you you you you you you you you you you 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 go to the next room. I'm sorry. you you you you you you you you you you you you you 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. So I need to do it. That's what I've always been patient with when I was a child. It's like a boy name. I'm a child. I'm a child. I'm a child. I'm a child. I'm a child. I'm a child. I'm a child. I'm a child. I'm a child. I'm a child. I'm a child. I'm a child. I'm a child. I don't know if it's time for us to write. It's like the time for us to write. It's more than a minute or so. You better not do it at this moment. Maybe it's just not write. It's like the time to write. It's more like the time to write. I don't know if it's time to write. It's more like the time to write. It's more like the time to write. It's more like the time to write. It's more like the time to write. It's more like the time to write. It's more like the time to write. It's more like the time to write. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do it. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do it. I tell my parents, like, look at this. I'm going to'll hurt her. I'm sorry, it's not that hard. I tell my parents like, look at this. I'm always just starting to understand. You know, I think so. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. This is the one that I'm trying to say. Well, this, you know, I'm really looking forward to seeing you guys. I'm really now called to order. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Good evening. This meeting is now called to order. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I'm from New Zealand, and I'm from the United States, and I'm from New Zealand, and I'm from New Zealand, and I'm from New Zealand, and I'm from New Zealand, and I'm from New Zealand, and I'm from New Zealand, and I'm from New Zealand, and I'm from New Zealand, and I'm from New Zealand, and I'm from New Zealand, and I'm from New Zealand, and I'm from New Zealand, Thank you. I'd like to thank everyone for coming tonight. First item on the agenda. Our agenda amendments and approval. Are there any agenda amendments? Yes, I have one. I would like to add the recognition of the police department for receiving their Fifth accreditation award. Since we have the Commissioner of the BEL EPSC, Chief Michael Cokis of the Charlottesville PD here in the building, and you didn't put it on the agenda again. Second amendment. Discussion? No discussion. We have the chief, the commissioner of the Creditation Committee here and I think our police department deserve to have a public recognition of this great award. I've got no objection. Further discussion? I have no objection. Further discussion? I have no objection. All in favor? Aye. And where do you want it on the agenda? It would be great if we could have it after consent agenda since he is driven here all the way from Charlottesville and Sherees on his way back down after the meeting. All right, and I have an agenda amendment. This relates to Council members Stout, who will be participating remotely this evening due to travel for work. And it was met the criteria for town council remote participation public meeting policy regarding remote participation. There's no requirement to prove this by vote of the town council. However, he has requested that we move the public hearing to right after the consent agenda after the recognition. Okay. Hello, session. A little session. A second motion. Okay. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Are there any amendments to this tonight's agenda. Okay. Can I get a motion to approve tonight's agenda as amended? I make a motion to approve tonight's agenda as amended. Do I hear a second? A second. On favor? Aye. Hi. Any opposed? Next on the agenda is the consent agenda consisting of two items. First is item 5A, approval of the February 13th, 2025 town council meeting minutes. Second is item 5B, approval of the February 25th, 2025 town council meeting work session minutes. To have a motion to approve the consent agenda. I move that the personal town council approve the consent agenda item 5A and 5A as presented in the revised April 8, 2025, the town council meeting agenda packet. Second. I'm on favor. I am.. Hi. Any opposed? My turn. I would like to invite Charlottesville chief, We'll be clutching up to the mic to begin the recognition and we can all go down for a picture afterwards. We'll be eating. Mayor, members of town council, town officials and citizens of the town personal will. First I wanna thank you for the opportunity to speak with you tonight. My name is Michael Kochis and I am here on behalf of Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services and the Professional Standards Commission to recognize an accomplishment that reflects the highest standards of public service, professionalism, and perseverance. Tonight, I have the distinct honor as a member of the commission of announcing that the personal police department has officially achieved reaccreditation. A distinction that places your department among an elite group of law enforcement agencies across this commonwealth. This reaccreditation is not just a routine. It's a milestone. It requires an agency to meet 192 professional standards, each one rigorous, each one essential to insurance transparency, accountability, and service to the public. I think it's important to understand, too, that only 25% of law enforcement agencies in this Commonwealth are actually accredited. But what makes this achievement even more meaningful is the context in which it was earned. I think we can all agree this has been a period of notable instability within government, leadership changes, organization on certainty, and shifting priorities can offer the road morale, interrupt progress, and test even the most dedicated teams. And yet through the leadership of Chiefs McAllister, Dufick, and Lombona, your police department not only stayed the course, but they've excelled. Through many of the challenges they didn't just comply with the standards, they've actually lived them. This is the hallmark of a department that understands its true purpose. To serve with integrity. To protect with compassion. And to lead by example. There can often be a lot of noise, especially as the pendulum swings back and forth to the extremes. But I believe that there is one government entity that our communities expect to be above the fray, above the noise. It's its police department. And while for one, I for one understand how difficult and complicated that can be at times, I know I've been doing this a little bit. We owe it to our communities to get it right. The process of accreditation demands a deep commitment to detail, policy, training, and public trust. It means opening yourself to outside review, accepting constructive scrutiny, and holding your department to a higher bar than is legally required. In a time when it might have been easier to focus inward, even delay this process. The Percival Police Department chose to move forward and they move forward with purpose. Commission staff and assessors noted strong culture of professionalism particularly in its leadership. This was a team of assessors that came in and went through this department with a fine tooth comb. They noted transparency in reporting and operations and meaningful community engagement. One such program that really stood out to me when it was presented was a program where officers actually mentor young kids and help them put their homework. That's a program that, look, there's no plagiarism in this police chief and stuff. I'm going to steal it and bring it to Charles. They should be commended for this. This reaccreditation is not just a certificate. It really is a statement of resilience and a testament to leadership under pressure. The Percival Police Department team deserves our sincere congratulations, but I also want to acknowledge something even greater. The success truly belongs every member of this department. From the officers on patrol to the administrative staff behind the scenes, it's a shared achievement rooted in teamwork, training and trust. To the town council and town leadership, your continued support of the accreditation process will send a clear message to the community that professional policing matters, independent, apolitical policing matters. That professional policing where process matters and that even in uncertain time accountability excellence will not take a back seat and I'm convinced that your police department won't let that happen. Reaccreditation is not the end of the process, there's still a ton of work that's expected of this department, but you should take pride in what they have accomplished. And so on behalf of the Department of Criminal Justice Services, Professional Standards Commission, I extend our congratulations to you all and to your police department. And if you come up, I'll present you here. You're certainly good. I would like to say a few words myself. Just to echo Chief Cotches, I'm the new kid here, right? So a lot of this is owed to Chief Dufek and Chief McAllister. It's years in the making and they actually did a great job getting us there. And the biggest shout out should actually go to Emily Johnson. She is our backbone of our department. Truly. Thank you all for your support. Congratulations. Thank you sir. You go for it. Congratulations. Thank you, sir. He goes over to the board. Chiefs, chiefs, if you all want to come up here and stand in front and remove the We get a better picture of y'all across here. Yes, chicken fair. Yes, chicken fair. Cheers. 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 everybody. Thank you very much. I'm going to go- You said right after this low session after the public I'm sorry to understand. Next item on the agenda is the first of two public hearings. This one on the FY2026 proposed budget. All persons wishing to be heard at this public hearing should complete a request to speak for them and present it to the clerk. The public hearing for fiscal year 2026 proposed budget is now open. The reason for this public hearing is to receive comments on the town managers proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 2025 and ending June 30th 2025 Well good evening town council citizens and business of Percival The fiscal year 26th budget was presented by me on March the 19th. Since that date, we have held two work sessions, one deal in with the general fund. The other was last week with a utility. And tomorrow we'll have STAN Tech provide our rate model for the fiscal year 2026 and look in forward 10 years out. This budget is on page 38, the summary of it, page 38 and 39 of your package. Key highlights, our budget for fiscal year 2026, the total is 35.8 million or 35.9 million 9.5 million of that goes towards capital improvement and 26.4 million is for operations the CIP the breakdown of the CIP is 3.6 million for wastewater 1.6 million for water and 3.9 million for the general fund and that's the budget in summary. I'll take any questions. Thank you Are there any questions from town council members? Very good. Thank you. Thank you, town manager. We have one person who has requested to speak on this topic and that is Everly Chasen. Please approach the podium. Mayor and members of the Perseville Town Council, Everly Chasen 110 North 28th Street, Perseville, Virginia. First, many thanks to our finance department and all department heads for your work on this year's budget. You all are amazing. To our interim town manager, Frazier and Mayor, I have been reviewing Percival budgets for over 35 years, I'm old. And this has to be the most damaging budget that has ever been presented to the citizens. The entire premise is to balance our utility funds on the back of our general account reserves. Former Mayor Frazier looked at this option many times under his term. Former Mayor Milan reviews this option again. Each time it was decided against pursuing due to the repeated cautions from Davenport, our financial advisor. Davenport even provided this caution in writing on May 22nd, 2023. So why would you believe things are different? I know why. Four of you made an election promise to lower water and sewer rates, so now Percival's financial future is in limbo, so you can win an election. The majority council provided another other damaging blow to our general fund when the simple majority voted to equalize our real estate tax rate, having no idea how to reduce expenses to accommodate this 300,000 loss in revenue. So back to our savings to make up this difference. I'm not convinced the Virginia Code allows council to pass a tax rate on a simple majority. as the code clearly states in towns no tax shall be imposed except by a two-thirds vote of council members. So tonight council is requesting the public to comment on the proposed budget when clearly it is not complete because on the same night the interim town manager is requesting the council members to bring three items on ways to improve it Historically council goes to public hearing when the review is complete and you're ready to present the final budget to citizens for comment In addition Davenport will be here tomorrow night to provide water and sewer rate projections and analysis Logically and historically this is done before the budget is presented For 10 plus years Davenport has told Percival don't mix funds and raise your rates. We keep asking them the same question, hoping there's a different answer. Where are we going to make up the loss revenue? For Azure was reviewing loss revenue projections as we have county facilities in town, where maybe businesses could. Percival doesn't even want to see that tax bill the county will hand us for our assets if we consider taxing county facilities as business. Now one of you would run your home finances this way that you're proposing for Percival. Don't destroy our town's finances. Most of us plan on being here for a very long time. Are there any written materials that have been submitted? Is there anyone in the audience wishing to submit anything without speaking? Is there anyone else who has not spoken and wishes to? time council members may ask questions and or provide comments. Council member Rayner. Again, I'm just confused why we're having a public hearing before we've been talked to the utility consultants and I have so many questions listed for tomorrow for our budget meeting that I was reserving to go through with Dafton Port and Stantec because I really, I think it's a terrible budget and last minute, and I wouldn't have known unless I read the agenda packet, which I do, saying bring three items for me to suggest to help the budget. That's really unorthodox and it's really a little too late. Just bring three random ideas that we can impute into the budget. That's just not the way they should be done and this is just a really bad budget and I just don't believe it is a good sustainable way to move our town forward. It is mixing funds which we've historically We're told to do and that's part of the premise of my questions tomorrow for STAN Tech is why, what's changed in the last two years, that is going to allow for that not damage us. I just am really concerned about taking two million from our general fund and how we're going to make that up and move forward positively. I have a lot of concerns. Council member Wright. I'll echo a lot of what Councilwoman Granger said. I also had that I didn't vote to put us in this situation. So expect me to come up with three solutions to fix this problem. I mean, that's just, you know, shouldn't put us in this situation if you never answer to fix it. So don't rely on me to fix your problems. You know, again, the balls and y'all is court to determine how