Alexandria Fire, and Alexandria Police all have a role in keeping our community safe and secure. The FY26 proposed budget continues funding of $31.1 million for recreation, parks, and cultural activities. That is a continued investment into our green spaces, after school and summer activities, special events throughout the year across the city, and ensuring our recreation centers have the best programs and activities to keep our residents engaged and active. A critical area of investment and long-term planning is in the city's infrastructure. With combined allocations of more than $100 million, planning and zoning, transportation and environmental services, and transit services, round out key funding areas that shape every square mile of our city. The Dash Fairfree program falls into this blanket and continues to show strong returns on this investment year after year. The program is helping to remove barriers for those who rely on public transportation. Fairfree is entirely because of the city's budget and the commitment that council made to funding GASH fully without expecting our riders to have to contribute additional funds. And that's what the budget is about. Identifying the best use of our dollars and providing accessible services and resources our residents need from diversifying our housing options, increasing funding into Alexandria's city schools, expanding public safety initiatives, investing and continuing programming for our youth and future leaders, maintaining our infrastructure and everything in between. We continue to create a city where everyone can succeed and have the opportunities to build on our progress. So mayor and council I did want to say just recognition of again Morgan route. Amanda ham are wicks and all of the wonderful budget analysts and staff behind them. and also recognize Evedi Fleming and her her team and Lethie Prado for some of the work on the budget video. So I know that was a lot. I apologize. I was lengthy and probably a little dry for some people, but I'm a nerd. I like it. And I know we're going to spend a lot of quality time together on it. Well, first thank you, Mr. Manager, for your presentation. It was very informative and I think exactly what we needed to hear is we kick off our budget deliberations. I too want to just thank all of the staff. I know that this process was pretty much year round. And so while we get our presentation today, I think so many people in this room have been working countless hours to try and hold together a budget that reflects our needs and our priorities and continues to serve to serve our community in the way that residents deserve. I'm gonna open it up to members of the council for questions or comments. I do wanna remind everyone I took the time to count this slide. There are 19 other opportunities for you to share your questions and comments. So we'll just keep them high level if we can today. And I think Council member McPike was first and then Council member Chapman. Yes, we do have lots of opportunities to talk about every specific department agency. The one thing that has been kind of hanging over the Council's budget process in our considerations all year has been on the CIP side, which is the gap between our borrowing capacity and our expenses in fiscal year, 2029, which did about $80 million in last year's CIP. Where is that at now? I mean, I'd not have spoilers for tomorrow, but. Eating councilman McPike, you're stealing my funder for tomorrow, so thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. overall objectives, was to ensure our level of long-term plan borrowing was the same as last year's approved CIP. So while some things moved around within that 10-year period, including reprioritizing projects to address waterfront and city hall, the overall debt number has stayed the same. So it's really kind of not a really a large change in that picture. Well, one thing though that can make a difference there is particularly since that's sort of the towards a little bit on the back end of the CIP is the I know councils had these discussions with the school board in particular is looking at where there are opportunities perhaps to look at what those needs are. They have been articulated sort of the tail end of the budget particularly as a relates to facilities and think about shared opportunities utilizing some of our existing assets, land assets, things like that where we may be able to combine school opportunities and community facility opportunities together and get some cost savings. That's one of the ways that it's gonna drive down that emerging challenge that's out there. Spending $1.02 is good budget sense. Yep. And just sort of while we're on the topic of CIP, when we go to market just in general, and we borrow money around what interest rate do we tend to borrow at? Yeah. Are you want to take that? So we are a triple A rated agency, so we have access to some of the best interest rates out there. You know, it's going to vary on year to year of late. We've been experiencing between an annualized interest rate between three and a half to four percent. And we model closer to a four and a half percent rate, just to be conservative, make sure we can absorb fluctuations in the market. Yeah, so just to follow that up., so if for instance, we were to jeopardize our bond rating in any way, and that rate increased to maybe drop the bond rating, that would represent about a 30 to 40 million dollar increase in the cost to borrow over the 10-year period. So roughly $30 million more if we adjust away from the process that we're in right now. Yeah, that's sort of where my next question was gonna be because if you have that interest rate go from 4.5% to 5%, that doesn't sound like a big increase, but it's actually an 11% increase in the cost of just paying for the money that we're borrowing, which has severe ramifications. And my understanding from the presentation we had in the autumn was that our bond rating came back great, AAA, AAA, but the only red flag they had for us was that fiscal year 2029 that the fact that we