we're going to get out of this mess. And I'm interested to hear exactly what there are because without stealing from our savings account, even more of which puts the town in even a worse situation, reducing services, reducing town staff, I don't see a way to get out of this. So again, I'll be eagerly awaiting to hear what the individuals are voted to do this. I bring to the table because I don't honestly believe that's a legitimate or well thought out plan to do it. I believe the 16 and 18% rate increases with the promise of continued double digit rate increases every year for four to five years to come is untenable for our residents. Stand by the promises I made the campaign. We are going to make cuts to town government. We are going to reduce the water and wastewater rates. We look forward to working on those measures throughout the remaining budget meetings. Councillor Bailou. We have all thought long and hard about this. We are definitely looking at specific items in the budget that we can amend, change, reduce, or delete. And so that is what we will be finalizing. I would assume tomorrow in our meetings on more of the budget. Council member Cleal. I had no further comment. Council members, stop. Test one, too, is this on? Yes. Good, good. Just a few moments. I'm really not I'm not sure why we're here. I'm not sure why we're holding a public hearing at this point in the process. A few months ago, Council voted to reallocate a portion of the meals tax. We voted to reallocate money from our general fund and to our utility funds. Pretty transparently to avoid enacting necessary rate increases for our utility enterprise funds. And at the time, we were told that there were a plethora of opportunities for savings, for cost-budding measures within the budget. We were told there were problems with chargebacks. We were told there were many, many opportunities, and it would all shake out in our working sessions. Lots of miles of final working sessions. Well, tomorrow is our final working session. And so I've not seen any concrete measures that are viable that we could pursue. I've not heard any discussed. I heard some reference tonight by Mayor Councilmember Luke. Honestly, I'd like to know what those are because right now none of them have been brought, none of them have been discussed at the Dias. Perhaps they've been discussed behind closed doors. I'm not quite sure. But as we sit today, there's a $2 million whole in this budget that is being backstop by our reserves. And there's a nice little graph, nice little chart on one of the papers in our budget book that shows that we can do this action for exactly two more years before we are grossly under policy in our general fund and our utility funds. So until these magic solutions appear to me, it seems like we're driving this town off a fiscal cliff. And I'm concerned, and I hope that these solutions manifest themselves shortly. But my fear is that they won't. And we will continue drawing from reserves to satisfy political promises that we use to get ourselves elected. And ultimately it's the town's finances they're going to suffer. Thank you, Council Member Stout. I'd like to point out that the amount that's proposed in the budget for moving from our out of reserves is actually 1.6 million and this is for the general fund reserves which are more than $5 million over the policy limit. So we're not in a $2 million whole, the The the whole is less than that. And we believe that we will find further economies of scale and further ways to improve the town's operations as we move forward into fiscal year 26. I find this budget to be balanced. It is not running a deficit in any way, shape or form. And I'm fully in favor of passing this budget as it is constructed. There being no further comments, this public hearing is now closed. The next public hearing is on the budget year, fiscal year 2026, master tax and fee schedule. Sorry, a little bit of prefect language there. All persons wishing to be heard at this public hearing should complete a request to speak form and present it to the clerk. Purpose of this public hearing is to receive comments on the ordinance setting rates for number one community development fees, number two performance bonds and as built site inspections, number three permits, number four geographic information system services and number five community garden fee rental. The rates and fees would be effective as of July 1, 2025. 25. Okay, thank you mayor and tongue council citizens and business first of all I'll present our finance team to go over the rates and fees for fiscal year 2026. Thank you most of the changes have been covered by the mayor. I just wanted to mention though on page 41 you can see the details of what was in the public hearing. Are there any written materials that have been submitted? Is there anyone in the audience who wishes to submit anything without speaking? I've received no forms from citizens who would like to speak. Is there anyone who has not spoken and wishes to? this time council members may ask questions and or provide comments councilmember reiner I don't have any comments on this thank you councilmember right nothing at this time Council members stout No comments and the mayor has no comments They're being no further comments this public hearing is now closed. And someone read us into closed session. I It's authorized under the code of Virginia to point a vote of point of vote. I don't think you can since you're not going to be in the meeting. At a discussion with the attorney beforehand, my understanding my understanding I can participate. As the closed session will not relate specifically to the police department or the chief or but is limited to the contract with the consultant, there's no bar on you participating on this in that closed session. As authorizing to the code of Virginia 2.2-3711-8, I move that town council convene a closed meeting for consultation with legal council, employ to retain by the public body for specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such council. Specifically, the town council will review the legal council, the contract between the town and major consulting and design LLC. The following are requested to attend the closed meeting. The mayor and all members of council, human resources director, O'Donnell-Snell, Senator Rodona, Senator Rodona, Senator Rodona, Senator Rodona, Senator Rodona, Senator Rodona, Senator Rodona, Senator Rodona, Senator Rodona, Senator Rodona, Senator Rodona, Senator Rodona, Senator Rodona, Senator Rodona, Senator Rodona, Senator Rodona, Senator Rodona, Senator Rodona, Senator Rodona, Senator Rodona, I'm a favor. Aye. Any opposed? I'm abstaining. I just, I do have a quick question for the town of great. How could this not pertain to the police department? It is a contract about the police department. The legal issue relates to the legal rights and remedies the town has under the contract. That's after the closed session. Thank you. 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 sorry. you 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 sorry. you I'm going to go to the next room. 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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 sorry. you Meeting is called back to order. In accordance with section 2.2-3712 of the code of Virginia, I move that town council certified to the best of each member's knowledge. One only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements under Virginia Freedom of Information Act 2. Only such business matters as were identified in the motion motion by which the closed meeting was convened. We're heard, discussed, or considered in the meeting by the public body. Here's a second. A second. On favor? All right. Next on the agenda is community highlights. Congratulations go out to Shanti aesthetics and wellness medicine on their opening. I along with council members Luke and Rainer attended their ribbon cutting last Friday. Also please join me in congratulating officer Larry Michele who was awarded the Federal and Foreign War Law Enforcement Public Service Servant Citation Award. The citation is given to a law enforcement individual who shows consistent excellence in the performance of their duties as well as continuous dedication and growth in their official responsibilities and skills within the profession. The Arbitrate Foundation is named Percival of 2024, Tree City, USA, in honor of its commitment to plant, grow, and maintain trees to benefit the community. Thank you to Amy Ware for assisting the town with achieving the growth award for the 14th year in a row. The Percival Music and Arts Festival is coming up April 26th. If you're interested in volunteering to help with the event, please visit the sign up list on the town's website. Also, just announced yesterday, the Percival Police Department is hosting kickball with a cop. On Friday, April 25th at 3.30 pm at the Loud and Valley Community Center. The event is family friendly, open to children of all ages, accompanied by a parent or guardian. Next on the agenda we have citizen business comments. The first citizen to speak will be Kristen Shields. Hi, we are excited to start this first-of-all town council meeting with positivity. Hi, we are Cadet Girl Scout troop 7-chip-0-5. We are located in Percival and we are currently working on our Silver Award, which is the highest award that girls are level can earn. Silver Awards helps solve problems in our community. And after researching the needs of our community, we have come to this decision that we would like to install an accessible water-drinking fountain that also includes a dog waterboat and a water bottle filling station. It would be placed at the end of the 45-mile W W and OD trail at the Percival train station. After meeting with town representatives to talk about the project, we found out that the train station has a water fountain that is currently broken and needs to be replaced. This fountain will benefit the Percival community and it's deserves as around five billion plastic water bottles are used globally a year. Installing this fountain with a water bottle filling station would help reduce the plastic in our limestone by encouraging reusable water bottles. An additional issue is that around 47% of Americans don't drink enough water which can lead to kidney failure. We would love to try to support our community with free, accessible water for more hydration, health, and happiness. The fountain we're planning to buy is from a company called Global Industrial and has come to the cost of $3,500. Our deadline for this project is September 2025. We've sold many Girl Scout products to fund this project, but we still have a ways to go. We'll host a booth at the Music and Arts Festival at the Spring. We also have flowers for passing around with additional details in a way youlanowski. Good evening. Mr. Mayor, Council members. I'm Philip Olanoffsky. I've lived in Percilville for 34 years. My remarks here tonight will seem irrelevant to many and has little chance of changing the local situation. I make them because someone ought to and because they are true to put them on the record. Another obligation requires me to leave after speaking. I apologize. Do any of you hear this, who are engaged in causing conflict locally, it's time you look at the larger reality in which you are acting. The assumptions underlying your actions may have been valid in a world that no longer exists. While the Titanic is going down. You are busy in some cabin making deals for a seat on the captain's table at dinner tomorrow. Perhaps by discrediting some seated there today, you'll get your chance. I have spent more than 50 years engaged almost daily in trying to bring forth a new global renaissance to replace the systemic degeneration that is now causing new levels of collapse around us at all at an accelerating pace. Only a new paradigm based on cooperative, mutual benefit among nations, each treated with respect and dignity as part of a single humanity, can succeed in lifting us up from the historic crisis facing mankind. That paradigm lies in the best of our nation's history. In case you didn't notice, people have gotten fed up with empty political rhetoric disgusted by attack politics and above all tired of constant conflict. We want positive action to restore life in which we can look with justified, tangible hope to a brighter future for our children. Like the untold damage that could be caused by asteroids we haven't yet identified, the consequences of a number of dynamic processes now unfolding could soon lead to an historic financial economic collapse, new pandemics, and or continued war, even leading to nuclear war. Most of that now depends on how the United States responds to the fact that the majority of the world is already moving in or toward a new uplifting paradigm. Sticking with what worked yesterday is a fools endeavor. Manoeuvring in disreputable ways, disreputable ways for local advantage is pathetic, no matter who may be directing it. It dishonors you. We are all born for better use of our talents. And as for overturning election results, be careful what you wish for. Thank you. Speaker is Michael Cocus. The next speaker is Sarah Morgan. Hi Sarah Morgan, first time speaker. Sorry if I get a little we'd be just found out my mom's in the hospital so I'm here to try and speak on. When my mom sent me the letter for her that she would like read I realized that a lot of the things that she said are I already wrote down so I'm just going to say what I wrote down. The first thing is that a couple weeks ago I know a vice-maron net has said that it's only tens, not hundreds, not thousands of people who don't agree with what you're doing. And through the petition we have seen that there are hundreds. And something that has been eye-opening is a lot of the people that came to speak to us. I've said that they voted for you because they believed in you guys. And through the actions that you guys have already done from January 8th on they regret voting for you guys because they trusted you. And so even the people that you say that you're trying to help, the people that voted for you and you're saying you're trying to fulfill your campaign promises to them. They have already felt that you're not fulfilling your campaign promises with transparency and all of that. Sorry. I just we just I love personal I moved here in 2005 and I keep coming back you know I've gone off to college I've gone off to work and I keep coming back because I love personal. And I just, I want to see it continue to be the town that it is to have that vibe. And a lot of what's going on is just not, not keeping that vibe. So thank you for letting me speak. I would much rather be in the hospital with my parents, but I, I'm here because it needs to be said. So thank you. Please wish them on the desk. Please. Thank you. Thank you. Mary Jane Williams. Mary Jane Williams, 313 Locust Grove Drug. and tonight I'm going to be speaker 4A and 4B because I'm going to be reading Christy Morgan who's at a 608 greater than Lane and then Brian Morgan's comments. So first Christy's and yes she is in the hospital so she sent this to us. The majority seems to think it's the same people speaking here each week. Maybe it is. In my experience with community volunteering, it's often just a few individuals who step up and commit to being actively involved. But that doesn't mean others don't share their concerns. At the last meeting, Mr. Netclaim, that there aren't hundreds who feel the way the speakers do. Let me tell you today there are hundreds who share these views as the person who types of all the names from the petitions. I can tell you that. As shown by the number of who have signed the petition, these aren't just individuals who refuse to accept election results. In fact, we regularly hear from voters and supported the majority but are now dissatisfied with their leadership. For every person who speaks here, there are likely a hundred others who feel the same way, but remain unheard. It was also suggested that we're speaking out for political power. In today's terms, that's called gaslighting. I accepted the election results and initially had no attention of getting involved. However, the events of January 8th, where public firing was followed by the appointment of an inexperienced political ally as town manager, compelled me to take a stand against these shenanigans. Ask yourself this. Are we the ones suggesting we should have used political powers to install ourselves as chief police? No, we're simply asking this group to do better. To those listening or present this evening, if you don't trust this majority or quiz-free-asure to make some decisions for our town, join us outside to sign the petition to learn more about the issues, visit Perseville Deserves Better on social media or email Perseville petition at gmail.com. Listen to the recording of the last budget meeting. They're solution yet again, tapping into our reserves. At this rate, there won't be any reserves left. It feels as though the majority has read the book 13 ways to kill your community, and it's 10 on following its instructions. I almost bought a copy for each of you, but stop myself. Why give you more ideas on how to harm our town? We're here to listen, unlike the majority who think they're above everyone else and don't have to explain their actions. Christy Morgan. You don't need to wait. I can start. She'll get it. This is for Brian Morgan, 608 Grayson Lane Perseville. And he sent this to the clerk but it's just not in time. Please read these comments into the public record during the public comment section. And he's in the hospital with his wife, Christie. I'm March 25th, the town council approved a real estate tax of 19.2 cents for every $100 of assessed value. The code of Virginia 15.2 dash 1427 paragraph G states, quote, in towns no tax shall be imposed except by a two-thirds vote of the council members. In person, that would be five of our seven council members or a five to two vote. So how was our current council able to approve the tax rate with the four three vote on the 25th? Whether the tax rate went up or down is irrelevant. The Virginia code says no. Tax shall be imposed without a two thirds vote in it. Also, the town charter states that the town manager shall see that within the municipality the laws, ordinance, resolutions and bylaws of the municipality are faithfully executed. This highlights three important points, folks. Our interim town manager isn't qualified, isn't fulfilling his statutory obligations. But it was hired, supposedly based on his extraordinary qualifications having served as mayor for eight years. go figure. Our town lawyer doesn't have a municipal law background and isn't fulfilling his contractual obligations. Three, our town council needs to be working together not pulling itself apart and not pulling the town apart with it. And that's why we're having what I believe is the first recall campaign in Percival's history. We all live together in this town. We're counting on you, Mr. Mayor and your majority council members to work for all of us, not just the 33% of our registered voters that voted for you, respectively submitted Brian Morgan. Thank you. The next speaker is Darleen Mowry. My name is Darleen Mowry and I live in the town of Percival on Missy Ponteiros. I'm very disappointed at the behavior of some Percival citizens and the people who don't even live here. They have been stroking the fire continually, bashing on social media, and even forming a Facebook group trying to recall some of our newly elected town council members and even a sitting member. We had an election and they won. They are all doing their job that they were elected to do. I can only imagine these town council members' lives are being negatively affected by all of this. I ask you, who would want to move here with all this chaos going on, possibly harming our property values, and setting us up for liability to which we will inevitably come out of our pocket? Why do people think they can overturn our recent and prior election? Because they aren't happy the people they voted for didn't win? Let's behave like adults instead of children that didn't get their way. The majority of our citizens have spoken. We do after all have a democracy. Our town is constantly in the newspapers, which appear to be lacking pertinent information. And it's making our town look very bad. I was, however, very happy to see the Blue Ridge leader recently write an article detailing in detail some of what's going on. And that's a rude. I encourage everyone to read it to be more informed. Trying to get rid of a Perseville police officer who just won police officer of the year is shameful. We need bennet as one of our police officers and as a town council member. Now to our board. It would be respectful for you to welcome our newly elected town council members. Instead, you weren't happy they won in our supporting this recall. Each one of you were elected by the citizens of our town to do a job. A big part of that job is to work with one another and accept the outcome of an election and move on. I expect all of you to look out for the best interests of our town and to do what the citizens elected you to do. In addition, it has been made very clear by a majority of our citizens that we want slow growth in Perseville and do not want any increase in traffic. And I'll save the water issue for another day. Please stop all the fighting, be respectful to one another, work together on what we voted for you and do, and take care of our town. Make us proud to live here instead of embarrassed. Thank you. The next speaker is Mike McAllister. Good evening. I'm Mike McAllister, 1-95-7-6-Cregsville Road. I'm here this evening to provide some information to some of the town council members that only read the book each leader. I've read about these things and other newspapers and I thought I might share them with you. One of the most shocking items is that Percival Police Officer Net was placed on the Brady list by the Commonwealth Attorney's Office. I also read that Officer Net failed to report to duty because he was sick. Officer Net then went to a conference in Richmond instead of reporting to duty. I suppose he could have gone to Richmond in search of a cure for his ailment. Then later that day it was reported that Officer Net was seen drinking in the hotel bar. I guess he could have been there from medicinal purposes. Did you know that Vice Mayor Net is the most qualified person to be the next police chief? This must be because of his vast law enforcement experience. You may think he's been a deputy chief before in another department, but he hasn't. No doubt he's been a police captain somewhere. Not been that. Has he been a police lieutenant? Wrong. And at least a police sergeant. He's had a been a police sergeant in some police department somewhere at some time. Wrong again. So with Officer Net, no executive-level experience, no command level police experience, no supervisor police experience. I think these are the most qualified person to be the next chief of police. Just because you work in the mailroom on a military base doesn't mean you're qualified to be a chief of police. By now, Mr. Net, you must be in receipt of my FOIA request. I encourage you to fully and completely abide by FOIA laws in the Virginia Records Retention Act. And for your edification, I'm asking questions I don't know the answers to. And to the rest of the team, Mayberry, people make fun of Barney Fife, but at least Barney Fife could write a parking ticket and testify in court. Lastly, if the system operates as designed, Officer Net will be desertified by DCJS and will never have the privilege of wearing the badge again in Virginia. Unless, of course, he's a rest stop security guard. Thank you. Thank you. Paul B. All be. Good evening, Alan Colby, 321 Loud and Valley Drive. Since the last talent council meeting we kept councilman right, this thing was to roll. I mentioned the number of citizen speakers at past meetings and net said most of them are the same people. I decided I would speak so that had a fresh face to look at. As I was going through ideas about what to talk about, the first thing I thought about was how, you know, the mayor's condescending comments towards Kevin employment status while discussing council members' inability to meet the deadline associated with the town manager's hiring process. But I decided Kevin was the adult in the room and is fully capable of handling himself with the issue. I then gravitated to issues involving the budget. Town managers use of the new buzzword AI solutions to save us money. I had flashback to his eight years of monitor of monetizing our town to rescue us from our financial woes only to have his ideas fall one after another, leaving us no better off today. Maybe he can find a way for AI to figure out how to make monetization to actually work for our benefit. I was struggling to find the right topic, and then the net letter was published. I'm going to lost for words. Actually, I had a couple. Actually, a few came to mind. Abuse the power of a personal gang, mouthhesms, conflict of interest, narcissism, egotistical. You can't make this stuff up. I bet there are professions at Harvard Law School that want to use personal as a case study for conflict of interest. There Hollywood movie producers that want to chronicle this year's council events, but they are torn on the storyline. Is it a soap opera, a horror story, or comedy? Maybe it's all three. Three of you came out with a public statement atlining your concerns in condoning net's actions. What does team Mayberry stand? If you do not come out with a statement, condoning the actions, then it appears that you three accept this type of the abour and are complicit in this, what is now becoming a very apparent plot, can manipulate our government, and its employees in a subversive manner with the lack of transparency to not only the citizens of this town, but the minority members of the council. Net your disgrace to town, it's time for you to get it. Team Mayberry, your plan has been exposed, it's time for you to start serving us in not yourself interests. Thank you. Next speaker is William Hicks. So I usually start out with a quote from a song, but why can't we all be friends? Seems like it wasn't going to work in this situation. And I did sign the petition. And just like some other people, there was a lady there going, one of the people on the council is my neighbor. And that person lied to me. I don't know who the council member was. But there seems to be two issues in the town at this time. Okay, maybe I'm being a little generous on that. First is the assertion that the residents can't afford their water and sewage rates. And I get so tired of people just saying things that they know aren't true, but they go ahead and do it. So we tried, I'm going to try a few facts. From the US Census Department, the average income in Percival for a household is $163,000. The United States average is $78,000. So that means there's a lot of people who make a lot less money who still pay for their water and sewage. The person's impoverity in Perseville is 4.8%. The United States, it's 11.1. Okay, and the town of Perseville has never been tone deaf to this issue. On the website, it says, Payment hardship, contact our office will find payment options, arrange something before your waters disconnected, and they list several resources. Okay, These are caring people that work for the town. The average number of residents per person or per house, 3.1, nationwide, the average in America uses 82 gallons per day in the household. That would mean a family of four would use around 10,000 gallons in a 30-day period. For a year, and Percivil, our bills run about $2,100 a year. And that's not cheap, and I know that. I know my father's house down in North Carolina. The water rates are much lower. Of course, they don't have sewage. They have a septic system. But that rate is 1.24% of the median income house for our household. That makes the cost $5.54 a day per person $1.85 for every 50 gallons. I can go to the local convenience store and spend more than that on a single bottle of water. Okay. You can get to the second part. Thank you. The next speaker is Beth Goldsmith. Good evening. My name is Beth Goldsmith, 301 West School Street. I first initially wanted to talk about the Main Street program, but I think I'm going to end my talk with that, because what you said really resonated with me, and I think it really is important for us all to have a voice and to have different opinions. I see so many new faces here today and I think it's because people want to be involved and I think it's really important for everybody to read all the newspapers so that you can really see all varying sides of things and not be in a silo. And I'm not trying to pick on you exclusively because I have much better things to do with my time than to come here at every town council meeting but I want to come here, I want to be involved and I want to know what's going on and I'm not just here because the folks that I voted for didn't win, that's not why I'm here. I'm happy with whoever should win as long as they're doing their job, they're doing it to represent the people and they're doing it ethically. And I think the reason there are so many people that come out at every town council meeting is because we're angry and we're frustrated and we want our voices to be heard and it is embarrassing that our town is behaving like this. And I think when you see a bunch of civilized grown-ups losing their pool in a town council meeting, it's because once again, as I mentioned during the last time, our emotions are bubbling over. I would love politics and personal to be boring, knowing that everything is going the way it should behind the scenes and that all town council members are working together to represent the citizens that voted for them. But I don't see that happening which is why I continue to show up at every meeting and why so many other people are showing up. Maybe I'm wrong but I really think it's important that we all have a voice and I'm very happy. I don't expect everyone to agree with what I say or what I think. If that was the case it would be a kingdom. Every one of these people in the council meeting should have a different vantage point and should have a different opinion but then also come to good, come together to work for the greater good. So what you said really resonated with me, and I think the more informed we are, that just makes us better citizens. And so thank you for saying what you did. And I do think we need to behave ourselves. I have found myself behaving probably not at my best during these town council meetings because I am so frustrated at what I'm saying happening. And some of it is going really, really well. But just for an example, when the Main Street program almost got voted out because someone did not have an opportunity to do all the reading that they should have to come up with a proper vote. That that's in the trail. Another note would be to the police department you know being able to achieve that you know year-over-year is not something that should be taken lightly and I think that is something that we should definitely give them all the respect that they're do for all the hard work that they put in their public service that they provide us. So thank you to the police department and all the supporting staff of the police