skim close to the edge of our own borrowing policy. So we need to be very, very cautious about that. I'm glad that you all are doing so. Yeah, I think just the other thing I would add generally to that is the impact of the industry isn't the only ramification to a hypothetical scenario in which we downgrade it to a double A. We're very attractive to invest into, because of our strong financial position, the consistency of our rating, and when that drops, all of a sudden it's not as interesting to look at. Doesn't mean that there wouldn't be buyers on the market, so to speak, but it's a very different picture. The other point I would just make really quick, we talk about that impact being roughly half a percentage that's current market conditions. If the market tightens up or we enter to a recessionary environment, that's spread wideens. Just they're tighter now because of economic conditions conditions. If that situation worsens, we can see a higher spread in a higher increase in costs in that situation. In a lot of ways, the best thing that this council can provide to the. I appreciate the budget and the purchase they all have taken, one of stability, and also preparedness. I think a lot of people in our community are feeling a lot of instability in their lives right now. We see what's happening across the river where tonight the House passed a budget resolution that would cut more than one and a half trillion dollars from federal spending over the next 10 years, where layoffs are impacting sporadically and not entirely legally, people across various federal agencies. So the degree that which the city of Alexandria can be a place of stability, predictability, and sort of security for the residents of our city, I think that this budget reflects an effort to go there. Obviously we're going to tweak it at the edges, but I appreciate that. I also appreciate the preparedness that you discussed, the funds that we're setting aside. Because if we do see a significant loss in jobs in this area, the budget impact will come to us in three waves. I mean, the first will be from federal grants just stopping some of our transportation projects rely on those, but you're setting money aside to help us cushion against that. The second would be that if we do see job losses, those sales tax revenues could fall in the back half of this year and impact us, and you put aside funds to prepare that. But what we can't prepare for this year would be if those sort of economic impacts impact our property value is going into next year. And that's when we'll have to make a lot of very hard choices. So I appreciate, you know, we'll go to the details but in the broad strokes, the fact that we have a budget proposal we're working with here that tries to cushion as best we can, whatever might come the next few months But keeps us very stable so we can make calm and deliberative decisions about how to respond to whatever comes else comes down the pike So thank you all for your work on the budget. I have like eight questions I'm gonna be sending as soon as the man just sits down as usual But I look forward to continuing the conversations over the next few weeks Thank you you, Councilmember McPike. Councilmember Chapman. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Just a couple of things. First of all, thank you to staff. I know we're just beginning this process, but as was said, this is a year-on-process that doesn't stop. And so thank you for introducing the budget that we are. We as a community and Council are going to kind of work over. I'll keep my comments to our future meetings, but I did wanna ask, what is a budget bananza? I saw that on page 51 within the budget calendar and so just wanna understand what we'll be getting ourselves into. That's a great point. I believe you want to take that. Our stellar communication director used that term. So I think I'm going to ask her to highlight that. I think in broad strokes, that means that we're going to be in a lot of different locations, not just formal locations, but informal locations, parks and rec centers on a Saturday morning. Just asking people if they have questions about the budget, do they want to learn more of that type of thing? But I'll let Evanie speak. Good evening, Mayor. Members of Council, Evanie Fleming, Director of Communications and Community Engagement. The idea behind the budget bananza is an internal and external so employees as well as the community gathering together on market square to see all of not all of the departments but our most visible departments who are bent who are it's a resource fear. It's a resource fear for the budget. So looking at public safety, DCHS, community engagement, Alex 311- so these very high priority areas that the city manager has mentioned, being able to showcase them for employees as well as our community and hopefully they can come out ask questions and see what it's all about and how the budget shows up in their lives every single day. Thank you. My last question or comment in the past as staff works with the number of questions that come from council, there's usually kind of an unspoken point at which no other questions can honestly be answered within the time frame. It'd be great to kind of give us a heads up and say, hey, we're getting to that point. If you got a last couple of questions, we'll try to get them out. If not, you know, we're going to have to have kind of some type of cutoff or something so that we're not kind of bugging you at the end about stuff that we either want to add or delete that doesn't have a question to it. March 21st. Yeah, so I think that would be roughly March 21st. We'll confirm that for you, but generally, I mean, we will try to answer any question that you provide but in any time we can, but we do want to give sufficiently time if it's something, especially if you're something you're considering for Abelie. We want to be able to have enough time to do a thorough response to that. So that means if you go to the budget bananza, that should last day day. After the budget bananza, don't my