department. To our staff also, I think every day, I don't know every day, that's my exaggeration. I call town hall a lot. I always find everyone to be friendly, be able to provide answers. And I think we have a great staff and anything we can do to encourage staff to stay on board and retain it, I think, is important, which would lead into the budget conversation. Paying the staff what they deserve, right? Make sure they get the raises that are called for or needed. Should be a high priority When looking at any given budget as far as the rates go. I don't have a stance on several properties in town You send me a bill. I'll pay it, you know That's to be said however, it is a real issue and I don't think tackling the rates or looking at it from You know taking out the general fund to supplement the utility fund is a good practice. I never thought it was a good practice. I've stayed on record previously in many years as I've been doing this. I don't think that's a sustainable practice. As far as the public discord goes regarding all the commentary surrounding council or what may or may not be going on, it definitely doesn't help our town look any better. I would agree with you, Miss, that, you know, but I think we're not only through that type of conduct, but through the zoning ordinance that's about to be passed isn't helping our town look any better. I would say that zoning map doesn't look that great to outsiders looking to come invest into our community. And that's not my perspective. That is third party people looking to invest money into the town of first will say, and what do you think about it? How's this going to impact me? Will I be allowed to do this? Or town residents, how would this apply or how is this going to affect my property values? Property values will be affected. I mean, that is without being said. we have been able to buffer the impacts of our property or values being affected because of where we live. But when you put more restrictions on a property or restricted uses or limited uses and more governance, the value of the properties tend to be affected in a negative way. And that would be my assumption of what's going to happen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next on the agenda, we have- Mr. Mayor, I have one that was sent to us that has been asked to read into the record. I have an email from Erica Stout to 10 Upper Brook Terrace. It was around 1230 in the afternoon on July 15th, 19, excuse me, January 15th, 1919 in Boston when the 58-foot tall, 98-foot wide tank filled with molasses gave way, releasing 2.3 million gallons of molasses into the streets. The syrup reached speeds of 35 miles per hour, forming a 25 foot deep, 100 yard wide title wave that washed over the streets, killing 21 people and seriously injuring 150 others. This sounds ludicrous, but absolutely happened. The question is, how could this have possibly happened? There are a number of reasons how this happened. At one point the tank began to leak. Did they fix the leak? No. Instead the tank was painted the color of molasses so the leak would not be seen. Studies show that the tank had several issues that needed fixing to include cracks forming along the rivet holes. All of the issues were fixable but were not. Presumably due to the cost of making such repairs to the tank. So my question to council is this, what is our molasses tank? Considering the engineering standards of today, I'm sure the effects of negligence won't be near as dramatic as a 2.3 million gallons of molasses pouring over the streets of Percivil. But that's the problem. It isn't as obvious, so it's easier to get away with kicking the can down the road. P. Foss is a serious problem for citizens' health. Why does it require a federal mandate to clean up our system when we know P. PFAS is a serious problem for citizens' health. Why does it require a federal mandate to clean up our system when we know PFAS is in our water supply? I find it incredible that the same council that refused to wait to lower a tax rate to make sure there was money to do so. Now insist some way to see if they can borrow money for critical shovel ready projects. Could you at least be consistent? Maribor, making zoning changes is not easy. Stop gaslighting the town. You said it at the last meeting that people can make public comments like that is a form of good accountability. It should be, but you should continue but you continually ignore public comments. So what good is it? It is costly and it is a waste of time for all involved to continually make changes because the majority of the council didn't do their homework and passed a zoning ordinance worthwhile. Consider how costly it is. I am surprised you think that is the best way forward since you supposedly all four cost saving measures. Also it is day 98 and my water rates are still the same. Next on the agenda we have mayor and council comments council member rainer mayor if I may you like to go first council member stout yes if you don't mind I have a work obligation that's going to resume in many moments. We've proceeded. Thank you very much. Okay, so for fans of Western's tonight, my comments will follow a familiar theme of the good, the bad and the ugly. First, the good. Congratulations to Officer Michele for receiving the VFW law enforcement public service citation. The citation is bestowed upon law enforcement professionals who demonstrate consistent excellence in their duties. Officer Macelli, thank you for your outstanding work and service to our town. Congratulations also to staff and our tree community. First of all, it has once again been named a true city USA and honor of its commitment to plan grow and maintain true news. As for events, personal music and arts festivals looking for volunteers, so please, please sign up on the town website and help contribute to this fantastic event happen. We're also looking forward to kickball with cops on April 25th at the Loudon Valley Community site. The bad. As we move through budget season, I continue to have three major concerns. Fair compensation for our employees, sustainable financial planning without drawing from reserves and deferring of critical CIP projects. We need to only look to the lessons of history to understand how critical our decisions are. It was in April 2014 that the city of Flint, Michigan switched its water source, which was known to cut costs. The new water source was improperly treated and was highly corrosive due to high chloride levels and low pH levels. This gross of water caused other metals including lead to seep into the water. Residents immediately noticed the change and negative impacts to public health followed shortly behind. The repercussions of this decision continue to this day. I share all this to illustrate the fact that as elected officials, we are charged with supporting the health, safety, and welfare of our community. Deferring critical CIP projects because we want to play politics and be able to say we didn't raise water rates or take on new debt is wildly irresponsible and self-serving. We should be in the business of doing what's right, not what's politically expedient. The ugly, to the vice mayor, how dare you twist Ladonna and Diana's words to make them look old and argue for something you're supposed to recuse yourself from, to the point that even the town manager, you appointed a public statement to loud and times contradicting you. You sat at this die as two weeks ago and publicly stated that Diana Hayes and LaDonna Snellbaker recommended eliminating the police department. This is false. These were routine budgetary discussions about possible cost-saving measures, not hard and fast recommendations. This was so bad that the Interim Town Manager had to issue a comment correcting your misstatement for the public's awareness. This is embarrassing. If you have any decency at all, you should publicly apologize to both of them. It's a night. Okay. Council member Rainer. Right. Oh, it's been said twice, but more positive back leads to our police department. Congratulations to officer Michele for receiving the VFW law enforcement public servant citation You are bright light in our force and it's always a pleasure to talk to congratulations officer Michele And to embarrass my dear colleague here. I want to congratulate Here to councilman Kevin Wright. He was inducted last night into loud and fire rescue hall of fame. So we're in the present of a legend here. So his wife is going to get the earful from him later on for telling us, but I can't get away from us. Congratulations. And it was at this point when I wrote my comments earlier that I was going to comment that for two counsel meetings in a row the mayor refused to put the recognition that our police departments promotions and accreditation award on the agenda. So it was pond learning we had our special guest coming in from Charlottesville today and was going to present it during public comments which was just awful to me. Force me to what you'll probably call a stunt to request an amendment to the agenda to add it. It is incredibly disrespectful to our police force to limit such a prestigious award to be presented during a public comment period. We should always have time to recognize the good in our town, the awards, the wins. God knows we've been always been embracing the badly. So thank you Chief Cotches for coming all the way up here to make sure our PD got recognized properly. I Recognize you and Appreciate everything that went into getting this award. So congratulations again to our PD for that And then what also my final comments from it bothers me and since I'm first to always speak in discussions I really don't get to properly Respond to others comments, but tomorrow is our last budget meeting and and we, the minority minority have to wait until then to hear the grand new ideas for budget cuts, and I just don't think that's okay That means there's been other discussions going on within them The majority they have ideas, but it hasn't presented to us So we have to wait till the last second For us to hear about it and to discuss and to think about it. I just have I don't think that's okay That is not us working as a team and that is not us working through this budget process properly and then having the public hearing before hearing These grand new ideas and before we hear from the utility and financial consultants. I also don't think is good transparent process. Thank you. Councilmember Wright. First, thank everybody for coming out and staying involved. That's what needs to continue to happen. So please, please don't stop. Because I was just. It's a part of what. What have we called embarrassed or whatever. I did attend the 2024 awards in recognition of the county combined fire rescue system last night. We have members of our community, I just want to recognize, with the press of volunteer rescue squad, we had Thomas Harrison put in 25 years of service. Linda Curtis, 30 years of service. Susan Johnson, 30 years of service. Rob Rich already? Don't want to talk. Rob Richie, 30 years of service. Andrew Bauer, 35 years of service. Jack Merritt, 40 years of service. And with the President of volunteer fire company, and here tonight We have Alan Colby with over 50 years of service to the community so One of my biggest mentors coming through the fire service So whenever I hear him talk I get the fear that he's gonna yell at me for messing up So I'm glad I wasn't the point of his discussion night. Otherwise, thank you all very much. Council member Nett. I appreciate all the love for law enforcement in the room tonight. It seems like just yesterday I was seated in the back of this hall. And councilwoman Rayner was publicly congratulating me on being named officer of the year. I look at page 109 of the proposed budget and there's a recognition of a group of law enforcement officers including officer net for receiving the Sheriff's Maritorious Action Award. What went wrong? I decided to exercise my rights as a citizen and I'm a citizen first as all police officers to engage in local governance. And with that, I became the target of more than a year of harassment and targeting within the department, the weaponization of law enforcement, which I tried very diligently to put a stop to, including trying to get others to assume the amount of leadership and assume vacancies. I'll address that in greater detail and appropriate venue. I would like tonight to formally recognize Gideon Lumis and Wade Reynolds, a Boy Scout troop 7-11, on the presentation of their Ecoscout Awards. I did not know tonight that the Girl Scouts from 7-305 would be here, so this is somewhat fitting. Only 5% of Scouts achieve this top honor. Gideon received 32 merit badges that include wilderness survival canoeing and hiking. As a senior patrol leader he organized and led a group of scouts for what is called a Dutch dropping outing where they were dropped off at night and did night hiking to find their way back to camp. Gideon's Eagle project included working with the park rangers and constructed installing park benches in northern Virginia's sweet run state park. He said, quote, scouting has so many opportunities where you can make a difference and also change yourself. Unquote. He also shared how he was pushed beyond where he thought his limits were to be able to achieve his goals. And that he said is very rewarding. Wade Reynolds received 35 merit badges that includes wilderness survival, climbing hiking as well as canoeing and camping. He's an expert extor and served as a senior patrol leader, leading the troop during a summer camp. His Eagle project was leading a team reconstructing four fire circles and bears den. He said that scouting and being an eagle his fundamental and prepared him to face any physical, mental, or spiritual challenges that will come his way. He adds, the road to eagle and still grit and determination, shaping me into a paragon of youthful resilience, leadership, and accomplishment, and has impacted my character for the rest of my life. Sounds like he has a career as a writer. Congratulations to these young men, Gideon Lumis, and Wade Reynolds. On some over Luke. Well, Ben took my thunder. I really did want to congratulate the Boy Scouts. The Eagle Scouts, having had boys that went through that process and didn't make it to Eagle. It is such an accomplishment and one that as a community we can support and it was very nice seeing the young girl scouts here. I hope you all buy their cookies. Anyway, thank you very much and I'm all for the scouts. Thank you. Councillor Member Colleo. Although my head is overflowing with comments, I will exercise restraint and just say no further comments tonight, Mayor. Councillor Member. All right. Thanks everyone for coming out this evening. I've already given a number of accolades in the community highlights so I'll just move on to other issues. Tonight we've got actually another budget discussion. This is where I reached out to town council members to really with the intent of asking to adopt a different attitude, work through the numbers themselves and come up with some solutions that would help to deliver on our promises for health safety and welfare for the town's residents and for delivering affordable services that the residents can rely on. In addition, as you may have already heard tonight, we have the zoning ordinance coming up again. This is a project that's been ongoing for four and a half years now. Involved multiple members of the Planning Commission. Lots of public commentary, both before the Planning Commission and before the Town Council, a couple of public hearings, and hours and hours and hours of time from the town staff. Once everyone to keep in mind, this is a body of law that has not been significantly revised in decades. This is what we are faced with and this is what we are working with. In addition, we have the Rainbow Bridge up for discussion this evening. This is a project from Local Nonprofit and I hope that everyone has an interest of us stick around to hear about it. And finally I'd like to wrap it up by giving a legal definition of the word imposed as an imposed attack. This refers to new taxes, not to existing taxes that may be raised or lowered. Thank you, everyone. Mr. Mayor, we did get an email from the chair of Edapp that Mr. Net was requested to read as the liaison. Did you want to read that? Mr. Net? Sorry, I don't know. An email sent to you by the chair of EDAC asking you as the liaison to read a very important update from the EDAC to the record. I sent to you earlier this morning, but I could read it if you'd like. The economic development advisory committee, as the chair, Tamardine asked this to be read into the record tonight so that it could be made public. EDAC approved a motion at their last meet. The Economic Development Advisory Committee recommends the town council that the June 12, 2024 resolution authorizing the town's participation in the Virginia Main Street program remain in effect and not cancelled as is it is a requirement for grant funding technical consolation and future participation by the community led principal main street organization. Thank you. All right. Next on, we're going to action items. First action item is approval of granting ordinance and electrical current services franchise agreement And presenting will be gift hamster Good evening, Mr. Mayor members of council. I'm gift for hamster. I'm filling in for my partner John Capricchi is talent turning this evening Before you tonight is the Item 11 a which is the approval of a granting ordinance and electrical services franchise. And the background as stated in the staff report is that certain sections of the Virginia Code require that if a locality is to grant rights within its rights of way for greater than five years, it needs to go through a franchise process. And on March 11th, the town council approved a procedural ordinance which is part of that process, which initiated a public bid process for electrical services in broadband facilities within the town rights of way. Tonight, I understand that the bidding process or the bidding period actually closed at three o'clock this afternoon, I understand that there is one bid from Dominion Electric Power. And Mr. Mayor, it would be appropriate for you to open that bid at tonight's meeting. I think you have it in front of you and identify it if you would for the audience. Yes, I have in my hands the bid response from Virginia Electric and Power Company. And we understand that is the sole bid so that the action item is now before you for discussion and vote. And also we have on the line Dominions Council is available to answer any questions about it. This is for the approval of a franchise ordinance, which would give Dominion the rights within the right of way to provide electric power and broadband services, pursuant to the front that the details of the franchise ordinance that's in your package. There are also two people from Dominion in the audience I understand who can answer any questions. Are there any questions from council? Thank you for your question. And I apologize for the last few minutes. Thank you. Turn your mic. I'm not sure. 11th, but so much is going on. Question one. So the current agreement was put into effect in 1972. That's right. And when did it expire? It expired in 2012 actually. 2012. So what was the catalyst to get it going right now? Did we go to, how did it surface now? I understand that Dominion approached the town in 2023 because it was to participate in the Virginia pilot program that allows collaborations between localities, electric utilities, and internet service providers to connect on serve areas with high speed internet. So it was really that was the catalyst after a hiatus where we were technically outside of a franchise agreement for a number of years. So there's certain language that refers to the construction of towers and whatever they need necessary to, whatever they need necessary. So is there anything in here that speaks to, say, large transmission lines or speaks against it or protects us from it. There's so much going on right now with the data centers and running lines all over the county that are we protected with this agreement from something like that. I'll let the Dominion representative speak to that but I would imagine if the concern is with respect to the large transmission towers or data centers that the physical limitations of the rights of way within the town would prohibit that as well as the language within the franchise agreement itself. But I'll let the Dominion representative, who's on the phone, answer any other details on that question. Okay, and then just to my last question was, so there's a couple areas in the comprehensive plan that speak to underground wires. So has that been addressed? I'm done. The conference plan is a guide for future development. As I read this franchise agreement it allows for overhead and underground facilities. So then would we be ignoring what's in the comp plan? Well, again. The right. The conference plan is a guide for future development when analyzing proposed rezoning, especially use permits and future development projects. It doesn't so much relate to existing public facilities. There is a process for that. So there may also, by definition, sometimes there is a conflict between the conference of plan and existing infrastructure. Okay. One in particular, page 73 of the conflants says, very power lines along Main Street. So I'll leave that to Dominion. And then another on page 36 also says new development and redevelopment to very existing utility lines underground. So yeah, Dominion can address that. That would be great. I think you were just reading from the conference plan, not the franchise ordinance. I was. Yes. I don't know that Dominion can really speak so much to the conference plan, but they can certainly speak to the details of their franchise agreement. And we can draw our own conclusions about whether it conflicts with the conference plan or not. So I'll offer a bread from Dominion. Yeah, I can't wait. This is by Freightson. I can answer any questions pertaining to the franchise. Again, I don't think the question you had asked initially is related to the franchise. Did you have a specific question about therewman? I think the question was, was goes to the conflict perhaps between the conference of plan guidance with the speaks to underground, the guidance that prefers underground facilities and the franchise agreements that allows for overhead facilities. So I suppose the question would be does the franchise agreement allow for overhead facilities? There are already overhead facilities in the area under the current franchise agreement. Right. so this in a way is validating with the facilities that are already in existence. As opposed to the conference plan that provides guidance for future development. So I would have a question about what about underground. Does it lay out what they plan on underground? I guess to clarify, the franchise agreement does not include any specific It's essentially just an agreement that allows dominions continue use of the public light of way. And so when it isn't on the public right of way? Because sometimes it isn't. The property rights would come from the private property owner where the facilities are. Right. The franchise agreement has no impact on areas outside the pulpit right away. Okay. So the language that I see is made from time to time being necessary and, and equipment accessories and a pertinces necessary in connection there with the broadband facilities, including the right to increase or decrease the number of wires all for the purpose of transmitting voice, text data, internet services, and other communication services. For some reason I'm feeling exposed with this agreement. I don't feel it specific enough for our purposes. And I guess my big question is, did you guys look at this and sign off on it? Yes, my partner, Jeremy Rude, looked at it in detail and negotiated it, in fact, with Dominion. And this language is quite common for electric facilities to provide them broad rights to provide whatever power might be necessary in the future to serve the public interest. So the language, in my view, it would not be beneficial to the town to limit the language to specifics that could limit the service that Dominion could provide through the public rights of way. So could we limit, say, a long main street where the Complan, once the line's, should any above ground that they're going to attach to need to be replaced that those replacements would happen underground? Well, you can certainly do that. That's very uncommon to do that in a franchise, because the existing facilities are there, and you want the power company to be able to use them. I guess it's certainly possible to do that. It would be very unusual provision. And I think it could work against the town's interest in the future, based upon events that we can't foresee right now. So it's usually a good idea to leave the rights as broad as possible to allow the utility company to provide the best service possible in the future based upon whatever events might occur. And may I add to that? I'm sorry, this is Jerry Brooks with Dominion Energy. And I just wanted to add to your question about your concern about the undergrounding. So we can always underground align if requested. There's a method by which that can happen through the, there's a webcogrement that we have with all of those cities and towns throughout Virginia that lay out the cost of converting facilities to underground. It's separate from the franchise agreement. So the franchise agreement doesn't cover that per se, but if the town wanted to have a conversation about undergrounding certain facilities, then they certainly can do that with us. But they would be done according to the cost laid out in the WebCo agreement, because as you know, any cost that's laid out prior terms and conditions, because we are a regulated utility with the State Corporation Commission, you know, would have to be, you know, assessed for whatever the requested work is. So, the franchise agreement covers the existing facilities. There are overhead, there are underground facilities existing all throughout, you know, the town's right of ways. Certainly if someone was requesting new service, then they would have the choice to say we would like our our service to be underground or we would like it to be overhead. And then the only difference with the underground, other than just the aesthetics, is that sometimes there is an additional cost to installing the services underground. And that can vary per location. I mean, obviously there are so many different locations and different facilities throughout the town. But if there are, you know, as a comprehensive plan, the town wants to explore that. They can certainly speak to us about that. But again, it is a separate issue from the franchise itself. Thank you. Okay. So I guess the key word is existing. Yes. Not the new. Yes. And to your other concern, any time we have to, and it's in the franchise agreement as well, I believe it's section, maybe section two, when we are performing new work, it still does say that we have to permit for new work within the town. So this really does just cover our operation and maintenance of our existing facilities. Okay, thank you. And lastly, do towns ever get any compensation for these kinds of franchise agreements? Sometimes, but not very often. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any further questions? Take that as a no. I can make the motion. I move that the town council adopt ordinance 25-04-01 as presented in the April 8, 2025 agenda the Packet packet which grants the electrical current services franchise to Virginia Electric and Power Company. I'll second that. Council Member Rainer, how do you vote? Yes. Council Member Wright, how do you vote? Yes. Vice Mayor Net, how do you vote? Yes. Council Member Luke, how do you vote? Yes. Council member Khalil, how do you vote? Yes. Council member Stout, how do you vote? Thank you. That's right. And Mayor votes, yes. So one absent. Six yes. I'm the agenda on page 62 we have adoption of zoning ordinance and map summer welks. Thank you. Good evening mayor Mayor, Vice Mayor and Councilmembers. At some point in your history studies, you might have heard of the 12 labors of the ancient Greek hero Hercules. But it's not well known that he had a 13th labor, and that was the rewriting of his owning ordinance. Bigger part, and that was a poor attempt at some planning humor. But I do imagine that all of the persons involved there the last three years have felt like, percolise at some point in trying to get over the goal of adopting this ordinance. After nearly three years of work in one public hearing on July 25th, 2024, the Planning Commission resolved on July 31st to recommend the major update to the town's zoning ordinance. On October 8th, 2024, my cell I presented the commission's draft to the town council at the following council meeting on October 22nd at the request of the council planning staff facilitated a work session to present additional staff recommendations. After the November election, it was decided to hold on further deliberations on the zoning ordinance until the newly elected council members receded and could contribute to the decision. On January 8, 2025, the chairman of the Planning Commission, Mr. Rise, gave a presentation to the council with a recommendation to adopt the Planning Commission's original recommendations for the ordinance. At the January 28th Council meeting, the Council moved to accept final edits in one staff recommendation and to send the ordinance for a final legal review. The legal review was accomplished. The Council set a public hearing date for March 11th and that was also accomplished. All public notice requirements were met. approximatelyximately 100,000 and 25 letters were mailed to property owners and areas with major zoning changes. Per the code of Virginia requirements. You have received the final draft copy of the zoning ordinance and the zoning map in your previous agenda packet. But I will highlight four attachments to this packet. Per the last council meeting, there were two issues that surfaced regarding the flood plane ordinance and the overly district curb cut standards. You also have an attachment that specifies the exact ordinance to adopt the zoning ordinance in the map, as well as a resolution to grandfather in certain permits that are already in the pipeline. And I'd like to explain each of these in detail. First, I would like to highlight the last attachment the grandfathering resolution. This is resolution number 25-301. This resolution seeks to establish rules and regulations accompanying the adoption of the zoning ordinance to promote an orderly transition for the projects and permits currently in process with permitting. When Loudon County adopted their zoning ordinance in December 2023, they passed a similar resolution. Actually, our resolution is modeled on Loudon counties because we knew it had been legally approved. Also, our town attorney has reviewed and revised the grandfathering resolution for final presentation. why this Grandfathering Resolution is so important is that because there are site plans and permits already in the pipeline that have expended a significant amount of time and money to prepare those site plans and they depend on the rules at the time. This is a very common practice to adopt a grandfathering resolution for