question. Before I go to Council Member Elnouby, I do just want to highlight and elevate something that we heard from director Fleming, which is that this council, we really are trying to be intentional about how we communicate and engage around this budget. So when folks look at the budget calendar, I hope you don't just glance over it because the manager is going to present his budget multiple more times. I think it's usually only once. There's going to be other communications and videos on social media and across our websites to make sure that we're explaining how this process works, but more importantly, how the public can shape it. There's also going to be budget pop-ups and other engagements as well. So I just want people to know, I think we're also going to be looking at ways we communicate out what is happening in the budget work session since we know there's a lot of questions asked there. I think we recognize this as a tough year and we want everyone to be helping us as we sort of finalize this budget. Councillor Oberon will new be. Yeah, on that note, it is a tough year. of uncertainty so I can't say it I think it's been said, can't be said enough. So I think what I appreciate that you were able to fit all the important things in without a tax increase. I think in a year like this where people are feeling uncertainty, a tax increase would be a little tough. So thank you for that. Not to say that we may not do it. We still have options to do it, but at least coming to us with a proposed budget, we can't say that we may not do it. Thank you for that. Not to say that we may not do it. We still have options to do it, but at least coming to us be a little tough. So thank you for that. Not to say that we may not do it. We still have options to do it, but at least coming to us with a proposed budget that has no tax increases, I really appreciate that. I think you mentioned that to fund the school board requested budget, it would require 1.5 cents tax increases, that correct? The operating, 1.5. The operating, just the operating. We're not even talking CIP, just the operating. The CIP would be another 1.2, so the total would be 2.7 cents on the tax rate. And can you remind us how much we increased the taxes by last year and how much of that went to the school board? A dollar, maybe. It was 1.85. So the tax rate increase last year was 2.5 cents and roughly just under 2, roughly 1.85 of this sense went to schools operating capital. It was $4 million for operating and 4.7 for capital. Thank you, that's all. Thank you, that's all my questions. Well, I have two quick questions and a comment. Recognizing we're gonna have our CIP presentation tomorrow, I wanna pick up where Councilmember McPike started us. I wonder if you could spend some time talking tomorrow about as we continue to have conversations around right sizing the CIP, like what percentage of additional cuts or changes might be needed to truly reach that right sizing target. The other question I would have for tomorrow on slide 47, the one with the big circle, I know not all of these projects, so I'm thinking like the transportation-related bucket. That's not all funded by just $CityDollars. And so if there's some way tomorrow, we can spend some time kind of breaking down the other sources that are captured here. I think it would be really helpful to the public to understand. Yeah, good. The other thing I just wanted to lift up, because I don't think it fits perfectly in a budget memo, but I'm hoping that we can discuss this throughout our deliberations. I appreciated this slide that talked about, we're not increasing a lot of positions. At the same time, what keeps going through my mind is that we are still a growing city. And that means that's additional demands on public safety, on services, and other departments. I think also in a time of uncertainty, there might be more residents who need even more services or services that they never had to depend on before. They might be seeking them for the first time. And so I'd love to just be talking about as we go into some of these deeper conversations around public safety, around DCHS. How do we plan for and make sure that we have the staff capacity? We need to serve residents while also not burning out our staff who are working so hard to do so much already. That's a great point. We'll be prepared to talk about that, but particularly the staff burnout. I mean, we have a lot of staff working very, very hard every day. That's a big challenge with the limited capacity. So it was a difficult situation this year. No, I think that was very clear that it was difficult but I think also the word of uncertainty and trying to plan in a time where we just don't know a lot. And we're starting to already see those impacts on our residents and businesses, and ultimately we're going to see them in our local economy. And so how do we continue to put forth a budget that does what we need it to, but also prepares in many ways for the things we can't fully prepare for? Are there any other questions or comments? Okay, so we do not need to vote on this item. I'll just say thank you again, Jim. Thank you again to all the staff who have come tonight. We look forward to spending every Wednesday with you from now until and now until May. With that, Madam Clerk, please call the next item. Or reports and or presentations on members of City Council. I don't think we have any so I should look. No we don't have any. Madam clerk next item. Consideration of city council schedule. Okay I will entertain a motion to approve the council schedule. There has been a motion by council member McPike and a second by council member Chapman, any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, aye's have it. At this point, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. I hope there's so many people. I will take a, there's a motion from Vice Mayor Bagley and a second from Councilwoman Green to adjourn tonight's meeting. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, needing adjourned. Thank you everyone. It's so hot in here.