these things in the process for many localities in Virginia as well as the nation. So finally you have two sections regarding the floodplain ordinance, the floodplain overly district as well as the curb cut standards and the engineering and capital projects department raised some technical issues to concerns actually back last summer 2024 regarding some elements again with a flood plain in the curb cut. These were included in the staff recommendations that were submitted to council in October but they were not addressed. We do appreciate your consideration of these two staff recommendations. The staff report outlines these two recommendations and I'll just cut to the chase and say, regarding the floodplain ordinance, we essentially are asking that our floodplain owners completely align with the counties work floodplain ordinance that there were some discrepancies and Again, we're just asking that our language exactly match Regarding the curb cut standards It was proposed in all new overlay districts that based on focus areas that there were curb cut standards that were 18 feet and width. However, this standard does not match V dot standards as based on V dot road design manual section 4 appendix F and we were asking that we basically eliminate the 18 foot recommendation in each of the overlay districts that we simply have the standard that V.Approots. I'll be happy to answer any questions about the packet. Good questions. With respect to the curb cut standards, what triggers implementation of the new standard? Should we accept the V.standard? In other words, there are clearly curbs out there that are not 26 feet wide within these overlay districts. Right. When a property is redeveloped, in other words, when a site plan comes in, it's expected to adhere to the standards and the new standards at the time. And what is the definition of redevelopment with respect to the actual curb cut itself? I mean, how many major changes, what degree of change to an existing building is required before they would be triggered? It would be the submittal of a site plan or any form of redevelopment. If they're going to redevelop the property, they need to submit a site plan and that site plan must conform to the existing V.O.T. To give a tangible representation of that, so a site plan would be triggered at a minimum at a beyond a 500 square foot addition to a building. So things below that could go through a zoning permit even to his commercial. It was still go through the port of architectural review for exterior renovations but once year above a 500 foot square foot addition or potentially other site work then that site plan is being referred to B.D. directly. I would be looking at those and adhering those V.D. standards to any development. Is there any process for obtaining exceptions to the V.D. standards? For example, if the configuration of the lot simply does not allow for a curb cut of that length. I think some of the ORA language still speaks to that. When we made the red lines, we removed the specific 18-foot maximum. There are still standards about how many curb cuts you could have on a street front. And the goal with the reduced curb cuts is to increase walkability, not have so many driveways that you're having to traverse. We can still do that by limiting where, and the overlays, especially downtown, speak to this, where you're permitted to have a curb cut or a driveway, if you have a quarter lot in front of you on two places that you don't need two driveways. Obviously existing driveways are grandfathered in. So there are lots of ways we can control that. I'm not aware, specifically, of V.OT process. I will say that a lot of our funding for our roads, whether they're maintained directly by V.OT or we get V.OT funds, would require that we're adhering to them. So if we would be able to seek a variance, it's possible that we would exclude ourselves from maintenance funding in that situation. I could also ask the town attorney Hampshire to comment. V.Dot has essentially legal doctrine of preemption, right? The V.Dot standards would essentially trump local standards. That's right. I mean, you have two things going on here. You have your zoning ordinance standards for the curb cut. And like any other zoning ordinance standards, if there's something peculiar about the lot that renders it very difficult or maybe even impossible to meet the curb cut standards, then the variance procedure is in the zoning ordinance for that reason. And you have to basically demonstrate that the law does not, there's a, that the law cannot be utilized in a reasonably economic way in order to, and that there's also hardship involved in order to get the variance. Regardless of that, as, as Will says, you also sometimes need to comply with V.Dot standards in order to actually get an entrance permit onto roads, V.Dot controls. And V.Dot does have a very, not a big, they don't call it a variance procedure, but there is a, there is sometimes a modification or a waiver procedure that V.OT has or it is also available to a property owner. Who can demonstrate the same sort of hardship because of the configuration of the law? any additional comments or questions? This last weekend our planning director of summer sent all of council and leadership a clarification email because there was an article in the local paper, which literally had nine flaring mistakes in it regarding the zoning rewrite. And she was clarifying them for all, in this very easable, foyable email, that outlines what was stated and what the truth is. And what concerns me the most, and its point number eight, is, and it's what I've been harping on for the last few months is no, not all citizen concerns have been addressed and most of the staff comments were not addressed. The council has not undertaken a full review of staff recommendations and yes I am super happy that these technical things are being looked at, the curb cuts, the flood plains, but I am not happy that we still haven't as a body reviewed the entire thing. There's still a lot of things that are not good for this town moving forward. And I honestly am not going to be voting for this because this is not a good zoning rewrite. And I don't believe in the philosophy, like the mayor said last time, oh, we'll fix it later. That's going to be more expensive and take staff time and it'll cost us and that's just not a good way of doing business. So I'm sorry summer that this is probably going to go through but I really respect that you send us this long email outlining all the issues that still haven't been addressed and thank you for all your hard work on this and trying to make it right. I move that the town council approve ordinance 25-03-02, 2025 zoning ordinance and map adoption. And I further move that the town council approve resolution 25-03-01, 1991 zoning ordinance grandfathering and authorize the mayor to sign all necessary documents on behalf of the town council. I'll second that. How do you vote? No. Council member right, how do you vote? No. Vice Mayor Net, how do you vote? Yes. Council member Luke, how do you vote? Yes. Council member Khalil, how do you vote? Yes. And Mayor votes yes. We'll now have a five minute recess before we move on 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. you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you 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 make a very good one. I'm going to make a good one. I'm going to make a good one. I'm going to make a good one. I'm going to make a good one. Next on the agenda, we have a budget work session and here we're looking for council guidance. Council members were asked to come to this meeting prepared to provide some of their top priorities for improvements to the proposed FY 2026 fiscal plan. So let me start with Councilmember Rainer. I think it's very disingenuous that the Senate on Friday added and these comments and top priorities. My priorities is to make this budget sound and structurally balanced. And I think having this question asked before we even talk to utility consultancies is not good. Can't make firm decisions. I haven't even heard what the grandiose plans are for you guys to save the town all this money. I mean, the only thing I could really say and I said it again last again last year, when you were saying zero, cola to the staff is, I don't think any of us up here deserve any pay. That's $78,000 of savings right now. Just don't pay any of us. And you're gonna turn around and say, oh, you can donate yours or not take yours. Well, the finance says it's either all or nothing. So we all agree to get nothing, some of the other localities or nothing, but 78,000 saving right there because we can't even get along, we can't even make good sound positive decisions for the town. So that's 78,000, we could save right there. And 3,500, we each get $500 a stipend to donate to a charity of our choice, which is a great positive. But again, that's $3,500 of cash that we could put towards a CIP project for Jason. So those are two cost savings that don't hurt any of our staff or hurt the town. And for the other, I need to talk to the utility people tomorrow. We just right before this meeting got the models that were run and they don't look great and so I have lots of questions for them and try to understand truly the implications of what's happening in our budget. I have some other right. This is going to echo a loud word. Councilwoman Rainer said, I see this nothing but a stunt. Come up on Friday and ask me for three priorities. For budgets, it's not even complete yet. I don't want to be voted against what has been the tax rate because it just did even more damage. I didn't put us in this mess as far as adopting the tax rate. I also think it's a disgrace that we do not, that there's no cola in there for the talent employees. We're raising rates for some of the licenses about 2% and stuff like that. That's just showing that there's a need that's a cost of living for somebody. So there's a cost of living for the town staff too. So they need to be recognized. And I'd I'd definitely agree with the Councilman of the Mayor that none of us, none of us up here working in the best interest of the town, by adopting this budget. And so therefore none of us deserve our paychecks. And that should be the first thing. The very first thing that goes in this budget is all of our paychecks. And now from a donation, give it away. It's out of the budget completely. And back into, specifically we'll go towards the Colors for the town staff. I've shared some of my ideas with my colleagues, Councilman Colleal. If I serve to bring some of those to the forefront tonight, I do intend to support those. As I've noted, we have hard choices to make. The budget that was put together by town staff with the interim town manager, I think is a good starting point. It puts us at a zero percent rate increases on water and wastewater. I would note that when we took office in January, what was proposed was an 18 percent to 22 percent rate increase. That was a 16 and 18 percent. And again, my experience as a town employee, I see firsthand some of the opportunities that exist for some call saving measures. So with that all yield. I too have been giving the budget a great deal of thought. I've been working through spreadsheets and looking at what the impacts are to the various services that we provide in terms of the budget. I've also figured out separately what it would cost to provide, for example, a 3% COLA and I'm sad to say the council stipends are not going to cover that. So we have some hard choices as has already been stated as a town. We're put in a position of attempting to compete with a town of Leesburg and the Sheriff's Department of Loudon Fairfax County when it comes to retaining officers. For a patrol officer, we hire in the police department another one leaves, which was led to long-term under staffing. I would note that the nearby communities of Round Hill and Hamilton don't have their own police departments, nor does Love fill. What do they do? They go to the sheriff's department. And for that reason we're looking at some motions that would free up a great deal of the town's tax money and allow us to put it to better use while still maintaining our position as one of the safest communities in Virginia. Council member Cleal, do you have anything to add? So the proposed budget is the word you started by hard hard decisions do you have to be made? Check your mic please. The proposed budget is a worthy starting point and now hard decisions have to be made. Notwithstanding all of the wonderful words we heard tonight regarding our police department. This department is a continual drain on our town's financial resources. And it's time the hemorrhaging came to a stop. This department has cost our businesses and residents hundreds of thousands of dollars. And this is through no fault of our officers. There's no fault of our dedicated officers. It's just the way it is right now. It is just draining our financial resources. And it's become the services that we're getting right now. Specifically, we don't have coverage between 1 and 6 a.m. The turnover, we don't have a full force ever. So the services are no longer commensurate with the tax dollars it takes to fund this department. So therefore I move that the town council direct staff to prepare an ordinance for council's consideration to rescind chapter 42 of the town code effective July 1, 2025. I will second. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. We're a town of almost 10,000 people. We also service all the surrounding communities. You have not even roached this before. We have embrought in the sheriff to see what the coverage would look like because he has told us repeatedly over the years the coverage will not be the same. If you ask Round Hill, love it, Phil Hamilton, are they happy with their coverage? They'll say no. We haven't looked at options of maybe hybrids. Have we, we need to sit down with Sheriff Chapman and the police department, in the Sheriff's Department to see what the coverage would look like, what it would look like for a town of our size. Heck Middleburg is a town of 800 people and they have a police force and they actually fully funded it in their election cycle, in their last budget cycle. This is dangerous policy for our town of our size and what we're dealing with. We may be the safest town. Now we won't be next year. We deal with a lot of mental health issues, a lot of petty crime and guess what, now we're going to be in a bigger target if we defund our police department. This is reckless and ignorant. To go this path so quickly without even having proper discussions with the Virginia State Police with the Sherr loud and sheriff to see what this would look like. I shame on all of you truly. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's citizen. I feel really unsafe right now. You've got to fire now. Council member, right? Fire. Fire. This. This is evident. Evident. Evident. I mean, you didn't think we were caught before. Man, right there. It goes to show you this corruption right across the floor. I have to worry. Because that was a discussion that happened not on this podium, not in front of us, because we weren't included in it. There was absolutely no discussion whatsoever on this in front of this body, or even in front of the citizens. Not a bit. So where was that discussion had? Where was that discussion had? It wasn't had in public where it should have been. That's for sure. So you know what, when you guys look in a mirror, I don't know what you see, but I can tell you what, you should be ashamed of it. Absolutely ashamed of it. Next, none of you, none of you have a clue of what this is going to mean for service, because the Sheriff's Office in Western Loudon cannot cover the town of Percivil anywhere close to the extent we are getting coverage now. Not a bit. and without even having that discussion with them beforehand to do that. Do you think all of a sudden the sheriff is going to just produce more officers in the West End of Lyron County? It's not going to happen. It is not going to happen just because Percibel eliminated this police force. I can assure you the sheriff isn't going to say, okay, I'm just going to put some more officers up there. That's not the way it happens. They have to go through budget just to get more officers. And their budget process is done. So you know, do you even get more officers in the train? So again, this is just ludicrous. It shows a lack. It shows significant ignorance, significant ignorance. Lack of any educated, informative decision making whatsoever. I'll see, I wouldn't say it's retaliatory to a certain extent. I would almost bet there's some retaliatory to a certain extent in this. So you know what? I hate to say it, but I hope you all the first one affected by the lack of police force in the town. I really do. I hope all four of you are the first ones to be affected by the lack of police force in this town because all of you would deserve it. Vice mayor. I was the last one to come on board with this. But I do believe that the motion is in the best interest of the town of Percival and his residents. We keep talking about where are we going to get the money. I've heard no suggestions from anybody and what is called a minority about how to address any of our problems. As noted, the police department has been unable for the last several years to consistently provide 24-7 coverage to the town, contrary to public claims otherwise, including those on the town's website. This morning, in fact, during the most vulnerable hours for our community, there were zero personal police cars on the street, as usual. The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office will provide exclusive police coverage to the town just as they do on a 24-7 basis for the neighboring towns of Hamilton and Round Hill and for unincorporated personville. The decision is not made lightly, but it is supported by members of staff who have likewise noted that the police department has been the source of most of the HR complaints over the last decade to include past litigation. I have full faith in confidence in the Sheriff's Office whose deputies are outstanding law enforcement professionals and the Sheriff Chapman, whose leadership has quite frankly helped prop up our Boliger Police Department for the last several years. Our current personal police officers, I'm confident, will find a welcoming Sheriff's Office should they choose to continue their law enforcement careers locally. Indeed you may well see the same faces patrolling your streets, albeit wearing different uniforms and driving different cars. The public safety impact is this decision for the reasons outlined above is minimal. A hoard of Vikings will no more descend on Perseville to Pillowton Burn than they had the communities of Round Hill or Hamilton. The fiscal impact of this decision represents a general fund savings of over $3.2 million annually, nearly equivalent to the total projected meals tax revenue of $3.5 million. Further trickle down economic benefits of this decision will include reductions in attorney fees, reductions in insurance cost, reduced human resources in IT demands, and the opportunity to consider further meals tax revenue allocation to the utility fund for rate reduction. This decision, another cost saving measures, will avoid a need to dip at the general fund reserves, give us greater flexibility to consider merit increases in COLA, if we so choose, and further justify our decision to avoid raising property taxes on our residents, instead opting to implement the equalized tax rate of 19.2 cents per $100 of assessed value. A decision that the minority says cost the town $279,000. For all those reasons I support this motion. Mr. Mayor, second by. Now we haven't gone around the first time. I'm sorry. Councilmember Luke. Yes. Percival residents are currently paying for two police services. Not just the Percival Police, but for Loud County Police. And we do feel that this is double taxation. We are being served by Loud County Police in the Sheriff's Department every evening. And I've known Sheriff Chapman for many years. I think they're very capable. They are servicing all of the land around the perimeter of Percival. They service, let's see, Farmington on the green. They are servicing Brown's farm, Wright's farm. I believe that they're qualified and capable to do this. Councillor Member Luke. I mean, Councillor Member Colliel. I have no reason to believe that Perseville won't be as safe as Farmington on the Green rights farm, grounds farm, the new Valley Springs that is budding up to the town's Valley Springs. Why would we expect coverage to be worse for those two developments just because we're looking to Remove a financial burden that will then allow us to do all of the utility projects that we need to do once again staff increases Keep our taxes in check It doesn't make financial sense anymore to maintain the department. It is not going to hurt our safety. It is not going to hurt our coverage. I have full faith in Sheriff Chapman that he will be able to absorb Perseville the same way he has absorbed the county. He is a stellar, stellar sheriff. And we are very fortunate that we can transition our department into his hands. What I say that of any other department, maybe not. knowing that it would be going into his hands was a major consideration of mine in making this decision. Are we allowed to ask questions? No. We're not at this time. This is not the public comment section. Can we come to a review. We haven't gone around the first time. I believe that we are and will remain one of the safest towns in Virginia. Sheriff Chapman, 700 member department, has been run with the utmost in professionalism as demonstrated in part by his being named Sheriff of the Year by the National Sheriff's Association in 2023. In transitioning to the Sheriff's Department and believe me, we are talking about a transition. We will ensure the long term financial position of the town. At the moment, Larry stated all of our residents and businesses pay for law enforcement protection twice, once through the county, once through the town. In the early hours of the morning, it's the sheriff's department who's providing that protection. Sheriff's cars can be observed traveling through town as they go to all of the communities that have grown up around us and that will continue and intensify as we transition. We're not going to the county. The county is coming to us. If you think of all the high end housing that's gone in recent years around Mayfair, now we have Valley Springs too. All these large, expensive communities of homes, they are serviced by the Sheriff's Department. I find it so interesting that you all are reading stats that are clearly three planned. You're reading off papers as the majority here. You just dropped a ball on us. And these other two council members don't do anything about it. They know where to now. Where is my kitchen? Yes. Why does it still get a kitchen? Mr. Mayor, the lawyer's gone. What are you Bob? What do you have some questions for the lawyer? Please proceed with your questions. Doesn't there have to be a public hearing and this advertised before anything with an ordinance? Absolutely. The current motion as I heard it was not to adopt an ordinance tonight, but to direct staff to prepare an ordinance for presentation of the council in the future. So therefore there will be a public hearing so the outrage could be heard. Correct? We researched this question and the does not require a public hearing but it does require an ordinance. Okay. But you guys have to be forehand to do this, obviously, without any income from the citizens. And then I have a question for the mayor. I wanna know how many times you've talked to the sheriff's department discussing what this would look like. And I wanna know how our town of 9,000 can be compared to Hamilton of 600 people and Round Tale of of 700 people and I forget what Love It's Fills population but it's not a lot. How we can compare to them also as the hub. So I want to know these conversations with the Sheriff's Department and the county how they went and what the response was to you. Or did you direct the town here? to check with them too without telling the rest of us? You didn't put it out here. To begin, the population of Love It's Phyllis 3500. Yep, lower the dollars. Good bye. And ask what you have to like the do. Secondarily, I've had no conversations with the Sheriff Chapman version. Oh, my God. However, the town manager has. Oh, OK. So you can get back to the town manager to do something without the knowledge of all seven of the body. Cool. That's really following good process. It's very tricky. You wonder why we don and trust you all. I have a mind. What about you now? And then how do you think this will affect our wonderful community outreach, our programs like Homework Club, and all the events we do to engage with the community to make our community feel safe and engage with our police officers? Guess what? That's going away because Chef Chapman has told me that would go away. If this ever happened. this ever happened because I know this has been on former mayor of Frazier's list for years and going away because chair chairman has told me that would go away. If this ever happened because I know this has been on former mayor Frazier's list for years and I've had multiple conversations with the sheriff about this over the years. This is, this is, this is corrupt, this is is that, Kevin Sight. We should have had this as a discussion item and brought in the sheriff and had a robust conversation around this before dropping this bomb. This is, this bomb. This is So I find it very interesting that the one night because I'm assuming the councilman net cannot vote on this Actually sir we've looked into that too So there's been awful lot of discussion and what you're telling me about this well Well, we anticipated this is a legal issue. So For tonight, so there's been discussion behind closed doors. Well, this is attorney client in from a discussion. The council knew. Were you representing the town? Were you in the town? The council knew. The council knew. Please allow this attorney to answer the question. So the answer to the question is that since Vice Councilmember Net has now no longer an employee of the police department. That he may, there's no longer a conflict. He is within a grievance period of 20 days and because he's within the grievance periods of 20 days to contest the termination, he may, if he wants to, vote on this sort of emotion but it is strongly discouraged by the ethics council, the Virginia State ethics board. So let me clarify. So theoretically if he was to vote on it within that 20 days, which I mean it's going to be somewhat irrelevant because they planned this just right because Caleb Councilman Stas not here so the boat is gonna go so you can just tell it was playing correctly So if it was he was to vote on it Then it could subject it to legal action later And the best advice is there's no no preclusion under the Virginia conflicts of interest law, but it is discouraged. That's the advice that we get through Virginia ethics council. So when were you asked to look this up? Yeah. I didn't hear you. When were you asked to look this, investigate this information? We were asked this afternoon, earlier this afternoon. I'm glad you guys are thinking things through. Spending the time to do your due diligence. So, all the time that they were so great. I've had a guy, because they deserve very thing to get at this point. In our town, Sudan, for taking away our protection, Can we as residents sue them? I can't provide the resolution. I'm your lawyer, but your lawyer, which one is it? I'm the council's lawyer. God, are you the town's attorney? Or have you received a sentence? Out of all ideas, you have not understand my, I understand what it is. And here's up to my ball. This right here is out there. The fact that you came to the best of all safety measures and then move or move or move or move or move or move or move or move or move or move or move or move or move or move or move or move or move or move or move common service of this community. Talk about property values. Property values, this is good to manage public health and safety, health safety, and love beer. You are a dimension man. You speak about it through zoning. You're not even addressing the company to lead the police. All right. We heard a motion. It's been seconded. I'm calling for a vote. Even here, taking this. Council member Rainer, how do you vote on the manager? Hell no. Yes. And it will, how do you vote? Absolutely not. I'm not how do you vote? Yes. Consumable Luke, how do you vote? Yes. Oh, I have a crit. To stand up and say- I also remember Khalil, like you. The members of the staff is a disbanded fleet. That's not your wish. I'm gonna send a message. I would be sitting out for the concomitant tonight with the committee. And you'll be late. Come in, Friday. of this is being recorded and all of this is public records. I would like to make a motion that 100% of the Meals Tax Revenue elected by the town be allocated by policy effective July 1 2025 to the utility enterprise fund. I'll second that. Oh, right. We didn't get that already. No, 100 percent bad. Discussion. Council member Rayner. 100 percent of our meals tax fund. Over to our utility fund. How big of a hole are you trying to dig in our general fund, Jesus? Like we haven't even heard from our utility consultants. Did you open your email earlier from the lit, what email Liz sent us with the modeling, with what's happening here? This is absolutely, this is ignorant and I can't believe you're making that motion absolutely not. Are you kidding me? 100% of the meal's tax. What is your solution? Even defunding the police like you're doing is not going to save us. Oh, that is such a bad financial policy. My God. Oh my God, Carol, that's bad. That is a really bad motion. I can't, like, not even a discussion, not even modeling what that would look like, moving all that from our department. Did you also your back's direct Liz to model that? Liz did they ask you to model what it would look like? No the answers no they didn't. You're smiling because you're happy you're bankrupting our town. That is I can't believe this this is terrible. So you didn't know anything about this at all? That's what blows my mind as you all are literally reading off papers. Council member, right? You have anything to say? Council has not been made aware and you wonder why we don't trust you. I got a lot to say. There's no input from the council members of the council. About me is what I got to say. It involves a lot of full letter words and some name callings. So, and be honest with you, I learned a long time ago that if I'm talking to a brick wall, I'm wasting my time and right now there's four brick walls right there, within all, in fact, about the intelligence of one brick. So, go forward, guys. I smell. Much of what you're talking about, physically, the Meal Stocks revenue and the police department cost. They're almost identical. It's 3.5 million, 3.2 million. And there are other saving measures I force you to come in. So there is no hole. I anticipate a surplus for both the General Fund and the Utility Fund. And this gives us the flexibility that we need to address all of these CIP projects, almost all of which are in the utility enterprise. Good thing we can save on our water bill. Council member Luke. We have looked pretty carefully at the monies that we have. Reducing this, this transfer will allow us to address the utility funds EIPs, reduce residential utility rates and keep future utility rates increase at a manageable level. Council Member Colleal. All made done before. The time was... Council Member Colleal. All my comments go along with Councilman Nets. Speak for yourself. How about that? How about the paper? Have a back piece of power. This is a way of getting our infrastructure up to where we need it to be. It is more important than we do that than pay double taxes for police coverage. For safety. Once again, safety has been considered greatly. No, it has not. You have not talked to Chapman to guarantee it. What? What's going to happen now? I want to see what movement there's going to be in this town. Oh, there's going to be a lot. That's going to start creating instances. I'll be outside. This is not a back and forth. It is now. We're mad. I hear you. Yes, you don't hear this. You can see me. You would have done your research and you would have brought it all to the town as a board, not just the four of you, and you would have provided the citizens with information. And your fellow council members, you don't just drop a bomb and read off some of your notes. I think it's time for a vote. Council member. Mayor, it was me. It was me. How do you vote? There was no second. I did not hear a second. I'm sorry. Council member, Mr.'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. asked to research that question and as I see here now I don't know the answer to that question as to whether or not you can make this motion without a public hearing. We can, we did previously. Last four, who cares? Not the legalities. If you don't need to be here any longer, they're not going to listen to you. Last four words. Five, we can payably look to the end. Two minutes. No number, Rainer, how do you vote? No. number reiner. How do you vote no? Council member right Vice mayor net how do you vote yes Council member Luke how do you know council member Cleal how do you vote yes and mayor votes yes I move that the town council reduce water and sewer rates by 9 and 11% respectively effective at the beginning of fiscal year 2026 contingent on supporting modeling by stand tech. Do I hear a second? I second. I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I were elected? Yes. Yeah. Council member Raynor. Absolutely not. I don't know. Does it matter? Oh, the discussion is that's ludicrous. That is absolutely ludicrous that we haven't even heard from utilities consultants tomorrow and you're already making these drastic changes. That is the worst kind of government. There is this is like a dictatorship. There is no democracy here and no education around the subject. And what world do you think? I didn't know you're a wastewater consultant yourself and could estimate 11 and 9% is the best way forward. I mean, Liz, obviously, the look on her face of, Korra means she hasn't been consulted on this. I don't think Stantec has been consulted on this. 11, like, no. Why hasn't they been consulted? It makes zero results of no. That utilities have not been consulted. Once again, get information from a professional. They're just the experts. An expert. So I heard the motions contingent on the supporting modeling presented. Why don't you get the modeling first? Get the modeling. And then mean you guys told me to make sense that you throw away so you might as well vote out in now. It'll give us one more thing to be pissed off about in the morning. Before we take it to vote I would add that the experts have already told us how much each percentage increase or decrease in our water rates costs the ratepayers or costs the town in terms of supporting costs. The cost to reduce by 9.11% respectively for water and wastewater is $714,000. If we are transferring all of the Mule Tax revenue to the utility funds, that means that we have $1.708 million there. also leaves room for merit increases for the water and wastewater staff and it also leaves us with the ability to increase the wastewater reserves from the previous, the modeled 62% to 75% and the water reserves from 88% to 100% which is what stand tech is after. So let's go to a vote. Councilmember? Mr. Mayor, before you vote, I need to repeat what I said on the previous one. I do not know and have not researched whether or not a public hearing is required for this vote. And so I'm not in a position to advise you one way or the other. And my suggestion would be that you at least hold off so we can research that. I think that's very good. I'm not going to listen to you. Probably that will wear a big ear. Is there a difference in your mind in allocating 100% of this time versus the previous mode of the council in January to allocate 50% which was done without a public hearing? I don't know. I have another chance to analyze it so I can't answer the question. We're talking about two different topics here. We're talking about reducing the rate and also the 100% moving of the meals tax. So you're advising... I stand corrected. You're right. I'm right. So you're advising against both at this time. I'm trying to make sure that the vote is taken in the proper way. And I don't know whether a public hearing is required for this sort of thing. And I'd like to do the chance to research that. As with the previous motion. Council member Wright, how are you voting? Oh, no fucking vote, because the town of Tony just said I shouldn't be voting on something like this until we're in the for sure so I vote present because I'm not going to guess the council's opinion. Vice mayor how do you vote? Yes. Council member Luke how do you vote? Yes. Council member Cleal how do you vote? Yes and I'll change change my vote to President Tusson to go against lawyers' bias. So why are we paying a lawyer? I move that sufficient funds be allocated to the wastewater reserves to bring those reserves to 75%. And I further move that sufficient funds be allocated to the water reserves to bring them to 100%. Do I hear a second? Second. discussion. from where we remove sufficient funds. It's sufficient funds so you need to be more specific that it's coming already from the money moved. Are you planning to move some more money out of the general fund or are we gonna fire all staff and just do that? I mean, at this point, I don't know. With absent any language stating that it's coming from another fund, it is assumed that it comes from the same fund in this case and I don't I don't assume anything you guys do okay any further discussion discussion all right councilmember Rainer how do you vote yeah council I'm Rainer, how do you vote? No. Council member Wright, how do you vote? No. Vice Mayor Net, how do you vote? Yes. Council member Luke, how do you vote? Yes. Council member Colliel, how do you vote? Yes, do you have a vote? And Mayor votes. Yes. I moved that the town council direct the town manager to provide merit increases of 1% to 5% in the fiscal year 2026 for all the employees. Senator? Sorry. Are we giving this today? No, I'll be in the morning process. Excuse me. Excuse me. Discussion? Yeah, this is an inappropriate time to be putting through all these things. We haven't even finished our holistic look at the budget. We have one more budget session to go through. Why are you doing this tonight? This is what tomorrow night was for is to go through the stand tech and all that and then wrap it all up. This is a very inappropriate time to be throwing all these extra things in here. I can answer your question, Councillor Wormen, right? Because they're anticipating likelihood of many people showing, not as many people showing up tomorrow so that's what it is. So honestly, this is just, I mean, I don't, I don't understand why we have budget meetings, workshops to discuss these items. I mean, basically, you're just wasting my time because obviously I'm not needed because you're not including me in any discussions whatsoever. So the individuals that elected me are sure not getting represented because I can't do my job because you guys aren't even including us in any discussions. And there's no doubt you're getting by with, by with the only having these these discussions behind the scenes one-on-one, and then basically just domino and the discussions between each other, no doubt in my mind. I don't know what to say. This is just ludicrous. It's absolutely, I don't know, I feel sorry for this town, I really do. And the damage you guys are doing right now is going to be long, long lived to the point that even our kids will be paying the price for everything you guys are doing tonight. What do you got? Vice mayor? It's a familiar refrain. I hear no solutions, no proposals. Do I have to ask you? You're a member of the talk. No cross talk, please. You're a discussion. You have to talk. OK, well, look at it. It could be that you're saying I'm not really thinking to the floor. Call me. Talk to each other. Talk to me. Talk to me. Call me. You have my email. You have my telephone number. You do not have the floor. That's what I think about what you do. I also know you do not have the floor. Look, he looks at me. He just asked her. What did this make? You don't have to be on anything. I don't even know what else to do. To clarify, you were asked to arrive at this meeting today prepared to discuss. But you all are making motions. This is a discussion for you. I'm not going to answer all the heads decisions. Check the signal out. Council Member Luke. Discussing off the vote. I hope you all get sued. Very increases. I vote for the merit increases. I seconded it. Yes. Councillor Moe Bracalille. Yes. I'm glad to be able to vote for the increase in the merit than what was originally proposed. And I too support increasing the merit increase or the merit pay for staff from one to three percent to a range of one to five percent. Councilmember Rainer, how do you vote? Listen, a real pickle here because you know I've been advocating for a merit increase. I want nothing more than to give our staff what they deserve. But then you put us in this pickle where you're actually decimating our other accounts. You're moving everything around. You're actually taking away jobs. And it is, it's a rock and a hard place for me, but I'm not ready to vote on that because I haven't looked holistically at everything at the end of the day after we talk to our consultants. So I am abstaining from this vote because I'm not ready to vote on it, but the staff knows how I feel about them. They know I support them 100%. And I will vote for the budget at the end either way, but they know how I feel about supporting you guys. And you know I'm always behind you. And I'm just disgusted about what is transpired tonight and you should have protected them. I agree. Council member right. Staff, I support you 100%. I think you deserve dealing with this. I'm sorry. You deserve five times more than that. But I can't boot right now in this time because you don't deserve it. It's just not doing the right thing. I think you deserve five times more than that. But I can't boot right now. And it's not because you don't deserve it. It's just not doing the right thing. I have to stay. Nice mayor, how do you vote? Oh yes. Thank you. I have to leave you. Council member Boulouc, how do you vote? Yes. Council member Cleal, how do you vote? Yes. And mayor votes yes. Are there any additional discussion items anyone would like to bring up this time? All right, we'll move on to the next on agenda. Next up on the agenda is the town manager appointment process. Oh I move to the front drum. Move for a drum. Motion to be a giant. Okay. That would be a post. Council member Rainer, how do you vote? Yes. Right? Yes. My smear. No. Luke? No. Nice mayor. No. Luke? No. Khalil? No. And Mayor votes no. All right. So we've gone through a lengthy process to examine the candidates who applied for the permanent town manager position. There were varying times. I heard 80 and 82. And altogether, upper our review, we're total of 80. I'd like to start a discussion of impressions of the candidates that we reviewed. I was most intrigued by the individual that wanted to take the job for $1 a year. Unfortunately, he did not provide much of a resume or information. I did note when it comes to current interim town manager that you were given a rating by someone of zero for municipal government experience. I would think that eight years as mayor would qualify as the highest rating for municipal government experience. I'm. Got a comment. So what we're doing. We're not going to interview candidates. Set the plan. We're not going to interview candidates. I'm asking for discussion of the candidates that we've reviewed. I gave we scored on the next step in my ability as we got to interview them. We surely remember what we did two years ago. We invited them in. We talked to them. We asked them questions. That's the process. Yeah. I can't have impressions of people without meeting them. We had narrowed it down of qualifications, but we haven't interviewed them yet. How we did with score piece of paper? Yeah. To my understanding, the previous town manager was selected without a process. No, we had a process. We interviewed people. We had them in here. I sat up there for towing loop for there too and we flew a guy in from Chicago or from Denver. We had multiple we interviewed at the minimum at five. Please don't waste my time if you're just going to do what I know you're going to do. Don't waste my time. Just don't call me in. For tens of thousands of dollars. Oh, tens of thousand dollars. If you already got your emotion made, you've already discussed this, stop stop wasting our time stop trying to fool anybody because you're not fooling us Anybody If you've already got your decision made and you're gonna do what you're gonna do Don't play us for fools because we're not We're not fools. They're in a person up here are down there that doesn't know what's about to happen So so don't even consider You just make thinking we're idiots. We're not. I want to hear about the top five applicants. Top five, Mary. Top five. If I were going to vote right now today I would want mayor Mayor Frazier. Oh my God! Oh my God! And I would because I'd known him all these years. I'm sure you vote for Mayor Neppert, Chief, too! And then you don't get what's running. You said it was. I'd like to make a motion. This is not a standard process. I move to the talent council appoint Mr. Quasifrazier's permanent. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. something good. Beats the power Beats the power right here You're a solid petition. You're ridiculous. You hire some low-yos. You have a line of you, you have a line of you, you have a line of you, you have a line of you, you have a line of you, you have a line of you, you have a line of you, you have a line of you, you have a line of you, you have a line of you, you have a ashamed of yourself? Absolutely ashamed. All the things you've done, this has absurd. You had any conscience This is Is there a personal police officer I'm not needed. I'm just in pockets. You want to leave the chief and not use the one in the whole department. All right. Paul Sarah. Looks like the next action of our item on the agenda is future town council meetings and agenda topics. My bothers. Are you happy to ask? Why bother? You know the list is included in the packet if you have any questions. What's the point of having town council meeting? You guys just go ahead and in act. I'd move to adjourn. Oh now you want to go. I'll say that. Tower. All favor. Absolutely. I know some of you. You are powered. Go find another town to fail and help. You're on the most fun at the Goldwood's Garret Council, very soon. And by chance, yes.